Bwahaha!

a

I love this kid.  Justin got him Ammon goggles to swim in our jacuzzi tub.  Even though they are pink, which he abhors, he wears these all the time.  

He has such a love for life.

That last picture on the right is a great capture.  Couldn't have planned that one.  Bribery picture for the future?  I say yes.

Camping in Utah. It's nice.

We had an extended family camp out this last weekend.  I LOVE camping in Utah. 

Truly I do.  Only a few bugs, cool at night.  Perfection.  Except this site was a little on the noisy side next to the highway in Logan Canyon.  We moved the second night and we could have conversations normally.  Minnesota camping was NOT favorite.

Jude and Grandpa.

We accidentally forgot a tent (thought it was still in Logan) so Jacob slept in our new car and the other kids in grandpa's trailer.  It worked out well.   Justin and I snuggled in our cozy two man tent in our new double sleeping bag from rei.  

What the crap...I know we didn't pay $400 for that bag.  Maybe $100.  Wowzas.

Nate and Chelsea, the newlyweds.

Nate pondering what his next clue should be playing Password.  Should it be "thick?"

Corinne sleeping.

Frog.  

Grandma playing a game kinda like charades.  I don't think charades is her game.  

Grandpa roasted a cob or corn over the open flames and said it tasted good.

Shawn with his second grandbaby, Roman.

Erin and Kevin are so cute together.  

Jacob and Isaac, mostly Jacob, found several caterpillars.  Isaac is admiring them in a donut box.

Kevin.  He was looking so serene.  Found out he was burning from the flames.

That's me.  Playing an animal sound game.

Erin and Roman.

Went on a short adventure to Logan river.  Shawn spent a good 15 minutes throwing big rocks in the river, seeing how much of a dam he could build.  He ran out of large rocks.

Justin going over the river until he remembered he had his cell phone in his pocket.

The kids built many rafts with stick people.  

Other thoughts:

Still don't like Phase 10.  

Everything tastes good when you're camping.

I love my family.  All of my family.

August Randomness

8/1  Ammon made me a heart rock our of a purple agate rock he found.

I love it.

He was so proud to give it to me.  He gave me a hug and the little back pats.

8/7  Made a special trip to Park City so we could register the kids for school
 on their special "set aside" day.
Got Ammon, Allison, and Isaac done, but the high school?  Not registering today, but will tomorrow.
What the freaking crap.
Hep A vaccine is required for school in Utah, so some kids need that before the first day.
Plus many other little items to get done.  I hate this type of stuff.
Watching Olympics more than I ever have in my life.
Put the fruit stand up at my parents house.  Made about $30 in 3 days.
Kids are driving me bonkers.
8/13 Papers signed on the new house.  We can't move in until the papers go through/Title or something, around noon tomorrow.
We vacuumed the house once over and emptied it three times FULL of dog hair.
Met several people from the new ward that were helping another family move in across the street.
Last night in Park City.  Then one night in Logan tomorrow.  And we have a home!
We can't have our garbage can showing from anywhere in our yard.  Must be hidden.
Unsightly.
8/20 I smell dog pee as I sit in my front room.  I need about $4k to redo our floors down here.  Donations?
First day of school tomorrow.
Got most of my kitchen unpacked today.  SO much cupboard space.
I don't even need my china cabinet anymore.
I love my new master bedroom.  So spacious.
And my own shower!!!
Had so many visitors already.  Here's a list of who I can remember off hand:
Ricky and Sherman, Garth, Tony, Sienna, Bo and Kai, Shawn, Andy, Stefanie, and Corinne, Erin, Kevin, Jude and Roman, Kent and Genie.  All within the first five days of living here.
Plus many visits from ward members and neighbors.  Two have brought us bread :)
Carpooling isn't working out like I wanted.  As in no carpooling.  I have been asked by a neighbor up the street to help her daughter get home.
That doesn't do me any good.
(she came back a week later and has found someone to help her.  phew)
8/21 Alone time.  Quiet time.  Sanity.
Almost every car at the bus stop was a huge suv or an Audi etc.
Were able to shop at Home Depot with NO kids.
Got a sweet deal on a lawn mower.  Regular price $400, Dittmer price $130.
Mowed the lawn when we got home.
Took about 10 minutes.
8/22 Changed my cell to a Utah area code today.
Makes it seem so final.
Looking at buying new checks.  Loving the paisleys.
Justin brought all of his crap from Garth's house home.
He brought me my two bags of pineapple lumps from New Zealand.  Oh joy!
Activated an old cell phone for the kids.  Theirs was left in MN at Dakotah's house.
8/27 Ahhh, the joys of Mondays.  Nice quiet.
Family (minus me- tummy trouble) went to Justin's cousins last night for dinner, Margene and Josh.
Slept through the RS sisters coming to visit.
I've trained the kids too well to not bug me during naptime.
Had a great lesson in RS about being thankful for what we have.
Trimmed Justin's beard and he looks much more handsome now.
Bought an LG washer dryer set on ksl for $900.
It's shmancey.
We have lots of weeds out in our back yard.
Justin gave all the kids Back to School Father's Blessings.
And he Dedicated our house.

