Hee-Haw!

We spent a beautiful Fall afternoon at Hee-Haw Farms last Monday, the last day of Fall Break.  BS was able to meet us from work and it turned out to be a fantasic day.  We had such a good time with the kids.  Just the 6 of us.  :)

We held bunnies and piglets, pet and fed the goats and Roosters:

We slid down the giant straw slide in potato sacks:

A very thrilling animal train ride:

Some Tetherball:

Digging, burying, and rolling in the corn:

A journey through the Corn Maze:

A hayride to pick our pumpkins and get candy:

Our pumpkin loot:

Q is trying to look scary:

Practicing for the upcoming deer hunt with the corn launchers:

A pig chase race for free stuff.  Of the 4 kids, of course Will did whatever it took to get free stuff...he won!  He didn't care that the piggy was poopy and muddy and squealing very loud:

Oh happy day!  Love these kids!

Rickshaw!

We had the pleasure of going on a nice Sunday family bike ride thanks to our friends who own this awesome Rickshaw!  Four people pedal and you can get going pretty fast!  Millie loved steering and Sambo controlled the brakes.  So fun!!!  There's even more room for a couple of little tikes in the front.

Annie

Waiting for the play to begin

I love taking my girls to the theatre - plays, musicals, ballets, recitals, concerts, etc.  I love taking the boys too...sometimes.

This summer we went to see Annie performed by the local Alpine Community Theatre at Timberline Middle School.  The auditorium there is incredible - way nicer than most.  They did a really great job and Annie is always a favorite!  You can see the excitement on Quincy's face during intermission:

Our friend McKinley came with us too

Q's fancy upside-down hair-do

So grateful for my girls!!!!!

Island Park

Last month we enjoyed another awesome trip to Shad's Lake house in Island Park.  This truly is one of our favorite places to be.  You can do as much or as little as you want.  You can't help but feel happy, relaxed, and thankful when you come here and enjoy the beauty and recreation of this place.

This year the cousins had already returned home to Oklahoma so we let Millie bring a friend along.  It was so fun to have Addison join us.  She has had a lot going on in her crazy life so it was good for her to get away with us too.  Of course Chops got to come too!  He has grown to be such a good dog :)

This was one of those vacations where we pretty much just chilled.  Grandma, Heidi, Kirk, the kids and I drove up on Monday.  For the next 3 days we didn't leave.  Just relaxed, played games, cooked, ate, made crafts, swam in the lake, hot tubbed, and recorded "cooking shows" {Millie and Addie}.
BS, Shad, and Grandpa came up Wednesday night with the boat.  For the next 3 days we went boating, rafting, went to the Play house in town {Home School Musical: The Gleek Club}, and a day trip to West Yellowstone.

We came home Sunday, the day before school started for Millie and Addie.  This trip was fabulous, and just what we needed before we started school and the big move.  It was the calm before the storm.

Suncrest

Suncrest we love you.  We have called you home for 7 years.  You have been the perfect place for our family.  We have enjoyed and will miss the beauty, the people, the community, the trails, the outdoor movies and neighborhood activities, the snow, the "Murderer's Hill" sledding hill, and biking up and down your mountain.  We will miss having the option of going down the North side into Salt Lake County or the South side into Utah County.  

We could go on with so many things that we love about you.  

Before moving from Suncrest, we were able to spend some nice sunny days swimming at the Community pool.  I regret not spending more time here - it has a slide, lazy river, hot tubs, zero entry with a water feature, and a snack bar.  The best thing was you always saw familiar faces and fun people to hang out and swim with.

Quincy went down the slide for her first time this summer.  At first she slid down with the older kids, but soon she was doing it all on her own and even swimming to the steps.  She is an awesome little swimmer!

Here she is the very first time - her face is all nervous:

The second time - much more relaxed

The 3rd time - loving it!

One evening when I was driving up the hill {for the 8th time that day} to pack more boxes, I had to pull over and take a picture of this beautiful rainbow.  Over the years there have been lots of rainbows that seem to end in or near Suncrest.  I don't believe it's coincidence - for us, Suncrest is a pot of gold.

Some of our awesome neighbors at a pool party

Moving

We did it!

We moved.

We are pretty settled into our new home.  We still need to pack up BS's office which we have been putting off.  Even though we are completely ready for this change - packing up and moving is horrible!

