GIVEAWAY

I usually don't enter weird contests because, let's face it, I never win!! I did win a PSYCH giveaway awhile ago, so I'm hoping for some more good luck! In the words of a woman dying to buy some tupperware from Kip so she could get a miniature sail boat, "I want that."

http://www.meandjilly.blogspot.com

P.S. - I really am hoping to get some posts done this week now that Christmas is over. MERRY CHRISTMAS by the way! ;)

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Dear neglected blog,

Someday I promise to get back on track. Someday life will calm down enough to allow me to come back. If anyone is still out their - I'm working on it. Not sure if anyone still looks at this - or even cares, but I really need to get in gear for my journaling purposes. I have a lot to post. A LOT! Life is just crazy! Someday...someday.

Love,
Melanie

DIVISION LINE

**Journaling post - something I just wanted to jot down to remember.**

There is this sweet, sweet lady in my ward that I've really come to respect & love over the past year. She's the Family History Leader in our ward & has taught me A TON!! I love family history & couldn't have asked for a better teacher. She has such a strong testimony of this work & you would not believe the amount of work she has done & the stories she can tell!

We were talking today {she always has some wonderful insight to share with me} about trials. She's had a fair share of trials in her life & we were just talking about kids in general. We were also talking about loved ones we know going through difficult times. I expressed concern for someone I know going through some rather difficult times right now. Well, this dear woman always knows the right thing to say!

She told me she was just talking with one of her daughters about this same subject & that she's decided that those with difficult trials are on the balancing line, so to speak. Everyone has trials & life is hard. Some really do get handed some really hard things, though. These trials make you stronger. We all know that. But, stronger for what? She told me her theory was that they make you stronger to know which side you're on.

For some reason this made total sense to me. Something that is common sense if you think about it, but it struck me. This is something I really needed my specific loved one to hear. Trials make you stronger, yes. They challenge you to decide beyond a reasonable doubt which side you'll be on in the last days. Could you really be strong enough to stand up for what's right without gaining the strength to do so from your trials? This sister told me - she's had her trials. She's done her duty & she knows without a doubt which side she's on.

Through tough times we should all remember that we're becoming stronger. Sure it's hard & flat out sucks at times, but in the end, we'll know what side we truly stand on. If the opportunity arises to stand for the truth against something extremely difficult - will we have the strength to fight for what's right? Will we know what side of the fence we're on?

PRAYER

Sunday night I had a RS Auxiliary Training Mtg. Erik had to leave town that night, so I was now left with trying to figure out what to do with my girls. Given the nature of my calling I couldn't just say, "Oh well, can't come." At church I asked my friend Bonnie if the girls could come hang out at her house during the mtg. She, as always, was so kind to say yes. She told me she had a dinner at her mom's, but they could still watch the girls.

When the time came around I text Bonnie to see if they were home yet. I didn't hear anything, so I told my girls that if we didn't hear from her that they would just have to sit in the hallway & color or something for a bit. Apparently, that idea was not appealing. I was gathering up my things & trying to rush out the door when I heard a faint, "Just a sec" in the background. I look over & see Jay saying a prayer. My heart melted!!

When she was done she looked up & gave me a little smile. I smiled back & said, "You really want to go to Bonnie's don't you?" (They really love Bonnie & her kids!) She replied with a yes. Well, I couldn't just let it go. I called Bonnie once we got in the car & we got it worked out.

Thanks to my awesome friend Bonnie my 7 year olds prayers were answered! Thanks again Bonnie!!

JOSH & JILL

I'm not sure how I missed this post in the scheme of things, but hey! Better late than never right? And it's not in chronological order - oh well!! Anyhoo, here's the story...

The beginning of August I went on a little trip to Colorado with my Dad & Mignon. It was a blast! My sister-in-law Jill got married & we were excited to go support her. It started with me being asked to create their invite. This one was the funnest one yet because she wanted it really girly with lots of fun things. Including birds! It was way fun for me to create & luckily they quite liked it. (At least, they told me they did & sent them out.) Here's the invite...
We flew up to Denver on Thursday the 5th & then drove down to Colorado Springs. Friday we spent the day just kind of hanging out, getting to know Josh & his family. {His mom is mine & Mignon's new best friend, by the way.} We took Elliot swimming at their hotel & then prepared for the "rehearsal dinner" that night. We went to an Italian restaurant & again just enjoyed the evening!

