LSM: Idaho

Dan is perfecting his studying skills more and more! This week he only had to go back to the law school once after coming home for dinner! And the only reason he had to do that is because I had mutual on Wednesday and we were leaving for Idaho Friday afternoon for the weekend! How amazing is he? I hope this trend continues!
While we were in Idaho we were able to spend fun time with family: juggling time between Annie's baptism and charlsee's wedding on Saturday, and also had a surprise visit from dans parents when we got home from church on Sunday.
Charlsee made such a beautiful bride and I am so glad I was able to go to the sealing, luncheon, and reception. It was a busy and rainy day, but a very fun memorable one! We have been best friends since the 6th grade and no one can make me laugh as hard as she can! I'm so happy she met Chadd!
Annie asked me to speak at her baptism so I rushed straight from the sealing to make it in time. She was so cute, and all the little kids did a great job singing. Stori sure loves her and all of her cousins. We then went to Josh and Amanda's house before heading over to the luncheon for Charlsee. Like I said, rushed but great!
On Sunday, all the kids were crazy for sacrament, and that didn't stop in Nursery. I helped my mom out and it was CRAZY! it wasn't even a full moon, so not sure the reasoning behind that haha.
We visited with Dan's family, ate, and headed home. Our kids HATE driving, but since the DVD player broke that we used maybe 5 times, the kids have been much better… not sure why. Same thing for our runs. We used to prepare ourselves by putting a movie on my phone for them to watch…now they do better just looking out and eating an occasional snack! Fine by me!
Anyway.
When we made it back to Provo it had snowed in the mountains, and the temperature had dropped to low 70's! Just as we thought this place couldn't get any more beautiful it goes and does this!
We also booked our hotel for the annual Jackson/Yellowstone fall trip! Soooo excited for that in 2 weeks!!
A great week it was, in this law school adventure.

dan looked at this picture and said, "how does it feel to be hugging Crame? Let's cut my hair tonight." haha

he loves me

The only picture we got together and I look like a whale! So lame

long hair don't care.

this picture was taken 5 months ago, but it was hiding on Dan's phone… so it must be documented because it is so dang cute.

Grace healed this little girls broken heart… we left to the luncheon without her and she didn't quite know how to cope.

This was my baby when I was little, and both of my girls play with her all day long. Sylvie is such a little sweetie with her. I can't stand how cute this is!

I had my very first Mutual activity as a Laurel Advisor. This is my one and only Laurel. It was a fun night and I'm excited for this calling!

Stori just loves this girl. I asked her if she could see the TV and she said no but still didn't want Sylvie to move. ha! Cuties!

Law School Monday: SIX

We just hit the 6 week mark! Meaning we moved here 6 Sundays ago, even though we have only been to our ward 2 times: one Sunday moving here, one spent in Idaho, one for Stake conference, and one for the Temple dedication. I got my calling on week 2 of being here and haven't been to church since haha. And next Sunday we will be in Idaho again for Charlsee's wedding. Then the next Sunday is Conference, and then the NEXT Sunday we will be in Yellowstone. I am just now realizing that we won't go to our ward until mid-October…Sheesh, maybe we will have to cut either our Idaho trip, or our Yellowstone trip short. I am the Laurel advisor of only ONE laurel, so hopefully it will all work out that she can go with another class?
in honor of 6 weeks here, here are some top 6 lists for remembering.

SIX activities we have loved so far:
1- hiking the Y
2- swimming at the Rec center here and also in Daybreak-both for freeeee
3- Sunday drives exploring Provo and surrounding areas. noting how we could def live here forever
4- living right by the Provo river trail and taking some BEAUTIFUL runs together.
5- just yesterday we woke up early and went and chased down some hot air balloons and got to see them take off right by our house.
6- seeing a few Provo celebrities (Mindy Gledhill, and Taza-one of the most famous mormon bloggers) Still looking our for NieNie though...

these pics taken from our front balcony

a little photo tour of our running path

there we are in that tiny little mirror

showing how this trail makes it possible to go to all our stores without having to cross any roads!

there are a lot of snails here, and this is the biggest one we have found! This is in one of the tunnels on our run

the kids favorite tunnel. They love to make loud sounds when we go through all of these

this is a little waterfall RIGHT by our house. And you can see DI in the back. And also, Stori took this pic.

this is another waterfall along our run! See, beautiful! 

the Provo River Trail takes you up all the way through the canyon. The leaves are slowly changing and I am so excited  to watch them change more each day on our runs.

