When Life Gets Busy...

...and you feel like you just don't have enough hours in the day to get all the things done that you need to accomplish, what do you do? Well, knowing that laundry would STILL be there tomorrow (although the pile may be larger), and the dishes aren't going anywhere (in fact there will be even more), and absolutely not wanting anything having to do with work or any word that resembles it - we get SILLY! It relieves the pressure just a little bit! :)

B and I got CrAzY! He had a great time being goofy and silly, and I loved every minute of snapping away with my camera :) Here's proof that my little Superman can fly!

Too bad I have to get back to reality now. The laundry awaits...

Trophies and Busted Limbs

Wow! What a weekend we had. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. I'm tellin' ya, this is the kind of stuff that only happens to us.

Let's ATLEAST start out with the positive events. A wedding. I love weddings. I love attending them. I loved having one (although I don't want to have another one. Ever.) I love reading about them, looking at pictures of them, weddings are great! However, when I decided to take up photography, I said... no actually I SWORE, that I would not EVER shoot a wedding. Why? Well, for one thing, there's a little bit of pressure. There are no do-overs. If you don't get it the first time, you just don't get it. And if you mess up? Well, I don't even want to think about it! I thought it would be WAY too stressful. However... last year, my wonderful hubby's boss said "My son is getting married. We need a photographer." And my wonderful hubby said "Oh. My wife could totally do it!" I was mad. Seriously, I was! But of course, how do you say "no" to your husband's boss? When I mentioned that I had never shot a wedding before, they reassured me that it was a small wedding, and it would be fine. Yeah. You say that NOW. We are talking about somebody's important memories, here. Well, I ended up doing their engagement pictures - and I LOVED it. Then I ended up doing her Bridals - and I LOVED it. I was still super nervous about the wedding, but guess what? I LOVED IT! I took Jared along to assist. He even took a few pictures with my sister's camera that I had taken as a backup. Fast forward a year. A girl who grew up in the ward we are in (and whose mama is the YW pres) called to ask what I would charge to do a wedding. I still didn't feel super experienced, and I still felt very nervous, but I said I would do it for her. I took along an "assistant:"

Don't you LOVE the look of concentration? He really took his job seriously ;)

I had my back-up camera all set up for him, and kinda told him what to shoot. He was great! He noticed little details that I was too busy to notice, helped me gather everyone for group shots, and caught a few really nice shots while I was changing lenses. I don't know if I could have done it without him, and as we drove away, he said "I can totally see myself doing this with you when I retire." I laughed a little bit. I may need him WAY before he retires, so I guess I better start teaching him to shoot manual! It was really fun to just have him there with me, lending his support, and reminding me that I CAN do this! And now I have another wedding under my belt. I've learned something each time, and I hope to have the opportunity again sometime :)

Friday ended on quite a nice high. Saturday started out that way...

Eryn's soccer team was playing in the 7th-8th Grade Recreation Championship (I don't know if they really call it that, but she IS in 7th grade, it IS rec. soccer, and it WAS the championship). They came into the tournament as the 2nd seed, and had won their previous game in mega overtime with shoot-outs and sudden death, finally pulling out the "W". We were feeling pretty good about the finals. They played their little hearts out, and then late in the 2nd half, Eryn goes down. Yes, DOWN. On the ground, landing right on her wrist! She sat out on the field crying, and all I could think was GET UP... GET UP!! When she did, she walked off the field holding her right arm and crying in pain. SHOOT! We've done this before, and it's not fun. Just a mere 2 years ago, she fell while ice skating and broke her LEFT wrist. There is even video of the fall (it's here on the blog, but you'll have to look for it. It was December of 2008. ;) ).  Only this time, it's her RIGHT wrist. She's right handed. Well, we just hoped it was only a sprain (please let it only be a sprain!) The "Heatwave" ended up losing (in a very similar ending to the other game - shootouts, sudden death) and it was heartbreaking... and apparently ARM breaking. This morning (Monday) the X-ray concluded that her Radius was in fact BROKEN!! Hey, atleast she got a trophy out of the deal. 2nd place really aint that bad!!

