City of Rocks

This past weekend we went to the City of Rocks in Idaho with my brother and his girlfriend, the Scrip family and a few of the Search and Rescue guys.  We had a blast, of course, it's one of my favorite places to go.  The weather was looking sketchy but ended up being fine.  It rained when we first got there pretty hard but then it cleared up and luckily didn't rain any more the rest of the weekend.  We had cooler temps then usual but it was clear and beautiful!  In fact, it was nice that it was a bit cooler, made climbing nice to not be melting.

Here are a ton of pictures.

 These three.  I just love, love, love that they are buddies.  Gracie, Reed and Nora.  Reed has done a good job of being a big brother to Gracie.  And Nora and Gracie are starting to play together really well.

 Reed wanted to climb and did a lot of it actually.  He did a pretty good job for wearing skate shoes that kept falling off.

 Nora wanted to give it a try too.  She didn't go much farther than this but seemed to have fun.

 I was walking to a different climb and saw Fogg on the horizon, cool pics!

 Adorbs.

 Exploring the cave together.

 My brother leading up the first climb.

 Reed giving another climb a try.  I lead this one, totally fun!

 We got to bring London with us.  He was a good campsite dog, laying around most of the time.  He was guarding the camper for us.

 Nora taking a ride on the horse.

 Can you say cuteness?  Hanging by the fire.

 Second morning, Gordon near the top there.

 Leigha giving it a try.

 Hard to see but middle of the picture, Fogg took Reed on a "multipitch" climb.

 How cute is that?

Great weekend in one of my favorite places!!

Colorado Camping

Hey there!

Again, I've been a slacker at posting!  Anyway, I have a couple of different posts today.

So last weekend, we drove to Colorado to meet up with Fogg's best friend from Ohio who was going there for a dirt bike trip with his brother and his brother's friends.  We loaded up the bikes and the camper and took several days off work and headed out.  Meanwhile, Fogg's friend ran into car trouble and bailed on the trip!  We still decided to keep going and dirt bike anyway.  It was a great time.  A long freaking drive but fun anyway.  We went near Gunnison and Crested Butte, to a place called Taylor Park.  We camped way up in the mountains but we had a lot of comforts with our pop up camper and the other people has huge campers and lots of food to share.

The first day we just set up camp and hung out.  The next morning, some other ladies watched the kids for me so I could go dirt biking with Fogg and the boys.  It was such a beautiful, challenging and fun ride.  The next day, the boys went on another ride and I took the kids over to Crested Butte to play, have lunch and check out the town.  It's a cute ski town, I let them pick out a small toy and get a chocolate treat then we headed back to the campsite for dinner.

Each night a big fire was made and everyone enjoyed hanging out, having drinks, chatting and roasting marshmallows.  The kids loved running around, getting super dirty, exploring.

 This is a really cool playground in Crested Butte, it was a pirate ship and the kids just played pirates for a long time, saying "argh!" and "ahoy matey".  Hilarious. 

 Passed out on the way home.

Paci Fairy

I asked Nora's teacher how we could easily get her off of the pacifier.  Nora was pretty attached to it, sucking on it all day if we let her.  We went down to only night time for awhile but she wanted it a lot.  Her teacher suggested doing a Paci Fairy.  We build up a time to send them back and then pack em up.  The Paci Fairy will come get them and give them to new babies.  We involved Nora in the decision, asking her when she wanted to do it.  "Today?" no.  "Tomorrow?" no.  "Sunday after church?" yes.  So each day, we would tell her how much longer till we send them away.

After church this week, I piled up all the paci's on the counter and got her a box.  I had her do everything.  She put all of them in the box and put the top on.  "bye-bye paci's!" she said.  Then we taped up the box and addressed it.

 Then we walked out to the mailbox and she put them in.  The next morning we checked and they were gone!

Only once that night did she ask for her paci and I reminded her that they were off to the fairy.  She rolled over and went to sleep after that!  Hasn't asked not one time since!  I'm so proud of baby girl!

Yesterday was my first day of work for Alpin Sales.  So far so good!  I got to work in my basement office with my coffee and Marmot mug.  This week is going to be nuts!

Cheers~

Recently

I'm sorry that it's been awhile!  It's been a crazy several weeks but I'm digging myself out.  Well, I kinda have to, I start my new job tomorrow!  More on that in a second.

