Fun in St. George

Scotts parents have a vacation home in St. George and as you can tell by the picture below their home is gorgeous. The house is located near the red rocks. They belong to a Condo association which has an indoor pool and out door pool. The house is also in short walking distance to hiking trails, walking paths and a park. It's truly an amazing place to vacation.

Hope you enjoy some of the highlights of our vacation!!

Jake standing outside his Grandma & Grandpas house. The bottom right picture is Jake helping his Grandma with her plants.

Jake & Coco insisted on going to the park everyday. As you can tell by the pictures, the weather was beautiful, the high was sixty eight degrees while we were there. I only packed winter clothes for myself so I had to go shopping. Scott wonders if I did this on purpose. LOL!!!

Jake & Grandma eating at the famous St. George Pizza Factory.

Jake & Coco playing on the Fire truck out side the Pizza Factory.

We had time to kill while waiting to take Jake & Coco to the Chipmunk Squeaquel movie (Coco's very first movie experience) so we took them to see the St. George temple.

Jake & Coco enjoying the beautiful temple grounds. (something was wrong with my camera and made these pictures look gray???)

Scotts parents have a putting green in their back yard, when we asked Jake what his favorite thing he did in St. George, he said "golfing with Grandpa". The other pictures are of Margaret and I getting ready to take the kids on a run/walk.

The Parade of Homes was going on the weekend we were there. This is a picture of Scott's and my favorite house we saw. It was 12, 000 square ft with a price tag of 3.5 million dollars. The picture is the kitchen in the downstairs great room. You can imagine what the real kitchen looked like. The entire house was amazing. The master bedroom closet was bigger than my entire family room. Look at the ceiling in the picture (wish I had taken a better picture) the entire house was painted with a deep chocoloate brown on the ceiling. I have never seen this before, it was so different but I loved it.

Random pictures of us hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. Courtney kept saying over and over that we were in her home. She would say "my home, my home" and the only way to stop her from saying this was to agree "yes, Courtney this is your home". So strange yet cute.

Jake & Courtney enjoying Grandma & Grandpas indoor pool.

Here is a picture of Courtney in the car with only 1 hour left of the drive home. Both Jake & Courtney did so well on the five hour drive there and back.

A big, big, big thank you to Margaret and Larry for the fun vacation. We love you !!!

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!

Jake & Coco woke up to a red breakfast and presents.

Jake and Court were super excited as we surprised them with presents. I love surprises!!!

Jake with his new Joker Imaginext fun house and Courtney with her new Barbie lap top.

Valentines weekend was a blast. It started with Jake having a fun Valentine Kindergarten party on Friday. I can not believe the candy he brought home, it almost felt like Halloween!! Scott and I celebrated Valentines Day on both Friday and Saturday. (Thanks Scott XOXO). And Sunday we celebrated Valentines day with Jake & Coco. Again, Valentines weekend was a blast!

My Mom made a fun and delicious Valentines meal for our Sunday dinner. It involved heart shaped meat loaf, pink jello, heart shaped bread, red drinks, etc.. The kids thought it was so fun!!! Thanks again Mom!!

Who am I?

So far, I have really enjoyed watching the 2010 Olympics. But, I have to be honest with you, I'm really torn this year deciding what country to cheer for. As most of you know I was born in Canada, moved to Utah when I was 15 years old and became a United States Citizen when I was 27.

I've always felt so blessed and proud that I have lived in the two greatest countries in the World. Canada and America are so similar, both beautiful, Free and have amazing people. Besides the few funny words Canadians say, can you honestly tell by looking at a person whether they are Canadian or American? No.

I remember watching the first Olympics living in the US and I cheered for Canada. Then gradually each Olympics I started cheering for America, by 2002 it became natural to cheer for the US. America was now my home.

But, this Olympics has been different, it has made me feel Canadian again. It's been amazing to see Vancouver where we used to vacation and hear and see the Canadian people and be reminded of how great and beautiful Canada is. It honestly has made me a bit home sick for my Country and all of my family. Canadians have such a sincere pride in their country and it's been wonderful to watch.

These past few days, I have found myself cheering for the Canadians, this is their Olympics and I want them to win. I even got a little upset when an American beat out a Canadian by 100th of a second to win the gold. When I realized I was upset, I felt guilty, I shouldn't be upset that an American won right? I felt like I was cheating on my country. But that's where my confusion sets in, what country am I cheating on?


When the Canadian mogul skier, Alexander Bilodeau, won the first gold medal ever on Canadian soil and I heard my national anthem, it touched me so much. The Canadian anthem is so beautiful. My favorite line in the song is "God keep our land glorious and free". I say my national anthem because it still feels like my anthem.

When I hear the American anthem, it also feels like my anthem. I have a piece of paper that says I'm American and I'm proud of this. It was an amazing experience when I took the pledge to become American. In all honesty I do feel American. But, I do wonder at times, does a piece of paper really make me a real American? And no matter what the paper says, deep down inside of me, won't I always be Canadian?

So, I'm back to my question, Who am I? Am I Canadian or American? Scott says I'm both. Can you honestly be both? If I am both, how does that help me decide what country to cheer for?

I honestly don't know, but I will say this.... I feel extremely blessed to live in America and raise my children in America which is the greatest country in the World. And, I feel extremely blessed to have been born and raised in Canada, the other greatest country in the world.

On second thought, maybe I'll start cheering for Switzerland, aren't they neutral? LOL!!

Random Happenings

Each day of our lives we make deposists in the memory banks of our children.

-Charles R. Swindoll