Midway, UT Sept 18-20

We were in need of a little R&R so we booked our Wyndham resort condo (formerly known as Trendwest) and decided to try out northern Ut for a weekend. We invited our neighbors Nick & Paige Marshall to come along. Troy had InstaCare meetings at Thanksgiving Point all day Thursday so he caught a ride up the night before and then we met him in Provo when he was finished. Friday morning we swam at the Crater which is a big rock with a hole in the top, the natural mineral water is 65' deep and a soothing 96 degrees. We had a blast swimming and bopping around in our snazzy neon green flotation devices, we also rented snorkeling gear and had fun checking out as far as we could see to the bottom of the crater, Nick even spotted the plastic turtle at the bottom. Braxton did really well in the water, I was a bit nervous about him and the bottom of the crater being 65' down but he was fine and loved snorkeling. It was so nice to just relax and soak in the very warm water. I forgot my camera so I will get pix from Paige and post them later. After lunch we headed for a ride on the Heber Creeper, this part of the trip was a surprise to Braxton as he LOVES trains. He was very excited and so happy that the train even had a 'food car'. The ride was 90 mins and fun, we rode in an open-air car and had great views of the gorgeous changing leaves on the mountain. I rode on the H.C. when I was little and remember being scared to tears when the train robbers took over our train and came aboard. I was hoping they would still do this but they only do it on the morning run and we were in the afternoon, Braxton would've loved that. We then ran up to Park City hoping to ride on the Alpine Slide but it was closed due to rain, so we shopped and ran into Nick, one of our radiology students at Old Navy and had a quick visit. Funny how you always run into someone you know when you leave town. That night after the kids were in bed, we stayed up playing games for hours laughing so hard, and you know how bladders weaken after having kids...
Saturday we headed back to Park City hoping to find the slide open. Not so lucky, closed again due to rain and lightening - we looked up, saw partly cloudy skies, no rain and hadn't seen lightening anywhere. Even after several phone calls made from different phones and different people in our car they still wouldn't open the slide.(I'm sure they were bugged by the sudden surge of phone calls & were ticked so even if it was sunny and dry they probably would've found some excuse not to let us ride!) Braxton says they should just put a cover above the slide to keep it from getting wet....hmmmm the 4 yr old has a point. Braxton was way bummed as he was ready to ride the slide with his swim goggles on to keep the bugs out of his eyes (he looked like one of the harley guys from Wild Hogs), as were the rest of us, so we headed to SLC to to bowling. Braxton has never been bowling, however he does hold the record at around 190 on Nick's WII and Nick refuses to play him anymore. So after Braxton finally realized that he even tho he had his own shoes, he still had to wear the funny bowling shoes just like the rest of us, we set off to show Braxton how it's really done. Words can't describe Braxton's bowling ability and his approach, I will have to add the video later so you can see for yourself - we laughed so hard at him, and he had so much fun. I was very proud of his 80, & 82 point games. I skunked them all on the last game...yea for me.
We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch/dinner...need I say more! Where else can you spend 2 hrs at an eating establishment and have no complaints. We had to make room in our cooler & even send food & milk home out of the cooler with Paige's brother just to make room for our all important cheesecake & leftovers. We also drove up around the new Draper temple which isn't open yet, it's beautiful! The ride home was long and Tanner was at his breaking point by the time we arrived but otherwise he did so good and especially loved the swimming pool, he really is a good traveler most of the time. Braxton got up early with me each morning at the resort and worked out at the fitness room, he came away just a wee bit scathed as he fell off the end of the tredmill, but was a great exercise buddy for his mom.
Thanks N & P for coming with us and adding to all the fun - we are looking forward to San Diego in Nov. to attend the Utah-San Diego State football game (go utes!)

"911 - What is your emergency?"

