My favorite piano student!

As many of you know I teach piano lessons in my home to 22 students. I love teaching! It is so fun to see the kids as they progress, and I love their friendships. I am also grateful for the extra income it provides and for the opportunity to work at home. It is nice having Brandon and Maggie there during lessons, I think my students prefer them to me, (can I blame them)however they provide a great distraction to me and the students. Brandon has decided he really likes to play the piano as well, which is charming when my students are trying to focus, and if that does not get their attention he crawls right under them and tries to pull the plug to the digital piano right out of the wall. Maggie's attempts for distraction are just a crazy, she loves to lick my students feet or jump up on them to give them loves. I guess the plus side to all of this is that my students will be great at performing, they are after all learning to focus very well.

Needless to say, my favorite piano student is the one who does not even pay me, practice, or have a scheduled lesson, but I know he has great potential, just look at him. :)

I love the tippy toes to reach the piano, and that cute little bum!

A big round of applause for Brandon! Yeah Brandon!

Journal

The other day I was looking through my first journal from when I was 8 years old. I always knew that I was a bad speller, but this just confirmed that. I thought it was so funny, I wanted to share.

The Hole 3ed graid

did a perogam abote

The Safety Kids

We tout a big lesen

to the kiseds and

perents it was one

of the best.

One more entry made me laugh but for different reasons. This one is from when I was 12 years old.

Well this week has been GREAT!

Thursday we went to the homeless shelter, two boys from our ward were there. (You always have a good time with mature BOYS!) Well at least I do. That's why I had such a good time. Then to day I saw the Collets (the BOYS) that was a good day! and then on Sat. I am having a study group party and John and the rest of the BOYS will be there. That will be fun. Sunday there is a ward party. There will be TONS of Boys there. that will be fun. Then Mon. is the family party that will be ok but no boys to like. Then Wed. is the school mixed chorus performance. The place will be crawling with BOYS and part of it I will be the center of attention (GREAT!) this week will be lots of fun!

I am so grateful for my parents and their encouragement to write in a journal, where else would I get these kind of treasures?

Pioneer Day

I am so happy to be living in Utah again so that we could celebrate Pioneer Day. Jared and I decided to celebrate by retracing our roots. We spent the morning sleeping in, watching the parade on TV and eating a yummy breakfast fixed by Jared.

Then we went to Jared's home town of Bountiful to the Handcart celebration. We met up with Justin and Alison and their son Jack. I tried really hard to convince everyone to get their face painted but they wouldn't :) so instead we took Brandon and Jack to ride the ponies. Brandon was a natural holding on to the saddle, I think he really enjoyed it, and I think he really liked Snoopy, his pony. Jared was happy that Brandon's first experience on a horse was with Pony Haven, the same company that Jared first rode on a horse with. He is also thrilled that Brandon is riding horses before he is walking. :)Then we let Brandon and Jack ride in a handcart - so cute.

We then ate all of the fun fair foods like; corn on the cob, BBQ sandwiches, nachos, snow cones, cotton candy, and elephant ears (large scones).

After Bountiful's festivities we did a little shopping went out to dinner, and then drove to my home town of Cottonwood Heights for the Buttlerville day celebration. It was so fun to surprise my family and old neighbors by showing up. We had fun looking at the classic cars, sandcastle competitions, (my bro. Scotties sandcastle was the best of course) new police cars, and fancy bounce houses. It was also fun to see two of my piano students and their family there. But my favorite part of the day was watching the fireworks and better yet watching Brandon as he watched the fireworks. His big eyes getting even bigger, his little hand trying to grab the fireworks, and his little sounds of amazement. It is true what they say that life is better with children!

We had a lot of fun returning to our home towns, however I am looking forward to next year when we "pioneer" our own traditions. I wonder what they will be?

The camera is found!

Many of you will remember that I lost my camera at our family trip to Eden. I have been so upset about it, and not having any pictures to post. Fortunately I got a call a few days ago from a man who stayed at the same condo we did, and he found it under the bed in our room. I am so grateful for his honesty and all the research he must of done to find me in order to return it. (the camera was not identified)

Even in a world where there is so much crime and evil there are good people doing the right thing. That makes me happy!

Memory Lane Thing

Here's the low down:

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Happy Birthday Jared!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to Jared

Happy Birthday to you!!!

(a day late)

I love you tons!!! I hope that you have a great day, and a great year to come!

Thanks for being a great husband, and a darling father!

gbhvbhgcsvr5tb Brandon wanted to wish you a happy birthday too :) cv xdcvg uhghg bgh biu

Long Vacation, But Not Long Enough

WARNING: Long Vacation, But Not Long Enough, makes for a long post! Consider yourself warned!

Our little family went to Island Park, Idaho (where Jared's family owns a cabin) for 10 days. We had a wonderful time! Unfortunately the only camera was our camera phone and I still can not figure out how to download the pictures, GRRR. There were however many highlights.