SIX places we shop in this here town
1- D.I. (daily entertainment)
2- Dollar Store-found us a play Dr. kit that has made our days much healthier
3- Macy's grocery store; has car-carts that ensure happy shopping for hours. And 32c ice cream!
4- Target-for obvious reasons. But mainly just for the fun halloween dollar section
5- Walmart- sadly we have to go here about once a week. This is by far the worst Walmart we have been too.
6- And our favorite; at our "pretend grocery store." Stori goes and get's food, then brings it home for our tea party's. Then she take Sylvie to the "pretend farm" to pet animals.

Tea party hats

Even though Sylvie is the size of Stori, Stori still insists on holding her and feeding her. They are both so darn cute I can't stand it.

For date night last week, we got into the Autumn groove. We LOVE "You've Got Mail" and we decided to add these mugs to our fall decorations while watching football. :)

SIX things we miss about Idaho
1- how few people there are, and the amount of lanes on the road
2- open farmland for miles and miles
3- really close to family!!! and Yellowstone/Jackson
4- the wind-PSYCH
5- Dan misses being close he was to shooting.
6- knowing how to get places without using a GPS. Oh---and the taste of the water!

Cousins are the BEST

This girl

is 13 months old now and STILL has only her 2 bottom teeth and STILL isn't walking. 

But ya know what? We love her despite her flaws! haha jokes! We love every bit of her and only consider the lack of teeth and walking to be adorable; keeping her a baby for longer! 

And speaking of longer, look how long her hair is getting. Right out of the bath it is past her shoulders, but one minute later, it's curled up around her neck.

loves me...

her favorite book to read. and read, and read, and read... 

just a little picture of us in our shades on a sunny walk to the park

Hats are required for tea parties

She seems to be a little annoyed that I am interrupting her reading time, but I just LOVE how she points to herself. 

A lot of these are from Idaho, but they are ones I never go to post because they were on Dan's camera. And they are too cute to just let slide by.

Love this little lady! We'll definitely keep her

Law School Monday: school and food. food??

Cripes! We are just going to pretend this was written yesterday. And since we are pretending, let's just imagine that I have something interesting to post.

Food isn't always interesting, but with us, it is always a struggle.
I should rephrase that---we struggle with trying NEW places to eat.
For example: we have walked into Zupas 5 different times and end up convincing ourselves that we want Cafe Rio, or In-n-Out, or Chic-fil-A. (food we know is good). The same goes for Cubby's, JDawgs, Smashburger, Noodles & Co, and JCW.
We have heard great things about all these places, have stepped foot in almost all of them, yet eaten in none of them. So the next time we want to eat out, we are MAKING ourselves try one of these.
Speaking of restaurants, I just saw that Orem is getting a Chipotle!!!!

We eat out about once a week, and it's usually to celebrate Dan finishing another week of Law School. I am so surprised at how much he is loving school. Each day when I ask him, it seems to be better than the day before. He is genuinely loving the classes and from what I hear from his brother, he always makes great comments. I guess he had a professor grill him on a certain case and he handled it great. All that reading/studying is paying off. The most stressful part of it all, I think, is that your whole grade is based on just ONE test at the end of the semester. I sure hope he's a good test taker!

