Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Falling Trees Oh My!

If someone would have told me last weekend what this week would have been like I am not sure I would have believed them or been very excited. We started by being "shaken up" by an unexpected earthquake on Tues. The earthquake was one of the largest to hit the east coast. I was on the phone with Jonathan and just thought that one of the kids were bouncing around upstairs when I saw that all of the kids were outside and he said things were shaking where he was too. It seemed to last several minutes but I was told later that it was only about 30 secs. This was followed by several aftershocks, which proved to be only mildly unsettling.

Then Hurricane Irene hit Saturday. It wasn't predicted to be too bad for us but ended up being at the high end of what they expected. We had sustained 30-40 mph winds and about 4.5 inches of rain in 24 hrs. We lost power Saturday afternoon and it came on again last night.

Probably the biggest excitement around here in conjunction with the storm was that we had a very large tree come down on our driveway. It blocked the road in front of our house. A neighbor from across the street came out during the storm and cleared the road.


All of the excitement has put me and the kids a little on edge, but I am hoping that things calm down to normal this week. We have had many blessings. 1) The tree didn't hit or destroy anything. It was a miracle for which we feel truly blessed. It could have been much worse. 2) Through the help of neighbors and friends we managed to clear the tree out of the road, get it completely cut up and moved off the driveway, 3)One friend even let us borrow a couple of extra coolers and ice that they didn't need after locating a generator to run their fridge. The power came back on last night and I didn't loose anything from the fridge. I just had a good chance to clean it out.





I really hope next week is less eventful. We are just looking forward to school starting.


The trees all cut up and moved, now we have to figure out how to get it hauled away.

Sam's 4th Birthday

It has been such a crazy week. I almost forgot we celebrated Sam's real 4th birthday. Before we went to Utah he was talking all about how he got to have 2 birthdays. One in Utah with cousins and a small party at home. He loved both.

Yum! This cake may not look pretty but it tastes great!

Enjoying everyone singing to him. In great anticipation of candle blowing.

Here is all ready to open presents.

Vacation Fun

We haven't been out to visit family with the kids in three years. We were sorely overdue for fun with family and friends and we had a blast. This last week has been a whirlwind of activities, but all well worth it. We started the trip hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, then we visited Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, followed by an afternoon at the water park.

Temple Square
Our family from the roof of the LDS conference center.

The next day we walked up to Bridal Veil Falls. I forget sometimes that things that I have seen many times are new and exciting to my children who have never seen them before. It was fun to share our favorite haunts around Utah county with the kids. These included walking up to the falls, driving around BYU, and eating lunch at Los Hermanos.


Hiking around the falls. The water was freezing but the kids and I didn't seem to mind.

In the evening we celebrate Samuel's birthday at Nickel City with as many as could come. It was a lot of fun for everyone and not likely to be something he will forget soon.
Eating pizza and cake.
Waiting for presents.
Playing games.

My famous nieces and nephews

So apparently making it onto my blog means you are famous. At least according to our nieces and nephews who wanted to know why my kids were on the computer, because surely getting your picture on the computer elevates you to celebrity status. So I promised all of cousins we hung out with in Utah that they could be famous too!
So here's to you! We had so much fun with all of you and hope you can make it to Virginia some time. Now you too are Famous.
The magnificent Katrina
The mild mannered Carson
My buddy Blakey
The whole gang.
Silly Janie

William (this is one of the few pictures I have, he is hard to catch)
Sweet Charlotte
The jumping bean Benjamin
Precious Bethany

Utah! - Birthdays and Parks

This is more from our trip to Utah. We helped Sam celebrate his 4th birthday with his cousins and a lot of fun at Nickel City. Everyone had a blast eating pizza and cake, playing arcade games and even battling it out in Laser Tag. My only challenge in laser tag was that whenever Sam lost sight of me he would yell out "Mom" until I answered back and then I was an easy target for the opposing team. Oh well, it was great fun and we still won!
Sam gets ready to blow out the candles on his cake.
The kids had a great time, even if it was a little lot visiting Thanksgiving point with the rest of Utah county for $2 Tuesdays. We visited the animal farm and gardens. It is so much fun to play and visit with family again.
The kids loved the pony ride, but I am not sure if it was worth the 45 minute wait.
Along the trails in the gardens were several kid challenged and activities I think this was called jump and balance.
The three siblings together again.
Kjirsten cools off in the shade of the secret garden.
All of cousins lined up for a photo. Sam is hiding behind Joshua you can see his legs.
It was quit a privilege for Charlotte to let anyone push her, let aloe another kid, but she let Sam try it out. He was honored.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Okay, so it has been really hot for the last several weeks -like in the 100's! I have been dying, well not really, just mostly hanging out inside under air conditioning. We wanted to take our annual trip to the beach as a means of celebrating the completion of summer camps and classes for everyone, but the beach was going to be 106! Yikes. So we opted for heading to the mountains. It was only 87, perfect, and not humid. We picnicked, hiked, and enjoyed the lakeside beach. It was a great escape.

We can hardly wait for our trip to Utah this week to have cooler weather and the vacation we have all been waiting for. It is hard and expensive to save up money and fly everyone out west and we don't get to do it very often. We are all looking forward to it!

Sam's Sand Castle Building.
Just Hanging Out
Enjoying the cool water
Sand forts on the beach. I love it when the boys try to keep out the water. - Kind of like stopping a flood, doesn't work very well.
Playing in the water. The wading area was only 2-3 feet deep. I think Joshua is kneeling in this picture.
My little hiker.
The party poopers. Our hike was only a mile.