Tag Archives: family

Nov 24 2012

Temple Square

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Corey and I  have been wanting to take the kids to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights for a long time.  The last time Corey and I saw the lights was December 1998.  That’s before we were married.  There is a lot that has changed on Temple Square since the last time we were there. We knew the kids would enjoy the beautiful lights.  The day after Thanksgiving was the best time that worked for our schedules. Although I don’t know if we would go at that time again.  Apparently as soon as it gets dark people come out of no where.  We spent most of the day exploring the buildings and all around temple square with very little congestion.  As soon as the lights came on we were shoulder to shoulder with all the people.  It got a little crazy trying to navigate through the crowds.   By the end of the evening we were tired and sore from walking.  On the way home we stopped at In-N-Out Burger and had dinner.  It wasn’t long after we got back on the road that the kids all fell asleep.  We really wore them out.

Inside model of the Salt Lake Temple.
Found in the South Gate visitor center.

Preston viewing a video of the different rooms in the temple

The kids on the temple steps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The family in front of the temple

The old tabernacle

Levi in the Church history museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids in front of a life size model of the angel Moroni that is found on top of most LDS temples.

The nativity just outside the Tabernacle

Temple square before dark. Taken from the conference center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temple with the lights on

Temple with Christmas lights on.

A blue tree that Preston really liked

Nov 24 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

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We don’t have any family that lives close so sometimes Thanksgiving can be a hassle or a little depressing.  Not this year.  We have a couple of friends who also don’t have any family near.  We combined forces and had a big Thanksgiving feast.  We did this last year and thought that it turned out so well that we would do it again.  It turned out well with only one hitch.  I had a band-aid on before I started pulling the meat off the turkey but not after (eeewww).  I was freaking out that someone would find it in their food.  Reminded me of that friends episode when Monica looses a finger nail.  Anyway, we did find it later while cleaning up and it wasn’t in the food (yay).  We did have a good laugh over it.  What a great night.  Always so much better to spend the holiday with a large group of people. There was 21 in all.  Thanks Jennifer and Andrea for saving our Thanksgiving.

Carving the Turkey with Jennifer

Sitting around the table

Kid table

 

 

 

 

 

Little kid table.

We had quite the spread

Dessert. We had 6 yummy pies.

Nov 1 2012

Halloween 2012

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The pumpkin bunch

Hey!  Look at this I’m actually up to date on my post.  Anyway I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.  This year we, as a family, decided to do a family costume theme.  So here is the story.

There are these two criminals at large.  Very dangerous.  They are wanted for grand theft, larceny, leaving the toilet seat up, and crimes against a pizza.  Their recent heist  was stealing a giant bag full of money.  Anyone who had information about these two are asked to contact the FBI.

FBI finally got the bad guys.

We had so much fun with this.  The boys were chased by numerous people trying to receive the reward.  We also had a lot of kids pretending that they were thrown in jail.  Harry Potter was a frequent guest in our jail along with “the Hulk”, a gangster, and the money bag herself.  Halloween is such a fun holiday.  It’s a time to step out of your shell and be who ever you want to be.  After the trunk or treat Preston went with his friends to trick or treat and came home with over 5 lbs of candy.  Sophia and Levi went with their dad around the block and got just about as much.  I hope this year will be a year they all remember.  We really had a great time.

Sophia and her daddy trick or treating (at our house.)

The super awesome FBI agents

A better view of the jail and Sophia being Sophia.

Oct 26 2012

Meadow Lake 2012

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Our campsite

After posting about the snow the other day it occurred to me that I haven’t posted for a long time.  So I decided that it was time for me to share our camping trip we had at Meadow Lake this year.  We went the first weekend of October.  It has become a tradition for us.  This is our third year.  This year was extremely cold.  As soon as the sun went behind the mountain until it rose up at 9:45 we huddled inside our sleeping bags in the trailer.  Once the sun was up we were able to move around and play.  Preston liked to go to the Lake and fish.  We spent a day in the ghost town of Gilmore.  Gilmore is an old mining town and we even found an old mine that was safe to explore.  On another expedition we hiked up the mountain and found a pond that was frozen over.  The boys tried to break the ice with rocks.  Yes, and when I say boys that means Corey too.  Even though we were freezing at night we had a lot of fun and created a bunch of memories.

