Thursday, September 29, 2011

80's Zumba in the Park

It is not too often that I am in a picture here in Blog Land.  So eat your hearts out, haha.  Tonight there was a Zumba party in the park and it was a blast.  (I LOVE Zumba!!!)  It's always fun to have an excuse to get dressed up, and I got a lot of use out of this costume.  It was the last home soccer game, so Carly was being honored and I was feeling bad about missing it, but it was at the same time as Zumba and I had committed to go all decked out.  I just couldn't figure out how I could do both... and Colby tried his best to convince me to show up to the soccer game and it almost worked.  Then Carly told me she would be honored to see me all dressed up at her game, so I had to make an appearance.  I only got a few weird looks.  There's something wrong in the world when my outfit isn't all that unspeakable.  Yikes.  (I'm just hoping the hat kept my identity in question enough that it wasn't that big of a deal.)  I'm not gonna lie- I felt hot!  (All that spandex makes a girl sweat... so no, I wasn't only admitting to how attractive I looked.)  But it was fun to get so many compliments on my attire and so many amazed comments on where I rounded up the whole get up.  I borrowed half of it and the rest came from the DI (a local thrift store).  Now I'm totally in the dressing up mood.  I'm feeling all excited for Halloween.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Little Treasures

 Last month, I was driving around with my cousin Kassara looking for a location to take the Snow Canyon High School drill team photos.  We were looking for something grungy and harsh... and this cool little place was near Kassara's house.  I'm so glad she was helping me out!  I just love her.  Anyway... I thought this little bit of graffiti was kind of cool.  (I'm actually just waiting for someone to inform me of how terrible that little bit on the top is or something, but since I'm naive, I think it looked cool.)

This was another little gem of a place we found.  (Thanks again, K!)
Aren't those two kiddle-ee-didlets cute?!  I love 'em.

Last night Marshall told me, "You always work so hard.  We always make you."  It was a sweet little acknowledgment of something that is pretty true.  It made me smile, and I told him thank you.

I like it when this one strokes my hair and says, "I love your hair, Mom."  
It is just sweeter than the usual, "pretty" that is sometimes uttered in amazement.  :)

Life is good, my friends.  Life is good.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Brady & Cassadee's Family Photos (sneak peek)

More of this fun family session will be hitting my photography blog tomorrow morning!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Can't Help Myself

Today we (Colby and I) were in a meeting with some youth and at one point Colby started talking about Satan and how he is miserable and wants everyone else to be miserable just like him.  Then a 15 year old kid pipes up and said something to the effect that Satan must have created the "left wing" since they do all kinds of things to make everyone so miserable.  Haha.  It was pretty funny!  I couldn't stop laughing and just knew I had to share.  From the mouths of babes...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's wrong with this picture?

Yes... that is some clothing he is holding...

...and he doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong 
with removing the clothes from your lower half while playing at the park.  

What a little goober.
(He thought he was so funny.)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Colby's 10 Year Reunion

2011 marks 10 years past high school for Colby.
Their reunion was one of the many things we had going on Labor Day weekend.  I hope that doesn't sound like I'm complaining.  I really, really love it when we fit all kinds of things into one little chunk of time.  Like Sundays and Christmas morning, when we go from house to house, sometimes making five or six stops in just a handful of hours.  It makes me feel productive.  Haha.

Here's the group of HHS 2001 graduates that were able to make it to the dinner (all of us spouses didn't find it necessary to be in this picture).  It was super low key, no games or random activities.  Just quick introductions and dinner.  It was seriously perfect!  Everyone was able to just sit around and chat.  

I just noticed something funny about this picture...  yes, we believe in segregation; and no, we don't believe in married couples sitting by each other.  I guess I may be wrong, but I think there's only one couple in this group (meaning those that attended) that is married to a classmate, but they're not sitting by each other.  Haha.  And as far as segregation goes, I'm just glad Colby is sitting in the middle and not in that top left corner on the girl side.

Here you can see some of the spouses.  
Candid shots are always the most flattering.  You're welcome everyone.

Random Peach Days Moments

Here's a few more pictures from Peach Days.  
The boys got cotton candy after dinner and thoroughly enjoyed it.
(Dinner at Peach Days is my favorite part!!!)

This was Friday night when Grandma (and the others) were honored as the Grand Marshals.  
It was a hard thing to have Grandpa honored almost exactly a year after he passed.  
I think it made us all miss him a little more.

These are photos of the display that was put together for the Grand Marshals- Grandpa and his brothers, along with their wives.  It was a bunch of little things that helped represent who they were and what they've done for the Hurricane Valley.  I think its always fun to see old photos... they are such a treasure.
I thought it was really cool that Grandma put together a map and marked where all of the jobs were that have been done by the family business.  I thought it was a great tribute.

Tired Much?

