Beauty and the Beast

My friend Janet, who serves as one of my counselors in the Primary, called me Saturday and said she and her husband were taking their 2 grand-daughters to see the play "Beauty and the Beast."  They had an extra ticket and invited Abby to come along.  Abby's eyes got wide when I told her and she was SOOO excited.  They picked her up early and took her for a happy meal.  Then took her to the play in Hurricane, and bought her treats at the play too.  It was a fun afternoon for her and I was so glad Janet included her.  That night Abby pulled out her "Belle" barbie doll and was telling me all the differences between Belle the Barbie and Belle in real life.  Color of shoes, bow in hair, etc.  The other girls in the pictures are Brooklyn and Marley, and Abby's been asking me when she can play with "Narley" again.  

 

Ducks

We went with the Fords to feed the ducks.  It was Taylor's first time, and he loved it.  He even tried to take off his shoes and wade in!

Saying Goodbye to Calvin

Last weekend we went to see Tige's youngest brother Calvin who is getting ready to serve a mission in California.  We went to the temple with him when he received his endowment and then listened to him speak in church at his farewell.  It was a really nice weekend and we were glad to get to be there. 

 Tige's whole family

and with some in-laws... (one who is ready to POP!)

Tige and his siblings

 

While we were in Monticello, grandma had the kids decorate a "spooky Halloween tree" and then Grandma read them a Berenstein Bears story about a spooky tree.  They loved it.

It was hard to say good-bye to Calvin because Abby started crying that she didn't want to go home, whch got me crying too.  Not a surprise there.  We will miss Uncle Calvin, but are very excited to watch him work hard and serve and look forward to getting his letters.  Our kids are already praying for him even though he hasn't entered teh MTC yet. 

Love this picture.  So precious!

4th of July

Our 4th of July started out with a 5k run by Tige & Kason.  Abby, Taylor and I came at the end of the race with our patriotic necklaces and wavers and enjoyed a delicious pancake breakfast at the Bloomington Park. 

 After being hot at the park and watching a short (and lame) parade, we went over to the Ford's house to swim and eat lunch.  The kids love swimming, especially when dad thows them up in the air!

 That night we met at the Christensen's house for a BBQ and a huge fireworks display.  These folks go ALL OUT! Dinner was yummy and we sat together and watched fireworks.

Taylor was a little nervous and ended up hugging dad for comfort.

Spring Break, Part 2

We joined a bunch of friends at Snow Canyon HS Track for a "run your age" kid's race. The kids had to run a lap for every year old. So Taylor 1 lap, Abby 3, and Kason 8. (This doesn't sound like my idea of fun, but apparently it is to Tige and his friends!) We raced with Beckstrands, Fords, Egberts, Coats, and Christensens. Cathy secured old medals from a past city race, so each of the kids got a cool medal when they finished. Taylor was the first kid to finish and Abby was the 2nd. (they were the 2 youngest). They did great, and when Abby finished her 3 laps, she did another, so ended up running a mile. After the race, we went to a park and had a picnic lunch, and then went for a hike. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather. Starting positions

All the kids who ran with their medals

We went to hike Johnson's Trail at Snow Canyon. It was Friday March 16. We all get about 1/2 mile into the hike and discover the trail has a barrier acrossed it and is marked at closed. Apparently it closes March 15 through October to protect the habitat. Dang, only 1 day late! Just as well though, because Taylor is getting heavy to carry in the pack. Tige took the 2 big kids swimming instead and I took Taylor home for a nap. Then we had an adults dinner @ Outback. It was such a great day.

Cabin with the Cables

Do you have best friends that you don't see or talk to very often, but when you get together, it's like you were never apart and you pick-up right where you left off and they're the best friends ever? That's how we are with the Cables. We lived next to them 11 years ago in NSL. Kason is named after them. We were so excited when they came down for the weekend to my parents cabin. We had such a great time together. Tige & Jason took the kids fishing while Kristy and I just visited and hung out. When we got home, I realized I didn't take a single picture. Tige snapped a few fishing. That's what happens when you are with your best friends I guess!

Jason & Cole
This was Kason's 3rd or 4th time fishing at Panguitch Lake, and he FINALLY caught a fish. In fact, he cought TWO! He was so excited.

McKenzie. She little sweetie was only 2 when we lived by them.

Kason & Cole

This is what a super FUN weekend looks like when you are 7!

Bryce & Cables

We ventured up north this weekend in our new minivan. It was a nice trip with lots of room. The kids all had their own space & watched DVD's most of the way. I've decided it's the only way to travel. Anyway, we headed to Kamas where my nephew, Bryce was baptized on Saturday. We were so glad to be there to watch David baptize him.

We managed to snap a family picture. Just one though because Abby does NOT like to sit for pictures and is completely uncooperative. I doubt we're going to get a family picture for a Christams card. She's a stinker when it comes to pictures. After the baptism, eating a bunch of yummy food, and watching lots of football, we headed down to North Salt Lake to see our best friends the Cables. We lived next door to them 10 years ago before we moved to Virginia. We had a great time playing games & catching up. We took our kids to the Discovery Kid's Center at the Gateway. Abby loved it and was just a perfect age for it. We did things like that with Kason all the time when we lived back East, but Abby has missed out on those kinds of things. So it was fun to take her and watch her explore...

Abby & McKenzie. Kenz was the perfect little babysitter--took Abby around and played with her and showed her everything. I sure wish this girl lived in our town--we'd hire her every Friday night!

Rock climbing wall.

Grocery cart & checkout. Abby licked all the plastic food. Gross!!! I'm sure she'll be coming down with a cold immediately.

Taylor, just along for the ride. What a trooper! (and with 2 teeth now).

Playing with the magnetic shapes. They were totally fun--we could have played with them for hours. They had some in the gift shop, but the basic box of them was $65. Geez. I don't think so.

Life flight helicopter.

Kenzie & Taylor

Canyoneering with Cory

This is my first ever blog post. (Well a half post, because Julie is typing it, but I'm sitting here telling her what to say). Last week I did my first canyoneering trip with Cory (a friend from anesthesia school). Cory and some friends were here filming a video for his church and invited me to go with them. We hiked down the Birch Hollow and Fat Man's Misery canyons near Zion National park. We did a lot of hiking and bush-whacking mixed with some rapelling down technical slot canyons. It was fun to learn some new rapelling techniques and it was great to see Cory again. Here are some photos and a video from our trip: Exiting a tight slot canyon. Now I know why they call it Fat Man's Misery

View from the top of a 120 foot rapel down Birch Hollow

Side view of Birch Hollow rapel. Check out my sexy bike helmet. Julie didn't think my head was worth spending money on a real canyoneering helmet.

Cory rapelling Birch Hollow.

Cory half way down.

Nice view from the bottom of a slot canyon.

Cory rapelling down a slot canyon.