The rest of our Utah trip and back home...

I consider this lady to be one of my greatest and truest friends. We became friends while we lived in Portland and during one of the hardest times in my life. Those years were incredibly difficult, yet when I look back, I have so many happy memories and it was also some of the best years of my life because of this lady. Anyway, I was able to go and see her and her beautiful new home and her so grown up kids. It is always a good day visiting with her.  

Just looking cute while at Five Guys. They didn't like the grilled cheese or hamburgers but they did love the peanuts.

Late Monday we headed up to my brothers cabin in the mountains. In the morning my brother let the kids help him raise the flag.

The kids loved the ATVs. 

I have never driven an ATV before so my brother patiently took me on a few rides to teach me.

Oak getting done with a ride with her big kid cousin Brenna.

My brother said the kids could carve their names on a tree on his property. Cousin Brenna helped Oak.

And I helped Mac.

They wore these pretty much all the time. 

After some practice, my brother gave me the okay to take my kids out by myself. 

My brother and his wife built this cabin entirely by themselves. It's beautiful.

Wednesday night we went to my sister's house for dinner. They have birds and Oak loved the birds. She was terrified of them also. She was trying to be so brave with it on her shoulder. 

After several attempts to have my kids take a picture of us which only ended up with a million picture of themselves or something else because my kids were being goofy, we had my niece take a picture of us. We were laughing hysterically my kids antics. 

My niece works at here and she got us in free. It was hot and way too many people but we had alot of fun. Oak even went down some of the big kid slides by herself. 

Friday we spent the day driving home so we could be home with daddy on Saturday. We ended up going to the local Air Force Base for a big open house event and we got to see some jets up close. We get to see the jets flying all the time over our town and we love it. 

It was SO HOT!

Snow cones were in order. 

Daddy needed to conduct some baptisms. Since Mac will be turning eight in December we had Mac go with him. They looked so handsome. 

There are a few fires in Oregon and the with the winds it has led to very smokey conditions. Like hazardous for to breath. It is 80 degrees in our house and we have no air conditioning and we can't open the windows because of the smoke. It was a miserable night let me tell you. 

baking, biking, paint projects and the first part of our Utah trip...

Oak helping me make breadsticks for dinner. She did a great job too.

She was pretending to be in a rock band and didn't think that her flowery dress from church was rock band appropriate so she came up with this while it being 80 degrees in our house.

The kids wanted to make no-bakes and we usually half the recipe so Mac had a simple lesson on dividing fractions. And because he is a math whiz it clicked with him right away.

There were lots of big piles of no bakes. 

We took the kids to the park to ride their bikes since we don't have any place at our house. The kids figured out some fun tricks to do on their bikes. They were so excited.

Oak and Mac also practiced the monkey bars. Oak is actually pretty good.

Mac was trying to teach Oak how to tie shoes in the middle of the store.

They actually played in the backyard for a long time with out me forcing them. yay!

Right before we were to leave for Utah we got Oak's room completely painted and decided to just go for the stripes that I was wanting to do. It was ALOT of work but so worth it. 

I am beyond happy with how it all turned out. I plan on painting the little table the same color as the night stand, which is actually the same color of the stripes. Oak kept telling me, "It couldn't be prettier mom!" over and over. Every one likes being in there, even Mac is always wanting to play in her room. 

Thursday morning early we headed to Utah. Hubs did not go, so I was the only driver. We got to Nevada and needed gas and I panicked! I had only pumped gas myself one other time eight years previous. It was stressful, but now I am a pro since we were in Utah for a week and did a lot of traveling and I had to get gas several times. 

So proud of myself for driving all the way to Utah. Also I did it in one day.

My cute nieces. They are twins and just turned two.

And my funny nephew.

We celebrated Mac's "chosen day". The day that we found out he would join our family eight years ago.

We went to the splash pad and had a picnic at the park on pioneer day with my brother and his family.

My dad is buried in Utah and I got to go back to his grave for the first time since we buried him. It was sad to see it with no marker since we haven't gotten the headstone yet. We brought flowers and Mac wrote a note and left it for his granpda. We sure miss him and it still seems so unbelievable that he isn't here. 

