HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!
So. Good news. The move is completed and we are LOVING being here! The mountains, the air, the cool evenings. The hiking and fishing and little voices asking for 'ma-ma' (grandma), 'a-pa' (grandpa) or 'soapy' (sophie--Grandma and Grandpa Winns dog :) We love it all.
So this was the cutest picture ever. My dad sent it to me before we moved saying,
"We are looking down the street in anticipation of you all coming to our house. Don't make us wait to long."
HA! I love them. Let's just hope that feeling lasts....3 years :)
Plus--our living arrangments are AWESOME! All 4 boys share a room--which sounds crazy I know--but it is working out soooo great! Plus also, it's a giant room (used to be our family room and play room when I was growing up so--it's way more space for them then we had in our old house) Me and Jess have a room, and then we have a little living room. We share our meals with mom and dad and just sort of live all together. Plus the backyard is so great! We are all loving it. Dad made a swing set for us ump-teen years ago and it rocks.
Luke goes out every morning and 'works out' thanks to Grandpa's example. (when he gets back from his daily hike, he does pull ups and what not back there (yeah--he's 60...) so Luke has taken to his daily exercises as well. In fact, when I told him one night, 'Luke--are you so excited to go to 7 Peaks tomorrow?' he said, "YES! But I'll need to work out before we go." Ha--he's funny.
Anyway--we have the swing set, the trampoline, a tree house (it's funny...cause I thought it was so great growing up, but now that my kids are playing on it I'm realizing that they could totally fall out and die--sooo easily--so...some day...we'll get a railing or something up there (ha--Jess is in school now---so maybe not :)
Plus--the mountains are our backyard! I'm telling you it could not be any better. And this is why:
Here's a picture from when we hiked to the waterfall by our house. The boys are in the "cool cool cave" (they were naming the landmarks on the way up with alliteration.) I think we Jess got them to give real smiles by saying some off color joke--probably farts or something...he's classy like that :) (It gets the job done every time though so...there you go)
Here's the waterfall that we love. We repelled down in 2 years ago--even Kade--it was Awe-some.
This pic makes me laugh. My good friend Val and her hubby are moving to England. She had a farewell party one of the first nights we were back in Utah and it happened to coincide with the opening ceremonies of the Olympics--ha--she's a hoot! She totally set up a picture station and took everyone's pics. She makes me laugh (I love Jess' expression in this one--but Val and Will are in the next one--they're so so fun!)
And woo woo--one morning mom and dad took Kade and Luke on a hike up to the "G"!
For family night we drove up the canyon for tin foil dinners. (yay for 'up the canyon' and mountains and streams! I love this place!) This is a picture of dad pointing out to the boys a rattle snake--ah! I ran across another one later when I was taking a short stroll to call Jess and the boys back for dinner--scared the bajeebes out of me!
There's the one--at the base of the tree...
Okay--so this next picture is of something delicious! Dad made these special fire skewers from an idea someone gave him, that make it possible to cook biscuits over the fire. Then we filled them with cherry pie filling, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream.......AHHH! They were soooooo freaken good. Mmm-mmm. So that was a huge success in my book!
Jess was kind of a pro at making them look pretty--he's good with stuff like that!
Here we are at Grandma and Grandpa Tadje's house. Ohhh, I love them both so much! Funniest, sweetest, greatest, kindest, most thoughtful and wonderful people ever! (I kinda like them a lot) :)
So...I turned the big 30! WOWZA right? Who knew that was coming? Good news though--I still feel like I'm 19 so everything's alright (I mean, okay--so when I tried to do a pull up like dad, I may have strained my neck and it hurt for a week...but other then that--totally 19 :) How cute is it that Kade spelled it out for me with Legos that morning? He was so excited to show me. I love it!
Did you know you could totally go down the Free Fall (on the right) FACE FIRST on a mat now? IT WAS SOOOOO COOL! Way better then feet first. Both Jess and I LOVED it! fun fun fun!
Since I don't like cake, we had birthday pie! Hip Hip Hooray for Birthday Pie! (and let's be honest--I EAT cake--I just don't like it really--silly silly girl.) Mom made Banana cream pies--an all time favorite, and I made a coconut cream pie (a friends recipe that I LOVE--I even made the crust--so woo woo--it was a big 30th birthday achievement for me :)
Luke was so funny--they sang happy birthday...and then he blew out my candles. HA! I laughed. He was like, 'ooooh, sorry mom' (was a little caught up in the moment) ha ha ha for reals. I love those kids.
mmmm...it was so thick and coco-nutty-- I don't care who you are (Jessica)--that's good pie.
So. Kade's in Cub Scouts now. He's close to getting his Wolf. He needed to "make something useful". like book ends, or a bird house. So my he and my dad made a bike rack for the backyard out of scrap wood. LOVE IT! Jess and I loved listening to how patient, easy going, and fun Grandpa was with Kade; letting him do so so so much. It was tender.
And just look at that! So so so cool! WAY TO BE KADE AND GRANDPA!
FISHING! So, the boys have wanted to go fishing for FOREVER! I've taken them once at the creek by our house....but it was 2 years ago, Rhett was an infant and well...not much success. So they asked grandpa to take them. So last Friday they got up early, and went fishing. They stayed on the lake for almost 3 hours (very impressive I think for an 8 and 6 year old) and got 1 Brown Trout! (out of the 26 people on the lake that day--only 2 got fish! Crazy! but yay that the boys got one!!!) and in all actuality, Grandpa caught it, and let Kade real it in.
here's Dad showing them how to filet it. He cooked it up that night and we all had a few bites--the boys loved it--so SUCESS!
This was THE COOLEST THING EVER! There's a family in the ward who takes down giant vinyl signs as part of their job? from the freeway? or something? Anyway--an awesome family who puts together this back to school party every year. We had navajo taco's, then the kids slide down this giant hill on the sign with dish soap and water. SOOO COOL!
Rhett did it twice. Both times with the coolest hesitant scream I've ever heard, "aaaaaAAAH!" Kade and Luke were both doing tricks onto the slide and going down.
