Horseback Riding!

Steve and I saw the movie "Secretariat" on Friday and LOVED it!!! It reminded us of the love that we have for horses.

SO, Saturday we went over the Ford's and rode Duckie and Docie! We seriously LOVED it!!! We are going to go horseback riding every week now...before it starts getting cold. Steve and I had such a great time. I love that when your riding you feel so free, and one with the horse. It's amazing. It was also a lot of fun seeing Jason and Shannon! Glad that they were able to ride horses with us!

Can't wait to go again!

Labor day Party 2010!

Theme this year: Chinese New Year!

Grandma let Petey (Preston) choose what theme he wanted for this year's party since he just got home from his mission. Why he choose Chinese New Year- I'm not sure, but it was a BLAST!!!

How lucky are we do have such amazing grandparents? They do a themed party EVERY year for Labor day. Every year we all look forward to it.

Grandma always decorates the house with lots of cute stuff to go along with the theme! (I took pics mostly after all of them were being taken down..dang.)

We all met at grandma's on Sunday and had a great Sunday dinner and than after dinner the games began! All the old folk-yep, that would be us too. Any one who is married is considered in the category. We all come up with a game for everyone to play.

Here are some of the games we played...

1. Chinese Jumprope

So fun!! It was super hard for me though. I don't know HOW in the world some of them jumped over the rope with the rope up to the waist. Are they really Frogs? Jack Rabbits? I don't know..but the Fords are good. Game by the Wilson Family.

2. Tour of China

This was a relay race. You have to put rice in your straw and shoot it at the tinfoil on the wall, you have to hit it. No matter how hard that wind is blowing, and doesn't really give you a chance..you still have to it hit before you can move to the next obstacle. You have to jump over the great wall of china (boxes with a lovely sign that says "The Great Wall of China"-love it!) and then with a racket hit this ball around this Chinese famous public square..blast, I can't remember the name. THAN you need to put on somewhat traditional sandals and a Chinese hat on your head while balancing a ring on that hat and carefully putting it in a bucket with a Chinese bow.

Tidwell Family...you are so creative and brilliant.

3. Chopstick Relay

Chopstick relay where you can only use chopsticks to pick up marshmallows (worth 1 point),

smarties (worth 2 points) and marbles (worth 3 points) and than quickly put them in a bowl without dropping them. The team with the most points at the end of the relay wins!

Cute Grandma came up with this game. She was super excited for all of us to try it out.

4.Ninja

Steve and I used this game. I wish I could say I created it, or was the fancy pants who came up with it. BUT I was not and I don't know who came up with it. Here's the jist of the game. Everyone stands in a circle and before you start you take a bow and than step back. You then say "High-ya!" and get in a karate stance and freeze. You go clockwise and each individual tries to get another person in one motion to try and hit there hand, you have to stay in that same stance. If you hit there hand then it's out of play. The ultimate goal is to get every person's hands out and then you win the game.

Here's some of the other games that were played without pics (since I don't have them)

5.Ellen came up with Chinese Stars. She bought these replica's of chinese stars and you had to throw them at a target. These stars had to be thrown at the target within a certain amount of time. You also wanted to get the most points.

Super creative and fun pretending to be a Chinese ninja. bahaha... (evil laugh)

6. Shannon Ford did a game called Dragon's Tail. Super fun! We had to get in a human train and the end person puts a red handkerchief in there pocket or belt loop. The person in front of the human train tries to catch the red handkerchief (the dragon's tail) while the train of people are blocking that person from doing so.

7.Josh and Shannon taught us how to write/draw Chinese characters that are common phrases. I learned two things from this. #1-so happy I don't live in china. It would take me FOREVER to write two words. #2- I'm not a very good artist. We all had fun though!

8.Michelle and Travis were creative too! They came up with Egg drop soup. This was also a relay race.

