5 Years-August 26, 2010

Found these engagement picture outtakes (is that what you would call them?) in my e-mail the other day...love them.

Then I tried to find a nice picture of us throughout the years....

turns out we haven't taken many serious ones.

Then I tried to take a serious one on our anniversary and Bracken whipped out this whopper.

Oh well...maybe next year.

It seems crazy that it has been five years already, but looking at everything that has happened in the last five years I wonder how it has all been packed in to just five years. I love you Bracken!

And what did we do for our anniversary date? Went out to eat at Wild Buffalo Wings. Seriously, what is more romantic than watching each other rip apart and scarf down chicken wings and still be madly in love?....that's right...nothing.

Final Summer Trip- Cache Valley

So I left my camera in the car the whole time we were in Cache Valley. What a slacker.

We had a blast in Logan. Got to see most of Bracken's family, ate dinner & played games with some of our friends, went boating, Bracken went golfing & played tennis, I worked on a sewing project, the kids ran crazy with their cousins and got to play on the big blow up water slide. But really...the funniest part I want to remember is boating at Newton Dam. Someone spotted a Tiger Muskie..or what I would like to call the Loch Ness Monster of Newton Dam. It poked it's head up out of the water and was chomping it's mouth like it wanted to eat us. The husbands convinced Teresa, Katie & I that it was gone so we got on the tube on the back of them boat. Of course right when we fell off it came back up to the surface and was swimming around chomping. We were all scrambling to get back on the tube (and some of us were screaming but I won't out you out :))

I thought Telly was giving us a hard time about them having sharp teeth so I did some research on trusty ole' Wikipeda..

"The mouth is large with many large and hair-like teeth. Muskies will attempt to take their prey head-first, sometimes in a single gulp. ...In the spring, they tend to prefer smaller bait as their metabolism is slower and large bait in fall prior to winter."

and from utahoutdoors.com

"Tiger muskie are the bad boys of freshwater sport fish. They get big and mean and have nasty dispositions...It’s renowned as a sport fish because it can grow to a large size, it readily attacks lures and it fights like, well, like a tiger."

and i found a picture online...no clue who this guy is but he should come fish at Newton Dam.

Okay so maybe we weren't really in a life or death situation....but seriously...those things are ginormous! Oh and sorry Telly if Kristin won't boat there anymore...you can tell her I made this all up.

Final Summer Trip-Lagoon

I love how the Tage & Hayes are trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with their older cousins.

All the cousins that made it to Lagoon, minus Macee & Griff...I think they were just pulling in when the picture was taken.

Friday was our last day up north. We drove down from Logan to Lagoon with all the Longhurst family (except Matt & Skye...we wish you could have flown out for the day!) It was also Hayes' FOURTH birthday! We kept telling him what a lucky kid he got to celebrate his day at Lagoon and I think he felt it! At lunch we had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday, while everyone was finishing lunch he used his bug kit binoculars he got for his birthday to scope out some bugs.

Hayes' favorite rides were the Chinese Dragon & the Octopus ride (The Odyssey i believe). I'm surprised he liked the Chinese Dragon ride because it was soo fast! He also still loved the train, we're glad he decided to diversify his rides a bit more this year, we only went on it 3 times...compared to the 6 times last year. He loved going on rides with his older cousin Carver, who was a good sport to let Hayes tag a long with him.

Kamri's favorite rides were the bumper cars and in her words, "the giraffe ride" (the carousel). Of course after Hogle Zoo she had to ride on the giraffe both times we went. I loved watching her on the bumper cars, she would look up trying to figure out how they worked, then spin the wheel smiling, then laugh like crazy when someone ran into her. She kept running back in line for that ride. Kamri still talks about going to "the la moon" and riding the giraffes.

The only big ride I went on was Wicked which was pretty sweet. It was also sweet that Carver was brave enough to go on it and since he was below a certain height we all got to skip past half of the line so he could be in a booster seat.

Thanks Paul & Denise for taking us to Lagoon!

Final Summer Vacation - Hogle Zoo

Monday August 9th we headed up to Logan from Cedar. But we made a stop in Salt Lake City to see Hogle Zoo and go to my cousin's wedding shower. EJ came along for the ride with us and then drove home with my parents after the shower. It was fun having Uncle E along to chase kids and take pictures plus he is funny. He was our own little paparazzi.

We were a little disappointed that it seemed like a lot of exhibits were missing. No lions, bears or gorillas this time around. We did hang Hayes over one of the walls to grab some sunglasses for a guy after they fell of his head. No worries we were faster than the tiger.*

Kamri's favorite were the Giraffes, Hayes favorite were the snakes & lizards. They both loved looking at all the animals.

