Ah, beach week was wonderful! I don’t think there is anything more great than spending time at the beach with family. We went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Ever been there? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s such a perfect family friendly place.

We had the whole family on Jeremy’s side there. Here are all 16 grandkids. Can you spot my kiddos? Leah happened to be “the one kid who wouldn’t cooperate” and ruin the photo for everyone else. Ha. This is the best we got.

Kids can play all day at the beach. Isn’t it wonderful!

We did a lot of this…

and this…

and this…

And when we got tired of the sand and sun we had plenty more to do around the island.

Like checking out wild black bears…

Oh, this picture is has the wild bear. I know it’s hard to tell the difference.

and climbing to the top of a light house.

It’s so sad to have to leave. It’s one of those trips that are almost too good to be true.

So far, our trip to the East Coast has been Awe-some! Can you hear me singing?

I always fear traveling with kids and prepare myself for the worst possible scenario. I imagine things like screaming babies in hot squishy airplanes, kids messing their pants at inopportune times and running through airports to catch a flights with loads of bags on our arms and sobbing kids getting dragged behind… Oh, the stress!

But Luckily, nothing like that happened and everything when quite smoothly. Leah slept for a full 3 hours on the plane, there was minimal fighting between the siblings and we had plenty of snacks and entertainment to keep the littles (and husband) happy.

Yeah!

With all our travels we rode on planes, trains, and automobiles (and a shuttle bus too.) Good times.

We’ve had a great time hanging out with family and doing some fun things. Before we headed to the beach in North Carolina we had a few days to spend with family up in Northern Virginia. It was fun but hot. I’ve forgotten about the sticky humidity. Check out Leah’s flushed cheeks.

With all of our East Coast cousins we went to a farm and learned all about the facts of life, you know, all those things that you can learn on a farm… like where milk comes from.

We made sure to attend an Orioles game, Jeremy’s favorite team from his youth.

And since we were going up to Baltimore for the baseball game we wanted to go to the aquarium too. I don’t have any cool photos of the fishes or rays or sharks that we saw but I thought that this pic of Emma and Leah was so cute. They are waiting to see a monitor lizard.

Of all the fishes and water animals there, I think this guy was our favorite. Can you tell what he is?

Oh yea, and I had a birthday as well. I’m one year older and wiser too.

Next post should be our rock’n trip down to the Outer Banks in NC. Stayed tuned.

I’m not sure who’s idea it was to combine a week long of swim lessons with a week long of camping but whoever it was has made me completely and totally exhausted.

Oh, wait… I know who’s idea it was to drag me along… JESSICA. You can catch her version of our experience here. Can you hear me saying her name in an annoyed sisterly sort of voice. JESSICAAAH! It requires a deeper sounding voice and holding out the A for a long time. Ha hah.

It was very fun, really! but I am also very glad to be home. I still have a huge camping mess to clean up. There is so much work that is required to give my kids an awesome packed trip of memories and swim experience. Sheesh! This was not a vacation. It was work! Especially with this little stinker who wouldn’t stop saying “Mine. Mine.” whenever her fellow toddler cousin would be playing with something, anything.

In order to join all these swimming loving hippies and their children, I had to drive 4 hours north to the much colder climate of Idaho. My kids were so excited they didn’t mind the drive too much and we had fun counting rainbows. We saw about 5 or so on the way up. So pretty. Emma was the photographer while I drove.

The forecast was actually suppose to be pleasant for most of the week but when we arrive to boggy, saturated field of water and left over hail stones where were suppose to set up our tents I was thinking about where the closest motel was and where could I buy some wellies for me and the kids. What kind of week did I have before me? Luckily I managed to find the driest piece of grass and I persevered until the sun came out to dry up most of the field.

Emma and Isaac loved swim camp. Isaac would get out of the pool and get dressed only to ask to go back in. Emma never came out. We’d wake up to a overnight crockpot breakfast (yes, camping with electricity) and then the kids would jump into their swimsuits and run off for their morning lessons. They’d stay in the water for hours!!

Aren’t these girls cute in their swim caps despite the blurriness of the photo? We used the caps to protect the girls hair from becoming straw-like with so much time in the water.

