Mommy Tax

The smartest thing that I have ever done is impose a mommy tax. Ever since my kids were little, if they ever had a treat or they were eating something I would automatically get a bite. Now if I ever say mommy tax they WILLINGLY give up a piece of their treat to me. With a mommy tax around sometimes my husband can get away with imposing a daddy tax. The other day both of my girls had fruit snacks while we were in the car and of course they each gave me afor piece. Kaitlyn finished hers but Madison was very insistent that she save one for her daddy (even though it rarely makes it home to him). We arrived to pick up a pizza for dinner and as we are getting out Madison realizes she dropped daddy's candy. Well she picks it up and places it in the car. After returning to the car we are driving and I hear Madison say that the treat touched her booger and it is wet. She asked for something to wipe it off so I gave her a paper towel. When we get home Madison brings the treat that she so diligently guarded for daddy up to me and asked me to get the paper towel off that was stuck to it. The fruit snack was covered in paper towel, hair and who knows what else. I rinsed it and then gave it back to her in hopes to be able to warn Curtis not to eat it. But to my horror she beat me to him. After realizing the fruit snack was wet Curtis decided he didn't want to eat it and fed it to Madison instead! I guess our clever tax kind of backfired on us.

Half and Half

Curtis has always teased me about my maiden name being Peeler. Heaven forbid if I ever ask where our peeler is because it just sets me up to be the brunt of a joke. I never thought I would see the day that my husband would fight over a white elephant gift just so he could bring me home a potato peeler. Well Kaitlyn's little ears must have picked up on it over the years. We were making applesauce so I borrowed my parents apple peeler/corer/slicer. The girls had a ton of fun turning the crank and watching it work magic by peeling the apple into little ribbons and then slicing it up. Kaitlyn decided she was really good at peeling the apples. The reason why she was so good was because she was half Peeler and half Strobelt!

The ice cream truck frequents our neighborhood. For some reason I just assumed that all kids new what an ice cream truck was and how to identify one until one day I was talking to my mother-in-law. Apparently Kaitlyn had been telling her Grandma how nice one of the drivers were. They turn up their music and drive around so everyone can share their nice music.

Fair

We went to a fair in Sandy a little while ago and turned Kaitlyn into an angel and Madison into a tiger. When they said they were doing face painting I thought it would be a little flower or heart on the cheek . . . oh, I was wrong. It was a full face painting. I also figured we would have family pictures done while we were there.

Bryce Canyon

We had an incredible getaway to Bryce Canyon last week! It was so much fun camping, hiking and enjoying nature. The first day we found a camping spot right next to the rim so that we could easily go hiking. So, of course, that first day we hiked part of the rim trail and celebrated Madison's birthday with great dutch oven cooking (including that cobbler we promised Madison). I managed to find four candles before we left home so we could properly do the birthday cake thing. After dinner and before cake, Madison had to run to the bathroom. After we got back I was looking for the candles when I was informed they were already in the cake. We walked over to the dutch oven, opened the lid and the candles were gone. Note to self: candles melt when they get hot! Curtis had put the candles in, realized we would be a minute, and then put the lid on to keep the bugs out. We pried the wicks off the cake and between the three adults we managed to light and hold the wicks so Madison could blow her birthday candles out.

Day two: We decided to check out the little towns and shops that were around Bryce. We went to an animal museum that reminded me a lot of Cabela's. It had a lot of exotic butterflies, beetles and spiders as well. The best part of it was going out back to the fenced area where they had deer you could hand feed. The girls really enjoyed feeding them and Madison had to make sure that every deer there got a few pieces of corn. We stopped by the store and a guy let the girls ride their horse for a bit and and got a picture of all of us together. We headed to another hike so we could see mossy cave and the waterfall.

Day three: The half marathon took up the morning and then after a very refreshing 8 minute shower we headed off to do more hiking (because the marathon wasn't enough walking for one day) and we saw a few more little shops. I never knew how fast I could shower until I had to shower, shave and shower both of my girls in eight minutes. There was a rock shop that had beautiful things, most of which were breakable so not an ideal place for little kids. The girls liked the area where they could lock each other up in jail. That night we went to an astronomy thing put on by the rangers and then took Kaitlyn to the visitors center to look in the telescopes. We were able to see Saturn and see the rings and a couple of its moons around it. We also looked at the moon and a few other stars.

Day four: We were just trying to see that last few of the view points that we didn't catch while we were hiking and then we headed home. It was raining a little bit off and on so it was a good thing we brought our umberlella. I also have another word to add to my favorite kid word list. We saw a lot of chipmunks while we were camping but for some reason Madison thought they were squirrels so she would call them squirrelers (like curlers). It also got started that big red (the truck) protected our camp spot from other people so it would "growl" to keep the people away. All day everyday if Madison heard a car coming or people getting near us she would say "it's ok big red, it is only a car" or if we were gone she would say she could hear big red growling. Madison also had to give her baby a piggy back ride. So here she was galloping around with her baby on her shoulders. The kids were way cute!

Half Marathon

I made it! My half marathon is over! I have a friend that over lunch one day said a bunch of us should train and run a half marathon. At first I told her she was crazy but she convinced several of us to sign up and start training. Eventually people started having excuses why they couldn't do it. At the end it was just me and Chanel. The day before the run I called Chanel to see when she was going to make it and she backed out. After all, I really didn't want to do it and then the person who talked me into it didn't even show up (Ok Chanel I forgive you!). It was quite an experience, and one I hope to never do again. I just don't have the body meant for running. I have an old knee injury that was giving me grief all through training. My goal was to run half of it and I almost made it. I just didn't want to push too hard and not be able to finish. The first 10 miles wasn't too bad but the last 3 were excruciating. To top it off I couldn't even attempt to get out of bed the next morning until the pain meds kicked in. All during the night I would wake up to turn over and it would take me ten minutes because I was so sore. If nothing else it gave us an excuse to get out of the house and go to Bryce Canyon. It was a beautiful run and it helped that it was mostly down hill!

Happy Birthday Madison!

It's hard to believe that my baby is 4 years old. She has been talking about her birthday for months and she was really excited that we would be camping on her birthday. Here are 4 things to sum up my Madison (it was really hard to do it in four):
1- Passionate -- she is passionate about life in general and especially about animals
2- Spitfire/spunky -- she has so much energy wrapped up in that little body to fuel her passion
3- Incredible Imagination -- her whole life seems to be centered around her pretend play
4- Daddy's girl -- it is fun to see her special bond with her Daddy from day one. Curtis was able to rock her just right to put her to sleep when she was younger and he is definitely the one she picks if she has a choice

She had an enjoyable birthday party all except her thoughts on her birthday cake. We did root beer floats for her party because we were going to do a cobler on her actual birthday. The day of her party she saw the lid that went on our dinner pan and she got excited thinking it was for her birthday cake. After explaining to her we would be making a cake on her birthday she said: "I'm not going to have a birthday anyway" after asking her why her retort was "Because you stealed my cake!". I

4th of July Clebration

Well we actually woke up by 5 am so we made it to see the hot air balloons. The girls were so excited, they jumped right out of bed and Madison said "I want to go to the balloon party". The favorite balloon was the coca-cola balloon which was twice as tall as the others so it couldn't launch. The second favorite was the pig balloon. After the balloons we found a spot for the parade that we had to squeeze into because apparently in order to get a spot you have to set up the day before and save your spot. The girls even met Cinderella who was walking in the parade.