Capital Reef Getaway

Our family needed a weekend out of town, to break up the mundane of daily life, work, chores and other responbilities, and Capital Reef National Park, about three hours SW of Salt Lake, won out. We drove down Friday after work, stayed in a hotel, went swimming, jumped on the beds and just relaxed, ate a yummy breakfast in the morning (best hotel breakfast I have ever had with a beautiful kitchen) and then spent the day at Capital Reef. We hiked a few short hikes, toured the visitor center, ate lunch by the old pioneer homestead and fed horses our left over apple cores. Saturday evening we stayed with our good friends from Peru. They have a beautiful home and were amazing hosts. It was such a fun weekend and a great recharge . . . . we were amazed that we could accomplish so much, make so many memories and have so much fun in soo little of time, in less than 48 hours.

Here are a few pictures to explain our trip . . .


Jacob wanted to climb everything, he REALLY is a monkey.

I tried to find all the holes carved out by water and weather.

Jacob was a trooper most of the time, but occasionaly wanted to be carried . .

Aren't the Chuy boys handsome?I love this picture. (Click on it to enlarge it and enjoy it even more.) Erick was the photographer.

And I also love this picture too, guess who the photrapher was? The one and only, Jacob R. Chuy -- I think he has some hidden talents budding . . .

Choose How To React

This morning was a moment of reflection, when at exactly 10 a.m., one friend was overseeing the funeral of his father, while some other friends were admitting themselves to the University of Utah hospital to experiment with best of modern medicine practices in hopes to have a successful embryo implantation and start a new life. And yet at the same time, another set of friends, a couple is striving to keep their marriage together. It's difficult to understand why good things happen to bad people or why bad things happen to good people, or why some things just seem "to come easy" for them, or why one sufers with a disease, while others that choose a poor lifestyle don't. Life is not fair, but I do know that we are on this earth to be happy although at times we will be tested, but those are learning opportunities and we can choose how to react. This was amplified this week when Jacob told me that he was "choosing to be mad," and dramatically crossed his arms, scrawled his face and stomped his feet. I almost laughed out loud at his theatrically display, but refrained myself and said, "well, tell me when you are ready to put on your happy face." About 15 seconds later he yelled, "Mommy, I am ready to be happy," and changed his face dramatically to an over-happy little boy. Both he and I knew that he was going to the extremes, but since then, our family has used that example to teach him, and to remind us, that our reactions are a choice, we choose to be happy, sad, irritated, excited, nervous, anxious, etc. I know that our friend who is suffering due to the loss of his father (I have been their recently), and it is a real and needed process, but how he progresses after, will be his choice. The same is true for our friends who are aching to have a child, they have waited a long time, and it has been delightful to see how they have enjoyed life to the fullest, despite their disappointments. And for the couple who is suffering maritial problems, I wish them the best, to choose their reactions carefully and to love with more patience

Fall is here!

I love fall! I didn't realize how much I would love the changing of seasons while growing up in Oregon, but I love them. The beginning of fall is refreshing after the hot, hot, long summer days. It also brings gorgeous colors, cooler weather, and pumpkins. I also love that it starts the season of decorating the house, earlier darker nights that force us inside to a warm house to play hide-and-go seek, Candy Land, dinosaurs, "monsters" and lots of other games that are created through the imagination of our adorable 3-year-old. Fall also brings rain (I still am an Oregon girl), figuring out cute costumes and getting creative with apples. There's baked apples, apple cider, apple crisp, apple pie, carmeled apples or just plain crisp apples with a tall glass of milk.

The beginning of Fall also means that we get to participate in the LDS General Conference, and this fall's was very fulfilling and peaceful. I am excited to re-listen to the talks in the coming weeks and read (and mark them up) when they come out next month.

Some of my favorite talks included: E. Hollands (Sunday PM), Pres. Monson's (Sunday AM), E. Bendars (Sat. AM), Pres Uchdorf (Sat AM), and E. Oaks (Sat. PM). What were your favorites?

I also love that since we have been married, we have had at least one person stay the night while here for our conference. I love it! Our house guests bring extra excitement, energy and more spirit. I commented to Erick, a bit disappointed, on Saturday afternoon that it didn't look like anybody would be with us this year. But about 10pm Saturday night, we got a call, a weary traveler, looking for a place to stay. We quickly invited them in and once again our home was filled with that special spirit that only someone from out of town brings, a spirit of pure excitement to be in Utah and experiencing General Conference in person for the first person! I love it and hope that we can continue to provide a bed or spot on the floor for our friends and family for years to come on General Conference weekend . . .

Apple Picking

We have really enjoyed having a garden this year. Lot's of fresh veggies, learned to cook new foods (planted eggplant this year and have tried lots of new recipes) and been able to give fresh produce to friends and family. We have also frozen lots of zucchini for winter breads and muffins and I even canned by myself for the first time this summer. Erick thought I was a bit crazy to try the canning idea, but has already really enjoyed my efforts (we are almost out of the apricot jam from the beginning of the summer) and he has even helped on the last couple of projects. I remember canning while growing up in Oregon, peaches, jam, applesauce, and juices, but this was the first time I had canned on my own, and I was a bit nervous. I think I called my brother and mom 5-10 times over the course of the first two canning experiences. So far we have canned apricot jam (thanks Ben for the produce), whole apricots, apple sauce, salsa, and will give apple butter, salsa verde (with the season-end tomatoes) and grape juice (my neighbor has already begged me to take some of her grapes) a try too. It's been really fun to learn and do something new (successfully), fill our pantry with clean jars filled with produce, and have a happy family already enjoying the food.