When Open Plunge started my sis and I with the toddlers in tow would join the bigger kids in the warm pool and naturally heated hot pool until everyone’s toes were white and wrinkly. We’d then head back to camp for naps and playing in the sun (when the wind wasn’t blowing us sideways).

The toddlers wanted to be swimming all of the time too. But they had to wait their turn. Here they are in their life vests rearing to go. I think they wore these more outside the water then actually in the water.

Here is Leah wishing she could join in the swim lessons. See her sitting on the pool deck patiently waiting her turn? Ya, she wasn’t actually being very patient.

I think the biggest challenge for us mommas was making sure everyone had their goggles, towels and shampoo, keeping track of pool toys, and keeping the toddlers occupied and happy and making sure everyone’s hair got washed in the single lukewarm shower spout. Leah was super clingy at times and I felt myself feeling so crazy trying to juggle everything and everyone at once. It wasn’t always pretty.

Here I am trying to look stoic while Leah has one of her fits. Ya, I wasn’t actually being very stoic.

Leah would also attach herself to Jessica at times. Here she is showering her with kisses. Don’t you want one too?

So overall- fun but super tiring. Will I go again next year? Hum, I’ll have to think about that one.

So we threw together a quick little Spring Break get away last weekend. I was a bit nervous getting ready for the trip because we were going to meet up with some new friends who we don’t know that well plus the weather was a going to be a bit unreliable. I was so unsure about everything… but now that we’re home and I’ve spent the whole day cleaning and doing laundry… I’m left with some crazy, awesome memories.

We went to Goblin Valley. It’s a small little state park but is packed with amazing scenery.

When we arrived we were greeted by 46 mile an hour winds. When we were driving in we could see a red haze of sand on the horizon as well as the sand that was being kicked up by the winds. Jeremy and I were dumb founded and unsure of what was going to greet us. When we pulled up to our camping spot it didn’t take us long to find out. We soon had sand getting in our eyes and grinding between our teeth. My hair was blown so wildly about that I could barely see. We shifted into survival mode and hid out in a crevice in the cliff side. It protected us for a while but we still had sand and tiny rocks falling on us from above. We returned to our tightly packed crammed full of gear car for refuge until the wind finally blew over that evening. We were then able to set up camp and enjoy our time there.

Note the sand blowing up on the left side of this photo. It doesn’t quite do justice without hearing the whistling coming through the door and feeling the car rock slightly with the push of wind against the car.

The next day we explored Goblin Valley which was very fun for the kids. We had lovely weather and even got a bit sunburned. The Goblins are perfect for playing hide and seek in.

We also hiked two gorgeous slot canyons. These were my favorite part so I have tons of photos to share. These slot canyon hikes must be on the top ten list of the most incredible places on earth.

Crack Canyon:

We had to slide down sections like this. We named this particular the toilet bowl because you felt like you were swishing around down into a hole.

I think Isaac is pumping his fist in almost every photo I have of him.

A pretty one of Emma.

Little Wild Horse Canyon:

I’ll admit that Leah was a pain to hike with. She is getting to that age where she doesn’t want to be packed on my back any more but is still too little to hike on her own. She was obsessed with taking her shoes on and off because she kept getting rocks in them. Arggg. By the end of this hike I was sooo done with her.

But here, in this picture she looks so sweet amongst the giant walls.

Love this one.

There was a little bit of water in this one. It only came up to our knees but the nice thing was that it kept the throngs of tourists from going beyond this point. We felt like we were much more secluded once we past the water.

These swirly walls were AMAZING!! Can you see Emma?

We had a total blast! and the kids hiked better then they ever have. We covered more miles than I would have thought possible.

I definitely would recommend this little spot if you happen to be in the area and looking for a day or two to spend exploring. It was perfect for kids.

Now, time to recoup…

Emma’s school class has been hatching baby chicks. The teacher was given extra eggs and so she asked if anyone wanted to take some home. I volunteered. So now we have 6 healthy baby chicks hanging out in our garage.

Emma is ecstatic. I think she goes out to hold them about every other hour and has made her hands so chapped from all the hand washing afterward.

