The Price's Write

Wellyn's Ears

2012-01-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

There is almost nothing worse in my mind than a child who ignores their parents. We all did it, in fact, I'm pretty sure I perfected it! So as can be figured, Wellyn got my talent for being absolutely amazing at ignoring Jon and myself! We'd start out by saying his name or giving him an instruction of some sort. The second time was a little louder and more cross, followed by the third time. The fourth time is when we'd yell and get in his face and force him to do what we asked! He always has acted slightly hurt and pissed off that we would treat him this way, but then again, weren't we justified?

I am a little slow, I won't deny it. For some reason I never put two and two together. He would ignore us but he also had to have the television turned WAY up high! That was another point of contention!

Finally my smart husband decided to start testing Wellyn's ears. He would stand behind Wells and whisper something. Wells thought this was a pretty funny game but he never heard Jon until Jon repeated it three or four times and got quite loud.

A few weeks ago I finally took him into an Audiologist to have a hearing test done. Not much to my surprise (but at the same time shocking) he failed every test. When they tested his ears, the sounds made it through the eardrum and then stopped. They checked the back of his ears by vibrating sounds off his skull which proved that he had perfect hearing back there. So in the middle ear, sound was stopping and he wasn't hearing us. Cue tears from his horribly mean mom!

Wells has never heard us! The first time he ever heard us was when we were in his face yelling at him. No wonder why he seemed hurt!

We met with the specialist last week who said that all he need was tubes (phew) and problem should be solved. Last Thursday we took Wells in to get said tubes put in, and he was so excited!

He couldn't wait to have a surgery:)

Here he is showing me his hospital bracelet!

Getting hospital slippers!

The exciting wagon ride back to the OR! He is beyond excited!

The surgery literally took ten minutes. The ENT came out and explained to me that Wellyn didn't have liquid behind his ear drums but a thick paste. Wells' ears were the worst ears the DR. had ever seen!
When he came our of his anesthesia, they took me back to him. Apparently, they offered to bring him out in a wheelchair but since we have so many at home, that wasn't very fun. He had them roll him out in a hospital bed (way more fun). This was how I found him:)

We spent a half an hour eating popsicles in the recovery room and then we were sent home.

The kid didn't even skip a step. He got home and insisted that he go to school, which he did! It has been a night and day difference! He is slightly quieter when speaking, the television is now turned way down, and his primary teacher told me on Sunday that he actually raised his hands and answered questions (never happened). He is so proud of himself that he can hear! He says he has "power ears" now. The game with Dad is also a lot more fun. Whenever Jon whispers a word behind him, Wells gets it 100%.
Now hopefully the ignoring thing will stop, although I know it won't! But at least I know he's ignoring me and won't feel so guilty punishing him:) HOORAY!

Can It Be True????

2012-01-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

My little man is 2!!!!!!!

Holy cow! Seriously, where did the last two years go?!?! It literally seems like just a couple of months ago when we were driving back to the hospital to have this little man delivered.
He has been the awesomest, most amazing addition to our family and we have been SOOO happy to have him!
He made the transition from one to two so easy! I heard horror stories and had major nightmares but it wasn't hard at all! He even slept when he was supposed to be getting up to eat. He was the only baby that I knew of that his parents had to set an alarm clock to wake him up and eat until he was old enough to sleep through the night. He loves to just sit back and watch, which makes it perfect to deal with his older brother somethimes:) He is ALWAYS smiling! 99% of the time he is even in a good mood, what gives?!?! We don't deserve him!!!

Happy birthday sweety, we love you so so much!

Oh I just love him!!!

2011

2012-01-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's that time again for our yearly recap of the last year. Here's hoping I actually remember what happened in 2011:)

January was a slow but great month. Everett turned one (which was crazy fast) and we partied hard! I was slightly disappointed because like every parent, I love seeing a one year old dive into their cake. Everett, at both parties, would have nothing to do with the cake. It was too messy, luckily Wells made sure I got it from one kid:)

February was yet another slow month. My little brother Jon returned from his mission in Brazil. Both boys were so excited to see him, as was I.

March is always a party at our house. Wells turned four this year, oh lauzi, and just like Everett's birthday, we partied! The end of March found us in St. George for our yearly vacation with the Price's. We love all of the swimming, playing, hiking, and good times that we have down there.

April found us in Moab! Woohoo! Seriously one of my favorite trips of the year! Jeeping is a new love and definitely a yearly tradition for us. We even celebrated Easter in Moab. The boys loved having Easter egg hunts in the campground!

May was a long awaited month. I ran my first marathon, not very happy with it, but I did it. At least I can say I have one under my belt:) We also took the boys back to St. George and then down to Vegas for their first time, probably won't repeat Vegas with them ever again! Oh well, you live and learn! Jon also turned 32 which lead to yet more partying ( us Price's like to party). Wellyn started playing t-ball which he isn't a big fan of. At least his cousin Cora is on the same team and they play together.

June was another slow month but it doesn't matter when the weather finally starts to get warm. Jon and I ran the Wasatch Back together with my family, and we loved it. I was even only slightly mad that I had to run in snow:)

Oh July! We love the fourth, we love Yellowstone, and it's my birthday! Three of the many reasons why July is my favorite month! We spent a week in Yellowstone at a cabin with my family. There was a little more drama than usual but we still pulled off a great week. We saw all of the animals that we wanted to see and then some....good trips! There were also lots of fireworks during the month of July-yet another favorite! July was also, as fun as it was, our month from hell. The Accord broke, the lawn mower broke, the shower broke, and so on and so forth. So glad that's all over:)

August is August! Dog days of summer but due to the crazy wet and cold winter and spring, it wasn't too bad this year. We spent a lot of it by our little blow up pool or at friend's pools. We also bought our first truck! We took it camping in Rockport with friend's and all over the place. Jon is one happy man! Wellyn started soccer this month and loves it so much more than t-ball! Go buddy!

September found Jon running his second marathon. Not his best one but as I learned in May, you win some you lose some. At least he ran it:) My brother-in-law Cris and brother Danny ran it with him. Wellyn started his second year of preschool at Appleseed Academy. Everett also had his first visit to the emergency room when he cut his head open, he was a champ but we still felt bad:)

Oh October! October was crazy busy and we felt like we had no time to celebrate Halloween. Jon and I got to go to Rome for a little over a week. It was a dream the entire time and absolutely amazing! My mom and mother-in-law watched the boys while we were gone and could have actually cared less that we were gone. My little brother Joe also left on his mission to Bulgaria. Soon after we got back and Joe left, my mom fell and broke her foot-poor lady but at least she didn't have the boys or a missionary!

November was a sad month. My sister Becky and her family moved to Mongolia of all places. The will be there until about the same time in 2013 and then hopefully move back. We miss them fiercely but at least we have Skype! Wells also walked his first turky trot with me on Thanksgiving. I was sick and couldn't run it so he walked it with me-go Wells! We had a happy Thanksgiving with family and then finished out the month in Park City. Wells learned how to ski and Everett got to swim, perfect!

December is always a fabulous month. We stay busy with parties, Christmas activities, and all sorts of fun. We had an awesome and a very merry Christmas! Jon also bought himself his first camper! We can't wait for April's trip to Moab so that we can use our new little house on wheels!

This year was a fabulous one, we stayed busy for the most part and had great experiences. Thanks to everyone that made 2011 a success and a party:) We can't wait for 2012 and to see what new experiences we get to have this year. More marathons for Jon and in July a new addition to our family, yep that's my announcement. Baby number three will join us summer 2012-woohoo!
Yay 2011 and so excited for 2012!

Christmas

2011-12-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

I probably should have split this up between two different posts because there is so much and I didn't even get pictures from all of the parties. So as you can imagine, Christmas was a blast!!!

We couldn't wait to start of the festivities so the 23rd, we headed over to my brother Danny's house. Haley had made cookie dough and frosting and had it ready for the boys to cut the cookies and frost them. Good times! She is so awesome with my boys, they absolutely love her!

Cookie dough, frosting, and sugared sprinkles. This kid is in pure heaven!

Christmas Eve was a great but hectic day. It started nice and early since we were feeding the missionaries lunch. I felt bad that we couldn't to dinner so I decided to make them a nice turkey lunch. We got the turkey in by about 8am and then I spent the rest of the morning cooking, cleaning, and getting ready. It worked our perfectly, although the turkey was a bit late. We had a great lunch with Danny, Haley, and the missionaries. As soon as they left it was time to clean of the kitchen and start cooking again for the Price party that evening:)
Good times at the Price's:
Jon's family always has some sort of competition on Christmas Eve. Last year it was arm wrestling (I can't say I placed well) but this year it was heighth. Golden!!! Although it was extremely close, I still managed a win with the girls, while Jon came out ahead of the boys! Brittany is less than a quarter inch shorter than I am, lets hope there is no shrinking as I get older because than I will lose my title for sure:)

After a most fabulous dinner, we had our traditional story of the nativity. The story was read by Dave and the Cora, Wellyn, and Jonas acted it out!

Now for the favorite part of the night. Santa Claus always makes a quick appearance as he is out and about. The kids (minus Everett) love it!

There were lots of presents to be opened. The boys couldn't have been happier! The best part was that they all got cars, lots and lots of cars! Boy heaven!!

With the night getting late, we hurried home to set out cookies for Santa and get the boys in bed. Here is the tree after Santa came!

Sheer excitement!

Everett could have cared less about the presents. His stocking was full of candy and that was what he wanted. I think I ended up opening most of his gifts and showing them to him while he stuffed his face.

Both boys got Lightning McQueen chairs to go with their new Cars 2 movie. Three days after Christmas and I have now seen it probably six times:)

War Zone!

Christmas Day was spent going to church with Bridget and Ryan, visiting my family, talking to my bro on his mission and my sis in Mongolia. Lots of presents, eating, and seeing grandparents. I do have pictures of Christmas but ran out of room. We came home utterly exhausted but happy! It was a perfect Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Annual Christmas Lights Tour

2011-12-17T10:58:00.001-08:00

Oh how I love traditions! My whole Decemeber is like a month of family and friend traditions, and I love it! Last week, the Macfarlane's and us dressed all warm for our Christmas lights tour. I can't remember if this was the 6th annual or 7th, either way, you get the picture. We have done this every year!

It started out in the beginning quite the ordeal. 7 or 8 stops and several hours of driving. We have perfected it by now to three favorite stops and hot cocoa:)

"The Night Before Christmas Street" in West Valley is always our first stop. Each house on the street decorates to tell the story of "The Night Before Christmas," duh!

After West Valley we head to Murray to the Christmas Utah house. This guy is always crazy and there are alway a ton of people there:) In years past, I have sat in the car and stayed warm while the Macfarlane boys have gotten out to play. Alas, my boys are getting older and so are theirs. They stayed in the car this time to keep warm and my boys got out to play....it's the cycle I guess!

Our last stop is always Temple Square! Alan was a champ the whole night. The week before he had his tonsils out, his septum fixed, and uvula taken out. By Temple Square he was feeling it, but he still came along and was a good sport (Sorry Mac).

We park in the new parking lot under the future mall. Right outside the entrance is a way cool fountain. We didn't think and let the boys play before we headed into Temple Square. Both my boys got wet and then suffered the rest of the night. Note to self: do it on the way back to the car next year:)

All five big boys! What would we do with a girl here? There is so much testosterone:)

Everyone walking along!

Jon and E lovin the lights!

I always love the pictures we get:) Thanks Mac family for another awesome year! It is seriously one of our favorite traditons!

4th Annual Hill Progressive Dinner

2011-12-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

This post will be about people eating, in fact, the pictures will also be of several people eating at several different locations.

Last Saturday we did it again, the local Hills (I say local cause one family is in Idaho, one in Mongolia, and one in the Chicago), got together for some good food and fun. It was a much smaller group this time, only 16, but we still managed to have a party for 30.

We started at my house for appetizers.

I had to laugh because I set out the veggie platter (which remained almost completely intact), two bags of chips, and cream cheese with jalepeno jelly and crackers. Both bags of chips and the whole plate of cream cheese were devoured in about 15 minutes. Go fam!!!

And then because we always have to compete at something, we had a sit up competition. Do as many sit ups in one minute! The kids and most of the adults got in on the fun. Wells surprised me and got in line, he managed 30 in one minute....not bad big guy!

After filling ourselves at my house, we moved down to Danny and Haley's in West Point. They provided the salad for the night. She made a fabulous green salad with the Cafe Rio dressing. Wellyn ate two plates of salad (if you know Wells, you know just how shocked Jon and I were).
Here's my mom relaxing, not that she has a choice. She broke her foot in October and still can't put weight on it, poor lady!

After Danny and Haley's, we were able to drive down to Salt Lake and do a little digesting at the same time. Mike and Hailey's apartment was the next stop. This was the first time we have stopped there. Last year they were a week shy of being married. It worked perfectly since we lost our last stop at my sister's house when they moved to Mongolia. Mike and Hailey were gracious hosts and Hailey made some awesome homemade pizza.
Here's E and I. E had an allergic reaction to something so he was covered in hives and a very unhappy kid!

My dad looks a little scary but most likely he was making faces at E, trying to get him to smile! He really doesn't smile like this:)

Last stop is always the yummiest. Dessert is definitely the Hill's favorite stop. Dave and Amanda had quite the spread, and we partook of it all!

Just when we thought the evening was over, there was a knock (or jingle) at the door. When the kids answered it, they found Santa was there to make an appearance. Hot dog!!!
Wells of course knew this was just a helper but he kept it quiet for the other kids. In fact when we got in the car to go, he told Jon and I that he knew Santa was really Uncle Danny, but that's ok. Danny was helping Santa, and he wouldn't tell the other kids. Either way, Wells still hopped on his lap and told "Santa" his entire list!

Everett was not about to get close. He wouldn't even take the candy canes, he made Jon grab them.

So that was it, we left being incredibly full and sick but happy and with great memories. I seriously LOVE LOVE LOVE this tradition. I can't wait until everyone is back in Utah and hopefully one day, there are 8 stops instead of 4. Thanks fam!

U of U Basketball

2011-12-11T20:40:00.001-08:00

We love our pediatrician, but even more, we love his nurse. Judy is the nicest, most amazing lady we have ever met. She is so good at making my boys feel okay, even when they are about to get five shots. Last time we were in, Wells was telling Judy just how much he loves the Utes. He told her that we had football tickets and the day of the game he got sick. He was so sad he had to miss his Ute football game. Judy pulled me aside and mentioned that she has season tickets to the basketball games. She was going to go home and see which tickets she couldn't use and send us the rest. I figured that she was really nice, but never expected anything else from it. Sure enough, about a week later we got two tickets in the mail. So awesome!!

Jon took Wells to the basketball game as a daddy/son night out and Wells was in heaven!

Before the game began, they were getting drinks when someone from the coaches team came and asked if Wells wanted to come sit on the floor and give the players high five! Killer!!!

He was so seriously excited! He got to give the players five as well as the cheerleaders (even better for him). He got a poster for his room and one for Everett's. He also came home from the game and had tons of stories to tell me. It's been a week and he hasn't stopped talking about it. He didn't even care that the Utes lost to Cal State, oh well!

Thanks Judy for the tickets and giving Wellyn the memories of a lifetime.

Here Comes Santa Claus

2011-12-11T18:58:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday Santa came to Weber State. It was the very same Santa at Costco. See, I told you he was the real one!!!! The boys totally recognized him as the very same man too, perfect!!!!

Back to our day though, I packed up Wells and E as well as our neighbor Landon and headed up to meet Jon. Last year we did this, had a blast, and waited in line for two hours to see Santa. This year, we went early and just our luck, we were first in line!

Right on time, Santa walked in ringing his jingle bells, and the boys were ecstatic!

Here we are waiting in the front:)

Oh what good buds these two are!

Sheer joy!!!

Sheer panic!!

Blitzen and reindeer in training, Snowball were on hand to greet the kids.

After Santa and the reindeer, the kids got to do a little craft. They were able to make picture frames for their Santa pics.

We love this new tradition. Santa at Weber State is seriously the BEST one I have ever seen! So fun!!!

Park City in the Hizzle

2011-12-05T11:28:00.001-08:00

Last week we had the opportunity of moving base camp up to Park City. Jon has a co-worker that has a time share that he couldn't use so he offered it to us. Jon still had work and Wells still had school, but we decided to move up there for the week and have a change of scenery. We had a blast!!! We stayed busy everyday, all day. The first night the Macfarlane's joined us for dinner, swimming, and a sleep over (which no one slept)! Good start to the week!

We ate....

Made cookies, arts, and crafts in the kid room. Everett loved frosting sugar cookies.

Made turtles...

and raced them!

Wells also discovered that he loves X-Box. Good thing we don't own one:)

For some reason these two loved playing in the shower. They had their own room with two huge beds and a tv, but they loved the master shower!

We also did a lot of swimming. There were awesome hot tubs and pools right next to the ski lift so we could soak and watch the skiers and snowboarders. Unfortunately the chemicals burned Everett's skin, so when Jon and Wells went to the pool, E got to swim in the big tub!

Very blurry, but Jon and Wells loved the hot tubs. Good times!

But the best part of all, was the skiing! Seriously still swell with pride when I think about it:)

We had an absolutely awesome time up there. Thanks Joven for letting us get away! Good times in Park City!

