First Day of School

The first day of school was August 26th.  Everyone was (mostly) excited to start the new year... it's gonna be a great one!  :)

Owen has actually had 3 "first days" this year.  His 1st first day was an orientation of the school, his 2nd first day was pre-kindergarten testing, and his 3rd (and real) first day was on Thursday.  I got to ride the bus with him (and the other 5 year olds in the neighborhood) to the school and after his fabulous day another mom rode the bus home with the kids.  He is SO excited to finally be in school with everyone else - wahoo!!

Happy "Back to School" everyone!!

Last Week of Summer!!

Last week of summer break - can you believe it?!  We celebrated by going to YogoTogo for "Weightless Wednesday" which is $5 for however much frozen yogurt and toppings you can fit in your cup.   Mmmm, gluttony at it's finest.  :)  We go there for treats every once in a while, but the kids loved going there without me hovering over their every (overpriced) addition and topping.  You'll notice we have one of Lauren's friends (Hannah), but not Lauren - she was diagnosed with strep throat that morning and stayed home to rest and recover. 

 We took the kids to Boondocks for one last hurrah this week.  Lauren was not contagious anymore, but still feeling under the weather and she opted to stay home.  The kids spent most of their time in the laser tag arena which worked out great for me because I spent that time listening to podcasts on my headphones.  If you don't listen to podcasts yet, you should!!  I've been told about them before but was never in the state of mind to really delve into listening regularly until this summer.  They've changed my life; vacuuming, running on the treadmill, and pulling weeds will never be the same.  The friend in the pictures is Cole from across the street.  He just moved to Texas and Will was/is having a hard time losing his great buddy. 

My 38th birthday was Saturday.  We spent the day boating and got home just as the huge hail storm hit.  Was it just Davis County or did any of you experience it too?  It was ca-razy!!  I made a cake for my b-day but it was Will's choice and I let him blow out the candles.  He's been super bummed out (and has told me so multiple times) ever since his 8th birthday because I misunderstood him and made the wrong kind of cake.  I made pineapple upside down cake and he wanted pineapple pina colada cake.  Problem solved today - happy unbirthday buddy!!  That evening we went out to eat at Cafe Molise in SLC with Biffy and Greg.  Good food, great night, fabulous friends.  :)

Summer - Week #10

The week started off in an exciting way with Will and Owen having their very first lemonade & cookie stand.  They've been wanting to do one forever and I finally gave in.  They stayed outside for almost 4 hours and made over $20 - what?!?  They must've gotten some big tips because I don't think they sold 80 items.  :)  It was a fun experience for them.

Matt turned 40 this Wednesday - shout out to the old man!  The kids spent Tuesday afternoon making these surprise posters.

  

 For his actual birthday Matt worked; such is the life of an old guy.  But, we had a great night opening presents and eating cake.  For his gifts, each of us gave Matt bags filled with his favorite treats and "dates" of his favorite activities.  Bradley is taking him hiking, Lauren is going on a bike ride with him to the movie theatre, Will is taking him golfing, and Owen is taking him to a Bees game.  After cake and presents, Matt and I snuck over to Oakridge to enjoy a nice dinner out and a few holes of golf.  Side note - Yes, there are 40 candles on the cake.  Yes, the 2nd picture below is blurry because there was so much smoke left behind from those 40 candles.  And, yes, the cake was nibbled on before Matt blew out his candles.  It was Matt that did the nibbling though, so when the kids got upset that someone had eaten the cake already, I had to explain that the birthday boy can do whatever he pleases. :)

 

 

On Thursday, Lauren left with the YW to go to girls' camp at Piuta.  She enjoyed the camp and said her favorite thing about it was going on a zip line.  I helped drive the girls up to camp and got the bottom picture of Lauren with the girls in her cabin.  They are practicing their "Cup Song" skit in this picture; the skit was so cute; almost as adorable as all the YW in her cabin... I love those girls and miss being an advisor to them but I am so glad Lauren gets to experience being with them now.

