A Visit From An Old Friend

Back at the beginning of August, my college roommate, Tina, came to stay with us. She and her family were on their way from Missouri to Idaho and stayed overnight at our house. The next day we took the kids to see some of the sights downtown. It was fun seeing her again and getting to catch up. I also enjoyed meeting her family. It has been about 15 years since the last time we saw each other. The above picture was taken at our apartment circa 1992/93.

These first 2 pictures are at the Ellis Island Family History exhibit in the Joseph Smith Building.

Aubrey, admiring the chandelier in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Addy and Zac looking at the Temple

Chris, Tina and their kids

Steve was able to meet us downtown for awhile

Jenna, Aubrey and Addy

Steve and Addy on top of the Conference Center

All the kids waiting to ride light rail back home

We've Been Schooled

I am WAY behind in my posts. I'm trying to catch up. First I must say, my count was off on my last post, that was actually my 701st post. Not 700. I never was any good at math. Anyhoo. School is back in session and has been for a few weeks now. Summer seemed to fly by so fast. When I was waking the kids up for their first day of school, it seemed like just a few weeks had passed since that morning I woke them up and we sang a chorus of "School's Out For Summer" before blowing out the candles on our "First Day Of Summer Waffles". It went by so fast and so many things I had planned never came to pass. Oh well. There's always next summer.

So Z. He started his first year of Jr. High! Can't quite believe it. He is enjoying it so far. He is even in the band and learning to play the French Horn.

Emily started 5th grade, she will be in Jr. High before I know it. And Aubrey started 2nd. She is still in Spanish immersion where 1/2 her day is all in Spanish.

My sweet little Addy started her 1st year of Pre School last week. She is so excited. And she is not the only one!
Here she is with her teacher.

That's Fair

FYI: For those of you who care

(which should be just about all of you, but is probably only me and google)

This is my

700th Blog Post

*she curtsies, smiles, waves your admiring gestures away*

"Oh, it's nothing really..."


Now, back to the post and this cute little gal:

Growing up, I attended the LARGEST BESTEST State Fair ever in the whole entire world, just about every year of my life. So when I moved away from that place where everything is bigger and better, the thought of going to a lesser state fair, well...that just wasn't even a thought at all. Then last year, my kids and I watched an Oprah where she attended the above mentioned state fair and my kids wanted to go so bad. I realized that by being the state fair snob that I am, I was depriving my children of some fantastic experiences and memories. So yesterday after the kids got home from school, Steve and I loaded them into the swagger waggon and headed for the fair. We had a BLAST! I learned that I am way too old for really fast, spinning rides. Which unfortunately describe just about all the rides at the fair. Addy and I stuck mostly to the slower, less spinning rides. I was glad to have her as my ridding partner. Except for that one time, when we were on the spinning dragons, and she kept turning the wheel to make us go around faster and faster...

What's For Dinner - Vegetable Medley

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time. I made this for dinner tonight and it was SO DANG YUMMY I just had to share. Even my kids LOVED it. I participate in a food co-op every week. I love all the fresh fruits and veggies I get for only $15! If you are interested, you should check it out. They have locations all over UT and some in ID, AZ and TX. I love it because I get my fruits and veggies there, and we have tried so many things we never would have tried otherwise. I go to a bread outlet about once a month and stock up on bread that I freeze. I buy 8-10 gallons of milk at a time and put them in my extra fridge. That means I make a trip to Costco or Sam's about once a month and a trip to a regular grocery store about once a month. I LOVE not having to go to the store every week! And I save a ton because there are no impulse buys (except for that one trip a month).

Anyway, back to dinner. I had a lot of leftover veggies that I needed to use from the past few weeks. So I took a baking dish, threw some chicken tenders in, then cut up whatever vegetables I wanted to get rid of. They were: potatoes, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and red and green bell peppers. I threw those on top of the chicken. I also added some minced garlic. Then I took a bottle of store brand "Olive Oil and Vinegar" salad dressing and dumped that on top of the whole thing and popped it into the oven. An hour and a half later we had the most fabulous dinner. I served it with Rhodes rolls. 'Cause I'm fancy like that. So seriously, it was the easiest dinner to make and it was delish. Next time you have a plethora of vegetables, you should give it try!

Remembering...

I woke up this morning remembering what it was like waking up 9 years ago on this day. I woke Zac up, took him to the kitchen so he could eat breakfast and get ready to go to Pre-School. I turned on the little TV that was sitting on my kitchen counter. The first plane had already hit the first tower. I went into my bedroom and turned on the TV and told Steve he needed to wake up and watch this. I went back in the kitchen with Zac. I watched with the rest of the world as the second plane hit the second tower. I remember what it felt like in our country that day. I remember what it felt like in the days that followed. I remember how we came together as Americans. I wish we could do that again. Without a tragedy this time.

We talked to the kids this morning and explained to them why this day is a special day in our country. We went to a nearby Botanical Center where we heard tale of a 9/11 Memorial that was built to honor the Utahan's who lost their lives on 9/11/01. We couldn't find the Memorial anywhere, but it was a beautiful place to be.

On a completely separate note, look how they trained this fruit tree to grow. We plan on planting a lot of fruit trees and I LOVE this.

Summer Fun In The Sun

We were lucky enough to get passes to a nearby water park this summer. My sister Lauren and Zac's friend Garrett and his sister Jess also had passes. We found ourselves soakin' up the sun and makin' waves twice a week all summer long. We were able to make a ton of fun memories. I can't believe summer is over and our time at the water park has come to a close. We got in one last day of fun last Friday. Here are some pictures of our summer water park adventures.

Lucky #13

Z Dawg turned 13 last Thursday! To celebrate we took him and some of his friends bowling. They had fun as you can see:

It Was An Off Road Kinda Day

We had a busy crazy summer. It left us no time to ride 4 wheelers. We decided we better get out and get some ridin' in before it was too late. So we headed for the hills this morning. My brother Sam was in town so he went with us. We had a fun time. We are all EXHAUSTED now! I'm kinda mad because my camera battery died before we got to the really beautiful part of the ride and the really BIG puddles. I am so thankful that we live in such a BEAUTIFUL place!