Boot "Scootin" Boogie

. . . well not exactly the whole Boot Scootin Boogie, but Karlee is definately Scootin her way around these days. She will still roll around to get to places, but she has found this new form of transportation very liberating, I am sure. She is one determined little thing. She will scoot around until she needs a little break and then lays her head down, then once all her energy is restored, she is off again. She hasn't figured out the whole crawling thing, ya know with her knees, maybe later, for now she is just scootin around. She has found the butcher block that holds all my pots and pans (because I have such amazing storage in my kitchen). I had mixed feelings when she started this whole scootin thing . . . My life of leaving anything on the floor is now history, which is probably good, cause now I have to actually put the items away. Anyway so far it has been a lot of fun to watch her scoot all around the house.

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Karlee's on the move!

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Taking a well deserved break!

Karlee's newest attention grabber, she thinks this is pretty great!

Cousin Moments

For the past couple of days my sister Monica's little boy Trenton has been asking if he could come and play with Karlee's at her house. My sister has to tell him that Karlee lives far away. Trenton loves his cousin Karlee, and is always so excited to see her. This past week Karlee and I went up north with Rob, who was going up for business, and so we stopped by to see Trenton. I thought I would catch some photos of the two of them (this is one of my favorites). Trenton is so adorable, and is so loving toward his Karlee. Thanks Trenton for playing with Karlee, she had so much fun, and can't wait to come back and play with you.

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More Cousin time...

(Karlee and Bo trying to play with the same toy..ugh)

While we were up north we got to see Holly and her adorable-on the go boys. Karlee and cousin Bo are 4 months apart and I think that Karlee has caught up to him. Karlee still needs to get going on the whole hair thing, poor girl, I think that she'll be 3 before she gets a good amount of hair on her head. oh well.. thank goodness for bows and headbands.

(Karlee, Bo, and Grandpa- missing Cody who is always on the go)

Grandpa Weston loves his little grandbabies, and they definately love him too! This was fast trip but it is always fun to get up north and visit family. Oh yea and it was Bo's birthday week he is the big ONE! So Happy Birthday.

Horray...Fall is here!!!

Oh how I love the Fall season. The crisp in the air and beautiful changing leaves. Oh . . . there is just nothing better! I have been so spoiled in my life to live in two places where a person is definitely spoiled with beautiful scenery during the Fall season. Michigan and Kentucky...

Kentucky in the Fall

I loved all the walks in the parks, and just around the neighborhood. Rob and I would always talk about how lucky we were to live in such a beautiful part of the country. Oh how we miss this time of year back in Kentucky!

Michigan in the Fall

Some of the best memories that we have of our Fall in Michigan were the beautiful lakes and of course the yummy Apple orchards. We loved Saturdays when we went to the apple orchard for a yummy fresh apple spice doughnut. We also loved to buy our freshly made Apple butter. So yummy!

And no fall would ever be complete with out Football, and specifically College Football. We love to cheer on BYU, and just enjoy watching the games.

Thanks Grandma!!!

On Saturday when I was out hiking with my dad. My mom watched Karlee for me. I think that they had a wonderful time. So much so, because when my dad and I got back, Karlee smiled to see me, but clung to grandma. So sweet. I loved it, as I am sure my mom did too! Grandma has a lot more toys to play with, but the best thing to do with Grandma is to cuddle with her. Karlee loves her grandma. So again Thanks for such a wonderful weekend from both Karlee and myself.

Spencer's Trail Hike

12.2 miles in 5.5 hours

This past weekend Karlee and I went to Page, AZ so that I could go on a hike with my dad. My mom gladly offered to watch and play with Karlee while I was out walking around. My dad is a hiking fool, he does numerous hikes a year. I was pretty excited about doing this hike with him. This was our pre-canyon hike, 12 miles. (I'll explain later) Friday night we packed our Camelbaks with yummy food for the next day. (no picture, cause I didn't think about it. - next time) Saturday morning when I got up, I was starting to get pretty darn nervous, but just ignored the nerves.

(Our Pre-Hike photo)

We met up with the other hikers, teachers from the school my dad teaches at, and then we (6 of us) were off. When we got to the trail head of Spencer's Trail (Marble Canyon, AZ), there was no turning back, and we were off.

(Our hiking group...Too late to turn back???)

This hike started off with a vertical 2 mile climb of switchbacks. This for me was the most challenging part of the hike. (This part reminded me of the hiking up the North Rim, Grand Canyon) During the climb up I was wondering where my co-parts Pepper and Kaye were! We missed ya. We finished this part in 78 minutes, and then continued on for about 6 miles, just crossing the desert.

(We made it to the top!!!)

What goes up must come down and that is exactly what we had to do. We descended on the Dominguez-Escalante pass. This was insane! On the way up Spencer's trail we had a clear defined trail, on the way down Dominguez-Escalante pass there wasn't a defined trail. Which only tells you that the normal human would not go down this. However we did, which turned out to be quite the experience.

(This is looking for our trail...what trail?)

