The Scottish Festival

The Scottish Festival was held at Thanksgiving Point this weekend. We love the Highland Games, the bagpipes that never shut up, the food, the kilts :), the fun!

But first we had some time to kill before the gates opened so we went over to the petting zoo. Cameron rode his first horse, it was quite exciting going round and round like that. Wow.:



Then he went to jail:



Between that, the Turkey's, Horses, Cows, Goats, Emperor Kuzco and the other animals, we had a great time. But now on to the main event:

I thought the guy in the baseball hat was cute.

My brother Dave plays the bagpipes, well, he's working towards it, you have to start with a smaller version before you move on to the pipes, and before you can usually afford them.

His instructor was at the fair (of course!)

We watched the Barrel Toss, the Atlas Stone lifts etc. They were tossing candy to the audience every once in awhile so Cameron was happy:

Oh, okay, it was the new wooden swords that kept Cameron happy.

I don't think I will EVER tell Nathan he has a certain amount of money to spend in any of the shops....He took FOREVER deciding what he wanted. Next time I'll decide for him. He ran into some friends from school there too, that was fun for him.


Here is Nathan's Choice.....

And of course the most important thing about the Festival is......

the TURKEY LEGS!! And the meat pies....and the corn on the cob....and the homemade ice cream.....the popcorn.....wait. Those last three are at most festivals.... Anyway, we had a great time!

Dan and Andrea plus 1 and Cabining

My life long friend Dan, (well friend since high school anyway, and THAT is a funny story)

and his wife Andrea just had a baby! Her name is London Rose and here she is in all her fabulousness!

They were up at our cabin [part of Memorial Day weekend and here visiting from Phoenix and we had a great time! We were lucky enough to get them for one night (they had a very busy schedule with friends and family and baby showers and meet and greets, etc) and we tried to keep their time with us low stress and relaxing. You cant help but do that at the cabin though! I cooked a "bit" and we had Cinnamon Rolls with Cinnamon Almond Frosting. Homemade Mac and Cheese, Carmel Brownies, and Caramel Popcorn. Yum! I'll post those recipes on my recipe blog too. Most are there already.

Cameron with London, he LOVED her. He asked me, "Mommy, is this new baby for US?"

Kevin and London, she really was a great baby!

AWWwwww...... so cute! We can't wait for them to come back again! I miss Dan, he's so fun and so great to talk to. He's the best person to talk to about stuff that annoys me. HE GETS IT. I tell ya what, it's always a relief to talk to him. You know? I always feel better when I do. He appreciates my quirky, unorthodox personality that I hide from a lot of people. Oh, did I mention we are cousins? Yup, second cousins to be exact. Our grandparents were siblings so we had the same Great grandparents? Yeah. I think that's it. Anyway, he's obligated to deal with me because we're RELATED!

I was in awe of the vivid colors up at the cabin this week, it was AMAZING. Since my eye surgeries last year I am enjoying more and more of what this world has to show me. The drives up and back and all over these last two weeks were a testament to how blessed I am that my surgeries went better than planned. I was seeing so crystal clear, and better than I ever could have imagined. It was the first time with no contacts at the cabin, so dust didn't bother me. The wind didn't bother me, and I couldn't stop just looking at the scenery. I can even see to CLEAN better. (which we did a lot of this weekend at the cabin) Spring cleaning. ICK.

The leaves had all grown in since CJ was there just last week. The contrast between the bright green aspens against the dark shady pines was really breathtaking. I couldn't capture it very well by my camera, Like my friend CJ says, "Sometimes, it's just better in your head" You can kind of tell with the pics of Dan's family.above.

We love it up there, a home away from home, an escape to fresh air, lots of space, it's a blessing we will never forget.

View from above, in the fall, courtesy of our friend John's fabulous talent.



This is a pic from my drive home though I-84 approaching Mountain Green. This drive is the most breathtaking of all and I get to do this like twice a month or more in the summer. It's amazing, the Morgan Valley, Red Rock formations, Devil's Slide, Echo, Rockport Reservoirs, Coalville area, Weber Canyon, Wow!!

Cameron and Nate the Great

So, boys wrestle, I know of this phenomenon

Cameron will someday appreciate how tolerant his brother is,

Because I would be very irritated about now....

.......Nathan?

Um, are you okay?

Oh, well, if it ends in a hug, I think we've survived this round.

Until next time....

