All Decorated Up!

Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving is spent decorating our house with all of our Christmas decorations. It generally takes a full day to get it all up, so I like to get it up right after Thanksgiving so that we can enjoy it for the full month of December, because come January 1- I am usually ready for it all to be down and put away and ready for the New Year! This year I went to Ogden with my sister to grab a few things on Friday. Brad spent the whole day putting lights outside on the trees, etc. It looks so awesome. I was so thankful that he did that for me while I was gone.... because I know he did do it for me. (He really doesn't care as much.) Saturday I spent the whole day getting the inside of the house done, except Brad and Abby helped with the tree. It is always a wonderful feeling when it is finally done. Hoooooray!

Our Christmas tree is prelit, but we always put a few extra strands of decorative lights on it. It is super pretty all lit up at night. Love, love, love it!

Last year I made this cute Jingle Bells, and I also love snowmen.

Santa

Our Nativity Set.

I just bought these stinkin' cute stockings this year. I actually have 2 more , but I haven't hung them up yet. This will be the first year that Brad and I actually stuff a stocking for each other since we have been married. It should be fun!

Fun candy cane candles.

Little Village, it looks super cute all lit up at night.

And that is really about it! A few more things here and there, but I figured I had posted enough! Now, my goal is to get my Christmas shopping done in the next two weeks! Lets see how that goes!

Happy Holidays!

Halloween

Tis' that wonderful time of season again -- Halloween. Brad and I debated if it is even a holiday. But whatever it is, it is kind of crazy. Abby was just sure she wanted to be a leprechaun, so that she is (in case you were wondering).. I asked her. "Why a leprechaun?" and she said, "Because I like the color green." Hmmmm, interesting. She is here with her friend Hadlee, aka: Minnie Mouse and Marissa, aka: A Dead Bride. Yes, they sure have fun costumes as they get older. But, I guess it's all about the candy, as they all 3 headed out the door with a pillowcase in hand.
Now, this is when trick-or treating is cute! Here are the grand kids: Trey as Batman and Krew as Robin. Krew didn't really care, he just wanted to give you a lick of his lollipop. But Trey was wound up pretty tight. Fun, Fun.
We didn't get to see these grand kids trick-or-treating all the way out in N. Carolina. So I stole the picture of Facebook. Here is Dylan as Peter Pan and Sophie as Tinkerbell.... Oh how I love Tinkerbell! I just love it when little siblings stay with the same theme and match.

STINKIN' CUTE!!

Volleyball Girl

Abby just finished up with a rec volleyball league. She had a blast. She is actually quite the little volleyball player! She started out fairly good, but with the assistance of a good pair of knee pads she really improved and was diving and saving all sorts of hits. It was really fun to watch her play, improve and just love to go each week and really have a ton of fun. Now, how are we going to fit this new love in with all of her new activities?? (ha, ha ~ I am sure we can!) Her team did a great job as well. During the tournament they took the only undefeated team to game 3 and the score had to go up to 18 -16 before they finally beat us. (They usually go to 15) Our girls did awesome, and I must mention -- this other team ate their Wheaties! They were 3 times the size of our girls.

Great Job Team Force!

You Gals Rock!

My baby boy is 18!

The craziest thing happened. Tanton turned 18! Wow! On September 30, eighteen years ago I became a mother. At that time it would have seemed like forever before he would turn 18, and here it is. I could not be prouder of this boy, he is such a well rounded, fun young man. Happy Birthday Tanton!
Tanton's step-mom, Marnie, always spoils him with a cake of his choice ~ she does a fabulous job, but I really think she out did herself this time. Here he is with his IRON MAN cake. Real working lights and all!

Girls Weekend...cont.

