St. George for Spring break 2010

For Spring break, we headed south to St. George in search of some fun in the sun. I think our school district's Spring break must have been at a different time than most of the rest of the state's because St. George didn't have that typical "spring break" feel about it this time. Normally, it's packed with teenagers cruising 'the boulevard' at night and every restaurant and attraction are packed. Not so this time. Maybe we're just getting so old that we're in bed before 'cruising' time. Who knows...

We went to the the Wild life museum with the boys to check out some bugs and animals. The boys like this place, however, we're not sure we'll do it next time. We spent $25 to get in and were only there for 30 minutes. We could basically have the same experience at the Bean museum for free anytime we want. Anyway...

Checking out the bugs. Very cool if you're a little boy.

Preston listening to the self-guided tour, and Chandler posing in front of a Chandler Mountain Roebuck. You probably aren't surprised to hear that the listening devices later became weapons on our self-guided tour.

One of our favorite venues in St. George is Snow canyon. This was Ashton's first time with us. We decided to carry him in the Baby Bjorn even though he's borderline too big for it. He had a great time (and so did the rest of us). What could be better than dirt, sticks, rocks and climbing for a family full of boys?

Ashton chilling in the Bjorn with Mom.

Chandler and Preston climbing around on the sandstone.

Preston climbing on the rocks.

This time, we were smart and packed a picnic lunch to eat there. Even basic Ham 'n Cheese tastes great after a morning of hiking around.

We discovered a new place in St. George this time. Downtown they have these great water fountains and little river system for kids to play in. It's a great spot to relax for awhile in the sun and let your kids burn some energy.

Preston playing in the fountain.

Preston and Chandler playing in the fountains.

Ashton lunching on some keys, and Jared catching up on the Masters. Did you hear Tiger was back? :)

Another first for us this time, was the Fiesta Fun center. It's a fun place with miniature golf, batting cages, bumper boats, go carts, and an arcade.

Bats=weapons for Preston, of course.

Chandler enjoyed his maiden voyage at the batting cages.

Ashton is such a happy kid. He didn't even care that he missed out on most of the adventure because he was too little or too young.

Jared and Preston in the bumper boat

Jared and Chandler in the Go Carts. The kids loved this.

Preston and I went next.

Our last day (Sunday) we visited a local church and then walked around the St. George temple. It was a beautiful day.

We had a great trip! Not pictured: playing at parks, seeing How to Train your Dragon, multiple Polygamist sightings, eating out, swimming at Las Palmas, visiting our favorite pet store, and much, much more. We can't wait to go back!

NYC 2008

Last weekend I had the awesome experience of going to New York with my 2 sisters and my mom! This was our second trip to the Big City. Our last trip was 2+ years ago, so we were definitely due! Unfortunately, the other "Tucker girl", Amanda (Tyler's wife) couldn't join us because she just had a new baby! (I guess it's fortunate, but her missing the trip was unfortunate--you get what I mean!) I'm going to mix in the fun stories with the pictures so bear with me! This is as much for my 'journaling' as it is for your entertainment. My mom ended up taking most of the pictures of us girls so she's not in very many of them. Lame on that!
This was the three of us in the back seat of our cab on the ride from the airport to the hotel. This cab ride was one of the craziest I've ever been in! Melissa and Natalie were both nauseous by the time we arrived at the hotel, due to the erratic driving of our driver. We were laughing our heads off, though, and texting my mom in the front seat about how sick they were getting. Lucky for me, I don't get motion sick.

This was after arriving at our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in the financial district of Manhattan. It was nice place to stay. Good beds, good location and FREE hot breakfast in the morning. They may not be excited to have us back, however. While enjoying our FREE breakfast, my mom decided that the biscuits were a little stale for her liking. She decided it would be a great idea to split it in half and put it in the toaster. KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! It left huge crumbs in the toaster which would, of course, be a HUGE fire hazard in the toaster. The next toaster patron was me. You see where this is going? Smoke! Fire! Smoke alarm! Fire trucks! Fire fighters! (Melissa, the single-and-looking sister missed out on that since she decided to sleep late). Natalie, not realizing, who caused the 'situation' had some choice words for the dumb-@&*$ who put a biscuit in the toaster. After quietly slipping into the elevator to avoid being 'caught,' we had to tell her that her own mother was the dumb-@&*$.

The sisters with kids had to have their picture taken with Elmo when we ran into him at Times Square.

The night we arrived, we saw Legally Blonde the musical. If you like the movie (we LOVE it) you will love this musical. I think I heard that it is shortly closing, though. We really liked the show. It was Melissa's favorite of the trip. 'Woods comma Ella' is an honorary sister now.

After a busy day shopping, we saw Disney's Little Mermaid on broadway. There was about 10 new songs in the stage production and they were great! The effects and music were awesome. We all loved this one. It was Natalie and my mom's favorite!

