Aunt Michael's house.

The 1st place we stayed was at a Aunt Michael Joan's house. We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and played in her fun backyard. Oh what fun we had.

I think this was one of the highlights of the zoo, the gorrila not only picking,

 

and eating his boogies...

 

 

Play time.

While in Utah we spent most of the time at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Robert's house.  This is where we always stayed when we went to Utah as children.  Well, here and at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They were so happy they had an actually yard to play in and to be able to run around and much as they could.  Here are some highlights of their favorite things.

Everytime Blayne went outside this was where he headed.  It didn't matter if no one would take him for a ride, he could read a book or play with a toy.  He loved the wagon.

Ethan became a pro at his tricycle and these wiggle carts (you use your wiggle power to make them move and steer them). and would take off at the 1st chance he got.

Hiking the Y

For almost a week, my sister would call and say "we are hiking the Y do you want to come?"  I would politly say no, my boys won't make it.  I can see major disaster and meltdowns 1/2 way up.  My cousin convinced me go do it, they have it paved now.  ME: well, if it's paved that will make it easy and it could be do-able.  So  I called Mandy and said sure we will give it a try.  We get there, and guess what? The parking lott is paved, and that's about it.  But we were there and there were older kids to help out with Ethan and a sturdy jogging stroller for Blayne.  Heck if Mandy and Syd are doing this with Heath and Creed on their backs, I could certainly do this with a stroller.  The out come: FAIL! MAJOR FAIL!

That is one steep trail, with 10 different turns, we (me and the boys) made it to turn two.  Keep in mind that they are the two longest turns of the trail.

 I decided to wait at turn two while the other's hiked to the end.  we waited about 45 min before pooey diapers and meltdowns began to set in.  My next challange was how to figure out how to get a tired two year old and a cranky 1 year old down the side of the mountian on my own.  We got back down to turn one and started down to the base, and Ethan was DONE.  big time.  He plopped himself down and would not get up.  Fortunatly a young man named Austin, stopped on his way back down and asked if he could help (forgot to get his pic).  Thank goodness for answered prayers.  By the time we got back down Blayne was a sleep.  So while we cooled down we watched a movie and had a drink and waited another 20 min for the others to come down,  Congrats on the ones whi made it.

View of BYU Stadium

The Y.  This is the view from turn two.  not a good angle but that was the destination

Splashing the day away...

What to do with four little boys who are full of energy?  Take them somewhere they can run wild.  Aunt Nancy and I took Kayden, Kelton, Ethan, Blayne and Karissa to the splash pad is Spanish Fork.  Chris shortly joined the outing and was a great extra set of hands.  I love this splash pad!





Let's go!

 


I don't know about this





Come on in, the watere is great.



ok, maybe this isn't so bad after all



How does this thing work?



taking a break

Just relaxing



Things that go BUMP!

Little boys are accident prone, throw in a child (Ethan) with an unbalanced head and large feet, and a Daddy that is also accident prone, and well, bad things happen.  It started with a trip to the park and a scraped knee.  Bath time rolls around and we slip in the tub (water had been drained) and bump our teeth.  Then a mark on the cheek from who knows where.  He falls in the back yard after playing all afternoon and now has a scratch on the back and on his head (found only at bath time when washing child's hair).  While playing with what seemed like a thousand cousins last night, he takes a couple of steps away from where he had been standing, and into the path of Jacob on his skateboard, who had no time to stop and down goes child flat on his back.  After a good snuggle and kiss from mom, he wants back down, only to trip over my feet trying to get back into the action of play with all the others.  At this point I decide if we cannot stand up with out falling, then it must be time to go home and go to bed.  Fast forward to the next morning and we wake up with a swollen top lip.  As Chana put it, it looked like a duck bill.  My poor baby!  What did he eat or do that would cause it?  We ended up at the ER only to determine that an infection had set in do to him bumping his teeth a week ago when he slipped int he tub. Keep in mind we this has all happened since we have been in Utah, that has only been 1 week.  I guess nothing says vacation like a trip to the ER

BROWNIES!! need i say more?

I have made this recipe a few (ok more than a few) times.  Serveral people have asked me for the recipe, so I thought I would go ahead and post it.  It's not a secret, and by no means my concoction.  It is a recipe from an old church cookbook that was done for a YW fundraiser, before i was even in YW.  It is just a really supper, dupper, yummy, and addicting brownie recipe.

Be forewarned, it makes a large batch, no need to double.  It will make for a 12x17 pan.  If you don't have one it can be divided into two 9x13 pans.  I made a couple of changes but i think that it just made it even more yummy than the original.  If you have a stand mixer, use it!  If not, use an electric hand mixer if ya have one.

Wisk together the following until it comes together and looks like a pale yellow whipped cream.  (don't over wisk)
3 sticks melted butter (let cool a couple of minutes)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp salt

Then beat in the following.  If using the stand mixer, switched to the paddle.  The batter will be thick.
3 cups flour
5 Tbsp cocoa poweder
2 tsp vanilla

Then you can add what ever you want.  I add a 12oz bag of chocolate chips.  Add nuts or what ever floats your boat in brownies.

Bake at 350 for 30 min.  If you want something a bit gooey, then bake for 25 min.

                              

Now, the changes I made:  it originally called for margarin, I use butter.  I've made it both ways and butter is better.  I also added and extra tablespoon of cocoa powder, it makes the brownie darker in color.  If you want a really dark in color brownie, I have discovered that Hershey's makes cocoa powder in their 'Special Dark'  it will make them almost black in color.

Team Houghtie



1/2 way point with a stop at the Alamo

 Today was the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure in San Antonio.  We gathered as a family to walk in behalf of Mom.  We invited her school to join our team: Team Houghtie.  We decided to walk the entire 5K strollers and all.  We are greatful for the support of Mom's friends who joined us in the walk.

All those people infront of us.  Even more on the other side of the bridge

almost to the end

Pink Panther even walked wearing a pink Tu-tu

Freedome at last!

Easter time!

I love watching the boys grow and become more interested in holidays.  At the same time, i need to start stepping up my game and decorating for holidays and making them a big deal and stressing the true meaning of certain holidays like Christmas and Easter.  The Easter Bunny did pay us a visit and filled our baskets.  I have talked to him and we have decided that he will no longer come in the middle of the night, and leave us a basket for us to wake up to, but he will start coming while we are at church.  This has a lot to do with the fact that  church at 8:30AM is harder than i thought it would be, and when your children have eaten candy for breakfast ( i did try to add healthy in with it but backfired), it kinda makes for a disastrous chain of events.  Like getting to church late, and leaving early because one child's sugar high came to a crashing end and we left early. 

After much needed and long naps, we ate lunch that did not consist of chocolate or sugar and got ready to go to Aunt Mandy and Uncle Jared's for Easter festivities.  We played hard with all the Barton cousins and ate well.  We looked for Easter eggs and even had a pinata (I use that word loosely).  When we left we were tired, dirty, and coming off a sugar high.

This was the pinata.

Our Day...

I have taken a few shots of the kids over a period of a couple of days.  Here are just a few of the things we encounter on a typical day.....

Laundryday!

unfortunatly clothes were damp and baby had dirty feet.  most of those got rewashed.

Story Time:

Peek a Boo!

Helping out in the Kitchen

he likes to rearrange my drawers and cabinets

Chilaxin'

Breakfast Time:  today Blayne decided to feed himself some yogart.  I guess it is a good thing I was going to mop the floors today.

look how much i ate!