Grass

Friends of ours Ed & Barbara Garner built a house last year, so they have been wanting grass for their yard. They ordered 13 palettes of sod, and for exchange for helping them lay all that sod they offered to give us 2 palettes of that sod. Even though if you ask them the grass is for Oscar. They said he needs some grass to play & go potty on. So any way, bright and early Saturday morning a few weeks ago Shawn & I showed up at the Garners to lay sod. When we started there were 5 of us, and when we finished 7 hours later there were 8 of us total. It was a good workout, but I was glad to be done after that many hours. Plus, I was already tired from getting to bed at 4:00 a.m. that morning (see why in the post Trevor Comes Home). That was a lot of sod to lay, but it was a nice day and I was able to work on my tan.

The pictures below are of the sod at our house. Shawn and a friend of ours Jeff laid it Friday night while I was making the trip to SLC and back to pick up Trevor. So I missed out on laying our sod, but I am extremely thankful to my husband and Jeff for doing it. Since laying all that sod we have had nothing but rain for 2 1/2 weeks to help water the sod. However, I am sick of the rain I have sprinklers to water the lawn.

side of the house

the backyard, you can see were the sod ends :-(

Now if we just had the money to finish the yard, but the 2 palettes went a lot further than we thought they would. We are extremely happy with the results of what we have it just makes you want the rest of it to be done. Thank you Ed & Barbara Oscar loves his new grass. P.S. so do Shawn & I!

Happy 1st Birthday Teagan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEAGAN!!!

He turned 1 on June 10th, isn't he a cutie!!

Trevor Comes Home

My brother Trevor returned from his mission on May 29th. He served a 2 year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Russia. The family was way excited to have him back. Instead of overwhelming him with tons of family, it was decided only immediate family would go to the Salt Lake City Airport to pick him up. My dad drove the Suburban with my step-mom Sandy riding shot gun and in the back we had my sisters LauraLee & Sheila my brother Chris and myself. The ride down had some great family reminiscing. We shared stories and caught up on each others lives. Well except my brother Chris was for the most part quiet as usual, he was probably thinking "I volunteered to ride from I.F. to SLC with a bunch of talkative sisters what was I thinking!" He piped in when he could get a word in, but it was a challenge everyone was excited. The plane was only delayed by 30 minutes or so, and we wanted to be there early just in case. So we impatiently waited and played some card game.

While waiting we realized other families welcoming back missionaries had balloons and signs. Well we didn't have either of those. So we improvised and made a small and simple sign while we were waiting. You can see are great work of art below.

Sandy checking on the flight

Group Photo of everybody impatiently waiting

LauraLee, Chris, Sheila (holding the sign we made), my dad John, and Sandy

A close up of our sign

Trevor coming down the stairs

He is finally here

Leaving the airport

That is where my pictures end, because my batteries in my camera were dead. After we excitedly welcomed Trevor home and few tear of happiness were shed we headed to find something to eat. We stopped at Garcia's for some good grub and conversation. Then we piled into the Suburban for the trip home. During dinner and the trip home Trevor was able to share so many stories and some of the things he had learned the last 2 years. It was interesting and entertaining to listen to all of it. I finally got to my house at 3:30 in the morning, and boy was I tired. I could have slept at my parents house in I.F. , but I needed to get home to help lay sod the next day. More on that on the next post. Overall great memories were made with my family!! It is great to have you home Trevor, love ya!!

Only Two Years?!?

May 26 was our two year anniversary! For some reason it seems like we have been married much longer, but for all the good reasons. I love being married to Shawn. He truly is my best friend. He makes me laugh all the time. He is willing to put up with me and my emotional self. He is a great father. We enjoy doing everything together and are always looking for our next adventure together. I love his smile and handsome face. His personality lights up a room. I feel extremely blessed to have him as my husband. Love you babe!!!

When we first started dating

A few months into our relationship

Happy Birthday Brooklynn

Happy Birthday Brooklynn !!

I am a little behind on my posting. Brooklyn turned 4 on May 26th.

