We're moving blogs again!

For reasons that aren't worth explaining, we have decided to change our blog address again! Hopefully this will be the last time. So head on over to http://tammymatt.wordpress.com/.

Sailing on Labor Day

I told Matt that I wanted to go out sailing with him so on Labor Day we got a babysitter and headed out to Utah Lake. I had only been sailing with Matt a couple of times and they never turned out really good. This was also the first time that I had been on Matt and Nate's new big catamaran. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to try it out. After a few minutes of fidgeting with the main sail we were finally off. And boy were we off! We were hauling. The only problem is that we were headed straight for the bank. Matt started getting all excited which was making me nervous. He had me hop up on one side that was coming out of the water. Right after that he screams that the front tip went under and that we are going to flip. The next thing I know I'm sliding off the front thinking the boat was going to land on me somehow and I would be knocked out or pinned under. I'm really good at imagining the worst in situations like this. Luckily we both came out fine and the water was actually shallow enough to stand. After a lot of time tugging and pulling we finally got the catarman to flip but it flipped straight onto it's other side. So we had to go through the whole process again until we finally got it upright. By this time I was tired so we loaded up the boat and went home. Another unsuccessful day of sailing for me.


These are our battle wounds from the trip.

Matt's was much worse than mine but I complained about mine a whole lot more.

Rope Swinging at Burraston Ponds

On Saturday after Matt had worked hard on the sprinkler system he needed a break so we headed over to Burrastons. I have decided that I am not very good at rope swinging. I don't hold the rope right, I don't step off right,etc. and I always get flipped onto my face. Plus the water there is FREEZING. So I brought along my chair, watched and took pictures.



Here is Olivia and Kylee running up and down the trail.

This is Matt doing his ninja kick on the rope swing. He has got skills!

There was a small swing right off the bank so Matt was daring and swung out with the girls on his back. Bad parenting, I know. As you can tell by Kylee's face, "Dad is the coolest".

Our Family Portrait

Olivia and I were playing around with photoshop and this is some of the pictures we made.

Brianna looks the best in this version.





Click on the pictures to see a bigger size.

A week or so ago Annalee invited us all to go on another adventure that she had discovered. She has a little book that tells about hikes around the area. She had found a beautiful hike up by Snowbird that she wanted to take us to. While traveling home from the hike she discovered that Snowbird has a tram. And not only that but all kids 6 and under (that would include all the grandkids!) were free. We couldn't pass that up so we all headed up to Salt Lake for some fun. It was a beautiful day outside and we all enjoyed getting out and seeing some wonderful scenery.



This is at the top of the mountain where the tram drops us off. I think they said it was 13000 feet up. It was hard for me to relax up at the top with so many kids running around and cliffs all around. I was sure someone was going to run right off the edge.

This is how Brianna spent most of the day. It was right during her nap time and so she was constantly throwing herself on the ground and crying. Not very fun.

This was the beginning of the hike that Annalee told us about. Unfortunately we didn't make it very far into the hike before everyone was tired and ready to go. We'll have to try it again sometime. It had pretty wildflowers everywhere. Kylee was nice enough to pose for me.

Smoked Fish and a Rodeo

Brianna looking cool as a cucumber.

"Me kill things."

When the bulls were out Olivia and the other kids did bull horns. Tate started dancing when the bull riding started.

This isn't the best shot but you get the idea. We were there.

Fishing up Fairview Canyon

I'm sure this resevoir has a name but we can't seem to find it when we go there. If you need directions ask my mom. Beth said she got some instructions from her that were "Go to the stop sign, turn right, then turn right agian". If you get there from those directions you may be omnipotent and directions would've angered you in the first place.

Kylee and Ethan got tired of reeling them in.

They drank a lot of that drink and opened a poweraid too. To say the least they peed a lot. On top of that Kylee had to go poo three times. Each time I had to take here to a bathroom a couple blocks away. When the fishing is hot a few feet is too far. The medical term for what she has is "Fishingus Irritble Bowel Syndrome" (i.e. IBS cuased by fishing).

Santaquin Orchard Days Parade 2009

This pretty well sums it up. Ethan looking like a 1980's beastie boy, Brianna looking confident these underlings will perform adquitely in the candy collection task, Olivia & Kylee dancing to the sound of sirens, Tate trying to eat through a candy wrapper, Tammy checking out how the plague is treating the soft skin tissue of her under arm, and the Pickering offering moral support. Click on the picture to see the bigger image.

