::park city::

For our anniversary, we took a little weekender to Park City.  Matt booked us a trip on the Heber Valley Rail Road to do the Reins and Trains.  It was pretty fun!  He has never ridden a horse before, and I hadn't since I was a little bitty girl (my grandpa's horse, Pal).  So we were beginners.  The train ride was fun.  It was slow and rickety.  Sometimes it's referred to as the Heber Creeper, and now we know why :)  

We only rode for about 15 minutes, before we got robbed!  The train robbers came on to steal some cash, but the box was actually had a stuffed duck on it.  Well, that just made 'em mad, so they decided to take some hostages (which was us an another couple who were doing the horse excursion).  We were "forced" off the train at "gunpoint" and had to stand on the platform and watch our train leave us stranded!!  I acted like I was kinda mad about it and didn't want the train to leave.  It was fun.

So then we walked up the dirt road with the other couple doing the horses with us.  They were nice.  They were surprised that we were married 10 years and have 4 kids.  They thought we looked young.  I love to hear that :)  Then we got to the stables and met our guide.  She was a doll.  She got us all set up with our horses.

(The train robber was telling us a story when this photo was taken-that's how come the face)

On our horses!!

The view

After we got off the trail, we had some lunch together with the other couple, caught the train back in to town (Heber), and then drove into Park City.  We stayed at the Treasure Mountain Inn (their initials are TMI-haha!)  It's right on Main St. which we LOVED!  We had dinner on Main, walked around, listened to some live music, soaked in the hot tub, and just had a great night.  

The next morning, we walked out of our room, and had breakfast out on the deck of the Blue Iguana.  Here's our view from our table...looking right down Main.  Isn't it pretty?

It was a pretty perfect weekend!  We had so much fun together.  In the few months leading up to our anniversary, we tossed around the idea of going somewhere way cool (a cruise, Hawaii, something like that), but never really pursued it...I'm too chicken to leave those babies!  My Mom and Kevin watched them, and I probably called 18 times (sorry Mom).  It's terrible.  Someday  I'll get over it-I hope.  So I felt a little dumb that such a landmark anniversary was spent so locally, but in the end (to me anyway), it didn't even matter.  I just loved our time together.  We did something new together, spent time together, talked a lot, and relaxed, and we love each other more then ever.  And that's the most important thing.

:] 

::ten::

every

day

i

love

you

more.

Happy 10th, my love.

::target practice::

We get kinda bored drawing the same ol' pictures on the driveway with sidewalk chalk (flowers, houses, suns, fish, etc).  We try to come up with new ideas, but sometimes I'm not that creative.  I saw this on pinterest, and thought we should try it...

It was way fun!

Water balloons and a target.

One of Bubb's throws...

One of Chloe's...

One of Port's throws...

(his balloon is almost out of frame.  It's at the top of the photo inside the window on our house, and I didn't happen to get another shot of Port tossing his balloon-whoops!)

Final Scores!!

Chloe won by one lucky toss (well, maybe 2 lucky tosses, maybe it wasn't luck).  

Great job Chloe!

(It might have taken longer to fill up the balloons than it did to throw them, and it it might have mostly washed off after the first couple of throws, and we might have ended up with one extra water balloon that Matt got to throw (at me!!--but he missed! haha!), but it was still way fun!  We'll have to do it again!)

::father's day::

Man!  Sometimes this early church business is a little rough!  We didn't get to make him breakfast or anything!  We had all kinds of cool ideas for taking his order, filling out a card, and shopping for exactly what he wanted the night before, but with early church and 4 kids to get ready, that's just too hard.  So we went to church, came home, and gave him some little gifties.  

The kids and I went shopping earlier in the week and got him some new golf-type clothes (shirts and shorts and such), and then they made him some cute little tokens in their church classes (good for one hug, etc).  I think his favorite thing was this picture thing we made him.  It has my favorite fathers quote by Lydia M. Child with his big hand print and each of the kids inside it.  He couldn't stop staring at it.  He's going to take it to work and put it in his office.  I was a little surprised by that 'cause it's just something we made, but so sweet :)

(Dada with all his babies:  Avie-15 mos, Portie-6, Chloe-8 1/2, Coop-3 1/2)

Later on, we went down to the Gateway to see the sidewalk chalk art and meet up with my family (after that we stopped by Matt's brother's house to spend some time with his side for father's day).

They had some really cool ones!  

This one seemed fitting for the day...

