Staycation

Last week we took advantage of it being Rog's last week off before school. We crammed in a lot of fun activities close to home. 

On Tuesday we went to Thanksgiving Point for their Two Buck Tuesday. The line for the Museum of Curiosity was 90 minutes long, so we opted to go to the gardens instead. It was a little rainy, but we hoped for the best.

They have a newer garden with statues depicting the Savior's life. It was the highlight of our visit.

We didn't last terribly long with the rain, but the flowers were beautiful and we figure we got at least $6 of enjoyment. (Peyton was free.) 

On Wednesday my boys were excited to wear their matching Batman shirts! (I had ordered Rog a Batman shirt from Old Navy while I was doing a little online back-to-school shopping.)

We saw Planes: Fire and Rescue at the Spanish Fork Theatre. We all enjoyed it although Peyton fell asleep right at the end!

That afternoon we went raspberry picking at the Raspberry Patch in Payson. 

Corbyn was pretty into it and picked with us until the very end.

Peyton was more interested in running through the sprinklers across the street!

On Thursday we went to the aquarium to use our bounce-back passes from when we went on Peyton's birthday. This time it was much less crowded!

The kids were being brave and got to touch the starfish and stingray in the touch pools.

That afternoon I turned our raspberries into jam - 10 half pint jars of it!

On Friday we had a chill day at home because the kids and I had come down with a cold. 

Rog went to the memorial of our friends' beautiful daughter, Aria, who only lived 7 weeks on this earth. It has been truly inspiring watching Mike and Natasha and the faith they have shown during this trial. 

That afternoon I made Buttery Cornmeal Crescent Rolls because homemade raspberry jam just tastes that much better on homemade rolls! These rolls haven't been fail-proof for me in the past, but I've been determined to practice them until they are. No guarantees for the future, but I nailed them this time!

On Saturday Rog was challenged to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by Cory Wood. He knew better than to challenge me as I was still suffering with my cold. (Turns out, I got my turn soon enough as McKae challenged me the next day.) 

That night we went to our ward pool party at the Payson pool. I opted not to get in because it was a cold night. The kids had a great time despite the cold and their purple lips!

Rog had spent half the day working on his car only to realize he had made one critical mistake, so after the pool party, he spent the rest of the night fixing it! 

It was a great week, but now it's back to reality!

Colorado Part 2

We enjoyed another trip to Colorado, but this time Rog got to come with us!

We drove through the mountain because it is so much faster. We haven't been going that way the past few years because Corbyn gets car sick, but he's old enough now to tell us when he's feeling sick, so we decided to risk it. It paid off in a major way! We only stopped once for lunch at Wendy's in Grand Junction. We let the kids run wild to get out their wiggles.

It's a good thing they're so cute - no one seemed to mind!

We made it to Aurora in time for dinner - Grandma Phillips made us spaghetti. Peyton was a big fan of the new swings in the backyard!

We spent a few days hanging out with the Hobbs. Little Skyler was giving me the biggest smiles.

Diana and Blake took us to a fun splash pad. 

Rog played with the kids and let me and Diana just talk and take turns holding Skyler.

One night we went to Sweet Tomatoes and another night Diana made us the most delicious pulled pork sandwiches.

On Saturday Dixie hosted a Pampered Chef party. Rog was superman and entertained all the kids in the backyard!

After the party, we headed to another fun splash pad. 

That night we were supposed to go to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate McKae's birthday, but the wait was too long, so we went to Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q instead.

We decided to drive home on Monday, so we could have a relaxing Sunday for once. We went to Sacrament meeting at Kenzie and Irving's ward and then headed over to Jason and Diana's house to hang out with them a little more. (Jason had a migraine the night we had planned on really hanging out with him.)

We got to have Sunday dinner with the Phillips. It was McKae's actual birthday, so we had jumbo cupcakes to celebrate. She was turning 23, but Anthony and Kenzie put 24 candles on her cupcake. And oh yes, she noticed!

Corbyn thought he had died and gone to heaven playing with the big box of Legos in the basement.

Too soon it was time to make the drive home! We went through the mountain again and only stopped once for lunch at Burger King. We couldn't leave without getting crowns for the kids!

First Half of August

We started August out with another successful trip to the dentist for both kids - no cavities! They both used their token to get a little toy. Corbyn got a little frog and Peyton got a little octopus. It worked out perfectly that they both wanted to switch.

We celebrated Grandma Lori's 55th birthday at Pizza Factory.

Saturday morning after my run, Rog went on a bike ride. The kids wanted to go too - in their pajamas!

Our cute Batman with his Bat bike!

Corbyn finished up a sticker chart he had been working on to earn another Lego set. He got the Man-Bat Attack set.

Rog and I went to my 10 year high school reunion at La Jolla Groves in Gateway. I figured since we live pretty close and all my friends were in charge of planning it, I should go support them. We had a little car trouble on our way and ended up making a detour to Saratoga Springs to drive Taylor's car there. We were almost 30 minutes late, but luckily they had built in a half hour at the beginning for mingling, so we didn't miss anything. It was fun to catch up with old friends!

Thanks to the car trouble we had, we were a one-car family for a few days while Rog's car was in the shop being fixed. It definitely made me grateful to have 2 cars that don't often give us a whole lot of trouble!

We've had so many people move out of our ward in the past month that it feels like we moved! I go outside with the kids and don't know most of the kids playing out there because they are all new. Thankfully we've still got a few solid friends left!

Since Peyton figured out how to climb out of her crib, we went ahead with the plan to move her to Corbyn's room (even though we weren't planning on doing it so soon). We ordered her mattress and got it all set up and now have been working on the fun transition to sleeping in a big girl bed.

