In all living, have much fun and laughter.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Part 2... the hotel and the temple

We finally made it over to Salt Lake and we were all so excited to get changed and get over to the temple. We went into the Hotel and they messed up the reservations because there was an Asian Convention in town that weekend (which explains literally a hundred Asian people walking into the Hotel behind us!) so they upgraded our rooms to the towers and gave us three 700 sq ft suites that we had to make due with for the night! The rooms were nice enough to just stay in them all night... however the pool was inviting and we had the greatest time swimming. Nathaniel loved the pool. He didn't want to get out. I think that was his first time swimming in a real pool! Time flew, and we were having a great time!

Here is the crew heading for the elevators...

Kinzee getting her picture taken while taking a picture! :)

Kassi took pictures of everything... it almost looks like they never get out. But I promise they do! This isn't her first Hotel, she just gets a kick out of it every single time she gets to stay in one so we have lots of random pictures of random things inside the hotels!

Kinzee snapping pictures on her cell phone!

It seems the first thing they do when they get to their hotel room is start taking pictures!

Make yourselves at home girls.... 2 minutes and it looks like they have moved in!

A room with a view... so much fun!

We spent hours in indoor/outdoor pool Thursday night. It was so fun. We loved the hot tub and the pools. The night was perfect for swimming!

Then off we went to visit the Temple. Before the newly built temples are dedicated they have an open house for the public to be able to walk through and see the beauty and sacredness of them. It is amazing and the greatest opportunity for our kids to be able to visit the temple! There is a feeling inside of the temples that cannot be put into words and the kids loved it! It was wonderful!

Tallin....

Kailee and Hyrum waiting for the tour to begin....

Beautiful girls, Kassi, Kalli and Kinzee waiting to see the temple...

Wyatt, Nathaniel and Willie...

Nate being Nate because we all know the world revolves around him.

Being inside the temples is the greatest experience ever! They are beautiful, a piece of heaven right here in the middle of the crazy, mixed up world! It was so fun to take our kids and let them experience the spirit of the temple!

Hayden wanted a picture of himself in front of the piano!

Kassi, Kalli and Tallin after the tour headed for a cookie!

Kinzee and Nathaniel.... those cookies are yummy!

Sisters and friends, what a great combination!

Almost all of us... it sometimes feels strange to have 'family' pictures taken when we don't have all of the family with us!

I do have to say that it is never a good idea to leave the packing to the kids. Since it was a last minute decision to run away, I didn't get my lists made for who had what in their bags. We got there without Kalli's church shoes, without some socks, without this, or that... I had to take Kailee to the doctor Thursday morning and we were running like crazy to get everything together to be able to meet Thayne in town. That will teach me! But then, what we couldn't buy we could certainly do without! And the trip turned out to be amazing anyway! With or without shoes! Kids... just being kids, playing and posing and looking forward to the next exciting part of our journey!

Say cheese................................

Just more pictures of the kids!

Silly kids cheesing for the camera as usual!

Kids being kids... and what amazing kids they are!

Part 1 of the spontaneous trip... girls car rocks!

Wednesday when Thayne made his daily call to say hi and check on how my day was going, I threw out to him an idea of just picking up and going over to Utah to go through the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. We had promised the kids that we would take them over and I asked if he wanted to think about it. I told him that the kids had pooled their money and were trying to convince us that they had saved money for Lagoon on Friday. The kids have been taking care of the neighbors horses and shoveling manure and everything for summer fun money. I am actually really proud of them because the neighbors told us that they are really hard, hard workers. The kids told them that they didn't need to pay them because he had been hurt in an accident and lost a finger and the use of his right hand, but they insisted that they were paying them, and even gave Kami and Kalli a couple of dollars for helping. The little ones were so excited to 'contribute' their dollars to the 'Lagoon' fund! :) I told Thayne that we could make it work (we are going to Utah for the 4th and knew that things would be tight this week, but I knew how bad the kids wanted to go and how hard they had worked to do it!). The big van needs some work so we had to take the Excursion and the car. The car was the girl car and Kailee went right to work burning us some serious 80's music to rock to on our way. And boy can these girls rock! We sang and laughed and they waved at all of the truck drivers and put the sign in the window....and got lots of 'honks' even if Kassi can't you're! We had sooooo much fun! I swear my girls should have been born in the 80's!

As you will notice... they are constantly making faces! I see it in almost every picture of every teenage girl these days. So I know it must be the 'in' thing to do! :) Here's Kinzee and Kalli making the face!

Here's Kassi with the window down, wind blowing her hair, music loud and we're half way there, living on a prayer!!!!!

Kailee in the front seat with me, running the music, and she likes it LOUD!

Kassi and Kalli jamming to some REO... speeding across the desert!

Kalli thinks she is a teenager already and knows the words to every song that came on....

Kalli and Kassi waiting to start the trip... so excited! But not sure if they are more excited about the loud, rocking 80's music or Lagoon! :) It's pretty equal in their eyes!

And more faces, and more, and more... Hey, it took us 3 hours to get there, that is a LOT of time to pose for the camera over, and over, and over again! They killed my batteries in both of the cameras if that is any indication of the number of pictures taken on this trip!

I am such a blessed mom to have my girls as my dearest friends! Yes, I am still their mom, always their mom. But it's so great to be able to hang out, laugh, talk and sing our hearts out and share our love of music and fun! These girls are the very best! Thanks for making the trip so great!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Being a mother...

It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings. ~Ann Landers

I have loved that quote since the first time I read it. I sometimes felt bad about the fact that I was trying to teach my kids to do things for themselves. At a very early age they could do many, many things for themselves. Not because I wouldn't do it for them, but I wanted them to be amazing, contributing members of society. I never went into parenting to raise children, I went into it to raise adults! I have always found so much joy in watching them grow, watching them progress in life. It's exciting. It's amazing. I would willingly have a new baby every year for as long as humanly possible, and I absolutely adore newborns. But I also enjoy each and every stage as they grow up. I see that they can do so much for themselves and that they have the ability to become the most successful human beings!

Monday, June 22, 2009

S'mores.... and more!

My kids love to take pictures... even of themselves. I think it has something to do with me always taking pictures of them, I'll admit that I ruined them! Maybe it stems from the fact that my parents have very, very few pictures of me growing up... so we can just blame them, it's better that way! My sick obsessive need to constantly take pictures is because my parents ruined me! There... whew! I feel better unburdening myself there! ;)

The kids got Thayne a firepit for Father's day so that we can make s'mores on the deck now! The deck that still technically isn't finished, but that is for another post! So we ate our beef enchiladas and let them settle for all of about 5 minutes before the begging for s'mores got out of hand!!! It was a blast sitting out by the smoking fire.... smoking because the wind was blowing like crazy so we moved it off the deck and over by the garage! But we got to just hang out and talk about important things in life and enjoy one another's company!

This is just Kalli showing off her sun glasses!

Nate was mad at us for not letting him make his own s'more, so he stomped up the little hill and showed us by opening Kimi's gas lid! He would look back at us like he was telling us, Take that!" He makes us laugh!