This Is What Happens When...

...you give your nephew a swirly.

This was at the birthday celebration Sunday night. He was laughing so hard and twisting in a way that I couldn't even get his head to reach the water till I had some help. Then Bronsynn had this brilliant idea to have Aiden rub his head on me, but unexpectedly on his way to me, he rubbed his head on Paul!! HI.larious!

More Trail Rides

Saturday morning I woke up way too early to be legal and headed out to my parents for another ride up Yellowfork.. This time it was me, my dad, and my dad's best friend, Ope.

Bacardi came along again and this time he had a friend:

And Ope dragged along his donkey...I had way too many corny jokes for him when I saw that.

My dad and Ope and had me laughing a whole lot. My dad is an extremely reserved dude but when he gets around Ope (real name is Steve) he has this whole side I didn't know he had. They sang Yellow Submarine and Fiddler On The Roof and I pretty much lost my jaw - I never thought I would see the day....but there he was...singing away. It was...incredibly weird.

My favorite time to go up there is in the fall. All of the leaves are turning and it is absolutely gorgeous. I took tonz of pictures, but honestly, how many pictures do you need of orange and red trees, really? But it is so pretty up there right now.

Hungers For The Birds

Sunday, the Madsen Clan gathered once more for a birthday celebration. The honorees this time were Morgan (21st), his new wife, Sam (22nd) and Amber, (10/3). I don't have a lot of pictures because it was a very laid back shindig, except a few things that are on video not photo (coming soon if my effin computer will ever load another video). We had Winger's for dinner, not the actual stuff but our own homemade knockoffs. We had popcorn and celery sticks for appetizers, a salad, Chicken Sticky Fingers and Ribs (sooooo good) and Concrete Pie. Yes, I know that Winger's is Asphalt Pie but hardly anyone in our family likes Mint Ice cream (I don't know what's wrong with them) so instead we had Concrete Pie with Cookie Dough Ice cream instead!!

Aiden The Awesome

As an Aunt to one beautiful teenage niece and two super cute nepews, I get special bragging rights. I talk about them a lot, yes I know, but I don't care. They make me happy :)

Aiden recently enrolled in soccer, which at his age is a herd of children all running toward wherever the ball is rolling. But it's still fun to see little kids out on the field. Aiden heard me cheering on the side lines and stopped mid-herd to smile and wave at me.

He's so cute. For reals.

And Saturday, when I arrived early in the morning to meet my dad for a ride, Aiden was out on his bike, which he just learned how to ride without training wheels the night before. He's already poppin' wheelies.

The Reception...If You Will

As I mentioned before, my brother tied the knot in an elopement last month. Recently, both of the families and their closest friends came together for an informal BBQ and games to celebrate the kiddos getting hitched. We started off with some awesome food and introductions and then played some mean volleyball! We loves us some volleyball :)

Morgan and Sam, the Newlyweds!:

'Parents of the Groom':

Getting our volleyball on:


My nephew, Aiden, is in soccer right now, but Uncle Gaven is going to make sure that he gets started in Lacrosse stat so Aiden has been practicing.

And Sam has been wanting to get these two together for a play date for awhile now. That humongous black thing is actually a dog and his name is Trouble. It wasn't much of a playdate though. Bacardi couldn't get him to move for the life of him!!


It was a great night and fun to mingle with Sam's family for the first time!

The Vampire Diaries

Once upon a time I talked about the new show on CW, The Vampire Diaries. It's been on for two weeks now and, although I still can't seem to catch it while it is actually on T.V., I do watch in online afterward when I have the time. My diagnosis?: I LOVE IT. The tv series is totally better than the actual books and way more interesting while still sticking to the books. And I don't even mind that Elena is a brunette, cuz Nina Dobrev is a good actress and very beautiful and her and Stefan (Paul Wesley)...YUM!! I am almost thinking that they should have found Paul Wesley to be Edward Cullen. He's way hotter than Robert Pattinson and a better actor. He has the whole sexy, mysterious, brooding thing going for him with the intense eyes. Swoon. The guy who plays Damon Salvatore - very yummy, too. He was on Lost back in the first season as Boone. The hot guys mixed with the sexy vampires....it's something I highly recommend!

