Our "STAYcation"

A few weeks ago Chris had a few days off from work (what was left of his vacation time) so we had as much fun as could staying home!!! Chris' back was out so that really limited what we could do- but we had fun driving around checking out Twin Falls, having movie nights at home and a movie night at the drive-in, eating yummy dinners and going out to eat Chinese for lunch!

Here's one of the dinners I made: BBQ ribs (awesome $2.99/lb sale!!!) with roasted cheesy potatoes!!!

We've been wanting to take the kids to the drive-in for quite a while so we were so excited when we found out that Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum (the sequel) were playing! I made some marshmallow popcorn (but forgot the napkins! Oops!) and we had some sodas that we scored for FREE from a WINCO promotion!

Off to the drive-in we went- got there early enough to get a good parking spot and for the kids to get nice and "antsy!" Daddy played with Livy in the car and I took Brady outside to go on a "treasure hunt" and see how many coins we could find! We actually found 5 quarters, a few dimes and a handful of pennies! He was so excited!!!

Back in the car we had a rascal on our hands! Miss Olivia went wild and crazy...so daddy entertained her by teacher her how to drive! (Always check your mirrors!)

Then we wrestled around for a little bit and TRIED to get a cute picture. I had to post them all-

A bottle will fix anything!

Finally the first movie started at about 9:20- The rest of the night went like this:

• Put sleepy baby in carseat after she finishes bottle and sing her to sleep (pray that she stays asleep!)
• Get hyper boy to settle down and sit still with us in the front seat
• Try to keep sticky little fingers off of everything as we eat marshmallow popcorn
• Try to stay awake during second movie but can't keep my eyes open. Baby is still sleeping, little boy is getting sleepy but amazingly still awake and daddy is in his own little movie world as happy as can be!
• 1:30- baby starts to fuss, second movie is ending, I am half-dead and little boy has finally succumbed to sleep about 5 minutes before movie ends- wakes up and is sad that he missed the end!
• Get home at about 2 a.m. . . . totally tired and knowing that I'm not going to get to sleep-in in the morning! (ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....)

We had a great time but I think it may be a while before we try to bring to kids to the drive-in again!!!

Announcing our new niece!!!

We are so happy to welcome our new little niece, Chloe Grace to our family! My husband's sister, Nickie and her husband, along with our other niece Lexi welcomed a healthy baby girl last Friday EARLY in the morning!!! We all waited on pins and needles for the phone call saying that mommy and baby were safe and sound!

She is so tiny and precious in this car seat!!! It hardly seems possible that either of my children were ever this small (actually smaller!!!)

We are so excited to meet her one day as they live far away in Philadelphia!!! ***HUGS and KISSES*** From Uncle Chris, Auntie Hannah and cousins Brady and Livy!!!!

Trip to Utah...keep scrolling more posts!

I feel like I am always trying to catch up from a week or two before instead of posting our experiences right away...better late than never!

Two weeks ago we went down to Utah to visit family in Provo and some friends in Pleasant Grove. My Aunt Teresa and Uncle Paul were in town from Kansas visiting their kids, my cousins, Chaz and Tara along with their spouses (Desi and Kevin). It was only my second time meeting Desi and my first time meeting Kevin so it was nice to have some family time even though it went by really fast!

We were able to hike "Y Mountain" on Saturday and have a nice picnic in Provo Canyon after church on Sunday, then we had to head back home!

Hiking the "Y"

Precious picture!!!

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(This is before Chris' back started hurting, by the time we got closer to the top he was in a lot of pain, and two weeks later he still is...he went to the chiropractor and he said that his bones are out of alignment pinching a nerve- the cost of parenthood, poor guy!)

This was when we first started out- the parking lot is at a pretty high elevation but we have 11 switchbacks to go to get to the top!

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L-R: Tara and her husband, Kevin, Desi, Hannah, Chris, Olivia, Brady and Aunt Teresa.

"Uncle Trout" aka my Uncle Paul Willnauer

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The views were gorgeous!!!

and of course I had to do a little nature photography:

We made it to the top of the Y!!!! We had a picnic and then Chris, Olivia, Brady and I headed back down the mountain while everyone else decided to be crazy and hike to the top of the mountain (the Y is pretty much the halfway point!!!)

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On the way down Chris' back was hurting so much and he was carrying Olivia so he just booked it down as fast as he could. It didn't help that we were wearing sandles and Brady was wearing his crocs (I forgot to pack sneakers). Poor Brady's legs started hurting about 3/4 of the way down and he just kept crying that his legs and knees hurt so bad! I felt terrible and tried to distract him any way that I could while we tried to get down the mountain.