Preston fishing by the lake

A fort Corey and I built for the kids

exploring the mining cave. It was so dark in there.

An old stove in one of the many run down mining houses.

part of the ghost town of Gilmore

The “boys” trying to break the ice

The Edwards Meadow Lake 2012

Aug 17 2012

Wild Cats

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Grandma worked last night so we ended up spending the day with grandpa.  Grandpa decided to take us to a place just outside of Cave Junction called Wild Cats.  On the way we stopped at Kerbyville and looked at this shop that sells a bunch of wood carvings and had a lot of tree houses on the lot that the kids explored.  When we got to the cat park we got to see a lot of really cool cats.  The first one we saw was the lion.  It freaked me out a little because I didn’t expect them to be so close.  It’s a little unnerving when they roar.  Most of the pictures that are of the big cats aren’t zoomed that is actually how close they were.  My boys loved it.  Sophia got a little hot and tired and by the end of the day just wanted to go back to grandma’s pool.  It was pretty hot but every so often in the big cat park they had misters to stand in to help us cool off.  When we got home of course we spent an hour or so in the pool.  We had a really great day with grandpa.

The kids climbing up a tree house

Grandpa T. on the lower level and the boys on the middle level

Grandpa T. lower level while Levi is on the very top. So high!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia and Levi posing silly.

Cool enclosed tree house with faces on it.

Leopard

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiger

White Tigers

Baby Leopard that we got to pet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Leopard

Very impressive Lion

Jul 18 2012

4th of July 2012

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We have a tradition of going to the parade every year.  This year was no different.  The kids love the parade.  At one point in the parade a live band with drums and guitar went by and Levi just started rocking out.  Corey started to record unfortunately he missed the best part but still got a little snippet for you to enjoy.

After the parade we played and ate lunch with some friends at Gem Lake. We did this last year and I think it should become another of our traditions. Later in the evening we like to watch the fireworks. We usually go to a place off Skyline near our house but one of our friends invited us over to see them in their backyard. This was really fun too. Corey and I forgot the camera so no pictures of the fireworks this year. I love that even though we are far away from family we still feel like we have family close. The friends we have made in this neighbourhood are great. What a great way to celebrate our country’s birthday. Hope you all had a great 4th too.

Waiting for the parade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our big group trying to squish in the shade

Jul 16 2012

Mesa Falls

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Upper Mesa Falls

The last weekend in June or first weekend of July, however you want to look at it,  we went camping up by Mesa Falls.  The falls were a beautiful site.  It was pretty crowded up there but well worth seeing.  They have an old log inn there that they have turned into a visitor center/gift shop.  I told Corey that someday I wouldn’t mind retiring in a log cabin like this.  We went through the visitor center and a park ranger gave the boys a booklet to look through that had a comic in it.  Afterward we walked the path that went by the waterfalls.  While everyone is looking at the falls Levi would find a bench and sit to read his comic.  He was so much more interested in what happened to smokey the bear than the beautiful scenery around him.  We had a really nice weekend.  We are so lucky to live near such beautiful areas.

Beautiful!

Levi and his comic

Really neat Inn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see the Tetons in the back?

Love Sophia and Levi’s expressions here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a couple of nights in this area and the next day we ended up hiking by Warm Springs.  They have an old fish hatchery that you can rent out and near there was a bunch of hiking trails.  We decided to hike a couple of miles (all Sophia can handle).  Have I mentioned how beautiful the area is?  This was a great weekend.  We had beautiful scenery accompanied by equally beautiful weather.  I love going camping.  It really helps me relax and get away from the world.

