Last Saturday Brayden had a swim meet at the Bountiful Recreation Center, just five minutes away from us. That meant I could go watch! There were over 1,000 swimmers from all over Utah there, that's a ton of kids! Brayden, as usual, did amazing. My favorite event of his to watch was the 200 IM. The first two guys on his team came in second place so when Brayden dived in, he had some ground to make up... or water in this case. By the time he flipped, he had pulled ahead! I was such a proud sister. He is one of the best swimmers on the team and is only a sophomore. I can't wait to see what the rest of the season holds and the rest of his high school career. Allie and Lydia came with me and loved cheering on their uncle.
Lydia about had a heart attack when I came home with this Dora the Explorer helmet for her bike. She's quite in love!
Daddy playing with his girls.
So this picture is super random and of a couple weeks ago, but how cute are these kids? Atticus the Lion, Aaron the Power Ranger and Lydia the Princess, who obviously couldn't wait another second to eat her candy.
So Last Sunday was the start of our eventful week. We drove to Providence after church to have Thanksgiving with all the Pecks. We barely had time to gulp down our food before rushing to USU for Sarah's voice recital. Loren was accompanying her to the song of Open Hands. It was absolutely beautiful and I hope she continues with her singing talent.
After the recital the girls and I went to my parent's while Loren caught a ride with a cousin back home so he could go to work the next day. My brother Cam and his family were coming down for a couple days so I thought I'd hang out there with them while also running a few errands. Monday night Nate came over too and it was so fun to be together. We played some games and visited. Before Lydia had to go to bed, she wanted Nate to read her a story. We love our time with family!
Tuesday morning we zipped back home to pack and get ready to leave for St George with the Pecks for Thanksgiving. We started out around four in the afternoon but got stuck in some bad traffic. It took us close to two hours just to get to Sandy! Then we realized we'd left Allie's sleep suit and carrier for hikes at home. We weren't sure how Allie would sleep without her suit and we definitely couldn't go on any hikes in Zion's without a carrier. So we were feeling really bummed. I"d had around five hours of sleep the past two nights because of Allie so I was in a very fragile emotional condition. The traffic finally let up a tiny bit and we exited in Orem to get some dinner. The restaurant we wanted was actually a lot farther off the freeway than we thought so it took an extra 45 minutes to get our food and be back on our way. Then we hit another traffic jam in Spanish Fork. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started bawling, Allie was screaming and Lydia kept asking very loudly for us to "PLEASE FIX THE IPAD!!"
I told Loren it wasn't worth it to continue tonight and could we please turn around and try again tomorrow morning. I was sure Allie would keep screaming the rest of the way and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was proud of Loren for keeping it together despite his three very emotionally crazy girls in the back seat. He tried to reason with me, that driving three more hours tonight would be so much better than driving six more hours tomorrow. Kerry suggested we drive back twenty minutes to Jack and Shaman's house to borrow a carrier. Whew, good idea! Turns out they did have a carrier and Loren asked them for a pillow too, so his crazy wife could sleep and stop being so.. well... crazy.
We finally made it to the condo's around 11:30 that night and we couldn't have been happier to see our beds.
The next morning we went to Pioneer Park and had fun exploring and climbing. Lydia was Sarah's shadow and wanted to climb and do everything she did. Actually, that was the story of the whole trip. If I told her to come to the bathroom with me, she'd throw a fit and refuse. But get Sarah to take her and she'd skip the whole way and happily oblige. Sometimes I wish Sarah lived with us. It would make a lot of things so much easier. Lydia absolutely adores her.
Yushi and Sarah. Yushi is Sarah's friend from school who came with us because his family is still in Japan.
It was a beautiful view!
Aaron and Landon
Loren and a bunch of others went rock climbing in Snow Canyon.
On Thanksgiving Eve, Yushi showed us how to make Sushi. I've always refused to eat Sushi even though I've never tried it. I just figured I would hate it since there's raw fish. But apparently, not all Sushi has raw fish and when I learned this I was determined to try it. Loren made our first roll with smoked salmon, cucumber, cream cheese, and imitation crab.
I told Loren we had to get a picture of me eating it or my family would never believe it.
And... yum! It was actually really tasty! I couldn't believe that I actually like it. The next roll Loren made had more cucumber and just the imitation crab which I liked a bit more than the smoked salmon. All in all, it was some great sushi! Thanks Yushi!
Thanksgiving! Helping to stop world hunger one selfie at a time. If you took a selfie with the Heinz bottle and sent it to them, they'd donate money to help stop world hunger. Good deed daily done.
Later that day we went to Thunder Mountain park. My friend had told me about it and it sounded fun so we checked it out. It was the most amazing park we'd ever been to! Lydia and Atticus had a total blast.
Zip line!
This is the coolest invention ever. Every kid swing should be made this way.
Lydia hopped in this egg, wiggled around a little, jumped out and said, "Momma, Daddy, I hatched!"
There's also a train you can ride but it wasn't running. Next time we go down we'll ride it.
Dad and Landon took a ride in the Razor one afternoon. They went up to Sand Hollow park to ride around the sand dunes. The battery ended up dying and they were stuck clear out in the boonies. Loren, Chris, Yushi and Kristen went on a thrilling adventure to rescue them.
Dad and Chris trying to call to tell us they were ok. Loren said it was terrifying driving around in the dark with cliff's and rocks all around. We were glad when they finally got home safe.
That evening we went and watched Muana. We took both the girls and I was a little nervous about how Allie would do. There were a few times I had to take her out and rock her but overall she did great! It was a fun show with some great music, except the creepy crab part was the consensus from everyone.
Friday morning Kristen, Rachel, Maddy, Lindsay and I went shopping at DI. I found a 9.5' Christmas Tree for $10 and a beautiful mirror for $15. Yay for great deals!
After that we spent the afternoon in the pool and hot tub. Divine! Then later that night Loren and I went to get me a new phone. I finally have joined the iPhone world. I'm just excited to be able to read all my texts now.
The next morning we all went over to Sand Hollow Park and rode the razors around the sand dunes and played on paddle boards.
After some coaxing from mom I decided to try the paddle board. The last thing I wanted to do was fall in! Thankfully I stayed on top of the water and had a great time. Lydia had fun riding with Sarah.
Lydia really wanted to ride in the Razor but had a panic attack when trying to put on her helmet. As only Sarah could do, she calmed her down and was able to put on her helmet and go on a ride. Apparently she was only this happy before and after the ride. It was thrilling for her to say the least.
After Sand Hollow we packed up and started home. It was so hard to leave! We had such a fun time and made memories we'll remember forever. The drive home was much less eventful and we made it with enough time for me to pull together my Sunday School lesson.
Thanks for all the wonderful memories!
Hey Jame, this is Brayden. Wow, our family has so much fun reading the blog! You guys have truly been on an adventure. Those were some priceless pictures. Its so in detail that we can almost imagine we are there with you. We miss ya and cant wait to see you guys at Christmas!
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