(Starting the descend - Are you kidding me?)

(Here we are at the bottom...I think?)

At the bottom of the pass we met up with the Paria River. We only had a remaining 4 miles to go. The Paria river had water in it, so we took advantage of it, and took our shoes off. That and we had to cross the river, so it was a win win.

(The water was like bath water, so refreshing)

(This was toward the end of our hike, pretty cool huh)

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What an amazing hike, best part was I was with my dad! I grew up in Page, AZ and never really knew about all the amazing places to hike. I am glad that my dad got the hiking bug, and has invited and encouraged us (his kids) to go with him. Thanks Dad, it was so much fun, and I'll see ya in 3 weeks for the Canyon.

*I will be hiking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim for the 2nd time on October 11th. I am either Really Crazy or just insane!

Kaye and Malia Visit

Last Sunday we had my sister Kaye and her little girl Malia come and visited us for 4 days. We had so much fun. Now my sister is a go and do kinda girl so that is just what we did. On our first day we went over to Segi's house (our sister-in-law) and painted wood. We pulled a late night painting and visiting. Thanks for dinner it was super yummy. On Wednesday we made bows... And a lot of bows we did make. Another way to describe my sister is that in whatever she does, she goes BIG. I mean there is no small project. We made headbands, bows, bows, and more bows. I don't even think we counted all the bows she made. Segi came over on Wednesday night, and joined in the bow making madness. Whew... we had so much.

Here are the four block projects that I did. Thanks Kaye!

This is our Bow Making Night. Thanks Segi for coming over!

Our Week Highlights:

• HAPPY HOUR @ Sonic for 1/2 price Slushes!!! Yummy...
• Tai Pan (Kaye's 1st time)
• Krumpets (Another great stop...getting decorating ideas)
• Lunch on Thursday... BOGO (gotta love DixieDirect)
• Playing, Hangin Out
• Waffles - almost everyday...wait probably everyday. sorry.
• Meeting Malia for the first time.

We had so much fun. We really loved having Kaye and Malia here. Can't believe I didn't even get a picture with Kaye, just her and I - oh well... Karlee really loved playing with her cousin Malia. Who by the way is the cutest thing ever. She has the blondest hair you ever did see. Thanks for coming to spend some time with us. We had so much fun!!! I have to admit I was pretty exhausted after Kaye left... I was gonna clean my house, but just sat and vegged on the couch. Good thing Rob is such an Awesome husband... I cleaned the house the next day.

Malia is adorable!

September 11 - 7 years later

Today I woke up with the thoughts of where I was 7 years ago. I find this ironic because when I talk to my mom, she can tell me where she was when President John F. Kennedy was killed. And as I was thinking this morning how interesting it is that there is such a day in my life, that Karlee will undoubtedly ask me if I remember where I was when September 11th happened. September 11, 2001 was a day that really effected us as Americans. This day changed my sense of security. I guess I was naive of the evil that is out in the world. Growing up in a small town, with a family that lived a very "normal" lifestyle was all I knew. I was sheltered (in a good way) from the bad things thanks to my parents. I looked at things that went on in the world, and never really felt as though they affected me. September 11th was a major wake up call. Our American life changed so much because of that day. Seven years have gone by and I think that I have become more proud to be an American. I have a better appreciation for all the people that are working and fighting to keep our lands free and safe. My heart aches that this act of pure evil took so many life's and separated so many families.

Timeline from 9/11 Commission Report

8:46 - American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the WTC’s North Tower

9:03 - United Airlines Flight 175 flies into 2 WTC [the South Tower]

9:37 - American Airlines Flight 77 hits the west wall of the Pentagon

9:58 - South Tower collapses

10:03 - United Airlines Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania

10:28 - WTC’s North Tower collapses

Do I have a Mouse in my House?

My sister Kaye and her little girl Malia came to visit us on Sunday. And we have been on the go ever since.... Yesterday after lunch, Kaye was looking for something sweet to eat, she went to her cooler to grab the "Almond Joy" that Jared, her husband, had bought for her a couple days earlier. When it wasn't there she thought to herself, "Not a big deal, I have an Little Debbie's oatmeal pie in the fridge". She went to the fridge, and it was not there... This is when I thought to myself... hum... Do I have a Mouse in my House?... (Dr Seuss would be so proud) I may not have a mouse, but I definitely have a RAT!. So we called the RAT (Rob). My sister proceeded to tell him how she was looking for something sweet to eat, and asked if possibly he had seen either of the two missing treats. Rob tried to play it cool by saying that he didn't know what she was talking about, all the while trying not to burst into laughter. He even said that his cell phone was breaking up and that he was having a hard hearing her. Rob eventually confessed saying that he didn't think that the two treats belonged to anyone. (What does this mean I have to now have all my visitors label their items. :) lol.) My sister wasn't upset at all, in fact she just laughed. However the interesting side note is that the two treats were not just out in plain sight, the RAT (aka Rob) had to kinda search for them both in the cooler and the fridge. Which I think just makes this little story just a bit funnier. Rob was able to sniff them out. So do I have a mouse in my house...no I just have a Rat with a good sniffer. I love Rob, he makes life so much fun.

