we want to viva in las vegas

We just got home from a getaway to Vegas! We had a blast while we were there! We had Fall Break at school and decided if we stayed home we would probably just lounge around all day, so we called up Jenny's cousin Jana and her hubby Joe and decided to go spend the weekend with them. They were such great hosts and their house was awesome and it was fun to spend time with them...

The first night they took our kids and let us spend a night on the town. We ate at Cheesecake Factory (of course!) and walked through the malls on the strip and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio (that is my favorite part! There is nothing naked in it)

Vegas has the best parks! This one is the one right by her house! Isn't it cool?! It reminded us of the Bug's Life Park in DisneyLand...

Zoey and Livy (Jana and Joe's girls) have one of those motorized Barbie Jeeps and Jack was OBSESSED with it! He wanted to ride it any time we were at the house. He had a great time on it... (although I disapproved of it's color--he had the best time giving Chunky rides)

We went to a really cool aquarium in the Mandalay Bay casino. It was a "predator based aquarium", which means sharks! So we took this picture for Josh-- thought it would be his dream job if law school doesn't work out--shark tank cleaner.

(Jack was afraid of the sting ray--we had to hold Chunky to keep him from diving in)

We took the boys to the Lion Habitat at the MGM hotel (right in time for feeding hour). Jack LOVED it! He made sure Nana saw his brothers.

m&m world

Vegas is a fun place for hiking...we went to this desert conservation hiking place--it was cool.

(This is the cactus that falls on Lightning McQueen in CARS)

We got tickets to the UNLV vs BYU game. We sat by some obnoxious UNLV fans, so it felt good to win! Yeah baby, Rise and Shout!

This is the gas station in Beaver where we stopped on our way home. Jenny and I took a picture in this chair when we went down to Vegas for Sam Thorley's farewell.

It is good to be home. We are putting out the suggestion to the family that we all move to Vegas! We LOVED it! It was warm and fun and central to so many thing like skiing and deserts and red rock and the beach and DisneyLand and Mexico! (Ok, the last one is wierd, but it would be a fun place to live...not as fun as Hawaii)

Oh...P.S. Our close encounter with death...

Who's your daddy?

My life with my 3 boys...

...who are fast asleep right now and it's only 9:00PM! This would have been unusual a few months ago, but now that David is teaching early morning, it's pretty normal. I'm usually happy to join him and be to bed so early, but I had a nap today....so I'll let them sleep and I'll blog about my cute boys...




...Who like to play dress-up! ha, ha...and I thought only little girls played dress-up. They love running around in costumes and playing with their "friends".


These pics are the best we got when we drove up to South Fork to try to get some cute fall pictures. Christian was too busy eating (like 3 pieces of costco pizza!) and Jack was too busy trying to run as far away as he could to care about pictures (or eating!)...maybe next year....sigh...







This is Jack's potty chart....(I know - random stickers)



He has done so well and will soon be getting his....

that I had hid in the extra bathroom with all of the Christmas decorations because I really didn't have much hope when we started that he would get it before then, but it's not even Halloween yet and he only has 3 stickers left! Tomorrow for sure! He'll be so excited!

I picked tomatoes for dinner today, but then I just kept picking because I started to get nervous that they might freeze this weekend and I'm not disciplined enough to cover them with blankets every night (like my dad).

And I'm trying to decide what to do with the large bag of Decorative Gourds I bought at Costco yesterday. I've thought about putting them in a cute container....


... or I'm tempted to make some fun Gourd people using anything the boys can find outside since we have a million different leaves, seeds, twigs, and fall foilage outside...



or I might just let Jack and Christian haul them away....


We'll see....

