Zion Ponderosa

Whey your father-in-law says, "Hey... do you guys want me to rent out a fabulous million dollar luxary home in Zion's Park over Labor Day?", it's kind of a no-brainer. He rented a house for Ryan's whole family to stay in this weekend at Zion Ponderosa. It was such a fun place. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to take any pictures. Awesome! I know everyone else got a ton so I'm hoping to do a little blog-lifting after they all post their fun pictures, and hopefully by the time I go to print this up in my journal all of my photos will be replaced.

This trip was so much fun for me because it brought back so many memories of all the trips we'd take down there when I was a kid. Here's a few of the highlights.

Our gorgeous houseIt was so pretty. My favorite thing was being able to go, go, go all day and having such a comfortable place to crash at night. It came complete with four huge bathtubs, cable TV, foosball, and more. We tried our hardest to catch the place on fire when our entire bbq was consumed by flames in the worst grease fire I have ever seen. Luckily Mike B. was right there with the baking soda. Whew!

The trip to Moqui Cave:
I'm not sure how to explain this one... Not quite what we expected, but an adventure all it's own.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes:

So pretty, and so much fun! Maybe a bit too hot in August though... Hmmm... will have to remember that for next time. I have so many great memories of trips here when I was a little girl. Just running and jumping through miles and miles of soft, pink sand.


Swimming in the awesome pool.

Khursten loves waterslides. She must have gone down these slides 100 times.

Hiking 1/3 of Emeral Pools:
You heard me right... we only made it 1/3 of the way (life's a little different with kids). Hey, we made it to the lower pool, and it was the most beautiful 0.6 miles we'd ever hiked!

Riding around in a golf cart:
This resort offered a lot of fun things to do, but the prices were a little too steep for us. I wish we could pay the $225/ hour it would cost for our family to ride horses for an hour, or the $120/person to go repelling down Orderville Canyon. Ryan and I were feeling a Little bad that we weren't forking out the big bucks to do some fun stuff. We were just about to cave and hand over the dough when we saw a sign telling us we could rent a golf cart for $40 a day. What? Only $40? This $40 golf cart brought about some serious fun. We drove all around the resort and all over the little trails. Ryan and I went out by ourselves for a little while. Things got a little reckless. At one point I decided to flip a U-turn going a whopping 15-mph and I threw Ryan completely out of the cart and he landed in a big pile of sticker burrs. Good times. I can't wait to get the pictures of this.

Playing Red Sand Volley Ball. I couldn't find a cool picture for this one. We had so much fun playing volleyball in the fine red sand. The kids all sat in the corner of the court and built some seriously cool sand castles. It was fun for all ages. When we got back to the house and threw the kids in the bathtub, we left a nice, red ring around it. The bottoms of my feet still have a nice red hue to them.

The Tunnel:
Jen & I reminiscing about the 'magic' we felt driving through this mile-long tunnel as kids. We tried to explain to our husbands how rolling down the windows, honking your horn, and screaming at the top of your lungs would be a super fun thing to do. They were not convinced, but they did agree to try. I think the shrieks of delight they heard coming from the girls in the back seat may have finally changed their minds. By the 4th time we went through, I'm pretty sure they were feeling the magic.

Lizard spotting:Never did catch one, but we had fun trying. We saw quite a few of these cute little guys running around. And quite a few of these freaky-looking dudes too:Dutch Oven Dinner: We got to go for a ride in a wagon to a secluded spot where they had prepared a delicious dutch-oven dinner. It was perfect... beautiful night, amazing view, succulent dinner, swarms of bees.... oh wait... let's just forget about those darn bees.

Thanks guys for such a fun weekend!

The Ghetto Bowl

This is part 2 of yesterday's disastrous family-day post. Right after we went to the Gateway Fountain, we decided to go bowling as a family. We had driven past this place several times that said, "Bowling and Family Fun Center" in big huge letters. It was a bowling alley/pool hall/arcade all in one. It had some serious potential for being really cool, but it fell just a little bit short.

The front of the building was wood siding and each slat was painted a different, beautiful color. There were two different casino-style carpets butted up against each other in the doorway. There seemed to be a total lack of air conditioning. We had promised the girls pizza and nachos, but when we asked the one, lone employee who was running the snack bar he put down the shoe spray he was using and started walking over there. We quickly changed our minds and decided a family dinner afterward might be a better idea. The floors were so warped and pitted that nothing would roll straight. Not to mention the balls. Those require a visual demonstration:
This was what every single ball in the whole place looked like.

The girls love to bowl and weren't swayed at all by the low star rating Ryan and I gave the place. Both girls take after their daddy and are already better bowlers than I am.

I love this look of concentration.

Here's an action shot of Nicole.

Audrey wouldn't even touch the ball and we couldn't figure out why. Finally in frame 6, we realized she just wanted to use the ramp. After that, she couldn't wait for her next turn.

After bowling we hit up the local Dee's for some fine dining and delicious milk shakes which made our family day complete. Ya gotta love ice cream!

The Not-So-Awesome Family Day

On Friday I decided that since it was the last day of summer, I wanted to do something super fun as a family. Everyone in my ward is always talking about how fun it is to go and let your kids run through the fountain at The Gateway. We hadn't ever done this before so I figured it would be a great thing for us to do on our last day of Summer. I called Ryan, asked him to knock off of work a little early and meet us downtown. We headed out and I was super stoked! This was sure to be an awesome day!
NOT! General consensus of the Gateway Fountain.... Not fun at all! As soon as we arrived, the girls stripped down to their swimsuits ready to have some fun. They didn't get more than a few steps out onto the pad when BOOOOOM!!! The music starts with no warning at all. This scares Khursten so bad that she slips and falls, catching all of her weight on her hip bone, giving her the biggest bruise I have ever seen.


