Trying to post my first video!! The boys and their snap pops on the 24th of July. I'm willing to bet this will become a more regular thing! AND I'm guessing I'll soon be encouraged to start doing some video editing. Gotta use that broadcasting degree somewhere, right? (I begin to love my dinky Wal-Mart Smart phone!)
Sunday, July 28, 2013
24th of July Video "Snap Pops"
Trying to post my first video!! The boys and their snap pops on the 24th of July. I'm willing to bet this will become a more regular thing! AND I'm guessing I'll soon be encouraged to start doing some video editing. Gotta use that broadcasting degree somewhere, right? (I begin to love my dinky Wal-Mart Smart phone!)
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Canning Kids Visit & Spanish Movie Day
Aunt Annette and her 6 grand kids came to stay in Pine Valley at Uncle Ed's Cabin. During the visit, we met up them at the ever fabulous Veyo Pool.
It was a cloudy, stormy looking day - and there was concern that we might not get to stay and enjoy it for too long. What happened was that we pretty much had the pool to ourselves the WHOLE time we were there! A few small families came and left - but we weren't at all crowded!
The kids swam and played for four and a half hours! (I understand Anna suffered from leg cramps that night...poor kid!) We had lunch that we brought (including some of my baby grapes from the garden), played some cards (Phase Ten), visited and captured some crawdads!
After leaving the pool, we headed up to the Cabin for a wonderful meal that Aunt Annette had prepared. A roast, homemade bread, zucchini bread, Apricot jam, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, a jello salad and home made cookies, and treats! (It really was like being with Grandma Shepherd!)
The smaller kids watched the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and we stayed until a little after 7:00. We left right before the rain started to fall. Pine Valley was beautiful, cool and green. Pine Valley was a lovely 77 degrees when we left, by the time we were back at home it was just over 100. Ugh, I'm ready for this summer weather to BE OVER!!!
(The other night, I ran to get groceries. 9:30 at night and STILL 101 degrees.)
The Friday before we saw the Canning kids we had a Spanish Movie Day at our house. We invited some of the neighborhood kids who attend NQ's duel immersion school to come watch Rio with the Spanish Dubbing on. We had a total of ten kids, not a bad turn out. I made popcorn, and they sipped Capri Suns. No problems occurred! Everyone sat and enjoyed the show. We'll have to do it again. It was fun.
OH! And I picked up some books from Nathan's principal at the school the other day, she was downsizing her collection. Later in the day Ashton was "reading" to Nathan. Nathan in the most tender voice said to his brother, "It doesn't say that, Sweetheart."
And this very morning, as I was blogging - Nathan got he and Ashton breakfast. Completely on his own! I went up stairs to check on them, they each had a bowl of cereal with milk. (Nathan was on his second) and not a drop of anything spilt! They're getting TOO BIG!! Nathan had provided Ashton with a kids bowl and spoon and had provided himself with an adult bowl and spoon. It was a really cool moment.
It was a cloudy, stormy looking day - and there was concern that we might not get to stay and enjoy it for too long. What happened was that we pretty much had the pool to ourselves the WHOLE time we were there! A few small families came and left - but we weren't at all crowded!
The kids swam and played for four and a half hours! (I understand Anna suffered from leg cramps that night...poor kid!) We had lunch that we brought (including some of my baby grapes from the garden), played some cards (Phase Ten), visited and captured some crawdads!
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| The Indiana Jone-esque Bridge we cross |
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| grandaddy crawdad, that Shane captured |
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| Watching the BFG |
After leaving the pool, we headed up to the Cabin for a wonderful meal that Aunt Annette had prepared. A roast, homemade bread, zucchini bread, Apricot jam, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, a jello salad and home made cookies, and treats! (It really was like being with Grandma Shepherd!)
The smaller kids watched the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and we stayed until a little after 7:00. We left right before the rain started to fall. Pine Valley was beautiful, cool and green. Pine Valley was a lovely 77 degrees when we left, by the time we were back at home it was just over 100. Ugh, I'm ready for this summer weather to BE OVER!!!
(The other night, I ran to get groceries. 9:30 at night and STILL 101 degrees.)
