THE BIG 40!

I can’t believe he’s 40! Are you kidding me?! We are getting OLD!!

Well to celebrate I threw him an ‘80’s party! It was a BLAST! We had so much fun revisiting the time of bright crazy clothing, BIG hair, great music & awesome movies! I gotta say by the end of the night I was diggin’ my hair. I may keep it. As for the clothes….  it needs to stay in the 80’s.

A Visit From Our Favorite Friends

We got a wonderful visit from our best friends, the Taggarts.

We have been friends with them since we 1st got married, which was 13 years ago. We were in the same ward & lived in the same neighborhood. At the time, we lived in a condo  & they lived in the houses that surrounded the condos. Culligula was dying to see the inside of one of those homes so he kept asking me to make friends with Jen Taggart.

One evening, we were out for a walk when we ran into Jen. We talked for a minute & she invited us over for dinner. Yes! We we’re in! Culligula could finally get his wish & he could stop trying to make me talk to her.

Well, we had dinner as planned & it was an instant friendship for all 4 of us. After that, we were inseparable. We had video game/scrapbook sleep overs, we’d play basketball frequently, go for walks every morning… It was a time the 4 of us will always cherish.

3 years later, Jen had Dani & the following year I had JaJa. Then she had Lexi & I had Combi & so on & so forth. You get the picture.

We’ve been through a lot together. We’ve laughed a lot & we’ve cried just as much.

Since our move to UT & their move to TX, we don’t see each other as much. We did meet in CA one year & then we spent a week together in Hawaii. Best time ever.

Fortunately, they both have family here so they do come here on occasion. This year we got to see them twice which was such a treat.

The 1st time, my boys were too shy & didn’t warm up to their girls until the end of their stay.

The 2nd visit was much better & they were all instant friends. It was awesome to see the instant bond they all had to one another. All 6 were in their own little special world (minus Morgan cause she’s always in her own little world!).

Dani 9, JaJa 8, Lexi 7, Combi 6, Jordan 6, KB 4, Morgan 3

Both in animal heaven. I’m not sure if anyone loves animals as much as they do.

 

We love you Taggarts! & we look forward to creating many more memories with all of you!!!

Las Vegas & San Diego 2009

Usually after a trip we are so ready to come home but this time, 10 days just wasn't enough.
We started off in Las Vegas for 3 days then we were off to San Diego & then back again to Vegas. San Diego was where I decided that I want to move into a hotel. Why not? They fed us breakfast & dinner & cleaned our room. It was so sad to leave.
Well here are some our favorites.

This was my favorite: The "Tank" at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. It is a swimming pool with a shark tank in the middle & a slide that goes through it.

Swimming was everyone's favorite. We did this everyday! These 3 are now little fish in the water!

Ja-Ja's favorite: the beach!

K.B at Coronado Beach

Combi & KB's favorite: Legoland

We spent 3 days there. Good times!

Legoland Sea-Life Aquarium

Now that you boys are getting big & in some ways easier, it made this trip even better. I can't wait to go on many, many trips with you guys! I love you & I feel so blessed to be your momma!

Next Stop: Disneyland Oct. '09

4th of July 2009

Island Pk - Virginia & Nevada City & of course West Yellowstone.

As always, the boys picked out some sweet Yellowstone t-shirts. (We do this every year!) You gotta love the Napoleon Dynamite inspired shirts.

It was another great 4th of July in Island Park!

Modeling Clay Masterpieces

So a few weeks ago, I had some modeling clay left over from preschool & I thought I'd share it with my boys. Who knew we'd have such a blast!
We seriously did this for 3 hours!

"Snake"

Ja-Ja

"Boy on a Surf board"

Combi

"Caterpillar"

KB

(I did a sweet Sponge Bob but I couldn't post it!)

Draper Temple

Last Thur. we took our little family to the Draper Temple Open House. We had such a good time! It was so beautiful & it was good to let our boys know what we do there. They are always wanting to know what it's like & well, now they know. In fact, Culligula & I went to the temple the next day & when we told them that we were going, they had a look of understanding now instead of the ol', "why can't we go?"
This has really motivated us to visit more open houses & do a Church History tour with them when they get a little older. We are really grateful for this experience.

