Great Work Friends

OK I must say I have been missing my IM/Chatting with my friends at work. I don't miss the work, but I do miss the friendships I made with the people. I was on an awesome team when I ended my job with the State, but I am sure they are doing just great without me, but I do miss them. I Started with the State in SLC with the Department of Human Services (DHS), but when I got married and then found out soon after I was prego, I knew I needed to find a job closer to home, so that is when I got the job at the Roy Department of Workforce Services (DWS). Things were completely different on the way things are ran now from when I first started with DWS, and it was a lot easier to become closer to people, it was a lot harder the last few years to even get to know those you worked with. We do lunch on occasion with the original Roy people and this was just before I quit we went up to Nancy's neck of the woods to Taggerts for lunch. Lets get together again soon friends I miss you, and next time a few more that were not able to come will hopefully be able to make it!!

Me, Debbie, Ann, Pam, Angi, Nancy, Jenny

Old Office Gone, New School Room

I have less time then I thought I would as the days go by so fast, but I try to get things done little by little between all the playing. This is my latest project and the kids are so excited. I painted the lockers we bought and the kids will each get one for their stuff for when we play school. I will be doing preschool next year with just Brylee and me. I can't send her off to preschool when I will have only one year with her all to myself. She is a little smarty pants so I will just need to make sure she continues to know what she needs to be ready for kindergarten the next school year. Wish me luck and I will take any fun school/teaching ideas anyone may have!!

YELLING

I am going to admit!! I am a yeller!! I need to start Yellers Anonymous!! My poor kids. I decided yesterday when I was yelling so hard my throat hurt that I need to do something, so this is my shot at trying to quit yelling. I get so frustrated when the kids won't listen, they throw a fit because they don't get what they want, they talk back, sass, or whatever it is, so then I yell to get their attention. Tanner puts his hands over his ears and yes I know that is why my kids yell at each other, because of me! I don't want this and that is defiantly something I don't want to pass on to my kids. If you come to my house and see these posted you will know it is just a way to remind me to not yell. Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated. I guess it is like breaking a habit, I have always been a yeller and it is going to be hard to stop.

I told the kids what I was doing and asked them to help me out. I had cut the reminders, putting tape on them and aske where should we hang these. Being funny I said to both of them come here and put them here...........

They laughed and thought it was so silly!!

My 40 Year Old Man

Yup its True!! I married an old man!! Really I am catching up to him, but I don't really feel past 25. We celebrated his 40th with just his family as that is how he wanted it. I wanted to make a fun 40th old birthday cake, but cheesecake is his favorite, so I made cheesecake. I copied his friends wife that he plays ball with and got him a #40 basketball jersey, but I got him black and white, so at least James is blue and white, so they are not exactly alike. He said he is going to hang it in the garage and retire the jersey, but NO!!! He can't quit playing in the mornings, it is a good stress reliever and good exercise too. He started playing again last Friday, so I think he is back in the game.
I am so grateful for Jason, he is an amazing person, just a few of his good qualities are:
Great Smile, Good Looking, Nice bald head, Great Dad, Great Provider, Good at honoring his priesthood and his calling, Funny, Great Testimony, Love when he out of the blue says "Give me a Hug!" He is so good to put up with my strong personality, Hard worker, and Brylee would say a good singer!
I love you, Jason, My Man!!!

Machine Pitch Baseball

This year Tanner got to do his first year of machine pitch baseball and he loved it. He does a good job and was on a pretty good little team. He played second base most of the season. He catches the ball pretty good and gets some good hits in as well. They had 12 games and only lost one game. It was the one game that the coach and assistant coach were both unable to go to the game, so Jason and Gaylyn were helping out and I don't know what happen they were just not used to someone else calling the shots or what. They did a great job, even if they would have lost all of the games it would have still been fun for them. This year I didn't buy the picture of him and his team, but I just did my own little thing for him above!! It is fun for Tanner to be on a team with some of the kids in the neighborhood: Hayden, Cutler, Dallin, Korbin. The other boys we didn't know until they got put on the team, but they are all from the same school, so they all knew each other. Weston is the son of Kristi and Craig War whom I was good friends with in college, so it was fun to see them at the games. Tanner really wants to do football, but I am not up for that for two months they would have practice M-TH and games on Sat and the roughness of it as well. I am not ready for that, we will stick with baseball and basketball.

