An evening at The Deer Valley Music Festival

Two or three years ago, Nate and I went to see Ben Folds perform with the Utah Symphony at their annual Deer Valley Music Festival.  It was such a great experience that we knew we wanted to go again sometime. Well, this year we saw that one of the featured performers would be Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers and we decided to make it happen.  

The concert was on July 19th at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.  If there was one thing we learned from our first experience at the DVMF it was that there is very limited parking.  This year we decided to stay at the Lodges at Deer Valley so that we could walk the half-mile to the concert and not worry about parking at all. 

Even though the concert was in the middle of July, it was our celebration of our 11th wedding anniversary, which was on June 30th.  Grandma Laurie kept the kids for the night.  We had a wonderful time! 

The concert was outdoors on the grass.  We brought some beach chairs, a blanket, and a cooler full of goodies.  We knew this would be a popular concert, but were still a little surprised to see people lining up two hours early to get in.  We went over as quick as we could, but still ended up toward the back of the audience.  This was our view...

The concert was great!  Steve Martin is a great entertainer and a very talented banjo player.  The Steep Canyon Rangers played and sang wonderfully as well and they also had another bluegrass singer with them, Edie Brickell, who was fabulous! 

Thank you Deer Valley Music Festival for another wonderful evening filled with great music and wonderful memories!

So, it's been a couple of months since I blogged.  We've done all kinds of fun, wonderful, and interesting things. But let's be honest.  I don't really have the time to write a novel and you probably don't have time to read one.  So, we'll keep it short and simple. 

Lilly turned 7 in May.  Grandma Laurie and Aunt Sarah were down visiting and got to celebrate with us.  We went to the Fiesta Family Fun Center and played in the arcade and the kids rode the bumper boats.  Then we had lasagna for dinner with a chocolate octopus cake.  No worries, it was just shaped like an octopus. 

Nate and Jayne having fun on the bumper boats. 

Lilly lounging about in the camping chair Aunt Rachel gave her

We also made a few trips to Zion's National Park

 The kids have been out of school for almost a month now.  We've been doing lots of swimming, visiting the library, eating snow cones, playing outside, and watching movies.  All the great things summer is made of! 

Lilly played tee ball and really enjoyed it.  She want's to play again and we've been spending time practicing a little at the park.  It's been great to get out and play as a family.  

Lilly with her tee ball trophy.

Jonah started taking karate classes and is really loving it.  He goes once a week. 

Nate bought a motorcycle, fulfilling one of his lifelong dreams.  It's an old Kawasaki with a very distinctive and loud rumble to it.  We always know when he's coming or going.  =)

The kids love it when Nate takes them on little rides around the parking lot.

I had a lovely Mother's Day complete with handmade cards and gifts from the kids, new pans and a beautifully simple ring from Nate.  For Father's Day this past weekend, the kids made Nate cards and we gave him some movies (his favorite kind of gift), a bucket of Red Vines, and an ice cream maker.  We made a batch of pistachio ice cream and he was in heaven!

We had new family photos taken by my cousin Amanda of Amanda Kay Memories photography.  We absolutely love how they turned out!  She gave us over 100 images and I love almost every single one of them, but I'll just share a few of my favorites.  

So there you have it.  The last two months in a nutshell.  Things are busy and sometimes even crazy, but we're loving every minute of it! 

Spring Break Trip to Grandma's House

Sometime in February, (I can't remember exactly when), Lilly & Jayne came down the stairs carrying bulging backpacks, two stuffed animals, and their "softies"(blankets).  They informed me that they wanted to go to Grandma Laurie's house for a sleep-over that night.  The looks on their faces were so happy and hopeful that it broke my heart to be the one to tell them that we simply could not make the 5 hour drive to Grandma's house that day.  But I vowed I would call and set up a future sleep-over.  I called my mom and we set a date for a weekend in March.  We would be up Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We planned to get a hotel and then let Jonah, Lilly & Jayne have one night as a sleep-over night at Grandma's house.  As usually happens, plans changed. 
Nate couldn't get the time off work, so it was just the kids and me.  We drove up on Thursday.  It was a long, long, long drive, but we all survived.  On Friday we went to the Hogle Zoo.  Our membership was due to expire in April so we decided to go one more time.  My sister Sarah went with us and my sister Rachel joined us for the last hour or so. 
The kids always love the zoo.  We got to see the polar bear swimming and pushing itself off the glass wall lined with spectators.  We saw the mother and baby elephants washing themselves with dust.  We got to see them feed a rabbit to the tigers (gross, I know).  Almost all of the animals were active, which was fun.  The girls rode the carousel and Jonah took pictures of his favorite animals, the snakes and lizards. 

My handsome Jonah.  I just love his freckles! 

Goofing around for a picture. 

Lilly with the big black ball fountain.  The kids always love playing in the water, but it wasn't turned on yet. 

Fun Memories!

