Project Basement

This fall it will be 6 years living in this house.

Since we moved in, our basement (and garage) have been the dumping ground for various things.  There are boxes that we haven't even opened since moving day...or things we tossed in there because, "maybe, we'll find a use for it some day."...or things that we just don't want to deal with, so what do you do...you throw it in the basement.  

Well, the time has come...spring cleaning is in full effect over here.

Welcome to my basement...while I'm in the midst of cleaning.

I know...scary.

 The bags of trash and donations are endless.  It feels so good.

Since Ryan is a rep he has tons and tons of samples, the idea is to give him a proper area to store his work stuff.  This should have happened long ago.  But hey, better late than never!

Lately, the weather has taken a turn, and we've been getting rain everyday, so it's perfect timing to lock myself away in the basement and clean it out.  But it's so easy to get distracted...yesterday I discovered all my old year books...so of course I had to flip through them!  But slowly, but surely, we'll get it done.

And speaking of spring cleaning...our dogs have gotten their yearly groomer visit.

This time I had all their fur shaved off...I love it.  I should have done this long ago!

Especially with all the rain, it's so much easier to wipe them off before they come inside.

Unfortunately, the first two nights after the groomers we have discovered dog barf in the living room.  They definitely don't act sick or anything...they're hyper as usual...so we're not sure what's up with them.  But either way, I don't like cleaning barf first thing in the morning!  So since then, they've been outside at night.  We'll keep an eye on them.

Hope ya'll are having a grand Tuesday!

Everyday life.

I decided I needed to catch up on some pictures and what our everyday life has looked like these past few weeks.  So in no particular order...here we go!

 Piper has been loving her new skates, she zooms around the house as well as outside...complete with all her gear.  She has become the road warrior around here.

And speaking of skates...

 ...I was cleaning up the basement and came across my old inlines!  I couldn't help it, I had to strap them on and take them out for a little spin.  It's been over 20 years since I skated on them and boy, I could tell!!  I was pretty rusty, but it gave me the itch to start skating again.  We'll see.

The other day our neighbor came to our door...she was out walking with her kids...and asked us if we were aware that Rory was asleep in the middle of the sidewalk.  Ha!  No we weren't as a matter of fact...we decided we should probably move her since she was creating quite the road block.  But Rory is still going strong with her naps in random places.

 And speaking of Rory...her favorite pastime this time of year is collecting rolly pollies.  She can do this for hours and at one point must have had about 30 in that little plastic pan.

 Piper experienced her first ride on the tandem!!

She had so much fun and begs to go everyday.

So, as of the last several months we have cut back our meat consumption in this house.  When I met Ryan he was a full on vegetarian...but living in the dorms in college the cafeteria wasn't cutting it (salads and tomato soup was about all they offered...oh and grilled cheese).  And lets be honest, it's tough to be an athlete on a poor diet!  His health was kinda suffering because of it so he went back to eating meat.  I think he has always wanted to be a vegetarian again, but cooking for a family I'm just not prepared to make that commitment.  I enjoy the flexibility when we're out and about or eating at other people's houses and eating what they serve and having no restrictions.  But I would say I cook meatless 90% of time (having chicken and fish on occasion).  I've actually really enjoyed the challenge and we have upped our veggie/fruit consumption which is always a good thing!  

 So anyway...the other week I experimented with tofu.  First let me back up...in college (when Ryan was a vegetarian) we ate at this cheap Chinese buffet (hey, we were poor college students, what do you expect?)...but, they had pretty good tofu!  And that says a lot because I wasn't even a vegetarian!!  So, I thought I'd give it a go.  Mine, however, was a complete failure!!  I went a little heavy on the soy sauce, and they turned into little salt squares...yuck!  I'll have to try again sometime.

I love our mornings.  Seriously, they're the best.

After the school rush (getting the kids up, fed, dressed, lunches made and then out the door) all is calm.  This is the time I usually have my own breakfast and then Ryan and I will usually sit for a minute or two before he heads out to work.  The little ones will usually be playing outside with their neighbor friends or watching tv.  But anyway, this is the time of day Ryan and I get to just sit and chat over a cup of coffee.  Yep, I said coffee.  Maybe I'll do a coffee post, maybe I won't.  But, after over two years without it, I drink coffee again and I'm fine with it.

 And it never fails...every morning Misty (the cat) comes downstairs (leaving her little hidy hole in Haley's room) and joins us...and she always sits right by me.  It's pretty sweet, really.

 I've put the girls in swim lessons again, and they love it. 

 Haley loves playing basketball, or as she likes to say, "Shootin' Hoops!".

One afternoon Ryan went out to play with her and he started trying to block her shots into the basket.  She immediately says, "Why are you doing that?!!"  He explains that's how you play, and then she answers, "Well, that is just MEAN!"  Ha!  So, perhaps the actual game isn't for her, but the girl loves a good game of HORSE.

