Sorry I missed last week. I have a good reason. We were having so many adventures!

Mother and Daddy have a super fun tradition of taking each child and their family on a little trip each year to get more bonding time with the grandkids. Our trip this year was to Heber, last Friday and Saturday. We came home from that trip, frantically did laundry, went to church and a family party on Sunday, and then left for our family vacation to Lake Tahoe on Monday morning. We returned from Tahoe on Wednesday night about 9:30, just in time to get Fay to her first day of school on Thursday morning.

Anyway, here’s some photographic evidence as well as some explanation.

We started our journey to Heber by driving up to Cascade Springs. I remember loving going there as a kid, and hadn’t been back since my 20th birthday (thanks to Michael and Asael for making that happen for me), so I was stoked to take the kids there! It was fun and beautiful, and even though Carter had just woken up from a nap and was fabulously cranky, I think we all had a good time.

After Cascade Springs, we drove the rest of the way to Heber stopping by where my Great Grandpa had a house back in the day. Nowadays my, apparently quite rich, great uncle owns the large house on the property. We knocked on the door, but they weren’t home. Then we went to a delicious dinner and back to the hotel for swimming. The kids look forward to swimming at the hotel pool more than any other part of these trips with the grandparents; but apparently they are in good company with all their cousins. 🙂

Saturday’s first activity was to a park and then to a ride on the Heber Creeper (now known as “Heber Valley Historical Railroad” which is a super lame name)!

I was very excited to go on the train ride because I have a bit of history with it. Once, long ago, when I was somewhere between the ages of 4 and 9 (I don’t remember my age at all), my family went on the Heber Creeper. We went from Heber all the way down Provo Canyon to Vivian park where everyone got off the train for a bit to stretch our legs or whatever. Well, I must have assumed the stop was going to be longer than it was, because I was happily playing in the river when I heard the sound of the train pulling away!!!  I jumped up and ran screaming and crying down the track chasing the train as it went back up the canyon.  Some adult took pity on me and helped me to the control station or something, and after what was apparently a good half hour+, the train managed to back all the way back to the park and let me on to be with my family.

Lots of jokes were made about making sure not to leave anybody at Vivian Park during our stop this time, and I thought they were all funny! And we didn’t leave anybody! Though I did remark that the stop at the park was really quite short, so no wonder my small-child self expected to have more time to play!

When we got back to Heber, we ate at Dairy Keen. And I must say, I wasn’t disappointed even after all the build-up we had. I thought the burger and fries were delicious, and the fudge brownie shake was phenomenal! We also stopped at a cheese factory where I got some ultra delicious super-sharp cheddar cheese! I LOVE sharp cheese!

It was a delightful adventure with parents!

Then we left on Monday morning for Lake Tahoe! Neither Josh nor I had ever been to Lake Tahoe, but we had both heard lots of good things about it, so we were really excited to check it out!

We found an airbnb “cabin house” (as the kids called it) to rent while we were there. It was our first time staying in a house as opposed to a hotel room on our family vacation and we are totally converted! The house wasn’t big enough that we would want to move there; but it was great for our little vacation! It was hugely helpful to have a kitchen, table, multiple bedrooms, a washer and dryer, beach supplies, and even a little yard at our disposal! 

Now let’s talk about Lake Tahoe! Here are all the reasons I can think of right this second (aka: non exhaustive) why I think Lake Tahoe is really great!

• It is beautiful, blue as can be, and huge!
• It is in the beautiful mountains surrounded by pine-trees, wetlands, wild-life, etc.
• It isn’t 150 miles from any kind of civilization. It is surrounded by cities with hotels, houses, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, auto parts stores (that proved to be very important on this trip), and even quite a few thrift stores and wedding chapels. (?)
• There are really nice beaches! Big, sandy beaches that remind you why you didn’t drive that extra 5 hours to get to the ocean!
• You can rent water toys (paddle board type stuff) on basically anything that can be remotely considered a beach.
  
• There isn’t just the lake to play on. There are hiking trails, biking trails, equestrian trails, ATV trails, and even skiing in the winter!
• The water tastes good! I obviously didn’t just grab a cup and fill it up to drink; but when I did get some waves in the face, the water tasted like bottled water!

Like I said, non-exhaustive, but don’t you already want to just go to Lake Tahoe?! And we didn’t even do boating stuff. I bet if we had, I would have at least 6 more bullets to add. I am very much looking forward to the day our family is grown up enough to do boating stuff! We’ll be back at Tahoe for sure!

Anyway, here are some pictures.

We honestly just did beach and hiking mostly. But we did the beach 3 times in the 2ish days we were there.

The drive home was long, and the kids were so done. And even though it was a quick little trip, and even though our car battery died, and even though there was one point where the kids were so much that I felt like I wanted to run away from vacation, we all returned home with a very good taste in our mouth! It was an adventure worth having!

Anyway, here are some pictures that I just felt like posting. Because.

Josh and I celebrated 7 years of marriage yesterday by taking a bunch of selfies. That’s a good anniversary activity, right?!

I have a confession: I don’t particularly care for summer these days. For those of you who feel offense because of that statement, I have some reasons that I feel clear things up.

One reason is that the best part of summer has always been, for me, summer nights! That is when the temperature is finally comfortable/there isn’t blazing sun so it’s fun to be outside, and that is when there are concerts and movies in the park, fireworks, etc. And these days I have to put small people to bed at 7:30 PM and then I’m stuck at home the rest of the night. So I miss out on the best part of summer. Another reason is that I have nothing to wear. I have looked for multiple years in a row for bermuda shorts that look good on me and have nothing to show for it except disappointment. So I just suffer through my jeans hoping that one day I’ll find that magical pair of shorts that I actually want to wear in public. Although, I did just get a jumpsuit with nice wide legs and fairly light-weight fabric and I think that is a step in the right direction!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was wishing it was autumn and it occurred to me that I don’t like wishing away my life. So I decided I needed a reason to enjoy summer. The obvious answer was to have a table to decorate! And if you’re going to go to the effort of planning a table specifically for celebrating the season of summer, you may as well eat something delicious and summery and invite some people over and call it a party. 

