Monday, April 26, 2010

Operation - Get a Yard

We started our "get a yard" process last weekend and it's so exciting to think that in a week from today, we should have everything in. Last Thursday night, our friend drove over in his Kabota tractor and helped us clear a bunch of rocks and piles from our yard. Midway is famous for pot rock, and most people don't even have basements because of the cost to blast through it. Luckily our house does have a basement, but that means tons of pot rock piles around the house. I took some before shots of the yard so we can see the change when we are done.
Aubrey and Tucker were lucky enough to hitch a ride while the guys cleaned up the yard.

On Saturday we had my sister and her husband, Cody's parents and Cody's brother all up to help us. Carson and Cody traded off on trenching and we all moved rocks and planted trees. Cody and I both joined the Home Depot Garden Club in the past few weeks and were emailed coupons for buy 1 get 1 free on their trees. It's been awesome because we now have all the trees we wanted planted and ready to grow and get big! I'll be able to start a garden in May once it gets warmer at night.

Don't worry, I only helped out for about 30 minutes. I wish I could've done more, but lifting heavy rocks and working with machinery just isn't my forte!
This rock was huge and of course right in the line of our trench path. They think it weighed between 400-500lbs.
Taking a little break and checking out the sprinkler plans.
Aubrey doing a little dance on the massive rock.
Cole thought he could help as well and pulled out his shovel.
After we completed the trenching Cody and I took everyone to the Dairy Keen for dinner. It's the least we could do for all of their help.
Carson brought baby Aspen with him. This was our first time meeting her and the kids loved it. Tucker told us his favorite part of Saturday was meeting Aspen. Aubrey is excited to have a girl cousin on the Calderwood side.
This Friday Cody and his sister and Dad will put in the sprinklers. Saturday we will spread topsoil and next Monday we'll lay out the sod. This is going to be a fun summer!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Vegas Weekend

Cody and I "won" a trip to Las Vegas that we took last weekend. Sin City isn't our favorite place to vacation, it's been 7 years since we last went and that was with my clogging studio, but free is free, right?!! We headed out Friday morning after dropping our kids off with grandparents. We couldn't check in until 4, so we headed to the Las Vegas temple first and did a session. It has one of the most beautiful celestial rooms I've ever seen! We like to joke that we didn't help out Las Vegas that weekend because we started it off with a spiritual activity!
After the temple, we drove to our hotel, which happened to not be on the strip and was a bit ghetto. The reason we won the trip was because we went to one of those time share presentations a year ago and they gave us 2 trips. One to Vegas and our other is to Park City (just think, Cody could walk down the street to work! - Sorry for all of you that like to vacation in Park City, nothing wrong with it, just a bit different when that's where you work!) Anyway, we assumed we'd be staying in one of the timeshare places, since that's what they were trying to sell us. Nope! We stayed in a standard plain hotel. It was fine, we were just spoiled on our trip to Mexico with a really nice hotel.
Part of our trip was supposed to entail some perks, like tickets to a show. We had about 5 options to choose from, but they weren't really free and we knew nothing about them. They all had a minimum drink purchase of one per person at a $9.95 value (hello we don't drink and weren't going to spend $10 each on a coke!) We opted to not go to a show.
We walked the strip that evening and checked out all the free things to do. The Bellagio has this awesome botanical garden and of course their water show.

The next morning we drove to the other end of the strip and went to the MGM Grand to see their lions. The baby cubs were so cute!
We walked around a bit more then went back to our hotel to pick up the shuttle that was taking us to the Jockey Club where we had to sit through another 90 minute presentation on why we should buy their timeshare. BORING! We were also told that we would receive $300 in slot machine money, which we thought was pretty cool, until we found out how it was to be used. We assumed that we'd be able to do the penny or nickel slots and then cash out when we wanted to. Nope, we had to walk over to the Hooters Hotel, turn our vouchers in and then went to a roped off area where we had to play on the $5 machines. You couldn't cash out unless you won the jackpot - and I'm sure you can guess how often that happens. It's crazy, that within a matter of minutes, $300 was gone. It's unbelievable how much money people waste trying to win big.
We walked around some more after our big gambling moment, ate dinner at PF Changs and then headed back to our hotel. We'd both had enough of the billboards, Mexicans passing out nudy cards and the filth that lies all over. It was great to get down south and be around the warmth, it was in the upper 80s while we were there - oh and it was fun to be without the kids for a couple days, but unless you have lots of money to see the good shows and you drink, there just isn't that much to do.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter and Aubrey's Birthday Party

Last Saturday the kids and I boiled and dyed our Easter eggs. Cody received a fun Easter egg kit from a specialist at work that kept us entertained.
Sunday morning Tucker woke up Aubrey and Cole so that they could begin their Easter Egg hunt. They each had a basket and found the eggs hidden around our house. Even Cole was in on the action. He crammed candy in his mouth and set off to find some eggs.

We celebrated Aubrey's 3rd birthday on Sunday with all of our extended family that lives in town. We had 21 people for Easter dinner and to celebrate! Aubrey was a doll and loved everything!
I asked her if I could take her picture and she told me that she wanted one with Grandpa!
Cole was getting flying lessons.
I'm making a family history scrapbook and needed an updated picture of Cody and I - not too shabby!
Aubrey was spoiled and had a great time opening all her gifts. Earlier in the week she told me that she wanted to open her presents all by herself - that translates to mean "No help from Tucker!"
The kids love Dora the Explorer and luckily I have a friend that lives close by that let us borrow her Dora cake pan. I'm glad I didn't have to shape her by myself. I had fun decorating her though. Of course, Aubrey noticed that her shorts weren't orange - I thought purple would match her pink shirt better - I mean come on Dora, you typically wear pink shirts, orange shorts and yellow socks? Not on my cake!

This is Aubrey and her cousin Halle. They are only 1 month apart and had fun playing with her new toys all evening.
And if you are blowing up the pictures and are noticing Aubrey's eye, yes - she does have a black eye. She literally ran into her friend Kate Thursday night.
Aubrey's real birthday was yesterday and we celebrating by eating at McDonald's last night. Every kids dream!