Roadtrip to Iowa

I am finally posting about our trip, so hold on its a LONG one! We started out on our trip leaving at about 6pm so we could drive through the night in hopes the kids would be better, and they were very good. Poor Dad and Jason whom were the drivers, thanks to caffeine & the 5 hour energy’s. We stopped for breakfast just outside of Omaha, and then headed for Winter Quarters to see the temple and visitor center.

Winter Quarters Tample

Winter Quarter Temple
Jenna & Brinley
Dylan, Tanner, & Brylee rolling down & running up the hill

Brylee at Winter Quarters
Mom & Isabel
Mom & Tanner

All dressed up at Winter Quarter Visitor Center

Just Hangin Out after the long drive & some random shots!

Dylan, Jason, Skyler, Jami, Brinley, Mom, Jenna, Spencer, Brylee
Jason, Brylee, Tanner, Kimball, & Navi

Best Friends Katelyn & Isabel *******Dad in the middle of the caos

(Tanner & Brylee holding Navi)

We made it to Des Moines and had lots of hugs and kisses from the family. Spencer and his family were already there, so we went to dinner that night, a little chaotic, but a lot of fun a few times dad was asleep in the middle of all the noise. Navi, I think was the first popular person even though this trip was all about Matt. The next day was graduation, and I must say DMU has some quite visitors to see the graduates. YES!! When Matt walked across we were the loudest family with lots of cheers, HOORAY!!
Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio, Dr BOWEN!!

Betsy, Jenna, Navi, Isabel, Kassidy, Jen, Josie, Matt, Katelyn, Dad, Mom, Jami, Spencer
Kimball, Brylee, Crew, Skyler, Mattison, Dylan, Chandler, Tanner

(Matt Bowen Family & Walkin' the Red Carpet, its Official Dr. Bowen)

Off to Nauvoo & these are some different shots of the temple that I got!!

After Graduation we headed out to Nauvoo, it was about a three hour drive. We spent three nights in Nauvoo in the Zions Mercantile overlooking the Temple. We walked out our balcony to an amazing view.

Brylee, Dylan, & Crew

Josie Ann
Crew, tanner, Dylan and Spencer
Skyler

We went to Carthage Jail, and visited all of Old Nauvoo. We did a session in the temple one morning and Josie, Katelyn, Isabel, Kassidy, & Chandler were able to do baptisms. This was Chandlers first time doing baptisms and it was awesome. We did a Wagon Ride that was a lot of fun and a great way to ride through Old Nauvoo. We just drove from place to place and they had missionaries that would explain each place. They had one area for the kids and they spent most of the one day playing all the pioneer games and dressing up as pioneers. Another area the Women's Garden as it was a tribute to Women and it had statues of women with talents, teaching or leading her children, and the last statue was of a grandmother quilting in a rocking chair, I loved it. They had an enrichment center that we learned about clothing, making bread, candles, rope, rugs, pottery, barrels. We stopped by the bakery for a gingerbread cookie, the brickyard for a Nauvoo Brick, Post Office was a must, Browning home with all the guns, blacksmiths for a diamond nail ring and chandler got the homemade horseshoe, and much more. Our Great, Great, Great, Great Grandpa Simeon Dunn we visited his home too in fact in the bakery they have on displayed the Spice Box that was his. A lot of the missionaries serving in Old Nauvoo live in the houses, so we couldn't go in, but had to take a picture in front of it. We went over to Community of Christ side that they own still and saw the Joseph Smith Home & the graves of Joseph, his parents, and Emma. We stopped at the little store and got some old fashion Sassafras and other flavors of candy and some got homemade root beer and other fun things. They have lots of plays and shows as well that are going on we did as well. We caught fireflies and a few frogs too. We had a very good time and I would love to go back again as there is so much more to see that we didn’t see.

