Thanksgiving Point- Children's Garden

On Labor day we had gone through the Thanksgiving Point Discovery Gardens before going into the Luau. Ivy really loved it and was eager to go back. A couple of days later she asked Miss Kim to take her. As Ivy and Jade are both "list makers," Ivy created a list of things to see and she wanted to take her sketch book with her. In addition to the notebooks, she also took the camera. (I do love that my passion for photography as been passed on to my girls). The bottom two pictures were taken by Ivy. She's actually got a pretty good eye.

Labor Day - Part 2

To finish off our Labor Day celebrations, my folks took all of us to Thanksgiving Point for their Labor Day Luau. Did you know that they do a Luau? It is really great and very well done. First they have a buffet of some really yummy food. The girls ate really well, of course Ivy loved the watermelon and Jade loved the meat. They both ate a ton.

After dinner we wondered around a bit and then there was a show put on by UVU's Legacy. It was very fun to watch. Jade loved it and was copying the dancers in her seat. Unfortunately we couldn't stay til the end, so Jade was crushed. We're on a quest to find when they are performing next so that she can see the whole show.

It was all wonderful, I have to be honest. As much as we enjoyed it and as great as it was- there were some definite items that could use some improvement.

1. The line was so long for the food but it moved very quickly. Unfortunately, they did not have enough drink stations or enough juice. We were not close to the end of the line, and all that was left was water.

2. The show was advertised as starting at 7:00 and that it would be an hour show. They were a half an hour late starting, and when we left at 8:30, they were referring to the second half of the show.

3. It didn't seem like the performers had run the show with the music and lights before. There were cut-offs mid song and delays.

4. The traffic guys were sending us through residential neighborhoods to get back to the freeway. There has to be an easier way to leave the Thanksgiving Point Amphitheater.

Overall, it was a wonderful night and a very fun day.

Thanks mom and dad for taking us, it was great.

Labor Day- Part 1

It is always fun to have a day off. It isn't very often that everyone is able to take the day off- even for holidays. Grandpa, Grandma and the Fullers all joined us for a day on the boat. It was wonderful- the sun was shining, the water was smooth and it wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected it to be for a holiday. We were able to get a lot of wake boarding and tubing in. I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. I took A LOT of pictures that day and quite a bit of video. It was a wonderful long day on the boat.

Flour Girls and Dough Boys

Melissa and I enjoy going to lunch. We enjoy trying new places. We feel that we are able to be pretty good critics- because we are both pretty good cooks and we both REALLY enjoy good food.

For lunch we went to Flour Girl and Dough Boy. It was really good and we will go back.

We both had the "Blueberry Apple Salad" and I had it with almonds instead of the pecans and the "Creamy Tomato Basil Soup." Both were wonderful. In fact, the soup is probably the best tomato basil soup I've had. It's very chunky with fresh tomatoes.

As for the treats- we had the molasses cookie, chocolate chip shortbread cookie, cream cheese brownie and the pumpkin chocolate chip bar. The cookies were only so-so. Melissa's malaskas are much better but the chocolate chip shortbread was really pretty good. The cream cheese brownie, Melissa liked it, it was a little too dark and rich for me and we both though it could have used more cream cheese frosting. The best treat was the pumpkin bar, even my girls liked my left overs.

Definitely go and check it out. You'll be glad you did.

35 N. Barratt Ave
(150 W just off Main St.)
American Fork, UT 84003

801-763-9232 phone
801-763-9237 fax
flourgirlsdoughboys.com

This is an ugly spider...

The girls found this spider as we were leaving Cascade Springs. I thought I'd share it with you. Spiders really really freak me out. There is nothing about them that is good- at least in my eyes.

Does anyone know what kind of spider this is?

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!

If you haven't watched GLEE, you need to. I have never laughed at a TV show harder or longer than I did during last night's episode. Here's a link to the trailer on youtube.

Here's another clip of one of their glee performances.

We make a good team...

I take the pictures and Scott photoshops them.

This is one of the things that I love about Scott. He never backs down from something that interests him- even if it's challenging- and then he makes it look easy.

He saw a picture like this of a guy doing a flip over the wake, and it described how to edit it in photoshop. So he challenged me to hold still and take several pictures of him jumping the wake. It took me several trips to really hold still. Even though I thought I was, I found out that I was naturally following him. This last time we went out, I did it. I held still. Of course the time I did it was also the time he took a header.

Hopefully we can do more of these pictures, without him crashing. He also mentioned that I need to slow down my continuous shooting mode to 5-6 frames per second instead of the 7 frames per second as seen in the image below.

