I love to see the temple

On Sunday, August 7th, we went with Arielle's family to Temple Square after dinner with Mike's family. We really enjoyed walking around the grounds. The hardest part was trying to keep Em out of all the pools of water. Arielle had fun taking pictures with our camera. Thanks, Arielle!! We actually have some pictures of me now!

Naomi and Kaylee in front of the Christus

Naomi & Kaylee looking at the temple
The girls by a reflection pool

Em in the pool

All three girls

Our family with the temple in front of us

The girls

Berry Picking

On Saturday the 6th of August, we, along with Arielle, Joel, and Emmalee, took a scenic drive through Payson to find a Berry Patch. We finally found a Raspberry Patch over on West Mountain in Payson. Before finding our berry patch, we stopped at a dollar store to find some berry picking supplies. The website for the berry patch suggested a container that tied around the waist so both hands could be free. We improvised and tied black scarves to some buckets. Naomi and Kaylee really got into picking berries. Em enjoyed picking them and then eating them. We ended up picking 8 lbs of raspberries which Arielle and I turned into raspberry jam. The jam is DELICIOUS!! Now I just need to find another berry patch because I am running out of jam. Only 3 jars left!!

Naomi picking berries
Kaylee picking berries

Joel and Em picking berries

Arielle, David, and the girls picking berries

Em picking berries and eating them ;o)

Our haul of berries

Hogle Zoo

Another activity while in Utah was visiting the Hogle Zoo. Hogle Zoo had animatronic dinosaurs set up all around the zoo for Zoorasic Park. Kaylee especially liked the one that sprayed water at you. For this outing Stephanie, Jacob, and Eliza came with as well. This was definitely another fun outing.

lft: Naomi and Jacob rt:Kaylee and Emmalee on wooden horses
Naomi, Kaylee, and Emmalee on a tiger

Oh no, look out for that dinosaur

Naomi and Eliza

Arielle, Em, Kaylee, Naomi, David and Joel by the musical elephant

lft to rt: Kaylee, Naomi, Emmalee and Jacob

Kaylee getting sprayed by a dinosaur

Living Planet Aquarium

One of the excursions Arielle planned for us was the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We all really enjoyed it especially me! I know that is a no brainer after all I am an Aquatics teacher. :o) But hey if you live in Utah close to Sandy it is well worth it. Here are some pics from that day:

This display allows you to feel the electrical currents of an electric eel. I only lasted a couple seconds. Kaylee kept her fingers on for a couple of minutes.
Naomi, Kaylee, and Emmalee sitting in a canoe in the Amazon exhibit

Emmalee trying to pet a sting ray

Emmalee, Kaylee, and Naomi looking at some jellies

The girls and a frog (maybe if they kiss it, it will turn into a prince)

Visiting with Family in Utah

The second leg of our family vacation (and the majority) was spending time with my Utah siblings (Dan, Mike, Arielle) and their families. Arielle and Joel were wonderful in allowing us to stay in their Orem condo while they were finishing out their South Jordan apartment contract. Arielle acted as our event/activity coordinator and planned out an itinerary for things for us to do when we visited. Check out the individual blog posts on those fun activities. Here is some random family pictures including pictures taken at our big family dinner:

Kaylee, Emmalee, and Naomi with Beamer (poor kittyboy)
Naomi reading to Jacob

Sleepover (Em is sharing the sleeping bag with Naomi, and Melanie is kneeling by Kaylee)

Yum breakfast for dinner (Clockwise starting in bottom lft: Em, Naomi, Kaylee, Jacob)

