New Appreciation...

This past weekend, Mike and I had a small taste of what it would be like to have three "children". My family went out of town, and we watched Mookie and Abbie for a few of the nights that they are gone. Not that I am meaning to compare dogs to children, but taking care of them was a lot of work! Mookie, Abbie, and Faline each have their own distinct personality and needs that had to be met. There were definitely times when I felt like I had to play referee between two "children" and then comfort the one who didn't get her way. This weekend gave me a whole new appreciation for stay at home moms...I don't know how you do it everyday! Mike and I decided that the dogs will have us well trained for parenthood when that time comes around.

Kenny Chesney and a Quick Trip to PC!

Mike and I had a great Pioneer Day weekend! The festivities started with a girls night to go see Kenny Chesney in concert. My sister, Beth, and I had given my mom tickets to the show for Christmas, so we had been looking forward to this for a long time. Despite the heat, we had such a fun time together!

The opening bands were Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert. They each played for nearly an hour, plus Kenny played for about 90 minutes, so the whole concert was nearly 5 hours long. After Lady Antebellum finished playing, they said to make sure everyone came to "say hey" after Miranda Lambert performed. Beth and I figured that meant they were signing autographs, so we decided to check it out.

It took forever to find out where the signing was. Once we got in line, I told Beth to save our place while I went to buy some pictures to have them sign. Just as I was getting back to her, they cut the line off...FIVE people in front of her! We were SO disappointed!!! We started to go back to our seats, but then decided we should go back to the line and see how closely they were guarding it. They weren't letting anyone else back in line, so we decided to just take some pictures since we were pretty close. Then, Beth had the brilliant idea to ask someone that was already in line if she would get our pictures signed...she agreed, so we were still able to get the autographs, which was great. The rest of the concert was great...he played all of my favorite songs and it was such a nice night.

On Friday, Mike and I went up to Park City to stay with his dad and his wife, Dana. We were able to go swimming at their clubhouse, we went to dinner at Main Street Pizza and Noodle, and then we went to see The Proposal with Jace and Dana. It was so nice to escape the heat and spend time with family. The next morning, Dana made us a delicious waffle breakfast...we seriously felt spoiled. Thank you so much!

Saturday was my annual company party at the Bees game. I decided that I am bad luck, because every time I go, they end up losing. We stayed until about the sixth inning, then decided to head home.

This weekend definately went by way to fast. Thanks for the fun times!!!

We're on the MOVE to End Alzheimer's!

Today an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's. In addition, 78 million baby boomers are approaching the age of greatest risk for developing this fatal disease. Now is the time to ACT to end this epidemic!

My company, South Davis Community Hospital, has formed a team to support and participate in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® to raise funds and awareness to fight this disease. My personal goal is to raise at least $200 and our team's goal is to raise at least $5000! Will you consider making a donation? You can help us reach our goal by visiting my donation page or the widget on the right side of my blog.

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research, and funds I raise will go directly toward supporting their efforts.

Thank you in advance for your time and generosity - together, we can help end Alzheimer's!

Happy 4th!

I know it is a little late, but happy Independence Day! We spent the holiday with my family having a BBQ and fireworks.

It was very low key, which was nice. My sister has a fetish with photography right now, so since we all happened to be wearing matching outfits, she decided that we needed a sisters-only photoshoot. I don't think we have had a picture with all of us sisters since I got married, so it was fun to have one.

My mom invited several friends from their neighborhood over while they did fireworks, which was fun. It is fun to watch all the little kids get so excited with the fireworks and sparklers and to remember how it used to be when I was young. It seemed like we had so many of my friends over and we had such a great time watching the firework show that our dads would put on while we danced around with the sparklers.

I don't want to get all gushy, but I really do enjoy this holiday. It is such a great time to reflect on how appreciative I am to live in this country and to be able to enjoy all of the freedoms that we have been blessed with. I really am thankful that I am so blessed to live in this great country!

4-Wheeling Fun

Mike and I have had the opportunity to go 4-wheeling a few times this summer. Both times we decided to invite Mike's brother, Trevor, to come along as well. Our first trip was to Skyline Drive, which is a trail/road that runs on top of the mountain between Bountiful and Farmington. We had heard that it was a great place to go for a short trip, so we decided to check it out.

Here is Mike and Trevor on the trail. There were some areas of the trail where the snow hadn't melted yet, and we were actually unable to go the full length of the trail because it was still closed for the season due to the snow.

This is the view we had when we were going along the trail. It was gorgeous! You could see everything for miles around. We really did get to where we were on the top of the mountain.

Mike decided to have some fun 4-wheeling through the snow.

Our second trip was to go camping at the Little Sahara Sand dunes. This is a favorite 4-wheeling spot for Mike and Trevor, but it was my first time there. We arrived on Thursday night so that we were able to beat the rush. We were lucky enough to have great weather and everyone had a fabulous time.

I think that Faline's favorite part about camping was the large beetles that she found in our camp. It is hard to tell from the picture, but that large black object that she is looking at is a beetle. She would play with them and hit at them until she thought that they were dead. Meanwhile, they were only faking it, and as soon as they thought it was safe, they would flip back onto their legs and hurry away. It was so funny to watch Faline, especially when she realized that they were still alive.

Sweet Faline

I just had to post these pictures of Faline. This is her new favorite place to look out and keep an eye on the neighborhood. It all started with me being cooped up in the office doing homework. Faline doesn't usually like to hang out by herself, so she came in with me. She recently discovered that she is tall enough to stand on the back of the futon and see what is going on outside. I think it is adorable!

We Braved the Rain

Last Thursday, Ashley, Barbara, Lori, and I braved the rain to check out the Kelly Clarkson concert at the Brent Brown field at UVU. Even though the weather wasn't ideal, we had such a great time! She sang all of her hits and it was so much fun to have a ladies night.

We had general admission seats and we ended up being on the very top of the grass, which was perfect. We were able to have some concrete so that we didn't have to entirely sit on the wet grass and we had plenty of room to dance around, plus we had an unobstructed view of the stage.
Yes...we had to wear our rain coats. We did get a little bit of rain, but it wasn't too bad and it didn't last for long. Who knew that we would be worried about being wet and cold in the middle of June???
One nice thing about the rain is that we had two sweet rainbows that were behind the stage. The rainbow on the right is a little harder to see on my picture, but they were both full rainbows.