Saturday we went to St. George to meet up with Mac's birthmom. We haven't seen her in three years. It was so wonderful to see her. And we had a super fun day with her. We first went to the local children's museum and this is supposed to be like the President's office. 

Then she took us to the lake she always goes swimming in. It was beautiful. 

This picture doesn't show how really aqua the water was.

The shores were this clay mud stuff and the kids had a blast covering themselves in it.

Mac and his birthmom giving each other a "mud hug". So funny!

Then we just hung out with her a bit and the kids loved being with her. We love her so much.

I got some really cute pics of these two.

We stopped by the Payson Temple on the way home. It was so beautiful.

Sunday...thirty...

We ended up not able to attend church because of a change in travel plans, but we did stop and see the new Payson Temple. Beautiful.

Lots of unpacking, moving, painting and more...

Occasionally the kids will go into my closet and play dress up and then leave a giant mess of my clothes on the floor. It's cute/not cute. But they giggle and laugh the whole time. Anyway, this time I decided I would let Oak try on my wedding dress. I forgot how much I love my wedding dress. When we were discussing whether she could where it for her wedding we decided that she probably won't be able to since she will be way taller than me. 

I filled the back of my van with the back seats down completely full three times and took it all to Goodwill. Feels good to get rid of so much stuff. Hubs and I were sad to let go of some more of our baby things like our rocking chair and a whole tub full of baby toys.

Mac got a rubiks cube this week. He loved trying to figure it out. 

Apparently someone got a hold of my phone.

Daddy became a little obsessed with the Rubik cube too. Mac kept coming to me and saying that he can't find his Rubik cube because dad keeps taking it. 

I made granola this week and it felt so good to get back to baking from scratch.

So we have been finding these nasty spiders all over the house. Nasty, gross and scary. We have sprayed the outside of the house with Home Defense and when we were gone next week my hubs will spray the inside of the house. If that doesn't work then we will bug bomb the house. 

As I was going through a large pile of boxes and emptying them the kids had a blast playing in the empty boxes. 

And you couldn't see to the back of the garage before I started. This took me four full days. I had to get it done quick because my mom was getting some of her stuff in storage to move into the house and we needed the room for her stuff. 

After I got done with the garage I was feeling bad that the kids have been stuck at home not doing much so I took them to the park to ride their bikes in the parking lot. Since we live in the country there is no place for the kids to ride their bikes at our house. 

Oak's birthmom and some of her family came to visit this week. Oak loved it and she loves spending time with them and getting spoiled. 

Mac went with daddy to a YM encampment so it was just the girls at home. And we still had donut day! We tried out a new place, a bakery in a sketchy part of town, in a weird building, and it cost $15 per dozen. But they were really good!

Beautiful sunsets this week. 

My MIL gave us some blueberries that she had picked. So we made some homemade muffins. So yummy!

So while Mac was gone with daddy, daddy showed him how to tie his shoes. So now every time he goes outside he puts his tennis shoes on and ties them instead of putting on his flip flops. He is just growing up so fast. 

These two were so excited to see each other. They spent an house rough housing and giggling together before they started back to their fighting and getting on each others nerves.

There was a big sale on paint at Sherwin Williams so we decided to go ahead and paint Oak's room. We are just painting it white and I am going to do an accent wall of light aqua stripes. Her room will be white, pink and aqua. I am excited for it to be finished. The kids helped me for about five minutes before I kicked them out. 

When Mac was gone, I bough Oak a new dress and since Mac doesn't need any new clothes I bought him a new book. It's called Shark School and it has three different books in the one book. He was so excited and every chance he gets he has been reading it. We are getting close to the unprompted reading. 

Spaghettie Lady and the Tramp style. 

So my mom lives downstairs in our new house. Her little bathroom needed some major help so we did a little makeover on it. She painted it white and we put new towel racks up. I actually installed these with out any help from my hubby. I was really proud of myself. I promise the bottom one is straight, it's just the angle of the camera. 

Sunday Gratitude...twenty-nine...

I am grateful...

...for my little family and when we are all together. 

...for our new home and for the space it gives all of us. 

...for my kids' birth families. They are all pretty great. 

...for the busy week we had and all that my body is capable of doing.

...when I make food from scratch. 

...for great lessons in church today and that I was able to attend Sunday School and Relief Society.