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago.  I walked into the family room and thought it was so funny that Tyler just fell asleep sitting straight up.  (I really think it was earlier than naptime, or else it wouldn't have seemed so funny to take a picture...)  Usually when I find him conked out on the couch, he's curled up in the corner or laying on his belly watching a movie.  I love this boy.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Peach Days Parade

Every year I look forward to Labor Day because of the Peach Days celebration here in Hurricane.  
This year was an especially big deal because Grandpa Stratton and his two brothers (along with the three wives) were honored as the Grand Marshals of the parade.  We decided, as a family, to put a float in the parade in honor of the... honor.  (That was a funny sounding sentence.)

Below is the whole group, although there were probably at least 30 family members that were not there that day.

Our float was titled, "Building Our Heritage One Generation at a Time."  All of our fluorescent green shirts had that saying on it along with some construction equipment.  The photo below is from the "front of the float" and I don't think you can even really see the end of it.

Here is the most adorable family to be featured in the Interstate Rock Products float.  
Probably in the whole parade...

These three girls were in charge of lowering the candy down the shoot of the cement truck which emptied into wheelbarrows.  They also had the job of spraying anyone that looked too hot that morning or those that ran too close to the mixer truck in an effort to get extra candy.

The float started with a truck pulling this trailer which had a sandbox on it.  There were so many family members involved (yep, that whole mass of people was strictly family) that when they sat along the sides of the trailer it was hard to see the sandbox in the middle filled with kids playing with their trucks.

Behind the sandbox was a bunch more family as well as a tiny loader that had it's bucket filled with ice and water bottles.  We were also throwing out little hard hat key chains, frisbees, and little stress balls that were the shape of dump trucks.  It was fun to have extra little things that the kids (& adults) got excited about.
I loved the trucks and equipment that was made to go on the sides of the strollers and wagons that were carting even more Stratton children.

Don't mind us in the next picture...  actually, don't mind me at all.  I had run 13 miles with my good buddy Amanda right before the parade and I don't think I really had my wits about me.  That's my excuse for leaving my camera battery at home in the charger.  I was so ticked when I realized I couldn't snap any photos of my adorable/hilarious family.  (Big thanks to our cousin Christy that had her's there.)

Here's the only picture I could find of Colby and his job.  He had one of the candy wheelbarrows and he and Tyler ran all over the place passing out candy.  Most people throw candy, but not Colby.  He'd weave all through all of us walking, would pause at a group of unsuspecting parade viewers and would sweep out a whole pile of candy with his arm.  He was especially good at that when he'd spot families that we knew.  
I got so many ungrateful comments from the moms of these families.  
They all went home with far too much candy.

Here's the cute little candy thrower, Tyler.  
He had such a blast riding around with Daddy, the insane wheelbarrow driver.  They only had one close call when they jumped a curb and Ty wasn't quite ready and he almost launched out ahead of the wheelbarrow.  
I guess after that he did a great job of holding on when warned by Daddy and they "flew" all over the place.

It was really fun and a great production.  
I think I heard by the end that we could do that once every ten years or so...  it was a whole lot of work.  

Thursday, September 15, 2011

A Good Read

I just read something so fantastic on one of my favorite blogs today.  
The post was very out of the ordinary in relationship to her normal topics... and I wanted to share.

Head on over to The Daybook, would ya?

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

New Found Love


I am such a big fan of Pinterest!  I'd like to think I have style and creativity, but I've found that I really do best when I can see ideas and bounce them around in my head for a while.  I'm not a big fan of "copying" but I love to see something great and then make it my own.  I also love trying new things.  It's just kind of hard for me to formulate the entire concept on my own sometime.  When trying to put something together, I often don't know where to start because I'm not entirely sure what I really love.  I'm totally sure of what I don't like, but I think there's so much out there that I do love, that it's a little overwhelming.

Enter Pinterest.

It's the greatest resource for inspiration and sharing.  I've actually had an account for quite a while now, but have been way too busy to get to know what it was all about.  Last week I caved in to the temptation and just can't stop.  (I'm actually too busy now, too, but anyway...)  I've found a bunch of great ideas I'm excited to try.  Granted... I probably will find way more than I can complete in a lifetime, but I'm excited to give it a go.  A friend of mine saw me in Wal-Mart with a stack of laundry baskets and asked me what they were for.  When I answered that they were for a Pinterest project she complimented me on my ambition to actually accomplish something I had pinned.  It made me feel all happy and proud of myself.

One of my favorite boards I have is my Casa one.  For years I've clipped photos from magazines and put them into a binder in order to organize all the clever aspects of home and decor that I have found.  It has taken a lot of time and when I really get going, it gets kind of messy.  Now I can do it all online, which I am so excited about.  It's quick, mess free, and convenient!  Love it!!!

I also love that it can take you right to the source too.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone shares a great idea or recipe, but doesn't give credit where credit is due.  Thank you Pinterest.