After such a great day in Yellowstone Park, and getting home so late -- I think it was like 2 am by the time we went out the West Yellowstone entrance and drove back to Driggs. We slept in a little and spent the next day, Saturday, in Jackson Hole. We shopped, and shopped, and shopped...and shopped. This place called "The Round Up" is closing, so they were having clearance on all of their items, well you got it - Ol' Josh sold a pair of cowboy boot to each of us!! What suckers we are! Jackson is fun and we had a great time. Later, we ate at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Marcy and I shared a dish that had buffalo in it..we joked that it was probably the poor sucker we saw as road kill the night before (and how true it probably was!). Our dinner was very good, so was the country band playing. I am a HUGE country music fan ~ Marcy on the other hand thought every song sounded the same, oh she has much to learn. :)

The next morning we got up and after getting ready we stopped by some gorgeous waterfalls that I have never even seen on our way home. They were about an hour North between Driggs and Rexburg ~ called Mesa Falls. Very much worth our detour.

Marcy ended up staying for about a week. We had such a wonderful time. She is just one of the sisters now. It was a much needed fun, relaxed time we all had. She fit in perfectly and we were all so comfortable around each other it was almost scary! Needless to say, we now have a very good, new friend/sister that lives up in Chicago. Now, we just need to plan where our next vacation will be. Hmmmm.

Way too much fun!!

Back in April when my sisters and I took our boys to Hawaii we met a friend from Chicago, her name is Marcy. We kept in touch on FaceBook and kept saying that we needed to get together again sometime. Well, Marcy decided to come on out West to visit us -- and we had a "GIRLS TRIP" up to Yellowstone, Jackson, etc. We had an absolute blast!

Most people might find it a little odd to meet a total stranger on a cruise, know them for a few short days and then spend a week with them a few months later on your own vacation. But that is what happened with us. When she first told us she was going to come out to visit we were like where should we take her in "Utah"?? So, we decided to take her on up to Idaho, Wyoming and Montana! We took the scenic route up to our condo in Driggs, Idaho where we spent all of our nights. This is where our game playing and "Slumber Parties" took place...

On Friday we got up kind of early because we knew we had to conquer the whole Yellowstone Park in ONE DAY, and we wanted to find very animal there was to see!! We started out seeing a Mama moose with a baby. Next we got to Old Faithful withing 10 minutes of her going off... our timing was perfect! Good start so far. The weather was perfect: sunny, beautiful, 4 girls, laughing our guts out, having an absolute blast!! Next we saw a huge buffalo just meandering down the road, holding up traffic, just like he owned the place. Now, remember Marcy is from the city - CHICAGO - she has not seen anything like this. Her hands were shaking. She could hardly take a picture. Then we say elk, deer, more buffalo, the regular Yellowstone stuff - which Marcy loved every second of. The country was so beautiful -- but our true goal was to find a BEAR! We headed all the way up to the top Yellowstone Park (because that is where the bear were suppose to be). That is where we got out to go and see a cool waterfall and lo and behold -- there was a huge buffalo just walking right down the road toward us from the campground. It was so Crazy! Marcy about died, she was sure it was going to charge her since she had a red jacket on! LOL!! On our way back down we saw another car pulled over, we looked up and could see something black, we thought it was a black bear - Marcy FREAKED OUT!! She started yelling "What do we do! What do we do?" It was sooooo funny. Well, it ended up being a black Wolf and a silver Wolf -- which is pretty darn cool, too. But we were still on the hunt for our BEAR. We even said "this day has been so great the only thing that would top it off would be to have a bear sighting".

It was getting later and it would be getting dark soon. Our hopes were fading. Everyone had told us that there hadn't been a bear sighting in like 2 or 3 weeks, they had gone higher in the mountains. So we decided to go back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone before we left the park. As we got close to the Grand Canyon we saw a car that was HAULING BUTT in reverse as we were coming toward it -- we knew it had seen something. So we looked to our right so see and right there out in this golden meadow was this HUGE GRIZZLY BEAR running through the meadow from one grove of trees to another. I cannot even tell you how beautiful it was!! I was so incredible. All of our adrenalin was going, we turned and stopped with the other car. Then of course, several other cars stopped -- but they didn't see the bear! We were so LUCKY. We stayed and he went from one grove of trees to another. Then stayed there. We waited in our car....... until it was pitch black. We were just sure that bear was going to come out and we would see him. Yes, we were the only car sitting there until 8:30 pm. What a day....
You would think that would be the end, huh?? Well, on the way out of the park we saw some flashing lights - ahead we passed an ENORMOUS BUFFALO dead in the road. A truck had barely hit and killed it. It was so sad and such an incredible sight to see such a big animal lying there dead in the road. Marcy wanted to pull out her camera, I told her we couldn't because the Park Rangers... but I must confess the next morning I would have given anything to have a picture of that incredible sight. I felt sad still, but it is something I will never see again, and I couldn't get it out of my head!
Well, there is one day.... what a great time!

