Park City Get Away

Around every Memorial Day weekend Derek and I celebrate our anniversary.  This year we celebrated 13 years and Derek around for his sister Stephanie to take the kids overnight so that we could spend a night in Park City together.  Then, the next day my friend Ariel and Steve and Diane split the day with the kids, so we could do some fun Park City stuff.  We left Sunday after church, dropped the kids and Steph's and headed toward Salt Lake and around to get to Park City.  We stayed at the Marriot Hotel Park City (to use some points we had accumulated).  The first order of business was a hike.  We found a really need one that wound through some trees at a close by ski resort.

 It was called the Armstrong trail and then you connect to Dawn's trail to do a full loop.  Super beautiful, not too crowded.  Challenging enough, but not too hard.  It was the perfect Sunday evening hike.

Then, there was a spa in the hotel which we could use as guests, so Derek and I headed down there next to soak in the hot tub/steam room/sauna.  We didn't realize all the amenities were in separate boy and girl locker rooms, so this part of our anniversary we spent apart.  It was still super relaxing.  Then, we had dinner at the Waldorf hotel at the restaurant Powder.  The food was beautifully presented and amazing. 

 The next morning, we got up grabbed some pastries at Star Bucks right next to Knead a Massage where I scheduled full body massages for us.  This was Derek's first real massage ever.  He said it was great.  He spent a good portion of the time talking to his massage therapist (I could sort of hear them talking through the wall and kept thinking doesn't he know you aren't supposed to talk just relax?  To each their own I guess.  He thought his therapist was fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.  I guess his therapist was from China and is the official massage therapist for a competitive long distance running team that comes to park city every summer to practice at high elevation.)  Then, we went to the outlet stores to do some shopping.  We actually split up here too realizing that neither of us wanted to go to the same stores as the other.  We found some stuff to take home to the kids who were totally upset that we brought them clothes instead of toys (note to self).  Everything was on crazy Memorial Day sales.  Every store, the entire store was like 50% off.  We found some good deals and my wardrobe got some much needed new additions.  Lastly, we had lunch at High West Distillery which was rumored to make one of the best burgers in the state (this was completely for Derek that I decided we should go there).  

(I realize that I took more pictures of food than us on this trip.  Next trip, I will have to  try to be better.)  Then, we wondered the main street Park City shops where everything is way too expensive to buy and then headed home to our kids.  And then in true Memorial Day fashion we through a BBQ at our house that night with Derek's parents and the Mayletts.  A great Memorial Day Weekend and Anniversary rolled into one.

Zoo Day

The first officially day of summer for us when Liv didn't have school, I decided we needed to do something out of the ordinary to celebrate.  My poor boys keep telling me they don't remember going to the zoo ever which of course needed to be rectified immediately, so I decided to celebrate the start of summer by taking them to the zoo.  It was a perfect day a little overcast so cooler temperatures.  Camden exuded high decibels of excitement all day.  In what can only be considered a yell, "Mom, look a giraffe (monkey, elephant, etc...it went on all day for each new encounter)!!!"
They had on display around the zoo some ginormous bugs.

And the kids made a habit of screaming every time we encountered one of them.  All kids wanted a turn drinking of of this lion's mouth drinking fountain.

The kids had to climb on every statue around the zoo grounds.


They truly seemed to fit right in with the animals.

Here they are sitting in an Eagle's nest.

We made sure to catch the elephant show.  One of the elephants painted a picture on canvas with their trunk which Liv was pretty excited about.  The sea lion show and tricks were a highlight as well.

 The kids were sad that we couldn't see the tigers, but then Camden found them sleeping off in a distance and was pretty excited about that.  Carter is showing us how an awake Tiger would be acting.

All the kids were thrilled when this brown bear came right up to the glass to check them out.

  I got tickets for the carousel and train.




 We packed a lunch from home, but I let them share a cotton candy.

 It was a fantastic day of fun with my kids at the zoo.  It was the first time everyone could walk on their own and we didn't have to deal with strollers which felt like a major milestone.  Great way to kick off the summer!

End of School Year Craziness

First year of real school and I had no idea how crazy the last month of school is, but I know now.  Holy Cow!  It seemed like we had a performance or event to be at almost every day.  Liv spent the majority of the winter and spring preparing to perform Beauty and the Beast with Up With Kids.  She was a minion (yes there were minions in their version) and a flower.  She did fantastic with her lines and projecting her voice.  She's so fun to watch on the stage. That girl loves to perform.  Here she in in her blacks before dress rehearsal.

And I took this shot during dress rehearsal.  Liv you can tell is totally into it.  She's the flower with the big yellow bow on her head.

Here's after the show.


Then, she also had her end of the second year of Let's Play Music recital.  She was asked to play the most advanced piece of the group and did fantastic.  She has really loved playing the piano.  I never had to get after her to practice.  It's always the first thing she wants to do on her to do list.  I was super impressed with how much she learned in just one year of playing.  She played with both hands at the same time.  Right hand melody and left hand chords.


