Nearly 87,000

Just shy of 5 years ago Doug and I bought our first new car together.  It really wasn't a purchase we were wanting at the time, but expecting a "unplanned" little one forced us to do so.   I researched high and low for best buys, crash reports, etc.  We knew we needed a car to last us as well as having a good consumer report. We both agreed that the Honda Odyssey would be a great match for our family.  The price was right, gas mileage great and was way more roomy than our white sadan car.

I feel in love with my mini-van the minute I drove it.  I know, I know a mini van isn't the coolest of cars, but I LOVED my car.  We traveled tons of miles in it back and forth from Arizona to Texas.  It was a great car, until the unexpected happened.  My car wreck.  Remember that?? Well, it got fixed things were good.  However, after moving to Arizona minor things started occuring.  We had planned on getting a new car last summer, but the cards weren't right and felt it was better to wait.

Bye bye silver odyssey

Fast forward to July....... and the air condititioning just wasn't cooling like it should not to mention a few more minor odd noises, etc.  Anyone that has lived or knows Arizona understands that without that luxury life is just. Well, MISERABLE.  I sorta panicked because I knew we needed to either sell or trade it in, at least while things were in working order.  I contemplated getting a Suburban and I went as far as the price tag and got a pit in my stomach.  Not to mention the gas mileage, 14 mpg. Gasp!!  I knew if I upgraded my old car by adding features, DVD, etc that I would be just as happy.  And so July 20, with the help of my dad (thanks dad) he wheeled and dealed us a new car.  It may look pretty close to the old one, but it is a different color AND smells so yummy!

hello, gray/slate new odyssey

So, it looks like I will be that "soccer" mom for at least 4-5 more years.  At any rate, I am thrilled with our new wheels.  Here is to many more miles and memories in our new van!

Thirty Four

Heather took it upon herself to make me a fabulous chocolate cake.

Saturday Doug took it upon himself this year to organize me a birthday bash with all of our friends.  He made a spread of Thai food that included, homemade eggrolls, curry, Thai chicken, and some steak with peanut sauce.  It was super yummy!

Tiffany, Tishia, Julie, Jenny, Gina and Amber

My friend Heather had a starter game going on where she stuck a famous persons name on your back in which we had to try and guess who we were by asking questions.

Kurt, Mark, Doug, Adam and Kati

Some of the guys and gals mingling and eating.  Doug also wrote up a quiz facts about me.  I think there were only a few questions that they didn't know.  Overall it was a great party! We danced, we laughed, we ate, drank diet coke with Sonic ice..... what could be better?

Doug also decorated the house with balloons, spread out my favorite candy (bananna laff taffy, chips ahoy, red vines, tootsie rolls, and peanutbutter m&m's).  My friends also got to walk down memory lane looking at a spread of all my scrapbooks.

Happy 34th Birthday to me!! Thanks Doug for a grand birthday!!  Today the celebration continues with a girlfriend lunch and ironically also happens to be the 1st day of school for ALL my kids.

Arizona Grand Resort

My friend Julie and I decided to surprise our girls for their "summer" birthdays. In order to keep the entire event a secret we had to blind fold them, which at first was a tad tricky.

I carried up the luggage to the room and at this point they still had NO idea where they were. It was quite a challenge getting them out of the car, up the stairs and down the hall.

But, managing to keep them blindfolded for the drive was totally worth it. Just look at all of their faces! It was seriously priceless! I think they were still at little confused at first, and then they became overly excited......Comments of "what we are staying in a resort?" "Can we order room service" "can we jump on the beds?" "stay up all night?"

I had a cake brought into the room with balloons (which was super yum!). Our first stop of the night was shopping and then headed over to see The Proposal. I am not a huge Sandra Bullock fan, but it was pretty entertaining. I busted a gut a time or too as well.

Jenny and Julie

The next morning we spent the day at the hotel water park, which is really the reason why we picked this particular resort.