We spent the Fourth of July in West Yellowstone. We watched a darling small town parade, Brandon was wide eyed for the whole thing, but my favorite part was when a lady running with a torch (not sure why) came right to Brandon and let him hold it. I got a great picture (wish you could see it). Just as I thought Brandon's wide eyes could not get any bigger we went to watch the fireworks. He LOVED them. I was worried that he would be scared, but not at all.

The following Saturday Jared and I went four wheeling while Jared's parents watched Brandon for us. I love the smell of a forest on a hot summer day, the pine trees, wildflowers, and the sun baked dirt being kicked up from the four wheelers, yum! And I love going a speedy 25mph through trails with the wind in your hair. But mostly I love being able to visit the place where Jared proposed to me, it is beautiful and very romantic.

Sunday We drove to the top of Sawtell Mountain which provided us with a view of the entire area. The drive was a little scary because of the narrow, steep roads, and the switchbacks but it was well worth it. I was amazed at all the wildflowers, courtesy of a long winter. You can imagine the beautiful pictures that I wish I could show you.

Jared's parents watched Brandon again for us so that we could go horseback riding for five hours Monday morning, yes we were very sore for a very long time, but it was so fun I would do it again. It was undoubtedly the best ride I have ever done. We went through rivers, meadows (with more amazing flowers), forest where we were so close to the trees I still have a few scratches from them, and went up and down switchbacks to the top of another mountain with a great view. We saw a moose, red tailed hawk, deer, cranes, and many other birds and wildlife. I rode on a beautiful horse named Simon, and Jared rode on a mammoth of a horse named Goose. Goose had terrible gas, and I was fortunate enough to ride behind him. :)

Tuesday Jared went fishing and I stayed home to clean the room in the cabin dedicated to all the grand kids. I know, you are thinking "some trip, Jared gets to fish while Michelle gets to clean", but I have been wanting to clean the room for some time, and I really did enjoy myself (it is my little sickness). By the way, the room looks great, if I do say so myself. :)

Wednesday Jared went fishing again while I stayed at the cabin with Brandon. Jared was very successful catching roughly 2 dozen fish (with a fly rod I might add) Way to go Jared! I enjoyed going on walks with Brandon and Maggie, taking naps, and reading a cute book (Walk Too Moons) start to finish, it was such a restful day!

Thursday we all went back to West Yellowstone for some shopping and dinner.

Friday Jared went fishing again, and was successful again, and I stayed at the cabin again, so that I could go through my memory box, and pack for Idaho Falls. I had way too much fun looking through the memory box, which incidentally is at least a 75 gallon box, probably much more. It was better then opening a treasure box with gold inside! I found my first journal from when I was eight years old, it is hilarious!!! That night we drove to Idaho Falls, so that we could see the rest of the family.

Saturday we made the rounds to different family members and that evening we got together for a BBQ, we visited until the early morning hours and then slept in on Sunday and drove home the night.

I love vacations like this, little money is spent, lost of memories are made, and we were able to catch up on some much needed R and R.

Teeth

Well Brandon finally cut his first tooth! I am so proud of him, he didn't even fuss about it, so I was surprised when we found it. Sorry no pictures!

Eden Trip and camera blues

Well because of Lindsey's soccer tournament in Eden my parents decided to take us on a quick family vacation. We arrived Friday night and spent the night playing games and visiting. We spent Saturday morning watching Lindsey compete (she won the tournament) and then that afternoon we went to pine view reservoir to play at the lake. My dad rented two jet skies, which were so much fun!! I screamed and laughed the entire time. Unfortunately Brandon did not like being outside in the heat, even though he was under the shade. We think he got heat stroke, so we left early. Luckily when we got to our condo he took a great nap and was fine afterwards. Sunday morning we had a big breakfast and celebrated my sister Natalie's 1/2 birthday (June 25th) and my brother Scott's 19th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE AND SCOTT!!! We had such a great time playing and bonding with family. Thanks mom and dad for providing the accommodations, food, activities, and gas!

The down side of the trip is that through the chaos of Brandon being sick I lost my camera. That is why I have no pictures to show you. I am so sad that I don't have my camera especially with more summer vacations and holidays coming up. Fortunately I have a camera phone that I will just have to start using, but it is just not the same. Hopefully it will turn up somewhere soon.

Great Job Lindsey!

I am so proud of my little sister Lindsey. She recently competed in a summer select soccer tournament and she and her team won two of the three tournaments. She is a great little player! I had so much fun watching her play in the cottonwood heights tournament, but the Eden tournament was my favorite. Congrats Lindsey!Lindsey is number 8 and one of the tallest girls on the team, not sure where she got her height from, but I wish I had a little of it. :)The girls have some very creative cheers.Brandon is thinking he would also like to be a soccer player, good thing Lindsey is interested in teaching him. :)