Happy Mother's Day to ME!!

A couple of Saturdays ago, Cory and I decided to clean out the laundry room. It was MUCH NEEDED after accumulating way too much junk in there! First we just started by cleaning off the countertop & emptying the cupboards so that we could move them to the garage. After that was all done, I thought "Why not paint in here, now that it is all cleared out?" So off I went to Home Depot to pick up some paint & supplies. Cory & I make a good painting team, he HATES the tedious work of taping off & cutting in, and I am TERRIBLE at using a roller (not enough arm strength, I guess). So, together we managed to get the room painted. That took two Saturdays (and a Monday too), because I had a boutique in Salt Lake in between. While I was in Salt Lake, I picked up a great bench/basket thing at Ikea. By Tuesday night, we were all finished!! I wish I had taken before pictures, but I really hadn't planned on getting all this done! Just imagine stark white walls, white cupboards (on the now blue wall), and LOADS of junk pretty much everywhere!! And now...

Bought a cute new ironing board cover at the boutique

Darling coat hooks from Tai Pan

What do you think?? I really love the way it turned out, and I find myself walking in there for no reason, just to look at it! Zach said he wants this room to be his new bedroom. Cory said, "How about this for your Mother's Day present?" Best Mother's Day present yet, I say!

Pinewood Derby

Last night we had the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby. Zach & Cory made a cool "Bumblebee" car.

Cory was in charge of the night (he's the new Pack Leader), and I helped run the computer program that kept track of all the racers & winners. (That's why we didn't get many pictures.)

Zach won 1st place out of the Bears & 2nd place overall!! He didn't seem super excited about it, but I sure was!! Way to go Zach!!!!

Andrew can't wait until next year when he can compete. He said he wants to use Zach's car! :O)

We are still alive!

So, I am obviously not a blogger.

I am just posting to let you all know we are still alive & kicking! The kids are back in school and doing really well. Madison started Middle School (6th grade) this year, which is really scary (for me mostly). About a month ago, Cory & I had LASIK surgery (NO MORE GLASSES, HOORAY!!)

I am super busy with my watches & my new calling, YW President. It is a big job, but I think it will be a lot of fun. I have only been in for a few weeks, so I am still learning the ropes & have a lot to look forward to.

I will be up in Salt Lake Nov. 17-21 for a boutique, so if you live up that way and you want to hang out, do lunch, whatever...let me know!!

Life is good! :O)

Alice the camel has 1 hump!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the July Jamboree on Main Street. It is a car show/street fair. We had dinner & wandered up and down the street looking at all the fun stuff. The highlight of the evening (for me at least) was when we walked over to the park where the Renaissance Fair (which is code for "freak show", just sayin'...) was going on, and Madison & Andrew got to ride a camel! (The pictures are not great because I only had my phone.)

Climbing on
Ready to go!

What a fun ride!

Zach didn't want to ride the camel, so he just watched. I really wish I had gone with the kids too, because I thought it was so cool! Madison & Andrew said it felt weird & they had to hold on tight because it felt like they would fall off.

Zachary had his eye on the giant inflatable shark slide across the street, so we headed there after the camel ride.

Daddy Jaws, doo, doo, doo, doo

All in all, it was a really fun night!

I'll admit, I watched it

Yes, I watched the Michael Jackson memorial service today. Since I only have an antenna, there weren't a lot of options this afternoon on T.V., so I turned on the memorial service while I worked.

I have never been a huge Michael Jackson fan. But, for some reason, I couldn't stop crying through the whole thing!! It was a lovely tribute to an undisputed world icon, but it was also very moving to get a glimpse into the person behind the icon. I nearly lost it when his daughter, Paris, spoke for just a moment about how much she loved her dad. Very sweet.

There is no denying the impact Michael has had on the world through his life, and he will certainly be missed. It is remarkable to me, though, how fanatical people can become over just one person. I can't pretend to understand what it must have been like to live every day of your life in the spotlight, whether for good or bad. Maybe now, he will get a little peace and quiet...

Farewell, Michael!

SUPER, MEGA, ULTRA, HUMONGOUS BLOG POST...

...OR The Taylor Family "Mini-Vacay"

So, someone (ahem, DAD) pointed out that I haven't blogged for a few months & it was time for some new material.

HERE IT IS FOLKS...

The Taylor family week in review:

Cory was on vacation this week, so we decided to take a short vacation up North. Tuesday afternoon we headed up to Sandy. On the way, we stopped at the...