Needless to say, she was very reluctant to go back out and play. Shortly after this fiasco, Nicole got shot right in the eye by one of the jets of water and slipped and fell, landing on the back of her head, giving her a whopper of a headache and a very sore eyeball. She too, came over crying and decided to sit things out. Audrey, seeing the disasterous fates of her sisters, opted not to even venture into the water. When we finally left, both Khursten & Nicole told us that The Gateway Fountain was the stupidest place ever and they actually made me promise never to take them back. What a fun family day I planned!
All was not lost, however. After a good 20 minutes of sulking, the girls did decide to give things another chance. They tiptoed ever so carefully so they wouldn't fall again, but they did at least get wet. I did get some good pictures though.... If you didn't know better, you'd think we had the time of our lives.

Audrey's Owie

"Settle down you guys. I don't want to spend all night in the emergency room."

These are the dreaded words. These are the words my dad used to say to my sisters and I when we got out of control. These are the words we learned quickly to listen to, because if we didn't, someone would inevitably end up with stitches or worse. These are the words I said last night when Khursten was chasing Audrey around the house laughing and squealing maniacally. I should have known not to utter these dreaded words. Once I did, there was only one possible outcome. And when Audrey collided head-on with the banister, I knew we were doomed.

Ryan and I couldn't decide whether or not her cut was bad enough to drive 35 min. to my parents' house, drop the girls off, head to the ER, wait another 3 hours, drive back to my parents' house, pick the girls up, and drive another 35 min. back home. I ran over to my friend's house because she's a nurse and I was hoping she'd have the expertise to decide for me. No luck... she wasn't home. We finally decided that since it was on her face, we didn't want to risk a scar so called my parents and off we went.

2 1/2 hours and $100.00 later, Audrey was all fixed up with three little stitches. I'm glad we took her in. I didn't think she needed stitches. I thought they'd just crazy-glue her back together like they did when my sister's little boy cut his head. She was such a brave girl the whole time. She didn't even cry and she did everything the nurse told her to do. All she kept saying is, "Audrey got big owie" I had the pleasure of watching the whole thing. Urghhh... I could never be a doctor.

Khursten's 1st Day

This photo sums things up pretty darn well. Khursten was thrilled to start school today. I still can't believe I have a 2nd grader! Crazy! I took Khursten to school today and met her teacher. Her name is Mrs. Isakson. I think she's going to be so much fun! I found out today that she's in the 1st / 2nd split. I'm not sure how I feel about that? Any thoughts on the subject? We will get to do one year at this school and then our brand new elementary school will be open next fall. I can't wait for Khursten to get home and give me the scoop on the 2nd grade.

Reward Day

Last month the girls and I made a deal. We decided that dirty rooms were no good and it was time we cleaned them every day. We made a sticker chart with a square for every girl for every day for a month. I told the girls that when the chart was full they would get to choose a reward. We would do one thing together as a family, and they could have one special prize. They immediately agreed on going bowling as our family activity. We're going to do that tonight. The individual prizes were a little bit trickier. I was thinking maybe giving them a few bucks each and heading off to the dollar store. Nicole had a different idea.
When we were moving she noticed a box labeled 'porcelain' dolls. (well... to her it was just ......dolls) Every year as a little girl, Santa Claus brought my sisters and I each a porcelain doll. These were fabulous treasures as a child. In my adult life, they haven't brought me quite the same thrill and have found themselves in the depths of our storage. But remembering the soft spot they used to hold in my heart, I couldn't bring myself to just throw them away. So... to the new house they came.
Nicole decided that for their sticker chart reward, they all should have the chance to choose one of my precious dolls to keep for their own. I couldn't be happier about this idea.
The girls did a wonderful job keeping their rooms clean for a whole month. Even Audrey has figured out how to make her bed (kind of) and put all of her toys in the right bins. We put the last stickers on our chart this morning and out to the garage we went to hunt for porcelain dolls.

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I don't really think they understood my description of what a porcelain doll actually was. When I opened the box, their faces were priceless. They were so excited.

After unloading all of the dolls, and thoroughly checking out each one....

Each girl chose her favorite one.

We spent the rest of the morning washing, combing, and braiding hair, dusting the dolls off, re-tying bows, and over-all prettying them up. Now I'm sure they're the fanciest 20-year-old porcelain dolls around.

Kinda Feelin' Blue

I've noticed a pattern with my blogging. I seem to mostly blog the happy things in my life and let the other things fade from my memory. My goal is to print up my blog for the whole year, bind it into a book, and call it a journal. That got me to thinking... if this is my journal...am I being honest with myself if I sift out the bad? Should I blog the days when I'm feeling a little blue? It's not fun for others to read, but maybe it's good for me to remember???

So that leads me to today... I know we've only been in our new house for a little over a month, but I'm feeling like it's time that I started getting to know people. I've been going to the enrichment meetings and the weekly playgroup, but I stil feel like I'm looking out onto a sea of nameless faces that are stil kind of all a blur. There's yet to be someone who I just 'click' with and it's really bumming me out. Where are you magical person from my imagination who is exactly like me? I was looking forward to your three little girls becomming BFF's with mine. If you're reading this... give me a call! We can take the kids to the splash park and then do lunch and get pedicures...

Darn it! I guess life doesn't really work that way. Woe is me.