Now THAT is a backyard...

If you haven't spent time in the beautiful Uinta Mountains of Utah, add it to your bucket list. Mr Incredible and I had the privilege of enjoying our childhoods nestled in this beautiful place and are grateful that our children also get to enjoy it, even if it's only occasionally. It's not until you are in the flat lands of the Midwest with tornado sirens blaring that you really truly appreciate, not only the beauty, but the protection of these beautiful mountains.

Here is Mr Incredible's childhood backyard where we fondly call "The Ranch"

Muffin has become somewhat of a rock collector as of late and she was in seventh heaven at the Ranch with rocks as far as the eye can see. Sorry Grandma Patsy, I am sure that you found half of the ranch inside your house when we left.

Aunt E-M and the kids were at the Ranch when we got there, how wonderful it was to spend some one-on-one time with them.

Next Detour...

Mount Rushmore!

Pretty cool right! I don't know if it was that we had low expectations or it was more that we didn't know what to expect, but we were amazed what a beautiful drive it was to Mount Rushmore, oh and the monument is really cool too. If you have some time, look up Mount Rushmore on Wikipedia. It has a really cool history, it was fun to find out a little about where we were. Good times.

Now we can say we've been there, done that and bought the overly priced t-shirt(s).

From here...

to there.

Just to make you smile...this was one of our stops after we left Mount Rushmore. This kid is freakin' awesome!

Trek West...

We made our annual trek west this month. Whew! What a crazy ride. (and I am not just talking about the car ride) Because we are so crazy about being in the car, we thought we would take some extra detours along the way. You know, just to mix it up a little. First stop...Sioux Falls, SD.

I know...you're thinking what in the H-E double hockey sticks is in Sioux Falls, SD, right? Well, not much to be honest. The Falls. That's what there is in Sioux Falls, SD. It was beautiful, kind of majestic - you know it's one of those "don't mess with nature" kind of moments, and the park was very nice and huge.  I would not recommend keeping up exhausted, been-in-the-car-all-day, cranky kids up for the "laser light show" just in case you're ever in the area.

The more kids we have the harder it is to get a good picture. This was pretty good, under the circumstances

Muffin wasn't so impressed with the Falls of Sioux Falls.

Sweet Pea on the other hand, thought it was pretty cool.

This is where little Bean hung out, although he not a huge fan of the Bjorn.

Lots of fun!

(I have to thank Sweet Pea for taking this awesome picture :o)

Happy Day!

It's unbelievable that it was 10 years ago that I tricked Mr. Incredible into marrying me. It's a great story how I got him to propose. It took precise planning and stealth execution. It involves a Honda Civic, a helicopter, and feats of strength- if you have time I would love to share. I am just grateful he has managed to have enough patience to stick around for so long.

Thank you for loving me even through all my craziness - Happy Anniversary my love!

Dad's Day

I had to take a minute to thank Mr. Incredible for being such an amazing father. I love you, thank you for being a "hands-on" daddy.

Instead of buying Mr Incredible the boring stand-by gift that I always do...clothes (which he ends up returning anyway) I decided to retire the #56 SSHS football jersey. Our boys' room is sports themed so I thought it would be fun to hang it up in their room. I also have a really cool picture that I took from the sidelines when we were in high school of him during a game. Fun stuff.

We had some of his favorites for dinner and Oreo ice cream pie for dessert. Oh ya, and he got 4 packages of Oreos, one from each of the kids. I had them make cards and they gave him the Oreos when they woke up that morning. He kinda likes Oreos :o)

Nauvoo

Back in June we took a day trip to Nauvoo. Those of you who know where we live and know where Nauvoo is, you know that it's a little more than ambitious to make that drive in one day. We went with the Allred's and they are all sorts of adventurous and stuff and they had been planning the trip for a while when family was in town. If you know me, I am not so adventurous these days. I am happy to make it through the day with my sanity and all four children in tact, let alone a trek across Land-o-Lincoln. I need to point out that Mr Incredible took full advantage of how geographically retarded I am (sorry Mr. Hayes, I got nothin) and he said that it was only a three and a half hours drive. I figured that wouldn't be so bad, so off we went to Nauvoo, Illinois.

We got on the road and Mr. Incredible asks me to check the directions, thank you mapquest for informing me that the official drive time...4 hours 59 minutes!!!! His excuse...."I knew if you knew it was going to take us 5 hours you wouldn't have come." Sad thing is, he's probably right.

Anyway, we did it and we all survived and it was amazing. It made all it worth it when we got home around midnight and we thought the kids were asleep in bed when Sweet Pea came down the stairs in tears. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she wanted to say prayers with me and Dad, so we said prayers with her and asked why she was crying and she said they were happy tears. She had obviously felt the love and Spirit from such an amazing place. What a wonderful opportunity to teach her about how the Spirit of our Heavenly Father works and she was feeling how much He loves her.

My favorite was of course the Temple. It is so beautiful and I hope one day that we will be able to go and do Temple work there.

It brought me to tears to read this. I can't imagine how the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum felt as they knew that they would not be returning.

We learned how the early Saints made rope...

and candles...

This was the blacksmith's shop...

where be brought home "prairie diamonds" or horseshoe nails shaped into rings.

THE END!