Home Sweet Home

 We have recently moved to Hyde Park while we transition into our life here in Cache Valley.

This home has 

3249 sq. feet

6 bedrooms

2 1/2 baths

2 family rooms

1 extra large bonus room

1 garden shed

2 car garage
work benches

3 fireplaces

 This is the front family room.

The before and after of the kitchen are unreal.  I'll have to post the photos sometime when I get them from my mom.

 I'm so happy I finally found a little home for my violin I played when I was just a wee lass.

 I LOVE the natural light of this home.  We rarely have to turn the lights on.  Soooo helpful.

I have this table a little crammed into the corner because we are coming and going from the backyard so often.  However, this dining room is a great size for when we entertain and extend our table out to accommodate a large group.

This is the covered patio off the dining room.  We back a canal and a large field, sooooo lovely having privacy!

This is perhaps my favorite room of the house.  This is the play room/office.  The girls play in here for hours and I can sit at the computer and do my work.  It's a win/win for the whole family.  

Lydia's Room.

 I saw this on pinterest, so helpful.  You put a pool noodle under their fitted sheet and it serves as a bed rail.  Way better than having those large, bulky rails up.

 If you're renting, these banners are a great way to add color to a room without having to paint.

Emma's room.  This is the one wall in the house that we did paint.  And let me tell you, it was a doozy!!!  Glad it's over, and also I love how it turned out.

I took a tip from pinterest and painted Emma's fan pink.  We are fan people and it's nice not to have to hide it away every morning.  I redid Emma's old dresser with new paint and new fabric to the side of it.  The Eiffel tower is Emma's night light, I found those rose lights at Cannon Beach, they're my favorite!  Both the girls are funny, after all the work I go through on their rooms (and they really do love them and are so appreciative about it) their favorite thing is their light switch plates, go figure.

This is the girl's bathroom.....

 ....that connects to our bathroom.  We thought we would hate this at first, but it's actually QUITE nice.

 our bathroom

 Our bedroom

Another pinterest inspired project.   Except I used fabric and starch and pinterest suggest paper and modge podge.  I love how this turned out :)

Our bedroom has a sliding glass door that leads out to this deck and the backyard.

 My favorite part of this yard....the hammock and a good book!!

That cement square is a basket ball court, which we have transformed into an art studio specializing in sidewalk chalk drawings.

If you go downstairs we have our laundry room that leads to the garage

An extra family room that we don't use, as well as an extra bedroom that we use for storage.

This spare room is used to store all of our coats (we have quite the collection) and is also where Ryan gets some peace and quiet to do his homework.

Our guest bedroom has ZERO windows.  So if ever you want to sleep in, this is the place to do it.  Also this is my favorite room to nap in :)

The guest bathroom

Well, that's it.  Hopefully we will be here for a while.  I counted, and it's not pretty, but since Lydia was born (3 years ago) we have called 9, yes......N-I-N-E different places home.  Yeah.  We're hoping for some stability, but we'll just take it one day at a time.  We're so happy to be here and I just need to give a shout out to my parents (especially my mom) for making it happen.

August

We took Emma to Lagoon for her first time since she was 1.  We had the BEST time spending the day with her like we would a friend.  We left Lydia behind and Ryan, Chloe, Emma and I went on every ride at the park.  Emma was such a sport as we forced her to go on the biggest roller coasters.  There were some tears beforehand, but by the time the ride was over, she was a fan of the adrenaline and kept wanting to go again and again.

 The above random photo is of my latest snack craving from Trader Joe's.  I stocked up in Oregon and I am already planning a trip to SLC to stock up again :)

I LOVE Temple Square during all four seasons, but summer is one of my favorite times on the grounds.

 We moved this month (post to shortly follow) and as we unpacked I came across my long lost friend, Tucky.  This dog was loved to death!!  When I pulled him out of the box I can't even describe how much it tugged at my heart strings.  Not gonna lie, I've been sleeping with him lately, the girls are delighted by the concept of me sleeping with a stuffed animal.

I have loved living in Cache Valley and being closer to Bear Lake.  We've been able to cruise up there for a few day trips.  As always, we love the shallow blue water.  These photos aren't looking so blue because the summer fires had a wicked haze over everything, but when we were out riding around on the lake the color was unreal.

This is how many of our adventures ended this summer....the girls being COMPLETELY wiped out with fun.

Best mom/daughter date ever!  Stacey, Sara and I all bought my mom a Wicked ticket for her birthday.  Before the performance my mom and I went to all of our favorite stores from Logan to SLC.  Then we had our favorite dinner at Thaifoon.  LOVE spending time alone with my mom.

Wicked with my cousins, aunts, and my grandma.  I am so lucky to have such a fun family!

My Aunt Lee scored all of us these tickets, I don't even know how anyone can get their hands on them without the right hook ups.  Lee and I splurged and spent $150 on our tickets so we could be in the front rows.  It was seriously worth every penny.  I will never return to the mezzanine level again!

As our last hoorah before school started Annie took the four Utah grand-kids to SLC for an all day adventure.  We went to Pioneer Village where the kids were in heaven.  Emma longs to be a pioneer and she loved having a look at how their lives must have been.  This place could entertain kids all day!  There was gold mining, school education, pony rides, the general store, train rides, crafts, petting zoo, and the list goes on.

Afterwards we went to the Gateway for Lydia to buy her very first build-a-bear.  No surprise that she bought the exact same bunny as Emma and even gave it the same name.  The rest of the kids all got to pick out a new outfit for their stuffed friends.  They were in heaven!  Then they played in the fountain and we ended the day with a cherry lemonade from corn dog on a stick.  QUITE the day!

