Why is it that when we have a weekend and we don't do anything adventurous we feel exhausted and weak? When the adventurous stuff we do should be exhausting, but it just makes us feel alive and rejuvenated. This weekend we had a few items of business we had to take care of which kept us from going boarding, or ice fishing or even sledding. So by the end of the weekend Terry and I were both going crazy because we didn't do anything to get our wiggles out.... I guess we both have a case of ADHD because we are always looking for a thrill and to keep us home on a weekend could kill us. Saturday we had Basketball games for Tia and Bowdee. Which was great don't get us wrong. But there was no sun involved or activity for us.

Then Sunday we went out to visit Terry's parents and wish them happy birthday. This was so nice to have dinner with them and just talk to them. We do love that, after we visited Terry's good friend from Grantsville and his family. Which we need to do more often. Then he took us over to his friends house that needed to get rid of some chickens. They were getting 2 dozen eggs a day and just couldn't go through that many. So we took home 4 new chickens to up our coop to 6. The kids were all thrilled to have 2 chickens each. Our chickens just started laying eggs this last week and they have LOVED going to check for eggs!

Then Monday Bowdee had a birthday party which he just had to go to. So we let the kids play with their friends while Terry and I got sad we didn't go out adventuring the whole weekend. It is crazy that we are both this way and I don't think it is a good thing. We definitely need to learn to stay home sometimes and just get stuff done around the house when we must. But we just have so much fun when we go play it is hard. Discipline is what we need to enforce upon ourselves.

Ice Fishin' Strawberry w/ Troys

So we headed up to Strawberry this morning to see if we could catch anything. So we set up the shack at about 21ft deep so we would be close to the hill to watch the kids sled yet deep enough to hopefully catch some fish. We set up at about 11:00 and tore down around 5:30 it was 1 degree when we started driving home.
It was cold but with the shack and heaters we kept pretty warm. The kids sled most of the day.










Of course Matia put in the most fishing hours. She watched that fish finder and was sure to tell us when and where the fish were.
Between Troys 6 poles and our 5 poles we only caught 1 fish the whole day. It was surely a keeper though a nice Cutthrout at 23" and about 3 lbs.
Terry and Troy had so much fun fighting this fish and getting it out of the hole. Then they just played with it like little boys until they gutted it.
These are some quality cousin moments I hope it helps build friendships that last FOREVER!
Treg and Terry getting ready to head back to the truck. We love the snowmobile. Check out Tregs red cheekies, yes it was cold.
Of course we all hit Wendy's for a nice cheap dinner. Man I love these moments, we had a great time. Thanks again Terry for getting us all up and out of here to have some fun.

Basketball here we come!

Matia and Bowdee are back at it in basketball again. Terry is Bowdee's coach again and they both seem to love it. They have a great team and all the boys seem to be excited about playing. This is the first year they will have an extra hour a week to practice together and then 1 hour game a week. They had their first practice game on today and it was amazing to see Bowdee go for a layup and actually make it! Wow it looked so GREAT! Good luck Bowdee & Terry.Matia has the same coach she had last year which she really enjoyed. She is a little defender, I love to watch her intensity. She also has most of the same players on the team so they are all excited about that as well. Matia I know you will only improve your skills the more you practice. Keep up the good work we are so proud of you. So here we go every Saturday we will have games for the next 8 weeks.

New Years Celebration 2011

This year to welcome in the new year we invited Troy and his girls and the Garricks to come and celebrate. Of course we invited Kye and Kamis families but unfortuantly they had other plans.
So we started the evening just chillin letting the kids play. Then we got out some games, we played poker, Mad Gab, and the shocker game. Then we set off some fireworks and gave away our first kisses of the year. Then at 2:30 we hit the sack hoping to be able to sleep in!
After sleeping in till about 11:00 we cleaned the house then headed to Tangled with the Covingtons for our traditional movie on the 1st. This year Grandpa paid for everyone and made reservations for seats at Thanksgiving Point. Man he is always going the extra mile to make things so nice for everyone. Thanks mom and dad we love you tons and tons. Happy New Year everyone we wish you the best this next year.

Ice Fishing Fighting the Blues

Here's the skinny we are getting ready to send Terry back to work. Yes he got a job only 9 miles away from home which is good news, however, it has crappy insurance is the bad news, its fun work good news, but less pay bad news. So since he has to go back with very few days off we headed to Strawberry to get out of the house and enjoy some outdoor fresh air.
Strawberry Bay Marina at 2 p.m. 25 degrees on Monday the 28th. Heavy snow at few spots on snowpacked road to the marina. More snow now than I saw most of the year last year. Looked like the whole lake was froze over.
Drove back to Mud Creek for the thicker one inch top ice with 8 inch slush and 4 inch bottom layer ice. Six other groups on the ice. Two poles with white tube jig and night crawler at 1' off bottom at 14'.
Two fish, one 14" rainbow at 2:45 p.m. and a 10 inch rainbow at 4:15 p.m. We were the last group off the ice at 5 p.m. and 10 degrees. Kids had fun sledding.

