The Virgin Islands

 This year Mitch's work took his group to St. John in the Virgin islands. Kicking and screaming I agreed to go. :)  We left the kiddo's with Grandmas and Cousins and dove right into the island life of St. Thomas and St. John.
    The water was crystal clear, and the beaches were simply fabulous. In my opinion I found the people on the streets and on the island (besides church) to be a little abrupt and grumpy. However this feeling could be a result of a VERY negative airport experience that resulted in Mitch being unable to board our plane and thus missing it...long story. However once we got to our island resort we didn't really leave it and had a great time. Here are a 'few' pictures from the trip to give you a taste of our week long island life.

This is the group we hung out with most of the time. Great peeps.

 One day we hiked up to these sugar/rum mills. Mitch really likes taking pictures and I really love reading plaques. On our hike back down I told him about what I learned and he showed me all his cool pictures.

 Mitch and I overlooking Trunk bay. This is a top 10 beach in the world. We decided that all the beaches there were absolutely amazing so really they could have all been top ten. At our hotel they had 7 different beaches so we opted to spend our time at the resort as you had several instances where you had the entire beach all to yourself!

 Here is Mitch and his friend/co-worker Trent Richards. Trent and his wife Sarah were our snorkel buddies the whole trip. We decided that we spent more time in the water snorkeling then out of it. There was so much to see. I have never been snorkeling somewhere like this and it was literally like opening up a whole new world.

 The resort we stayed in had these Hobbie Cats that you could take out. Going for a ride on it was fun until the last 15 minutes when I got sea sick. Um FYI, sea sickness is zero fun. Lets just say I was not smiling by the end of this ride.

 Mitch learning to steer/control a Hobbie Cat. This may or may not have been the reason I got sick. I'll just leave it at that. After that I took Dramamine on every ocean boat ride we went on.

 The company took everyone out on this giant sail boat. It was amazing. They had a whole crew manning the sails which in itself was fun to watch. They took us to Christmas cove on this little island for more snorkeling and a picnic.

 Looking good in our snorkel gear.

 There were jelly fish EVERYWHERE. Did we get stung...yes. It was inevitable. Most of the stings came from the tiny ones that you had to un-focus your eyes to see. But Jellyfish were actually beautiful to watch. In fact, we even saw a jelly fish eat a little guppy. It was sad but pretty darn cool.

 Mitchell convinced me to go scuba diving with him. This was my first experience doing it. Mitch loves scuba diving by the way. When Mitch asked me if I loved it I told him that it was like running for him. I did it once to be a trooper but if I had a choice of sitting on the beach or scuba diving I might just sit on the beach. It made me feel a little panicked to be honest. Here I am exhibiting fabulous form.

 This is one of those big puffer fishes. This is one is un-puffed. but I thought he was pretty cute looking.

 dun-dun- da- daaa MY FAVORITE PART OF THE WHOLE TRIP! These sea turtles! They have become my new favorite animal! They are so pretty swimming through the water! On the last day there I convinced Mitch that I needed to lay on the beach (after a week of being there I still had not just layed on the beach thoughtlessly, I found it a very important thing to do). Mitch kindly allowed me to lay there while he snorkeled. However, it was not long until he was yelling, "Stace come see!" and there I was again walking across the beach and into the water with a snorkel in my mouth and big awkward flippers flopping across the sand. I sure was glad I did though because we saw a momma turtle and her three little turd-lets (he he I made that word up) swimming in the water. Mitch and I followed those 4 around for a solid hour. It was such a great morning.

This is Trent holding a Conch (CONK) shell. Too bad you could not see the little conch in it. While snorkeling we saw colorful angel fish, a Nemo colored one, jellyfish, a nurse shark, needle fish, a sea horse, sting rays, a spotted eagle ray (very cool), several baracudas, crabs, fire coral, sea cucumbers, sea urchants, puffer fish, turtles, and who the heck knows the name of all the others we saw!
   We had a great time in the Virgin Islands and feel particularly blessed to work for a company that sends us there!


