Our Staycation

Mike took this past week off of work for our "staycation". It was so much fun, and the best part was we were able to sleep in our own beds. (I have the hardest time sleeping anywhere else, even in a comfortable hotel bed). I'm sad to see it come to an end tonight. I love having Mike home with us. I've already blogged a lot of what we did this week, but there are a few more things I need to add to make the week complete.



We picked and bottled 6 quarts of beans this week to add to our food storage. Here are some photos of our garden. This is I-girl standing in front of the grapes. I can't wait until they are ready so we can make some yummy grape juice.






S-girl loves to help me pick beans. Now that she is off track, she can help me more in the garden in the mornings. The best thing about Square Foot Gardening is we can enjoy it so much more and we only pull out a few weeds all season.

On Thursday, we went to do our case lot shopping. Harmon's and Smith's both have their case lot sales going on right now. I'm sad that Macey's isn't for a couple of more weeks. We felt like we needed to get what was on sale now instead of waiting until Macey's started. (I'm sure there will be more things that we will buy when their sale starts, but the bulk of our case lot shopping is finished) We bought more than we ever have in the past, I guess that means our family is growing. It felt good to get it all home and on the shelves. I'll post a picture of our food storage room when we are done canning for the year. If it were not for the food storage room in the basement, I don't think we would have ever bought this house. It's the best feeling in the world to see the food and realize that if we could not shop for a while, we would be alright. It really saves a lot of money to buy in bulk too.

After we finished shopping, we went to eat at a place called Grideli's in Ogden. A man who lives in our ward owns it. It is a great restaurant, and the kids love the french fries. By the time we were done, M-boy's hands were covered in fry sauce.

On Friday night, Mike's sister came up to spend the night. We had our movie night and watched "Napoleon Dynamite". (It was my turn to choose the movie this week, and I love that show). The girls actually enjoyed it and thought it was silly.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and went to the temple for the High Priest temple morning. It was so nice to have Mike's sister here so we could leave without having to wake the kids up. The high priests have their temple morning the first Saturday of the month. It's been a few months since I have been to the temple. We did initiatory, which I have not done for years. It was such a wonderful reminder to the blessings that we are given when we go to the temple. I learned so much this time around. There is nothing else on this earth that has brought more peace to my life than living the gospel and being in the temple. After the temple, we had breakfast at our house. We had breakfast burritos with the tortillas that are in the picture below. The tortillas were donated by the same high priest who owns the restaurant I mentioned previously. It didn't even fit on our griddle! I have never seen tortillas that big in my life. They made some yummy burritos.

Mike's sister helped S-girl practice piano that morning. She plays piano very well, and so it was fun to have her help S-girl. S-girl loved it.

This little girl was born 5 weeks before I-girl, so they get along very well, and enjoyed dressing up like princesses.

M-boy was walking around with a tortilla in one hand and mud on the other. Oh, he is such a little boy.
After the breakfast was over, we piled the kids in the car for a road trip up to Logan. We like to go up there every year to pick up the shelf stable milk from Gossner's. It's such a pretty drive and the leaves are starting to change colors already.

We picked up the milk and then bought lunch and went to Willow Park. I remember going to this park when I was little. They have a zoo there that the kids loved. In the picture below, the kids are showing their squeaky cheese.

Their favorite part was the monkeys. I-girl pointed to one of the monkey's and said "that one is me". That may be because I am always calling them little monkeys. She is a monkey too. Today in the middle of sacrament meeting, she got away from me and went up the ramp in the front of the chapel. Then on the walk home from church, she ran away and when I turned the corner, there she was in the middle of the street. She is the sweetest little thing, but causes me such panic sometimes.

I-girl is showing the sign for raccoon in front of it's cage.

On the way home after a fun day.