Notice the ice on her arm. But GO ERYN!! We were proud of her - she had a fantastic season. She gets better each year.

And I wasn't pushy enough (or patient enough) to get a picture without some other mom's arm in the way. But here's the whole team with their trophies!

I had to leave Eryn at the clinic to get her cast on alone, because Hayden would be getting off the bus at home at any moment. Can you just imagine him getting off and nobody there to meet him? Nobody home? It was giving me anxiety just thinking about it. Good thing Eryn's old enough to hang out by herself for a little bit. When I picked her up, there she was with a beautiful, bright green cast!

I told her I wanted to take a couple of pictures of her with her cast... and she tried to hide it. She is NOT happy (despite the cute smile) about having it. It's gonna be tough!

Ah, there it is!!

The next 4-6 weeks should be interesting, to say the least. She shares a similar trait with me, in the fact that our left hands are essentially USELESS! I don't honestly know how I can even play the piano, because really, my left hand can't do anything. Poor kid. Note-taking will have to be done with a voice recorder, hair will have to be done by me... and patience will have to be key!! Wish us luck ;)

My, what LOVELY teeth you have!!

When I was in 9th grade, I got braces. I had some seriously messed up teeth. Gap between the front teeth (not TOO bad, but I sure hated it), not enough room for all my permanent teeth, extractions of permanent teeth to make room, it was a MESS! I wore those nasty metal things for over 2 years. I was a junior in High School before I finally got them taken off. At that point I REFUSED to wear my retainer to school. I figured I had been tortured enough. Not that I didn't wear my retainers, trust me I did. I took them out RIGHT before I walked out the door for school, then put them back in RIGHT when I walked in the door afterward. I thought that without metal in my mouth, maybe I'd get a few dates. LOL!

Well, I don't think Eryn has ANY idea how lucky she is. She got her braces on a year ago, she's not even 13 yet, and she's already gotten them off! I have friends who have or have had braces as adults. Lucky Eryn, done before she even becomes a teenager. With all our "computer shuffling" we've done over the last month, most of my pictures are contained on discs, or someone else's hard drive (sorry Math, I'll really come and get those off sometime!) So we don't have any of the TRUE before pics, but we took some with braces, then without... all on the "Braces Off Day!"

Logan

We had such a fun time in Logan with Marie and Jeff... Bear Lake was super awesome (as you saw in my last post). We LOVED it! On Sunday, we went to their ward. Of course it's a "Young Married Student" Ward... so we totally fit right in! HAHA :) Actually, we felt a TINY bit weird, but the gospel is the same no matter where you meet. I don't feel any older than the people in their ward, but I'm sure they looked at us like "who are these old people!?" Our kids were really good in Sacrament Meeting, and we even had a few people mention how reverent they were, and asked us how we do it? I don't know. I guess we just have awesome kids! They don't have a real primary, and definitely don't have a Young Women's Organization, so we really had to "go with the flow." Kaitlyn, Bryson and Hayden went into Nursery... but they gave them a real primary lesson. I guess there are only even a couple of little nursery kids. There are a few babies in the ward, but not big enough for nursery yet. Kaitlyn was pretty easy going about it, and didn't mind hanging out in there. Hayden was a little crazy when it came to coloring his picture, but that was to be expected after being so good in Sacrament Meeting! B was just happy to be wherever. Eryn, on the other hand, ended up having to come with us to the Marriage and Family class, and was definitely a little uncomfortable. She stayed with me for Relief Society, too. Poor kid! She didn't complain, but I could tell it was a bit awkward for her. It was a good lesson, though, and would be good for anyone of any age to hear.

Monday: We headed out on the town! First stop: The Utah State Football Stadium (as requested by my football fan hubby).

The kids had fun running up and down the stairs.

