St. George Get Away and Glitter Mountain

Looks like we may have started a little tradition with "St. George Extravaganza" trip. We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again this year. We headed down to the sunny city with the Rothes, Ashbys, Shoffs, and Stevens and rented the big house again. It was so nice to just let the kids run free and play together and hang out with our friends. The house has it's own separate pool so even though it was a little cooler in St George the kids got plenty of swimming in. The girls got some time to go shopping, the guys got to watch the BYU game. There was lots of card and board games. Elle even got in on the all guys one. We took the kids to this awesome new park called Tonaquint Park and the kids were in heaven. We went to Fiesta Fun one night with the kids and the next night we got Brielle Kelsch and a couple of her friends to come over and babysit and we went out as couples to the restaurant Anasazi. What a fun place where you cook your own food right in front of you. That night after all the kids were in bed (except Elle..she said she heard us all night) we pulled out the game True Colors and I'm telling you I have not laughed that hard in a LONG LONG time. It was SO SO funny. This game pretty much tells you what people really think of you and we were all just dying at some of the cards and all of our answers. We played for hours and I loved every second of it. Fun fun night. The next morning was Sunday so after church we decided to take all the kids to a place called Glitter Mountain. Pretty funny story actually. It ended up just being us, the Ashbys and Rothes and none of us had been here before so Nate put the place in his gps and we all just followed him to find it. Well over an hour and half later we are driving on this remote dirt road covered in huge rocks in the middle of nowhere heading up this hill where we were certain we were all going to pop a tire and get stuck. Someone his gps had taken us way too far and we ended up turning around and finding it alright. We all got a kick out of it because come to find out we had went this ridiculously long way to find it and the whole time it was really like 20 minutes from the house we stayed in. Funny. Kind of. But once we got there the kids absolutely loved it. They had their own little hammers and tools to chip away at this little hill that was just covered in shiny rock. It was actually very cool and well worth the run around. Overall a very successful trip with some very awesome friends.

Toby and Cash's Birthdays

It was the week to celebrate TWO of favorite boys in whole world! It's actually kind of nice to have Toby and Cash's birthday so close to each other since we're just in birthday mode all week. Both boys got balloons on the ceiling and breakfast in bed with some gifts on their respective days. For Toby's birthday I had arranged with the Shoffs to have movie night in their awesome theater and to go to dinner earlier with a bunch of our friends: Shoffs, Rothes, Ashby's and Stevens. We went for Sushi at Tsunami and had such a great time talking and laughing. Then headed over to the Shoffs and put on the movie The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a great night. For Cash's birthday Toby and I surprised him and checked him out of school for Lunch and let him pick ANYWHERE he wanted to go for his birthday and you want to know where he chose?!… TACO BELL!!! What?! He and I differ in our choice of food quite a bit. But it was his birthday so the birthday boy got what he wanted:) After school we headed over to All Star Lanes and Arcades and celebrated both Toby and Cash with my family. It was so fun…Toby somehow talked the front desk girl into giving us a crazy ridiculous good deal on anything and we just played all night there. The kids really loved it. Bumper cars for adult and all. I had to throw on a couple of pics of Toby's old playing days. I love these two so much. They bring so much happiness and balance to our lives. Happy Birthday boys!!!

Family Pictures at Antelope Island

Family pictures is always a stressful thing. ALWAYS. Coordinating everyone's outfits, picking a location and PRAYING that there are no massive meltdowns and that you can get at least one picture where everyone is glancing in the general direction of the camera. Jamie always does such a good job...she's got a real talent for photography. She had never taken pictures at Antelope Island so she asked if we wanted to go there and I thought it was perfect. Such a beautiful place. We didn't have a lot of time since we had to wait for Toby to get home from work and drive an hour and twenty minutes away from home, and the sun went down fast...but it worked out perfectly. Simple, classy, and most importantly MY FAMILY. I love them so much. Each one individually brings so much to the table and adds a total dimension that otherwise we wouldn't have. I'm so grateful to each of them for all that they teach me. I feel so inadequate to be their mother...and wife:) But it gives me motivation to work hard to live up to being the type of mother that they deserve. So grateful I have these pictures. Their smiles, and their personalities caught on film. I will treasure them always!