It's so hard to say goodbye

Everytime I go to Utah I get homesick (which is weird considering I barely lived there for 9 months, but it is more my family than the actual State.) I think I miss it more when I am actually there than I do when I am in Florida. I have grown to love Florida, but Utah is where most of my family is now and it has always been a part of my life considering that it is where we took our family vacations every year for as long as I can remember. I just miss being around my family. It's hard only seeing them once a year sometimes less. But that is part of being a grown up I guess. Sucks to be a grown up.

Here's my mom, Mark, Mindy and I at the airport. This picture is really awful but its as good as I could get from a random passerby. Mom, Mark and Mindy
Me and Mark

My mom and I

Thanks to all my family who drove me around and entertained me while I was there. And thanks to Jim and his family watching the kids and for letting me enjoy some time away.

I had a great time while I was in Utah. I miss you all!

The Flying Taylor's

While in Utah I went with my Dad and three of my brothers to the Salomon Center in downtown Ogden. There is a ton of stuff to do there. We decided to check out the indoor skydiving area and once we saw it we all decided to try it together. It was awesome! They give you about 15 min of instuctions, some jumpsuits to wear, then bring you into the vertical air tunnel. The instructor was in there with us and our jumpsuits had little handles that he could hold onto so we didn't flop all over the place. The air tunnel was basically a huge fan that is under you and blows you upward. You have to just ignore the fact that once you get out you need a tissue because you have slobbered all over yourself from the air blowing your mouth open. I learned better the second time around and tried to keep it closed.
The instuctor showed us some tricks before and after, which I'm sure would be fun but I can't even imagine how many times he must have done it before he was able to control where he was flying inside the tunnel. It was very cool to see. It was not something I had planned on doing while there but I am glad that we all did it together. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Next time I go back I want to try the indoor surfing...although the only time I have ever tried surfing in the ocean I could not even get out past where the water breaks. It has to be easier indoors right? It's easier (and less scary) to skydive indoors...hmmm
By the way, I don't know what's up with this music. Slide.com automatically put a song into my slide show. I was going to try to take it out but I decided I kind of like it. It's just annoying that it doesn't play the whole song.

Family Reunion

Earlier this month I was able to fly out to Utah and see my family for a few days. Unfortunately I had to go by myself because five plane tickets was a little much, but I had a great time hanging out with my brothers and their families and my Mom and Dad. It was the first time we had all been together in over 9 years! I had not seen my brother Mark all that time and I had not met his wife of five years either. So it was awesome catching up and also forming new friendships. We had a big dinner one of the nights and took some family pictures which is always fun.

This is the whole group of us. It was a lot of people for my Mom's tiny house.
Here is my parents and brothers and I.

Ryker, Lexy, and Grayson being funny.

My oldest brother Todd and his wife Julie and their kids.

My "little" brother Kevin and his wife Livia.

Mark and his wife Mindy.

Darin, Anna and their kids Gabe and Addison.

I got to spend at least a few hours with each of my brothers separately also. Darin and Anna were nice enough to put me up the first night I was there even though my flight didn't get in until around midnight. We went to breakfast the next morning at a place called Kneaders and it was awesome. I am still craving the chunky french toast I had.

On Sunday I went to see Kevin and Livia at their new house. They bought an adorable little pink house and they have been renovating it. It was cool to see all the work that they had put into it. I have been keeping up with it on their blog but its not the same as seeing it in person.

(By the way Livia, I REALLY want your cookie recipe)

Here are Kev and Liv with their super cute dog maddie.

That same day I also had dinner with Todd and his fam. Julie made a delicious chicken recipe that I am also wanting, hint hint... Talking with Julie and Lexy I decided to see what all the fuss was about and started reading the Twilight series while I was there. Little did I know that once I started I would not be able to put it down and I had to read the other three books once I got home. (Jim was not very happy about that)
I spent some time with Mark and Mindy too since we were all staying at my Mom's. It was so great to finally meet Mindy, she is as nice as everyone said for the last five years, not that I was surprised. She and Mark make a good match, although I don't know how she does it with him gone for 18 months at a time. It just goes to show that it is not just the military personnel who have to sacrifice for our country but their families as well. I am very thankful for both of their sacrifices.

