Girls night out with Larry

Does my title sound like a dirty movie? I assure it was no such thing. My wonderful brother got a steller deal on some Josh Groban tickets. My mom snagged some for her cousins Carol & Connie, he brother Larry and his wife Kathy, and of course one for me! Yay. We met Larry and Kathy at the concert so really it was just us girls. Those ladies are silly fun! I laughed so much!

We got to Salt Lake with plenty of time to spare so we took a stroll around the gateway. Playing at Build-a-bear, checking out clothes we couldn't afford but since the store had free water and snacks we looked around anyway. :) Watching the kids play in the splash fountain, and of course taking a break with a yummy smoothie .

We got to the concert in plenty of time and waited around people watching. 

The concert itself was amazing. I love how your heart starts beating in rhythm of the base (is that safe?) And the excitement of the crowd. It was fantastic!

After the concert we hopped back on the train to head back to Sandy where we parked. The train was completely full and we did our best to hang on near the doors. We must have been in a silly mood or something cause we spent the ride laughing and making random comments, sometimes to random people. It was a hoot. 

When we got back to my Aunt's house where we were staying I was ready to go to bed, instead we stayed up talking till 3 am. THREE. I was clearly the oldest soul there because I was the first to go to bed.

The next day we got the see my brother and his marvelous family. Then it was home again. What a great weekend! Thanks Mom! I look forward to a girl's night out again! 

Reunion Time

We had a great fun Ransom reunion. 

Here's dad auctioning off this yummy lollipop sunday that my mom made. 

 Here's Bella making a pretty bracelet. Her favorite part.

 I'm so skilled at those "guess how many" games. I won two of them! Go me!

 We also had our Yancey Reunion. 

Uh hi Bella! Had a cookie before lunch did you? 

 Jaden giggling with his cousins.

 Bella climbed into Kayann's stroller and surprisingly the older boys ran her around the park in it. They all had fun!

 Jaden found this fountain and may have got a tad bit wet.

 Check out Alex's smile. Way fun!

We then went into the Ross Water Park. Both kids had a blast swimming. Took Jaden a bit to brave the slide in the kid area but he got it down and Bella loved the Lazy river especially when she'd suddenly run into some one she knew. 

Enjoying August

August is flying by. I can't believe summer is almost over already!?! So here's a few fun things we've done this month.

Uncle Russ, Larry, and Grandpa all of 4-wheelers. Jaden LOVES to ride on them

 I made this fun fish game for primary singing time. But Jaden really enjoys playing it when Bella isn't around to run off with the fish.

 The kids discovered Bubble beards hee.

 More of Jaden's preschool art including is initial crown!

 Bella got into the laundry on my bed and decided a sports bra makes good pants.

So seriously, who DOESN'T like to play in mud puddles? :)

We've spent a great deal of time painting and working on the duplex. Here's Ryan after a day of using the sprayer. I'm just surprised he looks so happy!  

Jaden's got some big shoes to fill.

 I'm not really sure why we took this picture He probably said "take a picture of me" so someone did. Anyhow he sure is handsome in his Sunday clothes! 

We've spent a lot of time at the park with Mity and Russell. 

I LOVE summer!!

I hear that!

7/2/11
Jaden came into our room crying at about 2 am saying his tooth was going to fall out. I checked his tooth and it was fine. He was shaking like a leaf. I asked him if he had seen someone lose their tooth on PBS kids. He said yes so I explained the whole losing teeth thing to him. Then he was okay and I put him back to bed. Too funny that PBS Kids gave my boy nightmares.

7/2/11
Who just pulled wire for 30 can lights? Oh yeah, I did! I'm a super hero!! (never mind the fact that it probably took me 12 times longer than it would have my electrician hubby) Now I just hope I did it all right. Hmm

7/2/11
I put all our candles on Ryan's cake today except one. I guess that means no one in this house will ever be able to get older than 29 :)

7/7/11
only our second time playing a game with a die, and I told Jaden(3) that each number on the die has a pattern and if you remember the pattern you don't have to count the dots each time. We played the whole game without counting dots. That kid is so brilliant. :)

7/8/11
Ack why do I ever even bother to bake? I always get distracted and mess it up. This time I added one too many eggs to my banana bread. Guess it'll be extra thick? I think I've yet to make banana bread correctly.

It ended up tasting okay, apparently the number of eggs isn't nearly as critical as say too much salt, not saying I've ever done that before. dumm de doo.

