Goodbye duplex!

 So we have been trying to sell our Duplex for a while now.  We were hoping that we could keep it when we moved up north, but it was hard to manage from so far away.  So we decided to sell it.  We had to put a TON of work and money into it before we could put it on the market.  And by we, I mean Rob.  He put so many hours and so much hard work into this place!

When everything finally aligned and we had a closing date (after lots of delays and setbacks) I started to feel a little bit sad.  This was our first home.  We lived here for about six years.  We moved in just a few weeks before Sadie was born and we moved out when Emery was 15 months or so.  Now Sadie is seven and a half! Lots of memories at this house.  So we decided to come visit the duplex on Memorial day, the day before we were going to close on it.  It was good to say goodbye and take a few pictures before it was not ours anymore.

 This is the mailbox Rob built when the mailman told us that we weren't allowed to use the mailbox on our house anymore.  It is still standing...pretty impressive.  Rob is such a handyman!

 Here the kids are in the backyard.  This was such a great backyard.  Great for exploring and adventures.  We found lots of sticks, had lots of gardens, and found lots of snakes in this backyard. 

 Our front room.  I wish it had looked like this when we lived here!  ha ha

 Riley liked the new carpet.  

The kitchen that we made lots of cookies in, and hand washed a lot of dishes in, and ate many a family dinner in.  I LOVE the new flooring in here.  Wish I could have enjoyed that while we lived there. 

 

The kids loved sliding down the railings on the stairs.  

THe view from the kitchen to the backyard.  Something that I am going to miss is the amazing shed that Rob built with his dad.  I just think it is so cool that they started with nothing and ended up with this awesome shed. 

 This is the new electrical box that we had to pay for. I hope it works well for the new owners.

 One last family picture before we head out.  Good bye duplex!  (Thanks to that mailbox Rob built so many years ago, we were able to balance the camera on it and set the timer.  Pretty amazing that we are all looking and smiling.)

While I make it sound like we are going to miss this place a lot, the last few months have mostly made us feel like Rob's face is in the picture above.  So many setback and repairs that we needed to do and lots of money put into this place.  What a headache!  While we will miss this place a little bit...we mostly feel like this about getting it sold:

Bridal Veil Falls

For Memorial day we wanted to get out and do something fun.  WE decided to go down to Provo canyon and "hike" to Bridal Veil Falls.  I say "hike" because it is just a little walk on a paved path.  But it is perfect for the kids and the waterfall is fun to look at.  So we headed down after Riley's morning nap.  There were some ominous looking clouds, but the weather was just perfect!  Not too hot, not too cold, and not raining.  We met up with my sister in law Taylor and her little boy William.  IT was a fun time.

There was a guy fly fishing in the river.  The kids thought that was pretty cool to watch!

Sadie took this picture.  Thanks Sadie!

There were quite a few people there.  Can you spot Sadie and Zac in the picture above?

We also saw a guy repelling down the waterfall.  It was pretty cool to watch. 

This was the only picture of William I got. These two just crack me up!

Riley was a trooper and pretty much hung out in the front pack for most of the time...then she wanted to get out and wiggle for a while at the end.  

Rob put her feet in the water.  The water was FREEZING.  And I just touched it with my hand.  Zac waded shin deep with his jeans on.  ha ha.

Thanks Taylor for the family picture!

THis is when we were waiting for Rob to get the car.  We found some dry grass (it was mostly wet because it had been raining a lot the days before...) for the kids to sit and crawl around on. 

It was s fun little trip!

Rock Climbing with the kids

 This past Saturday Rob wanted to take the kids rock climbing.  There is an indoor place nearby that he has been with the kids before, but I have never seen the kids climb before.  And Emery ahd never gone before.  So we all packed into the car and headed out. 

The place was awesome.  Just walls and walls to climb.  There were quite a few people there too which was fun to watch.  Riley and Emery lasted about an hour before they got fidgety and wanted to leave...ha ha.  But it was really awesome to see the kids climbing. 

 Sadie is a pro and would climb all the way to the top without taking any breaks.  

Emery was more nervous.  This was her second attempt.  The first time she barely made it about 5 or 6 feet off the ground before she got scared.  This time she was about 8 or so feet off the ground before she realized how high she was.  She is an excellent climber though. Just not so good with heights!

 All ready for climbing!

 Zac went first so Rob could have a refresher on how to do the ropes.

 And there was this wall (I forget what it is called...Rob would know...) where you could climb without a rope.  It was just a short little wall with big pads under it.  Emery and Zac spent a lot of time there.

 Sadie was just so fast and brave.  I was very proud of her!

 

 THis was Emery's first attempt.  She got a little bit higher than this before she got scared and freaked out.  I think we could have explained how to get down a little better before she started climbing.  She was very afraid of letting go of the wall!

 Riley even got in on the action!

 Zac made it to the top three or four times along with Sadie.  He was very careful and took lots of breaks.  But slow and steady he made it to the top every time.  Brave little boy!

This was a very fun activity for us and the kids.  I'm so impressed with my kids and how well they climbed.  It isn't too expensive either!  We will definitely be going back!

