Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend was Labor Day and it was VERY relaxing and awesome to have such a long weekend. Because I am working this Saturday for Faith, she switched me schedules so I got her usual day off, which is Tuesday, so I had a 4 day weekend! Like I said, it was VERY relaxing.

Friday after I got home from work, Jake & I spent some time together and then we called it a night early. I wasn't quite tired yet, so I took a nice long bath and finished reading "The Hunger Games" for the second time. I forgot how much I like these books! Last time I read them, I hauled through them and read them each in a day, the first two in one sitting each. I wanted to slow down this time and try to absorb more of them, so I made myself take about a week to read the first one. Finishing it while soaking in the tub was a nice way to start out my weekend!

Saturday was the first BYU game of the season. FINALLY!! BYU vs. Virginia. Kickoff was set for 1:30, so I spent some time in the morning finishing tidying the house. I started cleaning out Kaycee's room a few weeks ago and decided to get rid of a few things in there. We had an old coffee table that Faith came and got, and an old vacuum that we gave to my high school friend Kate. And we had this ADORABLE sign that my friend Cassie made me for Christmas in there, just waiting to be hung up. She made 3 sets for me, one that says "Family", one that says "Winter" and one that says "Wicked". Guess which seasons those last two are for. The "Family" one is for "off seasons" and I absolutely LOVE it. Just didn't ever get around to hanging it. Well, right before the game, Jake helped me hang it up! It looks awesome!!

Before

After! It looks SOO good!!

I also ran to the grocery store for some game day snacks right before kick off. I was introduced a few months ago to this AMAZING dip called Texas Caviar and Jake has been begging me to make it. During the 1st quarter, I finally made it and it turned out perfect - SOOO dang yummy!! After 1st quarter, there was a rain/lightning delay and they evacuated the stadium for safety reasons. Turned into a 2 ish hour delay. I took a nice nap while they showed other games on ESPNU, the channel the game was scheduled for. Finally, they started the game again!

Due to the delay, there was another game set to come on when the game "should" have ended, but because it was only the beginning of 3rd quarter, they moved our game to another channel and started showing this new game on ESPNU. They had announced that in Utah & Virginia, the game would stay on ESPNU. Well they lied. We lost the game and we were I was kinda freaking out, until we figured out the channel they moved it to was one that we had! Our neighbors, the Peterson's, have DirecTV and didn't have that channel, so we invited them to come watch the game with us. It was super fun having them over - they have 3 adorable boys, one of who{m} was in my nursery class. Bummer part was BYU lost, 19-16. We threw an interception in the last few minutes of the game and Virginia scored off of it. It was pretty sad, but there's another 11 games to watch this season so it's ok!

After the game was over, we drove up Provo Canyon to spend some time with Jake's family. It was nice and relaxing up there and we had a lot of fun sitting and talking about the fire with his parents and Aunt Sally & Uncle Chuck. Kaycee decided she didn't like the ride up the canyon though and I ended up throwing up as soon as we got there, and as soon as we got out of the canyon. She seriously does NOT like car rides!

Sunday we woke up and had a relaxed morning before church, since it doesn't start until 1. I was scheduled to teach Young Women's that day and although I knew what lesson I was teaching, I hadn't prepared my lesson yet. Fortunately, the lesson {on tithing} came together super fast and it worked out perfectly! I also had the chance to bear my testimony during Sacrament Meeting about our experience at the Temple and how grateful I am for the Holy Ghost. It was an amazing 3 hours of church.

After we were finished at church, we came home and changed our clothes, grabbed the Texas Caviar and headed back up the canyon. Dustin {Jake's older brother} and his new girlfriend Keeshia and her son Hunter were there too, so we got to spend some time with them, which was WAY fun! Mom made lasagna in the crock pot with salad and we had our Texas Caviar, which was a big hit. It was delicious. Afterwards, we roasted s'mores around the fire and just talked until Jake & I got tired and we headed back home.