(Sidenote: While we were there we went to a little branch in St. Thomas. That was one of my highlights. It was essentially a one room building with about 20 people. In true Mormon vacationing fashion we were planning on going to just sacrament meeting (c'mon you know you've done it) but the spirit, people, and culture were so inviting we stayed for all three meetings (gold star in heaven please! ;)  It was so strange to sit there in a small group. Their experiences were so different from mine but essentially the same. It for me was a really, really neat thing to be part of).

The Last Sunday Dinner at 725 West

Today the siblings who live in Utah enjoyed the last Sunday dinner in the home we grew up in. My parents have lived in this house since I was 6 months old and are now moving to west Layton. It was a bit of a sad day for me as we have enjoyed many wonderful years here. Over dinner we all laughed about all the holes in the walls, the times dad was most mad, toilet papering, all the old dogs and of course the many of dead cats (if you don't know Lifferth history, somehow cats and our car wheels had a fatal attraction growing up). I brought our camera to take pictures of some of the memories and traditions that have been created. My brothers teased me as I took pictures of every room. Lame I know, but I so loved growing up here.

 Every sunday everyone helps in the kitchen as we all talk about the past week. Mom always makes a yummy spread of salad, mashed potatoes, roast, Rhodes rolls and home made strawberry jam.

Every sunday we eat crackers and cheese while preparing dinner, and every Sunday we have guests over that my parents somehow find. This week we had our German Cousins, Juergan and Dustin.

After Dinner, Grandpa Lifferth makes banana milkshakes. All the kids line up on the bar stools and dance in anticipation for the treat. It's true, Grandpa milkshakes always taste better.

 The older grandkids generally create some 'lovely' play or talent show, today was no different.

 While the adults are finishing dinner we usually receive an 'invitation' to the kick ball game happening 'in 5 minutes sharp!" It occasionally comes with a threat at the bottom like "BE THERE OR ELSE".

 Today Grandma and Grandpa planned a 'ground breaking ceremony' at their new lot. Carlie picked up some hats for the kids to decorate and wear. Grandpa Lifferth made sure each hat said VIP on it.

 Grandma Lifferth bought special shovels for each of the Grandkids. Juergan and Dustin joined in the ceremony.

Grandma Murray never skips out on the fun.

 Grandma yelled, "Start Digging!". So they did!

 Then they just kept on digging

and digging

and digging! Jake took a break from the hard work.

Great Grandma Murray, Trish and I doing the can, can. Not sure why but we are. Please notice Great Grandma's pointed toe. The lady would never do a can, can without a pointed toe.

All the kids took the job pretty serious. I think they thought they might really find a house under all that dirt. Eventually, dirt was thrown, someone was crying, one was bleeding, so the night came to an end as it always does. The only difference is that we wont be going back to our old house on 725 West. The plans for the next one should better accomadate all the grandkids as well as provide a bigger gathering place for all the Sunday dinners yet to come. How grateful I am for the old traditions that created our memories together and our new traditions that keep our family united.

Note: I posted 3 new posts tonight!

Happy 30th Birthday Mitch!

 On the 9th of July Mitch turned 30 years old so we decided to throw a little party. Mitch loves to eat home made crepes so that is what we served! I whipped up all the batter and Grandma Sherrill and Grandma Kathy cooked crepes for everyone. Such great cooks! We had strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, whip cream, etc, etc., etc. Mitch and I love having people over but our house gets a little tight with a crowed so we brought the fun to the front yard. We invited the whole neighborhood, family, and friends (if you're feeling sad that you did not get invited sorry, I posted it on facebook, maybe we should become friends. :)  ) and had a great turn out! People kept saying, "so is this a surprise party?" Um, no it was not. That is mostly because when it comes down to it, I would end up bursting and having to tell him all about my secret plan. However, I did keep the pinata a surprise up until 5 hours before, like I said I just end up bursting and having to tell him about it. He did roll his eyes when I brought the "Pirate Pinata" up from the basement. I think secretly, in his heart, deep down, he loved the little pirate.

