Classic Skating

Last night we were able to go roller skating for our school's family skate night. We have been getting flyers about these skate nights since Taylor first started school here and I've always thought skate night sounded fun, but also like a lot of work and expensive and honestly I was just too lazy to make the effort to get us there. This time I decided to just bite the bullet and go. I am trying to say yes to more things and take advantage of more opportunities and I figured if I can say yes to participating in a 2 hour long SCC meeting each month, I can say yes to roller skating with my family.

It was so much fun! I am glad we went. The kids are all at the perfect age where they could basically do what they wanted while Kendrick and I skated on our own. I haven't been on roller skates since I was a preschool teacher and Kendrick hadn't been on roller skates since before his mission. So we were both out of practice. Kendrick did awesome though and was going off of ramps and skating backwards and dancing. He only ALMOST biffed it once. And it was while I was turning around, laughing at him almost biffing it that I biffed it and fell on my arse. That was slightly embarrassing.

I am grateful that I am still young and healthy enough to get up on a pair of skates even though my butt and hamstrings are sore today. It was fun to watch the kids have fun with their friends, it was fun to watch Easton act like a big kid on his scooter, and it was even a little bit fun to hear Kendrick's stories about his glory days of skating and how back in the day "all the ladies loved him".

Labor Day weekend 2013

I love Labor Day weekend! Probably even more so than Memorial Day weekend. Even though it marks the end of summer and most people view it as a bittersweet holiday,  I have always associated Labor Day weekend with my Birthday and my parent's anniversary so I've always felt like it's a weekend that really needs to be celebrated. This Labor Day weekend was a little bit rough for me. I don't know if it's my diet (I've been eating a lot of stuff I shouldn't be lately), or that my kids are back in school and I'm struggling with that, or if I'm having anxiety about having another Birthday and getting older (31-yikes!) or maybe I was subconsciously just bummed out that we didn't do what I really wanted to do (go to Oregon), but I had a pretty emotional couple of days. You'll see in the pictures: my eyes are puffy and my face is blotchy from a lot of crying. Nothing happened. I was just emotional. Just being honest and keeping it real.

Anyway, we started out the weekend with a free at home date night courtesy Kendrick's work and a Chili's gift card he won at one of his sales meetings. I could eat Chili's sweet potato fries dipped in Chili's salsa everyday of my life if you'd let me. I LOVE them and crave them all the time. We also got hooked on a new T.V. show this weekend: we started watching Revenge on Netflix and we love it. We've been marathoning it and are totally hooked on the story line. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a new non reality smut show to watch. It's like Desperate Housewives meets... a cheesy police drama.

On Saturday we took the kids to see Man of Steel. I hated it. It was way too long and had way too many special effects. I am not a true Superman fan and I am not very familiar with Superman's storyline so I struggled with some of the history in the movie. But I think our big kids really liked it. After the movie we wasted time at the toy store and that is where the beginning of my breakdown ensued. I really don't know what my problem was.

On Monday we went up to the mountains and hiked to Lake Mary. I loved that hike. It was a little harder than the Donut Falls hike and even though the trail, the lake, and the resort all lacked an open/functioning bathroom, it was a really awesome trail with some pretty spectacular views. And the weather couldn't have been better: we lucked out to have overcast skies with no rain. The kids did amazing. And I had to laugh because Taylor made sure to slather her lips with bright berry lip gloss before the hike and then she ended up wearing her sweatshirt tied around her shoulders for the majority of the hike. She looked like a mini JCrew ad. That girl is turning more and more into a diva. She will grow up to be one very fashion forward prissy looking wildlife biologist!

Easton did so well. I worried that it would be too steep at times for his little legs, but he was a trooper. At one point he lost his traction and slid down a rock. Before we could ask him if he was okay he exclaimed, "That was just like Ice Man!!"  Then on another part of the trail he tripped and almost pulled Kendrick down on top of him, but when he stood back up he asked, "What are onion rings?"  He is the most random and entertaining kid!

I've really been digging hiking because Jack and Myles are my little hiking buds-we all keep the same pace and we have a lot of fun joking with each other. They don't pull down on my hand like Easton does and they don't walk snail slow like Tay. I really enjoy climbing rocks and hopping over logs with those two boys.

 

 

 

p.s. More of Jenn's Bear Lake Pictures have been added to the Bear Lake post...go check them out. Jenn is an AMAZING photographer.

Donut Falls

On Saturday I woke up in the mood to get out of the house. Sometimes Saturday chores and being stuck inside cleaning just feels so mundane and depressing. So we decided to squeeze as much fun as we could out of one of our last summer Saturdays and we spent the day in the mountains. I have to say, the whole day was near perfection-I slept in, we went to the Mountains, we ate at Taco Bell, the kids went to a Birthday party, we had an awesome summertime rain storm, the kids all passed out on their own by 7p.m. and then we had a fun dart night with our neighbors-the day couldn't have been nicer.

Thank you to Carissa and Natalie for recommending this hike. It was so easy and the kids loved it. We will make this hike a summertime tradition for sure!

(I am a busy blogging bee today and am really not in the mood to add captions to these photos, you can thank Instagram for that, all my clever captions have already been put on there...)

(Oh, and all these pictures are completely out of order. Sorry)

 

Bluffdale Days 2013

When we were in the old neighborhood a few weeks ago Elissa reminded me about Bluffdale days. She is all over the free family fun and she was the one that told us about it last year. We had such a good time last year that we decided to hit up Bluffdale days again this year. This time Kendrick was able to come with us. It was the perfect weather-sunny and breezy and every now and then clouds would roll in and offer some shade. Brooke came this year too. It was funny to see how people looked at Kendrick with his 3 ladies and 10 children! But hey, if you are going to rock the Polygamist look in Salt Lake County, Bluffdale is the place to do it;)

After Bluffdale days the plan was to head over to a movie in the park. But unfortunately we got the date wrong and the movie in the park was the night before. So instead we headed over to Troy and Elissa's house and they made us some ridiculously yummy food. I hope those two open a restaurant some day-they cook so well together! It was fun to hang out with the old neighbors again and it was fun to get my hands on some cute babies. I like holding babies and then giving them back-pretty sure that's a sign that I am done having babies of my own.

Poor Graciebelle was dead tired. Brooke joked that she looks dead in this picture. I can see it-with the blue lips from her snowcone and her naturally dark eyelids...

Jack

Myles

Asher

Easton and Taylor

Ya know, maybe this is Jack...I don't remember and the twins aren't here to correct me.

Tay

Asher again

Baby Ellie and I. She only likes me when I let her pretend to nurse on my arm...

So that's what I let her do. Only, Asher got jealous and insisted that she suck on his grimy hand instead. He's such a cute big brother.

The cute boys

Us girls

All of the girls

I feel bad that we didn't get a single picture to prove that Kendrick was there. Sorry babe! Next year we'll get a pic of all us women hanging on ya, how's that?;)