An Awesome Show!!!

Monday night Mike and I were lucky enough to go to the Sheryl Crow and James Blunt concert at the Usana Amphitheater. I got our tickets months ago through pre-sale on Sheryl Crow's website. We were in the 4th row but at the end of the row so no one was actually sitting in front of us. That is the first time either of us has seen a show at Usana and it is an incredible venue. It's outside and the weather was perfect that night. The acoustics are great too!


The opening act was Toot and the Metals (not sure on the spelling) who were really fun! They are from Jamaica and a reggae group.


James Blunt was AWESOME!!! I like his music but was not as excited to see him as I was to see Sheryl, but he was a great performer. Running through the crowd (right in front of us, I almost touched him) and jumping up on the piano (like in this pic) and all sorts of crazy fun! He is an incredible musician too. I wish I could play the piano like that. i do have to say I was surprised how many older ladies were there just to see him and were even a little stalker crazy about it.


Sheryl Crow was INCREDIBLE!!! Nothing short of what I expected. We had seen her almost 11 years ago exactly up at Wolf Mountain. She sang a lot of songs from her new album, Detours. It's a little political, a great album! She also sang a lot her "classics". She only played for about an 1 and a half but went from one song right into another so got in a good variety of her great music.


The pics are all taken from Mike's cell phone so they are not the best but I think they show how much fun it was!

Back to School

Monday was the first day of school and even though they don't want to admit it I think all of the kids were excited and ready to go back. This will be the only year all 4 of my kids will be at the same school. Ry is a big 6th grader, Jenna is in Kindergarten, and my boys are right in between the girls in 4th grade. They all have great teachers and I am looking forward to a good year.


Cole and Noah don't look quite as excited as the girls.


I love that we live so close that the kids can walk to school.

Nearing the end of summer...

So we hit the pool a few more times. We spent so much time this summer at the pool and it was great! It was such a hot summer it was the only place to really hang out besides in the air conditioned house. The kids got to swim with different friends and I got to read and chat with friends.

Jenna sharing a slushie with Braden, aren't they so cute?

Jenna is a fish, she loves the water!

Jenna having fun with Lucy in the water.

Ry having a snack and catching some rays. Luckily we avoided any bad sun burns this summer (well, I got burned once but none of the kids).

Hiking

I realized a few weeks ago that we had not been on 1 hike yet this summer so we took advantage of a Saturday off and headed up to our favorite spot: Silver Lake at Brighton. We decided to do a longer hike and headed up the trail (off the Silver Lake trail) to Twin Lakes. The kids and I have done this hike before about 5 years ago with my sister and her husband. Sara and I both had little babies in packs on us and then my other 3 kiddos and my niece Eliza was with us too. It is a mile each way but real rocky and steep most the way up. It is worth it though when you get to the top and see the beautiful reservoir. Of course the way back down is a lot easier and quicker. There was some complaining but overall it was a nice hike and a beautiful day! I think we are going to squeeze in another hiking day before it gets too cold.

Noah taking a quick rest on the trail. You can see how rocky it is but not too steep right here.

The view at the top, definitely worth the climb!

On the way back down.

This is what Silver Lake looks like from way up on the other trail.

Our New Additions

Shannon and Alicia (Mike's nieces) gave the kids their 3 fire bellied toads. They have had them for a few years and were just getting tired of them so asked if the kids would like to adopt them? Well, duh! They are actually pretty cool little pets. They don't make noise, they don't smell, they are neat to look at, you can play with them, they eat crickets, and they are low maintenance. Of course they are named Kevin, Joe, and Nick aka The Jonas Brothers. We didn't name them but are obviously not changing the names.

Here are the kids palying with them.

Here is Joe climbing the walls which they all do, it's fun to watch.

Can you say OBSESSED?...

Rylee is in love with the Jonas Brothers! For those of you who are not lucky enough to know who these cute boys are check them out on the Disney Channel and you can even here their songs played on most radio stations and on the new Target back to school commercials. Anyway, Ry's walls are coverd in posters of Kevin, Joe, and Nick. She keeps using her money to buy more magazines and thus more pics and posters. It has brought back a lot of memories. (my walls were covered with pics of Kirk Cameron, Chad Allen, Cory Haim, etc) Of course her obsession is shared by many other girls around her age including her cousin, Shannon and it has even rubbed off on Jenna. The girls decided they wanted to have a birthday party for Joe Jonas. So they made a cake and we all sang and the girls blew out the candles.

Finally...

So I had to send my laptop in to have a little (actually BIG, my wireless was not working) problem repaired. I had to have it taken care of between semesters since I had an online class this summer and one this fall that just started. They said it would be about 2 weeks and I thought ok not too bad. Wow, was I wrong. Not having it made me realize how dependent I am on my laptop, not sure how I ever functioned without it before. I got a call yesterday (13 days)that it was ready, YEAH!!!! So I have a lot of catch up posts to blog about but I need to take care of a load of paperwork stuff (that I have puto ff way too long) first. So when that is all done I will be blogging again. Just a preview of what is to come: Rylee celebrating Joe Jonas's bday, the new additions to our family, the first day of school, and the Sheryl Crow/James Blunt show!

School...

This summer has been nice for me school-wise. I was only taking one class online and took my last test the other day. I got my grade back and yeah, it's an A. I also applied this week for the nursing program offered through my employer and SLCC. If I get in I will start in January and finish in Decemebr 2010. I am really hoping to get in and get started but I recently found out they only take about 20% of the applicants each session. It is based on a point system where you get points for your grades in your prereqs (mine are all A's) and how long you have been employed with the company (me-only about 5 months) as well as a few other criteria. So I am anxiously waiting to here back (hopefully in Sept.). I was also told my a recent graduate of this program that most of the students who were married almost lost their husbands by the time they were done since they were gone so much. It really stressed me out for a couple days. I know am suppose to be doing this in my life right now for myself as well as my family, but I worry. I am lucky to have a supportive husband and I know Mike won't leave me, but I do worry about the additional stress it will create for us and our family. I guess we will have to become extremely organized and creative to make sure we keep all our eggs in our basket.

One More Missing...

The other night Jenna kept playing with her last loose tooth and after an hour of watching a movie and playing with her tooth this is what she looked like:


Sorry the pic quality is not so good. This is the only one where you could see all of her missing teeth, doesn't she look so cute?!?!