Flashback Friday - The Aggie Ice Cream Tour

I told you I would update you each Friday with something fun we did over the summer since I didn't blog one bit.

In June I took the kids to the Aggie Ice Cream Tour. Aggie Ice Cream has been a favorite place of Christian's since he was tiny and Brandon was going to school up here. The ice cream tour started with a movie and explanation of why Aggie Ice Cream is the best around. It's made with real ingredients. Then they let you tour the facility and tell you what all the machines are for and take you along the ice cream making journey. Finally you get an ice cream cone! YUM!

I have that life

Today CJane posted about illustrations in children's books and how she wanted that life for her children. You can read about it here.

As I read about the land, the cozy home, the child pulling a sled in the snow, the mountainscape, I realized minus a pond I have that life. (Our neighbors below us do have a pond however.)

How lucky am I that I get to borrow this place for a little while?

How sad I am that someday I have to leave.

A couple of very wise people gave me some great counsel right after we moved here. I actually blew them off because how could I ever really love here as much as I loved "home?" This was just really going to be an extended vacation and not somewhere I wanted to live forever. I had cried buckets of tears for weeks before we moved from Roy.

We had only lived here 3 weeks and during a visit from our dear friends the Satterfield's our friend Trevor sat at my kitchen table and said, "You are going to fall in love with this place and yes you will move back to Roy but it won't be long and you will be moving back here."

Next, in October our previous bishop stopped me in the hall of our old church because he knew I had been driving back and forth at least 3 times a week because I could not cut "the apron strings" and let go of my life in Roy. He said, "You know Sister Parish even though the pioneers moved a lot, every place they moved they planted trees. Do you know why they planted trees even when they knew they might never see that place again? They were putting down roots."

I was like, "K whatever. (roll eyes) We'll be back in 10 months."

Well guess what? They were both right. We have put down some roots and this place is amazing.

The Wellsville mountains behind our house in the fall.

Thank you Cheney's for letting us borrow this little bit of heaven.

The yard in the spring.

You might be a PYPer if. . .

This was posted today on my favorite website Pinching Your Pennies. So many of these things are me! It made me laugh pretty hard so I figured it was worth posting here.

You might be a PYP'er if.......

....nothing in your house has UPC's This happened today at cub scouts. I brought the Rice Crispie Treats and we passed them out from the hole where the UPC used to be. I had to cut it out for my Kelloggs rebate which made them better than free

....you grab a snack out of the pantry your wife proudly tells you how much it cost. "That granola bar was only 4 cents, honey!" This pretty much happens all day with everything we eat.

....you can't remember a single birthday, but you know how much you paid for every item in your pantry. So true I do remember how much everything cost but I do still remember birthdays.

....you have food stashed under your bed, in your closet, or taking over a room in your house. Not here yet but we do have a lot of food in storage containers and in all the cupboards!

....your wife flies out of bed at 4am- jumps into her clothes- throws makeup on & styles her hair- just to run to the store for FREE cereal, but she can't seem to wake up every Sunday @ 9 a.m. to get ready for church on time! This is sadly totally us!

.... your kids come home from the neighbors (another PYP'er) and ask why they have all the same toys and snacks that you do!

....your coupons weigh more than your purse.

....your kids introduce you to their friends using your screen name instead of your real name!

....you ask your daughter what she wants for her birthday and she replies, "I dunno. What ya' got coupons for!" This has happened with Parker.

....you gasp at the shopper in line behind you and exclaim, "You should NEVER pay for gum, EVER!"

....you come home from a shopping trip and lay out your groceries on the table with the reciept and your before/after totals circled, take pictures of it, and post it on your blog. Done this too several times.

....when nobody has to ask who put 27 full-size tubes of name-brand toothpaste in the church donation bin for the needy.

….it's 6:08 AM and you're on your 2nd transaction at Albertsons. Or 3rd or 4th.

….you reschedule your wedding because that’s the day the Target markdown is 90%.

….'Penny for your Thoughts' is your only source of information.

....you think the zebra at the zoo looks like a bar code.

.…your husband has ever had to ask you to move the cases of toilet paper so he could take a shower.

….you own more tubes of toothpaste than pairs of underwear.

….the local Disaster Preparedness Class instructor asks permission to hold a field trip in your basement.

.…your idea of a "quiet, romantic evening at home" involves scissors and inserts.

….your kids take a 6 ft register receipt to "Show and Tell."

….Betty Crocker makes your list of most admired people.

....you get an adrenaline rush from reading next week’s printable shopping lists. This is so me every Monday.

….you did all your Christmas shopping online…. in February. I'm not that bad but mine is 80% done!

….you’ve ever woken up from a nightmare screaming “I lost my Binder!“ I have had couponing nighmares and Brandon thinks I'm nuts!

....you know what "Guru math" is If you don't know who the Grocery Guru is lucky you. He's not very smart!

....you feel naked without your binder

....men send their wives up to you in the store asking "how did you do that?" This has happened. :)

....you no longer write out your own shopping lists, you just print it off right off the site

....you leave the hospital a day early after giving birth because the Quaker sale starts in the morning.

....your daughter's classroom always wins the pizza party for the most boxtops. Both my boys classes did win last year! I like to think I helped. :)

....your cashier has to have a manager over-ride the register because you have so many coupons.

and one more

....You might be a PYP'er if instead of your kids pictures or artwork, your fridge is covered by beer rebates and other MIR forms with receipts waiting to be mailed in. Lately we always have at least one rebate form and several receipts on the fridge.

