Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Nothing like waiting for the last week of the open house to go, is there? I didn't do it on purpose, it has just been a crazy month and it slipped my mind that the open house was going on. I had to schedule a time when Bump could come and meet us during his lunch break so we went on Wednesday at 11:50.

The problem with waiting for the last week, is that many other people waited for the last week too and it was very busy! But it was still really nice for the kids and they were happy that their dad could be there this time (we went to the Draper Open House without him).

A really great surprise that we had was seeing first my niece Kelsey, who just moved down to Provo and will start BYU in the fall, and then Bump's brother Darin and his family from Tremonton! We had no idea that they were going that day. We were looking at the baptismal font and restraining Corban from jumping into the water when we looked across and through the glass stood Darin, Sue, Cambric and Tanner. We waved at them and then met up with them afterward at the reception area. They invited us out to lunch, but Bump had to get back to work and I had grouchy kids to get home for naps, so we passed. Still, what a really fun surprise!
What a great experience for our kids to get to go to 2 open houses in one year! It has been amazing seeing them get excited about any temple they see now and reminding me how they got to see inside one (now two) of them. We are incredibly blessed!

July 24th Fun

When I plugged the camera in to see what pictures we had from the 24th I realized that we only got pictures of the children's trek, so to see other pictures and hear more about our 24th of July fun see Tracy's blog HERE. She did such a great job telling about our really fun day.

We went to my sister, Tracy's house for a BBQ at lunch and then had a lot of fun playing games and hanging out together. Then we headed over to the stake activities.

I think that the highlight for the kids was the children's trek. My brother, Lee, and his family came out to celebrate with us and some of his kids walked with us. We walked from the Grantsville Senior Center to the West Stake Center where the carnival and BBQ were. The Senior Center represented Winter Quarters and all along the route we passed under signs that said various landmarks that the pioneers saw along the way to the Salt Lake Valley (ie. Sweetwater River, Emigration Canyon, etc.). The Salt Lake Valley was the West Stake Center. We walked in company's that were divided by wards, so we were the 10th ward company.

It was a great experience for the kids. We sang while we walked and walked and walked. It was really hot and it was long for the kids at about a mile. We hadn't even gone a block when Gabby was asking if she could ride in the wagon. The wagon was already full with Quincy, Corban and their cousin Peter. Then she complained about being hot and tired on the whole trek. I kept trying to explain to her that the pioneer children had to walk like this for days and days. Did she comprehend what I was saying??? Who knows, but at least she got a taste of pioneer walking.
The kids then had fun at the carnival making fabric dolls and coloring paper aprons and hats to wear. They also got to stay up really late and watch the pageant that was put on by both Grantsville Stakes. It was really good!

We had a really fun day together with Tracy and Steve, and Lee and Trish and their families. The kids were completely worn out and actually slept in a little bit on Saturday (they don't do that)!! Then on Saturday night we got to continue the festivities by heading up to Tremonton to Bump's brother, Darin's house. We had a BBQ with them and played with the Williams cousins. The food was good and the company was great! We could have stayed to watch the Tremonton fireworks that night, but after having such a late night the night before, no naps and early church on Sunday, we decided to take off by about 8:30 putting us home still at about 10:30.

What a great Pioneer Weekend!!

Always say Thank You

There is something that Quincy does that is just so dang cute! She tells me thank you all the time. Not just the usual times to say thank you, but for everything.

I change her diaper, she says thank you.
I give her anything and she says thank you.
I brush her teeth, screaming and kicking the whole time, she still says thank you at the end.
I buckle her in her car seat and she says thank you.

The cutest thing about it is that she keeps saying, "Thank you mama," until I respond. If I am busy and not paying attention she says it quite a few times until I reply, "you're welcome."

My other two kids, on the other hand, have already forgotten the "magic words" of please and thank you and will not say them unless prompted. I always prompt them, but they used to have such great manners. *sigh* I will just enjoy my Quincy thank you's while I can.

Bear Lake Trip

It's terrible that I haven't posted this yet, but I am finally taking the time to post our awesome trip to Bear Lake a few weekends ago. We were invited by my brother Lee and his family who have a really great cabin on the Idaho side of the lake. We went up there with Lee's family and also some friends of theirs, the Johnsons.

The kids had an amazing time in the water and we had a hard time talking them into coming back up to the cabin to eat or anything else while we were there.

Quincy

Corban playing in the big pond that the lake has made because of the amazing amount of water earlier this spring and summer. It was the perfect place for the kids to play in the water and sand without dealing with any waves or boats, etc. And the water was really nice and warm there too!

