All I Want For Christmas Is...

We decided to take the kids to the new mall downtown called City Creek.  It's been open for awhile, but since it's a good 25 minute ride and has more high end stores (and fewer of the ones I typically frequent) I never went when there are two malls much closer to me.  

I had read online that City Creek had a virtual line for Santa.  You check in, then show up at your appointment time and there's no wait!  It's great.  We headed straight to check in and then walked around the mall until it was our turn to see Santa.  

As expected, Kendall was scared of him.  She's always been that way with Santa.  She'll take off at marathon pace to chase after Minnie Mouse at Disney, but acts silly and frightened with Santa.  I guess it's because she's never sure if he'll deliver the goods or not!  Last year Santa sent her a video email telling her she was on the naughty list and had better work harder.  That sent her into tears!  

Both kids told Santa what they wanted, but no pictures since she wouldn't get close enough without holding on to me.  The only downside to seeing Santa at City Creek is that they don't let you take your own photos - you have to buy theirs.  Bummer.  This is the only one I could get of them at the mall today.  It's a really beautiful mall - a stream running through it, stocked with fish, animal paw print tracks on the tiles, sky bridges, parking garage, outdoor fire pit, fountains, and lots of high end stores perfect for window shopping.  I wonder how much business Tiffany's does at City Creek?  The Apple store was packed - which by the way, if your phone battery is low, let the kids play with the new ipads while you borrow their charger!  :)

Ski Season is Upon Us!

On Tuesday I attempted to take Kendall skiing at Snowbird to warm up for the upcoming ski season.  We did a few runs on Chickadee but she struggled.  Not a great start.  I thought we were going to have to go back to using an edgie wedgie and a harness!

At least it was a beautiful day - she ended up feeling sick after lunch so we had to head back down the mt. only for her to feel 100% better an hour later!  Ugh!

But then we headed to Brighton with friends on Wednesday and it was as if she never took a break from skiing last spring!  Whew!  Here she is...

No edgie wedgie!  No harness!  She pitched a fit when I pulled them out to use!

Fun times with her big brother, friends Alex and Katie!

Riley and Alex on the lift together - Riley is too fast for me even to attempt video taping him!  Photos of him are my only option!

"Mom, this is the best day ever!"

~Kendall

Aren't the Rocky Mountains just beautiful?  Can't get enough of the scenery around here!

Vegas Baby!

We decided to take the kids with us to see the Monster Energy Cup Supercross in October.  Both kids were so excited for it.  Kendall asked me about it every day for a month!  She was just excited to go on a trip...a 6 hour road trip through the desert!  The kids had a blast!  The really enjoyed it but wished we could have stayed longer and done more exploring.  

The kids thought the strip was awesome - especially all lit up at night.  

The next morning we let them hang out by the pool while enjoying the Nevada sun

After lunch we headed over to Sam Boyd Stadium at UNLV to watch the pre-race activities.  While walking through the pits, Riley got to meet Bam Bam Barcia in person!  

Here we are watching some crazy freestyle riders

Told you they were crazy riders!  

One handed...

Seriously???

Two separate gates at this track...

The kids had a blast.  Kendall loved it as much as Riley.  I think supercross/motorcross is now a family affair rather than a testosterone filled event for the Chunkos!  The more we can find to do as a family the better in my book!  Looking forward to the supercross coming to the U again this spring.  Kendall has already requested that Daddy buy tickets for the girls this year!

Moonlight Zip

I have been wanting to go zip lining in Provo Canyon since Max Zip opened last summer.  Kevin, Cara, Andy and I tried to go in September but we got rained out.  There was a groupon for a $35 groupon offered for a Haunted Zip.  We were all over that!  Keri and her hubby Mike joined us for the night too.  

It was a great night.  Poor Cara was nervous because it was her first time zip lining and she wasn't sure how "haunted" it was going to be.  She did a great job and did get a scare from one of the guys working at the second platform.  He put on a werewolf mask while she wasn't looking and it totally freaked her out.  Then they told her to watch out for the man in the tree...Thankfully that was the extent of the haunting.  

There were 5 zips in all and going in the dark was a new experience for all of us.  I hope to be able to do it with the kids this spring.  Keri and I discussed taking all of our munchkins and getting the group rate.  I think my kids would like this one even better than the one in NC because it's just zipping, not part adventure course.

We are going PRIVATE!

After some deliberation, I have decided to go private with my blog.  If you are interested in being added to my blog so that you may continue to view it, please leave a comment with your email address below.    Otherwise you will no longer be able to view our blog.  You will be required to sign in to view it in the future, but this will keep others who I do not know from viewing pictures of our children.  We want to protect them from all the creeps out there in the cyber world.

Thanks for understanding.