July Randomness

July 10 Isaac and Ammon played mini golf for free today.  Sneaky.  They went and played outside the condo before it was opened.  I bought a putter at DI for $2.

I spent about 7 hours looking at new builds in Lehi/Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain yesterday.

We got our best bid in barely in time for the house in Draper on Suncrest.

House hunting is taking over our lives. 

Justin loves loves loves watching The Tour de France.

There is a truck driving a port a potty up the mountain.  I guess it's for the alpine slide.

Hope it's empty because it's a steep road.

7/12  Communism is alive and well in the United States.
And people are willing and happy to pay for it.
HOA's.
Seriously.  What a joke.
Our offer on the house in Draper was accepted.  !!  At first.
Then I went and talked with the HOA office and about died.
I couldn't believe the stipulations.  If I want to paint my door any color, I need permission.
If I want to plant a tree, it has to pass their list.  Grow box?  Need permission.
Wouldn't want to see corn growing in a neighbors back yard.  Unsightly!
Must have landscaping in the backyard within 6 months.
I can understand the front, but the back?  What the crap.
Communism!
Then I found out that there is no bussing to the neighborhoods.  I'd have to drive the kids to the clubhouse, four times in the am, four times in the pm.  What a joke.
No thanks.
Justin is acting like he lost a child.  He was so excited about this house.
We're both feeling railroaded and sooooo tired of looking.
Enough of that.
Ammon is walking around the condo in Park City with a tiny dust buster.  He's loving it.
What a stud.
Isaac has had his nose in Mistborn the past few days.
7/22 Sometimes living with the parents gets frustrating.
I guess we've decided to be Suncrest Draper residents.
Finishing up the Mecham's family reunion pictures.
Justin is at sales meetings for the next 10ish days.
I won a $100 toothbrush at the Smith reunion raffle yesterday.
Justin and I were able to unearth our filing cabinet in the storage unit to get
the important papers for a loan.  Not enjoyable at.all.
7/25 I love my niece, Corinne.  Had a fun time with her tonight.
Finally figured out who we are going to get out loan with. Ugh.
Jacob and Isaac are in Yellowstone for Scout camp Wed-Sat.
Jacob did NOT want to go.  Isaac wanted to.
I wolfed down a couple handfuls of raspberries then picked a fresh apple off the tree.
This is what I want.  Not sure I'll ever get it, but I want a big yard so bad.
Corinne dyed my hair tonight.  No more gray for 5 weeks.
Ate at a super yummy Island restaurant called Rumbi's.  Would definitely eat there again.
I'm afraid I'm going to fail at photography here.
7/26 In Park City tonight.  Nice to see Justin again.
We signed loan papers today, but it's not going well.
I don't think they're going to get the loan done in time.
7/27 Ahhhhhhhhh!  Got our loan turned in.  Kevin found a place that can do a low rate (3.25%) and close in time.  It's been a stressful time with this.  Hopefully it goes well.
7/28 Went on a short hike near Guardsman's Pass in Park City.
Justin wrote Allison and Ammon '12 on a fallen aspen tree.
Ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
Went to Lake Jordanelle.  Didn't want to pay $10 to park, so found our own sweet spot.
Found an awesome somethingorother old equipment along the stream
that Ammon thought was the coolest.
Threw and skipped rocks.  Allison and Ammon made mud pies.
I was able to use leaves in a cave man style.
Dreamsicles on the way home.
7/30  Helped Allison shave her legs for the first time ever.  No cuts!
Are you ever worried the ceiling fan is going to fall on you?
And why.  OH WHY can't they ever be silent.  Always a tick tick ticking sound.
I had to hand wash some clothes and I have them hanging in the window.
Went on a Photo Alphabet scavenger hunt with Allison and Ammon.
We had to pick some not-so-great ones, but it was fun.
  "The restaurant downstairs left their piped booming outside music on accidentally. Lucky us. We get to jive to 70's 80's and 90's music all.night.long."  Facebook quote
I called the police station, and was told they'd get on it, but the music blared all.night.long.
Gave my number for the manager to call and he did and apologized.  Whoopee.
Justin was almost a hero today.  There was a fire next door at a nursing home next to a bike shop.
He went over to help wheel people out, but they were done.
Men's gymnastics, specifically the floor exercises should be banned.  Banned.  Froooooty.
Or at least take out the swaying arms and girly stuff.
I wish I could do fun messy hair styles instead of the same twist barrette I always do.  Boring.