And sitting on the big "A"

Then we just kinda wandered around campus a little bit. When I was in high school, we had Cheer camp at Utah State, and I just loved it. I actually thought about attending Utah State at one point, but I decided it was just too far away from home. Good thing, or I wouldn't have met Jared! ;)

Jeff showed us the Old Main Hill. He says it has been a pretty popular spot for sledding in the winter, but it's probably a bit dangerous. He did mention that he broke his collar bone on this hill! Our kids thought it would be fun to run all the way down the stairs and back up. Especially when they chased a squirrel up part of the way! I decided that I would just stay at the top and watch. Jared and Jeff joined the kids...

they aren't the LEAST bit competitive (right!)

Then Jeff took us to the "kissing A" (I think that's whate he said it was called). Apparently if you stand on the A and kiss someone, you become a true Aggie. Well, we have since learned that there are a bunch of other "rules" that we didn't follow, so I guess we aren't true Aggies. Oh well ;)

Then, of course, it was off to see the Logan Temple. I love the older temples. They are just so pretty! I'm amazed at the craftsmanship and detail they have, without the modern tools we have today. Just gorgeous!

Then we headed back for some lunch...

And we went to a little zoo. I didn't get many pictures there, but there were some fun animals to see, and the kids got to feed some ducks... so it was fun. I have to say, with all these fun things we did, the majority of the time spent at Marie and Jeff's apartment was doing THIS:

Nothing like some good Mario Kart to fill up the down time. Once again, thank you Marie and Jeff for hosting us (or should I say, putting up with us) for the entire Labor Day Weekend. We had a blast!

Labor Day Weekend: Bear Lake!

I went to another "place-I've-never-been" this Labor Day Weekend. Jared's sister Marie, and her husband Jeff live up in Logan, and we decided that we wanted to go hang out with them for the weekend. We headed up Friday afternoon and stayed with them in their cute little apartment. Saturday morning, we made ourselves some yummy lunches, and headed up to BEAR LAKE! It was our first time there, and it was so fun. What could have made it better? Remembering those yummy lunches we made. Oops! We left the cooler full of sandwiches and water back at home! Luckily we did remember to grab a few snacks so that we wouldn't totally starve while we were there. I did learn one thing while I was there... I take WAY too many pictures.

Here is what we saw as we came up over the hill: GORGEOUS!

The boys wasted no time. They were playing before we even got to the water! Hayden was in heaven with all the sand!

You could see all this WHITE right up near the water, and I was amazed to see that it was a whole bunch of tiny, perfect shells.

Come on in... the water's fine! I was actually surprised at how warm the water was. Even I had no problem getting in!! Good thing Marie and Hayden went in first just to make sure it was alright! ;)

Kaitlyn had such a fun time. I don't think she really wanted to leave when we were done :)

Me and Eryn!

Me and B-man!

Playing in the sand.

Eryn: Soaking up the sun :)

I love him!

My honey... he always makes sure there is some sort of ball to play catch with.

I couldn't believe how far out you could go, and not be all that deep! The kids loved that they could walk WAY OUT into the lake.

I was having a little too much fun taking pictures. I was getting all kinds of fun and crazy angles. Like I said before, I take way too many ;)

Kaitlyn and Marie: Making K's BEAR FEET

Kaitlyn and B found a rock and decided that they needed to "un-bury" it. It was buried pretty deep, but they dug around it until it was free.

Little Hayds having the time of his life:

Just looking at these pictures again makes me want to go back. Right now.

I love that my girls still enjoy hanging out with eachother... most of the time.

The boys loved seeing the sailboat, and were so nice to share a towel. We didn't have QUITE enough.

At one point, B came out of the water and just started rolling around in the sand. He got up and said "Hey, look! I'm the SANDMAN!" He was totally covered!

But he had no problem going right back in and rinsing it all off!

Kaitlyn the giant: Holding Jeff, Marie and Eryn! We thought this was pretty funny :D

My cute kiddos - all together. I love being their mom :)

THANK YOU JEFF AND MARIE! We sure did have fun!

While we were up in Logan, we also did some other fun things. That post is up next!