My sweet little Emma started first grade on August 23rd.  Going to school all day has been so good for her and she absolutely adores eating hot lunch every day.  I am so thankful that Emma continues to be innately good inside.  Our family is so much better because of her example.

 Paradise puts on the cutest festival I have ever been to.  Seriously, it can't be beat.  The kids get to crawl into a pool and catch their own fish!  All for only $1.  Rides are $5 for an all day unlimited pass.  The food vendors are delicious and very affordable.  The people are fresh out of a Normal Rockwell painting.  This is my favorite activity to ending the summer season.

Family has been the center of our World ever since we moved to Cache Valley.  I'm so thankful we live near so many of them.  Below is a progressive dinner we had one Sunday.  Appetizer's at my mom's, main course at my Aunt Carol's, and dessert at my Aunt Lee's.  Perfect large family activity.

Whenever Ryan takes these girls on a daddy/daughter date he always does something unique and unforgettable.  This is a photo of a river he took them to.  Then they each gathered rocks, one by one, to create this waterfall.  We've gone back to visit this creation and clearly this is a date the girls will never forget.

I am so glad that the girls and I took advantage of the pool while it remained open after school hours before Labor Day.  We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves.  Emma got the courage to not have a lifeguard catch her at the water slide and even to jump into the deep end.  I love the picture of her swimming, she seriously looks like a puppy doing the doggy paddle.  She knows how to swim under water so it makes that photo extra delightful to me.

This has been such a great summer.  We have spent more time together than ever before.  I think for the first time in my life I was ready to welcome the school year and the change of seasons.  I truly feel like my summer cup was filled, I couldn't be more thankful.

Oregon Coast

So.  Are you ready to see photos of my most favorite family vacation ever?  Ryan REALLY wanted to go to the Newport Aquarium for his birthday, so we decided to sneak away from the wedding planning and go explore down south on the coast to towns we've never been to.

I did my research online and decided we should check out a place called Cape Perpetua.  We found a random little parking spot and then made our way through these awesome tree tunnels.  Doesn't it look like we're going down the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland?  It sure felt that way.

To our complete surprise, this was the view waiting for us on the other side. We had the whole mountain side to ourselves and we spent the entire rest of the day exploring this lava rock shore.

Here's Ry and the girls waiting for the spout to blow...then getting soaked :)

 Our girls are the coolest little girls I know.  They are champs for adventure and have such enthusiasm for exploring.  We dragged them all over this shore line and never once did they complain,

 By the end of our adventure Lydia's little legs couldn't hardly move.

P

 Ry and I have had quite the year.  Thankfully we're more in-love than ever because of it.

Sooooo, this photo here is what inspired us to go to Cape Perpetua.  But guess what, it was no where to be found.  According to google we were right on top of it!  And yet, 3 hours of searching and we still never found it.  But what we did find while we were searching was priceless.

Once I realized we weren't going to find Thor's Well (above photo) we decided to move on to find the Devil's Churn.  We parked.  Crossed this completely charming bridge, and made our way down this perfectly shaped path.  You would think the landscaping was done by some high priced resort...nope, that's just how the North West rolls.  Totally, and completely breathtaking.

I don't know if you are appreciating how beautiful this is.  Really take it all in.

I mean come on.  Look at that!!!

Hi.  Yeah.  Devil's Churn.  Looks like something from Lord of the Rings.  It was a bit disturbing to walk all the way to this edge.  You could feel the ocean "churning" in the cave beneath you and it boomed all the way through to your heart.  If you fell in here, it would be game over, no being rescued.  It sure was fun to see in real life though :)

We ended our night with picking the most crowded restaurant in town to celebrate Ryan's 31st birthday.  I am just coming around to the world of seafood, but this place had the best fish and chips I've ever had.  Then we drove up the coast and found a quaint little hotel.  Had baths.  Put girls to bed.  Watched a movie.  Then fell asleep to the sound of the Ocean.  Seriously.  Seriously.  Can't get better than this.

The next morning Ryan's wish came true and we headed to the Newport Aquarium.  Loved the touch pools, especially since they were all creatures that live in the ocean right outside.

Just in case you were wondering, this is the aquarium that spent 7 MILLION dollars on a tank for Keiko (Free Willy) to return to health.  Bleh.  I am not a fan of saving the whales when there are starving children in this World.  Anyways, moving on.

Isn't this picture awesome?  You know what's fun about being the mom?  You get to always stay behind the camera.  So that way when your kids look back on their childhood, they'll have a ton of great photos with their dad, and your role can kind of be forgotten.  Fun huh?  (I'm laying the sarcasm on pretty thick here)

What I loved best about this trip was discovering new places I've never been.  Especially since the Oregon Coast is so familiar to me.  This was like I was in a whole new state.  We stopped at a real live lighthouse and got a tour of the inside.  We went down to the tide pools, and also saw loads of seals just hanging around, doing their sleepy thing.

Wait for it.....Wait for it....da da da daaaaa!!!!  Cannon Beach.  We made it!  Although the highlight was exploring new beaches, there's nothing like Cannon.  It never changes.  Even when everything else in my life does, Cannon always stays the same.  Nothing goes out of business, the restaurants don't change their menus, and Haystack Rock will forever and always be the symbol of my happy childhood.

Some people have Disneyland, some have Bear Lake, some Lake Powell, but our family's happy place is at Cannon Beach.  The remaining photos pretty much speak for themselves.

We finished off this day with Joining Ryan's brother Greg and his family for a slumber party in the next town over in Seaside.  We had a great fire on the beach and then stayed up until 3a.m. catching up.  This has to be the best 24 hours we've had in a long time, possibly ever.  Possibly.