May Happenings

May is always such a busy month with the end of school, programs, field trips, recitals, etc, etc.  This May didn't disappoint, and for some reason we kept having multiple things on the same night.  These people have got to coordinate!

We started off with a Saturday of craziness.  Sage participated in her first dance competition at Lagoon.  She was so nervous but did a great job and now can't wait to dance for the rest of her life.  At the same time Sage was competing Kate had her dress rehearsal for her choir concert that night.  As soon as Sage was done we raced back home to be able to go to Kate's concert.  Jake of course was out of town for this fun.  Despite the craziness of the day both girls did amazing.  Sage's group got first place and Kate did awesome on her first solo!

Then on Thursday we had double duty again.  Kate had her fourth grade program at the same time as Sage's dance recital.  Jake and I went to Kate's program during the afternoon and then we had to divide and conquer with the grandparents that night.  They both did a fabulous job, of course.  And we had to celebrate with ice cream after.  (In case you think Zack is being neglected he's riding his mountain bike every week in a group and taking guitar lessons)

In between all of these recitals we've been killing ourselves in our yard.  What's new right?  This was the big push to get our grass in.  We had to spread the top soil and get it all ready to hydro seed.  The good news is the grass seed is down, now we just have to cross our fingers that it grows.  The other good news is that this is the main thing we wanted to get done this year so now we can work in the yard for an hour or two instead of days at a time.  Hooray!!

Memorial Day was a great day filled with zero yard work.  It was blissful.  We started out the day run/walking up Memorial Hill.  Good place to go on Memorial Day.  Then we visited cemeteries which I love and Jake tolerates once a year.  We got to go to two different BBQs as well, so it was pretty much a perfect day:)

I managed my first dance hair-do without too much drama

Sage and her BFF

Sage's go-to pose these days

Sage's dance buddies

Beautiful Kate in her choir dress

Sage's 80s outfit

Pioneer Kate for the 4th grade program and her cute friends

Kate's class

Ready for grass!

Hydro seed down!

Memorial Hill:)

A Week of Remembering

Its that week again.  Mothers Day, Linz' Angel Day, and Mom's birthday...all in one week.  I will admit that there have been years where I took this week as an opportunity to feel sorry for myself.  To be really sad.  But I'm learning (yes it happens) that this is not the way to go.  Not to mention I'm sure it makes Mom and Linz want to hit me over the head.  Yes, I still shed a tear or two, or three or four.  Yes, I still miss them and think of them a lot.  But rather than look at what I don't have I look at what I can do to remember them.  And I take the opportunity to evaluate my life.  What would Mom tell me to do differently if she were here?  How would Linz be enjoying life and how can I do the same?  And I look at my own family and think about how grateful I am for them and how much they'll love Mom and Linz when they finally get to know them.

So this year I made some bread that I'll be taking around.  I picked some lilacs and put them on the table (they always remind me of mom).  I've been talking to the kids about finding extra service opportunities this week.  And I'm going to play with the kids more than usual, just like Linz would.

This week is definitely bitter sweet.  Bitter because they're not here with us and we miss them.  But sweet because of the memories we have and the gospel plan that means we'll be with them again.  So I'm remembering, but I'm happy remembering...

Viva Mexico!

Jake and I got to go to Mexico last week for a few days.  Just us, no kids.  It was heavenly.  We went to Puerto Vallarta and we loved it.  Its a beautiful city with beautiful beaches.  We got to relax on the beach and do some fun boogie boarding.  The waves were perfect for that!  I got eaten up and spit out by the ocean a few times:)

We went into the city one day.  It has a pretty walkway right along the beach that was fun.  We stopped and ate at the smallest random food place ever.  Our table was literally on the beach.  Beautiful.  And even better when we got to eat the best mexican food ever.  For reals.  The guac was beyond good and the shrimp on my tacos was fresh from the ocean.  If only I could eat there every day!  We took the bus into the city for an adventure.  Figured I might as well use my spanish.  Getting back to the resort was awesome.  The first bus we got on was a typical mexican (or El Salvador cuz they're the same there) bus.  Totally falling apart.  The second you pay the bus driver slams on the gas, and I mean they floor it.  You're careening around corners at top speed in a big bus that's super loud because all the metal on it is banging as you bounce on the cobblestone roads.  Then when they stop they slam on the brakes as well.  Jake had never experienced anything like it.  It makes me so happy that he got to enjoy this:)

