Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was in St. George with the Hone Family.  It was so much fun! We actually had a pretty good turn out.  My Grandpa and Jodell came from Wyoming. Chris, JoNell & all of the boys were there.  My Grandma and Ken came up from Vegas, and of course everyone in my family was there (except Brieanna of course)!

It's pretty much tradition to go out to the desert and do a little shooting.  I think everyone really looks forward to it.  We turn it into a "friendly" competition having an Annie Oakley shoot off! It's really is a blast! 

Amberlee and her "Christmas Present"

Armed and Awesome

One of the A.O finals

 We even took Aspyn out. I thought she might get a little freaked out with the all the guns firing, but it didn't bother her at all.  While we were out there, she tripped and did a little nose dive. She ended up with her 1st bloody nose.  I think she was more mad that I was trying to wipe her bloody nose than she was hurt.  After a few minutes she was fine and she was up and running around again!

 My dad taught Jordyn how to shoot the pistol. She absolutely loved it!  All she could talk about was when she was going to shoot again.  I love the fact that she's learning how to handle a gun responsibly at such a young age.  Guns and hunting are such a big part of our family, so it just makes sense to start this young!

Cody wasn't really into the shotguns, but absolutely loved shooting my Uncle's 9mm.  I think that I've found the next toy that I would like to have!

After we went through a ton of shells, & skeets we went back to my parents house and ate some A.May.Zing dinner!  I am never disappointed with any dinner with my family.  We all ate too much, but it was so worth it!  We really enjoyed seeing the Hone family again.  It's been awhile since we've seen everyone.  Everyone looked great! I can't wait until the next Hone get together.

The next day we went down to Mesquite to see Cody's family.  We went out to dinner with everyone and ended up back at Danie'l and Chad's house. We saw a couple other good friends that we haven't seen in awhile, it was great!  Aspyn and Jadon played together really well. Jordyn ended up staying at Grandma Sharon's.  I know Jordyn misses her Grandma and Grandpa Survis so it was great that she spent some time with them.  We really miss seeing Chad and Danie'l as well, but it's always so nice when we are all able to hangout again. 

We ended up in Cedar City for 1 night on the way back home. We stayed with Alan, Taliah and Lyli.  Jordyn loves Lyli, and Aspyn just loves playing with anyone.  We miss them a lot too!
Our Thanksgiving getaway was just what we all needed.  We haven't spent that much time in St. George for a long time!

1st Camping Trip in Colorado & Rusti's Visit

We finally went on our 1st camping trip here in Colorado! My dad came over August 8th for a little vacation. We all decided to head up and check out the Colorado Mountains. We ended up at Island Lake. It was so pretty and so much cooler.

Jordyn and my Dad did a little fishing. They caught a few, but only ended up keeping 1. Jordyn absolutely LOVES fishing with Grandpa. They really have a good time together and have such an amazing bond. I never thought Jordyn would like to fish, but she does and she's pretty good at it. She knows more about fishing and the different baits than I do!


1st Camping Trip

Aspyn really, really enjoyed her 1st camping trip. She did so well. She loves being outside so it wasn't a huge surprise that she had some fun. She loved crawling around in the dirt, trying to eat it and playing with the rocks and leaves. Aspyn loved watching the fire at night . She was just so content to sit on our laps and enjoy being up in the mountain. I think we have another camper in the family! I love it!

We had a great time. We fished a little bit, drove around a little to find other camping spots that are a bit more secluded, and really just relaxed! It was great!  Next Summer, we will be doing a lot more camping!!


Aspyn in Jordyn's shoes

Thursday the 11th, my Mom flew over to spend the weekend with us and drive home with my Dad. We had been trying to talk Ashley into letting Rusti come with her.  Ashley finally agreed, but my Mom told me that she couldn't get the airline stuff figured out for her to bring Rusti. When we picked up Mom at the airport, she comes walking out holding Rusti! Jordyn was so excited to see Rusti, and Rusti was so very excited to see JoJo! She is such a cute girl, and we really really miss her. It was fun having her. Jordyn and Rusti played all weekend. We loved having her visit!


Aspyn, Jordyn, Rusti



 All the girls were so cute together. It's really hard knowing that they don't get to see each other as much as they want to. Hopefully we can keep getting all the cousins together as often as possible!

It was a great week having my parents here, and being able to see Rusti! It's always hard on us when they leave, but I'm so glad that they make the trip out here as much as they can.