Then the older kids got to do their sleepover at Grandma's house. Sarah babysat while my mom and I went out to dinner at The Olive Garden. It was really nice to have some one-on-one time with her. 
Lilly had been asking me if they could spend two nights at Grandma's.  I told her she would have to ask Grandma.  So the kids ended up sleeping at my mom's on Friday night and Saturday night.  So I had two nights with just Abram and me in the hotel.  He slept pretty good and I relaxed, did some reading, took a bubble bath.  Things I don't get to do very often. 
On Saturday the kids got to visit a farm in Morgan and see some baby cows.  Abram and I joined everyone for dinner on Saturday night. 
It was a nice way to finish up our spring break week.  It would have been nicer if Nate could have come.  Much less work for me. =) 

The Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum

My kids really like museums, especially Jonah. One of his favorite outings when we lived up north was visiting The Museum of Natural History.  Since we moved, we drive by the sign for the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum here in St. George at least three times a week.  Jonah has been asking to go for months!  So while the kids were on spring break from school, I decided we'd check it out. 
The kids were given binoculars to use while inside and they really liked spotting all the animals. 

Apparently, Jayne is oblivious to the danger that lies immediately to her right.

They have a playroom for the kids, complete with fort, camouflage dress-up, and books about various animals.

Jonah preferred to chill on the comfy couch while the girls played.

Abram was less than impressed.

Lilly & Jayne made a fuzzy new friend

Too cool to smile already.

I told the kids they could each spend $10 in the gift shop.  They all chose these stuffed snakes to take home. 

As you can see, we enjoyed our afternoon at the museum. 

Abram's first hair cut

Yes, you read the title correctly.  Our little guy has already had his first haircut by the time he's five months old!  We all really loved his wild and crazy baby locks.  His hair was always the first thing commented on by everyone he met.  But, alas, as often happens, he began to get little bald spots on the back and sides of his head where the hair was rubbed off when he's playing on the floor or lying in his bed at night.  So our little Abie got his first 'Barnum Buzz'.  All of the Barnum men eventually get the 'Barnum Buzz' haircut.  Jonah has had several and in fact, he also had his first one when he was about Abram's age.  So without further ado....

Not the best picture of his hair, but.....

Here he is!  His fuzzy hair is growing in quite light.  Depending on what light you're in, it ranges from looking very very very light blonde to sort of a strawberry or copper blonde. 

4 Months Old

I've been a terrible blogger lately and I really don't have any good reason.  Meanwhile, our sweet little Abram has been growing like a weed.  He's 4 months old now.  He smiles and laughs and he's working on rolling over.  Abram loves chewing on his fists and grabbing at his toys.  He hates being on his tummy and he spits like a pro.   Seriously, this kid spits up more than any other baby I've ever seen. 
 I don't really have any "stats" for you right now.  His 4 month check-up is next week. But I do have pictures!  That's all that you really care about anyway, right? 

Love that smile!

Enjoying his favorite chew toy

"Seriously, Mom.  When can I get off this thing?"

Hangin' out on Daddy's shoulder

"Yeah, I spit.  So what?"

So, so, so close to rolling over!

Hanging out on the floor

Jonah turned 9

I'm a little bit behind in my blogging, as usual.  Last week, on January 21st to be exact, Jonah had his 9th birthday!  He requested lasagna for dinner and for the family to go to the movie theaters to celebrate.  Since Nate was working all day on the 21st, we did the lasagna, cake, and presents that day and then went to a movie on Nate's day off, which was two days later.  We saw Wreck-It Ralph.  Well, everyone but me saw the movie.  I spent it walking the hall with Abram.  From what I hear though, it was fabulous!

So, what can I tell you about Jonah?  He's started reading the Harry Potter books, which is a huge deal because he normally only likes non-fiction.  He started on The Chamber of Secrets, which is the 2nd book in the series.  He bought it himself with $10 he got for Christmas.  He skipped reading the first one because he'd seen the movie.  Now that he's read the second book and seen how the books can be so much different from the movies, he's anxious to get The Sorcerer's Stone and read it too.  Grandma Laurie got him the 3rd and 4th books for his birthday. 

Jonah's latest artistic venture has been working with clay.  He was given a toy pottery wheel for Christmas and we gave him some more air-dry clay for his birthday.  He checked out some books from the library to get project ideas and has been creating ever since. 

Jonah wants to start taking karate lessons.  He's never been a fan of team sports, so this might be a good fit for him.  We're going to start with the karate club at the local recreation center because it's about half the cost of lessons anywhere else.  Stay tuned for updates on that. 

Poor Jonah has been such a good sport about sleeping in the same room as his sisters since Abram was born.  Once Abram is sleeping through the night, we'll put them back in the same room.  For now, he's on the top bunk and I'm sure he's not getting as much sleep as he's used to with all the giggling and climbing around that the girls do. 

Oh how we love our Jonah!  He's such a great helper around the house and with his siblings.  We're truly blessed to have him as our eldest. 

He was a bit distracted =)

Birthday picnic at the park.  This was the first time ever that we've been able to go to the park or do anything outside on Jonah's birthday.  We spent over an hour just playing in the southern Utah sunshine!

All the birthday swag.

Happy Birthday Jonah!