And the Chicken-ing Begins

Saturday morning Jesse went to Rockin' E and purchased 8 baby chicks. When he came back I was wondering why he only got 8, because all this time we had talked about getting 12.

Why 12? Two reasons;
1. My parents wanted fresh eggs as well.
2. As chicks you cant tell if they are a rooster or a hen. So we thought we'd start a little high and go from there. Hopefully we don't have too many roosters.

So on my lunch break I drove down to Rockin E and picked up 3 more chicks. You're probably thinking 8 and 3 doesn't add up to be 12. Well A lady I work with has a daughter who was asked to Prom and she answered him back by giving him a baby chick saying "This chick would love to go to the dance."

They have had the chick for the past week and didn't know what to do with it. Until they found out that Jesse and I were getting our own chicks. So we adopted the little yellow one.

For the first month they have to remain inside under a heat lamp 24/7. So for right now we have them in the spare bathroom tub.

 hehe Aren't they so cute? We are in the process of naming them.

 This is all the boys have been doing lately. Just watching...

 ...and holding...

 ...and touching.

After work on Friday I came home to a little surprise. Jesse had brought home a full grown hen. A little confused I asked why? He went on to tell me that the guy living at the house him and Todd are working on has a bunch of chickens. So Jesse thought he'd  mention to him that we were going to get chickens. The guy was excited and said 'Hey I have a chicken you can have.' Jesse said 'Thanks but we are planning on buying chicks tomorrow.'
But the guy said 'I'm just going to kill her, you might as well take her.'
Feeling like he had this bird's life in his hands, Jesse took the chicken.

So with one saved hen, an adopted chick and 11 purchased chicks we are set with 13 chickens. 48 hours into and so far so good.

We have talked to several people who have chickens and they have all given us great tips from their experience. But to be safe I bought "Raising Chickens for Dummies." We are certainly rookies that need all the help we can get. So far most everything I have read I have heard from one source or another. I have also learned alot about raising the chicks. It's nice to have something to refer to.

Jesse has been buiding the chicken coup (I will post pictures of that when it is done). He also has been putting up the fence. Our yard has been 3/4 of the way fenced ever since we moved. With the chickens we  figured it would be better to fence off the rest of the yard along the front of the house, which we have wanted to do for a really long time. We always talked about how nice it would be to have the yard entirely enclosed so we wouldn't worry about the boys running into the street. And so now we laugh about the fact that it took getting chickens to enclose the yard. Heaven forbid we get a fence for our children. haha

This is going to be a fun little adventure, so I'm sure there will be plenty more posts about it. So until then.
_______________________________________
This is a side note from the chickens, but most definitely blog worthy.

Cy is a week and a half shy of being 14 months old....and he hasn't shown any desire to walk. Because he doesn't really care for the grass all that much he has been crawling around in the backyard like a little bear cub. Crawling on his hands and feet. It's kind of funny to watch.

So Friday evening we were all hanging out in the backyard. Jesse was actually talking on the phone with a friend from Fire Academy and I was on the phone with my sister, Manda while the boys were playing around. To our surprise Cy went from his little bear crawl....

 ...to full on STANDING UP!!!!

 He was just thrilled about it. Since that night he has done it several more times. But he'll only do it when he is outside on the grass.

 A little update about Jesse:

Wednesday Jesse met with one of his instructors from Fire Academy. He took notes and learned lots of great tips from his instructor on what the fire department would be looking for. That night I practiced with Jesse for two hours by asking him some of the most common questions.

Thursday morning he interviewed. Afterwards he called to talk to me about it. The questions he had been asked were nothing he'd felt prepared for. He was thrown for a loop and was feeling a little discouraged.

During the interview they mentioned that they were going to higher ONE person. ONE!!! Jesse of course felt discouraged about this. But I had to remind him that out of the 250 people who took the civil service test he was among the 10 people who were selected to interview. That gave him a little more hope.

Jesse was told he'd get an email at the beginning of the week if he got the job or not. It's been a long weekend for him waiting and wondering. He might find out today. Or he might find out tomorrow. Who knows? I'm super anxious to know so I can't imagine how he is feeling.

I'll let you know.

Jazz vs. Maverick's Game

A very good client of mine asked me a few months back if I would like to trade for jazz tickets. Um HECK YES!!! So her ex-husband helped her hook us up with 7th row seats and VIP dinner tickets to the Jazz vs. Mavericks game last night!

