jet skiing!

Brent's Dad bought a couple of jet skis and invited us to come with him up to Pineview to ride them. They are even powerful enough to pull a skier on. So Brent, and his brother Steve, and I went right out with Steve driving, Brent was the skier, and I sat backwards to spot Brent. Turning made me feel like I was going to go flying off the back. One time I did at high speed. It wasn't too bad, just a bit of a shock to the sinuses.
Steve and Brent's dad, Dan switched places. They also got out a more appropriate rope to ski with. When Brent got up and Dan and I started zooming around the lake with Brent in tow I was petrified that I would fall off. I know it probably wouldn't have been a big deal if I did fall, but I had this irrational fear that I would go flying off the back and make Brent let go without Dan noticing, and then Brent and I would be stuck out in the middle of the lake to get run over by other boaters. I don't know if those exact thoughts were consciously running through my mind. I mostly just didn't want to fall off and ruin the ride.  Anyway, once Brent finally went down, and they were laughing about how awesome he did, I burst out in tears. All the fear just came pouring out and I started yelling and sobbing about how scary it was and that I was never spotting again because you can't see where you are going, you have no way of knowing what's coming, and your balance is off back there with not a great way to hold on. Ugh, Brent says I wasn't that bad, it was just embarrassing to do it in front of my father in law. Hope he still likes me after all of that. Well, they were surprised, apologetic, and we sat the normal way on the jet ski and drove back in to shore.

After spending, what I was convinced were the last minutes of my short life on the back of a wave runner ;), and after watching, in what seemed slow motion, Brent's wedding ring float to the bottom of the lake, and after coming to the conclusion that my phone must have been in Brent's pocket and slipped out while he was getting dragged through the water, I was having serious patience issues with Brent. Not really. The phone will be easy to replace since my Mom's contract is up next week. Don't know what we're going to do about the ring though. Brent felt awful about it. I'm really sad that it's gone too, but we have to keep in mind that it's just an object. The memories associated with it are still ours and those are still intact.
The kids were excited to see us and Griz just went trucking straight into the water for his turn on the "bike" as he called it.

Look at him, all ready to go. He thinks he is so much older than he is, it's so cute.

We got Chico up there too for the picture.  Man my boys are looking old. Where have these last four years gone?!

Following that mildly traumatic experience, Brent took each kid out for a spin. They absolutely LOVED it. It didn't matter how many runs we took them on,  they couldn't get enough of it. Griz even fell asleep in the middle of a run, right there in Brent's arm. One time, while Brent and I were out for a spin, Dan took Griz out too. As quickly as they met up with us, Griz was saying goodbye to us so that he and Dan could get going as soon as possible. Chico loved it. He kept wanting to spot the "Great Father Bass" as Brent reported to him that he had seen some big fish jumping.

Dan, Steve, and Brent took one of the wave runners out for a spin. This time, Dan at the throttle, Steve in tow, and Brent spotting. Brent told me afterward that he felt a bit unstable spotting too. Brent didn't freak out like I did, but at least I was somewhat validated. :) One of the highlights for Brent on that run was getting dumped in the water with his dad...twice...at low speeds. Are you sure you didn't have anything to do with that Brent(?)...When Steve got in the boat Brent rocked in until he dumped Steve in the lake, and then Steve dumped all of them in the lake again once they got back to the beach. Funny guys. We were so excited for Steve getting up on skis for the first time. Good job Steve!

After that I took it out for a spin, then later Brent went with me which helped me learn how to go faster and turn and lean the right way so I didn't feel so unstable. Enough about me. The boys loved going out on the jet skis and they loved playing on the beach and they loved sitting on the hot dog, and they weren't even traumatized for too long after we flipped while being pulled slowly around on the hot dog within the buoys.  When we flipped Chico held on for dear life to the hot dog, unfortunately it was flipped so he was underwater. I had to pry him off of there to get him up out of the water. He was just so worried he'd sink to the bottom of the lake if he let go even though he had a life jacket on. He recovered pretty quick though.We had such a good day. Two days later, Brent and I are a little (Brent a lot) sore and sunburned. Can't wait until next summer when we can do it again!

I love when they do this

I don't think Chico loves it much (in fact he told me he doesn't the next morning when I showed him the picture) but he is so sweet to let our cuddle bug sleep next to him sometimes.  Griz is so independent all the time but he needs that close comfort at night. He climbs in bed with us a lot and it's super uncomfortable. This morning I was thinking that even a King Size bed wouldn't help, he'd just scoot as close to you as possible, no matter how big the bed.

My Birthday!!!

So, it was my birthday recently.  Usually I don't notice the change mentally but it really hit me this year when I was at an MS convention lunch (on my actual birthday) at Market Street grill with my mom and the boys while Brent was at school.  After the convention I was in the bathroom of the restaurant and while I was washing my hands I overheard these ladies talking about this man with MS who was only 22 years old and attending Weber State. My initial thought was, "Wow, he's the same age as me." Then I looked at myself  in the long mirror with my two kids standing next to me and realized I really was 26 and not at that 22 year old phase anymore.  It was the first time I've actually felt older on my birthday.  Brent said he had similar feelings when he turned 26.  Anyway, thought that was worth noting, probably not, but oh well, I already typed it.  The lunch was fabulous, steak, halibut, green beans, salad, and chocolate cake. Even better it was free! The boys behaved themselves really well.  It's always interesting going to those with my Mom and always makes me really hope that I never get MS and I hope they find a cure or a way to prevent it soon!

