Room with a View

For as long as I can remember, Dallin has been wanting to take me to Yosemite. He is particularly fond of "El Capitan" and "Half Dome" (You Yosemite visitors will know exactly what I"m talking about). Our trip unfortunately started off on the wrong foot due to some unforeseen reservations glitches, so I have to say I was not in the most chipper mood when we left.

We had made reservations back in June of this year to stay at Yosemite Lodge because it is in the middle of Yosemite village and we figured we'd be central to everything there. And with 3 kids ages 5 and under, convenience is EVERYTHING to me. However, I called 2 days before we left on our trip to confirm the type of room we had reserved and the reservations lady (named Jessica) told me that they didn't have our reservation on file. How can that be possible, I asked, considering I was holding our reservation confirmation in hand. It turns out that they had accidentally booked us for April of 2008. I'm still scratching my head as to HOW that is possible, considering we booked the trip in June of 2008. For you math geniuses out there, that's 2 whole months AFTER our "supposed reservation." So then I sat there and battled with her for the next 3 hours about how we need to find a hotel room in Yosemite because my husband had already taken that Friday off of work, AND this was a trip to celebrate his birthday, AND how we already had plans to leave THAT day and spend the night at Mammoth and were then planning on heading over to Yosemite.

She didn't seem too concerned but was eventually able to find me a room somewhere in Yosemite. The location wasn't that great, but we managed and were able to enjoy our time there... more or less! :)

Even though we weren't able to do as much there as we would have liked, I have to admit, the views there are breathtaking. We'll have to go back someday and hike around a bit off the beaten path because I'm sure there are lots of beautiful places there.

Entering the Road to BYU

Yes, we have FINALLY reached this milestone: Jacob's first day of Kindergarten. I was happy (and sad, I have to admit) to see this day arrive. Jacob was excited and nervous about it at first but when I picked him up and asked how it went, he yelled, "Kindergarten's awesome!" So, I guess that means it went well!

Jacob ready to take Kindergarten by storm


Posing with dad in his new classroom

The Eternal 26

For some reason, I have chosen the age 26 as "my golden year." In my mind, I will forever be 26. Maybe it's because that's when Dallin and I got married or that was a very fun, independent time of my life. Who knows... but I will ALWAYS be 26. Being that I just had a birthday last week, I am bummed everytime I realize that I am in fact NOT 26 anymore. Regardless of that, I did have a great birthday this year. Dallin and I got a babysitter for our kids and drove to this place called Emeralds. You have to hike in a little bit to reach them but are rewarded with a great view of beautiful white boulders and pristine, clear pools of water, with several waterfalls to boot. We brought along our inner tube and it was a good thing we did because the water was FREEZING... seriously, my limbs were going numb at times. So we floated on the tube, did a little "boulder climbing" and just relaxed and had a picnic." Afterwards, we ran home, changed, caught a movie and then went out to a delicious dinner.

Last weekend, we took the kids up to a beach at Lake Tahoe. We went up with a bunch of people from our ward. Every time I have gone to Tahoe, the water has been very calm. But it was kind of windy that day, so there were some good waves for the kids to play in. I absolutely LOVE Tahoe in the summertime. Dallin loves it in the winter for the skiing, but I am more of a beach person, and to me, there is nothing better than Tahoe on a warm, sunny day.

I am having issues downloading pictures lately so you'll have to excuse that fact that I post practically NO pictures on my blog. Hopefully I will get it resolved soon.

Me and Dallin ringing in my "26th" birthday (Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?)

Soaking it Up

Okay, so I have to say that our swimming pool rocks! Well, it's not really OUR pool, but it's in our community and we pay a nice little HOA fee to access said pool, so I am hereby proclaiming it "ours." Anyhoo, it seriously is the most awesome pool ever. It's got a big blue water slide and these big tubes that shoot out water, which the kids love. The kid pool is always a little on the chilly side so we spend most of the time in the much smaller "hot tub." However, it is never really hot and it is obviously much larger than a tub so the name is a wee bit misleading. But I digress.

We went to the pool again today and it was great because hardly anyone was there. I love those days. Because I can pretty much let my kids scream and go crazy and not have to worry about them because of other people. My Jacob is becoming quite the swimmer these days. He has officially gotten over his fear of going underwater (thank goodness... it was about time!) So now he spends most of the time canon-balling into the water with his bright blue goggles on. Aubrey has learned to love her water wings, so she does laps back and forth to the sides of the pool the whole time (don't be too impressed... I am talking about the "hot tub pool", not the big kid pool). So, if any of my family ever come out during the summer, you can sit back for some good R&R at OUR pool. Including some fun pix below for your viewing pleasure...

False Alarm

So, we recently signed up for an alarm system on our home. We've set the thing off NUMEROUS times by accident because... well, we're still getting used to it. When it goes off, it does its job. It is LOUD and makes an obnoxious ambulance siren-type sound that I'm sure can be heard for miles.

The other night, we had put the kids to bed and were vegging in front of the TV when all of a sudden, we hear 3 loud beeps coming from our alarm system. Dallin and I immediately sat up, looked at each other confused (because it wasn't the actual alarm, but just 3 beeps) and agreed to go check on the kids. When we got to the stairs, Aubrey was at the top of the stairs whimpering. We asked her what was wrong and she said she was scared. So, I put her on the couch and went to go check on Evan while Dallin went to Jacob's room. I peeked into Evan's room and he was sleeping soundly.

All of a sudden I hear Dallin yell, "Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, where are you?" He yelled to me that he wasn't anywhere in his room. So, now he starts running through the house yelling Jacob's name at the top of his lungs. No response. He starts going into all of our rooms turning on the lights yelling his name and Jacob is still nowhere to be found.

At this point, I am beginning to panic. I'm like, "There's NO way this is happening. Could someone really have kidnapped him?"

Dallin then opens one of the doors, which sets off our loud, obnoxious sounding alarm for the "ump-teenth" time this month and starts yelling Jacob's name at the top of his lungs in the backyard. Suddenly, I hear Jacob's voice yelling, "Dad, I'm right here!"

Dallin ran back in the house, I turned off the alarm and ran into Aubrey's room where Jacob was hiding underneath her covers. We asked him why he didn't answer us and he said he was scared so he hid in her bed! Our poor neighbors. Not only are they listening to our house alarm AGAIN in the middle of the night, but they now hear Dallin yelling in our backyeard. I swear, they probably think we're lunatics!