Lake Powell

Josh sister has a house boat time share on lake powell.  Over labor day weekend we had a family reunion of sorts at lake powell.  So pretty out there! Lake powell is actually where Josh and I got to know each other back in the day... We had a super fun time- especially my kids, they thought it was the best thing that ever happened to them (but it did make me nervous to have them around so much water). Logan keeps asking me "where did lake powell go?"

 

  I have to admit that I am super nervous when I am in deep lakes/water. I have a terrible fear of sharks and things and I am so nervous that somehow a shark is going to appear and eat me. it really is rediculous how nervous this makes me.   I tried to put on some goggles and look down in the water (because I want to graduate to an open water triathalon) but i freaked out after less than a second!Luckily my children had no such fear.  They had no problem swimming out in the middle of the lake or any such thing.

 

Josh and I were doing a little cliff jumping and logan was in the boat with the others. I could hear him crying (he often gets upset when he sees us and thinks he can't access us) so I hurried and jumped down and swam over to the boat only to find he wasn't upset because he wanted us, he was upset because he wanted to jump off the cliff too! haha. I thought he might chicken out when he got up there, but nope. 

 

the first day we got out on the lake, Millie went out for a boat ride with her uncle and a bunch of the boys.  I looked off the top of the house boat a while later and saw millie jumping off cliffs across the way!  My children are to brave for their own good.  Apparently Millie was the first one to jump off too.

 Logan LOVES snorkle goggles.  He loves to stick his face down in the water and hold his breathe for a few seconds and "swim like a big boy"

 

 Logan and Uncle andy caught this catfish, but logan was a little to nervous about the squirming fish to pose with it in a photo.

We had a good little beach that we parked the house boat on, and a ton of sand toys.  They had alot of fun burrying each other, making spa's, rivers, mermaid tails, dragons etc.

 

There were a few (scary) storms while we were out on the lake.  we were docked by some "cliff's" that you could climb up.  When it would rain there were some really cool water falls that would come down the rocks.  In this photo, we had climbed up the cliffs to "bathe in the warm waterfall"

 haha! this picture is my favorite!!!!  It just expemplifies millie.  She always has to be doing something silly.  As soon as she noticed I was taking pictures of her she turned around and started pulling hideous faces and doing crazy poses.  Aunt christy brought a bunch of sidewalk chalk so the kids could color on the cliffs!
 

 

 There were some clams (or something) that had washed up on shore and would get stuck in the sand.  Millie noticed them and was very concerned.  she would go around each day and throw them back in the water to set them "free and in the wild"

 

Logan and millie do this thing called "digging" where they make a huge pile of pillows and blankets and then plow through them with their head.  Logan thought he could do that to this sand cliff!

 

Logan LOVES his older cousins! luckily they love him too and are so good to him.  they had a water slide on the back of the boat and everyone would try to persuade logan to go down with them. Logan was the star of the show! He does this cute new thing where he wraps his arms very tightly around 2 people's necks and says "buddies"

Quiet book

I made this Quiet book for an easter present to my kids. I enjoyed making it, but man did it take a while! I took all the ideas from others, but, to my credit, i DID make some of the patterns on my own! I collected all these ideas online and then saw others i want to make (from some friends who had made books) so I still have a few more pages to work on.

General construction:  I used felt for the "activity pieces" and regular cotton for the actual pages because I have heard that if you use felt it isn't as strong, doesn't last as long, and looks messy sooner.  I ironed thick innerfacing to each page.  I sized my pages based on the innerfacing- so I can get 2 pages out of the width of the innerfacing. (or interfacing?? haha, i don't know)

 Fishing.  I made my own pattern for this one. There are magnets sewn inside the fish. (and there are actually 5 fish for this one)  there is a small magnet on the end of the string to pick them up with.  the pole is just made of a bamboo skewer, I used ducked tape to connect the string and then gorilla glue to connect the manget.

 I Made my own pattern for this one too, but got the idea from the blog "Hippos and dinosaurs." the mom zips open and you find a little baby inside! The arms and baby are both double thickness of felt so it's stronger.

This pattern can be found at here. there are several other face choices inside the bucket on the right.

 

 This sand castle pattern is found here. I made the bucket larger that the pattern, but it is still too small. I also added a velcro sun... I did a blanket stich on the edges because I wanted it to look just like theirs, but it was NOT worth it.  I wish I would have just sewed it with the machine.

    Sock Matching! this can be found at the same website as the sand castle.

Cutting board puzzles. got this idea from here  but i made my own pattern's for a beet, an apple and a strawberry. on the blog they put velcro across the cutting board and on the backs of each puzzle piece.  I did NOT use any velcro because felt sticks to itself well enough on it's own and i have heard that velcro gets stuck to other random felt pieces on accident and makes the felt pill up.

 

 

number matching. you match the number of sprinkles (beads) to the number on the cupcake tin.  I made my own patern for this one but the idea is from the same blog as the cutting board page. Used puffy paint for the numbers and I made the frosting and the cupcake both double thickness, but the cupcake tin's are just a single layer of felt.

 

Bow tying. I don't remember where I got this one but i made my own pattern.

 

3 little pigs. this one is from here. she had used a pattern that she bought, then downscaled it I think. I am cheap so I just made my own patterns.  not quite as cute as hers, oh well.

 

 This is my cover.  after I made it i saw how my friend Jenna made hers and I wished I had done it like that... way more simple. I sewed 2 pieces of cotton right sides together, flipped, top stiched, and added a velcro closure. Also added a fabric pocket to the back for any loose pieces you may just need to shove in.

here is they way I bound the book.  put eyelets in the pages (easier and cheaper than i thought) then after my cover was a stitched together I added a strip of fabric (double thickness) down the center. I left openings where I could slide my rings under the fabric. hope that makes sense.

