Summer Fun!

The summer started out with Trek for Nathan. He met some great people and made a few really good friends that are keepers!

This is the "White Out" the stake planned when welcoming the kids back home; we all dressed in white; brought flags, balloons and lots of people out to say "Welcome Home!"

The kids hiked up through the crowds of loved ones to the temple as their last hike of Trek.

We had some other adventures too; Nathan also went to EFY for a week at Snow College.  He met some good friends there too; from South Jordan!

Kevin had a company party that had a pirate theme!

This is Jack Sparrow; readying his vessel for a voyage with the kids.  Cameron played on this ship with "Jack" for like an hour or more; I couldn't get him down.

Why do my pictures always turn sideways????

Anyway, that ship was pretty cool!

Kevin and I got tickets to the parade of homes and saw the "Up" house. 

I was looking for decorating ideas; Kevin was a good sport; it was a lot of fun!

My Baby Turned 16!

That's right folks, my firstborn child is almost an adult.....seriously?!?!?
What happened to my life?  Well, we wont go down that road here, maybe in another post......

We had a family party Sunday, his favorite dinner on Tuesday (his actual birthday) and then a friend's party Saturday. It's been a busy week.....
Here's the opening of presents.....

This lovely gift was not subway sandwiches after all....though it would have made Nathan pretty happy either way; Jeff and Siena you totally could have saved money here!

This outfit he's wearing was wrapped up in the Subway papers.....cute!! Oh, I mean, Awesome.

Party Guests! Family from both sides; it was great to have everyone together!

 Here's the Cake.....Oreo! Nathan's favorite; I'll show you how I made it on my cooking bloggity blog.

Then the friends' party was fun too; Nathan decided on a YouTube party.  We had decorations, food, and costumes all themed; YouTube.

Double Rainbow Cupcakes; these had rainbow cake on the inside and chocolate rainbows on the outside; I'll have these on my cooking blog too then; Charlie bit my, Fingers, these were dough with a pepperoni stick wrapped in there; cut to look like a bloody nail (no blood in the real video clip; I promise) Nyan Cats Treats; just strawberry PopTarts; then Potter Pals Licorice wands; licorice dipped in white chocolate for the handles.

The only clip from above I found funny was the Potter Pals, but whatevs....

Nathan streamed a bunch of his favorite YouTube videos in a play list to watch randomly with everyone

Gifts!

Games!

Water Balloons!

And of course Costumes.  Nathan is this guy from YouTube and Old Spice TV commercials. Love it!

We decorated the house with these

Friends!

We got out Nathan's Scrapbooks at both parties for some teasing and reminiscing.

Fun Times!!

Happy Retirement Mom!

Yeah, can you believe my mom is retiring after 27 years of service from Davis County School District?

15 years of Teaching 6th grade and 12 years of being an Elementary School Principal

She is an amazing example, a great teacher, mentor and educator.

So we decided to throw her a party!!

That just happened to be on the 4th of July!

 Here is mom next to her table of treats. Recipes found Here. There were fun Cake Bites, Red White and Blue Strawberries, at Red White and Blue Beverage and lots of treats that family brought too!  We had Curried Chicken over Rice, and Corn on the Cob and Red White and Blue Jell-o, salad Etc....

She got new business cards that she got to pass out to everyone.....

I can't get these darn photos to turn sometimes!

 After dinner the family gave her gifts.  Each one of us kids read her a poem we wrote, my uncle wrote one too but I dont have that one:

Retirement haikus for Mom

Shaping multitudes

Correcting bad attitudes

Enough is enough.

Were crying children

Or the students the worst part?

Personal zen earned

Hyper active youth.

He peed where? She bullied who?

Never EVER more

 

Suns set on careers

But never on adventure

Go and find your path

 -Jon (Jeff)

An Incorrect Haiku for Mom

By David Parkin

My mom teaches school

She was my sixth grade teacher

She taught me Haiku

Five syllables first

Seven for the second line

Five for the third line

For an assignment

We had to write five poems

It wasn’t that hard

It is incorrect

To write out a bunch of them

To form a story

Just thought I’d say that

So my mom would understand

I learned my Haiku

Who’s the Boss??

No more pencils, No more books, no more Teacher’s dirty looks……

Cause You’re the Boss.

No more 4pm clock watch or 6am commutes,

Cause You’re the Boss.

No more faculty meetings or annual reviews….

Cause You’re the Boss…..

No more clueless parents or entitled kids…..

Cause You’re the Boss….

No more PTA Carnivals or silly fundraisers…..

Cause You’re the Boss…..

More time for you

More time to create

More time for peace

More time to dream

More time with us

More time to wander

More time to be whatever or wherever you want to be

Cause You’re the Boss!

Love,  Kelley

I also made her a "Retirement Suggestion Jar" stuffed full of ideas for when she gets bored, everyone got to add their ideas too.  I have tons of stuff in there, websites to visit like "Watch Paint Dry.com" and "99 most viral Videos" and "TED.com" Etc. Plus ideas of places to go, people to see etc.
 
It was a fun day! She had a great time and we were happy that Rachel could come too! We missed Dave but he was there in spirit.
 
Happy Retirement Mom!!

Week of Staycation

I love a good staycation.  I was able to spend tons of time with my boys; I made SURE Nathan had something awesome to do with friends every day to make his summer more fun.  He usually watches Cameron all day for me when I'm at work so I wanted him to have a vacation too!

