Fall Break Road Trip

We planned a trip to Kirtland and Palmyra and invited my parents to join us.  We have wanted to do this trip for a long time and were so excited to do it in the fall.  Fall this year wasn't that spectacular but we were hoping it would better up north.  We planned every minute of our trip, packed, and bought lots of food, travel games, books and activities for the kids.  Our plan was drive to Cleveland (5hrs away) and spend the night there then pick up Ryan from the airport in the morning and then head off to Kirtland by 9 a.m.

We were all happy starting off!

Everyone had books, movies, games, leapsters to play.  Grandma Nana did a great job playing with the kids.  She definitely was the entertainment of the back seats.  She had started telling them the story of Heidi.  The kids got really into it and wanted her to keep telling the story but she broke it up into sections.  She is a great story teller.

About half way was Columbus, OH.  We decided to stop at a park and take a quick break.  After following my GPS to a trailer "park", we finally found a real park.  It was great!  The kids got the wiggles out and we all got to move around some.

We made it to Cleveland around dinner time.  We unloaded at the hotel and went out for dinner.  The kids were anxious to get in the pool.  Unfortunately the pool was so freezing.  Even the hot tub was colder than a bath I would take at home.  The kids were die-hards though and still got in.

 Don't they look like two kids from the 90's with their discmans?  I always laugh when I see them rocking out to their discmans.

 We all slept well and were ready for our first day of touring the church sites.

Halloween crafts

Everyone around me has been crafting Halloween crafts and I caught the bug. I made a new wreath, spray painted some branches, and made some poison bottles out of plain glass containers. It has been fun. I have a couple more things in mind but we will see if I get to them this year.

I made the labels to put on the bottles and added corks to the top.

I modge podged the BOO letters with cute Halloween papers. Then I tied strips of burlap around the wreath. I love it!

I found the sticks on the side of the road. They were simple to just spray paint and glitter up a little. I love how they look.

So thanks girls for giving me the bug!

My Starbucks Morning

So I had THE greatest discovery this week. Probably the best discovery of the WHOLE YEAR! Last year I was introduced to Starbucks Carmel Apple Spice drink. It is one of few non coffee items you can get at Starbucks. How I lived in Seattle for 2 1/2 years without knowing about it is beyond me. My naivety saved us a lot of money though while living in Starbucks land. Anyway, I love them and find any reason to swing by the Starbucks that is 6 miles from my house. It is hard to justify going that far and especially if it isn't cold outside. Well the other day it was a brisk morning and I had to go right past the Starbucks to go to the school I was subbing at. I watched them make the drink right in front of me and was shocked when they used regular apple juice. What made the drink so good then and different from just warm apple juice? I decided to look up online once I was at school if anyone knew how to make the drink. I had tried attempts but no success. Well, I found the key ingredient is cinnamon syrup and the kicker is...........Starbucks sells it in their store! So right after school I went and bought a bottle for $6.95. That is the price of two large drinks!

I was so excited to try it and share it with Ryan. I bought all the other supplies apple juice, whip cream and carmel sauce.

(Notice my Seattle mug even!)

Then I made the Carmel Apple Spice drink at my house. I was in heaven. I am so exited about this discovery! To make it even better, I made Pumpkin Scones which are also a love of ours from Starbucks. I think mine our better than theirs though. It was a delicious Starbucks morning.

Mmm Yum!

Lehi's dream

A couple of weeks ago I had heard of a Family Home Evening to reenact Lehi’s dream. I thought it was a great idea and that my kids would love it. So I told them the story and talked about all the symbolism from the dream. A little tough to understand at times but they got the just of it. After we reviewed the story we went into the backyard where Ryan and I set up their own iron rod, tree of life and "fruit".

We tied a ski rope from a tree to the door on our shed to be the iron rod.

The tree the rope was tied to was our Tree of life.

At the base of the tree was our "fruit" or what is delicious to our family, Reese's Peanut butter cups.

So I blindfolded the kids with the "mist of darkness" and first had them grab hold of the rope and walk to the tree and partake of the fruit. They all did that well and loved it.

Then the second time we blindfolded them but didn't lead them to the rope. We just let them wander for a bit. Ryan laughed at them and persuaded them to follow him in all sorts of directions. I then started talking to them and slowly led them to feel where the rope was. Once they felt the rope again they knew where it would lead them and they raced to the tree for another treat.

This is Lacey wondering on her own and of course ran right into the fence nose first. This wasn't so great for teaching purposes right when it happened but later we were able to apply it to the pain of wondering on your own.

