Being A Winner: Part II (Update)

So do you remember when I posted that I've never won anything from a drawing or a sweepstakes. No? That's okay but if you wanted a refresher click here.

Anyways, in that post I wrote,

"This year I will WIN something! :)

I will even settle for a donut in the supermarket. :)"

Well lucky me!



Perhaps I should have aimed higher for what I was willing to "settle" for.
:)

At The Cabin

Before we left Utah one thing Wesley really wanted us all to do was to go to his grandmother's cabin in Kolob. So the Friday before we moved we drove to Kolob and spent the weekend there.

We had so much fun!

We pretended to be ninjas.

And fierce hunters.

Wesley declared his love for me in writing.


We rode ATVs.


Fished.


Swung from trees.


Hung out with family.

Saw gorgeous vistas.

Canoed.

Discovered Land.

Discovered the extremely rare Kolob Monkey.

And his close relative the wild Kolob Mountain Cat.

Sadie Got her first taste of a Coke product. Naughty grandpa!


I'm pretty sure we couldn't have fit more into our weekend if we tried.

We had a really great time!

Novalee and Sadie's "Practically New" Dresser

I got this dresser at the Goodwill Outlet store for $35.00. Those that know anything about the Goodwill Outlet Store know that I overpaid. :) But I really liked the style of the dresser and I also didn't want to have to keep coming back in hopes that there would be something better the next day. So I bought it.

Upon pick up (my step-dad picked it up for me) he was asked if he wanted his money back because it was broken but because he just wanted to get it and go, he told them, "Its not my deal, it's my daughter's." Stinker! :) It would have been nice if they even just lowered the price, oh well. :)

It's a beauty right?

Haha, okay it's ugly and I overpaid. :)

But Wesley and I wood glued it, and wood filled it and painted it and put some handles we had on it.

And now it's a beauty, right?

Novalee and Sadie have a little bit of a purple theme going on in their room right now. I kind of love it! (Except for Novalee's bedspread, I might need to sew her a new one).

This Weeks To Do List

Go to family cabin. Have LOADS of fun! .Check.

Pack entire house up. .Check.

Deep Clean house. .Check.

Use Khols coupon and get welcome mat for .84 cents. .Check.

Drive 14 hours with kids. .Check.

Arrive in Oregon safely and with sanity. .Check.

Give Sadie a Zillion kisses to celebrate her nine-monthday (tomorrow). ......

Move into new place (Friday). .......

Enjoy life. .Double Check.

Jared's Graduation Ceremony

Today was Jared's Graduation Ceremony for Kindergarten.

He was so well behaved the whole time.

Wesley with his hands full and probably his heart. :)

He just seemed so grown up and I couldn't have been prouder. :)

I'm not sure how he got to sit by all of his friends but there he is with several of his good friends.

Click here, to see the cutest video of him leading everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. He didn't tell us that he had any special part in the program, let alone the only speaking part and so we were entirely amazed. It was awesome!

Outside of his school, Meadowbrook Elementary.

We are so proud of Jared and his accomplishments.

We are very proud of all his hard work this year. We know that parts of it haven't been the most exciting for him but we are glad that he has stuck with it and end the year so successfully.

As a parent, I couldn't have asked for a better public school. It is nicely maintained, the teachers are amazing (at least the ones I've met)they care so much about the kids and how well they do, there is a lot of parent involvement which is encouraged and the principal seems to know all the students by name (at least mine which is hopefully a good thing). :)

I'm sure Jared loved it here too.

He has grown and learned so much this past year.

The principals closing statement was, "Parents, don't wish these years away because all too soon they will be gone." It's pretty good advice for any parent. I hope to cherish each day with the kids because time does seem to be speeding by already.

Good Job Jared!

Mountain Biking

Wednesday we took the kids "Mountain" biking. We all had a ton of fun.

The first thing Jared did after getting out and on his bike.

But of course he wasn't hurt at all because he was covered in protective gear. But it did take a little practice getting used to the bumpy terrain.

But boy did he love it after he figured it out!

Wes and Jared realizing they can't go any further because of the high waters.


Isn't she cute? She bravely went down a lot of hills with the boys on her training wheels.


This video shows Jared going down the "mountain." You can see that it's not that steep but it was still a challenge for our new awesome beginners.


Novalee decided to take the same hill and THEN she decided that she didn't need to use her brakes. (Sometimes I wonder if she thinks she's Wonderwoman). When the last bump came she fell down. Thankfully she didn't get really hurt.

Look at her big ouchy! Poor thing!

She kept on saying she wasn't tough or brave but I'm not convinced. It takes a certain degree of bravery to go down the same hill the big boys did and you have to be tough to fall down and still want to play afterwards. (Too bad they don't make hip pads). She's one tough cookie in my book.

It was a fun time. I'm glad we all got out to try something new!

Memorial Day Adventures

This memorial day Wesley and his brother, DJ made plans for us all to go to the Golden Spike. This has been one of the places we've wanted to go to since we first moved here.

It happens to be a National Historic Site and so we used our pass and got in free! I'm so glad that Wesley talked me into buying an annual national monument pass last year! We've definitely enjoyed having it.

When we were almost there one of the stem engines that is an exact replica of the ones that met during the actual ceremony on May 10th 1869, was actually going across the road we were driving on! We couldn't have had better timing!



Here are the kids enjoying some of the cool things inside the visitors center.




Memorial Day happened to be super windy and rainy so it wasn't really the best day for being outside.

But here we are anyways.

Dj and Ashley.

Novalee and I are pointing to the exact beam location that the last spike was sunk into to complete the first transcontinental railroad! Pretty cool! You can see where some of the holes are if you look at the left corner of the picture.

I realize that I have a bum shot here of the engineer but isn't the train cool?

Usually at 11:00am they do a performance of the actual ceremony outside with the trains but it was so cold they decided to hold it inside. It was pretty cool, they even dress up!


On the way home we decided to see the Hill Aerospace Museum (it is free for everyone, there seems to be fewer and fewer of these gems around).


It's strange but I just realized we don't have any real pictures of the planes.

Well they were cool!

Jared loved all the cool helments.

Can you imagine them as pilots? Scary! :)

All of us together at the museum but you still can't really see the planes.

We did have plans to take pictures of all the cool planes outside but as luck would have it, it started hailing.

I would recommend both places as places to visit while in Northern Utah.