We Are Going to Miss Them

Dee's brother and his family have accepted a two year position with his company in Utah. We are very excited for them. What a wonderful opportunity!

They came to visit for one last time before they left and we got to have the kids spend the night. We had so much fun. The little girls all slept in Leighton's bed and Madeline was nice enough to sleep with Carly (she is a bed hog.) Robb got a bed all to himself. There are benefits to being the only boy.

We got a picture of all of them first thing in the morning.The picture seemed familiar and I found this lurking on my computer.

Same kids (missing one), different couch.Look how much they've grown!Psst. Don't tell anyone, but I am going to miss this one most of all. Why? Well, it could be because she is the cutest 5 year old I know. Or because she always says just what is on her mind. Or because she is my favorite. But, it's really because she will be the one who changes the most while they are gone. The good news is that they have moved close to my family and we can see them when we make our summer trip to Utah.

The Zoo

No trip to Utah would be complete without a trip to Hogle Zoo. It is still my favorite zoo. The kids waiting patiently to get in.

And in case you were wondering, Yes my sister dressed her boys in bright orange because she is a freak like me and is deathly afraid of someone taking her kids. What can I say, it runs in the family. Leighton loved the merry-go-round.
So, did Jensyn. Can you see the glee in her face. She didn't want to get off when the ride ended.

I must interrupt this post for a short story. Carly has a thing for mirrors. If she can see her reflection or shadow she will look only at it. She has even been known to look at herself in other people's sunglasses. She will usually continue her conversation, but visually you have disappeared.

OK back to the zoo.

Carly was having the hardest time getting on her ostrich. I didn't get it, she always got on her horse so easily. I was pushing from the bottom and she still couldn't get on. I finally went around to the other side to pull her over when I noticed this...

You guessed it, she was too busy looking at herself to actually try to get on! Then she spent the entire ride watching herself go around and around. She was in pure heaven!

Jensyn loved all the animals but seemed to like the meerkats the best. She didn't want to leave this window.

No trip to the zoo is complete without measuring up to the gorillas. My nephew kept saying he was the 'adult female' long after we had left the gorillas. We started to get some weird looks.

On the ride home, the girls were marveling at how close the mountains were. I thought some of you not from Utah might enjoy the pictures, too. And yes , Mom, I took the pictures while I was driving. But, I did it without looking which is why I took 15 and only got three decent ones.

Lots of Fun in Utah

O.K., so maybe getting my children up to watch the Pioneer Day parade only one day after they had spent an entire day flying was not so much fun. But, doesn't Leighton look thrilled?

O.K. What about Carly? Whoops, she isn't even awake!

Jensyn is always good for an early morning....

play in the gutter water. YUCK!

Quote from the guy in front of me: "I'm not getting up one more time for the flag, but if the prophet goes by I will stay on my feet for as long as I can see him!" That is how you know you are in Utah.



Leighton got to drive Grandpa's race car onto the trailer so he could take it for some testing. She was so proud of her steering abilities until Uncle Kyle came up the driveway and asked 'Who parked the car so crooked?'

Jensyn was all buckled up for safety. I think she figured she could do it since it looked kind of like the five point harness in her car seat.

You can take the redneck out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the redneck.

Hence, the baby with no clothes on.

We had a fire and roasted s'mores and then told stories. My niece wanted to play a game where you start the story and then the next person stops you and continues the story until the next person stops them and so on and so on. Mary started this story about princesses and fairies and saving the maiden. It went around and started getting pretty good. Carly was supposed to end it. Apparently she couldn't think of any way to end this epic so she improvised with the lyrics to her favorite song from Twisted Sister.

She looks around at all of us and says, "I guess, You're gonna burn in Hell."
We all burst out laughing. My Dad had a coughing fit, I nearly wet my pants and I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what in the Hell we were doing out there.

Grandma let Leighton paint her nails. Leighton insisted upon a different color for each hand.

After that Grandma wouldn't go anywhere without Leighton. I think she was hoping that people would assume Leighton painted them. I wonder if it worked.

They helped in Grandma's garden and Grandpa set up a pool for them to swim in.

They had their own sleepover with cousins on the deck.

Complete with a redneck drive in.

The t.v. pushed up against the screen of the window. We used to do this as kids and it was one of my favorite things to do.

We took a trip up to see Great Grandma Clark. Uncle Brandt saddled Queenie for the girls to ride.

Carly was a little irritated that she had to be led around. But, Queenie had just been bred and was not too happy to be away from her man. Even Jensyn got a turn. She loved every minute of it.

Our visit with Grandma Clark was short and sweet

and from there we headed to Bear Lake.

