Celebrating the 4th

After a super busy June (Kim and the kids on the trek, Wyatt to Texas and then a teacher's quorum super activity, Maryn and Maddie to Flagstaff EFY, Maryn and Maddie to girls camp, Maddie doing volleyball training and camps, and lots of weddings...), it didn't work out for us to go anywhere for the 4th (we've gone to Cali the past several years).  Or really, at all in July.  Buying a new dryer, car repairs, June activities and other things kind of drained our funding!  Stinks!  Plus the kids were all so exhausted from all of their June activities, they kind of wanted to just lay around at home.  School starts in just a couple of weeks.  Anyways, back to the 4th, we were excited to have Mariley and her kids here for a visit and by us being here over the holiday, we were able to spend more time with her.  Lucky us!  

Our 4th of July weekend started with a Friday night swim party at Grandpa and Grandma Post's house.  We made homemade pizzas (thanks to Mariley and Grandma for the yummy pizza crust) and the kids had fun swimming with their cousins (and aunt and uncle).

Sunday, it was our turn to host the Skinner FHE at our house.  We had a taco bar (basically what I was in the mood for):  spicy pork, marinated chicken, queso fresco, cotija, cabbage, radishes, cilantro, avocado slices, cilantro lime crema, and Ben brought yummy homemade red and green salsas.  It was pretty delish, if I may say so myself.

Monday was the 4th.  We went back over to Grandpa and Grandma's house for some food, swimming and fireworks (thank you Riley).

  

I sure am grateful to live in this country.  There is a lot of turmoil, contention, division, incompetence in leadership, moral decay and so much more, but it is still a blessed land and I am grateful to be able to live the way we choose to - to work hard for the things we want and to worship as we choose.

We finished Mariley's visit by having her kids over while the adults went to the temple (I didn't make it but was happy to watch these cute little kiddos...

 I am glad our family is happy with their moves across the country (and even in other countries) but we sure miss them all!

This week's happenings 1.09.16 to 1.16.16

Saturday 1.9.16 was Maddie's first club volleyball tournament.  We are lucky this year to be playing for Club Blaze, which plays most of it's tournaments and has all of it's practices right here at the Barn.  Convenience is a wonderful thing.  There was a really great life lesson in her making this team which I have written down in my journal but won't share here but am proud of Maddie for being a good girl and having the best priorities.  Anyways,

Her team has lots of talent, they've never played together so will need to gel still but looking forward to good things from them as the season progresses.

Sunday was our drive (previous post), but Sunday night, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Post's house for the annual Christmas tree burning extravaganza.  Wyatt was the most excited about this and gathered abandoned trees around our neighborhood to add to the fire.

We've been spending some time catching up on life and house projects.  Projects like untangling jewelry messes like these (while catching up on the DVR, which is what makes it bearable) have been my favorite.

Spending lots of time with the teenagers/kids.  Weirdly enough, they have wanted to hang out at home and with us a lot lately.  I know they have lots of friends, but they seem to be spending lots of free time around the house, which I am not complaining about, although it isn't usual and customary.

This was a half day.  Maddie was off at a friend's house, but Maryn and Wyatt were happy to got to Mod Pizza with me and then Target and Costco.  Can I just say going to Costco is much more enjoyable (and expensive) when I have help to load and unload all of the food goods.

The girls pretty much drive everywhere we drive now.  They can both get their driver's licenses in March.  SCARY!

Wyatt's been sneaking Maryn's bike (since his are broken) across the street to ride his jumps.  Shhhh, don't tell him I took this picture.

That weekend, Maryn got to redeem one of her Christmas presents by flying (her first time solo which she was a little, I mean a lot nervous about) to Ogden to surprise Sage (they now live in Preston, ID).  We collaborated with Heath and Cedar to keep it a surprise from Sage and it was!  Maryn flew out Friday and came back Monday.  It is majorly snowing there but they had a great time.

While Maryn was off having fun, me and Matt had big plans of our own.  Just kidding.  We never have big plans.  That night we did celebrate my friend Minda's birthday with some couples going to dinner at Vintage 95 in Chandler (by the fire outside) and then going ballroom dancing.

Yes, you heard that right.  Ballroom dancing.

Let's just say it took a lot of talking Matt into it, but he went and we gave it our best.
Truth be told, we aren't good at it.  At all.  But it was fun.  And entertaining.

We went back to the McKee's house and played some games and ate some yummy cake.  I need to post some of the videos from the evening because we laughed so hard, we cried.  It was a blast.  We got home way too late.  Which after photographing a wedding earlier that day, and having to get up for an engagement session at 8am the next morning (followed by another wedding that afternoon/evening), took it's toll, but was worth it.

We may not be 30 anymore but we aren't dead yet!

Here's to another great week.

Sunday drive

This past week was cold and rainy all week long.  It was actually perfect.  I didn't have any photography appointments and was grateful to have some much needed down time to recover from the past few months of craziness.  The "gloomy" weather is perfect when you are wanting to stay in pajamas, watch shows, snuggle on the couch (while editing of course) and get some house work done.  

The sun finally came out on Friday but the clouds were still here (which I love).

On Sunday, our ward was being split so we had a short block of church and no choir practice at our house, so the morning was free.  We decided to go on a drive to see the snow on Four Peaks.  We used to go on lots of drives when our kids were younger but life has gotten so busy that it is hard to break away for hours at a time now.  Sadly.

This is a shot of the Superstitions/Four Peaks from the car window/my phone:

We didn't have a lot of time since we also slept in that day, so we weren't able to go all the way to Four Peaks, but we found a pretty view outside of Lost Dutchman State Park.

Maryn and Matt stayed in the car to stay warm (wimps).  While I was taking pictures (in my sweats and slippers, mind you), Wyatt was off climbing some tall mountains and Maddie had to Maddie had to worry about him falling to his death.  

 

Matt teased us with some crazy driving along the curves and he and I debated on the need for unsightly power lines along the pretty highway (he reminded me of course that we need the power, which I agree, however I debated on if and when there will be a prettier way to get the power from place to place so it isn't in the view of my photography shots, haha!).  We had a great time together, we laughed and talked and I didn't want to go home.  Until next time...

Busby Reunion at Cyclone Lake 2015

Another great year in the beautiful mountains by the beautiful lake and with awesome family...

This year, we were going to tent it but at the last minute, Matt found a good deal on a pop-up trailer to use (he doesn't really like to sleep in a tent and get dirty, which who does?).  We may have burned up our breaks and probably damaged our transmission pulling it, but hey!  It's all good, right?  These are the finer problems of having a paid off car - things start breaking.  Boo.

We enjoyed lots of beautiful scenery on the way up and back too.

And or course made wishes as held our breath through the tunnel.

Camping was full of visiting, wiffle ball, fishing, visiting, reading, sleeping, eating, the auction, a dance party, more food and more visiting.  It was a good time.  I think Wyatt had the best time.  That boy loves fishing and nature and especially loved getting to see Denton and Tyler again.

The other highlight of the trip was how Brad and Lexi's daughter Abbey was obsessed with Dad/Grandpa Post.  Like obsessed.  She danced with him, got to get her picture with him and was all around infatuated with him as a real cowboy and the author of "The Magic Boots".  It was excellent.

We were grateful to have Cyclone Lake again.  It is sure nice having the private lake all to ourselves.