Sushi for my BIRTHDAY!!

I turned 26. It seems much older than 25. I still can't believe I am an adult. A bill paying, married, mothering ADULT. Remember when you were younger and you used to look forward to getting mail? It usually meant it was your birthday and you got money. I don't even get the mail these days. Dumb old ads and bills, thats all thats in there. Boooo on bills, thats what I say.

Cody.. a.k.a. The Bestest Hubby in the World, scratch that, UNIVERSE.. took me out for Sushi on my B to the irthday!!! Seriously, a year ago I would have never believed that I would love sushi.. but here I am, craving it on a regular basis. Mmmm.. I could go for some right now.

This is Cody, full-heartedly putting all of his attention towards choosing what he wanted.


Man was he taking FOREVER and I was starving. This is my disapproving look/glare.


After what seemed like hours, he had made his final decisions. Luckily they were pretty quick getting our food to us.. and I devoured it.







Kapri came along for dinner, and then Shonni was nice enough to watch her so that we could go to a movie. We went and saw "The Hangover". Dirty, dirty movie. Funny, funny movie. Thanks again for watching her Shonni!! And.. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Cody for surprising me with a delicious sushi dinner for my birthday!!

Relay for Life

On June 5th my family participated in "Relay for Life". If you've never heard of it, its a fundraiser for cancer research. You put together a team, raise money, and walk all night. It starts at 6 and someone on your team has to be walking the entire time until 10 the next morning. Taelor freakin' Jae was our Team Captain!!Here she is with her cute boyfriend Trevor.


Aww.. young love.

Unfortunately, I'm a big dummy and didn't have work off the next day so I only stayed until midnight. But... I walked 22ish laps.. all in the name of cancer research!! So I wasn't completely sleep deprived and I didn't get any blisters on my feet, but I get some credit right? Maybe I won't get the mansion on the beach in heaven, but surely there will be a small run-down shack waiting for me?

Cody and Kapri even walked a few laps.


We decided its a good idea to get the idea of "charity" work into the young chillin's minds early.






Man was it windy!!





And cold.. just ask Addison.


One team had Colonel Saunders as a mascot.. you could get a picture with him for only a dollar!! P.S. Shonni I still owe you a dollar.. or two.. or three. Okay maybe five, remember you bought me cookies too. Where did those cookies go anyway?


Mmm.. licorice.




Poor girls.. ending up with the two of us as their mothers. What a sad day it will be when they are embarassed by us. Until then, we will dress them in tu tu's and put their hair in curlers for our own selfish enjoyment.


See what I mean about the embarassing.. this is us practicing our seductive faces. What do you think Cody and Josh.. sexy or just ridiculous?

Scratch that.. I'm being ultra seductive and Shonni is just being silly. Sigh, how will she ever learn?

Shawn was sweet enough to make a fire..

We sat around it for a few short moments, warming our cold bottoms, before we were told to put it out.





I left shortly after the fire was put out. I wish I could say I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning thinking about everyone walking, freezing and not sleeping. But, I went right to sleep and didn't think about them again until morning.. I really am a horrible person. I think my shack in heaven just turned into a cardboard box.

Really though, it is a great experience. Its really peaceful walking at night, by yourself, with the track lit up by the candles. If you ever get a chance to do it, don't pass it up.

Rubber Ducky.. you're the one!!

Don't worry folks, I got it right this time. Bath time WITH the rubber ducky. Much more interesting than bath time without.


Kapri wanted to make out with him the ENTIRE time.. I told her to take it slow, you've only just met.


Man she's got a good set of baby blues..


I think this is the beginning of a life long relationship between the two of them.

I forgot the rubber ducky!!

We gave Kapri her first bath in the kitchen sink the other day. The sling I have for her to use in the bathtub is too small.. she's so stinkin' tall. Her poor bum rests on the metal bar at the bottom. Anyhoo.. she sits up really well, but I still don't trust her to sit up in on her own in the bathtub. I tried it once, and she's so dang slippery I can't keep hold of her. So.. we moved her to the sink. Its so easy.. and she loves it. She splashes like crazy.. which leaves me soaking wet by the end!!

WARNING: Super, gigantic, enormous, large, flamboyantly long post.

When we got up on Sunday I asked Cody if we could go for a drive.. he asked "where?" To which I replied "I don't care". And thus, our day began.

So.. Cody and I, with our trusty Starbucks Frappucinno and Chai in hand, and Kapri with her favorite toy Gus Gus (the horse of course), ventured off into the vast lands of Utah for a drive.




Our first destination was American Fork Canyon, but we quickly learned (thanks to the chick at the pay station) that the Alpine Loop is still closed from Winter. Instead of letting this small bit of information damper our day, we decided to drive up as far as we could and then turn around.


Oh, let me just show you how much Kapri enjoyed the views..

Oh man was she LOVIN' it!!

So let me just tell you, Cody made a cd before we left. A mumbo jumbo of music, if you will. Most of which was great music, some of which was NOT great music. I am not a fan of twangy country.. and this was the twangiest of them all!! I kept changing it to the next song.. hoping to get away from that dreadful noise. Cody said, "don't you dare change this song or I'll, I'll put my fingers up your nose!"

