Mom and Dad Vacation in Logan, Utah

During spud harvest Zac and I decided to go on a quick getaway without the kids to Logan, UT.  Grandma and Grandpa Daniels took all four kiddos and we set off for our fun.  We love to be spontaneous and randomly stop and look at or explore anything that catches our eye, whether it's an amazing Mountain View or an old theater.

We went on 2 big hikes up Logan Canyon and the colors were beautiful.   The first night we went hiking up to Elephant Cave.  We didn't leave until about 5 so it was starting to get dark by the time we were headed back down.  We ended up jogging most of it so we wouldn't get lost on a mountain in the frigid weather.  Luckily it was only a couple miles long.

This is us inside the cave looking out across the canyon at The China Wall, which was the hike we did the next day.  It was much scarier with big drop offs and was longer and more of a workout.  

But the views were amazing!  We had a blast together and loved being active.

When we weren't hiking we explored the shops of downtown Logan.  We toured the "Blue Bird Restaurant" which has been around forever and learned some of the historical facts.  We did tons of shopping and spent one morning doing a progressive breakfast.  We stopped at a few different shops and tried foods like, fancy pesto toast and crepes.  So YUMMY!

On the last night we went to the yummiest restaurant of all time!  Le Nonne.  It was seriously so amazing, I couldn't get over how much I enjoyed it.  Afterwards we went to a fun Halloween theater show called "Thriller."  It was really fun and we wished we had brought the kids...until it got super creapy around act 3 or 4, then we were very glad they weren't watching the living nightmare of zombies and little girls being possessed.  It wasn't bad as an adult, but our tender little girls would have been scarred for life.  haha

We loved it!  We already looking forward to planning another trip for our 15th anniversary, we love spending time adventuring together!

Come Follow Me

Our church came out with the Come Follow Me resource this year and we tried our best to work as a family to study the New Testament every morning and learn from the scriptures and the manual and our favorite YouTube channel, Don't Miss This.  There were definitely mornings with fighting and arguing and we wanted to give up.  But the moments where we felt the spirit and bonded as a family made it all worth it.  We hope that as we teach the kids to live the gospel they can become converted and gain a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and his role in their individual lives.

Early on we had to incorporate a lesson on stealing.  Adeline wanted money, so she scavenged around the house and rounded up over $80!  When Teagan and Eloise finally discovered where their missing money had gone and wanted their money back Adeline felt like there was a gross injustice, she had found it after all.  Hopefully she knows better now.

One of the favorite activities involved walking throughout the yard barefoot getting our feet all dirty like the feet in Jerusalem would have been.  Then we drew names and took turns washing each other's feet.  It was a little gross and made me grateful that I don't have to do that on a regular basis.  Everyone loved getting a turn with having their feet rubbed.

In the week before Easter we talked each day about what was happening in Jerusalem 2000 years earlier.  On the night of the passover we had our own passover dinner.  I made flat bread (with cinnamon and sugar of course) and we drank grape juice from wine glasses.  The kids loved getting dressed up and we watched Grandma Packer's video she made of all the different versions of The Last Supper in art throughout the years.  I felt the spirit and I think the kids did too.  This will definitely become a tradition for years to come!

On Easter Sunday we made donuts and everyone loved it!  We try to make Sunday our special treat day after we finish our Come Follow Me lesson.

We learned about gratitude from the story of the lepers and challenged the kids to write down 10 things they were grateful for, one for each leper.  Nobody could think of anything which aggravated me to no end.  So I told them that anyone who could think of 100 things would get their own personal  Crumbl cookie.  Amazingly enough, they were all suddenly full of amazing ideas.

One experience that isn't pictured, but should be told.  One Sunday I had a lesson and had the feeling that I needed to have my kids be more involved in teaching our Come Follow Me lessons.  That day I decided to ask Teagan to teach.  He willingly accepted and taught a fantastic lesson.  Fast forward one week to Sunday.  Teagan wasn't feeling great and wanted to skip church.  On his own, he decided to pray and decide if that was the right thing to do.  Just before we were leaving he hurried into his suit and said he was coming and felt like he should be there.

Marj Killian brought a magazine that had printed an article about Teagan and his sunflower (remember that post from about 5 years ago?!?) and showed it to me after sacrament meeting.  I took her copy and decided to go show Teagan real quick before his lesson started.

When I opened the door to his class he was sitting in the teacher's chair.  I immediately told him to go to his normal seat and not be disrespectful.  Then I learned that Teagan was in charge of teaching the lesson.  My OCD planner heart had a little freak out moment.  Why hadn't anyone told us?!  He wasn't prepared!  This was ridiculous for those leaders to pawn a 50 minutes lesson off on an 11 year old boy!  Then I remembered the Come Follow Me lesson.  "Teagan, you can give the lesson you did for Come Follow Me last week."  His eyes lit up and a few seconds later Zac appeared with the iPad that he had grabbed last minute (for no good reason).

From what I heard, he gave a fantastic lesson, they had a great discussion and it ended up being a learning experience for Teagan.  Come Follow Me saved the day!

Happy 2nd Birthday Everly

This little girl has stolen all of our hearts.  She is talking a ton and knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it.  She loves to be doing.   If she doesn't have something constructive to work on her "doing" tends to destroy the house.

If I am ever working she is right next to me offering to help.  She loves to help cook and always reassures me when I tell her "it's okay, I don't need help" that "no, it's okay mom, I help you."  If I'm scrubbing toilets, she is right by my side, "it's okay mom, I help you."  She cleans up her toys and follows directions and is a pretty good little eater.  She also knows how to throw one heck of a tantrum and has been known to swing a fist or pinch a sibling who didn't give her what she wanted.  As the youngest she has learned to just walk up to whoever is holding what she wants and scream and grab for it.  We are hoping to break this habit ASAP, but until then, send prayers!

We attempted potty training and she did so amazingly well on the first day, but by day 2 or 3 she developed a stomach bug and was throwing up and miserable.  We quickly abandoned ship and rescheduled for January.  It was a nice attempt.

Her favorite foods are berries.  She will sit and chow down a whole bowl of any sort of berries, even if they are frozen.  Anytime we were out picking raspberries or strawberries in the garden, Everly could be found stealing them and eating them from our buckets.  Unfortunately, this left about 90% of her summer clothes stained with red juice down the front.

For her birthday we had a big day with soccer games and kids at school so we celebrated uniquely.  In the morning she opened her new Little People toy set up and then we went swimming at Apple with the Ivins.  Everly LOVES Creedence and Brittany so she was so excited to spend some time at the pool with them.  Then we got French fries for lunch, because she loves them so much.

The afternoon was full of soccer games, so we went to Reed's Dairy afterwards and she got to blow out candles on her scoop of ice cream.  She loved it so much and was excited to have lots of her grandparents there!  I am still feeling a little guilty that I didn't actually bake her a cake, poor youngest child...or maybe she is lucky and will learn resilience from the deprivation.  haha

Everly, you are adorable and make us laugh every day.  You give the sweetest hugs and kisses and your facial expressions are fabulous.  Happy Birthday little one!