Alaska's Sweetheart

This is from Becky's good friend from college that lives in Alaska. I thought this was very interesting. (Sorry Laura I totally stole this from you, but I think you have great insight.)

I am not usually a Political person.. okay, I'm still not, but I will say this: Alaska loves Sarah Palin. (And it's Pay (as in rhymes with day)- lin.) We loved her long before she made national headlines. She came to office and immediately tried to clean up after our past loser Governor, who thought he needed all the luxuries life can bestow. One of her first orders of business was to sell the State Jet that he had to have. She has done some "cleaning house" to say the least. She is a strong woman and one of great character. She is a family woman. And yes, her daughter is pregnant. I think we can all agree that no matter how well you teach your children, in the end.. they have their agency.This was her statement after giving birth to her Down syndrome baby, Trig, in April:"We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives"..We may be a little biased up here in Wasilla. :) It is small enough that we all have connections to her:

-Her parents live literally around the corner from mine.

-Her sister works at the same dentist office as my mom.

-I babysat for the loser trooper that she is under investigation for trying to get fired. (I worked with his wife at the time, whom he cheated on.)Anyways just wondering your opinions on her?

Who Am I?
Does history really repeat itself?
Who Am I?
I am under 45 years old,

I love the outdoors,

I hunt,

I am a Republican reformer,

I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,

I have many children,

I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.

Did you guess?

I am Teddy Roosevelt.

Viva Las Vegas

I have not been to Vegas since I was the good year blimp, pregnant with Stockton, in 1998. The Hills and us were staying in St. George and decided to drive down for the day. I don't remember much about Vegas other than we had a lot of fun, and I did a lot of whining about how fat I was. In July we decided to go down for the weekend. We had so much fun laying out, going to the spa, sleeping and eating. My kind of perfect trip.

This is my friend Shanna and I standing in front of Pamela Anderson's car she was auctioning off for charity.

It is so nice getting away with good friends and hanging out with each other. I feel like I am a better wife after trips like this. Bart doesn't love Vegas but he was a good sport. I can't wait to go again. Raquel you are so lucky to live so close to good shopping and nice weather!

Okay so it is the marathon blog posting month. I am so excited, I have almost a year on my blog so I am ready to print it out from blurb. I just have to get caught up from the summer and I am done!!! I am still in July......

Bear Lake Fun

My grandparent's built our cabin before I was born. Bear Lake has been a summer tradition my whole life. Just driving up there brings a happy feeling to me. I love everything about it. I have so many happy childhood memories driving in my grandma's green station wagon sitting backwards in Logan canyon. (No wonder just looking at a car makes me car sick!) Every weekend we would stop in Logan and get curds then up to USU campus to get my mom Aggie icecream. I am so blessed that I get to share these fun memories with my kids. Sometimes when my kids are out making sand castles or collecting sea shells I imagine my mom and grandma standing on the same red deck, that has been there for 35 years, and smiling while watching them.
I love Aniston's chubby little legs!

This is my cute sister in law Claire.
Two little peas in a pod ruining the big kids sand castle.

See what I mean about the piggy smile.
Here is our new tradition.......sitting around the camp fire roastin marshmellows and just visiting.

Again the piggy smile!

She said she wanted to go tubbing with Squeezy. I don't think she understood what that meant. She got in and started screaming. Maybe next year!

Stockton's 10th Birthday

My baby turned into a great big boy over night. I seriously feel like I had him yesterday. As long as I can remember I wanted a baby. When we found out we were going to have a baby, 11 months almost to the day we got married, I was thrilled. Bart and I were both still in school and thought McDonald's was our splurge for the week. We were just livin' on love. The minute he was born I was in love. We went in on June 1st to have him. I was in labor for 12 hours and didn't dilate past a one. My Doctor sent me home. So 14 days later I went into my Dr's. office and told him I would sit there and cry until he got this baby out. I had waited long enough and I wanted him NOW!! I was in labor for three straight days and pushed HARD for about 17 hours, and finally he was born. It was worth all of it. He was born on June 17th. As soon as he was born I knew he was special. He hardly even cried, he just laid in my arms and slept. I had never seen anything so special and wonderful in my whole life. I didn't know one person could feel this much love for anything. He was an angel and still is. He is such a good boy and always wants to make everyone around him happy. We used to sit around for hours and laugh at the funny things he did. He is my parent's first grandchild, so he grew up with all of our undivided attention. Still to this day he brings me so much joy! Thanks for making me so proud of you everyday. Happy Birthday Stockton!

Stockton loves Indiana Jones. He got to pick out his own cake.

The boys had so much fun playing football outside I wished we had planned that for our activity. They were sad we had to get in the car to go to the real party.
We went to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove. It was so neat. They all had a blast! Stockton already has next year planned out for the same place.

At our house it is Birthday week. We had a fun family birthday party also. Stockton get spoiled every year. He deserves it!

Birthday Fun!

