Forget Me Not

The other night for the youth activity (I'm one of the leaders for the female youth in our church) we went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens, which, as you may know, is one of my favorite places. Buck had to go help somewhere else that night so my girls also got to come tag along. They love playing with the other older girls so it was a good night. We walked and talked about the forget-me-not flowers and all the "forget me not's" of God's love.

Another leader, Bri.

First Day of School!

Today was June's first day of school- she is now a big kindergartner! 

Last week we spend a day that was themed around getting ready for the big day. 

First was a hair cut:

And the clothes shopping: 

(three stores in one afternoon with my two girls...? It was tiring but we made it!

Then that same day was the open house at school so we got to go meet the teacher and finally find out what schedule we were on for half day:

 Then I felt this need to have some "back to school dinner" but I didn't want to make it too crazy or complicated, so I used what I had at home. I was proud of my apple napkin and pencil spoon. ;) We had mac and cheese and hot dogs but I think in the future we will make it a tradition of a waffle dinner.

After dinner we spent time talking with June about body safety and strangers. Then Buck gave her a blessing. Hazel got one too. It was a good day of getting ready that we all needed. 

 And today was the big send off! I cried enough when June's birthday hit the other month so I was good to go today. haha. Plus she was SO exicted, and honestly, I'm excited for her too. It's weird to say good bye to a chapter in my life that was so huge, my first baby girl, those years alone with her, simple days. But this is part of why I wanted a family was to help my kids grow and this step marks a huge beginning of that growth. 

June picked out her outfit last night, the girls had a bath and got their nails painted. She got her backpack all ready. She was ready.

 And she had a great day! I had her make a journal entry with me about it (we started her journal almost exactly a year ago! We don't do this every day but just randomly when the mood strikes us.)

Anyway, it's hard- my hand writing already suffers but then trying to keep up with what she says in the process makes it even harder to read! haha So I'll also type it out for your sake. ;)

       I made my own hat and it looks like Miso. And I read a book there and we found "Pete the Cat" and he's on our hat but I made him look like Miso.
       It was too hot on the slide so I went on my belly and went super fast! And I went in outer space and then I was back on the slide ad there were wood chips there.  And I was like, "What?!"
       And I made one friend and her name was Kayden. And I saw Lilly from church! But she's in a different class.
       Miss Heather is my teacher.
       No handsome boys, but the boys are crazy!
       And then I ate chocolate "gooding" [pudding]
       I have too many favorite parts! I like and love school!

Pete the Cat turned into Miso, our cat.

And so we're off to a good start. I have a lot of feelings about being back in the school system, when it's so very exciting to escape it when you graduate yourself. You don't think about how you may be back in again, for YEARS with your own kids. But here I am. But I'm excited too. Hard but good years spread before us. And for this first year also June is signed up for a acting/dancing/singing class and they put on the play Beauty and the Beast at the end, and Hazel is signed up for a tumbling class. Both girls will start swimming lessons again too. So we will be busy! Here's to a new chapter.

Waterfall Hike

 Last week for our hike we finally made it to one I've been wanting to take the girls all summer. And it worked out because my relatives were all getting together and planned the whole thing so it was a good reason to go! It's called Bridal Veil Falls and it's a pretty popular hike in the Provo canyon but thankfully we went on a week night and it wasn't too bad.

photo by my Uncle Tim

Some people hike up this way! We did not. ;) 

The normal trail up is short but it's really steep with lots or loose rocks. So the girls ended up being carried up. I was impressed with my younger cousin for carrying June up! I also love how bonded the girls are with my cousins. They are such lucky girls- they only know love and safety from family and friends so far in life.

Cousin Isaak talking with June while Buck teaches Hazel about leaves. 

21 weeks in this photo. Photo by uncle tim!

photo by uncle tim

When we got home the sky was so pink that everything below it glowed with a rosey tint

I'm grateful we went and for time spent in nature and with family. I'm also grateful we made our hike goal this year, we may not have made it every week, but almost!

Anniversary Celebrations!

If you know me by now, then you know that I love to celebrate and have traditions. For our anniversary we have a tradition to stay the night somewhere new and to do something new together that we've never done before.

This year we found a cool old historic house that has updated little apartment type dwellings that you can stay in for a night or more. The room are designed in clean and modern designs and it was hard to choose! But in the end we went with the "retro" one and loved it.

Entry hall:

Retro Heaven

The view, it was up a hill

Walking downtown

For our date, our new thing together, we decided to take a cooking class. Harmons is a nice grocery store here, one of those ones with the natural, organic stuff and a cafe and all that fancy stuff. And it has cooking classes. And two stories so you could see how crazy huge American grocery stores are! ACK!

At the cooking class they had a nice table set with fresh squeezed orange juice and a fancy melon called "lemon drop."

Our chef/instructor first demoed expensive chocolate with us (favorite was a smoked spice chocolate with berry and floral hints) and then taught us how to cook everything. We had a "five star breakfast" for dinner, which I felt was perfect since we fed our wedding reception guests breakfast for dinner six years ago. ;) 

The menu for the class was: 

Creme brulee french toast

Fresh berry compote 

Sage and maple sausage

Hash Browns

and

Shashsuka (or something like that- Israeli poached eggs) 

We learned a lot! The food was amazing! And everything was so fresh like grinding a real nutmeg nut, splitting a vanilla bean, cutting up sage- it was amazing! Also we got a huge kitchen station to ourselves! We hope to take more classes for our date nights now, that and we also want a gourmet chef kitchen in our new home one day. ;)

We didn't end up leaving until almost 10:00 pm! (we had to go down and buy some of that chocolate after all!) haha We were stuffed and had to walk uphill several blocks back to our place, which was for the best to burn off those calories right?

We slept in and then went to get our girls, who were having a grand time with their Nana and Pops, and then we went to church.  But I took a few more photos of the place and also got some photos of the pretty flowers that Buck bought for me.

 

I'm pretty happy about our date and getaway. It's been important for us to continually carve out time to getaway for a night or two together. We are so grateful for the family who helps with or kids, or we could never do this, way back starting with my sister who stayed with newborn June that first anniversary! So thank you everyone who helps and thank you universe for pockets of time that matter most!

And for fun, a list of the previous years new experience and places we stayed-

(man, I'm really happy I've kept a blog/journal for our whole marriage!)

 

One Year:

 Roller coaster and high rise hotel

Two Year:

Camping and a tent ;)

Three Year:

 Horse riding and a farm house B&B

Four Year:

Glass blowing and themed hotel room

Five Year:

 Couples Massage and luxury lodge in the mountains