Thanksgiving in AZ part 2

We really enjoyed our trip to Arizona. I am glad that Naomi and I had 3 days off so we could spend 4 quality days in Arizona. We had lots of fun and made some great memories. Some of the fun we had were the girls playing in Grandpa's sandbox. Kaylee making up a interesting way of playing chess. The girls going to Show Low to see all of their cousins. It was their cousin Avery's birthday. She just turned 4. (David and I did not go with them that day. David wanted to rest. And I spent the whole day Saturday grading papers. YUCK!!!) I also got to spend time with my best friend. Too bad, I did not take any pictures of her and I. Shanna, guess I have to come back so we can take some pictures of us. All in all we really enjoyed our time. We left early Sunday morning and drove all day back to Texas. It makes for a long day but our girls are terrific travelers!!! Don't know when we will back that way again. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later!! Here are some pictures of some of our fun:

Kaylee in the sandbox
Naomi in the sandbox

Kaylee playing her interesting version of chess with David

Grandma and the girls with snow in Show Low

Kaylee with Hendrix

Naomi with Hendrix

L to R: Kaylee, Lillian, Avery, and Naomi. (Kaylee, Lillian, and Avery are all 4)

Thanksgiving in AZ

Since the end of August beginning of September, David and I had been tossing back and forth the idea of going to Safford for Thanksgiving. In David's early feel for who was going to be where for Thanksgiving, we learned that David's sister Lecia was going to travel to Safford for Thanksgiving. Since we thought David's parents were going to be at their place for Thanksgiving, we thought we would surprise his family and show up. We were not sure if we could go but finally we decided to just go for it because David really needed to see his family and I needed a break from the stress at home. However, we got a very startling monkey wrench that Monday night when we found out plans had changed and David's parents were traveling up to Lecia's for Thanksgiving. OH NO!!! Now we did not know if we were going after all and the girls and the car were pretty much packed. Long story short, we had to let the cat out of the bag and tell his parents our plans. His parents kindly rearranged their Thanksgiving plans and decided to stay in Safford so we could come out and visit. So Tuesday right after my last class, we headed off to Arizona. David and I switched off driving throughout the night and we got to Safford early Wednesday morning. We really enjoyed ourselves. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. I made my mom's absolutely scrumptious stuffing. The turkey we brought with us tasted wonderful. (Funny story: David's mom said she would have to buy a turkey. I told her don't worry about it I have a turkey in my freezer outside so we brought it in a cooler with us!!) I made my sweet potato casserole. David's mom made the greenbean casserole. And then of course we had rolls and the relish platter. What a great Thanksgiving!!! And then of course later that night there was the pie.

David helping his Dad stuff the turkey
Sitting down to eat

More eating pictures

Kaylee and her pie (no cool whip for her)

Naomi and her pie (Extra cool whip, please!!!)

Last Night I Cried

Five and a half years ago, I took a job here in Texas to be close to my family. It was a hard thing for David and I to do because we were leaving great friends and my husbands parents. However, we knew that this was what the Lord wanted us to do. And I truly missed living close to my parents. These past five years has brought a lot of challenges and changes for us as a family. We bought our first house and Kaylee was born. And then for the last couple years, my parents and for awhile my sister and niece actually lived in our home with us. Right before Thanksgiving my parents packed up all their belongings and moved to Illinois. Even though it was a challenge for all of us to live together for that long, we were truly blessed by their presence in our home. Our home has been truly empty without them here. However, the full ramifications of them moving did not fully hit until last night as we were driving home from our Thanksgiving trip to Utah. I had called my dad as we were driving thru Ft. Worth to let him know our progress. When I got off the phone with him, I realized that unlike any of the other road trips I have taken these past few years with the girls this time when I arrived home my parents would not be here. Oh how I truly missed them right then. My parents have been truly a support to us these past few years and I miss them so much. Mom and Dad thanks for these past two and a half years. Your presence will be missed in our home. And the girls miss their grandparents very much!!

Trip to Arizona

On Valentine's weekend, David and I went to Arizona by ourselves for the blessing of his new neice Devyn. It was a quick trip to and from but we enjoyed the time without the girls.

Grandpa and Grandma with Devyn

The Watsons

We thought it was interesting that we left Texas and went to Arizona and found SNOW!!