Happy Anniversary!

This past weekend Scott and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary together. On our first anniversary we were living in Provo, Utah and so we decided to go to the Yardley Inn Bed and Breakfast for our anniversary. We came back for nostalgia sake this past weekend.

The bed and breakfast is very quaint and old, but it was really quite charming.

One thing I remembered from our 1st Anniversary was the Jacuzzi tub in the sitting room! Quite luxurious! Of course now we have one in our master bathroom and our backyard too, so since we are a little spoiled it doesn't have quite the same effect, but it was still fun!

Scott loved the vaulted ceiling with the neat mural, it really was beautiful and very Victorian!

Manti Temple Views

The Manti Temple is so beautiful and we just loved visiting it this last weekend. Here are some photos from our trip. Isn't it so pretty?

This wall is so interesting and we thought it was a very neat addition to the landscape.

Aren't the fall colors so pretty? It was so quaint and quiet there in Manti.

Our Nightmare Camping Trip

So last weekend was fall break for our kids so we decided to take them up to the mountains and do some camping. Since my health and Scott's work schedule are both so unpredictable, we didn't make reservations, we just went up hoping we could find a spot at one of the many campsites we had seen last time we were to Timanooke Campground. Well, LOOONG story short we ended up making a wrong turn in the dark and ended up on this long and rocky road that had NOWHERE for us to turn our huge trailer around. After 10 minutes Scott decided we had no other option but to turn around. This would require him backing the trailer (29 feet of it!) backwards while Kaylie and I guided the trailer. Now, we were on super REMOTE road and it was so scary! But Kaylie and I guided the trailer for about 10 minutes. Then the car got too close to the cliff side and so I told him to turn the trailer. He couldn't do that without pulling forward. When he did that it pulled the trailer at a different angle and got the trailer STUCK on a tree. I started screaming for him to stop but it was stuck. Due to the cliff Scott was stuck too. Moving one direction would destroy the awning, moving the other way would send our car down the embankment. We were stuck. Kaylie, who was scared of the wildlife, and freezing in shorts and my coat, asked if we could just cut the tree down! What an idea, (Sorry to the forest) but we were stuck. So Scott got his ax out and started cutting.

A few minutes later my worst fear was realized when another car came down the road right at us so I ran into the road and started jumping up and down and waving my hands..PLEASE don't slam into my car full of children I was thinking. Well, that car ended up being a truck with Tony and his son, angels sent to help us!! After 2 1/2 hours and much help from Tony we finished cutting the tree down, strapped it to a second tree and moved our trailer out of the way. Then they chopped the rest of the tree down so they could clear it off the road and away from dangering others. Then Tony scouted out up ahead and found spots he thought we could turn around. We tried 2 of them with no luck and it was SO stressful as we almost got stuck another time. At last we found a spot we were able to turn around...our paint job on the Sequoia isn't quite a pretty, but at least no one was hurt. We feel so blessed to have been given Tony and his son to help us through our dilemma. Almost 3 hours after arriving in the campground we finally parked our trailer in a parking lot. We were too emotionally and physically drained to drive anywhere. Our kids had been crying and scared and we were just done.

So we called it a night and prayed we wouldn't get a ticket from the rangers that night and we didn't. So you'd like to think the story turned happy there...well it did NOT. The next morning as we were planning to find a campground Scott came out to find a HUGE 3 inch wide gash in one of our trailer tires. Not surprising given the road we were driving on. So after much time in changing the tire we finally found a campground to camp in. Well, it was 34 degrees outside so we were playing games in the trailer when the next problem occurred. Our battery decided not to hold a charge and gave out. We tried charging it with the car and it would get to 100% and then go out 15 minutes later. So needless to say we could not camp without power since that meant ho heater and no fridge and that just wasn't going to work. So we let the kids play a bit and then we headed home. This trip was not meant to be!! We met up with Amy's family for a bit on our drive home and ended up roasting marshmallows with some friends back in Centerville. Scott and the kids slept in the trailer that night to feel like they were truly camping. I was so exhausted from the whole thing I decided to forgo the excitement and sleep in my own bed. So needless to say our experience was not what we were hoping. The battle scars on our trailer show the sad signs of our trial, but it could have been a lot worse, we are just grateful we made it back safely and that everyone has a greater appreciation for many of our blessings!

Fall is Here!

I can't believe how fast time is flying! It's already the middle of October already! This weekend we were able to visit with Amy and her girls for a bit after we stopped by Cabellas on our way home. Here are some photos of the kids with Bella! =)

First my handsome boy with his favorite pumpkins.

All my kids taking a photo with Bella!

Bella and Kaylie are buddies! Bella was so cute carrying her purse and her cookie monster with her in the store. She was wearing the giraffe overalls I gave her when she was a newborn!! I can't believe she is big enough to wear those now! She looked darling!

Here's the group of us at Cabellas!

A Different Fridge

Well yesterday I spent about 2 hours cleaning out a fridge we bought (used, about 4 years old) in preparation for the swap. It was a LOT of work and my hands are all dry! I should have used gloves. Anyhow, here are the boys playing with the clean drawers. The boys were really helpful in drying them for me and I appreciated that. It was a lot of work.

Here is our white fridge, which I love and it still works great!! But with our kitchen renovation the white just stands out too too much. Well it has always stood out too much with our dark counter tops and dark island, but we weren't motivated to do anything about it until we got this new awesome oven combo! And so we bought a used fridge in stainless so that everything will coordinate better.

Here is the after photo...phew..it was a lot of work getting it in place (thanks Tyler!) but the guys finally got in in place and it looks awesome! It's a GE Profile just like our oven and has the matching handles so that was one of our motivations for getting this one. Our other motivation is that it is one of the types that does NOT show fingerprints very easily and that was important to me. I can't stand fingerprints on stainless!! So this was a big priority!! The kitchen is coming along, it is very exciting! =)

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month we bought some pink ribbon cookies. Not that we need any reminders, I think our family is well aware, but we are pink ribbon fans around here so I just had to get the cookies too!

Two Anniversaries

This past week we celebrated 2 anniversaries. Monday was Scott and my 13th wedding anniversary! We took the children out to celebrate the happy occasion that brought about life for all of them!! We went out to dinner as a family and its been soo very long since we have done that, so that was fun!

Here is the lovely rose bouquet Scott gave me! =) The other anniversary happened last week and that was my 3 year anniversary of my diagnosis with cancer. How grateful I am to be a 3 year survivor and I hope to live for many more anniversaries! =)

Oven Project Update

Well if you have been following the blog lately you'll know we are working on our oven project. This last week Scott got the top cabinet out finally (it was really stuck) and he rebuilt the side cabinet where we fit the cookie sheets. He also rebuilt the side drawer and built a casing above the oven that will support the counter top when we get that rebuilt. So it is coming along!


Here's a sneak peek of what we are thinking about for our kitchen...back splash and new paint on the cabinets....we are still making decisions so more to come on this later!! If only Scott didn't have a full time job!! Then our kitchen would be done in a snap! But reality is that he has a real job he has to complete before he can play around with our kitchen project. So we have to be patient!!