We got to do a really fun adventure tour one day.  We went across the bay in a big raft thing to this little pueblo built right up on the mountains.  Puerto Vallarta has huge mountains that go right up from the beach.  Really beautiful.  Then we got in the back of a truck and bounced up some dirt roads.  Then we rode on mules to get to the first zip line.  The zip lines were awesome and it was super beautiful.  We also got to rappel down a waterfall.  There were a couple of waterslides, and lets just say they definitely don't have the same standards of safety that we have here.  Which makes it more fun of course.  One waterslide we hit the water so hard I thought we were going to fly out.  The other slide they had you wear hockey helmets because your head hits the side of the slide so bad.  Hilarious.  The last zip line we went on they kind of asked us and kind of just did it - they strapped us in, told us to kick our legs up to our head, and the next thing we knew we were flying down the line hanging upside down, going backwards.  Jake didn't know what hit him.  It was awesome!!  We have no pictures of this experience because they wouldn't let us take our cameras.  Then they tried to sell us pictures for lots of money.  In true spjute fashion we declined.

All in all a great trip.  Grateful to everyone who helped with our kids so we could go.  So good to get time away with Jake!!

In front of the beach where we spent most of our time

Beautiful sunset

Beautiful Man:)

We had to run on the beach of course

Our view while relaxing at the resort

Jake in downtown Puerto Vallarta

Cool thing made out of sand

They had really weird statues

How beautiful is that?!!

Best guac ever.  Notice the sand we're sitting on and the ocean in the background

Best lemonade ever

Jake experiencing the bus

Mexico night at the resort.  There was an awesome mariachi band!

Sunset at the resort

Heading to our zip line adventure

Beautiful pueblo

The truck we rode up in

This and That

There's been a lot going on around here.  I don't think I ever posted about Easter.  What a great reason to celebrate.  I'm so grateful for the atonement for so many reasons.  Easter gets better every year.  This year we were able to have dinner with Jake's family to celebrate his grandma's 83 birthday.  She's a great person and we were happy to be able to celebrate with her.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning and de-junking.  I think Jake and the kids are getting fed up with it, but I'm on a role.  When I packed from the rental I was too busy to do any cleaning out.  I remember throwing complete junk into boxes, but having no time to do anything else.  Then when we unpacked I was so exhausted that I didn't take the time to organize everything well.  So finally, a year later, its happening.  I still have a few things to do, but I'm getting there.  The thing that's made me the happiest is getting my pantry cleaned out.  Now I smile every time I go in there.  My kids think I'm obsessed, and maybe I am.  But its awesome to have it clean and organized.  If only I can keep it that way....

We've also been de-junking the outside of our house.  Since we moved in we've had huge piles of pot rock, construction wood, and wood that we got from cutting down some of our trees.  Last weekend we finally got rid of these piles.  It was an all day job, but we got everything moved.  I'm so grateful to have a tractor and dump trailer!  We couldn't have done it without that equipment.  Now that those piles are gone our yard looks even bigger.  I had no idea we had that much space right there!  De-junking is awesome!

Sage had her first grade program on Friday.  She did a great job and was so excited to perform.  She's definitely not shy.  She's in the spanish dual immersion program so she got to do a latin dance.  Doesn't get better than seeing white blonde Sage speaking in spaninsh;)

The last few days we've been immersed in landscaping - specifically in planting.  We found out about a wholesale tree place in Oregon.  We were able to use them because Jake is a contractor.  The prices were really good, so we made a big order along with some other people.  The plants all got here on Thursday.  This company doesn't offload the plants and trees, so that was up to us.  Of course we ended up doing this in horrible weather.  It varied from rain, snow, hail, and wind.  Awesome.  Thank heavens we had our tractor to help get the trees off, but it was still really hard work.  One other person and I ended up dragging 100+ pound spruce trees from the back of a big semi trailer to the end so we could load them in the tractor.  There were like 30 trees we had to do this for.  I don't know that I've ever done anything that was that hard for so long.  By the end I needed help dragging the trees I was so exhausted.  Anyway, we all worked hard and got everything unloaded.