We had Ryan and Aidan pulling her in different directions.



Then she was finally led to the rope. We tried to get Cassidy to be blindfolded but she just wanted to run back and forth holding the rope and eat the candy.

The whole lesson turned out so great! They knew how it FELT to live through Lehi's dream. I love that they can talk about holding the rope and why it was important and how SAFE they felt when the rope was in their hand. They KNEW it would lead them to the treat they wanted. And they understood how confusing it was when they didn't have the rope and how it sometimes hurts when you are wondering off on your own. I hope they remember this and that it will help their little testimonies. Ryan and I sure enjoyed teaching them this way.

Lacey's lost her first tooth

The day finally came that Lacey's first loose to came out. When she got home from school it was ready to come out. She was insanely sensitive to anyone touching it or even looking at it. She screamed crazy screams when I tried to just wiggle it to see how loose it was. Well, while I was gone at YW Ryan used the dental floss and pulled it out. Since I wasn't here I can only guess it went down in true Lacey fashion. She probably screamed like a mad woman, cried, protested, demanded everything in return, and finally let Ryan pry her mouth open for two seconds to yank the tooth out. She came down to the church to show me. She was all smiles and you would never had guessed she was against the idea. She still looks insanely cute! I'm so proud of her.

"Old"ilocks

When I was in first grade my teacher called me "Curly"locks because I would come to school with my hair curly from the pink sponge curlers. I loved my curls and loved she called me that. Well, I have now received a new "locks" name that I am not lovin' "Oldilocks". RUDE!

Yes, today I turned 35 and I must say I am hating this one more than 30. At thirty you are still young enough, you are still getting your life together, but 35 you are in the middle of your thirties. That means you are almost to 40! That is yucky. Yucky yucky yucky.

I had a great day celebrating my oldness. My friend watched Cassidy in the morning so Ryan could take me out. We went to Wild Eggs for breakfast. Amazing food. I seriously cleaned my plate to emptiness. I had the stuffed french toast.

Then Ryan and I went frisbee golfing. We aren't very good but we enjoyed it. A time or two, okay like 12 times, we had to find our frisbees in the woods. I won't say who it happened to more often but lets just say we only have proof of it happening to Ryan.

We had a great time playing together and yes Ryan beat me by like 4.

After frisbee golf Ryan went home to get DD and I went to get my hair done. Pampering is always nice on your birthday.

The kids were home from school by the time I got home and they gave me my first present, they cleaned the house! Yeah, that was my favorite gift. We then hit Hometown Pizza for dinner. They gave me a few more presents there that were perfect. Spiced cider scented oil, bubble bath that smells like pure yumminess, and new flip flops.

We then met up with the Kelly's for ice cream at our favorite place, The Comfy Cow. I love their ice cream but I also just think it is a quaint place. (Thirty-five year olds say quaint )

Bryson so thoughtfully sharing with Cassidy. Too cute!

Lacey enjoying her cotton candy flavored ice cream.

And me and Cassidy with Brownie explosion delight. I made that up. But it tasted like that.

It took the two of us but we finished it!

It was a great day. I got to be with my favorite people, eat my favorite things, I loved it.

B-Y-U-W!

Ryan was so pumped for the BYU vs. UW game Saturday night. Game time started at 7 but he didn't get home till 7:30. I had everything ready for when he got off work that all he had to do was push play on the DVR, recline his chair, and hold out his hand for a cold rootbeer. We come from a BYU fan family so it is in our blood to root for BYU. I have passed that on to my kids so they cheered for both. Aidan cheered 2 quarters for UW and 2 for BYU. Ryan seemed okay with that, well at least until the game was over. Then he was a BYU hater again.



Well come to find out someone else in the world was extremely excited to watch the BYU vs. UW game but he lived in Grenada. My brother-in-law, David. Ironically enough he is a UW fan along with Ryan. How we got two of those in the family, I'm not quite sure. About a half hour before kickoff, I received a skype message from David frantic to find a way to watch the game. Almost in jest I said, well if you can't find a way, I can just point my webcam to the tv and you can watch it that way. A few minutes later he said okay let's do it. So we watched the game with my BIL and sister in Grenada via webcam.

We could hear them cheering and occasionally we would chat between plays. They watched the whole thing. I don't know how well they could see the game, but David is that die hard that he would watch it blurry. I thought it was awesome though. I wish they could have just come over to my house instead. Too bad UW lost.