Roommate Reunion!

Later on Saturday, after we came home from camping and took care of some 'Saturday things', we had all my roommates from college over, except one, who we missed greatly. I was really excited however because Brindee was here this time and we never get to see her because her and her fabulous family currently live out of state. She is back here with her three kids visiting her family on a very long vacations while her husband is out working hard for our wonderful country!

We had pizza and yummy brownies from Schmidt's (thanks to Amanda) and homemade oatmeal banana cookies (thanks to Brindee). I was finally able to use my patio for a social event, although my backyard isn't very attractive right now. It was still nice to sit outside and catch up and socialize. Amanda just had a baby. Ashley and Alan just moved to Logan and were back for family pictures. And Brindee is going back home very soon and gets to see Ty at the end of October!

Paul chilled with Brindee's boys for the most of the night. It gives him an excuse to act his age :)

Hattie showed us her beatiful peepers...

Becky showed us how scary she really can be...

I was really bummed that I forgot to get a group picture of us girls. I forgot the last time, too, and it makes me really angry with myself. But we will hopefully be getting all together again within the year. I was so happy to see Brindee and have all of us girls together. We all met at college in 2001 and became the best of friends and have stayed very close ever since, which is something I really cherish!

Had Us a Gay Old Time

We had a crazy busy weekend!! It was lots of fun though. We started it off with a little camping trip with our good friends, Becky and Judd. Recently Paul had taken his scouts up to Grantsville and he has been wanting to go ever since! We headed out Friday after Paul got off work and drove out to Grantsville and picked up Becky and Judd on the way.

As soon as we got there we set up tents. I set about making a fire so we could get our dinner going. Becky made these awesome hobo dinners with chicken and vegetables. It was so so so good. We had a great time goofing off and laughing at stupid stuff and being silly.

Of course, we had to get our s'mores on! We sat around the fire 's'more' and made our treats. Becky and Judd brought bananas and chocolate and we made Banana Boats! It was a first for us and we really liked them.

Then we all went to bed exhausted! I was super comfy all night but we had a horrible time sleeping. Around 7:30 in the morning, I decided to get up and get breakfast going. We had to be heading out by 10:30 anyway so that Judd could study and Paul could make his football game.

I was really excited to finally be able to use our Christmas present from last year. My parents had bought the married couples each a Camp Chef stove. We borrowed the griddle (my parents own all the attachments to it) so that we could make sausage, eggs, and hashbrowns. It smelled so good that we were bombarded by giant flies the moment we sat down to eat. 'Twas very annoying.

I only burnt it a little bit! But the food was good - see their smiles?? :)

Then we goofed off some more, naturally, and played Phase 10 until it was time to go:

It was really fun - as is evident by our shining faces. Thanks for going with us guys! We had a super swell time.

Awwwww. My Little Guy Is Growing Up! Sniff.

Bacardi turned 2 today!! How cute, right?? Now I wouldn't say that I am one of those retarded people that like to baby their pets and spoil them rotten or talk baby talk to them or anything but....I do love this guy. I only spoil him sometimes :)

We brought him home in November of 07, only a few months after we were married, when he was about 2 months old:

And here he is today...2 years old!!

He was an incredibly adorable puppy:

Now he's just an icredibly big doofus/goofball/funny grown puppy:

I say puppy because he still barks like he's 3 months old. My parents had a 6 month old lab awhile ago that could bark deeper than he can! He can't bark to save his life but he can defend his territory and sound really mean doing it!! He's a such spaz but he's well-mannered and he's our little buddy.

Today I worked out in the yard doing everything that I could think of. My brothers, sister-in-law, and my mom came over. We made a trip to get all the PVC and fittings, did a little digging and trench cleaning, and started laying out the sprinkling system - YAY!!!! I am so determined to get my grass planted this fall! It WILL happen!!

We worked hard and played hard!! PVC sword fights!

Ahhhh! I love getting so much accomplished!