Disney Land, round two!

Life has been so crazy! I have neglected my blog for far too long! Let's start with Disney Land and back track from there. Reasons why Disney Land was better the second time: 1. We flew into Long Beach and got to DL at 10:00 a.m.!!! (Jet Blue ROCKS!) 2. Jenna can walk by herself (no stroller) and she is no longer a diaper wearer. That should have been #1!!! Hardly any crazy bathroom runs! 3. We knew how to get around! 4. We went on the Indiana Jones ride with fast pass! One of my favorite rides! 5. We discovered the prezel stand that has cream cheese filled prezels!!!! It was the only thing that kept me in the line for Pixie Hallow for an hour!!! AN HOUR!!!! 6. We went on the river rafting ride without rain ponchos on Kelly's BIRTHDAY!!!! (It was chilly outside and I wasn't dressed for the weather as it was. But I did it for Kelly and it was the most fun we had as a family! Lots of laughs!!! 7. We didn't eat any meals in the park-instead we went to Cheese Cake Factory and Bubba Gumps!!!! WAY better and a better value! 8. Trader Joe's snacks all day long! 9. More adventurous children! 10. Jenna at Jedi Training-she said, "Next time I come, I'll tell them that I already have my own light saber and I've been training at home so now I'm a master not a padawan!" She ate it UP!!! No fear in my little girl!!! BTW, we stayed in Ocean Side on the beach for most of our trip. It was bliss! San Diego was a joy as usual! We went whale watching and saw a Fin Whale (second largest whale in the ocean), plenty of Grey whales, Sea Lions, Dolphins, and lastly, whale poop. Yes, I did say whale poop!!! Our guide went bonkers over it! It was very educational!

Food for the soul

It had been one of those long, busy days. Kelly was out of town, I had to race around and try to get everything done before going to a Scout activity with Noah at 6:00 and then straight to the University of Utah for my night class which gets out at 10:00 P.M.!!! I was too busy to eat dinner and was on the brink of passing out when I arrived home that night! Bailey, my sweet babysitter and life saver, greeted me at the door with a hot plate of food. It was probably one of the most enjoyable meals ever! She had made sauted spinach with onions and two over easy eggs on the side. It was done to perfection!!!! I mean perfection! It was as though kelly had made it for me! (He is an excellent cook!) I wanted to cry! I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful, thoughtful, responsible daughter! I love this girl!!!

a BIG day

It always seemed so far in the distant future that i never thought it would sneak up like this. I have a twelve year old child! She is a little lady! A young woman! In 4 years she will be driving a car! In 6 she will be off to college! I think I'm going through something here. You start realizing how fast and furious time sweeps by! I've got to slow it down somehow! A friend of mine just had a baby, her first, a little girl. I am envious! I WANT so bad to go back and hold my first little girl and relive how special that time was! How sweet and cuddly and perfect that baby was! She never wanted to be put down! Or maybe it was me that didn't want to put HER down! But funny thing is that she soon became a very independent, sure, smart, animated, focused, little girl and not much has changed in her personality! My favorite memories are of her singing her Sound of Music tunes day after day at the age of 3 and 4! Well, it's fun to look back. I even held Bailey in my arms and rocked her back and forth and closed my eyes and tried to will her back, but that didn't work only gave us a good laugh!

Bailey had ebelskievers (12) with a candle for breakfast. THey are her favorite breakfast, especially with Nutella in the middle and a dusting of powdered sugar!

We had a shopping day at Gateway where she got her beautiful scarf she is wearing in her pictures! She picked out a cute torquoise hat, & some perfume from Anthro.

We drove over to take pictures in my favorite area "artist's alley" I like to call it! It is right behind a favorite bakery were Kelly had bought us our birthday/anniversary treats.

We went to Red Mango and just happened to drop in on the day they put chocolate on their menu! Chocolate and raspberry side by side...mmmmm!

Iceskating on Saturday and a new room over the garage (undergoing great progress but still needs a few weeks!) are to come!!!

Oh yea, and it was mine and Kelly's 16 year anniversary too!!!! It just keeps getting better! I am so happy where we are and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world! How our lives came together is really just destiny! I love our story and I love how that story has developed! In the end, at least I can say I did THAT right!!!! My plan is to live happily ever after.