On Saturday we headed to the church building to set up for the wedding & reception. Mignon & I were sent to wash table clothes at a local laundromat. I'm sure you can imagine the fun that was. On a Saturday no less. ;) All in all the ceremony & reception turned out lovely. We have a little bit of a joke in the family about how my Dad will find someone he knows {even if in a round-a-bout way} no matter where he goes. Well, he even found someone at the reception. Didn't know him personally persay, but he went to Arcadia & they knew some common people. Hilarious! Can't take that man anywhere!
After the reception my parents & I took Elliot home & watched him so that Jill & Josh could have a little honeymoon. Unfortunately for them, it was only one night. I got a crash course on bolusing Elliot. I even woke up in the middle of the night to check his sugar while he was asleep & bolused him. He didn't even wake up. {Bolusing is telling his pump how much insulin he needs.} I was quite proud of myself that I could wake up to do so. I was so worried about it though that I didn't get much sleep. I just wanted him to be safe. Apparently, I bolused him too much because his sugar dropped later that day. He was ok, but I felt bad! We took Elliot to church & then came home to visit some more with Josh's family.

Later that day we drove back up to Denver to help take Josh's family to the airport. We stopped at a restaurant called Craves that has become Josh & Jill's favorite place to eat. It was very delicious hamburgers & we had a ball watching a guy make beautiful shakes. Seriously, they were works of art the way he presented them & they looked yummy!! We were too stuffed to try one. After we dropped off Josh's family we said bye to everyone. Even Josh, Jill & Elliot. We then headed to a hotel for the night in Denver. There was an amazing rainbow in the sky as we pulled into our hotel. The best picture of the trip came from this evening....
We were laughing at ourselves! All of us snuggled in a bed with our snacks. {Don't worry - there was 2 beds.} The next day we went to the movies & saw Salt. Then it was time to head to the airport & head home. It was such a fun trip & I loved being able to have a little trip with my parents by myself. Not to mention getting a chance to spend some time with Elliot, Jill & Josh. It was a great weekend. And I need to give my Dad & Mignon a HUGE thank you again for the funnest trip!! I love you guys!

STUCO SECRETARY

Kylie decided to run for Student Council Office again. I definitely don't want to discourage her on this, so we obliged again. I like that she's so confident - yet she doesn't stress if she gets picked or not. She told me that if she didn't get chosen it was ok - she'd just try & run for class representative. I also love that she doesn't get overly stressed giving her speech in front of everyone. Still not sure where that one comes from. Not myself - or Erik that's for sure! She definitely was one of the more energetic kids giving a speech.

The thing I love most is that each STUCO officer has to get a signature from there teacher each month saying there grades are good enough to stay in office. That pushes Kylie to try extra hard because she loves being in STUCO. She's such a cute little thing & absolutely loves her school! I only hope we can continue this through high school so that her college applications look good! ;)

CONGRATS Kylie we love you bunches!!!

**Sorry Mom. I tried & tried & tried to upload the video of her speech & it would not work. When you come down for J&A's baby I'll show you then.

CABIN

Thanks to us bidding on the "Cabin Weekend With The Wiscombe's" item at the YW fundraiser we were able to have a quick getaway to a cabin. It couldn't have come at a better time. The previous week was a really crazy week. That may even be an understatement! It was so nice to get away - even for a night. To spend time with friends & just relax.

And relax we did! Erik & I had a hard time staying awake. We felt like the laziest people on the planet. We were beyond exhausted from our week. The girls had a blast playing with the Wiscombe kids. We should have just called it the gathering of the cutest kids on the planet. Because, it basically was!

Fun times included:
**Rummikub on the porch while it rained (Gorgeous!!)
**Watching Stardust (Ok - Erik & I slept through it.)
**Eating of yummy food
**Watching the kids be silly
**Me getting to hold a sleeping baby
**Enjoying cooler weather
**NO CELL PHONE SERVICE!!
**Being with friends

Thanks again Wiscombe's! We had a blast & hope we weren't too boring for you while we slept! ;)

STREBECK's

Due to a series of events we were able to have a little family gathering of sorts.

It was good to see my stepdad since we feel like we really don't see him very much - now that he's spending a lot of time on Africa. It was also good to see my sister Alayne who lives in Vegas. She & Allison are both pregnant, so we couldn't resist the baby bump photos. I especially love the photos of my girls wearing Alayne's shoes. Nice that Kylie looks taller than Alayne. I'm guessing my kids don't have a chance at being on the shorter side.

