Award Winning

Spencer has many talents and this last weekend he shared a few. We started Saturday by planting a tree! Mature trees are one of the biggest things we miss about Cache Valley. Spencer was perfect for this job because he worked on the grounds crew as a student at USU. He made a perfect tree ring and mixed the soil just right. He was even patient enough to allow the boys to help.

I love that this picture captures Penn imitating Spencer patting the soil down and spreading the dirt around. A fly kept landing on or near Logan and he was trying to catch it with his index finger and thumb, very entertaining to watch.

That night Spencer made his White Bean Chicken Chili for the Ward Chili Cook off. He'd only made it a few times, so he was a little nervous. Turns out he had nothing to worry about, he won! That's right I'm married to an award winning chef. It's a great recipe and Spencer nailed it. The prize was a food storage kit complete with rice, wheat, oats and beans. He's already thinking about what recipe he'll use for next year!

The Very 1st Time

I'm just getting the pics off my camera from Labor Day. We had a great time and I simply must share. We packed everything but the kitchen sink and went to Monica and Sean's for the extended weekend. We did so many things, the best part must of it was firsts. We started out canning peaches. We've never really done canning so it was a first for most of us. Thank goodness for our fearless leader, Monica. We did 7 boxes of peaches in about 2 and half hours.

So many hands made the work light I can hardly wait for January to enjoy the fruits of our labor. With the extra time we decided to hit the Eastern Idaho Fair, another first. The boys loved it. We were able to get close to such a variety of animals the boys were in awe and couldn't get enough.

The horses were a favorite. I loved how they pointed at everything and kept looking at us as if to say "Are you seeing this? It's amazing"
Sunday morning Monica and Sean blessed Gavin. In all of the rush I didn't get a picture. He was adorable and received a wonderful blessing from his Dad. That kid doesn't even know how loved he is.

After things settled down Sunday, and after some long naps, we packed up and headed to the mountains for our very first over night camping trip.

Once again the boys loved the big trees. We even found some huge rocks to play on. Our new "family" tent was large enough to fit two pack in plays as well as an air mattress.

The boys slept in layered clothes as well as tons of blankets. I think they were comfortable most of the night but didn't mind climbing into bed with Dada the next morning to enjoy a morning bottle. It was chilly outside the tent so we cuddled while we waited to warm up next to the fire, which is what the boys are pointing at. We can't wait for next year to do more camping. It'll be an even bigger adventure when the boys are better walkers.

It was a great trip, I can't help but ask ... "What are we doing next weekend?" I'm sure Spencer will answer ... "Sleeping!!"

Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice

I've come to accept as a girl I am woefully outnumbered in my own home. That's right 3 to 1 is woefully outnumbered. Growing up with 3 younger sisters I was never outnumbered. I've had to make some adjustments and I'm sure many more are to come. Generally I don't mind but last week I had enough, I needed girl time. I invited the girls next door over to bake cookies, a very girly thing to do.

The girls happen to be twins as well, one dark and one light just like ours. They enjoyed measuring and stirring. After licking spoons we played with the boys while the cookies baked.

On the whole it was a very enjoyable afternoon. The cookies turned out and the girls ate to their hearts content. Maybe next time we'll do face masks, do you think they are too young?

Bike the Bear

Bear Lake is a great destination to have our very first stay-cation. That's just what we did this last weekend. We rented a condo and had Becky and her roommate Elizabeth up to help with the boys. We had a great time Friday night, we took the boys to the swimming pool for the first time. They weren't so sure about things but seemed to warm up a little. At the crack of dawn the next morning Spencer and I headed out for a bike race around Bear Lake. It was an awesome ride. We finished the 50 mile race in 3 hours, near the top of the 300 riders. My training partner, Kerstin, finished about the same time. It was so nice to have help with the boys so Spencer and I could ride.

The things we do to get a good photo.

After the race we took the boys to the beach. They loved it! They were intent on bringing as much of it home as possible. It was nearly a full time job keeping sea shells out of Logan's mouth.

It was truly amazing the amount of sand they managed to get into their diapers. A huge thanks to Becky and Elizabeth for making this stay-cation a huge success. (Becky was elusive when it came to the camera so here is one of Elizabeth and I)

24

We are just coming off an interesting 24 hours. We had a lot of fun and a little crazy ...
The boys and I have some charming visitors, all of which are from England. Aunt Wendy and Aunt Eve brought Cousin Janet over. Janet is visiting from England for two weeks. I liked her the minute we met. She has a wonderful British accent however I needed a translator. At the airport she didn't have time to "Spend a penny" and unfortunately her son in law "has been made redundant twice". Do you know what they mean?

For FHE we decided to do Tin Foil Dinners at a wonderful park that had both fire pits as well as grass for baseball and soccer. It was a great find and we'll go back!

We don't really have large trees around our house so the boys love big trees and leaves. They both thought the fire was amazing.
The tin foil dinners took longer then expected so we ended up having smores and swinging by a drive through on the way home. Gratefully we had packed the boys a "back up" dinner.

The boys had their MMR immunizations 13 days ago but their injection sites had gotten really red and they had rashes. So we made a trip to the Doctors. Turns out Logan has the German Measles and Penn has Chicken Pox. For each of them it was a 1 in 50 chance this could happen. We are just that lucky!

Logan's injection site after 13 days!

Penn's one pox.

What a crazy 24 hours!

Dear Grandma Davis

Dear Grandma Davis,

It turns out we love olives too. You, us and every other sane person in our family! We love putting them on our fingers, count us in for relish trays and load up the pizza. Turns out Dad got some of his way and mushrooms don't fly with us. Can't wait to see you again,

Logan and Penn

A Horse is a Horse

This week the boys, me and Aunt Becky made a spontaneous trip to Cache Valley to run some errands and visit family. We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Chlarsons. They have one of my favorite back yards ever. A huge maple tree shades the truly lush lawn, a huge and very productive vegetable garden sits next to the yard along with a horse pasture. To top it all off a beautiful view of the Wellsville Mountains and fields of green. It's a great place to sit on the patio and watch the grass grow.

The boys enjoyed the visit, esp the chocolate Grandma Chlarson tried to bribe them with. But more impressive was their fascination with Grandpa's horse. Logan could not take his eye's of him, he kept pointing at him and jabbering. Jo Jo was less then impressed with him, I think it had to do with the size difference.