Clayne and I are on vacation

Clayne and I are spending a week here celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. It has been fun so far. My sister Chelsea is staying with the kids while we are here. She is awesome! We have checked in daily and things seem to be going ok at home other than Carson running a fever and missing a little school. The school had a little trouble tracking down who could come get him and care for him and I am thankful for good neighbors who helped out since Chelsea was at work and we were hundreds of miles away. Well.... I am going to head out to this "big" town and have a walk-about. The heart of this town is about 4x6 blocks so it doesn't take long lol. We have already walked it several times - but it is fun anyway. I think we'll pick up a few souvineers for the kids today.

Spring Break & Catching Up

Saturday Morning, March 21, we loaded up the van and made the long trek to Sunny St. George to enjoy a week together as a family. We had hoped for the weather to be a little warmer than it was. I think the highest temp was 65 but hey... it was lots warmer than it was back home so we were happy. We just were spoiled last year at spring break with even warmer weather. Now.... I warn you this is a long post with many photos. But just remember that I didn't do daily posts so this one had to make up for it lol.
The boys were anxious to get out of the van and were happy to pose for a photo. This is my photo for Day 80 March 21.
On Sunday we found a local ward to attend our church meetings and the kids were a little worried about going to primary where they didn't know anyone but after the block of meetings Savannah reported that it was just like home and that they even sang the same songs as we do at home. I love that the church is basically the same no matter where you go. After church we spent some time visiting the Temple visitor center where we watched two movies "A Mormon Miracle" and "Just a Stone cutter" they were both very good. We also walked around the temple grounds where I was able to snap a few photos for Day 81 March 22.

Here is where we spent most of our time while at the condo. There are actually 2 pools at this location and so we spent some time at both of them. It is nice that all the kids are old enough for the hot tub rules at the pool now cuz it was cool enough that often they had to go in to warm up. I don't know what photo I want to pick to best represent Day 82 March 23 so here are a handful of pool pictures. Savannah got a new swimsuit as an early birthday gift and did a great job modeling for the photo if I do say so myself lol.





Cheyenne's Birthday was on Tuesday and here is my photo for Day 83 March 24. Rather than a cake, Cheyenne asked for a chocolate cream pie. I really don't know where the 14 years have gone. She is just growing up FAST!Here is a photo from Wednesday and is my pick for Day 84 March 25. I actually did go to the gym at the resort and exercised two days of our stay. Not as good as I usually do at hitting the gym at home... but hey... I was on vacation lol.
On Thursday we took in a few of the local sites. There are lots of historical buildings in St. George. This is just one of them - Brigham Young's winter home. We also visited the Tabernacle (although we were there at the wrong time to actually go inside for a tour) and the Jacob Hamblin home. (Although we didn't go to the Hamblin home until Friday The kids loved searching the yard at the Young home for pecans in the grass under the pecan tree. Carson was able to find the most out of all my kids. He found 20 - what a NUT. I'm choosing this one for my photo for Day 85 March 26.
We also spent some time at the mall where Cheyenne spent her birthday money. She had only asked EVERY day while we were in St. George.... "When are we going shopping?"
On the way home we stopped in for the night at Clayne's brother Jedd's house. Were we had fun visiting not only with Jedd and Kathy and their 2 darling girls - but we also visited their collection of chickens. I can't believe how many different ones they have and I think there are like 30 of them.Kathy and Jedd had some fun activities lined up for the kids when we arrived. We gathered eggs and had an egg roll and a few races doing a "bunny hop" and a "duck walk" for some candy prizes.
This is one of the two cute cousins that we were happy to visit. Poor little Ellen was sick most of the time we were there so we didn't get to smooch on her and play with her as much as we would have liked.
Here is my darling niece Jenny who loved having the cousins visit. It has been reported that there were some tears after we left and not just because we took home our copy of the DVD Bolt.
Kathy made some brownies that were to die for and she wanted both of my girls to celebrate their birthday while visiting. Here is my pick for Day 86 March 27.
On our way home from St. George we stopped in Malad for my nephew, Walker. The poor kid doesn't like water and unfortunately he had to be immersed 3 times before his whole body went under the water. His toes just kept popping up and the poor kid was about traumatized before it was over. He is a good kid and I was happy to be able to be there on his special day. Here is Day 87 March 28.
Since we were on the road all day on Savannah's Birthday, we baked a cake for her on Sunday. I can't believe that my baby is seven and in just one year we will gather as a family for her baptism. This is my photo for Day 88 March 29.Monday was a sick day for me. I felt bad that I subjected little Megan to our flu bug but my sister had no choice since we were the ones lined up to babysit for the day. Both Morgan and I were sick. Megan kept me from taking it too easy though because she has mastered the art of walking. She is so cute and so very busy! Since other photos would have been too SICK to share for the day this is my pick for Day 89 March 30.
Tonight Cheyenne was inducted into the Jr. High Honor Society. She is super excited about the opportunities for service in this organization. I was super excited about her grades being high enough to be accepted. I'm so PROUD of her. This is my photo for day 90 March 31.
Whew.... that is a wrap. Thanks for stopping by and if you read it all and looked at all the photos.... even a bigger thanks. I enjoyed sharing our week with you.

