Presidents Cup and THE CRACK

We started off our St George trip with dinner at the creamery. This was the creamiest, yummiest mac I've ever had! But it sat so heavy and I couldn't finish it. But it was goooood. 

When we arrived at our Air BnB we were disgusted to find that the house hadn't been cleaned. Understanding that mistakes happen, I contacted the owner. She was out of town so she got ahold of her house cleaner and said it would be done soon. We left so they could come. Hours later, she still hadn't come. So we went to a hotel for the night (which also had dirty sheets...ugh!). We finally got settled in a bed around 10:30.  

We went back the next morning and she had come but hadn't cleaned anything. Just started some towels. At this point, we had nothing left to do but clean it ourselves and work with the owner. She was kid and apologetic and gave us several refunds to make it worth it. I washed sheets and towels, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, vacuumed and remade beds with the sheets I washed. It was a crappy dryer and took ALL day. But by evening we had a clean house. 

Game 1 was a 0-0 tie

Game 2 was a 3-0 win

Game 3 was another 0-0 tie

Rylee loved hanging out at the pond watching the ducks and people fish at the complex where she played. It was a pretty park. 

We made it to the championship on monday so we stuck around and went to Las Vegas to see Cami & Chuck and spend the day. We drove the strip and I was pleasantly surprised at how little of junk they saw. Sure it was mid day and the show girls were out walking around, but there were no big signs or promotions for strip clubs and such. I was grateful. the kids were amazed and I really wanted to stop and walk around, but I knew they'd see more garbage if we did. But it was fun to drive the strip. 

We made it to Henderson and spent some time with Cam and Chuck. They suggested we go play pickleball and tennis at a nearby park. The kid quickly found old toys that belonged to their kids and played around in the AZ sun for a while. 

Rylee loved playing tennis and was a natural. She loved it and said she wants to now play tennis. 

We had such a fun time hitting balls and making fools of ourselves when we didn't hit balls! HAHA!We love these 2 and really had a great night. We finished it off with pizza at their house before we went back to St. G.

Morning cuddle puddle. 

We can't go there without playing at our favorite dino park. 

Some friends invited us to go to the CRACK at Red Butte Garden. I was told it was a slot canyon...heck yes! I've always wanted to be in one.  I had NO idea what I was about to do. 

Sure it looks narrow but I seriously thought I'd die at one point. My chest was wedged between the walls and I had one foot trying to step up while I was wedged. I was stuck. I was SO grateful that Carter and Mollie were on either side of me because C had to pull and M had to push to get me through it. I almost had a panic attack and then from above I heart my name. I saw Chad's face and it calmed me immediately. I could then focus on getting the heck out of there as fast as I could. Bri was also panicking and Rylee wasn't loving it either. 

We made it and I'll NEVER do it again! Holy smokes I was so shaky and scared for the rest of the day!

We went on to climb on rocks and we always have to get this shot when we're there. 

The condos we stayed at really were pretty cool. There was mini golf, tennis and pickle ball courts, 2 pools, hot tub, basketball, pool, ping pong and foosball tables and so we invited the Maughans over for dinner and to play for a while. 

We really had a good time!

The championship game arrived and they played SO hard. We lost to the St George team 2-1 but I was so dang proud of them!

Until next year St. Geezey! We are coming for the Presidents Cup title!
 

Things that need to be in here

I love this ring so much that carter gave me for Christmas. It says I Love You Forever inside the ring. It makes me happy every time I look at it. 

This girl got creative getting her chores done...why does she look so big?

Awesome sunset

G&G came to visit for a bit and help with Jilly while we went to St. George and I went to CA for cheer. Jilly loves them and looks for any excuse to jump up on them!

She went to Moore with them where they had lots of snow still. She loved playing in it and we got this picture of her so happy with snow on her face. She's living her best life, I'm sure of it!

Basketball has started and Carter had a sprain the first game I think it was....poor kid was bummed and sat out a few games. 

Bri and Ry are also playing and loving it!

Here we go into winter sports!
 