I drove home from camp just in time to see Will get a boat-load of awards at Pack Meeting.  He's been working hard this summer and got a bag full of belt loops and pins - 14 of them!!!  There were a lot of awards that night so the leader, instead of announcing every award, asked each boy about one of them.  When it was Will's turn, the Cub Master noticed that Will earned the video game belt loop and asked him about it.  Will had earned swimming, ice skating, soccer, chess, biking - a lot of really cool loops - and the one on top of the pile happened to be video games?!?  Will's response, spoken just like Napoleon Dynamite, was classic, "Well, this was an easy belt loop because I pretty much play video games all day long.  I don't have a favorite because I have like, a ton of games and I really liked playing them every day this summer."  Proud mommy moment there... ;-)

**This week was my 20 year reunion.  Am I really that old?  Don't get me wrong... getting older doesn't really bother me... but, when I look at pictures of some of my classmates that I haven't seen in a long time I realize how long ago 20 years really was.  In fact, when people from my class post high school memories on Facebook, I barely remember any of it - I guess I really am getting old!! ;)

Saturday night was my birthday gift/date for Matt... I took him to a concert in Deer Valley to see Lyle Lovett.  Lyle is one of Matt's very favorite artists and we actually have a long story/history of me giving him LL cd's for milestone birthdays so I was SOOO excited when I saw he'd be in concert so close to Matt's 40th.  We had a gift card at Wahso and went to a quick dinner before the show.  We assumed the card only had about $20-30 on it, we were in a hurry, and we weren't very hungry so we only ordered a couple of appetizers.  Imagine our surprise when the manager came to our table.  He explained that our card was almost 7 years old and he'd take it that night but couldn't carry over the balance for the future.  We were fine with that - we weren't expecting more - but then he told us the balance... $250!!!  Like I said, we weren't very hungry but ended up ordering 2 salads and 2 entrees in addition to our appetizers.  They were delicious!!  We still had over $100 on the card but there was no way we'd be able to eat any more so they suggested we take home a bottle of wine.  Of course we told them we didn't drink but the waiter suggested we buy a bottle for a friend or client so the $ didn't go to waste.  We used up the last of the gift card on a bottle of Pinot and surprised Matt's business partner with a super nice bottle.  Matt joked that he was going to post a picture of me on Facebook with the wine, I thought it was not such a good idea. ;)

Here we are at the concert... it was lovely.  As much as I loved the Bruno Mars concert we just went to, this is more my kind of scene.  It was super relaxed with everyone was sitting and enjoying the music.  I loved being outside cuddling in our blankets, and the best part was that my ears weren't ringing afterwards.  Happy 40th Matt... we all love you!!

One more week till we go back to school... we're gonna make it a good one!! :)

Trees

When we decided to move back to Davis County from Park City, and first started looking for a place to move into, both Matt and I commented that it would be wonderful to have mature shade trees like we had at our old Layton home.  Of course, large trees in a desert state aren't commonplace, so that wasn't in the front of our minds.  We stumbled upon our current neighborhood and spoke with the builders about a custom home on an undeveloped lot, yet we dreamed of living on one of the lots that backed up to the creek - the ones with the huge willows in their backyards.  Those homes were already occupied and the salesperson laughed when we told him they were our dream lots, remarking, "those were some of the first ones to sell - and at a premium, sorry."  I really wanted to build from scratch so as to personalize everything, but Matt had other ideas and wanted something completely finished.  I agreed with Matt that if we could get into a home on one of the lots that we loved, I would give up the idea of building - it was all about the trees.  So, we wrote letters to the people in the neighborhood asking if they were moving soon.  We wrote to everyone along the street because we didn't want the four homeowners we were truly interested in to request an inflated price.  We knew the chances were slim of getting the location we desired so we were surprised when we got a call from one of the owners who was being transferred for work.  The house was not the floor plan or the style I would have picked, however, the location and landscaping won us over... especially the creek and the large willow trees.  And so, we moved in.

Of course the willows are one of the reasons we chose this home, and I love our trees, yet...

They are time consuming and take a lot of effort to care for.  In the spring I rake up seed pods and in the autumn I gather endless fallen leaves.  Year round I feel that I am constantly picking up branches that fall into our yard.  Sometimes windstorms or heavy snows trigger the branches to fall, other times they come down with seemingly no cause at all.  The kids get tired of dealing with the mess on the grass, sport court, and trampoline but I'm grateful they have the opportunity to learn tolerance in their youth.  I often get tired when caring for the trees as well, but I too am learning patience and tolerance.  I am not afraid of the hard work that I have to put forth however, because I love our trees.

There is a lot of dead wood mixed in with the live branches on our trees.  Some of the dry limbs have been cut down by myself or Matt.  A few of the branches, however, are too big for us to handle.  We need help from professionals to trim those immense limbs.  It's taken me a long time to admit that I need assistance with the trees because I like to do things on my own.  I don't know everything about yard care and I'm learning that that's ok.  I will need help pruning the trees so they can grow in the healthiest way possible since I love our trees.

