We're back!!!

We were excited about this trip.


I couldn't WAIT to get up in the Fall weather with the changing trees and my camera.




We went up to Brighton and walked around Silver Lake




Then headed to Malad, Idaho.




And ate Subway at the farm.


And got to take pictures of this fence which is awesome and lined with boots for a mile or so.






And the kids got a break from the car.


We stopped to see the beautiful new temple in Rexburg.



and finally made our way to our home sweet home for the next few days, the "Owl's Nest" way up in Island Park, Idaho.

(complete with a sweet hot tub)

The weather was awesome when we got there and we explored the cabin and made a fire and had s'mores.



(long toes provided by yours truly)



We soaked in the hot tub, went to bed and woke up to this...







It was beautiful and felt like Christmas morning as the kids woke up (or maybe I woke mine up) and we got to watch their faces light up as they saw the surprise outside.





We lazied around in our jammies for a while









Needless to say, we spent most of that day inside.

The next morning my brother, Dad and I got up early for a hike at Harriman State Park.
We watched the sunrise


And enjoyed the peace and total silence









And my hat looked way different than this in my head.


Then went to Yellowstone that afternoon and got to see a saweet elk buck with his harem and got to hear him bugle. (It was AMAZING) (and by the way I think I accidentally deleted all those pictures...bummer)

And we made our way down to Old Faithful via some geysers. It was FA-REEZING and the wind was blowing and my chin froze and I had to talk without moving my face- just my lips. (and my mom might kill me for posting this picture of her. But seriously, what kind of face am I pulling?)

Carter was so cold and thought that the steam from the geysers was hurting his eyes so he kept pulling his hat over them and then he'd stumble all over the place.

And we made our way down to Old Faithful and not only was she late but very anti-climatic and about a 30 second show....LAME. And we were completely frozen.




After we thawed out we returned to the cabin and soaked in the hot tub to get the chill out from our bones. We packed up and headed out the next morning and took a scenic detour to Mesa Falls and yes, it was freezing.







We had Reed's Dairy, which is the BEST ice cream on the planet. If you think that you've already had the best ice cream on the planet, you haven't had Reed's. It's amay-za-za-zing.

We saw lots of friends and ate lots of food and saw lots of breathtaking scenery. It was an awesome trip. If you've never been to Idaho- GO! You won't regret it. And when you are there go to Reed's dairy. It's worth the trip.

Nerdy

So I know this is nerdy but I was a tiny bit excited.
I HAVE A PICTURE ON AN ACTUAL WEBSITE! Huzzah! Like, not my own but a REAL website.
To see what all the "excitement" is about, go to
http://clickinmoms.com/
and scroll to the bottom. There at the bottom is my picture I posted on here a while ago of some nasty bran muffins I tried. HAHAHA! I actually submitted it in a contest for this site's web page (I am a member) and, I guess, I won?
Anyway, yes, I'm nerdy. Bask in my nerdiness.

p.s. do you like my face-lift? And don't worry, life is still "blissful" here at the Burk home. But I decided it was time for a change.

p.p.s. Kanye West is a moron.

It all starts...

with Mickey Mouse pancakes.



Then on to the Tea Cups. (BAARRFFF)




Small World




A trip through the Amazon on board a tiny boat with a really annoying tour guide who tells the CHEESIEST jokes and expects you to laugh. I really did laugh once.


Toy Story Mania. Oh so fun. Although not technically at Disneyland. It's in California Adventure. Which means you gotta truck it out of the big D and into CA then all the way across the park. But it's so worth it.


Outside of Toy Story Mania. (I apparently wasn't on this trip. There was ONE pic of me and I had a double-chin. No thank you. Not posting that. DELETE.)


He likes the Winnie the Pooh ride. Can you tell??


MMmmmmm....expensive, unhealthy food.




More unhealthy food. (expect for the corn. Still a starchy carb but not as bad as a deep-fried turkey leg)


Tired. Hot, and tired. But still at Disneyland. So we're happy.


And finally, the rocket ship ride. Looks really awesome at night.


NRRROOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!! LIGHTNING SPEED!






And top it all off with fireworks. (p.s. if you are a Disneyland go-er and haven't seen the new show... it's totally not as good as last year's.)


Then walk about 2 miles and hour in this until you break free from the crowd and sprint for the car with legs, back and feet aching like never before.

(and sometimes you'll get lucky and your kids will sleep in, but not if they are my kids)
The End.

Morning Routine

1. Entire house gets woken up by little boy SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS, "MAAAAMMAAA, WAAAAAYUUUUUU?!!! DAAADDDYYYYY!!!! DAAAADD!..." until someone (Spencer)comes to get him.
2. Sippy cups of milk. Blue for big boy, green (or yellow) for little Yeller.
3. Watch TV for 1/2 hour.
4. Wake Mommy up.
5. Jump on Mommy.
6. Jump on bed.

Sometimes I'm silly.

Like about two weeks ago when I bought grapes.
WHY (you are thinking) is that silly?
Because our fridge looked like this



And this is after I downsized. That big bowl is filled with grapes I picked off. Seriously, what was I thinking? "Hmm, 77 cents a pound. I'll take 'em." Just silly.