Monday was a nice relaxing morning as well - I sure love relaxing mornings. And it was SOO nice getting to sleep with Jake, since he didn't have to go to work on Sunday night thanks to the Labor Day holiday. We just enjoyed spending time with each other and Max.

He sure seems to like his bed in the living room a lot more lately! He lays in there with his rawhide anytime we are in the same room as him

Later in the afternoon, our friends Andrew & Keeshia asked if we wanted to go golfing. Of course we said yes! They brought their little boy Robby, who is HORRIBLE birth control. I swear he is a big reason we started trying to get pregnant when we did. Andrew also had two of his brothers and their wives come too - John & Camrie {who are due anyday} and Charles & Bonnie with their little boy Joel. It was SUPER fun, since the guys golfed and the girls just talked in the golf carts. Keeshia is expecting too, she's 3 weeks behind me and we are all pretty sure it's a girl. Which would be AWESOME because I'm sure she and Kaycee will be best friends. We played the front 9 at the Ranches Golf Course. Although we have lived on the course for 2 years, it was the first time I got to ride around the course on a cart. SO much fun - can't wait to do it again!

The guys at the last hole

Robby wanted to play too - it was adorable. To make sure he didn't get hit, Jake picked him up and was talking to him for a few minutes. Made this girl's heart MELT - he's gonna be SUCH a good dad!

Finishing off their last hole

Love this guy

We all went to dinner together at La Fuente in American Fork, next to Denny's. It was really good - I highly recommend it! After we left the restaurant, Jake mentioned 3 times in less than 5 minutes how much he liked it. Apparently we'll be going back there!

After we got home from golfing, Jake needed to get some sleep for work and I didn't want to keep him up, so I took another bath. And read all of the second Hunger Games book "Catching Fire". Was up until 3 in the morning but I finished it. This is why I wanted to slow down on those books haha - I read them WAY too fast!

Tuesday I spent most of the morning in bed, since I was up so late, and then gave Max a hair cut. That turned out WAY too short. He looks like a little naked rat haha. But it's hair, it'll grow back thankfully. I was in charge of mutual activity that night, combined with the Young Men. We played water volleyball! I had a hard time finding water balloons and just ended up buying normal balloons, but they worked out perfect. It was super fun! Afterwards we had chocolate popsicles and then the kids played normal volleyball. It was really fun!

And that wraps up our awesome Labor Day weekend! It was a really fun one - and a good kickoff for September. This month is going to be AWESOME, thanks to a couple trips, painting Kaycee's room - stuff like that. And it's FALL! And football is here! It really will be an awesome month!!

Weekend in St George

Last weekend, the McClellan family got the chance to go down to St George together! Jake's parents have a neighbor and close friend names Preston Gerber who has a really nice home there and we all got to stay in it together! It was our first family trip with Clint since he got home from his mission, and my first trip with Clint ever! Mom & Dad McClellan left to go down Friday earlier in the day. Jake, Dustin, Clint, Macy & I went down as soon as Macy & I got off of work at 6. We met at Mom & Dad's, parked our cars in their garage and loaded into Dustin's Tahoe. I zonked out around Nephi thanks to the motion sickness medicine I took. We stopped at Costa Vida for dinner around 9 and then got back on the road and made it to Preston's house around 11.  At the very end, we got a little lost so we were driving around in circle and OH MY GOSH was I getting motion sick in the back seat haha. But it all worked out and we made it to the house without any one throwing up.

We talked for a little while and then went to bed. We woke up the next morning and had an awesome breakfast {Jake's dad is an AWESOME cook!} of pancakes, eggs & bacon with orange juice and milk. Then we all changed and got ready to go for our first 4 wheeler ride.

