Baby Shelby comes home April 2016

We got a new member of the family.  This sweet girl is Shelby our springer spaniel. The kids have begged for a dog for years.  Once we got in our new house we considered the idea.  I must admit I as not 100% on board because lets be real here.  I'm the one who has to train it, feed it, walk it, and just plain take care of it.  I made them do their research.  We tried shelters and rescue centers for 3 months with out finding a good fit for our family.  I caved one day when they asked to go to Puppy Barn (a store that sells puppy's) We talked a lot about what it would take to care for a dog before we even entered the store.  We had some idea of what kind of breed would be a good fit for us along with a budget of what we felt comfortable spending on said animal.  There were a lot of really cute great dogs at Puppy Barn.  We can across this litter and tried them out in the meeting area.  We were all pretty smitten but I was firm and told them we needed to check the shelter one more time.  We did but still didn't find a dog for us. So we went out to lunch to talk things over and do more research on this breed.  After lunch we went back over to Puppy Barn to play with the pups again.  We took the whole litter into the meeting area so I could see which dog was the most submissive because I know that's the easiest one to train. That's where we decided on Shelby.  She was perfect.  sweet, not overly hyper, kind and cuddly.

We told Scott it was his Father's Day present, and while he would never admit it, He is the most smitten of all.

Abinadi Dec 2015

Scott got asked to be Abinidi for a primary sharing time.  Originally Ryan Arbuckle was asked and he declined offering up Scott instead.  Not afraid of a challenge he accepted and totally played the part.  He put on his Jedi robe we found some chain and borrowed a white beard.  The kids thought he was the real deal.  He stayed in character the whole time

Welcome to New York, Broadway, Time Square April 2015

                   Hotel Farr

Scott and I made a trip to New York City, just the two of us.  We thought we would take advantage of my sisters hospitality while she still lived there.  It saved us a ton of money on hotel expense and we got to spend some time with her so double bonus!  I think it was a little helpful that I had already been to New York so it was easy to get around.  New York in general is easy to get around though.  The city is built on a grid system similar to Salt Lake and the subway is so slick.  I will say we did get on the wrong train once, luckily it was only 1 stop and we were able to correct our mistake without a hitch.

This trip was a no kids just us trip that was much needed.  I was a little worried about the weather because it was  early spring.  The weather at home was wonderful but that is across the country.  We decided to play it safe and bring our winter coats just in case.  It was a good thing we did.  We flew the red eye so we were pretty tired when we arrived and the weather was arctic winds and misty.  Grateful for the warm subway we rested all the way to her home.  We were a little late because of a delay in the flight and we made it to her neighborhood just as she was leaving.  We said hello then crashed on her floor for a few hours.  She was sweet enough to leave us a little "welcome to the Farr hotel" package.  After a really good nap we slowly got ourselves ready for the day and headed out on the town.  We smartly didn't plan anything for our fist day except to go see Aladdin.  We walked around time square taking in all that is New York.  The weather was still a little cold but with all those people you hardly notice.  We found a bite to eat at a restaurant called "The Counter" and had THE BEST hamburger I've ever had. This wasn't just any hamburger it was a fancy fresh ground sirloin burger that was so juicy and buttery.  The flavors were rich and complex but oh so enjoyable. 

It was funny because they took one look at us and decided to sit us next to this little girl who was sitting all by herself.  We learned that she was a daughter of one of the waitresses.  It was safe to assume they thought we would be fine sitting next to her and that she would be comfortable sitting next to us.  I guess there is just something about us that screams patient and good with kids?

She was cute and when her jam came on she just started dancing like no one was watching.  When she noticed us she paused for a minute then saw our smiles and continued on with her dancing.  Hey when your song comes on you just gotta dance.

After dinner we headed over to Aladdin at the beautiful theater.  We hemmed and hawed at which show to go see going back and forth on what we would both like and what we could afford.  I am so glad we went with Aladdin.  The show was super funny and the special effects were perfect.  Of course the Genie was so funny.  He really did make the show, but I also loved Aladdin's lackeys
 The fat one who always thought they were talking about food, the clumsy one and the dumb one.  One of my favorite scenes is where these guys find out that Aladdin is locked in the dungeon and they head over to rescue him.  As they are singing the rescue song they start going in slow motion (with amazing technic) while all the other people in the background are moving around at a regular pace.  They look around while they are singing and moving in slow mo and start to sing "why are we not getting anywhere?"  It was perfection.
I was also impressed with their indoor fireworks and set design.  When they did the magic carpet scene try as I might I could not see the cables for the carpet.  The entire theater was filled with stars, it was magical.  I can't say enough about it.  We loved it.  I was so glad that I was able to experience it with Scott and that he enjoyed it just as much if not more than I did.  We were off to a good start.  

