Summer Utah Trip

The kids and I were lucky enough to have a 3 week trip to Utah over the summer. One of my best friends from St. Louis (Syleisa) and her three kids joined us the drive out (Mike had to work). 6 kids under the age of 7 and 2 LONG days of driving made for an interesting but fun experience, and it was worth it to be able to be with family.

We had a curve ball thrown at us while we were there. I was pregnant- roughly 10 1/2 weeks and ended up miscarrying a week or so after we got there. It was a HUGE disappointment, like any miscarriage but thankfully I had family support and some terrific friends who stopped by to show their love. It really was a blessing to be in Utah when it happened, Mike is in a busy time of residency, so it was so nice to have my kids entertained and be able to go through it as easily as possible. And in the end were able to make the most of the trip and still made some great memories.

These pictures aren't in chronological order, it was too much of a pain to get them on here organized. But these are the highlights of our trip.

We visited my dad's grave and had a chance to share and talk about favorite memories.....

My mom organized a FUN Scavenger hunt with treats and prizes galore......

goofy girls///

We had dinner in the mountains and the kids got filthy and had a blast......

Went to the West Jordan 4th of July parade (a HUGE bust)

Grandpa Hales took us all to Leatherby's--- a family favorite

4th of July fun and fireworks

We went to Planet Pizza(?)

All the girls (including the littles) had pedicures

Rode TRAX downtown to City Creek (SWEET face)

Papa squirting the kids (they LOVED it)

 We were also able to spend fun time with Grandpa and Grandma Taylor but I continually forgot my camera (all the above pics were given to me from Bree). 

The BIG 5

We have decided to let the kids have friend parties on their 5th,8th and 12th birthdays. It just makes things easier and more affordable! So this was Collin's first friend party.

All 3 of the kids have always loved Star Wars (I think it's in their DNA). Collin loves to play Lego Star Wars on the Wii-- so that is what he chose for his party.

My mom made these invites

We had the kids do Jedi training course so that they could be true Jedi's.  Mike was SO helpful, I think it helps to have the theme be something that he knows a lot about :)

He put together the course--- using the movie for ideas. I tried to make the basement look like the swamp where Luke received his Jedi training from Yoda

They had to climb a rope....

Jump and swing on the swing

Stack the 3 rocks....

and then do a one-handed hand stand (didn't get pictures of that)

After completing the course they were officially Jedi knights and awarded their Light-Saber 

After everyone passed their Jedi test-- they were ready to defeat the Death Star

Presents!

Pizza and playing legos

Collin's cake that Mike made. 

Seriously, if I was the one to make the cake, I would have been stressed about it for WEEKS. But not Mike. Nope, he wasn't worried in the least (unlike myself) The night before he got to work, carved it and frosted it without a hitch. The frosting came out a funky color- but it still worked-- and most important Collin LOVED it. I was impressed.

Collin is an amazing little boy. He has the most tender heart and is so thoughtful of others. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

Grandparents and a Graduation

We have been SO lucky to have had so many visitors in such a short time. We had Rochelle the beginning of April, my mom and sisters at the end of April  and Mike's parents and brother Russell at the end of May. It was so great to have family here and to have them get a little taste of what our life is like in St. Louis.

Gra,Steph and Cassie

It's always a blast spending time with my mom and sisters. They are some of my best friends, so of course we always have so much fun together. We spent time showing them around, shopping/spoiling us, surprising Samantha at school with a special lunch....we crammed a lot into 3 days!

Samantha's class was having family members come and read a story to the class each day. It was perfect timing since we had family in town! Samantha knew that I was going to come in and read, but her teacher and I kept it a secret that my mom was also going to come in and read.

After the story time we checked Samantha out and we all went to the Magic House!

It was a bit of a whirlwind trip, thing went by too quickly they left us wanting a few more days. But they did ease our disappointment by leaving us fully stocked with some household essentials and non-essentials(funstuff)- 

 Collin's Tiger Tots Graduation
Collin has LOVED going to Tiger Tots. It was a bit of an adjustment afterwards.....he still wanted to go! On his last day they did a little graduation ceremony and afterwards they had a mini Carnival full of games and treats.