Skier Wells

2011-12-01T13:17:00.001-08:00

We have been staying up in Park City (which I will post about later) but while we were up there, we decided that Wells was at a good age to learn how to ski. That whole day, my heart was seriously ready to burst with excitement for him. He looks so cute in his ski gear! I wasn't the only one that was so freaking excited, Wells hardly slept the night before, as did Jon. Big Day!!!!:)

It was a tough start for both Jon and Wells. It was harder than Wells thought it would, and honestly I think it was harder than Jon thought it would be. After an hour of trying they were both ready to give up. I met them at the bottom of the hill with Jell-o, string cheese, and a little training tool called an Edgy Wedgy that other skiiers had told us about. This is a little cord that attaches to the front of the skis so that it kept Wellyn from doing the splits.

Apparently that was all it took. After that, Wells took off like a pro. Jon and Wells ended up staying on the mountain for five hours! Wells even wanted to go down a real hill and get off the bunny hill. Jon took him to the top of the mountain and Wells came down with all of the adults. So freakin cute!!!!!!!!!!!! His airplane arms are spread so he could turn easier:) He loved doing pizza to slow down but preferred staying in french fry stance to go faster.

After roughly five hours, he was tuckered out and cold. He didn't even want to stop but after much coaxing from Jon, and a promise to do it again soon, he came in to the hotel. The little kid hasn't stopped beaming with pride (either has Jon or myself). He has promised to teach me, as well as his brother and all of his friends.

So CUTE!!!!!!!!
I seriously might push this new hobby. Expensive but it makes me so proud as his momma! Oh I love it!!!!

A Little Help From Above....

2011-11-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Above meaning the North Pole anyways!

While at Costco today the boys got a very rare and very sweet surprise. As I was paying for all of my groceries, the boys remained in the cart. I was paying attention to the amount that was unforutnately getting very high when the cashier told me to look at my boys. When I looked up at them, they were both starting, eyes wide open and mouths dropped. The reason being was the man behind us was Santa Claus. Not a fake Santa Claus like you might think, but the real deal. How did we know, you ask?

His hair and his beard was real and even though he tried to disguise himself by dressing like everyone else, Wells recognized him from sitting on his lap, not once but twice last year (in two different places). The news also interviewed him last Christmas Eve and we saw that as well. WE KNEW!!!!

Santa was very nice. He asked the boys if they had been good this year. He told them they looked bigger, and asked them what they wanted him to bring this year. He also told them to keep it hush hush since kids aren't supposed to see him. Then the best part (if there could be a better part) he gave the boys a special silver token that read "I was caught being good." HOLY CRAP!!!

Talk about sheer excitement mixed with pure shock! The cashier and I laughed at how well Santa had handled being caught off guard at Costco. She also mentioned that my boys might be on their best behaviors for the rest of the season since Santa really is watching. I laughed and told the cashier, "My boys won't be good all season, but at least I will have today." And that's all I need, good boys all day:) We'll take tomorrow when it comes:) Seriously best Costco trip EVER!!!

Justin "Weaver"

2011-11-16T11:48:00.001-08:00

Not a lot has been happening at our house over the last couple weeks. In fact, absolutely positively nothing!!! We are bored! The one thing that has changed over the last week is the introduction to teeny bob pop culture. EWWW!!

A couple of weeks ago we were driving to my brother's house for dinner, which is about an hour drive. As we were driving down, Wells asked Jon to turn on a Justin Weaver song. "Who?" we both asked. "You know, the baby baby ooh song." How in the crap do you know who Justin Bieber is? Definitely something he has NEVER heard while driving with Jon or myself. Wells explained that on his way to school with my neighbor Tenille and son Landon, that they like to listen to Justin Weaver ( no amount of correction will make him think that his name is really Bieber). Since neither Jon or myself had any Justin in our music selection, we downloaded it to our phones (wow technology) and within no time we were listening to Justin Beiber. The crazy and most painful thing to watch was that Wellyn knew the whole chorus as well as most of the verses. After the third time of listening to it, Everett was also singing the chorus with Wellyn.

Now Justin Bieber makes regular apperances at our house (once again EWWW) and Jon and I can sing along with the two boys.

I told Jon that the sad thing about this whole thing was one: our baby is listening to teen music, and two: it hurt worse then when Wells was trying to purposely hurt my feelings by telling me he liked BYU over the Utes. I would so much rather take BYU over Justin Bieber!

So Friggin Smart

2011-11-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have always known I have had a smart kid. I'm not just saying that as a proud mama, in fact, when he was learning to walk, I knew we were in for trouble with this kid. Example: Wellyn adores his cousin Cora and has from day one. When they were just knee high to a grass hopper, they would always fight for the same toy, as all kids do. Wells' way of handling this would be to go find Cora's beloved blanket and parade it in front of her, letting Cora know that Wells had it. Cora's reaction would be to drop the toy that Wellyn wanted and run for her blankie, which Wells would happily hand over and then run to get the toy. We are talking like 9 months old here.

Anyways, I have loved watching him learn and connect the dots to everything a 4 year old can. School has helped him do things that made me throw my hands up in frustration when I tried to teach him.

In school they are reviewing all of their letters; capital, lowercase, and sounds. Letters, for the most part, have come easily for Wells and he was trying to show me just how good he was at it. His homework for the day was coloring all the pictures that started with the letter F. I just sat and watched him since he so obviously didn't need my help. Fish, foot, fire, and so on and so forth. When he finished coloring all of his F pictures he started telling me what other words would sound like if they began with an F. See where I'm going with this?

"Mom, book would sound like fook. Tree would sound like free. Truck would sound like............."

And for some reason that one stuck because he thought it sounded funny! He ran around the kitchen singing his new found "funny" word, and what can I say? It was a funny word coming from him. My only thought on what to do was not to make a big deal out of it. Hopefully he would get bored of it and never remember it (thankfully I was right), and I wouldn't have to make a big deal out of it so he would forever remember his "funny" word.

Now I bust a gut everytime I think of the letter F, thank my stars we have moved to the letter G:)

All Hallow's Eve

2011-11-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Usually Halloween is our biggest production holiday of the year. Lots of parties, decorating, dressing up, watching horror movies, eating candy, etc...is what we do all month long. This Halloween was a little more laid back and subdued compared to every other one, probably because we were gone for part of it. Either way, we still had a BLAST!!!

It started out with Wells' preschool program. All of the kids dressed in their Halloween scariest and came out and sang to their little scary heart's content. It was so freaking cute!!! This year Wellyn actually sang along (he was against it last year) and did all of the actions and words perfectly!!

Here's Wellyn and Landon. Landon lives two houses down from us and these two are inseperable!

Everett couldn't be caught without his costume at such a Halloween affair, infact he wore that costume daily for a few weeks before Halloween (and still wears it everyday).

Then of course comes carving pumpkins. Is it just me or does Jon look a little evil?

Wells designed the pumpkins for us. He drew the faces out on his Magnadoodle and then we copied it to the pumpkin. Well done little man!

Now it was time for the night we wait for all year long. We started the party by having all of the Price's out for chili and fun, and then all of the kids took off trick-or-treating. Everett is doing his scary laugh in this picture...he has it down perfect!

Mike (Jon's dad) and I stayed home and handed out candy while the other 8 adults accompanied these cute monsters.

Much to my surprise, the kids stayed out for a couple of hours. Jon said that Everett was the one running from house to house and getting frustrated because the older kids wouldn't keep up. Makes sense since he is the one that lives entirely off of candy!

Let the gorge fest begin. First piece of candy was a sour one:)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Last but Not Least, Rome Day Six

2011-10-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, I lost a little steam, but I'm back and ready to finish the final post of Rome. The last day was a little more laid back. We only had two things left that we wanted to see and then planned on shopping the rest of the day.

The first stop was San Clemente. This is a really old church (aren't they all), but what made this different was that it was built on top of another church, which was built on top of another church. We weren't allowed to take pictures but just imagine. The first church was a few hundred years old and while building it, they found a church that was roughly 2000 years old right underneath. During the excavation of that church, they discovered one from 5th century B.C right under that one. We were allowed to go down to both which was crazy interesting. It was dark and musty and the water was dripping. In the very bottom church, you could see an alley way that was used to get to the church. It was full of old bits of pots and dishes. A few tombs and the like. The middle church was more that same except there were paintings that survived the time. Totally amazing and surreal!

The second church was called St. Peter in Chains. Why you ask? Because they claim to have the actual chains that held Peter while he was in prison. I am a total skeptic but everyone else believed it. Oh well, great for pictures.

Inside St. Peter in Chains is also Michaelangelo's "Moses". This thing is huge and is said to have taken him 30 years (on and off of course). This part was cool, and I believed this was real:)

After some fabulous shopping (no kids) we decided to make it back to some of the stops during the trip to get night pictures. So glad we did!

While walking from the Forum to the Pantheon, we took a back alley way and came acrossed a marbel foot. It was the size of a car and it was just sitting on the side of the street. Good ole Rome!

This concluded our amazing amazing trip. The next morning we got up early to meet our shuttle and catch our plane. 24 exact hours later, we walked in to our beloved home and crashed!

Favorite part of the trip: Definitely the Colesseum but the favorite day was the Island of Capri.

Not favorite part: I didn't blog about this but on day two, we walked through the Capuchin Crypt. It was DISGUSTING! I know, impossible thought that Jon and I could be grossed out about it. They used human bones to create the floral patterns and decor on the walls. The chandeliers were made of human bones, and in the last room, they decorated with skeletons from children. So wrong but still an adventure!

Thanks to both of our moms for taking amazing care of our boys. It was definitely a once in a life time trip and we couldn't have done it without these incredible women!

Rome Day Five

2011-10-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks before our trip, I booked us a tour to the Island of Capri. This is a little 7 square mile island off the coast of Naples and we had heard it is amazing. It totally didn't disappoint! The bus picked us up, not so bright but very early, at 6:45AM. We had a three hour bus ride down to Naples where we caught our boat to take us over.

Firstly, Naples, from what we saw, was a very nasty, very dirty city. Lots and lots of trash, shanty towns, graffiti, etc. From what we saw and what we've heard, we probably wouldn't make that a destination in the future. Luckily for us, it was just a short stop there.

On the boat ride over we got a good view of the mainland. We saw Mt. Vesuvius (the volcano that covered Pompeii), and the entire Amalfi(sp?) coast. Sorrento was gorgeous, as was Mt. Vesuvius!

Capri is a beautiful and breath taking little island. It has massive cliffs and climb to 1500 ft above sea level. There are two towns on the Island, Capri which is the shore, but the main downtown area is at 500ft above sea level. Anacapri is at 1000ft above sealevel and from there you can take a chair lift to the very top at 1500 ft(which we did).

There is only one road up to Anacapri. It is a steep climb and they had to cut into the rockface to build it. Now the roads on the Island would be considered a one way road in America, but there, it has traffic going both ways. The climb to this was gorgeous but definitely scary. On one of the switchbacks up, Jon saw a shell of a car that had fallen down 100 ft or so. Once on this section of the road, the only thing keeping you from falling is an iron gate......like the one in my banister! Yikes!

This is the picture I got when I put my camera up to the window of the bus. Seriously inches from the edge! Gorgeous though!

Once up on top, Jon and I took the chairlift up to the very tippy top.

This is the view from up top!

We toured around a little more, did a little mores shopping and then it was time to get back on the boat and head to the mainland. The Colosseum was both of our favorite parts of the trip, but this was by far our favorite day. If I had a few million dollars to drop, I would buy me a nice little 700sq ft condo on the island with the rest of the rich and famous:)
By the time we made it back to Rome, it was well after 10:30 and like every other day, we were beyond exhausted. Seriously a fabulous fabulous day!!!

Rome Day Four

2011-10-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Since day four landed on a Sunday we decided that since all of the Catholic churches are closed for Mass, we would venture into the Forum. The Forum lies right next to Palentine Hill where Rome began. The story of Romulus and Remus being raised on the hill by a she-wolf and than Romulus killing Remus and starting Rome. In the Forum are the remains of the oldest buildings and oldest temple in Rome. The whole thing lies about two stories below street level since Rome just keeps building on top of itself. All of the really old buildings that are excavated are lower than the city.

Here is a picture of the first temple in Rome, the Temple of Saturn that was built in 497 B.C, crazy!! All that remains are the columns and that spire. When they found it back in the 1800's, all that could be seen was about the top six feet of both.

This is the first Basilica in Rome, although we can't remember the name of it (Jon just told me it's the Basilica of Constantine). This was seriously massive and all that still stands is the side three arches. There were three more arches opposite these and then the main room that was about the size of a football field. I know, I know this whole thing is a history lesson. Jon and I were both in awe the entire trip and unless you know the history or the age, it isn't as cool. Just bare with me:)

This is facing Capitol Hill

This is all that remains of Julius Ceaser's temple. After he was killed in the Senate Hall his supporters burned is body on the steps of the temple. There are still fresh flowers that are kept where he was burned.

More of the Temple of Saturn.

Here's Jon standing on top of Palentine Hill with the Forum in the background.

Here is the remains of something on top of Palentine Hill. Since it was so close to the Forum, many emperors built their villas on top of the hill. Lots of cool things with a gorgeous view!

After we were finished with the Forum, we wandered over to the Baths of Caracalla. This is a huge bath house that fit up to 3000 bathers at a time.....gross!!! Thank heavens for modern day indoor plumbing.

By the time we made it back to the hotel is was almost 8pm, so we met up with some Medline folk and headed out to dinner in hopes of making it back and in bed by midnight. Good times!!!

Rome Day Three

2011-10-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Day three found Jon and myself back at the Vatican. We had already toured St. Peter's Basilica the day before but, today we were going through the museums and the Sistine Chapel.

We figured hit the Sistine Chapel first and then go through the museums after if we still wanted too. Unbeknownst to us, you have to walk through the museums to get to the chapel.

Here is the courtyard of the Vatican. We happened to take the perfect picture with a pigeon (not a dove) flying right through the picture.

The way to the Sistine Chapel takes you through literally miles of hallways. Every hallway was decorated and painted to the hilt. Once we finished one hallway, we entered another. Each hallway also had a theme to it. One hallway would be paintings, the next maps, the next tapestries, the next statues, next artifacts, etc......

The Vatican had thousands if not millions of artifacts it has collected (or conquered) throughout it's couple thousand year existence. There was even an Egyptian section that was full of mummies.

This sculpture is Michaelangelo's take on Troy. The snake represents the Trojans as it wraps itself around this father and his sons. There is nothing they can do, they know they will die. Peachy!!!

After seriously four hours of walking, we finally entered the Sistine Chapel. They didn't allow cameras in the room, although we tried, so I have no pictures of it. The ceiling was everything that I had been taught it would be. It was gorgeous!! The rest of the chapel? Serious disappointment. All of the Catholic churches in Rome are decorated like crazy. Gold and marble everything! Paintings, mosaics, etc. The chapel? Nothing really. Ugly tile floors, wooden alter, and wooden walls. Seriously?!?! I expected the grandest of the grand since this is the chapel that the Pope himself worhsips in. Oh well, what do you do? At least there was the ceiling.

After spending several hours at the Vatican we decided to wander our way back to the hotel and see what we could. We happened to stumble our way upon Castel San Angelo.

Castel San Angelo is a crypt turned house of the pope, turned fort since it is right on the Tiber River. It was built for King Hadrien to be buried in but then the current pope thought it would be a good living place (it had running water) while the Vatican was being built. The Vatican wall runs right up to the castle and the pope can still walk acrossed the top of the wall to stay out of harms way.

The castle was named San Angelo later because supposedly, during the plaque, an angel came and stood on top and declared Rome clean. After that, the plaque ended.

Castel San Angelo also has the best, hands down, 360 degree view of Rome. Phenomonal!!!

Here is the angel that saved Rome.

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was dark and late. Dinner is always an event in Rome. It was hard to get used to their habits vs. ours. I am used to the American way where you get in, get out, and get on with you life. In Rome, dinner is at least a three hour event. It drove me crazy!!!! We would go to dinner at about 8 every night and not finish til after 11. Grrr.. Day three was awesome! Go Catholics!

Rome Day Two

2011-10-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today was the day that we kept asking ourselves, "Are we really here?" "Are we really standing here?" We had watched our Rome movies prior to going (The Rite, Gladiator, Spartacus, etc..) but nothing could prepare us for what we were actually experiencing.

The day started out with breakfast and than Medline provided a half day tour for all of it's employees. The tour included the Colosseum and St. Peter's Basilica.

Once we arrived at the Colosseum we started our tour at the Arch of Constantine. Constantine had this arch made after he won a huge battle so that all Romans could celebrate. The detail is so crazy!!!

The Colosseum was obviously our main reason we were excited to come to Rome. This whole structure was incredible. It sat 50,000 people, all made of marble which was stolen when the Roman empire fell, and it only took them five years to build. It is massive!!!!!!

Serioulsy surreal to be sitting in the Colosseum! Something I have always wanted to see but never thought in a million years I would.

Since the stage was made of wood and sawdust, it understandably didn't survive over the last 2000 years so they rebuilt part of it to show everyone what it would have been like.