All of us in Times Square. I think now would be a good time to comment on our shopping. A good portion of our fun shopping was done on Canal Street in China town. I'm not even embarrassed to say that we went there 3 times. OK, maybe a little embarrassed, but it was fun! Anyone who has been there knows that there are secret back room in the stores where they keep all of the designer handbags to sell. There are also 'finders' on the street who find out you are interested and take you to a waiting mini van down the street with shelves of bags inside. This is all part of the fun for us. We were actually kicked out of our first 'mini van' because we were taking too long. Big mistake on their part! We also got kicked out of one back room for taking too long. It's a big decision people! It takes more than 3 minutes! I bought 3 purses and I was the third place shopper!

Natalie bought a new sweatshirt and forgot to take off her new purse! He he. I had to post this one! She affectionately refers to her purse as "the cutest purse purchased." I bought it for her for her birthday which is this Sunday!

On Saturday, we saw a matinee of Monty Python's Spamalot. Yes, this is the one starring Clay Aiken. We got the understudy. What's up with that, Clay?!? This was such a funny musical. The voices were amazing and I laughed my head off! This was my favorite.

After Spamalot, we had dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square. While waiting for our table, we were looking out the window and noticed the bird (see above). It was an injured pigeon and it was very entertaining to watch people almost step on it and almost trip on it over and over again. (I guess you had to be there.) The bird eventually flew away after almost crashing into the window trying to get airborn again. So we had an early dinner and didn't have any more shows scheduled for that night. Hmm what to do... see another show! My mom and Natalie decided to just shop around Times Square and then head home early. Melissa and had other things in mind. She REALLY wanted to see Grease, so she did. I wasn't that excited about that so I got a half price ticket to see Spring Awakening since I had heard great things it. The music was great, but the subject matter is definitely for ADULTS ONLY! There is also some choice language. I just heard today that this one is closing in January. I guess the economy is hitting Broadway hard too, although every show we saw was packed.

We sadly had to go back to the airport on Sunday (after one last trip to Canal street and a quick trip to Central Park). Our flight was oversold so we gave up our seats in exchange for a First Class ticket on a flight 3 hours later and a $200 voucher! Nice! It was so great to be in First Class on such a long flight. The food is actually really good. Who knew? So we got home LATE, but it was worth it. We had such a fun trip and only got lost on the subways a couple of times!

Toronto 2008

Believe it or not, it has been 5 years since Jared graduated from dental school.  He was President of his class (brag alert!), and thus was obligated to help plan the 5-year reunion.  We decided to take the opportunity to return to Toronto for the first time since we piled into our UHaul and made the trip home to Utah.  We were able to make the trip sans children thanks to a lot of help from our families (Thanks again, everyone who helped).  It was great to get away with just the two of us and to see all of our old favorite places.  We stayed at the Sutton Place Hotel which is as close to our old apartment as we could get.  One of the nice things about being without our kids is that we were able to see 2 movies during the weekend.  We used to go to a movie almost every Friday night when we lived there.  We also were able to walk all over the city without someone whining about being tired.  It was a blast.  Jared has more pictures so there may be a supplemental post of our trip at a later date.
One of the first places we stopped when we got into town was Spring Rolls Express on Yonge Street.  We used to eat here all the time and loved it!
Our first morning, we grabbed some breakfast to go at Tim Horton's and ate it in Queen's Park.  There used to be tons of black squirrels that lived in this park, but they aren't there anymore.  (Any Toronto people know why?)
Me on the University of Toronto campus.  You can see the CN Tower in the distance and convocation hall (where graduation was held) on the right.

Jared and I in front of one of the famous Canadian Mooses (or is it Meese-just kidding).

The view down from the top of the CN Tower.  At one point, it was the tallest free standing structure in the world.  There's probably something taller now.  Google it if you're interested.  It's still really, really high.

Looking down from the CN Tower.  Isn't the city beautiful?

Jared in front of Toronto City Hall.

Me at Nathan Phillips Square downtown.  They have ice skating here in the winter.

This is the best steak dinner anywhere in North America!  (That we've had, anyway).  You can find it at the Keg Mansion.  I got a seafood version that is covered in lobster meat, crab and shrimp.  Yum, yum, yum!  And I'm generally not a steak fan!

This is the hospital where Chandler was born.  5 1/2 years ago!

Me in front of the Royal Ontario Museum.  They have totally remodeled the outside.  We were going to go in, but the line stretched clear around the outside of the building.  Next time, for sure.

The R.O.M.

A sand sculpture outside of the  R.O.M.

We took the subway out to one of our favorite areas-Greek town.  One of our favorite places there was Mr. Greek.  It has also been remodeled since we left there, but the food was fabulous as always.
Sorry about all of the food pictures, but the food really was a highlight of our trip.  This is the yummy pork souvlaki with tzatziki sauce, greek salad and veggies.
Jared in front of the street sign of our old apartment.  We loved living on Charles street.  We even recognized one of the "transients" selling newspapers outside of the Manulife center.  I guess he's doing something right if he's survived there for the past 4 years. 

Another visit to Queen's Park.

Jared on campus.

