November Iphone Pics

I spent a fair amount of time organizing all my iphone pictures this past week.  I've learned from my mistake and I will be sorting thru my iphone pics each month this year-- or at least that's my plan.   

So here is a recap of November Iphone pictures...........

I woke up to this short note, written on a napkin  from Alex.  It made me laugh.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to snap a picture to document Alex's first official deer hunt.  

Luckily, Doug forgot his phone so he came home to get it and I quickly snapped my picture.  :)

In all they shot five deer, which around here is a pretty disappointing number. 

 But, it was a good start for Alex.

Nadya broke her finger playing basketball. She had to sit out the rest of the season as a result.

Both the girls made 1st quarter honor roll.  Good Job Girls!

The boys each earned their bobcat badge in Boy's Scouts.

We had a pretty warm November.  We soaked it up!

Misc. February

The kids all had fantastic report cards again so I treated them to Red Robin's.

Nadya and the boys had all A's and E's and Hallie was on the honor roll again!  

So, so proud!

Nadya and I went to the Red Rocks meet to see her friend from another gym who was a runner.

We've been lucky to attend several meets this year!

Poor Doug.

  He came home from Iowa and headed straight into surgery.

He had to have a hernia repaired.

It had been scheduled, but still no fun. 

We finally received enough snow for the boys to play in!  

Unfortunately, we didn't make it sledding before it melted.

Sledding just may not be in the cards for us this year!  Boo!

The boys and I met some friends at the Dinosaur Museum.  

The boys loved the 3D Movie!

Hallie made an apron in exploratory class at school for Nadya.

I thought it was sweet of her.  She even picked colors to match our kitchen!

The boys had a research project on wellness in school. 

 Carter researched BMX'S and how it is a great form of exercise. 

 Alex wrote about smoking.  They each wrote their paper 

and had to create mini museums to be displayed in their class.

I found this note in Alex's pants while doing laundry.  

This is a first for us.  Well, Alex just told me it's not the first for him! 

Passing notes at school, how fun!

It makes me laugh that this one is about video games.

Can you tell we are in Winter mode?

 I can!  

Bring on Spring!

Father's Day

I'm a little bit behind on my blog, but I can't overlook Father's Day.

The kids all made cards and gifts at church.

The boys gave him soap on a rope,

and the girls key chains.

After church we opened gifts.

We got him a new back pack as his broke

and a new office chair for the basement.
(We'll be getting one more to match, but wanted to make certain

we were happy with it before buying two)

It looks great and matches nicely with the basement furniture.

We are so lucky to have the World's Best Dad!!!!!

We hope your day was great!!!!!!!!

Daddy's Birthday!!!!

We celebrated Doug's birthday today.
The kids did all the wrapping themselves.

We used newspaper in an effort to be more green.

I loved that I could just say,

"Here kids,  go downstairs and wrap these!"

And they did!

The kids took turns handing Doug the presents they wrapped.

They did a great job!

Doug gave me strict instructions not to buy him much

because we have a vacation in the near future.

So, we got him a few things for the beach.

A Volleyball, basketball, a frisby, yummy spoons and spice coffee,

a University of Utah T-shirts, pumpkin lights and a fun bat and ball set where 

supposedly you can hit the ball 300 feet.  

(I thought that would be fun for the kids to play with dad on the beach).

(Wowzers!  Would you look at all that smoke!)

We sang Happy Birthday and then said our goodbyes to Dad.

It was Doug's softballs team last game and they took second place in

 their division. Well Done Rhinnos!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We hope your day was great!!!

A Getaway Trip/Work Trip for Doug

Doug had meetings in Covington, Kentucky and Doug's 

parents offered to watch the kids so I could go too.

We flew out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and 6:00 AM so

we drove down the night before and stayed with

Doug's neice, her husband, and their new baby.

We went to dinner at a pub right on the Ohio River.

We took a few photos after over the Ohio River.

You can tell how humid it is because Doug's hair just sticks to his forehead!

We flew into Cincinnati the next morning and checked into our hotel.

We stayed right on the Ohio River. 

The main bridge was under construction.

One side of the bridge is Covington, Kentucky and the other side is Cincinnati, Ohio.

We stayed in Kentucky, but you are looking at Cincinnati.

I had good intentions of using the quiet time to finish my 06 blurb book, 

but Doug's meetings and activities kept us quite busy.  

I did get a few months finished though.

We spent one evening cruising the Ohio River on a dinner cruise.

The food was great and the scenery was beautiful.

Our trip ended with an award dinner at the Riverside Aquarium 

where we were able to tour the aquarium after dinner.  

It was closed to the public,but our group was allowed to walk through 

and enjoy our cocktails while doing so.

The kids did really well while we were gone, 

but I am pretty sure they wore out grandma and grandpa.

