Time to think

This morning I spent three house weeding and gardening. For those of you who know me, you know how much I totally hate doing yard work. I have Fridays off so last night I decided I would get out and to it while it was still cool. So after I took Hayden to school I started the huge task.

I know many people love to garden and they say it is therapeutic. For me, it is just another chore on my list that never ends.

But, while I was gardening today and listening to my ipod, I started to think of all the things I am thankful for. This week is our one year anniversary from buying our house. I do love my house and I am so thankful that I was able to buy it from Britany and that she took such good care of everything and put so many extras into the house and yard.

Every month I complain about my house payment, but today I realized how lucky we are to live where we do and to be able to have a house, a yard, a good safe neighborhood, a view of the mountains and space to live in. I could live in a cramped apartment building in a crazy city where my rent would probably be as much as my mortgage.

So even though gardening is not my thing; I am thankful that I have a yard to garden.

I am thankful for the many things I have that I take for granted everyday.

As I was pulling out a few dead plants I felt fall just around the corner. I really love fall and the new smells and colors it brings, but at the same time, I will miss being able to go outside with bare feet in the grass.

I wanted a few pictures before its all gone in a month or so.

Back to School

This summer has just flown by. Back in May I was stressing out trying to figure out a babysitter for Hayden during the summer. I was lucky to find a girl in my neighborhood, Lizzy. Hayden had so much fun with her, but Lizzy had a busy schedule and couldn't do a lot of days. Abbey and my mom picked up all the rest. They would meet me in Mendon and have Hayden stay over so I wouldn't have to take her early in the morning. Hayden helped babysit Cache and earned money by doing chores for Nana. Hayden has always been such a good sport and never complains that she has to go different places everyday. Thank you so much Mom, Abbey & Lizzy. You made the summer too easy for me.
Some of our summer highlights:
* Hayden's 4Th trip to Kauai with my parents and Britany & Halli.
* Newcomb camp-out in Fairview
* Going to the pool once (that was a highlight for me, not Hayden she would have liked to go everyday)
* Hayden taking Hip-Hop
* Jeremy going to CA for baseball
* Miley Cyrus concert with Brit & Halli
* Camping
The summer is officially over and Hayden started school today. I can't believe she is in 3rd grade. She is too young, I am too young to have a 3rd grader ( I really am). The school Fairy came on Tuesday night and brought Hayden some very cute school clothes. Nana also gave her money to buy clothes and she went shopping with her Grandma Peterson for school stuff too. She has many clothes to choose from and it took her a while to decide which outfit would be perfect for the first day. Thanks Nana, Grandma P & The School Fairy for all the nice stuff.
Wednesday was back to school night and we got to go meet her new principal and her new teacher Mrs. Fluckiger ( flew, key, grr) Hayden was so excited to see her friends she had missed during the summer.
Hayden looked so cute. She has always had a sense for style and loves earrings and jewelry. She is the cutest one in her class.

Family Camping

One more camping trip before school

I really can't believe that Hayden's school starts on Thursday. The summer has gone by so fast.
Britany any Halli were here for a few days and we all wanted to go on a family camp-out. Britany got us a nice camp site up Logan Canyon and the Preston Valley Campground. We went up Friday night and cooked dinner and s'mores. We put up our tents, and I thought our tent was pretty big, but then Abbey and Todd put up theirs. It was huge. It seriously looks like a circus tent with a striped ceiling. The whole family could have stayed in it, but we didn't.
Saturday me, Jer, Hayden and Halli went up to Minnetonka cave. It was 40 degrees. It was cool to see all the formations in the cave. We were going to go up to Bloomington Lake but we ran out of time. So we went back to Garden City and ,of course, got another raspberry shake. This time we didn't have to wait in a line. We went in a couple shops and bought some souvenirs. Hayden and Halli get along so well, its really too bad that they live so far away from each other.
Saturday night we sat around the fire. Mom brought us all some raspberry cream pie from Maddox (yum yum).
Sunday we packed up and we came home, but Britany, Halli, Abbey, Todd, Hayden and Cache went to Bear Lake to hang out on the Beach. Jeremy and I had to get home because we needed to shower.
Britany and Halli leave again tomorrow, back to Kauai for another few months. We sure miss having them close.

Tony's Grove & White Pine Lake

This weekend we decide to get out and away from out normal everyday life of working, cleaning the house & doing yard work. We wanted to go camping and hiking and just enjoy the outdoors.
We left Friday around 4 p.m. and I was so worried that there would be no campsites left at the campground I wanted to stay. Sure enough, when we got there the campground was completely full and I was very discouraged. Just our luck as we drove past one of the last sites the people there said they were leaving and they had already paid thru Sunday. If we wanted it, it was ours. We were so lucky, because that site was the best in the place, we had a view of the lake and the mountains.
We loved our new big tent. Jeremy can even stand up in it.
Saturday we went on the White Pine hike. It ended up being about 9 miles up and back. It was totally worth it. The scenery was beautiful. It took us about 5 hours. It was so refreshing.
Saturday night we drove down to Garden City. We didn't know it was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake, but we soon found out when we had to wait in line for 40 minutes to get a raspberry shake (always so good). We were also able to sit and watch the Olympics for a bit.
Saturday night it rained and blew, but our new tent kept us dry. We quickly packed up Sunday morning and headed home. We had dinner at my mom's that night.
We love our weekends.

iROCK

Friday, we drove to Ogden and went to the new Salomon Center. The Salomon Center is about a year old and it has movie theater, many restaurants, Flowrider, iFLY, FatCats, & iRock.
We ate lunch at Pizza Factory, one of our favorites and then we decide to try out iROCK. It looked like it would be pretty easy to climb the 3 story walls, but WOW, What a workout! You need a lot of upper body strength, particularly in your forearms. Jeremy and I were sweating by the time we had gone ten feet. It seemed easier for Hayden, or maybe she is just in better shape and stronger than us. We are sore today.
We went to the FatCats arcade, afterwards, and got a $10 whoopy cushion with all our tickets.
Then we got to go pick up Jeremy's new truck. He has been patient, but he finally has a truck with an A/C and enough seats for the 3 of us.
Next time we go, we want to try Flowrider(indoor surfing), it looks so fun.