Last Thursday morning, Troy was out of town at meetings and I was home with the boys packing for a little mini-vacation (that's the next blog entry)...there was a knock on our door (our house was being repainted so I thought it was the painters..nope!) & I opened it to find a very friendly St. George cop on my doorstep. He proceded to tell me that they had received a 911 call from our address and he was just checking things out. My first thought was Braxton, but remembered Tanner had the phone while I was changing his diaper and I realized he'd turned it on when I heard the little operater chick saying "if you'd like to make a call..." & I hung it up. The officer said that there was still an open line so I checked the phones found the one still off the hook and we were good to go. He kept asking if we were ok (probably cuz the painters are all very questionable looking!)and then let dispatch know it was just an infant on the line. How do little kids always push the right buttons?? I called Evelyn Warby,an old lady in Beaver once when I was little and told her all about what I got for Christmas and had close to a 5 min conversation before my mom realized I was on the phone and ended the call. Good thing it happened to be someone we knew well. So this morning the phone is sitting on the counter and Tanner grabbed it while I was getting something and next thing I know I hear the phone turn on and he's pushed 99... hopefully no more visits from St. Geo PD in the near future!

Sawdust, Tarts, & Shakespeare

Troy & I spent Friday in Cedar in his dad's woodshop to work on our kitchen cabinets that have been a work in progress for the past 1.3 years. Yes friends, you heard right 1.3 years (can't tell I'm keeping track or anything!) , this project was the catalyst for all the other projects we've done in the past year i.e. new tile, carpet, granite countertops, new kitchen appliances. We bought a new side by side fridge in May of 2007 and after Troy's careful measurements making sure it was the right size, it ended up being too wide. So instead of returning it Troy decided to rip out the cabinets around the fridge and build new ones to fit above and to the side of it. Troy finished those and 3 others that fit around our microwave and that's where the fun ended much to my dismay. I've tried to be patient and not drop too many hints how for mother's day, my birthday, and now I'm shooting for Christmas what a great present it would be to have all the cabinets finished. But we all know how busy Troy is and all the right equipment for the job is in Cedar so Troy's gone to Cedar when he could get some time away from work, and has been up almost every night this week to really get them going again.
We left kids behind today and it was fun to actually help instead of keeping kids busy and entertained while Troy does all the work. My job was to sand the door panels,and we ended up running them through a big sanding machine at a local cabinet shop. At least 4 hrs. of sanding done in about 15 min. - now do I know how to work or what?? We love working together no matter what the project is, and Troy is always willing to try anything new. It's been fun to see what all goes into putting cabinets together.
After we'd inhaled enough sawdust and had quick showers, we took advantage of our time w/o kids and ran up to Rusty's for dinner. Who would you guess was sitting across the isle from us but Elder Dallin H. Oaks and his wife. I felt privledged that he smiled and said a quiet hello as he passed our table on their way out, only I'm sure because I was staring with googley eyes the whole time they were there. How awesome it is to be in the presence of an Apostle even if it is from across the isle. After dinner we ran down the canyon to SUU to join Troy's co-workers from
Southern Utah HomeCare and Hospice (Troy's 2nd job) at their summer party at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. We all met at the Greenshow to get our tickets and have a private little welcome from Fred Adams (we were so sorry that we arrived at the end of that part!:) but guess who was sitting with the group...Dallin H. Oaks..... But they quickly got up and left after Fred finished and they began handing out tickets realizing it was a group affair, they must've thought Freddie A. was giving some kind of intro to the play.
We saw Taming of the Shrew, which was really good. The best part was the LEMON TARTS!!! I LOVE THEM!!! Troy talked me into trying one about a month ago when we took the kids to see the Greenshow and I've been outta control over them ever since. I even made my own & they looked and tasted pretty dang close to the ones we had there.
So at intermission we set out for tarts and they were out. How can you possibly run out of tarts (all flavors might I add) only 3 minutes in to intermission?? So by this time Troy was pretty sure I was going to have a serious melt down right there in line. So Troy bought the last tart, which was bosenberry, and I settled for a choc. chip cookie. I will admit that I pouted for just a second and then ran upstairs to the other refreshment line just in case, and there they were...lemon tarts...I could've bought the hole basket but settled for 1 (but guess what i'm making during my 5 days off!!) Troy breathed a little easier, I had my tart and life was good.
I want to say thanks babe for a great day and date I love ya. Also thanks Nick and Paige for watching Tanner, (Braxton is with his dad) again, just add it to our tab of all the things we owe you!!! sorry all for the length... I don't know how to condense my stories!!

Yay we have a blog!!

So after many "why's and how come's" Troy and I (or rather I) decided to actually start a blog...I'm so very computer iliterate as far as uploading/scanning pictures in so this may be a good way to learn and be more proficient at it - Troy will show me and I'll do a few and then not do anymore for awhile and forget how, so bear with me and we will see how this goes....