On Saturday, we had an office party for Marshall's work. The company he's currently working for, Speed of Trust (Franklin Covey), he's only been with for about 6 months. I'm pretty sure I didn't blog it before, but for over 4 months Marsh was out of work. His previous boss wasn't the most ethical and the way things went down, we couldn't even claim unemployment when he was let go. Marsh started up a web business, Pivo Web Marketing, and although he was enjoying it, we needed more income to have our needs met. So he went looking for a job and came across Speed of Trust. He was hired essentially to do their e-mail marketing. I think so far it's been a pretty positive experience, and he's just working on earning trust and doing as much as he can. He's working on some sales stuff right now too, which I think he is excited about.
So it was fun to get to meet people that he works with and realize what a blessing his job is. We ate fabulous food, did the limbo (yes, I am the limbo queen), and visited and got to know one another. Marshall whipped out his cotton candy making skills, and the boys loved it.
Rowan at one point was sporting a blue beard. Before it was all said and done, they gave the employees each a gift. I think Marsh and I were both a little shocked to see him unwrap an ipad. 3G and 64G, it's a pretty sweet device. Nice, right? We finished out the afternoon by swimming at the Orem rec center which was across from the park where we had the party.
Camping. Oh Camping. I grew up on it. Backpacking, hiking, camping. It seems like it happened a lot. Then I didn't go for quite some time. I started really thinking about it and I realized I didn't really like to get dirty. I felt paranoid about getting eaten by a bear. There was a lot of prep work. Hot/cold. Smell like smoke. Outhouses. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't really get it. Then I thought about nature. It's beautiful, and relaxing. Smores and camp food are fabulous. However, when you have small kids, the nature experience and enjoying camp food are quickly shattered by your two year old who is whining, wandering or just not feeling well. This last weekend, we braved 2 nights up at the Tetons.
Bennett Family Reunion. Marshall's mom used to be a Bennett, so the reunion was her siblings and their families. It's a quite close knit family, and they are all super fun to be around. We camped right past Driggs, Idaho and got there Friday afternoon. We spent the evening setting up camp, eating, and visiting. Then the rain came. And it came....and came. It rained all night. Wet. That night I didn't sleep too well. Marshall and I slept in two different tents because all we had were teeny tiny ones. I shared a twin sized blow up with Rowan, and Marsh was in the other tent with Chandler. Little people tend to thrash and take up a lot of room, plus the rain was quite loud.
Saturday we had breakfast and then a big group of the adults set out to go on a hike to tablerock. Marshall and I went back and forth if one of us should go or not. There were a lot of kids to leave behind at the camp, and tablerock is easily a 7+ hour hike. We opted to stay and I'm glad we did for the sake of the adults that were there. Imagine 6 kids in the 2 year old range wandering around, and then lots of other kids that were various ages.
Snuggling with gma Snedaker
Sometimes when we were tired of chasing kids, we put them in the car to watch movies. Nice, huh? That's all Rowan wanted to do.
Instead of hiking tablerock, a few of us took some of the older preschool aged kids and older up on a short hike. We were only gone for about an hour, but I think they all had fun.
That night we played games around the fire, ate delicious dutch oven chicken and potatoes, and then turned in. Sunday morning we packed up camp and took a few group photos.
Friday we finally got to celebrate our anniversary, which was on the 9th. 6 years of marital bliss. Ok, so no marriage is 100% bliss, right? If you are married and tell me that you never fight or have tifts, I don't believe you. :) In our short 6 years, it's easy to realize that marriage is 2 people working together on everything, everyday. It HAS been pretty good so far though. We finally got to celebrate and went on an actual date Friday night. There's only one word that can describe it. Heavenly. I love our kids more than anything, but nothing beats great conversation, holding hands, stealing kisses, and being able to focus on your spouse. We started out the evening by going to Eclipse. I was SO so excited, and Marsh didn't drag his feet one bit, in fact I think he really liked it. Me - I was a little disappointed and I'm not 100% sure why. It's definitely more fun to see it opening night with all of the hype. It was well done but maybe I'm not as much of a Twi-fan as I thought I was anymore.
Next, we headed out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was one of our very favorite restaurants in Idaho, and we haven't been in over 2 years. We had to wait an hour for our table and I think we both know that next time we should call ahead. Onion blossom, frozen lemonade, ribs, steak, and loaded potatoes, yum. Here's to hoping that our next date isn't 6 months down the road. And here's to 6 years with the most wonderful man I know.
It's funny how far we've come with technology and how it is incoporated today. Take Rowan for example. He's 2, still wears diapers and sucks on a paci, yet he pretty much knows how to navigate his way on my iphone to watch Mickey.
Chandler plays all sorts of games, takes pictures and records videos. He also can navigate around on our laptop to get to pbskids, disney channel, and nick jr. to play games. I must admit that my iphone is my saving grace when we are at the dr.'s office or somewhere where the boys are getting antsy and impatient. Looking back, I remember getting my first e-mail account in 7th grade and thinking I was cool stuff. I was 13. I wonder if kids will have their own iphones at age 4, 10 or 15 years down the road.....
We've been shorthanded at work. There are 3 of us regulars and 1 prn person trying to staff an ER 24 hours. We used to have 5 and 1 prn. Bleh. I'm normally part time, and work 24 hours a week. From last Saturday to this Sunday I worked......64 hours. Someone finally got hired this last week. Hooray. I'm behind on things, so I was up blogging for the good of Babes and Kids. I figured why not blog for the good of snedfam as well? At 2:30 am. When I should be sleeping because afterall, I AM exhausted. And then I might have had a little bit of fun in Photo Booth. Ready to spend some quality time with the fam this week. Marshall and I had an anniversary on Friday that didn't really get celebrated. Unless you call celebration lunch with the boys and chasing and trying to get them to eat the entire time. I'm thinking that a date might happen this week. *Fingers crossed*
This year for the 4th, we had to stick close to home because I had to work all weekend. I swear next year we will get up to Idaho for the fireworks. It's been 3 years since we've been up there for them. Anyways, we had some good friends invite us up to their house for a barbecue and to watch the Thanksgiving Point fireworks. The live up on the hill in Lehi, so they had a great view from their back yard. We also got to see one of our good friends from high school (Justin) and his family. Since they live in Connecticut, we don't get to see them often. All in all, there were 4 families there. We had some fabulous food...a little too much, had a great time visiting, and did a few little fireworks. Luckily, there were neighbors on either side with some bigger fireworks, so we watched theirs. Chan and Rowan had fun playing with all of the other kids there. At one point, we were trying to get a shot with all of the kids, and that failed miserably. Instead of the 5 that were there, we got 2 of them, Jack and Chandler.
I guess it's better than nothing, right? The fireworks at Thanksgiving Point were fun and the boys loved them, and they lasted all of 10 minutes. ;)
Rowan at one point was sporting a blue beard. Before it was all said and done, they gave the employees each a gift. I think Marsh and I were both a little shocked to see him unwrap an ipad. 3G and 64G, it's a pretty sweet device. Nice, right? We finished out the afternoon by swimming at the Orem rec center which was across from the park where we had the party.