 Here is Mr. Pirate, about to walk the plank...

 The millions of kids just dying to take a swing at that poor guy. Please imagine the Mexican music blaring in the background. I turned it on to 'set the mood'. he he he

Ellie pouting a little bit because she only got 50 pieces of candy instead of 52. I swear that girl could sniff out candy like a drug sniffing k9. She absolutely loves anything sweet.

It was a perfect evening. Somehow I missed a picture of Mitch, go figure. Happy 30th Sweetie Pie!

East Canyon and Good Friends

 A few weeks ago we invited some old college roomies camping at East Canyon park. There is a fun group of us who all met their spouses in the same ward at the same time at Utah State which is really fun because we can all remember and relate to each other. Now we all have kids and we laugh as we all try to figure out what to do with them!

 Mitch and Eric getting a little too close on the Jet ski. Mitch and Eric were 'room' roommates. Obviously, they were close.

 What a happy guy. Mister Max is one smiley baby. He spent the day chillin in a chair, catchin some Z's.

 The less Ellie bites other kids, the cuter she gets. She is finally coming out of the stage of clawing, and biting (most of the time) and is such a joy these days. She LOVES playing on the beach. She does not care to ride on the jet ski's as she always yells "slow down" and hits our hand off the throttle. However, get this girl on the tube with Dad and she will keep her thumb in the air to signal "faster, faster!" Mitch and I are constantly saying how much we love these two little buddies of ours.

Setting up camp. We love camping as long as there is some grass (I love KOA's), showers and running toilets! I know what has become of me?!

Here is our friend Julie and Z playing on the beach. So fun!

Here are the boys pulling away from the beach. What a riot. Once we got the kids off the tube Mitch took Lance, Eric, and Julie (all seperately) on a ride on the tube. He seriously rocked them. When they asked Mitch and I if we wanted a ride on the tube we both were quick to say NO. Both of us grew up with a boat and have been beat up way too many times on them. Or maybe we are just old...  :) You decide. I prefer a good ski, and Mitch prefers the air chair. Lucky for us, our little 1995 jet ski can get both toys up, we drink a little water while it gets up to speed, but eventually we get up!

Here are Mitch and Ellie setting up camp. She is always so helpful. In fact, that may be the tent pole we lost. Such is life I guess!

Mitch and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this weekend by running the RAGNAR race. I can't help but laugh at how Mitch and I are slowly molding and becoming one another. For example, when we got married he had nerdy glasses and had never run a day in his life. Now (thanks to kids) I am the one with glasses and he ran a 197 mile race! Life is funny.  Here are some pictures and our story of running the Ragnar.

 Mitch holding 'Shot Blocks', "This thing better take me 8 miles".

 This was at our 3 am handoff. Mitch had just run 7.7 miles from East Canyon down into Henefer. I was taking the chip and heading off to run my 10 miler from Henefer to the other side of Echo Resevoir. I asked Mitch how his 7 miler was and he said it was not too bad. He said, "don't be offended but this girl slowly ran by me and she smelled good so I just stayed with her and ran the rest of the way. I didnt even walk!" I could not stop laughing. Honestly, whatever got him through is just fine with me. Even if it was some smelly girl.
      At the checkpoints I could never find Mitch and finally when I would, he would be standing in the super long massage line. Let's just say, Mitch was a trooper but he didn't exactly have a smile on his face the whole time and he took advantage of every massuse there was. He ran leg 8 while I ran leg 9 so he didn't really cheer for me at all because he was pretty much wiped after his runs. What a great husband I have.  

 Here is Mitch pacing me up the Ragnar hill. ha ha Just Kidding. 