Everyone gets in a line and is holding a spoon. They gave us a plastic egg and we had to pass the egg from the back to the front of the line without dropping it. The person in the front of the line on each team had to carry the egg on the spoon (while spoon now in the mouth) to the bucket and drop it in the bucket without dropping it.

We all had a blast! Seriously love this.

Grandma bought these Chinese cut outs...

Then we had some fun with the umbrella's that Ellen brought...

We couldn't get enough of the games..SO we went back inside and played cards, Catchphrase and Leaping Louie-the airplane game. :)

Everyone sleeps over at grandma and grandpa's...some of us inside but most outside.

We all had a breakfast casserole-Keish and Sweet Rolls and than went and played some sand volleyball. Okay, more like gravel volleyball.

After we won, and kicked the other's booty's..ha ha. Kidding Jason! We had a fun couple of rounds.

To end our Labor day fun we went back to grandma's and had a Chinese lunch. Complete with your choice or using chopsticks or not.

We seriously love you Grandpa and Grandma Ford! We love your annual Labor day party! Can't wait for next year!!!

LAKE POWELL 2010

WHY oh why do vacations have to go so fast?! Steve and I got home this afternoon from our very much needed vacation. Steve is busy studying for the PCAT exam! Ah so exciting!! He takes it tomorrow morning. :) I decided I would write about our trip while its still fresh on my memory.

Ever stayed on a houseboat? I seriously love it, but every now and then I'm still feeling like I'm still on the boat, so I still feel like I'm in motion. Okay, funny story before I talk about the trip.

On our drive home Steve and I stopped in Price to grab some food and when we got out of the car we both took huge steps and kind of wavered a bit. I swear if you saw us you would think we were either A.-two drunks or B.-two little kids learning how to walk. We just laughed and got a good kick out of it.

Okay, Any who. Our trip was an absolute blast! I wish it never ended. I LOVE boating. I LOVE it. Everything about it makes me happy. I always tell Steve I married him for the boat. Ha ha. Okay that's absolutely NOT true, but it sure helped seal the deal! ;)

This year's trip we...

-Skied every day!!!!! :)

-Tubed until my arms couldn't hold on any longer

-Cliff jumped! Yeah that's right. I cliff jumped. I'm usually terrified of heights, but with a little of peer pressure, and Steve and Whit holding my hand-I DID IT!!!

-Wake boarded. I thought I would give this another shot. Bruised my nose, cheek and chin up pretty good. WHAT was I thinking?? I thought I could try one of Steve's tricks-He makes it look soo easy.

-Ladies shampoo party

-The slide is always a blast. Oh and going down the slide and trying to land on the tube at the bottom while standing. Super hard. But way fun.

-Steve studied his booty off for the PCAT, but also still made time for lots of play time!

-Rainstorms that created AWESOME waterfalls

-Games every night with the fam-Woot woot.

-Spiritual thoughts every night-Always loved these.

-Teeter totter with Whit-BAH HAH HA!!

-Tons of SUPER good food.

-Late night talks/laughter

-Steve became the official mice killer. so gross.

-The "Tom Cat" on Steve's Iphone was seriously so funny. "Bob rocks the boat, so stop it."

And then to top everything off. Late last night Steve, Brylee, Whit and I were all in our bedroom laughing and talking. I don't even remember falling asleep, but when I woke up Whit was on one side of the bed and Steve on the other. This was NOT a comfortable nights rest, I woke up mult times. I was in the middle of these two. Anyway, Whit talks in her sleep. I wake up to whit saying "I was thinking of some cool things to do, maybe we could do some tricks Keira Beira." I just busted up laughing. In the middle of the night. I couldn't stop laughing. She said it how she normally would when she's awake with this little accent thing. It was so funny. Okay, you had to be there.

Here's some of the pics!

I seriously LOVE Lake Powell and I'm so grateful for my in law family. Steve and I had a blast and we can't wait until next year's trip!!

P.S. We missed you Jason and Shannon!!