Taylor (12) , Hayden (13) and Zoie (12)

The park had a wave pool, bonsai slides, a lazy river. I was really surprised how crowded it was. Even with the weather being extremely hot that weekend it didn't seem to stop people from being outside. It was such an enjoyable time! Happy Birthday Girls, we love you!

Wicked

After several years dying to see the Wicked musical I had heard so much about we got tickets and FINALLY got to see it first hand.  I was snapping photos left and right until one of the ushers said, "mam you can't take any flash photography inside the theare"  Ooops.  Well, I did manage to sneak one of the stage, at least of Emeral City.

We bought an extra ticket this year because Taylor had also been dying to see it.  It also ended up being an early birthday present for both of us.  She absolutely LOVED it.  So much that, she wants to see it again.  It was cleaver, quirky, funny, and so well written.  My only complaint was the Gammage Auditorium we saw it in.  The sound system was just terrible.  Yet, another reason to take a trip to New York! Hint hint.

Scott and Amber

Our friends the Varvel's came along to see the show as well.  

Thanks for coming with us we had a wicked good time!

All American

It seems as though my toes have been frequenting the blog and to be consistent I had to share my festiveness with yet another foot header. Taylor (on the left) decided to go fancy and get turquoise plaid, where I stuck with the traditional red with the blue stripe and star. Pretty 4th of Julyish don't ya think?

Weston enjoying his fries and chocolate shake

We headed out around 1pm Arizona time on the 3rd of July to escape our extreme temperatures. 110 to be exact. Our first stop to fill our tummies was none other than our family favorite In and Out Burger.

We got some kicks on this road.

It's been nearly 10 years since Doug and I have driven up to Utah, so you can imagine I was snapping photos right and left giddy over the entire experience. I was flooded back with memories driving along Interstate 10 and up through Flagstaff, AZ.

Glen Canyon Dam- Page, AZ
This is Taylor's typical face in EVERY photo.
(more to come when you scroll down)

My photos really don't give Lake Powell justice, it truly is a beautiful site to see. I actually got out and walked the entire bridge (my stomach was in knots) that is a seriously high bridge not to mention it shakes when cars go by!

We left Lake Powell right when the sun was setting, this was the last sight of light until we arrived the next day (which was around 2am)

Doug clicking his heals on our morning walk. Nice!

We headed north to Sandy and stayed with our close friends and neighbors the Hunter's. They graciously allowed us to stay in their home despite trying to paint, fix it up and get ready to put in on the market. Since this was their stomping grounds they had tons of places they wanted to take us.

Our first stop on Friday was the Oquirrh Mountain temple. The kids weren't overly excited with this choice, but I thought it would be a fun experience to take them through since they were so young on the other two we went through. I loved the decor and style inside, the biggest drawback for me was the excessive crowds, high temperatures, and irrevance shown walking through. I have never experienced such a loud environment. The celestal room really was a site to see, it was very retro/art decoish which I thought was very cool.

Our next adventure was much more kid friendly down town Salt Lake, where the kids played in the water at Gateway. The biggest hit was the music portion which Jared felt like a conductor, right before the water would rise he would raise up his arms (I guess you had to be there) It was quite comical to see him.

We broke off from entertaining the kids to meet up with some of our old friends from San Antonio. Our visit was short and sweet, but it was great to chat with Mitch and Steph.

On the 4th of July Heather had suggested we do a 5 or 10K fun run early in the morning. I was totally up for the challenge even though it had been about 2 weeks since I had ran. I ended up signing up for the 10K, which now am regretting. But the weather was great and it was fun to run a race. I still managed to run it in 54 minutes, but by about mile 3 my knee was screaming in pain. Luckily Kayne West's "Stronger" song came on and I was able to finish without walking.

Us girls had left around 6am and I wasn't expecting the husbands and kids, but they all surprised us at the finish line to cheer us on.

