Target

As some of you may or may not know I love Target, I think they have great stuff. I haven't been there for a while so I went browsing today with Abby. We ended up finding her a winter coat for a great price so I decided to grab it, of course once we got to the check out it didn't have a tag on it. And here is where my funny story begins: The cashier left to find a price tag and Abby said: all done momma
I said: We have to pay first then we will be all done.
Abby: folded her arms and said Amen.
Momma: No not pray pay. We have to pay first then we can go home.
Abby: Arms still folded AMEN!!!
Meanwhile the lady behind is cracking up so Abby of course performed for her audience, all I could do was laugh and keep trying to explain it to her. She sure knows how to put on a performance. It's amazing how fast she is learning new things she is way to wise for her age already, I don't know what I'm going to do with her.

Our CRAZY Tuesday Night

Why is it that crazy things always happen late at night when your only option is to go to the emergency room? Murphy's Law I guess. Nobody panic I think that I am okay and I don't really know what happened but I was in so much pain I couldn't function. Poor Tyler, had to get up at 11:00 o'clock and take me to the hospital while Keith listened for Abby for us. (which didn't work out well, when we got home they were sleeping on the couch in the living room). I can only describe the pain as labor which is complicated since I'm not pregnant and I don't think I complained as much when I was actually in labor. Well some blood tests, good drugs, and four hours later I was finally able to get some sleep at home. Drama Drama Drama what would I do without it!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!! (and Tyler)

Well I am officially a quarter of a century old. Tyler and I had our birthday on Saturday and it was just a relaxed and quite day it was so nice. Mom and Dad made us dutch oven chicken, potatoes, and raspberry cobbler. Yum!!! We sat around and talked and watched Abby and Riley play you can tell that Riley has a sibling, she is so good with Abby. Abby just chased her around the backyard yelling Riley, Riley. Riley is growing up so fast I can't believe that she will be five soon, I feel like we miss a lot with her and I don't like that at all she is such an amazing girl, I need to see more of her. Abby likes to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's because she can walk outside (her favorite place) all by herself she can even walk down the steps of the deck without help, although Riley was helping her on Saturday. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great birthday lunch and some quality time!!

Tonight Tyler planned a little BBQ so that I could hang out with friends and some Butikofer family members for my birthday also. I know, two parties can you say spoiled!!! It is so nice to have two great families to be associated with. Becca, Becky, Abby, and me went down and raided the raspberry bushes at Grandma B's house and it was a plentiful harvest!!! They are so delicious and there is just something wonderful about eating them right of the bush. We played a couple rounds of progressive rummy and then called it a night. I am very blessed to have such great friends and family:)

Our Weekend Away!!!

Tyler and I decided to spend labor day abroad, well, I guess if you call SLC abroad but it's all we could afford. (Thank you Grandma)!!! Tyler worked until noon on Friday and by one o'clock we were off to our destination. We wanted to beat afternoon traffic HAHAHA, so of course we were sitting on the interstate so everyone could gawk at a camper that had rolled over in the barrow pit, but by 4:30 we were at our hotel thankfully. Tyler did a great job driving that kind of traffic makes me really nervous so I just talked and played with Abby. After we got all checked in we decided to walk down to the Gateway Mall for dinner and to do some window shopping. The hotel had a pretty nice pool so we took Abby down for a swim she loved it and of course cried when I told her it was time to get out. Tanner and Chelsey came down and stayed the night with us because we had two double beds in our room and of course Abby spent most of the night crying!!! I swear that she sleeps through the night just not when we are away Sorry Guys!!! The next morning we got up and went to the Hogle Zoo!!! There were quite a few people there but it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and we had a great time! Abby loved all the monkey's and they have quite a few. I thought one of the coolest things that happened was at the gorilla exhibit. The gorilla was laying down not paying attention to anyone and Abby knocked on the glass and said Hi Monkey!! and he turned around and looked right at here it was pretty amazing. We also went to a bird show that was awesome. It is amazing what all those birds were trained to do. And after the show we bumped into Teri and Cody and Gavin our cousins on Tyler's side of the family. It's a small world. We spent like six hours at the zoo and I think we saw everything there was to see. They had so many baby animals they were adorable especially the baby tigers!!! After the zoo we went to dinner with Tanner and Chelsey at the Cheesecake Factory and then they had to go home. The next day we spent some of the morning at temple square which as always was beautiful. It was the first time I have seen the Conference Center in real life what an amazing building!! Abby kept looking at all the pictures saying Jesus, Jesus it was pretty cute but a little louder than I would have liked. Most of the people didn't look to annoyed thankfully. Then we had the dreaded drive home, it always seems like such a long drive but it made me remember the milkshakes dad used to get us at Maddox yum!!! I would have made Tyler drive there if I could remember where it was. We finally got home about 4:30 and I think that I am still recooperating but it was worth it. It was so nice to do something as a family together and I hope we make this our first tradition because it was fabulous!!!

This is the gorilla that Abby got up close and personal with!!

You should have heard this squawking at the bird show it was amazing and even though I've seen an eagle before they are still amazing creatures.

The family in front of the giraffes they had a "little" baby boy ugh could you imagine giving birth to six foot baby no thank you!!!

