FUN AT "SCARY HILL"

October 21st the kids were out of school, so we took them to "Scary Hill". They had a lot of fun miniature golfing, rock climbing, and going on a tractor ride. They thought the "skeleton couple" driving the motor home was especially funny...

Autumn Adventure

For our 37th anniversary, we decided to take a trip to Jackson Hole over General Conference weekend. Friday morning we drove over Monte Cristo to check out the autumn leaves (gorgeous), then stopped in Alpine, Wyoming for lunch at Tootsie's Pizza.

When we got to Jackson, we checked into the Rusty Parrot Lodge, walked around downtown and did a little shopping. Then we drove to Teton Village where we saw this huge moose just resting in someone's front yard. That night we ate dinner at the Wild Sage Restaurant-where we got to watch the chefs prepare our food! My halibut was some of the best I've ever had...

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at Cafe Genevieve and then drove to Grand Teton National Park, stopped at gorgeous Jenny Lake then entered the south end of Yellowstone Park...
We ate lunch at Grant Village, then drove to West Thumb to see the Geyser Basin and on to Old Faithful. Along the way we saw one elk from a distance and a fox trotting along the road, but no buffalo or bear! Old Faithful wasn't going to "erupt" for 45 minutes, so we didn't wait...

There were wild fires in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, so the view of the magnificent Tetons was not ideal. That night we ate dinner at The Kitchen-fun atmosphere, food was just okay.

Sunday morning we had a yummy breakfast at the Wild Sage then started home. We took a different route on the way home...through Montpelier, Idaho, past Bear Lake and up Logan Canyon. The autumn leaves were amazing in Logan Canyon, but weren't very colorful yet in Sardine Canyon. It was nice to get away for a few days! Thank you Delbert, and Happy Anniversary!!

Twenty-five...

Darren's 25th birthday was a 4 day celebration! On his actual birthday, he went to a birthday party for Becca's nephews. On Saturday, Becca spoiled him! They did yoga at The International Peace Gardens, went out to breakfast, then fed the ducks at Liberty Park and went to dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille and to see the movie Warrior. She also gave him a gift he was super excited about...a Derrick Favors jersey! (Which he wore to the Utah Jazz vs. NBA Exhibition Charity Basketball game they attended on Nov. 7th).

Sunday we had a family dinner and his favorite chocolate chip ice cream cake from 31 Flavors.

Monday, Dale & I took him to Tuscany (the restaurant, not Italy...) for dinner to celebrate 25 years of having this great son in our lives...

Happy 75th, Mom!

My mom turned 75 on Sept. 13th...she decided for her birthday she wanted to go on an adventure to visit Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln! Here my cute parents are at some of their stops on their road trip (Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills-Custer County, South Dakota).
They loved Custer State Park in South Dakota and thought Mt. Rushmore was spectacular!
On their way home, they stayed at the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone Park, and the next day went for a boat ride on Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, so the view of the Tetons wasn't too grand! I'm grateful to have such an amazing, dedicated, loving mother and am so happy she got her wish to visit somewhere she's always wanted to go. Love you, Mom!

The Greatest Show on Earth...

For Ashley's birthday party on September 24th, she went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus with some family and friends. They left the circus "Fully Charged", and ready for pizza and cake & ice cream at Ashley's house.

Circus Favorites: Tabayara and his twelve ferocious tigers, the galloping stallions, the silly clowns, the dancing four-ton Asian Elephants, the Ukrainian strongmen, flying trapeze performers, and The Human Fuse (a man who rockets through the air all ablaze)!

Seven...

September 26, 2011 - Happy 7th Birthday to Ashley & Happy 37th Anniversary to us!!

Pizza, presents, cake & ice cream after the circus...love this 7-year-old!!

LAGOON

Our company party was held on Sept. 10th at Lagoon, and it rained on us again! Luckily it didn't last for long. The new ride BomBora is really fun. Jensyn & I were in the first car and it was a scream! Ashley decided she wanted to go on Wicked...that was until the ride got to the top of the hill! She was crying when they got off, but later on said that was one of her favorite rides. Austin loved the train and Jacob's favorite was Puff the Little Fire Dragon. Jacob had a little girl hop in his car with him on the Speedway (he didn't seem to mind)...