The Cousin Sleepover

My sister-in-law, Megan, and her four kids came down for a visit. We have been planning a sleepover FOR-EVER! We decided that this would be the perfect time. We invited Grandma and Grandpa over for a weenie roast on our newly dug (by me) fire pit. The kids had a great time and so did we. I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures. We finished up the evening with s'mores. They were so yummy AND sticky. The kids had their badly needed baths/showers and snuggled into bed. I tried to get a picture of the girls and kept getting underwear shots.

so.... Megan asked Kate to pull her jammies down so we could get a blog appropriate picture and the stinker did this.....

What a character!

Where is Robb you ask? He was going to sleep with Megan and fell asleep waiting for us to stop talking. Don't worry, we didn't make him stay on the floor.I came downstairs and this was at the back door.

I guess this is what it would look like if we had four more kids. Kinda scary!

While Mom's Away, the Kids Will Play

Ok, so I really wasn't physically away, but mentally only half there.

I was completing these fun projects.

A 'Trick or Treat sign, Halloween treat jar and framed B-O-O for my friend Michelle's birthday.
Hand Sanitizers spruced up for Halloween. I wanted to send my kids back to school with these last week, but just didn't get them done. The hardest part was getting the labels off, so I could put on the 'A little BOO! to scare away the germs.'
I would like to send in a new decorated pump every other month.
Anything I can do to keep the yucky school germs at bay I came around the corner to put some things away and was greeted by this:

Yes, Leighton is making a trail of Apple Jacks for Jensyn....out of a shoe box!!!

I have no clue where she gets these ideas. But apparently, it runs in the family. Click here to see a similar post by my sister-in-law, Megan.

Happy Birthday, Robb!

Happy 9th birthday to the cutest coolest boy scout, ever!

Sorry about that, I forgot that tween boys don't like to be called cute by their aunts, no matter how cute the boy happens to be.

Hope you had a wonderful day, and you got to play Wii until your eyeballs fell out or your hands fell off!

Camping Fun, Take Two

Since it rained, and my brother had to leave early (LONG story) ,his kids didn't get to roast marshmallows up camping. So, we had a pseudo campfire in the fire bowl at my parents and the kids had a blast. My oldest and dearest friend, Jessy, came over with her girls, Kambri and Devyn. It was so fun to have them there. I wish we lived closer so we could have fun like this with them more often.

Devyn dancing and roasting at the same time, talented child!

The whole gang!

Carly and Kambri.


Carly enjoys her s'mores. She was going to town and not paying attention to where she was putting her marshmallow covered hands. A little grass with your marshmallow?

We tried to get another picture of all the grandkids. Bridgie would not participate....
(l to r: Carly, Grace (Alex's), Gloria (Alex's), Adam (Alex's), Jensyn, Leighton, Kannon (Coree's), and Bridger (Coree's).

turns out, Bridger wanted the entire shot to himself. Is he not adorable?!?

He let me take several pictures of him, he posed and smiled forever.

Note to far away friends and family: Southwest has tickets for $90 one-way and we have plenty of room. We are only an hour and a half from the beach and we have a Crate and Barrel and a Saks 5th Avenue. Book your flights now!!

Camping Fun!

One of the family traditions that I remember vividly as a child is camping in the Tetons with my mother's family. We always camped up Greysriver over the 4th of July holiday. I have taken both Carly and Leighton camping with my family, but neither of them remember. They were so excited to camp. They started asking when we were going camping in the Tetons the second day we arrived in Utah. This is the view as you start up the canyon. At the base of the canyon is a town called Alpine. I thought you might enjoy a picture of their hardware store. Only at the base of a mountain would you see an Ace disguised as a chalet.

One of the games that we play is called Pig in the Meathouse or Old Sow, it is a fun game with sticks, holes and a tin can. It usually ends with bruises, scrapes, cuts and at least a couple of grudges. This game was no exception.

Leighton attached herself to my poor cousin, Cade. He is so adorable, it doesn't surprise me. At one point, Leighton said, "Now, Cade, don't go anywhere where I can't find you!" A little stockerish, I think. Cade was a good sport, however and let a five year old tag along. Thanks, Cade!

Leighton also foundered on the cherries we had brought. If she wasn't with Cade, she was found exactly as below.

I have no pictures of Carly up camping, she was always sneaking off to be the camp tramp. She scrounged around each morning, trying to figure out who had the best breakfast and then siddled up to the cook. It worked every time. She attached herself to my sweet cousin, Jackie. She is a reporter/anchor for a t.v. station back east. When we got home I showed her a Youtube video of Jackie. She was so excited and said, "I have to tell my friend, Jackie, I saw her on the news. How sweet, I love her!"

We stayed in close quarters. With nights at near freezing, that can be a good thing.

It rained a lot, but cleared up enough for playing in the crick (for you back home, that is creek.)

We had a great time and are looking forward to next year, hope to see ALL the family there. We were only missing one uncle and aunt, and a handful of cousins. We are really becoming quite a large bunch. And to think, it is all because of Grandma (I guess Grandpa did help, a little.)