I was excited for two reasons;
1. Jesse and I hadn't been on a date really since he was in Fire School. So now that he is done we were able to enjoy a perfect date together.
2. Jesse and I haven't ever been that close before so we were thrilled to get that experience.

Jesse was coming from work so before the game we decided to meet early and walk through the new City Creek Mall. AND...It's Awesome! One of a kind.

We first went to the VIP dinner. It was fancy and yummy.  And plus you can't beat a free meal right?

After that we ventured to find our seats. It's a crazy unknown feeling walking all the way down to the bottom. I think my smile got bigger and bigger the farther down we went... I felt so privileged.

 Look how close we were.

 Just simply enjoying ourselves. At half time we were able to go back down to the VIP room for nachos, popcorn, desserts and drinks. It made the 12 minute half time go by so much faster than normal. I swear at home it goes by so slowly. There was just enough time to speed walk down and back and we still were late.

The Mavericks were dirty players. #13 Delonte West put his finger in Gordon Hayward's ear and pushed him. Such poor sportsmanship. The crowd was so mad when this happened. I pulled this picture from the web because I didn't see it when it all happened. But honestly why would a player do that? The rest of the game every time West got the ball the whole crowd booed him so loud.

So the Jazz were leading the whole game right up until the end and we went into Over Time not just once, but THREE times! Talk about an intense game. Oh man! But the Jazz pulled it out at the end and the finished off the Mavericks. 123 to 121. Way to show them! 

At the beginning of the game I had the thought, since we are so close to the court it's gotta be easier to get on the Jumbo-tron. So the rest of the night it was my goal to get on that jumbo-tron.  So I'm jumping and dancing and screaming and doing everything I can to get noticed by the cameras and FINALLY in the third OT I made it on the JUMBO-TRON!!!! YES!!! I was so stoked (add that to my bucket check list, haha)!

VICTORY Smiles! What a great game to be on the 7th row. I was so hoping for a good game since we were going to be that close. And hey all my expectations were fulfilled.

It was so awesome to be with Jesse and be just the two of us. My mom was so kind to let the boys spend the night over at her place. That way Jesse and I could just BE us! It has been months. I'm looking forward to more future dates together. YEAH!

_________________________

A little update about Jesse: He got an email today from South Jordon Fire Department telling him that he passed his test and that he has been considered for an interview. His interview is Thursday at 10am. So until then... Wish him luck!!!  

St. George Trip Day 3 & 4 (Sat & Sun)

Saturday: The whole reason behind our trip was Chantel's Dance Competition. So this day was a little more relaxed. It's great to see and do stuff while you are on vacation, but it's sometimes even nicer to just do nothing. So we had a laid back morning until we had to be to Dixie College for Chantel's first call time at 12:27. Dance time was at 1:27pm. We had been super lucky that the rain held out for us until this day. But out of all the days if it was going to rain, this day was fine... We didn't mind.

Her first dance was called Butler (she's the fourth one from the front). This dance was amazing and rightfully so they won 1st place!

Her Second dance wasn't until 7pm so we all went to lunch and then headed back to the condo to chill out for awhile. And guess what? We played ANOTHER round of Monopoly. Not sure why we were on a monopoly kick. haha

Then it was back at Dixie College to watch Chan's second dance called Lights!

 I guess this dance in previous competitions hadn't received 1st place, but this time around they won 1st place! Way to GO Chan!!!!

 Sunday: Check out time for the condo was 11am. So that whole morning we cleaned and packed everything back into the cars. Once that was done we headed Home...ish. We took a serious detour to Bryce Canyon.

Ya check out the snow in the back ground...When we were leaving St. George it was warm and sunny, so the snow was quite the surprise when we arrived. But we had driven over two hours to get there we couldn't turn back.

 Ryker found the perfect walking stick... or what he'd like to call it "his sword!"

 It was about 45 degrees outside, but with the wind it felt alot colder. We decided to put the cover on the carrier to help block the wind from Cy's face. For some reason he thought it was so funny.

 It was such a muddy trail. The mud just stuck to our shoes and slowly we built platforms for ourselves.

 We stopped for a little lunch. When the wind wasn't blowing it wasn't so bad. So we tried to find a sunny-non-wind-blowing picnic spot.

 Our hike down was 1.5 miles... and this was our destination...TOWER BRIDGE!

The hike back up was a little brutal. The boys were cold and tired (Ryker didn't want to walk and Cy didn't want to be in his carrier)... they were whining and just DONE! But all we really could do was to just keep trekking up that mountain.

