Antelope Island

Last month, while my parents were watching my sister's kids, we all made a trip to Antelope Island. It's the largest island in the Great Salt Lake and, as you can probably guess, there are antelope living there, along with a myriad of birds and best of all: Buffalo. There are around 500 buffalo on the island and you will never know if you will see any or if they are all hiding from you.

One of our favorite things to see on the island is a ranch on the south end. It has the oldest house in Utah still on it original foundation. (That's their claim to fame...) It's a pretty cool old house full of antiques. There's also a barn, farm-hand housing, a spring house (which Papa told the kids is where they took naughty kids to drown them), a chicken coop and horses.

Bryan loves horses. Every day on our way to and from Bethany's house, we pass fields abounding in horses and I hear a constant stream of "Ne-e-e-igh, Ne-e-e-igh" from the back seat.

On this trip to the island, we also go to see people on horseback and hear the excited "ne-e-e-igh, Ne-e-e-igh" as they trotted past. I would highly recommend the drive out there - the kids had a blast!

Here's some pics of our trip (sorry there's a ton!):

Huh?

Do you ever have those times when you just want sit talk, but you have no idea what to say or if, when you do start talking, if it will make any sense to those listening?

Yeah. That's this moment. I apologize to any who have clicked on this post and will not have my feelings hurt if you close this blog right now. Or click on "Next Blog". I might even suggest it.

Speaking of which, have you ever done that? Clicked on Next Blog? You can end up on some pretty weird blogs. There are some fun ones out there, but most of them just make me feel normal - which is hard to do some days!

Anyway. I'm sitting here, musing. And as you can imagine, my musings are quite random. I'm realizing that I have no real goals. Of course I have general goals... stay in our budget for this paycheck while paying all the bills and possibly get out of debt, be a good person, go to church even when I really don't feel like it (thanks Matt!), try to be a good wife and mother.

I've formed dreams and aspirations, longings and desires, but I haven't put those into action. So. Here's some goals that you (if you've stayed with me up to this point and are willing to go a little further) will now have to listen to and might possibly have the chance of seeing me reach for and hopefully achieve. Nothing big - don't get your hopes up.

1. Do not let clean laundry sit in the basket for more than one night. (Tonight is that night so now you know what I'm doing tomorrow. Last night doesn't count, right?)

2. Play my piano at least once a week so as to not loose the little I know. Even if it is Chopsticks with Bryan's help.

3. Make a dessert for my hubby at least once a month. (Did that yesterday so I'm good for May - you'll be seeing that on Desserts By Trial shortly... Last night totally counts on this one.)

4. Read to/with Bryan every day.

5. Continue to develop my crochet on-the-side-business.

6. Bring joy to others. Everyday.

Exercise should probably be on here, but, I really haven't found a way for that to work right now.

That's about it for now. Oh - and to document my struggle with these goals on this or my other blogs. Not too much though, just a little note here and there. And probably not goal #6. Not into that whole "look at me and how great I am" stuff.

And I might have to set a reminder in outlook to update this thing. If you're thinking that I'm a nerd for saying that (let alone actually doing that) you're right. I've come to terms with that. How many non-nerds out there crochet at my age?

Wow. I just re-read this thing and I'm really sorry you had to endure that.

What We've Been Up To

I've been so bad at updating everyone on our family. Time flies and days go by without time to take the 3 month old nail polish off my toes, let alone update the blog! One of these days, I'll be able to get the nail polish remover out...maybe.

Matt is working hard in the office. He's getting more comfortable with talking to anyone and everyone, working on getting some marketing done. Here comes the shameless plug: He's an awesome Chiropractor and is offering two Patient Appreciation Days in early March. Stay tuned for the dates and be sure to call for an appointment one of those days!! While we work to build the clinic, Matt works all night, five nights a week at a furniture warehouse. I love him so much and am so glad that he is willing to do anything to take care of his family.