Some nights have definitely been better than others, but overall, she's been pretty good about staying in her bed.

I feel like every kid needs a picture like this one. 

Rog got the cold that was going around at the cabin from the kids. He has been miserable with the worst sore throat for over a week now!

At the beginning of the summer I got a flyer for outdoor movies at the Scera Shell Outdoor Theatre. I immediately put Singin' in the Rain on our calendar and told Rog we were going no matter what! He was at the beginning of his cold, but was a good sport and came with me. Ironically it started to rain a little, but we just covered our heads with our blanket and toughed it out. It was a fun night!

Rog finished up his internship. He still has to present one of his projects to the COO and the CFO of the medical group in September, but he is glad to be done with the commute and is looking forward to riding Frontrunner again when school starts in a few weeks.

Last Saturday the kids and I got to hang out with Emily and her kids at Waffle Love and the Provo Rec Center. We missed having Zack and Rog with us, but had a great time!

I got to hold cute little James for a few minutes.

We tried to get a picture of the 4 kids together - this is the best we got!

I was flipping through the original Our Best Bites cookbook and decided to try a few of the recipes in there that I haven't made before. This taco was easily the best meal I've had in a long time - Black Bean and Mango Salsa (only in the cookbook) with Taco Chicken on Homemade Flour Tortillas. I had some of the leftovers on store bought tortillas and it was still good, but not quite the heaven that it was on the homemade tortillas. 

I also made the Mango Sorbet and Orange Scented Zucchini Bread that are in the cookbook. Both were amazing!

I was released from my Primary calling and called to be a teacher in the Relief Society. I taught my first lesson on Eternal Marriage and it was incredibly refreshing to not have to tell anyone to stop taking off their shoes or to get out from under their chair while I was teaching. I think I'm going to like this change.

We're loving having Rog home for a couple of weeks before he goes back to school. Although on Monday it threw off our schedule quite a bit and Peyton thought she didn't need to take a nap. Of course she fell asleep the second we put her in the car to do some errands. We were able to carry her in without waking her up and enjoyed our visit to Walmart with no (awake) kids. (Corbyn was playing at Rhys' house.)

Allergy Testing

We took Corbyn to get tested for allergies last Wednesday. Our pediatrician referred us to an allergy doctor up in Murray. It actually turned out to be one of the doctors Rog had worked very closely with during his internship, so we got a more personalized visit than other patients might get. He met us there for the appointment and I was so grateful to have his help. Corbyn had been dreading it and he did not enjoy it to say the least!

The only allergies he tested positive for on the skin test were cashew and pistachio.

We know he is allergic to dog and cat (and those didn't show up), so she recommended we do the blood testing. We didn't tell him what was going to happen and he was absolutely terrified when he realized what was going on, but he survived. 

The blood test showed that he is very allergic to cats, dogs, cashews, and pistachios. It showed a moderate allergy to most nuts - including peanuts and almonds, but because he eats those pretty regularly and doesn't have a reaction she was fine with him continuing to eat those (encouraged it in fact, so he won't start having reactions to them). Macadamia nut also came back with a moderate allergy which surprised us because we thought he had a bad reaction to that last November. Now we wonder if there was cashew or pistachio in the cookie that actually caused the reaction? Who knows, but I think we'll still keep him away from macadamia nut to be safe.

It's good to finally know exactly what he is allergic to, so we can stay far away from those foods. We put together an allergy kit that includes his epi-pens, inhaler, and Zyrtec (for less severe reactions). It goes everywhere he goes, but I really hope we don't ever have to use it!

The Cabin

As I mentioned before, we spent our 24th of July weekend at the Phillips' Cabin in Duck Creek. 

We were missing Rex, Edda, Aiden, Sam, Cade, Irving, Anthony, Martha, and Mae. Rex's family had just spent 2 weeks in Oklahoma, Irving and Anthony had to work, and poor Mae had pneumonia. Somehow it worked out that I was the only in-law there! We had 5 of the 9 grandkids together - Corbyn, Jaxon, Peyton, Rocky, and Mason. They had a great time playing together until Jaxon, Mason, and Rocky got sick. Then there was a whole lot of crying going on!

We were constantly trying to keep them entertained. Lots of air hockey...

Swinging...

Mule rides...

And log pulling. (A game invented by Rog.)

Duck Creek Days was going on, so we spent Friday morning playing there. Peyton was absolutely fearless while Corbyn was the world's biggest chicken. She tried the zip line...

And loved jumping in the bounce house.

The only thing Corbyn enjoyed was the big blow-up slide. He did it over and over until we ran out of tickets!

All the siblings had a competition on the climbing wall. Loser got to do dishes. Taylor won, but Rog was a close second.

Rog also got to ride the mechanical bull which is something he has always wanted to do!

We got out Jaxon's soccer ball and cones for a little soccer game.

Peyton thought the cones made a good hat. Obviously we don't play a lot of soccer at our house!

It cooled down a lot and we were glad we brought our jackets!

The next morning we threw rocks in the lake...

Huge splash!!

And visited the old cabin.

That afternoon Great Grandpa and Grandma Phillips came for a visit.

And Rog caught a horned toad lizard.

We took turns preparing meals for everyone. For my turn I made Mexican Haystacks. Rocky made the world's biggest mess eating it. (I think that means he liked it!)

Peyton figured out she could climb out of the pack-n-play which made bedtime really fun. She wanted to be downstairs playing Hand and Foot!

We ate an insane number of Fat Boys and had a great time even with the sick kids (and adults). But I vote next time we leave the sickness at home!