July 4th - Strawberry Res.

My brother, Shawn, set up a mini Thomson reunion to go to Strawberry Reservoir on the patriotic day of July 4th for a crawdad feast.  We were staying in Park City, so our drive was short.   

 Grandma holding her newest Great-grandbaby, Roman.

Erin with Roman

Stefanie chewing on a tag.

Squirrel eating a licorice castoff.

Me with Roman.

 Most of us drove down to the reservoir.  Shawn brought a bunch of raw chicken legs and tied them up with string for fishing poles.  I was a spectator most of the time.  The kids had a great time.  

 Once there was 1/2 a bucket full, we called it good.  Ammon even tried a bite and didn't mind it too much. 

Dang it.  Got the squirrel in here twice.   Ah well.

Look at their beady little eyes.

Corinne was almost losing her food over watching people disassemble their lunch.

I admit, I was a little queasy watching too.  They have to take the crawdad's tail off and some had eggs.  Oh barf.  Plus the smell.  Ewwww.  

We were hot, so drove to a beach and waded in the mucky water.  

Jude loved playing in the dirt and looked like a reverse raccoon.  Kevin is wiping up some of it in the middle bottom pic.

Ammon had a sticky lip and was making funny faces (bottom left pic).  He lost his first front tooth while he was in California with the parents.
In Heber, we needed gas.  When we pulled out my parents got pulled over.  We found out later that their plates expired in September of 2011.  What the?  lol

*Probable* New Residents of

Draper.

We will be living in the Suncrest development in Draper.  If you don't know, this is one of those places that people either love or hate.  It's on a mountain.  It really is.  Our realtor, Kevin Nielsen, is the dude running up the stairs.  He's been fantastic.  This guy will bend over backwards to help you out.  He's gone above and beyond what his job description is.

Oooooof what a story.  House hunting was not fun.  Not like I thought it was going to be.

The market is not for the buyer this year.  

Most houses seemed like they were short sales.  

If we liked a house, it was usually sold before we could even get a look at it (or it had issues).

If we were lucky enough to get in on a house the first couple of days on the market, there were usually 5-8 showings on the first day, then multiple offers the second day coming in.  Meaning, you have to be fast and have to pay more than the asking price.  

We looked in to building, but it would take too long (school starts on Aug 21) or the lots were tiny etc.

One day we were out with Kevin and Justin wanted me to see the Suncrest area because he loves it (bike trails, and more bike trails). I'd heard how horrible it was to live there and was adamant to never live there, so Kevin wouldn't even take Justin to those homes while they were looking (I was in MN the first 4-5 months of working with Kevin).  We stopped to look at my dream house which still hadn't closed and walked through it.  Oh my.  I love this house. Talk about perfection.  Oh well.

Justin saw a house for sale across the street so we grabbed a paper and walked through.  The yard is only .15 acres so it never came up in a search (my minimum was usually .30; sometimes .20 if I was feeling extra stressed with our situation).

The view from the back yard is amazing.

We had our second look at the house the day of the Alpine fire, so this is a little distracting :)

We mulled over putting in an offer for a couple days and finally decided to give it a shot.  It had been on the market for several weeks with no offers and is a foreclosure.  We low balled them big time.

Of course, some one else put in an offer about the same day as us so we had to up our offer.  Boo.

We put in their asking price plus for them to give us %3 concessions to pay our loan costs.

About two days later we found out we were chosen for the house.

I guess I need to tell you why I wasn't excited about our offer being accepted.

Here's the list of cons:

Steep windy roads

HOA $133/month

On a main road

NO back yard to garden

Windy

Dogs and more dogs.  Wowzers.

These are the main ones.  I did add a few later.

There are several pros:

NICE house.  I love the house.

View

By trails

Church across the street to be completed in November

Above the inversion

Good location for Justin's work

I told Kevin we wanted to walk through it again, but we had to meet Justin there.  And of course he was late.  Kevin and I (plus Ammon and Isaac) went to the Club house and had a tour of their facilities: gym, pool.  Then talked with the Home Owners Association office.  

Holy CRAP.

I was fine until she told me that if you wanted to paint your door a certain color it had to get approved.  Even that one didn't get under my skin too much.

It was when she said if we wanted to plant a tree we had to get the variety and location approved.

Of all our gardening.  And anything pertaining to the ENTIRE outside of our house/yard, front and back.

PLUS no bussing!  We have to drive the kids to the club house twice a day for buses!

U- uh. 

What the crap.

You have to be kidding me.  

This is the communism I referred to in another post (coming out the end of July in a "random" post).

Kevin and I were both appalled.  

When Justin got there, he was excited and started looking at the view but I cut him short.  I could have broken it much nicer but I was in shock.

