Utah Summer Recap

Wow to recap our visit home of over a month will definitely require some length! Its also, very emotional, as I am already missing so many loved who are now quite a ways away. Looking over the photos it's plain to see we did a lot of living while we were there and tried our best to squeeze a years worth of experiences into a month.  It was wonderful, and I have to say that if a month can go by so fast, I can only imagine how quick the next year will fly by.

 

We started our trip in Pittsburgh, where we had fun exploring the Carnegie Children's Museum of Science.  The kids had a blast and we even got to tour an old WWII sub that was parked in the river behind the museum.  Pittsburgh is a really fun city, so its been nice to spend some time there as we await our flights. 

We kept the kids up through naps thinking that we would for sure get an good nights sleep out of them at the hotel before our early flight; but Ellie decided to show us just how excited she was to fly to Utah, by staying awake all but a few hours. The flight was good, and although it felt a little strange driving down I-15 it was wonderfully familiar to be in Utah again.

 

The first big event was Sam and Erin's wedding in Logan.  It was wonderful to get to see them be sealed in the temple with all of Jake's siblings present in the sealing room.  The kids were pretty well behaved during the day and the dinner that night. However, Hudson did mange to fall into a mud puddle and completely cover his suit in Mud just after being warned by Jake not to jump into the puddle.  Jake was able to wash it out in the reception center bathroom and Hudson escaped the incident with his life still intact. No one seemed to notice that Hudson was walking around in a suite that was soaking wet, thank you black polyester. All in all it was a success!

Their reception was the next day at Thanksgiving point.  We hurried to get all ready and there in time for family pictures. As Jake was climbing into the car he somehow managed to split his suite pants clear up the rear.  He ran into the house and changed into what he thought was a pair of black suit pants from his fathers closet and we headed on our way, although now a little late.  As we were walking into the reception I looked at my dear husband to see that he was dressed in two tone, with a black jacket and brown pants.  Thankfully the pictures don't show his backside, because he ended up wearing the ripped pants during the pictures after all. 

 

 

Hudson managed to get himself completely stuck inside this chair.  He is lucky we didn't just leave him there. 
That chair was a wonderful babysitter!

The next day was Cameron and Elizabeth's wedding at the Timpanogos temple.  Once again we felt so blessed to get to be there and share the special event with our family.  It was also fun to get to experience another wedding in that temple since it was a fun reminder of our own wedding.  The only draw back was that each day we had been getting progressively more sleep deprived and it came to a head at their reception later in the day.  We sent out a frantic call for help to Jake's Mom who came and rescued us from our exhausted onery children.  In truth, she probably rescued them from us as well, since Jake and I were even more tired and grumpy then they were.  Many, many thanks to her since, the rest of the evening was much more enjoyable actually being able to enjoy the event and time with my wonderful family.

 

It is so fun to see our families get bigger and bigger, with more and more people to love!

 

The rest of our trip we split between the three families. 

 

 

Fun with the Clarks...

 

  Gram Wendy and Papa John enjoyed indulging Hudson's love of trains.  They went to see and ride Thomas the train in Heber City, rode front runner to Ogden and back, rode the train at the Zoo, and the Bee's game.  Hudson also got to ride the TRAX train to the baseball game.  Not the mention the hours of time spent playing trains on their living room floor.  He was in Hudson train heaven.  Fortunately Ellie has also decided that she quite likes Choo Choo's as well! 

Hudson was even able to get over his fear of Sir Topham Hat this year at the big "Day out with Thomas event"

Ellie decided to make up for it by being afraid of everything!

 

 

 

The kids enjoyed the cotton candy and the train as much as they enjoyed the game!

 

We were excited to go to the zoo mostly because Ellie loves animals and we thought she would really enjoy it.  When we got there we were excited to find out that the zoo had a special dinosaur exhibit going on throughout the park.  The kids both enjoy dinosaurs so we thought this would make their experience even better.  A huge life sized animatronic dinosaur was the first creature to welcome us as we entered the park.  The kids were mesmerised as it moved then all of a sudden it opened it's mouth and let our such a loud scream that it made us all jump.  That's when Ellie started to hysterically cry and decided she did not like the dinosaurs, rhino's, elephants, or any other large things that moved. The zoo turned out to be quite a stressful place for our little girl!

 

 

 A few days later we visited the dinosaur museum and park in Ogden.  Once again life sized dinosaurs that make scary noises weren't a huge hit with Ellie.  She was terrified nearly the entire time.  Hudson really enjoyed it though.

 

We had fun getting to play with our Bossy Dog. 
We are so grateful that he has been taken care of so well.
The kids were really sad we didn't get to bring him home with us.

