Fun in the sun...

My kids have been begging for months outside water toys, so I told them to put their money together and we would go to the store and see what they could buy. They got a slip-n-slide and some water guns. The only problem is that it has rained here every day since they bought their toys (which was 10 days ago.) I can't believe how much rain we have gotten, and not just a little here and there, but major thunderstorms everyday for the last 10 days... I am grateful for the rain, our grass looks great without us having to water it, but come on we live in a desert for crying out loud. Today it is more typical sunny Utah summer weather, so out came the slip-n-slide. Here are a few pictures..




They had a blast!!! I think it is going to be a popular activity this summer.

Just like Dad

Jake has been having me buzz his hair a lot lately, he really hates it when it gets "too long" and he hasn't had time to go and get it cut anywhere else. Ashton wanted his hair buzz cut too, just like Dad's. He even let Jake cut it, which is a huge thing because he has only ever let his Aunt Maren cut his hair. When I told him that I loved his curly hair and didn't want him to cut off all of his curls he looked at me and said "don't worry Mom, my curls will grow back." So he got his hair cut "just like Dad's!!"
Here is Jake doing the buzzing.

Smores

Before we went to Moab, we had a fun evening at Grandpa and Grandmp T's house making smores on their fire pit. It was a lot of fun and we got really sticky.

Moab Pictures

We spent 4 very fun days in Moab this week. We went to arches twice (once with Jake and once without) found lots of fun parks to play at and had a good time exploring all the fun that the area has to offer. I will be the first one to admit that the area offers much to do and is a great place to visit, but I am still not sold on the idea of living there. On a side note, we had no access to TV or the internet while we were there (poor Jake he deals with that on a weekly basis) and while I missed having the internet I did not, in fact, die of boredom and the kids did watch a few movies on our portable DVD player they didn't seem to miss TV and have not in the 2 1/2 days since we have been home asked to watch anything. I'm not sure that I'm ready to give up TV altogether but it was nice having a lot of peace and quiet.

Home Not So Sweet Home

We just got back from a few days stay in Moab with Jake. We had a great time seeing the sights around Moab, and getting to spend a few extra days (or at least evenings) with Jake. The hardest part of the week was trying to squish our family of 5 into a very small 2 bedroom trailer for the time we were there. More pictures and info to come.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend even though the weather didn't want to cooperate with us. We went to Vernal with my family on Sunday and went to see Trisha's grave. (It still seems very weird to say that) My Grandma Taylor had made a really nice makeshift headstone for her grave so that you could tell who was buried there, her headstone should be ready later this summer so that will be nice. Then we went to my cousin Seth's house for a BBQ for their son's birthday. It was good and it was the first time that I had seen their new house it is very nice and has a great view out the back of Steinaker Lake. Monday morning we woke to more rain and Ashton was just sure that his horse ride that he had been promised was not going to happen. But the rain did stop enough that we could get the horses saddled and all the kids got their rides in, even if they did get a little wet. Even Abbie got to go for a ride, she loved it and didn't want to get back off. She wasn't scared of the horses at all and loved all of the other farm animals that she got to see.
The brown house in the corner of the last picture is the house we lived in when we were kids and we would come "through the field" to grandma's for a little spoiling. The horse that I am riding with Abbie is actually "mine" or at least he was the horse that my grandpa gave me when I was a teenager, but since I couldn't take him when we moved to Salt Lake my grandpa has been taking good care of him and making sure that he earns his keep. All of my kids have now been able to ride on "Mom's horse" I think that is pretty cool. Considering he is 15 years old or pretty close to it, I don't know how many more summers he will be around for my kids to ride.

Picture time

I finally made it to Kiddie Kandids to get Abbie's one year pictures taken this morning. She did amazingly well considering that she woke up later than she usually does and then didn't take her normal morning nap before we went and had them taken. All she wanted to do was sit on things so I am amazed that we got some of her standing. She kept walking away which was kind of funny, after the fact.

Flowers, for Me??

One day, a few weeks ago, I let Ashton help me cut a few of our tulips to bring into the house for a bouquet. Well this weekend he was outside helping Jake mow the lawn, when suddenly he came inside and got something, then went right back out. A few minutes later, he came in with one tulip that he had cut way too short and was upset because "it didn't cut in the right place, and now it is broken." I took it from him and floated it in a cup of water because that was all that I could do with it besides throw it away. He then went back outside Well a few minutes after that I hear him knocking on the front door because he couldn't get it open, when I went to the door, there was my little guy with his arms overflowing with tulips from out garden. He cut almost everyone that we had left. "These are for you, mom." All I could manage to say was, "Thanks Buddy." So I put them in every small vase I could find and then a cup because they were overflowing. Our poor garden looks terrible, but our table has looked awesome for the last couple of days. This is just some of the flowers that he cut for me, sweet guy, just wished he would have gotten a little help.

Party Time

We had Abbie's party on Saturday evening. We BBQ'ed and had lots of good food to eat. The Abbie got to open her presents, like most one-year-olds she really didn't get it and just wanted to play with each new thing that was opened. But it was kind of funny to see all of the other kids get so excited about opening her presents, they loved it. She dug right into her cake though, no hesitation what so ever. She got some before I was even ready to set it down in front of her. She picked off all of the little frosting flowers. She even put her face down in the cake all by herself. A big thanks to everyone that came we really appreciate your support of our little girl on her big day.

Birthday Fun

On Friday we took the kids to the zoo for Abbie's birthday. It was a great day, Abbie loved all of the animals and really had a good time riding around in the stroller looking at all of them. She especially liked all of the smaller monkeys and she would get all excited and squeal when we were looking at them. We also went to the bird show she liked seeing all of the birds flying right over our heads, but she did get a little bored with it by the end. She got to ride on the carousel for the first time and was scared at first but then decided that she really liked it. We had a great day.