What's crazy about the Colosseum is that it is the second structure to have stood there. Before the Colosseum was built there was a large temple and a huge man made lake. There was also a huge statue of Colosssus. They said the statue was bigger than the Statue of Liberty but it was all torn down to make the Colosseum. Crazy that the Colosseum was the "new" part!
After we finished up there we headed for the Vatican. Once again, something I wanted to witness but never planned on it.
This city is huge!!! Everything is marble and of the few hundred pillars out front, it is said that if you stand in a certain spot in the middle of the plaza, you will only see one set of pillars instead of all three. The Vatican was built with such precision that everything is spot on! I was hoping to meet the Pope to convert him but unfortunatley for me, he wasn't around today. He doesn't make appearances on Saturdays, dang it!

Definitely another site to behold. St. Peter's Basilica is also massive. Everything is marble or gold, and they don't allow paintings in it. There were several large pictures in the building but they have to be mosaics. You didn't even realize that it was tile until you got right up next to it. In front is a huge copper arch thingy that Peter is supposedly buried under and that is where the Pope gives his mass.

There were also several Michaelangelo's in the room.

It was cool to see the tomb of Pope John Paul II, who's body was moved into the Basilica when he was made a saint. I thought it was cool since he was the only Pope I had ever heard of.
The Vatican concluded our Medline tour so we decided to set out on our own.
Here we are in Piazza Nevona which is basically the artsy fartsy part of the city. There are three huge fountains in the plaza and then hundreds of artists that sit and draw or paint. Pretty cool!
A tidbit about Rome: we don't have very many pictures of the two of us together. Unless you know someone you never ask anyone to take you picture for you. People run off with you camera so we only asked Americans or Medline folks to take our pictures.

Next came the Pantheon. This building is the only building in Rome that hasn't been fixed structurally or restored. This building is over 2000 years old and still just as solid as the day they build it.

In the Pantheon lies the tomb of Raphael, of people that I can't remember, and the Presiden of the Republic during WWII. The accoustics in the room were phenomenal.

As were were walking back from the Pantheon we came acrossed this huge pillar. I can't remember who had it built and for what reason but the story of Rome has been carved into it. At the bottom is the beginning and the story spirals all of the way to the top.

The detail is crazy, it is crazy to think that thousands of years ago, people were that amazing with the tools that they had. I doubt we could do something this awesome today!

Last but not least. As we were having an adventure and walking back to the hotel (you don't take a taxi or a train, because you might miss something), we walked by the Quirinale Palace. This is where the President of the Republic lives. They were doing the changing of the guard as we passed. There were two different sets of soldiers, probably like army and navy? When they change the guards they switch to the other unit. It was cool to watch the process to change the gaurd. They have a whole procession, including a band, that marches down the street and they all sing the national anthem.

At this point we went back to the hotel. We had walked for hours and our backs were killing us! Cobblestone sucks on the joints!!! We were on our own for dinner so we headed to a little cafe called La Bruschetta. Yummy Italian food! Thus ends day two!

Rome Day One

2011-10-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Oh what an amazing trip!!!! Seriously one that can't be beat. Since we did so much and saw so many things, Jon and I took over 800 pictures. I figured that each day would be long enough and have enough pictures that it could make up it's own post, so here goes!

Jon and I flew into Rome at about 8:30 AM their time. We had popped an Ambien on the plane ride over so we were ready to go out and see the city. The first thing that we did was head over to Villa Borghese. Villa Borghese is an old palace turned art museum that was owned by the Borghese family (duh). This family was a very rich and poweful family back in the day. This castle belonged to Napolean's sister who had married into the family. We couldn't take pictures inside but basically it was full of all sorts of statues, paintings, busts, and mosaics....all naked!

Surrounding the palace was the Borghese Gardens. It reminded me of New York's Central Park because it is several green acres in the middle of a huge city. There were hundreds of goregous fountains and statues all around the gardens.

The first day was basically just walking around and getting our barings (spelling?) in the huge city.

At the end of the gardens you can see all over Rome. It was a gorgeous view of the Vatican and pretty much everything. Here I am sitting in front of Piazza de Popolo which was basically an area where there were a lot of street performers.

More pictures of us in front of the city.

All day we walked around this area looking for the Fontana de Trevi (Trevi Fountain) and the Spanish Steps. We couldn't find them so we sat down at a church and people watched for a while. There are so many Catholic churches in Rome. There literally was a church at every street corner.

That evening we met up with several people from Jon's company to have a little tour and go to dinner. Our first stop was the Spanish Steps, which stupid us, was below the church that we had sat at earlier that day. We never walked out and looked at the overlook in front of the church which was really the top of the steps:)

At dinner we were the only ones not drinking. They charge for water, soda, wine, and beer and half of the time it is the same cost for all of it. Most Medline people felt that why buy water or soda when beer and good wine is the same price? Our tour included two bottles of wine per table and since we don't drink, the other couple got completely sloshed on both bottles of wine.
At this point they were really funny so the four of us venured out and found the Trevi Fountain.
Seriously gorgeous!!!!! Definitely much bigger than I thought. The picture is also blurry because the couple could barely stand up let alone take a good picture of us:)

At this point we were completely exhausted and done laughing at them, so we went back to crash at the hotel, thus ending day one:)

Check Off Another Marathon

2011-09-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Now that I have had the opportunity, yes I say opportunity because I have forgotten the pain, of running a marathon, my respect level for those that do goes through the roof. Jon wanted to run another marathon since he had such an awesome experience last year. My little brother Danny and brother-in-law Cris also decided to join the insanity and do it with Jon.

I enjoyed watching the training because this time, it wasn't me that was getting up early to run 20 miles, I got to wish him luck and roll over:) The week of the marathon Jon was on a business trip. First in Chicago and then in Texas. Just his luck his plane was delayed and we didn't get home from the airport til midnight the night before the marathon. Jon walked in the house, got his running stuff on and walked right back out to head up to Logan. I was a little worried with the fact that their marathon would be run on about three hours of sleep. When I woke up Saturday morning I was even more worried. It was raining cats and dogs outside. Lightning, thunder, and hail accompanied the rain.

Haley, myself, and my boys headed up to surprise the boys with posters that my kids had made earlier in the week and cheer everyone on. The weather only got worse as we headed up:(

We got to mile 17 as the rain cleared up and we held out our posters and cheered with every might we had for all of the runners.

Cris was the first to reach us. He looked awesome and was going strong even though he was sopping wet! The first thirteen miles had been a downpour of rain and hail for them, how sucky!

Danny was second, also looking strong and happy and just as wet. I asked Danny where Jon was and he told us that Jon was clear in front of Cris and Danny. Dang it, we missed him!!

We drove up to mile 21.5 in hopes of catching Jon but unfortunately we never did. Once we saw Cris and Danny we jumped back in the car to head to the finish line. I knew we had missed Jon finish. We got to the finish line at 4:00 hours and since he was six minutes faster last year, I knew we missed it! Jon's family hadn't seen Jon finish which now led to the question of, had Danny missed him somewhere? Cris finished at a fabulous 4:09 and Danny ran in at 4:24. At this point I am extremely worried because I am thinking Jon is injured somewhere. I waited and worried until 20 minutes later, Jon ran around the corner. He finished at 4:45! As he ran in, he was limping and I could tell he hurt.

His IT Band had acted up early in the marathon and he somehow pulled out the rest of the marathon (sound familiar?).

My boys didn't care, they were so proud of there dad, as was I.

Funny thing was that all three boys wore the exact same thing. I am learning that when you run Ragnar Relays together and a marathon after, you wear the same thing. This also happened for my bro Joseph and I at our marathon.

Congrats boys, you guys are amazing!

Wells and Cora found this tree last year at the finish line. They found it again this year and played in it forever! Sweet entertainment for the kids.

Because of Jon's second marathon I have learned something that for some stupid reason never occurred to me before. Knowing the Jon had run a much faster and pain free race last year and not such a happy one this time, I know that I can do better. Instead of starting out strong I hopefully got my crappy marathon out of the way first. This means my next marathon (yes I said next) will hopefully find me in a much better and faster state:) Way to go boys!!! You guys rock!

2011-09-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

I have always considered ourselves lucky when it comes to our boys. Our boys are resilient! With Wellyn being the active, crazy little boy he is, we figured at this point the ER would know us by now. Wellyn is always trying new things like building bike ramps to jump his bike off of, flipping off of the trampoline, and other such crazy things. Luckily up until this point we have been unscathed with rushed trips to the ER. Last night we had our first go with it, but not with the child we always thought we would.

Last night Everett was playing with his beloved Uncle Dave. Dave is definitely one of the favorites when it comes to my boys. He is always so amazing at playing with them and making each child feel special. My boys just love him! Everett was playing with Dave last night and getting tickled. He jumped off of Dave's lap and tried to run but tripped over his own feet and went down smack into one of Mike and Sunny's chairs. We knew immediately it was a deep cut and he needed to be seen.

Just our luck that it happened to be a Sunday night and all Instacares were closed. Our only option was to head up to McKay-Dee Hospital and sit with all of the, as Jon would put it, drains on the system.

E was a champ the whole time. People sitting in the ER were laughing at him because he was laughing, smiling, watching football, and driving his motorcycle accompanied with noises.

When we finally got into a room, Everett was more than excited to lay on the bed. He thought it was awesome!

After waiting another hour and a half or so, Everett was all stitched up. He did cry when they bound his arms back and cleaned the wound but other than that he was amazing. 5 stitches in all and we were done!

We got home a little after 11 and he went right to sleep. He slept through the night and today is his usual old cheery self. Thanks Jon's family for the help and concern and Jon's parents for taking Wells. It was definitely an adventure and unfortunately, one I'm sure we will repeat:)

Go Utes.....at the Fair

2011-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I love the Utes! Simple as that! I love the color red, I love football, I love Coach Whitt, and I love the Utes! Last Saturday as everyone knows was the Utes vs. USC game. We watch all home games with out bff's who are just as big (probably bigger) Utah fans as we are. Before the game we decided to meet up with the Macfarlane's at the state fair. I was a little worried because I thought our outfits would be a little overkill for the fair since we looked like this:

I should've known not to be worried because the Macfarlane's showed up just as red as we were. In fact everyone at the fair was either decked out in red or blue. It wasn't quite rivalry week yet but the feelings were definitely there. I can't tell you how many times we were scuzzed at by those in blue and I'm sure we did plenty of scuzzing on our own:) I loved it!

Back to the fair!

The boys loved playing with legos in legoland. We probably could have stayed there all afternoon and our boys along with the Macfarlane boys would have been satisfied.

The kids loved looking at all of the animals, playing on the huge pumpkins that were there, and eating all of the nasty fried foods that fairs produce.

Wells like the rabbits. He even got to hold one for just a sec which up til that point was probably his favorite moment.

Each boy got to go on one ride. E chose himself a good ol' fashioned merry-go-round ride.

Cole and Wells chose the Tidal Wave. I got to be the adult to take the kids on the ride since I get less sick on them. As we were boarding Wells freaked out and ran back to Jon. This left Cole and I to go on the ride by ourselves. It was hilarious! Cole smiled for about two swings and then put his head down and suffered out the rest of the ride. I couldn't quit laughing!

Once Cole and I were finished riding, Wells had gotten the guts to go. Jon took Wells on the ride and if any of you remember our video of Wellyn on the tilt-a-whirl when he was one, this was very similar. His face was priceless but he made it!

After the rides were finished, the rain kicked in. Everyone scattered for the closest cover since it was a friggin cloud burst.

Here we are waiting for the rain to subside.

I wasn't kidding about everyone being decked out in their Utes attire:)

After the fair we went home to watch a very exciting, but disappointing game. No worries Utah, we can kill BYU this weekend! So excited!!!! Woohoo for rivalry week and woohoo for the fair! Thanks Mac family:)

School's in Session and Big Boy Beds Are Back!

2011-09-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

I know I say it so often, but my kids are growing up so fast. Wells had his first day of 2nd year pre-school. He was so so so so so excited to go back to Appleseed Academy and see Teacher Misty. He missed her so much during the summer and would often ask when he could go back to school. He is also excited to do three days a week now. He goes to school Tues/Thurs with Teacher Misty and Friday he has Miss Janna.

I love the bare feet, wet spot on his shirt, and bruised forehead. This is my child and it wouldn't be him any other way:)He is outside waiting for Tenille and Landon to come pick him up.
Happily marching to the car.
Everyday he wakes up and asks if he can go to school that day. I love that he loves it so much. Let's just hope it lasts next year when he starts kindergarten.

Another big step at our house is that Everett has moved into a big boy toddler bed. Oh Lauzi!! That went fast!

He was squealing with excitement while I was taking down the big bars and putting up the little ones. My kids are so easily excited:).

With Wellyn, when he was moved into the toddler bed, all naps stopped for about a month. The kid loved the freedom so much that we would play during his naps and at night and then we would find him passed out by his toy box. Because of my experience with Wells, I was a little more than nervous to change Everett. I don't know why I was because Everett has been so easy with everything! He got right in bed for his nap and went to sleep. The same went for bedtime. Lovely!

Still working on using a pillow. I put actual covers like a real bed in hopes of training him not to move around so much in his sleep. Wellyn didn't have covers until his huge bed so he rolled around (still does) and fell out every night. Everett has so far only fallen out once, although we found him last night sitting on the floor with his head in the bed fast asleep. With this kid I just need to remember that everything with him is easy peasy lemon squeezy:)

More Labor Day Photos

2011-09-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

I forgot that Chandie had her camera (of course, she's amazing) and had much better pictures of the hike than I did

Here is the little plaque/medallion at the tippy top of the mountain. Proof that we made it!

Everett sitting on top of the plaque/medallion to show the world that he owned the hike. This mountain is his!
Family pic
The hike back down
All of the champs taking a breather on the way up.
Hiking chain gang.
Thanks Chandie for the additional, better pictures.

Labor Day

2011-09-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

What a Labor Day, and boy did we labor! We met up with the Macfarlane's and drove out to Antelope Island. We hiked up to the highest peak on Antelope Island, 6950 ft. It was 7 miles round trip, took us almost 6 hours, and everyone (minus Everett) hiked the whole thing. I was so proud of the boys. The way up was a long uphill and sometimes steep uphill hike that I was dying from and Wellyn and Cole walked the whole way! Way to go boys!

Everett only dozed off for a few minutes but he tried to stay awake so he could keep in on the fun.

This picture doesn't even do it justice! This is the last 1/2 mile and definitely the hardest steepest part. What you can't see is the steep hill we are going down, one slip and it was a long slide down several hundred feet.

Wells was such a great hiker. The last 100 feet to the top he fell and hit his head. He had the biggest goose egg ever! He only cried for a few minutes and then finished the hike up and the whole hike down without even complaining about it. Poor kid, it looks so painful!

Damn rock!

Finally at the top. It was such an awesome moment to finally make it up after almost 4 hours of hiking. The boys were elated and so proud of themselves, as were their mommas.

We could see everything from up there. Brigham City to Salt Lake, Toole to Farmington and so much of the beautiful lake that we usually can't see. It was awesome. If you couldn't tell I really am so impressed of the boys for hiking the whole 7 miles. This was a very difficult hike and they were champs. We made sure to get them a good dinner and ice cream as a reward afterwards. My boys were so tuckered out after that they fell asleep immediately upon hitting their car seats. We even bathed them when we got home but I doubt they have any recollection of it:)

Another thing I learned is that Antelope Island is home to the creepiest spider ever known to Utahns. They are called Orb Weavers and can get as big as a 50 cent piece. They were huge and down right scary, and they were EVERYWHERE! Ugh! Probably won't camp there soon.

Thanks Macfarlane's.

Soccer

2011-08-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Oh be still my beating heart! My little man started soccer and it is the darn cutest thing that I have ever witnessed as a mom of a four year old. He's cute, his uniform is heart melting, and his team is adorable! What is not to love? He started a little over a week ago and he is having a great time. He loves it so much more than t-ball and is actually a very good soccer player.

For his first game, the whole Price family showed up. Most of them played soccer so they were able to help Wellyn practice and learn the specifics of the game. I played soccer, once, in third grade so I was of no help.

His team is made up of cute cute little boys, and when I say little, I mean it! The best boy in the team's name is Francisco, he's Brazilian so go figure right? He looks exactly like Rufio from the movie Hook, little mohawk and all. Wells would very easily be the second best boy on the team. He makes his momma so proud:)

Ha ha ha, I love it. He used to give us a thumbs up to let us know all is well but has now moved on to the more grown up peace sign.

Dad giving him so mid-game advice.Shaking hands with the other team and coach.

His cousin plays right after and Jon's sister coaches her team. When Wellyn's game is over we shift fields for the second cutest game. Cora is also a rockstar at soccer.

I can't get enough of my little boy playing this fabulous sport. Here's to the next several years of early Saturday mornings.

Drive-in

2011-08-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

Now that we have a truck, we can do things that other truck owners do. One of the first things on the list was to take the boys to a drive-in movie. You see, we have done drive-ins before but it isn't as fun to go sit in a camp chair; and with the boys being so young, we needed a place for them to fall asleep.

A few weeks back we met up with the Macfarlane's to go see Smurfs and Cars 2. Of course it was a party from the second we all got there. The boys loved going from truck to truck and seriously gorging themselves on candy and popcorn. They also loved playing on our massive Love Sac that we threw in the back. Good times!

Best buds.

How can you not love this face? He is so happy to stay up late, play with the big boys, and eat Starbursts until he was sick.