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| Spanish Movie Goers |
The Friday before we saw the Canning kids we had a Spanish Movie Day at our house. We invited some of the neighborhood kids who attend NQ's duel immersion school to come watch Rio with the Spanish Dubbing on. We had a total of ten kids, not a bad turn out. I made popcorn, and they sipped Capri Suns. No problems occurred! Everyone sat and enjoyed the show. We'll have to do it again. It was fun.
OH! And I picked up some books from Nathan's principal at the school the other day, she was downsizing her collection. Later in the day Ashton was "reading" to Nathan. Nathan in the most tender voice said to his brother, "It doesn't say that, Sweetheart."
And this very morning, as I was blogging - Nathan got he and Ashton breakfast. Completely on his own! I went up stairs to check on them, they each had a bowl of cereal with milk. (Nathan was on his second) and not a drop of anything spilt! They're getting TOO BIG!! Nathan had provided Ashton with a kids bowl and spoon and had provided himself with an adult bowl and spoon. It was a really cool moment.
Barney Visit!
The Barney Family VISIT! A very incomplete photo survey of our time together!
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| Jumpin' Jacks: A warehouse full of bounce house entertainment. |
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| Nathan coming down |
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| Olivia down the slide |
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| We ALL played at this one the longest |
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| The Manly Bonding |
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| We couldn't let the guys out-fun us. |
The Barney Family came to visit us in St. George! In JULY! It was GREAT to see them and FUN to have the whole cute family stay with us!!
Things we did:
Movie Theater - Travis and Shane, I can't remember what they saw...
Starlight Express @ Tuacahn - Grown Ups with Nathan and Olivia
Dinner with Ed and Minday - Whole Fam
Sacrament Meeting - Whole Fam
Jumping Jacks - Whole Fam
Pirate Cove Pizza - Whole Fam
Ivins Splash Pad - Whole Fam
Temple Initiatory - Cami and Amy
Pedicures - Cami and Amy
Lazar Mania: Bumper Cars, 4-D movie, Lazar Tag, Games: Travis, Shane, Olivia and Nathan
Feed the Ducks/ Park - Kids w/ Cami and Travis
Shopping @ Sportsman - Travis, Devlin, Shane
Snow Cones - Cami and Olivia
Time in the kitchen - Cami and Amy
Movies in the Basement - All Kids - HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
Grown Up Rental - The Host
Game night/ Dominion - Grown Ups
Food: Tres Leches Cake, DELICIOUS Paleo apple waffles, pot stickers, steak kabobs, fajitas, burritos, and some fine food from The Patio Grill.
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| NQ decided he didn't want to splash - his loss! |
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| Travis, soaking his |
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| duck feeders: SO HUMID this day! |
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| proud "Ninja Nun" |
I'm not having any super distinct moments pop into my head at the moment - but to say that we enjoyed the time they were here! The kids are SO cute (and many times got along SO fantastically!!) Other times - eh, they'll grow out of it, right? Even little Devlin plopped right into my lap at one time - I felt SO LOVED! I got to hold those sweet kids and squeeze 'em and love 'em!!
LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! And I've missed you since you've left. So have the kids, and so has Shane. We wish you the best with the next great adventure!!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Fish Lake
Holly is a determined woman. She wanted to take her boys for a mini-vacation to fish lake, so she planned and it out and did it. And because she's amazing and fun, she invited me and my boys to come along! Which we were excited about.
Holly picked us up early Wednesday morning, and we were on the road, headed to Richfield before 8:30 A.M.! We stopped at the Wal-Mart to pic up some picnic supplies that we had not yet purchased. And found, in the deli, the best kids meal ever!! It had a sandwich, a whole apple, a juice box and a small bag of animal crackers for $2.50!!! Cheaper than McDonald's, healthier than McDonald's and MORE food than McDonald's! Hooray for Wal-Mart deli in Richfield!
Then we drove up to Fish Lake (about 40 minutes further) and had a picnic at the shore.
We played on the lake, inquired about boat rentals (too risky with our little people and not enough adults to manage) and checked out the lodge and scenery before heading back down the mountain to the Holiday Inn Express.
