Park City

Last week we went to Park City and stayed with my parents in their condo. It was a fun time! It took Sara a while to figure out that we didn't live at the condo but she caught on eventually. On our way up we stopped at the outlets to shop. When we were finished Taylor said "Okay, let's go to Park City now." It was funny only because for the rest of the trip he referred to the condo as Park City. When he was done at the pool, he asked to go back to Park City. He was always eager to just get back to "Park City". We did lots of swimming. The kids loved it! We also went up to Provo River Falls and took the kids to the city park. It was a fun time! Thanks mom and dad!

Taylor and Daddy
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Livvy liked the ball and trolling around the pool in her ladybug floaty.

Ethan and Taylor

Nat and Russ entertaining Sara

Grandpa and Sara


Our Family at Provo River Falls in the Uintahs


Uncle Alan and Taylor


At the park:

Sara is such a poser!

Taylor loved the digger.


Livvy had a great time at the park. She is a park novice but found that she REALLY liked the slide and the swing. The swing kind of put her in a daze but everytime she went down the slide, she giggled like this. It was so flippin' cute, if I do say so myself.

This is just too cute not to post- Livvy and Grandpa

Dave and Taylor made an attempt to ride the Alpine Slide. They got up to the top of the mountain on the chair lift but they closed the slide because of rain. They had to be shuttled down. Looks like we will be taking another trip to Park City to use our slide pass! They are sitting on the left of the chair- the rest of the people are "strangers", as Taylor would say.

Project!

I love to paint, not portraits, but walls! I guess it's not so much that I love to paint, I just love the finished project. I roped Dave into helping me with another room- the half bath. This is our "warm up" before we dive into doing the kid's rooms. He really doesn't mind so much because he loves to buy tools. What man doesn't love an excuse to buy another tool? Now the actual work is another story...eh hem. I love you honey :) We put up a wainscotting- he cut all the boards and nailed them up while I did all the finish puttying, painting, caulking, etc... Anyway, here's a few pictures. I think it turned out great! Now I just have to accessorize it- I"ll post more pics when I get that far.

Before:

During:

After:

These two pics are basically the same but the the light was on for one pic and off for the other.

Thanks for all your help Dave!

Use your powers!

I was working in my half bath today when I overheard this conversation going on between my kids playing in the garage: Please picture in your mind some seroius drama because that is what it sounded like:

Sara: "Honey help me, help me."
Taylor: "Use your powers."
Sara: "I'm losing my powers!"
Taylor: "Bad guys don't lose powers, they have swords."

A few minutes later I walk into the garage and see them piling dirt on scrap wood. Taylor looks at me very seriously and says, "We are making a trap for the bad guys."

It's conversations like these and them thinking that fruit-by-the-foot is a healthy lunch that make me wonder just exactly how these kids will turn out. Eek!

Red Pine Dental Summer Party

Saturday we had our summer party at Wheeler Farm. It was HOT HOT HOT. Our picnic spot was right by a little stream and a big row of trees for shade- it was good times! We went on a wagon ride, fed the ducks, played a mean game of bocce ball, and grilled some burgers!

Here is Dave with his harem of dental professionals, minus Jo. And by the way, I looked up the word 'harem' on dictionary.com just to make sure it really applied without being "weird" (just for you Fern)

In lieu of hiring entertainment for the kids, Fern brought Russ along- the kids were highly entertained!

The little girls just couldn't get enough of Sarah!

Melanie, Sara, Bethany, Wesley

Russ, Fern, Sarah

The kids had fun in the stream.

Megan, Taylor, Bethany

Natalie and Sara- just thought I would add this one to document that I was actually there!

Thanks for coming everyone!

Laundry Binge

I'm on a laundry binge and can't be stopped. It's 3:30 in the morning so I would like to stop but just as soon as I think it's a good idea to go to bed, I hear *ding ding* telling me another load is done and here we go again. It's a vicious cycle. But don't worry, I'm not so neurotic as to think it's a good idea to start ironing. I have an entire laundry basket full of un-ironed goods. In fact, there are items in there I probably haven't seen for a good year or so. Shhhh! Just to tick me off, Dave occasionally digs through the basket and pulls out a wrinkled shirt and actually wears it- in public! Obviously it hasn't ticked me off enough to do anything about it! Nice try Dave-o! Looks like it's time for us to get some kind of laundry service. And on that note (*ding ding*), I'm outta here!

Lagoon

We had a fun day at Lagoon yesterday! Kristina and I took Taylor and Sara up earlier in the day and played at Lagoona Beach. Dave showed up later that evening with Alan, Isabelle, and my parents. It rained for about a half hour in the evening which turned out nicely because it cleared people out of there and left us with free reign of the rides for the last hour and a half. Here's some pictures to document the occasion.

Taylor loved the cars!

Sara and Isabelle

While we were waiting in line for Puff, it started to rain. It was fun anyway! The 2nd or 3rd time we were in line, a couple little girls cut in line in front of us which made it so my dad had to wait by himself to ride the next train. It was pretty funny to see him on there without any of us. What a trooper- arms in the air and all!

This picture was taken while it was raining- Sara wasn't happy. She was cold but she decided to get on this ride. Every time her little helicopter would come by she would yell out "Mommy, I all done. I cold" in her whiny little voice. It was kind of funny.

Taylor, on the other hand, loved the helicopters- maybe it was the camo!

Isabelle, Taylor, Natalie, Gpa, Sara, Gma riding the train.