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Here are some wild flowers that he picked while we searched for all of the different kinds:

Brady resting his legs on a bench at one of the switchbacks. From this point down I carried him the rest of the way (about 4 switchbacks). I was also carrying a backpack full of junk and my feet were killing me from the descent in sandals!

Happy that we're almost to the bottom and that mommy is going to carry him the rest of the way! We survived and I'm glad that we did it but never again will we hike without proper footwear!!!

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After our hike we had just enough time to stop at the BYU Creamery and get some ice cream! I got a lemon/lime frozen yogurt beacuse I was feeling all healthy after such a hike!

Brady shared with me and Olivia and Chris shared a cookie dough shake. Very yummy!

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After eating ice cream and cooling down we had to hurry back to Chaz' and take showers and get dressed to meet up with a guy who had served his mission in my branch when I was in high school. His name is Glendon and he and his family were so nice to have us over for the evening. We talked for hours while the kids played (their little girl, Mauri is Brady's age and they got along great!) We ate some Cafe Rio, cookies and ice cream and had a lot of fun catching up and remembering the "old days" by looking through his mission albums!

Brady and Mauri chilled while watching a movie with their own popcorn!

My cousin Chaz did a great job of entertaining the kids!

Brady loved him and wanted to do everything with him!

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Chaz tried to get all of Brady's energy out so he'd sleep on the way home. they wrestled for about an hour and then Chaz calmed him by doing a little "Zen Yoga!"

Unfortunately neither the wrestling or calming had any effect on Brady and he was awake and quite the royal pain the whole trip home! Ah, road trips...so much fun =)

Our Happy 4th of July!!! Sun Valley style!!!

Chris' parents spend every 4th of July up in Sun Valley so we went up for the day and were treated to a wonderful day with them. It all started out with a delicious breakfast put on by the Cub Scouts every year. From there we went just down the road to the antique tent sales and spent the better part of the morning there finding little treasures. I found a cute little covered wagon model to put in the kid's room (cowboy/cowgirl theme) and a blue enamelware cup for their play stove.

Then Brady rode back with Grandpa on his tandem bike (8 miles!!!) to the campsite. While we waited for them to get back to the campsite I saw these gorgeous horses alongside the road and just had to take pictures!!!




We were going to go ice skating at the famous Sun Valley Lodge but a rainstorm came in and ruined the ice! Darn it! Maybe this fall!!!

We had a wonderful dinner at the Sun Valley Golf Club and Brady got to put on the practice green! He could have stayed there for hours, he was right in his glory!!!

Sun Valley Golf Club:

We got a pretty descent shot of our family for the 4th of July.

(I made Livy's outfit, isn't it cute??)

Grandma Jones and Mom Graf enjoying the sunshine in the club's diningroom! We couldn't have had a prettier view with the mountains and the course right in front of us!

My meal was grilled lamb kebabs over a greek salad with grilled pitas and dill taziki yogurt- it was delicious!!! I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had lamb too!

Other meals we had were steamed mussels in a white wine sauce, grilled tostadas, slider burgers, kobe beef burgers and sweet potato fries! All so good!!!

This picture cracks me up!!! Chris was trying to get Olivia to give him a kiss and she msacked him instead!!! Funny girl!!

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I snuck outside while we were waiting for dinner and took some pictures:

Brady had so much fun golfing that he didn't want to leave!!!

We ended the evening with some awesome caramel apples and smores. Mom and Dad got the apples at a little candy store called Rocky Mountain Chocky Factory and there were all kinds like heath crunch, pecan, oreo, cheesecake, white chocolate coconut and apple pie (my favorite). We even had our own little portable fire pit to roast smores and keep us warm while we waited for the fireworks!

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And, a "funny" thing happened while we were waiting for the fireworks. We parked at the LDS church parking lot along the side of the road where the field was that we watched the fireworks at. Olivia had fallen asleep and it was cold outside so we decided to let her stay sleeping in the car with the windows cracked. Grandma Jones was staying in their car right next to our so she was watching Olivia and we would check on her every 10-15 minutes. Well, when Chris got up to go check on Livy he noticed that there were 3 police cars parked in front of our car (we were only about 100 feet from the car). So he walked over there and they said that a concerned citizen had called about a baby left unattended in a vehicle...long story short, we explained that Grandma was "watching" her and we were checking in on her and all was fine. Just to make everyone feel better Grandma got in our car and stayed there for the rest of the evening!

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It gave me a little fright that I hadn't thought anything of just leaving Olivia there since the vehicle was locked and in sight and Grandma was right there. I actually am a social worker and worked in child protection for almost a year so it was all really crazy that someone called in on us!

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Oh well, we can laugh about it now!