The two bigger boys!

The funny thing was, was that once the movie started. Jon and I still ended up on camp chairs with E in our laps for some reason. Alan and Chandie managed to fit most of their family in the back of their truck and Wells and Cole took up the whole back of ours:)

They didn't even make it through the first movie. Light weights!!!!!:)

After much pacing, Everett eventually passed out in Jon's arms. He slept until the last bit of Cars 2 when he woke up refeshed from his two hour power nap.

Jon and I were the only ones that made it through both movies.:) I love this picture of Alan, Chandie, Stockton, and Cabe all fast asleep. All of the boys were so excited to see Cars 2, and none of them saw it.

Now that we can spread out, we will make this a summertime tradition. Maybe next year, Jon and I will kick the little ones into the camp chairs and we'll take the Love Sac, but I highly doubt we'll be that lucky:) So worth it!

Ha Ha Ha

2011-08-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

Remember that post just two posts ago? The one about bad things number 1-6? Ha ha, ready for 7 and 8? Seriously, I did that post just a couple of days too early but at least 7 & 8 aren't expensive.

Last Wednesday Jon and I spent the night taking turns worshipping the porcelain god. Who knows from what, but I figure a bug of some sort. Luckily the worst of it was only a 24 hour thing and for the most part we were almost back to normal Thursday. No biggie, but just because of 1-6 it made it something.

Number 8? Sunday night was the most impressive, beautiful, scary, and breathtaking thunder and lighting storm I have ever seen. It rolled in around 11 so Jon and I went out to watch it. There was literally a huge bolt of lightning every 1-2 seconds. Abby (our dog) was so scared she ate her way through the chain link in her kennel to get to us.

Since there was so much lightning, Jon and I stayed right next to the back door. We figured, that if we weren't standing out on our deck we wouldn't be in danger. Good thing! After being out there for a few minutes we heard a huge crash. Our tree in the corner of our yard, not even 30 feet away, was struck by lightning and went down. So cool but at the same time, really? Gonna take our tree too? Instead of being upset by it, we both looked at each other and bust out laughing. Normally we would have been pissed, but now it's just funny. At least it was lightning and not just the wind. Makes the story cooler.

The raspberries around the tree were burnt as were some of the weeds (yes I have weeds, don't judge) around the tree. You can see where the lighting hit the tree, traveled down the trunk and then exploded our the bottom/side. So cool!

Oh well, whatcha gonna do. At least this one was exciting!

Good ole' Camping Fun

2011-08-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

We love to camp! Simple as that! We love it, any chance we can, we'll take it. A few months back we planned a camping trip with our BFFs, the Macfarlanes. We always try to camp at least once a year, one more than Moab anyways. The crazy thing was, was that by the time we booked it in July, everything was full. I mean, seriously?!? We did find some spots at Rockport Lake and booked our trip there. We were a little hesitant because one, there were no trees and two, we didn't have a boat. No worries it all worked out perfectly.

It actually worked our more perfect than we could have ever hoped for. You see, this became the ultimate little boy/man camping trip. Why would that be good for Chandie and I you ask? Because when all 7 boys are happily occupied for several hours at a time, it leaves us time to hang out and do our little girl chat stuff. Perfect!

This trip was filled will all sorts of manly type adventures.

The big boys got to cut their own firewood.

They got to shoot themselves some guns.

Yes, I know I shoot like a girl....but I hit 10% of my targets. Not too shabby!
The biggest and best thing about going to Rockport was.....the rocks. I'm not kidding, the boys spent the better part of every day and evening throwing rocks into the water. They never got sick of it....EVER! We had to stop them for food, potty breaks, and bed. They fought us every time too because even after 10 hours, they didn't want to stop.
Jon and Alan also got their fishing in.
Wells caught himself a fish and that fed the boys lunch for the day. EWWW, but way to go big guy!
There was also enough swimming to make the boys happy.Oh best buds! Like parents, like kids!:)
Our girl chats:)
Thanks Macfarlanes for the best camping trip ever. When is our next one?

Family Photos

2011-08-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

I love love love Simple Moments Photography! Jen and Jamie are so fun to work with and they do an amazing job. I have used them a few times before, for family photos, Wellyn's 3 year pics, and Everett's announcement photos. All of those times, I have loved all of the pictures. Of course, it was obvious that when we needed updated pictures, they would be the one's I would call and of course, they didn't disappoint.

Here are just of few of the photos that I love.

Enjoy!

AMAZING!!!!

Oh Dreadful Freaking July!!!

2011-08-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

As far as our marriage has gone, things have come relatively easy for us. We have been very lucky and blessed when it has come to our cars, jobs, houses, and kids. When we were first married we had a bunch of stupid single debt that we had both accrued, but within a little over a year we had it all paid off and our finances were in the black. Both of our vehicles have lasted longer than either one of us would ever have imagined, all thanks to Jon. Jon's jobs have been awesome and, knock on wood, the down economy has had almost no affect on us.

Anyways, you get the picture, we have been lucky. I guess we were getting a bit too comfortable so I am sure the Lord figured it was our turn to be chastized a little, and so the month of July became almost a pure hell!

It actually started in June when our shower started leaking into the basement. We figured the grout in the shower had chipped away over the years so that was the problem. Jon regrouted the shower and wa-la, it was fixed.

First week of July I was mowing the lawn when it started screaming at me, literally. Since we were leaving on vacation we figured, fix it when we get home. This is the first problem. Secondly, the weekend of the fourth, we went down to my parents for our usual Sunday dinner and for the fourth, our firework show. We think Wells turned on the outside spicket for the hose before we left. Well Brad our next door neighbor noticed it about five hours later, turned it off and cleaned out our flooded basement. That man is a Godsend. Luckily it only hit our food storage which was basically all in cans, and our exercise stuff. There was no damage, just a wet basement for a few days. Thanks Brad!

Thirdly, while in Yellowstone, Jon accidentally dropped and shaddered his brand new IPad 2. Wonderful!!!!

Here's number 4, once home from vacation we noticed the Accord (our good car) was leaking a ton of oil. By a ton, I mean at least a dinner plate size every time we parked it.

For the first time in our marriage we took our car to a mechanic. $450 the car came out fixed, at least we thought. While fixing the lawn mower, which took Jon 6 hours, he noticed the Accord was leaking even more. He took the car back in to the mechanic and we were given a quote of $1700......holy sh*^!!!!!! As you can imagine the stress levels are up, and because of it Jon and I have very few nice things to say to each other or the world.

The day after he fixed the lawn mower and got another quote to fix the car, I was in the shower (number 5)while Jon was working in the basement. Cue waterfall! Does it ever end? We quit showering in the masterbath and figured we would let it dry our for a few days. We figured it was a leak in the shower pan and therefore needed to be torn out and rebuilt. The quotes for fixing the shower came in around $1500. Oh LAUZI! The only thing that took out the sting of it all was that a guy that Jon went to highschool with ended up fixing the car. He only charged us $1100 so we figured at least we saved $600 with that right?!?? Ha ha, saved!!! Whatever!

To continue the story. Last Sunday, Jon decided to pull a piece of tile out of the shower so hopefully the man fixing our shower could find a match. Ready for #6? Underneath the tile was black mold. BLACK MOLD!!!!! Son of a...........!!!!!!! Luckily for us, we have the most amazing neighbors anyone could ask for. On his only day off, Brad came over and together Jon and Brad demolished my shower and pulled out all of the black mold.

Here I am almost two weeks later and my shower still looks like this....only vacuumed out. The tile man will hopefully come soon and rebuild my shower. We did find out that, although whoever built my house is a complete retard, we can't do anything about it because it has been 4 years. Funny that someone can build a bathroom not up to code and it is still passed to sell....interesting. Insurance also won't cover it because even though it does cover black mold, there is a clause which says the bathroom is exempt. Go figure!!!!!!

So there was our July. Our marriage has made it with only a few bumps and bruises. My savings account is a little more black and blue than we are, but it will survive. Luckily we had it!

We decided that because our "good car" has fallen off it's pedestal, we want to park it and try to let it live a little while longer. So meet our newest addition, which set August off to a fun and better start,

Meet our Tundra. Still working on a name but my current fave is Black Suga'. Jon isn't a fan but I am still waiting for a better name:) So here's hoping for a much better, much cheaper August:) And hoping not to have a #7.:)

G.W.O

2011-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well another year has come and another year closer to 30....aaaahhhhh!!!!! Those who know me well, know that my birthday is my favorite holiday. I know that it is just another day/year but for me it should be an event. It should be celebrated for a week and if everyone doesn't make a big deal out of it, I get offended. Ok, not really but you get how much I love my birthday.

The first of every month my old YW presidency gets together for dinner. We also try and get together when there are birthdays. Since Sarah Cole's and my birthday are the same week we decided to head up to Park City the night of my birthday and have a girl's weekend out.

Brandie, Sarah, Tonya, and I planned to head up for the night and the rest would meet us for breakfast and shopping the next day. We are so freaking pathetic because none of us could drive at first so we had the hotel but didn't know how we were getting up there. Tonya's and my cars were in the shop for repairs, Sarah couldn't drive and Brandie only had one legal vehicle so she didn't dare leave her hubby and kids with an illegal one:) Luckily for us, she worked it out and Brandie picked us all up.

We started off with dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Nothing amazing, just dinner but the fun really began in the parking lot. As we were backing up some lady comes speeding around the corner (we are almost all of the way backed out) and then freaks out that we are in her way. She starts cursing at us from the drivers seat and waving her fist. She seriously didn't hold back, even with her son in the car. Brandie tried yelling back but it made it hilarious because Brandie had lost her voice from a cold. You get the picture but we were rolling. As we drove away the lady then parked in our spot and got out and yelled at us as we drove away.

We headed up to Main Street for some chocolate, ice cream, and window shopping. As we backed in to our spot a nice, really young, boy stopped on his skate board and helped direct the Yukon in. We made sure to thank him and his friend's for their help as they skated off.

As we walked back a couple hours later we found a note on the car from our skate boarding friends. I don't think they realized that the youngest one of the group (myself) had just turned 29 and they seriously couldn't have been older than 18. I mean really! Oh well, I'll take it where I can get it:)
We stayed up til well after three talking and making fun of each other. Especially Tonya who packed for a whole week. She even brought an iron.....just in case, you never know when you'll need it. Ha ha ha, I love that woman!
Lindsey and Lacey met up with us for breakfast, and surprisingly with one bathroom and a late night, we were still ready by nine.
We shopped all day. I haven't shopped until I wanted to stop since, well since I had Wellyn.
Once we were completely exhausted, we ate lunch and headed home to some much grateful husbands. Thanks you guys for taking me out on my birthday and Jon for watching the boys and letting me go.

WSU Fireworks

2011-07-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

I love fireworks! I honestly believe that I could go see fireworks every single night and never get sick of them. Luckily for me, my spouse also feels the same....yay!

The Sunday before the 24th of July, WSU puts on a seriously awesome, one of the best firework shows ever. Jon and I have been every year since we have been married. The people we go with varies every year, since I don't think anyone has quite the appreciation that we do.

We always go early to set up blankets and every year our blankets have been moved by the time we get back that evening. Not this year folks!!! Jon made sure that our area was secure.

Happy Jon!
This year our crew consisted of some of Jon's siblings (Dave and Rach, Bridget and Ryan), and the Macfarlane's. We had plenty of space to lounge and relax this year.....and no one messed with our stuff this year. Perfect! The boys ran around and played to their little heart's content.

Here's Chandie and I waiting ever so patiently and catching up on girl talk. I hadn't seen her in a week so there was a ton of catch up:)
Everett loved running up and jumping on all of the adults that were laying down. Uncle Ryan was willing to wrestle him.
The show itself was amazing as usual. We were close enough to get rained on by the firework debris and close enough to see the flames as the fireworks exploded out of their cannons.
After a week of vacation and a night of running and screaming on the grass the boys had had it. Within minutes of getting in the car, they both crashed hard! Love it!
Unfortunately for me, it's the end of July and firework shows will be very few and very far between until next year. HO-HUM! Good times while they lasted though!

35th Annual Yellowstone Trip

2011-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Due to the fact that we had several hundred pictures, Jon put it into a movie and put it up on Youtube. If you are willing to sit through 12 minutes, you will see everything. This was a great trip but definitely a little different then how Yellowstone trips ususally go. For one, we stayed in a different super big, super nice cabin. The old one was just too small for our huge family so my parents were generous enough to rent us this big one.Two, Jon was able to get to stay the entire week and that has only happened one other time in our marriage.

Three, this was the trip for very close encounters with wild animals, etc...bear, moose, squirrels, and for the first time ever we heard coyotes that were close to our cabin. It was very eerie to hear them calling during the day and especially at night.

We were able to leave Friday and stay the night at my brother's house in Idaho Falls. My brother also has boys that are crazy, energetic, and hiper so this gives Wellyn some good playing buddies that are capable of fighting back:)

Saturday we headed up to the cabin. The first few days we were moved around a bit so that everyone was in the best spot that would work for their family's. It took us a few nights but eventually the boys got the hang of it and usually went to bed without issues. Sunday we went to Quake Lake and Hepgin Lake, usual spots for our trip. Monday we entered Yellowstone and hit up the lower loop. Good times except for the fact that Jon dropped his ipad and broke the glass. No worries, $200 will fix that. Tuesday was a lay low kind of day. We headed in to West Yellowstone, did a little more Yellowstone, and took it easy. Tuesday also found my nephew Brigham in the E.R. getting 16 stitches in his shin. Tough little guy! Luckily this would be the last of the hang ups in a good trip.

Wednesday was back in Yellowstone. We were hoping to see some good bear since the the upper loop is the best place for bear. We happened to see a black bear off the road in some trees. We pulled off to take pictures and the rest of the fam drove up a little farther to get out of the way. The bear went into some tall grass in that is when it disappeared. We hung outside of the car for a bit to see if the bear would come back in view. We sat for a bit until Jon hear a lady tell someone that "that little boy (our little boy) should be put in the car immediately." Sure enough as soon as she said it, the bear poked it's head out of the grass 20 feet from our car and was walking towards us. I threw Wells in the car, rolled up the windows, and stood in my door in case I needed to dive in. Jon also took cover behind our car. Holy adrenilin rush! My heart was pouding. A few more feet and the bear turned and walked up the road a bit into the nearby pond. Oh nelly! My closest encounter with a bear ever!

Thursday we rented a canoe and hit the river. Jon, myself, the boys, and sis-in-law Hailey (The Hof) hit the river first. Our luck, we saw a big bull moose just off the side. Of course we wanted to get a better look so Hof and Jon back paddled around the bend and as we did, the moose walked out from behind a bush 20 or so feet away. The moose was not at all happy to see us and was ready to charge. Once again, I thought we were going to have a "too close" encounter with a wild animal. Our only saving grace from this angry moose was that we were in a deeper part of the river. He started to come at us but fell in the water. Thanks the high heavens above! Once we realized he couldn't get us, we sat around and watched him for a few more minutes.

Friday was another Yellowstone day but we kept it with just Jon, myself, and the boys. Wells was able to get a squirrel to climb up in his hands. Can we say "Rabies shots?" Apparently and really illegally, squirrels love McDonald's french fries, who knew?

Saturday we packed up, cleaned the cabin, and headed home early. We were ready to get back to our house after a great vacation.

Thanks Mom and Dad, and fam. Thanks Jon for putting up with me and my fam for an entire week:)

Summer stuff

2011-07-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Summer has been a blast and we have done quite a bit of stuff. Blogging has fallen to almost the bottom of my list so therefore I am way behind. I should have done this post before my 4th of July one, since all of these events occurred before the 4th, but whatcha gonna do.

The first event of the summer was Ragnar's Wasatch Back. I didn't bring my camera but Jon brought the camera in his van....and only took like three pictures. Basically just imagine it:)

Our team started the run at a wonderful 10:00am. Van 1 slept at my house and then we headed up to the starting point in Logan. I was runner 1 so I got to start the team off. My first run was a blast. 6.9 miles through one of my favorite cities, what could be better?
I handed off to Steph (Haley's sis), who handed off to my cousin Tyson, who handed it off to my sis-in-law Haley. She in turn handed it to Tyson's friend Tyler who ran it to Joe, the last runner in our van. Joe then ran it to my dad who was the first runner of van 2. Jon and I didn't get to be in the same van this time but it still worked out great. Jon ran with my dad, brothers Mike and Danny, sis-in-law Hailey (HOF), Uncle Curt, and Jon's bro-in-law Cris.

I got to do a little running in snow up at Snow Basin but van 2 had quite the run in with it on some of their legs.
Seriously a blast and an amazing time. Since it was a month ago I can't remember some of the details, just know it was awesome. Thanks Chandie for taking my boys overnight and Sunny for bringing them to the finish line.

Swimming-

Chandie has been gracious enough to once again give Wellyn swimming lessons this year. Wells has absolutely loved it, and I have been so excited watching him as he progresses(which he has done alot of).

Since he has new skills, he jumps at any excuse to get in a pool. We have spent quite a bit of time at Chandie's neighborhood pool and sadly I don't have any pictures. My friend Lindsey's parents have a pool at their home in Eden, and they are so awesome to have us up occasionally. I took pictures of Wellyn playing (without fear:( ) in the pool.