Jared with some of his best friends from dental school: Gurjit Dhuga and Dan Hagi.  It was great to see these guys again.
These are some of Jared's classmates who were at the reunion.  This was taken early in the evening, so some of the people weren't there for the picture.

Us at the reunion.

One of the last things we did before heading to the airport was have a hotdog from the vendor at Bloor street and Bay street.  They slice the dogs and grill them to perfection!  The yellowish buns are also slightly grilled.  Yummy!

HFR 2008 on the beautiful Oregon coast

We returned last week from an 8-day family reunion/vacation with our Hemmert Family. About half of the family flew and the rest drove out to Oregon. We were fortunate enough to be in the flying group. As our kids were fighting on the way to the airport, we realized that there was no way we could make the 13-hour drive if we couldn't even make it 1 hour to the airport without problems. Our VERY lively 2-year old made the flight very troublesome for his parents. It was about as bad as you can imagine. Not staying in his seat, screaming, kicking the seat of the "not-so-friendly" passenger in front of us. But alas, we made it. After picking up our rental car, we made the 2 1/2 hour drive out to the coast. We stayed in a great rental house in Lincoln city. Check it out here. It should be noted that this was a LARGE family gathering. Jared's parents, all of his 5 siblings, spouses and grandkids. 14 adults and 14 children. Of the 14 children, the youngest 11 are all boys, and the oldest boy is 7! It felt like about 30 boys.
Our first full day was Sunday, Father's Day, so we just hung around the house and relaxed. It was nice after all of the travelling the day before. Monday, we headed towards Tillamook. Our first stop was Oceanside. (see above pictures). We played on the beach and collected shells and rocks. There is this little cave through the rock that leads to another side of the beach. It was really cool. Chandler froze, which is why he is wearing 2 of his own coats and one of Jared's in the pictures.
Our next stop was a short hike to the 'Octopus' tree. There is also a lighthouse there that we got to go to the top of. Very pretty! After this, we were all starving so we had lunch at the Tillamook Cheese factory. We got to see cheese and ice cream being made there. Sorry, no pictures, though.
We next stopped at Cape Lookout. More beaching. Preston, of course, found a stick to terrorize some of the other cousins. After a very fun, exhausting day, we headed home. Note Chandler's quote on the right-side bar. This applies here.
The next day was 'picture day.' Reese Christensen, a Provo photographer accompanied us to Oregon and took family pictures on the beach. He also spent the 'Tillamook' day with us and took a bunch of candid shots. I'm sure I'll be able to post some of those at some point. It was quite an adventure with so many people and kids. After the formal pictures were done, we enjoyed hanging around the beach. My boys found some microscopic shrimp on the beach and enjoyed watching them in a cup for awhile.

These pictures were taken around the house. Each family had a night to do a devotional. For Joyce's night, all of the kids were given cowboy or pioneer garb and she told them an old pioneer legend of 'Injun Joe.' The top middle picture is of the wind shelter that was built early on when it was quite windy. We flew kites and had a couple of illegal bonfires on the beach as well. On Wednesday, we headed to Silver Falls and went on a hike. It was so beautiful hiking in the lush green forest and past multiple water falls. The boys did pretty good and only had to be carried briefly at the end. We had a picnic lunch by the river and then headed to the Aerospace museum in McMinnville.
This is where the 'Spruce Goose' is housed. It was Howard Hughes' enormous airplane that is featured in the movie, Aviator. You can tell from the pictures how enormous it is. There are also tons of other aircrafts and space stuff there. There was even some tanks outside. Yes, it was boy heaven! After another exhausting day of sight seeing we had another home day filled with lots of crafts for the kids and multiple trips to the outlets for the grown ups. Note: No Sales Tax in Oregon!
Friday, we went to Newport and visited a really cool aquarium there. The boys loved it. The picture of Preston with a glare is in a fish tank that you can crawl under and it is open in the middle so that the fish swim right by your face. Above is also some crazy spider crabs, a shark jaw and a little play area. We also got to stop at another lighthouse on the way home.

Saturday morning, a bunch of us participated in a 5k that was held on the beach in Lincoln city. After an exhausting week, I had decided just to walk it with some of the others who were going to walk, but then Jared decided to join us and decided that he was going to run. So I said to myself, "If Jared's going to run, so am I!" (For those of you who are unfamiliar, Jared's had many health problems and is not a runner). We stayed together and ran and walked our way through it. Jared even got 2nd in his age group! Matt got third in their age group! Don't ask how many were in their age group. (3) Wynn got first in his age group! Don't ask how many were in his age group. (1) The best part was the raffle after the race in which all registered family members walked away with prizes. Yes, it is a small race, but it was a lot of fun.

Staying with everyone was a lot of fun. It probably won't happen again for at least a couple of more years. Thanks, everyone, for being patient with us and our kids! Above is a video of Devin teaching Preston about the 'Secret of Silence.' He uses this to move things with his mind. You probably figured out that the 'Secret of Silence' is the antithesis of Preston's high-pitched scream. Video courtesy of Julie. Thanks!