Thanks again you two!

Father's Day

The kids and I made stones for Father's Day.

I saw the kit at Michael's, but we ended up buying our own

concrete and doing our own thing. It was much cheaper.

 We initially made two larger stones (shown on the left) for Grandpa, but they cracked.  

I guess bigger is not necessarily better.  We re-did Grandpas' stones the next day.  

It was great that we were able to do a craft and the kids were able to do it all by themselves!

They turned out great!  

And they would have made a nice surprise but Carter CAN NOT keep secrets. 
Dad walked int he door and Carter said, 

"We made you a present today and it wasn't stepping stones!"

Nice one Carter!

We also took Dad to dinner at the Golden Corral.

The kids love that place and we love how kid friendly it is.

(PS- Doug made me remove the dress up pics, so if you missed them sorry, but they are priceless!)

Apparently, he doesn't like his boys dressed up as cute girls.)

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Our Mini Vacation

Well, atleast that is what the boys kept calling our day trip after their dad referred to our trip to Logan for Nadya's gymnastics meet "Our Mini Vacation."  Not really what I would call a mini vacation, but okay.


We stopped at Aggies for some ice cream before Nadya's gymnastics meet because it came highly recommended from a friend of mine.  The kids enjoyed it.  The ice cream was great and pretty cheap and we were glad that we stopped before the meet as we attempted to go back after the meet but were scared away when we saw the line extending out the door about twenty feet.  I like ice cream, but not that much!





So Nadya and I went to her meet and Doug and the boys went off and did boy things.  So, what exactly do boys do in Logan??????  Well, they explore and they look for letterboxes.  (Which they apparently can't find with out mom! Ha!)

They also made an impromptu planned trip to Idaho to purchase lottery tickets because you can't buy them in Utah.  The boys thought they were pretty cool because they went to a new state.  Nadya was feeling  left out until Alex told her that all it included was a sign that said "Welcome to Idaho" and then dad bought some paper.

After Nadya's meet we decided to go look for one last letterbox.  Alex was particularly excited about this one because it was in a cave.  He read all the clues on the way to Logan and was anxiously awaiting this particular letterbox. 

It required a small climb which normally would be no problem, but I was wearing flip flops.  I know, I know.  But, I had no idea that letterboxing in Logan would require a small hike and I made do.

 It really was much steeper than it looks.

Once we were inside the cave we continued to follow the clues.  There were two small crevices that looked like eyes and the letterbox was suppose to be in the left eye.  Doug had to coax Nadya into reaching inside which she did, but it was empty.  Doug checked the right eye too, but no such luck. And we saw a much different reaction out of Alex this time.  Nothing.  Nada.  No problems.  No tears.  Last time he cried and cried and cried.  I guess he is getting use to the idea that you find some and some you don't.  Plus, we were in a cave!  And the boys love all the exploring we get to do!

 

We left the cave and headed to the bluebird diner for an early dinner.   The restaurant was established in 1914 and still has that antique charm to it.  The kids were excited to sit at the soda fountain counter for a picture.  (And I had fun editing the pic to give it that "old fashion" feel)

 I am reminded daily just how big Alex is.  He read the menu, selected clam chowder and lemonade to drink and ordered all by himself.  Crazy.  When did that happen???  I have no clue.  But, I am secretly loving it.

The food was great and the prices were excellent.  Although, I must admit that Doug had the most unusual chicken dish I have ever seen in my life.    Doug had researched this restaurant prior to our trip and the reviews were all great and most recommended the bluebird chicken.  But when Doug realized it was battered and deep fried he opted for  the grilled chicken with a strawberry glaze thinking, of course, that  was the healthier option.  Boy, was he wrong.  It wasn't grilled chicken with a strawberry glaze it was chunks of grilled chicken swimming (or perhaps even drowning) in a strawberry sauce!  I don't normally take pictures of food, but I couldn't resist!

Doesn't that sauce look like it belongs on top of a cake or ice cream????  Doug is such a sport.  He ate it.  Well, he ate all the chicken anyway. 

There is something about Logan that makes you feel like you've stepped back a few decades.
Not sure why, but I liked it.
And, will my kids really be riding bikes like these??  Are these back in style too?????

We had intentions of spending more time in Logan and exploring, but our van had other plans.  It started making a horrible grinding noise and so we decided that perhaps we should start our 95 minute trek home sooner rather than later.  Carter enjoyed playing with Nadya's new socks that she picked up at her meet.  Isn't he cute?  It was such a nice day.  Doug and I both commented on how we need to do these short little trips more often.  The kids loved it!  I came home and was just exhausted though!  So, in that aspect, it felt like a mini vacation hangover!

I took the van into the shop yesterday and had it repaired.   Thankfully it was nothing too major and just needed a new wheel bearing.