Cache Valley Cup

Denver' soccer team played in the Cache Valley cup again this year. It is always a fun and exciting time. This year he was a guest player for the older team. This meant double the games. Two to Three a day!!!! That is a lot when the temp is in the high 90's.


His original team did great but did not make it to the championship games. I think that they won all but one game. The older boys team that he guest played for did make it to the championship games but did not win. Still it was a huge improvement over last year.


Denver and best friend Tristan holding the big championship trophy. Go Fireball!!!!!

A Day At The Beach.....

Recently we spent the weekend at Bear Lake. I'm not sure why but it seems that every time we go the weather hear can be in the high 90's and over at the lake it is like this......

gray clouds, windy and cold as all get out!!!!!!

Those grey clouds seemed to follow us all weekend. We thought this would be a fun little get away. We always have so much fun as a family when we do this. Do you ever have those times when....... well let's say everyone wont's to kill each other? It was one of those weekends!! I blame it on those blasted grey clouds.

We really did try to make the most of it though. We even caught Cortney smiling!!! I actually think that she smiled allot. I think maybe it was me that had the rotten attitude.

Zak (my third son, tee hee)

and Denver did a little snorkeling.... and trust me they came back to the beach.....if you can call it a beach the water was so dog gone high it was hard to find sand.......shivering!!!!!!!

Needless to say we where all ready to go home this trip. Wait !!!!! Is that Kenny Chesney in that picture???? You must agree he does resemble him a little with that hat.

Ok so am a horrible mother for letting my son wear a Coors light hat??? At one point we did have a bandanna tied around it and it did look a lot better but it kept falling off.

Its always a little disappointing when get aways are a flop but I suppose they all can not be a success.

Have you ever had a weekend like ours?

Just a Pickin'

We had just the must splendid day today! Grannie,Cortney,Me and the little diva Maya all went to *Grandma garshes house to pick wild raspberries!!!

I thought I was a little experienced in this department but......well let my wounds do the talking. I wore short sleves, shorts and flip flops. Ouch!!!


It was all worth it though. We ended up with heaps of berries. I was in Heaven just thinking about the money I would be saving. I just bought a 12 ounce bag of frozen mixed berries yesterday for 5 smackaroonies.

Oh it was so much fun with little Maya there. She is the entertainment that is for sure. What a little princess. And oh so dramatic. Her mother had made her a little lunch to bring with her. She let us all know this the minute she got in the car, it was" so we did not have to stop any where on the way home to eat". Well wouldn't you know it the dog ate her sandwich (was this a accident? not sure) and she informed us that we needed to stop and get lunch now. Well no one else was even a tad bit hungry, but how do you say no to this little diva, bating her eyes and all that little sass!!! As you have guessed we stoped and got lunch at mickey d's. Oh I just love this little girl.(forgot to take the camera, so no pictures of the princess)

Anyways........... a little washing and a little smashing. And I was on my way to making some freezer jam. Yum Yum Yum!!!

Not just freezer jam but " NO SUGAR NEEDED" jam. Just like the package says!

Well open the package up and follow the directions and that "no" sugar ends up being 3 cups of "no" sugar!!! Should have known.... who makes jam with no sugar that is just wrong.

I ended up with 11 bags of jam and 7 bags of berries to freeze for smoothies etc...Not to bad.

And the ending of a wonderful day......the beautiful sunset that I watched out my kitchen window as I did all this work.

Hope ya all had a beautiful day to.... Love ya all!!!
* Grandma garsh is Grandma Leishman. We call her that because everything is always oh my garsh with her

vacation part 2

Who would have thunk that such a small little place would allow me to post twice???? I guess that Virgina City holds more than I could ever imagine.



Probably my most favorite part of the trip was this part... ..Back in the day they used to hang people!! Upon coming into the town there is a small hill that you can go to and see all that there is to see. This is the place that was at one time the town cemetery. Here you will find 5 marked graves of "road agents" that where hung (or hanged? which is correct).


