In no way will I take credit for the fabulous ideas I got to create this awesome Jedi party for Aiden (he is obsessed with everything Star Wars right now), but the excecution was great. We had his friends train to be Jedi before they got their outfits and lightsabers. And then a series of games came next. Destroy the death star with water ballons, save queen amidala and princess leah hidden in ballons, and of course light saber duels. Last of course came the yummy Yoda cake. It's a little funny looking, but it worked! The kids had a great time.

3rd child crazies

I've heard from a couple of people that their third child is the more challenging one. I was the fourth, but my older sister (no offense at all Kristen) was probably one of the more challenging ones in my family. Although my Adi is adorable and sweet and cute and happy, I have a feeling that she is going to be my more challenging child. She has already broken her skull, and continues to scare the life out of me every day. Oh, and she like to dip her toys in the toilet water and then suck on them... repeatedly.

The week she broke her skull is the week she decided she would start walking down the stairs instead of safely crawling down the stairs.

Here she is taking her aunts and uncles for a walk through the house.

Well, what can I say.... when your older siblings are pirates, I guess you grow up to be a little on the "wild side"!!

So, for the first time in almost 6 years, me and Tyler were finally able to vacation without kids. I say first time because I don't count the time went 30 minutes into the mountains for a couple of nights without kids. Because of the generosity of Northwestern Mutual and because Tyler is awesome, we got a free vacation to Cancun, Mexico. We stayed in an all inclusive resort in Puerto Morales. I know this is a lot of pictures, but I was having a hard time cutting out any of them. So, here is a fraction of the pictures we actually took.
This is the scene we encountered after we got off the plane in Cancun. We were not expecting customs and immigration to be this bad. We hung out in this room for an hour and a half before we even found the line. (Yikes!) Then another half hour in line and we were free.
P.S. Thank you mom, Blake, and Ashley for taking care of the kiddos!

The next morning Tyler woke up early to get some pictures of the sunrise over the Atlantic (this was on his "to do list". After we ordered room service before we set out on our first adventure.

Our first official day in Mexico was Sunday and we decided to visit the Coba and Tulum ruins. We first made it (finally, the bus driver drove soooooo slow) to Coba out in the middle of nowhere where we rented bikes and rode to the many ruins spread all around the area. We were lucky to have been able to walk and climb on the ruins, because as I speak, visitors are no longer able to climb on them. The view from the top of this ruin we are sitting on. That lake back there is where the entrance to the park is. We got a decent work out that day.

Next, onto Tulum ruins. This is on the coast on the way back to the hotel. Oh, my gosh it was so pretty.

The guys couldn't wait to get in the water, so us girls hung out and watched.

The next day was beach day! We started the day off however with an awesome yoga workout by the pool. "Shoulders back, sacrum forward". It kicked my butt.


Tuesday, I started off the day with some hydrotherapy followed with the "Excellence" massage. Tyler left to go kite surfing, and I went to play with some of the gal's Playa Del Carmen to do some shopping. I couldn't come home empty handed.

Wednesday, was our outing to Hidden Worlds. We got there, put on our wet suits, and hopped onto the Indiana Jones ride (the real deal). This is the engine. It cracked me up. P.S. Anyone going to Cancun. This place is low key, but totally awesome!!! The people there were totally cool. We had a great time.

We jumped on our sky cycle and rode around in the canopy. It was super cool (and another decent workout). We rode them into a cenote where we went snorkeling (I didn't so much like that part). Then we repeled into a cenote and hit up some zip lines including a splash zipline. The owner also let me and Tyler and Julie be test dummies for their "soon to be" rollercoaster zipline. SCARY!!!


The last day we woke up early (we actually woke up early every day) and went down to the beach before we had to get ready and leave. This is with his kite on the beach. He doesn't have a board, but he let the kite drag him around in the ocean. It was pretty funny.

This last video is a tribute to my brother Michael, who to this day blames me for loosing his pet iguana. No Michael, I did not open the window!

Mexico is packed with Iguana's. They were everywhere! Cute little guys... and girls.

Holiday fun!!!

Here is a little pre-vacation pictures. The snowman Tyler, Aiden, and Travis built in our front yard and of course Aiden sitting with his preschool class in his Christmas pagent. So cute!

A little bit of holiday fun at grandma and grandpa's house. The kids loved playing with their cousins. It was a little sad to leave. Adi loved getting kisses from Palmer. She was hysterical.

A picture of all of the grandkids and(It's a miracle) we got a picture of my family together. I think it's been about15 years since we got a picture together. Maybe even 20 years.

This is just a random picture on our way back home to Utah. The mountain was casting a shadow on the clouds during sunrise. We thought it was kind of cool.

Root Canal

So this is obviously not me... but this is the way I looked yesterday for 4 hours. Yes, 4 hours. Note: my mouth was wide open... for 4 hours. So although the experience altogether sucked, there were some comical moments that resulted from it (insight into my sense of humor). I came in, they layed me down and started me on laughing gas and gave me headphones with music playing (one of my selections being the soundrack to Last of the Mohicans). It was then that as I closed my eyes listening to this very dramatic music, my head spinning, feeling like I was Tom Cruise at the end of the movie "Far and Away" when he hits his head and the sky is spinning above him. Two seconds later as I am waiting for the Dr. to come in, I am picturing Steve Martin in "Little Shop of Horrors" singing "... shooting puppies with a beebee gun". They got started and having a rough go at my "long, skinny" and obviously very annoying roots they need to keep pouring "Drano" down my roots and then leaving me for 30 minutes at a time. Oh, I didn't mention that after they got me all set up and looking like the picture above, I had to pee. ANNOYING!! Anyways, as I am waiting for "Drano" to work I am listing to Dr. in other room tell a patient "Yeah, you really don't want that to turn into a root canal". I wanted to yell, "Yeah, YOU DON"T", but of course I couldn't. Oh yeah, there was also this song I kept hearing about "transporting all over my heavenly body". Weird, right? So, after they finally clean out roots, (P.S. titanium file breaks off in my root which supposedly happens some time) they give me some oxygen and then they give me the bill. Pay $1000 now and then you get to pay another $1000 when you come back to get your crown. If only it was one of those sparkly, gold and jewel studden crowns that princesses wear... if only. So.... yeah that was my day yesterday. I definitely don't want another one of those. I think I would rather them pull it. Regardless it is over, and my advice to everyone I know????... brush, floss, and regularly see a good (I repeat) good dentist.
UPDATE: Ok, so my dentist apt. was 4 hours. My root canal was probably a little over 2 hours. Still, that's a long time. P.S. Previous dentist was crap and messed up my teeth. This one is very good.

Halloween

We survived yet another Halloween. I will feel better when all the candy is out of our house, but until then, I will just deal with the hyper kids. Here is the cute children... I mean, here's Bumblebee and two cute fairy princesses. Is it me, or was every girl a fairy this year?

Earlier in the week we got our pumkins. The kids each get to pick their own. They had a good time.

Here are the kids fighting over who is going to pull the wagon full of pumkins. Of course Sam is hitting Aiden. She does that a lot.