Three!!!

We are officially a large family, but we’re so happy about this new little boy coming our way! Feeling so blessed and excited for January 19th, 2015!

Art Show

Kate participated in a little art camp this summer and her teacher encouraged the kids to enter the upcoming art show. Like any obedient student, we followed her request. Kate entered two pieces: her rose window from class, as well as a salt dough creation she made at home. Coley, too, entered; but just one piece. He called his salt dough art, “Strawberry Donut and Apple Donut and Chocolate Donut.” A perfect title.

In the end, Sissy’s sculpture earned a Third Place ribbon and a whopping $4 cash prize, while Cole’s sculpture earned an Honorable Mention ribbon. I will say that Cole was robbed because the pieces that won were CLEARLY not (solely) created by preschoolers/kindergarteners, unlike HIS piece. I mean what 4 year-old can saw styrofoam into the shape of a robot? Yeah, right. Now we know the tricks for winning next year’s show;)

I tried to snap a pic of the kids with their winnings, starting with Cole. This is what we got:

GRUMPY FACE!!!!!

 

I guess we were done with pics. So proud of BOTH my babies anyway!

4th of July

Ryan and Adrienne hosted a party for the Lehi Fireworks. Dren pulled out all the stops and rented a cotton candy machine. We had a delicious dinner, blew bubbles, and made glow stick creations all while scarfing sugary, sweet clouds of cotton. We got to watch our own fireworks, which were pathetic compared to the bishop’s across the street (who coincidentally is an attorney and had probably $thousands$ worth of aerials). So nice of him to share his bags of money in the form of fireworks with us!!

It was all one big party leading up to Lehi’s fireworks show, which BTW, I did not think was all that great this year. Also not great, was the hour wait in the car to exit Ryan’s neighborhood at the culmination of the evening. It all made for a great memory, though, and I can’t wait to do this again next year!!

Cedar Hills Family Festival

We’re not usually big participators of our city’s celebration. This year, however, was different. First of all, our friend, Shannon, was put in charge of the Family Fun Run Event. This event goes to support someone in Cedar Hills who needs it. Second of all, the young man from our ward, Rocky Rhiddlehoover, who was killed while volunteering at Boy Scout Camp, was the person selected to benefit from this year’s run. Our whole ward pulled together to put on a bake sale and attend the event so it was really quite neat. And, honestly, I just have a special place in my heart for Rocky! I was glad to bake and run for him, and was glad the whole ward showed so much support! What a neat day for such a neat kid!

Team Rocky, wearing mostly red, which was Rocky’s favorite color

It was just a mile long run, and I have to say, I was so proud of little Sis! She ran most of the way, with a few little walking breaks in between. Physical activity is not our family’s strong point, so it was nice to see that it could be done! And she was just so proud of herself running through the finish line! What a moment!!

We did a raffle after the race and the kids won several prizes so that was fun too!

Later in the week, we hit the parade with Grandma Sandra and a couple of cousins. The kids got some pretty serious bags of candy.

After the parade, Sissy went swimming at Bella’s. Cole was sad. To ease the blow, we took him to the Carnie because a creepy carnival always cures sadness? Luckily, best friend Trey was there and it made for a most joyful afternoon.

Cole and the kids getting squirted by the fire truck:

And to finish off a day of pure fun, we hosted Cedar Hills fireworks at our house with Dave’s family. Dave made homemade root beer, and we ate and ate and ate. Didn’t even see if the fireworks were good, but the food and company certainly was!

Victoria, BC

Okay, so it was the last day of the cruise. The last day also meant the final show. on stage. in front of the whole cruise ship. I awoke with a slight ulcer in my stomach. We did our usual workout in the morning, had breakfast in the Lido, and then it was off for a 30 minute rehearsal. This was necessary because I learned the dance like 4 days earlier and remembered absolutely none of the dance at this point. We had a few minutes to practice with our partners and then a few minutes to run through it all on stage.

