DATE NIGHT

Randy & I went out with some friends this last weekend and had some fun! We went to Tucanos for dinner and it was fabulous. We had some great meat servers and had fun playing with our food too! Then we headed up to Sundance. I have been up to Sundance before to ride the ski lifts during the summer but only in the day. During the full moon they offer night rides and we happened to hear about it just in time for the last one of the season. It was a lot busier than we expected it to be, but the lines moved very quickly. This was a pic I took of part of the line on our way back down. You can see the ride got a little bumpy ...

Somewhere in there is our friends on another lift.

Ohhhhhh .... that is the face of "I am having SO much FUN!"

This is another part of the bumpy ride ... that and the wrong setting on the camera.

A shot of the almost full moon ...

Yeah Yeah!!!

The ride was so peaceful and relaxing. We thought it would be cold but as we went higher it actually got warmer. If I would've had a pillow I probably could have fallen asleep.

I had to get some pics of Ciara the other day. She was in the mood for posing and wanted me to cut a rose for her. Looking at these pics I can hardly believe how much she is growing and changing. She is going to be 4 in just a few months. AAAAAGGGHHHH She still is loads of trouble, but isn't that face just too cute?!

End of Summer Update

It is starting to officially feel like summer is ending! Once upon a younger time, Summer was my favorite season. Now my favorite would be Fall. I love the colors, the cooler temperatures, putting on a sweater now and then, and the kids are back in school, which means routine!!! I finally figured out how to make our mornings go much smoother so the transition has been very nice. The kids are enjoying school and are excited about their classes. Kylie is doing cross-country, ballroom, AP History, and has Driver's Ed beginning in January .... so scary! Dallin just finished a dang bug project for science, has hip-hop again, and started guitar at school. Hopefully he'll be playing me Hotel California by the end of the school year .... okay, I guess I can wait a little longer than that.

Right before school started we moved, still in the same town but a different house. That meant we were really busy for a good couple of weeks. I was able to get 8 different rooms painted in a 2 week period and I have not attempted any of the bathrooms or the master bedroom and quite honestly not to anxious to get on any of those either. It was fun doing new colors though, I was getting the bug to start painting again anyway. Randy has been working hard in the yard and getting things done outside. He has even had a nice project on the car since he hit an Antelope on his way home from work one night!!! Now he doesn't even need to worry about hunting those suckers, he ran one right over!!! I didn't think they ever ran out in front of cars but he says that 2 of them did. I guess that's what happens out in the dessert in the middle of the night.

We took the kids to the carnival a couple of weeks ago. Ciara had so much fun! It was her first and she kicked and screamed the whole way home until she fell asleep. Apparently Randy & I are getting old (or wimpy) cause we only did 3 rides and I was sick after the first and Randy didn't feel so good for awhile either. It was fun just watching Ciara get on a ride and give us a thumbs up and a wink though. Unfortunately I forgot the camera and have no pics. That has turned into my favorite saying because every time we have been anywhere fun, I always forget to take it.

Dallin is officially a teenager now! (I think they get the teenage attitude around 11 years old though, girls get it much younger.) We had a great day though ... we went fishing up to Payson Lakes, didn't catch any fish, but Dal must have been cleaning the bottom of the lake. Again, no pics! He is such a good boy! He tries hard to do what he is suppose to do and his teachers have always really enjoyed him because he just does his work and is so cooperative. This year he has really showed a lot of growth in getting ready for school on his own. He is finally getting up all on his own in the mornings and getting himself ready on time! It's a big deal here. He has always been the hardest child to shop for, he usually doesn't know what he even wants. I gave him $$ instead and he doesn't even know what he wants to spend it on. Too funny, maybe I could ask for it back ... I could think of a hundred things to do with it :)

He does know what he wants when it comes to his birthday cake though! This cake was really yummy ... very BIG & yummy!!!!

Seriously a cute lil' man! Makes me a little sad though that they have to grow up so fast.

