Adventures with Aunty Britty

Adventures, Milestones, and Good Old Fashioned Dirty Fun

The adventures kicked off on May 17, 2009. At approximately 920 am my youngest sister Aubree turned 18. Eek, I'm old. The parents have been spending weekends cleaning my Grandma Beardall's home to get it ready to sell. It was a beautiful Sunday. Since my parents were in Fairview Aubree, Krysten, Josh, and Amanda were hanging out watching sci-fi and cartoons. I finished worked and announced this was no way to celebrate a 18th birthday and sped to my parents house to save them from their humdrum time passing. I packed the kids in the car with a lot of Aubree's jackets, some mocha brownies, and Wendy's and off we went to the canyon for a picnic.... or so we thought.

After finishing frosties and the afore mentioned brownies we decided to go adventuring. You are only as old as you feel and apparently this Sunday I felt about 12 and Aubree about 8. We climbed into a hole (that's me in the hole) and under the ampitheaters stage. It was dark but we had a flashlight. All three of Misty's kids thought I'd lost my mind and Krysten didn't want anything to do with it. Aubree and I got Amanda and Josh to come with us though. I lost my camera and didn't realize I'd dropped it until we were almost out so we had to go back for it. Thank goodness I keep a flashlight in my car. Once we climbed back out of our hole much dirtier than we'd entered. The three kids put on a play for Aubree and I and Star Wars Episode 3. Then it got dark and we brought them home to return them tired and dirty to their mom.

Just like Star Wars there is another chapter in this story...

Adventures with Aunty Britty Continue

On Tuesday Aubree had her official Birthday Party. The usual family were there and surprise, surprise, surprise, and surprise we had four visitors from out of town. Savannah, Angelina, Juliette, and Chase! Yeah! We went iceblocking. Josh tried it twice before he gave up. Savannah and Chase went a few times, Nana got to be a pro, she even took a tummy dive down the hill, so Keely thought she could use a push to pick up a little more speed. hehe

Josh took a "tumble, wumble" as he calls it when I crash snowboarding. Keely didn't want to ride with her daddy after she rode with me. I must be a better iceblocker than Rusty. So after taking Keely, Jaden, Juliette, and Angelina on rides and the constant up and down the hill with the ice block I was pretty exhausted.

The visit was a big surprise so we did a lot this week and I got as much time off as I could. We picnicked in the rain/sun no really both it was sunny and then suddenly raining with Uncle Gary and Aunt Kaylene one evening, went swimming on Memorial Day, went to the zoo with Amanda and Amber, went to play at the girls' favorite parks Discovery Park and Liberty Park, and got to spend a lot of time with family. A word to the wise if adventuring with 6 and 8 year olds through Discovery Park watch your head I hit my head so many times I thought I had given myself a concusion.

Zooper Fun!

The zoo is always fun. Breeann informed me that the rhino says "Ruff Ruff." You learn something new at the zoo everytime, I guess.

Jacob somehow got a kind unsuspecting lady to give him a grape. We were doing the carousel last and in the 20 seconds Juliette and I took to turn Breeann's attention from the carousel and tug her in the direction of the next animal he had looked longingly at the grape this woman was giving to her 3 or 4 year old and convinced her with his big puppy dog eyes to give her one without saying a word. While Braydon and Chase took a break to eat we all had a snack by the zebras. Amanda was giving all the kids Vanilla Wafers. Jacob tried to give Breeann, Juliette, and Angelina one but they all had one in each hand so he gave one of his to the toddler in the stroller next to him! Kids! The big debate is who is the best at sharing ALL the time. Jacob or Juliette. We'll call it a draw.

Angelina and Juliette made for the drums and gourds by the tigers one of their all time faves. My dad, we've suspected this all along.

We all took a ride on the carousel. This was the first time Chase has ridden one. Jacob doesn't like the moving ones he likes the "chair."