DRESS UP

Our nieces Lainie & Shelby came & spent the night with us on Aug 13th. Our girls were so excited. They love their cousins & playing with them. They usually end up doing some sort of dress up. This time was no exception. Apparently, they dressed each other up & did a fashion show. I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on & found these lovely gems on my camera!

I love how Jadyn's doing the goofiest arabesque ever in her poses. (Really, I was not involved in this at all!) I have a feeling my old dance costumes will bring enjoyment for years to come. Also, I love how Kylie looks like a GIANT in the Tinkerbell costume. These brought a good laugh to me!!

FIRST DAY

The usual first day of school pics....

This was also my first day back at work, so it was a big day at our house!

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

My girls LOVE the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books. They counted down the days for the movie to come out & LOVED the movie. I haven't read the books myself, but Erik read the first one. He giggled the whole time. I did see the movie & found it quite funny. Rowley dancing with his mom, of course, stole the show for me.

Our girls spent 2 days planning a party for the release of the Bluray. Complete with posters & game ideas. (This is actually a very common occurrence at our home in case you haven't noticed.) We played pin the cheese on the basketball court. Complete with blindfold & headphones for some reason??? As well as pin Greg on the cover, a cover drawing contest, and a eating a muffin with no hands contest.

We have the nuttiest girls. They sure are fun! There's never a dull moment at our house. Thanks for the fun night my ladies!!!

L. TOM PERRY

**UPDATE** At the bottom*
This is one of those posts where my inadequacies of writing do not do the day justice!

Today we had a special stake conference. L. Tom Perry was in town doing some leadership training with stake presidencies & bishops and chose to come visit our stake. What an amazing conference it was!! One we will never forget. We sat in the very front row. We showed up an hour and a half early to get a good seat. All of the rows were taken pretty much except the front row. Because who ever wants to sit there? We did & I'm so glad we did!

Once it got started our Stake President was announcing the program & he was the first speaker. He was getting ready to go right into his talk after the opening prayer when Elder Perry called out that there was suppose to be a special number first. Then he called to the Stake President, "I know you're excited to speak, but..." It was pretty funny right in the middle of a conference.

Jim L. Wright, who is one of the new area Seventies, was also at the conference. He was the second speaker. He talked about how he loved to hear Sister Beck talk about LOVE at her home growing up. How every Family Home Evening her family sang "Love at Home". When she was 15 she couldn't take it anymore & asked her Dad if they could stop singing that song. Her Dad told her that once she learned lesson 1 they could stop singing it. She said she never learned lesson 1.

Pres. Stott {our stake president} then got up to introduce Elder Perry. Can't remember how exactly it came up, but he mentioned Elder Perry was 88 years old. He looks wonderful for his age, by the way. When Elder Perry got up to speak he mentioned how getting old was great. He joked how everyone talks about how old he is! Also, when he's at family gathering he's no longer required to play kickball with the kids. He gets to sit in a chair & relax. He doesn't get sunburns anymore because he, again, gets to just sit in a chair & relax. He said it's a great stage in life!

When it was Elder Perry's turn to speak he spoke a lot to the "young people". He talked about how technology changes all the time now. How he's gone through palm pilots, blackberries, ipods & now he has an ipad. He's up with the times! Heehee He talked about how great it was to have over 2,000 talks right in his hand without having to have a big briefcase anymore. He told kids how they now have to show their parents how to use the remote & if the computer has problems the kids are the ones that usually have to show their parents how to fix it.

He talked about how important an education was. This is something that has become a big topic at our home. Erik & I did not go to college & we regret it all the time. We tell our girls that they will go to college. Not sure how it will happen, but we tell them all the time how important it is to go. For him to look right at Kylie & talk about the importance of an education was priceless to me!

He also talked about how important it is to be prepared for the future. He said when he was a kid he had a paper route. He lived during the Depression & talked about how hard those times were. He would put his earnings from his paper route in a glass jar. At times he would find IOU notes from his mom in his jar. She would borrow money during tough times to provide groceries for the family. He at one point had $20 in his jar & his dad advised him to invest it in stocks. He didn't know what stocks were, but decided to invest in First Security Bank. His $20 bought 20 shares. He was even invited to come to board meetings as a share holder. A few years later they announced that stocks were doubling & his 20 stocks had now turned into 40. He said that continued to happen & it eventually paid for his entire mission & even gave him a good start on his education.

There were multiple times that he would point & speak directly at Kylie. Telling her what she needed to do to be prepared in life. Sounds like a little thing, but it was very powerful! He ended with telling children (& pointing at Kylie again) to follow these 3 principles:

{1} Be prepared

{2} Anticipate your needs for the future

And most importantly...
{3} Keep your feet firmly planted in the foundation of the Gospel

He said if you do these 3 things your life will be blessed abundantly. What a beautiful talk he gave & a great reminder to everyone of the important things in life!!