Jake & Dustin getting ready to go

Jake with his Go Pro on his head. I must be turning into a redneck because I find this picture INCREDIBLY attractive haha

Dustin all bundled and camo'd waiting to go out - it was SUPER cold

Mom & Preston all bundled and prepped to go

Dad, Clint & Macy

My camo man :)

Me all ready to go! I'm doing thumbs up, since you can't tell I'm smiling, but since my hands are camo you can't see them ;)

Jake & I rode on the new Polaris 4 wheeler, Clint & Macy were on the Honda 4 wheeler, Mom & Dad were on the Rhino, Dustin rode one of Preston's 4 wheelers and Preston was on one of his 4 wheelers. We went on a SUPER long ride - almost 5 hours. The sky was clear as could be, and as we rode the weather warmed up so we could slowly shed our layers of clothes. It was GORGEOUS!!

The view at one of our stops

Me & my hubby

Clint, Macy & Dustin enjoying the view :)

Dustin, Dad, Preston & Mom

Gorgeous blue sky

The rock formations we stopped to climb on and find shapes in

Jake climbed up pretty tall

Another view of Jake up high

Clint up REALLY high - doing the Captain Morgan stance

Another shot of some of the rocks with the gorgeous blue sky

Up where I climbed

Me & my hubby

View of the valley below

Jake's view from where he climbed to

This is when we realized I lost my phone. Right before I freaked out, we found it. On the floor board of the 4 wheeler. Covered in dirt, so it had been there a while. No cracked screen from our shoes. Still worked. LUCKY ME!!!!

We rode a while longer - just riding all over the place. I would have got SO lost - good thing no one was expecting me to be able to get them back to the house haha. At one point, we came to this little ledge thing and Jake started to back up and I was like "oh we can make it just go for it" so he drove slow and had us lean away from it and yeah we rolled the 4 wheeler over. Well, we tipped it over and it landed on us. Jake has it on video - he posted it to YouTube. I should figure out how to find it so that I can post a link in here... But we were totally fine! Scratched the 4 wheeler a little but otherwise totally fine. It landed on Jake's foot and his boots made it so his ankle got a little twisted so we took a little breather on the rocks.

Poor Jake - kinda my fault since I'm the one that said to just go for it. But he is the one that listened to me haha!

After we got back from our ride, we showered and cleaned up and had some crackers & chips with veggies & dips and then went out to dinner. Our good friends Keeshia & Andrew Fletcher have told Jake MULTIPLE times about this amazing steak place in St George where you cook your steak yourself on a rock they bring you. Preston had told mom & dad about the same place, so OF COURSE we had to go there!

PALM TREE!! Everytime I see a palm tree, I take a picture and send it to my bestie Suzie. She was my roommate before we got married {she got married 3 weeks before me} and we went on this spur of the moment trip one time to California where she is from and I asked if there was palm trees there and she said she didn't think so and there were MILLIONS of them so everytime we see one we take a picture and send it to each other!

Preston modeling the sign out in front the restaurant

Jake's steak. They sear it in the back, so it comes out totally raw. The rock is a lava rock and is heated to 700 degrees. You cook each bite to the wellness you want, so that it's done JUST how you want it, and each bite is hot since you just cooked it. I had chicken. And rolls. Lots of rolls haha. The chicken was pretty good. Jake raved about the steak for days haha.

After dinner we came home and got in the hot tub. Preston had just cleaned it out and put new water in it and it showed - it was FREEZING!! Mom made it about 2 minutes. Jake made it about 20 minutes before he got out, I made it about an hour. Clint & Macy made it 2-3 hours and then they came in. We were all pretty tired from a fun, long day and went to bed on the early side - it was like 11. Which isn't early if we were at home, but for being on vacation that's early haha.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast of scrambled eggs & bacon with OJ & milk. Then Clint, Macy, mom, Preston & me went to Sacrament Meeting. It was an awesome meeting - they had a new family speak. They had 3 girls - 13, 11 & 5. I don't remember ever having kids younger than 12 speak when a new family speaks, but the girls all did AWESOME. And the mom's talk was amazing. They had a still born in between the 11 & 5 year old and obviously that just stuck with me. I don't know how women make it through that. That would be SO hard!! But the meeting was awesome. Mom noticed halfway through that the ward had a missionary who was serving in Charlotte, North Carolina where Clint served and Clint knew him! After the meeting, Clint asked the Bishop where the family was and went to talk to them for a few minutes. Then we came home, changed & got ready to go for another ride. The whole family went again except for Clint & Macy. Cleneyl, Preston's wife, came too! We went to go see the dinosaur tracks!