Family Night

We decided it would be a great idea to pack up our dinner & head up to the mountains to see the beautiful fall leaves & breath in some fresh air. We picked leaves & interesting plants along the way & really enjoyed the scenery. Of course, after about 30 minutes the boys were done & we decided it would be more fun to visit Tia D. in Huntsville. They were right! There's nothing better than chillin' with family!

11 YEARS & STILL GOING & GOING & GOING...

We just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this past weekend. Holy cow! Where has the time gone?

Every year we take turns planning how we're going to celebrate. Usually we go to Vegas or California. Unfortunately, this year things had to be a little more low key since we had already been to Hawaii & Vegas & I just came back from NYC. So I decided to take him back to where it all began. The Logan temple. Not very exciting I know, but we've never been back since that blessed day. We really enjoyed being there & reminiscing. We had lunch there (reliving memories of the days when we didn't have to hurry back to our kids) & did sealings. Afterward he did a little shopping. Culligula is my FAVORITE person to shop with. I know that sounds nuts but it's true. We ended the evening (I won't tell you that part), I should say we ended our visit in Logan with dinner at the Copper Mill. Pretty decent. Unfortunately we were unable to stay due to the fact that we had no one to watch our kids. Oh well. It was still a beautiful anniversary. I love you Culligula. Thanks for a great 11 years.

The FrontRunner Experience

On Saturday, we decided to surprise the boys by taking them to the "big city" on the FrontRunner. It was pretty awesome. The boys loved it! It even has a bathroom for my little pee-a-lot boys. It doesn't get better than that.

We went to the Church History Museum, Temple Square & then saw the Joseph Smith movie. It was pretty sweet to watch that movie with them. Of course Ja-Ja felt it was too violent. Oh brother! We topped off the day by going to California Pizza Kitchen & then we caught the FrontRunner back home. All in all, an awesome day. My only complaint of the lovely FrontRunner is that it was pretty crowded on the way back but after Farmington it cleared out a bit.

Think of the possibilities of the Frontrunner. I can take it to Lagoon, the airport (someday), SLC... I'll never drive past Ogden again!

Meet Our Made Up Animals

Awhile ago, Ja-Ja created this new car game with his friends. They each made up their own animal & they talk about what their animals are doing while we drive. Of course, now the whole family is in on the game so it's time that you meet our made up animals.

Ja-Ja's animal: The Fennec Fox

(Ja-Ja wants everyone to know that all these creatures you're about to meet are based on REAL animals)

Description: tan colored with pointed ears; blue eyes; sharp claws & its' ears can hear the slightest sound. The size of a chihuahua. it lives in Egypt, Utah & desserts.

Diet: eats bunnies, frogs, & rodents
Abilities: high jumper & fast runner; nocturnal; can defeat larger animals

Weakness: it can't climb very high

Combi's animal: Giant Brown Bear
Description: it's a big giant bear that is bigger than an airplane can fly. It doesn't have ears.
Diet: it can eat anything except baskets & CD's

Abilities: it can hear without ears. It can climb mountains. it can jump over mountains.

Weakness: it can't eat baskets

Jaycon Jones' animal: Red Octopus

Description: it's red with black eyes; it's as big as a car. it has sharp teeth

Diet: It eats scuba divers & it makes holes out of ships; it eats mountains

Abilities: it has strong arms

Weakness: it can't eat goats

Pooka's animal: Flying Monkey

Description: looks like your average chimp with wings like a bat. Don't let it's cute face fool you. It will dismember you the first chance it gets.

Diet: Any meat. Loves chocolate, hates anything green.

Abilities: It can fly long distances without rest. It also has invisibility powers. It uses that to sneak up on its' prey.
Weakness: Can't look into mirrors. It's own reflection can destroy him if it looks at himself too long. We don't know how long. It has never happened.

Culligula's animal:Giant Frilled Lizard

Description: it's the size of a crocodile

Diet: it eats meat

Abilities: it can fly

Weakness: it can't swim

Photographs provided by: Ja-Ja

Please Note: Ja-Ja takes this game very serious. He was concerned about sharing this game with the public. I assured him that it was safe & no one would be using his pictures for personal gain.