Timpanogos Cave!

We went to Timpanogos Cave yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a hike.

We only took the older 3 kids. Sophie and Ryan stayed with Lisa. These three were real troopers. Anna needed shoulder rides for part of the way, but she walked the rest of the way herself. That's over 3 miles and almost 1100 feet climb in elevation! The cave was beautiful, of course, and Anna was giddy with excitement. Tyler, however, is a little afraid of heights and dark, so it wasn't the most enjoyable day he's had. He made it, though, so what more can we ask.

Every 10 steps or so Anna would say she needed to rest. Sometimes she would just sit down without telling us. On one bench she sat down and said, "Holy crap! I could just sit here all day!" I think most of it was just for drama sake, because she kept up her energy level throughout the whole thing.

Overall, I think I'm the one in the worst shape. I might need to go back in a couple of weeks after I've exercised more regularly just to prove to myself that I can do it without wearing so completely out.

Sometimes owning a home stinks.

Recently we have had what feels like our share of home improvement "emergencies." A couple of weeks ago Emma came upstairs saying the toilet had exploded. Indeed, it had. The pipes behind the toilet were broken and spraying water everywhere. We turned off the water and cleaned up the mess. A few nights later a horrible wind storm blew our fence down. It was already feeble, but couldn't it have stayed standing until tax refund season? Today as we were in the process of picking our bushels and bushels of apples and attempting to fix the fence, our front door was vandalized. We have windows on either side of the door, and one of the windows has been broken. We know who did it, and what happened, and while we can and will forgive them, it is still frustrating to have one more relatively large expense to deal with. Our house is falling apart around us. If only we could replace the whole fence, remodel the bathroom, and replace the front door/entry... But for now, we will just put on some bandaids and call it good.

Birthday pictures!

We went to Silver Lake for Josh's birthday. It was beautiful.
Josh got a hamburger cake for his birthday. The kids have been wanting me to try it for years.

Our cute new puppy, Snowball.

Anna with her puppy.

This is how Anna reacted when we told her we were taking Snowball home.

Anna and her mermaid cake. She said she wanted a MacGyver cake, but Ariel was a close second.

Ryan with the puppies on his birthday.

Sophie loves the puppies. This isn't Snowball. This is one of the others.

Anna with one of the bigger puppies.

Ryan catching the puppies.

Ryan's soccer ball cake. Mmmm.

And one of Josh and me at Mirror Lake, just for fun.

Birthdays!

I just realized how long it's been since I last posted. Boy, how time flies. Anyway, this week we've had fun with birthdays. Ryan's birthday was on Monday, Anna's is today and Josh's will be on Monday. Last Saturday we had a BBQ with Grandma and Pappa M. and then watched fireworks. On Monday we went to Spring City to celebrate Ryan's third birthday with Brynn's family. Granny and Grandpa came too. The kids had a blast playing with 12 puppies. Ryan loved his soccer ball cake and his new sleeping bag. On Saturday he was determined to stay 2 forever. By Monday he was pretty stoked about being 3. I'm glad he could come to terms with it. The trip to Spring City turned out to be a mistake however. Ryan fell asleep on the way home. He got a good, long nap, and when we got home at 10:00, he was wide awake and ready to go. He didn't go to sleep until 3:00. The next day he slept for 4 hours, which kept him awake until 1:00 that night. Luckily we've got him back on a schedule now. The other reason the trip was a mistake is that I couldn't take how cute Anna was when she asked for a puppy. I stayed strong that night and told her 'no' repeatedly. But she is so flippin' cute. And I couldn't think of anything else to get her for her birthday. So I talked to Josh, and he said, "Why not?" The week has been crazy enough that he didn't want to put much thought into it. So I called Brynn. Brynn came up today with the puppies, so we went to meet her at Granny's house. The kids had no idea what was coming. You should have seen Anna's face when we told her we were taking Snowball home. I actually did get a picture of it, but Josh took the camera with him for work purposes, so I don't have it with me to upload. But I will soon and then you can see how excited she was. And I haven't seen the kids since. They have been outside all afternoon playing with the dog. It will be okay, won't it? People have dogs all the time and survive it, don't they? It doesn't have to take over the house and yard, does it? I'm still not sure I want a dog. So, now we just have to make it through Josh's birthday on Monday, and then this birthday week will be over for this year. Sophie's birthday is next, in just a couple of weeks. I think I've had all the cake I can handle.