Miners Fight Back Against Obama TV Ad: "Absolute Lies"

Whether or not you agree with using coal as a source of energy, it is one of great abundance in this country.  Many people rely on coal mining to put food on their tables and a roof over their heads - WE are one of those families.  Most of Andy's rail business is coal related.  Not all coal that is mined in the US is used in the US.  A lot of the Wyoming coal goes to the southeast US for energy and some of the Utah coal goes to Korea and Europe and some to other parts of Asia.  

Obama has allowed such strict EPA regulations on energy plants that it has caused a number of power plants to close.  This has resulted in lost energy plant jobs, lost mining jobs, and loss of rail road jobs, because rail roads haul coal across the country.  Do we wonder why unemployment hasn't improved?  This will result in higher energy costs for all of us because there is no other power substitute in place.  Coal generates much more efficient power than solar & wind combined.  Does this mean we build more nuclear power plants?  I lived through the Three Mile Island meltdown and don't want to do that again!

President Obama has approved an ad that lied about these coal miners in Ohio.  These blue collar workers (you know, the middle class Obama's so worried about?) were so frustrated by the fact that they were misrepresented that they wrote letters to the president and to the radio host who accused the mine of forcing them to attend a Romney ad.  

I'm so glad that the working middle class is standing up for themselves.  I hope a lot of other coal miners realize how many of their jobs are in jeopardy with Obama's War On Coal.  

Here is a link to the original Obama ad where he LIED in the ad about coal miners: Obama's False Ad

Here is the resonse of 500 Century Mine employees:

I'm so sick of all the lies of the Obama administration.  I don't understand how anyone can support a man with such little integrity.  I may not agree with everything about Romney, but I can say that he's a man who I can respect by the way he conducts himself and I feel he will represent us as a nation with more character than what's been demonstrated over the past four years.  I'm sick of the excuses.  I'll be glad when the election is OVER!  We can't take another 4 years!

Put Me In Coach!

Another soccer season has come and gone...Whew!  Somehow I ended up being roped into co-coaching Kendall's soccer team this fall.  As much as I LOVE coaching, I've always said that I prefer to coach high school kids.  If I thought junior high was grueling (after teaching middle schoolers all day), I wasn't ready for 3 & 4 year olds!  Ack!  Their attention span is, well, little to none.  But they were such a sweet bunch of kids and I'm grateful Kendall got to play with them this fall.

Aren't they a good looking team?  

Coach Brooke giving the team a pep talk

Go get it Sis!

So close to scoring a goal!  (sorry for the blurred pic)

Go Blue!

Waiting their turn to play

A mouth full of pizza after our last game

Having fun with her teammates after the game

One of Kendall's dearest friends

Hanging with her buddies!

Chow time!

As much as I love seeing Kendall get involved in sports, I'm not sad to say that I'm happy soccer is over for now.  We have too much on our schedule after school with gymnastics, dance, scouts and karate twice a week.  Soccer was just one too many things - every Thursday and Saturday (but thankfully only for 4 weeks!).  

Latest Kendallism

Kendall and I went to Gardner Village on Tuesday for the witch scavenger hunt.  One of the witches we needed to find was riding on her broom backwards.  She was suspended in the air by a cable.  When Kendall found this one, her reaction was: 

"Look Mom!  She's zip lining!" 

Gosh I love that girl!

See, it does look like she's zip lining!

Hanging out with the witches

Going On A Bear Hunt? How We Spent Our Fall Break

My kids are on fall break from school this week so I've been working hard at keeping them busy - of course Andy's out of town for most of the week so that makes it even harder on me, but we are making the best of it.  We're having a great time and made some wonderful memories.

Monday we met up with Andy for lunch in Provo.  We took our bikes along so we could ride the Provo River Parkway afterwards.  To make a long story short, Riley's tire was flat to the rim so we had to pack back up after unpacking the bikes.  To make it sting a little less, we drove the Alpine Loop through American Fork Canyon on the way home.  The scenery through AF Canyon was just incredible.  So many different colored leaves in all directions.  That has to be one of my all time favorite places to see leaves - Vermont is a VERY close second.  Most of these pictures were taken near Sundance - before I passed the ranger gate and where there is actually room to pull over for a few snaps!

On Tuesday, Kevin had the day off so we decided to take the kids for a hike.  We headed up to Big Cottonwood Canyon with the intent of hiking the Dog Lake Trail.  We got there, parked, got suited up with our coats and camelbaks and headed over to the trail head sign to see the map.  There nailed to the board was a hand written note stating that a bear had been seen on the Dog Lake Trail just the day before.  My first reaction was, that the bear had plenty of time to move on to somewhere else.  Kevin's first reaction was, maybe it hasn't and we have your kids along...Good point!  There were plenty of cars parked at the trailhead, but we loaded back up and headed further up the canyon to Silver Lake.  We decided to hike from Silver Lake to Lake Solitude.  It was a perfect hike for our kids.  The incline was subtle for the most part that they didn't even notice they were increasing their elevation - until the end that is!  It was a beautiful day for a hike and along the way, we didn't come across a bear (thankfully) but we did come across more MOOSE!  This is our lucky fall I guess.  Momma, Daddy and baby hanging out along the trail, munching on some leaves.  They were there on our return trip as well.  My kids are getting spoiled with wildlife this fall.  Thankfully both moose encounters were uneventful.  According to Kevin, there are more people attacked by moose than by bears!