Sara on the merry-go-round. How cute is she?

I know, pictures of people eating are super unflattering and awkward BUT it's one of the only pictures with most of us in it together.

We had a great time. Thanks Kristina!

our new neighbor

Please help us in welcoming our new

neighbor across the street, John.

He is up for visitors at any time.

care for a sandwich?

Just in case you were wondering what goes on at my house while I blog...

I found this on the stairs- thanks Olivia!

Picture (not so) Perfect

I took Olivia to Kiddie Kandid's the other day for attempt #1 at getting her 1-year picture taken. It was not pretty. She wouldn't crack a smile. Not one. They brought out that clown-colored tickler thing (it looks like a duster) - her bottom lip came out and she started backing up to get away from it. The girl kept poking her with it. I have to wonder about the girls that work there. Do they really know what they are doing? I'm thinking NO! The girl tries for a couple minutes to get her to smile and then she starts calling for reinforcements who half-heartedly try, and then they all just begin staring at me and asking stupid questions like, "is she like this all the time?", "is she tired?", "is she hungry?" Yep, I brought my personality deprived, sluggishly tired, starved child in for pictures. Bring it on! Not learning my lesson, I showed up again today. She did do better than the other day but whenever she would get excited, her little hands would go flying up to her face. The photographer took three shots. Finally I just told her I would pick from those three and call it good. We may as well document it like it is.

Here are the pics of my little stinker- they are kind of microscopic but the best I can do. She is so cute and I wanted so badly for her to show all her teeth. The 3rd one is probably the best. You can see her bottom teeth but not the top.

Crisis Averted

Tonight Taylor came in the house screaming as though he had an arm lobbed off. I still can't tell you what happened to the kid but I can tell you this- he was hurt and not a kiss from mommy or a popsicle from daddy was going to solve the crisis. Through his death screams, we could only make out one word. "BANDAID". Really, what's up with that? Don't they really just make things worse, kind of soggy-like? I think they are gross but in the world of a 4-year-old, they are a necessity. He had cut the inside of his mouth with his teeth so Dave says "Taylor, we can't put a bandaid inside your mouth" which was met with more traumatized screaming. Generally when there is no blood to be found, I spend 10 minutes talking him out of a bandaid (it's the principle of the thing) but I felt bad for him because there really was blood- it just wasn't in a bandaidable (is that a word?) spot. This is what we settled on:

I'm thinking he looks a little Hitler-esque- not a good look on anyone but it silenced the death scream. So tonight we send out 'kudos' to the makers of Bandaids everywhere. Thanks for making my life just a little quieter!

WICKED

I've found in my life that what Dave wants, Dave gets. It occasionally works to my advantage. That said, we had a fun weekend going to Columbus, Ohio to see the Broadway Musical WICKED. We went to Denver last month to see it for the first time and LOVED it. Dave hadn't listened to the music much before then so after we saw it the first time, he tuned in and decided we needed to see it again. It was a great perfomance. Now we just have to decide where to see it next!

Stars and Stripes FOREVER

What says 4th of July more than chessy clothes-matching family fun? We began our 4th of July festivities still at Palisade State Park. We spent half the day there on the lake, packed up and headed home. We went to a bbq over at my Grandma Jensen's house and then stuck around for a neighborhood firework display. Dave went to the Real soccer game. Alright, who am I kidding here, I really just want to shamelessly post more pics of my kids. What's a girl to do when her kids are just so darn cute? Oh, and I'll throw in a family picture too, just for kicks...

The fam

All of my children looking in the same direction (sort of) at the same time- this is worth documenting! I just won't tell you how many pictures we had to take to get here...

Whaaaat? Taylor and Sara holding hands and looking... content? This is a miracle.

I'm not sure about Taylor's facial expression on this one but it's still cute!

It's unreal the attitude that comes along with a face so sweet. I'm attributing the attitude to her being 2 years old and crossing my fingers!




I just want to eat this baby up- she is so cute!

Climb aboard the "Chancho Yoda"

We had a fun Fourth of July week. We took the kids camping to Palisade State Park- it's down by Manti. It turned out to be such a fun time. We camped right on the edge of a tiny little reservoir- there was a swim beach and the water was warm. We purchased a new raft and steered Taylor in the right direction of giving it a proper name- "Chancho Yoda"- the name of the puppy he somehow thinks (and couldn't be more wrong) we will be acquiring in the near future. Everything was smooth sailing, though I wasn't too thrilled over the skunk sneaking through our garbage in the middle of the night- it wouldn't have been so bad if our tent zipper wasn't broken- I was sure I was going to be sharing a bed with a skunk. My parents and Alan and Kristina came along. It made for a good time! We highly recommend this place for a fun family campout.

Dave, Alan, Kristina, Taylor and Sara went on a hike on the mountain behind our camp and took this picture of the lake

Dave, Natalie, Taylor and Sara aboard the "Chancho Yoda"

Our little diva didn't miss a beat making sure she came camping with her Disney princess flashlight in tow- and check out her "camping hair".

Taylor likes to be and do everything just like dad- hiking included. He made it to the top of the mountain( okay, really a hill) like a champ! He got a new headlamp for the trip which was plastered to his head as soon as it appeared the sun might be setting- he especially liked that it was a normal flashlight and had a red light too.

Livvy basically smashed food everywhere making our camp an ant haven- if she wasn't smashing food, she was eating dirt and loving every second of it.