Fun times!

 Xander got home from school and I told him that his pack was in charge of treats for pack meeting--so he needed to make something.  He remembered when I made some brownies with potato chips on top and wanted to recreate them but I didn't have any chips so we did pretzels instead.  They were very popular!

I love when my kids get a long.  It makes such a difference in my day! 

Happy Birthday to ME!

I got to make my Dark Chocolate Salted Carmel Honeycomb cake and it was AMAZING! I can't wait to find another excuse to make it!

 After dinner Xander and I took a long walk and watched the blood moon.  Super cool!

Webster Family Hike

We had a week off from soccer games and so we took advantage and went on a Webster family hike!  It was a beautiful day and the kids walked A LOT!  We got to an area where we could eat and swim right around noon.  The kids all wanted to swim out to an island...of course I wanted to as well.  Xander and I dove in and made it but we were FREEZING!  Brad & Saxon followed.  Then Megan.  Poor Megan was so frozen.  Rowan swam a float device out to us and I strapped it on and swam Megan back.  What a workout!  A video was made and you can hear me yelling...I guess the coach in me came out.  :)  I hope we can do this more often!  We live in the most amazing place!

Preschool Field Trips

For my turn for preschool we were suppose to take a walk in nature...we decided to go for a drive and visit the fish hatchery.  We had a blast despite the fact that there were no fish in the holds...the water is too low and so the farm couldn't maintain the temperatures.  Oh how we need water!

She can tie!

Vi's kindergarten teacher is really encouraging the kids to learn to tie their shoes and Violet is doing her best!  I LOVE it!

Visiting Grandma

A couple weeks ago Ben told me Violet wanted to go and visit Grandma at the cemetery and bring her purple violets.  Then the other day in the car a song came on that sings, "it's been a long day without you my friend And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again."  And Violet started telling me how this song reminds  her of her Grandma, who she misses.  Then in primary, Xander wrote about how the Holy Ghost comforted him when his Grandma died. SO, for family night this week we bought purple violets and went to the cemetery.  We enjoyed some time thinking about Grandma--we even introduced the kids to Grandmas favorite John Denver.  It was really sweet and I'm glad my kids had an awesome Grandma and that we got to live close for the last two years of her life.

Traffic was a little heavier than we'd expected and we stayed longer than we planned so we found a sports bar for dinner (we thought we had a voucher...it didn't work)...Xander & Ben were in heaven!  Xander couldn't get over how many TVs there were.  Fun times were had by all!

Where's Abby

This little girl knows how to play...

Community Day of Service

This is our city's second annual day of service.  Our church was assigned a canned food drive.  We delivered empty bags one week and picked up the following.  Last year we picked up 82,000 pounds of food...this year it was over 113,000 pounds!  So amazing

 

 

I love teaching my kids to serve!

Just another day...

I am teaching FAME again in the kids classes and this was our most difficult project but I think it was the most worthwhile.  We studied VanGogh and Starry Night.  Each kid got to do their own: 

 

Abby came home from school having made me a beautiful necklace.  I wore it with pride...even on our errands! I actually forgot about it until I was complimented on it...

 

Months ago, my favorite country singer, Tim McGraw announced that he was doing a concert nearby.  i was STOKED and decided that was what I wanted for my birthday.   I asked my friends the Jacobs for some ideas on seats and they decided that they wanted to come...YEAH!  We got 4 couples to get tickets into the PIT!  WHOO-HOO!  It was going to be epic.  WAS being the operative word as the concert was canceled.  We went out to dinner to celebrate instead.  SO lame...Love my friends though, they even brought me a hat!

Apple Field Trip Time!

 Preschool 2016--we've been having a blast having field trips with another class...Abby & Rylee are certainly outnumbered though as the only 2 girls out of 12 kids! 

Hay Rides!

 Abby & Rylee

Yummy!

The cutest apple I did ever see!

Happy #60 Mom

For my Mom's 60th birthday she had two wishes--she either wanted to go on a BIG, LONG hike or she wanted to go to Disneyland.  I voted for Disneyland but had a blast on the hike instead when I was vetoed.

We left super early in the morning and headed up to Desolation.  This is us at the beginning of the hike

The weather was great except their was a TON of smoke from forest fires in the area...

 The mighty 60 year old!

 Kayley flew up for the hike...in one day and out the next but it was fun having some time out in the forest with 2 ladies that I love.  It was kind of creepy how quiet and alone we were...we only saw two people during our 8 hour hike!  We ate along the way, Mom told stories and we laughed at each other.

 The trail was TERRIBLE!  It was large loose rocks...I was in pain right away.  It's funny how I exercise more than both my Mom and my sister I was less prepared because of the type of exercise that we were doing.  Kayley hikes and my Mom had been using an ankle machine.  I told them I would just jump in the lake and meet them on the other side.  We passed 3 beautiful lakes...

 My Mom couldn't carry her pack by the end so I doubled up.  More calories burned, right?!

 By the end, we were DIRTY!  It was super gross

But we were super happy...

On our way home we went to a few different stores and picked up some steaks, sides and treats and met up with Ben and my Dad.  It was a fabulous day and makes me want to get out of town more often