So, so lovely

Through another spina bifida kid's blog, I found this blog, Enjoying the Small Things, by Kelle Hampton about her family and how their life changed when their baby daughter was born with Down's. They didn't know about it beforehand and the way she so powerfully describes her experience and feelings is so touching. She is so real and expressive and says things the way they are (which, if anyone knows me, that's the way I like things). Some may not like that but I can really relate to how real she is and how having a child with disabilities has changed her. She has become very popular and has even been interviewed by different places. She takes beautiful, amazing photos of her family that just bring everything to life. If you have a chance or need a good cry, check it out. A good place to start is here, at the birth story.

I really want to...

I want to blog. I really do. But everytime I get on the computer I get overwhelmed by all of the things I want to blog about and I just give up. So, while I decide what to do, here's a little picture for now. And maybe, more appropriately, it should be me in the picture....

...but with a broom!

Aprons and Pancakes

I'm going to become an...

Apron wearing, NEVER swearing,
Always sharing, loving, caring,
Apron wearing mom!

Okay, so I've discovered I love aprons. I feel SO MUCH MORE productive whenever I wear one. So if you stop by my house and I answer the door in an apron, you'll know why. It makes me want to clean and organize, they're cute (especially with all of the fun aprons you can buy or make) and make me feel domestic. And we all know that's something I need a lot of help with! They have pockets to store all of the odds and ends you find throughout the day without having to put them in your pants pocket. They protect your clothes. They are just fun!

So, on a domestic note, you have to try out these HOLY YUMMY pancakes! I got them from Phe/MOM/enom's blog, and she got them from the The Pioneer Woman's cookbook. I made them last night and we devoured them all. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

A Little Roadtrip

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my husband for going along with my whims and need to get out and go somewhere.  Even at the last minute.  So yesterday, we packed up the kids at about 11:30 in the morning and headed out. 

We went to Price and had lunch.  Wendy’s in Price seemed a lot better when eating there late at night with your cousins after an awesome Lake Powell trip.  It wasn’t the same, especially with Austin (who has figured out that this is an EXCELLENT tactic to get out of somewhere he doesn’t want be-including sacrament meeting) yelling that he needed to go poopy and running to the bathroom every five minutes. 

We stopped at the visitor center and got some maps and booklets then headed south towards Goblin Valley.  It was a little further from Price than we had first thought (when leaving home) but decided to go ahead anyway.  It was almost 2:00 before we left Price and we got there a little before 4:00. 

We saw them replacing railroad ties along the way.  It was pretty cool, especially because we had an idea what they were doing after having watched a Mighty Machines episode about it with the boys.

I’ve never been, despite the fact that we drove past it for almost ten straight years when we would go to Lake Powell every summer (sniff sniff).  I always get a little thrill when I start to see the scenery change to things like this:  

I’m glad we made the trip.  It was really cool to see and a lot of fun for the kids.

You can actually go down and walk through the “goblins” -- so that’s what we did!

I got a little bit of cooperation for a few ‘posed’ pictures too!

Now this last pose was really hard to get……that’s it now, just hold still…..

We decided to take the back road to get back onto I-70.  We knew it was a dirt road and a little under 30 miles long.  There was still plenty of daylight so we thought, hey, why not?  It was slow going but it was fun to see some more scenery!

     We had to take a little break….

Hey, a boy’s gotta do what a boy’s gotta do!

I’d also never been on this part of 1-70.  It also had some amazing scenery and a lot of view areas.  We only stopped at this one, but it was so cool!

 

It was just sunset when we pulled into Salina and had dinner at Denny’s.  

We got home almost 10:30, so in less than 12 hours, we saw some of Utah’s amazing scenery and had quite a fun time!

Thanks for joining us on our little trip!

These Shoes Ain’t Made for Draggin’…

Jaiden has ruined almost all of his shoes on his plasma car (aka “scooter” at our house).  Dangit.  We’ve tried and tried to explain how to do it and to only let him wear ruined shoes when riding it but a couple of pair went for a ride before we knew he had them on.  This is what happens to them:

  These already had holes in them so we let him wear them to the park when we went last week.  Well, by the time we were done, his socks also had holes in them!  Maybe if I make him ride barefoot, he’ll feel what he’s doing and stop putting his feet back and dragging them!

We all had a lot of fun at the park.  The boys rode their “scooters'” and Zach was in his stander.  He did a great job and went around a lot of the park trail all by himself.  Carlos kept trying to hook up a rope so he could pull him when needed, but couldn’t get it to pull straight.

Austin wanted to go to the playground first thing and wasn’t happy that we weren’t doing that first.                                         

Jaiden was ready to go as soon as we got there!

We stopped on a big, long bridge   

and some rocks may have been thrown over into the river….

This was as close as I got to a picture of all of my [little] men:

Austin got tired of riding and pushed for awhile…   

Zach did awesome going up (the first part by himself)….

…and down the hills…

Austin pulled faces at the camera….…

Jaiden contemplated the situation… 

They took a little break to run around…

And after quite a while, we finally made it to the park! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this nicer weather and the chance to get out of the house and do things outdoors.  Spring is definitely a renewal of hope and life!