Maggot Fest 2009!

About every other year, we have a family reunion with some of Newel's cousins from the White side of the family. It started about six or seven years ago. It's called Maggot Fest. It's awesome. I've only been able to partially participate twice, but it's been fun. This year I was able to participate in most of the events. They were here around June 11th-16th.

As the family has expanded and the Maggots have children of their own, the Maggot events have evolved/modified.
Cousins Anna, Laura, and Coudruts visited us in UT.

We had a chance to go to our local Farmer's Market grand opening with them, play at the playground, and eat at the Pie, one of our favorite pizza joints.

I was having so much fun hanging out with the Maggots, I forgot to take photos. Luckily, the rest of the family remembered to bring their cameras with them and take these photos.

One of the days they were here, we packed a lunch and headed to Murray park to have a concert at the park, while we enjoyed our feast.

Later, even though the performance was great, the children were getting a little bored, so we headed to the playground to play.

Ah, on Monday night we had a sort of Family Home Evening with them, but it was called the Bob Marley Party. It's all Bob Marley music the entire time. It was really fun. There was lots of yummy food and lots of great people.

After dinner, the Maggot games began. First challenge: Chubby Maggot (aka Chubby Bunny).

There were some expectators, but most of the partyers participated in the event.

I was able to stuff about 5 'Maggots.'

The winner: Troy! I believe he stuffed about 7 marshmallows.

After, Chubby Maggot, we had a really crazy fun marshmallow fight. I think every one participated on that event.

Later, we jammed/squirmed like maggots to Bob Marley music.

Some people even got dressed up! Very fancy stuff!

We took a family photo.

What nice looking Maggots!

Then, we attempted to take a group shot of the second generation of Maggots.

Ready, set the kids...

Go!

There were a couple more events, like the bithlon. I accidentally missed that one.
We had so much fun at Maggot Fest 2009. The best part was getting to know the cousins better. I really like them and wished they could live here so we could hang out with them more often. They are way cool. Totally laid back, really fun, open minded to us crazy Mormons and our way of life. Hopefully, we'll see them again soon.

We love the Maggots!

I'm 29 Today

or turned 29 a couple of days ago. I've been reflecting on my life from last year to this year, where I was to where I am now. What I have accomplished and what I'd like to accomplish. The following is an entry from my blog a few weeks after my 28th birthday:


We're doing well, even if the economy is not so well, and we don't have a permanent address, for now. We have our health, we have each other, and that's what matters.
Life is full of trials, and if you don't have trials, you don't grow. Well, I think we're doing a lot of growing, and I feel like we're taking it easy, positive, and peacefully. Once we know where life is taking us, I'll post it. In the meantime, life goes on, we enjoy every day, almost every moment, and can't wait to see which path Heavenly Father is going to guide us to. I'm a firm believer that He is with us and is guiding us to where we're supposed to be in life. He knows us better than we know ourselves and knows what we can handle.


Funny, a year later, most of that is still true. We kind of have a permanent address, but our time in UT still doesn't feel that permanent. I keep thinking 2-3 years. I have mixed emotions about being here, but overall, I feel that I'm happy, I'm adjusting, and overall enjoying our time here, as long as it is not for the rest of my life. Life does go on and I feel very strong that our Heavenly Father guides us. Each one of us matters to him, individually, and He is aware of me and my life. We are supposed to be here, in UT. I'm glad a lot of the above is very true today.
I had a really good birthday. We did our daily routine, what we do on Thursdays, Arden's final Bugs class and his last swimming class. The kids were surprisingly sweet and good. Arden even let me pick out what kind of pizza I wanted for my birthday. We got a babysitter so Newel and I could go out for the evening. I didn't want to go out to dinner. Instead, we went shopping for my birthday. It was fun. It was different...as some of you may know, I'm not a shopper, but it was fun to go out with Newel and get what we wanted. Even Newel, who is less of a shopping fan than I am, got into the shopping spirit. And for us, we even came home 'late.'
I'm glad I waited a couple of days to post this, because when I started to write this post, I was feeling pretty miserable (not about getting older) about my accomplishments as a mother and in my personal goals. I was beating myself up about how I lack discipline in my life, how I have such a hard time controlling my temper and I am so impatient. After having a wonderful night of sleep, I can say, it's life. I'm not supposed to be perfect. These are my weaknesses, I can make them strong. One day, may be fifty years from now, I'll look back and see how much I have improved in my life.
If I look back just five years ago, I am a different, perhaps even a better woman now than I was when I was 24. So this year, my challenge is not going to be learn 9 nine new words each month, or get down to 129 pounds, or even do a sprint triathlon, etc. I think my challenge is going to be focused on being more disciplined in my life. I was doing well for a while, going to bed early, getting up early, running and studying...but, then I hurt my knee and all of that 'discipline' went down the tube. I'm recommitting to get back on the horse, I'm going to exercise again, study, and work on controlling my temper. I will feel better about myself and about being a better mother for my children. So off I go, for a walk around the neighborhood. Let the discipline in my life begin...

