Have I mentioned that Eli’s voice teacher has a beautiful voice? Oh, she does. Makes me want to take voice lessons.
Eli has been practicing this song every day. Doesn’t matter where he is, he’s singing. The patrons at Sams club get a smile as they walk by the family restrooms. He doesn’t know we can hear him through the doors 🙂
The day started out with Paul making breakfast.
Another good snow storm. 17 inches. Bring it on! I’ve been loving all the snow.
Paul picked up Eli early from school and went skiing.
I have seen and drove past these avalanche signs a hundred times and have never paid attention to them. Never had to. This year we have had so much snow, these signs now mean something 🙂 The canyons have been closed several times due either avalanche control or an avalanche that has blocked the road. We are blessed to have a great year of snow.
Speaking of snow. A random picture showing the snow drifts the other day.
That night was a simple dinner of crepes, filled with strawberries and chocolate. A fun way to end an enjoyable day.
I haven’t posted anything about Eli’s voice lessons, so today is the day.
Warming up.
Ha! He hit that high note before I had the thought of recording him. 🙂 I will remember to record him during his next lesson.
This morning the three of us went snowshoeing. What’s up with my hat!? It looks like a sheep. I really need to update my winter wear.
We went up the canyon just a few minutes away from home.
Fresh snow from last night. It was so quiet.
Until this!
Paul was trying to shake the snow off the branches and cover Eli 🙂
Missed him!
It was a a beautiful day to be up in the mountains, but it was a cold morning.
Look what was ahead of us. Another giant storm.
With the storm coming, we had to turn around and head home.
Your day started out with breakfast in bed. I was very surprised you ate it. Two eggs with saltine crackers. Yummy. This delicious breakfast was made by…
This little man, who is almost as tall as the refrigerator!
How did Eli make you breakfast?
It’s the end of April and I’m just getting around to documenting this day, because I’m soooo far behind in my journaling. I can’t remember what we did for your birthday. I know, you’re so lucky to have me as your wife 🙂
If you had your way, I know you would be up in the mountains skiing.
With this little guy. So, lets say it happened, ha! 🙂
I do know that Eli and I made you peach hand pies for your birthday dessert. They were pretty good!
Paul and I haven’t been on a date for I don’t know how long. We don’t go out as a family much coming to think of it. We like to stay home. We enjoy our home. So, when Paul said he was joking about going to a wedding we weren’t invited to, I was all for it!
Arriving I was so nervous! What are the consequences if you get caught? Is this against the law?
Paul and I discussed a little bit what we would say if someone asked if we were here for the bride or the groom. We didn’t really come up with anything great so we just hoped we wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. Just remember: No eye contact! No eye contact, no one will talk to you, right?
Aaughh! Just through those doors! Stay calm. Act like you are supposed to be here.
Inside was really nice. It was a greenhouse so everything was already laid out nicely.
No eye contact! As soon as someone came down the walkway Paul and I immediately turned and walked the other way!
Funny thing…I was walking around and was thinking this place was seemed very familiar. Later on Paul said the same thing. Turned out we attended a wedding here for his cousin several years ago, ha!
I didn’t get pictures of the dessert bar, because I was so nervous and afraid of being caught, but it looked delicious! We didn’t eat anything because we both agreed that would be wrong, because we weren’t invited.
Not many pictures, but it was our first time doing this. I now have the experience and confidence to crash our next one!
For our fall break, Paul wanted to leave the valley and I agreed. We packed the trailer and went to Scofield.
First stop, Einstein bagels for egg and cheese bagel sandwiches.
Since we were passing by, why not 🙂 Post breakfast was at Provo Bakery.
This was my first for their orange rolls. Coconut and orange wrapped around with orange frosting on top! I remember my mother making these for Christmas every year. I’m going to have to go to my parents house this weekend and learn how to make them for Christmas morning.
Paul remembers muffin tops from his Discover Card days. How come I haven’t had one of these? These were so delicious! We arrived at the bakery at 10:30am and we were too late for the cream filled croissants, they were sold out.
Eli loves his headphones he got for his birthday. Singing all the time!
Scofield. As you can see, we missed the leaves. Again. Our plan was to come up camping over conference weekend, but it was Eli’s baptism so we had to push it out.
It was a beautiful weekend!
When we arrived, the campground was closed for the winter so we had to park in the grass next to the campground and pulled into the last spot with electricity. Note for next time: Some hunters were already at the site and hooked up. By Friday the others came rolling in. It was packed!
Paul did all the cooking for 4 days. We started out with stuffed French toast which is always delicious! We forgot the cream so we made a quick blueberry sauce to go on top.
Eli and Paul did a lot of fishing.
While they were fishing, I did some fishing of my own. 🙂 I took a few minutes…er, hours 🙂 and put my island back in order.
