Concert Week 2011

We had a fun week filled with two different concerts. When we bought the tickets awhile ago we didn't realize that they were the same week. It worked out though and it was pretty fun. Thanks to everyone who watched our kids!
On Monday we went to Death Cab for Cutie. It was pretty great! The opener was pretty good as well so it made for a good night. I will admit though that they are definitely not arena band. We saw them at Thanksgiving Point a few years ago and they were much better there. It was still ok though. They played Stay Young Go Dancing which is really all I cared about. Apparently he wrote this song for his wife Zooey Deschanel (who aside from being in Elf is also in a band called She & Him. They're pretty good too. Just FYI. In case you didn't know.) Friday night we went to see The Weepies at the State Room in Salt Lake. This was definitely an amazing venue. It only holds about 300 people so it was more of an intimate setting. It was all acoustic too which made it even better. It was seriously like sitting in their living room while they told stories and sang songs. It was amazing. Funny story though. For the Death Cab concert we thought we had bought General Admission tickets and we wanted to be on the floor. Apparently we didn't and we ended up in seats. It was ok though. For this one we wanted to sit (it's kind of like an old movie theater but the seats are old church pews) but we got there kind of late and ended up on the floor. Oh well. I was actually happy to be on the floor though because we ended up being so close to them. It was amazing!

I loved their set and they seriously sounded amazing live. We listened to their cd on the way home and it was seriously hard to listen to. I've become a live Weepies snob now.

Doug laughed at me for taking this picture but I couldn't resist. Did she not have the coolest shoes on? I seriously love them for their totally chill style. Before the concert we were reading reviews about the State Room because I was a little nervous about the whole thing (I'm kind of weird and I was a little freaked about it having a bar and getting "carded" at the door) but all the reviews said it was amazing. Someone also wrote that the highlight of their life was seeing the Weepies there. I would have to agree. Definitely one of the best experiences of my life to date. Thanks again for the tickets Doug! Best birthday present ever!

Sophia's Party Reprise

I found Lilly's wand so I decided to throw a quick picture of it on here. I thought they turned out pretty cute. Thanks again for the idea and all the stuff mom! Also, I forgot to mention one other game we played. I included those mystery Air Heads in the goody bag but had to by the six pack of Air Heads in order to get enough. Instead of being smart and putting all the other ones in the gift bags as well, I decided to do a little game with them. We had an amazing chorister in Primary who would do a magic potion thing with the kids. I decided to steal her idea. I had the colors of "potion" match up with the remaining Air Heads and had the kids try and guess which color of Air Head the different potions would make. To make the potion you put a drop of food coloring on a spoon and then put baking soda on top of the food coloring. Then when they stir the spoon into the water the baking soda disolves but the water changes color. It's pretty magic. I wish I would have taken a picture but I forgot. Oh well. Hopefully you get the idea! I think that's it for the party. We'll see if I remember something else later.

The first fruits

We have had fun gathering the first of our harvest lately. We used some new fertilizer this year and bought our plants from a different nursery and I think it may have helped.

Here's a pepper we picked last week. I can't believe it's bigger than a banana! On the right is some green zebra tomatoes. These have been kind of fun too. Here's 1 of about 100 birdhouse gourds that we got from 1 plant. We seriously are going to have a million of these. Anyone need some for decorating?

We've already done a bunch of beans and a batch of spaghetti sauce. Can't wait to start canning some salsa and peaches!

The big 6!

A few days ago my baby girl turned six! I can't believe she's that old. We had a fun "Magic and Mystery" party last weekend to celebrate. She's been set on this theme for awhile and I kept putting it off because I wasn't sure how to tie the two together. I guess it worked out in the end though. Here's the invites we came up with:And the mysterious cake. And food:Complete with mystery cookies.
The little magician waiting for the guests to arrive.When everyone got there we had everyone put ribbons on magic wands I made previously. My mom had all this awesome magic wand stuff that she got from a friend so it worked out perfectly! I forgot to take a picture of them and now I can't find either of my girls' so you'll just have to imagine. It was a gold glitter letter (the first letter of the child's name) with a bunch of glitter and stars sewn between two clear vinyl stars. They were really fun to make and I think the kids liked them. After everyone got some food we all headed outside for a magic show. Sophia started things off by showing us a fun trick.Then Doug the magician continued to wow the kids with a fun show.After the show we opened presents
And then went on a mysterious scavenger hunt to find the party favor bags. We had taken obscure pictures of random things in our yard. We gave them the first picture which led to another location and so on. When they gathered all the pictures they put them together to reveal a big picture of where the items were hidden (the bathtub). It was pretty fun! Thinking of where the next picture could be hidden.Putting all the pieces together.Overall, judging by this picture, I think it was a successful party.One of her friends gave her this sweetest note with their present. I wish I knew who gave it to her! I love the accent over the e in her name.On her actual birthday she got to celebrate the big day at school! Her teacher gave her this fun poster to fill out about herself. I love how she wrote her name. She did a snake for the S, an octopus for the O, a pig for the P, a hat for the H, an inch worm climbing a tree for the I and an e coming out of an egg shell for the E. Love her imagination. She also insists by being known as "Sophie" and not "Sophia" in her classroom. I love her independence. Her teacher also taught the class the cutest Happy Birthday song complete with twirling around and cha cha cha's. The best though was after the last "Happy birthday to you" when the whole class screamed out "BYU!" I loved it!After school we had tacos for dinner (at her request) and birthday donuts. We had a bunch of family down on Sunday which included more cake and celebrating so we were a little caked out. Donuts were a good alternative. Happy Birthday sweet Sophia (I mean Sophie)! We love you!