A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker mentioned that she had an apple tree that she had never picked, and was wondering if we were interested. Of course we were!! And so last Thursday, Jacob and I spent an hour picking apples and having a great time. The next night we made our first batch of apple sauce (6 quarts) and have about half the apples left to try making apple butter, a new found favorite of Erick's.

Here's a few pics of Jacob helping me pick apples . . .

Looking a pit scared up the ladder, which surprised me. Jacob always wants to climb everything.
Jacob was a very good helper, he made sure all the apples had their leaves removed and picked up all the random apples that fell to the ground.

Trying to explain to Jacob how to get one of the apples up past his reach.

My baby turned 3!

Jacob turned three-years old this past Sunday! I love this kid, he is adorable, has a strong brilliant personality, is so sensitive, athletic and makes me want to be a better person. He has accomplished a lot for a three-year-old gentleman and can't wait what he grows up to be and do.

Erick and I had been talking for awhile to build him a sandbox for his birthday. We have had since he was about six months old, a small plastic, sand and water sandbox. But after he got really mobile, he preferred to be "in" the box and not standing by it's side. He was always asking to go to our neighbor's large box where you could really build "san' cadstles" and coover your feet. And so we googled the art of building sandboxes, watched a video on YouTube and went to work. Each night, leading up to his birthday, we worked a bit on the sandbox. We marked the area with spray painted, rototilled, dug down about a foot, leveled, laid weed barriers, ran around to Lowes, Home Depot, Sutherlands and other lumber yards to find the wood that was wide enough (we wanted at least 12" wide), framed the sandbox, borrowed our neighbor's truck to hall 2500 lbs (yep 1.25 tons for a whole ton of fun) of sand from the landscaping yard and halled it by the wheelbarrow into the back yard. We finally finished about midnight on Friday night, we were so proud of ourselves and eager to see Jacob's reaction, and he didn't disappoint us. Saturday morning, we casually opened the backdoor, Jacob stepped out and squealed, "Wow, wo, wow, wo, who did that, who did that?? I love it, I love it, I love it!!" I wish we had a video camera, his reaction was priceless. (I was a bit surprised by his reaction, because Jacob had helped us with much of the process, I guess he just didn't ever put it all together.) He immediately went to work, digging holes, roads for his backhoes and tractors, and making san' cadstles.

Picture taken a few days later with many of his Talisman Drive friends, ranging in age from 2 1/2 - 12 years old. I am so glad we made a big sandbox. This particular night I counted 10 kids.
This year's birthday also called for his first BIG BOY party. He was so excited to invite all his buddies from our street (the Talisman posy), cousins and Evey from nursery to come to his HAPPY BIRTHDAY (as Jacob calls it) water-party. It was very hot and so much fun. We found a sweet deal on a slip 'n slide, borrowed a big pool and slide from the neighbors, filled our wading pool with water and had buckets of water balloons. Food was easy too, grilled hot dogs, corn-on-the cob, frozen fruit boxes, watermelon and lots of popsicles. The party went so fast and Jacob was sooo excited to have all his buddies at his house to play. And he even behaved pretty well.

We didn't capture very many pictures, I guess that is a sign of a fun party, but here is Jacob with the two kids his age from nursery. They were taking a swim break and eating!

Riding Bikes is a Summer Must

Erick and I bought ourselves bikes and a bike trailer for our birthdays in April, but since we couldn't figure out (even with instructions) how to attach the trailer, we have only gone cruising a handful of times at night, after Jacob was asleep. But on Tuesday, our awesome neighbors, Robbie and Regina, helped me figure out the problem. Only after 30 minutes (using three university-educated adults), we figured it out. Now it's a piece of cake to attach or detach the trailer. I put the attachment on Erick's bike, thinking that he would pull Jacob more often, and I could just ride his bike when he's not around, but my neighbor thought we could probably buy another attachment and have it fit both bikes. (I still need to look into that.)

Since Tuesday, we have gone biking every night, it really is a summer must. We have explored the neighborhood, given all the kids on our street, under 5 years old, rides, and even went up the Jordan River pathway. (That was beautiful, but next time we need to bring bug spray, wear our glasses and keep our mouths closed.)

Here are a few pics of Jacob hanging out in his new "bike," ready for a pre-bed bike rid. He loves the rides he gets to eat snacks and still move fast. Who wouldn't love that lifestyle?

(And don't worry, Jacob does wear a helmet, I just didn't think about it on the first ride.)

Superman

Jacob had a fun day at story hour a few weeks ago. They read superman books, made superman capes and played like they really were superman. Last night, Jacob ran around the house yelling, "Superman saves the day" over and over and over. He was so proud of himself, jumping off chairs while he saved the world!

He really is a SUPERman and I love him!