Duffin Reunion in Brighton

(I realize this was 2009 but somehow I skipped an entire folder of pictures so I'm making sure they get into my blog/book now.)

Our reunion was held in Brighton, up Big Cottonwood Canyon in SLC. It's a special place for my family because my dad and his family did a lot up there when he was younger and subsequently we've gone camping, hiking, picnicking, etc there on trips a lot.

We made sure to fit in a few favorite things like walking the boardwalk around Silver Fork Lake, having arrow hunts, scavenger hunt, and walking to the Brighton Store.

While we were up there we celebrated a chunck of birthdays. Tarl, Tyce, Austin, Linda, Jim all have birthdays within a few weeks of each other so we let the two little boys open presents and ate cake.

Childrens Museum

I've wanted to take my kids to the Childrens Museum in Salt Lake for years. It's pretty pricey though (something like anyone over 1 pays $8) so I've never done it. My friend Olivia passed along a 2 for 1 coupon so we jumped at the chance. We actually went as a play group with my sister Heidi and my friend Brie. Here's a few of the fun things they got to see and play with.

24th of July in Idaho

Tarl and Kalyana's trip to Idaho also coincided with the annual 24th of July celebrations up there. Grandpa Hayden and Uncle Doran were working on the wards float of Noah's Ark and offered to let Kaly ride on it. She was so thrilled! Tarl didnt have my camera so he took video instead.

Disguised Blessing

Tarl and Kalyana took off yesterday for Idaho. We were all going to go but I got that last minute ticket to the conference and we sorta figured that it'd be easier for him to get things done without us all up there.

We've been meaning to get our tires fixed for a long time. I went to Walmart months ago to get the tires rotated but instead of rotating them they broke off one of the lugnuts. Anyway my neighbor came by to borrow something from us and said, "by the way your tire is pretty low."

So I was home alone with the two kids and I wasn't sure exactly how the tire would hold up. I called my dad, said a prayer and slowly drove the tire shop. Luckily we made it there. Since that was the exact tire we needed to fix anyway I just had them replace the two front tires and the lugnut issue. I think it was a disguised blessing to keep us safe.

I wasn't sure how long we'd be stuck over there so I loaded up my backpack and figured I'd take the kids for a walk, lunch or possibly even walk home and bum a ride from a neighbor. Instead the kids wanted to watch a movie on my computer and the brilliant people at Big O got it fixed up in 30 minutes. On a Saturday no less!! Talk about blessings.

Moms Who Make It

This is my friend Evonne. She had a little contest and I won a ticket to this fun conference called "Moms Who Make It 2009". She was sweet enough to let me tag along with her for the day.

The conference was awesome. It was all about empowering, entrepreneurship, excitement. They did a great job and I hope if they do it again next year that I can attend.

It was held in this amazingly posh building up in South Jordan called Noah's and the food they had brought in, everything was just so darn impressive.

Do you recognize that lady? That's Necea Degering from Utah's "Good Things Utah" Don't let the picture fool ya. She's very tall.

I am a good month behind in my blogging so I'll be catching up the next few days. I'm sorry for the overload.

Park City Sleepover

My friends and I headed up to Park City for a little overnighter gal time. We got a good deal with my parents time share so we were able to stay right on Old Main Street. We walked around and found a place to have dinner and then headed back to gab all night long (yeah almost until 3am). The next day we headed into town for some shopping at the outlet mall. None of us found anything fantastic but I had a great time with the company.

These gals are some of my dearest friends. I really am so blessed to have them in my life. (Pic 1: Me and Jenni taking pictures on her computer Pic 2: I took the pic while we were waiting for our meal)

Author Book Club

I threw a little book club at my moms house and guess who came? That's right, the author herself, Sydney Salter. She was so sweet and fun. She wrote a book called "My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters" and I asked her if she'd be willing to come to my book club and answer questions about the book, business and just play.

I forgot to take a picture of all of us having fun so I snatched this picture from her website, but this is the cake my fabulous sister Heather made for the party. In the book the main character works at a cake shop so I thought'd it'd be fun. I put together a little game for survey and had people tell things that happened in highschool like wrecking cars, crazy jobs, silly boyfriends and they won prizes that went along with the book (beads, subway giftcard, gum, toy car). I think everyone had a good time and it was so much fun to get to enjoy the author Sydney too!

Two-niner

Today was such a fun day! Tarl is very low key when it comes to his birthday. No phone calls, no visitors, no extra attention from anyone other than those who live in this house.

So I was really glad this year when he decided he wanted to go do something on his birthday. He took us to IHOP for brunch. The kids loved it and Tarl and I both had a great meal. On the way home we saw a snow shack so Tarl pulled over and treated the kids to one. The rest of the day we took it easy and the kids helped me make a special two tiered carrot cake.

Happy Birthday old man.

Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale (author of Princess Academy, Goosegirl series, Book of a Thousand Days) had a book signing at a local Barnes and Nobel so my friend Danylle and I went. I was expecting it to be much bigger so when I walked in and only saw about 25 seats I was surprised.

Shannon is such an entertainer and is so much fun to listen to. She told us how her book "The Actor and the Housewife" came to be (started with Austenland). She talked for about 40 minutes and then visited with each fan as she signed their books. I have LOVED getting to meet so many great authors this year!

4th of July Fire(works)

Our 4th of July was a lot of fun. The kids were all so excited to get to watch the fireworks. We decided we'd let Kalyana light a few too.

Most everyone stayed home this year so the cul-de-sac was filled with people and we got to watch everyone's fireworks. We can see the Stadium of Fire from our street so when it got dark enough we all gathered in the street to watch. We were all dissappointed this year with the lack of show but it was a good thing our own show was bigger so we didnt feel too bad about it.

We even made sure to do some of our annual celebrations like parachutes and monster cookies. I love celebrating holidays!