Zion National Park

We made it to our first destination, St. George, UT late Friday night.  We checked into our hotel, got settled, and slept in until the kiddies woke us up Saturday morning.

Saturday was kind of a hang-out day.  We took the kids swimming at our hotel's pool, ran some errands, and went running.  Later on Jim's sister, Adrienne took me out to a delish Indian/Asian restaurant.  My mouth waters every time I think about it.  I need to go back to St. George, just so I can eat there again -- the company was fantastic too! 

Sunday we all piled into Adrienne's car and drove to Zion National Park.  It was stunning.  We drove through some tunnels, went on some hikes, and ended our night at a yummy pizza place and then candy/ice cream shop for dessert.  I even found some candy cigarettes I used to get on road trips when I was a kid.  I totally bought them, then offered my nieces some ciggies - the bubblegum variety.  I felt like such a rebel!  Next thing you know, I'll need a bubblegum patch to wear to stop my cravings for blowing bubbles. 

All in all, our day in Zion was heavenly!

Just about to drive through a mountain

You can't tell me that that's not beautiful!

The start of our hike

Heading up the trail

Hunter makes a weird face when we tell him to smile for a picture.  Everyone tried to copy it -- even Hunter.

This is the end of the Narrows hike.  Jim has done this hike a few times with friends.  I would be too afraid of flash floods to hike between two mountains, but I'm glad I got to see a bit of it.

Tandra and Cassi, some of my favorite gals in the whole world!  

Tralee was playing Rapunzel in the picture on the left.  She's just being a dare-devil in the one on the right.

Jim skipping rocks, Cassi by the water, and a branch/root Adrienne found that looks like a woman.  Anyone else see it?

Tandra, Jim, Tralee, and Hunter at Weeping Rock

Hunter watching the drops of water fall

drip drip drip

Family photo

She smiles!

Adrienne, Tralee (being forced to smile - she was hungry at this point), Hunter, Jim, Cassi, and Tandra

Yummy ice cream and candy shop.  I bought some salted chocolate covered caramels that blew my pants right off they were so amazing!

"Hey kids, fancy a Lucky Light?  All the cool Aunts nostalgic for their days of youth are chewing them!"

The Road to Thanksgiving

We left last Friday the 16th of November to head towards smiling faces and warmer weather.  Our final destination was Las Vegas.

Lucky for us, the wee ones are pretty good lil' travelers.  

The kids stayed happy for most of the trip, their dad buying them get ice cream at a gas station helped.  I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of my kiddos slurping down dripping ice cream in the car, but everyone else thought it was a grand idea.  I just went with it.  Everyone was happy, so what's a little melted ice cream on the clothes (and car seat and seat belt and face and hands) anyway?  

I also saw some Hostess snacks at a gas station.  This was right after their big shutting-down announcement.  I was thisclose to buying some, but decided I've not had any of those things in about 10 years, so why now?  Isn't it funny that once you know you can't have something, you want it all the more. . . even if you haven't had it in years, and even if you know how incredibly bad they are for you?  I decided to let the Hostess items stay on the shelf, and let some Hostess addict pining after their loss snag them.

 We stopped in Bountiful, UT to surprise our niece Tandra.  She was competing in a swim meet there, so we decided to stop in and surprise her.  It was also a good place to let the littles stretch their legs.  Tralee and Hunter were super happy to see snow.  Tandra was super surprised to see us.  Her expression was priceless!   

We kidnapped Tand for a bit and took her out to dinner.  Then we delivered her safely back to her swim meet; without a hair missing from her head.  Kidnapping her was pretty easy, if I do say so myself.

With our childrens' bellies full, and their legs tired out from playing in the snow, we left Bountiful and drove to our first destination: St. George, UT.

More to come.

Harry Potter Party

My kids have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies. I'm not one of those odd anti-Potter people, afraid my kids will go to the dark side if they view "witchcraft." My wee ones were just too young to get into the movies as they were coming out.

Now that they're a little older, I decided I don't want them to watch the movies until they've read the books. My theory on this is, I'm afraid they'll never partake of the literary masterpieces J.K. Rowling's imagination created if they view the movies first. Plus, books are better than movies, and how fun is it to watch a book come to life on the screen and see if the world you saw in your mind is similar to the movie's interpretation? I wanted that experience for my kidlets, so I've held off on buying/renting Harry Potter films for this very reason. . . until last month.

When Tralee started school, we started reading the first Harry Potter book together before bed. Hunter, Tralee, and I snuggled under my feathery bunk, and let the magic unfold every night. It took a few months, but we finally finished book one in the HP series. I promised the littles that once we complete each book, we'd celebrate by watching the accompanying movie and having a Harry Potter party complete with a feast Hogwarts would be proud of.

A few weeks ago, once the last page of book one was turned, I bought the DVD, made pumpkin cake with Tralee, Treacle Tart, butter-beer, and fruit tarts. We feasted in our black clothes (Tralee insisted we wear black), and then snuggled on the couch and watched the magic unfold.

