Official Start of Summer 2013

I really need to work on being better about this whole "blog" thing. I know that I don't have many people that follow it, which is totally fine because it's really more of a journal for us anyways. There were a few cool things that happened for us in the past few weeks that I wanted to make sure I got written down somewhere. I started a journal last year and did a few weeks of consistent entries but it kinda fizzled out after that. This is such a fun time in our lives that I want to make sure we remember all the crazy/awesome/stupid stuff we did. First and foremost, we did something incredibly irresponsible. We bought a RZR. A brand. new. RZR. And you know what? I don't even regret it! We've only had the chance to use it once but it's already one of the best purchases we've made. I can't wait for all the fun we'll have on it in the coming years.





We took Carter on our maiden voyage. He rode his four-wheeler most of the night, but before leaving I let him drive the RZR around for about 20 minutes. I didn't think he'd ever get out!



Back up to earlier in the week. I had a random Thursday off so McKenna and I decided to take the dogs up to Pineview to swim. At first we were a bit disheartened because we realized we weren't allowed to take them on the main beaches. However the cute ladies at the ranger station pointed us in the direction of a separate beach to use.

We were practically the only people there!! It was a little inlet with buoys blocking boats from coming by so we didn't have to deal with any waves! We had stopped at Subway for some lunch, so we munched away while the dogs played in the water. Neither of them particularly enjoyed their lifejackets...but it's better than having to worry about anything happening. Sidenote: We both BROUGHT sunscreen but neither of us actually remembered to USE it. I'm still feeling the effects of toasted shoulders...yikes.





Not pictured for this post: We were invited over by a family in our ward for hobo dinners! We had a fun night sitting around the campfire singing songs along with the guitar and eating our fair share cobbler and s'mores. We also invited Baker over another night for hamburgers/hot dogs on the grill. Again, we chased down that food with s'mores and slurpees...So much for the diet, eh?

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

The Saturday before Memorial Day I was able to get off of work! I had to ask for the day off WAY far in advance, since Saturday's are usually really busy around my office but it was SO worth it. We ended up going to Lagoon for a few hours (first time of the season). We have season passes so we don't feel bad only going for a little bit. It started to get hot and crowded, PLUS we had other fun plans for our day! Riley is always able to pull the most creeper faces ever. Nice.


This one is a bit blurry, but what can you expect from a phone camera on the White Roller Coaster...



After we left Lagoon we went to get all our stuff ready for our Rhino/Razr ride! Sam and I went to Dick's for the food while the boys loaded the machines onto the trailer and truck. Turns out we really have no idea how much 7lbs of ice is, so we ended up going back for more...we're learning to be adults, slowly!

We originally had planned to go up to Mantua to ride, but our plans got delayed a bit so we ended up just going up Bountiful Canyon. Riley and Jared have ridden up there tons of times and knew how to get to the old abandoned silver mines.

View from the top of the canyon. SO pretty!!


The Rhino was a bit of a tight fit through the gate....

So we had to improvise a bit.

Needless to say we were pretty determined to get down to the mine! There are a few REALLY old cars that were abandoned along the road down.

One of the entrances to the mine. Super creepy!!

Before we could do any serious exploring we had to have lunch. We were all pretty starved at that point!

The day was going absolutely perfect. The weather was wonderful, the machines were in one piece, we had full bellies, and then...the Rhino got a flat tire. Awesome. Luckily we had a spare! In the truck. At the bottom of the canyon. So Riley and I jumped on the RZR and drove back up the trail to the mines and down to the truck, leaving Jared and Sam. Luckily we made really good time so they weren't abandoned for too long.


Of course it isn't an adventure with Jared and Spam without the boys' classic pose. I don't even remember how this came about, but they always do it!!



We're so lucky to have such awesome friends!! Even though things rarely go as planned, those crazy times always make for the very best stories.

St. George 2013

Get ready for a picture overload! We had a ton of fun on our short getaway and managed to take a ton of pictures. Most of them were from my phone, since hauling around our nice Cannon camera gets kind of obnoxious after awhile. My grandma, McKenna and I drove down on Thursday night to meet my parents, Carter, and his friend Josh. Right when we got into St. George we stopped and had dinner at Smashburger, then headed to the house for the night. That next morning we woke up and made a trip to the Bear Paw Cafe. It ended up being nearly a 2 hour ordeal after we waited forever for a table but it was totally worth it!! That place is always super amazing for breakfast.

We walked around the old town square while waiting for our table. The little splash pad is always a nice place to sit and enjoy the warm weather.



My mom loved these little dandelion statues they had in the park.

Grandma, McKenna and I went out after breakfast to do some shopping. On our way back we stopped at Swig where we got some treats and two sugar cookies.



Grandma thought it was hilarious to shove the cookie in McKenna's face.... haha.

Later that day we went and hung out at the pool.



We went to dinner at 25 On Main and it didn't disappoint. Always good food!!

Since the house doesn't have any furniture yet, we hung out at the clubhouse before going to bed. We played pool, hung out, and just enjoyed the company and having no obligations or anything to do.

The next morning my grandma, Carter, Josh and I went up and hiked around Dixie Sugarloaf. The views are amazing up there! I let Carter have control of the camera most of the day, but he actually ended up taking some pretty decent pictures.



After we got home and showered up we made the drive down to Las Vegas. We had tickets to see Mystere that night!! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that, but here are a few of lunch and walking around the Bellagio.

We ate at Serendipity 3 at Caesar's Palace. Does it seem like I'm a bit obsessed with food? Because I kinda feel like I am...




My mom will probably kill me for this picture but I can't get over how funny her face is! These frozen hot chocolates were delish!!









The show was SO cool! So lucky that my dad gave us the opportunity to see it. I would highly recommend it.

Overall the trip was a huge success! It felt like it went by super fast though. I'm in denial that I have to go back to work in the morning...I wish that Riley would have been able to come with us, but I guess someone has to be a responsible adult and work, right?? (Very last picture, I promise) But here is Carter and Josh on the car ride back home on Sunday. They zonked out pretty much the entire ride back. I guess that's a sign that they had fun, right?!

Easter Weekend 2013

It seems like Easter weekend came and went SO fast!! We held a community Easter Egg hunt for my property early on Saturday morning, and it turned out so well! We had a HUGE turn out (much bigger than we had anticipated), so we ended up having to almost double the amount of refreshments we bought. We had stuffed over 500 eggs, and when all was said and done each kid only ended up with about 8 eggs each. Riley was a huge help by waking up early and coming up to lend a hand. It was a good time, and I hope the residents enjoyed it. After a good 10 hour workday I came home and just wanted to take a nap. Riley had made plans with his dad for us to go to dinner and then a movie, but I slept while they went to Café Rio and then they came and picked me up to go see The Host. I thought it was pretty good, but I hear it got mixed reviews. Sunday morning we went to church, came home and headed over to Riley's parents house. They were having an Easter dinner and then a small egg hunt for the grandkids. I don't know who put Tommy and Riley in charge of hiding the eggs. This is pretty much how it went. The grandkids (minus baby Odin) before the hunt!! This was the best picture I could get of them (mostly) looking at the camera.

Little Odin was too busy jumping on the trampoline or playing with Uncle Riley to care too much about the eggs.

After the egg hunt we went up to my parents house for (another) Easter Dinner!! We always get so spoiled on Sundays and sometimes end up eating two yummy meals. For the special occasion, my parents made ribs! They were delicious. My dad was pretty happy about the result, as you can see here.

We had fun spending time with our families and remembering the meaning of Easter. The weather was perfect, the food was delish, and the company was even better. We're pretty lucky!