Summer Time

Summer finally came and we have been loving the vacations, extra time together, and visitors!

We started our summer off with a visit to California! Camden turned 8 and we wanted to be there for his baptism.

We went to an A's game to celebrate the birthday boy. We even did it Bushey style and tail-gated before. We had a really good time being with the whole family.

 Just a little backyard basketball for the Hoppes Family!

Once back in Utah we had a few things planned to keep us entertained. Of course it was hot for most of them, but we made it work.

We went to a Bees game for FHE with the in laws.

4th of July we were pretty low key this year. We went for a swim at the lake and then met up with some family. I love having family close by so we can spend the holidays together.

Of course we had to watch the fireworks!

We celebrated our 1st anniversary! 

I honestly can't believe it has already been a year. I feel like we got married and got right back to normal life. It has been an amazing year and I'm so lucky that I married such a good man. We have so much fun together and LOVE our time together. 

 We stayed close to home and spent the weekend in SLC. It was nice to get out of the house, but not have to travel very far. We ate, slept, watched movies, walked, swam, and laughed a lot. It was a perfect weekend for just us.

 We even tasted a little bit of our left over cake!

Mark LOVES Rush! He bought tickets so that I could experience it for myself. We had a good time and they put on a really great show.

Cami and the kids were able to make a visit to see us! We loved having them here. We play the Wii a lot, swam, ate, and snuggled. It was nice to have our house full of people for a couple of days. Hopefully they will come back again soon!

Pioneer Day! Mark had the day off so we were LAZY! We stayed in bed late, got lunch, napped, and then watched the fireworks from afar in Herriman. It was just the kind of day that we needed.

The next day the family decided to head to Donut Falls for a little hike and then campfire afterwards. I really love this hike because its quick and easy and the reward is so amazing. Last time we went there was a ton of water and you couldn't really see the Donut part. This time Mark and I were able to climbed up the waterfall and go into the little caves to see it all. The other perk was that it was so nice to share it with family. We love having everyone close by and getting together to just hang out and laugh.

Lately...

We have been having a few adventures lately. It finally has stopped raining and we are able to get out and do more! I'm praying it doesn't get much hotter, otherwise I won't ever want to leave the house!

Here is what we have been doing:

We spent Saturday with some of the Urry's at Silver Lake up American Fork Canyon. We fished, ate, and kayaked. We had a blast being outside and couldn't believe the views.

One Sunday we decided to drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon and do a short hike to Donut Falls. I have always wanted to go, but never have. It was a quick and easy hike, with a beautiful view at the end. 

Since Silver Lake ( a different one) is just a few minutes drive up the canyon we decided to walk around it as well. This lake never disappoints! 

 I was off track and had a few days to finish up a quilt for my friend Melanie's new baby girl. I really loved how this one turned out.

 Lorenzo is getting to be a little fatty!

 We had a fire one night with the family. These kids crack me up!

 Ellie (my friend Alex's little girl) turned one! We joined in on the circus themed party!

Reptile Expo with the hubby! 

I could spend all my nights next to Mark by the fire!

Lately....

Our lives are pretty filled with normal day to day activities. There are a few days where we have something extra special and fun. Thank goodness I have a fun hubby who enjoys having a little bit of fun with me. 

Bring Your Own Cup Slurpee Day! This was an amazing day! Ha ha! I love Slurpees and was so excited Mark was willing to participate. We were in a major sugar coma afterwards, but it was totally worth it. 

Teacher Appreciation! I maybe had to fill out a paper telling the kids what I like. I had just gotten back from a road trip where I ate a lot of Cheez-Its. I now have 10 boxes of them and enough peanut butter cups to last me a lifetime. Did I mention this was all week two of my diet plan... :(

Rhett ( family friend and former student) celebrated a birthday. He was excited to get some new ties. Mark was so cute with him and showed him a few different ways. He spent the evening practicing over and over again. 

We made it to one of Miles' baseball games! He was super cute running around tackling the ball.

I decided to surprise Mark with a date night! We went to watch the Bees game. It just so happened that the storm they predicted was a couple of days late and landed on game night. They still played and didn't call it until late in the 9th. Luckily I brought an umbrella and it was Beard Night so we had these awesome hats to help us get through. 

For Mark's birthday I got him a trip out to the race track to drive a Ferrari! He was so excited to finally get to use it. We were a little worried it might bet rained out, but luckily it stopped for about an hour! He had a blast. I wish he could have driven a little longer, but glad he had a dream come true.

I've been looking forward to the opening of the Payson LDS Temple for awhile now. From all the pictures people had posted it looked like it was going to be a beautiful temple. It was gorgeous. I was in awe at the amazing detail put into each room.  I'm so glad we were able to walk through and see it and I can't to go back and do some temple work there as well.

Easter 2015

This Easter we decided to head to California. Grandma Hoppes recently moved out of her house and before she sells it we wanted to have (at least) one more big family party there. I have so many fond memories of their house and was very excited to get to show Mark everything.

We stopped in Sparks the night before to get a good night's sleep. We knew there would be lots of fun to be had at Grandma's.  We had $4 in cash and thought we might as well play the slots. We aren't very good, and really it's not that much fun. Good thing we always have fun together no matter what we are doing!

The next morning we headed through Lassen Nation Forest. It was gorgeous. I had never made that drive to Grandma's house and I'm so glad we did. We took our time and just enjoy it.

Isn't this an amazing yard?? I would love to have a yard and forest like this surrounding my house!

Cami's family and my parents came up that evening. It was fun to have the house full! 

We decorated Easter eggs and had a BBQ! Watching Parker was the best. He is getting so much older and watching him try to figure out the egg droppers was pretty funny.

In the morning we were anxious for the Easter bunny to come and then the rest of the family!

 Luckily the hunt ended right before the rain started coming down. We didn't let the rain stop the party though!

Once Kyle's crew got into town we headed out to the train tracks. Grandma's house is surrounded by a forest. Behind the forest are these awesome train tracks and a mill. We always loved playing on the trails. I love seeing the kids having as much fun as we did. Of course afterwards we had s'mores!

By the afternoon we had over 60 people at the house! Auntie Lynne and all of her kids and grandkids were able to join us. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having them with us. Their kids are so kind and play so well with everyone. This meant that we had a GIANT Easter egg hunt. These kids were in heaven!

Our favorite tradition when we were younger was doing a Day After Christmas Bonfire! We looked forward to it every year. We haven't done it since my Grandpa Hoppes died and decided we should probably do one this year.  Even in the rain we still had a blast. The men built a good size fire, we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and even made mud potatoes.

Mud Potatoes are my favorite! I use to love when my Dad would take me hunting for a good clay spot. Once you find the clay you work it and smooth it out. You then take a raw potato and put the clay around the potato.  Then you place it in the fire and let it cook. They always turn out yummy. It was fun to see my Dad teaching all of the kids how to make them. We ended up a little dirty, but totally worth it.

Did I mention that we also had a full on Easter meal while all of this was happening?? Ham, potatoes, veggies, salads, fruit, treats, etc. We were not lacking in food that day!

Everyone had to head back so it was just Mark and I Sunday night at the house. I'm so grateful that we were able to make this trip.  I love my family so much and sharing our traditions with Mark has been a lot of fun.

The weather that weekend wasn't the greatest, but luckily it stopped raining and snowing for us through the pass. The snow made for some pretty amazing views!

The Good Life

Here are a few photos from the last couple of months!

 Mark designed an awesome new nozzle for Lowe's! I was so excited for him that I made him take and show me it on the shelves!

Lorenzo likes to play Mario with us!

Trip to the aquarium!

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary of being engaged! We bowled our little hearts out and just enjoyed laughing with each other all day.

We had an FHE date downtown to go see Meet the Mormons. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to be a little better and do a little more to share the gospel with those around me.

One of Mark's Christmas presents was a sushi making class! We finally used it and it was so much fun! He is way better at it than me, but we had a blast.  So much sushi too!

I'm a Groupon lover! I found an awesome Groupon for $5 for 2 to go to Scales and Tails. It's a small shop that has different reptiles.  They do parties, classroom visits, and mini activities at their shop.  We spent 2 hours holding, learning, and being totally in awe of those creatures.  

Temple date nights are one of our favorites.  We were lucky to get to visit the Jordan River Temple one night.  At one point we had the Celestial Room all to ourselves.  We do our best learning and thinking in there together!

Sew, Sew, Sew

I have truly learned to love sewing! I spend most of my alone free time sewing.  I love shopping for fabric, deciding on designs, mapping it out, and then sewing.  Right now I'm just practice a few new techniques so my quilts aren't too difficult. I try to change it up with each one in some way so that hopefully I can find the perfect or my favorite way of doing quilts.  It's been challenging at times, but overall I really enjoy it.  I'm lucky I have a Mom on speed dial that will listen to my questions and even sometimes help me figure out how much fabric I need.  I also have a very supportive husband that doesn't get mad when he comes home from work and there is material, scraps, patterns, pins, etc. EVERYWHERE and dinner is half cooked in the kitchen. I hope that I can continue to learn and try a few new ideas out! 

Here are a few of my latest projects:

 I couldn't resist this cute elephant fabric.

 Then I had enough to make an elephant toy to go with it!

 My friend is having a little boy in a couple of weeks. She mentioned navy blue, green, and grey to me and I just knew I needed to make him something! I love the color combo on this one.

 My nephew Ki is a superhero fan so for his birthday he got a Superman quilt! This was my first striped quilt that I came up with the layout myself.  I was really excited it turned out well and fit together nicely.

 My niece, Tensley, turned 2! She is a firecracker and full of energy and personality. I felt that the best thing for her was a bright quilt. I had seen this material and love it. I tried a new pattern and although it turned out cute, I will NEVER make this one again. It was HARD! I almost cried...

 This is probably my favorite so far. A friend of mine is having her first and it's going to be an adorable girl. I saw this pattern on Pinterest and loved it. It looked easy enough that I could try it and not get too overwhelmed. I loved the fabric too. I was even brave and used heat and bond to do her name on the back. It took much longer than my normal stripe quilts, but this will be a go to for me for sure!

My neighbor had a little girl and I wanted to try out a receiving blanket tutorial I had seen on Pinterest.  I did it! I used the same tutorial for the elephant blanket above!

I have lots more ideas!!! Can't wait to get started!