Christmas Season 2010

This year has come and gone so stinking fast we didn't even have time to put lights up on our house. It was everything we could do to get the letter written and out in the mail, then to make rice krispies and plates for our dear friends who mean so much to us. We didn't even put up snowbabies, see the temple lights, or do much of anything else.
oh well we did make it to Ryan and Kristi's temple sealing in Logan.
We made gingerbread houses with Troys family. We saw the reindeer and lights at Thanksgiving point with the Callaways.
We visited Santa at Gma and Gpa Townsends which we always enjoy.
We enjoyed a Hager family Christmas Party.
Then we had a spontanious Christmas party at our house which we did the nativity with the Covington cousins and listened to Kyles entertaining stories.
Then ended Christmas Eve with some good old fashion Famiy Rockband! So all in all it was a fun Christmas season but a little to quick for our style! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Matia's Dance Grinch

Oh how we just love going to Matia's dance performances and it is so much funner when she has her friends in her dance with her.
Matia is dancing with Daisy, Lexie, Mia, Ellie, and Meghan.
Grandma and Grandpa Covington came to see her dance which she did fabulous. Thanks Matia for giving it your all and letting us enjoy your talent!

Carnival Cruise

So as most of you know our Spendor ship caught on fire 2 weeks before our departure date on our 7 day Mexico cruise. So we were forced to reschedule on the Paradise Carnival boat going to Ensenada Mexico and Catalina.
Our kids were just too excited to go on the boat so we couldn't disappoint them and we went anyway. It was fun and we had a great time and here are a few photos from our adventure. I will post more about it later if I ever get the chance... I feel like I am still drowning in laundry and Christmas adventures.


What a bunch of darling kids. This was the only night we ate at the "NICE" restraunt due to our time being scheduled at 8:30 due to our rebooking last minute. But the kids had fun dressing up and acting all sophisticated. Treg stuck with Chicken Nuggets and Fries, Matia had salmon, Bowdee & I had steak and Terry tried the lobster. But the best part was the dancing.

This was our night life! And we loved every minute of it.

We never got tired of the all you can eat ice cream.

Man I sure love this guy!!! Thanks for everything Terry.












So sad to be leaving the ship. All in all I think the kids had a great time.
















Our first stop was Catalina island. We had spent alot of time and money planning on taking the kids snorkeling there. When we got there it was really cold which we expected.

However, we didn't expect the visibility to be so poor and the sea life to be so scarse. So this was a major disappointment.
We also didn't enjoy the beach in jackets and binnies as we would have in swimming suits and sunscreen. But oh well it was an experience we will never forget.


Encinada was our second and last stop before going back to California. I can now see why Terry called in Tijiuana. There wasn't much more to do then walk down the main street shopping the same stuff over and over.

However, when we got off the ship there was a booth set up for some Save the Animals program and they had these cute baby lions the kids could hold and get a photo with for a fee. It was worth the fee I don't think the kids will ever forget this moment in their lives.