C.J.'s Visit

We had our good friend C.J. out here from Chicago this weekend. It was his first time to Utah and he loved it! "Yes!" It's nice to show people our beautiful mountains and valleys close to home. It's fun to see our place from other people's eyes that way. He enjoyed the scenery and commented often about how much he liked what he saw, and that he understood why we loved it here so much etc.

We got to show him our favorite places to drive. We went to Bountiful and drove up to the Temple to see the view of the Great Salt Lake. We drove down south to Thanksgiving Point's Gardens, then we drove through Provo Canyon to Kamas then to our cabin. We spent the night there, mom watched the boys for us, thanks mom! C.J. cooked us a fabulous dinner over the fire and we looked at the amazing stars (Beautiful! Amazing layers and layers of stars, we could see shooting stars and we tracked satellites too, I've never seen that before) We took him up to Smith and Morehouse Reservoir and we went on a little hike up there. We drove home on 8o/84 through Morgan and Weber Canyon.

That night we had dinner with my family and then went and played Rock Band with our good friends Matt and Teri which is always a blast!

I was hoping to take him on the Alpine slide or up to the Tram at Snowbird or drive the Alpine loop or Timpanogos Cave, but all of those things aren't open/accessible until after Memorial day. Darn snow.

Bridal Veil Falls

We've missed C.J., he's very generous and helpful. Fun to be around. He's interested in photography so he had a great time shooting different things he saw. He also replaced two belts on our car while he was here (Bless him!) and pretty much paid for gas and groceries/food too. (What a Sweetheart)

We had a great time! He says he'll be back so we didn't scare him away with our Sunday afternoon chaos. I cooked a bunch (which you all know I love to do) and he enjoyed that too.

Next time he'll bring his 5 year old, Christopher, we'll have a great time with the kids, tons of things for them to do here too! :)

Until then, we'll miss you C.J.!

Here's some of my attempts.....I need a better camera....Waaahhaaahhh!!

My new favorite flower! A hybrid daisy, Citrus daisy? Anyway, Pretty!!

This purple one is a tulip! Go figure they were that pretty when open!

This next one wont turn right side up nomatter what I try. Weird. It was my favorite too.

Way to Go Nathan!!

So remember an earlier post where I told you Nathan LOVES Woodshop and I showed you just a couple of his projects?? Well apparently his hard work has paid off....


Well, his school just had their "Teachers Choice Awards" and Nathan got the only one from his shop teacher, Mr. Johnson.


(Apparently it's pretty tough to deserve an award from Mr. Johnson, according to the school counseler who announced Nathan's name)


Here it is! And Here he is!

Nathan and the Award Handcrafted by Mr. Johnson

Presentation, Some of the Teachers are in the background

Here's the Detail, "In recognition of being the hardest worker and in doing a superb job"

Of course we were all there to cheer him on!
CONGRATS NATHAN!!

Our New Neice!

It's been cool to say I'm an aunt, though I wish I had more time to be a lot more "involved" in "aunting." We've had Neices and Nephews for over 5 years now. Now there are 9 grandkids in the Broadbent family. That's 8 added in the last 5 years including Cameron. Poor Nathan has 8 years, quite a gap, between him and is oldest cousin, Shayla.

Introducing Tianne!

I love her pudgy cheeks :)



Isn't she Beautiful?? Congrats Lynette and Brian!!



Cameron Adores her!

No I don't Photoshop (not yet anyway)

Of a few things I am fairly certian:

A. My child has fabulous matching and pattern skills

B. My child is GREAT at entertaining himself

C. My child has OCD

D. We have way too many Duplo's

Umm....

E. I stand corrected. There was a slight tantrum because we didn't have enough Duplo's to make an entire fifth robot, life is hard around here.