So after the zoo it was off to Liberty Park for some play time and a picnic.

There is this crazy swing that we all went on. Juliette went the fastest, Savannah stumbled into Aubree after getting off, I kicked Savannah when my legs swung out by accident, and I'm surprised no one was seriously sick. Breeann decided she was one of the big girls she would follow Angelina and Juliette everywhere. She was evidently not a big slide fan before this excursion either. You would never guess it. I took her on a tiny one and got her to go by herself and like it and after that she was climbing to the top of the huge slides and not wanting to stop or have any help. Amanda is worried I may end up costing her and Ken some serious medical bills. Neither of them can believe how much she loved the huge twisty slide she tumbled down like a rag doll and came out smiling. Unfortunately Savannah had to go home. We had dinner at my parents' the night before they left. Nana made stir fry and wontons, Josh read Stephen Cosgrove books with the girls, and my dad tried to talk us into becoming the next owner of a pancake maker, french fry cutter, and other odds and ends from my grandma's house. We were sad to have them heading home but are so happy we got to spend all this time with them. Next time we see them we'll be going to DisneyWorld. Yeah! I can't wait.

A Zoo-pendous Day!

So Amanda and I took her kids to the zoo in November. We had a lot of fun and so did the kids but it was freezing. So we decided to make this a regular thing once the weather was nice again. So the sun came out and dried up all the snow mid April and off we went to the zoo. Amber came and brought Braydon to the zoo for his very first time. Jacob was so cute. He would tell Breeann and Braydon to look at the animals, rather loudly too!
My cousin Shandell also has a zoo pass for her and her little boy Ethan. They met us there and we all had a lot of fun. I never see any of my three cousins that came along so it was a great chance to catch up and the kids were so much fun. Mom, Dad, and Aubree came too so we had quite the little group. I invited Josh to come along but he couldn't come unfortunately, kids love him! Maybe next time.

Ethan was so funny. He had one of those monkey backpacks with the leash, he decided he really liked me and would get upset he caught his mom holding the leash instead of me. He would try to take it from her and give it back to me. When we were looking at the giraffes he started to run ahead I thought he just wanted to go somewhere but to my surprise he ran up and hugged the little girl ahead of us. She was so scared, he came out of nowhere and latched on, lol too funny. He hugged a few other girls whom we had to peel him off of. Shandell and I think he might have a thing for blondes because he passed a lot of brunettes by. Too funny.

We played in the playground at the zoo for a while and rode the carousel. Jacob had cried our last visit we tried one of the stationary seats on the carousel and he loved it this time. Yeah! Ethan cried this time when we had to get off. After a long day at the zoo we ended up leaving right in the middle of rush hour so we decided to grab some Subway and have a picnic in Liberty Park while the 5 o'clock traffic died down. It was a long day but everyone had a great day can't wait to do it again.

A Blog Is Born!

So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while to keep our family and friends we don't see enough up to date on what is going on in our lives. You all know how horrible we are at calling. So here is the beginning of the Josh and Brittany Blog!

POWDER

2009 started out with the love of Josh's life, no not me, Snowboarding. We had season passes to Park City Mountain Resort and buddy passes to bring friends along. The snow this year was amazing! We had many "Epic Pow Days" as Josh called them. With more than 2 feet of powder on several occasions.

Josh rediscovered his love for the trees and steep and deep early this season. Thanks to Aubree, Meagan, Mace, and Katie I didn't have to ride alone if I didn't want to get stuck in the powder. We explored a lot more of the mountain than we did last year, mostly because I wasn't nearly as good last year.

Katie and Andrew came to visit and go boarding at the beginning of March. I'm afraid Josh may have instilled Andrew with his need for powder, he came back for a week of riding mid April. They got a few more feet and boarding all week. I'm realizing I'll never be able to ride like Josh does but I get to watch him do jumps off banks from where I am behind him and I am good enough that it's finally more fun than it is work.