We had such a great time with Gram Wendy and Papa John.  We were fed so well, had countless adventures to places that the kids still talk about and we were able to spend some wonderful time with them.  John worked especially hard to keep the basement dry for us while we stayed there, and they made us feel so welcome even though they were dealing with a stressful basement situation.

 

Fun with the Powell's....

 

It was fun to get to be with everyone in Jake's family during our trip to Lake Powell with the entire family.  The company was good and scenery was beautiful.  The kids loved playing in the sand, swimming, going for boat rides, and dancing to Jimmy Buffett. 

 

We spent a couple of days in St George on our way to Powell. 
One afternoon we visited these amazing waterfalls at Gunlock reservior.

 

 I got a little carried away making sand castles for the kids.  The sad thing was that everyday the water rose so much that our huge castle would get washed away. It was fun and kept me busy

 

My goal was to catch at least one lizard while we were there.  I took me a few days, but I was victorious!

 

 

No fish were caught, but how sweet is this picture!!!

 

 

The mighty skiing men! 
Jake decided that he was going to ski with Hudson standing on his ski's while he held onto him.  Although it didn't go exactly as planned, it was a success, and Hudson "skied" for the first time ever!  We were so proud of Hudson for being brave, even though we couldn't ever get him to try it again.

 

 

 

Ellie and I might not have been able to tube and ski with everyone else, but we were pretty good flag girls!

 

Hudson was willing to try everything once.... and only once!
That included the slide, the tube and the skies. 
We tried pretty hard to talk him into going down this slide again but he would NOT do it.  If you look closely those little hands and feet are trying their best to stop him before he gets to the edge.  I am pretty sure there are finger nail marks still on the side of that slide.

 

 

 

 

Ellie sat on the tube for a few seconds, but would not go for a ride even with Jenny

 

Hudson loved sleeping in his cocoon inside the tiny tunnel.  One time he tried hiding from us inside it, but he found out quick that hiding at a lake is not a good way to make your parents very happy.

I have to give a loving shout out to Jake's pride and joy, the Correct Craft, who made its grand debut to Lake Powell.  We had a lot of fun skiing and playing on it the first half of the vaction.

 

However, its departure wasn't very glorious, since it started overheating and we decided to be cautious and we towed it off the lake with the house boat.  Luckly Sam and Erin were willing to act as captains in case of an emergency.

 

 

We had so much fun at Lake Powell and we already look forward to it being a family tradition for lots of years.

 

Fun with the Palmers.......

Uncle Cam and Liz took us all fishing at recapture where we caught tons and tons of bull head catfish and bass.  It was lots of fun.  Too bad the gnats caught lots of us!

 

 

Poopah Wayne had lots of baby chicks at his house.  We got to help catch them and take them out to their new home at the field.  He even let Hudson name two of them which he named Hudson and Ellie.  They were so excited to go out everyday and check on and feed their chickens.

 

 

Ellie loved all the animals, especially Nema the goat.  She would walk around calling her name and making kissing noises to get her to come closer.



 

We had lots of fun playing on the mountain.  We hiked up to a ruin and through a narrow tunnel.  Hudson and Ellie both loved the tunnel and finally using their height as an advantage.  

 

 



Blonde Beauties!
Ellie had so much fun with her Aunts, especially "Stinky Tealy Bug"! Teal was so awesome to play with Ellie and keep her entertained for us!  We wish we could bring Teal home with us.



 

 

 

One morning we drove to the top of the mountain and had an awesome pancake breakfast.  Hudson thought it was so great to get to play in the snow, and managed to get soaking wet.  He was so excited to eat pancakes and play in the woods in the same place.  We now get asked all the time to eat out on the mountain.  The view was so amazing I wish I would have had my camera with me. 

One night we had a cookout at the ranch.  Hudson had a blast floating a boat down the irrigation ditch.  We had such a nice time enjoying the beautiful setting and the company was even better.
 

We had a really wonderful time in Blanding.  Hudson and Ellie SO enjoyed thier Aunts and Uncles, as well as his Gram Renee and Poopah Wayne.  He loved getting to have fires and sleeping in the tent with Jade almost every night. He even got to sleep at Poopah's cabin at the ranch.  It was a wonderful adventure. Jake and I loved having so many people around who wanted to play with our kids!

Our trip to Utah was bitter sweet.  We had an amazing time and everyone took such good care of us.  It was so heart warming to get to be around our families and feel their love.  I just wanted to soak up as much of everyone as we could. It was hard  knowing that we wouldn't be back for some time, and the pictures sure make me home sick! I'm sure the time will pass quickly and we will all be together again soon.  After so much fun and wonderful experiences I can't help but be overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for so many people in our life that love our little family.  I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life that sacrificed their time, talents, and resources to make this vacation so special for our family.   I think that the only thing bigger then our smiles has been our waistline thanks to all the good food, treats and fun we experienced. THANK YOU to everyone that made this trip such a wonderful collection of memories!!!

