A week in St George

We had a ball in St George with my family. 

I didn't take nearly enough pictures and the ones I did take aren't great. I need a REAL camera. Maybe someone who reads this will feel inspired. 

The kiddos love spending time with their cousins. Adelyn and Oakley are so dang cute together. 

 Kaity Pie on her roller blades. Parker got a pair for his birthday. It kept them pretty busy.

 Jackson had fun too

 The girls thought just wearing the helmets was pretty fun.

 The whole crowd just chillin' out. Notice the crutches on Dylan. That was a bummer. No boating or wake boarding this year.

 Birthday Time for Parker

 What a cute crowd

Dolls

  Happy Father's Day to Papa. We gave him a new grilling spatula with "WATSON" on it. We felt like it was fitting. He is the grill master and makes the best "Monte Burgers"

We sure love him!

We didn't make it to Zion this year. We were all looking forward to hiking the narrows but all the rain and flash flood warnings were unsettling especially with the kiddos. 

We still had a great time. 

We played a new game- TRAJAN. 

We took the kids swimming a LOT. 

Us girls got out for pedicures, shopping and frozen yogurt. 

The guys went shooting.

We went to Bucca Di Beppo

We ate lots of yummy food.

We went to Jurassic World kiddo free, thanks Mom!  

♥♥♥

We just had a fabulous time!!

"Man Crafting"

When we bought this house, no garden space existed. We made it one of our top priorities. We love home grown tomatoes, zucchini, squash, etc.. We hope to get a strawberry patch going again as well. YUM!

We wanted to have raised beds. They just look so nice.

So Markham and Dylan went to the lumber yard and brought home a truckload of redwood and built 7 beautiful boxes. 

It was fun for me to watch these boys spend some quality time together doing man stuff. I coined it "Man-crafting." They don't get to spend that much time together anymore. Back in the good 'ole Utah State days where you found one, the other wasn't far.

My favorite little man was helping too. What a little cutie! ♥ Notice the measuring tape hanging off his pants. 

He had so much fun working with the big boys.

We struggled to know exactly how to kill our grass for our garden space. 

After Markham consulted a friend on the matter, we decided on the"Lasagna Method" We placed cardboard on all the grass and then piled 2 truckloads of manure, hay, and dirt all over it. 

I never knew a pile of crap could look that great! Ha!

We plan to plant next spring. Next step is to get the drip lines set up. 

So exciting!!  

Ed Sheeran, Houston and U2

Ed Sheeran at the Energy Solutions Arena in SLC on the 19th

It was awesome! 

U2 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix on the 23rd

U2 was of course epic as expected. Markham is still a little burned up because they didn't play one of his favoirite jams- "Beautiful Day"  There were plenty of others that were awesome.

WILD RIGHT?! 2 concerts in one week and sushi too!!  What else could a girl want?! Well.....funny you ask. 

This week actually wasn't as awesome as it should have been. 

Between the 2, we were in Houston.

Side Story--

A couple of weeks before this magical musical double header, we had our lives shaken up and dumped upside down. 

Markham came home from work and had that look on his face. The one I have come to know as "I need to talk to you, I have some big news." 

He told me the company he works for was relocating to The Woodlands, TX. 

Uhm wait. You didn't just say what I thought I heard, DID you??!

We were given the relocation packet and sent down there on an "exploratory" trip. We talked to people in the office, met with a real estate agent and had some very very good Tex Mex food.

That was the highlight. 

The Woodlands happens to be a very nice area just north of Houston. It is a master-planned community of 100,000+ people.  Very tall beautiful trees, lots and lots of ponds, lakes, etc. But it is very humid, VERY. The hotel sheets felt damp and sticky. ICk. The people were very nice though and it was very green and lush.  

The grass was....different. Very spiky, crab grass sort of weirdness. Not the kind of green stuff we picnic on and our kids run barefoot through. Not at all.. . Oh and there are snakes down there, Lots of them. Ever heard of coral snakes? or how about copperheads? Maybe water moccasin? yeah the venomous ones. NASTY! Now to be fair, I do realize there are rattlesnakes in Utah. But I have never seen one, never mind in my backyard. And when I'm in my garage snakes are the last thing I'm worried about. 

Not true in Texas. eeeek! 

Markham can't even handle the baby garters we occasionally get in our yard! I think that was the moment he was out. 

Like on Shark Tank, when they say, "And for that reason, I'm out" 

That was Markham, in all seriousness. 

Oh and don't count out the alligators! Before we went down there we wanted water front property on a wooded lot. But then we realized that was an ideal home for alligators and snakes. Our perspective changed a whole lot. Like, "Are there any nice, high rise condos?"

Also, there are no basements of any kind in southern Texas. Gasp! What will I do with all my food storage? Christmas decorations, kids toys, etc, etc, etc, Who knows. They store things in their "attics." Uhm.... I have that space too but I don't use it for anything other than insulation,  Well they do. They put stuff up there. Our agent said you wouldn't want to put candles, plastics, photos, etc. up there. Because it will all melt. Basically you don't want to put anything up there you care about. It will be ruined in one season. 

I guess you could always put your stuff in the garage with the snakes. 

Being down there felt very surreal and out of body-"ish". 

I'm a Utah girl.  

But saying all that, we still had no better options here and were very seriously considering it. Biggest heartache?  It's SO FAR AWAY. Like 24 hours IN the VAN, or 3 hours on a plane. We have family here, we have friends who are like family here. Forget quick trips to Logan, Idaho or long weekends in St. George. AND I kinda like the house we JUST bought!! A LOT! I ♥ this house to pieces!! We didn't really see anything we liked as much and of course  It felt like another world down there. It might as well been on the moon. 

 Markham hunted around and reached out to his contacts here. We prayed a lot. A couple of really great opportunities presented themselves and he interviewed and landed a great job offer here!!! So things are looking up. I can't explain the anguish and torment we have faced this last month. Yikes. 

 I just keep remembering how I felt when we stepped off the plane back in Salt Lake. 

♥ It's so nice to be back in the heartland. Those mountains have never looked more beautiful ♥