Traveling and Avenue of the Giants

When Josh's work put out the vacation calendar at work, he hurried and grabbed it.  We saw when Spring Break was for the kids and took it off.  So as it got closer and closer, I kept asking him what he wanted to do.  I never got a commitment out of him so I just figured we would stay home and work in the yard. I really wanted to go to the Oregon Coast or to Southern Utah, but figured it was too late by the time Tuesday rolled around.  (The kids were out Wed-Sun.)

So I couldn't sleep Tuesday night because I wanted to do something fun.  So I asked Josh, "can we please go somewhere?"  The next thing I knew he was on the computer mapping out a trip to Oregon.  Well, I still wasn't convinced that we could make it happen.  After all, we could have already been on our way.  I thought someplace closer would be better.  So when the kids were all gathered Wednesday morning, we asked them if they would rather go to Southern Utah or Oregon.

They said Oregon and the rest is history!  We decided to go at nine in the morning and were on the road by noon!  It's such a joy to have older kids or this probably wouldn't have happened.

We decided to go by way of Reno so we could see the Redwood Forrest-something neither Josh nor I had done, but always wanted to.  In the middle of the salt flats we saw our first giant tree. The Tree of Utah!

Yeah, I don't get it either.

We stayed at Circus, Circus in Reno.  We thought it would be fun for the kids.

We were wrong.

They hated it!  They were seriously freaked out about being in a casino.  I guess you could look at it two ways.  Either they are too sheltered or they know and recognize the spirit.  I choose to believe the second choice.  We had a nice talk with them about places where you can feel the spirit and places where you can't.  I hope they learned something!

After a horrible nights sleep and someone hacking into my email account in the middle of the night while we were there (sorry about that yucky email, friends), we high-tailed it out of there.

We drove, and drove, and drove some more.  The top of California looks deceptively small until you are driving across it.  And it rained. A lot.  A foreshadowing of things to come, I'm afraid.

It was really pretty though.  The kids loved seeing palm trees.  But we had bigger trees in mind for this vacation!

We finally made it to the "Avenue of the Giants".  This was our first experience with the Redwood Trees.  Pretty awesome!

Of course, you can't visit the Redwood Forrest without driving through a giant tree!  Well, at least everyone but me got to drive through it.  I was the picture girl and Josh said it was too close to risk driving me through again. :(

Amazing!  The pictures don't do it justice.

It's so amazing because these trees are massive, but can be hollowed out at the bottom and still be living!  We were all gathered in our first hollowed out tree.  There were many more to come...

This is funny because Holden is pointing up in awe of trees.

It was so green.  The Redwoods are beautiful even when they are dead. The most beautiful things grow out of the decay.  Simply awesome.

Oh, and did I mention it was raining?

Skiing and Scheels

We decided to go skiing one more time for the season and headed back to Powder Mountain.  It is so pretty there and has plenty of green runs for me.

Here we are at the top.  Josh, Kayla (Ally's friend), Ally, Logan and Jensen.

It was so gorgeous!  Everyone but me and Jensen went skiing off through these trees. 

It was magical with the ice crystals all over the tree branches.  I could have wandered around staring at the beautiful trees all day!

Kayla and Ally

It was foggy at the top, but that added to the charm in my opinion. 

We love our ski days!

I heard about the Ferris wheel at Scheels and decided we should check it out.  I made Josh drive us to Sandy so I could go to Ikea and Scheels for the first time.  Ikea was...interesting.  I felt like a sheep being herded through the store.  The only thing I really liked was the curtains.  They actually had some that were long enough and cheap, too! Maybe I'll get around to finishing the remodel of the front room and share some pictures some day.

So funny, but we ran into my Aunt Gloria, who lives in Grantsville at Scheels. What are the odds?  She is as sweet as ever and had her camera out taking pictures of us on the Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel was fun, but the wait was horrid.  It took forever!  And it totally freaked me out when they stopped us on the top!  The kids thought it was awesome, though.

Guess who was a Ferris wheel party pooper?

Holden loved it!

 

iPhone Photo Dump

I love the convenience of always having a camera with me. If you know me, you know I am never far from my iPhone, and neither is Josh. Seriously, iPhones are the best.  They even take pretty good pictures! So here are a few of the things I should share before I forget.  These are all from February and March, 2013.

Ally, Maddi, Riley, Abby

As the school representative of the GYC (Governing Youth Council), Ally got to go on a tour of the Capitol building.  She and Madison each took a friend from Student Council as their guests.  Well, the school advisor couldn't go so he sent me and Maddie's Mom as chaperones.  It was interesting to watch the actual sessions going on and to see the beautiful building.

The day after Valentine's day, Ally brought home her first real Valentine from a boy!  So cute and funny!  She didn't want to keep it (she does NOT like him) so I snapped a quick picture.

No idea what to say about this one...