Memorial Day Camping Trip

We decided to go camping for Memorial Day weekend. We finally were able to take the camper out for its first official Terry Camping Trip. Knowing that the weather on Memorial Day weekend is usually rainy we decided to go camping at Lava Hot Springs. That way if it did rain we could still do something like go swimming. You get wet anyways right? Well that is exactly what happened. We left Saturday morning and it was nice until about mid afternoon. We arrived at the RV Park and was not impressed at all, but decided to make it work, and that was only after they offered us two spots for the price of one. We got everything set up and settled and then changed into our swimming suits to head to the pool. We were there for about 30 minutes before the dark clouds rolled in and the down pour started. Side note-- My family had also decided to go camping at Lava this particular weekend, just at a different RV Park. Anyways once the down pour started we all scrambled to gather up all of the families belongings and head for shelter. We tried to wait it out for about a half an hour or so with no success of it stopping. And since there was lightening and thunder the pools were closed. So we headed back to the camper to warm up and watch a movie. We were informed the pool would re-open 30 minutes after the last flash of lightening. After the movie was over we called the pool and we were told it was open. So we hurried to change back into our swimming suits and headed back to the pool. We were able to swim for a couple of hours until the wind picked up and it got too cold, plus we were hungry for dinner.
New water slides

Olympic Pool & Old water slides

Hot Pools

Dinner consisted of hot dogs, baked beans, chips and of course s'mores for dessert. We sat by the fire and then the kids watched another movie before bed.

Sunday morning we got up and going with a fire and breakfast. The pools didn't up until noon so we took walks, colored, and just tried to remain patient for them to open. My dad and Sandy, LauraLee, Chase and Emmalee stopped by to visit , which was fun and helped us pass some time. Then we ate a quick lunch before heading to the pools. However as we were walking to the pool the dark clouds came rolling in once again. We got to the window to pay and was informed since they saw lightening the the pool was closing -- again. We were so disappointed! Shawn and I made the decision to go over to the hot pools with the hope that the Olympic pool would open up later. Spent a couple hours at the hot pools before we were all pruned up and ready for a break. It was still raining so we went back to the camper to watch yet another movie. A little way into the movie skies were starting to clear. Back on the swimming suits went and we headed to the pool in hopes they were open, and they were. Yah!! It wasn't necessarily warm, but as long as you stayed in the water you were warm enough. We played in the water, went of the diving board and down the water slides for the next 4 hours. Lava has these new water slides that you can go up to 38 miles an hour on. They were a blast, however, there are numerous flights of stairs to climb to get to the top, plus the water force going down always seemed to give me a huge wedgie. Maybe to much info., but I had fun and got a lot of exercise. We headed into the showers just before the next storm rolled in, however, we did not beat it back to the camper. Shawn went back early to check on the awning, so Mekenna, Clayton, and I quickly walked back in the down pour. We were soaking wet by the time we got back to the camper. By the way we were running out of dry towels by this time. We were going to grill some burgers but because of the rain we decided to go to one of the burger restaurants instead. Mekenna had swam so much she was too tired to stay awake for dinner. She laid on the bench and slept while the rest of us ate. She wouldn't even open her eyes for her banana milkshake. Once back to the camper Shawn, Clayton and I finished up the movie we had started earlier in the day, and Mekenna slept.

Monday morning was pack up and go home day. We stopped to visit my family on the way out and heard about their adventures. We made it home with plenty of time to clean out the camper and start the numerous loads of wash we seemed to have accumulated over the weekend, a lot of wet and muddy clothes and towels.

The truck and camper all ready to go

Chase getting stuck-- one of those situations that is easy to get into, but hard to get out of. It might not look like it but he was actually smiling for the picture.

LauraLee, Chase, and Emmalee

Sandy (step-mom) and my Dad

Emmalee

Oscar

Mekenna & Chase looking for trouble I'm sure

Ms. Mekenna Jo

My sweet husband -- Shawn

Clayton - chillin' like a villain

Mekenna on the right attempting to climb the wall

Clayton on the diving board

Mekenna on the diving board

Mekenna looking all wet and lost

Alright I debated on posting this picture for quite some time, me in a bathing suit does not make for the best picture. But it is about the only one taken of me this weekend.

My baby and me, the only other picture of me taken. Once again in my bathing suit.

The kids showing how much fun they had swimming.

Jet Ski Trailer Box

Shawn had this great idea about adding a box to the jet ski trailer, and of course I loved the idea. The box would give us a place to store the life jackets and other jet ski and lake items. We have wanted to make it for awhile now, well our goal was at least before we started using the jet skis this summer. Shawn had a little extra time on his hands this week so he built us the box. It turned out great. Shawn really did a fantastic job. I love his unbelievable talent to build things. He is creative and works hard to make whatever he builds be the best.

We still need to sand the box and we plan on painting it white (so it matches the trailer). I believe we will also coat it with something so that it can hold up to wind, sun, water and whatever else mother nature throws at it.

It holds a lot more than I thought it would. I am excited to have it.