Finding Myself

I have been in a major rut lately. I am not sure why, the weather has been better and we are on summer break. Maybe it is all the craziness around me and the everyday errands, hmmm maybe. Anyway, James came and visited a week ago and we had a very good talk. My baby bro is not interested in settling down and falling into the rut the rest of us our in. We talked about his possible back-packing around Europe trip and his desire to want to see the Amazon to meet a real tribe. We talked about all the things he wants to do before he is tied down. This got me really thinking, and now I know why I am in a rut. I also have a list of things I really want to do. I want to snorkel in the Caribbean, ski the Swiss Alps, float down the Rhine, go to the Louvre, be in a place to meet smart influential dreamers, pretty much travel, learn, and see everything. I will give him kudos, he is trying to do it before he has to be responsible for a family, and there is my rut. I have fallen into the rut of doing the "mormon mom thing" I stay at home and take care of kids, everyday is pretty much the same. I love my kids don't get me wrong they are my life! But after talking to James I realized that my rut came from thinking I had to choose one or the other and here I am. This is so inaccurate and that is what I realized in our good conversation. I can still do those things and until then I can still hit museums and learn about everything else this world has to offer. Better yet, I can teach my children about them. I do not want my children to fall into this rut, don't get me wrong some people love it, but I want more. I want my children to know there is more to life out there besides our little town. Like James I energize being around different cultures and people. I actually feel uplifted when we go to big cities and museums and such. I love life and all it has to offer. I love white water rafting, skiing down a mountain, hiking to hidden waterfalls, going to zoos and aquariums. I love the Denver museum and I wish I could take my kids there everyday. This love for life is what I feel I lost in my "rut". I feel better now. Now that I know I don't need to give everything up just to fit in with a certain way of life. I can have and do both. Why did it take me so long to get here? Maybe the general mentality of things. There are so many people around us who do just what is planned. I don't know if they see anything different. I am extremely excited to go to London. I can't wait to see the countryside and meet the people, we have more things planned than what we can do. The guest list for the wedding amazes me more and more, and I will get to meet some of those great dreamers of the world. I am very energized now. I am out of my rut, and I think my kids are enjoying me more. I know I am!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Wednesday was my hubbies birthday. He turned ** maybe I shouldn't say how old he really is, I think it is more fun to tease him on how old I want to celebrate. This year I teased him all day about turning 45 and I bought lots of "over the hill" stuff to celebrate. I think he enjoys me teasing him, but only because he is thinking about how to get me back! Anyway, we spent the day getting the garden ready to plant, this is what he wanted to do. We are tripling the size of the garden, yes we are crazy. Kyle has discovered a new passion for gardening and loves every minute of it. I always say if the mistresses (the tomato plants) in the bathroom die, we will be in real trouble. We pretty much got the garden ready, now we need to plant. We did enjoy one nice down pour while we were out there.

The rest of the day was spent like this. I had wonderful helpers helping with the cake.

Ash decorated the cake and if you look close it says "Happy Birthday Dad". The pict was too big to turn.

Opening presents.

Isn't she cute!

For dinner we had some awesome Kansas City style ribs, yum.

Then we had family for cake and ice cream.

Mahon helped me put on the candles, all the candles we could fit!

I guess we are lucky we didn't burn the house down! He even got help blowing them out.

Kami enjoyed the cake.
Happy Birthday Kyle! We love you so much!!!

New Dresses

Chantelle's mom picked up the cutest dresses for the girls in Dubai.

Aren't they so cute!

Saturday we made these.

They were so good! You can find the recipe here on Cindy's blog. I did just use the imitation cream cheese frosting for Kami's, but I made the real stuff for the rest of us. They were serious so yummy!

Yellowstone and Other Happenings

Our first week of summer has gone like this.
Thursday: friends over, this hasn't happened much since we have been working on the basement. Iron Man 2 with Chad and Becca, it was good but I was not super impressed.
Friday: sleepover and birthday party with said friend, Ash's first real sleepover.
Saturday: hanging out and cleaning the house, dealing with Ash getting up at 6:30 am at friend's house, who knows how much sleep she really got.
Sunday: church and a much needed nap.
Monday: Harriet and George joined us for the day, I helped at Tom's and we had a great BBQ and visit later. The girls (all of them) ganged up on George and Sam with water balloons. Harriet had us laughing until late that night, that girl is funny!
Tuesday: running more errands with a trip to the gym and not getting home until 1030pm. Also, had dinner with Chantelle and talked tons of baby talk. She is getting close, it was a good much needed visit.
Wednesday: Yellowstone with Harriet, George, and my mom. Have I mentioned how funny Harriet is? Really she can make me LAUGH!
Thursday: Home FINALLY, caught up on some much needed paperwork and stuff for the barn, didn't get a chance to clean house. Set three doors in the basement and got to bed at a decent hour.
Friday: spent the day in town and hit 14 different stores, just me and the girls, included the dreaded two week shopping trip bagging your own groceries! The up-side my mirror and phone are fixed, and Ky's birthday and father's day are done! We also added a couple of new additions to the family.
Today: house cleaning and watching Toy Story with the girls, doesn't that sound nice.
And somewhere in there we have been sleeping in (when possible) and watching Avatar three times (no it was not that good, I just couldn't stay awake through the movie!) I also managed to break my driver's side mirror while backing in the garage, just the glass. I was to intent on not hitting the wagon and just nicked the mirror and when it bent back(safety feature) the glass hit the garage door frame and shattered, stupid mistake. For those of you who have experienced my phone randomly shutting off on you while I am talking, it is fixed and it was just a broken clip on my battery, very annoying though. Does that sound like a week plus in a nutshell. Next week we have a birthday, are hoping to get the garden planted, and the shelves up in the storage room, before our real fun begins with swimming lessons for the next four weeks! Here are the pics I have and yes there are a ton.

Yellowstone

The giant map at one of the visitors centers, it was the size of a room.

This was my favorite picture I took.

Kaite was oh so happy!

George spent most of the day like this since the stroller couldn't make it up and down stairs.

Harriet called this buffalo over and it came and walked right by the car. She freaked out!

The baby we saw, not far from the entrance.

We stopped at one of my favorite stores ever in West Yellowstone town and I got my candles. They are spiced mandarin and smell and look oh so good. Now I just need my table to put them on.

Ash learned how to make pancakes all on her own, always with supervision though. She's pretty proud of herself.

The new additions. These are Fur Real Friends. Ash was introduced to them at the sleepover and the girls decided to buy them with their birthday money. They are the best kind of pet, they don't need to go out, or shed, and they come with an off button!

Ash even made a collar for hers, Mistie is her name.

Kami got creative and is having Kaite push her around the house.

Now that that is done I need to go catch up around here, but we have been having lots of fun.