We met up with Brent afterwords and when I got in the car the song playing was, "You are the woman that I always dreamed of".  He had made a mix of all of our favorite songs and had them playing in the car the whole day.  That morning he also gave me the sweetest most beautiful letter in the whole world that made me cry and hold him close and count my blessings that I have a husband as wonderful as he is.  Our first activity on the agenda was bowling. I wanted the boys to come along. They've never been before so it was fun to have them there.  They loved it, it was so cute to watch!

After bowling we drove to Salt Lake and walked to City Creek food court so the boys could play on the dinosaurs.  We've been there once before, like 5 or 6 months ago. When we got there Chico started running his fingers through his hair and anxiously uttered, "Oh! I fowdot about dis pwace! ... I wemembow dis pwace!" They took off and played like wild men.
A week or so before my birthday we had seen Spiderman with the boys, so it's been a frequent topic of discussion of late.  Chico was shooting real webbing out of the ends of his fingers with Grizzly and the other boys, when he enthusiastically ran up to us and whispered with as much enthusiasm as secrecy, "I have a seekwet to tew you dyes! I...am Amazing Spidowman!"  It was so dang adorable how he said it, and I'm sure he really did feel like Spiderman climbing on those dinosaurs. The rubbery texture is perfect for climbing with hands and bare feet.

After that we walked upstairs to Kneaders. This was our first time going there and we really liked the food. We bought a loaf of Rosemary Focaccia Bread afterwords and ate it on our way back to the car. I'm going to have to figure out how to make artisan bread, it is so yummy.

As we walked back to our car through Temple Square we stopped and took pictures. 

Chico took this one of us, awesome pic Chico!

(Notice the wedding ring still on his finger...more on that later)
I love this sweet man and thank him for making me feel so loved and special on my birthday.

A thoughtful woman saw Chico taking this picture and asked if she could take one of our whole family...

I love my forever family!!!

Meeting our new Nephew/Cousin

We went up to the hospital to meet our new nephew. I don't think the boys really paid attention much about Christa being pregnant and were surprised to find out they had a new cousin.  Griz of course had no idea other than there was a cute baby in the room, Chico was the one who was trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out.

Griz loves hospital mugs, so he was going for Christa's in the background there, I stopped him in time!

Such a sweet perfect one day old.  Here are a few of my favorites that we took of him while we were visiting Sunday and Tuesday.

 

 Even though I really wanted to, I was a little scared to hold him because I didn't know how I'd do emotionally with it. Sure enough, I did have to turn my back on the group because I couldn't keep back the tears, I was too overcome seeing his perfect tiny little features, and then he opened his eyes and stared right into mine, it was like a window right into Heaven.

a fun day babysitting

Brent's sister just had a baby and so I got the chance to watch their kids the other day.  It was a lot of fun, we played outside on the tramp at the beginning, once they brought out the hose they all had even more fun.

Grizwald didn't want anything to do with the water...

But the rest of the kids had a blast with it:

After we were all funned out from the tramp we went in and made Macaroni and Cheese and then everyone started playing while me and the older kids made Chocolate covered Strawberries, Peach Ice Cream, and Chocolate Chip cookies.  We watched a little tv and played this Dance wii game.  It was fun hanging out with older kids and the girls are so much fun to talk to.

pre-wedding shin-dig

Jenni and Matt had a nice laid back shin-dig at Murray Park the night before their wedding. Here are a few pics from that night...

Em noticed that the three of us were wearing green shirts so we thought it needed to be documented.

My handsome hubby, gosh I love that man!

Once you get past the messy face, this really is such a sweet picture...

Volleyball!

If we hadn't had such a dang good time playing volleyball the week before I don't know if we would have mustered up the energy to go and play after getting back from that backpacking trip. It really is fun to play though.  Brent took some pictures but for some dumb reason I didn't grab the camera and take any of him.  I will next week. Watching him play volleyball is actually a site WORTH photographing rather than pictures like this one below. Look at my sorry attempt at a jump.  I think I made it about three inches off the ground in this picture. Wow.

We got some awesome pictures of our friends playing too but I hesitate to post them because I've gotten in trouble with family in the past for posting unflattering pictures. Not saying all of them are unflattering, it's hard to say what action shots they'd think are ugly or cool. So we'll skip the pictures of our friends and just post pictures of our kids playing with toys in the sand nearby.

Poor guy had a mark from his face plant during the hike.  It was even a bit swollen, he must have hit hard!

I finally convinced Brent to put away the camera and come play. It's always more fun when he's playing. It's more exciting.  That's how it always is with Brent though, he always makes everything more fun. I love being married to him!