Just got back from a really fun-filled, action-packed, five-day camping trip in So. Utah for Memorial Day. If you don’t see me for a few days, this is why.
Good gracious. Why do we do this to ourselves????
More about the trip after I finish the laundry.
Big news my friends- it seems we may be heading down to the People’s Republic of PRICE sooner rather than later. That’s right, we have finally found a home to rent, although it may be somewhat temporary, its at least something for now. Also, we have found renters for our home here in M.G., so things finally seem to be falling into place! We took the kids down on Friday to show them their new digs and made a fun (and incredibly LONG) day of it.
First we had to let the kids get out their wiggles after a 2 1/2 hour car ride, so we grabbed a bucket o’ KFC & went to the DINO-MINE park. This was Noodle’s highlight of the day. I was not bright enough to take pictures at this point, so here is a stock photo of said park.
After winning the parents of the year award by letting our children get remarkably sunburned, we headed over to show the kids the house.
Once again, I have stolen this photo off the internet, from the house’s MLS listing. Its for sale, so hopefully it doesn’t sell too quick, or we’ll be out on the street again. It will be a great house for us. We are so excited to have finally found something that wasn’t…… well, scary.
Our kids, however, are a little bratty, and need to work on their manners. The first words out of Kenni’s mouth were, “Where is all the grass?” (There’s not any). Boy, does she have a lot to learn about P-rice.
At this point, I was wishing I did just go ahead & rent a trailer down by the river because my kids could use the wake-up call.
Anywho- next Seth took us for a drive through his mountains to show the kids what their daddy does for work. We stopped at a “Manti-Lasal National Forest sign” and I made him pose by it so it could go in his life history book. You should all go and take a picture of your hubby at his job. It sounds funny, but years from now, he’ll appreciate it!
The section of forest we drove through was so, so beautiful and there were tons of great areas for camping this summer. It actually got me a little excited to live there for awhile.
When we got to the summit, the kids were so excited to discover that there was still a TON of snow in the mountains. We stopped up on this high plateau that didn’t have any trees or anything. It just looked like marshmellow cream for as far as the eye could ski, oops, i mean, see.
So, after our extremely long & scenic drive the kids were starting to get restless, and hungry again, so our last stop on the way home was In-N-Out burger in American Fork (or wherever the heck we were). YUM.
We rolled back into M.G. around 9:00 p.m. feeling like we’d been on the road for about a week, instead of one meager day. I was so pooped. When we got home, Sparky showed me his art project he had made at school and I dissolved into tears.
What a sweetie. This broke my heart. No matter how temporary it is, I will miss this place more than anything. There is TRULY no place like home. (And no, Price will never be my home, just a rest stop along the highway of life). MOUNTAIN GREEN FOREVER! We should write some kind of anthem, eh?
Kenni & Sparky both entered the Inspirations contest at their school this year. Kenni put a ton of thought into her piece. It was really creative & well-executed. It was a photography entry which displayed random objects around the neighborhood that she had photographed & arranged on a board based on their color. Her piece was called “a world of color” or something like that. Sparky, bless his little heart, decided the night before that he wanted to make something, and threw together a go-cart made out of legos. I wasn’t sure if legos was a proper medium for a 3-d art entry, but who was I to tell the kid no?
So, the day of the competition I got a phone call from the lady in charge. She said “Mrs. Wallace, I’m calling to tell you that your daughter didn’t win a prize.” I said “um..that’s just fine”. (& wondered, why is she telling me this?????) Next she said, “It doesn’t make any sense because her entry is clearly the best one here, I’m just trying to figure out why they wouldn’t have awarded her a prize.” She said she felt bad for having to ask me, but did your child take all of the pictures herself? I answered of course, yes.
Anyway- her thought was that maybe the judges didn’t believe that she had actually taken the photos because they were so good! I decided that was probably a compliment, I just wasn’t sure. She told me that she was going to make sure that Kenni got a prize for her work. I assumed they would add her an honorable mention or something, but the night of the awards they passed out all the prizes, 3rd place, 2nd place, 1st place- no prize for Kenni. Finally, the last award was for “Grand Prize”- which was awarded to… (drum roll please….) Miss Kenni. She was absolutely over the moon. I so appreciate the mom who took the time to notice that she had been overlooked because she really did put so much work into that dang project.
OH, and as for Sparky and his hastily made lego-cart……. he took 3rd place, which shocked us all. He was grinning EAR to EAR and told me that next year his lego-sculpture was going to be even more amazing! (that cute little turd)
Next up- birds. This has been an unusual spring here in Mtn. Green. Cold, really really WET, and full of large, migrating flying creatures. They are everywhere. Geese, heron, cranes,- I even saw some pelicans up on silver lake the other day. PELICANS! Weird! Last Sunday a few of these huge things flew into our backyard and landed on the hillside. The kids all sat around watching them for hours. BTW- what are they??? We call them whooping cranes because they are so dang loud, but I’m not actually certain what their title is. Anyway- there is ONE fun thing about this cold, miserable spring. The fowl.
Those things must be at least three feet tall. They are huge!
Ok, next up—Easter! We kept it low-key this year. Didn’t even go anywhere fun for the kids spring break (which was over Easter weekend). We did take them to the movies (a rare treat at our house) & out for pizza afterwards. We also helped Seth’s brother & sister-in-law move into their new house (FINALLY!) They were so excited to finally be in!
The only pictures I have from the weekend are a few that I forced the kids to pose for so that I have PROOF that I actually did it. I sewed their Easters outfits like a dang betty crocker or something! (p.s.- it was all Michelle’s fault……. don’t let her talk me into crap like that in the future!)