A tiger trout. Eli wanted to take him home and cook him up. He asked everyday until Paul finally gave in and said everyone should have an experience with trout. Put grilled salmon next to trout and Eli will gladly throw the trout back 🙂
We stayed up late and went outside to see the meteor shower. What was late? 9:00pm, ha! The full shower peaked at midnight so we only saw one. Orion wasn’t in the sky yet, so seeing one was a real treat.
The next morning I told Paul, rain or shine I’m going running. I got a mile in and started flying paper airplanes instead.
Paul and Eli went out fishing and found a hidden river in a fun valley. Water and boys, I’m not surprised to see pictures of Eli throwing rocks in the river. It was extremely over cast and within the hour it was raining.
Singing in the bathroom. He doesn’t know we can hear him through the door 🙂
Back at camp we played games. Lots of games this weekend.
Went out for many walks.
Eli put together his wish list for Christmas. He informed us that book on the left needs money and the book on the right is free. Free because its Christmas. I love it!
We watched a few movies.
One thing about going camping is I never have to ask Eli to get in bed. He puts himself asleep. Every. Night. 🙂
Sunday morning we woke up to snow.
Buckled up snug for the ride home.
When we get home from trips, I get out the vacuum and clean up the truck. This is what you get when you leave an 8 year old alone with the vacuum 🙂
Time to winterize the trailer and put it away for the year!
We can’t believe Eli is eight!
I was emotional and couldn’t hold my tears back. I kept thinking about Mitchel’s baptism 9 years ago. I remember excusing myself and running to the bathroom before anyone saw my tears. I was crying because Eli wasn’t even close to coming to our family. We were still getting adoption stuff ready and wondering if we would ever have a family.
Eli’s baptism was on Sunday evening. I know, weird. Usually baptisms are on Saturday mornings with a family gathering after. So we went with the flow and had a little gathering before the baptism.
Dad was photo bombing, ha!
I prepared everything Eli wanted. Vegetables that no one eats but me 🙂 His favorite desserts. Stuffed strawberries are his favorite so we had several trays of those in the fridge.
Turkey bagel sandwiches. Chicken, bacon, avocado wraps. Veggie wraps with honey mustard.
I didn’t get a picture of Eli’s face, but when he saw all the sandwiches and desserts, he was so excited!
After a quick lunch Eli opened gifts. Our gift to him were scriptures with his name embossed on them with a fun carrying case. Eli had a great time and I hope this day will memorable for him.
Oh, how I love Eli’s birthdays! Oh, how I dislike making cakes!
I tried out two different icings and both tasted like butter. The two layer cake was a success because I got it out of the pan! So pleased!
Paul put up the arch.
Eli’s guests arrived.
The homemade ice cream finished right in time!
I knew the birthday cake wasn’t going to work out, so I planned a back up. The peach cobbler was wonderful!
We had to try out all of Eli’s gifts 🙂 I purchase the gifts for Eli that I want to play with, and I was really looking forward to this moving nerf target.
Eli got serious and brought out the armor.
Happy Birthday Little Pea!
This was an eventful weekend. We started out double rigging or hauling a double. Whatever it’s called, I dislike it and today wasn’t an exception. We started out fine until we were on the freeway and the four wheeler trailer detached from the fifth wheel trailer.
I failed to take pictures, because I was pushing the tongue of the trailer and Paul was pulling it while cars were speeding past us at 70 mph! We got it hooked on after Paul repositioned by pulling forward and then backed up on the freeway! I wasn’t thrilled.
We hooked the trailer up and were able to safely bring it back home and dropped it off.
With the trailer issue, we arrived at Soapstone pretty late. We are not familiar with the area and with the sun already set we were worried about traveling too far up the mountain. What if we couldn’t find a spot, could we turn around?
This was taken the following day so we could reference where we were and how to get to the same camping spot next time. 🙂
We made a right and took the next spot to the right. There was another trailer in this spot without a truck so we pulled in and parked on the other side and hoped who ever owned the trailer wasn’t coming up this weekend. I didn’t take pictures of that either 🙂 And VERY late the guy did come back! He turned out to be a really nice guy and was up here hunting for the month.
We leveled and jumped in bed, but first noticing we didn’t have power from the batteries. 🙂 They were dry and we didn’t have any distilled water to put in them.
The next morning we woke up to this! Not bad. And then I heard this…
Is this was the zombie apocalypses will sound like?
Turned out to be a great spot and when we come back we would like to return to it.
We had to drive down to Kamas to get distilled water and on the way back, we may have stopped off for donuts 🙂
Later that day we saw the sheep herder.
Paul made breakfast every day this trip.
Making breakfast a little sweeter 🙂
And that was it. Short and sweet.