Life Happenings

Ok so I know - I stink at blogging my friends lol! It has been a while since I have posted something besides digi scrap news or the weekly grocery post but hey I have been busy! This post will be to show you what I have been up to since the kids went back to school. I think I'll start with the recent and work back and that way you can read only as far back into my past as you want to hee hee!

With the kids out of school for Thursday and Friday last week we decided to take a little get away. We hadn't had an opportunity to stay at the West Yellowstone Worldmark since it opened so we went up Wed. after the kids got out of school and then came home Friday afternoon so that the kids could attend Gracy (our neighbor's) birthday party and Clayne could get in a few hours at the office. The weather was fabulous and I loved the scenic drive with all the golden aspens. We spent lots of time at the indoor pool and one afternoon browsing the local shops. The kids love shopping for souvenirs and they finally decided on T shirts. They had never been in one where you could "design" your own and they loved picking out just the right shirt and then selecting the decal that they liked best. Savannah got one that said "It's not easy being a princess!" and Cheyenne decided on "Frequent Blond Moments" while Morgan decided on one that had an outdoor wildlife scene with an elk on it and Carson got one that said "World's largest source of natural gas." We vetoed the one he really wanted that said "I love to fart." The guy at the shop was great with customer service and even let the kids behind the counter where they could peel off the paper after the decal was set. Savannah thought that was especially neat-o. So that was about it for our trip - we didn't even go into the national park. Cheyenne had just been there on a field trip the previous week for school and wasn't too excited about going in and we just know better with our kids. When there is a pool to be swam in that is all they want to do. If we try to do something else they just whine about missing out on swimming time! Oh well, guess it saves us money.

Other things that have been keeping me busy is reworking the soil in my flower bed. The soil has always been crummy and I have been putting off this job ever since we moved in here. I have a hard time getting flowers to thrive in the bed right up by my front door and so Clayne and I carefully worked around the sprinkler system and dug the dirt out, added some good dirt and nutrients and then replaced the dirt. I had to try and save all my spring bulbs as we did this too so that I could replant them. I also bought more tulips and put them in while I was at it. I hope this next spring rewards me with a burst of beautiful color! I have until planting season in the spring to decide what perennials I want to add since I removed the mess I had previously planted.

I am taking a photography class at the VoTec and am half way into it now. It is just once a week and then has photography assignments to do before going back the next week. I am learning lots and really needed a kick in the pants to start using that great camera I bought from Shelly as my Mother's Day present. I was a bit intimidated by it and it had been sitting while I found it easier to just use my little point and shoot. Now that I am using my "new" camera I am finding the advantages to this nicer camera. I don't think I'll ever become fabulous but improvement is all I am hoping for. The photo here is for a week where we were to take a photo that told a story. I don't know why but cemeteries always intrigue me. They make me wonder what the people were like and how did they live, etc. This little girl was only 2 years old when she died and although I don't know the story - I know that there was one and I just felt a bit sorrowful for the family as I stood there that morning. I loved the way the light angled down from heaven onto the grave marker. I got good reviews on this photo in class too which made me feel good lol. I titled this photo "heaven's angel."

Savannah was in her first parade on Spud Day a few weeks ago. It was a dismal and rainy day and I tried to talk her out of it by telling her how cold and miserable she'd be but she proved me wrong by insisting we go and she thrived on it. She loves being a star and was all smiles even in the pouring rain. This was where the saying of "don't let it rain on your parade" must have originated since she didn't let it ruin her day. Carson was the only other one to go with us and he gathered a haul of candy. After the parade it stopped raining and we went and looked at the booths where we bought a sling shot for Carson, cotton candy for Savannah and some kettle corn for me. I am a sucker for popcorn!