By the afternoon it was time for the real deal. I had my trusty family there cheering me on. I had my moment on the big screen, and the show began. AND just guess who was lucky enough to be first on? Yep, me. Death sentence right there. I was surprised because I was able to pull out the dusty, long-forgotten Cavette in me. I hammed up my performance with full-on facials, and even remembered (most of) the dance. In the end, I placed third. 2nd place went to the stinky Liz, and 1st to a nameless man (Travis?), though I was happy he won. The winnings were based on audience appeal, and that’s how it all went down. Nameless dude had a family of 35, Liz had a group of like 16, and I had a group of 12. Everyone else who didn’t place had smaller numbers.

Dancing with the Stars at Sea

The performance. You’re welcome.

My partner and me

Losing was no matter because the winner won a gold star paper weight. Lame. BUT…I will say, I was quite bummed to lose to that darn Liz! She was the worst! The rest of the competitors were all buddies, and offered, “Good luck’s,” and, “Good job’s!” But not Liz. She said nothing. Well, until she started feeling pressure to do so. And finally spit out a very underwhelming, “You did it…” to the very last competitor.

Anyway, I was happy it was over. I was also happy to have several old men stop me after the show to tell me I was robbed. I hugged each one of them and said, “Bless you!” It was just heart-warming. I’ve always dug old dudes.

And then it was time for a night a fun in Victoria!!! Brian, Andra, Sandra, Dave and I hired a taxi driver and drove to Butchart Gardens. We saved serious $$$ doing it on our own, instead of through the cruise line.

What a beautiful place! I’m so glad we got to go there!

The Sunken Garden

 

Awesomeness in the form of pics

After the gardens our driver took us on a scenic tour through the city. It looked like a fun place to visit with a lot of restaurants and such. We boarded the ship and hit the Lido for a late night supper to be greeted by the rest of the lame family who didn’t participate in the Butchart Gardens excursion. They all shared a big story about how they went to a coffee shop and saw Mike Myers, and how we just missed out! Big, fat lie. Turns out they didn’t even get off the ship.

So, yeah, fun day. Good way to spend our day of the cruise. Sad it was over!

This last pic was taken earlier on the cruise when Dave and I got dressed up in our cruise wear. Previous to the trip, I had searched high and low for some 1980’s bridesmaid and best man wear (for formal night). You’d be surprised by how impossible it is to find such a thing anymore! Everything at DI and Savers was either quite contemporary, or did not fit. Lots of size 20 dresses that would have done the trick, but nothing smaller. So in short, we ended up with these Tommy Bahamas pant suits. I think we looked the part.

Ketchikan

Another day, another destination! This day was Ketchikan. The men all signed up for a king salmon fishing excursion. Whilst the men were away, the women divided and conquered. Sandra, Becky and Andra shopped. And Annette, Jenny and I went ziplining. We all “supposedly” had a great day, but I’m pretty sure my team had the best;)

So here’s the men headed out:

We kept getting texts from Dave while we were ziplining. The guys weren’t catching a whole lot of salmon (as early June isn’t always the best time for that).

They were catching little numbers like this:

(kidding…this was just the bait)

But they did catch this:

And little salmon like these:

And then finally…THESE!

 

Brian and Curtis were the lucky winners for the day! They each caught themselves a king salmon (as well as a hefty freezing and shipping charge to get their fish home…about $180 dollars to be exact). I was glad Dave got to experience “fishing in Alaska” and was also quite glad he didn’t catch one that was big enough to ship home;)

Meanwhile…here’s our most awesome day of zipping through the Tongass National Forest!!!

“The Man in Yellow Hat” was our guide. I forgot his name, but he sure liked us three gals

The course consisted of probably 7-8 ziplines, one of which zipped out into a little peninsula of the ocean. This is all of us standing on a buoy, waiting to zip back to land. It had some great views from where we were standing.

There were also a few ropes courses and a 3-sided rock climbing wall. All were fun and made me feel kind of like a rock star athlete, which is a first for me.

Anyway, fun day. After we got back, we burned up the last few hours of land that we could. We visited the infamous Creek Street, notorious for once being the Red Light District. It’s a cute, colorful village built up on stilts that now houses restaurants, gift and souvenir shops. It all kind of reminded me of Gardner Village.