And since my folks have been in town Morgan has really enjoyed shooting with her grandpa.  In fact, that's my .22 rifle she's shooting in the picture.  I've had that gun since I was 12, so it's fun to see her shooting it!  We're still not sure with her technique...she's a lefty so she holds the gun on her left shoulder but she likes to pull the trigger with her right...interesting.  Grandpa's working on it...he's pretty much a pro when it comes to shooting, so I'll let him handle it.

So that's what's going on around here.

Happy Thursday ya'll!!

Spring Break: Zion Part II

After a solid breakfast at the hotel we packed up and drove into Zion again for another full day.

The first thing the girls wanted to do was get their Jr. Ranger pins.  They had finished their booklets the day before and were itching to turn them in.

 Taking the Jr. Ranger Oath.

 Showing off their new earned pins!

 Of course, the day wouldn't be complete without Rory napping at some point.

 We decided to hike to the Emerald pools...another great hike for little kids!

There are three pools: lower, middle and upper.  We knocked out all three!

 Just a side note: Piper forgot her tennis shoes for this trip...hence the reason she's hiking in sandals.

Luckily, they held up great and she hiked like a champ!

 After finishing the hike we relaxed at the Zion Lodge where they have enormous tree surrounded by a huge grassy area for the kids to run around in and play.

And that was that.

I absolutely love Zion!  These picture don't do it justice with how beautiful the scenery is...honest, it's amazing!

The next morning we ate a leisurely breakfast and then headed to the local splash pad for one last swim (and carousel ride) before we started the trip back home.

This trip couldn't have gone any better...we all just had so much fun!

I'm anxious to hit up another National Park this summer!

We've got to the entire Mighty Five: Zion, Arches, (we've done these two) Canyonlands, Bryce and Capital Reef.

Spring Break: Zion Part I

 Our Spring Break was last week and we decided do a St. George/Zion trip.

So after being down south the week before, we were craving more, so we hopped in the Burban and headed back down there again!  You just can't beat the weather this time of year...it was absolutely beautiful!

We originally had planned to camp...but with everything booked we nixed that idea and decided to stay in a hotel in St. George for a few nights and drive into Zion.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and basically swam in the hotel pool for the rest of the day...with a quick trip to grab dinner and hit up the grocery.

Monday morning we loaded up for a day in Zion...and we weren't the only ones...Spring is a very busy time of year for that park...I knew that going in, but wow, there were a lot of people!

But luckily we found some awesome parking (the early bird catches the worm!!) and went straight to the visitor center and then took a short hike to the museum.

We took the shuttle to the Riverwalk hike, which leads to the Narrows.  Unfortunately the Narrows had to be closed due to flash flood warnings and with it being Spring the water levels were quite high.  Not that we would have done it...the little ones would have had a hard time!  But the Riverwalk hike was perfect for the them...they did super!!  

The squirrels were everywhere!!

And they weren't scared of anything...all they cared about was food and they would go to extreme measures to try to get it!

The girls loved it...and you bet they named every squirrel they saw.

 Of course...Rory napping is pretty much a guarantee!

By the time we drove back into St. George it was dinner time, so we grabbed something to eat and then back to the hotel where the kids would swim in the pool well past their bedtime.

And then they would crash.

Birthday Festivities

We had a blast Saturday celebrating Piper's 6th birthday.

The past few years we have always been on a trip during her birthday since it falls right around Spring break.  But this year we were home, so we took full advantage of that!

It's tradition that we wake the birthday girl up by singing "Happy Birthday" and presenting them with some kind of morning treat with a candle.  (That's how it was for me growing up.)  However, when the kids are young it's a delicate balance...you don't want to wake a sleeping child too early, yet you want to catch them before they wake up on their own.  Haley and Morgan have mastered it...they stay in bed until we come up to sing to them whether they're asleep or not.  Ha!  So anyway, Piper beat us to the punch...that stinker came down stairs around 7:00 (which is unheard of for her to get up that early).  So we sent her back up so we could sing to her.

We took all the girls to the city rec. center to swim and play on the slides, which was good fun!

Then it was off to Build-a-Bear...Piper and Rory had never been so it was extra special.

 That evening we celebrated with pizza and a movie.

Her movie of choice...Goonies.

 And then it was cake and presents!

One of Piper's grandma gave her a wooden labyrinth for her birthday...this was quite the hit, especially for us adults!

 We gifted her some roller skates and she pretty much doesn't take them off...ever.

And luckily her other grandma gifted her with knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards...so now I can relax a little when she skating around.  (Remember I have a slight fear of quad skates...I'm trying to get over it, honest).

Anyway, the whole day was good fun...oh, how we love this girl of ours.

She is always keeping us on our toes.

And by the way...I gave her a hair cut finally!

It didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself!