Go Red Rocks!!!

On February 2nd, I got free tickets for our whole family to attend a University of Utah gymnastics event.  Oh boy, was it fun?!?!? No really....Was it?  We had a couple of murmurers, but overall it was a good time.

It was some sort of special day where they gave out light-up crowns and light sabers.  And there were tons of princesses and superheros to take photos with!

Josh is wearing my crown like a beard in this picture. 

Go Utes!!

Bronson looks as strong as Batman! 

We were way up in the nosebleeds. As in - the VERY top row!  We had GA tickets, but we chose the top row.  Nowadays, with the Jumbotron, all seats are good seats!

Here we are cheering on our team!

David was so caught up in the excitement!

Other January Ditties

Let's see what else we were up to in January, shall we?

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Joshua started playing Jr. Jazz Basketball.  He was on a team that won some games and lost some games.  His coach was perhaps the nicest human being on the planet.  It was a good season for him.

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Quinton took swimming lessons.  He was absolutlely adorable! 

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Nicki played Jr. High basketball again.  She is the player on the far fight in this picture.  Her team did pretty well!  They were undefeated until the second round of the district tournament.  

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Quinton is a super picky eater!  I've never had that kind of trouble with my other four kids.  He doesn't eat much at all.  So, in an effort to help expand his palatte, I signed us up for a mommy-and-me food class with our local health department.  It taught about the different food types and why it is important to eat something from all of them, etc.  

Quinton was so excited to be there!  It was really fun to take a class with mom and to get to try all kinds of new things, etc.  

By the time he learned all about the foods, he was pumped to give them a try! 

That excitement didn't last long.

We went to the class exactly one time.  Sigh...

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But one thing that was SUPER exciting in January is that I FINALLY got rid of the turtles! We'd had the turtles for almost two years.  The kids thought they were amazing...for about one week.  Then they couldn't have possibly cared less about them.  Meanwhile, I was stuck cleaning out the disgusting, slimy, poopy tank all the time.  Urgh!  

It bacame a neighborhood joke that I was constantly trying to give our turtles away. I tried to sell them online, but EVERYONE was trying to sell their turtles (see previous paragraph for reasons). I even called a turtle rescue agency and they said we'd have to PAY them to take them off our hands because they had so many.   

Well in January I finally found a pet shop in Salt Lake City that was willing to take our turtles.  Woo hoo!  The girls and I drove down to Mark's Ark - which is a mostly-reptile pet store run by a bunch of hippies (whom I love!).

The girls were glad they came with me.  Not only were there a ton of cool, exotic reptiles to see and some cute hippies to take our turtles from us, but there was a super-cool graffitti wall for their photo shooting pleasure.  They had a blast. And I vowed to never clean another turtle tank again! (Want to buy a dirty turtle tank?)

New Adventures

In January, I made a crazy, crazy decision.  I decided to start my own business.  Why, you ask?  Honestly, I'm not sure I know the answer.  I know that I was super stressed out about how to pay for our kids' braces (not that I have paid anything toward the braces).  I also know that I'm the kind of person who likes to do things.  I tend to act first, then think later.  So I joined a company that sells long lasting lipstick and anti-aging skincare and cosmetics as an independent distributor.  That's right.  I joined a MLM.  

 I know I'm making it sound like it was a horrible decision and that I hate it.  That is not the case.  I actually really love it.  It is really far out of my comfort zone, but that is a good thing. I have learned a lot about myself, made many many new friends, and even made a few bucks.  Of course, Alison makes fun of me. But I can live with that.

I think I took this picture the day after I signed up (the first of about 50 million selfies).  Can you see the fear in my eyes?

Sundance Film Festival

At the end of January, we had ourselves a little adventure.  You see, Nicole and her best friend, Charly were DYING to go to the Sundance film festival.  They knew that several famous movie stars were in town and they were convinced that they would just randomly run into Dwayne Johnson on the street if they could get there.  Somehow, they convinced Charly's mom, my dear friend Lisa, and I to check them out of school and take them to Park City.  Of course, little Quin had to tag along as well.

We had such a great time! And such a NON-Great time as well.  Here we are just lounging around at a ski lodge.  We probably saw famous people on the slopes, but they were so covered up that we couldn't tell...

We had a scrumptious (but Park-City-priced) lunch at Main Street Pizza and Noodle.  Yum! 

Then we walked around Main Street for a while, window shopping, posing for pictures, and looking at every single person we passed.  No Dwayne Johnson sightings though.

Cute little Quinton, who was still recovering from the illness that hospitalized him the month before, started coughing while we were walking up the street (which is a pretty steep hill, if you've never been to Park City). Suddenly, he started throwing up. A lot!  All. Over. The. Middle. Of. The. Sidewalk.  At the Sundance Film Festival.  It was pretty gross.  And I think it was a little bit embarrassing for Nicole and Charly.  But people were very nice to him and we got it all cleaned up.  

The rest of the day was fun.  I felt bad for bringing poor sick Quinton. And I think the girls were disappointed that their Dwayne Johnson dreams never came to fruition.  We were all a little tired when the shuttle bus arrived at the parking lot where we had parked Lisa's van.

Except Lisa's van was nowhere to be found.  It had been towed.  When we first arrived, we saw how expensive parking was in town - like $50!!!  We decided to park in the parking lot of a grocery store on the outskirts of town and shuttle in.  It seemed like a great plan!  And lots of people were doing it!  Guess what. It was not a great plan.  It was an expensive plan.  Like a $200 plan. Apparently you are not supposed to park in the grocery store pakring lot.  Let's just say that the puking and the parking put a little bit of a damper on our adventure. But Lisa and I decided not to let it get us down.  The trip really had been fun - we made some very important memories with our daughters and for that, we'd do it all again!

My Dad's Retirement Party Weekend

For years and years, my parents talked about going on a trip with the whole family after my dad retired.  They wanted to go somewhere tropical and peaceful with all of their kids and grandkids. However, in the end we realized that it would be almost impossible to pull that off.  Adam couldn't travel far away, and Katie couldn't leave him. My brother Dave had only been at his new job for a few months and had missed a few days when he got pneumonia so he couldn't take more time off. And we all had stuff on our plates.  In the end, we compromised and went on a two-night trip to Salt Lake City with just the original Smiths (the parents and their five children). That way we could take off little to no work, be close to our families, and still have a fun retirement trip for Dad.

Us Northern folks headed down to Salt Lake City on Thursday (January 10th) afternoon.  We met Scott and Dave at our hotel.  They both worked in SLC.  After settling in, we walked over to City Creek Shopping Center and wandered around for a while.

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We ate dinner at The Garden Room on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. 

As you can see, it was delicious!  I forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone, but let me just say that we Smiths LOVE our food!  We take it very seriously.  Each meal was thoughtfully planned out months in advance! (This is only a slight eggageration).

We walked around for a while, then headed back to our hotel  - the Marriott Downtown, by the way - via Trax train.  I should mention that we had so many laughs throughout the entire trip!  I am related to some seriously funny people!

That night, some of us went to the hottub at the hotel and others of us just chatted in the lobby.

The next morning, the three sisters accompanied my parents to a viewing in Salt Lake City.  My aunt's mother passed away, so many realatives from around the country were in town.  After the viewing, we met my brothers at Market Street Grill for brunch.

If our family has a "restaurant," it's Market Street Grill.  So many memories there!  So many!  And now, we have even more memories!  If only you could sit around the table with us, you would see.  Let's just say, Kristin can tell a story like no other person!  An Dave's quiet humor is priceless!

We spent the day at the Natural History Museum.  It was fun to wander around without having to worry about my kids.  I could really spend time reading, etc.  Here comes a lot of museum pics:

Dad and a raptor.

We all took the elevator to the third floor, but Kris insisted on taking the stairs.  I think that's a cool picture.

This was a pretty awesome ant hill.

Dave, Kris, and Scott checking out some human skulls.

L-R: Mom, Dad, Dave, Scott, and Kris just checking stuff out.

I thought this was awesome! We all chose our favorite skull.  Can you see Mom and Katie down at the bottom of the shot?

Katie and Mom checking out the ancient Mayan exhibit.

After the museum, we got an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins.  Then, a few of us went shopping at Trader Joe's (aka heaven) while the rest went back to the hotel to freshen up.  Then, we all rode Trax to the Vivent Smart Home Arena to watch a Jazz game.

Talk about amazing!  We ate some tasty Barbeque at a place in the arena.

And look who we ran into!  David and Josh went to the game with Josh's free Jr. Jazz participant tiakets.  How fun is that?!?!?

A selfie from one direction.

And a selfie from the other direction.  I have to say, it was a blast sitting next to Kristin for the game.  She kept making cute, motherly comments to the players.  "Good Job!  That's right!  You can do it!  Oh no, did you get hurt?"  She was cracking Scott and I up!  We couldn't really hear the other people in our group in that loud setting, but I know the three of us had fun.

Back at the hotel, we all hung out in the lobby winding down for an hour or two.

Am I already driving you crazy with how much I love these people?  Sorry!  I could have sat there all night!

What a fun day - start to finish!

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at our hotel's restaurant.  Um.  Wow!  It was great!

And that was it!  We went home after checking out of the hotel.  It was fast, but wonderful!  I'm so gald we had that amazing opportunity to spend time together again!  We were trying to remember the last time all seven of us went anywhere together like this, and we think it was 1992ish.  That's a long time!