Thanks Chandie and Linds!

Everett's hair-

Everett has fabulous hair. I have already posted about it but we have discovered he has the most fabulous tramp hair.

I mean really, how awesome is this kid's hair?!?!

Cherry Hill-

My friend Staci is in town from Maryland and last week we took our boys to Cherry Hill for the day. I have never been swimming there before. It was really fun and Wellyn has already asked me, I swear a million times to go back.

I think saying that Wellyn loving the water slides would be a huge understatement. That kid couldn't get enough and luckily Staci's sister came without kids, so there was enough adults to take him down all of the times he wanted too. Thanks Mary!

There was one slide (if that is what it would be called) that you go down on tubes. Everett wasn't big enough to go down and Wellyn had been dying all day to do this particular ride. Everett was about at his last straw so I asked Staci to take him so I could take Wellyn on the tube slide at least once. I don't know how she did it but somehow while Wellyn was having the time of his life, Staci got Everett to fall asleep on a chair. Still don't know how because I thought that was impossible.
Here's Wellyn with Staci's boys, Jackson and Nicholas.
Another thing Wellyn loved was the lazy river. He loved being tall enough to go without floaties or a life jacket, (holy nerve racking) but we kept him within reach at all times.
I know there have been many other things this summer and I am sure I might eventually get around to blogging about them....might! I at least have one heck of a Yellowstone post coming since we just got back today, good times.

Anyways here is some of the catch up stuff from our summer. WE LOVE SUMMER!!!

4th of July

2011-07-16T20:36:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July at our house is never just a 4th only thing. We party the whole weekend before, day before, day after, etc....

Since the 4th was on a Monday this year, we started Friday night with our awesome celebrations. We headed out to my little bro Danny and Haley's for some smores on their sweet fire pit and then lit off a bunch of the new not so illegal fireworks. My other little bro Jon and his girlfriend Alair (sp?) also joined us. We had a great time at their expense. Wellyn wanted to know for sure if they were going to get married, or if Alair wanted to join our family:) Being mean older siblings, we fueled Wellyn's questions.

Saturday we headed up to Snow Basin with Jon's sister Britt and her family for some dutch oven cooking...my favorite!

Sunday was the typical first Sunday dinner at my parent's house. The 4th has also become Jon and mine's own holiday and not one that we necessarily plan with our families. We figured that since we wouldn't come down on the 4th, we should celebrate it with my family that night. We had a nice dinner which, thanks to my little brothers, turned into the biggest water fight of all time. Wells was right in the thick of it the entire time while E huddled in the the corner screaming his poor little head off.

None of us had obviously planned on gettine wet, so none of us had a change of clothes. Lucky for us, my mom has an embarrassingly large collection of mumu's (it's true Mom, you do). All of us ladies were able to change into a mumu which we spent the entire night enjoying.

After much fun in our mumus we had an awesome firework show. Jon and Danny went all out with their purchasing of fireworks. Thanks guys!

The 4th found us at our favorite parade with some of our favorite people. As usual we met up with our BFFs the Macfarlane's for the Kaysville parade. We love the fact that Chandie's parents expect us and save our places every year.

Here's Wells and Alan's brother Ryan and daughter Braelyn.

Here we are.

The annual waterfight was a blast, and like usual I sat out, and like usual I still got soaked by all of the guys. This year I accepted it more and when Ryan and Alan came up I willingly gave up Everett so he wouldn't get wet as well.

I even was a good sport when Stockton poured a bottle of water over my head while we were getting family photos:)

As it turns out, it was the year of water fights. We headed over to a bbq at the Price's which also turned into a big water fight. Good times and this one, I did sit out. Luckily none of Jon's siblings argued with me and they let me stay dry.:)

For our big fireworks that evening, we headed back to Kaysville. A great show and the boys were awesome and did well even though we didn't get home until 12:30.

The 4th is my second most favorite holiday. Loved it this year just like I do every year. Thanks to everyone that let us come play....we love love loved it!

Sweet Sweet Saturday

2011-07-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have so many things I need to catch up and blog about but unfortunately for my blog, summer is just too much fun to sit in front of a computer.

Yesterday was a good day for my boys, not so much for Jon and I as we had a funeral of a friend's daughter to attend. For my boys, however, this was another "best day ever." Jon's sister and her hubby (Britt and Cris) were ever so gracious to once again take our boys while we were gone. My kids love being with Britt and Cris, and especially their kids Cora and Jonas. Everett's favorite person in the world is Cris (over Jon and myself) so he was in sheer heaven.

While we were gone Cris took the boys for rides in his dad's tractor. They LOVED it! Everett happens to have a matchbox version of the same tractor, which he slept with last night:) He has also started saying tractor since yesterday.

When we picked them up after the funeral, both boys were crushed they had to leave the Fowers' family. No worries for them, because we had plans to head up to Snowbasin that evening for some dutchoven cooking.

We felt the need to be in the mountains so we drove up and set up camp in the parking lot. Good times!

The kids loved being at one with nature. The food was amazing and the short kid hikes were fun!

Thanks Britt and Cris for making our boys have another "best day ever." We love playing with you guys.

Double Shiners

2011-06-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

The first thing that people have asked when they have seen Wellyn in the last week has been "What did you do to your kid?" We can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that we did nothing! We weren't even around when both black eyes occured.

The first one happened on Saturday afternoon. The boys (Wellyn and his bff Cole) were playing in the backyard of Chandie's parent's house. They were driving a Power Wheels Hummer around the yard and with the help of Cole's older brother they managed to find themselves under the tramp. From what we can think, Cabe then got on the tramp and we assume meant to jump over they boys (he doesn't have a mean bone in his body and would never do anything on purpose) and ended up landing on Wellyn's head. Wellyn happened to be the driver of the Hummer and his head hit the steering wheel.

The second one happened later that night when we went to go see the West Haven fireworks. Wellyn and his friend Gracie were playing on the playground at the park, after dark. I don't really know what happened but Gracie ran up to her dad and told him Wells was hurt. She showed me where Wells was and of course he was surrounded by moms, crying, and had his second black eye almost immediately.

So for those of you thinking we beat our child, it is anything but. We just let him have the best Saturday ever, and this is what happened. He loves to show off his battle wounds! I wouldn't be surprised to find him trying to get more black eyes once these heal...that's how cool he thinks they are:)

Oh My....

2011-06-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

In my mind as a mother, there are several big momentous milestones that kids hit. Of course there is the milestone of sitting up the first time, sleeping through the night, eating solids, first steps, first words, first day of pre-school, etc... Wells has conquered a huge one in my mind and that is riding his bike without training wheels. Oh man!!!

We have several kids in the neighborhood that jump their bikes off of ramps and Wellyn used to watch them wishing he could do it. He would follow them around with his training wheels but could never keep up. To his credit, Wells learned how to go off all of their jumps with his training wheels on, and even had Jon build one that is now a hot spot for all of the kids in the neighborhood. Wells' idol is one of my primary kids Carson. Carson is nine and is the biggest sweetheart ever! Jon taught Wells how to ride but Carson has spent a ton of time helping Wellyn start on his own, balance, and showing him how to do tricks. Thanks Carson!

Wells is so dang good already and the first day without training wheels, he was going off the jumps with all of the big boys....oh mercy! So far no broken bones but it is bound to happen with all that he is trying.

I love that he is so happy with himself and literally tells everyone, including the lady in the bathroom at Walmart. Congrats my big man, can't wait to see what you accomplish next.

Clint Black

2011-06-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me, you all know how much I absolutely love love love country music. There is nothing better than cranking up it up in my car and dreaming of living in the middle of nowhere with just my truck and my dog.

YEAH RIGHT!! A few weeks ago Jon called me and told me that he had just won tickets to the Clint Black concert. Who? I asked. He was shocked that I had never heard of Clint Black and then I remembered...."Isn't that the guy that wore the big black hat in Celebrity Apprentice?" Not that I watch that either but I have seen commercials. At this point I think Jon was pretty disappointed in me because deep down he is a country boy at heart who married a city girl. The day he said "I do" is the day his wranglers and country music got put away forever, except for in Yellowstone where it is ok.

Anyways, it was outside at an ampitheater in Eagle Mountain and it was followed by fireworks so even though it was country music, it still sounded like fun.

We had four tickets so we invited my little brother Joe who will be leaving on a mission in a few months.

We did get lost on the way out there, a first for Jon. Eagle Mountain is definitely somewhere we all agreed we would NEVER live!

We picnicked on pizza and soda and had a fabulous time.

The boys loved to dance to the music and we sat in the back on purpose so they could run wherever they wanted too,

The boys absolutely love their Uncle Joe!

As we watched the fireworks after the show, Wells leaned over to Jon and told him that this was his best day ever! I love hearing stuff like that from him.

The boys were champs the whole time and even though we didn't get home until 12:30 a.m., they were still amazing. Thanks Joe for joining us and thanks Jon for winning the tickets, putting up with my lack of knowledge of Clint Black and his music, and thank you West Haven for not being Eagle Mountain!

St. George and a Little Vegas

2011-06-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Jon had to work in St. George so we decided to tag along with him. I didn't take many pictures because we have already done a St. George trip this year, and most of it was going to be the same. And two: We were hanging by the pool for the most part and I was not about to take pictures of me in a swimsuit at the pool.

After work on Friday we decided to head into Vegas...which was worth taking photos of. Jon and I LOOOOVVVEEE Vegas! Love it! The problem was, was that neither one of us had been there with kids. As adults I think, we tune out the porn and the rest of the crap lying around but with a four year old....we noticed every flier, pamphlet, business card, billboard, sign, and so on. We walked the strip and pretty much spent the whole time trying to divert Wellyn's attention to a non-naked something. It was also Memorial Day weekend so it was crowded. Lots of fat scantily clad women and poor Wells was the wrong height. He had a perfect view of all the short skirts, short shorts, and cottage cheese. No worries, we still managed to have a good time...kind of.

Thank heavens for the boys there was M&M World....not so much for us. The boys loved it, wanted M&M's and so we bought some. We filled a back of peanut butter M&M's for the road and when the lady rang it up, it came to $35.00. WTF?!?!?!?! Less than two pounds of candy and it cost more than dinner at a restaurant. Stupid M&M World. Obviously we didn't do our homework, cause I would've rather gone to a gas station and gotten the same amount for $6.00.
The boys did like the Eiffel Tower.
Once we got back in the car, we asked Wellyn if he had fun. His answer was a simple, NO! Who's kid is this? Not Jon's or mine because even though it wasn't our favorite visit to Vegas, we still love it.

Saturday we hiked the Red Cliff trail in Leeds. Perfect short hike with a river and small lake/pond to play in and cliff jump. There was even a small waterfall that worked perfectly as a water slide. All of my boys loved this one:)

Another mostly successful trip to St. George. Thanks Jon for letting us tag along:)

Preschool Program

2011-06-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

It is really called a preschool graduation but since Wellyn is going back next year, technically it is an end of year program.

Last Thursday, Wellyn's class put on a program for all of the parents and grandparents. It was so cute!!!

All of the twelve kids got to sit up on the stage of North Ogden Elementary School. They sang songs, each had a speaking part, and acted out songs. Teacher Misty put together a little movie of the entire year, which we all got copies of, and each child got a personalized book about themselves from her. I just love Teacher Misty and Appleseed Academy!

Here is all but one of the kids (he got scared and sat with his family).

Wells was SOOO excited to be here.
Here he is being silly and saying his line. "We can count to ten, ready? Here we go," and then all of the kids sang a song about counting to ten.

They sang "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and all of the kids had made sheep ears to wear while singing. Wells really is happy here:)
Such a fun night!

I am so sad that year one is down. Wellyn loved school and his sweet teacher, as did I. At least we have one more year:)

Lil' Bit a Mini

2011-06-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

Mini Golf that is, and man was it absolutely hilarious! We decided to celebrate Jon's birthday by going to dinner at Tepanyaki. Wish I would have had my camera because the boys faces were priceless when the chef lit the grill on fire. After dinner we took the boys mini golfing for their first times.

Jon and I not just giggled but deep belly laughed at the boys the whole time. Wells would hit the ball with all his might, making it bounce off the rocks and lights. We were surprised at how relatively serious he took the game for a four year old. Everett waited for anyone to hit the ball and then he would run out, get the ball and give it back. I went last so Everett would wait for me to hit the ball, run and get it, drop it in the hole, and then pull it out and give it right back to me. I would call that a"hole in one" every time since I only hit the ball once per hole and made it with the help of Everett.Perfect stance:) ha ha ha

Here's Everett waiting patiently for Jon to hit the ball so he can go get it.Favorite part of the whole night? The ship!

When we got home we happily sang "Happy Birthday" to Jon with the Oreo covered cake that the boys helped me make earlier. Good times good times:) Happy Birthday again Jon:)

HEEEELLLLLOOOOO 32!

2011-05-25T14:41:00.001-07:00

Yes I used a marathon picture because he looks AMAZING in it, especially for being so old! That's right, my sexy man turns 32 today. Happy birthday Jon! You are the best dad, husband, provider, best friend, and buddy anyone could ask for. We love you SOOO much! Here's excited for the next 32 and more birthdays.

Love,

Your young, still in her 20's wife,

Wells, and E

My Marathon

2011-05-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

This isn't a story about marathon domination. No, this isn't even about a story of a girl who trained SOOO hard (kind of) and met her goal. This is a story of a girl who had her butt handed to her on a diamond encrusted platinum platter.

See, this is my problem:This knee is a special knee. It has been damaged, operated on, damaged again, retrained, damaged some more, and retrained again. Taped up multiple times so that I could finish whatever it was that I needed to finish. As fabulous as this knee seemed to be doing over the last 6 months, it was laying in wait for the perfect moment to get back at me and Saturday it did just that.

Saturday started out way super early. 4 A.M. in fact for myself and my little brother Joe who was running the marathon as well. We got up, got ready in matching outfits....no not planned that way, I just have too many men's running shirts. I figured yellow was a good color so people could see me, so did he and about 500 other runners.

My 5 neighbors picked us up since this became a neighborhood marathon and we headed for the bus. After almost two hours of standing next to fires and standing in line for the bathrooms the marathon started.

Oh how exciting! I started off absolutely amazing. One mile, two, seven, eight feeling strong and running at an awesome pace, one of my better paces. At mile nine some guy started running with me since he said I was carrying a great pace (so proud). He tried to strike up a conversation and after almost a mile and a half he moved on to the next woman since I was ignoring him:)

Mile eleven found me beating my half marathon pace. At this rate I was gonna hit 13 miles at 1:50. Woohoo! At about 11.5 miles I could feel my knee starting to buckle. I slowed down to try and stop it from happening and stretch it out. Unfortunately for me, it snapped. Same thing that happened in my Vegas Ragnar race. Oh @%&#! I am 15 miles from the end and then to top it all off, my body figures since my knee is crapped out, I might as well hit that wall that I am not supposed to hit til like mile 22.

I am not gonna give up because then I have to start over and run another marathon...hell no! Luckily for me, my brother-in-law Cris was planning to meet me at about 14 miles and run the rest of it with me. I made it that far to Cris and his family and I had a new hope of finishing. The next 12 miles was seriously hell! I really wouldn't have finished without Cris! I feel bad because he thought he was going to get a good run in, but it took us almost 3 hours to finish the next 12 miles. Run, walk, run, walk and so on and so forth.

By the time I crossed the finish line at an embarrasingly 4:44 I was bawling. Not so much out of the excitement of finishing, but because everything waist down was on fire...especially my knee.

Here are my adoring fans that waited and waited and waited for me to finish. I planned as did everyone else around 4:10 to 4:15to finish so everyone was there waiting at that time.

Here is the happy happy finish. Cris was going to back off and walk down the side since he figured he didn't deserve to run the across the finish line. As far as I was concerned, he got me to the finish line so I told him he had to run it with me.

Here is Joe and I at the end. Joe was pacing a 3:45 marathon but his legs locked close to mile 20. He finished just as unhappily as I did at 4:37. Maybe us Hill's aren't made for marthons?!?!

Do we look exhausted?

Here is my medal, which I have already hidden in my closet so I don't have to see it:)

Now that I have slept and had a few days to ponder on it, I have decided that one: I am a wuss (first thing my older brother called me), and two: really not that dramatic, i was just tired, and three: because I sucked so terribly bad, I will force myself to do a redemption marathon but not for a few years.

I even made it through church having to tell the other marathoners (who were all freaking awesome) that I sucked, and explaining it to the other curious neighbors why I didn't run a sub 4 hour marathon like the others. Oh well, what do you do? Lesson learned! At least I can say I finished a sub 5 hour marathon right?

Thank you thank you Cris for getting me through it. Thank you for my fans that put up with my tears and patheticness (made it up), and Jon for being the most amazing supportive husband. He watched the boys during the countless hours of training and let me cry on his shoulder. He even held on to me as I almost passed out because I was too upset to rehydrate or eat after the finish line. I am seriously so dramatic and stupid when I am that exhausted. I also have a new respect for marathon runners...definitely an elite breed!

T-ball

2011-05-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

Oh how I've patiently waited for my boys to be old enough to play sports. Call me crazy but I am SOO looking forward to the years where dad gets home from work, kids get home from their friends, and I have 15 minutes to have everyone eat together before we have to be to some sort of practice. I know, I know the grass is always greener and when I get there I will wish for the days when one child played one sport or none at all. Either way, this last week we started my dream!

