Family BBQ

I can't believe Zak and Tiff have moved to Las Vegas! It will be sad to not have them close for the next few years. I guess it could be worse - they could be in Ohio or something... crazy medical school students!

We had a fun family BBQ the night before they left. I love my nieces and nephews! They all make me smile for different reasons.
Who's the mexican kid? Wow, he's brown.


Vivi isn't afraid of Paul anymore!

Van is so stinkin adorable. He is ALL boy- Ike and Jen's little evil kinevil.

I ended up with like 100 pictures of Luke. He's going to think I'm the crazy old lady who always has the camera. He's too cute to resist.

I told Oliver to smile - this is what I got. The kid is hilarious.

Handsome Bros

Such an awesome family. We will miss you Zak and Tiff!!

Disneyland - FINALLY!

Last October, Jed and I went to one of those Wyndam Vacation sales pitch meetings. We only went for the free gift! Who needs to spend $18,000 on condos that are so comlicated to reserve that you just end up going somewhere else? Seriously. We got 2 nights hotel a block away from Disneyland and a $40 gift certificate to Red Lobster. Not bad for 2 hours of being hassled. Just say no. It's easy.

So, we booked our trip to Disney last fall, but we didn't know if it would really happen until about 2 weeks before we left. Dumb economy. Jed is super big on surprises, so he was determined to keep this a secret from the kids. I'm not so good at the surprise thing, so a week before we left I started having bursts of excited energy and would say to the kids, "I know something you don't know" or "There's a big surprise next week that I can't tell you about..." SUPER annoying stuff like that. The kids were going nuts and Jed told me I was selfish - which just made me laugh more. Needless to say, we kept Disney a secret until we were on our way. We made it to Provo and finally broke the news. The kids were really excited (they thought we were going to Cedar City for the weekend... ha!).

We booked a hotel in Las Vegas for $18. It was really nice and we didn't have to go through a stinky casino to find our rooms.

Disneyland is so awesome.


By the third day of Disneyland/California Adventures, we were pretty wiped out. The kids still wanted more, but Jed and I were done. I wanted sandy beaches and sunshine, so we headed to San Diego.

The kids were beat too...

My favorite day was Sea World. What a cool place! The kids and I stayed there for 10 hours and loved every second. It was Jed's dream to play golf at Torrey Pines. We went to all of the shows and decided to see Shamu twice. The second time, we were determined to get front seats in the "soak zone" to be as close to Shamu as we could be. A couple of minutes before the show started, I decided to buy a rain pancho. It's a good thing I did! When that whale sprayed us it was a wall of water that hit that pancho. We would've been drenched and fishy the rest of the day. That was the best $5 I've ever spent.

The last day we spent on Mission Beach in San Diego, playing on the beach. I didn't get close to the water - it was freezing! But the rest of the fam loved the ocean.
We were going to stay in Las Vegas on the way home, we got there at about 11pm and Jed was determined to just keep on driving. He is a machine when he gets his mind set on something. He drove all the way home without stopping. We got home at 5 am and me and the kids slept the whole way. Good job Jed.

My Teylor

My happy, go lucky, seven year old.

She seldom complains - A while ago, I took her to the doctor because of some mysterious sores all over her face and the doctor said, "doesn't your throat hurt? You have a bad case of strep." Teylor looked mildly surprised and said, "ya - it kinda hurts." It was news to me.

She never argues with me. I tell her to do something or get on her case about something and she just takes it, usually with a smile.

She is pretty oblivious: This is my girl who will start the bath tub without plugging the drain and let the water run for 30 minutes without wondering why the bath tub never fills up with water.

She's a peacemaker: She always takes Jessie's side when she's just been treated badly by her. She's Kobe's best bud - he doesn't know what to do when she isn't around.

She's had a tough week. She is back in school after a 3 week break. She has been late every morning, didn't finish her piano practicing, still hasn't found her school notebook and when I asked her this morning when the last time she took a bath was, she said, "I took one on Monday." Dude -it's FRIDAY. ew.

SO, needless to say, I had had it. I told her before she left for school this morning that after school she had to practice the piano, clean her room, TAKE A BATH, and find her notebook before she did ANYTHING else.

Now I have to stick with it. That's why I'm blogging so I can do it. She came home and wasted time until she was invited to a "party" at the neighbors. She had 30 minutes to get everything on the list done. It's hard for me to stick with it when she is so sweet. I reminded her what she needed to do and her shoulders slumped a little, but she was determined to get it done before the party started. She has been going her fastest and trying her hardest but is now 25 minutes late and is still practicing the piano and sobbing (real frustrated sobbing, not the annoying fake stuff). She still needs to bathe and clean her room... How important is it for her to play those songs 5 times each, Is that theory really going to teach her anything?, She can clean her room later, There's NO way around the bath...

I get how she feels. I'd much rather read a book than clean the house. I'd much rather turn on the tv and ignore our business troubles than actually do something about it, I would much rather go shopping than pay my bills. The list could go on and on.

hmmmm. She's all done and gone. She left with dripping wet hair pulled back into the craziest pony tail I've ever seen and she was smiling again. No harm done? Did she even get it? Who knows.

BMX'in

Last weekend we had to find something FUN and FREE. Why is that so hard? It was pretty cold on Saturday, but we were determined to get out of the house. Jed got the idea to go out to the Larry H. Miller park in Tooele. It is the coolest place (unfortunately it's not free). We took the kids little four wheeler and their bikes to go riding.

I took Teylor over to the BMX track thinking she would just love it. She usually isn't scared. She sat on top of that little hill for 30 minutes - frozen with fear. I tried talking her into it, I ran up and down the hills like a maniac -through the mud- while she just sat and watched me, I pleaded, threatened, encouraged - everything I could think of and she would not BUDGE.



Jed brought Kobe over - who has little skill on a bike but apparently no fear. He just went for it and within 5 minutes, he was riding the whole track and falling every few feet. He was COVERED in mud.


I wish I would've gotten this on video, but I didn't :( Kobe went to the first of the track where the BMX race starts. It is at the top of a big hill and the first half of the hill is cement. He asked me if he could go down it. It was pretty steep, but I was so excited that he was being such a boy, that I said, "Yes! Go for it!" I then thought about the fact that where the cement ended, there was mud and when he hit that mud, he was going to be cruisin'. Of course I didn't think that through until he was already on his way down the hill, pedaling hard and going FAST. When he hit the mud, his bike tires sunk in, he totally lost control and biffed it hard!! It was hilarious. He cried because it scared the crap outta him, but was unhurt. Jed gave him high fives for such a cool fall. It totally could of won us $$$ on America's funniest home videos, dangit!

After begging and pleading with Teylor, Jed just got behind her and pushed her on her bike up and down those hills with her feet dragging in the mud, until she decided it wasn't that scary. She was really good at that track once she got over that fear. (Nice bum, where ya from...)


I had to keep reminding Kobe that it's okay to get muddy. He does NOT like it. Although, I don't know how he could walk with 2 inches of mud on the bottom of his shoes.


It was such a great day! One thing I've learned over the past 6 months or so of life is to make the MOST of good days.