I’m not quite sure what I was thinking now that I see how much extra work these little fluff balls are making.

The plan is to raise these chicks until they are old enough to join my mom and dad’s chicken coop. I have thought about keeping them… I’d love to have some good egg layers around, however, there are several factors to consider;

1. Can my dog learn to accept them? I think he wants to eat them for lunch.

2. Can my yard accommodate them?  Where would I put a small coop and would the neighbor boys keep my gates shut if they were free ranging?

3. Between Jeremy and I, could we build a chicken coop on our own that would suffice? Doubts do exist.

4. What is the cost of keeping them? Would it be cheeper to just pick up the eggs at my mom’s house since they already have a chicken coop up and running?

5. How many roosters am I going to get? Because these were hatched at school and not bought I have no idea how many hens I’ll get. Will Emma have a complete breakdown if we eat her roosters?

Hum, I’ll keep you posted.

We have two birthdays right in a row here at our house. Isaac and Leah’s birthdays are 3 days apart. This makes for a very busy week for me. I’m glad it’s over.

Here is my very cute boy that has turned 5. I’m not quite sure how I feel about him getting older. I’d like him to stay this size forever for a while.

But he is obviously thrilled about the idea of getting older (and getting presents.)

I threw together a last minute party for him. I was planning on having a party all along but I procrastinated it for so long that I only had a couple days to send out invitations and get everything ready. I guess that is just how I roll. Pure insanity!! It turned out to be quite chaotic getting it all ready. There was a moment of panic when I thought none of his little guy friends would be able to attend due to soccer games and traveling. Yikes.

Somehow it worked out.We had 5 friends show up which supposedly perfect. My mom has always told me that there should be one friend per age of years old so… ta-da, 5 friends -perfect by chance!

Isaac loves our local roller skating rink so the entertaining part was easy once we figured out the date and time.

He requested chocolate cupcakes. Yum, yes?

Ok, maybe not. Apparently we need to work on our cake eating abilities. Nothing has changed from last year. (Oh dear, he’s wearing the same shirt. How embarrassing!!)

I think Isaac was very happy with his thrown together birthday party. Hurray for friends (and their heads?)

Here is the invitation I whipped up to run around the neighborhood. I used a new kit from this months Digi Files- Miss Mint’s irock kit (I don’t think it’s been revealed yet.) I thought it coordinated great with the neon colors from the skating rink although I don’t think anyone cared but me.

I drew up my own razor scooter so I thought I’d share it with you if you can find a use for it. Maybe you have a 5 year old boy too. Click here to download the png.

We also had a little family party last night. I made a cake for Isaac and Leah to share since we were celebrating both of their birthdays. The cake was completely ghetto so I’ll spare you a picture of just the cake (I do not claim to be a cake decorator in the least) but on half of it is a batman symbol (which Isaac shook green sprinkles on) and the other half a flower.

Perhaps when they get older I’ll have to come up with something better than squeezing frosting out of a sandwich bag but as of right now -no one cares what the cake looks like as long as it tastes good.

Goodness, I’m tired.

For the past few months I’ve been playing women’s basketball with some ladies from my church. We’ve been practicing every Wednesday night and just recently participated in our local regional tournament.

The evenings that I’ve gone to play ball I have often felt similar to when I’m going to visit the elderly at a Nursing Home… I never really want to go, and maybe even dread it but once it’s over and I’m on my way home I realize how good I feel.

Should I be admitting that?

Even though I’m not a basketball player and have very little experience,  I’ve defiantly improved in some of my ball handling and defensive skills. I use to be terrified of playing b-ball because I’m not a naturally aggressive person nor do I like pushing or scrambling after a ball which is often the case in women’s church ball. But the more I’ve played the more I have enjoyed the exercise I’ve gotten from it. It’s a lot of running and sprinting which is suppose to be a really good exercise.

Any sprinting that I’ve done for the past few years usually involves a toddler running away from me.

So our team made it to the regional semi-finals. It was a double elimination bracket and we had already lost to last years champs. (yikes, they were a scary team) The team we were going to play had already lost a game and so I thought that we perhaps had a shot at beating them. Well, I was terribly wrong and it didn’t help that our best player didn’t show up that night.