What a relief it was to get back to the cars.

I think it was about 5pm at this point and we put our address into the GPS to see how far away and how long it would take to get home. To our surprise it was going to take 5 hours. Oh man. Normally I wouldn't care, but long car rides with kiddos isn't all that grand. But thanks to a DVD player and Cy taking a long nap, the few hours were good. We stopped for dinner around 8ish and started back up on the road by 9. I think we made it home around 10. Not too shabby?

That about sums it all up. We had such a great time together! We missed the rest of our family and wished they could have been there.

I'm grateful to have my family (meaning my own little family, along with my parents, siblings and their spouses) in my life. This world would be a lone and dreary place without them. I love them all with all my heart and would do anything for them!!! Love you guys!!! 

St;. George Trip Day 2 (Fri)

Friday morning we all get up for breakfast. I was in charge of food this day, so Omelets, hash browns and fruit were on the menu. What a yummy way to start the day. I have been obsessed with omelets lately. It took me awhile to master it, but now I can whip up a pretty dang good omelet.

After breakfast we all got dressed and Chantel and I realize we have the same clothes. We know we are sisters when we buy the same t-shirts and jeans, let alone pack them for the same trip. Haha.

 The plan for the day was to hike through Snow Canyon and the caves. So thankfully the weather (once again) held up for us. It was overcast, but hey we'll take it. No fun hiking in the rain. Just a light jacket will do the trick for an overcast day.

We started out on the Petrified Sand Dunes trying to find the caves. (We later found out that we were in the wrong spot, but me and the others didn't mind exploring the dunes).

 We hiked around for a bit until we found a place to eat. As we are getting all settled I suggested that we should say a blessing on the food. So I hurry and say a quick prayer on the food and as soon as I say AMEN, Ryker inserted his two sense on the tail end of my prayer..."and thank you for that I am coming more perfect."

Oh my heck... it took everything we has in us NOT to laugh at him. But it was SO cute and funny. I hurried and jotted what he said on my phone so I wouldn't for get what he said.

This was the occasional smile from Cy. The poor thing was sick of being strapped in something. He was either in the car seat, the backpack or the bike trailer. I felt so bad for him. All he wanted to do was crawl around on the ground.

 The opening of the first cave we went into. (The opening is off the to right in the picture)

 It was really dusty inside so every picture I took it looked all spotted like this one.

 Mom was all prepared and bought each one of us a head lamp. Ryker thought they were the coolest. He was acting like he was going on a secret mission to explore the cave. It was cute.

 Here we are standing next to the opening of the 2nd cave. This cave was much bigger than the last one...

 ...and a little more tricky to get down inside...

 ...but we made it. Mom stayed back with Cy because we didn't think Jesse and Cy together could fit through the smaller crawl spaces.

 When we got to the end of the cave there was a big opening. There was a large group of people in there already and they were opening glow sticks and splashing them all over the place and even on themselves. We sat off to the side just watching with our lights off. It looked like we were in the middle of a small galaxy. When they were done spreading the glow, they then started a game of hide and seek. The kids would spread up against the wall and because they had the glow stuff splattered on them they blended right into the wall. Brilliant! Why didn't we think of this? Next time for sure!

Jesse and Dad decided to go back and get Mom and Cy. So while Ty, Chan, Ryker and I were waiting for them to come back, the four of us watched the glow stick group and took a few snap shots.

 Once we got out of the cave we let Cy crawl around for a bit before we put him back in the backpack. I swear he would have been content on those rocks for a really long time.

 Ryker was getting tired from hiking, so the last stretch I carried him on my shoulders. Of course I thought it would be a great photo opportunity.

When we got back to the car Jesse checked his phone for an email from South Jordon's Fire Department. He was told that he'd know if he passed by 5pm. He reads the email and it says they didn't get the test results back yet. UGH! He was so bugged. It's hard waiting, but then to get then email that says he had to wait even longer.... MADDENING!!!

Our next stop was the St George narrows. By this point we were all just pooped, so it was nice that the Narrow part was really short.

 Some parts were really narrow that Tyson and Jesse had to get really low to even get through. This made me really want to me in Moab.

My parents kept saying how awesome these places were (which they were) it just was a small glimps of Moab. So Jesse and I are determined to get my parents there. If they are impressed with this less of a mile narrows slot, they are going to be blown away by Moab.

 My sweet little boys...ready and posing for the camera.

