"Goin' Country" with Cami and Zach...

Here is a pic of Zach (black hat), Cami, Hana, Conrad and a couple cast members that perform in the show. (Virginia trip August 6-11, 2009)

We got to visit Cami and Zach in Virginia! It was a blast! Below are a couple links to videos I put on YouTube of their show "Goin' Country!" It was so fun - Scott, I and the kids never got sick of watching them sing and perform! They make it so fun and Cami and Zach each had their moments of changing things up a bit to make it fun. Zach also played lead guitar in the band for Kinetix show - he is amazing on the guitar!

We also had some REALLY GREAT hangout time with them! We LOVED it!!!

Click the links below to see the videos on YouTube...

---- Cami and Zach performing in their Goin' Country show (on Youtube)

---- Cami singing "Survivor" by Reba (on Youtube)

Pioneer Day!

Hurray for Pioneer Day!

Things you do when you get away in Park City for two nights...

• Chill in the condo, and make treats
• Enjoy the pool and hot tub
• Learn to swim under the water on own (Hana did it!!!)
• Mozy at a local Farmer's Market, and get a new belt (Scott will model it)
• Find a local party and participate in all the fun free stuff...
• ...face painting, fried chicken and corn, music, Utah's heritage.
• Ride the Alpine Slide! Good times!

Check out the video of us going on the Alpine Slide!

One of the BEST days ever!!!

Scott and I have really been wanting to take the kids on a really great hike up in Uintahs (our most favorite place to be!). So we decided on a hike that was about 2 or so miles with little lakes on the way, so as not to get bored. We would end up at the Clyde Lake, relax and fish and eat lunch, & maybe mozy over to Three Divide Lakes if we wanted before we headed back.

At Clyde Lake we relaxed and played for a couple hours. The kids found a fun little pond they named "The Little Mack's Lake" and played in their "clubhouse" right by it. Then Scott and I decided, from looking at the map, it would be fun to cut across and bush-wack to another trail to head back. It was SO beautiful!

We also LOVED teaching the kids about what we LOVE ... being in the mountains, hiking, and going into parts of the mountains that not too many people go. It was one of my BEST days!!!

The hike ended up being 6 miles long, total! And our kids walked to WHOLE way! We just can't stop being so amazed and so proud of wonderful kiddos!!!

Here are just a few of the amazing views we had as we hiked! WOW!
Can you spot Zephyr in this one above?

I figured it out!!!

For SO long I couldn't figure out why I could click on some of my collage pics I posted and I could see them bigger, and others I couldn't. Well, I figured out that when I export them directly from the collage pic after I create it in Picasa, it will enlarge if clicked on. If I export it from my pic library on Picasa it can't enlarge if clicked on. YEAH! I figured it out! (this post is for you Beck ;)

June June June

What a FUN June we had. As I continue to play "catch up" with this blog, here are the highlights...

The following collage of pics is pretty funny! We went camping with our friends, Jason and Heidi Sterzer and their kids, and Neils and Natalie Griffith and their kids up at Smith-Morehouse in the west part of the Uintah Mtns. We all have kids the same age! There were 8 little kids running around all under the age of 6 years old! So FUN! We fished and explored and had great campfire time!

This is Hana watching Jason gut a fish! Hilarious!!! (Abby was laughing so hard, I think because of Hana's reaction! :)

Next, the week before Father's day, Brad called us one evening and said "Hey, we're comin' up tomorrow! I have to work up in SLC and I'm bringin the fam!" What a great surprise! Here are some cuties and a fun cake Kendall and I were inspired to make!

The cake is all of our faces in each of our families on the cute frosting tree! (We had just watched Cake Boss! I LOVE that show! Buddy is my idol!)

June 21st: Father's Day!

I made a cake for Scott, RC, and Terry (G-pa Mack) and we enjoyed it after dinner at the Mack residence! It was a delicious made from scratch, chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting, and dark chocolate gonache in the middle and on the top! YUM!

The next weekend, Saturday June 27th, the kids participated in a one mile children's race called the Mountair Mile. It is a local race one guy and his neighborhood started to benefit The Sharing Place. --Kids helping kids! My kids LOVE it because it is just long enough to challenge them and short enough to be FUN! They rode their scooters and then they run in the last 1/8 of a mile. It was fun. My bakery Ar Mel's sponsored all the treats! The cakes and cookies were a hit!