Then came the planting.  This happened yesterday, luckily in decent weather this time.  We're so grateful for family who came to help us.  We never could have done it without them.  Dan and Alicia came with Owen (my girls need some major babysitting training).  And then my dad came and Tracy.  It's so great to have family who can help you out when you need it.  We all worked really hard and got everything planted.  We have one tree that's like 13ft tall.  It about killed us getting it in the ground.  I'm sure everyone who saw us got a good laugh.  Anyway, our yard is looking lots better and almost ready for grass.  Hooray!

Moral of this story:  Landscaping is not for sissies.

Cute kids on Easter

Sage in her first grade program

The massive pile of wood we split and moved

This is the huge truck that delivered our plants.  The driver had mad skills and managed to back down our driveway without hitting anything.  Awesomeness

Everything we had to plant - it was a lot

Trying to get the huge tree in - truly a team effort

After we're done.  Hard to see but I promise it looks great!

Moab and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

We got to go to Moab over spring break.  We've done this a million times and had no problems.  This time didn't go so well.  I was done packing everything into Tiny (the trailer) and turned on the water.  Suddenly I heard water dripping and realized there was water pouring out of the supply line to the toilet.  Crap (not literal crap, it was just water).  Jake checked it out and determined we needed a new toilet.  Awesome.  Miraculously we were able to find a toilet in town.  On the way to get the toilet we heard a loud clanking coming from the truck.  We investigated and realized that Jake's muffler had rusted through.  However, we determined it wasn't going to fall off the truck so, other than being really loud, we were good to go.  Finally, 2 hours behind schedule, we headed for Moab.

We thought now that we were on the road all was well.  Little did we know.  It was 9:30pm, pitch black, and we were about 45 minutes away from Moab.  All of the sudden we saw smoke pouring from the truck.  Yay.  We pulled over and luckily our friends were able to pull over right behind us.  We did some investigating and realized that one of Jake's fuel lines had broken.  There was diesel fuel spraying everywhere.  Awesomeness.  So we figured out a tow truck, unhooked Tiny from the truck, and hooked it up to our friends' motorhome.  Quite the sight - a trailer being towed behind a motorhome.  They were beyond nice to tow us to Green River.  So we finally went to bed around midnight Friday night, not in Moab like we hoped, but in the parking lot of a truck stop in Green River.  Definitely not what we were hoping for.

Saturday morning the mechanic finally showed up a little before 10.  He looked at the truck, said he had the part and we should be on the road in like an hour.  Hallelujah.  Except not.  When he opened the box to replace the fuel line he realized that the wrong part had been packaged in the box and he did not have the part he needed.  So he had to send someone to Price (an hour away) to get the part.  Long story short, turns out he sent his wife to get the part.  She of course took the opportunity to run errands while there (we paid $150 for her to do this) and then finally came home.  In the mean time, we were stuck in Green River.  And let me tell you, there is nothing to do in that place.  She finally brought the part back and 5 minutes later the truck was done.  So finally, at 4:30pm on Saturday, we headed to Moab.

The story mostly ends there, but not quite.  We had just gotten to Moab, driving down Main Street, and all of the sudden we here this bump, bump, bump every time the tire turns.  We pulled over thinking that for sure we had a flat tire.  No flat, but still a weird sound.  Finally, after more investigation (there was lots of investigating this trip) we figured out that somehow all of the lug nuts on one of the truck tires were really loose.  We tightened them up and finally, finally, got to our camp spot!!!

Once we got there Moab was awesome.  We did a great hike where you get to go through a creek over and over.  We went mountain biking and I got to mountain bike with the girls for the first time.  It was so great!  We magically found a perfect climbing spot on Wall Avenue.  And of course we had lots of great campfires and S'mores with our friends.  The weather was perfect, the trip was perfect, everything was perfect....all except for that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Moral of this story is if you own a trailer you better marry someone who has the skills to fix the trailer (Jake is amazing).  The other moral to this story is sell your truck before it falls apart...

Where we spent Friday night.  At least we didn't have to pitch a tent...

Biking with the girls!!!

Best hike ever wearing chacos

Me and my girls!

Our group of awesomeness

Ready to hike!

Nothing better than these chairs in Moab

The boys