Ward Daddy Daughter Camp

How many camps do you know that have popcorn poppers, tons of candy and a 20 feet movie screen?  Leave it up to the dads to figure out a way!

The girls drinking hot chocolate while watching Tangled.

 Aspen and Alexa waking up in the morning.  The perfect temperature at night  (57 degrees) let us sleep without the rain cover on.  We watched the stars all night!  It was amazing!

The view of the rim from camp.

Jay woke up and took these girls on a hike.  I am going to try to remember all the girls names?!  Camille, Autumn, Brianna, Jenna,  Alexa, Helana, and Aspen.

A pond they found on their hike.

Autumn and Camille waiting for breakfast.

 Leave it to the Fathers to make a "candy cannon"!  It was a whole lot of flames just to launch the candy 15 feet!

Where can it be cold enough to wear sweats at night and warm enough to swim during the day?  Answer - Arizona!  This swimming hole was breathe taking!!

Autumn sliding down the rock into the water.

After she slide into the water, she realized it was freezing cold!  She didn't like it too much!

Aspen and her friends ready to jump in the water from the cliffs.

We are so happy to be living within 1.5 hour drive of such an amazing area!!  

So what did Brighton and I do while Jay and the girls were off playing.  We went out on a date!  I took him to the Spaghetti Factory, they even sat us in the train.  After that we went home and made puppets. 

Daddy Daughter Dance 2011

It was once again the annual Daddy Daughter Dance or as Jay is now calling it "Ditch your Daddy Dance".  I think Jay spent most of his time playing Angry Birds on his iPhone.  He did get to dance with them on all the slow songs.  The theme this year was Mexican Fiesta.  

Daddy Daughter Dance

Jay was lucky this year and was able to take both Aspen & Autumn to the Daddy Daughter Dance.  The theme this year was Hawaiian Luau.  We thought Autumn would get her cast off the day before but after we took x-rays we found out she needed the cast for another two weeks.  She was bummed out, especially after she found out the only cast color at that office was white.  She wanted something to match the dress she was going to wear to the dance.  Jay called up one of his attendings and asked if he could come and get either pink or purple cast material.  Dr. Taylor was nice enough to give us purple.  We took her home gave her a bath and scrubbed off all the yucky dead skin and put the cast on at home.  A perk of having your dad as a doc.

They had tons of fun at the dance! 

Everyday Life

Nothing special, just stuff that happens in everyday life.

Jay has to pop air popped popcorn every night, usually after the kids are asleep.  Brighton has caught onto this and has realized that Dad will have sometimes have leftover in the morning.  Brighton gets excited when he sees the blue popcorn bowl on the counter.  He is already taking after his dad!

Brighton helping Jay fix the kitchen sink.  Since then he has tried to fix the sink all by himself many times.

Last Friday I went to take the girls to school and the van wouldn't start.  We had to sit around and wait for Jay to get done with surgery so he could come and get us.  Luckily he only had a couple of surgeries in the morning and then had a break.  Autumn wouldn't take off her coat she was too busy playing on her iPod while she waited for dad.  In front of her is her "bling walker".

Yesterday Jay put a new cast on Autumn. 

She picked red this time.

How many kids are lucky enough to have their dad put their cast on them.

I think every kid (well at least mine) goes through this stage where they don't want to sleep.  Aspen used to make every excuse in the book not to go to bed and would sneak out of her room and hide behind the couch and watch whatever we were doing.  Autumn used to wake up in the middle of the night and watch TV, we would see a light and go into the family room and she would be watching TV.  We would have no idea how long she had been up.  Brighton has them beat, I know, what a surprise!  Every night we tuck Brighton into bed he has to have his monkey, dinosaur (dine door), and moo cow.  He will wake up and we will hear him open and shut the door several times. Then if we don't go to him fast enough he will open other doors and shut them.  Well the other night he woke up and went into Aspen's room, turned on the light and said, "wake up Aspen".  Aspen was not happy to be awoke from a dead sleep in the middle of the night.  I am about ready to put a lock on the outside of his door. 

We are TRYING to potty train Brighton.  He has a mind of his own!  We have had a little success, but now he thinks he can take his clothes and diaper off and run around the house naked.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times a day I find a diaper on the floor but he is nowhere around.  This morning I found him in Aspen's room, naked, dancing to Hannah Montana.  This kid could belong to a nudist colony and be proud of it!

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Jay!!!!!

Eleven years ago today I married my soul mate, it was the happiest day of my life. Jay and I were married in the Logan, UT L.D.S. Temple for time and all eternity. Sorry girls, but I think I married the most wonderful man in the entire world! Jay is the most patient, kind, thoughtful and understanding person I know, not to mention he is hot! He is always doing such kind things for me, like leaving me little notes to let me know just how much he loves me.

Jay & I have always lived within a few miles of each other. When we tell people this they seem to think that we were high school sweethearts, which couldn't be farther from the truth! I thought he was a spoiled ski bum and he thought I was a stuck up snot. He dated one of my friends and I had dated some of his. We happened to be hanging out in a group and he called me "Jenny" and I promptly told him "My name is not Jenny, it is Jenn or Jennifer", this didn't help his thinking I was stuck up.