Milestone: 7 months...Whew can't believe it.

Karlee is now 7 months, and we are just so in love with her. We took her to the Dr. this past month and she is doing really good. She is healthy and continues to be such a good natured baby. She now weighs 15lbs 10oz and is 27inches long, which = 90% in her height, and 30% in her weight. (Oh how I wish these % stats could be about me. I am probably the opposite in height and weight. lol) Karlee is doing so good, and her smile says it all. She is almost crawling, which I don't know exactly how I feel about that. I love being able to put things down, and not worry about anyone getting into them. I guess this will end soon. She loves her daddy. She can just sit and play with him for hours. One thing is for sure I need to start taking more pictures, the time is flying by and I want to be able to capture every bit of her.

Karlee's Room Make Over

I am really bad at getting myself to decorate where I live, and usually don't rush into anything. We have lived in our townhome for Oh... almost 10 months now, and the only things that I have on our walls is our clock, and our magnet board in our kitchen. Its not that I don't find enjoyment in decorating, its just that I usually don't decorate until I have all the items that I want to use all together. I know that probably sounds dumb, and a pretty darn lame excuse. So to my rescue my sister Kaye came down for Karlee's sealing and is staying a couple of weeks down here in the lower 48 (thats what everyone in Alaska says). So she came and stayed a couple days on her way down to my parents home. My sister has a vinyl lettering business (Simple Sayings Vinyl Lettering) that she runs out of her home. It was so fun to run some ideas by her, even more exciting to see what she was able to come up with. While she was here we jumped right into decorating Karlee's room. Karlee's room really hasn't come together other than the beautiful cherry wood crib, and adorable crib set. And since we are just renting our townhome, painting is not an option, so vinyl seemed to be the best answer. We put a border of pink vinyl flowers around the top of Karlee's room, with a large vinyl "K" right above the crib. It turned out so perfectly. I love it!!!

It is now officially my favorite room. Now we just need to find a cheap dresser so we can get all her clothes off the floor. So Karlee's room is actually coming together quite nicely. Now I can't wait until my sister comes back for a little longer stay in a couple of weeks. She is so crafty. I am sure that we will get a few projects done while she is here. So here are a couple pictures of Karlee's room.

Ya don't even notice that the walls are sterile white. Love it!!!

Worthen Family Reunion 2008

Laundry is done, Camping supplies are all dry, and now its time to blog! We had a Wonderful weekend. We went to our family reunion up on Cedar Mountain. It was our year to plan this years reunion. We had a lot of fun planning it, coming up with ideas, and activities for all the little kiddos. It has been 3 years since we were able to attend my family reunion with living so far away. Our family sure has grown, we now have 12 adults and 11 kiddos. Which makes for a lot of fun. Since we were planning the reunion I decided that I would work with a theme: An Animal Safari theme. I made some reunion invites:

Our Reunion Invite (itinerary, date magnet and animal cookies)

We had a Animal Safari hunt. We found safari gear online: safari hats, binoculars, and my dad made each grandkid a marshmallow gun. The safari was really fun... Everyone put on their safari gear, and then hiked through the forest searching for animals (ZooPals plates nailed to trees) It was pretty cute watching all the kids loading their ammo (marshmallows) into their guns and shooting the animals. I was surprised they loved it as much as they did. In fact the safari hats, and binoculars were permanent fixtures on their bodies the whole reunion.

Our little Safari Campers

Our weekend was full of family, fun and rain. Yes rain, it rained off and on from Saturday evening to Monday morning. Some of our family are now trailer campers, and so they were able to sleep in comfort. The rest of us are tent dwellers and enjoyed what mother nature dumped on us and on our tents. My brother Tom and his family had their tent windows down when the first downpour came on Saturday and for the rest of the time they dealt with puddles of water in their tent. They were great sports. However I hear they are now in the market for a camping trailer and have their tent for sale. lol. (Hayley you are so so lucky!!!)

This was Karlee's first camping trip and I think that she did pretty good. Thanks to my sister Monica who thought of everything. A toy saucer to play in, and a cozy pink sleeper to stay warm in. She loved being outdoors, and up in the mountains. I think that she loved to watch all of her cousins running around. She definately didn't go un-noticed by her cousins, who loved on her and played with her. I had a hard time with all the dirt. surprise surprise. I tried my hardest to keep Karlee clean, and I think I did a pretty good job. Next year will be the big test as she will be walking. Yuck!

It was really a fun time and lots of good memories made. I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband. Rob fits perfectly with my family, which makes for great family gatherings. Lots of games of darts were played and lots of stories told around the campfire.

The big guys playing darts...

... and all the kids playing their own game of ball darts.

We can't wait until next year. We would like to again say thank you to everyone for making it such a fun reunion. It is a sacrifice and for making it so much fun. Thanks again!!!

Experiencing life through a child's eyes, Honestly how much better can it get!