That's all for now, more to come...

decorating the tree

This year it took us like two weeks to get our tree decorated. We put it up before Thanksgiving but for some reason we never got around to decorating it. But finally some work went into it. It's funny because I have all these lofty ideas about how we'll spend an evening listening to Christmas carols while the children all hang ornaments on the tree, but I really only have their attention for about twenty minutes before they are ready to do something else.
Then there's the fact that we (meaning I) have to redecorate the tree every day because of the kids destroying it. They think its fun to play catch with the tree and see how many balls they can get stuck in it. Nice. Here is when I had their help with the tree. If you look close toward the top right of the pic (at the upside down rocking horse) you can see how the kids go about hanging stuff up high. They throw it at the tree until it sticks somewhere. And Aidan is sporting his usual pantless style.

Jim had to put the snowflake on the top. Is it weird that we have a snowflake (in Florida) on the top of our tree instead of the usual star or angel?

As you can see from the feet in the pic above this is about where I lost them. I have just resigned to the fact that the tree in the family room will not ever really stay pretty.

Cub Scout swamp safari

The cub scouts took a field trip on a swamp safari tour. We didn't have enough people to get the discount rate so I had to talk Nolan and Jim into going. Nolan really liked it. It was called a swamp buggy tour but it was actually more of a empty school bus without the windows, and there really wasn't much swamp going on either, but I guess it's not the right time of year. Oh well the kids seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Our tour guide had a baby alligator and brought it onto the bus for all the kids to see and touch.
Nolan, checking out the scenery from the bus.

The wild pigs come right up onto the bus. (they are trained to know that the bus driver will give them food)

Jim and I.

I'm rockin it out in my scout shirt. Oh yeah, that's what they call high fashion!

Aliigator chillin in the sun.

he he, too funny

I cannot believe that I forgot to post these pics! They are from early October, we were getting ready for the Primary program so I asked the bishopric to dress up and be our judges for the songs. If any of you know Jim well , you know he does not dress up for anything, so I was fairly surprised he went along with it. The kids loved it (although Aidan was scared of Jim for a good thirty minutes after church ended, poor thing) and the bishopric got more than a few raised eyebrows from the adults in the hall who saw them. Some days I just love being in Primary, you get to do goofy stuff and I have fun being in on the jokes that outsiders just don't get.

Yosemite Sam?? Is that you?

Nolan's pirate report

Nolan's class had book reports due on Halloween, and they had to stand up in front of the class to tell about their book. They were also allowed to dress up if they wanted to. We did things a little backwards though because I tried to talk Nolan into doing a report on a book that we might already have a costume to match (like sleeping beauty since he was a knight last year for Halloween) but it wouldn't fly. So I went to the store and found mismatched pieces for 99 cents each and came up with a pirate costume for only $4. Then we had to find a book to go with it. Luckily Elaine happened to have a book on pirates so it all worked out. His report turned out really cute.

We happened to have this flag left over from Aidan's pirate birthday party 2 years ago.

(so its a good thing I am a pack rat and didn't get rid of it like I should have)

swarm of bees

At Aidan's school they had trick-or-treating from class to class. Each class dressed up as something different and Aidan's class were bumblebees. It was SOOO cute. It was a crazy morning because I had just come back from Nolan's school and I had to run home, get the camera, and head back to Aidan's school to get pics of him with his class. All the parents had to bring candy and hand it out so Jim did that while I followed Aidan around trying to get his picture.

Pumpkin patch field trip

As promised here are some more pictures from the Halloween festivities. Aidan's class took a field trip to the pumkin patch and they each were able to pick a small pumkin to take home.