After the conference was over we waited patiently for the opportunity to shake his hand. While waiting our Bishop & his wife came up & asked Kylie what it was like to have an Apostle look, point & speak directly at her? She just said, "good." I'm not sure yet if she fully comprehends. It took more than 30 min to get our turn, but again great things come to those who wait. Once the line died down we got up & shook his hand. As we came up he saw Kylie & said, "Oh, the front row girl." Kylie was all smiles. We had a few people behind us, so we moved along.

We went back to our bench to grab our scriptures, bags, etc. Once of the counselors in our stake (Pres. Strong) asked Kylie what it was like to have an apostle speak right at her? Apparently, we weren't the only ones who noticed.

By this time the line was gone & we walked back towards Elder Perry. Brother Wright was standing with him & I told him how we've had the opportunity to work with his niece Jenny in the Easter Pageant & how much we love her. At that point Erik leaned in to Elder Perry & told him how I bumped into him a couple of times when he came to the Pageant years ago. {The story's HERE if you don't know/or care to know it.} He laughed & said how he remembered seeing the Pageant. He commented a couple of times on how wonderful the Pageant is. He asked the girls about being in it & Erik as well. Erik told him how he looks forward to it every year & loves being in it. Kylie let him know that she's had the chance to be the Dead Girl. He again commented about what a great work the Pageant is. He even commented how great it was that we sacrifice our time to be involved. He knew how much time it takes. He said he was all lined up to come this past year to see it, but then they took him out of the Missionary Department & how he was a little sad not to see it again.

What a wonderful experience for our little family. I love that we now have this fun memory to add to our history!

**I can't believe I forgot the conversation my girls had with Elder Perry. When we were talking to him about the Pageant he asked Jadyn if she was best friends with her sister. She replied, while shaking her head, "No." Kylie said, "Not really." NICE!! We have family love at our home & now an Apostle knows it! ;) It was quite funny actually. Even he was laughing at it!

PHOTOS

While in St. George we got some family photos done by someone in my mom's ward. Unfortunately, I wasn't completely impressed. Especially considering the fact that they're not the greatest quality. If I wanted to blow them up - I can't. They're too grainy. I guess we've just been too spoiled by our friend in Vegas who takes awesome photos. Oh well. For now, they'll have to do. But, I'm not switching up my wall just yet. Here's a few of our favorites...

ALOHA JOE's

Now we are finally back to AZ! It's nice to be home even if you miss those you left behind. {Oh & don't worry - I still have a ton left to post. You know you're excited!} When we got home it was time to start saying Aloha to my sister Robin {aka RUBY}. She lived in Hawaii for 3 years & moved back home in April of 2009. Apparently, she missed it too much because she decided to move back. Who can blame her actually - it's Hawaii!! We will miss you MUCHOS Ruby!! The fam at the Aloha Oy party for Ruby...

Jackson's birthday came next. My family likes to gather at Joe's Farm Grill for birthday's occasionally. You get a free meal if it's your special day! We met in July for Jackson's birthday & stayed to chat for awhile....outside...in the middle of July. Hence, why Jadyn has quite the red face in these pics. The best part of this outing was the cecada skin we found on the sidewalk. Not because of that so much, but what happened afterward.

Jadyn was not excited to keep looking at it. She kept saying how she did not want to see it again. My dad told her not to be so silly. It was just the skin. To which she replied, "You just don't understand a girls life!" No more needs to be said.

VEGAS BABY!

After leaving St. George we headed to Vegas for a night to see some of our old friends. There are days when we REALLY miss Vegas. We miss our friends their dearly! We met my friend Jessica at Fashion Show Mall for lunch. We got their a little early & walked around. We went into the Vans store & they have a loft that has some Vans memorabilia. Kylie had to have her pic taken by the No Doubt Vans. She thought that was the coolest!

After lunch we went back to Jessica's to hang out & visit for a bit. Jessica has a daughter the same age as Kylie & they have been best friends since they were 6 months old. Kylie still considers Ana her best friend ever!


Jessica & I...