PICTURE UPDATE JUNE/JULY

These are out of order ... I'm don't really want to fight blogger at the moment :)

I spent 2 nights at girls camp up at Koholowo. We were there just a few weeks after they sent a bunch of girls home because of a bear and cub in the camp. We never saw any bear but we did hear one just outside of our camp Thursday morning. It had the cows very upset and the girls since it never showed its face.

We went camping out to Manti on the weekend of the 4th. We were right next to the temple and had a great view of the top of it. We swam a lot, went to the veteran's breakfast in the park, watched fireworks, and took a great drive on the Skyline Drive and got to take in some amazing views.

Ky's friend Cierra came with us and clearly did not want her pic taken.

Neither did Ky, but you girls should just enjoy having your pics taken while you are still young. You don't get to hide from the camera until you are a Mom.

Here is Dallin telling me to not take his picture either.

Don't go see this Dr.

Our view at night.

We just went up Beaver Mountain last weekend. This would be the Beaver mountain by Beaver. It was mine and the kids first time up there. It was beautiful ... lot's of trees and several small lakes, with lots of fishing to be done. Randy's brother Roger came up with some of his kids and spent a night with us.

LOOK Roger I got a picture of you with your eyes open .... woo woo :)

Ciara & Dallin really got into the fishing. They had so much fun doing it. It was Ciara's first time fishing; she caught quite a few of them too. Dallin wasn't quite as lucky, but he did catch a few. I didn't have the camera when he caught them though.

Enjoying a good camp fire ....

and a beautiful lake.

Kylie had a wonderful opportunity to perform in the Handcart Pageant back in June. She got to make new friends and learn new things. I didn't get great pics, but she is in there somewhere dancing and walking behind a handcart.

Beautiful girls!

All righty mom you are all updated!!!! :)

MAY MAYHEM

Where did the month go? It seems like it was just January and now school is out! May always feels like a super, crazy month. Well really after Spring Break it just feels crazy until school is out. I am glad to have the break though ... no more homework, projects, concerts, getting kids ready. I wish it meant sleeping in, but not with the 3 year old! She'll make sure I won't miss a sunrise.
The kids have been involved in dance at their school. Ky danced in Ballroom and Dal in Hip Hop. They both had a lot of fun in their classes. This month they had a Spring concert, Ky decided not to dance in it though because she didn't want to do the Samba and I think after she watched her friends do it she regretted that choice. Dal had a lot of fun doing his dance though. Their teacher is an instructor over at the VIBE studio in Lindon and he is awesome! (For any of you DWTS fans he danced during one of the result shows back towards the beginning as well as some of his students.) Dal has always enjoyed dancing and has a funky style of his own so this was a great opportunity for him. They even had a dance-off and he and his partner won!!!

Kylie's Orchestra concert ...

Our Memorial Day tradition is going to Deseret to do some decorating at the cemetery. This year we had a very pleasant surprise ... NO WIND!!! It was great! This was the first time we've been and the wind wasn't blowing everybody away. I'm not usually a big fan of the presentation, but it was short and sweet this year, and we didn't have to chase Ciara the whole time. These little ol' men are just cute too! They have so much patriotism and it's a lot of fun watching them do the 21 gun salute. They always have a local student speak, picked from a contest they hold about Patriotic Duty. The young man that shared his essay this year was very good. I really appreciated his thoughts he shared. It is great to be reminded of everybody who has served, is serving now, and will serve in the military to protect our freedom's. I am truly grateful that we live in our great country. I know that we often take it for granted and sometimes it is easier to complain about the choices our government makes, and the things that don't seem right, but we are so blessed. There are so many more things that we do have that others in this world will never have. We need to always remember to just be grateful for what we DO have.

On a sad note, this morning I dropped Dal off at the church so he could go on his scout camp trip this week. I can't believe he is old enough to do this now. It just didn't seem right sending him away for 5 days. SOOOO sad! He wasn't sad though, he was just super excited to be going. He wouldn't even give me a hug in front of everybody, that was just embarassing. LOL We'll just pray he has a super fun, safe, and mom-missing trip!!! (Don't forget your MOM Dal!)