Sarah and Doni are the best cake makers ever! Misty's birthday is in May then we have one a month until Mindy's in October. Last year they did cake's to match everyone's personality. Misty had a breast cake......with a bikini on it. That is self explanitory! Doni's was a Edward Cullen's head. Sarah's was a purse. Mine was a cell phone. (I do not know why they did that....whatever!) Mindy's was a ski scene with polly pockets, and Lisa's was a diet coke can. They were so neat. I wish so bad I had my camera but alas I did not. So anyway this year we did themes. Misty had just had a baby so we did a spa theme. They made a face with cucumber eyes, creme on the face with a towel around the head. (There is a picture on her blog of the cake. The Newmans) Then for her gift and activity we went to a spa in Salt Lake. It was a birthday present for all. Sarah's was all about tennis. Doni made a tennis racket cake. It looked like you could pick it up and hit a ball with it. We gave her a tennis outfit and a ball holder with tennis balls for a year. Then we went and played tennis and went to breakfast at Kneaders. Doni is going to Hawaii for the first time this fall. We got her a gift certificate at Hapari for a new suit. Her cake was a pinneapple with a real top. I wish I had a picture because it looked so real! Then we made pina coladas and layed out by the pool until it got to windy and we came back inside for more drinks. This time I had my camera....
I promised Doni I would not show anyone these pictures. But this was the only birthday I captured, so I have to use it. She looks darling. She does not look at blogs so the deal is no one says anything and she will never know she is in her swimming suit on my blog.
Here is Mindy making our drinks with her special recipe minus the rum!
So for my birthday this year they made a sushi cake. It had all my favorites, a california roll made out of twinkies and fruit by the foot, and a vegas roll from half of a powdered donut. Then we went to Happy Sumo. After we went for pedicures from the talented Asains! I got a cute watch and necklace wrapped in a chinese to go box. (They couldn't think of an Asian gift I would appreciate.) It was so much fun. Turning 33 wasn't as painful as I imagined! Lisa and Mindy's birthdays are coming up and they are going to be great. I can't give away the surprise but stay tuned.....

Homestead Family Reunion

My dad's family has a family reunion at the Homestead in Heber every summer. My parent's started going when my mom was pregnant with me. It is a lot of fun and my kids look forward to it every year. I kept forgetting my camera so I only got a couple of shots of us at the condo.
When Aniston was a baby she would make this funny "piggy face" when we told her to smile. We call it her piggy smile now. She loves to do it. The only problem is, it is almost impossible to get her to do a regular smile.

Here are our two trouble makers. They love playing in the loft!

My dad has some snazzy swim trunks in his drawer that he keeps just for swimming in Park City. We have laughed about them for years. Josh came and modeled for us. What a HOTTIE!

We ALL Love Bees

I am so far behind in my "journal, via blogging" that it is going to take me forever to catch up. These are not going to be in any order but here are the activities for summer.
We took the fam to a Bees game in June. Wes (my cute brother) and Claire (my cute sister in law) met and fell in love at a Bees game and then got engaged at a Bees game. So the Bees have special meaning to us! We love Claire!
We were late as usual and Aniston wanted to walk. It is a little scary parking a car anywhere in the vacinity of the game. It is not the safest part of town!

Here is the gang just relaxing and enjoying each others company. They are laughing of course at my expense! I am just glad I can provide such great entertainment for my family that I love.

We had so much fun and can't wait to go again next year!

Finally, we can swim!!!

I have been doing public swim lessons since Stockton was 9 months old. Ever since, everyone of my children have done swim lessons every year. I go through the whole wait in line for hours to get them signed up. Then put them in a class for 1/2 hour with 5 other kids. They just never seemed to improve. Kennedie is a natural swimmer so I don't worry about her but the boys........ We had two near drowning accidents with Weston last year. That was the final straw. I finally signed him up for the private swim lessons at the Legacy Center. I don't have great ideas very often but this was brilliant. Okay I can't take all the credit, Lisa and I worked together. I am not kidding, after the first lesson it was night and day different. Weston had improved so much, it was like he was a different kid. I could have cried I was so happy. This summer has been great! He no longer even has to wear a life jacket. He jumps off the diving board in the six foot section and swims to me without any problems.

Aniston and Kate had as much fun as the boys. Aniston kept sticking her feet in the water and making the life guard a little anxious. I want to sign her up as soon as possible.

By the end of the lessons the boys were swimming like fish! I couldn't believe it. I could be on an ad for the Legacy Center. I sound like a commercial!

Pictures

We got these pictures taken in April, they have already grown so much!

Here is my pride and joy!! These are my greatest blessings!!!

USU!

I love my calling in the Young Women's! We went up to Utah State University (Go Aggies!!) for youth conference this year. It was so much fun. They had a ropes course for us to do. I am a pretty brave person but I am afraid of heights. I had to climb up this ladder and walk across the log to the other side. I screamed like a little girl but I did it.
Then it was my turn to secure (I don't know the technical term) the next person. As you can see I didn't do a great job but at least no one fell.


This is my cute friend Denise. We bunked together in the dorms. My bed squeeked so loud everytime I moved I don't think Denise slept the whole time. We had so much fun together I felt like I was back in College again. We even got to sneek off a couple of times for shopping and diet coke.

I work with amazing women and I feel blessed to learn from them each week. It is good I get another chance at being in Young Women's because I don't think I did a great job the first time.