Other favorite rides were the Ladybug Bop, the Spider and The Wild Mouse. Darren made Becca go on the Rocket-she said that's her first and last time going on that ride!

We had a good turn out and appreciate all the employees do to make High-Tech a success!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND-Part Two

Monday, Sept. 5th we went to Solider Hollow to watch Brett and his dogs compete in the "High Flyin' Dock Diving Competition". This is an event where very obedient dogs compete for distance, diving from a dock into a 40 foot pool. They basically dive into the pool in search of an object their owner has thrown into the pool. The end of their tail is where their jump is marked. Tank (blue collar) jumped 8' 11" and took 4th out of 5 in his division, and Sage (red collar) took 2nd out of 5 in her division. She jumped a whopping 16' 11". Way to go doggies!

After the competition, we got lunch at the Dairy Keen in Heber then Dale, Darren & I went to the Park City Parade of Homes. We only made it to 5 houses, but we had a fun time.

Goodbye Summer...

Wow, where did summer go?? With school starting on August 22nd (isn't that a little early?), I guess summer is over-well not officially, but it seems like it...Here's a few things we'll miss about summer:

Jacob will miss playing in the fountain and playing t-ball with Uncle Deena.

Austin will miss running through the sprinklers in his diaper, and playing baseball!

These boys LOVE water!

Austin will also miss "riding" his trike on the lawn. This pink trike is 8 years old-it's been in our garage since Jensyn was little...

The start of school also means our annual shopping trip for school clothes (and a cheese-on-stick, of course) with Ashley & Jensyn. Ashley will be in first grade this year and Jensyn will be in fourth!

LIGHTNING...

August 14th - Our deck is a great place to watch thunderstorms...Darren sat out there for several hours and got these great shots!

JOSH...GROBAN!

August 13th we got home from Bear Lake, cleaned the boat and then I got to go see Josh Groban's "Straight to You" Concert. Brett got tickets from work, but he thought I'd enjoy it more than he would, so I went with Lauren. I've seen Josh Groban in concert twice before, but the third time was just as exciting as the first! He is an amazing performer...he's one of those singers who sound just as good, or better in person! He sang familiar songs and some from his new CD "Illuminations"(he co-wrote 11 of the 13 songs on this album). One of my favorites was "Wandering Kind", which is an instrumental he wrote when he was 12 years old!

I thought he would appear on the big stage, but as the band started playing, this small stage popped up from the floor and there he was!

Josh feels right at home in Salt Lake City. It's the first arena he ever played in his concert career!

Not only can Josh sing, he plays the piano and performed an amazing drum solo!

Thanks for not wanting to go, Brett!

Utah Symphony Summer Concert...

July 30th - Deer Valley Snow Park Amphitheater - Gorgeous night for a spur-of-the moment date! (We kind of invited ourselves to go with Lauren's family)...

Surprise!! Lauren didn't tell Brett that it was a Utah Symphony concert...

Idina Menzel, the Broadway star of "Wicked" and "Rent" headlined the concert. She was delightful, singing a variety of old songs and new. My favorites were definitely "I'm Not That Girl, "For Good", and "Defying Gravity". I was impressed not only with her voice, but with the fact that she chose to fly to Salt Lake early that morning instead of the night before, so she could tuck her young son in bed!

PRE-schooler...

Jacob and his SpongeBob back pack all ready to go...

Preschool started on Sept. 6th. He goes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and loves it!

Where's "Wardie"?

For our combined Young Men/Young Women Activity on August 24th, we played "Where's Wardie". This is an activity similar to "Where's Waldo?". People in our ward disguised themselves and walked around the Gateway. Our assignment: find all 9 of them in 1 hour. Most of the groups were successful and we had a great time. Our "wardies" did a fantastic job of looking like a grumpy old couple, a biker dude, sports fans, a mommy, a librarian, a "goth" and a bearded man!

F R I E N D S...

I've been friends with these "girls" for a LONG time (I went to McMillan Elementary with some of them). They are all unique and special to me. We met on August 29th for dinner at Mimi's because Jill was in town from Virginia. Her husband passed away from cancer this summer. Despite some pretty tough trials some of them are going through right now, we had a great time reminiscing, catching up and listening...after all, that's what friends are for!