The best part about this photo is the New Kids buttons in the background. They are so Jessica! She was even published in a Teen Beat type magazine as a young teenager talking about how much she loved them. So classic!! {Don't kill me for writing that Jess - it's one of my favorite stories ever! ;)}

CONCERT ROCK

Another thing that has now become tradition while at my Mom's is going to Concert Rock. Just a rock formation the girls found down the road that fit their description of a performing stage perfectly. They usually spend a whole day planning out the event. Complete with invitations, programs & awards. Everyone has to perform some sort of "talent". Then, they judge on who has the best one.

Performances this year included....

**GRAMMY reciting the Young Woman's theme
**ERIK demonstrating some Chuck Norris moves on Kylie
**KYLIE performing on the saxazoo {a kuzoo that looks like a saxaphone she got in a kids meal} and...
**JADYN stealing the show with her silly jokes - ending with a choice karate chop that had us all in stitches!

I can't remember what I did, but that's probably a good thing!

On this trip we did a lot of driving. The saxazoo was a major annoyer in the car! Jadyn got her Groucho Marx glasses in her kids meal with some jokes on a card. She could deliver them well. We had a lot of fun trying on the glasses for some silly pictures.

Other random road trip pics included...

**A cloud that looked like a leaping elephant
**Erik's favorite MPH sign that shows 80 MPH
**A real sign that took a genius to order & an even smarter person to actually print it that way!

TARZAN

After being in Northern Utah we headed back down to my mom's outside of St. George. We were able to take the girls to Tuacahn again & it did not disappoint, as usual! This is one of our favorite things to do. If you ever have the chance to go - I highly recommend it! This year they had the rights to Disney's Tarzan & it was amazing. The girls loved every minute of it & they both said it was their favorite we've seen so far.

KHALA - Tarzan's "Mom"

TURK - Tarzan's best friend

TARZAN & JANE

I'm so sick that this picture is blurry! This same thing happened when Kylie had her picture take with Belle after Beauty & the Beast in this same spot. UGH!! Oh well - you get the gist of it.

The staging was tremendous. Turk stole the show - he was hilarious! They had monkeys swinging above the audience & all over the stage. Very entertaining! Loving Tuacahn so much may also have something to do with the frozen lemonades & the caramel nuggets. We look forward to those every year as well!

CACHE VALLEY CONT'D

We've been without internet for awhile & now we're back in business!! Now I can continue where I left off on our Utah jaunt over the summer. You know you're excited! ;) I forgot a couple of pics from my Cache Valley post, so here they are.

In the spirit of wanting/NEEDING certain things. {Primarily amazing chandeliers.} Here's another thing I want/NEED. This was directly in front of the opening gates of the Logan Temple. This house had the most amazing looking fence. Simple, yet it looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I loved it!!

Then, there was this lovely shot I took while driving out of the valley. We got hit with a storm & it was gorgeous!

Lastly, is my favorite pic of the day of my girls. Again, I wish I would have known that the Logan Temple was going to be a photo shoot worthy place. Maybe next year!

GRANDDAD & WALLIS'

This is my Granddad Carroll...

As I've said before he is an amazing man!! He can tell the most interesting, crazy stories. I could sit & listen to him all day. I always tell myself that I'm going to tape record him next time I'm there & I always forget. It makes me so mad! He has amazing stories of living in Japan, visiting China & Thailand, and sooo many more!

One story I do remember this time is one about Henry B. Eyring's dad. There's a book about him called The Mormon Scientist. It's my Granddad's favorite book. Eyring was his Professor in college & he worked closely with him his last two years of college. In fact, I finally asked what my Granddad's degree is actually in this time & it was in Physical Science. (The science of theories he said.) Eyring told my Granddad the following story....

He was at a conference of some sort with 15 of the most revered scientists. One of which was Albert Einstein. When they came out for a lunch break Eyring was approached by a reporter & asked if he believed in God. He quickly replied YES. The reporter was confused how a scientist could believe in God. The reporter asked if any of the other scientists believed in a higher being of some kind & Eyring replied, "I don't know, but I'll ask."

When he returned back into the room he asked the scientists if they believed in a God of some kind. Every single one of those highly decorated scientists believed in one. How about that? So much for scientists not being allowed to believe in God. I loved that story - so interesting to me! Even Einstein!

Everytime we go to his home we have a blast playing in his beautiful yard. The girls live to have tea parties in the front yard. They said it reminded them of something out of the new Alice in Wonderland this time. We had a fun game of hide n' seek & the girls had a blast watching their dad do cartwheels in the backyard! Yah - that was classic!!

