24th of July & Ashby Reunion

On the 24th we headed over to my mom and dad's to swim and BBQ. Ethan loves the slide and thinks he's so cool to sit at the bottom and fall into Kurt's arms. It's pretty dang cute. Phil & Alaina had a family reunion so they weren't able to make it, but my aunt and cousins came, so we had quite the crew.

Pioneer Day has always just been another holiday, another day off work, but as I've gotten older I have much more respect for the Pioneers who came across the plains and settled into the valley. Maybe it's because I really realize what they went through to make it to Salt Lake. I'll admit, I think Heavenly Father knew that I wouldn't make it, I would have given up on the side and probably died, so he saved me for a different day and age. I'm so grateful for those that had the strength to come across and settle here in Utah. The Salt Lake Valley is beautiful and I love living here.

Ethan loves any type of ball. He yells "ball" every time he see anything that looks remotely like a ball. After we ate Ethan high tailed it for the sport court and stayed there forever and played with all the basketballs all by himself. I love the concentrated looks he has to make when he picks it up. It's as big as him but he could care less.

Ashby Reunion
Today we had the annual Ashby Reunion. This year we had it up at the Spruces for the day. Kurt and I were able to make it up there this afternoon and stayed for dinner. It's always fun to see everyone. The family is getting huge and it seems like we only see each other on special occasions. Ethan had fun throwing rocks in the stream, getting dirty, eating any food he could find, pulling faces at anyone who talked to him, and did I mention getting dirty?

Here's everyone in the Ashby crew. I tried to get pictures of everyone but missed a lot of the kids since they were busy with Hal catching squirrels. Lynette has eight siblings including herself, and all but two were there. Here are a few pictures I captured of everyone.

Girls Night Out!

Tonight I went with my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law to go see Mamma Mia. It was such a fun night. We started with dinner at Rumbi's and then hit the movie at the District. What a great movie! I saw the play about four years ago in Vegas and thought it was awesome, but this was so much fun to see more then what was just on the stage. It was beautiful in Greece where they filmed it. Next time I might need to plug my ears and just watch Pierce Brosnan sing, but he still did an alright job, at least he's fun to look at. The rest of the cast was awesome, I want to go see it again. Thanks again Mindy for putting it together, it was a blast! Now I need to go bust out my soundtrack and start belting the tunes.

The Big 25...

Well today I hit the big 25. I'm getting old...it feels like yesterday that I turned 16. Still can't believe how time flies. This morning Ethan and Kurt woke me up with a fun card and an attempt to make breakfast....see I haven't went to the grocery store and we are out of just about EVERYTHING. (no worries I made it to the grocery store this morning) but in an attempt to make chocolate chip pancakes for me we were out of...milk, eggs, and the good chocolate chips, so basically all that we had was the pancake mix. It was still a good morning and it's the thought that counts. I have such a good hubby, who is always so good to me.

Then this afternoon my mom, sister, sister-in-law, nieces & nephews, grandma, aunt, and cousin all took me to lunch at Zupas. It's always fun to be with family. Thank you everyone for all the phone calls, e-mails, visits, and text messages to wish me a Happy Birthday! It's been a good day....and I got my awesome birthday present from my hubby last week when he took me to the American Idol concert....so no complaints here. Just another year older!! I'm grateful for all that I've been blessed with in my life. I have so much to be thankful for and every year it just gets better and better.

Now how can you not love a face like this? This is Ethan's new smile...every time we tell him to smile we get some random face like this! I love it...he's got more personality then I know what to do with.

Bear Lake Adventures

Every year in the middle of July my extended family takes a trip down to Bear Lake. Usually it's my aunt Becky and her family who go down for about a week, and the rest of us grace her with our presence whenever we can show up. Kurt and I have went every year that we've been married except for last year because Ethan was only a couple of months old. And every year no one from my own family goes down but Kurt and I. Well this year my sister and her kids decided to come down too, so that was a fun treat!