She survived...

her first day of 1st grade! She was so nervous last night and I told her that it was funny she felt that way because I knew she was going to come home and say "1st grade is awesome!" She came home this afternoon with a very sullen look and I asked her how it was. She said "it was boring." Then she burst our laughing and got a huge smile on her face and said "it was awesome!" Then she went on and on about everything that they did and everyone she played with. It sounded like she had a great day. Here she is getting ready to go!I'm so excited for but still freaking out a little that I have a child old enough to go to school all day! Mainly I'm stressing out about this:
How am I supposed to pack a school lunch every day?! Any tips or ideas to make it easier? One of the reasons I love her school is that they have a dietitian with a PhD in Nutrition running the lunch room. All of the food is healthy(er than most school lunch - believe me. I analyze school lunch for a living. I see what kids are being fed). They serve fresh fruits and everything (pizza crust, rolls, pasta, etc) has to be whole grain. It's awesome. The kids think it's gross but I think it's awesome. Because of that, I don't feel bad letting her get school lunch but it does add up and I don't know that I want to pay for it every day. Anyway, I guess I'll grin and bear it like everyone else! Here's to an awesome year! Even if it does mean I have to send her with a lunch every day.

End of Summer Fun!

We have been trying to squeeze in every last ounce of summer into our lives these past few days before school starts on Wednesday!
Last week we went with some of my family to Seven Peaks. I have really been trying to avoid this place with all my heart for the past few years but I couldn't put it off any longer. The girls had a blast so I'm glad we went. I definitely did not put enough sunscreen on everyone (especially myself) so that wasn't as fun. My shoulders and back are seriously still killing me and it's been 4 days!

Mabel loved the wave pool (especially escaping from it). Lexie and Mabel.

If the look on this face was not enough to make the ridiculous admission, food and rental prices worth it, then I don't know what is. Seriously though, their prices and rules are out of hand. It's worse than a BYU football game. Each person is allowed to bring in 1 water bottle but it has to be factory sealed. How anal can you get?More lounging with Sam and Jeffy. We have also been trying to hurry and enjoy fresh and delicious foods like grilled pizzas and banh mi's. Ever since I heard about them on the Great Food Truck race last season I've been so curious about what they taste like. This recipe was really good and this recipe did not disappoint.The girls got free passes to the local pool as their big prize for the summer reading program so we took advantage of that today. It was pretty fun and we all had fun lounging in the pool.This is kind of random but I had to document this. This is how Mabel eats every morning. I give her a banana broken in two pieces and she picks up one half in each hand and goes to town. I love it. It may not show, but this girl can eat!Finally, we participated in the tell-tale sign that summer has officially ended tonight. The Meet the Teacher Night. Here's Sophia with her awesome teacher Mrs. Frey. Bring on 1st Grade!

Latest Fun Things

Here's a few of the projects we've had going on as of late.
I bought this bench at DI last week for $4. Nothing fancy but I was kind of excited to have something for the kids to sit on in the backyard. It was a boring brown bench and a friend suggested that I paint it. Also after some inspiration from another amazing friend I decided to give it a little splash of pistachio.Also, when I was visiting my sister in New York she took me to see her friend's house that is so cute. I loved the spice rack that she had and have been trying to recreate one like it ever since. It didn't go so well and hers is much cuter but this is the best I could do for now. So I couldn't find shelves or wood thin enough so I deconstructed our old spice rack instead. I took it all apart and used the racks that you put the spices in for the shelves. Then I cleaned out the plastic spice jars and threw away some of the spices we don't use (like savory and mint - those hadn't even been opened since we received this for our wedding 8 years ago! - I also threw away a lot of the spices I use and replaced them with fresh ones. Don't worry). I made new labels and modge podged them onto the tops. I will probably get some little stainless steel containers or something else but haven't quite found what I really like yet. For the font though I used one of the cute ones I found here. I thought it was fun that someone put a bunch of bloggers handwriting into fonts. How cute.

This last weekend we had some awesome friends come over who we never get to see. Tiffany is so hilarious and brought us all our birthday presents for the year. It was so fun! They gave Doug this awesome bracelet. It's like an emergency thing that is made up of braided military quality rope (correct me on this Tiffany). It's pretty cool.