St George Utah Trip 5/22-6/2/2011

****Super Long (Sorry)****

May 22nd the girls and I flew out of Grand Junction to Las Vegas! It was Aspyn's 1st flight and she did very well. She slept the entire way. Going through security wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only thing that held us up was, even Aspyn had to remove her little tiny baby sandals. Mom and Amber met us at the airport in Vegas and we were on our way to St George.

Monday 5/23 we had dinner at Ashley's house and she colored and cut my hair. We just mainly hung out as a family. I was finally able to meet my niece Rylin! She is such a doll! She looks so much like her dad, Tanner. I absolutely love her!! Rusti has gotten so big. I wish all these kiddos would stop growing up and changing!

Tuesday 5/24 Amberlee graduated from High school.  It was a good ceremony, kind of sad, but very exciting.  I couldn't believe that my baby sister finally graduated! It just doesn't seem right that she is 18 and now on her own! It was fun to watch her walk through the "D" just like the 3 of us did before her! I know she was definitely ready :-)



My beautiful sister on her Graduation Day

 Wednesday 5/25 We moved Amberlee up to Cedar City so she could start her new life as a college student there. Luckily she didn't have a lot of things, and that she had already taken quite a bit up. Mainly it was just getting her clothes moved up and a little bit of decor!

Later that evening me and the girls went down to Mesquite to visit the Survis Family. It was so great to see them again. We went out to dinner that evening with everyone! Jadon is getting so big. I don't know why I didn't have my camera out taking pics of Chad, Danie'l and Jadon, but they all look great!

Grandpa Don with his Girls

 I was finally able to get some pictures of Don and Sharon with the girls! It took a little coaxing, but I got them!!

Grandma Sharon with the Girls

Thursday 5/26 Jordyn stayed down in Mesquite with her Grandma & Grandpa and helped Sharon with Jadon! I heard they had a fun time. Jordyn was laughing the entire day! It's so much fun that she was able to spend some time with her cousin, Aunt, Uncle and Grandparents.

Aspyn and I took the afternoon and went over to my Grandma Virginia's house. She and I went and had lunch at Applebee's! Following lunch we went back to her house and spent the afternoon visiting. Most of the time when I am in St. George I'm not able to spend as much time as I would like with her. So it was great to be able to do that. My Grandma Virginia and I have always had a special relationship! I love & miss her so much!!

Great Grandma Virginia with Aspyn

 Friday 5/27 In the morning my mom and I watched Rusti & Rylin.  Jordyn and Rusti ran through the sprinklers and had a good time with each other! Later in the afternoon, everyone but myself went up to Cedar City for my cousins Lacey Wilkerson and Cody Hone's Highschool Graduation from Cedar High.

That night Taliah Erickson and I ran a Midnight 5k! It was so much fun. When you checked in they gave out glow sticks that you could either make into Mickey Mouse ears, or glasses. As well as some that you could make necklaces out of! We both are proud to say that we finished the race! I ran it in 32.34, and Taliah in 33.54. For me it was definitely an improvement from the 5k that I ran here.  With this 5k I ran the entire thing from start to finish. It was amazing! I was very proud of Taliah for running with me and finishing!! We are both wanting to try a 10k in October!

5/28 & 5/29 Was spent with all the family on the Taylor side. We went hiking Saturday afternoon, swimming later that afternoon (until someone pooped in the pool-gross!) and then had a family dinner that night.  Only Brieanna, Cody and my cousin's husband Kyle were missing.  Our family is so fun! I love it when we get together. Especially now that a lot of the cousins are married and a few have kids. When we get together it isn't a small intimate gathering, but I wouldn't change it at all. It's just a lot of excitement.  This is probably one of the last times we would see my cousin Shawn, his wife Michelle and daughter Kylie.  Shawn is in the marines and being transferred around Thanksgiving or Christmas. We'll miss them at the get-togethers, but it's only temporary!

Sunday we went to Orderville for Rylin's baby blessing at Tanner's aunt Dott's house. His dad Ricky blessed her. It was a great blessing and he did an awesome job. She looked beautiful in Amberlee's 18 year old blessing dress.

Following the blessing we met back in Cedar for another family dinner at Aunt Debbie's! Awesome food as always!

5/30 Monday It's been a family tradition that on Memorial Day we all meet out at the Cedar City cemetery and take flowers and pay our respects to those family and friends that we have lost throughout the years. I know most of us think about those we've lost throughout the year, but Memorial Day is just a day that the entire family is there together!