This is George Lanes grave. aka Club foot George. His foot is really on display in the museum. And yes we did see it. Oh my it was nasty. But as you might guess, Denver thought that it was real cool.

The towns people decided that they did not wont to be buried by these men and so they dug up there family members that had gone before and made a new cemetery just done the road a ways, but upon this same small hill.

I have to say... this was the most charming little cemetery I have every seen! I have always loved cemeteries for some strange reason. I don't really know why. It may be the reverence that they hold, or the fact that loved ones lie to rest here, or the peace from the all the worldly things. I don't know!! Just call me crazy if you must.

There was so much simplicity here.

I love the idea of lilac bushes surrounding me when I have gone.

(one day I will learn how to rotate my pictures)

A lot of the family plots where gated. The detail was beautiful, yet so simple and lovely.

I love the idea of being laid to rest with your entire family surrounding you.

There where so many infants and young people.

I could have walked around for hours reading the headstones. We even seen where
Alice Cooper was buried.(ha ha) It was such a peaceful little place.

And there you have it folks..... the Virginia City cemetery!!!

i cant quite smiling.......

here i am catching up on reading my blogs and i cant quite smiling......is it something im reading? no......is it because i can hear my kids in the other room getting along? no....( we can only wish for that)it is the wonderful music that i can hear coming in my bedroom window. yes yes yes. it is powerful yet simple. it is off key. yet beautiful. it is slightly drowned out by the hum of a lawn mower. yet loud enough i can hear the happiness in its tone. aww it is my beautiful little neighbor giving me my very own concert. Shantel how you make me giggle inside. i just love it.

i often long for the city life. how i miss living right down town SLC. my stay there was only a short one but i loved it. some will say that it is because of the memories i have of taylor there. i must agree. but i think that there is something more. i think i long for having anything i need at my finger tips. for being excepted no matter what i look like. for not having everyone know my past, my present and my future.

but it is this morning..... and my own concert from next door that makes me realize i am happy to live in the country!!!!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN......

going places I've never been.....were the best of friends.....making music with my friends....like a band of gypsies......

we made it home.... for those of you that i had not told my mom and Joe invited myself and the kids to go on a little RV trip with them to one of their favorite vacation spots..

Virginia City Montana!!!! Wooo Hoo!!!! i can honestly say that this not a spot i had known excited. just a little place about 2 blocks long in the middle of nothing. a ghost town if you will. this is not what my kids would consider a exciting place to go but we all had a great time. it is amazing to me how going to such a place with so little we where able to have such a great time and create many wonderful memories. that is what its all about. the little things that mean so much. i have learned from this vacation that we could have camped in the RV 2 blocks from home and had created wonderful memories and bonded as a family. it is truly about being together that its all about. that's all that matters.


our first stop on the way was at mesa falls. it is beautiful!!! it amazes me that in the middle of a canyon off the side of the road you can find such peace and beauty.

in this little town of Virginia city their is a museum that has all sorts of old time houses, stores, saloons etc... it is here that you could get a taste of what it was like to live a hundred years ago. the kids had a wonderful time in the saloon playing a hand of poker and they even had a spity thing for Denver to spit his sunflower seeds into. just like the olden days.

and yes we panned for gold!!!! i never would have thunk that it was such a task to do this. a little harder than we had anticipated.

a little shake shake shake and a little spray spray spray and then off to the troff to jiggle jiggle jiggle and rinse rinse rinse( i forgot to add a pic of this process)

and then off to the table to pick out the garnets and the gold. lets just say that there are a lot more garnets than gold, however we where successful and did come home with 2 or 3 flecks of gold. we can all truly say that we got a real taste of the olden days. and i must add i think i kinda liked the simplicity of it all.

well partners that was a little about our vacation. check back later ya all. that's just part 1.

thanks grannie and grandpa for showing us a good time and sharing with us one of your favorite vacation spots. we love you to the moon and back.
*just a little side note: you can use the restroom while driving down the road in a RV. this is not only very cool but it is very hard to do as well.

And we're off!!!!