15 Years Ago

15 years ago I married my best friend.  We have been through good and bad times and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Here's to the next 15 plus years!!!

Croquet anyone?

How can you not smile when you see this croquet set?  It makes me happy.  We had a package on our front porch this afternoon and this was what was inside.  I have been eyeing this set for a while and finally found it at a decent price.  I didn't tell the kids that I had ordered it, so it was a BIG surprise to them when we opened the package.  They took it outside immediately to play. 

Abbie got to the flag first, probably because she keep picking up her ball and taking it to the next hoop.  She kept getting in the bigger kids way and frustrating them.  They tried their best to be patient.  

Too bad it was so darn windy today.  It made for a short game.  

Lexie was excited because she made a hard shot.  I'm not sure who won, I'm not even sure they finished the whole game but they had a great time.

Fruits and Veggies

I am so in LOVE with Bountiful Baskets, we always get high quality produce and you can't beat the price or freshness.  Especially since it is WAY too cold to start growing anything here.  This week we got bananas, apples, strawberries, blackberries, a pineapple, and a cantaloupe in our fruit basket.  And green beens, cauliflower, a clove of garlic, a head of lettuce and a bunch of asparagus on our veggie basket.    My kids love going to pick up our food on Saturday morning when we get a basket and it is always so much fun to see what we got.
On a slightly different note, Jake got some good topsoil and mulch for our new garden space (finally this year after having it sit empty last year because we just didn't have the time or means to do anything about it) so I am going to be planting a garden this spring.  Ya! I can't wait to have fresh veggies from my garden again.

Spring is Almost Here

How can I tell...

daffodil's coming up.

and pretty little girls in cute dresses.

Recipe for Diaster

Start with a little baking soda add a little vinegar and what do you get?  A volcanic eruption.

Ashton wanted this volcano kit when we were in Yellowstone, in fact he has asked for it every time we have been to Yellowstone, so I finally caved and bought it for him.  (In my head I was thinking what a mess this will be even as I paid the clerk for it) It turned out not to be too bad.  And the laughter and smiles that ensued when the "lava" started flowing was worth any mess I had to clean.

My Little Reader

Ashton started wanting to learn to read about 6 months ago,  I was hesitant to teach him at first because I didn't know if it would work out.  Then a lady in my ward told me about a great book that made it easier to teach kids to read.  I bought it and within just a few lessons he was reading.  Last week he brought home his certificate showing that he had completed his preschool's reading program.  He does a really good job sounding out words he doesn't know and can read all the little readers at the library.  I'm so proud of him.

The book is called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for all of you that have wanted to know.

Our Trip

We had a wonderful weekend in Yellowstone last weekend.  Jake was able to get discounted tickets to ride a snow coach

into Yellowstone through his work before he got laid off.  Our family LOVES Yellowstone so I was excited to go.  I think that maybe if I had realized exactly how much snow and cold there was there, I may have never agreed to go so I am glad that I didn't know what I was getting into because I would have missed a great trip.  I am definitely not a snow and cold person, which seems a little strange living my whole life in Utah, but Jake made sure that I wasn't cold (and I wasn't) so we really enjoyed it.  I think that I like Yellowstone even better in the winter than any other season.

At first it was just going to be the two of us going, but since it was my mom's birthday on the weekend that the trip was planned, my parents decided to come with us to West Yellowstone and watch out kids there instead of at home.  I'm really glad they did because it made the trip fun to have everyone there.  And then to surprise everyone, my dad bought tickets for them to ride a different snow coach into the park also.  It was fun to see them everyone once in a while, but not have to deal with everything, that was my parents job.
We arrived at West Yellowstone Friday afternoon, after having a great drive with really no snow falling the whole way which made the drive really nice.  Here is a picture from the car on the way there.

We had dinner at a fun pizza place/bar which we had eaten at before that was still really good.  Here we are waiting...

and waiting...

and waiting.

Like father, like son.  I had to take this picture, everyone says that Ashton is a mini Jake.  He does have the same look and a lot of the same mannerisms, and here they are sitting the same way while waiting for out pizza to come.  

Saturday morning we awoke to -29 degrees on the thermostat and headed out to catch the snow coach.  The day started off cold, but sunny and beautiful, the first stop inside the park was to see this pair of bald eagles.  They were beautiful.  

This shot is through the spotting scope of our tour guide. 

Not long after this the clouds moved in and the wind started to blow.  The temperature tried to rise, it did but never much over 10 degrees.  We saw this little herd of bison not long after this.

The rest of our trip will have to come later.

Yellowstone in Winter

This is were we have been....

(Yellowstone) it was amazing....

The snow was deep....

really deep, (and Ashton is standing on about 14 inches of groomed snow that covered the parking lot.) Even Jake sank in thigh high when he stepped off the groomed trail in Yellowstone.

We saw lots of animals, but this was my favorite....

more to come later, but wanted to show everyone where we had been.