Gilgal sculpture garden

 While grandma and grandpa were in town a few weeks ago, we checked out a place called Gilgal Sculpture garden.  It was a very small hidden area in the middle of a neighborhood with cool artistic sculptures to look at.  It's pretty small, but it has some pretty cool stuff to look at. 

 Like this sculpture.  It's like a sphinx with a familiar face on it...can you see who it is?  WE asked the kids if they recognized the face and I think it was Sadie who guessed Joseph Smith.  Pretty impressive!

 There are cool shapes in the rocks behind these guys.  I can't remember but I think most of the sculpture related to a bible story.  Or something...I'll have to ask my parents.  ha ha

 Another cool one...

 This was my favorite I think.  Cool archway made out of rocks. It was hard to get the kids to stand still long enough for me to take a picture because they kept running back and forth under it. 

 Riley needed a picture with grandma at the Gilgal rock.  Happy girl!

It was a neat little place to visit.  We had a good time.

Cousins

 We love when we get to watch William for the day.  Now that they are both very mobile, it is so fun to watch them "play" together.  Mostly they just crawled after each other or tried to grab whatever the other one was holding, but it was so funny to watch!

 They were playing with toys and they saw me get the camera out...

 Which looked interesting to both of them...

 SO they both tried to crawl on me to get it.  ha ha

Then William watched Emery and Zac play the Ipad for a little while.  ha ha. 

This is them trying to play with the remote.  It was so funny because they didn't get mad at each other for taking it away, they would just try to take it back! 

They chased each other all over the kitchen and living room. 

Sadie's kickover

Sadie has been working on being able to kick her feet over from a bridge for about a week.  On Wednesday she finally got it!  So fun!  I'm proud of her!

Mother's day

This picture was taken on Mother's day. I'm so blessed to be the mom of these amazing kiddos.  Seriously.  Today they got along the WHOLE day.  And they are the cutest kids I've ever seen.  They make me smile everyday and they sometimes make me want to pull my hair out.  But it comes with the job.  I love these guys!!

ps.  I wore a wrap dress to church that day because I wasn't going to have to teach my sunbeams class which is why I usually avoid wearing heals and dresses that might cause wardrobe malfunctions during primary.  But I realized that it didn't matter whether I was teaching that day or not.  A wrap dress plus a 9 month old is NEVER a good idea!  ha ha

Payson Temple

While my parents were in town, we went and saw the Payson Temple open house.  It was something I have been wanting to do with the kids since they announced a temple in Payson...so it was pretty special to be able to go tour it with my kids and my parents and my brother!  We went during the day on a Friday so Rob was at work.  On the drive down Zac and Sadie both started feeling sick.  And Riley started screaming when we were about 20 minutes away.  Finally she fell asleep right before we got to the temple.  Figures.  Zac's tummy started feeling better when we got out of the car, but poor Sadie was doubled over in pain.  My mom took her to get a barf bag just in case and I was seriously considering staying outside with her while the rest of them went through the temple.  

Thankfully there were three adults there with me to help.  Sadie needed to be carried a lot so thanks to grandpa and Scott for helping with that.  Scott had to carry her up a few flights of stairs.  ha ha.  I was carrying a sleeping Riley for a while.  Zac and Emery did a great job walking the whole time.  We passed Riley and Sadie around between me and my dad and brother.  

It was so great though to see how excited Emery was about everything.  Her eyes would get big when she saw a pretty vase on a table and then whisper to me "MOM!  That's a breakable thing!!"  ha ha.  I wish Sadie could have enjoyed it a little bit more, but I'm glad she was able to see it at least.

 After we went through.  You can't tell that Sadie is feeling sick.  She was great and put on a smile. My sister in law asked if we planned to coordinate our outfits when she saw a picture of us.  I hadn't even noticed until she made that comment so I guess we know what we are wearing for our next family pictures!  ha ha

I'm so grateful for temples and the peace that can be found there. 

My morning yesterday

 Yesterday morning I decided it was time to mow the lawn.  The front lawn wasn't too bad, but the backyard was a different story.  It has been raining almost every day here for the past few weeks so we couldn't really mow.  And the back lawn I didn't mow part of it because there was a quail nest with eggs in it and I didn't want to disturb it.  So Riley woke up from her nap and we all trekked outside.  I brought our little tent out with us and put the kids inside with snacks.  This is going to work!!!

 Aren't they cute??

 Next thing I know, Emery has opened the door to the tent and everyone was out!  ha ha

 But the lawn really really needed to be mowed.  So I let the older kids out of the tent and put Riley back inside.  

 Zac dropped goldfish in there for Riley every now and then to keep her happy.  

 She stayed inside happily the whole time I mowed the backyard...so silly me I thought she would do the same for the front yard!.

 She did for a while, but not very long...

 So I stuck her in my front pack and kept on mowing.  I'm sure I was a sight to see.  ha ha.  Then the mower ran out of gas.  Doh.  So I put Riley down, and filled it up, grabbed otterpops for the kids and the neighbors who came over, and I finished the last little bit.

 Yum.

I love my kids so much.  They were so great to let me mow the entire lawn!  It took me about 1.5 hours start to finish.  But wow...it looks SO much better!