Addiction Percentage

61%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I am surprised I am this high. Ok, maybe not, but I am surprised at people who are higher (Christy!). How many blogs do you have?

a flying go-cart

The priests activity this week was supposed to be a flying trip in a man in our ward's flying "thing". I can't remember what it is called-- a power parachute, I think. (but it looks like a flying go-cart). We were gonna go Wednesday, but the weatehr was bad, and we drove out early this morning to Eagle Mountain, but when we got there it was too windy again--so no luck. I am really excited to ride in it when the conditions shape up. He gave it a test run, and I actually had the helmet in hand and we were unfolding the parachute when he called it off--an old flying expression: Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground. So stay tuned hopefully for the real flying adventure. Even though we didn't get to fly, we got to drive it around this huge field...so basically a go cart with a flying engine propeller on the back- I think he said it gets up to speeds of 100 m.p.h. on the ground. So that was totally rad. Except I was in flip flops and the desert plants were killing my feet going so fast so close to the ground. Exciting...I like my calling :)

I couldn't resist

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!This is the second one, so go down to the last post to get a brief explanation and another video. These are sa riot. Maybe I am just in a wierd mood...

i love it

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Ok, so Jenny is gone to a girls night out in Salt Lake, so I was looking through the blogs and found something similar to this on Josh and the Cheat's blog...so they are to thank for the fun everyone will now have!

shocked? ashamed? embarrassed?

I hope this comes across the right way...Tonight I took the boys to one of my student's soccer games while Jenny went to Enrichment (which she really liked and you should ask her about some of the cool stuff). I like going to the kids' games. They are fun for me and the boys and the kids playing to have their semianry teacher come. Tonight we had a show. Without boring you with the details (which could be an important part of the story), the end of the game situations brought a couple of parents and the coach to the sidelines to start saying some awful things to the center official and line judge. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. (Maybe it could have rivaled the event at Justin's football game that was supposedly similar--we didn't make it there, so don't know) I am all up for razzling the refs, yelling at the t.v., booing at an apparent bad call, and getting into the game, but for the first time tonight I started to wonder when it goes too far. When does someone think they have the right to yell at someone inches from their face? Is it ever justified? When do we throw out the fact that they are a person, a human being, with feelings and a family they will go home to and treat them like nothing. How bad does the call have to be before permission is granted to get personal. When are feelings of frustration allowed to turn into anger toward the person and not just the bad call. I get frustrated with this as a teacher sometimes (and blame it on pride on my part). But I can't understand in a similar fashion when I lost my identity as a human being and became part of the institution that some of these kids seem to hate from day one. I want to say...Do you even know me? Do you even know my name before you have some beef with me? (Anyways, that is a side tangent). I saw some of the most childish arguments tonight by civilized adults. When should a 50 year old man start yelling at a 16 year old just to rant and rave about a bad call. (This 16 year old was not the official, but the kid kicking the penalty kick on the other team). Ridiculous. You had to be there, I know, but it really bothered me tonight. Yes, it is part of the game. Yes, an official should know he will be booed on every call from one side of the field or the other. When there is a foul, the fouling team will never yell, "Good Call Ref". But can we zoom out of the field sometimes and remember who we are and who they are and boo with decency?

Now watch, in ten years from now I will knock out the front tooth of the opposing coach when Jackson plays...

The ABC game...

A- Attached or single: attached

B- Best Friend: David

C- Cake or Pie: Ummm...cheesecake or really good apple pie

D- Day of choice: Fridays

E- Essential Item: stroller

F- Favorite Color: blue

G- Gummi Bears or Worms: the sugar-covered bears

H- Hometown: South Jordan, Utah

I- Indulgence(s): dried Mangos, sewing/craft supplies

J- January or July: July!!!

K- Kids: Jackson and Christian

L: Life is Incomplete Without: family, vacations, the beach, Costco

M- Marriage Date: November 22, 2002

N- Number of Siblings: 3 sisters, 5 brothers

O- Oranges or Apples: grapes!

P- Phobias or Fears: tires popping, roller coasters, overheated/worked machinery, large buildings, buildings built into the sides of mountains (...I know none of them are very valid, but they still scare me!) spiders, snakes.

Q- Quote(s): "People and Experiences are more important than money and things."and "You get out of life what you put into it."

R- Reason To Smile: Family

S- Season: Spring for the flowers and fresh smells; Summer for the long days; Fall for the beautiful leaves and football games.

T- Tag Three +: anyone who feels so inclined

U- Unknown Fact About Me:

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I've been both

W- Worst Habit: decision making, plenty more just ask David

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds. Are X-rays ever good?