Bryan is doing well. He's running everywhere and getting into anything he can reach...or climb up to. Anytime he wants something or wants me, he just calls "Ma? Maa-aaa! MA!!" He loves Bumr (our dog, Boomer) and loves throwing balls around the house. He will now knock at the door and call out "Hewoah!". He climbs the stairs all day and night, hoping to go outside or say hi to Nana and Papa, and Bumr, of course! Matt and I have been called to the nursery, so he will now get to play with the rest of the rug-rats at church, rather than sit out in the foyer, driving us crazy. He's so cute and has a great time making us laugh.

He's getting over a nasty cold and is extra "tender" in the mornings:

And what have I been doing? What else but proving the age of my soul by crocheting? I've been working with some different patterns and am excited to start some new projects. How dorky is that?

I might have carpal tunnel...

One of my many new projects:

(sorry it's a bit hard to see...)

It's Been a While

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted. That's what comes from deciding to sell handmade hats and scarves and leaving yourself no free time what-so-ever.

I was looking through some pics I've got saved on my work computer and decided to post some of my favorite ones. So here we go...

My wedding day in the Portland Temple Atrium

My sweet boys

I love that my family is not "too cool" to dress up for Halloween, just to take the kids around the neighborhood. My mother is the ring leader and I love it!!

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

Matt's parents are wonderful - and have a great sense of humor!

Trent, wearing a bonnet that I made. And loving it.

I have a Dad that can guilt me into doing anything - even curtsying to him before he would dance with me at my reception. I usually don't regret the things he guilts me into doing.

I love that my sister is so willing to take care of my son while I'm at work. I feel like he's safe there (from everyone but Drew) and they love him like only family can.

Bryan, not nearly as happy as Trent to be wearing the bonnet. Matt wasn't too happy either!

I love the family that I have been blessed with. I also love that we were actually able to get one good picture during that awful session! :)

Happy Friday!

It's friday!!! So glad. Not only is it friday, but it's girl's night tonight - yay! I never thought that I'd be so excited as an adult to be on the verge of a weekend. Even if that weekend will be full of cleaning, grocery shopping, changing poopy diapers (cuz the kid isn't at Beth's, making her change the poopy ones...) and wrestling a tired, whiny, child through three hours of church.

I'll still take a weekend anytime! Bring on the fridays, just keep the mondays away.

Catching Up

Okay - so here's the rest of the stuff from October that I haven't gotten around to posting yet.

While Matt's parents were in town over Conference weekend, we visited Thanksgiving Point. It's a pretty cool place and they have a ton of different stuff to do, but each attraction has it's own price tag so I can see it getting really spendy pretty fast.

Posing with the Pumpkin Scarecorws. While eating cheese. Pepper Jack cheese (he loves it!).

First, we watched the glass-blowers at the Art Institute. They were working on a massive project for a man's home (ala the Bellagio's main lobby ceiling in Las Vegas). It was very interesting to watch, but I didn't get any pics. :(

All bundled up on our way to the Art Institute

Then we headed to the farm and Bryan had a blast there. He loved the animals and giggled in delight when he was able to pet a baby goat.



The farm had goats, all types of birds, llamas, horses, cows, almost anything you would expect on a farm, and we had a lot of fun making all the noises and trying to call the baby cow over. Matt's dad, Wade, finally suceeded in coaxing the baby cow over so I rushed over with Bryan to have him pet the cow. He was so cute and B would reach out and touch him, then pull his had back as fast as he could. That was until the cow bellowed about 6 inches from B and me. There were no tears, but Bryan wasn't going to touch him anymore!

At one end of the farm there are a few child sized buildings for kids to play in. Bryan's favorite was the jail. I know, scarey. We had to pry his fingers off the bars to get him out!

He's way too happy behind those bars!

After the farm, we headed to the dinasoar museum. It was on the spendy side, but well worth it - it was pretty cool and there were a ton of dinosoars and some great hands-on exhibits for the kids.

We wouldn't really throw him to the sharks....

Digging up some bones

Swimming with a giant turtle thingy

This is Matt's favorite pic. It's a "human" about to be squashed by a mammath

And my favorite pic - Bryan was crackin up because I had to lay on the floor to get the mammath in the shot. :)

And probably the best picture that whole weekend! Wade posing in front of his special parking sign :) Love you Dad!!