Tifie Scout Camp

The Boy Scouts in our ward invited the 11 year old Scouts to join them for a couple of days, so Sambo and BS went up and for some camping fun.  Camp Tifie is a posh camp and they had a blast!

Bought a new pocket knife at the Trading Post

This is how 11 year olds pack the car 

Fishing Strawberry

Summer and Strawberry are a few of the things we love most!  It also never hurts to have grandpa Jim piloting the Sea Nymph either.  As you can see from the scale, Wilbur landed the big fish of the day.  The boys are the lucky charms, as every time we go Grandpa, and both boys seem to get fish on at the same time.  As always, BS spent his afternoon setting lines, and netting fish.
{BS}

Birthday Skiing!

 To celebrate our birthdays, BS and I couldn't think of anything better than having a family ski day!

We took the kids to Wolf Mountain in Huntsville - it was pretty close to where we were staying, and we love how they have a 1:00-9:00 pass option for cheap.  They also have great hills/tree runs for the kids - even a great beginner hill.

Quincy did awesome!  And bonus: she LOVED it!

Millie and the boys have really improved - they love to go through the trees and find jumps - just like what my friends and I used to do!  Millie is loving her new {used} boots and skis.

Kirk & Heidi brought their kids for the afternoon and they were so fun to watch.  Quincy loved skiing with her cousins!  Here is Kirk and Cole on the magic carpet:

 

Alix, Quincy, Millie:

 

Millie and Sambo just before dark.  I love what good buds they are, they really stick together.

 

When we were all exhausted and cold after a big day skiing, we met everyone at a local joint in Eden for hot chocolate and Mexican food.  It was delicious...almost as delicious as the fazookies we ate for our birthday dessert at the cabin.  What a perfect way to end a perfect day!  

I look forward to many more family ski days!

For Dad

For Father's Day the kids and I gave BS this nifty tent.  It's big and tall.  The kid's slept in it for days until we took it down to go camping for real.  Love it!  An awesome tent for an awesome Dad.

Deer Camp

The only weekend anticipated more than Christmas for the Clark boys is the deer hunt.  This year ranked as one of the best ever.  Weather in the 60's and nothing but sunshine was a nice change from the snows of last year.  Uncle Jordan joined us and was initiated into the circle of trust by eating the recently harvested tongue from Sean's big buck.  Sambo and Will volunteered to eat tongue and Will was kind enough to eat 7 pieces.   Don't tell them it is actually just a piece of steak.

The ruins of the Hermit's house were still in the third hole and we made the traditional trek to have a picnic in the most frightful place in the Wasatch.  Sambo and Wilbur both rode the horses unsupervised and did a great job being cowboys.  

Highlights of the trip were: (1) having grandpa Jim back with us.  Last year he was out of commission with blood clots in his lungs.  (2) Jordan, our newest member of the family, proved that he was a real trooper and worthy of marrying my baby sister. (3) The hundreds of sticks the boys carved, and the thousand bbs the boys shot out of their guns. (4) Having my dad, brothers, and my boys together in my favorite place for 72 hours with no interruptions. 

The ladies met us at the bottom on Sunday afternoon and had a chance to ride horses while the boys cleaned up and unpack.  Although it was only 72 hours, it was great to see them.  I think Quin was in heaven to actually ride a real horse.

We are already counting down to Deer Camp 2012.  323 days and counting.

 

Happy Halloween

M and Q in Hotch Potch Halloween hoodies

HaPPY HaLLoWeeN!

Tomorrow is the big day.  Today we ate bloody intestines {spaghetti and sauce} and rotten bones {cheesy breadsticks}.  Tonight we carved pumpkins.  We also made spider web treats, Jack O Lantern oranges, and pumpkin cupcakes for the class parties tomorrow.
We took pictures of the kids in their costumes on Friday so we wouldn't have to worry about it among all of the chaos tomorrow.  We also snuck in one last visit to Lagoon for Frightmares!
Yesterday, we went to 2 play-off football games and Millie's last lacrosse game.  The Fall weather was perfect!  Unfortunately the 4th graders lost, but Millie and Will's team won, sending them to the semi-finals next week.  Thanks G&G Guffey for joining us!
Last night BS and I went to a friend's house for another Halloween party - costumes were required so I wondered how I was going to manage finding a costume for us when I hardly had time to breathe for the past couple of weeks.  I saw this picture online a couple of days ago and knew that it was the answer...easy and cheap...and pretty funny!
The best part about this costume was that BS and I tended to stand really close to each other for a good chunk of the party.  Usually the guys group together while the ladies stand together and chat.  We really enjoyed each other's company and laughing at lots of things :)

And just for fun - here's the kids being silly different costumes.  They raided the dress-up trunk today:

Well, here's to a fun and safe holiday tomorrow!  Pictures of the big day and costumes to come.

