Every year we take them downtown to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square and usually stop at this little market on the corner of State Street and 100 south. But to our disappointment, it was closed down for the very first time since we started going there years ago. It was bittersweet as even the stop for hot chocolate at this little market had become a part of our traditions over the years...
It was around the 50's when we went downtown, a perfect night to see the lights! And everyone else believed so, too, so it was REALLY busy. I don't like really crowded places because I don't feel like I can really take it all in and experience what I want to feel, but what does one do...at least the weather was nice :)
At the new City Creek downtown
Well Christmas came and went, as usual. We hadn't had much snow in November or December, but were
delighted to find out that we would be getting snow on Christmas. A White Christmas, everything we hope for on Christmas but rarely get. Personally, give me snow on Christmas and it can go away for the rest of the year :)
We had a Chanukah party with Jason's family and then celebrated Christmas Eve with my family over at our house. It's nice to break up the holidays between our families and then it doesn't feel like everything has to be done all at once! Here the boys are playing the dreidl game with their cousins, and then a menorah.
Christmas Eve is when my family gets together, and we've been hosting it in our home since we had our first official house back in 2002. It's less cramped and everyone has more room to move around and mingle, act cooky, enjoy each other's company, and the kids can do their thing. We had a delicious dinner of pot roast and veggies and everyone brought something to contribute. It was fabulous!
With Koo
With Megan
Here is a picture of the boys in their annual Christmas jammies picture! And then a picture of the fam, awe :)
I think the boys were all happy with what they got, so Christmas was another success!!
It's been a couple of years since I've last posted anything...and I know how much my son Cameron loves to look at our family blog, so it's never been a better time to start than now!
Our family has been through a lot the last 2 years so that might explain why I kind of forgot about this old blog...
It's almost 2015, this year has been a blur mostly and has just flown on by...I'm ready for it to be over with.
I have a 9th grader, and 7th grader, 5th grader, 3rd grader and a kindergartner...they are all great boys and are doing well in school! My junior high boys have both been on the honor roll and my younger 3 had great report cards last month...I'm so grateful they didn't take after my schooling!! They are capable of so much and I expect them to do amazing things in their lives!! I love them all so much, they truly are what I live for.
We recently had our family pictures done by my sassy friend, Becky. I think they turned out pretty fabulous!
So my baby turned 3 yesterday...THREE!!! Hip hip hooray!!! He's 43 pounds of pure joy and I couldn't have asked for a more fabulous caboose to our family train! When I found out we were having our FIFTH boy, I cried for the daughter I would never have, but completely loved and accepted the new little bundle of BOY JOY that would continue to grow and develop inside of me. My aunt told me on the phone as I was crying and feeling sad about not getting the daughter I thought I was meant to have, that she had this feeling that he was going to be a really special boy; not that my other ones AREN'T, mind you (lol); but he definitely is a one-of-a-kind and I'm so glad he forced his way into our family unit because I can't imagine life without him!! He is Mr. Friendly and talks to everyone. I hope he continues on with his valiant spirit of friendliness and spreads that joy and sunshine wherever he goes and wherever life takes him. He is so helpful and wants to do everything HIMSELF...which can get a little frustrating when time is of the essence, but he's a great helper when I need an extra hand. He attracts attention everywhere we go and people just LOVE him. But you really can't help not loving him, I mean, just look at this kid!! I would get him into modeling and acting but I would never impose that kind of a lifestyle on my sweet child...so for now he'll just have to be the entertainment everywhere we go :)
He wanted a basketball hoop so we got him his very own. We have one already that gramma got the boys from the goodwill, but he wanted HIS OWN, so he got it!! He spends so much time shooting hoops and he's really good at it, so it only made sense to get him his very own. We got him a cute little birthday cake from one of my favorite little bakeries, Dippidee over by where we live. He chose chocolate brownie ice cream and wanted chicken nuggets and broccoli for dinner, yumm :-P
We're having a family party for him this weekend, and to top it all off, daddy's birthday is 2 days AFTER Pay Pay, so its going to be a fun-filled partying weekend for our family. So much fun!!
Our sunny-boy turned 8 this past week! Remembering back to when I was 8 and it feels like yesterday!! I can't exactly remember WHAT I did for that particular birthday, but a very pivotal memory of being 8 was on the day I was to be baptized, November 30th...my family was involved in an auto accident just hours before my baptism was to take place. I still remember sitting in the front seat and seeing the stopped car in front of us getting closer and closer, faster and faster, wondering if my mom was going to stop? And then, BOOM! My head went through the windshield and as soon as I noticed my head dripping blood, I passed out. That, not so fun. But I was determined to get baptized, and although it felt like the accident and my baptism happened on seperate days, I managed to go through with it, giant goose-egg and all!! It's my sweet boy's turn to get baptized and hopefully nothing like that will happen to him so he can prove that he really wants to go through with it, but he has told me he WANTS to get baptized, and I'm proud he's old enough to make that decision for himself, that he wants to do what Jesus did and follow him and his example!! I know he wishes his daddy could baptize him, but it's not a possibility right now but he still wants to make that choice to be baptized :)
The day before his actual birthday I met him at his school for lunch, with his younger brothers. Then I got to go into his classroom and talk a little about him and why he's special...and embarrass him a little, too :)
That night he wasn't feeling good and came down with a fever, so I made sure he rested up that night and luckily he was feeling well enough for his birthday party the next day.
