Friday, August 30, 2013

Five on Friday

1. This week the kids and I went to nearly every children's clothing store in Utah Valley on a search for a shirt for Corbyn to wear for our family pictures tomorrow. Ironically enough I ended up buying him a shirt from the very first store we went to.

2. On Tuesday I spent $60 at the BYU Bookstore on BYU shirts for our family. If that's not evidence enough that we still bleed blue, I don't know what is!

3. Rocky Gonzalez was born on Wednesday at 7:59 pm. He was 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21 inches long. I can't believe we have to wait until Thanksgiving to meet him! Congrats Anthony and McKae - he's perfect!



4. Also on Wednesday, Grandma, Grandpa, and Jared got home from their trip to Sweden. (Finally! It seemed like they were gone forever!)

5. Today we went to the temple. We were excited to see the new film they have for the endowment session. Rog says it was great, but I kind of slept through most of it. (Oops. I know I should go to bed earlier, but then I would never get anything done!)
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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Week Zero

Week Zero was kind of intense for Rog. He had classes or other things going on Monday - Friday from about 8 - 4 (some days he got done a little later and some days he got done a little earlier). He also had a  mandatory service project most of the day on Saturday.

And he had to get used to getting up there. It takes about 2 hours to get from our house to his building on campus with him driving to the Frontrunner station in Provo and taking Frontrunner and TRAX from there. That seems like a lot of time, but it's free (other than the short drive to Provo) and it gives him built-in study time.

I tried to plan things for us to do most days to help us make it through the week.

On Monday we drove up to the U to go to a welcome BBQ they had for the students and their families.

On Tuesday we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point with Amber, Tyce, and Liam. In August they have 2 Buck Tuesdays, so it was pretty insanely busy. Peyton liked it a lot more than I thought she would - she pointed and roared at all the dinosaurs. Corbyn didn't seem too overly excited while we were there, but he's talked about it a lot since, so I think he really did have a good time.



On Thursday we got out the pool and invited some friends over.



That night Rog and I had planned to go to see an outdoor showing of the Hunger Games while Mariah watched our sleeping kids. (They close 100 W in Provo in front of Sammy's Cafe and play movies on an inflatable screen.) Unfortunately it started to rain not long after the movie started, so they had to cancel it. We got a half price shake from Sonic to share on our way home instead. Hopefully they'll reschedule!



Saturday morning we went to Seven Peaks. Corbyn brought this little polar bear to play with while we were there. When we were packing up to leave he wanted a picture with him. He told the polar bear to say cheese and everything. Cutest.Kid.Ever.



We had fun, but it was a long week without Rog. We are glad to have Week Zero over with! Now we can settle into his real schedule. (Monday - Thursday from about 9 - 3. Much more manageable!)
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Monday, August 26, 2013

Fun with Rog Home

We spent the week before Rog went back to school mostly at home. We worked on some projects around the house - cleaning the garage, washing/vacuuming our cars, boxing up the kids' clothes from the last year... I also got to run some errands without the kids. Of course we managed to fit in some fun too.

*I finally found the perfect taco pizza recipe. How can you go wrong with the Pioneer Woman though?!



*While cleaning the garage, I found 4 capes I'd forgotten I had in our Halloween box!



*Also while cleaning the garage, Rog bumped his head and got a little cut. Corbyn insisted he needed a band aid...or 3. I couldn't look at him without laughing!



*We floated the Provo River.



*We went with Rog up to the U to get his U Card and buy some packets he needed from the bookstore. (He's smiling because he wore a blue shirt for his picture. He may be going to the U, but he's a cougar at heart!)



*We went up to Girl's Camp for bishopric night. It made me feel really old to be up there as a bishopric wife! They had a fun photo booth with props.

Bishopric + Wives



Us



Mariah was the camp director, so I got a picture with her too!



*The kids played in the rain.



Mohawk Peyton and Freezing Corbs!



It was a busy week - productive and also fun!
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Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Scenic Route

On Saturday (the day after we got home from Aspen Grove), we drove down to St. George to celebrate Rog's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. (60 years - that's 10 times as long as we've been married! Definitely something to celebrate.) The main event was dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Kids weren't invited, so we had a lady in my parent's ward (who has kids of similar ages) watch our kids. (My parents hadn't come back down yet.) After dinner we picked up our kids and went over to their house to enjoy some ice cream cake. And we all had a good laugh over a painting they recently acquired. (We'll leave it at that!)

We finished the night at the St. George Splash Pad.



After going for the first time last summer, we made it a point to go again this summer. Such a great splash pad!



Here's a little side-by-side comparison of Peyton last summer and Peyton this summer - almost exactly a year apart and at the same splash pad. She's done a lot of growing up over the last year!



Grandma Dixie came with gifts for both kids. A cute outfit for Peyton and an Iron Man costume for Corbyn. Go figure, I only ended up getting a picture of Peyton in the Iron Man costume. Corbyn loves it too!



We had kind of an interesting Sunday morning. We planned to go to my parent's ward, but for some reason we both thought it started at 11:00 when it actually started at 9:00. So we ended up taking the Sacrament with the Spanish Branch and then heading out because we wouldn't have understood a word of it anyway! Instead we visited Rog's mission president. Then Corbyn played trains while Peyton napped and we got dinner ready.



My parents and Jared got back Sunday night. We enjoyed breakfast at Kneaders with them before starting the drive home Monday morning.