Holden has not liked the dentist since his last visit to the pediatric dentist.  But he actually sat in the chair and almost let them clean his teeth this time.  Progress!

Because I helped out with some activities for the student council, they invited me to their year end party.  It was actually in March because one of Ally's advisors was going in to have major surgery the next week and would be gone the rest of the year.  They had it catered by Texas Roadhouse and even had line dancing!  I have video of Holden, but it takes too long to upload videos so I'll have to do that another day when I have patience. After line dancing, Holden turned on the charm with the girls of student council and had a blast playing hide and seek with them.

Anyway, while I was there I went with Ally to her locker and snapped a picture.  I thought it was fun because I would have liked a picture of my locker from back in the day!

Jensen started Cub Scouts!  This was his first pack meeting and he already earned his Bobcat!  Good job, Jensen!

This was Logan's last pack meeting and he got a special award for earning all 20 Webelo badges.  His leader even gave him a cake for his accomplishment!  He shared with me because I helped him finish up the last few at home. :)

A picture of my boys at their only pack meeting together!

Love these guys!

We got some free tickets to a Jazz Game.  Want to know why they were free?  They were on the VERY TOP ROW!  Nosebleeds for one and all!!  It was still fun and the boys even got new Jazz shirts.  The one Logan in wearing has their old logo on it and is a size too small, but he loves it and has worn it A TON. 

So that was February and March according to my iPhone. :)

Easter

Easter came at the end of March this year.  It was still chilly, but not too bad.  We weren't all huddled around the heater in Grandma's garage like some years.  Of course we started out with our Braegger Breakfast.

French toast and sausage. 

Then the hunt began!

Holden's haul.

Jensen is loving his electric scooter he got from Santa.  He wasn't able to start using it until his birthday because of the freezing, snowy winter we had.

This picture just cracks me up on so many levels!  Never a dull moment with Holden around.

 

The Hartley lunch and candy hunt was a hit as usual.

Making sure we get everything on our lists!

We had a great weekend!

Logan Turns Eleven!

Hard to believe my little Logan Buddy is now eleven!  The big day was on March 18.  We had the craziest weekend ever and by the time his birthday came on Monday, we were all exhausted, but we tried to make his day special.

I don't know what to think about this self portrait he took...

Here's his cake.  Once again I went all out.  Yup, Ally made this one, too.

 

We made a trip to Toads.  Having a season pass has been great!  And the go carts were even open!

He got a remote controlled helicopter from Grandma June and Grandpa.

All he wanted from Mom and Dad was a battery for his new lawn mower.  Yup, he bought (well, Mom and Dad bought-he's still paying back) a riding lawn mower so he could start his own business. He has been doing very well!  He is a hard working kid.  At least for other people....

Love you, Logan!



Jensen Turns Eight!

First off, we need to start with a picture of Jensen in his cast.  He chose a nice red color.  I think because the shirt he is wearing is his favorite.  He actually has two of these shirts from his baseball team.  He wears them A LOT!  So I guess he figured he should match.

 
 
 
On March 4, he turned eight!  I can hardly believe how fast these kids of mine are growing up!  Eight seems so old for my little Tater Bug!

Birthday dinner!

On his special day, I took donuts to his class.  We all went to Toads for some after school fun, and then we went to dinner at Idle Isle.  G-ma and G-pa Braegger got him his own scriptures!

He got a bean bag chair from Mom and Dad.

Here is his cake.  I really went all out this year!  Actually Ally made it and I didn't even help.  I'm an awesome Mom.

This is his new baseball bag.  The coach of his previous team decided to put together a competition team and invited Jensen to be on it.  Grandma June and Grandpa helped us fill it with the necessary equipment for his new team.

Then on March 16 he got baptized!  His cast came off on March 5 (the day after his birthday) so we were able to get him baptized in time.

Logan gave the talk on Baptism, Dad baptized him, Grandpa Naylor confirmed him and I got to give a fun spotlight about him.  After he was baptized he said the "gunky" feeling was gone.  So we had a good talk about how to make sure the "gunky" feeling doesn't come back.  He is such a sweet boy!

Danger, Danger!

The boys got snow tubes for Christmas and they had been begging us to go sledding.  We finally found a few minutes on a Saturday afternoon and took them up to the East park.

They were anxious to have some fun before it got too dark.  It was funny watching Holden pull the big tube up the hill.

They were having so much fun!!  It had been a couple years since we had been sledding at the park.

Happy Holden.

Thumbs up from Logan.

Snow bunny Ally.

Jensen got this tube for his birthday last year and it was the fastest and the funnest tube of all.

Mom and Dad even got in on the action.  Shocking, I know!

Phew, we didn't break ourselves.

Oh wait...

Jensen wanted to take the fast tube on the jump just one last time....

Yup.  Broken wrist.

Sledding is dangerous.