Next Up!

After arriving home from our trip to Idaho I had to quickly get the car unpacked and get going on some laundry.  Tuesday I headed to work as usual and finished up with the cleaning the house and laundry and then I had to pack because on Wednesday, June 2nd I left for Park City for a Leadership Conference for work.  I love this conference.  It always motivates the management team of our district to try to be better at what we do so everyone else can in turn do better.  While at the conference I was rooming with Wendy Matheney who is the Case Manager of our Orem court location.  Wednesday night we headed to the outlet malls.  I tried on a couple dresses but didn't end up finding anything I really needed.  Notice I said 'needed'.  I am doing so much better in the wanting vs. needing department!  Thursday night we went to a local restaurant for dinner called Nacho Mamma's.  Some of us really enjoyed our food and some of us didn't.  I didn't think it was anything special but still fun to go out nonetheless!  Wendy and I headed up to Main Street and did some window shopping.  By the time we got there it was after 8:00 and most of the shops were closed.  I wish I could have looked at some of the art stores a little more closely.  I really would like to invest in some beautiful artwork some day!  The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store was still open so we stopped in and I bought some candy for the girls.  That was a funny experience.  I decided to buy them some rock candy sticks and when I told the guy at the counter I wanted 3 sticks he asked which flavor.  I told him it didn't matter and he almost had a nervous breakdown!  He honestly said, "I can't handle the pressure!"  He asked for how many kids and I said 3 so he decided that they all had to have the same or they would fight.  It was really funny to see how stressed he was over this.  Unfortunately, one of my co-workers, Lynnette, got some horrible news that her son had broken his leg.  Her husband was able to take care of everything except they were unable to find any crutches the right size.  I remembered that I had my crutches at home from when I broke my ankle when I was in 7th grade and told her she could use them.  So, Friday, June 4th we left Park City around 1:00 and drove home.  I dropped Lynnette off at her house and then she followed me to mine to get the crutches.  I immediately left to drive to Highland to buy a lawnmower from someone off KSL Classifieds.  My townhouse has a fairly decent sized back yard but not one that is too big for me to take care of so I decided to buy a push mower instead of a gas one.  I was able to test it out and decided to go ahead and buy it so I headed home and got to finally taking care of my yard because we would be eating outside for the Luncheon after Maegan's baptism the next day.  Well that's where I'll leave off for now!

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Where to Begin?

I know I haven't blogged forever so I guess I'll just begin where I left off (minus the few misc. posts I did do). I'm going to attempt to post everything that happened this summer and hopefully I won't forget too much.

Alright, I left off on Tuesday, May 25th which was the day of Maegan's gymnastics showcase.  Basically it was the last class of the year where they did little routines they had learned but it was nothing spectacular.  My Grandma and Grandpa Madsen, mom and dad and Sean and Ashley all came to watch and Maegan was in heaven being the center of attention.  Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out because my camera is absolutely HORRIBLE at action shots.  Anyway, the crazy girl was showing off and being a big goof ball.  It was very funny to watch.

Thursday, May 27th was the last day of school.  Jordyn and Maegan were both very sad to say goodbye to their wonderful teachers.  They took a little gift we made that said, "You're the REISEN Jordyn/Maegan is such a SMARTIE!" that had a bag of Reisens and a thing of giant Smarties.  After school I picked up the girls and we started packing for our trip to Idaho the next day.  I also can't seem to find these pictures even though I remember taking them.

Friday, May 28th the girls and I headed to Idaho to visit one of my oldest (not in age) friends, Trisha. She and her family moved to Nephi when we were in 7th grade. We didn't end up hanging out in the same "group" while in high school but we always remained friends and kept in touch over the years. Eventually we both lived in Lehi and she would even watch my girls once in a while until she moved to the state of Washington. A couple summers ago she was visiting Utah and we talked about taking our families to Bear World together. We never ended up going but as luck would have it her husband decided to go back to school and they ended up in Rexburg, Idaho. The home of Bear World!  I kind of got a late start so by the time we ended up arriving at her house it was around 6:00 p.m.  It was so cute because I was trying to find her house so I was driving down the street slowly when I realized I was driving past it because all of her girls were in the window watching for us.  When we got inside they showed us our room and they had made cute signs for each of us with our names above the bed where we would sleep.  Trisha said they were so excited for us to be there.  We ate dinner and just stayed up and talked while the kids played.

When we woke up on Saturday I got my girls ready and we headed to Bear World.  It was so much fun.  Because I had planned this trip for a while I knew I was going to pay for the girls to bottle feed the baby bear cubs.  They were so cute!  They were playing around making all sorts of noises and they smelled like wet dogs but much stronger.  I was worried that it would basically end up being a photo-op where they fed them for a few seconds while a picture was taken and then it would be over so I was pleasantly surprised when they actually got to feed the bears until the bears were full.  There were 6 bear cubs in all and each got at least 2 bottles so it took quite a while to feed them all.  I knew Maegan would love it and she sure did.  Jordyn and Brooklen both liked it too but not nearly as much as Maegan.  Unfortunately it started to drizzle while we were there and Brookers was getting cold.  A nice gentleman put his coat around her.  After feeding the bears we headed inside the gift shop to warm up for a little while and decided to splurge on their yummy fudge.  We were able to sample all sorts of different flavors and then ended up buying a few of them.  We ended up with Cookies and Cream, Smores, Mint Chocolate and a peanut nougat one that I can't remember the name of now.  By this time the weather had started to clear up a little so we headed back outside and the girls went on the small rides they have available.  When they finally had their fill of the rides we finally drove through the actual park.  I was actually a little disappointed by this part.  Probably because after looking at the cute younger bears playing and eating watching the big bears sleeping around wasn't very exciting.  At the end, however, one big bear did walk literally inches away from the car and I guess that was pretty cool.  The girls enjoyed this so I guess I shouldn't complain since this part of the trip was for them!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at Trisha's house and then that night we got the girls all settled down so she and I could go to a movie.  We ended up seeing The Backup Plan which was a really stupid movie.  However, there was one guy in the audience that had the loudest, craziest laugh I have ever heard in my life and the whole audience was cracking up at him.

On Sunday we were able to go to church with them.  I don't get to go to church outside Utah very much and I love when I am able to.  I love the fact that no matter where I am in the world I am still learning the gospel and we are all truly striving for the same things, no matter where we live or what our circumstances may be.  That night we attempted a giant sleepover in the living room but with 7 girls there was definitely a lot more giggling than sleeping at first!

Well, Monday May 31st, quickly arrived and unfortunately it was time to head back home.  We got packed up and hit the road but the vacation wasn't quite over.  I had never been to Lava Hot Springs before so we took the small detour out of the way to spend a few hours swimming.  It was overcast but luckily not cold like it had been on Saturday so we had a great time hanging out.  Jordyn and Maegan loved the slides while Brooklen and I hung out in the shallow end.  That too had to come to an end and we had to go home.

We had the greatest time.  I loved being able to spend so much time talking with Trish.  I really value her perspective and she has great insight and advice on some of the things I struggle with.  Also, this was my first vacation that I took by myself with just the girls and it was so much fun.  And, just to brag a little, I came within $10.00 of my budget and got home 5 minutes before my goal time of 8:00 p.m.  When does that EVER happen on a vacation?  Yeah, I'm cool like that!  lol.




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