Bringin' Back the Good ol' Days

On Friday night we hang out with Brittney and Tommy as usual. We wanted to do something extra fun to help me and Landon celebrate his promotion and my opportunity to move onto bigger and better experiences after being let go from my job. We grabbed a bite to eat at the delicious Chili's and tried to think of something fun and cheap. We were driving around and came across a lazer tag place in Clinton that was sceaming our names. It was a bit of a dive and smelled like rotten eggs covered by terribly strong cleaner, but other than that it was a blast. Our team didn't win, but Brittney and I did get higher scores than the guys so that was just as good as winning. :-) It was still pretty early when we got done with lazer tagging so we thought we would resort back to our summer days back in high school. We hit up the K-town 7-11 and got some slurpees to start off the tradition. I am not from Kaysville originally so I wasn't as educated on the famous local hang outs around town. Britt, Tom and Landon all seemed to remember the one fun park that everyone would visit. It's called The Castle. It's pretty much the coolest park I've ever seen. It really was a castle! We all headed over to the swings to test out their strength and make sure they could hold up our weight still after all these years and they past the test. There was a huge baby swing that we all had to give a try. And of course Brittney and I had to run back to the car to grab our camera's to capture the moment. On the way back through the castle to the swings the boys had hidden. They jumped out and nearly dropped us to our knees, considering we're both pretty terrified of the dark. This sparked a fun idea for us to play Hide and Seek. Oh yes, we really did play. We took turns having the guys hide and then us girls would hide. The boys found some pretty good places, but we ended up finding the best one that took the boys about ten minutes to find us. We hid inside oneo f the slides. Not at the bottom or the top, but in the middle! Our legs were burning from holding ourselves in there until the guys finally found us. We had an absolute blast! We all hadn't had that much fun in a long time. It's nice to pretend like your back in high school sometimes. It keeps you young and reminds you to let loose sometimes. We do get tired a lot earlier these days so at about 12:30 we ended one nights fun and headed home for our beds.

A New Beginning

We have recently had a few changes happen in our life. Landon has been working extra hard at Verizon to become a manager. It just so happened that a management position opened this month. He applied for the management position about 2 weeks ago and just found out Thursday that he was chosen for the job over 6 other people. I am so proud of my husband. He is one of the hardest workers I know. I look up to him for his motivation and determination to always want to be better in whatever he does. I know I am slightly bias, but I couldn't think of anyone else who deserves this promotion more than him. Him getting that promotion was a HUGE blessing for our family. It turned into an even bigger blessing yesterday because I found out that I was being laid off. Everyone knows that the market has been super duper slow, so me being in the field of work that I'm in I didn't have the best job security. Landon and I had kind of been preparing just in case this were to happen. I had gotten my resume updated at the beginning of this week and now I have more open time to find something that I really like and that will be a better fit for us as a family. It was a good/bad thing. I will miss all my friends in that office more than they will ever know, but I am happy for the opportunity to find something new that I can put all my efforts into and truly enjoy. I am hoping to find something closer to home since gas prices are outrageous so we'll see I find. I am open to pretty much about anything so if any of you know of openings I am all ears. So, one day one of us is promoted, the next day the other is let go. lol We know that someone was looking after us to make it happen in that order and that close together so that we'd know we'd be okay. :-) Onto the next chapter of our lives! I can't wait to see what else is in store! Here are some pictures of me and my friends from Bonneville and of my desk that I spent the last year and a half of my life.

Cosmo Reunion

If you were to ask me who were some of my closest friends in high school I would say my girls from Cosmetology. We spent 2,000 hours of our lives in the same building working for the same thing, our license. We never thought we would finish, but we did. Some of us after short of two years others just over two. Here we are four years later and we all have completely different lives. Some of us married, some of us have kids, others getting ready to get married. There is a hand full of us that have tried to stay in contact over the past few years. Things like weddings and baby showers have helped made that possible. Now that most of those fun events are done or on hold for now we all have to make our valiant efforts to get us all together. This time it was Lisa. She planned it all, told us where to be and when to be there. We met at the Gateway, which is a good central meeting place between where we all live. We went to the Dodo and gabbed for hours. Then Trista's cute little two year old, Jaxton wanted to go see the fountain. He is such a cute little stinker. He knows sign language pretty good so when we got to the water he kept putting his fingers to his chin and kept saying, "Water! Water!" Trista is such a cute mommy. I don't think any of the rest of us are planning on joining the mommy boat any time soon. ;-) It was so much fun getting together with the girls. It's always fun to hear what's new in everyone's busy lives. We have decided that we are going to try and get together once every month to play Bunko. I've never played, but it sounds like fun. I'll let you know how it goes. Yay for Cosmo!