Everyone at Carthage Jail

Jenna & Chandler
Waiting for the Tour to start
Matt with Brylee & Kimball

Our cute little family!!

Brylee, Mom and Tanner
Me and my Mom
Matt, Brylee & Chandler

Grandma Bowen and ALL the Grandkids that were there

At the blacksmith and the Potty

Wagon Ride & Shoulder Ride for Brylee from Uncle Spencer

Just Chillin' Time

Great Great Great Grandpa's Home

We went back to Des Moines and the next day the kids had school. The girls did a little shopping, we visited Des Moines University (DMU) where Matt attended school and after the kiddos got out of school, we went to a little Dutch Town called Pella that was just a ½ hr away, but they are early bird for closing the little museum/Old Dutch area closed at 4:30 and all the stores closed at 6, so we just walked around, and it was a pretty neat area to see. I loved the windmills and we went into a bakery quickly before it closed and got a yummy treat. My friend told me about some yummy waffle type cookies, but couldn’t find them the one bakery we went into said they ran out of them they don‘t make them, they get them sent in packaged. We did have a good time walking around and it is just so much fun spending time together and never a dull moment with all the kids making all kinds of noise, if you want peace and quite didn’t get that all week during the day time hours, but I loved it.

We drove by the Hospital Matt will be doing his Residency at and spent some time at a park that is by the river that has a Carousel in the Park that can be rode for 50 cents for the kids, they took a couple of rides and played at the park for a while. They had this old rocket type playground and a newer playground, and guess where all the kids were playing? You guessed it the older playground, the slide I think gave a few burns on the kids, but they kept going down it. I was telling Josie what a fun cheap date to take a picnic to the park and ride the Carousel, I can’t believe that in a few weeks she will even be old enough to date, Weird!!

We stopped by the Iowa State Capitol, it was an amazing and beautiful place. We took a walk through inside and out and had a great view of the city too. I thought Utah had an amazing State Capitol, but I think Iowa has got us beat on beauty in my opinion.




After our yummy BBQ, where they introduced us to our new favorite burgers Black Angus with Vidalia onions in them, YUMMY!!! Some of us went for a walk around this lake area by there house and crossed the bridge at dark that is all lit up cool.




The next morning when the kids were getting ready for school, we got ready and headed for Denver. We got to Denver at about 7:30pm and stopped by Spencer's Costa’s to eat!! Thanks for the Grub we love Costa’s!!! We spent the night at Spencer and Jami’s and woke up for a yummy breakfast of Jami’s special Waffles then headed for home. Jenna and her kids had to try out the Roller Coaster Ride in the back yard, well OK its just the Monster Swing, but it gives you the tickle in the tummy when you are looking straight down when you are so high. I think everyone was ready to be home because the drive from Denver home for some reason it seemed longer then the drive from Iowa. We went home I70 it is a prettier drive, but had some construction and opposite traffic had been detoured so it was a one lane both ways due to the river being so high and the river looks like it had even washed out the walk way below the lower road. We ate at a mom and pops drive in burger joint it was yummy and had some cool antique machines. We got home late on Saturday thankful for Sunday, we all slept in until 11:30 and did NOTHING but bummed all day long. It is funny you are sitting in a car all day driving why were we so exhausted when we got home. It was a great trip and the only thing that would have made it perfect is if my brother and his family would have been able to come then my entire family would have been together, they were definatily missed on many occasions we thought of them.




It was good to get home & get into a new routine. I am still not organized, the kids are good to sleep in which makes it nice, I wake up before they do and I can read and get a few things done before they wake up. I would like to know how to get a child to not complain/whine about reading?!? Figure it out, PLEASE let me know. You would think I were pulling his teeth out or something when I mention to go get a book and read it to me.