Why!?

    These aren't the photos I had in mind for this weeks post. These adorable people were supposed to be in photographs I took with my own phone and at my house! But, sadly, life doesn't always go as we planned and we're are praying most earnestly that by next weeks post I will have photos of them that I take with my own phone. Here's to everything coming together before March is done!

But seriously, how beautiful are these girls!?

Bring the Atkinson's to America!

    All I want for 2022 is this!

Fire and fun

    Have I mentioned how much I love our neighborhood?! Nearly every Sunday is a small, sometimes larger, gathering of great neighbors, rain or shine. Our neighbors captured these great shots of the burn barrel.

Just another Sunday night.

    And before the burn barrel fun I caught this fun moment with Kayli and Beau. Toddlers are fun! (Especially the ones that just come to visit.)

Train show

    We went to see some model trains on Saturday and, once again, I failed to get photos. I did manage to get a group shot, only to find out today that somehow Brock wasn't in frame, but I promise he was with us. We had fun and if Kayli would have joined us I would have had all my kids with me, a rare treat. We did see Kayli earlier that morning when she came to Charlie's last basketball game, so I did get to see all my kids and that's always nice. 

    The model trains were cool and the detail involved in the setup is always impressive. My boys are now wondering if this is a hobby they can get into but I think the $ might be a bit of a hinderance. As for the rest of the week, it's been fairly uneventful so no other photos were taken.

 We also had Isaac's girlfriend, Morgan, join us.

    Another nice week and now we get to 'spring-ahead' tomorrow/Sunday so we're going to enjoy this last night before we 'lose' our hour! (I love daylight savings! And I'm not being sarcastic.)

A break from reality

    That week long water conference, that happens every two years, for Greg, was this week and it was great, at least for me. I love a break from my reality every now and again. It was so nice, sunny, warm and full of little adventures. Nearly every morning there were at least two hot air balloons in the sky, a favorite thing for me to see. 

 

 

    And thankfully they have a Fiiz in St. George so I didn't have to skip my Wednesday treat.

My favorite breakfast of the week.

    We also went on a little adventure to Gunlock where we explored the dried up falls and reservoir. 

 

 

 

 

    Greg may not love the classes he has to attend but he doesn't mind the break from his regular work and he does get some free stuff, including some fun prizes, shirts, hats and lots and lots of pens. We also enjoyed a few great meals paid for by others and even participated in a 'casino' night. It's been a great week! And we found out we can parent remotely, the kids did just fine without us and with cameras and phones they really didn't need us here. Now back to reality!

Proof

    We had a nice week and another couple gatherings with Greg's buddies. I still don't have all the photos that were taken but I did get a couple while they sat around at our house. It's always fun when these guys get together and reminisce. 

Buddies for life

 

    Greg may be allergic to cats but they're not allergic to him.

Cuddling with the neighbor's cat on their sun porch.

    And occasionally I find selfies of Charlie on my phone.

 

 

Charlie and Kat.

    Recently Charlie's had a substitute teacher at school and he's fascinated by her hairdos everyday and refers to her hair as 'hair-origami' so now the pressure is on for me to 'impress' him with a different hair style every day. This 👇 was the most recent one. Next week is going to be a big disappointment because I'll be away in St. George and her hair is going to be far from fancy while I'm gone but I'm sure looking forward to a week down south where it might be a few degrees warmer then it is here.

 

    Greg is currently on a 'camp out' with the priest quorum. Charlie's basketball game was cancelled and she's planning on having a sleep over with her nieces and the rest of us are going to hang out and take it easy. And did I mention Greg and I are going to St. George next week?! I'm pretty excited about it!

Valentine's 2022

    We've had a great week but very few photos to share. Our Valentine's Day was simple but Greg did take me to Harley Davidson to splurge on a new ring, which I love. We actually had several fun visits with Greg's childhood buddies this week but I don't have photos. Other people took photos and hopefully I get them eventually and can post them on a future blog post. One of Greg's buddies was here visiting from Illinois for a funeral so it was a prime time to get together.

 

    And Marie requested a photo from when I was younger and I came across this gem and a few others and figured I might as well share at least one.

We had no idea what we were getting into!

    Only a few more days left of this month and then I get to escape to St. George with Greg while he attends his water conference.

A good variety.

    It's been a fun week. Brock got to go ice fishing with his Teacher's quorum and he was successful and had a great time. Georgia had her puppies at the breeders, 8 puppies, and we're still debating whether we'll take her back after she's done weaning her puppies. We had a fun burn barrel night and Beau was more then happy to hang out with Charlie.

Learning the ropes of ice fishing.

Yay! Success.

Twinning!

She is one big momma.

The first 4.

Burn Barrel's are the best!

More twinning.

 

Too cool!

    And Greg's been reminiscing with his buddies and this gem of a photo was shared and if you zoom in on Greg there's little, to no doubt, who Mark resembles the most. 

Rabbit hunting 1992.

    So a lot of fun stuff! Now we're headed into the Super Bowl Sunday weekend where we have all the best foods and pretend to watch the game/commercials.