Silver Lake

Now that Kevin is gone :( we have been trying to keep ourselves busy.  Which hasn't been too hard.  My friend Marie invited us to hike around Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  It was so pretty and the kids had so much fun!  I can't believe I have never done that before!  It was beautiful!

MaryJane couldn't have been happier!  She LOVES to be outside.  Freedom!

Afterward, the kids had a blast with the best entertainment in town....

A BOX

I had ordered a new desk for my house and it came in a great big box.  They spent hours drawing on it with markers making it their club.

MaryJane got in it too.  Life is just so fun when you have siblings to teach you the ropes.

I'm thirty-one...

My Birthday was just a few days before Kevin left so we had a little birthday/farewell get together up in Mill Creek Canyon.  My favorite way to beat the summer heat!  

MaryJane, Luke, Cole, Sadie, Kate, Austin and Zach

Cousins!

 

Fourth of July

This holiday was sort of bittersweet for me.  We had a wonderful time with family. But this is when it just hit me hard that my husband was leaving really soon and for a really long time.

My Aunt Nancy had done so many cute touches to everything (as usual).  Each table had Paper towels, knifes, scizzors and a yummy Rotisserie chicken.  The sides were served at the buffet table.  Everything tasted so good.  

I brought some sugar cookies and I couldn't believe this cute Jello dessert someone had made.  Isn't it so festive?  

Some cousins lined up in their cute holiday attire!  I had been soooo busy that Sadie just wore her dress from last year and MaryJane did too.  Even though she was just 6 months then, it still kind of fit!  Just a little on the short side.  Hey, I was just glad to stretch two years out of them!

Poor MaryJane was not a happy camper this day.  She was feeling a little under the weather.  No fair!  Shouldn't all illnesses be banned on holidays?

Mike and Chantel's family were in town so they tagged along with us.  It was great to have them here!

Sadie and Jaida.

Cole and his new found nacho buddy Jace.

My top three favorite pictures of the evening!

Clay and his camera shy little sister Tatum, Oakley's cute little shoes(especially the left one) and Cute little Molly who is MaryJane's same age.  

Fish Lake 2009

I'm trying to get the ball rolling here.  We went to Fish Lake back in June (yes a month ago) but hey, better to post late than never right?

We always love to stop at our favorite burger and fry place in Salina, The Hot Spot.  

We had a lot of big rocks near our campground and it didn't take long for Sadie to perch herself on top of one to sing Ariel's "ahh ahh ahh".  She sang it at the top of her lungs towards the beautiful lake. 

Cole's first ride on the ATV.  He was a natural!  We let him ride around in a little meadow first so he could get a feel of it.  And after a good warm up, Kevin, Cole, Luke and Grandpa went for a ride. 

While they were riding, Cole was on a trail that started to slant a little.  So to his natural instinct he turned to correct the balance.  Unfortunately there was a lake at the end of his turn and he drove right into the lake about 15 feet!!! On the ATV!! LOL!  Oh do I wish I was there to capture it on camera!  The little ATV was so light that it floated in the water!  So Kevin had to roll up his pants and go in after him.  Cole was all calm and just yelled"Dad, I'm stuck" after it happened!  So funny!  We now call that place Cole's Pond!  What a fun way to remember his first ride! :)

My SIL Stacey made all these cute shirts for the kids!  Love them!  Thanks Stacey!

Our post church family photo.  There is nothing like church at the Fish Lake Lodge!! 

After church we all went down to The Capital Reef for a fun relaxing afternoon with all the cousins.  This is the group that all played a fun game of baseball.

Then we like to walk down to the dirty devil to get cooled down and catch little minnow fish.

Our trip isn't' compete until we get a nice boat ride on the lake!  Not much luck catching any fish on the Barbie fishing pole.

But Cole's little Tigger pole scored us a fish.  My brother Brent finally broke our family's 3 year dry spell and caught us a nice Rainbow Trout!   We must scare away all those fish with all the noise the kids bring along!  Luckily our cousins who are pro fishers caught plenty of fish for a yummy fish fry!  Thanks you guys!!

MaryJane was super busy and a really hard age to have at Fish Lake.  But we still made some fun memories!  It was so nice to spend some quality time with Kevin before he left.  Fish Lake always makes for some good times!

An Update

I almost thought that I have totally given up on my blog.  But the time has now come to get all caught up!  Ever since we accepted Kevin's new job, life has been so crazy!  We moved out of our basement, renters moved in, and had a big garage sale all with in 4 days!  

 

The BIG mess in our front room the night before our garage sale.

 

I made muffins and had bottle waters to sell which were a hit!  I think I made $15 alone on muffins!  It was a nice warm day perfect for a garage sale.  I felt SOOOO happy to get rid of the big stuff.  My organ and treadmill.  Yes, I'll be sad to say goodbye to those but, I prefer to work out at the gym and I'll be taking a little break from the Organ (which I've played in my ward for 2 1/2 years) while Kevin is gone.  I think I'd rather have a piano instead of an organ anyway.  MUCH prettier to look at.

And now, my life is organized!  Thanks to my new BEST friend!!  The Brother P Touch!  The best labeler in the world!  You must get one!  I got mine at Costco.  I'm getting addicted to labeling everything!  Even the most obvious stuff!  

The best thing about all this change is that I've been able to reorganize EVERYTHING I own!  It feels fabulous!  A place for everything and well, most everything in its place.  Having kids really makes it hard to keep everything in it's place.  But it feels good.  I'll have to take some after shots of my house because now it all feels nice and simple around here.  

And for the sad news, Kevin is gone.  He's in a 12 week training course at the DEA and FBI training headquarters in Quantico, VA (30 min. outside D.C).  It will be hard to have him gone for 90 days.   The first day he was gone was the longest and hardest for me.  I cried ALL day long!   But now that I'm in the grove of things, I am handling his absence MUCH better!  :)  And I'm looking forward to taking my kids out for a 3 weeks visit to stay with my sister Jill who lives in D.C!  I feel so blessed that I will have a place to stay near Kevin.  He has the weekends off so he'll be able to stay with us when we are there!  Yay!

So now I'll have plenty of time to catch up on the blog.  And hopefully I'll be pulling that sewing machine out real soon!  It's been way too long!