I got to drive a little bit - the Polaris is an automatic and I LOVE IT! I want one SOOO bad now!!

Hiking to the foot prints of the dinosaurs with dirty faces

A foot print!! Don't mind my hand in the corner - apparently I can't take pictures haha

It was really fun. We came home, hurried to change and throw our clothes in the back of Dustin's truck and then it was time to come home!

View from Preston's driveway - seriously he has a gorgeous home!

The whole family together!

It was such a fun trip! And we made it home in amazing time, and I didn't get sick! After we got home, we picked up Max from my parents house and he slept for almost 24 hours straight. Little zombie puppy!!! I knoew it's because he gets SO played with and he runs around chasing Buzz {his puppy uncle} but it's still cute to see him so worn out.

He NEVER lays in his bed with the blanket on top - just shows how tired he was!

Max zonked next to Jake while Jake catches up on his YouTube videos

Yay for a fun "camping" weekend!!

First & only time

On Wednesday June 27, I had the chance to go to Girls Camp! Yes I know that was a while ago - I haven't made time to sync my camera to my computer until today! I went with my mom's ward {the ward I grew up in} and got to be up there with my 2 youngest sisters, Jeannene & Lauryl {aka Popper}. My mom also came, even though neither of us are in young women's. The reason we got to go? Because my sister Brynne was asked to be the speaker for the ENTIRE stake at the nightly devotional! This is the only time ever that all 4 sisters were at Girls Camp at the same time! My mom & I drove up together after I got off work at 6:15 and met Brynne & Blake up there {Blake is so awesome for coming to Girls Camp to hear his wife speak!!} The Girls Camp theme was "Out of the this world" so Brynne spoke on how to be in the world and not of the world. It was a WONDERFUL talk - she is a spiritual dynamo!! I am SO lucky to have her as a sister and role model! Here are some of the highlights of the night!!

Brynne & Blake

Popper after she got Fargarrawr

Mom, Blake & Brynne 

Mom & Brynne

Brynne & me - LOVE this girl!

Me, mom, Bryne & Popper - Jeannene was at a YCL meeting

Me, mom, Brynne & Blake

Brynne & Blake singing camp songs - Bazooka-zooka bubble gum to be exact

Doing the movements to Bazooka-zooka bubble gum 

Spinning in a circle....

We were laughing REALLY hard

Jeannene leading the camp in singing along with the rest of the YCL's

Jeannene announcing the nightly devotional

Brynne's "stage" for her devotional

Charlotte Ducos announcing Brynne as the speaker. Charlotte was my Young Women's leader and is the stake camp director! PERFECT woman for the job!

My camera started acting up at this point - I am SO bummed this turned out blurry!

Brynne speaking - sorry it's blurry!!

It was a WONDERFUL talk!

After we were done with the devotional, we walked to "singing in the trees" at the top of camp. It was really singing under the stars, since we weren't around any trees. It was amazing how strong the Spirit was - makes me REALLY miss Girls Camp! After we finished singing, we went to the ward's campsite and played mafia for about an hour and then went to bed - it was around 1 AM and we needed to leave around 7 to be home in time for me to get to work!

The next morning we packed up camp and went down to the ward campsite for breakfast - homemade fruit and yogurt parfaits with Costco muffins - YUMMMMM!!! 

All of the girls at Girls Camp together :) 

Sisters :) 

Right before we left to go home

Me & Leslie Jones - she was one of my Young Women leaders and I LOVE her!  She is the Young Women's  President now, so she is with Jeannene! 

It was a wonderful night! I am so glad I got the chance to go to Girls Camp with all my sisters!