Hiking along Warm Springs

 

Taking a trail mix break

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grass is as high as Sophia

Family Photo at Lower Mesa Falls over look

Jul 15 2012

Levi’s 7th Birthday

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Iceberg with penguins cake

A little less than a month ago on June 27th we celebrated Levi’s 7th birthday.  This was a non-party year for him.  My kids only get parties for their birthdays every other year.  We do this for a number of reasons.  It saves us money on having to throw a party each year.  It makes it more special when they do get a party.  This is something my parents did when I was young.  This year I made the mistake of watching “Cake Boss” with the kids about a month before Levi’s birthday.  Levi decided that he wanted an iceberg cake with penguins.  In his mind he was thinking it’s going to be a multi layered cake with intricate details.  In my mind how can I make this look as simple as possible.  So that is what we ended up with.  The star was another requirement Levi wanted.  I think he wanted it to be suspended somehow in the air.  Sorry kid I’m no Buddy (the guy from Cake Boss).  We had a pretty simple birthday celebration with the family.  At lunch we had cake and opened presents and then for dinner we let him pick where he wanted to go.  Surprise, surprise he picked McDonald’s.  Over all I think he enjoyed his birthday and had a good time.

Blowing out the candles

Opening gifts from Nammy and Nampa.

Jun 12 2012

Another Birthday

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geek cake

A couple of days ago Corey turned…. sorry don’t think I should tell you.  If you don’t already know then you can ask him.  I’m sure he is fine divulging that information but it’s really not my place.  Anyway he had a birthday and he is getting old.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted meaning along the lines of flavor and frosting.  He started spouting off geeky things he wanted me to shape his cake as.  So I compromised and made him a cake with a few of his favorite geeky things.  I’m not a professional cake maker and I’m sorry if it doesn’t look up to scale.  Corey is also a very hard person to shop for.  He wanted some very specific things and after going to 6 different stores lugging around 3 kids I decided to order online.  One of the specific things was a certain chef knife.  I think you will all appreciate the picture with his precious.

making a wish

Blowing out the candles

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy Corey

Jun 12 2012

Camping

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Mike Harris Campground

Yay!! School is out.  We have been out about a week but I’m slow at posting.  On the day that school ended we celebrated by going out on our first family camp trip for the year.  We packed up and went to Mike Harris Campground in the Grand Targhee National Forest.  This is a place we have been before and like to go to for our first campouts of the season.  Despite forecast for rain we decided to tough it out.  The weather actually turned out perfect and it only rained for a couple of hours on Saturday.  We got there pretty late on Friday and discovered that we forgot many things including bug spray.  We didn’t want to be bug dinner so we had to go into to town and buy some. The other stuff we did without.  That’s what the first campout is about right?!  In the morning we warmed our breakfast up on the fire (breakfast burritos I learned from pintrest).  The kids really liked it.  They were easy too.  It rained for about and hour and we just read and played games in the trailer.  After the rain let up we went for a hike.  There is a really neat trail near the entrance to the campground.  It leads up to some peaks.  We didn’t go that far.  We only went as far as Sophia’s little legs could take her.  It ended up being about 2 miles round trip.  It was a beautiful hike.  On the way back it started to rain again.  By the time we got back to camp we were all pretty wet.  It rained for about another hour.  After that it was beautiful.  There was one other family camping in the campground.  We introduced ourselves.  Their kids are the same age as ours and they hit it off really well.  The kids went and played hide and seek.  After talking with them a little we discovered that they live just on the other side of the airport from us (small world).  We also found out that although they wear red and we wear blue we can still get along (those of you who are cougar and ute fans know how hard that is). We exchanged phone numbers and the kids have future plans to hang with them sometime.  We packed up and left Sunday morning.  On the way home we stopped one more time for a short hike.   Not as great as the first one but still fun.  This outing was a great start to our season.  I love being out in the woods.  It really helps me appreciate all that Heavenly father has created for us.  I can’t wait to go again.

Cooking breakfast on the fire

Beautiful Hiking trail

Sophia and her hiking stick

All of us on the hike

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids getting warm after the hike

Gorgeous sky as the sun was setting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost full moon

Our little home away from home