This is Dolly’s House on Creek Street. Apparently, Dolly and her house got a lot of visitors (then and even now):

We then walked over to Salmon Ladder. Salmon Ladder is where you can watch the hordes of salmon making their way upstream like this:

We, unfortunately, were a couple weeks off, and only saw this:

A really pretty place, though, as you can see. Can’t get over the green-ness of everything in Alaska!!!

And last, we saved a few minutes for souvey shopping and some more random photo opps. We also bought ourselves some most delicious Orca Corn (kettle and caramel popped corn). It was pretty tasty since we were all quite starved by this point.

See you later, Ketchikan!

Sitka

Hard to choose a favorite, but Sitka may have been it for us. It’s such a cute, historic, scenic, little town and we enjoyed our day there. We woke early and were amongst the first to get off the ship. We tendered in to the land and got started on our adventures.


First up, the Fortress of the Bear. Because orphaned cubs are routinely shot by the Department of Fish and Game, this place’s mission is to rescue cubs, bring them back to health and provide an enriching home for the bears. The center opened in 2007, has shipped some of its bears out to zoos and currently houses 8 bears. They eventually hope to release the bears back into the wild, but Alaska currently prohibits it.

Below is the owner. He came out and told us about the bears, threw fish to them, showed us how the bald eagles in the nearby trees like to swoop in and steal the fish, etc. The grizzlies were super cute and had learned how to beg in a very endearing manner. They’d sit upright on their bums, and then clap their hands; reminded us of the bears from Brave.

 

Here, a worker came into the black bear enclosure and fed three little baby bears grapes, lettuce and the likes. They ate right out of her hands, climbed the trees to get the food, etc. Cutest darned things ever!

This is Dave’s favorite pic from the day:

Two males

 

Right after the bears we caught the bus to the Raptor Center. This place has a similar mission. Here, they rescue injured birds, hope to rehabilitate them and release back to the wild, and if not, provide a safe home for the birds.

 

This tiny, feathered friend was our favorite bird there. Her name is Tootsie and was some type of owl. She is like 3 ounces in weight and is absolutely edible. She actually hangs out in the office with the secretaries, and is often taken out for walks on a little leash.

The bird on the far right below is a hawk from Ogden, Utah. I thought that was cool:

 

Something you didn’t know about Alaska (or at least the parts we visited) is that it’s a rainforest. They usually only gets about 1-2 feet of snow each year; instead, they get about 10 feet of rain. Everywhere you look is lush, green and mossy. This little trail was part of the Raptor Center and it was fun to walk around see the forest. See…it’s totally like an enchanted forest.

 

From here, we walked over to Sitka National Historical Park. It’s a little forest where invading Russian traders and the indigenous Tlingit tribe battled. It’s got a little visitor’s center and several totum poles, but nothing too neat to see otherwise.

 

Below, I’m standing on Castle Hill. This is one of the most historically significant sites in Alaska. Tlingit natives originally inhabited this area and built a strategic fortification at this site. (Can you tell I’m copying and pasting here?) Between 1804-1867 Russians took over. During this time,  several Russian buildings were erected on this site. The last one, known as "Baranof's Castle", was erected in 1837, and perished in a fire 1898.   In 1867, on top of Castle Hill, Alaska was officially transferred from Russia to the United States. Interesting and sad to learn about all of the bloodshed the native people experienced here in years past.

This is a restored Russian Orthodox church here in town. We went inside and just about passed out at the smell of the incense that was burning. One lady turned to me and said, “Isn’t this just the most beautiful place?” I said yes. But it was a lie. It was not much to see…or smell;)

We explored the Russian Bishop’s House. This place is special because it’s one of the few surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America.

I liked this little token unearthed several years back:

It’s a little iron plate that had been buried in the ground stating, “This land belongs to Russia.”

 

And now for our most delicious stop of the day: Ludvig’s Bistro. It’s a little clam chowder shop housed in a crappy shed, but has been featured in all sorts of magazines/food reviews. It served up the only clam chowder I have ever enjoyed.  It was expensive, but so darn tasty!!! And fun to eat while we perused the town.

We souvenir shopped a little, bought some treats from the local Ben Franklin, and called it a day.