Last week was our 15th wedding anniversary. To celebrate we coaxed G&G T into watching the kids for a few days while we got away. It has been over 7 years since the last time we were able to get away overnight without kids not involving a hospital stay so it was really needed! Matthew was at Camp Kostopulos for the week so they only had the four other kids. 15 years I can't believe how fast it has gone! We redid a photo that was taken from our wedding day with all 5 of our kids. The bench was a lot squishier than it was way back then!!
We didn't do gifts for each other, but Aaron surprised me with this sweet video that includes pictures of our family through the last 15 years. I LOVED it!! Here's a link to the video:
Matthew was really excited to go to Camp K. He has been telling everyone about it for weeks. When it was time to drop him off he ran off to join in the games. I had to go and track him down to get a hug goodbye. I am glad he loves camp so much! He was so busy playing games he didn't have time to look at the camera and smile so this is the best shot I got:
After dropping Matthew off at Camp K Aaron and I just kept driving to our mini getaway down in St. George. We felt bad leaving because our city had declared all the drinking water unsafe to drink on Saturday which meant G&G T and the kids had no safe running water at the house. Luckily, we were able to stock them up with cases of water bottles and hope for the best!
We splurged on the way down and got a can of cashews. We can't ever eat them because Daniel is so allergic. I never get to eat them because of that allergy and they are my favorite nuts. They were so yummy!
We got to St. George and had a later lunch of seafood. Aaron doesn't like seafood, but since I never get to eat it he let me try it out. Aaron made sure I was pulling a dorky face before he took the picture. Awesome. Oh well at least lunch was yummy!
After lunch we went golfing. Wahoo! I have only ever been golfing one other time and that was clear back in high school. We went golfing for a dance activity and I only lasted through 3 holes until I just wanted to drive the cart around instead. Needless to say I was pretty bad. It's golfers like me that make me never want to have a house on a golf course--there would be so many broken windows!! Luckily, I didn't break anyones windows, but there were a few close calls. Since we went in the middle of the super hot afternoon there were no other people on the course. That way we weren't rushed and were able to have fun during our horrible golf game. Aaron was rusty at his golf game, but he still was better than I was!
Good thing the three strikes your out rule doesn't apply in golf or I would have never hit any ball anywhere!
Despite the heat of 100 degrees, we had a lot of fun.
After golfing we checked into our hotel and went swimming to cool off for a bit. Then we headed over to see Beauty and the Beast at Tuacahn outdoor theater in Ivins, Utah. It was so much fun! Here we are waiting for the show to start:
The next morning we got up bright and early--it helps that I am an incurable insomniac--and headed over for a day of hiking at Zions National Park. It was so beautiful! Our first hike of the day was the Angel's Landing hike. It was rated a strenuous hike and, wow, they really meant strenuous when they rated that one!! We still made it though.
The red cliffs and canyons were so pretty!
When we got closer to the top there was a chain you had to hold on to so you wouldn't fall off the edge because the trail was so steep and narrow. Here's looking over one side of the trail while I am holding on to the chain:
This picture doesn't even do the treacherous, steepness justice:
It was such a beautiful view from so high up!
However, getting up that high was where the strenuous rating kicked in. There were so many switchbacks! Here's me in the middle of a huge set of switchbacks called Walter's Wiggles:
Here's another person's picture of the overhead view of Walter's Wiggles so you can see how steep they really were:
There were a lot of neat things to see along the trail:
Here's another view of the trail from someone else where you can see the drop-offs from both sides of the trail:
At the beginning of the trail there were a few switchbacks you can see in this picture. If you really zoom in you can see Aaron in his red shirt waving at the camera on one of the turns in the middle of the picture:
When we got done with Angel's Landing we did a few more hikes then we left Zions. We went back to our hotel where we changed and got ready to do a session at the St. George Temple. It was so pretty!
After the temple session we headed over to see the When You Wish show at Tuacahn that night. We liked that show more than the previous nights show Beauty and the Beast which is saying something. It was very entertaining and full of neat tricks!