Many people have told me that willows are not desirable trees.  In fact, a couple of individuals, including a gardening expert on the radio, have referred to them as "weedy trees" implying that they are of less value than the more popular varieties such as oak or elm.  Neighbors have commented that they feel bad for me because of the large amount of yard work I have to do.  Having climbed and played in a willow while growing up in my childhood home, and again experiencing their charms as an adult by caring for them in my own yard, I have a different perspective - I know deeply of their worth and value.  Despite the flaws of the willow, their critics have no idea how much I love our trees.

Our willows are beautiful.  The branches are a bit wild and unruly, jutting out in unique ways.  They seem to have a creative, imaginative, and original soul.  The trees are very giving: shade for our family and homes to animals.  These trees are often considered weak but I see a different kind of strength in the willow - it's constantly growing.  I love the feeling of solitude and peace I can get from going into our backyard.  Sometimes, when I'm calm and not in a rush I'll linger on the grass to watch the branches swaying in the wind and listen to the wind rustling through the leaves. These times give me joy because I'm again reminded of why I love our trees.

I've referred to our trees as willows, yet after my research I found there are so many varieties of the willow that I don't really know exactly how ours would be categorized.  However, I know a classification or label, although useful in helping you know how to better care for your tree, is just a minimal part of it's character.  All trees are special, all have flaws, and all and have something to offer but...

I chose these trees, and I would choose them all over again, because

I love our trees.

Summer - Week #9

This week, in keeping with earning scout belt loops, we rode our bikes to Boondocks to play a round of miniature golf.  We had some free coupons from reading incentives earned at school - bonus!  Boondocks is less than 2 miles from our house with sidewalks all the way - why aren't we riding there more often?!?

  

I sent the kids on a picture scavenger hunt to get them outside and earn screen time (they are seriously addicted right now - next week we're going cold turkey).  I made a checklist of a bagillion things, sent them out the door to wander the neighborhood with their checklist, and every thing they took a picture of on the list earned them a minute of screen time.
We also went swimming at Oakridge with the Coombs family - no pics... but I did want to mention it because 1) we're really enjoying the club, and 2) that wonderful family is a blessing in our lives.

Matt went mountain biking twice this week.  Once with his brothers Morgan and Mason and another time with a business acquaintance   He's pretty hot stuff in this picture in my unbiased opinion.

We went boating for only the second time this summer on Saturday.  What?!  We need to use that boat more!  Here are pics of the kids dancing to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" and "Party Rockin'."  They have quite the moves going on.  Matt walked by and looked at the pics as I was typing this post and remarked, "well, at least it looks like we're having fun."  Yeah, there was a lot of tension mixed in with the fun on that outing. ;-) 

I really like to focus on the positive things that happen on this blog but I've gotta be honest now - the weekend before all these posted activities, summer (and life in general) started to really wear on me.  I haven't been able to exercise because of my broken toe and I wasn't eating healthy; both of which are vital to my mental well-being and ability to handle problems that arise.  I was tired, sensitive, ornery, and most importantly I was feeling like I wasn't focusing on what I should be as a person/mother/wife.  I've had some fresh parenting challenges pop up.  And, Matt and I got in a rare, big argument and I felt terrible about it because I really hurt his feelings.  Then to top it off, one of the lessons in church last Sunday was about families and how much our kids follow our example.  So if the kids do/say/wear/think crappy things, it's all the parents' fault... ok, so that was obviously NOT the message that was being taught by the sweet teacher, but in my emotional state of mind that's what my initial reaction to it was.  I came home from church upset, but then determined to change my attitude, example, actions, and priorities.  I bore through the week trying to break out of my funk and was trying to head upward until another experience at church this Sunday totally brought me back down.  I'm trying to keep an open mind and heart and discover what I am supposed to learn from these challenges.  Bradley and Lauren are both really sore today from being pulled behind the boat and I told them the pain is good because it means they're getting stronger muscles.  And so it is with this I suppose... I'll get stronger with every trial if I remember to view it from the right angle and (hopefully) learn from it.  Plus, Matt and I had a rare indulgence with dirty diet cokes tonight to ease the stress and that always helps too, right?!  :-)  Bring on this week - I'm ready for it!