When we were 15 points down at the first quarter, I decided that I was going to play as hard and as aggressive as I could in hopes that it wouldn’t be a terrible blowout. When the other team had a fast break and had tossed the ball to their best shooter, I was the closest one to her. I ran as quick as I could to get in between her and the hoop. I had the hope that maybe I could interfere with the easy lay-up she was about to have.

And then it happened. As I came thrashing down the court in a desperate sprint to meet up with the opposing girl, I collided with her and some how stepped on her foot as I tried to change my course.  My right foot rolled and gave way underweight my sprinting body weight.  A shooting pain shot through my foot and I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be playing any more basketball that night.

I hobbled over to my bench and grasped at my burning foot. While a teammate ran to get me some ice, another came over and looked down at my foot. She declared loudly in a disgusted voice, “Oooh, it’s already swelling!”  I looked down at my foot. It wasn’t. But I didn’t tell her that. It was the way my ankles always look.

Puffy.

My little team was in even worse shape without me. Not because I was a valuable player but because there was no one left to sub in. They quickly tired. Fell terribly behind and lost the game by 30.

Depressing.

Jeremy carried me home. I cried and cried. Not because of the game but because I was afraid of the worse case scenario.

I went to bed with ice that night and borrowed crutches in the morning. I hobbled around all weekend sac about how hard it was to get around and how crutches are so hard on the hands and armpits.

It’s been 5 days since that awful game and I’m happy to report each day my ankle as improved greatly. So much that today I’m walking!

It turned out to be a very typical sprain. I pulled the anterior talofibular ligament which is one of the most commonly involved ligaments in this type of sprain.

Pretty,  eh? You can hardly see my ankle bone. It was hard to get a good picture. This was taken yesterday and today it looks even more green across the top of my foot.

I also have two funny swollen bumps.

Needless to say that I was quite upset about the sprain but now that I can walk on it I’m feeling much better about things. Good enough to even blog about it. I won’t have to worry about how to keep up with the house, how to entertain the kids with something other than tv and how to stand long enough in the kitchen to cook dinner… because you know that the babying doesn’t last more that a day or two.

I dare say that I’m hopeful to be back to normal-ish in a couple weeks. I certainly am grateful that it wasn’t worse and I’m going to have to think long a hard about playing basketball next year.

Hello March.

Today was warm and sunny. I tried to spend most of my time outdoors soaking up all the vitamin D that I could on my wee round face because the weather forecast declares that the blue skies wont last too long. The sun did a mighty fine job melting all the snow we had accumulated from last weeks storms. I had a lovely background noise of water running down the downspouts on the house. It made it feel so cheerful.

Every year I have the need to snap a photo of my tulips coming up. They are always such a surprise. Dear Tulips, do you really pop up so early? They simply seem to declare to me hope. Hope of new life, hope of beautiful things, hope of pleasant days.

Hope of keeping the neighbor boys outside.

While sitting on the front porch, I tried to keep my nose tucked in my book, Robinson Crusoe ( ever read it?) but Little Leah wouldn’t leave me alone. Fancy that, I’m her Mother and only willing play mate. Check out the little rag-a-muffin. Pigtails askew, belly hanging out, and on her 3rd pair of pants for the day. I’m sure she dropped that apple a number of times in the snow melted dirt. Nevertheless, we had a nice afternoon that passed pleasantly enough.

Last week, the aforementioned snow storms brought me great pleasure. I was able to hit the slopes a couple times in one week and that is reason to rejoice enough.

Once with my darling little sister… talk about a girls night out. We enjoyed the fresh powder immensely not to mention the hot coco and cheese fries.

We had to laugh at this ridiculous photo of our half frozen faces. Who looks good in goggles?

Not me.

We also went on Presidents Day with Jeremy, Emma and Isaac… and the rest of the Salt Lake Valley.

We met up with a friend and his kids (man in the yellow coat and blond girl with the blue hat)  so it turned out the be a great trip despite the lines at the lifts. Experiencing adventure with others is the best way to go.