But, they turned out cute despite my best efforts to ruin them! Who knows, maybe someday I will actually become the seamstress my mother has always hoped I would. But its going to take lots, lots, lots more practice. :)
Oh, wait. I forgot. There are a few more pictures from the Easter egg hunt at my mom’s house. Always a classic photo op.
All the cousins!
By the Way (and this is the last thing I have to say about Easter…..)
You are evil, evil little birds!!!!!!
My sweet friend “M” has a fantastic blog (check it out here) that is always providing a bit of inspiration, a bit of fun, and a bit of self-loathing. :)
You see, she is always fabulous. And her stuff is always fabulous.
So, the other day when she posted a picture of her kitchen counter at 6:45 a.m. with all the adorable decorations, and everything “just so”….. I had to sigh, because THIS folks is what my counter looked like that day when I arose (which by the way was not at 6:45 a.m.).
You see what I mean??????
One more time, just for the record. Her counter:
And you remember what mine looked like, right????
Sometimes other people’s fabulousness makes me wanna barf. (And be more fabulous, of course).
But for today, I’m hoping just to get in a shower. :)
(I LOVE YOU “M”, but I just HAD to do that!)
About two years ago I received an e-mail from a friend asking if we would be interested in going on a cruise with a whole bunch of our neighbors & friends? I figured we had two whole years to plan and save, so why not? We decided to go for it. Seth and I had never done anything like this, and we have always wanted to- and to be able to go with so many fun people- that was just icing on the cake! I can’t believe two years has come and gone- just like that! The cruise was a 7 day, western caribbean with stops in Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. In all, there were 16 couples, mostly from our neighborhood in our group. We left on the 6th of March and were actually gone for 9 whole days, so I have to give a HUGE thank you to all who helped with babysitting, but especially to Jeremy & Chris who did the lions share. We couldn’t have done it without you!
We played, partied, relaxed, acted like children, acted like teenagers, and acted like complete fools! It was the greatest time ever! Below are some of the many highlights. (Warning- it is a bit of a photo overload, but I just couldn’t help myself!!!)
Oh, one more thing. I have to give a shout out to my mom’s blue dress. I wanted to wear it so bad. It is really hard to find something that is modest & elegant to wear on a cruise. Everything I looked at was either too slutty or too casual or just too boring. Her dress was gorgeous. The only problem: My mom is a stunning size 4 (at age 61- yes, you can HATE HER). Me? Not so much. Never fear! I went on an insanely strict, 2-week crash diet (not recommended except in cases of EXTREME emergency, as this clearly was). I dropped 8 lbs, and my mom was kind enough to alter the dress just slightly to cover the rest. So voila! I was quite proud of myself. I stuffed every ounce of my booty in there & lets just say thank goodness formal night was on day 2 of the cruise & not day 7! Ha!
1st stop- Labadee, Haiti. We spent the day on the beach. Several of us got a good game of beach volleyball going, there were also a brave few who played beach soccer. Nate took me for a ride on the Dragon Coaster (thanks Nate!). It was actually really fun! And of course, my favorite part, just lying around on the beach with a good book, ordering a delicious virgin pina colada from the nice fella walking around takin’ orders!
Next stop: Falmouth, Jamaica. We braved a harrowing bus ride to go on two really fun adventures: first, tubing down this beautiful river with the whole group. That was a blast. We took a time out for some cliff jumping & stopped at a tourist trap in the middle of NOWHERE. Next we were on to Dunn’s River Falls which is a GIANT tourist trap, but still really fun & really cool.
Next stop: Grand Cayman. My favorite one. The water was so, so beautiful! We took a catamaran out to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where we went snorkeling and then over to the stingray cove. That was so, so cool!
Last stop: Cozumel, Mexico. When we got to Cozumel, we boarded a ferry that took us over to the mainland & docked in Playa Del Carmen. From there we took a bus up to Tulum, where we were greeted by Helamen, our LDS tour guide. That was such a great experience. Seth and I didn’t want to go at first because it was going to be so expensive, but I’m so glad we did. We learned a ton and it was really neat to see how the archeology and history of the place related to the B.O.M. and its people.
And of course there was all the awesome stuff to do on the boat….
Eat. Need I say more????? Ok, eat and eat and eat and eat…………
Side note: Happy Birthday Tricia!!!! Trish celebrated her 29th birthday (again) on the first day of our trip. So fun! I brought her a “birthday queen” hat to wear at dinner.
Play. (You’re looking at the Royal Caribbean Dodgeball Champions! Wa-hoo!)
Partay all night long. (BTW- this particular move is dedicated to my sweetie. We nicknamed it the Seth Wallace fist pump. Yeah Baby!)
More dancin. Trish led us in some zumba dances. SO MUCH FUN!
And lets not forget Karaokee. Justin was our rockstar! (And give props to backup dancer Cade…….)
Shows. We went to lots and lots of great shows!
Climb the rock wall!!!!
And of course the flow-rider. Seth was awesome at this. I was terrible. I think its safe to say that a few members of our group became insanely obsessed with this sport (Seth included). They spent all of their spare time practicing & trying to get better at it.
In fact, below is a picture of us all cheering the boys on at the flowrider championships on the last day. Nate was the only one who made it to the finals. He did awesome!
I am so sorry. I know I have issues. But there are just a few more photos that I had to include.
Again, I am so sorry for the picture overload, but this trip was definitely one of the most fun things I have done in my adult life! We enjoyed every single minute of it! Hopefully in another 10 years or so we can do it again! (sigh……….)
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