Aidan's pumpkinThe class was taking a picture together so Aidan fell on the ground. Makes sense right?

Bad pumpkin, needs a spank. Ha!

The longest Halloween EVER! (not that I'm complaining)

So this year our Halloween celebrations started about two weeks before the big day and seemed to just keep going right up til Halloween night. We started at the "friendly forest" at the Calusa Nature Center. Every year they have trick or treating on the boardwalks and paths that wind through the preserve outside the nature center. All the people handing out candy were dressed up and the kids had a blast seeing all the people in costumes. Some of them even had animals in tow that the kids could pet. Zoie got the hang of it right away. It didn't take long for the open-your-bag and people will give you candy idea to catch on.

The next week we had our annual Fall Festival at the church which is always fun. Unfortunately my camera died right at the start of it so I only have a few pics. I am going to try to get some from friends though because I was involved in the entertainment portion of the night and I heard some people got funny pics of it.

The next week Aidan had a field trip to a pumkin patch for his class and trick or treating at his school, and Nolan had a book report and class party. Then finally came Halloween night. We went to Jim's parent's house for dinner to celebrate Bill's birthday and then it was off to trick-or-treat around their neighborhood. Our friends Abby and Jason Perkins met up with us and we took all the kids together.

So all in all it was a great Halloween for us this year. I'll say that even though we are always crazy busy, when you have kids there is something more fun about extending the festivities. (pics of the school fun to follow, I didn't want the slide show to be too long)

Cutest pumpkin

At the ward Halloween Fall Festival, Nolan's pumpkin won the award for cutest pumpkin. It got kind of cracked rolling around in the car on the way home though.Here are all three of the kids' pumpkins together. Can you tell which one is Aidan's? (hint: it's the one that looks like it got in a fight...)

Comfy?

A few weeks ago Zoie was acting up, so she got put in time out in her room. When I went back to check on her a few minutes later this is what I found. Why did she decide to get inside her hamper to fall asleep?? I have no clue.

Sock hop

For an activity our ward had a sock hop that was really fun. We all got dressed up (even JIM!) and went in our 50's wear. The boys had it pretty easy with the white shirts and jeans, but I had to do a little work for Zoie and I. I looked endlessly online for a poodle skirt for Zoie but they were all really expensive and I would have had to pay shipping. Since it wasn't close enough to Halloween yet not much was available in stores. So I ended up just buying some felt at JoAnns and making hers. It turned out pretty cute I thought. For mine, I just so happened to have a poodle skirt from way back in the day, so my awesome Mom sent it to me in the mail. Of course I had to do a little work to it to make it fit so I could breathe, but fortunately it wasn't too hard.

Our family

Emily, Jennifer, and IZoie having fun in the hula hoop contest.

Zoie and her friend Jocelyn

Most school spirit

At playgroup we had a school spirit day, and Zoie won the award for most spirited. I just had to post the pic because she looks so friggin cute in her gator wear. Sorry family and friends, I promise I am not betraying the good ol Huskers, its just that gator stuff is so easy to come by here, whereas Nebraska stuff is not.

SOOO behind (first day of school)

Obviously my children are not having their first day of school in October but alas, I am just now getting to posting the pictures of it. Okay, how sad is that?
Anyway...Nolan had a good first day of school as usual, I drove him even though I think he would have prefered to ride the bus (he got to ride the bus home). I don't get it, I never rode the bus a day in my life and would not have wanted to, but Nolan has a full-on break down if he misses riding the bus in the morning. Weird. I prefer the extra sleep. Aidan had his first day of pre-kindergarten. He did pretty well considering he had never been to school before. He was not happy when I left though, as you can see from his pic below, but he still did fine. However, the second day of school was a different story. He freaked out and did not want to go. He was really excited all summer about starting school, but I think he realized that it was not all fun and games as he expected. After about two weeks of kicking and screaming everyday, he know goes to school happy (mostly).