A Touch Of Tyrell

Whenever I talk to people about the weather here I always tell them it's HOT until Halloween and then it just becomes less hot. Jake always thinks I'm exaggerating but I'm not. After going to Colorado for the Fall he finally joined my team. Team: 'lets move someday'.  It's still hot. Like high 80's, low 90's. The nice thing is that at least it cools down at night now. It's SUPER nice first thing in the morning. It's a dream. The sunrise this morning was gorgeous.   I LOVE being able to see some mountains from my bedroom window. It fact, we can see mountains from almost every window in our house. I feel super lucky and I love it! They still have a section of neighborhood to build so I think most of our view will go away... but it's been beautiful while it's lasted!  This morning, Roxy and I dug up the dead plants in our front yard and then planted new, different ones. Plants that can survive the hottest hot AZ has ...

We were invited to a breakfast and pumpkin carving party Saturday morning. Jake was still out of town so it was nice to have something to do that was fun. Breakfast was great (breakfast casserole, buttermilk pancakes with THE BEST homemade syrup, bacon, sausage, pumpkin donuts, yogurt and granola... it was good!) and then carving pumpkins. Everett carved a lego batman looking thing into his and Breckie painted hers.  The seeds inside one of our pumpkins were sprouting already, it was pretty cool. They also had a whole roll of halloween drawings for the kids to color. Genius! Plus it was at a park so it was a really fun morning for all of us.  Then that evening was the ward trunk-or-treat. I had the best homemade chili ever. It was so rich and bacon-y and the cornbread I had was more like yellow cake (it actually might have been :). Delicious. There was homemade rootbeer and homemade macaroni and cheese for the chili haters (Everett and Roxy :) There was a ...

Another thing that happened when Jake was out of town was Mother/Son kickball. It was a huge hassle trying to find someone to watch the girls but it ended up being pretty fun.   Plus, we had pizza and Kona Ice so Everett was pretty stoked :)

We have a lime tree in our backyard. It produced so many limes in it's first year! Roxy likes when I break one open and she'll such on it for an hour. She loves them.  I think they're ripe near the end of August... but there are still so many on our tree. Some have turned yellow and have fallen off. The other day we gathered up a handful and jumped on the trampoline with them And still, with dozens more, we made lime-inaide. Roxy isn't ever sure if they're limes or lemons so she calls them "lime-ins" :) I love spending time with this crazy girl!

Jake and Diet Coke have been friends for several years now. Maybe like 6 or 7 years. But lately the kids have been asking (or sneaking) diet coke too! It happened while Jake was on his dunes trip. Everett found a soda in the fridge and then it was a constant fight until it was gone.  Roxy has been trowing her 'terrible two' tantrums lately and she didn't hold anything back when Everett took the diet coke.  Now I'm going to have to wean my whole family off of Diet Coke!

Jake was out of town for his annual boys trip and it seemed like something happened every day that he was gone.  One night we went to the Boo Bash at a neighboring school. Our friend is the PTO lady and invited us.  We had pizza and popcorn, potion and cupcakes, and even had a goodie bag on the way out! Yay for not needing to cook dinner!

Roxy loves her babies and I think it's the cutest thing ever. They each have a bottle and she is always feeding them :) I think she's ready for a minivan! I love spending time with each kid alone... and Roxy and I have so much of that time! She's my little bestie... and I'm definitely hers! She gets so mad whenever anyone else needs my attention or touches me :)

Breckie and I went with our girlfriends to the BYU ballroom dance performance. It was SUPER cool! Jake and Everett go on outings all of the time so this was sorely past due! We all loved it and we're hoping we can go again next year.  Breckie wanted to meet some dancers after the show. They were all so incredible. 

I'm sure it's humorous that I take time to document our trip back home... I'm not sure why but it's part of the trip, I guess. Maybe it's significant that I'm actually coming back :) The way home was good. And so, so long.  We got to see a beautiful sunset. The wild horses are always cool.  When we got home, it was actually an AMAZING temperature. It was a cold week everywhere else but it was PERFECT at our house. It lasted a little over a week and I was in Heaven!! 

I never knew how hard it was to keep track of how old you are. It's like it stops mattering and then you actually forget but the years keep coming! It's tradition to light and blow out the candles at least three times...  ... and then have cake for breakfast the next day. 

Interrupting my Colorado posts to tell you today (in AZ) it was chilly. Like really chilly and I loved it! Roxy and I went on a big long walk to enjoy as much of it as we could. We stopped by the treehouse and played on the slide. Ever since breaking her collar bone on a slide in CO she's a little nervous to go down by herself. 

 Saturday, the day before my birthday, my mom sent Jake to the store to pick up some last minute birthday dinner things. On the way he saw an antique sale and stopped. Then he came back home to pick me and Breckie up so we could take a look.  He's the best! We ended up buying two old suitcases and an old typewriter. I was stoked!!! Breckie wanted a beaded purse but it wasn't kid-quality so I told her we'd look at other thrift stores.  So we visited several thrift stores in town and I could only imagine life living in Durango. Looks so dreamy! But a tiny tiny tiny house (like for real, 1,000 sq ft) costs just as much as our 4,200 sq ft house in AZ so.... :(  But I can dream, right?! Speaking of dreams, we stopped by a thrift store/book store and I found a $300 vintage book. I don't know if he ever sells anythings... doesn't look like it! There were books EVERYWHERE. Like the guys deck was made out of stacks of books.  ...

One of the days we were in Colorado Jake, Everett and I went for a hike. I always look forward to our Colorado adventures! I remember when out-of-towners would point out the deer like it was something new... and now I'm an out-of-towner pointing out the deer :) I love a lot of things... but Summer and Fall in the mountains is definitely at the top of that list.  I have a billion pictures... because I'm obsessed.  It was blue skies for a little while and then the clouds rolled in pretty quickly.  Everett was the best hiker. I sure am proud of that little guy! Aspen trees are my all time favorite! And then we made it! The lake was so pretty! I couldn't get enough.  And then it started raining. We hid under some trees and ate some beef jerky.   I ran out to take pictures of the lake one...