Father's Day Continued

Continued from last Father's Day blog......This last Sunday we headed out to my Grandma and Grandpa Larkin's for a Father's Day bbq bash. It was lots of fun. It was really nice to get to see some of my family. My great grandma Retallick, great aunt Peggy, great uncle Rex, uncle Lane, and cousin Landon were all there. My mom, Tim and brother Kasey were the last to show as usual, but this time they had a legitimate excuse for being late. ;-) We ate hot dogs, hamburgers, Grandma Larkin's fabulous salads, and Aunt Peggy's delicious lemon cake. Tim loved his gift. We got him a gift card to Sportmans so he can save up for his new gun he's been wanting. We gave him a perfect card this year too. Landon and I were picking out all of our dad's Father's Day cards and came across a barbie princess one. Tim always calls me his little princess since I am the only girl out of 6 boys. I couldn't resist, I had to get it for him. He thought it was very appropriate. I told him that Landon is slowly learning my princess status. ;-) After stuffing ourselves to sickness, we headed home. On the way home there was a gorgeous sunset. I made Landon roll his window down so I could try and take some pictures. It didn't work out as well as we had planned. The pictures don't give it justice. Continuing on with one more father to see......We went to dinner with my dad, Korey, and my Grandma and Grandpa Forbush at the Gateway. We went to ZeTeqez (however you spell that). It was pretty good, but way too expensive for what you get. Nothing beats Cafe Rio. :-) It was Korey's birthday on Monday so we were also celebrating his birthday. For Father's Day this year I decided to give my dad something creative. I had found this book at Barnes and Noble a month or so ago that is Why a Daughter Needs a Dad. It has 100 reasons why a daughter needs a dad. You can read some of those cute reasons on my previous blog. It had some cute pictures in it that had something to do with each of the reasons, but I wanted to make it a bit more personal. So, I spent a few hours picking some cute pictures that I liked of me & my dad and me & Landon then put them next to some of the reasons they applied to. It actually turned out pretty good. He said,"You almost made me cry." I don't think I have ever seen my dad cry so an almost means quite a bit to me. :-) After almost a week of running around we are done with Father's Day. We hope all our daddy's know how much we love them and appreciate them for all they do for us. We love you! xoxo

Why A Daughter Needs A Daddy

A daughter needs a dad.....

-who will laugh at her at all the right times

-to teach her that her value as a person is more than the way she looks

-who does not mind when she steps on his shoes while dancing

-so that she will know what it is like to be somebody's favorite

-to tell her truthfully that she is the most beautiful of all

-to teach her that forgiving is a natural thing to do

-to teach her that she can forgive more than once

-to show her how it feels to be loved unselfishly

-to be the standard against which she will judge all men

-to teach her the difference between being firm and being stubborn

-to teach her that she is equal to her husband

-to learn what she should expect from her husband

-to teach her to preserve her dignity during difficult times

-to teach her patience and kindness

-to help her try again whenever she fails

-who will let her know that while she may not be the center of someone else's world, she is the center of his

-to teach her the joy of serving others

-to show her that true love is unconditional

-to teach her what kind of man to choose to be the father of her children

-to stand with her on the day she marries the man she hopes will be just like her father

-to help her find her way in life

A daughter needs a daddy because without him she will have less in her life than she deserves.

I love you Dad and Timmy! The best two dads a girl could ask for :-) xoxo

Father's Day...the festivities begin

We started our Father's Day last night and it will go until Sunday night. Our holidays don't last just one day. We try our best to fit everyone in sometime around the actual holiday. Our first stop was good ol' Tooele, Utah. We actually got the whole gang out there this time. The gang being: Landon & Me, Tommy & Britt, Steve and Heather & Jack, Couper (Kaleena couldn't make it this time), and Baylee. Needless to say we had a full house. We had some delicious dutch oven grub then built a fire to make some sMoOreS. The theme of the evening was camping so to go along with the dutch over meal, fire and sMoOreS we were going to be sleeping under the stars. Baylee had won a gigantic tent at a Turkey Festival so we starting putting together the biggest tent we all have ever seen. It took about 6 of us to put it up and about 45 mins. But, eventually it was standing steady at 10 feet tall and about 20 feet wide. After all that work Tom & Britt and Landon & Me ended up being the only ones to sleep in it. In the middle of the night Landon & I thought we heard a grizzly bear coming to eat us. Then we realized it was just Tommy's roaring snore. :-) Landon & I decided to pack up our sleeping bags and spend the rest of the night in the house on the floor away from the bear. lol We still love you Tommy! We'll just remember ear plugs when we go camping with them. We had a great time spending time together. Gregg seemed to really like his gift that Tom & Britt and Landon & I gave to him. Landon's grandpa was a vet in Idaho before he passed away a few years ago. This year the shop was sold. Before it was sold all the boys went to Idaho to clean out the shop and grab some memorabilia. The boys were sneaky and snapped some fun pictures of the shop and grabbed some fun things to use for Gregg's Father's Day present. It turned out great! Britt did all the work, but we all pitched in somehow. The festivities shall continue.....onto the next Dad.

Hittin' the trails

We haven't had the chance to get out on our bikes very much, but the few times that we have it has been a mAgicAl experience. For our first bike ride, breaking the bikes in, the boys took us up to the Vida Course up at the mouth of Farmington Canyon. I won't lie, it was a bit harder than we anticipated. But, we did it! We were so impressed with our accomplishment we rode our bikes to Debbie's house in Kaysville and then all the way to our house in Layton. Check out these pics. It doesn't even look like we're breaking a sweat! We're determined to get back out there and show those trails who's boss!