We're onto the next book in the series and I can't wait for our next Harry Potter party!

Free Christmas Printables

Last year I made some free Christmas printables, and I thought I'd make it a tradition.  I sized all of these printables to 8x10, so you can simply print them from your home computer (I like to print onto high quality cardstock or photo paper), or you can send them to your favorite photo printing place (I like Costco) and do it that way.  Either way, if you pop these babies into a frame you'll have yourself some beautiful (and easy) Christmas decor.  Or. . . are you looking for a quick and easy Christmas gift?  Find a nice inexpensive frame, insert printable, and -- TA-DA -- "Merry Christmas friends and neighbors, here's a gift just for  you!"

To print:

For a Mac:  Simply click, drag, and drop into a folder or your desktop, then print however you choose.  

For a PC:  Highlight, right click, and save somewhere on your computer, then print to your liking.

Here's the link to view last year's Christmas printables:  Christmas 2011 free printables.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Happy Holidays!!   

For more Buddy the Elf quotes and printables check out my Etsy shop:  Leslie Love Prints.

Enjoy!!

Also, for some more holiday inspiration go here to see an adorable make and take party where one of these printables was featured.  Thanks Angie of Oopsie Maizie for your fun holiday ideas!!

Halloween '12

Our Halloween was fun as usual.  We just stayed around our place this year -- that's the first time we've ever done that, and it was SO nice!

Earlier that day Hunter and I went to Great Harvest Bread and stocked up on their pumpkin bread bowls.  On the way home I stopped by our neighbors' house and invited them over for soup and caramel apple cider to kick off our night of tricks and treats.

After stuffing our faces with homemade clam chowder (easier than I thought, and pretty delish), we got dressed up and met our neighbors outside to begin the candy gettin'.

As far as costumes go, Tralee was a cat, and Hunter was Superman.  Both costumes required minimal effort on my part (hooray!) and my babes were happy in them.  Jim went as a scary VERY tall zombie man again this year.  Tralee asked me why I wasn't dressing up, then told me I HAD to wear a costume.  I ended up telling her I was a nudist on strike.  She looked confused, but didn't mind too much since I was at least SOMETHING.  Our neighbors' cute kids both went as oompa loompas.  They were so funny and adorable!

My kiddos didn't last too terribly long.  The last house we trick-or-treated at was our own.  Jim ran in and was ready with candy when Hunter rang the doorbell.  It was so nice to just walk right in and not have to drive anywhere.  Our friends stayed over for a bit to sip on some cider.  After the festivities wound down and our friends left, our own little family transformed back into ourselves (I was relieved to no longer be a nudist -- even one on strike), changed into jammies, and decided to watch a Halloween movie together and snack on our loot.

But before we changed, we took a few scary pics.  Halloween isn't Halloween without a little bit of scare.

Boo!

See what I mean?

iphone photo plop

Instagram has become a new hobby around here.  Unfortunately, my blog has been a little lonely since I started photo journaling through my trusty iphone.

Anywho, every once in a while I figured I should unload some of the photos I've been sharing on i-gram on my blog as well.  So, perhaps once a week or maybe closer to once a month I'll share the latest iphone pics.

Enjoy!

Fall Family Fun Night

A few weekends ago Tralee's school hosted a fall family fun night.  Kids wore their costumes, there was a haunted hallway, book fair, games, snacks, crafts, and more.  It was a fun night!

Tralee went as a black cat.  She's wanted to be a black cat since last Halloween.  It was a super easy costume to put together - HOORAY!

Hissing

Jim found a superman costume at a friend's garage sale this summer.  We've been talking up Superman to Hunter every since.  So, when Halloween came around when we asked, "What do YOU want to be for Halloween?"  Hunter would (almost) always answer "SUPERMAN!!"  He's a cute little superhero if you ask me!

The kids had a blast at Tralee's school.  Tralee saw friends, both kids played games, did the craft, and when it came time for the haunted hallway I was a bit worried since other kids were coming out in tears.  I explained to my wee ones, "This is all pretend, ok?"  Tralee said she already knew it was pretend.  I held Hunter through the hallway, and he didn't really react.  Tralee went up to the scare-ers and told them, "I know you're just pretending!"  Everything that was supposed to be scary Tralee just turned her nose up and said, "That's just pretend!"  I wonder how she would react if we took her through a REAL haunted house/maze.  Would it scare her?  Or would she go up to a zombie and say, "You're just fake!"  I probably won't do that, anytime soon, but it would be fun to see.

Since the school fun night we've been keeping busy with lots of activities-- birthday parties, playgroups, after school activities, get-togethers with friends, family, and neighbors, just to name a few.  We've been busy, but I really have no complaints.  We absolutely love our new surroundings/situation.  I feel VERY blessed.