So that’s what we did! 

My plan for the table this time around was to use beautiful summery foods as the decoration for the table. I had all these grandiose ideas of having everything perfectly set out on the table with enough time before the party started to take lots of lovely pictures that captured the joy of summer in my selected color scheme. But the reality was that by the time I got the table set (for the umpteenth time, because we had significant wind that kept blowing everything over) we had a lot of hungry people who were ready to just party and not wait around for the party to be photographed. Who can blame them? 🙂

Everyone seemed to enjoy the party! Even our miniature!

The summer party was lots of fun, and I think it did the trick a little for helping me enjoy summer more. Another fun thing we did this week was another family adventure to Craft Lake City (aka: the DIY festival). We took the train to downtown so we wouldn’t have to hunt for parking, and that was an adventure in itself for the kids! When we got there, it was really fun to walk around and look at the different booths and the amazing things that people do with their own hands! We didn’t buy anything, and the kids honestly didn’t last very long. But I am still glad we went! After the festival we dropped into “Daddy’s work” which was right next door. The kids enjoyed sampling the snacks from the kitchen and coloring on the white boards.

As we were heading out of Josh’s building to the train stop we had an adventure we hadn’t bargained for. We had just left the elevators and were heading to the doors when we realized Portia was nowhere to be found. I kept the other three kids right by me while Josh rushed around searching for Portia. She was still nowhere. After more searching and multiple prayers, Josh started checking the elevators (there were 6). He got each one to open except one. He had the idea occur to him that the final elevator probably waited at the top of the building instead of the bottom which is why it never opened. He got in an elevator, took it to the top floor and as he approached the top he could hear Portia screaming. She was in the final elevator stuck at the top floor. Josh saved the day!

As we waited for the train after all of this I had this little conversation with a very emotional Portia. If you have heard Portia talk, try to imagine her little dramatic, kind of whiney voice.

Me: I’m so so glad we found you, Portia!
Portia: Yeah.
Me: We need our Portia!
Portia: We doooo.
Me: She is a really special girl!
Portia: Her iiiiiiiis.

It was approximately the cutest thing ever. I’m glad Portia knows how essential she is to our family.

In other exciting news from this week, Fay learned to ride her bike without training wheels! She had practiced some with Josh before, but on Friday she requested that I remove the training wheels even though she knew I had to watch the other kids and could help her. After about 37 seconds she was riding like it was nobody’s business! I am very proud of her, and she is very proud of herself and very excited about riding! It was extra fun because her friend came over (who learned to ride without training wheels a few months ago) and they rode together! I think Irelyn’s being able to ride was a big motivation for Fay to learn! Friends are wonderful!

And alas! I don’t have a picture. I’ll get one!

Also, here are some other happy pictures.

I guess it was just too much for me to write last week. But my birthday was so fabulous that I couldn’t omit talking about it even though we’re almost two weeks out.

The best thing about having your birthday on Pioneer Day in Utah is everything! It is a holiday that very few people have really solid traditions for, and so there’s really nothing better to do than to celebrate a birthday! Imagine if your birthday magically fell on Labor Day every year, that is what having a Pioneer Day birthday is like, and has always been like for me. Plus, Josh is always so good to me! Take a look!

I only asked for one gift for my birthday this year, a rather substantial one, and it became available before my birthday, so I wasn’t expecting anything when I woke up that morning. But Josh couldn’t bear the thought of me not having a gift on the very day, so I came upstairs to this ultra charming tablescape! It made me happy all day long!

I wanted to make a fancy cake for myself this year and decided I wanted death by chocolate! So I used facebook to find a killer chocolate cake recipe, gave it a chocolate pudding filling, and a dark chocolate ganache! I wanted it to be a naked cake; but everything was so chocolatey that you almost can’t tell the difference between the layers of cake and pudding. 

For the day’s activities, we first attended our ward’s Pioneer Day breakfast, then the Muhlestein family Pioneer Day lunch, and in the evening I got my birthday date with Josh!! We went on a gorgeous hike! I was pretty tired before we left–long night with Helen, plus going all day–and wasn’t sure how much I wanted to do, but we ultimately hiked about 3 miles and I came back feeling energized and rejuvenated! I love the mountains!!

Anyway, it was a glorious birthday! And I’m very much looking forward to my 29th year! And if you’re wondering what my substantial birthday gift was, here is a picture.

That weekend, we went on a super fun retreat with Josh’s family to a cabin in Price Canyon. We relaxed, played on ATVs, ate yummy things, did some hot-tubbing, and just had a lovely time!

This past week has been a little less eventful. Probably the most notable thing in my mind is the fact that we have been sleep training Helen and, thereby, revolutionizing mine and Josh’s lives! It isn’t fun to listen to a baby cry; but after the Friday night at the cabin I was beyond desperate. So we “Ferberized” Helen the next night! She did cry a significant amount the first night; but she also gave me the longest stretch of continuous sleep I had had in a month or more. So even after night one we were sold! On Thursday night, she slept from 7:30 PM to 6:00 AM!!!!!

Some other fun things we have done include an “adventure” of a water party in the backyard, making cinnamon rolls, the kids workshop at Home Depot, swimming, and other ordinary, but delightful, family time.