Wells and his cousin Cora started T-ball last week and it is seriously hilarious. Not much to my surprise, my child is the kid who sits out in left field picking dandelions, completely unaware that the ball has just landed at his toes. HILARIOUS!!

The first game was supposed to be this last Tuesday but due to rain was cancelled, so last night we officially had our first game. SO FUN!

I, of course, think my kid is huge but he is the smallest kid on the team...what gives?

His shirt and hat are WAY too big but it made it even more funny to watch!Because of all of the practicing, Wells is a total champ hitting the ball off of the t-ball stand. In practice and several other times he was even able to hit some of the balls pitched to him. Unfortuntately, he didn't hit any balls pitched tonight, but he rocked the t-ball.

He hit the ball clear out there....and then ran in the wrong direction. Not even to third base, he was running somewhere in the middle of second and third. Once pointed in the right direction, he ran like a champ to first base.:)

His outfield experience was my favorite. Wells was playing in between second and third (since he ran so well there the first time). The first time the ball came directly to him, and he had his hat on the ground and was wearing his glove on his head. He then didn't want to hit the girl at first base so he nicely walked the ball to her instead of throwing it to her.

(Jon just informed me in a text that none of the kids in this picture are mine. Ha ha, I didn't even notice until now! The sun was shining in my eyes so I couldn't even see what I was taking a picture of...oh well. Here are two boys on Wellyn's team that were standing right next to him....go team!) :)

The second time the ball came to him, he was looking up at the sky and didn't even know the ball was in between his legs. This time he threw the ball successfully to second base:) Jon's family and I were rolling on the sidelines.

After the game we gave a team cheer to the grey team and everyone gave each other five.

So yes, team sports might not be for my son, at least not yet. I will keep him practicing and will do better at pointing out first base. All in all, it was AWESOME and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait for next weeks games.

Walk for the Cure

2011-05-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Chandie has told about the Susan G. Komen Walk For the Cure over the last couple of years. She has done it with her family and has had an absolute blast!

This year I decided to try and see if anyone in my family wanted to go. I figured my mom would be a H&%$ no because even though she survived breast cancer back in 2001, she doesn't count herself as a survivor. Lucky for her, and for us, they caught it early enough and were able to nip it in the bud relatively easily compared to quite a few other women. Because it was so "easy" she doesn't like to admit to it knowing that it has been so hard for so many others.

I talked with my dad first to see if she would even consider it, he told me to go for it and surprisingly she said yes. All other sis and sis-in-laws couldn't make it so my mom and I did the walk together. She even signed up as a survivor which surprised me even more.

We showed up early Saturday morning along with several, and I mean several, thousand other people. Amazingly we ran into Chandie and her family and then as the walk started my little bro Mike and his wife Hailey surprised us and showed up to walk with us.

Can I just say FUN! Holy crap, I think this will be a tradition for my mom and I, and we had so many good things to say that I think more of my family will join us next year. I really hope they do because it is for such a good cause. My sister and I are considered high risk and for us it isn't "If" we get it but more of a "when" we get it. Hopefully they find somekind of a cure soon!

It also hits close to my heart because I had a very sweet friend of mine pass away from it in 2004.

Here we are at the starting line. It took like 10 minutes after it started just to make it to the actual starting point.

This is probably 5 blocks up and up ahead you can see the runners. It was a sea of white in front of us and when we turned around there were just as many behind us...still waiting to make it past the starting point. You would think the crowds would be obnoxious, but it was awesome to see so many people there.

Once we arrived at the finish line we had to stop and almost wait in line, just to cross the finish line. Once again, surprisingly not annoying to have that many people.

Of course everyone was there for a good reason and many people dressed up for the occasion or had shirts made. My favorites were:" Toddlers for tatas (worn by a one year old)', "I stare because I care, (worn by his dad)", "Find a cure before I grow some, (on an infant girl)", and favorite of all was a guy holding a sign for his team that read "The whole tit and kabooble."

After the walk my mom and I hung out at Gateway and went shopping. What a perfect way to end such a fun activity.

Thanks Mom for doing it with me, and surviving! Thanks Mike and Hailey for coming and Chandie for inspiring me to do it.

The last one.....

2011-05-06T19:40:00.001-07:00

My youngest brother Joseph got his mission call this past Wednesday. For some reason, I have always had it in my head that he would be going to Germany somewhere. I mean, since he was like 10, I KNEW that Joe would be going to Germany.

Wednesday night we all gathered at my parents house to see him open the call. As he opened it I was so stoked for him to go to Germany(this is where I always wanted to go if I was going to go on a mission and since I didn't, I knew he would go there for me). I waited, and listened and as he read Sofia, Bulgaria, I was like WHAT?!?! The church didn't get the memo:) No worries! We were all so shocked and so excited for him. I also believe that he was relieved! Relieved because out of the many many family members I have, I am the only sibling out of 8 that didn't go, and everyone of them has been foreign. It was a joke that he would be the one to go to Kansas or somewhere domestic.

Another thing that is crazy is that he leaves October 12th....while Jon and I are in Rome!!!!! Who wouldv'e thought. At least my boys will be around the last week, staying at my parents, to spend some QT with him. Woohoo!!

Just a fun fact, my siblings speak the following languages: Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, and now Bulgarian. Throw in Tagalog (for Jon) and French (for sis-in-law Carrie) and we have only two people that can communicate in a foreign language, thanks heavens they married each other.

The countries are as follows:Ireland, Singapore (Malaysia, Budapest, Pakistan), France, Japan, Australia, Phillippines, Russia, Canada, Brazil, and now Bulgaria. Wowza!!! Go fam!

Congrats Joe, we will miss you a TON but are SOOO excited for you.

Thanks Haley for letting me (she didn't know) steal the map:)

Moab 2011

2011-04-28T12:46:00.001-07:00

Oh how I love a good Moab trip, especially with the Macfarlanes. Last week we went on our annual "Jeeping" trip to Moab. Last year was my first year doing it and it terrified me. This time I was tough and brave and I had so much fun. I only gasped or swore a couple times:)
We took off Wednesday morning bright and early. This year, Alan's parents and a few siblings joined us on our trip, so when we headed out we had a whole caravan of people...good times!
We were lucky enough to be able to pick up our jeeps early Wednesday night so we headed out to do a couple of our favorite trails, Baby Lion's Back and Finns and Things. Both boys belly laughed the entire time!
Thursday, after weathering the worst storm I have ever weathered in a tent, we got up once again bright and early, and quite a bit wet and headed out to our first expedition. Flat Iron Mesa was probably one of my favorite trails. It took us about six hours to complete and the scenery was gorgeous, minus the one part where we had the jeep's width to go around a huge bolder with a 200 foot drop off on the other side (my side). When we finished the trail we headed over to the expo center to look at all the booths and jeeps. There were more jeeps in Moab this week than I have ever seen in one place since it was the Jeep Safari weekend. Unfortunately at this point my camera broke so most of the pictures I have, have been stolen off of Chandie's blog. Thanks Chan:)
Friday morning started out much dryer:) We met up with Alan's family to do the Porcupine Rim trail. I must say this wasn't my favorite trail. Scenery was still gorgeous but for the 11.2 miles (one way) trail, we were on a cliff for almost 99% of the time. A little nerve racking but I was tough! This trail took almost 9 hours to complete but the boys were champs and we still had a blast.
Saturday we headed into Canyonlands Nat'l Park to do the Elephant Hill trail. This one went through the back country of the park so you got to see things that normally probably wouldn't be seen without a jeep or a really really long hike. It was AWESOME! Love love loved it!
Sunday morning we woke to find that the Easter Bunny had visited our tent and left us WAY too much candy. No worries, I have been eating it faithfully and not wasting it all week.:) Alan's parents set up an Easter egg hunt at their hotel so after packing up everything in the pouring rain we headed over there. Perfect way to end a fabulous vacation:) Thanks Alan and Chandie for a great trip (can't wait for the next trip) and thanks to the rest of the Macfarlane's for an awesome time!
The pictures below are in no particular order. Bogger is being weird again and I should learn more about it but I am satisfied with the bundle of pics below:) Enjoy!

Gotta Love the Shadows

2011-04-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am in a rut! Seriously! With all this cold weather, running, running, and way more running (I hate running), I am having a hard time seeing the glass half full. Now I really can't complain, I mean two and a half weeks ago I was in Seattle with Chandie, the next week in St. George, and next week we are off to Moab with Alan and Chandie to the Jeep Safari weekend. My issue is that in between each of these vacations I am running my butt off, literally. My choice, yes, but I will never be happier to cross something off my bucket list. Anyways, enough of the blah! A little of what gets me through is my make-up. I have posted of my eyeliner before but now I am posting of my shadows. While in Seattle I found my "Sumptuous Olive" and refilled my favorite "Mythology." Yes I am a dork because I can think of that while on a long run and it gives me a boost. It also makes me happy to be the artist of a nasty, achned canvas every morning:) Today I added two more happy colors to my collection. "Brule" and "Goldmine," inspired by my sis-in-law Bridget. LOVE THEM! (Clockwise:sumptuous olive, brule, mythology, goldmine)

Yes I am completely insane, but I will not judge you for getting through winter your own way as long as you don't judge me. Besides, I know you want to borrow them:) Now I just hope this will get me through my 16 miles tomorrow and 18 on Tuesday! (For some reason blogger won't let me put in paragraphs, so until I figure it out the text all runs together.)

Dear Mom,

2011-04-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

I know that with our St. George trip you have a TON of laundry to do today. Since I am growing into a man now I figured that just for you, today, I would surprise you and do my own laundry. Love, Everett 04/04/2011

Ogden Temple

2011-04-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

We live in the Ogden Temple district and as every Latter Day Saint knows, it was closed a little over a week ago. The current temple will be torn down and a gorgeous brand new one will be built in it's place. I was not a frequent attender of this temple and used to think it was the ugliest temple there was (other than Provo,) but over the last four years I have grown to love it. Maybe because it is in Ogden and the prettiest area around, or maybe because there is such a special spirit there. Either way, I was a little surprised to see how sad I was when the gates were locked. Jon's mom, Sunny, thought it would be a great idea to get my kids and their cousins in front of the temple and take pictures. In twenty years we can pull out the pictures and show them that they were around for the old one. We headed over to the grounds the day after we got home from St. George (it closed while we were there) and found the grounds already locked and things being moved out. Since we couldn't get right in front of the temple, we did the best we could do. When we took the pictures Jonas wanted to hold Wellyn's hand and Everett chose Cora, just shows how much these kids love each other.

Usually we take a thousand pictures and yell at the kids if they move. After a really long time and some very upset kids, we might get one good picture.....might. This time we were there for five minutes and I took a total of six pictures. All but two worked out great.

St. George

2011-04-05T08:16:00.001-07:00

We LOVE St. George! I could pretty much sum up my entire post with that...we love it! My sis-in-law Rachel's parents own a home down there so occasionally they will let us use it. We left last Wednesday for our long drive down. Wellyn was so excited to go, he started asking "are we there yet?" by about Provo:) We arrived at about 8 and couldn't even believe the weather. It was short sleeve weather that late at night. Wells and Everett immediately went out on the deck to soak up some of the long missed heat. The rest of Jon's family arrived later that night and early the next day. Our first family outing was to Snow Canyon. This is a kid's paradise! It was full of rocks, dirt, cactus, lizards, and rock climbing. It was just as fun for the adults as well:)

Wells is a little mountain goat. He was up there with all of the adults climbing and jumping between the rocks....I was the nervous mom yelling at the others from the ground to Please not let my kid fall off the thirty foot cliff.

Family picture

Angels Landing:

The next day we headed into Zion's Nat'l Park. Jon's mom and sister Bridget were nice enough to stay back and watch the kids so that we could go and hike Angel's Landing. Can I just say having done the hike, now I will be the one to offer to stay back with the kids.

I don't think I have a fear of heights, just a very healthy respect for it. Doing this hike was pretty much terrrifying. The first 2 miles is a steep hike up, not bad because for the most part you aren't on a cliff...for the most part. After that was freaky!!! I had no clue what I was getting myself into. My brother-in-law Dave told me to go look over the edge once we reached the spine. Not knowing what was on the other side, I looked....a 1200 foot drop to the river below, cue dizzyness! The last .5 mile is horrible. You hike the spine up to Angel's Landing. Drop offs on both sides of several hundred feet. The spine is in some places maybe 3 feet wide and you have people going both ways. You are rock climbing with the help of a chain but one slip and you are now just a mix of colors on the canyon floor below. Luckily we all made it safely!

Right, and I mean right behind us is a 1400 foot drop off. Do I look nervous?

The fact that on average, 2 people fall off and die every year wasn't helpful either. Now I can say I have done it and don't have to EVER do it again.

Another fun thing was swimming. We did that everyday. Swimming was the boys' favorite part of the trip. As I have mentioned before, we have fish for children!

Saturday Jon and I took turns mountain biking. I have never gone before so thanks Bridget, Ryan, and Mike for teaching me, especially Bridget who stayed with me the entire time and taught me the ropes.

That evening was slightly windy so we flew a kite off the front deck! So much fun! We also celebrated Ryan's birthday by going out to dinner and eating ice cream sundays. We finished out the last night by sitting out on the deck with the adults and talking til late. Of course Sunday you have to make a trip to see the temple. A few of the fam had already left to head back up to the cold snowy tundra but we decided to hang out as long as possible. I mean the coldest day was probably 77 degrees. We took pictures and played around for a while at the park.

Jon and I did NOT want to go home. We had had almost five days of perfect weather, perfect out door activities (hiking, swimming, mountain biking, rock climbing, bike riding, etc) and we weren't ready to get back to life. We decided to take the longest route home.

This is how the boys spent part of the drive....clearly warn out from late nights and tons of partying.

First we went through Zion's again and then decided to drive up to Bryce Canyon. It was snowing in Bryce so it was a good transition back to the cold.

It took us about 11 hours to get home but it was a blast. Seriously the funnest family trip ever! Great memories and great tan lines.

Thanks Nasela's for letting us use the house, thanks Price family for an absolute blast!

Seattle

2011-03-28T14:44:00.001-07:00

I seriously have the most amazing hubby EVER! Chandie's hubby is a close second though:) Both of our handsome studs surprised Chandie and I with a girl's weekend in Seattle a few weeks back, so this last weekend, we left. I don't think the guys knew just how excited we were for the girl's weekend. We love our gno's but unfortunately, those end after a couple of hours. Friday night the guys dropped us off at the airport and then went to do their own manly things. Since we both have boys, Chandie and I are always outnumbered so we planned on doing things that we don't ever get to do (e.g.; shopping, shopping, shopping, and not eating fish). Here we are SOOOOO excited for this plane to take off! I have never been to Seattle before, always a dream of mine. Chandie has been a few times but since she has family there she hasn't really been able to go as a tourist. Jon has fond memories of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop so that was our first stop early Saturday morning. Definitely interesting! They have a couple of real mummies that people go to pose with. Gross but intriguing all the same.

Of course Pike's Market Place is a destination as well. We loved watching all of the crazy action. Unfortunately for us we didn't really see anyone throwing fish but it was still fun to be there. Since neither one of us really likes fish we decided our favorite part of Pike's Market were the produce stands. I didn't get pictures but it was the best looking produce ever (we are dorks).

We had planned for Saturday to be our day to shop and explore and Sunday we would go see the Space Needle. Apparently we are really fast walkers because by noon we were done and nothing to do. We headed over to do some exploring up top.

Gorgeous view!!!

Now it was time to get our shop on! We really shopped a TON! We lived it up knowing that with guys, this would never happen. We even went through Tiffany & Co. and tried on some jewelry.

Jon has a friend that lives in Seattle and he recommended we do a dinner cruise with Argosy cruises while we were there. We boarded the ship at around 6:30 and spent a few hours touring the harbor, eating, watching (a mushy couple got engaged, and we totally called it), and talking. So fun!!!

Here we are toasting with some ginger ale.

Pulling into port. I wish you could see the Seattle skyline behind us because it was gorgeous!

Sunday was spent doing more of what we did Satruday. We had seen everything we had wanted too so we walked back to a few places and explored more of the city.

Seriously the BEST trip ever. We stayed up way late laughing and talking. We ate a ton, but walked a ton as well so I didn't feel as bad. We shopped more in the last two days than we have in a long long time. My spoils from the trip were a new coat, hat, and 3 pairs of new shoes. Woohoo for shoes.

One thing I will give Seattle is they have the most creative homeless people. There were people begging on every corner and in between (no exaggeration). The difference was that instead of having a sign that said "Will work for food," or "need help," or something like that, they were much more creative. Here are some of the signs we read:

-Too ugly to prostitute so just give money.

-Kissing lessons-$9.95 an hour with most teeth, or $29.95 with no teeth. (This guy had a huge board with all sorts of instructions).

-MILF Hunter (with arrow pointing at self)

-Family dream to cross America, please help (this guy was trying to do some indian type song while wife danced on a board-both were not good).

Or some would walk up and help with directions and then expect a tip. It was sad to see so many homeless people but we loved reading their signs.

I am so sad to have it be over but also glad to be home with all our men. Thanks Chandie for the awesomest, funnest trip ever and thanks Jon and Alan for sending us:)

MWAH to Seattle.