We decided to take the scenic route home. Our first stop was Navajo Lake.



It's been way too long since we visited the cabin (August 2009 - before we had kids), so we thought we'd at least stop at the lake.



We all had fun throwing rocks in the lake.



And as always Peyton had fun playing in the dirt!



Then we drove to Bryce Canyon National Park. I just love Bryce!



First order of business was a snack for the kids - yogurt for PJ.



Our little monkey at it again.



The kids look oh so happy in this picture, but trust me, they did have a good time!



As we were leaving, this chipmunk (or squirrel or whatever) was very friendly with Peyton. (I'm sure he wanted her Fritos.)



It was a fun little trip down to the southern part of our state - made even better by taking the scenic route home!
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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Aspen Grove

Aspen Grove celebrated its 50th anniversary this summer. The Ririe family has been going almost that long. They started visiting Aspen Grove 45 years ago when my dad was just a little boy and we've been going every few years ever since. I myself have been (at least) 5 times. The last time we went was 6 years ago - right after Rog and I got married. It was fun to bring my kids this time!

So some of you are probably asking, what is Aspen Grove? It's a family camp run by the BYU Alumni Association and staffed mostly by BYU students. Quite conveniently located right up Provo Canyon. They have something for just about everyone. The kids are divided into age groups and taken care of during the day - even newborns - although if Peyton was any younger I doubt I would have felt comfortable leaving her.

Saturday afternoon while I was finishing packing and checking us in, Rog attended the baptism of a lady he used to home teach. He came up afterwards, but then left again Sunday morning to be at our ward.

The kids sure loved Sacrament meeting in the mountains - they spent most of the time jumping off tree stumps! (And I spent most of the time trying to get them to sit down with me. Guess who won?!) Peyton snuck into nursery for the first time ever. When I was dropping Corbyn off, they said it was ok to leave her (even though she isn't 18 months yet) and I jumped at the opportunity to enjoy Sunday School and Relief Society in peace.

After church they always take family pictures. Diana and Blake were able to come for the week, but Jason had to stay in Texas. With Rog at our ward, we had a complete family photo minus our husbands.



This group was complete for the first time in over 2 years - the original five reunited!



Sunday evening we went for a walk around camp, but ended up exploring all the fun playgrounds they have for the kids. This airplane was a favorite.



As was the pirate ship.



Monday afternoon is Aspen Follies. Our family wasn't big enough to form our own team, but we combined with other small families and had fun doing all the different activities. I dressed for the water activities, but no one else from our team wanted to do those - a bummer because they are always my favorite!



Corbyn didn't always understand the competition aspect of the activities. He just wanted to play! After the timed run with the big ball, I helped him push it up and down the hill at his pace.



After Aspen Follies the pool was open for free swim. Corbyn had the best time playing with his dad!



His big accomplishment for the week was being brave enough to swim around on his own with the help of a couple noodles.



Tuesday night is Frontier Night. Rog was pretty excited to throw a hatchet.



The kids loved riding the train around the field.



And Corbyn was so so so beyond excited that he shot a bear (a fake one of course) with a bow and arrow.



Wednesday is hike day. Rog, Diana, and I hiked Timp. The night before my dad was saying that just because we were at Aspen Grove, we didn't have to hike Timp... But then he backtracked when he got thinking about how when he was younger he always hiked Timp. We went to the early bird breakfast at 6:30 am and then headed out. Grandpa Ririe sent us off on the hike and he was there waiting for us when we got back! Everyone who wasn't hiking helped take care of our kids in the morning before they were able to drop them off at their groups for the rest of the day.



It was Diana'a first time, Rog's 3rd time, and my 4th time.



I would have been content to sit and work on my quiet book project the whole week.



And I definitely did a lot of that while I watched everyone play hours of tennis.



Including my styling husband with his shirt on his head.



But Rog made sure I got out and did other things as well. The ropes course is always a good time.



I went first and Rog followed right behind me, so we have pictures of me going up and Rog coming down.



And I tried archery for the first time. I didn't think it'd be my thing, but I was surprised by how much I liked it!



One night we checked out a fishing pole and went fishing because we're such huge fishers (ha ha). We didn't have any bait, so we didn't catch anything, but Corbyn had fun anyway.



We had a little birthday party for my mom with a pie from Village Inn. I made her this grandchildren photo board with a Mickey Mouse theme because her kitchen is decorated with Mickey Mouse stuff. (I updated this post with a picture of the one I made for Dixie's birthday back in April if you're interested.)



Thursday is the closing show. Corbyn wouldn't go up with his group to do their cheer and the song they learned and practiced all week... Maybe next time!



I got an award for swimming a mile throughout the week during the lap swim each morning.



And these guys, well they totally dominated the sports competitions.



We played games just about every night we were there. The last night they got me to play Settlers of Catan which was quite the accomplishment for them. I used to love that game, but then got so done with it and haven't played it in years!



Corbyn is our little monkey man. Every time we turned around he was climbing something!



Peyton loves the dirt. She was always getting dirty and loved every second of it!



She also thought playing ping pong with dad was about the coolest thing ever!



Since our last visit they put some animal statues around camp. We got so many cute pictures of Peyton playing on them.



She loved pretending that the bear bit her finger. She did it over and over again every time she saw the bear.



It was a great week! My one regret is that I didn't make it over to play a game of shuffle board (too busy sewing) - I guess we'll have to go back again in another few years!
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