Denver was "Wicked"

The trip I have been looking forward to since March was finally here!!! We took our girls trip (that's right, no husbands or kids) to Denver to see Wicked! There were 8 of us total: my mom, sister Jenn, me, Grandma, Aunt Patty, Aunt Marty, cousin Heather, and my mom-in-law Lynn, flew out to Denver on Thursday and had an amazing time! We did a lot of eating, walking around, eating, shopping, eating, and the best part ever, I finally got to see Wicked!

Eating at the Cheesecake Factory...fish tacos and Adam's peanut butter cheesecake...plus a little of everyone else's cheesecake around the table too!

Matching "Wicked" shirts my aunt Marty made us...slightly embarrassing, but we sure got a lot of attention
The Platt river...apparently it goes all the way through Nebraska


Dinner at La Fondue before the show. It was my first time at a fondue restaurant and we went mostly for the experience. I really liked the cheese fondue, but was kind of grossed out at the plate of raw meat and seafood on our table that we had to cook ourselves. Of course, dessert was the best part...fresh fruit, snickers, cheesecake (again), marshmallows, and pound cake dipped in warm milk chocolate! Yum! It was really fun, but probably won't do that again. Way too expensive for me.

Wicked was absolutely amazing. I'm borderline obsessed with the music (even Brooklyn knows most of the words!) and the production was better than I could have imagined. The voices of Elpheba and Galinda -or Glinda, along with the rest of the cast were just totally amazing. The music was incredible and even the lighting was great. It was fun to have so many questions answered after just listening to the music for so long.

We will definitely make this a tradition and try to go to a new performance and a new city at least every other year!

Colorado City

We went down to my mom's house in Hurricane before our trip to Powell, and we packed a lunch and went on a hike through a canyon in Colorado City...you know, where the Polygamists live. I have to say I was definitely more interested in watching the people of that small town and how they live. It is such an interesting way of life and I just can't figure it out. There are these huge homes everywhere that aren't finished being built. A lot of them don't have windows and the outsides of the home are just unfinished wood. At one house, I saw two toddlers that could barely walk, playing in a chicken coup. There were no adults in sight! At another house I saw 3 little boys on the roof, again, no adults in sight. I was actually very surprised to see a full size basketball court at one of the houses though. I had always thought they weren't supposed to know anything about the "outside world" including sports. On the way back down, we saw one house that had at least 15 parked vans and trucks. Must have been dinner at the community cafeteria or whatever it was. It's just so crazy though! The adults and children are fully clothed from the neck down. No short sleeve shirts and the women all wear dresses down to the floor. Their hair is always braided or pulled back into this weird bun sort of thing. They definitely stand out in hot southern Utah. I wish I took pictures of the town, but unfortunately I didn't. Next time for sure! For now, here are some pictures of the kids on the hike.

yes, Brooklyn did end up falling down that little waterfall and got completely wet!

more Powell

The bubble...
kayaking...
the cutest pirate you'll ever see...
tubing...
hiking...

Brooklyn had the time of her life doing just about everything: kayaking, going in the bubble, swimming, hiking, tubing, being the "flaggit" on the boat, eating, etc. I enjoyed getting some sun, boating, and eating lots of good food (everything tastes better at Powell for some reason). Tim got in some good wakeboarding and attempted the air-chair...again. Tallan wasn't really sure about the whole thing, but did very well. His favorite thing was definitely eating though. I'm pretty sure he gained at least 5 pounds while we were there!

Lake Powell

We just got back from our amazing trip to Lake Powell. We spent 5 days with Tim's mom's side of the family on a houseboat hiking, kayaking, swimming, boating, eating, etc and had a great time. Every time we go I am amazed at how beautiful Lake Powell is. The color of the rocks, and especially the formations are just incredible! These pictures are of some of the hikes we went on and the amazing things we saw!
Beautiful blue water against the steep walls of the red rock!

In David Gulch, there was a huge hole at least 12 feet deep and 3 feet wide full of water. What if you fell in there???

Only the really strong guys could make it the rest of the way on this hike. Tim got pretty beat up though with bad rope burns and rock burns all over him!

The Indian Ruins

Can you imagine people living here?

I love it!

I am so happy with the color of the stucco! The front door will be charcoal eventually.The fireplace with the tile installed
The guest bathroom with the same linoleum that's in the other bathrooms and laundry room
This is standing in the loft...behind the wall where Brooklyn is standing are the stairs and then straight ahead is the little nook area where I get to decorate with fun stuff that will most likely get really dusty!

It seems like so long ago that we picked out all of our colors for our house that I was getting really nervous about it and hoping it would all come together like I remembered in the showroom, but last night we drove up to the house and I was very pleased! The cabinets weren't in yet like we were hoping, but everything is painted, the tile is around the fireplace, and the linoleum was installed in the bathrooms and laundry room. I really do love it! Brooklyn is always talking about her "new house" and is always asking to go see it and sleep in it. As soon as we go in, she walks right up to where her bedroom will be and usually just stays there most of the time. We can't wait to see what everything looks like when we get back from our 10 day vacation!

Tallan's rough day

This past week Tallan had a really rough day when he finally broke through his first tooth. He was completely miserable like most are when they are teething, and was so mad that I was taking his picture while he was screaming too! But, he also started pulling himself up on things so this is how I found him that morning in his crib. He loves to play a copy-cat game with Brooklyn he'll start to blow bubbles when she does, and he'll shake his head "no" after her too. It's so fun to see them interact and play!