The only one that caused fear in Kamri's eyes...the fake elephant that sprays water. Hayes was getting sprayed by it laughing, while Kamri sat in the stroller, covering her eyes, SCREAMING.

Poor girl got really worked up and her parents just laughed at her.

The nerve.

* Okay, it was only a lizard chameleon thing behind the wall...but I was a bit nervous some crazed zookeeper was going to jump out at us for breaking the rules.

Final Summer Vacation - Kanerra Mountain

Friday night & Saturday (August 6 & 7) we spent up at Kanerra Mountain at my family's cabin with our friends, The Browns.

I grew up going up to the cabin every summer and loved it, but now I think I enjoy it even more. I can understand more why my Dad loves it so much...well except let's be honest the work projects...I still don't get joy out of those like he does.

We woke up to an impressive thunder and lightening storm Saturday morning. I love storms like that that are SOO loud. It calmed down a little later in the morning so we set out to go down to the pond. Everyone was on the ranger except Kamri & I and were were on the four wheeler. We started down the path and it started raining. Bracken turned the ranger around and took everyone back to the cabin but I was afraid to put the four wheeler in reverse because we had trouble starting it at first so I didn't want it to die on me. So I drove all the way down to the pond to turn around. Lightening struck really close to us, followed by a huge boom. I booked it up the hill as fast as I could and Kamri & I were soaked. She was laughing that she was so wet, I was just grateful she wasn't screaming.

Later it did finally clear up for good and we were able to go paddle boating on the pond and canoeing on the reservoir. Along with catching two Garter snakes at the reservoir, finding some animal bones we couldn't identify and Bracken getting sucked on by leeches. I'd call it a successful, quick trip.

Final Summer Vacation - Cedar City

Bracken and I decided we wanted to go visit both families before Bracken started back in school. We headed up earlier than planned on Tuesday night so Hayes could make it to a dentist appointment in Cedar for a filling. We all ended up visiting the dentist while we were Cedar. And let's just say Hayes & Kamri were the opposite patient wise. Hayes sat so still and let them fill his tooth. Kamri screamed the moment the tech said anything to her and wouldn't let the dentist touch her.I ended up brushing the fluoride on her teeth and we were done. Hopefully her next visit will go better. On a funner note. We had a blast in Cedar. Hayes & Kamri got to play with their cousin's Xander, Foster, Audrey & Grace at the elementary I attended when I was little. Hayes got to go to a slip n slide primary activity with Xander. Then had a slip n'slide party of their own with the younger cousins (minus Kaylee & Rachel..we wish they could have been there!) I got to hang out with my sister Brooke, mom and sister-in-law Linda while the kids played and Bracken worked. Bracken and I went to the movie Inception (I liked it, Bracken loved it. The ending still bugs me.) and another night we stayed up late playing games with my parents. So enough of my yadda yadda yadda....here are some pictures :)

Hayes figured out he could climb in and out the window...he thought he was so tricky.

Just What I Needed

I'm so behind on everything I want to blog. Hayes is now FOUR and we've been gone having fun for a week and a half. I'm to tired to blog much but wanted to blog this talk from Elder Uchtdorf. I was watching Mormon Messages today and clicked on this one. It isn't an official "Mormon Message" but the talk from Elder Uchtdorf was exactly what I needed today.



Our family has had so much fun the past week and a half visiting out of town family and friends non-stop. But we got home yesterday and Bracken starts going back to school. (classes start Thursday but he has to go to Law Review stuff starting tomorrow). So I'm dreading this week. It's always hard for me to adjust after we've been gone for so long. Fighting the mountains of laundry, trying to get the kids back on a normal sleep schedule, yadda yadda yadda... just dreading the fact that I know I won't be able to juggle everything I want to this week. That I will not be super woman this week (or ever in fact) The house will still not be perfectly clean, I will still not be successful in convincing Hayes to eat vegetables (heck I'm still not successful in getting MYSELF to get all my vegetables), Kamri will throw fits that I will just ignore instead of being able to rein them in. I probably won't get a shower in every day, and I'll mess up on someone's travel arrangements for work, I'm sure Bracken will come home one day with Kamri waiting for him with a poopy diaper instead of a meal all ready on the table and I'll lose my patience with the kids over some very trivial thing.
But it's ok...Heavenly Father still loves me, loves all of us. Even though I'm imperfect and can't juggle everything that I see others juggle (plus more) with ease, and that's okay...
"Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, he loves us Perfectly..."
I'll have to watch this video again tomorrow to remind myself of that truth...

And just in case you haven't watched this video...please do. Amazing.