Son #1

Nathan, in my humble opinion, is the sweetest, kindest (?) most genuinely honest kid I know. Nathan is my bud, my smart and curious, sensitive, loving, helpful kid. And as such he is a little shy and kind of likes to fade into the background, and he's humble. Like most teenage kids, he is not too willing to be photographed, where on the other hand Cameron will ask me to take his picture almost every day. Hence all the pics of Cameron; and Nathan's are fewer and further between, but trust me, you should see my stack of Nathan's baby/kid pics. I just wish they were digital! Nathan is curious about a lot of things, we have great conversations about history, politics, religion, people and how they think, he thinks deeply, considers all sides, and makes his own conclusions and will tell people, especially (and even) his teachers! He's not afraid to tell them how he feels about where the thinks the world has gone wrong. (This is a historical point of view, not religous one). His teachers really have great things to say about him, they say kind things about this nature, that he is "A JOY!" that he's a "Deep Thinker" that he "Is VERY respectful and considerate." His history teacher tells me he asks Nathan his opinion often about what they're talking about (maybe too much he admitted), but he says Nathan will not answer immediately but really think before he speaks and give honest and inspiring feedback. The news that his teachers love him and aren't worried a bit about the other stuff.... is great because I'm ALWAYS concerned about his school progress, but parent teacher conferences are SO positive that they help me chill out, speaking of; I'm working on a piece about Nathan's personal struggles with ADD, more on that later, it's my work in progress. Nathan does have a good head on his shoulders, his sense of right and wrong are admirable. He will not buy into certain things, does not conform to what people tell him to do, and will quietly rebel in his head, but never want to offend anyone. He'll respond respectfully if he's asked but wont push his opinion on others, this is helpful in church, we try not to rock the boat there. :) I love our conversations and he is always willing to talk to me, and sometimes he wants more attention than I give him. (I need to be better at this) He's in that stage, you know, between wanting independence and still needing love, attention, and validation from mom. Nathan loves to cook, likes to play with his brother, likes to play cards and board games with me, LOVES video games and movies and some TV shows like Big Bang, Lost, and Hero's. He is into Lazer Tag, biking, snowboarding, fishing, and he recently has found that he LOVES working with his hands.

He's taking woodshop this semester and he's the favorite, the teacher is always complimenting him and his work. He's SO excited about all the projects he's doing. He has like 135% in his class, he's worked so hard last term that he "technically" could sit and do nothing this term and still get an "A". Here is his "Critter Catcher" that works like a charm, in fact it's SCARY it's so fast and loud when it snaps shut it scares me, he loves it! He's made a long board, this bat, and a boomerang, and he's working on a Mothers Day gift I'm not supposed to know about....

Nathan made this bat in woodshop

Here are some more pics of my TEENAGER, (UGH!) but what a cutie.....

St. Patty's Day

K, here's all my boys :)


Snowboarding with Dad, (And John)

Here he's patiently tolerating his brother

I know, I know, we're getting haircuts tomorrow.....

See?

An Inspiring Quote

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before....Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty."

-President Uchtdorf

The rest of the talk is quite reassuring too....

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-37,00.html

I wondered why most of us have this constant, never ending drive to make, create, invent, improve & believe things can be better and believe we can make it happen. From cooking to gardening, home improvement, decorating, photography, crafting, improving peoples lives at work, home, church, wherever! I thought it was Human Nature, but it looks like from this talk, the correct term would be Eternal Nature. I suspect that is what God is doing all the time, and what He was doing as He created us, the world, and the universe. Makes me feel even closer to Him knowing He shares my love for these things too.

HEARTBREAKING!!

I was looking though mormonmommyblogs and found some adoption/foster care ones that were very helpful and informative but this just broke my heart. It's a list of kids available and looking for adoptive families. I just couldn't help but look at each one and wonder how their lives would be if no one adopted them. And how awful their lives have to be to be placed in foster homes and taken from a bad situation. And let me tell you it has to be REALLY bad before DCFS will consider removing a child from their natural parents and families. And thinking about their plights, and the fact that they aren't accepted and loved like they should be, and that they are hurting, and sad and maybe feeling hopeless and abandoned. And then I wanted to adopt them all! I know, reality dictates so much to me, and it's painful to realize that I'm in no position right now to be able to help. Taking on a teenager requires time and money that I don't have. Taking on a smaller child takes time from Cameron and Nathan that I already have so little of. Oh, and one requires SPACE for adopting a child, which I don't have. My living situation is not condusive to this at all....
UGH.
My mother in law, Carol, did foster care for newborns awaiting placement to their adoptive families (while paperwork and red tape was being completed.) This was inspiring that she did this, and definitely doable for someone who can stay at home, and not have to work. But that's not for me right now. I could help a child who's in school, and I think I'd be a great candidate to help an older child.
This is heartbreaking, touching, thought provoking, gut wrenching but please take the time to pass this link on if you or anyone you know is thinking about adopting or foster care. I know it is the hardest thing anyone would do in their lives, and the most rewarding and joyous thing anyone can do. After all, that's what parenting is right?
I will be looking into the process anyway, maybe I can help more than I'm giving myself credit for.