An abundance of family fun

The last couple of months, we have been living in Utah while Colby does a rotation with the residency here. We have both been keeping very busy (my excuse for not blogging in 3 weeks!) and when Colb is not at the hospital, we have been able to fit in some "fun time" with our families. Here are the highlights of the Summer, including way too many pictures, but like they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words," right??

RSL game

Colby and I were able to go to a Real Salt Lake game in the new Rio Tinto stadium, it was a great game and they even had fireworks at the end! Thanks to our cute niece, Brianna, we were even able to leave the kids (this was the FIRST time we have left Abbi to go out on a date and it was GREAT not to have to wrestle her during the game!)

Dan and Marcie joined us on our hot date, and Marcie and I were "lucky" enough to be asked to participate in the halftime show. Don't ask what we had to do (all I'm going to say is it involved dressing up like giant buckets of KFC chicken and we did NOT win an ipod.)

The stadium was awesome!

Four-Wheeling

Grandpa Frost took us four-wheeling up in Mountain Green. It was a beautiful view, a beautiful day and the boys had a blast.

We sure miss these Utah mountains when we are in Iowa!

I thought I was a great driver, especially considering that my last experience driving a four wheeler was traumatic (it had something to do with running over my homecoming date). Carter later let it slip that daddy thought I drove "as slow as a turtle." (really, I was worried about the safety of my young child.)

Boating

We spent one Saturday boating with Grandpa Stewart and "the cousins." Despite some bad luck and a dead battery, we had a great time. A bonus on the trip was my brother, Daniel practicing his photography. He got some great pictures of the kids. Now if only we could get Grandpa and Colby to stop working we could go again!

Carter clearly enjoyed himself.

Our cute little Abbers.

Bowling

Another fun Stewart family event that was captured by Daniel was bowling. We had a great time, and got some sweet pictures (a few of which I think belong in Bowler's magazine).

Like this one.

And this one (I mean, look at that form)

Abbi loved the hand dryers.

Cart insisted on bowling without the kid assisting device (not really sure what that thing is called) and he actually did a decent job.

Ammon even got a strike!

And how could you not get a strike with this great technique?

Happy Fourth of July!

We were excited to be in Utah on the Fourth this year, that means getting to attend the annual Frost family Independence day breakfast. The food did not disappoint, the weather cooperated and the kids looked adorable in their matching red, white and blue attire.

Our boys love their cousins.

Abbi and her cute little cousin Hazel had matching rompers.

Abbi and daddy.

Our family (complete with stuffed souvenirs from the zoo).

Mutton Bustin'

For me, this was the highlight of the Summer. Grandpa Stewart (who I have to add grew up on a farm in Benjamin and graduated from Spanish Fork high) suggested that the boys participate in Mutton bustin' in the Draper days rodeo. The boys seemed excited about it, so we put on their bike helmets and headed to the rodeo. Prior to the Mutton Bustin' event, Colb told the boys, "whatever you do, just don't let go, just hold on really tight." This turned out to be a mistake. Who knew that Carter would take this to heart and hold on after he got bucked off the Mutton? He ended up being dragged, stepped on and covered in dirt.

Carter "before."

Ammon getting ready to ride.

Carter "during."

Carter "after."

Before you think that I'm a bad mom for letting my four year old participate in this- it was totally consensual and (after he got the dirt rinsed out of his mouth) he said it was "awesome." He even bragged about it to his cousins. (I actually have video of this, if I ever get it to download you can all see how "awesome" it was.) If you have actual made it this far, I commend you for your faithful support of our blog- now leave me a comment so I know someone is actual still reading this thing!

Sunny St.George, Utah

This year the kids and I were lucky enough to go on the annual Frost family St.George trip. (Unfortunately, poor Colby was too busy, as he puts it, "saving lives and becoming a Master," and couldn't come with us). It was beautiful, warm weather and we had a blast! Here are the highlights (in no particular order)...

Visiting the beautiful St.George temple.

Chelsey, Susan and I went to the Tuachan outdoor theater to see Annie- it was wonderful! (Thanks Ron for watching the kids.)

We spent lots of time swimming in the pool at the condos and soaking up plenty of sunshine.

Crystal, Ammon and Carter rowing at Sand Hollow reservoir.

The raft was also a great place to put Abbi to keep her from eating the sand.

We spent one day in Vegas visiting Jared and Carolee's home. Carolee even got a babysitter for us and we hit a spectacular buffet.

The highlight of Vegas for the boys was this fun splash pad.