Ready to paint!

The stucco is done and ready to paint!

This is what you see when you walk in the front door

Standing in the kitchen looking at the family room with fireplace and media center

walking up the stairs: laundry room straight ahead with bedrooms and bathroom, loft to the left, and master suite to the right

the loft

into the master suite

The banister is in as well as the baseboards, frames, and doors. Painting on the house, both the exterior and interior, should be done by Wednesday of this week and on Thursday the cabinets get installed! We leave on Friday for our week-long trip to Hurricane, Vegas, and then Lake Powell, so we can't wait to see the house when we get back and see all the progress!

Race for the Cure 2007

This was the 3rd year in a row that we have participated in Race for the Cure. This year was by far the best weather and the best turnout with over 16,000 people walking or running. Tim and I decided to run this year since we are training for the half in July. It is just a 5K and even with all the crowds, we finished in about 30 minutes, so it was a good practice for us. Tallan and Brooklyn stayed with Grandma and walked and then Brooklyn got a pink ribbon painted on her cheek.

time to stucco!

I can't believe how fast this is all going. Our house is ready for stucco and the sheetrock is completely done. They got a couple of days behind last week due to inclement weather, but this week they will mud the walls and stucco the outside of the house. I am really excited to see the stucco, because I don't really remember what colors I chose!

Women's Conference 2007

My old roommate, Yamel, came down from Logan last Wednesday, and we went to Women's Conference at BYU all day Thursday and Friday. It was so much fun! Not only did I have 2 days off from kids, but I got to spend good times with an old friend and was very spiritually uplifted. The speakers were great especially the opening and closing sessions each day. The closing on the first day was Brad Wilcox and his daughter Wendee and they spoke on the Atonement. The closing session on the last day was Elder and Sister Holland and they spoke on "Now is the Time". Throughout the whole thing there was very good musical performances too. One of the classes I really liked was from the new General Relief Society Presidency. It was really fun to get to know them! They are just totally hilarious and we were all laughing so hard we had tears coming down our cheeks. I have to say though, that my all time favorite class, was titled, "For With God, Nothing is Impossible-even raising a 3 year old". I got some really good insight on how to find joy in motherhood and I really needed that this past week. It was great! They are going to aire the whole broadcast on KBYU on May 18-20 so I really recommend watching as much as you can. The other cool thing is that they had service rooms set up where you could watch what classes were being held in certain rooms, but you could work on service projects at the same time. Yamel and I really enjoyed this and we learned how to crochet baby blanket edges! (don't mind the picture of us too much. We had just come in from the pouring rain and had been walking for 2 days straight!) Next year, I highly recommend everyone go to it though. It's going to be May 1-2, so plan now!

What a week!

Yesterday when we went over to the house for our weekly visit, we were amazed at all they got done this past week. The roof is on, most of the windows are in, the electrical is done, our fireplace is in and the tubs and showers are installed as well. Tomorrow we do our framing walk-through to make sure everything is done the way it's supposed to and then they will finish up the plumbing and begin the sheetrock. It's all very exciting for us! One of the pictures is the view of our house from the house across the street, one is of the fireplace (obviously) and one is of the view from the master bedroom. We can't wait for everyone to come visit!

framing is complete!

We went by the house on Saturday and were so surprised to see the progress that was made throughout the week. The framing was basically done and the showers and tubs were in the garage ready to be installed. The superintendent on the jobsite decided to add some upgrades as standard now so we got a pantry, and a garden tub in the master bathroom! That was another great surprise! We are very impressed so far with Alpine Builders and definitely recommend them! We have heard so many horror stories from some friends who had really bad experiences with their builders. So far, it's been a positive experience for us!

Tulip Festival

Tim's parents took us to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point this past weekend and it was so amazing. I had never been to the garden's there, but they are so beautiful. Even Brooklyn loved it and wanted to stop at every little sign in the ground so we could tell her what the flowers were called. The weather was great and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Tallan

Tallan is getting so big already! He is 7 months old now and started eating cheerios yesterday for the first time. He is crawling around and talking so much more. He's even starting to get some hair. Before long, he'll have more than his dad! He's such a fun, happy baby, and I think he's adorable!

more progress

The first floor framing on the house is done! It's very exciting and we were told on Friday that it will probably be done a lot sooner than expected. Yeah!

book worm

Oh yeah, while the adults were socializing and eating, the kids had more fun than we did in Brooklyn's room. Now I really know she has way too many books!

Conference Weekend

What a fun Conference Weekend we had! Friday night we "settled" with Brian and Sarah and we continued the tradition of the girls winning. Yeah! Saturday I got to watch conference and after the priesthood session we had some friends over for a little chocolate fountain fun. Sunday morning we had conference breakfast at our house with 4 other families and had our regular Sunday dinner with Tim's parents. I met my aunt in Salt Lake to pick up 3 of my cousins and tomorrow I am off to Hurricane with the 5 kids! Ambitious I know! We got another letter from Joel and he is just doing great. He loves the MTC and his companion. He says his comp is very humble which is helping him work on being more humble himself. The language is coming great and he says the spirit there is amazing.

I just love conference weekend and the amazing talks we hear and the spirit we feel. There are always a few talks that I love more than others. This conference I loved Holland's talk on using your tongue in a positive way, Jensen's talk on music, and Oaks' talk on marriage. I do always love to hear Monson and Hinckley as well as many others too of course. We feel so blessed to be part of this amazing church and to have the Gospel in our lives.