Wednesday, May 27, 2009

More Yard Pictures

Every year for my birthday, I go to Valley Nursery in Uintah, Utah (THE best nursery in the state) and get new plants. And then I get to spend all weekend planting them!

What a difference a few weeks can make! Look how big these plants have gotten in just 3 weeks. The snowball bush is HUGE and the flowers are beautiful! I planted my backyard pots... they'll be huge in a few weeks.

I planted 48 vinca plants throughout the yard - most of them in this island.

Kitchen

Brady and I have finally decided on our kitchen cabinets. We had to go and visit a lady's house to look at hers as they are a new color and there are no pictures of them anywhere. We drove all the way down to Highland and it was worth it... we love them! (They are knotty Mable with a toffee stain)


Idaho!

We went to Idaho on Saturday with my parents. Preston, Idaho to be exact (you know, home of Napoleon Dynomite!!!)
We stopped to visit my great-aunt Anna. She is amazing! She's 95 years old and is doing so well. She remembered Gibson's name and how old he is (and she's only met him once). This is a picture of my dad and Gibson standing in her milking barn in front of my dad's old cow's area.
We stopped at looked at my deceased great-aunt Olive's house. It's abandoned and so sad to see it this way. We loved visiting here when we were little because she had a really fun tire swing in her yard!
My dad and I were SO disappointed when we couldn't find the taco bus this year. We drove all up and down main street looking for it. We finally stopped at the Arctic Circle and asked about it. The taco bus is gone because.... they opened a restaurant!!!
The losers ate at Arctic Circle and my dad and I ate at El Tapatio. Mmmm. I am SO ready to go back.
The rest of the day we visited our usual favs - the cemetary, the Pepperidge Farm outlet, the Cheese Factory. It was a very enjoyable day!

Arches & Moab 2009

Here are pictures and videos from our annual spring trip to Moab. Every year we say "we could have used one more day" so the next year we go an extra day and it's still not enough. It's so fun and beautiful down there - we love it! And Gibson did great on the hikes this year - we did all the long and hard hikes and he wore his little camel pack and kept right up!

Our first night in Moab, we went into Arches in the evening. It was so beautiful at sunset.

A view of South Window looking through Turret Arch.


A view of the sunset on the beautiful rock formations.

Gibson and I on the backside of North Window. We took the long route back to the parking lot and loved it! It was beautiful and peaceful (we were the only ones on the trail). We even saw a HUGE jack rabbit that Brady thought was a coyote because it was so large!


If you look closely, you can see the sunset on the rocks - it makes the red rocks glow. It was indescribably beautiful.


Here is a video of the sunset from "Double Arch" - it's kind of hard to tell, but we are really high up and it was kind of scary! This spot is where the third Indiana Jones movie was filmed (the beginning cave scene).



Our first, and longest, hike. Brady and Gibson at the Double O trailhead. In the past, we've only taken Gibson as far as Landscape Arch, but this year he made the entire trek (4.2 miles) to Double O Arch. And it was HOT, HOT, HOT - about 95 degrees.



Gibson posed and made me take this picture! Look at his cute camel pack and his wrapped-up knee. We didn't want him falling on his huge cut (that didn't get stitches, but should have) and breaking it open again.

Me and Gibson on top of the fin - looking out at Fin Canyon. Brady was freaking out because the fin that we were hiking on was so narrow. I told Gibson that we were "on top of the world" because it sure felt like we were!


All of us looking over Fin Canyon.


Standing under the 'lower' arch that makes up Double O Arch. The other arch is a bit smaller and right on top of this one. The shade from this formation makes a perfect stop for lunch!




At the end of the hike, Gibson amazingly had a sudden burst of energy (after making dad carry him) and had to run down this hill of sand! (p.s. I edited the video to be turned the correct way, but they never load the right way - so just turn your head sideways :) ).