The next morning we got up bright and early again--I hate being an insomniac!! Anyway we checked out of the hotel and then headed over to do one more round of golf. My game didn't get any better, but we still had fun playing! We were little slower playing that morning because both of us were so sore from the hiking trip to Zion the previous day!
Driving the golf cart was pretty fun, too, until it broke down on us. After getting yelled at by an old man golfer we were able to get it fixed and running again--phew!
After our golf game it was time to drive all the way back home again. It was such a jam packed fun three days! I am thankful to be married to my best friend! Here's to 15 years and to infinity!
While we were gone G&G T were busy with the kids and stuff. Between baseball games and piano lessons (Sarah started piano and had her very first lesson that week) Grandpa T washed all my windows. It is so nice to be able to see out of them again! Grandma, Josh and Daniel organized the downstairs laundry room and put away all of the clothes which was another amazing fete! Grandpa also fixed Matthew's bed. Matthew had had one too many tantrums on it and broke one of the sideboards completely which means he has been sleeping on his mattress on the floor for the past two weeks because we haven't had time to fix it. Thankfully, Grandpa fixed it for him and also fixed Noah's bed which was about to break, too. They also managed to take all the kids to the park and have a pizza party. They had so much fun with G&G T that Noah wanted Aaron and me to leave again on another trip. How do you like that?! I am glad things went so well while we were gone!
We got back home and I was home for about an hour before I had to head back out again. It was our Young Women Camp Fundraiser that night. We were going to wash windows. We had 29 houses to do and we amazingly got them all done. Wahoo! My arms were really sore the next day from being on squeegee duty, but it was worth it. While I was washing windows Aaron went to Daniel's baseball game that night. He brought along Sarah and Noah who kept themselves entertained by jumping off the highest level of the bleachers to try and grab the tree leaves. Here's an action shot of Noah:
Luckily, no one hurt themselves!
The next day it was back to reality. Boo! Aaron had to work and I had to wrangle kids again. Oh well the trip was sure fun while it lasted! I unpacked and did laundry while we packed up Josh for a two day scouting fishing/geocaching trip. He left that afternoon. I was nervous to let him go since this would be the first multiple day trip he would go on without Aaron along with him. Luckily, he had lots of fun. He even earned an extra $5 on the trip. He was bet by his scout leader to eat a raw fish eyeball with ketchup. Since Josh is all about the money he did it. YUCK!! I hope it was worth $5 to him!! Blech!!
Noah had baseball that night. It was picture night and this was about the only smiling, ungoofy face he pulled all night:
The next morning Sarah had an appointment with a dermatologist. She has had a funny looking, fast growing mole on the sole of her foot that concerned me. The doctor wanted to check her out all over so she got to dress up in a hospital gown:
This mole has doubled in size in the last year and looked funny.
The dermatologist thought it looked funny, too, so she biopsied it. She cut a big chunk out, too. Gross!
Now we have to try and keep some Vaseline on it with a band aid which isn't easy considering it is the walking surface of her foot. Thankfully, we just got the results and they were benign. That was reassuring news!
Over the weekend we just got caught up on odd jobs at home. Josh got home from his camp out and had lots of fun. I finally cleaned out everyones closets and they now have all the winter clothes put away. We also had to do laundry and pack Aaron up so he could be ready to go out of town for the week early Monday morning. Aaron flew out early Monday morning at 6 am. I really dislike single parenting! Anyway to make it fun we spent a few hours at Lagoon.
Matthew was at his summer program so it was just the 5 of us.
The next day we took a walk to the new park by our house. They have some really neat new equipment the kids loved playing with. It was about a mile away from our house and the kids walked or rode their scooters the whole way. It was awesome and there wasn't too much complaining:
Noah's hanging out on the teeter totter:
On the way back we took our time and found some huge dandelions to make some wishes with:
It was a fun, but crazy week. We are staying busy, too. Today we had playgroup at a different park. The kids had so much fun playing with their friends. I think this summer is off to a great start!! It will be even better when Aaron comes back into town tomorrow!!
