Ghost Town - May 4, 2013

We went adventurin'.   We went to check out some Ghost towns here in Box Elder County.  The first one we stopped at was Kelton.  All that was left was a cemetery.  It's hard to believe that in its hayday there was a two-story hotel, several saloons, a post office, some stores and houses.  While we were walking around the cemetary, I had a funny thought.  When I was 10 years old, we have a home video of us visiting a ghost town near St. George called Harrisburg.  We were walking around the old cemetery that was there.  When my parents decided to move to St.George, they ended moving into a lot that was directly across the street from that cemetery that we visited when I was 10.  When we visited it, there was hardly anything around.  Now there is a whole community there.  It made me laugh while we were visiting this ghost town, because the thought popped into my head, that what if one day, they build a community here and Roger and I move into a lot across the street from this cemetery.  I just thought it was funny.  When I was putting the old videos from my childhood together onto DVDs, I made a thought bubble by my mom in the video as she was looking at the cemetery and in the thought bubble, I wrote, "Someday, I 'd like to live by this."  It would just be a really funny and strange coincident if at sometime in our future, Roger and I live near this cemetery.

Alissa's friend Erin came with us on this trip. 

Kelton was the center for stage coach and freight lines running into Idaho and Oregon. It used to have a two-story hotel, a post office, several saloons, stores, and homes.  Pretty much all that remains of Kelton now is the cemetery and a foundation of a building.  You can see where the train tracks used to be. At it's peak, Kelton had a population of 700 people.  The town was inhabited from 1869 - 1942.  When researching this town, I found a story of a stage coach robbery, where the robbers took all their money and then left with their horses.  the people were about 10 miles away from Kelton when it happened.  The robbers left them each with $1.00 so they could buy food when they got to Kelton.  Apparently, stage coach robberies were a very common thing out there.  The strongest earthquake in Utah history caused severe damage in 1934, but not very many people still lived there at that time.  Everybody left Kelton when the rails were completely removed in 1942, during World War II.  Here are some pictures of what used to be and how it looks now.

After our visit to Kelton, we went to visit Park Valley.  There are still people living in Park Valley.  The town of Park Valley was originally settled by a few ranchers that came up from Brigham City.  It was first settled in 1869. For a while it was a small boom town of about 500 when a vein of gold was discovered.  This was short lived and the population diminished. Population increased again, but only by a little, when travelers found it to be a good resting spot between Lucin and Snowville.  A good hotel was erected, the water works were improved, and a post office was established.  Two well-stocked stores were put up, and a local telephone system was installed.  As travel became easier, Park Valley was bypasses by speeding autos and it's importance shrank once more.  Now there are only 30 families living there.  We didn't take very many pictures, because we didn't get out and walk around.  Here is a restored cabin.  Then a quick picture on our way out of town.  We really should have taken better pictures.  We were getting tired from all the driving.  Park Valley and Kelton are really out there.  We did a lot of driving to reach them.



Bloody Toe - May 3, 2013

Alissa wanted to share a lesson, that she learned, with us all.  She wants everybody to know that you should not play soccer with flip flops on.  It hurts!

Color Guard - April 25, 2013

Alissa is so determined that she is going to be in the Color Guard when she is in high school.  She can't wait.  She never misses a chance to perform in their mini Color Guard.  She loves this stuff.  In April, they do their goodbye performance and they let the min Color Guard perform.  This is the first year that Brinley was brave enough to do it.  She loved it!  I forgot my camera, so I had to use my phone to take pictures and videos.  Most of the pictures turned out blurry.  But here's two that weren't horrible.  This is before they got to perform.  I'll try and post the video of the performance at some point.



Hanging out with my Sisters - April 20, 2013

I did a wedding cake for a friend's son's wedding.  We had to deliver the cake to a church near the Timpanogas Temple.  Luckily, my sister lives near the temple, so we had a fun excuse to go see family.  I was not fond of the cake that I had to do for this wedding.  I guess, because it felt like anybody could have just thrown this cake together.  I think I just like more of a challenge.  I really didn't enjoy putting this cake together.

 After dropping off the cake, Roger went to Salt Lake to visit his mom, brother, and his friend, Dan.  While the kids and I stayed and played at Linda's house.  My sisters, Shelley, Linda, Kari, Kristy, and Missy were all there to hang out.  The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.  They spent a lot of time fishing from the trampoline.  They would toss out the line and the kids on the ground would try and catch it as they reeled it in.  They had a ton of fun doing that.

 The kids and I spent the night at Linda's house.  We just relaxed and hung out.   

Brinley in her School Program - April 19, 2012

Brinley has been looking forward to this school program for a long time.  Last year, we ended moving before she ever got a chance to be in a program.  She practiced with her class in North Park and talked about how cool her program would be, then she got to practice with her call in Garland.  We ended up moving like 2 weeks before her program there.  She was so disappointed and I felt so bad for doing that to her.  This year, we moved about a month before the program, but we kept her at this school, specifically so she could be in the program.  She just couldn't bear to miss out on that again.  she has been looking forward to being in a school program ever since we went and saw Alissa in her first school program.