6/1/ Wednesday We got Aspyn's ears pierced! She looks so cute. After Jordyn got hers done she wouldn't take them out for about 2 years. We decided not to go through that again with Aspyn, so we got hers done early in life! She did great. Cried for a few minutes afterward but we haven't had any issues at all since!

I took Jordyn back down to Mesquite for another overnight visit with Grandma and Grandpa Survis. They hit the arcade at the Virgin River, ate McDonalds and laughed!



I got to hang out with Rylin & Rusti! Rusti played with Aspyn, gave her loves and was very very good with her. Rylin is a good baby. When she was awake she never cried. She smiled at me (love baby smiles)!!

I love these 2 girls. I wish I were closer to watch them grow up!

6/2 Thursday Early in the morning we stopped in Mesquite to pick up Jordyn, say good bye to Jadon and Sharon and hit the road for the airport in Vegas.  Jordyn wanted to stay for a couple of more weeks with my family so Cody and I agreed that it would be fine.  Aspyn and I checked into the airport, made our way to the gate, and sat.  We were finally able to board the plane about 45 min later than scheduled. Once we were on the plane, we sat for another 30 minutes before we heard from the Captain. During inspection they found a dent in one of the wings so it was going to be a little while before someone from Boeing could say whether or not we could fly on that airplane.  Luckily the Captain let us off the plane to sit in the air conditioned terminal instead of on the plane. We were only back in the terminal about 15 minutes before we were able to  re-board the plane. From there on out it was smooth sailing! We made it to Grand Junction in about 55 minutes and we were finally able to see Cody! It was great to see him after a week and a half!

This trip to St. George was not relaxing, but it was so worth it. I had a really good time seeing both families and a few friends! I know both families had a good time seeing the girls and spending time with us.  Aspyn's 1st tooth came in while we were there, so that was fun too.

In the next couple of weeks, my family is coming here for the Hone Family Reunion and then the 1st part of July the Survis family will be flying over for the 1st time. We are so excited to see everyone again!!

Can You Hear That? It's Way Too Quiet!

This week Jordyn has been out of school for Spring Break. My parents had invited her to come to St. George and spend the week there with them.  She misses them all so much, so we agreed to let her go. She is having a blast! Monday she was able to go over to Ashley's house and spend the day helping her with Rusti and Rylin. Tuesday her and my mom went shopping and hung out together. Wednesday & Thursday Jordyn went to a preschool that is in my parents neighborhood. It's ran by some really close friends of the family. She loved it! They were learning about Jungle animals and the letter X. When I talked to her Wednesday night she said "Can I please, please, pleeeeaaasse go back tomorrow?" She went back Thursday and had a Safari! She said that all the kids were very nice to her and she had fun. For show and tell they had to bring something that started with X or had X in the word. She took an "Extra large Penny"! She's just so funny! Friday, her and my dad hung out all day doing miscellaneous activities. Then the family went to the movie Soul Surfer. That was the 1st time she had been to a movie theater (other than the Drive-In), my mom said she did great and that she loved the movie. Saturday she went to lunch with Chad, Danie'l, Sharon & Don. I'm so glad that they came up to St. George to see her. I know they miss her and I know that she misses them. Jordyn said that lunch was "Very fun"!  So as you can see she has had a very busy week. I know she's had fun!

While Jordyn has been gone, our house has been so quiet. It's actually been too quiet. I haven't realized in a very long time how much joy Jordyn brings to our home.  She livens up the house and when she's not here it just isn't fun around here. Some days the silence was just too much. I am so glad that she is coming home tomorrow. We need some excitement around here!  Even Aspyn hated having her gone. The 1st 2-3 days Aspyn was so grumpy.  It was almost like she knew she wasn't here and was voicing her disapproval! It will be very interesting to see what she does when she sees Jordyn tomorrow!  I can't wait!

Cody and I didn't really do anything exciting this week. We did a little yard work, a little house cleaning. We went on a lot of walks around town.  Cody changed the starter & the brakes in the truck. We did go to dinner one night! Mainly we had a pretty boring Spring Break!

Thank you mom, dad & Amber for meeting us in Green River to make the exchange. Thank you for letting her come spend the week with you. Thank you Survis family for taking the time to go to lunch with her! I appreciate all of you!