Bloopers

2011-03-25T14:58:00.001-07:00

I have never claimed to be a great photographer, not even a good one. I do, however, like to take lots of pictures of my boys as they are doing day to day activities, or basically just growing up. I had a few pictures on my camera that I decided I would upload to my computer so that when I go through security at the airport tonight I wouldn't risk losing them. As I am looking through the pictures, all taken within about 4-5 days, I see that most of them are bad pictures. Apparently the "good picture gods" are not with me on this round of photos.
Here are my bloopers:
Everett enjoying his St. Patrick's Day cookie.

Wells got some new Sunday clothes so I wanted to get a cute picture of him, as well as him and his brother to prove that they do sometimes look really nice:)

I guess Wells got my camera.

Don't even know.

Jon was out of town for Wellyn's 4th birthday last week so I was trying to get good documentation. Wells had other plans.

Wellyn's birthday dinner at Fatcats. The breadsticks were apparently bigger than life;)

So now that everyone knows just how bad I suck, know that I did get the pictures I was looking for. It takes a million bad ones to get one good one when it comes to my boys:)

It's True, He's 4

2011-03-17T21:02:00.001-07:00

Aaaawwwwwhhhh! My little big man turned 4 today. For some reason 4 seems OLD. He's not a toddler anymore and now he's just getting bigger.
We are so happy to have this awesome kid be a part of our family. He is so energetic, never needs to sleep, and loves being alive. He loves to ride his 4 wheeler, which he shares with all his friends and family, shares his toys with his little brother, and just recently offered Jon and I his whole piggy bank so that he could help pay for a new car when we get one.:)
He is always singing awesome songs, asking entertaining questions, and never fails to show and tell us how much he loves us. What a sweet sweet kid!
Happy Birthday Wells, we love you SOOOOO much!

Good Ole Wells

2011-03-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that teaching our kids about Christ hasn't really been my strong point as a parent. We have talked about him, taught Wells about prayer, and the importance of church. I guess that I just thought that other than the basics, it was a large subject for a three year old to grasp ahold of. Now that he is in primary he has been coming home with some seriously interesting questions about Jesus. I guess now it is time to really really be a parent and start things that my parents did with my siblings and myself. Just not really sure how to approach it for a kid his age.
The thing that kind of started this whole thought process for me was the other day I am sitting on the couch when Wellyn comes up and asks me: "Mommy, if Jesus and Santa Claus got in a fight, who would win?" Well......my first answer that I almost blurt out was: Jesus honey, because Santa Claus isn't real! Good thing I stopped myself or else I would have won the parent of the year award for sure. I just explained a little that Jesus is Heavenly Father's son and therefore he trumps all others! His next couple of questions were just as equally entertaining. "Mommy, Superman can fly, can Jesus?" To that one I replied, "If he wants too. Jesus is our Savior and can do anything he wants too. "Well can Jesus swim?" My answer to this one was a little more joking, whoops. "Yes Wells, Jesus can swim but he doesn't need t0 cause he can walk on water." Wells seemed satisfied with that and ran off to play in his room. So now I am beginning to realize that in Wellyn's mind Jesus is right up there and equal to Santa Claus and Superman. Hmmm, how do you bring the atonement down to a three year old's level? He knows, at least I think he does, that Christ died for us so we could live with our Heavenly Father again. It just cracks me up that thinking questions like that up are how he processes it and understands it. Funny funny boy!

Here's to Another AMAZING Year

2011-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Then:
In between:

Now:

Thanks for an awesome 6 years Jon! I love you so much! Happy Anniversary!

Just For the Sake of Posting

2011-03-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

No, I have nothing knew to post about. Our lives have pretty much been the same with ear infections, running, and working. No worries, it is March and things are looking up:) Definitely one of my favorite months!
I was actually looking through some of my photos from February and thought these were a couple of good ones and so here they are.
Everett has the softest, finest hair. I am not even quite sure what color his hair is! In some lights he is a total blonde (not like Wells, Wells' hair color is a whole new league of blonde), other lights he has a dirty dishwater color, and then again he is a red head. Multiple colors, probably the only think I did pass to my kids:)
Since he has the finest hair, which also desperately needs a cut, he has crazy bed head. When he wakes up from his naps, his hair looks like it has been through the ringer. Wish I had that body to my hair.:) Love it!!!

Wellyn has new poses for the camera. Why can't my little, or big as he would say, kid just smile? Never! These are his newest forms of "posing" for the camera.

Notice he is also Superman! Superman still makes a common appearance at our house, but I won't complain. If he is naughty we just remind him that Superman would never yell at his mom or hit his brother. That usually shapes him up for a while, at least until the cape comes off.

So there you have it! First post of March which means Spring is eventually coming. I am counting down the days!

Firehouse Field Trip

2011-02-23T14:46:00.001-08:00

Last week Wellyn had the awesomest field trip ever! The kids got to go on a tour of the Farr West firehouse. It started off pretty awesome when we pulled in the parking lot. The firefighters got a call and as I pulled in, the firetruck pulled out with lights and sirens blazing. Both Wellyn and Everett could have gone home satisfied at that point, but it was only gonna get better.
Once inside we had to wait for the firefighters since they were the ones doing the presentation. Luckily, the call was a short one and they were back in about 15 minutes.
The kids got to tour where the firefighters live, sleep, work, workout, and play...whoa! Then they got to climb all over the firetruck and check out the tools. The firefighters got dressed up in their gear so that if there was a fire the kids wouldn't be afraid of them, brilliant.
I alwasy get bad pics of the whole class and Teacher Misty but what do you do?
Wonder what he is gonna do when he grows up?

Everett was just as happy to be there as the rest of the kids were.

Wellyn's most favorite part was spraying the hose. Each kid got a turn to spray down some cones with the firehose.

Both boys were very upset with me when we had to leave. Wells wanted to stay and play forever:) Thanks Teacher Misty and all you cute little Appleseeds.

Yay-Welcome Home E. Hill

2011-02-17T11:29:00.001-08:00

After much waiting, 2 years worth, my little brother is finally home. Yesterday Uncle Jon (long Jon) returned home from the Maceio, Brazil mission and we couldn't be happier.:) For some reason his mission took FOREVER! Usually they go by pretty fast but Jon (my Jon) and I decided that Jon's (brother) mission seemed to take forever!
Yesterday was also apparently the 50th anniversary for the MTC so they had Carol Mikita and her cameras there filming all of the missionaries and their families. I have never seen so many families or missionaries in one round (and I have done this 8 times), it was crazy!
Here is Jon walking out. Sorry it is blurry, I was screaming:)

Here is Jon, Wells, and E waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Jon to come. See why my kids get so confused with names? He traveled for over 28 hours so he was exhausted. I haven't seen him in glasses since he was a kid but I guess contacts won't hold out that long.

He also met a couple new faces for the first time, including E. Everett didn't have a hard time warming up to him at all. Within an hour at my parents Everett was a huge fan of Uncle Jon, as was Wells, and they had a great time playing with him.

Yes he is doing the "hang loose" sign but in Brazil it means awesome! I love weird missionaries:)

Welcome home Elder Hill, we are so excited! Now we just have one more to do. My youngest bro Joe leaves in August and then we will be done until the grandkids start taking off. Yay!

I Really Really Hate Winter

2011-02-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

I know I said hate, which happens to be a swear word at our house. Wells was saying hate way too much so we outlawed it, the only problem is that Wells stopped and now I get in trouble when I say it. :)
So I blogged about E.'s ears a couple weeks ago. Two ear infections and fevers. Almost 4 weeks later I took him back in to have the post ear check up and unfortunately for him, the infection was still there. The thing is, is that he is PERFECT! I saw him bat at his ears over the last few weeks but he never complained. He slept perfectly, acted perfectly, ate perfectly, and played perfectly. Who knew? Another crazy thing was that Wellyn had a cold over the last couple weeks as well. He only complained of a sore throat once but for the most part he kept it to himself. He was a little meaner than normal and a little more tired but that was all he made me deal with. When I took Everett in to see the Dr., Wells came and the Dr. asked if he could look at Wells. He said Wells look a little "off" but I wasn't concerened since he had been slightly sick and had woken up really early that morning. To my surprise my older, PERFECT (in this case) child also had two ear infections and strep to boot. What's crazy about it, is that the Dr. said the infections had been there quite a while, probably just as long as Everett's had been around. Wells had been walking around with ear infections for the last few weeks and had been suffering in silence. Poor guy! The Dr. didn't do a strep test since we would already be putting Wells on antibiotics for his ears. He did say however, that he would put money onthe fact that he did have strep, and that it had also been there for at least a week.
Now both are on antibiotics and both are just as happy as can be. I can't wait for spring and summer, either can my boys!

Week of Love, Baby!

2011-02-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

Happy V-week Jonny, hope you enjoy it:)
Love, me!

Miss Domestic

2011-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

These are my kitchen chairs.
A long time ago they were quite lovely and white. To a young single guy who isn't thinking of wife and kids at the time, this is a perfect contemporary chair to go in a bachelor's home. Don't get me wrong, I loved the table set when we got married. The thing that has changed since that time is this....
White chairs don't go with little boys.
I have cleaned these chairs several times over the last three years but unfortuantely, after one meal, they look bad again.
Last Saturday I went shopping with my sister-in-law Brittany to get some new fabric so I could cover them. Yep I said I, or me anyways. I did it all by myself! Don't look too close or you will see the million imperfections but all in all I love them. They also bring in a new look since I added green to the room.
So, what do you think? Can't go wrong with damask.

With this and canning, it is really starting to scare me. I am worried I might learn to sew next:(

My bad habit

2011-01-29T14:43:00.001-08:00

For as long as I can remember, probably around 26 years at least, I have had the horrible disgusting habit of biting my nails. My younger brother and older sister both had this same bad habit. I am not sure where we got it from since my mom has always had such beautiful hands and nails, but nonetheless the three of us are nail biters. Michael, my younger brother, kicked the habit some time ago, although I am not sure how. My parents and my grandparents always used to bribe me. My mom gave me a sewing kit in middle school because I made it a week but as soon as I got the kit, the nail biting began again. My grandparents took me shopping for a few new outfits, also middle school, because I went three weeks. You better believe I took off all the nails within hours of being home from the mall.
Once I became an adult my solution was fake nails. LOVED them! A fresh new set of nails every other week and I couldn't bite them. Once I got married the $40 wasn't in the budget every other week so back to biting I went.
Why am I blogging about my bad habit? I am not sure exactly. Last month during our Christmas celebrations I saw my sister had long and painted nails. "How in the world do you have nails to paint?" Her explanation was simple, "I am 30 now and a bad habit shouldn't be able to continue to control me." For some stupid reason it was like a light bulb. No, I am not 30 but close enough. Maybe I am posting this because, if I fail I have to come clean to my readers. As of today I have gone 30 days without biting. I think this is the longest I have gone, but I am not quite sure. Either way 2011 is my year, my year to kick a nasty habit.

Jon will be so relieved:)

Poor Little Man

2011-01-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

We made it a year and I had hoped that Everett wouldn't ever have to go through what his older brother did time and time again. Unfortunately for us, and especially for E he has two ear infections.
His low grade fever started last Friday. He was a champ as we had errands to run, birthday parties to attend, and so on and so forth. We medicated the poor kid and even though we knew he didn't feel good, he hardly complained. We would go and check on him before we went to bed and find him awake and just laying there with a fever. Seriously, I don't deserve such an amazing kid! I feel so bad that he has been so sick! I didn't take him in because his fevers were always low and he got some new teeth this week so I figured it was related to that. Monday I finally took him in and the Dr. diagnosed his infections. Now, one day into the amoxicillin he is back to being his old funny self!

Poor guy, but really Everett, it would be ok if occasionally you complained like a normal kid:) Love you little guy!

Going Private

2011-01-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

So Jon says to me last night in bed "you know Jewels, we have kidnappable kids, and if someone reads our blog they know all the info they need to convince Wells to get in a car with them." Hmmm...enough to toss and turn all night long; so we are finally, after 2 1/2 years of blogging, going private. Leave me your email address on here, Facebook, or text so I can do what I gotta do to let people in.

Wellyn's Song

2011-01-12T15:35:00.001-08:00

Wellyn has learned lots and lots of great things at school. He can now write his own name and with help on spelling he is doing amazing at writing many other words like witch, ghost, and cat (whose kid is he?). He has learned his shapes, about different animals, and occasionally he says little parts of the Pledge of Allegiance. I am so happy of all the things that he has learned.
Well the other day we decided to take a drive as a family. I hated when my parents made me do this growing up because who likes to sit in a car with their parents all day. Now that I am all grown up I can see why they did it, and luckily for me, my boys are still too little to think I am lame. While we were out on our drive Wellyn started singing a song we hadn't heard before. Jon and I continued to talk cause we didn't want Wellyn to know we were listening. As we listened these were the words Wellyn was singing. "Darkness over me, darkness over me and my daughters." He went on and on singing this strange little song. He sang it for seriously twenty minutes or so. Finally Jon interrupted him and asked him where he had learned this weird song. "From Teacher Misty at school," was his reply. While I am sure that he didn't learn this at school I was still impressed that he had learned these big words for a three year old. Silly kid! I have still heard him singing this song when he thinks we aren't around to hear it.

-Everett-

E had his one year appointment on Friday and thought I would share his stats. He weighed in at 21lbs 2 oz and 30 inches tall. 20% weight and 55% height. This makes my E a skinny, averaged heighth kid. Ummm.... who would have thought that I would have an average heighth kid? Me being just shy of 5'11" and Jon being over 6'3". Sounds like Wellyn got Jon's solid genes and Everett got my family's overly skinny genes, lets just hope the height catches up to him.
Other than that Everett is now walking 100%. Crawling just slows him down and he has too many things to get into to be slow. He is also pretty good at going up and down stairs which the Dr. said he is a little advanced at. Way to be E! Anyways, that's my little guy!

Everett's birthday celebrations

2011-01-10T14:37:00.001-08:00

This is how both birthday celebrations ended.

We had lots of fun at both of Everett's parties but we learned one thing about our little guy. He HATES cake, especially cake with frosting, and cake with people taking pictures and huddled around. We do know that he loves to party and open presents that make his older brother jealous, like these two monster trucks below. Wellyn has been drooling over Everett's trucks.

He thought the "Happy Birthday" song was funny but when it came time to eat the cake the little man would have nothing to do with it. He dipped his fingers in the frosting but didn't like the textures. He did slightly better when we gave him a spoon but all in all he cried the whole time. No smashing, no grabbing, no frosting in the nose and hair. I will admit I was a little disappointed but on a brighter note, kid 2 likes apples unlike kid 1. We gave Everett an apple at my parents when he wouldn't eat the cake and he LOVED it.

At the end of his birthday he was more than happy for people to leave and go to bed. He actually started giggling when we got him ready for bed. He slept til 10 the next morning. Partying is hard work!

At least I got a little smashing and grabbing of cake from these two.

Still can't believe he's one but so glad he is:)

A little late but, New Year's Eve

2011-01-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

This year we had decided to be a little more low key since Jon and I have been staying up SO late the last month, and getting up SO early with Wellyn. By about 8:30 at night we are beat but of course our second wind kicks in at around 10:30 and we end up staying up late again. This year we were going to put the kids to bed early and roll in the new year catching up on our ZZZZ's, but luckily for us we partied instead. Jon's mom wanted to do a progressive dinner kind of like my family does but no one was really interested in all the driving around. We decided to make a fabulous compromise and do a mini one. Appetizers and playing for a couple hours at Britt and Cris' (Jon's sis), and then dinner and fireworks at our house.
We started at Britt and Cris' at 5 and ate yummy meatballs and breadsticks. It was so fun to relax and chat while the kids played. We even made time for a dance party before heading over to our house.
Our house was followed by more eating, playing, and dance offs.
The kids were getting tired so at 8:52 (didn't even make it to 9) we rang in the New Year with party blowers, fireworks, and the 2008 ball drop on Youtube.

So fun! Jon and I put the kids to bed at around 10 and we watched the real ball drop. We didn't bring in the New Year with ZZZ's but we did make it a resolution to do it this year:). Thanks Price's for another great time!

Happy Birthday Everett

2011-01-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

As always the birthdays of my boys (or boy up until now) have been a little difficult. They are slowly creeping out of being a baby to a toddler, and then to a little man. For some reason I am having a hard time even accepting that today is Everett's birthday. How is he one? Where did the last year go? I am having a hard time getting into the "birthday spirit," because it hasn't been a year....or so it seems.
Well anyways, we are so excited that Everett is turning one. He has been a true blessing and the best addition to our family.
Another reason to celebrate is that we never thought we would make it a year. When E was born let's just say that Wellyn wasn't fond of him. I spent the first 4 months just trying to keep E alive. If I turned my back I would turn back around and find Wellyn sitting on E's head so that he couldn't breathe. Luckily for me, as well as Everett, Wellyn now adores his little brother.
Everett made the transition from one to two so easy. I had to wake him up during the night to feed him and as soon as he was big enough to sleep through the night he would. This little guy has always loved to sleep. He still sleeps at least 12 hours at night and still takes two naps during the day. I never thought I would have to wait around to go grocery shopping because my kid still hadn't woken up by noon:)

Everett is also the happiest kid I have ever seen. He smiles at EVERYONE and will go to ANYONE. Even when we have to wake him he will pop up with a huge smile.

