Fun on the Lake

So we are becoming quite the outdoorsy people it would seem. We drove up American Fork canyon to Tibble Fork Reservoir and then off-roaded on a dirt rocky road up to the 2nd lake above it called Silver Flatts lake. So so pretty up there.

On Sunday night we went up with Sterling's Mom and Ron. We also brought Cody to play in the lake with us since Ron loves Cody and is planning a dog-napping to steal him. 

I've gotta be honest.... I hated fishing. I always was just so confused by it and thought it was the most pointless thing ever. But I've actually had fun the past couple of times... Enough to get my own fishing license and my own PINK fishing pole. really. I'm that cool. 

 The fish that we catch up there are yummy rainbow, brown and brook trout. And they aren't very big... but still we catch a bunch. 

 Did I mention it is gorgeous up there?

My handsome boy and his Rainbow Trout

 Ron and his BFF (:

 Sterling with his mountain man beard and his cheek full of sunflower seeds ;)

Cody .. the Golden Retriever.. is the worst retriever in all the world. But something about swimming after a stick in the lake.. he loved it and did it forever. 

 I think it pooped him out a little bit

 And poor cody was shivering like crazy until he dried off. 

Sterling and I went up again Monday morning early. We were the only ones up there for a good couple hours... and the water was GLASS except for the occasional fish jumping and free-willying out of the water. 

Love my mountain man-fisher man.  (: 

 We're planning on going up again this afternoon to fish and then to make tin-foil dinners.. and POSSIBLY camp for the night. haven't decided on for sure plans yet. 

But I'm excited to use my pink pole for the first time!!! 

XO

having ourselves a good time

So I wanted to update with WHAT?? PICTURES?? oh heavens.. its about time, ya? I mean.. did you all forget what we looked like by now? Probably. Anyyywayyys. Last weekend for Labor Day, we went up to my family's cabin up in Oakley, Utah.. a little up the canyon from Oakley. On Sunday, Everyone was up there Aunts, Uncles and cousins. All but Jason & Julie's family left sunday night. This trip, we had a few big ATV crawler type things to go up the hills and trails in. SO fun!! 

We found a dead owl in the field by the cabin. It didn't have any blood, and wasn't eaten by anything.. so we're thinking it either just plain.. died? Or was hit by a car and flew to the field to die. Regardless of how it died.. it was a really really big and pretty owl. 

 Really soft feathers and... 

 Huge talons!! 

They liked it so much, I think they are attempting to find a taxidermist to stuff it for the cabin.. (weird)

We brought up the family dog Cody to play with us at the cabin. He had a lot of fun annoying grandma and barking at animals

We then decided to have a backflip party on the trampoline. I was the designated photographer.. but don't let that give you doubts.. I am an avid backflip-ist... ;)

Sterling was showing off with his side twisty back-ish superman type flips. 

Caden was doing perfect backflips.. even a few in a row. 

Talented young lad. 

Big brother, Sterling took the time to teach Morgan to do a backflip. She had always wanted to.. but was always scared to do it.. like I was. But.. within a half hour... 

She was flipping by herself on the tramp!!

And landing it!

We also had a "prove that you're not an old lady and do a back-flip party"

So of course Aunt Julie joined in to strut her skills. 

(*notice: glasses falling off head*)

resembling a puppet on strings in this photo ;)

Then my crazy mother joined in... 

and IMPRESSED me. 

What's Labor Day without a little labor??

We spent the morning painting a coat of stain over the outside of the cabin. 

The kids were given the task of painting the lower halfs

Jason and Sterling were given the stand on rickety ladders and risk your lives to paint the top half task 

My assignment was to hold Sterling's ladder... because truly.. it was very old. and very unstable. 

Towards the end, while Sterling was at the very top of the ladder.. it did the thing that happens in all cartoons.. it collapsed and started going down.. So... instinctively.. I moved my hands and Sterling, holding a paint brush in one hand and a bucket of paint in the other, jerked his hands out to stable himself on the falling ladder... hence spilling paint all over the side of the wall and himself. Also scratching up his arms a bit.

Later that night, we took a long drive to the top of the mountain. We were riding behind my mom and Rich Winter... so.. we got QUITE a lot of dust and bugs and plant parts all over us. 

but the view from the top was so worth it!