Sunday up at Cascade Springs

Jade managed to get pretty sick during her third week of school. She had a fever for 6 days- which is normal for Ivy, but definitely not for Jade. We took her to the doctor and determined she had tonsillitis. They said to keep her home for the duration of the fever and an extra day after the fever broke. So, she was still fevering on Sunday, but she was feeling pretty good. That ended up being our day that we played hookie and went up to Daniel's Summit. Strawberry Reservoir was SO packed that there were NO good places to take our family pictures. On the drive home we decided to drive the Alpine Loop and stop off at Cascade Springs. (My parents almost did the same thing and would have arrived there at about the same time as us, but they changed their minds. We didn't know until hours after we came home.)

Cascade Springs used to be one of my places that I would escape to when I was mending a broken heart, struggling with the woes of being a college student or just needed a break after work at Sundance. I remember finding a bench and reading or doing homework for hours. This was my first visit since maybe 1996. It is still as beautiful as I remember it, but definitely more crowded.

We got a few pictures and headed home to give Jade more Ibuprofen.

It was a wonderful, relaxing and beautiful Sunday. Sometimes Sundays like this are just necessary.

How TOTALLY AWESOME is this?

I think this looks like so much fun. I'm thinking I have to give it a try before I turn 40. It's stated as a goal now, so I am going to have to do it. If Grandpa Wayne can go skydiving in his 80's, maybe I can push this goal to before I'm 50. Either way, it looks really fun but hard. I'm not sure how hard it is to hold on to the parachutes or how hard it is to balance or if I weigh enough to stay somewhat grounded.

If anyone knows anything about this sport- fill me in. I'm dying to learn!

An Early Morning Ride with the Strattons

The weather was not good, the water was no smooth, the temperature was not high- but we had a lot of fun going out with Melissa and her little brother Josh. We went out so early, we left the girls in their pj's until they were ready to get in their wetsuits. Jade was a little disappointed that there weren't any other kids going, but she got over it when she realized it meant they were going to get a lot of attention.

Melissa is pretty good wake boarder, but the best wrecks came from her little brother. He did flips, barrel rolls and from the tube he actually flew. The last wreck was the one encouraged us to call it quits for the day. Josh was a bit sore and took some advil when he got home.

We went boating with the Drapers

We had a lot of fun and the kids all got wet and giggled. Really, what more does a child need?

Cody did not land his jump across the wake- well, not that jump. He did land some of his other jumps but those weren't nearly as fun to capture on film as was his sideways landing. No worries, he wasn't hurt, but he was done for the night.

The girls each did a little bit of surfing. I was very surprised that Ivy wanted to give it a try but she promised me she would do it before the night ended. She tends to live up to her promises quite well. When she was finished she told Scott that she loved it but she "hated" the part when they went under the water. She was so proud of herself for doing it that she pumped her arms and chanted "I did it!"

She will prove me wrong one of these days and she will become an adventurer.

Give me your best shot- September 17th

This week I've been playing around a bit in Photoshop. I've really got soooo much to learn. But here are 4 edits of my favorite shot of the week. Jade decided that it was time to start climbing trees. So this picture was taken while she was up in the tree. She was very proud of herself and very excited.

Those crazy kids...

These kids really do crack me up. The grins, the hand signals, the fear on their faces when there is a bump in the water. I love these kids and am so glad that we have been getting to spend so much time on the boat. It's really been a very good thing for our family. We are finally remembering that building memories is more important than having a perfectly clean house and constantly manicured yard. Oh, don't get me wrong- those things are still important and we have lost some sleep over it but it is SOOOO worth it.

I am not a boater but I can see myself becoming one.

The other night, we decided, at the last minute, to go out on the boat. The kids all loved the tube, but the face of Ivy shows the anger at her dad for going too fast. She's not really so much of an adventurer. Oh, right, I've shared that about her before.

Jade gave wake boarding a try and she got up and is now addicted. We had shown her videos of these cute little girls wake boarding and she figured she'd have to do it too. I'm just waiting for the day she starts trying flips over the wake. Oh sigh.

Harrison even gave water skiing a try. After a face plant or two, he decided to give it a try another time.

To end the night, Scott gave Jade a ride on his surf board. She loved it and proceeded to surf herself. Of course I had already put the camera away so I don't have it documented with pictures- only words.

Bubble Monsters

The girls enjoyed a long bubble bath and transformed themselves into "bubble monsters" They were so adorable so I had to take pictures of them. I love Jade's big blue eyes in contrast to the white bubbles. I love the faces she pulls. I love the deepness of Ivy's eyes. I love Ivy's funny little smiles.