Memorial Day Madness

We tend to stay in town for Memorial Day weekend. It allows us to miss the crowds, but more importantly, I almost always work some part of the weekend. I worked Friday night and Monday night this year, and frankly, it works out pretty well. I get a "holiday requirement" knocked out, and we can still squeeze in some holiday fun! Hopefully this arrangement will continue for years to come!

This Memorial Day weekend we were thrilled to have my cousin Denise, along with her husband Damion, and sons Zach and Danny come over from Denver to spend the weekend with us.

We went to "the Pie," a family favorite on Saturday night for dinner. It was, as always, delicious!! Sunday, we visited another local favorite, Boondocks! Everybody enjoyed lots of zips around the go-cart track, plenty of arcade games, bumper boats, and a round of miniature golf.

 

Zach was having a good time with the mini golf...

But Baby Danny wasn't too impressed. Or maybe it was rockin' Taylee's old pink stroller that had him out of sorts? Really, he was such a good baby, he made me wish for another. For about thirty seconds. Haha! He sure is a cutie though!



Truly Captivating?!

Cute stuff

 On Memorial Day itself, we joined the entire population of Weber County and hiked Waterfall Canyon. It was way fun, and Taylee did a great job on the trail. We were so proud of her!

Workin' it on the trail!

Kent's rockin' the wildflowers Taylee picked for him on the trail.

Taylee reports we had lunch on a rock. On a mountain is more like it!



So cool!

Eight is GREAT!

Kent and I celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary last week. It fell on a Tuesday, so Kent and I took advantage of daycare and had a free day! We dropped Taylee at preschool, then had Karly pick her up and keep her for the afternoon. We had a delicious lunch at Cafe Rio, which is a pretty solid lunch favorite of ours. Well, mine definitely, Kent's most of the time. :0)

We played nine at Schneiter's bluff after lunch, and although our round started off pretty rough, we improved by the third hole, and ended up having a pretty good round. 

We picked up Taylee and headed home for a little family time, then took her to the park for a Burger Bar picnic dinner. Just to make sure we got enough calories in to gain a solid ten pounds, we snagged ice cream on the way home and had a lovely evening!

Happy Anniversary Kent! Eight years is just the beginning! Love you!

What a studly husband!

Mama is an Animal!

My mom (nana) was kind enough to treat our little family to a Hogle Zoo season pass this year.  Super cool, huh?! We decided to hit the zoo for Mother's Day. Apparently this is a popular idea, because it was crazy busy!

Despite the fact that half the zoo is under construction, we had a fun and very full day at the zoo. Taylee even made it through the bird show. She likes the "rainbow" ones best. 

This makes my heart happy.

Taylee and Nana, Conspiring!



The Rocky Shores Exhibit. The zoo is getting all growed up!



Shave Ice!!



I was surprised she did this. But she did great!



Our little monkey!



My little cheeseball  hamming it up. Better than her grump face, right?!



Thanks for the Zoo Pass Nana! Many good times to come this summer!

3rd Annual Moab in May!

We headed to Moab last weekend for our third annual Moab in May trip. The trip might get tweaked a little every year, but it always involves tons of fun in the sun, hiking, 4 wheeling, good food, good drinks, and GREAT company!

We hit the road Friday morning and arrived with plenty of time to hike to Delicate Arch. We have done it three years running, but it is always a great hike. Maybe next year it's time for something new?! 

Lunch Break!

Kent, Darren, and I got a bug up our butt and decided to "run" (which turned into crawl), to the top of the huge sand hill outside Arches. It was exhilarating! And exhausting...

Kent "running" up the hill



Success!



As always, Pasta Jay's treated us well that night, and we had a great time! We even rocked the "Rio" (this crappy little bar in town) after dinner.  Good times!

Me and my sister. Another fabulous perk to being a Judson!

Funniest girl on the block!



Wow. What can I say about our friend Daniel here? Sexy purse???