Fathers day to beat all fathers day's May 2014

I decided to be the best wife ever and get Scott that gun he always wanted for Father's Day.  I enlisted my big brother in the search.  I don't have that much knowledge in this field and I knew he had more than enough for both of us.  We both searched for a month looking for this particular gun that no one seemed to want to sell.  It came down to the final week and there was an elaborate plan to go down to St. George to work out a deal.  The morning of the trip, my brother called me with a new lead.  I jumped on it and told the guy I would meet him at noon.  I packed all the kids in the car because we were going to do some other errands in that area.  You should have seen the kids, they were so nervous.  

I pull up in the back of a grocery store parking lot to purchase this gun out of the back of a truck.  My children were questioning my judgement. "Do you know what your doing mom"?  You can just drive up in a parking lot and buy a gun out of the back of a truck!  Do you even know who this guy is?  He could be some serial killer. Is it even a real gun, because you will be giving him a lot of real money.  that's cash money mom!"  And so it went on and on until the deed was done.  

NO I wasn't nervous.  What they don't realize is that I grew up with my dad who would often employ a sketchy crowd.  I learned to deal with those kinds of people, in reality they are all just people.  The purchase went smoothly and I even talked him down in price just a little.  Mostly I was happy that I finally got the gun he wanted and I was going to have it in time for Father's Day.  I think the smile on his face tells how happy he was to get it. Maybe for our anniversary he can get a tactical light that goes with it. 

Jarom

Kelsey

Ellie

Tracie

As for the official test drive of the new fire arm I offered to take the younger ones grocery shopping while Scott took his sister 2 of her kids and Ellie out to the range to teach them all how to shoot.  I did this on one condition. . .  That he take me out for a date night to the range so I can get some practice in.  Of course he readily agreed.  Ellie was a pretty good shot.  She stays calm under pressure and like her mother, turns her nervousness into incredible focus.  The other ones were quite a bit more shaky but it was good for them to have the experience.

shoot out

For Scott's actual birthday he had the day off from work and I surprised him with a trip to the shooting range.  He got to have his choice of guns and as many as he wanted.  He was over the moon.  I think it was a good stress reliever.  The bonus was this older gentleman next to us.  He had a couple of WWII rifles that he let Scott shoot.  He let him know the history and Scott asked all his questions.  If you know Scott you know he loves history and for that guy to just happen to be there, in the middle of the day on the day we chose to go.... I couldn't have planned it better.  We had a few rounds and I realize I am not very good with a hand gun.  I am much more adept with a rifle but I guess that means I just have to practice more. When we were done shooting we stepped out to drool over all the guns.  I know he would really like one but we cant justify the cost of the one he wants right now.  As I looked at all the guns I knew immediately the one we SHOULD get.  It turns out I have very expensive taste surprise, surprise. As I asked to pull a certain gun out I was greatly admired by the staff in my choice.  Sadly it was not to be.  Leave it up to me to pick the Rolls Royce of Sig's

fondue birthday

For Scott's birthday this year I had the brilliant idea of doing a fondue party.  My thinking was he was born in the 70's so what could I do that correlated with that era?  Fondue was the winning idea.  I sent a blast out to all my DI people asking them to look out for fondue sets.  I was greatly rewarded with 3 sets and then I bought an electric one to add to the mix.  This was strictly a grown up affair.  We do tons of stuff for the kids so I didn't feel the least bit guilty to have this party with only the adults.  For my own children I just quarantined them to the basement with a new video game, movie, pizza, and popcorn.  They were more than content to have their own little pizza party without the grown ups.

I try to do something good for him every year not only because I love him but he never got birthday parties growing up.  There have been a lot of things he missed out on growing up and I love to be the one to help him experience all kinds of new adventures.

Incidentally his mother was here unexpectedly  for her birthday this year.  It was totally last minute and on a Sunday but she had to stop by the pharmacy for some extra medication and I very hurriedly baked a cake and had the kids make cards and paper flowers for her while she was gone.  We lit the candles, sang the song, and gave the cards and flowers. We even had the paper birthday hats.  It really wasn't much but she was so grateful.  It was then that I learned that that was her first birthday party ever!! She turned 63 and that was her first birthday party.  I gave my husband and his sister who happened to be there the look of extreme disappointment.  The claimed they had no idea.  I still think that is no excuse, but it does explain a lot.