Parlee, Gabby and Emi (Gabby loved wearing the life jackets even though they weren't needed except while on the boat)

Emi making Gabby into a beautiful mermaid, shell bra and all!

Lee in a rare moment of relaxation. He spent most of the time out driving people around on the ski boat and helping everyone to have a good time!

Speaking of the boat. Here is is. It's a beautiful ski boat and this picture was taken just as all the adults (and oldest kids) were having a trip out ourselves while McKenna watched the little kids at the cabin with a movie.

Bump acting very GQ

Here is Bump first trying to get up on a wake surf board. Just to give you some background, he has only been water skiing once in his whole life, so this is only his second time and he was trying to wake surf. Did I mention that surf boards don't have any kind of binding, so you just have to balance the board with your feet and try to get up?

After a few tries he did it! And had a really great wipe out! :) There is Tricia from the back in this picture too - I realized that I didn't get any pictures of her on this trip! Sorry Trish!

Here is Brooke Johnson's first time up on a wake surf board also. Look at that determination on her face!
Here is the professional, Lee. Once you get up and get just right in the wake you don't need to hold on to the rope, you actually just surf along the wake. It's really cool to watch!

We got back and found Corban like this on the couch. The kids definitely wore themselves out!

Quincy had a tough time because she wasn't feeling well most of the trip and had a fever and a bit of pink eye. Thankfully, Trish had some children's Tylenol and ibu on hand and Quincy still loved the water and when she was feeling well played hard!

Me and Gabby

Quincy and Gabby ready to go out for another day

Bump and his girls. We used 4 wheelers to get from the cabin to the beach and back again. The kids loved riding on them - again, a new experience for them.

Out in the boat with the kids

Parlee, Emi and the Johnson's twins
Peter, Lee and Andrew (wow he looks like Dallin in this picture doesn't he?)

The first day Lee took the little kids out on a big tube called Big Mable and tried to go slow. Well, if you go too slow the nose of the tube dips down and it about threw the kids off (it was Emi, Gabby and Corban on at the time) Emi actually went off, but Corban and Gabby hung on. Trish and I about jumped off the back of the boat to go save the kids because they were so terrified, but they were okay. We brought them into the boat crying and I tried to go out with Gabby and Corban after that, but they just cried the whole time. Well, the next day Gabby had seen the other kids go out on it enough times and was determined to go on Big Mable again. So, here she is with Emi and McKenna. She loved it the second day and I am so glad that she didn't give up.

Corban, on the other hand, would only sit on Big Mable again if the boat was moored and wouldn't take him anywhere! Here are Corban and Andrew chillin' on Big Mable.

We had such an amazing trip and were so sad when we had to leave on Saturday to get ready for church the next day. Thank you Lee and Trish for all the fun that we had! Let's do it again really soon!!!! *hint hint*

Our Lovely Stairs

Let me start by saying that Bump and I absolutely love our house. But having a 100 year old house does have it's little quirks and funky parts to get used to. Especially when the previous owners converted it from a duplex back into a single family home, remodeling a few things along the way. We are very grateful to them for doing that, but when they remodeled and expanded the kitchen it made it so that opening the stairs back up between the two floors was a challenge. So, now we have very funky stairs that are certainly not up to code. :) Bump likes to call them the stairs of death. Let me show you what I am talking about. . .

Here we are standing at the top landing looking down the stairs which I am sure at one time just kept going straight to the back door/kitchen area. Now it is forced to take a sharp turn.
Here we are at the sharp turn where we have a little triangle of a stair on the right and a large drop off corner that falls down to the next step down (in reality 2 steps worth of height, or even 3 steps worth at the very left corner) Get the picture now? Plus they are really quite steep stairs - old houses. . . they are just funky, and we've lived in a lot of them.
Well, each of the kids have fallen down a few of the stairs and Bump and I have slipped a bit also, but I am blogging today because of my wonderful fall down the stairs on Saturday night. My sister, Tracy, was giving me a hard time for not blogging it, so now I am.

Anyway, on Saturday night when all the kids and Bump were sleeping and I was checking everything out before heading to bed myself, I totally fell down the stairs and did this with my elbow after slamming into a few other stair walls along the way down.
Yup, my elbow went right through the drywall in the wall at the bottom of the stairs and I have no broken bones, thank goodness!
I slipped on one of the steps up around the corner and hit the wall on the left in this picture and kept on falling headfirst down the entire set of stairs and landed with my elbow into the wall and a bonk on the head. This is what it looks like when you are laying on the ground looking up at the stairs from the bottom.
It woke Bump up and he came running out of our room to see if I was ok. I was banged up pretty good and thought I was going to die as I was falling down, but surprisingly I was okay. The bruises didn't even show until later on Sunday and Monday so nobody stared at me weird as I taught my Gospel Doctrine lesson.