Charlotte, North Carolina

For Labor Day weekend (Sept 4-6)Brad and I went out to Charlotte to see Tim, Melissa and the kids. We knew we would see them Oct. 10 for Greg's wedding, but it had just been so long since we had been out there due to our schedules, our kid's schedules, etc. It is always good to see them at their own home, see some home improvements they have done and so on. Those little grand kids grow so fast!! It is amazing how much more Dylan knows each time we see them, and poor Sophie had a splint on her right leg from her hip to her toe due to a small fracture in her shin. She sure learned to wobble around with that splint on quick though. The kids were darling, they warmed up to us super quick, even Tim and Melissa were surprised at how quickly they warmed up to us -- especially Brad. Probably because of his strong resemblance to Tim.
Tim had a 4 day weekend, which is RARE, it was nice that we could spend so much time with the whole family. We went to a minor league baseball game, that was actually played in South Carolina. Then on Saturday we went to the National Whitewater Center. It is a super cool place that is actually all man made, but has class II and class III, and IV rapids. You can raft or kayak at this place. Brad and Tim went on a whitewater rafting adventure. Melissa and I stayed and tried to entertain the children. They were very good, but this is probably not the best place for kids, and the temp was like 100 degrees. The guys absolutely loved it! Then Brad, Tim, and I went on the zip-line. It was a fun ride.
Melissa got to be a spectator because the day before they broke the good news that they are EXPECTING THEIR 3RD little amigo!

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. Thanks again, Tim & Missy!

Slacker!

Kathy, Kelly, Marcy, Stacy @ Mesa Falls

I have not updated my blog in forever! Wow! I have been so, so busy with one thing after another that I had not had the time to sit down and just get this done. Hopefully soon I wil be able to update, but these are the things that we have been up to around our home... and beyond.

1. Lake Powell - we went to Lake Powell for a week with the Gunnell family. Oh, we had such a great time and did so many crazy things. I can't wait to show.

2. North Carolina - Brad and I went out to N. Carolina to visti Tim, Melissa and the kiddos. We did some really fun things while we were out there also. It was great to see Dylan and Sophie and how much they had grown up.

3. Driggs, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole -when we were on our cruise to Hawaii with our boys we met a friend from Chicago. She flew out to visit, so me and my sisters took her up north to see some sights. We had such a blast! We laughed so much - it felt great. I have lots of pics and stories to tell to go with that adventure also.

4. Tanton's 18th Birthday! My little boy has become an adult. Tanton had his 18th birthday on Sept 30. So crazy to think. I am so proud of him, yet so sad to see him grow so old.

5. Phoenix - Abby and I went to Phoenix to see my friend Steph Honing. We picked a perfect weekend to go. It was her UEA break and the weather here really sucked. We enjoyed 85-90 degree weather there and flew in to 40 degree weather in Salt Lake.... that was sad.

6. Greg got married! On Oct 10 Greg and Kristina got married. What a wonderful day. Everything turned out beautifully. I believe the happy couple was very pleased. So, lots to say and post...

7. Company - We had Tim/Melissa and the kiddos staying at our house, so we were able to enjoy their company.

But now after what seemed like a whirlwind - I will hopefully be able to catch up on my blog one event at a time!