The next day, June 28th, we took the fam on a little evening hike up by Brighton Ski Resort! It was beautiful! We tried to go to Lake Mary, but it was straight up hill, so we just made it 1/2 mile short, to a swampy lake called Dog lake. A good warm up for the kids. haha

I LOVE my cute family!!!

Hana and her 2 Kindergarten Graduations!

We sure LOVE our Hana!!!

As an effort to transition Hana from her wonderful preschool at a K-8 private school to (free)public school we had her go to Kindergarten at both places (one morning session, one afternoon session - busy girl). At first we had a very logical reason why we did this - - - I can't seem to remember it, but none-the-less it was a well rounding experience for Hana and us all. We met some great friends in the process and Hana learned A LOT! Now at the end of it all Hana will not be attending public school - she will stay on at the private school! Hurray!

Here are pics from her two, very different and great Kindergarten Graduations...

Mrs. Amber Carolan was her K teacher at Children's Christian School. Hana's friends there are Kelly (who just moved to Ohio - we will miss her), Jade, Kailey, Landon, Matthew, Christian, Adrianna, and a few more, can't remember their names.

Mrs. Godfrey was her K teacher at Arcadia Elem. Hana's BEST friend ever is Kimberly Maximo! We are so happy they are such great friends and we are so happy to be such Great friends with Kimmy's family! We LOVE the Maximo's! Scott just likes saying their last name, with a profound and loud voice. haha!

More from May 2009... How could I have forgotten!

Wow! I am posting these pictures and trying to figure out how we fit all this in in the month of May! It sure was a fun time...

Here are pics from a couple more May Happenings...

The weekend of May 16th me and my girlfriends from High School got together - Finally! It had been almost 5 years since we had been all together, and for a whole weekend! It was SO much fun! We stayed at my girlfriend, Jayci's house in Cedar City. We hiked one of the days, stayed up really late and talked, giggled, were really loud, and laughed and laughed! It was SOOO much fun!

I sure love you girls!!!!

Me, Tenille, Jayci, Lori, Lisa, Alisha

There are 6 of us! I am SO happy we are still so close!!!!

Below are some fun pics of us in St. George for Memorial weekend...

There was a pretty intense DS Mario Kart game going on! Also, fun hangin out with my great, growing family!!! (May 24th)

Also in May - the last weekend May 28th- we went camping with Scott's fam up at Smith-Morehouse campground for one night. Good times. We loved it so much we went back the following weekend for 3 nights with our good friends - Scott's H.S. buddies and their fun families!

In the pic: RC holding Ellie, Scott, Hana holding Delaynie, G-ma and G-pa Mack!

The month of May...eventful and very busy...

Boutiques

Injuries

Weddings

Surprises

Trips

Birthdays

Mother's Day

Memorial Day

Here are the highlights . . .

May 1st and 2nd, I had the opportunity to set up a table at Tom and Lucy's ArtShoppe Mother's Day Boutique and sell some baked items from Ar Mel's, my bakery. It was fun! I sold out of everything, made many people smile and nod as they savored the samples, and made some fun friends!

The following week Hana jammed her thumb at school, while playing. She had a hard time writing for a few days. You can see how she has a hard time straightening her right thumb. :) Sweetie!

May 7th - 9th: Scott (and my mom) surprised me with a belated, yet strategically planned, birthday present. Scott secretly planned a trip to San Francisco, CA. for the weekend. However, because I did not know about all of this, and to make everything even more exciting, I had planned to make my cousin's wedding cake for her Utah reception. When Scott found this out, he had to decide how to still keep the trip a secret, and let me know that I couldn't do the wedding cake. Well . . . long story short, Scott hinted enuf that my weekend was taken, beginning with a Friday night date. So planets aligned that Friday, May 8th and I was still able to make the cake and get it delivered to the reception with the help of my wonderful Grandma Holt, make and deliver a Mother's Day cookie cake to a bakery customer, and get home in time for our date at 6:00pm. So as I drove home, after the deliveries, around 5:30pm I was talking to my mom on the phone and telling her how everything just fell into place with the wedding cake, and whatever Scott's surprise was. She chatted and laughed with me, we hung up, a few minutes later I pulled in the drive way, and as I got out of the car, my mom and my bro's and sis pulled in behind me! WHAT!? Scott came walking out the front door and said, "Well, do you want me to tell you where we're going or just what you should pack?"