He is my skinny, light-weight kid. Unlike Wellyn, Everett eats everything and anything. He also eats a ton! You'd never know it by his size but he can eat and eat and eat (how would it be).

Happy Birthday kiddo! We love you so so so much! We are glad you joined our family! Love you little guy!

2010

2010-12-31T11:28:00.000-08:00

Oh my, what happened to this year?!?! Seriously, what happened? It just seems like a couple of months ago that I couldn't wait for the Christmas season to finally be over so that I could pop out baby number two and here I am planning his birthday party next week. Seriously!!!!

2010 was definitely one of the best years ever. Of course it started out with the birth of Everett Michael on January 6th. It was the easiest pregnancy, easiest labor and delivery, and he turned out to be the easiest baby EVER! He is happy about 99% of the time, he sleeps like nobody's business, and he loves everyone! The transition from one kid to two was super easy because he was so amazing!

February was quiet due to the new baby

March was a great month. Wellyn turned 3 and we celebrated his birthday and headed to St. George the next day. Good times with Jon's family in St. George!

April was spent painting my happy red walls, blessing Everett, and potty training Wellyn. Wellyn was amazing to potty train, not that I did anything, he was ready and pretty much did it all on his own.

May was also a relatively quiet month. Jon turned 31 and we played in the warmer weather. We finished it with a fun camp out in our backyard with the Macfarlanes.

June found us on our first "jeeping" trip in Moab, also with the Macfarlanes. So so so fun! Jon also finished his first Ragnar race with my family and a few of our friends.

July is always a busy month and it didn't help that I began training for my first half marathon. We spent my 28th birthday with my family in Yellowstone which is always super crowded and super fun

In August I ran my first half marathon and finished just shy of 2 hours. I was so proud of myself. Jon's little brother also returned home from his mission in Edmonton, Canada. It is always so exciting to have a sweet reunion with a family member.

September brought a first for Jon. He finished his first marathon in 3 hrs and 54 min. Super amazing for not having even trained. We celebrated with an impromptu trip to Jackson Hole, WY so see his siblings and siblings-in-laws complete the LOTOJA. Probably one of our favorite trips this year because it was so random and unexpected. Wellyn also started school at the Appleseed Academy this month. I can't believe he is so big!

October started out with the world's worst trip to Disneyland. Food poisoning, rain, and a few injuries killed this trip but luckily we can laugh about it now. This is also one of Jon's favorite months because Halloween is his favorite holiday. We did all the things that we could to bring in the spooky season. We also ran the Las Vegas Ragnar which was an absolute blast! I have a new appreciation for the layout of Las Vegas. We finished the month with our annual Price Spook Alley which was held the night before Halloween, and for the first time in our marriage we stayed home and hosted people at our house on Halloween night.

November was another relatively quiet month. We spent a weekend in Idaho Falls to see the baptism of my nephew. Anytime the boys get to sleep in a hotel is just awesome to them!!! Thanksgiving was amazing like always and we ate ourselves sick.

December was festive and busy as all get out. The month SPED by as we partied and prepared for Christmas. It was filled with progressive dinners, family get togethers, plays, my little brother's wedding, and all the shopping I could manage. Christmas this year was definitely one of my favorites. New Year's Eve was again spent with family and we rang in the New Year at 8:52 so the kids could go to bed. So sad to see such an amazing year be done but excited to see what 2011 has in store for us!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T13:47:00.000-08:00

Oh the season came and went so fast and I am sad to see it go:( but what an awesome Christmas we had, probably one of the best. We started early Christmas Eve morning by heading down to see my mom. Since we spend the evening with the Price's we try to head down during the day to my family's house since it is my mom's birthday. We played around for a while and then headed out to lunch at Chili's with my parents, little bro Joe, and my brother's family. A small party of 13 (really is small considering how big it gets when all of us are together).
Afterwards we headed up to the Price's for dinner. The kids could hardly eat because they were so excited for Santa. Santa always makes a quick appearance to the kids to drop off a couple of gifts personally. Of course this year he didn't disappoint.

Then it was off to home and to bed but not before setting out milk and cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.

Wells was so excited he couldn't fall asleep. Once he finally did fall asleep Santa came to visit.

This year Wells decided he wanted a red 4 wheeler....in March. He hadn't forgotten about it and literally has asked for it everyday since then. He made sure that every Santa's helper new his wish:)

Here's Everett so happy on Christmas morning. He really didn't care for the presents or the wrapping paper, all he wanted to do was play.

Here's Wells opening the Nerf gun he wanted.

Here is the happiest boy in the world. He couldn't stop freaking out when he saw the 4 wheeler next to the tree.

Jon spoiled me for sure this Christmas. I got clothes, a gorgeous necklace from Tiffany's, and a hotel stay all by myself.:) Can't wait. Jon also had a great Christmas, he will be taking a building clearing course in April. It is taught by a guy who in on the S.W.A.T team and they learn how to clear buildings of intruders. Jon is excited because it requires his gun and he will really be shooting at things. Dream come true!

Once the gifts were open and Wells had time to go around the block a few times, we headed down to my grandparents for lunch. After that it was over to my parents for more food and presents.

After lots of playing and eating the boys were completely worn out. We packed them up as well as everything else and went home for a long winter's nap.

Amazing!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Mike and Hailey's Wedding

2010-12-23T11:37:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, December 21, my little bro Michael married his sweetheart Hailey Swensen. It was a crazy day that started early and ended late (with almost no breaks), but it was worth it to see my little brother so happy.
The morning started out with a brunch at the Wight House in Bountiful. Yes, this was the only family picture I managed all day. We had an hour break between the brunch and the temple, no time to head home, so we headed up to my Uncle Curt's and Aunt Julie's home to hang out. My aunt is a professional cake decorator (absolutely amazing) and they had just put an addition on the house that was a huge kitchen for her work. We got the tour and then they used Jon's muscles to move some things into the new kitchen, wished I had pics of it....gorgeous.
After a wonderful ceremony we headed out in to the cold for some pics.

While we were taking family pics, my uncles started throwing snowballs at everyone in the wedding party. I'm sure to the horror of my mother as well as the whole bride's family, we all broke out in to a huge and crazy fun snowball fight. Of course Wellyn was right in the middle of it dishing out the best he could.

We moved it out to the parking lot since there were so many brides in the direct area and they were all worried we were going to hit them with snowballs. After the temple the boys got a quick nap in the car while Jon worked for a bit.

We then headed up to the reception which was held at Hailey's aunt and uncle's house.

Here is the cake made by my aunt Julie. Explanation: Mike is a river rafting freak and worked as a manager for a company in Jackson Hole for several summers. Hailey is a tennis star (best on at USU) so they decided to have their cake portray their lives. The raft ores are tennis rackets! Interesting, but Julie made it look awesome!

This is a picture of my family. There are 28 people I think? We are missing my little brother Jon who is in Brazil but this is everyone. Imagine Sunday dinners at my mom's:)

Since there are only two girls in the family (myself and older sis Becky) my mom always goes for the groom with his two sis pic.

It was an awesome day and we are so happy for the newlyweds. My black outfit made it the whole day with no spitup, boogers, and other fun stuff until the last 10 min of the reception. Everett threw up all over me and there was no fixing it. I had to finish the night off with a coat since I didn't have a change of clothes.:) All in all a success!

'

5th Annual Macfarlane-Price Christmas Lights Tour

2010-12-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

Friday night we did one of our favorite Christmas things, we met up with the Macfarlanes for dinner and then our lights tour. We absolutely love doing this with Alan and Chandie, and Wells loves playing with Cole whenever he gets the chance.
I once again, 5th time in a row, forgot my camera so the pictures that were taken were from Chandie's camera (I will post when I get them).
We started at the "Night Before Christmas" street. It is a street in West Valley and every house decorates with thousands of lights and each house tells a part of the story. Santa was even there with his elves handing out candy canes.
Next over to the "Christmas Utah" house in Murray which is another great one. This guy puts everything to music and it is a serious traffic jam just to get to his house.
Lastly we went to Temple Square. LOVE LOVE LOVE the lights here! We strolled around with hot chocolate and candy as it lightly rained/snowed-perfect!!!!
After viewing the lights we went up top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building so the boys could look at the temple and lights from ten stories up. It was fun even though we disrupted a hundred couples trying to be romantic (gag).
The boys were all still way too hiper even though it was 10:30pm so we headed back to the parking garage and had the boys run races up and down the garage. It was hilarious to watch because the garage was empty and so the boys could run wild. Little did they know that we were really tiring them out. It worked!!! After 45 minutes of running laps Wellyn was out within 3 minutes of being in the car.
SO SO SO fun!!! Thanks Macfarlane family!

Here comes Santa Claus....

2010-12-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

Alright we've already seen the big guy twice this season and both times Wellyn has made sure that Santa is even brining him a red 4 wheeler for Christmas. He even started quizzing the second Santa to make sure he was the real Santa (luckily Wellyn couldn't see me so I was able to mouth the answers to Santa). Well last Wednesday Santa went to Weber State Univ and the reason we decided to face the crowds is that Santa brought his reindeer along this time. Jon was already up there working so I packed up my boys and met up with my friend Breanne (mother of Wells' bff Benson) and we headed up.
The place was crowded but the boys had a great time. Jon got in the huge line and Breanne and I took the kids out to see Blitzen and Snowflake.

They also had the Grinch cutouts for picture purposes so we took full advantage.

After over an hour in line, thank heavens for having a friend there, we finally made it to Santa. Of course Wellyn immediately told him all about the 4 wheeler that he knows Santa is going to bring him. Go Wells!

Awesome times once again!

Afterwards we headed over to the ward Christmas party. We ate dinner while Wellyn and Benson ran around the church, obviously too good to hang out with the parents. I actually felt like I was looking through a small window into Wellyn's teenage years:)

Thanks Jon for calling us up and holding our place in line and thanks Breanne for coming with us and bringing Benson.

3rd Annual Hill Progressive Dinner

2010-12-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Twas the night before Sunday and in all the Hill's turf, Hill creatures were stirring and preparing dessert. For the 3rd annual progressive dinner was near and soon all the Hill family and cousins would be here.
Stockings were hung by the chimneys with care so that grandma and grandpa could admire the ware.
The party started at Becky's with appetizers all yummy and we unbuttoned our pants as we started to fill our tummy.

Next up to Dave's house for the scrumptious mixed greens and all the kids played and no one was mean.

The drive up to Danny's was a little bit far but we turned on a movie and the kids slept in the car. The dinner was eaten with much love and affection as the Hill clan's stomachs needed faster digestion.
Here's Mike and here's Hailey all lovey and cute cause their wedding is coming and they can't wait for the boot(y).

Now up to my house for a lot of sugar but we were all so full the no one ate much, what boogers! I had lots of leftovers all caloric and mean and it would move to my love handles and make me feel green.

Our progressive dinner was a such success but we can wait for next year so our stomachs can rest.

Thanks family, what a blast!

Oh Turkey Day

2010-11-30T14:42:00.001-08:00

Gotta a love a little turkey right? Myself, I prefer some good pumpkin pie! This Thanksgiving, although as fabulous as it was, was pretty much the same as the others.
This year Wells got to go to school as an Indian. Instructions were to make the costume out of a bag, which I did, and decorate it with Indian type drawings, which Wellyn did. As you can see he has his part down for school.
Thursday Jon went to go play his annual football game with his friends. Usually I meet up with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law for the turkey trot but since it was so cold we all decided to stay home and watch ourselves a good ol' Thanksgiving parade. I haven't watched the Macey's parade in a couple years but this time around we saw hardly any balloons. The station focused on all the broadway stuff going on....really?!?! Wells lasted for about 5 min (the Santa part) before he was finished with it and was ready to get back to regular cartoons.
After Jon got home we headed over to his parents for dinner. I do look forward to dinner at the Price's house because as much as I love having 45+ people with the Hills, sometimes it is nice for a small intimate dinner.
This year Sunny had sewn Wells a real Indian costume and Cora a pilgrim girl costume so they could act out the first Thanksgiving and then we all gorged like all good Americans should.

Everett even got in on the action. He sat at his highchair for over an hour eating like the rest of us.

After pie Jon disappeared and this is where I found him. He was asleep on his brothers bed working off the tryptophan.

Afterwards we headed down for more face stuffing at my parent's house. Truly a great Thanksgiving.

"Man"cation 2010

2010-11-18T14:09:00.001-08:00

Okay so I am pretty much the nicest wife ever. Well, maybe along with a few other wives but hey, I'm freaking up there! Last week Jon took off with his bff Alan and another friend Brad for their 2010 "man"cation to Chicago. Why Chicago you ask? Chicago is a much cheaper place to stay (at least this week) than South Bend, Indiana which was the real destination for this trip.
Utes vs Notre Dame-woohoo!!!
Jon left Wednesday night, arrived in Chicago Thursday afternoon where he met up with Alan and Brad. Jon's flight was supposed to leave Wed night but he got bumped so he was given a hotel room, $400 voucher, and a first class ticket to fly direct on Thursday. Not a bad way to start a trip. I don't have a ton of details but I do know that the trip was spent with a lot of touring, eating man type foods like steak and seafood, and not shopping (truly a sin).
Friday was spent touring the city, and on Saturday bright and early they drove the couple hour drive down to South Bend all suited up in their Utes gear.

Once there they met up with Jon's cousin Jake who flew in for the day. Here are the men doing the touchdown sign in front of Touchdown Jesus.

The game as everyone knows was a total let down, but no worries we still LOVE our Utes. The boys had a fabulous time getting drenched in the rain:) At first I was worried because they had tickets in the Notre Dame student section, I mean really, have you seen the MUSS? Luckily for me, as for them, the student section was very hospitible and there were no fights or mean words exchanged. After Notre Dame's win the students rushed the field while Jon and Alan posed for some pics.

This big game was not the only big football game they would hit up. Sunday Jon, Alan, and Brad had tickets to the Bears vs. Vikings game and this time Jon's team won-GO BEARS!

The field is seriously huge!

The boys had a little more time to do a bit more touring and then Monday morning they called it a trip and headed home to some very grateful wives.

Here is Jon in front of the Sear's Tower

Jon and Alan with the famous diamond building (don't know the real name).

Thanks Alan and Brad for taking my hubby on a serious relaxing vacation. Thanks Chandie and the rest of you who helped me fill my time!

Go Utes!!! Go Bears!!!

End of an Era

2010-11-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

For the last two years I have had the opportunity and privilege of serving as the Young Women's President in our ward. I have had the most amazing presidency and advisors serving with me and last Sunday we were all released.
I thought I was so ready and thought I would be so excited when the time finally came since I have been in the YW's pretty much since Jon and I got married almost 6 years ago. I even knew when I got the call from the secretary that I was being released but when I actually met with the bishopric I got all emotional. Last week was spent pretty much in tears! Not sure if I was crying cause I got released or because they put me in primary (awwwhhh).
So I guess we will see how things go. We met up the whole two years on a monthly basis for dinner, desserts, or a movie and we have promised to continue doing that so we see each other. The girls have an awesome new presidency, pretty much the ladies I would have picked for them. They will be great and I know I will learn to like primary (probably not).
Thanks for an awesome experience ladies. I love you all so much!!!

Wellyn

2010-11-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

I am not gonna lie, life with this little guy has been near impossible for the last couple of weeks. I figure it is just a phase but man is it a doosy! He is at the point where he wants to be old enough to do everything himself, but at the same time because of Everett he doesn't want to give up being little either.
His tantrums are outrageous, he is disobedient as all get out, and he is so mean to Everett. At the same time he has also become the sweetest, most amazing little kid as well. How you ask? He will throw a tantrum and a while later will apologize for being mean to me or anyone else. He randomly tells us he loves us and will occasionally offer to do things just to make us happy.
We feel horrible because we have some awesome days but mostly we want to drop kick him (not really) at the end of the day. We love him so so much so I figured I would post some of the funny things so I can go back and read them on the tougher days.
The other day he wanted to get himself all ready. Usually he wants me to get him dressed just like I do with Everett so it is usually a huge battle. I of course was going to allow him to be a big boy and let him do it. A few minutes later he came out so proud because he had done his own hair.:) How can you get mad at this?
When Jon is home I am usually not allowed to help him, touch him, talk to him, or even look at him. He is a daddy's boy through and through! Lately he feels that he needs to throw me a bone so he tells me all of the time "Today, Daddy is my leader. Tomorrow you can be my leader and get me cereal." Love it! I can't wait to be his leader:)
He also loves to share with us the things that he learns at school. He will always tell me that he wants to teach me something or he will have me do the cheer they always do at school. He always tries to teach Everett things and gets mad when Everett won't clap on cue or something like that. It is pretty comical to watch!
He is also, sometimes, the best big brother in the world. If Everett is crying Wellyn will come up and try to comfort Everett. He will kiss him, hug him, or tickle him until he stops (or we make him stop). He will hold Everett's hand in the car and he loves to play with Everett on the ground. Everett absolutely adores Wellyn.
This post may make me sound like a horrible mom, but I do love my little guy more than anything in the world. Hopefully it is just because he is three and it gets better:) I know the funny parts are getting better.