7/8/11
So Ryan was coughing earlier and when he was done he said "don't worry, I'm just dying." Jaden suddenly starts crying. "Whoa, what's wrong?" I ask. "but I need my mom and dad!" I still didn't get it but Ryan did "Oh Jaden, I'm not really dying. I was just trying to be funny. Where did you learn about dying?"
"Grandma Potter said you guys are going to die."
Hmm what do you have to say for yourself, Mom? ;)

7/9/11
Had a blast jumping on the tramp with the sprinkler under it. Jaden and Ryan loved it too but poor Bella wanted nothing to do with that craziness and happily played in the sand box instead.


7/10/11
Jaden soo wanted to play wish shy Landon, he finally gave up and went inside. Not too long later the wind drove us all inside. When I opened the door Jaden asked "Is Landon coming in?" "Yup we're all coming in." "I just knew he would. I prayed that he'd come in and play with me!" Awww how sweet is that?

7/12/11
Both children have hit their boo boo limit no more love and kisses, next time it's going to be "That was dumb quit hurting yourself for goodness sake!" Well maybe not, but seriously what a ridiculously accident prone day!

7/20/11
Ryan and I were "arguing" yesterday and Jaden threatened to put us both in time out. I guess sometimes we need a little discipline too. :)

7/22/11
I love to watch Bella randomly pick up her stuffed dog give it a squeeze and a kiss then carry on with whatever she is playing. :)

7/28/11
Jaden called Ryan a moron at dinner. When I told Jaden that wasn't allowed and we don't call people that word he said that Jesus said he could. Great now my boy is a blasphemer too.

8/2/11
Jaden: "Look, Bella has a fat tummy like you mom!"
:( Though if mine is like Bella's it's not that fat so I'll take it I guess.

Weekend Getaway - 3

Saturday morning D.R. took us out fly fishing. We started out up on the grass air strip to practice casting our line so it wouldn't catch on anything. He gave us some pointers and we practiced for a bit. The owner of the ranch (from Texas, hence the air strip so he can fly in whenever he wants) is a pro fly fisher and claims it takes 20 years to really learn how to fly fish, weelllll we didn't have that long and I really wasn't very good at it, but we gave it a shot.

Down on the pond We ended up in the canoe. 

After trying our luck without any success we turned the canoe over to the other couple. They had much better luck than us. Each of them caught a fish. We however did not. Even when we cheated by trying a regular pole and bait, but in our defense every fish in the pond must've been caught and released at least three times. I'm guessing that makes for smarter than average fish.

 This is what I usually caught.

 We had a wonderful time out on the lake though. Teddy and her two little boys even came to check out the excitement for a bit. Teddy was impressed at my ability to understand toddler speak as the 2 yr old told me all about the snake he saw. (yes there were little snakes all over in the brush. Startled me a bit when one crossed my path on one of our walks.)

After lunch it was horseback riding time! Ryan got a tad bit feisty horse named Chief. D.R. said he might buck a bit. I chuckled at Ryan but really shouldn't have. . . I got Booger. Booger was kinda a Booger. D.R. said his front legs took a bit to warm up so I had a difficult time getting him to go around the corral, but out in the open he loosened up and we had a grand ol' time!  

These pics were taken with Ryan's phone since I didn't want to carry my camera around on the horse. This is why they are all of me. We rode through meadow areas, down and up steep hills, across a stream, in wooded areas where we caught a glimpse of an elk. It was so much fun! This wasn't just your follow the leader down a trail ride, this was a out in the open spread out giddy-up and go ride! After all these are Ranch horses. I LOVED IT!

 No Ryan's stinker of a horse at one point thought it would be fun to bite at mine. Booger gave a bit of a buck startling me. See why I shouldn't have laughed at Ryan who got the horse the "might" buck. Yeah he didn't, just mine. Hee. Booger didn't like going down hill but he LOVED going up hill and always wanted to do so at a run. We really did have a great time!

After the ride we hosed down and brushed the horses. The whole process took about 3 hours. I got a tad burned on the inside of my arms but it was sooo worth it!

We enjoyed dinner then took another walk. This time the cows got braver and would walk RIGHT behind us.   One was even so brave as to chase the dog around. Having a whole herd of cows behind us made a tad nervous so we didn't go quite as far and returned to the lodge for a relaxing evening.

The next morning we packed up, ate a scrumptious breakfast and said our goodbyes. The whole weekend was everything I dreamed it would be. I loved every minute of it!

I was excited to see the kiddos as we finally pulled up to Grandma & Grandpa Yancey's. Bella ran into Ryan's arms exclaiming "Daddy Daddy" Jaden pretty much ignored us and was kinda peeved when we said we were going home. I guess I wasn't missed so much, but it's good to know they too enjoyed their weekend getaway. Thanks to both sets of Grandparents for watching them. The weekend was relaxing and fun. Now that it was a month ago, I'm ready for another weekend getaway. ;)