What a surprise! My mom had been driving up and was in the SL Valley when I was talking to her about the wedding cake, etc. She had come up to watch our kiddos while Scott took me on the surprise trip to San Fran! What a blast! I think I was still in shock most of the trip. It was so fun!!!

Cousin Virginia's wedding cake (reception 2)

Cookie Cake

Below are a few pictures of the FUN we had in San Fran!!! It worked out perfect to be a GREAT Mother's Day weekend as well!!!

We also got to celebrate Scott's mom's birthday on May 17th! Happy 60th Karen!!!


Next... I got a phone call at work one Thursday evening. Scott was on the other end, with crying in the back ground, he reported that Conrad fell off the tent trailer when he and Hana were playing on it (off limits) and fell on his face and is not moving his arm so they were headed to Insta Care. So, I left work and met them at Insta Care. Poor little Conrad, as you can tell from the pictures, had a bloody, swollen nose, really fat lip, and a little bit of a scare. His arm was fine, no broken bones, and no stitches needed.


It was really sweet... After we left Insta Care, Hana and Scott went to get popsicles and Conrad and I went home. As we went in the house Conrad said with his 3-year-old, fat-lip voice, "I think its best if I go take a rest now, in my bed." Also, when I was taking the pictures, on his own w/o any suggestion, he put his fingers by his mouth and lifted his lip a little so I could take a better picture of his lip. Cutie!




Finally, Memorial Day weekend - we headed to St. George! It was the first time we had been back down there since Christmas! It was fun to see Mom's new house and be with my fam. (pictures to come).

Hana's School Talent Show

April 24, 2009: Hana participated with her Kindergarten class, in their school talent show. They sang a song called "Colors of the Rainbow" and did the sign language as they sang. So adorable! (watch part of it on the video below)

Waiting for their turn on stage!

Conrad gave his sister some flowers for doing such a wonderful show!!!

Easter Weekend ...

April 11th: Saturday morning we had a blast with 2 Easter Egg Hunts!! The first one was the typical candy dash at the park and the second was an egg dash at the local elementary school. Good times!!!

April 12th: Happy Easter! On Sunday we headed over the G&G Mack's for a DELICIOUS Brunch and FUN- Filled Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard! We love being with our family on Easter!

Hana, Conrad, Elyse and Delaney. FUN cousins!!!


Easter Traditions: Well, since we did not go to St. George and G-ma Holt was not having a gathering at her house, we didn't have anyone to rely on to parttake in my family's tradition and we were really craving our favorite Passey/Holt family traditional Easter dessert . . . Easter Lily's! YUM.

So I called my mom, got the recipe, and made my first-ever batch of Easter Lily's for my little family that evening. And of course, they turned out GREAT!

started by my mom...we love to top these tasty treats with fresh strawberries!

Spring Break! With Hana in Disneyland...

I surprised Hana one morning, during her Spring Recess from school (Easter Break), and we went to Disneyland and the Beach!!! What a BLAST!!!

So I packed a backpack the night before . . . got a cheap hotel room for one night and a great deal on a car. . . set up a tender for Conrad . . . woke up early, dropped Conrad off, and told Hana "Just go with this kiddo. I will explain more in a little while." We already had been to the airport very early dropping Scott off to work (parking and one car in lot at a time stuff), so Hana was curious why her and I were at the airport getting on the bus from the employee prkg lot. So while on the bus she looks at me and asks, "Mom, what are we doing here?" So I say, "Well, Hana, what would you say if we went to Disneyland right now?" Her eyes, with confusion and excitement lit up, and she knodded her head enthusiastically. "Well, that is exactly where we are going! Just you and just me are getting on a plane and going to Disneyland!!! What do you think of that?" She was thrilled ... her head, I could tell, was spinning ... she had a lot of questions through out the next couple hours, as we were in the airport and on the plane. It was kinda funny . . . I think she was in shock . . . there seemed to be SO much emotion that it overwhelmed her so there appeared to be no emotion. For the first part of the plane ride she just sat quietly. She slowly started to loosen up and realize what was going on.

Ultimately we had a BLAST together!!!

Here are a few pics that show our girl fun!!! . . .

We rode several rides, went on Tom Sawyer's Island (if they call it that still), had lunch and then headed for Toon Town!

Hana and I pretended that we lived in Toon Town (Hana's fabulous idea of course!). We called all the rest of Disneyland "Down Town." It was so much fun! We visited all our friends in toon town ... Goofy, Donald, Mickey, Minnie. We checked our mail and went to the local market to purchase some nescesities. ;) For a while we were staying with Goofy, then we decided that it would be good to stay with Minnie, and then the final decision was that it would be best to stay with Mickey in his house and visit Minnie. So that is what we pretended most of our day in DL.

