Defective Sunscreen, or User Error???

This post contains pictures that may not be suitable for queasy stomachs, children or moms.

Cath & I were in St. Louis working very hard getting our items out of storage and into our new home.  We arrived back in Denver to our happy children, two of which glowed in the dark from very bad sunburns.

We discovered that they had been swimming all day and they assured us that they used "plenty" of sunscreen.  When we heard this, my first thought was "did you apply the sunscreen to your skin?"

Tanner and Taylor assured us that they applied the product liberally and at two different times.  They also guaranteed that they waited a full 30 minutes after application before they got back in the pool.

But, even with these measures, they received 2nd degree sunburns, the like I have not seen since my days of youth when the maximum SPF was 8.  I grew up by the beach in Southern California where nobody used sunscreen and a good burn was a sign that you actually went to the beach.

The instant reply of the boys was that the sunscreen product (SPF 45) was defective!  I considered this option and wondered myself if this would be the start of a multi-million dollar, mega class-action lawsuit of the mean sunscreen company that produced a product that allowed the sun to burn my children!

Then, my mind went to the definition that my boys use when they say that they used "a lot" of sunscreen, "frequently".  Unless the defective product contained some UV attracting chemical, I am not sure that I buy the position that it was completely the sunscreen.  We did check the bottle for an expiration date thinking that perhaps on the effective date, the product would magically be rendered unusable, but could not find such a date.

The mystery may never be solved.  Perhaps we should have saved the bottle and sent it to Mythbusters for a definitive answer.

Well, you can be the judge.

(Did I mention that Cath & I were out of town when this happened???)

St. Louis House

We have our new address and phone number in St. Louis.  If you want either, send us a comment and we will email them to you.

This is the first "used" home we have ever lived in.  As a result, we are experiencing different things than we are used to.  For example, we have not had to scrub black grout that is supposed to be ivory.  Good news, Home Depot has really good scrub brushes!

See if you can tell the difference between the clean spots and not...hint, the white part is clean and the black is not.  Good news, the whole floor is now white!  (amazing what some elbow grease can do)

From new toilet seats (self closing kind...very cool) to new paint, addition of double ovens, grout scrubbing, shower floor cleaning, blind washing, cabinet cleaning, etc.  Knee pads were an essential accessory to the cleaning wardrobe as were rubber gloves (no more detail needed).  

We are excited to be in our new (used) home.  There are two neighborhood pools very close to the house.  There are lots of trees in the back which will certainly provide much exploration space for the boys.  We will be starting a firefly expedition shortly!

Dallin got a chance to see the house prior to leaving for the MTC.  So, at least he can see the home that he will come back to.

We are not sure how to take this, but shortly after moving our stuff in, our immediate neighbors put their house up for sale.  I guess our electric personality was felt immediately.  We can certainly say that we have a great first impression on people!

More to come...

Excitement at Church!!

So there I was, sitting in High Priest meeting...we were well into our "nap time" and were interrupted by a Bishopric member from the other Ward that said the tornado sirens were going off and we had to move into the gym.

To follow proper safety precautions, I promptly went out to the window to take a look!  I have a few pictures of the tornado forming...pretty wild!

It was very fascinating seeing the funnel cloud float along going up and down...I had never seen anything like that.  My fascination changed to worry when the hail started.  My mind immediately went to our two cars sitting in the parking lot.  I watched out the window with great interest as the hail stones got bigger and bigger.

By this time several of us were watching out the window (I guess I was not the only one following proper safety procedures).

Our Stake President was among our group.  I was mortified when he yelled "wow, did you see that one, it was as big as a softball!!"  My interest quickly turned to fear and my mind went to the deductible on our auto insurance policy and thought, how could this happen at church??

I went out to take a look at the damage and picked up one of the hail stones sitting a few feet from one of our cars.  The picture below shows Tanner holding that precious gem.  This one was slightly larger than a golf ball.

Needless to say, our cars received several injuries from these very hard things from the sky.  I guess that is what insurance is for.

Oh well, I suppose we have to deal with the challenges we are dealt.  Good news, everyone is fine.

No more napping in High Priest meeting for me :)

Aaron (my first blog post...how exciting is that??!!)