Hiking the Wellsvilles

On Friday, July 31, 2009, Brad, Abby and I hiked to the very top of the Wellsville Mountains! This is something that Brad and I have been saying that we wanted to do for a few years, but have just never actually done it. We got up, and with camelbacks on our backs began our hike at 7:30 am. In the pictures below you can see that the trail starts out... as a trail, but the further we got the more overgrown the trail was and there were several random rocks and tree trunks/roots sticking out, so we really had to watch our footing as we hiked. For about the first 1 and 1/2 hours we were in the trees, then we broke out of the trees and the trail at this point was extremely overgrown and narrow, but there was a trail, nevertheless!

As we were hiking and hiking, we got to a point where the trail went down in a ravine and then looked like it kind of wrapped around toward the back of the mountain. At this point we had been hiking 2 1/2 hours or so, so Brad pointed to the top of the mountain and said "Well, that is where we want to go, I say we just head straight up this mountainside." Abby and I totally agreed. (LITTLE did we know what we were getting ourselves into!!) Note: the pic of Brad and Abby standing almost vertically with the mountainside. Yes! That is where we went. Oh, how I learned to appreciate that little "overgrown" trail. We were blazing our way through sagebrush and bushes that were brutal! ... And we were going straight up the mountain. Along the way we found some perfectly formed seashells, which was kind of cool. I guess left over from years ago when Lake Bonneville once covered the area. We made it to the top! Hurray!

It was beautiful. You could see the whole Cache Valley and down into Brigham City. We sat at the top and ate our lunch, rested our weary feet and enjoyed the view for about an hour. Then ounce again our journey began. As we tried to find the trail that we left to take back down.....

We couldn't find the trail, so we had to make our way down the mountainside, once again, blazing our own trail. :) About 1/2 way down, we could see the trail, but the trick was to find it. Which eventually we did. But first we had to go through our sagebrush, down rock slides, and through a jungle of plants as tall as we were, which we realized partway through was 3/4 stinging nettle. Ha, ha. Something to laugh about now! But what an adventure. We had a great family adventure. It ended up taking us 8 1/2 hours. If we ever do it again, we will definitely not leave the trail. I bet we could do it in less than 7 hours! Other than a few bruises and blisters on the feet, we came through like Champs! And just a little bit of trivia info: The Wellsville Mountains are the steepest mountains in the US from base to top - due to how narrow and tall they are. (Google it!)

And we climbed those mountains, baby!

Lake Powell.... Part 2

So, the blog would not let me download all of my collages onto one post. Yeah! I will make two posts. The following are my incredibly talented kids doing their water sports. (In case you didn't read my disclaimer in my blog title: this is a place for me to "brag") Tanton is amazing at wakeboarding. He even landed one of his flips, and the surfing... we just barely started it and he seemed to get that down pretty quick, too. Our new boat has the ballast bags that you can fill to make bigger wakes. This makes it so that you can surf and even let go of the rope. There is a video of Tanton doing this at the end of this blog.

And here is another bunch of talent. Abby decided this year that she was going to slalom ski, and she did it! Hurray for her. I cannot imagine having started doing all of these sports at such a young age. The boat is such a great family toy. It brings everyone together on a 21 foot area for almost an entire day! That would never happen at home. We sure have a lot of fun.

(Remember you can click on the collages to see the pictures in larger form)

So this is pretty darn cool! Tanton surfing.

Lake Powell... Part 1

It was kind of a late planned plan.. but we decided to head down to Lake Powell for a long weekend. It is a long drive, 7-8 hrs, we went to Page, AZ, because they have a lot more accommodations for hotels, eating, etc. than Bullfrog does and we were just staying in a hotel this time. I asked my sisters if they wanted to join us, Kathy and 2 of her kids (Taylor and Nicole), and Stacy's son, Chad came. Then there was Brad, Tanton, Abby and myself. It was Kathy, Taylor, Nicole and Chad's first time to Lake Powell, ever! We had some great weather - 100 degrees and sun. The water temp. was 84-86 degrees.

