Crazy Hair Day

Today is crazy hair day at the kids' school, so we crazied them up!Henry wanted an "H" on the back of his head:I had some more time after we dropped the boys off so I fixed LC's hair a little bit:

Moab, UT & Arches Nat'l Park

We took a break from remodeling the kitchen to take the kids on a little trip to Southern UT where we actually got to stay in a hotel! Wheee! (No more camping for me for awhile.) We went to Moab which is where Arches Nat'l Park and Dead Horse State Park are located. It is a huge tourist area for people who like to go off-roading, mountain biking, or dirt biking or who want to see the natural arches made out of red rock.

Forrest and the boys hiking towards Delicate Arch, the one that is featured on one of UT's license plates:
Forrest's close-up shot of it:
On our way to Sand Dune Arch...we had to pass through a couple of narrow walkways to get to it:
The sand was so cold and so soft that the kids had to stay and make their own arches in it:
The highlight of our trip was taking a Hummer Off-Road Tour for an afternoon. I would have never imagined that such a large truck could go up and into the areas we went. And over not very wide rocks!!!
What goes up...:
Must come down:
Petrified Allosaurus dinosaur footprint:
At the top:
The kids all agreed that that was the best part of our trip. Our guide was so much fun and really took us on some fast, tight turns and one area that literally felt like a roller-coaster. We saw so many people with their own personal vehicles-Jeeps mostly-doing what we were doing and they are nuts, IMO. No way would I put a vehicle I had paid that much money for through that much abuse. We saw many that had break-downs along the way trying to make repairs.

Today, before we headed home, we hit Dead Horse State Park and once again I was struck at how nice UT parks are. The views here are unbelievable but the rock wall separating us from a 2000 foot fall are low, so we did not spend a lot of time here since anxieties about the heights and our clumsy kids were running high
These next pictures I am putting in because they just make me laugh.

This one I find so funny because Wyatt instructed Forrest to take his picture like this:
Henry posed like this in every picture we took of him by himself. He's my little Ralph Lauren model.LOL:
And this one...this one is the crux of taking pictures of the kids:
So much fun, especially since running water, showers and toilets were involved.LOL

Kitchen Renovation

Since we were able to unload the house in IL, we have decided to make this one our own. The first thing we are tackling is some painting around the house and the kitchen as a whole. We have ordered new appliances which will be here on the 18th and the refrigerator was delivered yesterday. We-and by we I mean Todd- have also started painting the walls, covering the ugly maroon trim and removing the light fixture that we have lovingly nicknamed "The Monstrosity".

Some "before" pictures:



And now some "During" pictures:

"The Monstrosity" is gone. The plan is to replace it with either recessed lighting like the others that are already in there, or track lighting:



The maroon trim is painted around the sliding door and floor. Who paints their trim maroon???:

My new refrigerator...isn't she pretty!:


The color on the walls is called "Smokey Topaz", which is a rusty tan color which is one of the colors in our granite.

We plan on refinishing the cabinets ourselves and we also want to lay hardwood floors in the near future.

It's a big project, but we are having fun planning it out and implementing our ideas.