They also gave Sophia this cutest necklace kit that she has seriously not put down since they gave it to her. It's actually pretty clever and pretty cute. The necklace string is made from one of those loop things that you used to weave together on those plastic looms to make hot pads. Remember those? It has a washer attached to it and then each of the little bottlecaps has a magnet attached to the back. It's so cute because it's so interchangeable! The bottlecaps are all way cute too! Also, I saw this pumpkin at Hobby Lobby last week but was too cheap to buy it and thought that I could make something like it with a pumpkin I already had. I asked Tiffany if she'd be willing to print me a vinyl W on her Cricut. Well, of course she did me one better and got me a pumpkin. I love her. So cute! I seriously love it. I love fall and am so excited to have one more thing to decorate with!

Arches

Warning: There are a lot of pictures in this post! I put them all in here so that I can have them for a blog book in the future but feel free to either skip this post or scroll through them quickly.
Last weekend we went with Doug's parents and a few siblings to Arches National Park. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid and it was so awesome! We saw a lot of arches and did a lot of hiking. I will admit that we did not hike to delicate arch. I even forgot to include the picture we took at the overlook. It was way too hot and there was no parking at the trail head so we decided to skip it. Plus (I should probably be shot for saying this) I think that arch is a little overrated. There are plenty of way cool arches that deserve just as much attention. Just sayin. Here we are getting ready to go. Don't we all look so excited! The first thing we saw coming into the park was balanced rock. Seriously though, how has this thing not fallen over.After we got our campsite all set up we went and did some exploring. There were a lot of cool rock and fun trails to explore near our campsite.Here's me and Mabes showing our strong muscles (not!)After going back through these pictures we discovered that Lilly finally knows how to look and smile at the camera! We got so many good pictures of her on this trip.Doug really wanted to get to the top of this little crack. He seriously tried forever and finally made it. He was so proud (as was I). It's definitely called slick rock for a reason! We also did plenty of relaxing in Grandpa's hammock.We were camped right by Skyline Arch. The amphitheatre for the campground was right in front of this arch. It was pretty spectacular. We also did plenty of sitting around in the shade. It was sooooo hot!We also all got plenty dirty and ate lots of good food!Random shot of Lilly. After dinner we went on a hike to a few other arches.The first one we saw was Tunnel Arch. We also went to Pine Tree Arch. This was by far my favorite arch in the whole park. It was HUGE! It seriously took your breath away when you came to it. This picture totally does not do it justice.Another random shot of Lilly on the trail. I love this girl and how she insists on wearing skirts everywhere! I'm pretty sure she was the only one camping in a skirt in the whole park. Oh well. The pioneers wore skirts in the heat of the summer and they got along okay right? We also made it to Landscape Arch that night. This is the one that lost a huge chunk out of it about 20 years ago. They're really not sure how much longer it will be around so we had to see it. Even though it doesn't look like it in this picture, we took this picture around 9 pm. It was so dark! It actually was really cool to hike in the dark and it was definitely a lot cooler!The next day we stopped by a few more Arches on our way out of the park. The first one we went to was Sand Dune Arch. It was pretty cool as well. One of us though had kind of a hard time on the trail. It's kind of hard to see but the arch is right behind Lilly's head and to the right a little. Even though it looks like her head could fit in the arch, it was actually pretty big. Here's one of the "windows" of the Window Arches. Turret Arch. This one was Doug's favorite because he has a thing with turrets.
Sophia and I hiked up to Double Arch that was by the Cove of Caves and Parade of Elephants. I noticed this cool heart shaped cave on the way up to Double Arch. I just had to take a pic of it for Doug. Ah. How sweet. JK. Double Arch. This one was pretty cool as well. Sophia at Double Arch.Here's one of the Parade of Elephants. It actually took us awhile to see these in the rocks. This elephant is on the right side of the picture and is looking straight at the camera.This picture has three (and maybe more) elephants in it. Can you spot them all? I took this one for my sisters. It's of the Three Gossips (not that we do that). Let's just call it the Three Sisters instead. I think this is a better angle of us though. It makes us all look a lot skinnier. Here's a shot of the 2 newest and cutest Junior Rangers I've ever seen! On the way home we stopped at Dead Horse Point. That was a pretty cool place as well. The kids all wanted to hurry and do the Junior Ranger program there as well so we did plenty of this while they all worked on that. Doug had spent most of the night with a screaming Lilly and Mabel in the van so we really didn't get too much sleep. He was tired!The view at Dead Horse Point. Another shot. This place really was pretty spectacular. I guess part of Thelma and Louise was filmed here. Doug's mom said she saw a shot online of a car going over the cliff from that movie.Lilly really wanted her picture taken on this bench for some reason. She has seriously turned a corner. She used to never want her picture taken.Two cute girls and Brian Dean at Dead Horse Point.And finally a huge spider we saw there. Overall, it was a fun trip and we saw a lot of really neat things! We were definitely glad to be home to our cool house and cozy beds though!