Then there were the kindergarten plays.  Mrs. Young decided to have some of the kids perform Waking Beauty and give Liv one of the fairy parts in that since she had memorized the whole thing for the storytelling festival.  Liv was thrilled about that.  Here are the 3 fairies.
  And her best friend in class, Hallie, was cast as sleeping beauty.

 All the plays were adorable, a total hoot to watch.  I was amazed at the props and costumes they had put together for them.  All the morning kindergarten kids sang a song together which was cute as well with all of them in their costumes.


There was the spring run off 1K race for kindergarteners.  Liv and Hallie and Kaitlin before the race.
 The boys and I got to go to school and run with Liv.

 It was a tough little distance for all my kids.  The boys and I brought up the rear alternating between running and walking.  Liv was ahead of us.  I saw her walking towards the end and started to cheer for her and then she took off and finished at lightning speed with the encouragement.

There was field day which I understand began with a bunch of fun field games.  Then, parents and siblings were invited to join the kids at 11 for a picnic lunch outside.  Liv packed her lunch and brought it to school with her.  She wanted to sit with all her friends and not me and the brothers on the grass.  Which was fine.  I just took a picture of her with all her friends and their Moms.


So much stuff for Liv, but I don't want to forget my cute little twiners who had preschool graduation.   The were super excited to perform all their songs for me.  They looked adorable in their cute little caps and gowns and sang a bunch of cute songs.  My favorite was Little Miss Muffett and all the kids shoot their little booties on the wagging their tails behind them part.  Then, proudly walking up the isle when their name was called holding their diploma and of course threw their hats at the end.  After it was all over Camden excitedly asked me if I liked it and he did a good job.  Loved it!

So Long Spring, Hello Summer

Here's my grab bag post finishing off the Spring and heading into Summer.  Liv keeps asking me to take pictures of her doing various things and post it to instagram.  This was one such occasion.  I was visiting teaching and Staycee Hutchings has these two cute little dogs that my kids were loving since they were small enough of them to pick up and carry around the room.  Liv loved that this little dog was giving her licks and wanted it posted to instagram.

One May day it got cold again after finally getting warm and we had some snow flurries.  Camden was so excited for the snow and suited up to go play in it.  Snow suit and all even though there was little more than a dusting on the grass.

One afternoon the kids got creative.  Liv made a little rail friend and Camden made Carter (who was asleep an missed out on the festivities).  Camden smiled and told me, "And I only colored on the wall a little bit."


This picture cracks me up.  I caught Camden sitting this way, and he said "Look Mom, I'm doing how they sit in China."

One evening at the Thorsted's they boys delightedly rode around on their little 4 wheeler.  Camden insisted on driving the whole time and Carter was happy to be driven (luckily).

One crazy day when it wasn't that warm.  The boys were thrilled to run in the sprinklers.  I thought they were crazy, but they had fun.

 The first real hot day this year both my boys passed out of the couch in the afternoon after playing hard in the sun.

I hit my 1 year mark since knee surgery.  Felt huge.  And I do feel like my knee is mostly back to functioning normally.  I mean I don't think I will get out on the indoor soccer field anytime soon, but I can hike and run and do just about everything now.  I don't feel like I have to brace for impact every time my kids get near my knee and remind them that I have a bad knee.  In short, I don't have a  bad knee anymore!

Derek and I ripped out some rose bushes along our front fence and while Derek wanted to replace them with sod to avoid having to weed there anymore, I begged him to let me plant flowered.  I am loving everything we planted there and was thrilled when this first ornamental poppy opened up.

Derek and I considered not planting our huge garden plot this year since he was down an arm, but luckily Jedd and Sandy Maylett offered to help plant if they could reap the benefits of our garden.  So, the fully garden plot with lettuce, kale, spinach, peas, carrots, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, and peppers.  They even helped lie down the drip system while Derek stood by and ordered us around from the sidelines.  All the plants have really taken off!  It should be a good garden year.

The warm weather has Liv begging to do a lemonade stand every day.  I hate lemonade stands and guilting our neighbors into contributing, but she was so excited that I folded, two days in a row.  After the second day I banned lemonade stands for the rest of the summer upon learning that a neighbor girl had stole a bunch of money from her brother to buy lemonade from Liv.

I like to work with the kids every summer on letters and math and reading just so they don't forget what they spent all the time in school learning.  And, I also decided that they are all old enough to significantly help me with chores.  So, the night before the first official day of no school I had all the kids help me make these little cookie sheet chore charts.  We bought cookies sheets at the dollar store, printed off a little to do/done sheet from online and used the clear rocks and magnets I already had to make magnets for each of the chores around the house.

Every night I put the tasks the kids have to complete before earning Ipads, tablets, TV, movies for the day.  So far they think it is fun and I am loving all the assistance I am receiving around the house.  Their favorite thing to have to do is "learning time".  Hurray!