Part 2 California Vacation

Sunday morning we drove from Mesquite to our Howard Johnson Hotel in Huntington Beach on Beach Blvd. The drive was nice although we forgot our dvd player. It's funny when I was a kid I just wished we could watch a movie in the car. Now it feels like a necessity, we almost turned around when we realized we didn't have it. So we started listening to Hunger Games on my ipod.My mom has been recording books for my family for the last year or two and we love listening to her read stories to us. Anyway that really helped us pass the time and we were here before we knew it. The hotel is nice and the kids were so excited to go get in the hot tub. So we just chilled and relaxed and ate Subway which is just next door. While Terry tried to get the internet hooked up to our computer. Then we played in the hot tub until we were all ready to pass out. We have a long vacation ahead of us you see we bought the City Passes from Costco which includes 3 days at Disney or California Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World and San Deigo Safari Zoo. All for the price of one day at Disney and SeaWorld. So we will do what we feel the energy to do. The weather doesn't look the best so we will probably be glad we have these passes. Monday we woke up and headed straight to Disneyland. It opened at 8:00 and we got there at 8:30 and stayed until 12:30 which is 1/2 hour after it closed. We had a great time although it was really busy and we bought dinner at the pizza place for $50.00. It was still a good time. We hit 18 rides using the fast passes really helped. Bowdee's favorite was Space Mountain, Tia loved Space Mountain and Treg loved Splash Mountain, Terry loved Thunder Mountain and I loved Splash Mountain. We had fun and loved every minute of it. I was amazed at It's a small world and the fireworks were amazing. I just can't believe how Disney does the best of everything they do. From cleaning their park to the firework show, even the costumes on the dolls in the rides. It just amazes me! I loved it so much more this time, our kids are at such fun ages. Treg just barely made the height requirements on the bestest rides and we loved being together experiencing the magic.Tuesday we decided since it was supose to be cold and rainy we would hit California Adventure. This place didn't have as many rides as Disney but we still had alot of fun. Dad and Bowdee found their favorite ride at Hollywood Tower of Terror, this one gave me and Tia a headache. Treg found his favorite ride at Soarin over California, which I must say was way way cool.
Matia loved the Carosel like always. We were not tall enough for California Screamin and we didn't have the time for the Ferris Wheel and we all agreed the Grizzly Rapids was too wet and cold for us to go on. After we got off the California Soarin it started to rain and mom got a migraine so bad we decided to leave. We got there at 11:30 then we left around 6:30 so we didn't stay too long. We all loved the Aladdin performance that gave us a real live theater experience and we all loved it. Wednesday we went to Universal Studios because it was still suppose to be cold. So we got there around 10:30 and stayed until 3:30 I thought we were going to beat the traffic but it was still crazy and it took us 2 hours to get back to the hotel. I am not a big fan of LA it is so big and too many people for my taste. Universal Studios was fun because it wasn't too crowded. We could ride the Jurassic park ride as much as we wanted because there was no wait. Then the Mummy ride was way cool but Treg was only 36 inches and you have to be 38 to ride that one. I think that was Bowdee, Matia's and Daddys favorite ride. Treg and I loved the Jurasic Park ride even though we got wet.
We then went to the Movie effects and making show where they show us how they do certain things. They were asking for volunteers from the audience to come up so they can show the audience how they make movies and the kids were begging me to do it. So I raised my hand for them so they would think I was a way cool mom... Not because I actually wanted to be picked and low and behold out of a couple hundred people they picked me out of the audience and had me come up front. As I was walking up there I remembered I just got off Jurasic Park ride and I was so worried it looked like I peed my pants. After it was all over Terry said he couldn't tell. Which of course if you know Terry he would have told me the trueth so that made me feel better. They did thinks like scare the crap out of me and showed us how they cut peoples arms off in the movies. It looked so real (even from up close), I really screamed and was wondering why it didn't hurt. So then we drove home on Pacific Coast Highway then came home and soaked in the hot tub which the kids absolutely LOVE! Thursday we FINALLY got to go play on the beach. It was still cold but that didn't stop the kids from playing in the ocean. Bowdee loved surfing he stayed out there for hours trying to get up. He reminds me of his father! Terry loved having him out there with him and Matia and Treg even tried it. Treg hated getting the salt water in his mouth.
But they loved playing in the sand although we went to Huntington Beach first and they loved collecting the shells then we went to San Onofre for surfing and they couldn't find any shells there so they just wanted to go back. We had our Thanksgiving dinner there on the beach with a pumpkin pie for dessert. And sparkling apple juice for our drink. Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberries and it was perfect. We even had our own little Thanksgiving Day football. After this unique dinner we built a fire and sat around and relaxed. After we went back to the hotel and you guessed it got in the hot tub again. We all said what we were thankful for and this is how it went.... Treg was thankful for Turkey then mom and dad, Matia was thankful for her family, Bowdee was thankful for our house and family, I am thankful for eachother and the beautiful ocean, Dad was thankful for our health and the love we have for the same activities.Friday we went to California Adventure and Disneyland again. But this time we got to meet Terrys sister Tammie and Ted there and play with them. We got there early and made a list of everyones favorite rides we wanted to go on. Treg wanted Soarin' over California, Matia wanted Space Mountain, Bowdee wanted Indiana Jones, I wanted Splash Mountain and Terry wanted Tower of Terror. So we got our fast passes and got busy. It was great in the morning and we got all the Disney ones done by 10. We ate lunch in the car again of course we had bagel sandwiches again all for like $5.00. On the way back to the park I just had to do some black friday shopping. So we went to the build-a-bear just outside the park. They had Holly the moose for $5.00 and I had to get my good deal of the day fix. Terry even let me make my very own first Build-a-Bear. It wasn't until 4:00 that we finally met up with Tammie and Ted. But we quickly made up for time lost. We had a great time with them. They are always so fun to be with. My kids LOVE them both. We went on the Ferris Wheel, Tower of Terror, Grizzly Rapids and we watched the Aladdin play again. All of it was such a great time! We ended up taking them back to the house they were staying with at 9:00 I wish we could have had more time but we were thankful for the time we did get. Saturday was spent in the laundry mat washing clothes and doing some shopping for wetsuits for our snorkling expedition in Catalina. We were all tuckered out and needed a break anyway so we got pizza and hit the hot tub and called it an early night! Gotta love this vacation thing.