We got up early Friday morning and headed down. It really isn't too far of a drive, we made it in about two and a half hours towing a boat....not bad. We always have so much fun when we go down. My cute aunt Becky and her family make it so much fun. We spent all day Friday and Saturday at the lake, beach, eating good food, and devouring the best raspberry shakes. Friday we took Kristin and her kids out on the lake and the girls had a blast out on the tube. I even got my sister to try to wakeboard...I don't think I've ever laughed so hard....not at her trying to get up, but at the two of us in the lake. I was helping her put the board on, had the rope wrapped around my arm, hooked into her arm, and trying to get my gloves off to give to her. We had waves coming up over our head and the whole time Kristin just kept screaming. It was quite a sight. Guess you had to be there to enjoy the humor.

The only thing I think I would complain about in Bear Lake is how quickly the winds pick up. They come out of nowhere and everyone rushes to trailer their boats. It happened again this year, the winds came up and it was a chore trying to get the boat on the trailer. We both got a few battle wounds but we survived. My sister headed home since she got there on Thursday and the rest of us headed to Merlin's to have some dinner. We were able to crash with my mom and Grandma at the condo they rented and slept on the floor on an air mattress....much better then sleeping in a tent. I hate tents!

Saturday Kurt and I spent the day on the lake with my cousins. They are so much fun to be around and just so willing to help and do whatever. We had so much fun with them and got a good laugh at all of them trying to get up on the dang air chair. Kurt makes it look so easy, that it's frustrating for the rest of us. Then that afternoon we headed to Bear Lake Pizza for dinner before Kurt and I headed for home.
It's always a short lived trip, but well worth it. It's fun times we get to spend with my aunt and uncle, cousins, and grandma that we look forward to. It was so much fun and I just want to tell everyone thank you!! My aunt Becky and her family are so sweet and are always taking care of all of us. Times like these always leave such fun memories, and I will always remember them. We look forward to our Bear Lake trip every year....I already can't wait for next year!

Sleeping Habits

We've determined that Ethan takes after me when it comes to sleeping. I'm quite the wild sleeper, Kurt calls me the steamroller. I usually end up with all the covers, sleep diagonal, take up most of our king bed, and occasionally hit, kick, or push Kurt in the night. The good thing is that I married a "mummy sleeper" (you know the type that wake up in the same position)! So I can't help but take pictures of Ethan when I find him all over the place. So here are just a few of Ethan's positions...Every night we pack the crib with a million blankets. To sleep he puts one hand under his blanket and then rubs his finger up and down his hand on the other side of the blanket....strange kid. I guess every kid has their comfort and Ethan's is definitely his blankets. He always looks so innocent when he sleeps, I love it. I always want to just pick him up and hold him. It's really the only time he cuddles, he's such a nut head all the time that he never calms down enough for us to cuddle him. How can you not love an innocent face like this!?

American Idol Concert

Last night my wonderful, amazing, hubby surprised me and took me to the American Idol concert for an early birthday present. For those of you who know Kurt and I, we aren't very good at surprises. We like to plan a surprise, but then we can't hold it in and we end up telling each other.....not this time. He planned it all out and it was awesome. I had no clue...I didn't even realize they were here in concert yet. So we left and went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse...(I forget how much nicer dinner is without Ethan). Then we started heading down Redwood Road. We got to 3500 s. and I asked if we were going to the E Center. Kurt said, "no." and just kept driving. Then we hit 3100 s. and he started to turn left....I was still confused at this point, but there were a lot of cars and I was wondering what the heck we were going to see. Well as we turned there was a huge sign that said "American Idol Parking." I think I almost pooped my pants. I was so stoked. We always talk about going to things like this and then we never do.