35 and 33

We can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing, having birthdays right after Christmas.
This year, it was definitely a good thing. After all the excitement, chaos, fun, and work leading up to Christmas, we needed a break! And we needed a break together.
Sam took care of that for us. He arranged for Aunt Candice and Uncle Doug to come stay with the kids while we had our birthday outing.
We went to Settebello for lunch, then to Gateway.
We saw "Sherlock Holmes"
Shopped
Ate Dinner
Shopped again - and this was a HUGE sacrifice for Sam - he's hates shopping!
Saw "Avatar"
Spent the night at the Marriott downtown
Slept In!

The plan was to go skiing but it was way stormy weather and Candice needed to get to work so we grabbed brunch and headed home. We decided we would go the next day and bring the kids along.

Thanks babe and Happy Birthday to Us!

Back Burner

The blog has been put on the back burner lately. I have been up to lots of stuff.
Stuff like:

Christmas Shopping.
Designing Christmas cards.
Sewing.
Recovering from a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.
Christmas decorating.
Doing our tradition of finding and cutting down a Christmas tree.
Church calling.
Working at the hospital.
Planning neighborhood Christmas parties.
Planning friend parties.
Planning family parties.
Carpooling.
More driving, mostly to Mtn. Green and back.
and such.

Oh yeah, and this:www.hotchpotch.blogspot.com

Starting a business is lots of work! Holy cow. But it has been so much fun to spend so much time with my sister. We are doing this for fun and with encouragement from many.

This is what I have not been up to the last 2 weeks:

Cleaning.
Cooking.
Doing laundry.

Nope, those things have also been put on the back burner the last couple weeks. Because of that, this is what my room looked like yesterday:

Yep, that's a gigantic pile of dirty laundry on the floor, thanks to my kids gathering all the clothes from their hampers. This picture really doesn't do the hugeness justice! And my bed isn't made!

But notice I said yesterday. Because today I sewed 16 pairs of Christmas PJs/nightgowns trying to meet a deadline and some elf did ALL of my laundry. He's the best ever I tell you. Thanks.

And the kids have been awesome. They think it's pretty fun to see everyone's family pictures when I'm doing cards, and being my mannequin when sewing.

I will post Thanksgiving and other happenings soon. I hope.

Deer Hunt

This past weekend was the annual deer hunt. It's a tradition in the Clark family that goes back forever. Each year all the Clark menfolk (dads, sons, uncles, cousins) hike up to the same place and have one big glorified camping trip.




Last year Sambo got to go, even though he was only 6 (under the old rules you had to be 8). He had such a great time that he talked about it for weeks. So much, that Will has been asking us when he can go hunting ever since. He even asked for a pocket knife last Christmas, a sling shot, a bow and arrow, a BB gun. A thought that can be disturbing to a mother but after some reassurance from older and wiser moms that this is totally normal 5 year old requests, I realized just how bad he wanted to go.


Things turned out in his favor...the weather forecast called for warm temps and his awesome dad was more than happy to take him for his first hunt. They returned home yesterday and as Will put it on the drive home, "Dad, that was A, A, A, plus!" He wanted to stay another night or two in the mountains.






Dad and Grandpa Jim gave Sambo and Wilbur big props saying that they were real "champs." Sam was in his glory and is very proud of his boys and how far they hiked without one complaint.




























They didn't get a deer tag so they didn't bring home a deer (which is perfectly fine with me) but the boys got to pretend with someone else's deer.












They also got to practice target shooting with a BB gun. Here are all the little hunters in training, lined-up to practice hitting the target.

Sambo went from this...

To this...

Of course, as much as I missed the guys, me and my girls enjoyed girl time together with Grandma, Aunt Heidi, and cousins. It all works out perfect.