Independence Day

Our 4th of July was a little bit lazy. We had stayed up late for a couple of nights in a row so we decided to take the morning slow and lazy on over to some friend's for lunch then we went over to Liberty Days (in Liberty UT). There wasn't much going on by the time we got there but the boys got to have their faces painted and they felt like superheroes!!

Tanner going with good old Spiderman


Jackson's an Avatar


Annabelle's 1st time trying out a swing. Although the picture may look otherwise, she loved it. Mostly.


Jared was tired of pushing all the kids on the swing and decided he wanted some fun for himself.


Later that evening we headed over to Huntsville for their fireworks and boogied through the night. The girls in the background make me laugh. Looks like Jared has a couple back up dancers.


The boys spontaneously had a major meltdown. We have no idea what caused it but it seemed pretty serious. To them, anyway.


Aunt Susie offered them a tic-tac if they'd smile and apparently it worked. Jackson got his groove on and put all of us dancing fools to shame.


Doing the worm


Annabelle just couldn't figure out why nobody would let her go to sleep!


We love the 4th of July. We feel lucky to have spent a few back East where our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence and to have been able to see so many awesome historical sights where it all began. It makes us miss VA and Washington DC very much but we also LOVE having family to celebrate with. Not to mention the awesome Utah weather!!!

Mesa Verde

Last week Jared took work off and we were able to spend a few days up in Bear Lake with my sister Jamie and her family (not one single picture, guess I was enjoying their company too much) then we dropped our kids off with Jared's sister Shay and went down south to Mesa Verde.

If you've never been here you gotta go! It's pretty amazing to see how these people lived!!!



This is just up in a cliff!


this is called a Kiva. It's like a religious temple. Most of the dwellings had one or more of these.


You can see a cliff dweling behind Jared's smart little face.


We had to climb up some ladders to get to the bigger dwellings. I didn't think I'd get scared, but, I did.


We had to squish through a few of these too.


Four Corners "monument" of course it's under construction. The saying "luck favors the prepared" is a bunch of bull.


This is near Moab. We took the house tour and it's pretty cool. A man who was a miner decided he didn't like living in a super hot cabin back in the early 1900's so he decided to blow out a hole in the mountain and live in it with his wife. They ran a cafe there and made all sorts of nick nacks. It really is pretty cool.


Ahhh, it feels good to get all cleaned up after a few days in the sweaty, suncreeny, sunshine.

Going private

Please send me your emails if you'd like an invite to our family blog. I think it's time to go private...as soon as I figure out how to do it. I plan on switching in a week or so. Send your emails to saraweaver81@hotmail.com or leave it in a comment if you wanna keep up with our silly little familly.

Busy Kids

School this year was a little disjointed for our kids because of the move. Jackson and Tanner had a lot of friends at their old schools and really missed them. They finished the last month of the year here and they adjusted pretty quickly. I wasn't going to put Tanner in a preschool for the last month but our neighbor does preschool and let me put Tanner in and he LOVED it!!

Tanner and Miss Laurie...


Here's Jackson at his kindergarten graduation...




Jackson also turned 6!!! We had cake and ice cream with the Astle side of the family. Jackson still doesn't understand why we have "sides" of the familly. He thinks the Weaver's are our side of the family since we are Weavers and the Astle's are another side. We were going to have the party at Murray park until it was covered by water. (The Weaver party got a little chaotic and I forgot to pull the camera out, Jackson loved having 2 parties with a whole bunch of cousins!!!)...

Jackson said he forgot to make a wish. I guess all he could think about was licking the frosting


It's been nice having my sister and her family in town!


Jared was in charge of the camera...


I have a friend who calls this "craughing" not sure if it's crying or laughing...I also like my mom's face...


I'm pretty sure this guy just heard there was going to be ice cream so he showed up...


Usually graduations and birthdays (in our family) mean summer is here. The weather just needs to get the memo and then we should be good!

Happy Birthday Jared!!

Yesterday someone asked Jared how old he's turning and he couldn't remember. I don't think that's a good sign. And so begins our serious aging. Last weekend when we went to St. George, Jared turned to me and said "well, we've officially had our 'old people' vacation." Meaning, we dragged our kids around in the car driving, stopping to get out and look at the view, driving, stopping to see another view, driving, stopping for lunch, and driving some more. Jared even said to the kids "take off your headphones so you can enjoy the beautiful scenery."

Getting older isn't as avoidable as we once imagined. Sure, we figured we'd age chronologically, but I think in the back of our minds we were certain we weren't EVER going to say and do the exact same things our parents said and did. But here we are, being our very own parents. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on the parent.

Just kidding. We do love our parents. All of them.

But back to Jared's birthday, he's getting older, he's getting wiser, and he's become a husband I wouldn't trade anything in the world for and a father who our kids adore (and not just because he bribes them with candy when I say they shouldn't have any).

You are a wonderful husband, father, and my best friend. Happy Birthday! Love you!!

St George

Last week I looked up the forecast for Memorial Day weekend and once again, it was cold. So, when I looked up the weather in St. George, I couldn't stop my little fingers from booking a hotel with a pool and a bed where it was going to be sunny and warm. I'm not too familiar with St. George but Jared loves it so he showed me the sights...

some "sand dunes" (the "dunes" turned out to be more of a sandy plateau)




The Volcano cave tube things.






Jared saw a sign that said "Ostrich eggs for sale" and when we stopped he couldn't hold back from buying a $15.00 Ostrich egg. His excuse was "it's like the equivalent to 20 regular eggs." I don't know the last time I bought a dozen eggs for $7.00 and thought it was a good deal but at least we have a huge egg in our fridge that we don't know how to eat.






I think Annie looks a lot like Jackson did when he was this age.


Ahhhh, fun it the sun. We actually happened to go down the same time as our friends the Stoddards and we were able to meet up with them and splash around in their pool. The short trip was a perfect little getaway!

Happy Anniversary

Sheesh, I can't believe it was more than seven years ago that Jared proposed. With finishing school, moving across the country, moving back across the country, having 3 kids, buying a business and having a lot of fun along with it all, the time has flown by.

When I think back at when we first met, I remember laughing a lot. We were both going to school, we both worked and every extra second we had, we spent together. There was one day when we were dating we were both super busy and didn't get to see much of each other. I thought it would be fun to get him a treat and write him a little note and put it in his car so he would find it on his way to work. After I put his treat on the seat of his car and ran home, I went in my bedroom and found he had left me a treat with a sweet little note on my bed too. That made me smile.

Even though things aren't as simple as they were when we first met I still find myself smiling a lot.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!