He got to:

See a movie with me

Go to Raging Waters with a buddy from Trek

Spend the entire day with said buddy till 10pm - complete with pizza and snacks and sodas.

He also took the train to another buddy's house from school to sleep over , then the next day he took the train further north to Syracuse to spend the next 3 days and 2 nights with another buddy; then we picked him up and we went to our amazing friends' Matt and Teri's house for a get-together: Where I made Nathan's favorite dessert (Chocolate Chip Cookie pie) and he slept in their basement for the most part while we played.....

Here he is not at all awake at 5pm after 3 "sleep overs" you can see the problem

On the other hand Cameron had a great time and he's wide awake at 10pm

We also did some home decor projects during the week- I got like 6 of my closets re-organized and now I have a lovely Pantry, Hallway,  Scrapbook, Game, Master and Laundry Closet. They are AMAZING now. It's like a huge relief to open them and see organization and fabulous synergy staring back at me. It's peaceful, it really is. If I need a little Zen, I open one of these closets, take a look and let the peace and tranquility wash over me. 

Well, with home improvement projects you usually start with a HUGE mess; Which we did.....

Here are a few projects we did....

TOKEN FAMILY PHOTO WALL

It took a while (a few months for me anyway) to get mostly black photo frames (couponer skills inserted here)I got most of these 8 1/2 X 11 photo frames for $3 and the bigger ones for 75% off or more on clearances or with coupons.

Then I organized, chose and printed my favorite photos, went through archived school pics and put them all together on my couch....

 and on my ping pong table.....and on the floor.....

When they were all in frames and I was happy; it was time to organize the wall. 

I got a big roll of paper, and cut to size all the photo frames. then I labeled them; and stuck the papers on the wall with painters tape so I could space them out and have them work in chronological order.

Now my friend -  who shall not be named  - called me a way meaner name for "Overly Organized" (Anal) when I told her what I was doing..... and the process involved; but in my defense you CANNOT start hanging pictures up randomly with NAILS! If you don't like where they are you have to move them and then you have NAIL holes in your beautiful PLUM wall!!  (The HORROR) so I had to get it right the first time.....this template and hanging process took like 8 hours total AFTER all the pics were in frames.  I have NO idea how long it took to get them all chosen, printed, bought and in the frames.

Here's the paper wall all organized......

 
And here's the picture wall ALMOST done!

Honorable mention goes to Kevin and his awesomeness; he did all the hard labor whilst I did all the directing.  Oh and added bonus is that he used these handy little templates to draw leveled lines on for the pics and he measured the hanger; centering and nail holes vs the top of the frame; and he marked the nail hole spots and hammered through the paper without marking my wall up with pencil YEA!!

(I still think that I am NOT anal)

Now on to the.....

Great wall of Awesome Redness Project

This baby is in my basement; I have an Americana Theme down there and it was BORING in white, so Kevin and I chose a lovely shade of awesomeness and he painted up my wall in one evening - after 4 coats (two primer and two paint including trim) and a midnight/1am quit time this is the result!

Here it is all done with my stuff.....
 
Awesome, No?
Well, here is that mess I told you about.....I took this picture after I did dishes BTW.

The next project was to make our main floor bathroom look fun and not boring.  It is a bathroom with 10 foot ceilings and it was a boring white and now it is a:

Lovely shade of sea blue and sea green striped

Bathroom Project

Kevin did the striping and everything - he is awesome!!

Cute!!

Here it is finished with some seaside pics.

Love Love Love!!

Nice bunch of things done here; then we had a party at our place for my mom; I'll tell you about that coming up soon....here's the food link though.

Peace!

Memorial Day Weekend & Bryce Canyon!

It's great to have Kevin's parents so close in Cedar City. We love to go see them and hang out & relax. I got to cook a TON (more details here) but the best part was our trip to Bryce Canyon.  I can't believe I've lived in Utah most of my life and not seen these things..... but better late then never, and now I get to experience them with my boys. 

Looking over Sunset Peak - I couldn't see the bottom from this view!

Mike, Cameron, Kevin and Nathan - Notice how Nathan is the tallest!

I found the bottom! Wow!

We hiked down and the walls were like this the whole time, it was a fun hike so far! Amazing 360 degree views the entire 3 miles.

Maybe Kevin shouldn't have worn his orange shirt but here we are at the bottom of the canyon; see the tree growing there?

It was so beautiful, and huge!

 This is Nathan at the bottom.

 Found another tree; love this!

Then the hike continued out of the "Hoodo's" and into some beautiful country with red rock and green green trees.

Cameron found a cool spot.

Love this!

Someone made this before us; Rock Stacking; a hobby I may consider.....

Dry creek bed

Cameron found a tree trunk seat; we were about 1 1/2 hours into the hike now; he's getting tired but doing well!

Back side of Sunset Peak

Going up Sunrise Peak

 Looking back at Sunset Peak

Just to show you the grade of the trail; pretty steep here!

I love the shots of the trees against orange rock

Do you see that little tree on the right in the "pot" of sand? So cute!!

Looking down at where we were

We made it! After a bit of heat exhaustion on my part and loosing Papa for a while at the lodge; we headed home after a 2 1/2 hour hike; one we will never forget!

 Bye Bye Bryce Canyon!!