We decided on going to a movie for his birthday, but he could only invite around 4 friends...well 2 of those he invited couldn't come so I had him invite 2 more friends, girls at that. I only heard back from 1 of their parents and she couldn't go, either. I had already purchased the tix online so I had my older two boys each invite a friend so they didn't go to waste! I felt bad that only 2 of Cameron's actual friends could make it, but with everyone combined, it made for a fun time!
We went to go see Journey 2: The mysterious Island. I wasn't sure what to expect but it exceeded my expectations, I thought it had enough action, comedy and special effects where it made for an enjoyable movie for all.
So here I am, ready to post about mine and Jason's trip down to FLORIDA...this isn't really us, but I thought it was a good representation of how I felt we looked while hanging out in Palm Beach :)
My lovely mama was kind, and OH-SO-BRAVE-ENOUGH to come stay at our home and take care of our boys so I could have a getaway with my honey. This was definitely the longest time we've spent away from our kids by 1 day, so that meant I had to plan for that 1 extra day, too :)
We left early on Saturday the 4th and were up in the air by 8am. I prefer flying early so we have more time to play, of course!! We had a stop-over in Atlanta so it wasn't a straight flight to W Palm Beach, but to me, part of the whole traveling experience is the time spent in the airport terminals. I love it! Part of the whole memory of the vacation to me, are the smells, the food, and of course the frisking that TSA agents get off on!
Although I am an anxious person when it comes to flying, I really do enjoy it; especially the take-off! What can I say, I have a need for speed! I would have loved to be a racecar driver (think exotic imports racing, not the whole ugly NASCAR thing, lol) Maybe someday, right? For now I'll enjoy driving Jason's Z~
We got into WPB around 4pm on Saturday and to my surprise it was cloudy and (gasp!) raining!! In Florida, seriously?? Oh well, was gonna make the most of it, it's not everyday I got to fly down to Florida with my sweetie, raining or not! We attempted to rent a convertible while down there, but turns out everyone thought the same thing and we were outta luck. Our choices were either a mini-van (NOT!) or a Crown Vic...seriously?!! The lesser of 2 evils; ok, we'll go with the Crown Vic! And a black one at that, that I could handle! lol
our hotel as we were leaving :(
It was rather humilliating, to say the least, to pull up into the WPB ritzy Ritz-Carlton in our Crown Vic when there were a plethora of fancy-shmancy cars everywhere, and there we were in our Crown Vic, ha! Not to mention they only offered valet services for parking so we could't avoid being seen! I'm sure the unlucky fellow who had to go and round up the car for us was less than thrilled!! lol But at least we had some wheels so we could go and check out W Palm Beach and the surrounding areas...including the KEYS! It was a smooth ride with couch-like seats, so can't change what already is, we just made it the butt-end of a lot of jokes down there to keep us laughing :) We got a kick out of assuming people thought, at first-glance, that we were cops...until they realized we were just some random people driving around in a cop car trying to trip people out!
Gotta love the Crown Vic!!
We ate at a FABULOUSLY rich, luxurious restaurant in our hotel, the Angle Restaurant. They serve a la carte, so you get the idea on the amount of our tab! Luckily the company was paying, so I had no reservations other than our scheduled time for seating :) They served the food in a most ornate way and upon ordering a "salad", of what I thought would be a mixture of greens among other things, wasn't even really a salad at all! At least not a typical salad that I'm used to and I was pleasantly surprised that it was what it was! We had these donut holes for dessert that consisted of Nutella in the middle and 2 dipping sauces of coffee and banana...yumm! The only thing that would have made the dessert perfect would have been MORE Nutella inside :-P
We went back to our room and opened our sliding glass door that led to the patio, and let the sounds of the majestic waves rolling up onto the beach soothe our souls :) We sat out on that patio and just soaked up everything that was around us at the moment and I could have stayed out there all night listening to the sounds of the ocean...I was so grateful for that moment in time to enjoy one of God's most lovely creations, and what better setting than to enjoy it with my dear husband!!
A view to a kill...the view from our room!
So Sunday we took our sweet time getting out of bed, and enjoyed the sweet sounds of the ocean, yet again. Once we finally dragged our butts outta bed, we headed over to the fitness center they had on site...overlooking THE BEACH!! Too bad I was just short enough to get the full view of the ocean :(
I sure enjoyed working out at the same time as Jason; I wish we had a pass to a gym somewhere back home, but I just can't justify the cost for us to go...so for now I will just enjoy that day that we WERE able to workout together :)
self-portrait while cruisin' in the Crown Vic!
