How to Have the Best Date Night Ever

Stop by Rita's, then eat your delicious water ice gelati while experiencing the mind blowingly awesome, never disappointing Wiggy Wash.



Seriously. They love it. The Botts really set the bar high when it comes to entertaining their children.

Summertime

Our summer was jam packed with fun. 

Coach pitch baseball games.

Hiking up the Santaquin Canyon Narrows.

Replenishing your nutrition stores with Lil' Smokies after toiling .3 miles in an hour and a half.

Checking up on the progress of the Payson temple.

Sunset bike rides.

Swimming lessons.

Eating Oreos in the buff. A staple of any successful summer.

Fishing with Grandma and Grandpa. (Is my grandma adorable or what?!)

Tagging along with mom on one of her billions of work trips to San Diego.

Rocking out at the Doobie Brothers concert in San Diego.

Hanging at the airport... again.

Swimming.

Conquering the Dirty Dash.

Having breakfast up the canyon.

And kicking it with my cowboys at the Santaquin rodeo.

Can I just tell you how happy I am that this kid will still, occasionally, when he's not really thinking about it, let me hold his hand? LOVE it.

 And watching this kid's face light up during EVERY event was almost as exciting as getting to hold Caulder's hand. He loved it, and he and his dad are already making plans for when he can ride a bull. Apparently they don't realize that this will only happen when I'm dead and in the ground. Actually, probably not even then. I'll come back in paranoid, overprotective ghost form to put a stop to it. Suckers.

All this fun has been a little bit exhausting, but we still wish the summer never had to end.

Back to School Bipolar

Caulder: I feel like I've had my freedom for 2 1/2 months and now I'm going back to prison. This is the worst time of year.

Tukk: This is the BEST time of year!

Caulder: I don't even want to go meet my new dumb teacher.

Tukk: You mean my new AWESOME teacher!

Caulder: We're not even going to do anything fun, and if they tell me we're playing games instead of going to recess it will probably be boring math games or something.

Tukk: We're going to play the funnest games!

*later that day*

Tukk: Mom, I'm kind of sad, because I have to wait until next week to go back to school. I wish I could trade with Caulder and I could go this week and he could go next week.

Caulder: Me too.

Despite the dread, Caulder did manage to survive his first day of third grade... even though it made him "the opposite of happy, boerd ,deprest."



Tukker was so excited to go back to school I thought he might have a heart attack. It was the best day of his life. Now his only sorrow is that he doesn't get to go all day like Caulder.

An Impeccable First Impression

This is how he went to meet his kindergarten teacher for the first time. The Tukk likes to make a good first impression. And yes, the gold cross around his neck says Ozzy on it. I have no idea where it came from, but I'm glad he found it right before we left.

The Birthday Boy

Tukk lucked out again this year. His birthday fell over the Bott family reunion, so he got double parties. The first was up the canyon at the BOG with all the Botts, and he told us we really needed to go up a day early because "nobody wants to have to wait to see the birthday boy!" 

He started the party off right with biscuits and gravy for second breakfast. That's right people. Second breakfast.

Then he somehow convinced his Aunt Karah that having to wait clear until the afternoon before opening any presents was going to kill him, so she let him open the present from her family early. It was a good thing he did, because he needed this new adventure vest for tadpole catching, bike riding, and hut building down by the creek bed.

The vest barely - BARELY - got him through until the actual party, when he got to open the rest of his gifts, eat birthday brownies and donuts, meet the pot gut his cousin Bryton caught, and roast marshmallows. It was the birthday mini rednecks dream of.

We even had magical glowing balloons to celebrate that night.

When the birthday boy passes out facedown in a plastic chair by the campfire, you know the day was a success.

The Johnson crew risked being exposed to a flesh-eating disease to celebrate with the big man at Chuck E. Cheese a couple of weeks later. Knowing there was an outbreak of hand foot and mouth disease going around at the time made touching all the games that much more exciting! Is the mouse smiling because he's making a 6-year-old's dreams come true... or because he knows everyone is going home with the necrotizing fasciitis? You be the judge.

This dude is all about flesh-eating diseases. Touch everything and then stick your fingers in your mouth? Yes please. Lie down on the floor that 73,000 kids have walked on in the past two days and no one has ever shampooed and then rub your eyes? Don't mind if I do. Drop your cupcake on the floor and pick it up to lick the frosting off it? Heck yeah! It's my birthday!!!!!

Caulder figured he'd go the extra mile to catch a disease by touching everything AND exposing his eyeballs to bacteria. 

But what's a germophobic mom to do when being in bacteria-ville brings someone so much happiness that the birthday boy jumps up on stage with the slightly horrifying animatronic dudes and air guitars like a boss? 

Drink a little of the alcohol-based hand sanitizer she's dousing everyone with to get through it, that's what. 

It was all worth it, though, because in between slightly horrifying animatronic dude performances and mandatory hand washing this plays on the TV screens:

Creepy cats. Over and over and over again. It is terrifying, and you don't understand it. But you can't. look. away.  

Thankfully, Tukk managed to save me from cat brainwashing by demanding to open presents. He was totally stoked to get this amazing Lego movie poster from June and Winnie. It holds a place of honor on his bedroom wall.

We even coughed up the extra $6 to let him do the ticket blaster. He was so excited he could barely stand it, and he was a pro at grabbing tickets and stuffing them down his shirt to keep his hands free for more ticket grabbing. He ended up earning enough tickets to get a ball that probably would've cost thirty cents anywhere else, but it was worth every penny.

Tukk loved every second of both of his birthday parties. His Aunt Rylee and Uncle Andrew even bought him a new super cape so he could stop using restaurant napkins to fight crime. Best birthday ever!

But I don't think that even Tukk enjoyed the night out at Chuck E. Cheese as much as these two lil' guys. 

Just seeing them together is enough to make any wife smile... and hope that maybe - someday - her husband will love her as much as he loves his soulmate.

But even if I can't compete with Sister Wife, at least I'll always have this guy in my life. And necrotizing fasciitis. God bless Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties.

But seriously, we love this stinking kid. So, SO much. He's totally worth cat brainwashing and flesh eating diseases, and we feel so lucky to have him. He's still just as happy, excited, and full of life as ever, and he thinks every day is a grand adventure. His smile lights up the universe, and you can't be around him without smiling and wanting to squish his adorable guts out. Happy 6th birthday Tukker man!