The food was the easiest part.  I did a test batch of cheese a couple of nights before to make sure I had the recipe just right.  I did two cheese pots, cheddar and Havarti. With all the fixin's; meatballs, veggies, apples, 3 kinds of breads etc.  For the dessert fondue I made a milk chocolate and dark chocolate.  I tries 3 times to add this fancy caramel sauce to the milk chocolate so I could make a turtle fondue pot and all 3 times epic fail.  I couldn't figure it out.  So after wasting 3 pounds of precious chocolate I just set the caramel on the table for those who wanted to add it.  The beverages were a huge hit.  I found this Mexican market that sells our FAVORITE grapefruit soda.  I bought all they had.  Everyone was hesitant to ask if they could have another one because it is so precious but I assured them they were welcome.  Huge smiles all around!!

I feel like a party is more than just food so of course I had to add lighting.  Lighting makes everything better, lighting and music.  I hung these globe lights from the ceiling although when I fanned them out I just used tape.  That turned out to be a bad idea.  I set these up the day before but they kept falling down.  I lost 10 bulbs.  Finally Scott came to my rescue and we just stapled them to the wall.  

As for the games I thought long and hard about them.  A party needs games but they need to be appropriate for the event and the guests.  Because this was a mostly sit down affair I searched the Internet and came up with a few fun ideas.  

While we were waiting for people to arrive I had them write down something they wished and put it in a jar.  It could be something like, "I wish I could zap people every time they said something stupid. Or I wish I could travel to Africa.  They could put in as many as they liked.  Later in the evening I was going to pull them out and everyone had to guess whose it was.  For the person with the most correct guesses they got a gift card. 

To get the creative juices flowing I thought we could play a variation of the ABC game.  We were to say, "I love my love because they are. . . "  the first person comes up with a word that starts with "A" like affectionate and the next person has to say the "A" one and then come up with a "B" word like beautiful and so on and so forth.  If you forgot one you were out. Little did I know how hard this was going to be for people. But at least it got things going.   However the funnest game I thought was the "Silly remarks".  Ahead of time I came up with a bunch of silly comments or questions sometimes they were super random.  The guests were instructed to pull out a comment and try to work it into the conversation for the night with out someone catching on that it was a silly remark.  If they were successful they got a point and another remark to try.  This game worked out wonderfully.  An example of a silly remark was "your just upset that they never really told us how to get to sesame street." another one was, "I hope the zombie apocalypse doesn't start in Kenya.  there is no way we will be able to out run those guys." I think I might pull this game out again. 

It was a fun night.  Plenty of delicious food and just enough activity to keep it interesting.

  Happy birthday my love.   

slot canyon

Summer is here, summer is hear, thank the heavens summer is here. You know the days where you don't have to get the kids dressed because they basically live in their swimsuits.
  There are sometimes where I freak out and think my kids and I are spending way too much time together, and the repeated phrase "I'm bored" starts getting to us all.  But really we all love summer. We recently took our annual trip to St. George with the whole family.

 
The boys took off early to go hiking up in Escelante to the slot canyons.  After hours of driving they finally made it.  They hiked up down and all around these beautiful canyons. Unfortunatly for them they did not think a head about sustinance so by the time they were done they were so exhausted and famished half of them didn't hike the last canyon. This was strickley a guys trip but I was so happy Scott remembered to take some photos.  What a beautiful place.  The reds and the rock formations could only have been created by a divine hand molding the elements.  I think next time I may have to include myself in this guys only hike.  After all I'm "not a real girl" right? (inside joke)

Father's and Sons

the visitor

 This year for Father's and Sons my dad offered to come and bring his motor home.  the boys were so excited about it they love that motor home.  This was Brennen's first year going and he could not have been happier to be included.  They camped fairly close to where we live so that was nice.  They had tons of food of course and showed a movie on one of the trailers.  The weather was cold so most of the night was spent around the campfire. My dad has a hard time with the cold now so he spent the rest of the night in the motor home.  They did do some hiking and rock skipping or throwing depending on who tossed a rock. They even had a little visitor (a deer) come see what all the fuss was about.  All and all they said they had a great time with campfire songs, marshmallow roast, and camaraderie.  Scott even remembered to take some pictures for me,