Miss Utah Weekend

Two weeks ago was the Miss Utah competition. Attending this event has become a tradition for my husband and I; in the many years we've been married, I can only think of a couple of times when we were not there together. Normally, we try to make it a kid-free vacation, but there have been a few years when the kids have come for one reason or another. This year Krissia and Mathison came with us, as Mathison had an appointment to remove his cast, and Krissia wanted to help cheer on Miss Dixie College. The three of us drove up on Thursday, joining my husband who had been in SLC since Tuesday.

The Miss Utah pageant is the second largest one in the nation with over 50 girls competing. As a result, there are four nights of competition - three preliminary nights, and one final night where the top ten contestants compete. This was taken just after the Thursday night preliminaries:DEl and I are with Alana Lee, Miss Dixie College. She is a very intelligent, energetic girl who has done a great job as Miss Dixie College. Prior to the Dixie Homecoming competition, Alana had never competed in a pageant before. She worked very hard at preparing for the state pageant and represented Dixie College very well.

Krissia had stayed at the hotel with Mathison on Thursday evening, so on Friday it was my turn to entertain him during the pageant. We decided to walk down to the Gateway. There happened to be a sidewalk chalk festival going on at that time, and it was fun to walk around and look at all of the colorful pictures:

We also discovered a fun water feature. Mathison was a little unsure at first:
But he finally found the courage to join in the fun:

On Saturday, I took Krissia and Mathison to see Toy Story 3 while DEl was in a director's meeting. It was a very good movie! However, there is a very intense part near the end that really upset Mathison; I had to actually take him out of the theater for a few minutes. DEl's niece, Mariann, and her husband Nathan were kind enough to watch Mathison Saturday night so that DEl, Krissia, and I were able to attend the final night together. Mathsion loved playing with their son Talon, and has been asking ever since for Talon to come to our house and play :)

It was a fun little getaway, and we look forward to going again next year. Hopefully, without the kids :)

One Terrific Teen

The iheartfaces site challenge this week is teens.

I have three teens - two boys and a girl. I chose to showcase my wonderful daughter this time:This picture was recently taken on the evening of her junior prom, just a few moments before her date arrived. I love the youthful excitement on her face, which is offset by the beautiful woman she is developing into.

I sure love this girl :)

You Don't Say......

Our three year old has been saying some of the funniest things lately! Here are just a few of the phrases which have kept me in stitches:

Mathison (to Krissia): I am so sweaty it's gross. Krissia, what does 'sweaty' mean?

Mathison: Mom, I'm hungry and drinky.

Me (to Mathison): Mathison, it's time to go pee in the toilet now.
Mathison: Sorry, Mom - but I'm just all out.

Mathison (at least once a day): Well, when I was a kid...(then he tells a story)

Mathison: Mom, could you please turn around so I can kick your butt?

(My personal thanks to Sponge Bob for this last comment, as we don't speak like that in our house!)

I Heart Faces - Baby Challenge

This is my sweet niece, Camryn. This session was my first attempt at photographing a newborn; it was more challenging than I expected :) However, I felt I was able to get some pretty good shots.

To see more pictures of adorable babies, click HERE.

Wild Weather!

We've had some unsettled weather the past couple of days in Southern Utah; it's almost as if it's trying to make up for the past 2 months without rain in the past 36 hours.

Today was an extended Beatty Family reunion held in Toquerville. During the reunion, I noticed it had clouded up and tried to rain a bit. Afterwards, I decided to take the two younger boys over to my parents' house in LaVerkin. They weren't home, but while we were there, a severe thunderstorm hit.

It started up with about ten minutes of hail, coupled with some pretty intense thunder and lightning: The hail was quite large, and it was sticking on everything so it looked like it had snowed!

Next, came the rain:This is taken off of my parents' back porch. Water was just dumping from the sky.

Here's a view out of the front door:

As soon as it had slowed down a bit, we raced to the van so we could begin driving home. Here's a picture of a parking lot in Hurricane; notice that the ground, roofs, and vehicles all have a layer of hail on them:

And the main street of Hurricane was like a small river:

We made it safely to St. George...where it was just as sunny as could be. However, we must have brought the storm with us because within the hour the sky had darkened, the thunder began to crack, and the rain came poring down again.

Crazy stuff!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Mathison has a great memory and can often quote scenes from television shows he's seen only one or two times. Lately, he's also been "acting" out some of those scenes.

This seemed harmless enough - until today.

Mathison, Krissia, and I were shopping at Deseret Industries. Mathison was hiding in the clothing racks, and every once in a while he'd jump out and "scare" us. Suddenly, I realized he hadn't jumped out in a while and wondered what he was up to.

It didn't take me long to find out.

"I'm changing my underwear, Mom!" he shouted as he exited the rack...without his pants on. Luckily, he hadn't taken off his pull-ups yet at that point. I thought Krissia was going to pass out, she was laughing so hard.

After I put his shorts and shoes back on, I asked Mathison why he had taken his clothes off in the store.

"Do you remember the time when Max and Ruby were in the store and Max runs out of the dressing room and surprises Ruby?" he answered. "That's what I was doing."

Yes, I remember that episode. Max the bunny actually comes out of the dressing room without one stitch of clothing on. I guess I should feel lucky it was only shoes and shorts that my young son ditched....and nothing more :)

Ye Olde Days

DEl, Jefferson, Mathison, and I had the opportunity to attend a medieval fair over Memorial Day weekend. The boys had a great time!

We'd just missed the jousting, but were still able to see a few of the knights walking around:

For only one dollar, you could buy five rotten tomatoes and hurl them at a poor fellow in the stocks. It was called "Tomato Torture" : Out of all the people we watched, Jeff came the closest to hitting the guy on the face by clipping one of his ears. Gross.

There was a petting zoo, where we were able to feed some baby animals:
Daddy even got in on the fun:

There were some adolescents staging a mock battle, and Jefferson just had to join in:

I think Mathison enjoyed "the olde playground" just as much as anything else:

We had a good time, and hope to return next year!