Around dinner time we headed "Down Town" and went out to dinner at the Carnation Cafe - YUM. Then watched the parade "Down Town" and took a drive "Down Town" - Autopia. It was great!

Then we headed back home (Toon Town) to be with our friends and walk through Mickey and Minnie's house over and over, just to make sure it felt like we lived there. ;)

We pushed a LATE night and Hana was asleep long before we got to our hotel. It felt good to rest and sleep. We hung out the next morning in our hotel for while. Then headed for the BEACH!!! It was over cast, yet still very fun!!! We build the map of Disneyland "according to Hana" with sand. It was cool. Then we collected tons of creature filled, tiny shells -- they were cool!

This is definitely in my TOP 5 favorite trips EVER!!! I sure love you Hana-bear! Thanks for helping me remember how to have REAL "KID" FUN!!!

Amy's big 30th Birthday Bash ... Decade Do-Over!!!

I turned 30 this year!!! I decided that this is an age I am old enough and responsible enough to have a big BASH!!! Becky helped me think of the theme and we had a blast with some of my best friends and my crazy family!!!

Brad and Kendall got me a WONDERFUL cake!!! It meant so much to me!!! I loved it!!! There were SO many candles!!! :)

I didn't get pictures of everyone's but we had some fabulous costumes --- from so many different decades!!!! What a blast! Every gave great individual presentations as I judged the costumes! haha! I so loved the crazy, fun spirit of the group and the whole night! We had some great prizes for the costume contest winners!!! Becky and Michael tied for 1st place - however everyone's were SO unique and SO cool and individual that there really wasn't a BEST one because they were all SOOOO Great!!! It was just a lot of great fun!!!

The games were hilarious!!! Becks did a great job with them (thanks Becks)! Everyone had such a blast and some great laughs!!! We played a fun game the revealed some pretty hilarious things about people! I laugh just thinking about it!!!! haha

Thanks for making my break-in to my 30th year so memorable!!! Love you all!!! (And for those who couldn't come -- I missed you) Thanks for your continually love and friendship!!!

Team Glauser, Part Deux: The Disneyland Experience! March 19 - 23, 2009

We arrived early so just the four of us went to Disneyland while the rest of the Glausers made their way, by car, to CA.

That night Scott, me and our kiddos picked up Cami from the airport (she flew ALL day from the east coast) and only my mom and us were in on the secret! We surprised the rest of the family that night with our sister Cami!!! Brad and Kendall did not see her until they joined us in line for Submarines w/Nemo the next day in the park- what a surprise to see Cam in line with us!

Such a surprise for everyone!!! Us Glausers LOVE the surprises!

Speaking of surprises ... Scott and I worked it the weekend before to make matching shirts for the Glauser Team! Then when they arrived the first night we surprised them with shirts (at the same time Cami walked in the room to surprise them) SO FUN!!!

Saturday - Brad and Scott M. went to watch the Utah B-Ball game at the ESPN Zone, while we went on Autopia and other rides! I have to admit, I still got it goin' on - I was able to flirt with the guy at the Autopia Fastpass line and get our whole family through the Fastpass line! Thats right! haha! Good times!
Sue and Jared and their two cute boys also surprised us and drove up from their Catalina home and joined us in Disneyland that day too!!! Such a FUN party with the fam!!!

They went with us to the beach the next day too!!!

We hit the beach on Saturday! What fun, relaxing and COLDY day! I love my silly family!!!

Scott and I got to have some fun time with Hana sinking in the beach sand and looking for sea shells and sand dollars! There is some cool stuff on the beach this early in the Spring!

Saturday night our little family went to Downtown Disney and ate, shopped a little, danced to the music! Our kiddos were exhausted . . . Conrad feel asleep as I was giving him a piggy back to the car and then Hana fell asleep on the way to the hotel! Big day!

On Sunday we hit Disneyland for a while, then we headed over to California Adventure! We rocked it on the new Toy Story ride! SO FUN! Its definitely my favorite ride in CA Adventure - and in my top 3 favorites out of the whole Disneyland Resort!!! Good times!!!

These four cuties sure had fun together!

Our little family of four had one more day in Disneyland! We hit it hard this whole weekend! We can't get enough!!!