And then there was Saturday's beach party where I thought, "I want to try and surf." So I got tossed around and beaten up by the waves (hate those double-whammys where you come up for a big breath after a huge wave and open your mouth all wide, gasping for air, only to be smacked in the kisser with another wave, swallowing a gallon and a half of salt water) so I could experience the glory of standing up on the board for "one, one million, two, one.." CRASH and showing my right bosom (or what's left of it) to the entire shoreline. Plus my knee is seriously bruised. Don't really recall how that happened but I remember thinking, "that's gonna leave a mark." Silly.
(Then I may have had a dream that night that I was a sweet surfer chick. Super silly. )

And finally, I like to pretend I can golf. I really suck. Like, really bad. But I try and hack my way through it. I DOUBLED par on this course. DOUBLED. I spent most of the time yelling, "DADGUMMIT!" and driving through the grass looking for my ball.

Here's my lesson on how to be a sa-weet golfer:

1.Stand too far away from the ball.


2. Slice it WAAAAAYYYY off to the right. (standing too far away from the ball)


3. Turn around and flash a cheesy smile to cover up how p.o.'d you really are that you're gonna have to go ball search (again) (and that you have a bit of a wedgie you can't pick in front of everyone)


Spence and I got to have an overnighter in the Marriott condos in Palm Springs, which was super duper awesomely fun. That night for dinner I sliced open a cantaloupe from my father-in-law's garden and it was just so darned pretty I spent like a 1/2 hour taking pictures of it (nerd, I know, I know). It was silly but I really liked this pic.



(speaking of, want to hear a cool story?? I was inspired recently by some cool food pictures and i wanted to try it out. I pulled my kitchen apart to get good lighting, blah, blah and I had photographed everything which seemed interesting when I stopped to think about what I wanted to do next (btw, baby was sleeping, Carter watching a movie). AS I'M WAITING FOR INSPIRATION, there's a knock at my door. I opened it to see my sweet neighbor bringing us this:



What?!? That was totally RAD (surfer girl). The timing COULDN'T have been any better. Plus, I was hungry and it didn't take me long to do this:



But I'm not as silly as these darling boys who love to dress up. And I LOVE when they dress up. (Buzz Lightyear played by Porter, our friend who came to play)
Nolan was totally delighted with looking at himself in the mirror (which you can't see. he's pointing at it)



Do you get any cuter than this? Carter felt left out that he didn't have a some sort of means of flying so he improvised with his blanky.



This is the cutest face I have ever seen. Seriously. I hope these cheeks never leave. Even when he's in college I want him to have cheeks like this.


Look at the determination in his eyes. He's out to rescue everything I want to throw away.


You can't tell from this pic but he's actually growling. It's terrifying. Really.


But I don't mind being silly. Someday I'll outgrow it and be old and boring. But for now, I'm 26! And the way I see it, I'm getting old fast. So I better enjoy being young now. (BTW, I totally had a birthday since the last time I blogged. Sorry I've been so neglectful.)

So tell me, how are YOU silly??
(And this post has taken me ALL night so you better leave me a dadgum comment.)

Signs of Life

Lookie! I uploaded new pictures on the right!
And I updated my photography blog.
See? I am still alive! (and will hopefully be back to blogging soon. It's on my list of things to do.)
I have pictures to show and stories to tell, so don't give up on me.
Anyone else sad Summer's coming to an end???

Don't drink the water...

I'm having a hard time blogging lately. Can you tell? I don't know if it's because there's too much going on or not enough. I THINK it's too much.

Here's the run down...(I'll try to keep this brief)

We went to one of those community water parks last week with recycled water and it was filled with nasty kids (some of whom were in underwear) but my kids had a blast.

The problem is, is that Nolan LOVES water.

In his face.

Mouth WIDE open.

I'm sure he guzzled a gallon of water (urine).

Next to the water park is a regular water park with a big playground. I'm watching my kids play all over this thing when this little kids drops his wet drawers. I start yelling at him "NO! NO NO NO NO NO!" but it was too late and he whizzed all over the rubber flooring. (BTW, there is no parent in site and he's....mmmm...maybe 4?) So I start yelling at this kid again, "YOU GO TO THE BATHROOM! EL BANO! BATH-ROOM! THAT IS YUCKY!" and he's looking at me like I'm a total lunatic. NICE.

ANYWAY, moving along...Nolan is PUKING that night. All over me. And the carpet. Spencer's in Utah for high adventure and two days later, Carter is PUKING. All over. (My carpets REALLY need to be cleaned) Coinsidence that they got sick after guzzling recycled pee? I think not.

Moving right along...Carter started swimming lessons last week. The first day he cried (bawled) through 75% of it and wanted to come give me hugs and kisses about every 2 1/2 minutes. The next time he got so worked up before class he puked in th teacher's Impatiens. I made the mistake of telling the other moms he has an "easy tummy" and that's ALL I've been hearing since then from him.

Friday we hit up the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. It was HOT and we were drenched with sweat. We walked a lot, saw a lot of animals, left and got some grub (which was, you guessed it, puked up) and then hit up the beach in Oceanside for the sunset. At the end of a very long, hot day we played in the sand and in the water (which was actually warm!) I finally got to take pics.

The kids were out within 5 minutes of being in the car.

So if you have been wondering why the heck I haven't been posting much, there ya go. Plus I have been cramming my head with everything photography the past 3 weeks. I am SO excited about some sessions I have coming up! (and a wedding! Wahoo!)

Hang in there. I know I'm tryin' to!