Carolee and I took the kids to the Wildlife museum, where we saw lots of cool animals.

The boys even got to use their own binoculars.

It wouldn't have been a Frost family trip to St.George without a visit to Lake Mead. The boys took Grandpa on a lizard hunt (but the little buggers were so fast they didn't catch any),

Abbi had her first boating experience, and she did great!

The kids had a great time swimming and playing on the beach,

we had great water for waterskiing,

and lots of fun playing with cousins.

We got to spend most of the trip carpooling with Crystal and baby Hazel, and these two little baby girls were angels (well, most of the time!)

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun trip! We hope next time Colby can come with us (we missed you babe!)

Making 30 look GOOD!

I have to start by saying that I have the best friends in the world. Yours might be good, and there are lots of good ones out there, but mine are the BEST! As our 30th birthday year was approaching we were all feeling a little, um, hesitant to celebrate this milestone. Someone came up with the idea that we should commemorate the big 3-0 by running a half marathon together (I'm pretty sure it wasn't Melanie's idea since at one point she claimed that she would rather give birth than run that far). So after months of training (training myself to run, training the boys to use their manners for Grandma, training Abbi to take a bottle, training Colby not to freak out when she refuses to take a bottle) we left behind 5 husbands, 16 kids, a couple of babysitters and a few Grandmas and headed up to Bear Lake for the weekend.

Needless to say, we were excited to arrive albeit mildly dissapointed in the lack of fanfare at the race packet pickup. Bummer girls, no expo or live band. We stayed up entirely too late the night before the run (carb loading on delicious Hug Hess chicken pasta salad and beer bread), and were still suprisingly chipper the next morning.

And after running 13.1 miles in the cold and rain, we were even more excited to reach the finish line.

What an incredible experience, beautiful surrounding and fabulous friends.

We spent Saturday after the race napping, eating, lounging, eating, watching movies, eating, playing spoons, sitting in the hot tub, and eating. (Hey, we burned a lot of calories on that run!) Saturday night, we dressed up in our finest sweatpants and race shirts, accesorized with our medals and headed out for Mexican food.

Holy Cow! I can't believe we finished that race!

We didn't think our race medals drew enough attention at the resturaunt, so we had to take a bunch of pictures to make sure we looked like tourists.

We ended the weekend by spoiling ourselves with pedicures.

Check out those cute toes!

We had so much fun, we decided to run a full marathon when we turn 40 (or maybe we'll just go on a cruise!) Thanks girls for the fun weekend. And a huge thanks to my mom, Colby and Marcie for watching the kids- it was a well needed break!

We know how to party!

After (once again) enduring the long drive,  we spent our first week in Utah trying to recover from the drive and get our playing in before Colby started at the clinic.  We had a couple of fun lunches with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, took the boys to see a movie and had a game night with the Frost family.  The week ended with a surprise party for Colby's 30th birthday.  Colby spent the day going to a movie, going out to lunch and playing video games with his brother Dan.  He returned to his parent's house to find family, friends and FOOD waiting for him. Thanks to Ron and Susan for letting us use their beautiful backyard for the festivities.  (I haven't been great at taking pictures the last couple of weeks, so these are a sad representation of all the fun we have been trying to pack in!)

Although I ordered the cake from the local bakery, I can take credit for the clever caption.

There were plenty of kids at the party, but we didn't see much of them.  They spent most of the evening playing on the inflatables in the backyard. (I hate to admit it, but I don't think my boys even ate dinner!)

There were also lots of friends at the party.  It was great to see these four back together again! 

Me and my friends, Kami and Lisa.

The past couple of weeks, we have also been able to attend a couple of major family events.  First, Colby's youngest sister Chelsey graduated from High School. (sadly I don't have any pictures because I was wrestling a tired baby all afternoon- but I was really glad that I could be there.)  We were also able to meet our niece Hazel for the first time.  Hazel is the CUTEST little baby and we were so excited to finally get to hold her.  This morning we were also able to go to her baby blessing.  Taylor gave a beautiful blessing and Crystal made some GREAT food- we were so glad we were able to make it.

Abbi has been especially interested in Hazel and is always trying to eat her hair bows.  We have tried a couple of photo shoots with these two cute little girls and I haven't gotten a GREAT picture, but this one is pretty good.  (Hazel makes Abbi look like a giant!)

So far, Colby's schedule at the hospital has been pretty busy-  but I'm sure we will have plenty more fun things to post about before the Summer is over.