During our stay it was also fun to ride in Mark's yellow 2 seated Porsche. There were a few Sonic happy hour trips made in it. I couldn't resist taking a photo of him because at one point he tried to race us in our mini-van. Just so you know the Odyssey won. Ha.

The great thing about Utah weather is the kids literally played outside from the minute they woke up until the sun went down. It was fabulous! It also helped that the Hunter's had a great swingset and trampoline for the kids to play on.

View from Hunter's front porch

The evening of the 4th was pretty low key. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and instead of fighting crowds we hung out and had our own firework celebration.


I think the guys liked lighting the fireworkds more than the kids. We had enough to last us about 1 hour.

Doug flew out on Sunday since he had to work Monday. The kids and I stayed an extra day, which was fun because I was able to see a few more of my friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Allison, Jenny, Andrea, Shawna, and Jenny

These are some of the Nola ladies I literally haven't seen in at least 5 years. It's crazy to think that after all this time they ended up in the same place. We had Cheesecake Factory, yummo!

Gator was our chef for the evening

The last night we were there we had an outdoor barbeque, the kids swam and once again played until the sun went down.

Weston and Luke enjoying their hotdogs!

We woke up extra early Tuesday morning (the kids and I) and headed back to our beloved Grand Canyon State. And since my children have never seen the Grand Canyon, I decided to make a pit stop on the way home. Truthfully I had no idea it would be 70 miles out of the way, but I committed and thought it was totally worth it.

This guy was seriously making me highly nervous, he was so close to the edge!

Okay, so my kids weren't has "thrilled" as I was about the whole experience. What is not to like about the Grand Canyon? It was really breath-taking. And after about the 5th photo I had to use this as their proof at being at the Grand Canyon. And the photo pretty much portrayed their attitudes, when are we leaving? I am tired, I am hungry, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, and I was there too (had to have some proof) On our way out I decided that we should do the IMAX movie which again I found to be interesting. So, our what should have been a 10 hour drive turned into more of a 15 hour drive, but I thought it was worth the detour. The Grand Canyon really is an amazing place!

Increments.....

Pirate themed camp

So much has transpired I feel like it's sometimes not worth going back and catching up, but for memory sake I'll start with June and move forward from there. June kicked off with one of several camps for our household. Cub scout camp lasted 3 days from 3-10pm. The boys absolutely loved it. Luckily the weather was still abnormally cool making the daytime activities a little more bearable. Yes, I learned how to shoot my first bow and arrow. I just wish someone would have told me the bruise you would get from the rubberband. Ouch!

I did shoot a red, maybe next time I will get a bulls eye!

Father's Day seemed to be the biggest hit for June (at least for Doug) I racked my brain as to what to get him other than the normal tie, shirt or shoes. I woke up extra early since our church is 8:30) to make his favorite cinnamon cake before we had to leave. I also ventured out by doing tons of research for his gift. not to mention had to find a place to hide it! To throw him off I shocked him with a wake board.

Love that cinnamon cake!

No, we don't have a boat, but hope to someday get one. In the meantime it makes a pretty piece of furniture in our room. This looks like a staged surprised photo, but truth be known that was a serious surprised face!

June is also the beginning of soon to be the start of several birthdays. After several years of Luke begging for a party I decided to have a "friend" party this year. He chose to have an army themed party which was so much fun! We painted faces, ate donuts from a string, and had water balloon fights. Happy 6th Birthday Luke!

The last week of June I was privileged into being invited as the girls camp photographer. Never being to girls camp I wasn't too sure what to expect. It ended up being so much fun! I would most definitely go again next year or as long as they would have me. It was also great to be up there at the same time with Taylor since this was her first year as well!

Due to being the camp photographer there was just 2 photos of me out of over 800, but here is proof I was there with my friend Kati on one of the last mornings of camp. Still to come a trip to Utah seeing old, dear friends, surprise weekend for Taylor, Wicked and end of summer stuff!