6 Quirky Things

I've been reading this tag on others' blogs and I thought that it was so fun. I was secretly hoping someone would tag me so thanks Tammy! Here goes:

1. I take a strand of hair and run it either between my lips or down the middle of my face. I do this because my hair is soft and smells good. And I usually only do it while reading or watching t.v so you don't need to stare at me folks!

2. I still sometimes sleep with a teddy bear. I got this bear for my 8th birthday from my favorite missionary ever! (His name was Elder Keyes.) So this bear reminds me of my baptism and it is so snuggly!

3. I am so NOT high maintenance. I HATE getting ready. The only time I enjoy it is when Dave and I go on a date. I usually yank my hair in a ponytail, throw on some mascara, a t-shirt, pants, and flip-flops. That is my idea of getting ready.

4. I cannot have my food touch at all on my plate. I hate when they mix together.

5. Another bad habit..... I bite my cheek. Again, usually when I read or watch t.v.

6. I get obsessed with things very easily. Some of my obsessions are Christmas, Disneyland, Harry Potter series, and Twilight series.

I tag... Annie, Tiffanie, and Samantha.

Backpacking to Kings Peak

I decided to go bag Kings Peak, the highest point in Utah at 13,528 ft, for my backpacking trip this year. Kings is in the beautiful High Uintas, where we go camping every year. My brother Cam, my sister Kait, and one of Cam's buddies, McKay, came. We went for 4 days, Tues - Fri Aug 19-22 to avoid the weekend crowds, up Henry's Fork because it's the shortest route (about 13.5 miles to the peak according to our calculations), but that also makes it the busiest. We saw many wild human beings. Altogether we covered about 30 miles. It was crazy awesome. The first day we hiked 7 miles in to Dollar Lake and camped there. The next day we left at a ridiculously late 11:30am to hike the peak. We didn't do the chute/toilet bowl, we followed the trail over Gunsight Pass, cut across Painters Basin, then trail again up to Anderson Pass. It was about 6.5 miles to the peak. I had a fairly rough time of it with huge blisters on one foot and fatigue so I didn't make it to the peak until 6pm. But I made it! Cam looked out for me, making me gatorade and resting with me when I didn't think I could go any further. I'll forever be grateful to him. We left the peak at 6:30pm, and because it was already so late, we decided to shortcut it back, so we went down the southeast ridge and straight down to Painters, hiked back to camp in the dark and arrived at 10:45pm, about 5 miles back. The next day we hiked a mile over to see Henry's Fork Lake and spent about 2 hrs watching 2 big moose lumber around. The scout troop camping there said they'd been there all week. We hiked out the next day, stopped and fished the river for a while and caught several small fish on flies. None bigger than 6-8 inches, but beautiful cutthroats. We did Freezer Bag Cooking that I discovered from Backpacker Magazine and the Deseret News for food and it was light and delicious! The country up there is stunning, amazing, and beautiful, and the views from the peak are incredible. You can see all the way to I-80 and the huge windmill things in Wyoming. We also saw what we think was an elk from a distance, a deer, and a yellow-bellied marmot. The weather was clear and in the 70s the whole time, just perfect. I love the outdoors and love backpacking and hope to go at least once every year.

On the trail going in, doing Capt Morgan


Kings from the trail. It's the one in the middle.


Struggling up to Anderson Pass


View of Henry's Fork where we came in from below the peak. You can see Dollar Lake where we camped and me at the bottom.


On the top of Utah

Disneyland!

Okay, Disneyland truly is the most MAGICAL place on earth! We all had such a wonderful time and did not want to leave! We spent all day Tuesday the 9, and Friday the 12 at Disneyland and Wednesday the 10 at California Adventure. Thursday was Beach day at Huntington Beach and Saturday was a relaxing day and dinner with Dave's brother Tyler.

While at Disneyland the girls got to see ALL of the princesses! Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, and Mulan! We even got to have lunch with them! The girls couldn't even eat they were so excited! Aspen is so shy, yet she ran right up to the Princesses and hugged them. So did Brooke! Connor's favorite thing was seeing Mickey Mouse and his car! He even brought home a big stuffed Mickey. He also got to see Lightning McQueen and Mater. The kids also got to see Frozone, Chip and Dale, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, and Aladdin! (He was my favorite! I wanted to take a picture with just him and me with me possibly kissing his cheek! He was hot and that is my favorite Disney movie!)

As for rides, we rode almost all of the kids rides that they could ride. Their favorites were Peter Pan, the Teacups, Alice in Wonderland, and Dumbo. Their least favorite was The Matterhorn! The girls cried and Connor didn't like the scary monster! Dave and I took turns riding Star Tours, but that is all the grown up rides we did.

We had so much fun that we are seriously thinking about buying annual passes in a few years and going 3 or 4 times a year. We loved it!
The beach was fun too. It was windy unfortunately, but we still got in the water a bit and the kids had fun playing in the sand.

It was so nice to recover and relax on Saturday and then to go out with Tyler and Mandy. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Dang is that cheesecake good! We had fun hanging out with some grownups and having adult conversation for the first time all week. Thanks for coming up Ty!

Well, that is the basic rundown of vacation. I could go on and on about how much fun we had and give you all the details.... but that would take hours! If I ask the kids now where they want to go, they automatically say, "Disneyland!"
We can't wait to go again!

The Pagetts

My great friends from Oklahoma were out here in Utah for a work convention. We had the chance to get to see them. We went and had dinner with them at Tucano's and then we visited for a while. They are such wonderful people. I really miss them. They are kind of like my second parents. They brought each of my kids a wallet with a $25 gift card in it. My kids were so excited and they had a ball picking out whatever they wanted at the store. Let's just say the girls now have lots more princess and dress up stuff and Connor has more Thomas the Tank Engine paraphernalia.
Thanks Wade and Christi for everything! We love you guys!

Poor Sick Girls

This morning my girls came into my room looking pale, and complaining about their stomachs hurting. Not too much later the puking began and lasted for about 5 hours. This is what my morning looked like:They are feeling alot better now. Eating and playing and acting like they were never sick. I'm just so glad that it happened this week and not next when we are at Disneyland!