DINOSAUR MUSEUM

at THANKSGIVING POINT

T-Rex

Ahh...don't eat me!

SHARK! RUN!!

Archaeologists in the making.

According to the advertisements, it is "the largest dinosaur museum in the world!" The kids really enjoyed seeing all the dinosaurs, playing in the sand, and of course the gift shop!

It was late by the time we were through, so we headed off to the hotel in Sandy and crashed for the night.

Cory had a meeting for work on Wednesday, so we woke up early in order to get some fun in before he had to go.

First, we drove out to South Jordan to go to the...

OQUIRRH MOUNTAIN TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

Lovely little temple with a stunning view.

The fam on the temple grounds


The Oquirrh Mountain Temple is the 130th temple of the church. And, South Jordan is the first city to have 2 temples inside the city boundaries. It was so nice for the kids to have a chance to go in the temple. They all thought it was very cool and can't wait until they are old enough to go inside again.

After our lovely visit to the temple, we decided to take a quick drive up to the...

LIVING PLANET AQUARIUM in SANDY

We saw...gorgeous tropical fish,

funky starfish and other creatures,

even more tropical fish,

and, awesome sting rays

The coolest part (I thought at least) was the large sting ray pond where you could reach in and touch the sting rays. Sometimes they would even come right up and say "HI!"

The aquarium was really cool. We saw a lot of beautiful fish (even Nemo and Dory were there!), stunning jellyfish, a big cool octopus, awesome sharks, and we even watched a little show with live parrots, snakes & tarantulas.

After the aquarium, we had to drop Cory off at his meeting. The kids and I decided to go swimming in the hotel pool. Zach couldn't do a whole lot with his broken arm (Oh, yeah. That will have to be another post) but we still managed to have a great time. The pool was incredibly WARM, and we were the only ones there the whole time. I didn't get any pictures because I was too busy having cannonball contests with the kids!!

When we had our fill of swimming, we got dressed and decided to take a drive up to my old homestead on Sego Lily. The house looks COMPLETELY different!! It was a little sad, actually.




Then, we drove up the street to...

BUTTERCUP PARK

Ah, memories!

Andrew as "mini-man"

Havin' fun!

I won't frighten you with the picture Madison took of me sliding down the bars, but be assured, it was pretty scary!! It was SO fun for me to show the kids where I used to live and play when I was their age. We had a nice little afternoon together. We finished up with an ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then headed back to pick up dad.



We did a little more swimming with dad before heading off to bed for the night.



Thursday morning we slept in! When we finally got up, we got all dressed in our hiking clothes and headed up to...

TIMPANOGOS CAVE

beautiful scenery...

exhausting hike!

Despite the difficult hike up, we had a great time in the caves! Unfortunately, as Cory was handing our camera to the tour guide to take our picture before starting the tour, it fell on the ground and broke! This wouldn't be as sad if we hadn't JUST bought the camera two days before!! So, we didn't get any pictures inside the cave, but the other people that were on the tour with us said that they would happily email us some of their pictures. So nice!!

All in all, we had a FABULOUS time. The kids were really quite pleasant in the car & on all of our adventures. Even though it wasn't a far-away trip, it was still a lot of fun!!

HOORAY FOR FAMILY VACATIONS!!

**is that good enough, Dad??

The marvels of modern science...

...OR, why do Mentos & Diet Coke do that??

In fifth grade, all the kids get to make volcanoes & set them off at school.

Madison brought home a paper explaining the materials she could use to make the volcano & also the different ways to make it erupt. I was quite surprised when I read "mentos & diet coke" next to the old stand-by "vinegar & baking soda".

Of course, given the choice between a large shooting geyser of diet coke, or a pathetic, dribbling ooze of vinegar, who wouldn't choose the former? Madison said no one in her class opted for the vinegar approach. DUH!

Unfortunately, I was out of town the weekend that the volcano was to be constructed, so Cory & Madison had to fend for themselves. They did a pretty good job, eh?

Cory spray painted the salt-dough volcano & Madison added some orange lava streaks for dramatic effect.

Then, it was time to set them off. Unfortunately, Madison was a better picture-taker than her friend, so she got a great picture of someone else's volcano erupting...

...but this is all we got of Madison's volcano erupting.

Oh well, she still had a great time. But, they still didn't explain why DO mentos & diet coke do that? Guess I will have to look it up...