California Family Vacation

We had a little family reunion with my parents and sisters in california a couple weeks ago.  My Family all lives in utah, so they see each other often and may be a little sick of each other, but it was nice of them to plan this so WE could see them. jk

 

We did alot of the classic S. california things, like spending time at the beach! it was kindof a dreary

 week that we were there, but we still fun!!!

My beautiful little sis Tracy holding logan

 

 

 

 

Mill and her cousin Ollie hard at work

 

 

Josh's wet suit!  haha!

 

We had a day at the San Diego zoo.  It was super rainy when we got there (which was good b/c it wasn't very crowded).

 

 

We had to buy the ponchos at the zoo, so the sizes were a little off... so millie wouldn't wear one. But logan didn't mind. He was Sooo proud of himself and his panda poncho. He kept wandering around telling everyone "I'n a pana bear" and then later in the day Millie informed us of a serious problem: "The vampires were making her poop smell like animal stink!"

 

 These are all the cousins on my side.  Henny and Ollie (the 2 kids that aren't mine) are Kelly's


Do you know how much I love Disneyland? I just love being there and walking around.  I don't really even care what I do... well, that's not true... I have to make sure to get  myself a Mickey Mouse carmel apple!

 

 

 

 

Millie likes seeing characters way more than going on rides!  she had been looking forward to going to pixie hollow for weeks.  (somehow we had come across a clip on youtube of some people visiting pixie hollow)  Millie made sure to tell tinkerbell that we saw her on youtube. Logan also really liked seeing characters.  He was inthralled with the ones in full costume (like mickey) but didn't actually want to get close to them.  But he loved the ones that were actually human.  He was trying to show off for the fairies and kept showing him his tummy!

This may have been logans favorite part of the day.

 

 

Logan LOVED this ride! maybe as much as the popcorn!

 

I love the picture.  I love the expressions on each persons face! (don't know why some of these are blury? but if you click on them you can see them clearly)

 

 

Ahhh!  delicious end to a great day.

Iron Man

 

2 weeks ago Josh did a 1/2 iron man (70.3) in St George.  He had done a couple sprint triathalons before, so this was a big jump.  He put in alot of training and did really well! He went faster than expected on his swim and bike, consquently, his run had a few issues. haha.  but he still finished in 4:40 and placed well!  He said it was the hardest thing he'd ever done and is not sure if he will do more. But i have a feeling he will change his mind about that.  Nice job josh!

corn dogs

this is a bad idea... in many ways.  Unfortunatly, we have done it more than once (usually after getting home late from eating dinner at someone's house and the kids didn't eat well, so we give them a "nutritious" late night snack in the bathtub.) haha!

 

Dad's 60th

It was my Dad's 60th birthday in April.  We went out to utah to surprise him, but found out our surprise had been spoiled.  But we still had fun.  His birthday was conference weekend, so we got the last 2 conference tickets our stake had available.  this was my 2nd time going to conference.  I love it!

On our way out to utah, we stayed the night in Moab so we could do a little hiking in the morning before heading into provo.

 

 

love millie's face in this one!

 

I had had an idea for my dads 60th birthday present for years! It was a fun project to do- me and my sisters put together a book called "The ABC's of Dad" for each letter we put a memory that we had of him and a picture... so we mentioned things like the bedtime songs he would sing us (Happy together, only he would say "the only one for Ernie is Bert, and Bert for Ernie, so happy together...") or fun vacation memories, or his "field camp hat", or the time he chased us around the house singing "we are siameese if you please"  

 

 

We had a little surprise party for my dad too! (well, that ended up not really being a surprise either because he saw an email my mom had sent out to some of his friends or something. haha. you really can't surprise my dad.) We invited his close friends/neighbors and co-workers.

 

I thought this was so hillarious!  this couple made little signs to wear. they say "Eric Rocks" because he is a geologist (which means he studies rocks!)

 

We also got to see Josh's family, who moved to utah a few years ago.  We had a couple big get-togethers with them and had a good time.  It's nice that our family is all in basically the same area now, but hard to split time when you are in town because you really want to see everyone and just never seem to have time to spend the time you want!

 

It was a good trip.  always too short!  Millie and Logan love going to utah and seeing all of their cousins and aunts and uncles.  When we got home logan missed everyone.  we would be driving around town and he would point to random people outside and say "Tracy. Kyle." (aunt and uncle) or when he would wake up from a nap he'd look all around and ask "Grandpa go?"  Utah (ie: provo) is such a fun place to be!  I just love it there. Good people, good food, fun stuff to do, beautiful, and lots of good places to run, bike and hike :) I do miss it... but don't know if we will ever make it our permanant home.

Easter

We had a good time at the easter egg hunt in town... and even got to meet the easter bunny.

They had a couple additional things to do at the hunt, like this giant blow up slide

 

I was trying to be creative with their baskets so i didn't give them so much candy.  They got those nifty hot dog slicers (that cut them vertically, then in slices, and also have a spot for katsup!  courtesy of wal-mart)  and logan got a little fake razor and shaving cream (below) that he LOVES. I also made them a quiet book- it turned out pretty cute.  I will make a seperate post of that.

 

Here is cute millie in her easter dress. we didn't have any colors or leaves yet so we didn't have much good scenery for photos.

 

                 millie's second "easter dress"... because it was like $5...  see our great easter scenery?