Labor Day Weekend

I did a blog post right before Labor Day weekend, where I stated I was ready to break free of the confines of my home and have some fun. Well I am happy to report that we did. Late Friday afternoon I received a call from Marty that he was passing through town on his way to California. He told me he would be to our house in one hour which meant I had to quick get ready, but the kids loved it since they didn't have to wait long for Grandpa Marty to get here.

He brought Megan these flowers which she was thrilled about.

We all went out to dinner at Outback, which was very enjoyable. We hardly ever go to Outback because I am not much of a steak fan, but it was so good I am sure we will be going back again soon.

He ended up staying the night with us, and the next morning took the kids to pick out toys at Wal-Mart. Megan will peruse the aisles looking for something, but Jackson has a one-track mind and will only look at the HotWheels aisle.

It didn't take long for Sadie to choose what she wanted either. After he left we must have had so much fun because we were all exhausted. We didn't even go out to dinner on Saturday night, which is really unheard of around our house.

Nothing much to note about Sunday except for I made The Pioneer Woman's potato bundles. I think I added a bit too much cream, but would still recommend them. And look how cute they look all wrapped up.

On Monday we decided to head to Valley of Fire. It states quite plainly on the brochure that the best times to visit are during the spring and fall, but we threw caution to the wind and went anyway. I will first say that it was of course HOT, but still a whole heck of a lot of fun. And since I am incapable of picture cutting, here are a ton of them.

Hanging with the rocks.

Visiting the cabins they made for travelers in the 1930's.

Picnicking.

Since we had the kids, and it was hot, we decided to take the short 1/2 mile hike that highlighted petroglyphs. They were amazing.

Hiking in sand was harder than I remember it being.

Sadie didn't get much hiking time in, but got quite a bit of riding time.

We got to the end and knew we had to turn around and hike back out. By this time we were all exhausted and dying of thirst! I remember thinking to myself before we started the hike that we probably wouldn't need our water bottles since it was so short. I was WRONG.

So our walk back included a couple of shade breaks to play in the sand.

We were all worn out, and needed a break, so we decided to spend a bit of time looking at the rocks from our car. But before leaving, we made one more stop to see more petroglyphs.

We headed home and went to dinner at the Olive Garden. For those of you that don't know it is never-ending pasta time! It is my favorite time of year at the Olive Garden.

Looks like it is Sadie's favorite time of the year too!

Crack Is Whack

What can I say? Sadie was born into the right generation. If she had any low-rise jeans I am sure she would insist on wearing them everyday. She likes to wear her pants and her diapers low! Her butt crack makes a daily appearance around our house, due to the fact that she is constantly pulling her diaper down. And I have to say I do enjoy those daily appearances.

Breaking Free

This week I have felt out of sorts and bound to the house for a couple of reasons.

First, every single one of us has caught a cold. However, it has been the shortest cold duration known to man. We all feel really terrible for 24 hours, and then miraculously feel all better. If I have to take sickness, this is the kind I can take.

Second, now that Megan has started 4th grade there has been a sudden onslaught of homework that is taking hours, upon hours to complete at night. Now, Megan does like to take her time. And she is prone to distraction. But I have felt like all we have been doing from the time she gets home, until the time she goes to bed is homework. I am welcoming a weekend free homework zone.

The bright side is that her room has stayed remarkably clean all week. It's just too bad it was because she had no time to play in it.

#3 Luckily today I was able to break free of my home bound status, and get out of the house for lunch. We went to 3 Tomatoes and A Mozzarella and I think I will have to give it a thumbs down. It wasn't terrible, but I felt it was quite overpriced (I paid $18 for a sandwich and a kids pizza). My kids were hype, hyper the whole time and I can only imagine the annoyance they caused to the people sitting behind us. All I can say is they must have been understanding grandparents because when they got up to leave they said goodbye to my kids, and didn't give me a dirty look! Oh how I love understanding people.


I am ready to break free of the house and have some fun! If only I had exciting holiday weekend plans.

"Have you ever had a cold that lasted only 24 hours?
Is 4th grade some sort of homework by fire program I should be aware of?
Ever been to 3 Tomatoes and Mozzarella? (I thought it would be like Sweet Tomatoes, but I can assure you it was not)
Do you have any holiday weekend plans?"

Bruisin' Baby

Tonight Sade and Jackson were being their crazy selves, and look who ended up hurt.

I always feel slightly bad when I hear the crying coming from the other room, don't think much of it, make no rush to go in and examine what has happened, and then a child walks out hurt. And hurt enough that I can actually see the damage!

Sadie calmed down quite quickly, but FREAKED OUT when we brought out the cold washcloth. Doesn't she realize we are just trying to help. Oh what to do with those irrational 1 year olds?

On second thought she probably just was mad that Eric was trying to cover her whole head with it! I'd probably freak out too.

A Night At The Races

Everyone that reads this blog knows that Jackson loves cars. Our friends the Arnolds also know this, so when they decided to go out of town last weekend, they bequeathed their Speedway race tickets to us. I will start off by saying, a night at the races isn't usually my scene, but I think I might have had the most fun out of all of us. It was a blast. All of the spectators were having so much fun, and I was up on my feet, yelling and clapping with all of them.

This was the first race we watched. I had no idea this was even legal, but an 11 year old was competing (and she was a girl! Woo-Hoo). The winner ended up being a 13 year old! Who knew that you could drive a race car before you were 16. I had better sign Megan up now.

This was my absolute favorite part. And when I asked Megan and Jackson they said it was their favorite part too. They brought out about ten 18-wheelers to race. Everyone thought it was a joke, and that they were not really going to race. But they did! It was so exciting, and I even get goose bumps when I think about it now. At the very end, a truck from the back of the pack made his move, and slipped right in-between all of the trucks and sped to the finish line. I almost passed out from excitement. What made it even better were the 2 truck drivers sitting behind us, who kept exclaiming that they had never seen anything like this. I knew that since they were impressed, this must have been a pretty cool thing to witness.

Sadie was very well behaved. I am pretty sure that it had something to do with the fact she had as much ice to munch on as she wanted. I have never known anyone who enjoyed ice as much as Sadie.

It might have also had something to do with the ice cream.