I would call that a threat.. so guess what I did, I changed the dang song again!! Here is the consequence.


BTW.. have you ever taken pictures of yourself in the side view mirror? I'm guessing you haven't, cause most people don't have such splendid ideas as I. Well, you should try it. Its pretty amusing.

This is how NOT to do it. Its totally not cool to see the camera in the picture.


SUCCESS!! As you can see.. no camera in the picture. I look completely natural.

You too can have hopes and dreams!! Please, hold your applause.

After we drove up the canyon we still had two hours before we had to be somewhere (you can stop fretting, I'll be telling you about "somewhere" very soon), so we decided to head up to Kennecott Mine. I'd never been there before and Cody is always telling me how BIG the hole is. We were driving north, and the mine was on our left. Cody just kept going and going, and I couldn't figure out why we were driving in the wrong direction. So.. I asked him. He said "Tawnya, I'm going to blah blah blah, cause thats how we get there." I said okay, and didn't bring it up again. Then all of the sudden he was calling his mom, who also said that blah blah blah is the right way to go. When he hung up the phone he said "told you so". Wait.. I didn't even say I didn't believe you.. apparently he was needing backup. So we went to blah blah blah street and turned west. Well, let me just tell you.. after driving for quite some time, and going through some town that I'd never even heard of, we came to a dead end.



Oh yes, we could see the mine alright, but we couldn't get to it. The sign said something about going south to some highway and that would take you to the visitor's center. HA!! I didn't even try prove Cody wrong (which I normally do) and I was RIGHT anyway!! Poo on you!! I didn't tell him this of course, in fact, he probably isn't even aware of his defeat until this moment. Sorry baby.. you were WRONG!! Man that feels so good sometimes.

So.. we went south. We got to the pay station (it costs $5/car, which is worth it I say) and drove the 4.5 miles up to the visitor center.


It rained on us a little, luckily I had packed a jacket for Kapri cause it was a little chilly. Okay, so seriously.. that hole really is HUGE!! They say you can see it from space. They drive around these ginormous dump trucks. I kept wondering how on earth they get up into them. They're as big as a house!! Then I noticed the not so small staircase on the front of them. Oh no, not some measley ladder, a full on staircase!! Crazy.



So to give you an idea of how big those suckers are they have displayed one of their tires. The tire is twice as tall as me. Now look back at the previous picture.. those tiny black specks are the HUMUNGOUS trucks!! They just look so small cause they're in that gargantuous hole I've been talking about!! It really is amazing. I suggest you go.. its only a twentyish minute drive, depending on where you live.

Cody looks seriously scared.. poor guy. Kapri has no idea whats going on.

But she's enjoying herself none the less.


By this time it was almost 4 o'clock and we had to head back to that special "something" that I was talking about earlier. I know, you're dying to hear.

We had plans to meet my dad at the Cottom Bottom for garlic burgers. These are not just any burgers.. they are scrumptious!! And my dad was buying.. good FREE food!! Thanks Dad!!

Oh, and I had another one of my marvelous ideas.. all the girls crammed into a circle and put our feet together.. so I got a shot looking down, and one looking up, into our noses. Let me just tell you, we were giggling our pants off. None of us have superb balance. We hadn't even gone into the bar yet and we all looked drunk.



Luckily, we were then able to compose ourselves for this picture. Ahh.. so sweet.

While we were waiting for our food I took the liberty of taking pictures. No one even had to ask me to do it, I'm just that nice.


I was getting "crazy woman" looks from some guys sitting at a table next to us, so I decided to take a picture of them. They didn't even know it was comin'.

Wanna hear somethin' so funny!! Traci got pooped on!! Full on bird poop on her back. She said she had just mentionted the day before how a bird has never pooped on her. She yelled out "I'm going to get the swine flu!!" No Traci, that is from pigs.


Jesse was sweet enough to rush and get napkins to clean it off.



When we were leaving I somehow got the boys (all seven of them) to pose for a foot picture. Traci climbed up on mine and Jalynn's knees and attempted the impossible. The boys were complaining.. stepping out of place.. throwing a fit. I never understand, why don't they just suck it up so we can get the dang picture.


After the boys departed from their pose.. I was on the ground begging them to resume the position!! I hadn't gotten a picture from the bottom up yet!! They all ran away.. I was on my hands and knees.. Cody ended up on my back, and Jalynn looked like she was going to pee her pants. Here.. let me show you.



As if we hadn't already had a day full of "activities", we weren't done yet. You may be asking what else we could possibly have planned. Dessert of course. We were all heading back to Jalynn's for strawberry shortcake.. my favorite summer treat.

The kids played hopscotch.. yes Shonni is a "child at heart".




We watched videos of us all making fools of ourselves.


Before we left, we had my dad bench press Addison and Kapri. Kapri was clearly not excited about it.. so we went home and went to bed. The end.

I'm pretty sure I should get the prize for longest post EVER. Phew. I think I'll go take a nap.