The view of from Silver Lake

Hi there Baby Moose!

Daddy Moose getting a snack near the trail

Looking across Silver Lake

Watching the ducks

Love the contrast of the colors

These aspens were absolutely gorgeous!

See how they are almost orange!

Utah really is beautiful!

So not to be outdone by Tuesday, we planned an action packed day for Wednesday.  We had a playdate/mom craft date in the morning that lasted till lunch.  The moms made these for their daughters (who by the way are all good friends).

Isn't it a cute shirt?  I love how it turned out!

After we cleaned up and everyone went home, we ate lunch and headed out to the zoo. We haven't been there since they opened up their new Rocky Shores exhibit.  The kids loved seeing the polar bear, the sea lion and the seals.  Sadly, the river otters were playing hide and seek with us and we missed out on them (Mom's favorite animal).  

On the way home from the zoo we hit up the new Scheels store in Sandy.  This place is a cross of Sports Authority and Cabela's.  It's HUGE!  They have a ferris wheel inside the store as well as lots of other things for the kids to play on, climb on, video game shotgun shooting, bowling alley, DDR, indoor playground like at fast food places, etc.  This place is out of control.  They seem to carry it all - from fashion clothes like Down East Basics to kayaks to cross bows and ammo!  When we got home my kids were SPENT!

Thursday brought MOPS and both kids were happy to go because they knew the Major kids would be there.  Riley really likes Timothy (from scouts and church) and Kendall and Gracie are just the sweetest of friends.  I love MOPS more and more because I get to see my dear friend Michelle!  I was so honored that when she introduced herself to our entire MOPS group today that she used me as an example of the type of lifelong friendships that can be made through MOPS.  It's a great place to meet people who "GET" you and love you and care about you.  I had wondered if I'd "outgrown" MOPS, but realized that even though I am older than most of the moms nursing their newborns during the meetings, that there is a place for everyone.  

After MOPS we headed to the ATT store for what is hopefully the LAST purchase I will now make in what should have only been a $400 iphone 5 investment.  This saga has caused me over $1000 easily!  I had to upgrade my operating system - TWICE, I had to get a Time Capsule to back up my computer incase of an issue while upgrading (this is something I should have done years ago), I had to repurchase MS Office for my Mac because my old version was too outdated for mountain lion, and then I needed to buy a case and screen protector.  Opps!  I just realized, I will most likely make one more purchase - another cord whenever Apple gets around to supplying them.  Gotta have a charger in the car!  

After the ATT store, we hit Costco for lunch and what always ends up being a much larger purchase than intended.  I really should just go in there with cash so I don't over spend!  By the time we got home and got unloaded (which is always more fun when you make a game of stacking the rolls of toilet paper and tossing the paper towel rolls across the kitchen to mom so she can put them away, the kids settled down for a few cartoons, finishing of homework and rest time.  

Kendall had a soccer game after dinner.  When I walked onto the field, I knew we were in trouble.  We were playing against a team we had played last year.  The coach of this other team is so militant it's not even funny.  I swear he must hold practices year round because #1, his players are very good for 3 & 4 year olds and #2, he talks to them so firmly that I wonder if they are even having fun.  Our kids were more interested in the large air force plane that kept circling over the Sandy area tonight instead of playing soccer.  But that's what I expect of 3 & 4 year olds, especially around 6:45 pm!

Tomorrow is our last day of our break.  Even though I'm exhausted and haven't done my mandatory one load of laundry per day, I'll be sad to see them go back to school on Monday.  I love having them around all day and doing what we want, when we want. Tomorrow is our "free" day.  The only thing I have to do is get an overdue oil change.  Thankfully Andy will be home in the afternoon.  We haven't gotten to talk to him more than a few minutes this trip so it will be nice to spend a little QT with him before we head out to small group later in the night.  

We are going to attempt to ride our bikes on the Provo River Parkway and have a picnic lunch on Saturday as a family after Kendall's soccer game.  Hopefully we'll be able to make that work - I did buy a bike pump at Scheels to put on Riley's bike to hopefully prevent another flat.  Might even buy a can of fix a flat to keep around, just in case now that he's into trail riding on his mountain bike!

Off to bed.  This momma's gotta keep up with two energetic rugrats tomorrow!  I think the kids have had a great week even though we didn't go anywhere for their week off.  It was a great "staycation" for us!