Jill, Laureen, Me, Deb, Janet, Stefani, Marti

LABOR DAY WEEKEND-Part One

Labor Day Weekend Dale & I took a quick trip to St. George with Chris' family. We left on Friday afternoon and came home on Sunday. Chris' family stayed with Dale's parents and we stayed with Barb...

Friday night we went to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn. It was amazing. The special effects were the best I've seen at any play we've gone to there. I wish I could have taken some photos during the production...the costumes were incredible!

Saturday we spent the afternoon cooling off at the Splash Pad on Main Street. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch (Pizza Factory take-out).

The Main Street Plaza now has a carousel, so we had to try it out...

Jacob loved the palm trees in Grandpa & Grandma's yard. The kids also had a great time playing with Bree & Allie. Barb's peach trees were loaded, so we got our fill of peaches! She even made Jacob his very own peach pie...

COWBOYS AND GIRLS!

July 25th, D and Becca and B and Lauren decided to be "Cowboys" for a date to the

Days of '47 Rodeo...

A trip to the D.I. and some borrowed cowboy attire, and they were set!

Nice belt buckles & boots!!

Silver Sharks...

Jacob had his very first soccer game on August 30th. Even though his shorts were so big they kept falling down, he ran fast and had a fun time. The name of his team is "The Silver Sharks", and his soccer "teacher" is a girl! His team didn't win, but hey, aren't the treats the most important part anyway??

1st Haircut...

Look who got a haircut!

August 28th I tended Austin and he looked like a completely different boy! He visited Rosie's Salon for his 1st haircut over the weekend-he's a big boy now and proud of it...

Muir Family Reunion @ Bear Lake

August 10-12 we got together with most of Dale's immediate family for the Muir Family Reunion. We stayed at the Fish Haven Lodge which accommodated all 45 of us! Wednesday night some of the families went to The Pickleville Playhouse for a dutch-oven dinner and the musical "Joseph". The rest of the clan just enjoyed spending time chillin'...

We are FAM-I-LY...

Kerry brought up some Polaris Ranger RZR vehicles that were a blast to drive around in (and got us very dusty!). The "lodge" seemed like it started out to be a family cabin that was added on to MANY times! It had 14 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. There was a fun stream running through the property, a fire-pit, swing set, and lots of grass to run around on. Thursday night we enjoyed an outdoor movie using a screen Dale made out of PVC. Friday night we built a fire and made S'mores. We also enjoyed playing games and going to get raspberry shakes!

Thursday we spent the day at North Beach. Bear Lake is really high this year, so there weren't a lot of beaches to hang out on! I'm glad we took our boat, it's the first time I've been in it all summer. The kids had a blast on the tube and I loved just "taking up space in the boat"! The water didn't seem as "turquoise" as it usually is-not sure why...

GOOD TIMES...thanks to my wonderful in-laws for arranging this reunion!

Brett & Lauren and Darren & Becca came up for the day on Friday. We rented "bicycles built for six" and rode around town-it was fun and a good work out! For lunch we treated ourselves to Mexican food at Cafe Sabor-yum!

I have always loved this house and gorgeous yard in Garden City...I was so surprised and pleased to find out a few years ago that Dale's grandma, Orrie Calder Muir lived in this house as a young girl. No wonder I love it...it's part of the family!!

Pioneer Cemetery Tour

Dale's parents were visiting us on July 24th and we decided to check out the Bountiful City Cemetery, which was highlighting some of Bountiful's First Settlers. Little did we know that ancestors on both his mom and dad's side were some of these "Pioneers".

William Smith Muir (Dale's great-great grandfather) and Jean "Jane" Robb were born in 1822 in Scotland. In the early 1840's both Jane and William heard the gospel message and were baptized. They both had a desire to emigrate to America and join with other Saints. In January of 1844-just weeks before they set sail, William and Jane married. The newlyweds arrived in Nauvoo on April 18th. On June 1, 1849, William and Jane began their journey to Salt Lake City. They eventually made their home in Bountiful-in an area that is now Woods Cross. William had 4 wives and 36 children!

I'm grateful for these wonderful, faithful ancestors...

The Hogans were from Norway. Eleven years after leaving Norway, and enduring many hardships, including burying a 4-year-old daughter at sea, Eric's family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. They eventually settled in South Bountiful, and were hard-working farmers. Eric was Dale's great-great-great Grandfather on his mom's side.