Speaking of corn. The stake farm offered free corn and I had to take them up on it. I made 2 trips out to the farm and picked a total of 300 ears of corn that I then husked, removed from the cob and froze. It was a sticky mess but we are sure going to enjoy that tasty corn this winter.

Now that I put it all down in a post it doesn't seem that my life is really that busy lol. But it just continues to fly by with the daily duties of "momhood." I am still babysitting my sweet little niece, Megan. She is here now and taking a nap while I get my post done.

An Oregon Vacation

Ok this is a challenge post for me lol. I have 10 minutes until I need to be getting dinner on the table but I am quickly going to try to sum up our Oregon Family Vacation. We drove 1800 miles in our now bug covered/snack and sand dirty van. This was quite challenging at times over the week and I often just wanted to be ALONE for a minute or two and not just when in the shower. I realized how much I thrive on my own quiet time. Still we had a fabulous time. We traveled to Lincoln City, Oregon where we met up with Clayne's family. Five out of the six siblings were able to be there as well as his parents. All together there were 14 grandchildren present - sometimes it felt more like 30 lol when we all gathered for family meals at dinner time. If you count Kami's twins then there were actually 16 grandchildren there. She is quite a trooper for attending a family vacation week when she has only 30 days more in her pregnancy. That poor girl is all belly! We spent lots of time on the beach which was right outside our back door of the condo unit. We were there in a little bay and there were seals right there on the opposite shore and they would swim in the bay to feed in the evening when the tide was high and then they would sun bathe all day on the beach. The kids were captivated with them as well as splashing in the water and playing in the sand. The only tourist sites we visited were the aquarium, the outlet mall, Mo's for some famous clam chowder and Tillamook cheese factory. Anyway that is where I was all of last week and why I didn't get any posting done for so long. I hope that you all have had a chance to enjoy a vacation and spend time with family this summer - even extended family. We made memories that we will always cherish. Oh and a side note: A special thanks to Jen Johnson and her family for letting us drop in on our way out to the coast. It was wonderful to see you and the food was delish! And a special thanks to my SIL, Courtney for letting us stay a night on our way home. Such wonderful hospitality! Ok dinner needs doin' here so that is all for now.

A catch up post

I have been wanting to share some of my latest layouts and what we have been up to. If you are here for the grocery post just scroll down.

I mentioned that we spent our spring break in St. George last week. We had such a fun time. I was sad that there wasn't time to stop and visit friends along the way or to shop the new IKEA store. The only stop we made for visiting was at Clayne's brother, Jedd's house. We just had to meet our newest cousin/niece, Ellen. She is such a beautiful baby. They blessed her this last Sunday and we knew we wouldn't make it down again and so we just had to stop. While there we had a little egg hunt with Jenny, their other daughter who is 3. It was fun to see them and their "new" home.

While in St. George we took the kids to church - much to their dismay since we were on "vacation." We thought we were in the right ward because there were lots of kids there, but it turned out that they were all visitors too and the ward we went to was a "retired" ward and they didn't have a primary for the kids so after Sacrament meeting we left and went over to the St. George temple visitors center. They had a wonderful display of statues showing Christ's ministry and then at the end we were able to view the Christ statue which is a smaller replica of the one in Salt Lake. Apparently they have one in our visitor center in Idaho Falls too, but we haven't been over there to see it yet. I loved this picture I got of Cheyenne looking at Christ. I will take the lazy route and ask that you click on my gallery link to the right to see more of my layouts and to view the listing of credits for these scrapbook layout shares. Thanks for looking.

The kids lived at the pool while we were at the condo and why not when the temperature was in mid to high 70's the whole time. It was beautiful. We did manage to drag them away just one day to go to Snow Canyon and hike a bit. The whole time we were there they just kept asking when we were going back to the condo so they could swim lol. We hope that sometime when we are down that way we can go to Zion's or Bryce Canyon but until they can hike for more than 10 minutes without so much complaining we figure why bother lol.

I previously posted about the girls having their birthdays. Cheyenne's was celebrated while in St. George, but we were home for Savannah's. I had fun using a baby picture of Cheyenne to show how she has changed over the years. And the one I made of Savannah for her birthday has become my new favorite and I just had to share it.

Last of all... For those who like to be in the digital scrapbook "know" Kami of Ziggle Designs that I am a member of the creative team for is in a new store - Scrap Orchard. They are having a grand opening this week with lots of fun events. So be sure to stop by and join in on the freebies and sales.