Utah weekend

John and I went on a quick getaway weekend last week. We left on the 18th and came back on the 21st. The kids stayed home alone and we think they behaved without us. (let me know if you know otherwise!)

We drove up to St. George on Thursday and went to see Grease at Tuacahn. It was great! They do such a good job there! I really want to get up there to see Little Mermaid. I am so glad that I married a man that loves to see musicals! John was in this play in high school, so it was fun for him to see again. It was a very hot night... but we survived the heat. We spent the night in St George and then headed up to Provo in the morning.

We got to Provo and went straight to BYU campus to visit our good friends Stacy and Geoff Julian who were there for Education week. They are good friends from Spokane. I still do a little work with Stacy at BigPictureClasses.com. I get to travel to Minneapolis with her in September. I am excited! This visit was short and sweet. It was fun to catch up and hear what was new with them. Maybe next year we can join them for a few days at education week, lunch wasn't long enough!

After our lunch we went to do some wedding shopping... we found a few things we were looking for! It was worth the drive.

Our next stop was to see our new "great nephew". I think that's what we call him. Our niece Sam and her husband Jake had a cute little boy on the 4th of July! He was such a cutie! I am so glad we got to meet little Christopher! It was fun to see where they are living and catch up with them. They are so happy to be parents!

John has been itching to float down the Provo river for 22 years! (we went when we were first married...) Every time we go there he talks about it. It's never fit into our schedule until this trip. I must admit that I didn't really want to go.. but went along to make him happy. I was so glad we went! It was beautiful and peaceful! We stopped at Vivian park and signed up to go with a little river tour group there. They only had kayaks available and that worked out great! We got dropped off a few miles up the river with a big bus load of people. We loved the kayak because we weren't right in the water, but we could get wet when we wanted and we had more control than a tube.

My cute hubby!

It was a beautiful day out! Perfect for the river.

We even saw a train!



The reason we headed to Utah was to go to Jessica and Matt's wedding reception. Jessica is Dix and Kaleen Jarman's daughter. (John's boss and our good friends) It was up at Sundance and it was beautiful! She wanted a rustic reception and it was a perfect location. The was right outside the reception hall. SO pretty!

There were lots of work and Vegas friends there and it was great to see them all.

My good friend Rene'e. I had to go to Utah to see her... haha. (terrible picture... it was taken on the phone...)

Jessica and Matt cutting the cake. They were so happy! It was a really fun party. Lot's of dancing, good food and great people!

Sunday morning we went to my parents for breakfast. My dad makes the best breakfasts! Mark and Katherine and their girls were in town. It was great to see them! Cindy and Spencer came over too. It was such a short and busy trip, we never got up to see Todd and his family. Sorry Todd. We love you!

Mom, John, Dad, Mark, Carly, Katherine, Taylor, Cindy & Spencer.

I love any time I can get away with my honey! Even if it's just to Utah and it's full of things to do.

Gone again...

My little girl left for BYU today. I will miss her! It was hard to say goodbye... even though I am sure she will be home a lot this semester working on wedding plans and visiting her man. I would like to think that she will want to come see us... but i know better. hahaha.

It makes me sad to think that she really won't live with us again... except an occasional visit home. I'm not sure i am ready for this next stage of life. My sister in law just posted on facebook that she wasn't ready to send her son on the bus for kindergarten... I'm not ready to hand my girl over to the man of her dreams. I wish it was kindergarten all over again!

Life is interesting! Every stage is a learning experience.

I love you Ashley!

HIking...

Tanner went on a hike a few weeks ago for scouts and has been begging to take us on it. So, we set out Saturday morning to see some cool caves up near Red Rock. (Sadly, Mitchell got called into work early) He found the starting point and off we went....

We thought we were prepared... water - check, snacks - check...

Scotty and Ashley ready to go...

About to head into the cave... this is when we realize what we forgot! Dark cave, need flashlights... no check. Dang! How could we forget??? Tanner reminded us many times! Luckily another family was up there and they couldn't find the entrance into the cave, so we showed them the way and they let us use their light! I should be able to use that in a talk someday hugh?? We didn't explore as long as we would have if we had our own lights... oh well. Next time.

John headed in...

Stupid people have graffiti'd the place real bad. so sad!

This picture doesn't do it justice... the cave is huge and you go for a ways and then you can go down into an even bigger area... we didn't go too far because the people with the light weren't going down there... bummer.