Now back to food real quick, we have been having dan's brothers come over for Sunday dinner each week that we are in town and it has been so fun. 4 of the 5 boys live right here in Utah, and this last week Aaron was here too, and it's great that my girls are really getting to know them. Sylvie met uncle Preston for the first time this last weekend at his wedding in Layton, and he claimed she was the cutest baby he had ever seen. :) It's fun being close to family on both sides. This Provo place really is the perfect spot for us to be. So glad he got accepted here. Dan told me he randomly stops studying and looks around and thinks, "I am so lucky to be going to school here." We are very lucky indeed. We are LOVING every moment.

Stori is an excellent sister with encouraging words. "Keep trying!" and "When you're feeling frustrated, take a step back and ask for help." haha cuties.

Spending our days and nights at this perfect park.

just waiting for daddy to get home in their Little Mermaid dresses.

when these two are good---they are very good.

and when they are sad, they are very sad. I don't know 2 kids who hate the car more than these 2.

my cute little niece made this for us while we were in Idaho, and I loved it so much I framed it. She is such a cute little artist.

SDR 3.0 and an impromptu adventure

My handsome little 30 year old was studying away on his very special birthday. I tried to make his bday special by going on a zip-line trip up at Kelly Canyon, while we were in Idaho. I had everything planned and even had a babysitter (which doesn't really ever happen). However, something came up and we weren't able to go. Total bummer! I had good intentions at least. (But I might as well have said, "Hey, I planned us a 10 day trip to Paris! Oh shoot, forgot to get our passports! Oh well, it's the thought that counts)!
But Dan claims he doesn't care. He just said he wants to spend it with us. Boring! Maybe for your 40th we'll do something grand!

So on his birthday
HE: woke up to french toast and fruit, spent 9 hours at school, came home to a very decorated house (all hand-made by Stori and me), then we went out…
US: made daddy breakfast, decorated the house, went to Target for hours to try and find a present that would make up for our failed present, (we left with only shorts!) then we went back home and waited not-so-patiently for daddy to come home. Stori usually sits by the screen door on our patio so she can see him when he rides home.
WE: all of us went to eat at Cafe Rio (dan's pick) and then we decided to go take a drive to Squaw Peak overlook to watch the sunset. On our way there the kids started to get really tired and grumpy so we decided just to drive up to the start of the Y hike because it would be much faster. You can still see all of the valley and it is very beautiful. When we got out to take a look, Stori decided she wanted to take a little walk. (So much for wanting to get the kids home quicker). We kept asking her when she wanted to turn around, but she was determined to keep climbing. By the time we got to the 4th (of 10) switchbacks, we decided to commit to hiking all the way to the Y. Dan and I switched off carrying Sylvie (because we didn't' bring a carrier, hiking clothes, or water). Stori climbed almost all of it by herself. We carried her when it got really steep right before the Y and because it was also dark. On the way down we sang the whole time to distract our tired, cold, hungry kids. They were amazing and didn't ever cry or whine! Stori held my phone with the flashlight on, while holding my hand. Sylvie held daddy's phone with the flashlight on while he held her. The kids crashed in their beds the second we got home! It was such a fun adventure that we weren't even prepared for! We absolutely love where we live! And dan was very happy to get his mind off of Law School! Not a bad birthday after all!

We love our hard working SDR!
-when he isn't at school, he is playing with his kids and changing diapers. He even helps with the cooking and the cleaning.
-he spends hours at IKEA with me!
-he looks so cute riding his bike to school everyday, and is kind enough to leave the car with us.
-2 words, Popcorn King.
-3 words, I LOVE YOU

Happy birthday Steven Daniel! 30 never looked so good!

birthday breakfast. everything about this picture is crazy and i LOVE it

Puddle jumping

at Target shopping for daddy…. we got a few too many $1 items 

notice how cute Stori wrote her name on the very end. oh, and notice that cute poser!

those are his new shorts.

obviously Stori took this pic on our way out the door.

same faces….haha

on our way to dinner

the parking lot of the 'Y'

start of the trail

we lost Sylvie's bow somewhere on the trail…. if you couldn't tell.