Chad and Collin

Collin and his friends Ammon and Kalea

Grandpa, Grandma and Russell
It was perfect timing: the kids had just gotten out of school and they were ready for some action! That action came in the form of Grandpa, Grandma and Russell!
The first night they were in town they stayed with the kids while Mike and I were able to go to a Cardinals game with some friends. Honestly, I am NOT a baseball fan, not really my sport. BUT I do have to say that it was an amazing field-- the atmosphere was so cool. We had a blast riding the metro into downtown and just hanging out with good friends.

We had a good time staying busy by visiting Grants Farm.......

Going to the Magic House

Playing many games of "Speed" checkers and "Slow" checkers......Grandpa worked SOOOO hard on some new steps out our back door. Our old stairs were just 2 steep narrow boards-- the kids would often get hurt going up or down on them. Grandpa built (in the 90 degree plus humidity weather) us a fabulous landing and new stairs and we LOVE it!!!

Grandma helped me to put plants in our front yard which improved our yard by leaps and bounds. Our soil here is HORRIBLE so it made the whole process a bit frustrating--- but the hard work paid off!

We were yet again spoiled. We are SO blessed to have such supportive amazing parents, who sacrifice so much for us

Easter Break and a Visitor!

Our Easter weekend was a good one. One of my very best friends came to visit. I have known Rochelle for most of my life---we met in Elementary school. She has always been and I know will continue to be one of  my greatest examples and closest friends. I am SO grateful for her friendship.

We also really lucked out to have Mike around for the weekend. We visited the Zoo (along with everyone else in St. Louis). We spent time at the park. Rochelle even sent Mike and I out for a night while she and the kids made movies at home :)

After almost a year of living in St. Louis we finally went to see the Arch.

I have to admit that I was a tad nervous for the ride to the top. You are enclosed in a little compartment (I get claustrophobic) Plus heights are not my favorite thing. It seems that I have passed along my wussiness to Samantha--she was pretty freaked out to begin with--- but we soon found out that there was nothing to worry about.

Waiting for our ride to the top

Looking out at the amazing view

Easter Morning

Looking for the eggs.....

Right before church

Each night while Rochelle was here, we spent the night on the couch surrounded by nothing that was healthy (licorice, junior mints...you get the idea) and we watched Downton Abby. It was the best.  Rochelle had not seen it yes--- so Mike helped us out by downloading the second season and then spent a lot of time burning them on to dvd's. It was awesome :)

For Easter dinner, we got together with our friends for a bbq and another Easter Egg hunt.

The night before Easter we sat the kids down and we talked about the Savior and how he is the reason we celebrate Easter. I made each of the boys a little case for their Book of Mormon, and then I made Samantha a new bag. I had to take this picture of Owee, he is so happy to have his own scripture-- he would just sit down and look through the pages.

Twinkle

Owee loves to sing Twinkle Twinkle Litttle Star--- especially with his ears plugged so that he can hear himself better. You can often hear him just singing as he walks around the house. 

Preschool.....FINALLY

This little boy has been wanting to go to preschool since Samantha's first day of Kindergarten. With finances the way they are-- it hasn't been something we could do. Lucky for us, our local high school offers a 6 week preschool for a fabulous deal. Collin gets to go to the highschool M-TH for a couple hours. On Mondays and Wednesdays his highschool "buddy" is Maddy and on Tuesday and Thursday is "buddy" is Chad- both really cute with Collin.

My biggest concern was what Owen was going to do without his "Colla"

We had been prepping Owen-- explaining that Collin was going to go to preschool and that he would be staying home with Mom. Of course, this never went over very well.

Example: The morning of Collin's first day he was dancing around saying how excited he was and all the sudden I hear "Colla, please don't leave me"

Talk about ripping your heart out.

I decided that I would try and do a little something fun for Owen after we took Collin. I told Owen that we could go to Target and get an ICEE and then look at  the toys. On the way to Target (only 3 min after we dropped off Collin) Owen asked if it was time to pick up Collin yet. He then proceeded to ask me atleast 6 times throughout our Target trip.

Now 2 weeks later-- not much has changed. Collin ABSOLUTELY LOVES preschool and Owen continues to cry when Collin leaves and asks me several times if it's time to pick him up. I'm sure that Owen will finally adjust by the time the 6 weeks is up!