Anyways it was an amazing concert. The top ten all performed. It started from Chekezie who was voted out as number ten and went down to Cook. The bottom eight performed three songs each, and then David Archuleta did four songs, and Cook did five. It was awesome, and extremely loud. I was really impressed with all of them except for Syesha, however I didn't care for her in the season, and never thought she should have made it that far. The best by far were Michael Johns, Brooke White, and the two Davids. Johns got the crowd way into it by singing "We Will Rock You" and "Dream On." He did awesome! He should have made it to the top three. I never really cared for Kristy Lee Cook either, but she actually did good live. By far Cook is the best entertainer! He rocked out pretty hard on his guitar and was all over the place. I think my favorite of the night though was when Archuleta sang "Apologize" by OneRepublic.

All in all it was such a fun night! It was an awesome concert and very entertaining. The one thing I was bummed about was that they wouldn't let me take my camera in. It's a Nikon and has a removable lens....so it's considered a professional camera. I was bummed, and once we got in tons of people had professional cameras...so they must of started that rule half way through the night....oh wells....it was still awesome and one of the best b-day presents ever!!

THANK YOU so so much babe!! I loved the surprise!!! That was a blast and it was so nice just being with you for the night!

Fun Memories...

Okay, so I saw this on Nikki's blog and I really liked it! So here's how this works:

The Memory Post

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is the most memorable for you.

2. Next, if you feel so inclined, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you...!

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. ☺ And please do this on your page, too, so we can all share in the fun times together. :)

4th of July Weekend!!

The 4th of July is always a crazy fun weekend for us. We first headed up to Midway on Thursday with my family since it was the only time in the weekend we could all be together. Once we got there we just hung around. Kurt and I took Ethan for a golf cart ride which he thought was so fun. It amazes me the little things that entertain him. He thought holding onto the steering wheel was pretty cool.Then we all got ready and drove into Park City to hit the Alpine Coaster. Here is my family. I can't believe how fast it continues to grow. It was lots of fun being with everyone.

Here we are at the coaster. For those of you who haven't tried it, it's well worth the money! It's much better then the slide...you can go without hitting your breaks and you don't have the fear of flying off, like on the slide! We had lots of fun just hanging out. The kids rode the Rockets and the Merry-Go-Round, and also had lots of Dip n' Dots. Ethan was pretty good just hanging out in his stroller. Grandma & Grandpa stayed with Ethan & Preston and then we were able to do the "Baby Swap" and get them at the front of the line.

We ended up doing fireworks on Thursday night and also celebrating dad's birthday which was Sunday. Alaina always gets pretty creative over the holidays and this year brought up Mall Madness for the girls to play and hats to decorate. I've got to say they turned out pretty cool. It was also Ethan's first time seeing fireworks and he sat there in a daze. He wouldn't move from Paige's lap, he loved them.

Then Friday morning Kurt and I got up and headed to East Canyon to spend the rest of the weekend with Kurt's family. It was lots of fun. This is the first time in two years that we've all been up there together. So we had quite the crowd with all fifteen of us, lots of food, boating, fireworks, four wheeling, and games. Grandpa Russ can't resist having some fun with Ethan.
Every year on the 4th there is a fireworks show in Henefer. Kurt and I have never been to it but we hear about it every year from his family. So this year we were able to go and I've never laughed so hard. It's an awesome firework show, but it's total hick town. First off we were only like maybe twenty feet (that's probably pushing it) away from where they lit the fireworks. So about five minutes into it there were two fires and we were all yelling at the fire fighters to have them come put them out. The smoke was blowing us all out and the fire fighters just kept the show coming. Needless to say we were all getting ashes in our cars and Ethan's blanket has a hole burned in it to prove it. Next year I don't know if we will sit that close, but it kept the excitement coming.

Saturday we took the boats out with Kurt's family and spent most of the day at the lake! Ethan was really good. He fell asleep twice, and then was pretty good the rest of the time. We tested out his water skills and put him on the tube with Kurt. He couldn't really decide if he liked it or not, but it was fun. We also let him play in the water for a minute, he didn't like that at all. Once he was back safe in the boat he started laughing. All in all it was a fun, crazy, busy weekend.