Homebodies!

So at the beginning of the summer I challenged myself to the "Summer of Fun" and to do it on a very strict budget. I'm here today to update you! We had a great and busy summer! It flew by way too fast! We did tons of fun things and I took tons of pictures until my camera broke so maybe for a while I'll do a "Flashback Friday" and spotlight our activities for a while.

Here's the summer activities rundown:

Hill Air force Base Air Show

Lagoon

Swimming Lessons

Aggie Ice cream Tour

Roy Aquatic Center

Bluebird Candy Factory Tour

Willow Park Zoo

Cub Scout Day Camp

Cox Honeyland Tour

Mendon Pioneer Day Celebration -fair, games, etc.

Camping in Elba, ID

Cache Valley Fun Park

Swimming @ Bear Lake

Union Station Museums

Logan Aquatic Center

Camping up Logan Canyon twice

Wellsville Water slides - A very frightening place! Holy cow!

The Cabin

We also saw 2 movies - G-Force & Up, had picnics at many parks, went to farmer's markets, played in the creek at Pioneer Park, fed ducks, hiked, canoed, played baseball & T-ball and more.

Total cost for all the above activities $209.00!

Then came our "Staycation" to SLC.

We went to:

Hogle Zoo

This is the Place Park

Discovery Gateway

Saw 2 shows at the Clark Planetarium

Played in the Gateway Olympic Fountain

Spent an entire day at Snowbird Summer Resort

Ate @ the Lion House, TGI Friday's, & Burger King LOL

Spent 2 nights in a hotel and swam in the hotel pool lots!

Including all of our gas our total expenditures were $502.43!

My goal was $200 for fun stuff and $500 for the Staycation. I think I did pretty darn good! Being homebodies this summer sure was fun!

Oh and I continued my bargain shopping all summer!

Enjoyed the Co-op and cooked

and cooked

and cooked

(Ratatouille!)


and cooked!

How was your summer?

Happy 3rd Birthday Ella!

Where did the time go?

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby Ella!

She's not a baby anymore. :(

Gotta love this Kodak moment!

Happy anniversary

12 years ago today I became Mrs. Brandon D. Parish.

Dear Honey,

I love you so!!!

xoxoxoxo

Stephie

“Some think of happiness as a glamorous life of ease, luxury, and constant thrills; but true marriage is based on a happiness which comes from giving, serving, sharing, sacrificing, and selflessness.” (Spencer W. Kimball, Past President LDS Church, June 1978 Liahona)

And how did we spend our day? We cruised Willard and Perry's "Fruitway" with Ella and had a yummy lunch at Maddox.

This year we decided to embrace the fact the Ella was basically born on our anniversary and let her celebrate with us. Ella got a free dessert and they even sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

She keeps begging us to go back to the restaurant with the "spinny thing." Who knew restaurants with turning signs could be so much fun?!

Some thoughts . . .

First of all I did not vote for President Obama. I do not agree with his ideology or plans for our country. I also did not vote for President Bush, either time. In my short life I have voted for both democrats and republicans I refuse to align myself with either party. Today as I was reading the many opinions of President Obama’s address to school children, which is supposed to air in classrooms across the country next Tuesday, I read something that sums up exactly what I have been thinking for a while now. It said:

“I haven't been alive long enough to know whether my instincts are correct, but it feels like people who have differing political opinions used to think that each other were wrong. Now it seems like more and more people think of those with differing political opinions as evil. A couple illustrations support this example.

*I know of plenty of conservatives who feel that Obama's not just mistaken in his politics, but that he's evil, that he seeks the demise of this country and the enslavement of its populace.

*I know of some liberals who feel that Bush was not just mistaken, but that he was evil, that he sought world domination and the suppression of the peoples of other nations.

It's easy to have civil discourse when you think that another person's just mistaken, but when you think that they're genuinely evil, with ill will and malice in their heart, well, that's an entirely different story.”

Years ago I read a talk by Boyd K. Packer which said, "The Mantel is Far, Far, Greater than the Man," and although it was about the "mantel of the priesthood," the message is applicable to the mantel of the President of the US as well. I don't care if people are for or against President Obama, or where people's political leanings take them, it behooves us all to show a little respect. Some of the comments I have read lately make me very, very sad. If you are concerned about your children seeing President Obama's speech about education, PLEASE read the transcript for it Monday and take the time to go see the film with them at school and find out for yourself whether it is bad, good or just drivel. In the meantime, please respect the "Mantle" even if you do not respect the man.

Post edit: For those who say the President has no business speaking to children, President Obama is not the first to speak to America's school children. George H.W. Bush spoke to America's school children twice both times it was televised in classrooms across the country. Now you can argue that Bush gave the 1st speech to a group of assembled kids and that was beamed to classrooms, as apposed to President Obama who is addressing students in general, but I think that is semantics. It is still the same basic thing. At the time the Democrats pitched a HUGE fit just like conservatives are doing today. Also, Bush gave a speech from the Library at the White House on September 12, 1989. His address was broadcast live on nationwide television and in classrooms around the country. And this wasn't just any speech "aired in public schools" but one that was specifically to students. President Bush said,

"But Presidents don't often get the chance to talk directly to students. And so today, for each of you sitting in a classroom or assembly hall, this message goes straight to you. "