                    We were up bright and early for four-wheeling the next morning. We did the Gemini bridges trail, Metal Masher, and Gold Bar Rim. It was a full day of fun!

I asked for smiles. This is what I got. Cortney!

There's her smile! A cute selfie.

The whole crew. Darren, Daniel, Mark, Kent, Amber, Me, Cortney, Denise.

The trail just dead-ended here. We almost went right over the cliff!



The girls!



Da boys

                        After a late dinner at Eddie McStiff's, we had a low key evening and turned in early...ish, so we could get up and enjoy the Castle Creek Winery! Just 15 miles up the canyon, you can enjoy fabulous local wine, and check out the beautiful Red Cliffs Lodge. We had  a not so great brunch, but some fabulous wine tasting before we hit the road for home.   

Castle Creek Wine Tasting

Thanks for a great time guys! And thanks to Nana and Poppi and Grandma and Grandpa for taking such good care of miss Taylee.  We sure miss her, but love the opportunity to get away on these rejuvenating weekends!

Junior Prom!

In the midst of all this birthday celebrating, we also got to share in a big first in Skyler's life. His first dance! He took his lovely girlfriend Monica bowling during the day. Who knew Monica was a semi-professional bowler?! Skyler's ego took a little hit when she beat him. After getting all dressed up, they made the rounds to all the parents and grandparents for photo-ops (including us!). Then they enjoyed dinner at The Olive Garden. And finally Prom!

Aren't they cute?! Love them!!

Kent's BIG pre-40 Birthday!

Kent turned 39 this week! Wahoo! One year from 40! Eeeek. If you've read my blog in the past, you probably know that we celebrate birthdays in a big way at our house.  It only comes once a year, right?!

We started with a birthday dinner at Johnny Rocket's with my mom and dad on Friday night. The food was yummy, and their shakes are irresistable, so we ended up with double dessert, as we had a birthday cake waiting for us afterwards. You can never have too much dessert, right?

Taylee had her heart set on a princess cake. After much discussion, I talked her into getting daddy something a bit more manly. This is what she picked...



Super manly, right?!



Me and my baby girl. Or Little Mama. Or chicken legs. Or Funny Honey. Or Little Butt. Depends on who you ask. :0)



Kent was pretty proud of that cake, and the fab candle placement by Taylee!



Little Cake Face!



Saturday provided another great opportunity to celebrate, so I surprised Kent with a trip to iFly. We have never done indoor skydiving before, and we weren't sure what to think. It turned out to be a blast! Since they gave us some coupons, I think we will be trying it out again soon. Maybe next time we will do a little better...

When we got home from indoor skydiving, Kent was greeted with my biggest and best surprise! This was supposed to be for his fortieth birthday, but that wasn't in the cards. He got it a year early... 



2013 Ford F150. I know, huh? Best wife EVER!
Mark and I have been working on this for 3 months. What a tough secret to keep!
Thank you Mark & Amber and Nana & Poppi for helping make this happen. 



After all the excitement on Saturday, Kent's actual birthday was probably a bit of a letdown. Especially since Taylee caught strep throat and was only just recovering on his birthday.  This was her first bout with strep throat, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what was going on, get her cultured, and get her some antibiotics! Poor kid. She had a rough couple of days.

Kent is such a good guy, he decided he wanted to take Taylee to Discovery Gateway and  have a fun family day for his birthday. Taylee had perked up just enough by then to have a pretty darn good time! She played hard and slept hard. She slept til 8:20 the next morning. Her all-time record!

We got to enjoy a nice lunch at PeiWei, which was the first meal Taylee ate in 3 days. Yay! Who knew she likes lettuce wraps (minus the lettuce, of course!)



Kent is enthralled by the ball maze!



Hard at work!





Taylee feels like I do about gas prices!



But I sure like to drive!




Taylee Brooke - future LifeFlight nurse! Or pilot, I suppose. :0)



 We finished off our day with another fabulous cake designed by Taylee. Yummy!





Happy Birthday Kent! We love you!