Treat Yo' Self 2013

Do you watch Parks and Recreation? Please tell me you do. If you don't, watch it now!! We almost love it as much as the office (and re-watch the episodes on netflix every night).

This is what you're missing if you don't. (shame on you).

Richard and I work a lot. Especially Richard. He works about 50 hours a week. I work 40 and it feels like 100. Because of this, we decided that on Labor Day, since we had a rare, long weekend where Richard didn't have to work, we would treat ourselves! So we did. We suuure did.

City Creek! (treat yo' self)

 Fountains! (treat yo' self)

 Massive cookie ice cream creation (treat yo'self- you get the idea)

 The very first step to our treat yourself weekend was to find a hotel that had both a pool and a continental breakfast with waffles. Check!

Richard found this contraption in the pool, and naturally had to find out what it did. I told him not to, for the record.

 There he goes!

 Next stop in our weekend was... camping! I know what you're thinking because I thought it too. How is camping treating yourself? Well, surprisingly, even though I don't like to get dirty or use the facilities outside, I actually like camping! And this was better than your usual camping, because we went to the place where Richard proposed! We were even within a few days of the 2 year anniversary of the proposal!

 This is the place

 In case you didn't see it with the giant finger.

 About 1000 of these helped us set up our tent. Thanks guys! (I hate bugs). By the way, they fly.

 We went pretty minimal here... basically this was a hiatus from the treating ourselves. Hot dogs do not equal  treating yourself. But they're a must for camping when you don't want to have to do a lot of prep work!

 Look at that! We went on a hike in the morning and I collected leaves from the place where Richard proposed. I modge podged them and now they will never shrivel up and turn brown! Cool trick I learned from the amazing Pinterest.

Final phase of the treat yourself weekend. We arrived home from camping, went to the gym, and got ready for the day. When you are exhausted, it is not a good time to answer your husband's inquiries about expensive purchases. Well my sweet husband came up to me and asked if I would like to spend some money today (like go out to dinner?). no. Richard wanted to buy a TV! So in the spirit of the weekend...

Guess what I said? Yep. and then we went to Best Buy and wound up with this thing. 

(He admitted to using sales tactics on me that he's learned from Enterprise. Shame on him.)

All in all I'm happy with it, he's been dying to watch football and now he can! Our other TV was from 1980 and was too old to be compatible with normal TV or something like that.

 can't wait til 2014 so we can do it again!

Snowbird Reunion!

This summer we were lucky enough to take part in a little family reunion for Richard's family at Snowbird!

I'm not much of a skier or snowboarder, so I had really never been there. Richard's family grew up skiing together and spent lots of time over the years at snowbird (his dad even has a lifetime pass there!-awesome).

I was surprised by how much stuff there was to do there in the summer. We had a blast!

Here we are a few days before our trip to Snowbird at Richard's sister's house meeting up with his parents, who came into town a little early.

 This pic (below) was taken at our Monday night family home evening, which was probably the most exciting one I've ever been to! We had not one, but TWO pregnancies announced in the family (not us). Richard's younger sister and older sister both announced that they were pregnant, which took us all by surprise so it was really fun. Then we watched everyone do a talent show. We have no talent so we did that cup thing that was all the rage a few months ago and stole the show (ha).

 #1 most popular spot- the pool! Not sure who enjoyed it more, the kids or the men. Here's Richard with his older brother, his dad, and our newest brother in law, Kevin.

 This picture kills me! Poor kid. He kept pulling up his pants because they were a little too big, so if his pants fell below his bellybutton, they would tell him his pants were falling down. They kept telling him to pull his pants up higher and higher, and as you can see, he didn't hesitate to follow orders. This was the result. Lookin' good.

 The twins! and the wives.

 Alpine slide! You know you're going too slow when all the little kids are telling that you are going really slow and/or almost running into you on the way down.

 This jumpy thing was awesome!