Well after he served a mission we had both grown up a lot! When he got home in January of '97 we had a history class together at Utah State. You would think this is where the story would begin but Jay was scared of girls at this point and basically would only say "Hi" to me. I wasn't going to initiate anything, I liked being chased not the other way around, call me old fashioned.

That summer I was taking a walk one Sunday night with my sister and Jay drove by with some of his friends and stopped to say "Hi". I knew one of his other friends a lot better than I knew Jay and I mostly talked to him so Jay thought I was into him (yuck!). Later on I found out that they had drove past a couple of times before but Jay didn't dare stop. He finally got up the courage so they switched cars so I wouldn't think they had been around the block a few times (in which they had). In my talking to them Jay found out I worked at a paint store so a little while later he came in to buy paint but we were really busy and I didn't help him so he left.

On August 9th, yes I remember the date, I was getting ready for a date that I had. I had been dating this guy (in which I won't name because it is a sore spot with Jay) on and off for awhile, he lived in the Salt Lake area and was coming up to Logan to take me out. At about 5:30pm the phone rang and it was JAY wanting to know if I would like to go out with him and he wanted to pick me up in one hour. I found myself saying "yes", well now I had to call the other guy with an excuse. I wasn't about to tell him that I was dissing him for someone else so I told him I had all of a sudden got the stomach flu. He still wanted to come up since he was on his way but I talked him out of it and told him we would go out next weekend. That never happened, I actually didn't see him again until he came to our wedding reception.

Our Announcement Picture

Jay picked me up in a brand new Honda Accord, hence my thinking he was spoiled, I knew he already had a Jeep. I didn't find out until later that it was his moms, Jay had wanted to use it because he didn't have time to put the top on his Jeep and thought I wouldn't want my hair messed up. Anyway, we went with another couple to the movie Men in Black. The guys hadn't really thought this date out and so afterwards we were talking about what we wanted to do and I told Jay lets go get your jeep and go jeepin. Jay was surprised that I would want to do something like that since he thought I was high maintenance. This is where I think Jay really fell in love with me although he would say it was later on. Ha Ha

We went to his house and all got into his jeep and went up Providence canyon. Jay was shocked that I wasn't scared to go up some pretty big hills especially when the other girl got out a few times and walked. He put a Madonna CD in thinking that I would like it and of course I did and I was belting out all the words - if any of you know how bad of a singer I am you would think that is where this story would end. I had a lot of fun that night but didn't really think it would go anywhere.

A week later Jay asked me out again. We went bowling with a group and then went to someones house to watch a movie. Every other couple was making out and Jay and I just sat there feeling awkward. Afterwards he took me home walked me up to the front door and this is where our first kiss happened and can I say the sparks flew. Wow, I had kissed others guys but this was different!

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My Prince Charming

We found ourselves spending every free moment together. He was so much fun to be around, he couldn't sit still and I was the same way, this is why we have little monsters who can't sit still either. After a month of dating Jay took me to Tony Grove, he brought a canoe and took me around the lake. He then had a romantic dinner planned at a little picnic site. Jay planned this to celebrate our dating one month. From this time on Jay has always taken me to Tony Grove on September 9th to commemorate, until we moved out of state. This just goes to show you how thoughtful he is.

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This is us at Tony Grove on September 9th our first year married.

Jay proposed December 12th, on his birthday. He picked me up early that morning and we went snowmobiling. Well as were were playing around, the ski on the snowmobile got stuck in a barbed wire fence we couldn't see and it took us hours to get unstuck. I just kept saying it's no big deal lets just walk back to the road and get help but Jay was mad and determined to get us out. I couldn't figure out what the big deal was but after we got out Jay took us up to the top of a mountain that overlooked Bear Lake. We stopped and drank hot chocolate then all of a sudden Jay got down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage. Of course I said "yes" and then I wanted to run home to tell everyone.

We have now been married for 11 years and I couldn't be happier! In those eleven years we have been blessed with three beautiful children, 2 cats, bachelors degree, masters degree (one class to go), medical school and now residency. We have lived in Utah, Arizona and Michigan. We have our fair share of heartache and pain and I wouldn't change any of it for one second! It's made us who we are today and for that I am grateful! I LOVE YOU, Snuggle Buns!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Tonight is the Daddy Daughter Dance at Aspen's School. Their theme this year is the "Fabulous Fifties". We went there to drop off some of the refreshments earlier today and they had the place totally decked out! They have a Soda Fountain Shop to get drinks and food at, and they are serving Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, French Fries and Root Beer Floats. I made Aspen a poodle skirt and she was so excited to wear it. She just couldn't believe that this is what her Grandma & Grandpa wore when they were her age and that the girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school.

Now if she can just get Jay to dance!

Father Daughter Moment

Jay had to get up early for surgery this morning and then had a break and came home to take a little nap. I was getting ready in the bathroom and came out in the bedroom to see this.

How cute!

Yeah!!!!! We have finally graduated!!!!

On Friday June 6th Jay graduated from Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ. He is now officially Dr. Jay Larson DPM. It has been a long and tough road for our family but we made it through! We are so proud of you Jay!