I just can't say enough about Matt.  He's the best dad in the world.  He's always making us laugh.  He's so much fun, and so sweet and loving.  He's always supportive and takes such good care of us.  We're so thankful for him.  We're lucky to have him.

:]

::Bub's first gym class::

So I registered the three bigger kids for some summer activities a few weeks ago.  They're doing gymnastics (all three of them in separate classes), swimming lessons, and story hour.  I was hoping to get Port into T-ball, but the last week of registration (I don't know why I waited 'til the last week, I guess that's just how I like to roll) fell on the same week of Matt's surgery, and it slipped my mind.  Chloe had no interest in softball this year, so that was out for her.  It was no easy task trying to register 3 kids for 3 different gym classes and trying to get them on the same day of the week at the same time, and also swimming!  3 kids, all different swimming levels, at the same times.  When it was all done, I felt like I had just registered them for college!

I forgot the rules at the peak about 3 year olds and their Jr. Gym class.  You have to be 4.  Bubb won't be 4 until November, so he had to be in the parent/child class.  I wasn't too excited about that.  Port had the same kind of deal...he has too "advanced" for that class and was in with kids ranging all the way down to 18 months old.  Kind of a bummer.  Same kind of deal this go 'round with Bubb.  We're in there with lots of 2 year olds and he's a little advanced (if you want to call it that).  His teacher asked how old he was, and was like too bad, 'cause he's totally ready for Jr. Gymnastics! 

But...

Bubb LOVES his class!  He had SO much fun!  His teacher sets up the class with some stations (each one has a different skill to practice) in a circle and we go around a few times.  He gets a little bored after a few times around.  So, when there's probably about 15-20 minutes left in the class, we go in the big gym and play on the trampolines and the pit and that kind of stuff-which he LOVES!!   He's pretty brave in there!  No fear running down the tumble track and jumping into the foam pit (he calls it "smarshmellies"). 

We go to our 3rd class tomorrow.  He gets SO excited to go to his gym class.  He LOVES it!!  I think he's excited to just be in gymnastics like the big kids.  He tells them all about it when he gets home.  Port tells him to do his best before he goes.  It's fun to go with him.  His class is at 5:30 (after Matt gets home), so it's just the 2 of us, and that's way fun.  Just me and Bubb :)

::we want s'moe""

June 7th, 2012.

6:30ish pm

Campfire. Dinner. Scavenger hunt. S'mores. Climbing. Dirt. Rocks. Leaves. Bugs. Big trees.

::water works::

It's been SO hot lately!  We broke a record yesterday (we had another water day that day too).  It was 97.  Hottest June 4th we've had since 1988. Today it was in the upper 40s, but that's just crazy Utah.

So on Saturday, it was pretty hot (90-something) so we got out the water stuff.  It was Ave's first pool party!!

I think she liked it

:] 

Maybe someday we'll have a real pool, but for now, the kids get this sad little snap pool.  Ha!  I don't think they cared one bit!  They loved it.  They ran through it, splashed each other, jumped off the brick wall into it (the little brick wall), laid in it.  They had a ball :)  So that's good!  Cause we're not getting a real pool any time soon.

Look at Chloe and Mae-Mae...aren't they so cute???

These boys were ready for some dry towels and some warm sun.  Nice pose, Bubb!!

In other news...

Matt is one week post op today.  He's doing ok...not awesome, but ok.  He's gone to work this week (both days) and plans to keep going the rest of it.  The mornings are the worst for him-the most painful, so he leaves for work at about 8:30 (which I love!!) instead of 5:30 in the morning.  He's still pretty swollen, and still taking meds for pain (mostly tylenol and ibuprofen-he doesn't take the strong stuff too often).  We got a phone call from the dr. about his biopsy.  He called personally-not someone from his office, not his nurse, him personally.  That made me nervous in itself.  I held my breath as soon as he said he had the results of the biopsy.  He said we're all clear, and that they were just completely full of infection.  I exhaled.  Tears started to roll down my face.  I had to tell him thanks and hurry and get off the phone before I sounded too much like I was crying.  I was so nervous for 2 1/2 days.  I was so scared he had some kind of cancer.  Tonsils are lymph tissue...that kind of cancer spreads SO quickly!  I was just completely out of my mind scared.  I felt such relief when I got off the phone.  SO much relief!  The kind of relief that makes thou wanna raise your arms above your head and just exhale over and over again.  Now we just have some other issues with one side of his face/mouth to address, and we'll be doing much better.

I think he's feeling better...it's just a very sloooow recovery.  He has plans to golf on Friday, so hopefully he'll feel a big improvement by then.

:]