I had an awesome time. Lake Powell is one of my favorite places. Once you are out on the water there is nothing to do but relax, and I love that! I especially love Lake Powell because of the warm water. Everybody had fun - wakeboarding, waterskiing, tubing, surfing, and just swimming. What a fun time! I am so glad that we are able to go and do fun things and take our kids to enjoy the wonderful outdoors and the beauty of Lake Powell, and I am happy that we could spend it with some of my favorite people in the world! :)

TP'd

I wondered how long it would actually take until it happened to us.... we got TOILET PAPERED! I cannot tell you how many times I did this fun little activity growing up, but it doesn't seem to be as popular these days. But we woke up the other morning and sure enough, some of Tanton's friends (or are they friends?) thought it would be fun to toilet paper us. And yes, they left evidence that they were girls.... pantie shields all over Tanton's windshield. "Nice, real mature." was Tanton's response.

It didn't take long. Our neighbors came right out and helped us clean it up. Well, I hope that was our turn...I guess until Abby gets that age!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy ABBY!!

Taylor, Abby, Savannah, Rachel & Hadlee

Abby had her 11th Birthday on July 1. Since we had just gotten home from California we pretty much kept it on the down low and she invited a few friends to go to the movie "Ice Age 3 - 3D", that had just came out that day, then they came over to our house for some cake and ice cream.

Abby's gifts... she could NOT wait to open, oh how I wish I still had that excitement. She counted down to her birthday for days! She was so happy for it to finally arrive.

Opening a couple of her presents in the morning.

An I-pod and an I-tunes gift card! Hooray!

Her huge cupcake birthday cake.

Make a wish!

Wow! I cannot believe that my baby is 11 years old. She will be starting middle school next month. Pretty crazy how quickly they grow, there are times that I wish I could freeze them. But then again, I have really enjoyed each stage of their lives and the joy they bring!

California for Nationals and Fun!

(You can click on the collages to see the pictures a little better!)

In June we had the opportunity to go to San Jose, California for Abby's National Tumbling Meet. We had a blast! Abby did an awesome job in her competition. It was her first time attending a National Meet and there were hundreds and hundreds of athletes there from all 50 states. They were incredible and it was amazing to watch. It was a great experience for Abby, we learned a lot about these National Meets and we are hoping to attend next year again. They are having it in Virginia Beach, Virginia next year. The girls had a blast spending time with each other and their coaches outside of the normal gym atmosphere. It was really a big treat for long year of hard work and as parents, we had a great time right along with them! .... not to mention that we were, of course, beaming with pride that our children were talented enough to even be in attendance and be one of these amazing athletes!

Here are some of the fun things that we did..

Only about 20 minutes from our hotel there was this great amusement park:

California's Great America

We spent one of the days at this park. The weather was perfect and hardly anyone was at this park. We walked onto nearly every ride. It was super fun and perfect. In most of these pictures it is Abby and JaeLynn Benson, that is who went to the park with us.

We braved some traffic to drive to Santa Cruz to spend the Saturday at the "Santa Cruz Boardwalk". Luckily, we had been to the amusement park the day before so the girls were not wanting to ride the rides at the boardwalk, because this place was PACKED like sardines. So, we put on our swimming suits and spent a few hours on the beach. It was a little chilly by the water, but perfect as long as you were just lying on your towel on the sand! And what more could we ask for! This was a great place (minus the people!).

In these pictures are Abby, JaeLynn, Carson, Dana (coach), and some athletes from another gym in Provo. They played in the ocean waves, buried each other in the sand, and even did a little tumbling in the sand!

This is competition day, which was actually on Thursday. Abby, JaeLynn Benson and Kate Atkinson all competed on the floor in the same flight, so that was fun. Thomas and Dana are their coaches that were in Cali with us. They are awesome coaches and really fun, too!

It was while we were at Abby's competition that we were told that both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson had passed away. I will always remember where I was when I heard that!

And... Last but not least, our extremely talented little athlete in pictures. Of course, I cannot take credit for taking these pictures, a photographer at the competition took them. But, I am always amazed when I see Abby in action. She is so crisp and clean and her body is so straight and aligned. She has very good form and hence why we were able to spend a few very fun days in California at a National Tumbling Meet with athletes from 50 states!

Super Job Abby! We are so proud of you!