Fairies, Breaking Ankles and uh...Nudists

    The hubbster and I have decided that we want to cram as much family goodness into our weekends as humanly possible, so we have issued a mandatory family hiking trip every Saturday. No ifs, ands, or buts. Not to worry because we all love the great out of doors and most Saturdays no one is kicking and screaming.
    We have complied with the terms of the Saturday Hiking contract almost 100% and we've done so with only a few minor injuries (like a little face road rash)

     This weeks excursion included a most beautiful backdrop. A backdrop painted with picture perfect trees, happy little clouds, fairies, and quite possibly a nudist colony.

   Don't worry it was closed so we didn't actually visit

   Just like every other avid Utah Pinterest pinner, I pinned a hundred pins about a hidden gem of a place... a fairy garden in the Uintah's (Uinta's? H or no H, anyone...anyone. I looked it up no H). This little mandatory Saturday hike seemed a bit too perfect for our family of four. Hiking, the Uintas and Fairies!!!

   Earlier in the week we worked really hard on our cute little fairy house. The littles gathered sticks, rocks, bark and pine cones. Then while they painted rocks and my dad's deck, which he just happened to paint a few months ago, my mom cut up hundreds of pine cones and I hot glued them onto our house.

 

   Saturday we loaded up the kiddos and headed off to find the fairy forest. It was really easy to find. In case you want to catch a fairy, here you go. 1) Drive on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in Kamas. 2) At mile marker 17 pull off the road with the hoards of other pinners who want to catch a fairy. 3) Follow the path that starts right by the mile marker. The path leads you through a campground.

    4)Follow the trail through the campground to a dry creek bed, walk across the creek bed, try not to break an ankle (which Grandma Page almost did, although she did fall very gracefully)

5) Step over the fallen log and you step into a magical world of a crazy amount of spray painted rocks and popsicle stick houses cute little fairy houses.

    It was like a 5 minute walk, not hard and so worth it! The Littles had so much fun running around on the trails looking at all the different style of houses. There were some really, really cute ones.

   It was hard to pick our little plot of land but we finally found the perfect spot for our fairy house, nestled nicely under a tree. Many of the houses were spray painted and brightly glittered but we wanted our house to reflect the beautiful nature we were enjoying. Of course we're talking about fairies here and so we definitely needed a little bling.

 

   We had so much fun on Saturday that  after church, we decided to take a Sunday drive. We ended up back at our fairy house where we added a little more to our plot of land (My sis and her cute kiddos came and set up a house next to ours). We added a lake (with boats and a dock with a fishing pole), a playground and we hung the letter B over our archway entrance to our house.

   Man, the Uintah's (Uintas) are so beautiful! We love to go and always have a great time. If you have never been, I highly suggest to go and definitely stop at the fairy forest. Make sure you drop by the Brown's fairy house. If the fairy who has taken up residence in our cottage is there, tell her we sent you. 

Summer Love!

Summer is in full swing at the Brown residence. We have been taking our summer pretty serious around here. It's a balancing act. Equal parts fun and relaxation. Maybe throw in a minimal amount of house chores. Except when I add chores into the mix, it really throws off the balance so I try not to add too much of that kind of stuff in our schedule.

 

We have a list (because I love lists!)of things we want to accomplish this summer. Nory also wrote out a list. She picked the items and she uses a stamp to mark off the things that we have done

(The circles before the word is the spot where she stamps her stamp :))

Our summer weekly schedule can be a little tiring but we always sleep good at night!

 

M: Dance class, fast house clean up and laundry (I try to do all my laundry in one day to get it over with).

 

T: Story time at the library followed up by a walk in the park.

W: Park day with neighbors.

Th: Relax and random adventure day.

 

F: House cleaning day (the girlies have chores to do everyday), relaxing and another random adventure day.

 

S: Hiking Day.

 

S: Spiritual renewal day.

 

The hardest part is adding in Everly's nap. Oh boy, we do not want  her to miss her nap! That little thing turns into a dinosaur if she doesn't have her nap! While she's napping Nora and I enjoy some one on one time. We read about 3 chapters in her book(We've already read 3 small chapter books this summer!), craft projects, school work and we like to play starfall on the computer. 

 

I also like to add some messy activities at least once a week. Water coloring, play doh, slime, shaving cream, making our own crayons

 

 

 

 

 

I have diligently scoured all the surrounding cities summer activities and compiled a list (remember I really love lists)  of great adventures to go on. The best part is most of them are free. You can't beat free!

 

I also like to give the girlies time to play on their own (I think it's good for them to have time to do their own thing). It gives me a little time to do a few things for me. I fill My time with writing, reading, YouTube guitar lessons and I'm also taking a free online class course. I'm currently taking one called "Learning How to Learn" It's pretty interesting. I also try to wake up before the girls and workout. Sometimes I'm too lazy and so I just lay in bed and read :)

Chris and I are excited for the summer concert series. We went to our first one last week. Blonde Redheads. Hopefully we can fit more into our crazy summer

 

I love summer!!!