We got all checked in and rested for a few minutes before hitting the pool. We played, for almost a whole hour, with the pools to ourselves. We only had to share it for about 10 minutes at the end of our swim. The kids did great! They're becoming very independent swimmers. Ashton took me to the hot pool and had some 'momma time.' He wanted and received some individual attention talking to me about what ever came to his mind. And he patted my shoulder and liked it when I gently tickled his footies.
Luck was NOT with Kade, he shuffled over to the lounge chair, fell HARD and banged up his eye. Poor kid! After we showered up at the pool we got dressed and drove to the nearest Pizza Hut for dinner after taking a food vote.
After the bellies were full and it was getting later we proceeded to Pajamas, sprite, and cookies - that were not very delicious. Cartoon Network was showing Lego Legends of Chima, which all of the boys devoured with zeal. There was planking, and boy shenanigans. But I am VERY impressed at the amount and quality of sleep everyone had!! I know that I (and I assume Holly) was worried about rowdy boys not going to bed, or babies being noisy at night - but there was little of it! Everyone was pooped and slept SO WELL!!
The next morning was easy going. Breakfast at the hotel (very nice and filling) and back to the lake with leftover pizza and other foods for picnic and lake day two.
We followed a trail along the lake, threw more rocks, picked up sticks, did a little shopping at the c-store, and packed up as a cool day was headed toward a rainy day. The weather was a lovely 68-70 degrees. Boats were all over the water.
On the way home we really hit some weather! We stopped briefly at Cove Fort (so I could use the rest room) and it is SO BEAUTIFUL! I really need to go back there for a proper visit! But we had sleepers, so I got a very quick look around. We missed the Indian Stake Park due to sleepers, rain and wind - and then made a DANGEROUS roads stop in Beaver at the McDonald's for ice cream and play place. It was raining SO hard we could hardly see the vehicles in front of us!! So we stayed and played for a longish while. Then we stopped by Cedar City at the Museum there, since the boys were asking about it. But it had closed at 5, and we arrived at 6. So in the 7:00 hour we were ushered home, tired, HAPPY and with vacation fulfillment!
Thank you Holly for your awesomeness and fun vacation!! We had a great time!
Holly picked us up early Wednesday morning, and we were on the road, headed to Richfield before 8:30 A.M.! We stopped at the Wal-Mart to pic up some picnic supplies that we had not yet purchased. And found, in the deli, the best kids meal ever!! It had a sandwich, a whole apple, a juice box and a small bag of animal crackers for $2.50!!! Cheaper than McDonald's, healthier than McDonald's and MORE food than McDonald's! Hooray for Wal-Mart deli in Richfield!
Then we drove up to Fish Lake (about 40 minutes further) and had a picnic at the shore.
We played on the lake, inquired about boat rentals (too risky with our little people and not enough adults to manage) and checked out the lodge and scenery before heading back down the mountain to the Holiday Inn Express.
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| Ben and Nathan |
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| Ashton |
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| Kade |
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| Carter |
Luck was NOT with Kade, he shuffled over to the lounge chair, fell HARD and banged up his eye. Poor kid! After we showered up at the pool we got dressed and drove to the nearest Pizza Hut for dinner after taking a food vote.
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| Bed Bridges |
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| Ben was dying for me to take this picture! |
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| Kade Bridge and Ashton Swig. |
After the bellies were full and it was getting later we proceeded to Pajamas, sprite, and cookies - that were not very delicious. Cartoon Network was showing Lego Legends of Chima, which all of the boys devoured with zeal. There was planking, and boy shenanigans. But I am VERY impressed at the amount and quality of sleep everyone had!! I know that I (and I assume Holly) was worried about rowdy boys not going to bed, or babies being noisy at night - but there was little of it! Everyone was pooped and slept SO WELL!!
The next morning was easy going. Breakfast at the hotel (very nice and filling) and back to the lake with leftover pizza and other foods for picnic and lake day two.
We followed a trail along the lake, threw more rocks, picked up sticks, did a little shopping at the c-store, and packed up as a cool day was headed toward a rainy day. The weather was a lovely 68-70 degrees. Boats were all over the water.
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| Carter and his Power Rangers |
Thank you Holly for your awesomeness and fun vacation!! We had a great time!
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