It has taken us almost a month to get moved out and in.  I can hardly write about it.  Because we weren't moving very far, we decided to do it ourselves.  So between 9:00 pm -midnight on the weekdays BS and I got most of the packing, moving, and organizing done.  For BS the weekdays were shot with work and straight to football practice.  Saturdays were mostly shot with all of the kid's games throughout the valley.  I boxed up as best as I could during the day - an hour here,  an hour there - and we would pack the trailer {thanks Plummers and Pogues!)  and take the loads at night.  We decided that we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF and got rid of a bunch of it.  

Yard sell, donations, and garbage. 

We are SO sore and tired.  

But...we did it!

We can't take all of the credit - we had some help from family and friends.  Thanks everyone!  Especially to Grandmas and Grandpas for watching the kids and helping at the houses!

In the early morning, ready to get packing!

Moving to a smaller garage

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our whole house before we moved out.  We have lived there for 6+ years so I'm sure we'll remember it...but the younger kids maybe not so much.  It's been a great house and we will miss it dearly.

BS has job opportunities that will lead him to either stay at the hospital in Provo, or manage the new facility in Ogden once construction is completed.  This leaves our future living location up in the air - but  either way, we knew a move was inevitable.  When we built our home in Suncrest we were planning on living there for about 5 years while the kids were young.  That was our plan then and we now feel like it is time to take the next step forward. 

BS and I knew that moving down the hill would bring more convenience with less driving up and down the mountain, close to the schools, closer to our work, and closer to the kid's extracurricular activities.  Closer to everything!  Our kids are old enough now that they are involved in many things {all located in the same 5 mile radius} and of course at different times, so it was very appealing to be within minutes of everything.

So we put the house up for sale in May anticipating that it would take a year or so to sell {thanks to the economy situation}.  If we happened to sell it before we knew where we were going, we planned to find a rental home within the kids' school boundaries and be SO relieved that we didn't have the burden of a house to sell when it was time to move.

Fortunately, we received an offer on the first day that the sign went up, plus 2 more back-up offers!  

We couldn't believe it.  We soon discovered that finding a rental house within the school boundaries was going to be a challenge.  The options were scarce and when one did become available, it was snatched up in an instant.  There is some stuff pending on the sell of our home so we weren't in a rush to move out, but at the same time we had to take what we could get.  We were lucky to hear about a rental through word of mouth from some friends and we had to snag it that day before 5:00 pm or else the owner was going to go with the next people in line.  We had to make the tough decision between what made sense financially {wait for the sell to be final}, ...and what just made sense for our family.

So here we are.  And we are so happy!  We knew living here would be more convenient, but we had NO IDEA how much easier life would be!  The kid's walk/ride bike/scooter to school, I drive carpool only one day to the Junior High School, I only have to leave 3 minutes early to take Millie and the boys to sports practice and dance and if I happen to be busy at the moment - they can get there themselves :)

Off to school!

-And the neighborhood...it is a mecca for kids.  Kids everywhere, bike/walk paths everywhere, a huge open park and playground right next to us.  The neighbors are great and have been very welcoming and friendly, and the best part is we know many of them from sports, dance, and school.  

-And the Ward...the kid's are stoked to have so many of their friends in our ward.  Not that we didn't in the ward before {we loved our ward} but the move has not affected them in the way of not knowing anyone at church and school. 

-And the house...it is smaller and simpler.  Unfinished basement, less bedrooms, no grand laundry/craft room, small garage, but clean and cute!  Great deck and yard!  We are working on making it a comfy place to be.  Here's the 4 kids snug as a bug in our bed at the new house.  We came home to this after a late night of working at the Suncrest house.  Home is where the heart is, right?  

And a bonus has been that Quincy sleeps in her own bed every night since we moved here!  Up until now she has played "musical beds" with everyone in the family.  I'm sure her new Dream Lite has something to do with it.  

Something to note is that since BS and I moved to Mountain Green in 1999, we have not lived where pizza delivery has been available.  Can you imagine our delight when we had pizza delivered to our front doorstep last week?  Sometimes the small things make us so happy! 

Oops!  BS's rock hard butt cheeks ripped his shorts while lifting this old huge TV :)