Tibble Fork Sledding

After a beautiful snowstorm, our family decided to get together with the Dodge and Sanford cousins for a day of sledding.  Up at Tibble Fork there is a great sledding hill.  It is right off the parking lot and not too hard of a climb.  Ivy, Matthew and William had no problems going up and down it.  Okay, well, Ivy didn't do much in the way of going down but she did enjoy building snow balls and making snow angels.  Jade had a great time going down and even climbed up the higher hill and went down it.

I love the pink cheeks on my little girls after physical exercise and chilly air.   When they are bundled up in their bright snow clothes, I am filled with smiles and warm fuzzies.

The Birds....

Do you remember the movie "The Birds"? It was considered a very scary movie during it's time. Scott and I watched it, and it is NOT scary. In fact, it is really really slow.

That being said, if I were Trevor waiting in the water with all of the birds surrounding him, I would be FREAKING OUT! It didn't even phase him, at least not that he let on. Although, maybe the birds were the reason he didn't get up on the slalom ski. -- Let's go with that as the excuse.

We keep thinking that each time out on the boat will be our last and yet we keep getting to go out. It is colder and colder each time we go, and the kids are less likely to get in the water each time we go out. Our wetsuits have gone from shorties to full suits- and I think if Scott had more crazy friends, he would consider getting a dry suit.

Scott got up on the slalom ski and he declared that he does not need to do it again any time soon- or ever. I still really enjoyed watching him- even if it was really hard work.

The kids did get in the water, and Jade did wake board, but I think their favorite part of the day was when they got up on the "stage" and danced their little hearts out. I could piece together a movie of all of their dancing photos. It was so adorable.

What I've been missing...

Last Sunday we received an invitation to go up to Bear Lake with several families from Spry's side (Hottie didn't like his nickname). We were excited to go up and enjoy the boat, the mountain, the 4-wheelers and their beautiful cabin. As you may recall the events of this week, my foot put a bit of a wrench, or should we say "screwed" up the plans. On Monday, the doctor told me that we couldn't wait a week to do the surgery. He said I could go up to Bear Lake if I had the surgery on Tuesday, but not a chance if I waited until Thursday to do it. Looking at my schedule, Thursday made much better sense, but I knew how important this weekend trip was to Spry. So, I sucked it up and had the surgery the next day. We had planned on leaving on Friday, and that was about all I could gear myself up for. But Spry had been talking to his cousin and they were hoping to make Thursday work. I knew that Thursday was just out of the question for me, but I told him I'd see how I was feeling.

Wednesday night, I was still in an awful lot of pain and was taking two Oxycontin's every three hours with two Advil's every 4 hours. Nothing was taking the edge off the pain. Thankfully, Spry started to see that Thursday was not going to happen for me, and that Friday would be a stretch. He realized that there was nothing about this weekend that would be fun for me. My mom talked to him and offered to "take" me and Dives for the weekend so that he could go to the lake with Bug. I love Spry for saying okay. I know he really wanted me to go, but I'm so thankful that he understood that I would have been going only for him. And let's be honest, how much of a downer would I have been to the whole group?!?

Thursday night Spry came home from work and packed their stuff. Nanny put together all of Bug's stuff. They set off to the lake leaving me with my parents.

Friday morning, they got up early and headed out to the lake. The lake was so smooth. The sky was a bit grey still, from the storms the night before. Bug jumped in with Spry but decided it was WAY too cold.

Because the lake is still pretty low, they have to drive the boat out a ways before they can take it off the trailer. They have this monster truck to help them get it out far enough.

Spry tried to water skate. Although he is getting some air here, he didn't land it.

I love this picture of Gav. It shows how beautiful the lake was that morning.

Here's Bug staying warm on the boat.

Here are Bug and Anya spending time with Uncle Dale on the boat.

After they went out on the boat, they took the 4-wheelers for a ride. This was Bug's favorite part of the weekend because she got to "drive" with the help of Scott.

Below are some of the beautiful things they saw on their ride.

Second Ultrasound on my blog

It's official- Kat's having boy number three. I've decided that if you start out with two of one gender, you can count on the third being the same. Let's take a look at a small sampling of people... Tom and Anne started out with 3 boys, Cass and Dan have 3 girls, Em and Gav have 3 girls, my friends Jenny and Ivan are having their third girl. So, if we were to have a third, it would be a girl. I realize that it is only a small sample of the general population, but hey, it's at least a majority of our family. Trevor and Theresa are the exception- they had two boys and then got their girl. The other exception is Pete and Jen, but they have one of each.

Kat and boys, we're really excited to see this cute little boy. Congrats and best of all, he looks healthy and big! I think you should name him Thomas Scott James.

My Little Cousin

Last night, at the celebration of my cousin, Anchor's blessing, I got to take pictures of my other little cousin. Here are a few of my favorites. He is such a little cutie.

The night before their departure (or so we thought)

My brother's family comes and spends every summer with my parents. It's the time of year that my parents look forward to and plan for for months. They pack the month (usually it's two months) full of activities for each age group. The big boys work out with my dad, play with their friends, practice their guitar and drums, blow up stuffed animals with fireworks, go play Frisbee golf with Hottie and swim in the pool at my Aunt and Uncle's. The littles go to the "head-off" museum, the farm, the dinosaur museum, play in the pool and take karate. They are going constantly. By the time they go home, Bug can't imagine life without Ash and Dive's is addicted to the hugs from the guys.

Friday night was supposed to be their last night. But, there were a few hiccups that kept them from leaving as planned. So, they left this morning. We will definitely miss them.

This year was very different from past years. Usually my brother and sister-in-law plan a two week trip just for them, and my folks keep their kids. Also, Tommy usually spends a lot more time with us- this year, he was here for the 4th and the 5th of July. That was it :( I absolutely love having him around- so it stunk getting to spend so little time with him.

Now back to the pictures below... On their planned last night, Grandma printed off a bunch of pictures and the kids colored for about an hour and a half- basically until we dragged our kids home.

Bug and "Haired-is-son"

Beautiful Ash

Dive's- in the same pose her mom takes when she's concentrating.

Well, we will miss you guys a bunch. Glad we got to spend a little bit of time together. Love you!!!

Novell's Lagoon Day..

This week was Novell's Lagoon Day Summer Party. Novell is so large that they actually split up their Lagoon days by department. Scott's brother, Trevor, works for NTS (Novell Technical Services) so we decided to change our tickets to go with NTS rather than with Scott's team. Grandpa Bob's company also does a Lagoon day, so he was able to use his tickets to go with us as well. We also had Scott's sister, Kristal, and her kids join us. It was a great Sanford family activity. This is something that we have had planned for too many weeks to let my foot get in the way of the girls having a lot of fun. Fortunately, my parents (actually my aunt and uncle) still had my grandma's wheelchair. Yes, it's true. I got to do Lagoon in a wheelchair. If my foot would have been feeling any better, I could have enjoyed it and used the wheelchair to butt to the front of the line. It didn't so I didn't do the rides. The group had a great time- despite the heat.

The faces of Lagoon...

More faces of Lagoon...

Are we having fun yet?

These two kids had a hard time remembering to smile. It's pretty darn cute, but do you think they are having fun? Ivy said she was.

They were having fun, I promise.

Somewhere in there there is a smile.

As soon as she got off this ride she said, "That was fun!" Can't you see the excitement in her face!

Serious drivers.

Checking out the sights from way up high.