Utah Trip: Grantsville Edition: Pi, Ski, Bowl, Easter, and Birthday

We began the trip with a bang by celebrating one of our favorite holidays.... Pi Day.  That's right, get your nerd on! 

 Get it?  "Three point One Four"

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SKIING!!!
This was my awesome birthday gift from Mark this year!  He knows just what I like and was kind enough to come along too!  It had been several years since I hit the slopes so this was long overdue. Wahoo!  It was just as fun as I had remembered.  It was my first time skiing at The Canyons, which is awesome.  The weather was beautiful and we had some really fun runs.  However, by the last "blue" (which Mark, Geo and I felt was more like a black), we were ready to be done.  We were feeling it for a few days after and Geo might be feeling it for about a year since his toenails are sure to fall off eventually. ;)  No pain, no gain.  Totally worth it....right Geo? 

 

 The Crew: Taish, Chris, Me, Geo, Mark, and Andy

 

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We did some bowling as a family in Tooele, which was a lot of fun.  I always try to break 100 for my score.  It didn't happen this time.  Boo hoo.  

 St. Patty's Family Dinner with the Cole side.  All things green or St. Patty's-ish.

 

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 Check out this MONSTER pizza from Firehouse in Logan!!!!  What??? Three feet diameter.  We didn't quite finish it off but it was definitely worth ordering!  It's all about the memories.
We walked around USU for a while with the Tripps and Bensons.  Now that Jax is acquainted with campus, he's ready to be an Aggie. :)

 Cousin Cole helping out Jax by feeding him some yummy whipped cream. ;) Thanks Cole, what would we do without you buddy?

 

We woke up to SNOW one day!  It looked pretty but melted fairly quick.

 

We traveled to Sunny St. George on my birthday but I was happy to sneak in a fantastic birthday brunch before we left.  I'm spoiled.  I love it.  Thank you family for making such a delicious breakfast feast!  

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We had an early Easter Celebration.  It was so much fun!  The money eggs are always a hit!  That sneaky bunny even hid all the baskets together in the same spot this year....you sly one, you!  Mr. Bunny, how did you get a key to the church, huh???  ;)

The kiddos were lots of fun to watch as they were trying to find the hidden eggs.  Sometimes the eggs were pretty much right in front of their faces and they still didn't see them.  We were all laughing pretty hard about the last money egg left and how each kid pretty much almost touched the egg as they looked and looked for quite a while.  Finally, the lucky winner went away with $5 but I can't even remember who it was! ha!  

Jax was happy with his one egg and the two mini-chocolates that were inside.  Chocolate=Happiness.

 

THANK YOU COLES FOR A FUN VISIT!!!

Utah Trip: St. George Edition: Outdoor Fun and Birthday Celebrations

Jax was in heaven in this toy car.  He seriously just sat in it every time we were outside!  He also loved to see and feed the chickens, play some baseball with the Isom cousins, and have Papa read and play with him.  

 

Birthday #1: Lacey's

Mark and Diane made a delicious Pina Colada Cake for me!  It was everything I dreamed it would be!  26 candles this year.  Whooo!   For my gift, Mark took me skiing ("Utah Trip: Grantsville" Post), which was fantastic!

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Now on to the next celebration.....

Birthday #2: We had a BIG 30 party for Mark with all of the kinfolk that were in St. George.  Parentals, Sibs, Cousins, Nieces, Nephews, etc....We had two of Mark's favorite cakes--German Chocolate and Strawberry Short Cake.  It was so nice of everyone to come over to celebrate with us!!!  They had a heated croquet match out in the back yard and from what I heard, Mark had some pretty lucky shots.  Chris just couldn't stop talking about how unfair his life was because of the birthday boy's lucky shot. :)   It's fun to be lucky and why not have the luck at your own birthday partay, right!!!???

Thanks for the good times TEWS!

Fab Five: Cousin Love, Water, Mr.Fixit, Coach, and Wipes

 

1. Cousin Love  I just had to take a picture of this before getting rid of it.  Our wonderful Valentine Pixies sent us a Piano Guys CD, candles, home made valentines, and had good intentions of avocados too. They got picked out my the food police in Hawaii. ;)  I just thought the homemade hearts were adorable. 