This picture means a lot to me because Kelly's wedding ring has been through a lot! It is now somewhere on our hillside where I hope it will be found this spring! We bought his ring in Park City and thought about it as we enjoyed the Sundance Film Fest with the Swagg team! Kelly's mom watched the kids and we had a nice day in a beautiful place with really fun people, celebrities, prizes, and good laughs!!!

the joy of pets

I love the Christmas lists that the kids write to Santa! I keep them because they are just precious! Noah's list had something unique on it this year! There were plenty of predictable items, Legos, candy, but then I see...Gecko!!! Ok, at least it wasn't a dog! So Santa brought a terrarium down the chimney filled with everything BUT the Gecko and a gift card to Petco! Noah was sooo excited!!! He got to pick out his first pet...a baby leopard gecko! His name is "Jr." Noah is a diligent pet owner, cleaning, watering, replacing food supply (crickets and mill worms, yum!) I now have mill worms in my fridge and am making weekly trips to the pet store for crickets. The things that boys find fascinating! I love it! I love that my kids have something to care for and it doesn't hurt that Jr. is remarkably quiet, gentle and hides under a rock 23.9 hours a day! It's like a $200.00 terrarium accessory in the boys room!

the hat

Jenna wears it better than me! I love this old hat, but hardly ever have an occasion to wear it for, so I don't. Today I let Jenna try it on and it was so cute I HAD to take her picture!!!

Christmas is...

Baking Cookies...and more cookies!!!!

And Cookie exchange parties so you can try MORE cookies!!!!

Red Velvet cake for Christmas day!

And EATING treats till you feel completely guilty and sick!

MUSIC!!! Singing together...

Shiny instruments!

Snow, white and fluffy.

Wearing a skeleton Halloween costume in the snow because you just can't let go of previous holidays!

Friends to share Christmas vacation with!!!

Cards, Cards, and more cards!!! Of course!!!

Decking the halls with boughs of fresh pine....thank you Costco!!!

Giving love to even those you don't know or who are hard to love.

Being close.

REALLY close!!!

New PJ's, warm and soft.

Sabastian, our elf from the North Pole who watches us ALL THE TIME and who hides around the house to see who is naughty and who is not as naughty.

Visits with Grandma Passey!!!

Presents (and UPS boxes) left on your door step!!!

Dressing in your best for Christmas Sunday!

Homemade ornaments from school!!! I Love them!!!



The BEST Christmas Pagaent EVER! (at Roger's) Bailey played Alice.
I get teary every time!

Anticipation!!!!! How many more days???? I heard that A LOT!!!

We hope your Christmas was happy and bright!!!

XOXOXO

really cool Christmas gift

Thanks to my awesome concert buddy, Cher, Kelly and I went out on a great date with two tickets to see "Low" in SLC. We started with dinner at Meditrina which we heard about from our friends the Shermans (they own the building!) It's over by the baseball park on West Temple. So it's this little old building with a purple interior and modern art on the walls. They serve small plates so it takes about 5 or six for two people to get full. Each dish we tried was PERFECTION!!!! I was a little worried that it wouldn't be my thing but it was! So they have a patio for summer dining and I think I need to have a girl's lunch out there when the weather is nice. But GO NOW and try it!!! After dinner we went to this old shack down a dark alley way on 7th South and 3rd West and it was just the place for a girl who was raised with a bunch of hippy/bohemian type people!!! We were crammed into this old garage? with a little stage in the corner. It smelled faintly of marijuana but again, that is a smell I am quite familiar with growing up in Healdsburg Cal. I LOVED all the different people who came to this concert! All different, unique individuals. The opener was a guy who played the guitar and sang like Johnny Cash. His songs had depressing lyrics but some were quite catchy and toe stompin good! He was amazing on his guitar! Then we heard Low do their thing...love there Monkey song and Just like Christmas which I might add was playing at Anthropology the other night!!!!!! I couldn't believe my ears!!!! I was at Anthro the night before that too and heard them playing a song by Phoenix which is a favorite band and also a concert I went to with my concert buddy!!!! So, apparently if it's good enough for Anthro, it's good enough!!!! (Snow Patrol also sings this song and it's really good) Ok, so Low is really talented but has WEIRD lerics, and weirder videos!!!. I mean WEIRD!!!! But I'm sorta ok with some of it. Their Christmas songs are out there but go to You Tube right now and listen to the Monkey song and enjoy the video and then listen to Just Like Christmas!!!! They seriously rock together these two-man and wife (and LDS!!!!!!) Don't let that detract from the weird lyrics. So, Kel and I had a date that was...well...different and I was in love (with Kelly and all the "uniqueness" of the night!) I am a new concert convert especially small bands! It is so much fun!!!! So if anyone of you blogger friends want to join in on the crazy late nights at In the Venue, call me!!!! Oh, I will post some Christmas stuff, i will. It's just that I am BUSY and now I can relax so here I am again!!!!