 Our room complete with a fireplace and bed that came out of the wall

 One night Richard's parents took us all to the Steak Pit restaurant at Snowbird where we got some delicious foods.

 The people at the restaurant were kind enough to reserve an entire room just for his family :) We got to share the table with these cuties

 Twins! again

 Representing BSU, of course.

 My favorite part of the trip was rock climbing! I love it.

Here is Richard Samuel Clover IV and Richard Samuel Clover III, his uncle! Had to take the photo op to show Richard Samuel Clover V one day ;)

That was our trip! We had such a good time we're already talking about going back!

To the Idahome

Last week we went on a fun little trip to none other than Idaho for a family reunion! Per my brother-in-law's request, and out of laziness in finding someone to feed the little guy, we brought our little turtle along for the trip. Here we are at the beginning of the drive. Ryan, my little bro, got the pleasure of holding him in his lap for about half of the trip (in the box) and inhaling all of his lovely turtle smells (you're welcome, Ryan)

I don't care what people say about Idaho being ugly, look at that sky! I took about 500 pics of it, but you get the idea. Disregard the bug splatters on the windshield.

We had a blast on the drive there. Our playlist for the trip included some Red Hot Chili Peppers, Brand New, and a lovely little gem that my brother introduced us to. Listen to it, you won't be sorry. Crank Dat Soulja Boy- screamo. Hilarious!

I was extremely excited for this trip, because it's rare that I get to be with my whole family (all my sibs and their kids) at one time. The last time it happened is when we were getting married 1.5 years ago, but even then Ryan was on his mish so that doesn't count! The reunion happened to fall on my birthday weekend, which made it even better!

We started the day off with some homemade french toast Kneader's style, then we headed off to Sandy Point, which is about the most tropical place you can find in Boise.

We had a beautiful game of sand volleyball, which is one of my favorite things ever, with all the adults in the family. 

Then the kiddos had a game of their own.

We also played in the water and in the fountain at the reservoir! I mostly laid out in the sun because even though it was 100 degrees outside, the water was FREEZING. 

We took turns cooking during the vacation. My birthday night fell on my sister Allison and her hubby who made baby back ribs that were soooo good!

Even Piercy-poo got to enjoy one.

Had my traditional funfetti cake with strawberry icing and blew out the candles! 25 of them...

I opened presents and got this sweet card from my niece, Kate. Definitely one of my favorite cards of all time. She and I both have reddish hair, so she drew us together with red hair, riding on a unicorn! I put it on the fridge because I like it so much.

All the kids had party hats and were probably more excited about my birthday than I was (almost). It was so fun to be surrounded by so many of my family members! Last year it was just Richard and me for my birthday.

I took a lot of pics on my birthday but we did lots of other great stuff too!

Family home evening:

Dress up

Decorating the turtle's makeshift tank with turtle and carebear stickers

Swimming at our subdivision's pool

...and then getting shaved ice! 

Since when do they hand out color-changing spoons?!

cute baby-time

Girl's day out, where the boys watched the kids and the girls went downtown for some lunch and shopping! Don't worry, the boys got a boy's day out too but none of them took any pics of it! Shame on them.

Pojo's, a little kids arcade place that can also be fun for adults..

Sibling trip to the Boise temple

we also hiked table rock (a good 3.5 mile hike with a pretty good elevation climb that we did with all of the children in tow). It was fun for those of us who did not have to carry a tired child up and down the entire mountain! I think someone took pics of the experience but it wasn't me. 2 of the kids miraculously walked all the way up and down the mountain which was pretty impressive.

We also spent a lot of time just chatting and playing games. My parents did a great job planning tons of fun activities for us to do so that we could experience Boise together. We had a blast!

A few days after we came home, we got to see my sister Allison and her family again because they are flying out of SLC. We went to Brick Oven with them and got to see their sweet kids again and play games with them later that night.

It was a fun week, but we miss everyone already!