We got very successfully dirty at the cabin. (: I had dirt lines all the way around my eyes where the glasses were. 

IN OTHER NEWS: The boys have LOVED having Sterling back. Mainly just so they can be pushed on the rope swing in the back-yard. (: Its a question I hear almost daily.. "hey.. umm... sterling?? Can you come push me on the swing please?"

Love this picture!

and I LOVE Sterling and Cody in the background of this picture (:

Thats all for now!!

Be sure to check out our Baby Clark blog.. 

Its updated with new pictures and a video of Baby's heartbeat. (: 

www.NineMonthStory.blogspot.com

xo

home

So.... we're home from California!! well.. this is old news. But I haven't posted any updates in a very very long time. So here's a little re-cap.
We drove through the night 2 weeks ago to get home. Leaving at around 3 pm and getting home around 2am. We only had to stop 2 times for gas and one more for a potty break for me. I was quite surprised that I didn't need any more than that!!! I had been prepping my bladder for the drive by withholding liquids as much as I could. So we got home, and settled into my parents house. You can never really truly miss something until you've been without it for a while... At least that is what I realized as we drove back into the Salt Lake valley... The mountains, the people, the area, the weather, the nearby family and friends... EVERYTHING about Utah.. I missed terribly. Even the things that I couldn't wait to get away from 5 months ago. It makes you appreciate what you have and what is right here so much more. So... We LOVE LOVE LOVE being home. Missed home very much.
Update on our house: So we had made an offer on a house, and it was accepted. BUT we had 10 days to back out, and we moved home on the 9th day of that contract. So on the 10th day (monday) we went to go look through the house. Side note: The bank had given us a 15 page addendum with the contract stating a million things that we had to do and hoops that we had to jump through in order to move in. Example: WE had to evict the renting tenants, pay them back their security deposits, pay all closing costs... etc. So we wanted to go look at the house, meet the tenants and figure out if it was really worth it. The people that live there are a young family with 2 kids and they had just moved there this summer after losing their home... heart wrenching right? Well... she wasn't the nicest to us.. which I understand because I wouldn't want to be evicted with two really young kids after only being there a few months. We also realized there was a new highway being built LITERALLY in the backyard going from I-15 to Redwood Road... there was also some water damage in the basement... so we decided that over-all it wasn't going to be worth the hassle, and there are a bunch of other houses on the market that we can look at. So we backed out with no costs to us. LUCKILY.
We went looking at a bunch of other properties over the next few days and we found a house that we loved so much more just a couple miles north of the last house, RIGHT on the Thanksgiving Point golf course. AND it was empty! No families to evict. :) We put an offer in on it, and sent it off to the bank (bank owned) and we're waiting on things to get back to us. Its a short-sale home, and will probably be 60 days before we could move in. 30 days till the bank lets us know about our offer, and 30 from closing date till we can move in.. so we have about 2 weeks down in that process.
IN OTHER NEWS: We got a camera!! FINALLY. but no, I haven't taken any pictures yet. :S sorry. We actually bought my moms camera that she had just gotten at Christmas.. because she already wants a new one. Its a CANON Rebel T2i camera. So if you feel the need, you may look that up. I'll be getting photo's taken soon. hopefully.
In the past couple weeks, we've been keeping busy moving stuff into storage, seeing and catching up with friends and family, Painting bedrooms as rent at my mom's house, taking the dog on walks, enjoying pregnancy and enjoying being more relaxed after a crazy summer!!
SPEAKING of pregnancy.. I'll update the baby blog next week after my 2nd Dr's appt. But things are going good! We're safely out of the 1st trimester and moving on smoothly!! Not as sick these days and feeling my stomach starting to stick out a little bit making my jeans a bit tighter ;)
Sterling has been studying and studying for his Real Estate tests. He has completed all 120 hours of the classes and he just needs to buckle down and get the tests done. So he's prepping for that by grilling his brain cells and having me quiz him on questions every now and then.
Things are going great for us and we're LOVING life right now!! It couldn't get better in any way right now... I'll try to update more, and take lots of pics this weekend. :)
XO