V day things

We tried some heart hair and it actually turned out ok! 

Mollie had a 6th grade Vday dance. She was asked to go to the dance by 2 different boys, both of which she said no to, because in 6th grade and you don't pair off at a 6th grade dance AND shes about 4 years shy of dating age. She had a blast though and danced with lots of friends. 

I got to poke my head in for just a sec, it smelled like stinky sweaty 6th graders but they were all having a blast!

We had heart brownies for dessert!

The girls got to go to a daddy daughter dance and Chad was a good sport and went. They were in HEAVEN getting their dad all to themselves and getting to dance the night away with him. 

We did their  hair and dressed them up and put a little makeup on. 

And dad kept the fun going and went for shakes at Chubbys afterwards. The girls were on cloud 9 and just talked and talked about their evening. I'm so glad Chad was willing to take them and give them this memory of them. 

 

Brace Face Surprise

On the 7th of Feb, we took Carter for a consultation to see if he needed braces! The consensus was that they would be beneficial. I was expecting an appointment for a future day to get them on but the Orthodontist said how is 1PM to get them on?

I said, "TODAY?!" and he said yes. WOW! Wasn't expecting that one! They told us to go grab lunch and then come back and they'd do it. 

He wanted Subway for lunch and then we got him soda and the chewiest candy he could find to enjoy his last meal without braces. 

And before we knew it, he was back in the chair getting them on. I had warned him that it was a long process and told him how to do impressions so you don't gag...well they did none of that. They basically dried his teeth and glued the brackets on. I guess things have changed since I had braces. HA!

Such a lovely large mouth

And of course his first colors were BSU blue and orange. He was told to plan to have them on for about 18 months. So here we go on the brace face journey!

 

Cute lil old ladies

Look at these cute little old ladies! Bri and Ry had to dress up for school as old ladies and these are the outfits they chose. They are so cute!

 

Date Nights

Chad and I ditched the kids for a whole evening and night to go see the Little Mermaid at the Hale Center and stay the night in a hotel. The kids did great and the play was amazing again! Chad gifted me tickets for Christmas. 

We really enjoyed staying in SLC and had a good breakfast and shopped our way home!

Love Chad and the time we get to spend together. <3
 

On another occasion, we had some plans with friends that fell through, we decided to keep our date night and go out anyway. With no real plans, we headed for the city. 

 We decided Italian food sounded good so we went to Bucca di Beppo. Food is so good there and we got SO much! 

We searched for things going on in SLC and discovered a Jazz game was going on that night. We bought tickets and walked over to the stadium. 

We were in the nose bleeds, clear to the top! We were surrounded by a bunch of boisterous annoying kids who were kicking our chairs, standing in front of us and being extra loud with megaphones right in our ears. We decided to jet out and go get gellato and go home. 

I guess that's how you know when you're getting old....when you'd just rather stay home and watch from the comfort of your own home than go out and be in a loud crowd. 

Still, it was fun and different and we enjoyed being together!

January Things

Rylee started turning a corner around the first of the year and doing lots better from her tonsil surgery. Lots of snuggles and cuddles helped. 

It was nice when we started seeing our Smiley Rylee again! She was so sad for many days. 

And she was so happy when she could finally go back to school a few days after school resumed. 

Brielle was in full swing enjoying her birthday gifts. She made us these little brownie donuts and had so much fun doing them. 

Chad and I escaped to the temple one chilly day. 

We've always wanted to go to Soldier Hollow and tube and this year we made it happen. It was SO fun. Having a conveyer belt to take you UP the hill makes all the difference. 

It started to snow and we thought it would make it so much better, but the snow acted like sandpaper and slowed us down so much we couldn't make it down the hill almost!

We left soon after but felt like we got plenty of fun in. 

We love watching our temple pop up from the ground! When we heard that the top pieces arrived, we drove down to see them. They look small, but they are actually really big. We hung around for a while to see if we could watch them be put on but we missed it. 

We had plenty of snow storms this january!

On to more freezing January things!