I've been trying to do a few things around the house to get ready for having about 40 hours less in my week.  I want to start this new chapter off with a clean house, finished laundry, a full fridge, happy and clean kids, well you know, the usual day to day stuff.  I'm afraid that I won't do well at that, but oh well, there's always going to be more to do!  First, here are a few pictures from the past few weeks to catch you up on what we've been doing.  

Nora lounges in the grass at the farmer's market in Ogden one Saturday morning.

Nora came up with some silly outfit.  She looks like a roller derby girl.

I have LOVED spending extra time with the kids the past few months.  They have still gone to school a few days a week, which has been great for me to have some "me" time.  We've been having big breakfasts and fun water time outside.  They wanted to help make pancakes one morning - put all the blueberries on themselves.

Reed got real serious about washing Nora's car one day.

We had a rough day one day, so we watched a movie and Dad made us popcorn.

The 24th of July in Utah is a holiday - Pioneer Day.  We went down to watch the parade in Ogden.  It's quite incredible.

One Saturday they were just the best kids ever.  They were nice to each other, nice to me, followed the rules, were happy and fun and overall delightful.  I rewarded them with ice cream on the porch.

Nora got some stickers from Carol at church (they get them every single week).  She put them on her toes.

I have been able to go on a few field trips with Reed's class this summer.  This rainy and chilly day, they got to go bowling.  Here is Reed throwing his ball down.

I cleaned the other day.  I couldn't find some pieces to a toy and so I picked up the speaker and heard some stuff rattling around.  This is the complete pile of what I pulled out of that speaker.  Unfortunately, did not find the missing piece.

So, I was able to get a few projects done around the house while being unemployed.  Project #4 was to finish my office space for my new job!  I'll be working from home for Alpin Sales - a rep agency that does Marmot, Altra, Sole, Tubbs and Kask.  I'm super duper, extra double stoked excited to be starting this new job. Sooo many awesome perks to this job, one of them being that I get to work from home!  So I made myself a nice space to work.  I'll travel a bit, work for amazing brands, interact with awesome people and talk about cool stuff.  So excited.

Project #3 was to get the kids bunk beds.  They have been sharing a room (Nora's room, Nora in her crib, Reed in his toddler bed) for many months so we figured it was time to commit a bit more.  Nora is done with her crib so it was time for everyone to move up.  We found a deal on this bunk bed set and we put it in Reed's room.  They are now both in twin beds.  They are loving spending the time together and on their bunk beds.  Pretty exciting!

Project #2 was repainting Reed's room before the bunk beds went in.  I really hated the light blue that I did when we first made the room, so I used the opportunity to repaint.  I did a darker blue/grey on the two side walls and a cream on the wall with the window.  I kept the light blue on the opposite wall and painted some clouds.  I actually like the multiple colors because they seem to make the room feel big.  And a bit more grown up.  I also rearranged a little bit.

Part of that project was rearranging Nora's room and getting her moved up from baby to toddler.  No more crib!  She now has the toddler bed in case she wants to sleep in her own room.  She will sometimes take naps in it.  Hopefully soon that changing pad will be gone!

They wanted to demonstrate together how the bed works...

Project #1 was to paint my entry way and hallway on the main floor. This has been white still since from when we moved in.  It was finally time to do it!  I had a friend over (thank you Annie) and we busted this out in a matter of 4 hours - two coats and put back together.  I love the buttery creamy color and some new wall art to make it feel clean and new.

One set of walls left in the house - the stairway - is left and I hope to have that done soon.  We are still working on potty training Nora but it's definitely a battle.  Today, Nora is sending all of her paci's to the Paci Fairy to give to the new babies.  Time to break that habit!  We also did a few other day adventures, time with friends, cleanout and garage sale to get rid of some old stuff and reorganize our storage.  

So most of my goals were hit for my time off, but now it's time to start a new chapter - wish me luck!

Fourth of July

The fourth of July was nice this year.  We didn't have big plans other than the Huntsville morning activities.  My brother and his girlfriend came into town and decided at the last minute to run with me!  So Gordon and I did the 10k and Leigha did the 5k.  It was a gorgeous morning, perfect temperature!

I ran my best time by almost 8 minutes!  I ran an average of 8:37 miles which for me is almost 30 seconds faster per mile than I was training at.  I felt great and was very proud of myself!

Then we had the traditional pancake breakfast, let the kids play in the park then headed over to watch the parade.  What a cute small town parade we have!

We just had a BBQ at home  for the evening, pretty chill day!  Happy Independence Day everyone.