Midnight project

I've got my bowl of chips and salsa out still. You can't work at midnight without snacks.

This is the "before". I uploaded them out of order.

I literally did this project at midnight. I got home from work and some b-day shopping for the kids at 10:15pm and I needed my "down" time. So after browsing the internet for awhile I remembered I had these wall decals that I ordered a couple of years ago and still hadn't used. I looked through the blik website to brush up on the installation skills and got right to work! I think I really like it. Man, I get more done at midnight sometimes than the rest of the day!

Visiting the trains

The Olympics car

Climbing trains

An old caboose


Fountain in front of the Union Station

This is actually why we went to the Union Station yesterday. This new movie coming out in November is doing a cross country train tour. They had an entire train that you could walk through and see how they made the movie, costumes, special effects. Just a big promotional gig. It looked like it would be fun. I hadn't seen a lot of advertisement so I thought the crowds would be fine. NOT SO. The line to get in was 3 HOURS LONG! Sorry, not interested. So we settled for a picture in front of the train. (The kids couldn't care less if we went on the tour.) Instead we visited all the trains they have parked on the side of the station. This was a big hit. It was Laci's second time. Gina, when you bring the kids up. I want to take your kids here. They'd love it and it's just downtown Ogden.

Raining like crazy

According to the weather report it has rained 9 out of the last 11 days. What is this, Portland? It's getting REALLY old. There's been so much water in such a short time that in some places it has become a problem. My yard is full of mushrooms. We have to keep checking on the drainage from the gutters. So far seems to be alright. Tomorrow night Nephi's parents are staying with our kids and Nephi and I are staying at the Marriot downtown. Just for fun. The arts festival is on Saturday and I'd imagined what a fun time it would be strolling the festival (minus the kids) on a sunny day. Don't think that's going to happen now since it's supposed to pour on Saturday. Oh well. Regardless of the weather it will still be a fun mini get away. The kids are so excited for grandma and grandpa to come. By the way, I forgot to mention that they're celebrating their upcoming birthdays with them while we're gone. Brigham practically cried himself to sleep because he's so excited and was just so frustrated he couldn't instantly fall asleep. He wants morning to come NOW!

Awesome air show

When we moved to S. Ogden I knew one of the perks would be living close to the air base. I've always been a HUGE fan of air force aircraft and love air shows. When we lived in North Dakota we even left church early with friends to drive an hour to the show at the base there. So to live one freeway exit away from one is very cool for me. We went to the show on Saturday afternoon and managed to get up close on the bleachers. It was AWESOME! All kinds of stunt planes, jet fly-by's, and demonstrations. One of the the most amazing things believe it or not was watching a huge C-17 land right in front of us. It's enormous and yet uses very LITTLE space on the runway. It just comes right to a stop like it's no big deal. And then it just backs up and heads off. Unbelievable. I really wanted to stay for the Thunderbirds but of course before they could fly the kids were crying and starving (we will be better prepared next time) so we had to leave. I was disappointed. BUT, today was day 2 of the airshow and I knew the Thunderbirds would be flying at around 4pm-ish. All during church I could hear jets flying overhead and it was making me crazy but I kept telling myself I was where I'm supposed to be and I just let it go. But when I got home, I was on the lookout. And what do you know.... The Thunderbirds IN FORMATION came over the hill, very low, and flew right over me!!! They were so close I could easily see the birds painted on the bottoms. When they reached my house they all turned to the left and flew off that way. I was ecstatic!!! Then a few minutes later I could hear the roaring and I ran back outside and they came from behind my house and headed off. This was as good as being at the airshow. A show with no traffic to deal with! I saw the Thunderbirds in North Dakota so I was alright with not seeing the actual show . This was good enough. For the next hour they flew back and forth and all around. But never as close as the first two times. It was fun. I took a little video on one of their pass overs. They are quite high on that pass but I didn't have my camera when they flew low.

Ahhhhh......I love Ogden.

my house in early summer

I post these mainly for my mom who hasn't been able to make it up since I moved in last fall. I've been hard at work on the landscape. Cleaning it up, manicuring, planting, etc. It is a far cry from when we first moved in. It was very unruly back then which didn't seem appropriate for the style of the home.

Brigham's Opera

Waiting for the show to begin.

These pictures don't show it, but Brigham really got into the production. He was acting right along with the best of them!

Having fun before the show.

getting his "stage makeup" on. Brigham surprisingly didn't mind this at all.

The Utah opera company sponsors the 1st grade opera every year. The kids write it themselves and the company sets it to an orignal score. At first Brigham was nervous about the whole production but eventually it became a big deal to him. I bought a dvd of the program that somebody put together.

Looking to the future.....

Laci heading off to her last day of preschool.