Our friends the Wallis' live about 5 minutes from my Granddad. We always try to get together with them while we're here. We went to Kneader's for dinner & had fun hanging out in their front yard. We joked with the cars passing by that we were waiting for a parade to come through with our line of chairs. A couple of their neighbors even came back by & threw candy at us. It was histerical! {Their oldest was at Scout Camp, so we missed seeing Christian.}

CACHE VALLEY

The day after Josh & Sarah's wedding we drove out to Cache Valley. Erik & I have been getting into the whole family history thing & Erik was excited to check some things out in this area. His Dad's Great Grandpa (Headstone photo in the middle) was baptised in England & moved his family to the states. They ended out coming out West & were one of 7 families to settle Wellsville, Utah. He ran a freighting company out of Wellsville that included bringing people out West. The cemetery there has a lot of Erik's relatives - including his Grandpa.

After the cemetery we drove out to Logan. We looked all over for the house that Erik's mom grew up in to find out that it has been torn down. :( We took the girls to the Logan Temple & if I would have known it would be the best place EVER to take awesome photos I would have been better prepared on wardrobe. Oh well! It was still a lot of fun to take pictures. In fact, Kylie took the kissy photo of Erik & I. She told us she was going to have to take the photo with her eyes closed. After she took it she said, "That was wrong on sooo many levels!" Erik & I were dying! She's hilarious!

Now here's some details of the Logan Temple. Again, for a project I hope to get to some day! Like the chandalier in the last post - I NEED the lamppost in the bottom right photo! :)

UTAH....again

We ended up making two trips to Utah this summer. Long story short - we just did. On our second trip we went all the way up North. And I mean all the way, but more on that later. First, we headed to the Salt Lake area. Erik's cousin was married in the Salt Lake temple on Tuesday June 29th & they were gracious enough to invite to all the festivities.

We stayed at my Granddad Carroll's house. (He's one of the coolest men alive! He's always so welcoming to us.) Check out the bedhead on Kylie...

After getting ready it was off to the temple. We arrived early & were able to do a quick tour of the Convention Center. At least up to the roof which is our favorite part! Erik's younger cousin Nate watched the girls so that we could go into the sealing. Which, of course, was awesome! I am a horrible photographer though because I only got one photo of the couple & it's from far away when they first walked out. Shame on me! (Forget the typo on the date. I'm too lazy to fix it since I JUST noticed it!)

Here's some random close-ups of the temple. It's for a project I have in mind, but we'll see if I ever get to it. I still like to look at them. Also, maybe this is common knowledge & we all know I'm not the brightest. But, did you know that the big dipper is on the Salt Lake temple. That was news to me this trip.

After the luncheon we had some time to kill. Erik's Aunt Louise & Uncle Ron were so kind & bought us dessert at the Garden Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Because of timing we were starving & it was hot outside, so that was wonderful! Then, we headed to the luncheon just down a few floors. It was a great luncheon with food & entertainment! Then, it was time to go & I found this AMAZING room as we were walking out of the building. The picture does not do it justice! Especially since it's dark & blurry, but you get the idea.

I want... no, I NEED that chandelier!! Remember that for Christmas everyone!

JUNK

I love looking at the pictures on my camera & finding the most random photos. Here's such an example...

My girls think these photos are hilarious. They do them often. They turn the screen saver mode on the xbox & then take pictures like they're being sucked into a vortex or something. They are nutty!

Then, there's some proof that Nui definitely belongs in my home. I believe he has OCD. Check out his dish...(Not sure why this photo keeps flipping on me. Sorry.)

He always pushes his food to one side as he eats it. It keeps his bowl cleaner & in order. That's my kind of dog!! ;)

ZIONS

For this trip to St. George we were trying to think of something different to do. Since we generally enjoy hiking together Erik thought it would be fun to go to Zion's this year. Only thing was that he wanted to go with Rennie & the kids since she knows that place REALLY well. Luckily, it all worked out & we had a blast!

We ate lunch at a nearby park area before heading into Zion's. I love the picture of the kids hand in hand as we walk into the park! Not to mention the group picture of the kids & Creed's grump face! I love that kid!!

This is probably my favorite picture of the day because if you look at the bottom left corner you will see Creed on the ground. Not sure why, but this was hilarious to me when I found it!

You'll notice in this picture at the bottom is a picture of Rennie jumping a little stream with Memphis in tow. She was nuts & making me nervous. If you blow it up & look close - Memphis looks nervous, too. And then Carter's face in the photo with all the kids & their sticks is classic, too! He looks like he's about to karate chop everyone with his stick!

After all of our hiking we got some ice cream & it was delish. Thanks again Ren for the fun day!!