Y- Your Favorite Food: ice cream, cereal, berries, grapes, really good desserts, everything Suz and Jeff make...

Z- Zodiac: Sagittarius

Way to go little bro!!!

I don't mean to brag, BUT... I'm so proud of my little brother - He's such a GREAT kid.

We love you Justin!!!

He was the Deseret News Athlete of the Month for August.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695209247,00.html

Here's another video of him...
http://www.kutv.com/video/?id=28607@kutv.dayport.com

night requests

You can't get mad at this kid...but he drives me crazy at night time. His "normal" sleeping things are two blankets (Hawaii and Bubbles) his gray pillow, Stitch, Nana, Bibi the bear, and two sippies that have to be filled to the correct level and placed in the upper right hand corner of his bed...oh and his feet can't stick out. Occasionaly he will make requests forever! Like tonight. In addition to the staples, he had to have silky blanket, little blanket, blue blanket, this blanket (the stiched one) horsey (who he has to have in his bed even though he is huge), froggy, Russell the sheep and anything else he saw on the way. Last night he wanted to sleep with Buzz, Woody, Sully, Nemo, Dash and Mr. Incredible, and often he wants every single car he owns to line the side of his bed. I think he is just stalling, but he will ask and ask for specific "friends", and then once you hit a certain one, he is content, says, "ok. night night", turns over and goes to bed. Whatever.

p.s. These are his dinner guests some times...

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

(I thought Jenny's preview blog was perfect for our trip had she just done a little more. Do you sense the pressure I am under to hold the heavy responsibility of blogging everything?) So everyone knows what DisneyLand is like, but we had a really fun trip! We missed everyone who couldn't come (And think you should come next time :). We need to put out a big MAHALO shoutout to Suz and Jeff for putting together such a fun trip and having us come along. We made some fun memories. So...a few of those-

Jenny and I and the boys getting on the wrong shuttle bus to DisneyLand (free ride!)

A heat wave keeping the parks low enough that the lines weren't very long Visiting the Newport Temple Driving for an hour to find a place to park at the beach just so we could show the boys the ocean (it was a beautiful thing--I love the ocean)
Going to a random ward in Cali and finding Dave Larson (who says hi) and Lucero Sumner (who says hi too)

In-and-Out Burger (for my first time ever)

Jeff spotting Stitch and us running and pushing through crowds to catch him

The 3 hour line at Nemo (we didn't ride it--the good part is I pumped Jackson up for it big time, and then when we couldn't ride it I was bummed, until we rode the Jungle Cruise ride and when the pirhanas jumped out of the water, Jackson said, "Dad! Dad! I saw Nemo and Dori!" Problem solved.)

Finding a plumeria tree ("a Jenny tree")

Jackson getting to ride the Matterhorn with me

Jackson getting to see Mater and "Light Queen" and Nana (Simba)

How Chunky just walked up to the characters he saw with no hesitation. He LOVED them!

Soaking ourselves in the Bugs Life sprinklers


Everyone falling asleep before Suz, Jenny, and Chris got back with the desserts

The hippie earthy drummer dude in Downtown Disney

Jenny overcoming her fear of Thundermountain and all her theories about how roller coasters were built before people were so obese so they can't handle the current weight

Suz overcoming her fear of Tower of Terror


Taking funny pictures on the rides


Our Dream Fast Passes (This year is the Year of a Million Dreams and our group won one of the sweepstakes and got Dream Fast Passes for our last day there).
Beating Ryan just once on the Buzz Lightyear ride (what he doesn't know is I am not left handed) (Jack wasn't as good at this one as me)

Getting lost at LAX on the way home and finding ourselves in some underground war bunker that was a mile long.
(It seriously had signs that said--"beware of iron clad security doors"..."If you hear a siren get out immediately, it means carbon monoxide is in the chamber"..."stay close to family members as you walk through this hallway" --these are not jokes.)

Just hanging out, talking story and making great memories!

We really had a GREAT time! Who couldn't at DisneyLand right? It was fun and really cool we could take the boys there with us. They were both good sports and had a lot of fun! I want to go back.

We had a BLAST at Disneyland...

(this is just a preview...David will be blogging about our trip soon!)