Utah

Here are some of our pictures of the Utah trip. They are long overdue, but I thought you would still enjoy them. We had a blast!!!! We got to spend time with Jeff & Michelle's family and Chris and Cassie and the boys. It was great! The kids got to meet their new cousin and go to a waterslide park. They had a blast with Ryan and Mitchell and experienced their first Pop-Its war. I will post some of those pictures later (they are on another camera card).

Here is Syd with little Cooper. She loved being a little mommy.
Cam!!! Is he the cutest kid, or what?!!! I loved listening to his little voice and setting up his long train with him!
The dad's got in on this picture. Christopher doesn't quite fit in that little slide. They are supposed to be making funny faces, but Cam just looks so sweet, that my kids obviously thought he needed some bunny ears.
Temple Square on our way out of town.
The SLC temple...as beautiful as always.



Chris and Cooper on the blessing day. Cooper looked so cute in his white suit! I got to hold him during all of Sacrament meeting!!
Kisses for Cooper.
The whole family

Sydney coming off of a fun little water slide at 7 peaks.

This is Tyler coming down this freaky slide!
He made it!
And, he's smiling
Here's Nyle coming now!

My pride should have stopped me from posting this picture, but it was fun to see everyone in the shot (except for Michelle) at the water park. Just ignore the fat girl in the back. Ryan and Mitchell are so big now! We had a blast that day!!! Thanks for everything Jeff and Michelle, Chris and Cassie. We can't wait to come again!

Flying!

Some of you may not know, but I got a job. It is with a company that builds affordable homes...no frills, but the frills are always available. At first it sounded like I would just be doing their construction drawings off of plans they already had. I felt like it was a great opportunity for money, but not really anything I have dreamed of doing. I really don't love drafting!!! My love is design. The creative process of it, the messy sketches, daydreaming of how it all looks, etc. Someone else can try to make sense of how it all comes together with beam calcs and all of that! That is not my strength. Anyway, I had committed to do this for them.

So, my boss calls me up on Monday and says, "Are you available to go to Salem with me on Wednesday?" Yes. "As long as the weather is good, we will just fly over there." OK! Sounds good. I had no idea what the meeting would entail other than we were meeting with a big investor, who is also a successful architect. Yikes. Intimidating!

Anyway, before you get bored, here are some of the pictures from the flight! It was awesome.

Beautiful mountain ranges and green everywhere!

The plane we flew in...the one with the red stripes. It was small! Charlie had to climb in before me and then reach across me to shut the door. There were two seats behind ours, but he says that he never takes four adults.

Below is a picture as we are leaving Salem airport. Bye Brett & Julia! There is the overpass that I would take to their house if I drove.

Snow covered mountains! There is still quite a bit of snow.

See that little tiny hill still covered with snow in the foreground? That is Hoodoo! Big Lake is right behind it. That is where we had the boy's birthday party last year.

Below, there is Hoodoo again with a really cool plateau-like mountain next to it. The Three Sisters are in the background.

Here, we are coming back into Sisters. I loved this view with all the shadows of the clouds. My picture doesn't do it justice. This is the Three Sisters again.


Below, this is someone's private pond/lake. It was really blue and beautiful!

Home sweet home! It was really cool! I can't wait to do it again!

So, back to the meeting...

The investor turned out to be a really nice guy and the architecture firm was really a cool place! We met with him and 4 of his employees (architects, designers, and accountants). He is buying this plat of land in Bend that is divided into about 56 lots. We (Equity Homes) are going to build the homes for them, and I get to design them! First, I am to design 4 model homes. I've always wanted to do that!!! Never did I imagine it would be through this company. I am supposed to start with basic designs and then meet with them again to put some style into it. They are leaning towards modern (dwell homes) or cape cod? Big stretch there. We will see how that works with the cheeeeeaaaap budget. I'm really excited though. It will be such a cool learning experience. I feel like I have to prove myself to these architects, but I love this creative process.

Yesterday I heard that he is flying his whole team out here next Thursday, in his leer jet! So, I guess I better get cranking! This is an architectural firm that has just gone international. They are building all over. The owner is worth billions! I hope I can pull it off and not look like a schmuck! Too bad I am trying to entertain my kids and get this done at the same time! Oh well, I'm better when the pressure is on! IT'S ON!!!

The Trip Home

Our trip home was pretty fun. We stopped in Dunsmuir at this cool place that is an actual motel where people can stay in the train cars and there is a restaurant in a couple of other old cars. It was really neat! We climbed all over one of them to take some pictures.

We also stopped at Crater Lake. It was breathtaking! The lake is almost 2000 ft. deep and crystal blue. There was still snow all over, but we still enjoyed the views.

This is the lodge at Crater Lake. This was made a National Park in 1902 and the building has been revamped since then, but it is amazing!

The kids in front of the lake
Me and the boys. Tyler doesn't look so happy!

All of us in front of the great lake. We would like to go back sometime in a couple months when the snow is melted. It was so fun!

Shasta!

We just got back from a great vacation in Shasta. The weather was hot and the water was cool. We spent a lot of time in the water...my favorite place! The lake was down pretty low. We had to walk down 118 steps to get to our boat, so we got a lot of exercise coming back up to the campground.

Here are my boys...flexing!
Tyler, Hayden and Tanner tubing
Swimmers, and the gorgeous view
Tyler, hangin out in camp...drinking lots of pop
Sydney and her crazy hair.

Me & Syd
Taking naps on the boat

Nyle jumping off of a cliff. He's almost camoflauged!

Claire, Sydney and Olivia on the tube and Aunt Phae in the water
The gang on the boat
The girls at camp. Sydney and Claire wanted matching hair that day.
Nyle and the boys on the tube with a big water gun.
Rene and her family trying to keep cool.

Thanks so much guys!!! Let's do it again next year!

All kinds of stuff!

I haven't truly blogged for awhile, so here is a bunch of stuff. None if it goes together, but oh well!

The boys caught some fish at free fishing day. They were yummy and they were so very proud of their catch!
Mckenzie did everyone's hair one day with her crimper. Even the boys got excited about it.
Sydney and our neighbor, Brooke with their crazy hair.
One of Sydney's last days of school her class put together little gliders and flew them. This is Syd with her friend Denise.

Sydney's class with their airplanes.