 By this point Cy had been up for several hours without a nap, so on our way back to the condo he was kinda grumpy. BUT I figured out that he liked my phone while I had the music playing. After a few minutes he started putting the phone to his ear and he made a sound that sounded like 'hello'. We were all getting a kick out of him doing it. Funny how they catch on so quickly.

Back at the Condo I made dinner and then we all agreed to play monopoly (not sure why?) haha Long story short, I was the first one out and Chantel smoked everyone.

St. George Trip Day 1 (Thurs)

Early Thursday morning we (meaning my parents, Chantel, Tyson and our little family) started our venture down to St. George. Thankfully the boys were being good sports about being woken up at 6 in the morning. Ryker was all excited and ready to go...

 ...Cyrus was just quiet and had this look on his face like 'Why am I up this early?'

 On the way down we stopped in Springville for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. YUM.

The rest of the drive down we were praying and crossing our fingers that we would have good weather in St. George. The weather forecast was saying rain for the whole weekend. It wasn't looking very promising as we drove through rain and snow. It was starting to make me feel grumpy. Whenever you imagine St. George you think warm weather and lots of sun. So the crappy weather on the way down made fact that I had to pack pants and sweatshirts more aggravating.  

 But low and behold and we started to come down out of Ceder City and we watched the temperature start to go up. So when we pulled into St. George the sunshine and blue skies was a very welcoming feeling. It was about 65 degrees. AWE!!!

We stopped at the bike store to pick up a couple of tire tubes and then headed to the base of Snow Canyon. We spent a little time getting the bikes all prepped and ready to go while...

 ...Ryker kept Cy entertained for us.

 We also had a little lunch.

 His booster seat came in handy at this point. He was so busy crawling around exploring that he wouldn't eat anything. But once we put him in his seat he did great.

 I was seriously so excited to get my bike out on a ride longer than just around the block in our neighborhood. Also to get a better feel for my new clip less bike shoes (I have to admit that I only fell over once and it was in the parking lot haha). After that it was smooth sailing. It felt so good to get out and ride. The boys weren't as hard to pull as I thought they would be. Definitely more of a challenge going up the hills.

It turned out that the first half way all up hill. 6 MILES UPHILL (and I pulled the boys the whole way)!





 Riding through the Canyon was just beautiful.

 Taking a break as we wait for the rest of the crew to come up the hill.

 The boys slept the whole way up. Which was much needed. Ryker didn't sleep in the car on the drive down and Cy only slept about 30 minutes. So they got about an hour nap in the bike trailer. So Cute!

 On our way back down we stopped at the Sand Dunes.

 This was probably the highlight of the boy's day.

 But what boy wouldn't like to play in a big pile of sand? 

 Jesse and Tyson were having a contest on who could jump the highest and farthest down the sand hill.

 I wanted a turn to try.... haha lets just say this white girl can't jump.

We spent about an hour soakin' up the sun and enjoying the beautiful day that we so luckily were given.

Our ride back down the canyon went by so fast. It's amazing how much faster a downhill mile is versus an uphill mile (pulling two boys might I add). When we reached the car we had mad a round trip of 12 miles. Not too shabby?

When we made it back to the parking lot Jesse and I decided to ride our bikes to the condo while everyone else drove the cars there. The condo was 5 miles from the parking lot, so we put in a 17 mile bike ride. It was AWESOME! I have found a new love for biking. It was a perfect way to start out our trip.

Manda and Jon's plan was to drive to St. George from Eugen, OR after Manda got out of school Thursday night at 9pm. They were planning on bringing their two dogs and little bird. When my dad booked the Condo he saw on the website the it was pet friendly. Well when we got to the condo and my mom was reading through the pamphlet it said NO PETS ALLOWED! So we all started to worry. My Dad called the front desk and they said the pets were only allowed in the houses not the condos.

So at the last minute Jon and Manda had to try and find a place to kennel their dogs. Long story short, their newer dog didn't have his shots so they couldn't kennel him, and they had a later start to drive down than planned, and lack of sleep, they decided it would best to stay home  :( Us and them were all really bummed, but it turns out that it'll be for the best.

Our originally plan for this trip was to have the entire family here, but Craig had finals for school and Lex had work so they weren't able to make it. Then Manda and Jon weren't able to make it. So we are missing the rest of our family.

It's super AWESOME to get away and spend time with my family and have nothing to worry about. We are all enjoying each other and being big goofs.