Sarah hated the loud sirens and bells the firefighters, police, and ambulances were blairing. It was pretty darn loud.

Memre and my dad hung out for much of the parade. That day she wanted to play the eye-contact-smile game but we only played for a little bit. There wer some people about 20 feet from the road and I think they were mad that other people had the audicity to set up their chairs in front of them.

Some of the candy hit the police car next to us and two big pieces of paint came off the hood.

A girl dressed like a prostitute crawled under the same police car to retrieve a frisby that rolled under it. The scene was a little strange but hey, free frisbee.

Nate and I also got some kicks out of seeing some bold Santaquin fashion. One kid had a thick wool beanie on with dark puffs of hair coming out from underneith the rim. Each puff of hair looked as if it had been sewn to the hat like some kind of spoof hat. It didn't help that he had to walk like a penguin to keep his pants from falling to the ground. If you're not smart be pretty, that's my motto.

We're farmers now! We Farm!

This friendly little cows name is 'poops on the grass'. Nate's second kid Ethan gave him that name when he first saw what cows did after they ate. For some reason the name stuck. Poops on the grass will come and great you and lets you pet him. He's one of the best cows I've ever met.

Kylee smiling big for the camera. The playground equiptment is in the background. Nate's property is real pretty this time of day.

Brianna loves to copy her sisters. If they climb to the top of the fence she has to as well. She doesn't want any help either. You can see one of my mom's lama's in the background. They give her a lot of satisfaction for reasons I can't explain. You can also see the water tower my dad constructed. It's a work of functional beauty.

Olivia taking it up a notch and showing off a little. When they were crawling around on the fences I couldn't help but think of when Beth had an accident on the same kind of fences. She was sitting on the top row with her feet wrapped behind the second bar down. She lost her balance and fell face forward hitting her mouth on the third bar down. Luckily it didn't break out all of her teeth. The only thing that happened is her mouth area got really swollen. She looked like an extra from the planet of the apes.

Interestingly enough that reminds me of when I sucked on a cup for an hour or more until it bruised my lips. There was a perfect black bruise around my mouth. My lips also got very big and dark. Christy teased that I looked like elvis with those huge lips. Too bad there aren't any pictures.

Kiteboarding at Lincoln Beach - Yeah!

I'm the one with the pink kite. My posture is a little off balanced because I just got pulled out off the water with the kite. Aren't those kites beautiful?

Here I am getting pulled along nicely.

Lincoln Beach on Utah Lake is one of the best spots in Utah. Some of the people are coming from the east side of Salt Lake and have to drive an hour and a half to get out there. We only live 15 minutes from here so I'm pretty excited. I've been going down to Mona for the last couple years and this place is so much better. The wind is more consistant and the dirt penensulas break the waves up.
Santaquin just became an even better place to live because of this.

The girls and Tammy hang out with other kiteboarding moms and kids on the beach. Olivia will play all afternoon with her new friends and she never once asked what their name is.

Eating Breakfast

Brianna grabbed the last rasberry filled powder donut and ate the whole thing for breakfast.

Kylee and Olivia were talking about what they wanted to be for Halloween. Olivia said she wanted to be Dorthy from Wizard of OZ and Kylee loved the idea of being the Lion or Wicked Witch. Kylee couldn't stop laughing at the excitement of it all.

Pioneer Day Parade

Olivia with her scripture bag using it to collect candy.

Ethan boy looking for the free candy to rain down from heaven.

"I SAID... Bring the candy!"

Brianna ate a ton of candy. She ate all the candy she had and tried to take candy from Kylee and Olivia. Kylee screamed her head off and Brianna ran away from her. Olivia took a more dipomatic approach and talked Brianna into putting the candy back, which Brianna did.

That night we camped out in Nate's backyard in a tent. We had corn on the cob, steak, and a sausage dip for chips. We had a problem or two going to Macey's for drinks and paper plates. The first time we went down there we accidently scraped the car next to us when we pulled in to park. We gave the insurance info and left. Then we decided to return to take some quick pictures (just in case). After we took the pictures I decided to lock my camera in the car. We went inside to buy some paper plates and when we got out I had locked my keys in the car. The police came and helped us break in. All in all we had a good time.

More Temple Pictures

This is everyone that went. One of the voluteers took this picture, not bad!

Memre played this game the whole time we were together. She would watch for people to make eye contact and when they did she would smile the biggest smile she could muster. Very cute girl.