I Love to See the Temple!!!!

To many pictures to post but we had a great weekend and hope that everyone else did also!!!!

More to come

We just got back from a little weekend getaway to Salt Lake City and I am tired so I will post a big long step by step tomorrow!!! Until then...

Alturas Lake 2009

I guess that I will be the first to blog about our annual family vacation to Alturas Lake. We had a wonderful time this year and it was really nice to see how much Abby enjoyed her first real camping trip. Troy and Laura flew into Idaho Falls on Saturday the 25th and we left for the lake Sunday morning. Troy and Laura had to ride with us and listen to Abby talk the whole way (3+ hours) and Beau whine which is definitely worse in my opinion. Once we finally made it we had been out of the car for about five minutes and Abby falls on her face and we have the first wound of many, of course she was a trooper, who knew that I would have such a great camper at such a young age!!! On Sunday we set up camp and got stuff ready for the week, we had a great turnout this year Tyler, Nita, and Riley were the only ones who couldn't make and we really missed them!!! We were joined by Ryann's sister Melissa her husband Chuck and their three boys Tanner, Spencer, and Adam on Sunday night. On Monday we went on a "small" hike around Petit Lake which was beautiful as always. Blake walked by me for most of the time and I was amazed by all the questions that can come from a four year old I don't think he ever stopped talking or walking he was a great hiker. Our only dilemma was that he wanted to stop about every minute, not for a break but to throw rocks into the lake. On the way down we stopped for a break and Troy climbed up on a big rock Blake asked if he could climb it too and we told him no he was to little, he looked back up and said "it's only for HUGE boys like Troy" we told him yes and all had a good laugh. We drove back to Alturas had lunch and then decided to go to the beach. The water didn't feel as cold this year and Abby loved it. Even after she slipped off of my finger and went all the way under she didn't cry, the crying started when I made her get out because her whole little body was shivering poor thing. After a little fight she was content to play in the sand and the water was kind of forgotten. Tuesday morning we got up to go to Stanley Lake and Tyler had to make the dreaded phone call to see if he had to go home and go to work. He did and we were all totally disappointed but didn't let that stop us from having fun the rest of the day. We got to see the fish and game stock the lake which I had never seen before it was really cool about 10,000 fish released in maybe 3 minutes. We stopped at the fish hatchery on the way back to camp so that we could see some really big Salmon (I'm not kidding some of them were like 3 ft. long yum!!! we're having fish tonight) and some really tiny trout. The kids always like to go and see the fish at the hatchery and I do to I'm not going to lie!!! As we were pulling back into the campground my worst nightmare came true a fish and game officer was putting a bear trap at the beach. Of course this is on the night that my husband is leaving me to go to work and it was just going to be Abby and me in the tent all ALONE!!! Needless to say there were many "bears" right outside our tent the rest of the trip. I didn't realize how much of a chicken I was until I was by myself at night. I was pretty sad to see Tyler have to leave but next year we will be able to go together for the entire trip. Okay well on Wednesday we decided to stay at the campground and relax. The MEN took all the kids fishing and the women washed our hair it felt so good to have clean hair after three days with no shower. We spent the majority of the day at the beach and it was so peaceful and relaxing it is beautiful up there and I am so grateful to be able to spend even a small amount of time in the wilderness with my family. Thursday morning came and it was time to go home and I realized how much Tyler really does for me. It was really hard to watch Abby, fold up the tent, and get the car packed all by myself luckily I wasn't completely alone or I would probably still be up there with the bear!!! We took a detour to Fall Creek on the way home which is kind of by Sun Valley and if you've never been you should go it's beautiful. I will admit that I didn't want to go on another hike that I just wanted to go home but once we got their I was glad. It was fun to reminisce. Tanner and Chelsey rode home with us and we were talking about camping up there and how he broke my nose and tooth once when we stayed there, and I will admit it's kinda funny now. All in all it was a wonderful vacation and one that I look forward to every year so let's keep up the tradition. I love you all and am so grateful that you still want to get together as a HUGE family.

Abby and Mommy in the lake

Abby and Grandpa playing in the sand

Abby and Kaylee in the bike trailer. Abby loved Kaylee in fact so much that she called Aftyn Kaylee the whole week. Once Kaylee even told me that Abby was bothering her because she kept saying her name!!! Memories!!!

Grandpa and Blake having a splash fight.

Abby and Daddy looking at the huge Salmon!!!

I have a bunch more pictures but this is already a huge post so maybe I will just do some pictures on another one later.

Butikofer Family Campout

This is late but here goes...
The theme this year was Disney goes Jamaican although it was a lot to fit in altogether it was still a lot of fun. Tyler, Abby and I could only go up for Friday and Saturday so we tried to fit as much fun as we could into two days. Each family had a disney movie that we had to make a skit out of and ours was Robin Hood one of my favorites!!! Tyler was Robin Hood and I was Maid Marien our costumes were very cute but I didn't get any pictures of them so sorry!!! We had some Jamaican food for dinner that was very interesting!!! I'm not sure that I loved it sorry Patricia. Abby loved the water and so did Beau big surprise there. We had a great time visiting with family and can't wait until next year.