That’s it for now. With the kids tuck into bed it’s time to find out how Robinson Crusoe gets off his lonely island.

This last Monday night it snowed at our house. Not much, just a couple of inches but on Tuesday morning when Jeremy was out shoveling the fluffy white stuff before work, the fresh powder from the yonder mountains started calling to Jeremy.

“come… come….” it said in a scary, ghostly voice.

He came inside and told me his plan to take the day off and head to the ski resort. I thought he was a bit crazy with all the last minute planning and shuffling of kids we’d have to do but, miraculously, we managed to pull it off thanks to a super duper awesome babysitter (shout out for Grandmas! hoot hoot!) whom I now owe a million dollars to. (xoxo!!)

What was most unbelievable was that the 2 or 3 inches we got at our house converted to 12-14 inches at the resort. Neither of us had any idea what a great day we had before us. As we got on the lifts and started looking around we were simply thrilled with all the powder available for our own riding pleasure. There was also a great blue sky and a bright warm sun above us. Our prospects for an awesome day was getting better by the second.

We had acquired our discount passes from a Warren Miller film in the fall and were riding at a sort-of-new-to-us resort, The Canyons. It had been 10 years since our last ride there so we had such a blast exploring. We kept thinking to ourselves, “I think we have a new favorite place!”

Now,  before you watch this video of me, I’ll tell you that I know I’m not a professional nor do I think my camera man is, so don’t expect something grand and amazing… like on that Warren Miller film. We had such a blast it just has to be shared. Oh, turn down your volume or else my holler at the end might scare you.

After exploring powder filled tree runs, we headed up to our old college day run. We call it  “Ninety Nine Ninety” because that is the name of the lift that takes you there. It is also the top of The Canyons resort and you reach the grand altitude of 9990 feet above sea level. Humm, that’s high.

Here is Jeremy at the top. In order to actually get to the top you have to take off your board and hike there.  It’s a great place for some novice back country. You kinda feel cool and special when you walk outside the border of the ski resort. It’s like, “Wow, this is back country.” But really, anyone can do it if you’re up for a little hike.

Your reward is…

…a pretty awesome powder bowl especially if you get there early in the morning (unlike us -note all the tracks in the background.)

Now, remember, I don’t clam to be a professional snowboarder or photographer so this photo doesn’t do justice but all those squiggly lines up above Jeremy are tracks left behind by people who just had the ride of their lives, including us, hah hah!

Once we got down from the powder bowl we found ourselves is the most beautiful snow-covered forest.

Dreamland, I tell you. I’ll also tell you that my chin is now suffering from chilly winds and sun exposure. (note to self: try sunblock moisturizer next time)

One of our favorite things about The Canyons are the natural half-pipes you can find there. There are snow filled river beds that make the funnest runs. Carving through the narrow pipes are so thrilling. I tired to capture a video of Jeremy by following behind but it turned out way to technical and not only could I not keep up with a camera in my hand but the video itself might make you sea sick so all refrain from showing it… even if I am tempted to show off all the awesomeness of The Canyons. (no, this is not a paid advertisement)

Overall, this day rocked. Jeremy and I made a memory that will last FOREVER so how can I not document it?

I know that this post will not interest any of you but it’s for my sake, okay. Isn’t that what blogging is about? (Hum, now there’s a question to think about. Who are you blogging for?)

We’re busy putting ourselves back together from Christmas time. How about you? Are you recovered? Maybe you are still in the midst of it all? Things have slowed down for us, thankfully.

We’ve had fun playing with new toys and trying out new gear. We have even managed to get out and have a new kind of fun thanks to an awesome Christmas gift.

Here are some picks from our snowshoeing adventure.

Our goal was to find the deepest powder we could find but we picked the wrong canyon. We went up American Fork but they have a gate that closes the top half during the winter. We had to settle for a trail that had been already trampled by many snowshoers and had some pretty icy snow.

The kids tuckered out pretty quick but we still had a good time exploring an icy stream and finding out how steep of a hill we could climb with our snowshoe claws.

Looking out over American Fork Canyon… oh, so pretty!