Silly Alissa - April 13, 2013

Alissa was being goofy.  Brinley and her friend, Mikenna were playing outside with their stuffed animals in their jackets.  Their stuffed animals were small and easily fit in their jackets.  Alissa decided she wanted to go out and play with them, but the only stuffed animal she could find, was this one.  So she had to come to me to help her get it to fit in her jacket.  I thought it looked so funny, I had to take pictures.  I love how goofy my children are.  They are very entertaining.



Roll's Reception's First Wedding - April 12, 2013

Friday - April 12, 2013
My sister, Linda and I have been talking and dreaming up this amazing wedding business for years.  My part in the business is making the wedding cakes.  I had a ton of fun talking and dreaming about this business with her, but when it actually came to doing something about it and making it happen, I felt extremely overwhelmed for her.  My part (making the cakes) is easy.  There is just so much to think about and prepare when doing a wedding reception.  The whole time this wedding was being planned, I kept thinking, I'm so glad that I'm only in charge of the cake.

Last night my sister did her first wedding.  She did an amazing job!  I loved the decorations!  I was so impressed by what she can do.  My Dad, Linda's husband Dave, and Roger did the big stuff.  They put up the ceiling drapes, all the lighting, and helped set up the curtains.  There was just so much to do, it was overwhelming.  I kept looking at Linda, thinking that she should be panicking, because there was so much to do, I was afraid that it wouldn't get done in time.  But, Linda was calm the whole time.  She didn't panic at all.

Everything came together perfectly.  We all helped put up the decorations.  When we first got there, Alissa, Parker, and Brinley helped their cousin, Kristin, put the balloons together for the balloon poles.  At one point, the kids all helped clean up all the strings and garbage from the decorations off of the floor.  I was really impressed by all of the hard work that my little ones did.  They were so well behaved and they worked so hard!

After all the decorations were finished, we all headed into the kitchen to prepare the food.  Shelley made the Chicken Salad.  Kristin cut the Croissants and Shelley scooped the salad on and put the sandwiches together.  The chicken Salad Sandwiches tasted sooo.. yummy!  Roger and I were the ones who made the pasta salad.  I was glad that Roger was there for that.  It was a kind of pasta salad that Linda and I both don't like.  Roger was more of an expert in that area and made it taste wonderful.  My dad made the Slush.  I love that drink!  Alissa, Parker, and Brinley all teamed and made the vegetable cups.  I should have taken more pictures, but we were all too busy.  Linda, Dave, and my Dad arranged the food and made sure that there was enough of the food out there for everybody at all times.  They also made the drinks, other snacks, and helped us with the veggies and sandwiches when we got behind.

Alissa, Parker, and Brinley worked really hard all night.  I was so impressed by everything they did.  We got to the church to help a little after noon and we left to go home just a little before midnight.  While we were cleaning things up, Brinley was so exhausted, she ended up falling asleep on the floor in the gym.  I should have taken a picture of that.

Roger worked for 12 hours on Friday night.  He got home at 6:10 am on Saturday morning.  After he got home, he got ready for bed and went to sleep.  He got to sleep for about 4 hours, before I had to wake him up so we could go help with this wedding.  He was so tired!  But he didn't complain once.  He had even made plans to get some things done, while the reception was going on, but he canceled them as soon as he realized that we could really use his help.  He worked so hard.

By the end of the night all of us were exhausted and had achy feet.  We got home around 12:40am.  We all came in and headed right to bed.  When I woke up at 9:00am, I was surprised that everyone was still in bed.  Parker never sleeps in, so even on days we can sleep in, we are out of bed by 7:30am at the latest.  We were all just so exhausted from working so hard.

Last night was my first catering experience.  The whole night, I kept thinking, "I really don't like catering."  After everything was done and it well, I think it wasn't so bad.  I wouldn't mind doing that again.

Here are some pictures from last nights wedding reception.



We Got a Truck! - April 10, 2013

Wednesday - April 10, 2013
Roger went to Salt Lake yesterday in our old beat up car and came home in a nice new truck!  I'm so excited!  I love it!  The only problem is that I've never driven anything that big before.  It is going to take a little time for me to get used to it.  I drove it once today and it was very intimidating.  I have a hard time driving in my lane.  When I'm in the lane where I belong, it feels like I'm too far to the right side of the road and I feel like I'm going to hit a mailbox or something.  I'm just having a hard time getting used to the feel of the truck. 
Parker was being really funny posing with the truck in almost all of the pictures that I took of it.



Just a Normal Day - April 4, 2013

Thursday - April 4, 2013
We found the I-pod.  I couldn't remember where I had set it.  So, we have been looking for it since the move.  I told the kids I wanted to take a picture of them.  Parker decided to pose with the I-pod because he was so excited to have it again.  Brinley was busy playing with her barbies and Alissa was relaxing in the living room reading a book.