The Joy of Family

I LOVE being a grandma!  One time my brother was trying to give me a bad time because I'm a grandma by derogatorily calling me "grandma".  Little did he know that he was paying me the highest compliment!  It is so awesome spoiling the grandkids and not having to discipline them! We always say that what happens and grandma and grandpa's stays at grandma and grandpa's.

  One time when Kayse was younger and spending the night, grandpa went down to get gas in the car and brought home strawberry milkshakes at ten o'clock at night....what a great late night snack.
Nicole has been having to do journal entries in school and one of her entries said "If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why?".  When she asked me what my answer would be I said I would love to live in St. John's BUT only if my whole family could be there because it would suck to be there if my family couldn't be.

I couldn't imagine not being around my kids and grandkids.  I would hate not getting to see my kids raise their kids.  Plus I would miss seeing my parents.  And for that reason I think we will stay in the same house we are in now until we die.  So the kids can continue to ask us to watch the kids....we love it!

Halloween 2009

So much has happened since I wrote last.  I guess my life has been spent on the run!.....so I again am going to back track to Halloween.  This year Nicole asked me to make her costume which I have not been able to do for the past couple of years because I was Ward Activity's Chairman which made October really hectic.  So, I was thrilled to be able to make her costume again.  Last year I was a fair maiden and so she decided that is what she wanted to be.  So we went to Joanne's and found a pattern and picked out fabric off the clearance table.  I had to adjust the pattern because the material she wanted there wasn't enough available.  As usual the dress was done just in time for the ward's Trunk or Treat and I must say it turned out pretty well.  She then wore it two more times; once for her class party where she won best costume then her soccer team went to the Real Salt Lake game and Trick or Treating there.  I'm glad she got more than one wear out of it and I will keep it for the grandkids to wear later if they want.

Me Crossfit?

Okay, for this blog I'm going to have to back up a bit. Back at the first of August Scott, Nicole and I were having street tacos at our favorite taco stand in Layton. While we were sitting there feeding our faces I looked across the street and saw these people working out so hard I thought they were going to start puking! I realized it was a new gym (and I use the word loosely because it wasn't no Gold's that's for sure). The sign said Wasatch Crossfit.(visit them at atch Crossfit Bootcamp and Personal Training Company) However, the more I watched the more I thought "I can do that!". I didn't realize I said it outloud but then Scott and I started talking about it. Scott is always so encouraging to let me try anything....silly him!

So, after we finished eating we went across the street and asked about their "bootcamp". When I found out it was 3 months for $300 I told Scott how good of a deal that was since I had looked into others that were $300 for 6 weeks. I signed on the bottom line and the rest is history...so to speak.

I have now been doing crossfit boot camp for 2 1/2 months and I love it. I love my instructor he is really good and professional and his mom is even in my class.

I have learned that I can deadlift 55#'s and thrust 45#'s over my head ten times for 3 rounds.

Scott says he can see a difference but the scale hasn't budged much. Best thing is I do feel better. I never thought that age would catch up with me but it has and I've realized that I can still keep active which will hopefully help be live longer to enjoy the kids and grandkids.

Thoughts and Feelings

I love reading other people's blogs. I am always impressed at how easily they seem to just write about themselves. It seems with me there are a lot of times that I hold back when I would really just like to let all of my feelings come out on the page. I guess part of me feels that some things aren't socially acceptable to write so I don't.

The other day I was reading a blog written by a divorced dad (via MetroDad: A day in the life...) in NYC. He was so candid about his feelings that I was jealous of his writing. I kept thinking "Why can't I write like that?".

Besides this blog I do keep a personal journal where I try to write my personal feelings and ideas, but even here I think I hold back because I tell myself that one day someone is going to read this. Maybe I need to follow the mantra that says,

"Dance like no one is watching"

In order for my kids to know what I was really like I need to truly write down MY feelings and not worry about who might read them down the road.

Autumn in Utah

I love the change of seasons. It's one of the reasons that I decided to move back to Utah from California. Just when I get sick of one season it changes to the next.

I've decided that I'm truly tired of summer. Tired of mowing the lawn, weeding the garden and mostly tired of opening the pool for Nicole and her friends then 30 minutes later having her decide that she's bored.

I think I'm becoming like my dad when he says "I'm looking forward to the snow flying so that my yard looks as good at my neighbor's".

Yesterday we decided to take a drive in the mountains to view the leaves. We drove up Farmington Canyon and came out just above the "B" on the mountain above Bountiful. The trees are just beautiful. It looked like God had taken a paintbrush and painted touches of orange, red and gold among the green.

When we were on top of the mountain looking down into the valley the words of the Louie Armstrong song "What a Beautiful World" came to mind. It actually brought tear to my eyes when I thought about how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place but mostly a place where I am able to enjoy so many freedoms.

What Were They Thinking????

So, anyone who knows me knows that I listen to "The Chunga Show" on 101.9fm on my way into work in the morning. Well this morning was extra special news. They were talking about how gay marriage in Vermont is now legal and so Ben & Jerry's ice cream which is located in Vermont is going to change their ice cream called "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby". Now here is the kicker. The ice cream is listed as FUDGE COVERED PEANUTS AND PRETZELS. I guess it was that or the rainbow sherbet. What were they thinking?

Zion National Park

Nicole had been bugging us to take the trailer and go see some of the national parks. So, since Dr. Bentley (the doctor I work with) was going to be out of the office mid July we planned a trip down south to Zion National Park.
If you look really close you can see that Nicole has a HUGE Stink Bug on her hand. It looks like she is going to eat it!

We did a lot of hiking. I had never hiked at Zion's before and Scott was excited to take us up the Narrows. It was nice to get out of the heat and be in the water.
The walls were so close you could stand two people together with arms outstretched and touch them. They went sooooo tall too. Nicole loved posing for lots of pictures as you can see in the waterfall picture.

When we started out of the canyon we turned a bend and the heat hit us like someone had turned on the furnace. I'll bet the temperature went up by 20 degrees in a couple a hundred yards. After that it was hard to get Nicole to push forward and finish the hike, but she did. We were proud of her because the hike was probably close to 3 miles round trip.

We decided to go down south Friday night to St. George's Tuachan theater and see Annie. It was a great production but very hot! Tuachan is an outdoor theater set against the redrocks....very beautiful but DON'T go in July!!!! Can you pick out the non-orphan in the picture? It's only because we made her clean up!

Our hike up to the Emerald Pools found us off the trail and hiking where I'm sure only the deer and mountain goats hike. Somehow Scott took a wrong turn but we realized our mistake and found the trail again. The best part of this hike was the top pool which was big enough for Nicole to swim in. It was nice to get wet to cool off for the hike down the mountain.


Our last and shortest hike was up to Weeping Rock. This hike was steep but only about a 1/2 mile roundtrip. The view from Weeping Rock was beautiful and the rock really did look like it was weeping. Bottom line....if you haven't ever been to Zion's or it's been a long time since you've been GO! One suggestion though, don't go in the middle of July when the temperatures during the day were around 113 F and nights still in the 80's! HOT! HOT! HOT!!!!