We did something different this year and took a river rafting trip. We met some great friends at our campground and they talked us into going rafting with them. At the end of the day, we all laughed and said we "gently floated down the Colorado River", but Gibson enjoyed it and it was fun! Now I know we can handle bigger 'rapids'.


Gibson and Matt had a ball playing together. Here they are playing the giant checkers set at our campground. Our trailer neighbors were from Sandy and it was so fun meeting them! Their son Matt was so great with Gibson and they played together the entire time. Can't wait to see you guys again!


Our hike up to Delicate Arch - Gibson found this awesome tree (the best part of it was the shade!).

Gibson hiking up the open, exposed mountainside to Delicate Arch (3.1 miles)


The whole fam in front of Delicate Arch.


At the base of Delicate Arch.


A video of Gibson running down the sand hill at Sand Dune Arch.


Gibson found this awesome little nook at Sand Dune Arch. We all climbed inside for the shade. Gibson played in the red sand and Brady and I took a cat nap! We needed to rest up for....

THE FIERY FURNACE!!!

Gibson and Brady finding a creative way to get through this gap - no where to put your feet on the ground.
Another exciting crevise in the Fiery Furnace.


Here's some videos of hiking in the Fiery Furance!







I think desert flowers are beautiful! I managed to take a picture of every color of cactus flower (which is hard to do - you can find a lot of them, but you can't stand on the crytobiotic soil to take a picture).












Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A Birthday Surprise!

On my birthday, Gibson mastered riding a bike without training wheels. It just "clicked" for him! What a big boy!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Gibson Graduates!

We went to Gibson's preschool program tonight! The kids all sang a lot of really cute songs. This is a video of Gibson's turn at the microphone. I'm so proud of him - he's usually too shy to do things like this.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

IT'S MINE....

.... ALL MINE!!!! Yes, these 6 bags of Kettlecorn were delivered to me today via UPS. Together with the 4 extra large bags I got at Walmart this weekend, should last me a bit. Brady said they better last at least a week.

Mean Mom

So I played a mean trick on Gibson the other day. We went to Wal-Mart without him and told him we would bring him home a hotwheel car. So when he came home, I told him to go and look on his bed for his present.

It's my neice's birthday this week, so I had bought her a Dora puzzle and a Princess book. I had set this on Gibson's bed instead of his "real" surprises. This video shows his reaction!

Don't worry, I quickly gave him his Hotwheel car and whoopee cushion and he cheered right up!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Random Yard Pictures

The yard looked so pretty after the rain yesterday, that I just went out and took pictures of the flowers, etc. I love that everything is green and starting to bloom. The yard is looking so nice!








Saturday, May 2, 2009

Soccer!

Soccer season started a few weeks ago. This is Gibson's third year of playing and it shows. He is doing really well this year. He and his friend Mason are the oldest and tallest players on their team. Brady is coach again this year and he is so cute with the kids.



Here's a cute video from one of his games (we're the yellow team if you hadn't figured that out).

Sassie's Haircut

Sassie got her summer haircut this week. She gets completely shaved so she isn't so hot. Isn't she beautiful?! She looks like my little white fox!
But when I got her home from the groomers, Squeakers didn't recognize her! He immediately started hissing and spitting at her. And then he kept swatting her nose. I would think he was gone, but then he would seriously dart out of nowhere and bat her on the nose with both front paws, hiss, and then run off.

I tried to get a good video of his sneak attacks, which were much more aggressive than what you will see in these videos, but he was just too sneaky for me to catch on film.






These attacks went on for 3 days! Tonight, when Brady, Gibson, Sassie and I were sitting on Gibson's bed reading stories, Squeakers jumped up from the ground, hit Sassie's nose (which was hanging over the side of the bed) and then ran off again. Then, 10 minutes later, he jumped up on the bed, walked over to Sassie and had her give him a bath, just like old times. What a crazy kitty! It's like the light-bulb suddenly went off in his head ("Oh yeah, I know who she is.").

As you can see, they are back to being buds. (Thank goodness. I was feeling so bad for Sassie who had this look of "what did I do???")