Air Force Week

The first week of June was Air Force Week in UT. As a child, Newel wanted to be a fighter pilot. Since, he has really bad vision and is over 6 feet tall, that dream died a while ago and decided to become an engineer, instead. Anyways, he encouraged us to attend the events during Air Force Week. I must say, it was really fun and educational. One of the days we went to a park where they had all kinds of events, including the Air Force band playing, a short video on fighter planes, and the Air Force Drill team. We went with my sister-in-law, Helen.

We really enjoyed walking around and learning about airplanes. The Drill team was also great. However, I think what the children enjoyed the most was playing in the playground, followed by a picnic lunch at Aunt Helen's house.

The following day we went to watch a movie called Fighter Pilot or something like that. It was at the IMAX theatre. At one point I felt a bit nauseous because the images on the screen were so life like. It almost felt like I was riding in the plane and spinning around. Surprisingly, the movie kept both of my children entertained.

There were other events, but we were not able to attend.

On Saturday, we went to the Air Force Show at the military base.

The place was packed! There were so many people attending the event.
The weather was also perfect.

We had a chance to see lots of airplanes, talk to the pilots, and get some free stuff, like a super cool looking poster that I need to frame and hang in Arden's room.

Arden's cousin, Beatrix went with us, which made the trip even more fun.

On the way home we stopped at a gas station and got ice cream bars. As you can see, they really enjoyed the ice cream.

Wheeler Farm

Maya had her 18-month old check up just over a week ago...well, it was more like her 20-month old check up. She's healthy and well. After her Dr.'s appointment, there were no more plans. So, I got the idea to visit Wheeler Farm.

The day was gorgeous. Our adventure was spontaneous, which made it more fun.
Arden did most of the animal petting. Maya is pretty cautious. She's quite observant, but she will first take a look to see if its safe enough for her to try.
There were goslings and duckies.

The children fed the ducks and the geese.
They ran and they played.

They watched a man till the land. They observed nature.

By the time we got home we were tired, but delighted with our adventure.

Oh, yeah, we also made a 'quick' stop to make extra keys for the van...Have I mentioned that I now drive a minivan? Yes, me. I drive a minivan. I believe I had sworn I would never get one. Never say never.

By the way, I love my van. We got an awesome deal on it. I just wish it was a different color. I keep walking up to the wrong van in the parking lots.

I didn't love the extra cash I had to pay for those extra keys. When we bought the van they only gave me one key. So, I finally went back to the dealership to have two keys made. Just in case. Wow, don't ever lose your keys, they cost too much. We waited for what felt like forever. The kids were tired and hungry after our farm outing. The extra car keys 'quick stop' should have been an outing of its own.

Memorial Day Weekend

As time goes by, as a family, we are making our own traditions.

This year, as we have done in the past two years, we went camping. The previous two years we went camping with friends. This year, we went by ourselves.

Just the four of us.
It was really fun.
Arden is really into dinosaurs, almost as much as he is into insects, but not quite.

We decided to go to Dinosaur National Monument/Park.
On our way there, the children were getting a bit bored. To keep them distracted, I took photos of them.

Lots of photos.


I let Arden go at it with our camera.

After getting a speeding ticket, we made to the park.

Picked out the 'perfect' campsite and set up our tent.

It had a really gorgeous landscape.

I was a bit nervous about camping with Maya now that she's at that super mobile age.

To be truthful, at first I didn't want to go. It's too much work packing and unpacking. Being dirty, possibility of Maya wondering off, etc. A couple of mornings before leaving (and I was still undecisive about going), I read an article in the Ensign (a magazine from the LDS church) regarding family memories and it happened to be about camping. The author expressed the same feelings/reasons I felt about camping. At the end of the article she expressed her love for the memories her children were making and the appreciation for nature. It had me convinced...we had to go...for the sake of tradition, experiences, and to create memories.

Newel was super helpful and we tried to pack as simple as possible and ended up with a van full of stuff.

It went pretty well. It went better than I expected.

Maya mostly stayed at our campsite with not too much wondering off.

Arden was ecstatic. He really loves camping. He's in his comfort zone.

That evening, we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and made banana boats.

It was pretty relaxing. As I sat by the fire I was taking in all of the smiling and laughter from my children.

The experiences, the memories, the tradition.

It was worth it.

Late in the evening, it started to rain. It rained most of the following day. By 9AM, Maya had gotten all of her pants wet, but she loved playing in the rain while Arden and Newel slept in.

Still, we went on hikes in search of dinosaur bones. We hiked through mud, lots of mud. We got pretty dirty. We found the bones. Arden felt like a real paleontologist.

It was going to continue raining and all of our stuff was wet, so we decided to head back home.

I didn't take any photos of our hikes since I didn't want our dinky little camera to get ruined.

Newel and Arden still had the camping bug in them, so they invited the primas to camp out with them in the backyard. They had loads of fun. Lots of 'scary' stories, banana boats, and tons of playing and giggling.

The following morning, they even went out on a hike. It was a great Memorial Day weekend.