 (side note: We love the Piano Guys...if you don't know about them, then be sure to check them out on Youtube!)

 

2.  Water---it's a love/hate relationship.  Mostly love. Most of the time.  :)

 

3.  Mr. Fixit.  Projects on the list currently: filling holes and fixing dents in the walls and ceilings.  We're one step closer to painting.  

 

4. Coach.  Mark enjoyed helping the young men at church in their basketball season this year.  He was the assistant coach and had a good time.   They had some REALLY close nail-biter games.  The team that came back and barely beat them ended up winning the tournament.  Well done, boys and coach! 

5.  Wipes. They are just too awesome to leave alone. :)

 Happy Kid!

A Random Post of Our Doings as of Late

The little man loves his stuffed animal--Charley the Monkey.  He gives him loves by putting him by his neck and saying "awww."   He also says a high-pitched "ooo ooo ooo" for the monkey sound.  He has the duck "quack quack" down pretty well too.  Most of the time he can do the dog but we're still working on the other animals.  He loves making car, truck, train, and airplane noises too.  Adorable!

 

Lately, he's been doing this funny squinty blinking a million times smile when we take pictures of him.  It's so funny to see in person! The actual pictures just don't do it justice.   

 

 

Hello Harry Potter!  Here's Jax and his Firebolt.  He loves the broom and the dustpan.  Whenever I have them out, he plays with them.  So much for toys, eh? 

 

This is a regular occurrence.  There's just something about the dishwasher.....  

 

 This was a fun day.  I went and judged the Public Speaking portion of my niece's school-hosted Debate Tournament.  I really enjoyed it!  I wasn't involved in debate as a high-schooler but I enjoyed judging and seeing a little bit of what it's all about.  Public Speaking is such a great skill to learn!  We snapped a pic of Jax with us before Mark took him to Bass Pro Shop for a guy's outing while I was doing my thing.  Jax sure loves Maddie!  He just kept looking and smiling at her the whole time we were with her.  

 I'm glad I snapped some pictures of something we do regularly.  These are our regular walking and playing and the park buddies--Ariana and Samuel!  They live right around the corner from us and we've had some good good times with them!  We love going on walks to the park and letting the kiddos play.  Samuel is only two days younger than Jax, which is very fun.  Ariana gets to mother and take care of both of them, which is fun too :)

 

Still lovin' to swing!

Valentines day

 

It was BEAUTIFUL weather here on Valentine's Day so we spent a lot of it outside.  Jax loved the bubbles.  This is the first time I broke them out this year and he pops them and laughs his head off.  So cute!  

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I added the picture of the blossoms that came out recently.  I thought it was fitting for the day since they are beautiful hot pink.  :)

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Jax loves when da da comes home in the green truck.  He gets so excited and says "da da!  da da!  ck!(truck) ck ck."  Mark put him in the back of the truck for a few minutes and he was in heaven.

We went on a walk to the park together becuase Mark got home from work early! YAY!  

Mark was gracious enough to make us dinner.  On the menu was grilled chicken and spaghetti.  It was delicious and the candlelight added a little extra romantic ambiance.  He's a great cook, which has been a wonderful added perk to our life together :)  

It was a laid-back wonderful day. 

I sure do LOVE my boys!  

xoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

Anniversary

 

We enjoyed celebrating our FIFTH anniversary recently.  We decided to go to Gruene to dine at The Gristmill and walk around to take a look at the little shops.  Mark ordered the ribs, which were excellent.  I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, which is very unlike me, but it was tasty!  It was one of their most popular so I branched out--even if it is a Grandpa-type meal.  :)  

We couldn't resist trying on a couple of cowboy hats in one of the shops.  We had a wonderful time together and it's always fun to get dressed up for DATE NIGHT!

   

Thank you to the Reams Family for watching little Jax while we went out on our date night!  We truly appreciate it!  You should receive extra gold-stars for having to deal with a diaper emergency too!  

It has been a wonderful journey so far.  

We are like so totally in love times 5.  Cheezzzzy middle school talk. :)  Love it.