Monday I was pretty sore in my arm, foot, twisted ankle and my hips felt all out of whack, but I am feeling pretty good now. Here is my elbow bruises today. . . not bad. (sorry about the dirty mirror, where is my maid today?)
Someday we want to build a nice staircase off the back of the house with a laundry room and just board up these scary stairs and make a nice closet in that space, but until that happens we will just keep trying to be careful and enjoy our quirky house!

Addiction Dance from SYTYCD

This piece from last night's So You Think You Can Dance is a perfect example of how dance can tell a story. Mia Michaels choreographed this piece about addiction and I thought it was amazing how much I felt as I watched. The guy plays the part of the addiction and the girl is the addict. It's a really great piece! Enjoy.

kandk1 12 @ Yahoo! Video

4th of July Fun

We had a fabulous 4th of July this year! Although we missed having Tracy and Steve here (they skipped town to go to Sage's wedding) we talked some other family members into coming out to celebrate with us.

Jared and Casi's family

Jeremy and Jen's family

Us, of course

Quincy was thrilled when Grandpa Williams showed up and wouldn't let him go, especially since she had just burned her fingers on a hot grill - ouch!

Grandma and Grandpa Williams

The parade was fun, although I was a little disappointed this year in comparison to last year's parade. I guess the slow economy affected our parade. It was still fun though and the kids got plenty of candy. And it's always nice to be able to just sit in the front yard to watch it!

After the parade we had an amazing BBQ and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. I really just wanted a relaxing 4th of July and that is exactly what we got. The weather was perfect! It was slightly overcast most of the day with a few sprinkles, but nothing that made us move inside.

Grandma and Grandpa left in the afternoon and Jeremy and Jen left a little bit later (Jen is having a baby tomorrow, so she needed to get home to relax on her own turf - can you blame her??) Jared and Casi stayed and watched the fireworks from our front yard. The kids were great even without naps and staying up really late. We had a few sparklers for them and plenty of bug spray.


We had a really fun day with everyone! Let's see who we can get out here next year??? Hope you all had a good 4th of July too!

Green Thumb Tip - Deadheading flowers

You always hear gardeners talking about deadheading their flowers and how important it is if you want your plants to keep on producing more flowers. I love being out in the garden and over the years have deadheaded a lot of flowers, but didn't realize why I was doing it or if I was ever doing it right. Turns out that I was doing some right, but not all of them so I have decided to share my new found knowledge of proper deadheading (that I learned from my mother while visiting her in June) with any readers out there! Maybe you can learn something new and helpful too.

Bump was so sweet and surprised me with hanging baskets for our front porch, in red like I wanted but getting them later in the season they looked a bit spindly with lots of dead flowers on them. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely loved them and they were full and beautiful, but just needed a bit of work. This is the before picture from the fullest basket.

This is a close up from one of the spindly branches - notice all of the green "flowers" or flower stems without the red blossom part? More on that to follow.

Most people when they go to deadhead a flower just pull of the dead or wilted part of the flower off and leave the green base of the flower. This is the big mistake. The actual flower on this petunia is the green part below the red part of the flower. The whole reason that a plant produces a flower is to produce seeds. When you just take off the dead part of the flower you aren't actually removing the "seed" part and so the plant thinks it has produced enough seeds and will eventually stop producing flowers.

The best way to have a plant keep producing beautiful flowers is to completely remove the flower, seeds and all. This way the plant thinks, "Uh-oh, I haven't reproduced and need to work harder to make that happen." And you end up benefiting from more flowers.
Because my plants had not been properly deadheaded I had to go back and remove all the green flowers that had been left when the red, wilted parts had been removed. It was a bigger job than I thought it would be and ended up taking me about an hour per plant to do initially, but it was worth it in the end. Once I did the initial deadheading now maintaining is pretty easy.

This is the same spindly branch with all the green flowers, that had already bloomed, taken off. Now all the cute little buds that were hidden behind those can have a chance to bloom and fill out these branches again. It will make for a much fuller plant all around.
And this is the same basket after deadheading. Is it perfect?? No. Did I get every single blossim? I am sure I didn't, but it looks cleaner and nicer and will fill out better over the next weeks and months. I now go out every day or every other day and just deadhead those that have faded. It takes a few minutes per plant and keeps them looking really great.
Happy Gardening!! Hope this helps!