(girlies practicing their fishing skills)

The most important part of our summer is to slow down and enjoy the beauty that is this amazing earthly adventure and try not to worry about the dishes in the sink.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/l70e1TfN34w

 

 



Recap and Moving on: March

A wind of change blew through the Brown household this green infused month. A new trail to follow. We're excited to see what's over the hill. An adventure full of sidewalk chalk, bubbles and snow sled rides on grass. Change has come to visit, we shook hands and carried on down the path, smelling the tulips and planting peas.

 

Books I read this month:

     #The message by Lance Richardson (very interesting)

     #Being Zen by Ezra Bayda (informative)

     #The Power of a Teacher by Adam L. Saenz (Thought provoking)

     #Christ and the New Covenant by Jeffrey R. Holland (spiritually illuminating)

     #Life Everlasting by Duane S. Crowther (Just started)

 

I may have spread myself a little thin in the reading department, seeing that I'm only half way through 3 of those books :)

 

This months playlist:

     #Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto

      #Pretty Ballerina by The Left Banke

     #Under the Boardwalk

     #My Girl by The Temptations

     #Have you ever seen the Rain by Creedence Clearwater

     #Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum

     #Light my Fire by The Doors

     #Vincent by Don Mclean

     #Come A little bit Closer

     #Downtown by Petula Clark 

       #Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Mamas and The Papas

     #Dedicated to the One I Love by The Mamas and the Papas

     #For What Its Worth by Buffalo Springfield

     #The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

 

Things Elanora has been up to:

     #Playing with a boxelder bug She has named Stewart

     #Planting the Garden

     #Hiking

     #Playing with a tool set she received for her birthday

     #Bday princess tea party at the zoo

 

Things Everly has been up to:

     #Loving to make people laugh

     #Giraffes at the zoo

     #Not loving allergies

     #Hello Kitty

     #Hiking

 





 

 

 







Birthday Girl!

 

This beautiful, ray of sunshine turned 4 yesterday. I can hardly put into words how much this sweet girlie means to us. What a joy and a delight it has been watching Elanora grow and discover the world around her. She brings light and happiness into our home. For 7 years we prayed for this little miracle baby and how blessed we feel to have her in our family. 

Elanora's personality radiates with a love of life that is palpable.

She fills our home with songs, art, dance parties, an unceasing curiosity of all things and with a boxelder bug that she has named Stewart. He seems to love her as much as we do. He is always waiting for her. In the garden, by the door when we come home. She even found Stewart waiting in her room for her wanting to wish her a Happy Birthday.

She is loving, kind, smart, funny, a great big sister and sometimes a little stubborn. We love this crazy girl! Happy Birthday Nory!

 



Here's to the New Year

It's the start of a fresh new year. We can log 2014 in the books and continue to trudge on, right into 2015. We spent New Year's Eve with the crazy Page clan. Playing Werewolves (which, like always I tried to cheat my way through. I got killed right off the bat almost every round. When I asked, "Why do I keep getting killed?" my 4 year old niece replied, "Because you always cheat." Ahhh, touché 4 yr old, touché, eating, laughing, watching fireworks, and running around like crazy. Pretty much a normal get together with those crazy Page's

(Yes, that is the littlest Brown in Chris's arms still up at 12:00am. She's wild!) 

I should be writing about my resolutions, or Christmas, or Ever's B-day I never journaled about. But alas, not going to happen.

 

If anyone ever doubted that Chris and I were meant to be together, today will be the day your doubts will fly out the window. There must have been some magic in that tan, Rusty baseball cap and that red, Billabong shirt that Chris had on. Maybe magic in that pink shirt, jean skirt and black, steel toed, army boots I had on the very first day we met.

 That first moment "Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." (Shakespeare people, Shakespeare!)

It was meant to be! Even our hobbies intertwine together. What could be more compatible, more similar, than horses and architecture? They are one and the same. Horses needing miles and miles to roam free. Buildings sometimes taking up those much needed miles and miles. Right, one and the same. Both being equally brilliant in each of our minds eye.

Sometimes magic happens. Our 2 worlds collide. Horses and architecture. Architecture and horses. Together in perfect harmony.

This exhibit

In this amazing building

We went to the Natural History Museum. It was wonderful. I had horses, Chris had architecture, and the girls had

The museum is so fun and interactive. Even little Evers had fun

 

The museum had everything, Dinosaurs

Hands on activities

Animals

 The building of cells

Views

 

And my personal favorite, horses

What a perfect way to spend the first day of the new year!