Basically I said that in no way jose would I live where someone can tell me what to do with my yard.  I could understand the front, but the back?  And soooo anal about it?

We left in a depression.

We had just a few days to back out before we had to pay our 1% to hold it.  Kevin left it live.

In the mean time, we still looked at several houses.  Nothing was working.  Even tried an offer in West Jordan but neither of us really liked it; our offer was not accepted.

Justin called me one night.  He said he'd try his hardest to drive kids to the club house.  Alright, that was a given *snark*.

But Kevin, said he'd sell the house for free if we didn't like it in a year.  

Say what!?  Can you repeat that?  

Kevin gave me a "get out of jail free card."

This made me tell Justin that'd I'd give it a go.

But still:

Praying.Praying.Praying.

We never felt like we were given an answer so much.  I guess it felt more right than wrong.

No stupors going on here.

Paid our 1% in the mean time.  

More praying.

The last day to ditch was last Friday.  We didn't ditch.

We can still not go through with it, but we'd lose our 1%.

Right now, we've been losing hair and sleep over a loan.  I thought that would be the easy part, but nope.

And Justin is in sales meetings all this week and half of next in Deer Valley, so I'm on my own.  Blerg.

Regardless, I am excited to have a nice home.  The top floor has four bedrooms and, AND laundry.  

AND my own bathroom!

The main level has two family rooms, one we are making in to a game room, kitchen, and office.

When I do dishes, I can look at our amazing view.  And in the winter, snow.

Justin in his new office. 

Have you ever seen that really old Disney, Summer Magic -one of my faves from my childhood?  When Nancy Carey comes down the stairs for the dance and her shoe falls off and Tom Hamilton picks it up for her?  

Well, I've always wanted a staircase like that and this house has it :)

And a basement that is unfinished.  We plan to put in a tv/family room, bedroom (guest), bathroom and toy area.  It also has cold storage !!  

The back yard is unfinished so we will need to add to the sprinkler system, sod and a trampoline.

I don't know how much we will be able to afford to do in our time frame, but we have big plans.

The home has passed inspection with flying colors; only minor repairs; it is only six years old.

It does need new carpet.  I am insisting upon this.  Justin is insisting we get it steam cleaned.

Who's going to win?

Off the top of my head, the closing date is August 18th. 

June Randomness

6/2  Isaac and Ammon are at a Father/Son camp out.  Bro. LaClaire took them.

Jacob went to Dakota's house; he's out of the hospital!  

Jacob woke up in the middle of the night with fluids coming out of both ends.

Glad he didn't go camping!

Bro LaClaire borrowed my van (not enough seats in his).

It's like 30' long.  Okay, not that much, but wow!

I get to drive it today.  Wish me luck.

Last photo session in MN tonight.

Lyea gave me three syrups for Italian ice.  Oh hohoho!  I'm excited to use these!
6/4  Ammon:  "Home is like shcool."
Mom:  "Why?"
Ammon:  "We have a lot of computers. And food."
Just found out the Layton house we put an offer in almost 10 weeks ago was sold to someone else.
It was listed under a not-so-honest realtor (aka jerk).
Now we can move on.
I'm having a moment of sadness, then I'll get over it.
6/6  Why oh why do I have to get a headache today?
I had my first upset photography customer today.  I don't like how it feels.
I forgot to take a shot she requested.  I'm not busy or have anything else on my mind lately ;)
I took my 17-55 to the post office today.  Hope they get it fixed and timely too.
6/10 I don't know how Justin can stand it.  His toes stretch to the tippy toe bottom of our queen sized bed.
I'm awake too early with a nice strong headache.
Love my friend Lyea.  She made us yummy pad thai for dinner.
The goodbye party was bitter sweet.  I loved seeing friends, but sad to say goodbye.
6/23 Cherries.  I was a few too many yesterday.  Ooops.
House hunting isn't going as planned.
Jacob went to Youth Conference with 3rd ward.  I've been praying very hard for him.
I've never seen him act like he did when I dropped him off.  Very intimidated young man.
Allison and I got Tiny Spicy Chicken the other night and it wasn't very good.
I think they warmed up lunch leftovers.
On the other hand, Taco Time was fantastic.
Isaac and Ammon are going to the Redwoods for two weeks with their grandparents.
They're meeting Andy + Family.
Why does one/two of our car dvd player screens always break?  They need to make disposable ones.
I love how it cools off here at night and you can open your windows.
6/25 Ammon's birthday!
He's 7 today and very excited about it.  Wish I could give him birthday squishes.
Heading down to Park City later this afternoon for the week +.
Woke up with a start at 6:30.
I was dreaming about high school and getting my schedule and figuring out lockers.
This is not an uncommon dream scenario for me.