  This Speedo Man came up on me as I was trying to get up the steepest hill in the world! It was 86 degree's and way hotter on the pavement. Ryan was pouring water all over me every 300 meters while Melanie was giving me drinking water every 200 meters. IT WAS HOT! I was trying a walk/jog method to get up the hill but when this Speedo Man came up on my shoulder I looked him and said "Oh Heck No! (that may or may not be edited) No Speedo man is going to beat me up this hill!" So I started jogging with him. Come to find out he was hurting too and was actually pretty cool. We ran the rest of the way up the hill together. My brother's just ate this up and started the photo op. I thought they were going to fall over laughing when I said, "C'mon Speedo Man we are almost there!" I never did get his name. He answered well to Speedo Man though. Naturally when I could see the exchange point I left him in the dust. Like I said, 'I'm not getting beat by a man in a speedo with a cowboy hat, who is running bow legged due to chaffing'!

  Here is our whole team, The Honey Badgers "So Nasty". Looking back we had a great time. Mitch vowed to never do it again and I realized that things are not quite as easy as they once were when I was running in college. I've never spent so much time in a 'honey bucket' and who would have known that running at 4 in the morning could be so beautiful. It was a great weekend


From left to right (team pic: Melanie, Spencer, Aimee, Ryan, Tyler, Carlie, Robb, Mitch, Stacie & Jacob


P.S. I wrote this post right after the race, but now 3 weeks later, Mitch did say the other day, "oh maybe I would do it again" How easy it is to forget the pain when you are in good company!

Raspberries

As I was drying off from the shower my 2 year old snuck in behind me and blew a raspberry on my bum. Of course I screamed out loud as I was not expecting that! Of course we had a talk about doing things like that but that does not mean I can't laugh about it when she's not looking! Such a little firecracker!

Bye, Bye, Binky Gone Wrong.

We decided that it was time to get rid of Ellie's binkies for good. I chose the balloon method and we told Ellie that we were going to send the binkies to the other babies in heaven. When we went to wal mart and picked up ten balloons Ellie thought this was the greatest moment of her life. I stuffed her, Max and all those balloons in the car and you could barely see that there were kids in there! It just so happened that we were baby sitting my brother Robb's three kids so then we told El that we were having a bye, bye, binky party. I had real hopes for it all. But it all went wrong...

I spent most of the day telling Ellie how much fun our bye, bye binky party will be. "Our cousins will be there, we will have balloons, pizza, and the babies in heaven will just love having your binkies! It's just so nice for you to share with them!"

 Ellie was taking her sweet time. Getting one last fix before she kicks the habit.

 The epic release. It was flawless, at least we thought.

 Yea! This is so fun! look at them go!

 What a beautiful sight!

 A nice gust of wind and BAM! It all goes wrong! There they were the evil little binkies just tempting her from the tree. I think I said "oh crap" out loud.

 That's when Mitch grabbed the snow shovel and tried to hit them out of the tree. However they were way too high.

 So he put the POWER NOZZEL (sound effects added (think superhero)) on the hose to try to wash them out of the tree. This just made all the balloons sag.

By now the tree had lost a lot of leaves and the kiddos started collecting. Then it turned into singing and dancing, "bye, bye binky, bye, bye, binky!"

  We thought we would break out the Pizza and lawn chairs and enjoy the extended party.  The whole process of Mitch putting on a silly show was about 45 minutes.

 Then Mitch took a heavy metal rake and chucked it at the balloons. The rake too got stuck in the tree. So we had, balloons, binkies, and rake all hanging from the tree. That is when Mitch decided he would lasso the whole thing down which he successfully did. Go Mitch!

 Hurrah! Ellie is relieved, "my binkies came back!"

 After a few repairs,3 additional balloons, and more explaining to Ellie, we decided to let Dad do the honors. We made him go out into the middle of the street for the release.

BYE, BYE, BINKIES! THIS TIME FOR GOOD!

 It did not take long for reality to sink in.

That is when Olivia ran inside and grabbed El's replacement gift. A new 'Tangled' doll and blanket. Which she loved.

Every now and then we catch her getting a quick fix from Max's bink, however when she is caught she shamefully puts it back in his mouth. Hey, cold turkey can be hard for anybody, right!?