Then it was time to hit the road and drive down to the Keys! Jason has a lot of good memories as a kid hanging out down there so he was excited to show me the area. The only downer was it was CLOUDY, yuck!! I guess it was a GOOD THING?? we didn't have our convertible :( Jason wanted to take me to this place called Pennecamp State Park where you can snorkel and do all sorts of other things...which would have been great on a sunny day! Somehow the idea of snorkeling on a rainy, dreary day just seemed too COLD. So we passed on that one and just decided to find a place to eat, instead.
He also remembered a place called The Green Turtle...so thanks to the handy GPS devices on most phones, we were able to find it...but it didn't look very appealing. There didn't seem to be anyone there to eat, which is usually the first sign that you might wanna pass that one up! Or it may have been that the sun wasn't out and shining, which always seems to make even the diviest of dives look more appealing! So we decided to pack that and kept on driving to find a place that looked "alive"! lol
We spied a place called The Fish House that looked NOT like Salmonella poisoning so we figured we'd give it a try...as long as they had a mean key lime pie to boot! This particular restaurant catches the fish they sell in their market and also to the surrounding area restaurants, too. We got to sit outside, YES! Outside!! By the ocean, nontheless...and we even got to be entertained by some nurse sharks, a lone lemon shark, some gulls, and a pelican feeding in this little inlet from the ocean that is built around the inside of the outside eating area of the restaurant. Of course my thought was how much the boys would LOVE to see what we were seeing, being the mom that I am ;)
view of the ocean from the fish house restaurant (see, cloudy!!) but still beautiful~
the fish house property at night!
sharks!
funny pelican, competing with the sharks for some grub!
We did find that they had a pretty darn good key lime pie with cashews in the crust, so what did we do? We bought the whole danged pie and took it back to the hotel...it was superbowl Sunday, afterall! I guess in the adventure of going to a destination is part of the fun and you don't always realize how far you went to get there! So we def had a long drive back but I was able to catch a glimpse of that dirty, fascinating place called MIAMI~ It went whizzing right by and all I got were a few fuzzy pictures of the many, many lights in that town...a part of me wanted to check it out and see what all the hype is about but I suppose a part of me thought that I might actually enjoy the city-life of Miami and maybe it was better just to let it pass right on by ...:)
yep that's Miami
So we made it to the last 1/2 hour of the game and we basically just showed up to show our faces to those people who had put the superbowl party...I was more happy that we spent a little too much time in the Keys, though! So we happily headed back to our room, changed, a decided to take a walk on the beach...ahhh, the LIFE!!
Our hotel was literally right on the beach so we had it all to ourselves as it was windy out, but what's not to love about your hair being blown around by the sea air??! Not to mention we had the ridiculous luxury of all of the multi-million dollar houses to walk by and "ooh and ahhh" over, then go right into a conversation about how ridiculous it was for ANYBODY to have to have something like these homes...even though I'm sure if we were given the chance to have one for FREE, we'd totally jump at the chance for a beachfront property, no doubt!! LoL I have to wonder whose houses of the rich and famous we were literally walking right in the backyards of!!
our walk on the beach...taken in the dark with my basic camera, but still looks cool~
So that night was indeed, a magical night that I will always remember, it was also the last night before I would wake up the next morning to the horrible news I was hoping I'd never have to hear. That next day was a cloudy and rainy day; it rained bucket-loads that only added to the difficulty of the news I'd received that morning. That morning I learned that one of our sweet kitties had died in a most tragic way. If you missed that post and want to read more, click here on this Charlie link.
Luckily our 4th and final day in Florida turned out to be better than the previous day had been. I was extremely sad but also didn't want to let it spoil our last day there, and luckily the sun decided to come out for a visit so I could feel its healing warmth while Jason was in his last seminar meeting. After he was done we went down to sit on the beach on some chairs and just relax and take it all in, one last time. Wow, the ocean is peaceful...even when the waves are crashing against the shore, it's still a wonderfully calming sound. I now know why Jason has wanted to move down there all these years, so I told him I'm officially sold on the idea of retiring there when the kids are grown and have their own families and lives...we laughed it up taking pics of ourselves on the beach and got overtaken by the seagulls by my ever-willingness to give the birds a piece of the pie, so-to-speak :)
feeding the gulls...you feed 1, you feed them all! :/
looking south
beautiful pelican overhead...ahhh, I LOVE Florida!
And then, just like that, it was time to head to the airport...so long Palm Beach, it was nice to FINALLY make you're aquaintance...I hope we get to come back and visit you VERY, VERY, SOON; and bring the WHOLE FAMILY next time.
beautiful florida sunset @the airport
and jason enjoying that beautiful sunset...
...and might I add one of my fave new (new for me, anyways) rapper's FLO RIDA. This video I put on here is the one song that I love, that reminds me of our getaway...nothing like music to take you away to another place when life can get monotonous, especially when his stage name is the place in where you're vacay'n and it pulls those memories all together perfectly ;)
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