The Results are in

Well our bags are packed and we are ready to go.  Hudson has been so excited the past few days, I would go so far as to say, he has been mad at us for not making the time pass by faster.  Needless to say we are all excited for our trip this week.

We have had a pretty big week.  We found out that we are having another little girl.  She is a squirmy one, so I'm sad to say I don't have any good ultra sound pictures to post.  None of them gave us a very good picture of her face. The best news of the day was that everything looked just right, and there doesn't seem to be any problems.  We are so blessed!  Now, we just have to pick a name.  Our top pick for the time being is Autumn Jane. We just can't wait to meet her.

We discovered a wonderful new park this week.  It has a huge sand box and a shallow stream that runs through it.  The sunshine and warm weather made it the perfect place to splash and spend the afternoon. We had so much fun we went back the next day for more.   A little bit of sunshine and water felt so nice after so many cloudy days.

I hadn't planned on the kids swimming, but they had other ideas.

 We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

A Very Merry Mothers Day.

The landscape here has changed dramatically this week. Somehow it seems every living thing has decided to wake up from the long winter sleep and come out to celebrate the return of the sun.  If I haven't mentioned it before, State College has more over cast days then Seattle...or so I've been told by the locals.  However, this week, we have all woken early to rays of sunshine streaming through our windows.  The tree lined streets are now covered by a canopy of rich green leaves. Everywhere I look I see spring flowers popping up in planter beds and adorning so many of the trees that the air smells sweet in every part of the city.  It has been heavenly to have the windows open filling our apartment with the smell of fresh cut grass and flowers.  Our apartment has sat empty most of the week because we have so enjoyed being our doors in the glorious weather, and they have the legs to prove it. From toes to hips, their little legs are covered with bruises and scrapes from bike crashes, climbing everything they can find, and sadly from being my children and being predisposed to being uncoordinated. 

 We spent a creepy crawly day at the Penn State Frost Entomology Museum.  Ellie went crazy for the collection of butterflies. She was so funny running through the place yelling "look at this" "look at this"! She was a little disruptive, but I loved seeing her so interested. As exciting as the kids were to look at the bugs they couldn't be persuaded to hold any of them.  I didn't pass up the opportunity though.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach!

This has been such a special mother’s day to me. My kids are wild and crazy, but I truly love and enjoy them more everyday.  I'm so thankful that I have been given the profound blessing of being a mother.  I have so much gratitude for my heavenly father’s trust of sending me these special little spirits.  Each and every day is a gift I can never repay.  I am so very thankful for my own mothers, and grandmothers, and for all the love and effort they put into raising me.  However, this mother’s day my heart has been especially full of love for my mother in law, who gave me my Jake.  He is truly an angel who was sent here especially for me.  So I must say that the things I have in my life that are most precious to me, are in thanks to her, because she was willing to be a mother.  It has been a happy mother’s day indeed.

This week we got to take another trip to Corning, New York with Jake. Jake spent the afternoon in meetings while the kids and I set out for a little adventure hike. We found a trail head that lead into a densely forested area and made our way through the trees until we came to beautiful little pond. By that time the weather had really warmed up, so we took off our shoes and spent the afternoon splashing in the water and catching salamanders. While at the pond we were visited by huge geese, deer, squirrels, and chipmunks. If Jake had been able to be with us it would have been a perfect afternoon. Even without him we had lots of fun and the kids loved getting really muddy.

On Saturday I got to go with some friends to stake women’s conference. It was fun to have a day with the girls and even more fun to leave the kids with Jake a good portion of the day. I think Jake enjoyed it as did I. He took the kids to a service project run by the landscape architecture department at a local school elementary school. The project was to paint a sundial and some planets on their playground. Luckily the project was at a playground so while daddy worked the kids had a lot of room and equipment to play on. They had a lot of fun and felt the free pizza for lunch was worth the trip. Ellie ate at least two slices herself. The best part of the day was getting to come home and find my three favorite people waiting with hugs for me.

Jake has officially finished his first year of Grad school. Hooray! I feel so proud of him. He worked really hard, and has been so busy this year, but has done such a good job of making time for the kids and I. He is just an amazing guy.

The kids and I are happy and well. This week Hudson completed and passed off a swimming level. He is the youngest kid in his swimming class and it has been so fun to watch him learn to swim. I got the results back on my blood glucose test and they all came back normal, so I do not have gestational diabetes. We all celebrated the good news by eating lots of ice cream! Ellie is still doing a good job of keeping our house full of smiles and laughter. All in all we couldn’t be better!



While Mommy's away the boys get to play!
(I guess if you are a little boy bicycle maintenance is considered play.)