Being in the cave reminded me of Tom Sawyer. I think when i was little we used to listen to a tape of my Grandma Verhaaren telling that story. This is how I pictured the dark tunnels they got lost in... it was a little scary. Glad we didn't go too far.

We survived!

The love birds...

Tanner being silly...

Sometimes I forget that Vegas has some beautiful spots! This was one of them. We got lucky, there were clouds in the sky, so it wasn't too hot and we missed the rain. It was perfect.

Stephanie & Kevin

Our niece Stephanie got married in Idaho Falls the weekend we were in Chicago. We were so sad to miss the wedding! We really wanted to be there to support her and meet Kevin. We were happy to find out that they were going to be in Vegas for a few days this weekend as they traveled home from their honeymoon in San Diego. They came over Saturday evening and we went to dinner and played games after. It was so fun! Kevin is a really nice guy! We totally approve of her choice! haha... (not that it matters)

Dinner at Kona Grill

Playing Scum...

Thanks for stopping to see us Stephanie and Kevin! We are so happy for you!!!

New Family

We had a barbecue at our house Friday night with Scotty's family. It was Kim's idea and I am so glad we did it. It was fun to get to know Scotty's family before the big day! We had Scott, Jenn and Joanna and the kids come over. I wish we had more family around!

We ate some yummy food, swam and talked.

This is Jordan and Carson, Scotty's brother in law and nephew.

Scott, Jenn and Jack.

Mitchell and Michelle swimming.

Matt and Ashley, Scotty's brother and sister in law and nephew.

Scotty, Ashley, Ron and John .

This is Jenn, Scotty's sister. She is a twin and her twin sister lives in Boston. So we haven't met her or his brother Brad yet. She gave Ashley a little survival kit, "how to survive Scotty" and I gave Scotty a bag full of things to survive Ashley. It was pretty funny. We put some of their favorite things in it, like: sweet tarts, top Raman, cafe rio gift card, markers, Capri suns, music a hat and some other fun things!












We are excited for the wedding in 97 days. We are thrilled that they are so happy and we are so happy for them! It was great to get to know some of the Marx family and It will be fun to have more family here in Vegas!


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Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt #2

The boys and I went out to Chicago last week for the grand opening of the our new Yumz store. (John was already there) It was so exciting and exhausting! We flew out Thursday morning at 6:00am. Yes, I said our plane left at 6:00AM! That meant that we had to be at the airport at 5, so we left at 4:30. That wasn't easy for 2 teenage boys who are used to getting up at noon! John picked us up at the airport and we went straight to the new store. We worked there until about 1:00 in the morning!

There was so much to be done. We scrubbed walls, floors, containers, loaded the fridge and freezer, got toppings organized, set up computers, dvd players, hung shelves and folded t-shirts. We were impressed with how hard our boys worked! They did a great job. We hardly broke for dinner.

me folding shirts...

On Friday we opened at 11am and all went well. Lots of people came in that first day. Annette (John's sister) came in and brought a few of her kids. It was a beautiful day out (actually it was pretty humid... but that is normal there) so we went over to Matt's house and let the kids play in the yard for a while. Tanner hadn't seen his cousins in about 4 or 5 years. So it was fun to connect again. We wish we would have had more time to go to their house and hang out! Next time for sure!

Cute Natalie

Ammon shooting some hoops

Lauren had fun cheering the boys on! She is so positive with her brothers! I was so impressed.

Tanner slamming it!

Everett, Ammon, Tanner and Natalie

Aunt Annette, Lauren and Ammon. You can see that it was pretty hot out by Ammon's red face!

The new Lake In The Hills store

Dianna and I were ready to open!

Saturday was the official grand opening. The local radio station came out and set up a booth from 2-4. They gave away Taylor Swift tickets every half hour. That brought a lot of people out! It was crazy busy.

Everyone came in and got yogurt and then got in line for tickets. I felt bad for them all because it was very hot and humid out! ugh.

The DJ.

Mitchell and I ran the registers for a while and I am happy to say that the registers all balanced out that night! I was pretty sure that I had goofed a few times. haha.

Check out all the people!

Annette came back for the grand opening and I forgot to get pictures of Kathryn and Meredith... dang!

The 2 guys that made this whole thing happen! They have worked so hard!!! A lot of nights spent on the computer and on the phone.