The Great Outdoors

One of our favorite places to camp, just a few minutes from our house. Luckily we have been camping in the trailer so all the rain hasn't affected us TOO much. :)

Chase really likes to hike...not like he goes for longer than like 5 minutes but we are breaking him in slowly.

Just a few random pictures of Chase. He came inside and said "mommy, I picked you a flower....wear it in your ear" Pretty sure he has never seen me wear a flower in my ear. Where do they pick these things up??


The one time we had the sprinkler on this year he went and put his face right in it! He is not afraid of much. What a should have got was a picture of his face in the water!! Hope you are all having a great summer!! Can't wait to see my baby brother home from his mission this week!! It's crazy how fast time flies, and I really can't believe its been 2 years already!! Welcome Home Elder Wright!

God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again

A good friend of mine whom I work with in Young Women's had a very sad thing happen this past weekend. Her husband passed away from a heartattack in the middle of the night. Everyone was shocked to hear the news. He was healthy & active, no sign of heart trouble. He was the kindest, nicest man. If anyone was ready to leave this earth at any time, it was Nolen. He left behind a 14 year old daughter who is devastated. It puts life in perspective a little bit, and you realize that God has a plan for each of us, even if we don't understand it. How many times do you go to bed thinking you have tomorrow to make up or tell someone you love them? I want you to hug & kiss your kids & tell everyone you love how much they mean to you! I'm so glad to be a member of the church and have a testimony in Eternal Families. It makes tragedies like this one a little more acceptable.

Nolen J. Marshall
1950-2009
Nolen J. Marshall, 59, loving husband, father, grandpa, brother, and friend passed away Saturday, May 30, 2009, at his home in Spring Creek, Nevada. Nolen was born in American Fork, Utah, on May 27, 1950, to his father Ual M. Marshall and mother Rhonda Openshaw. He was born a young, charismatic boy with a love for family and adventure. His early years were full of life and experiences that would teach him the values of a being a good father and honorable man. His values carried him through life where he met a young, beautiful woman, Shellee Turner. They married April 2, 1976, in the Salt Lake City Temple. Nolen committed himself to her and the LDS church, where he graciously served many callings later being called upon to humbly serve as bishop. His unwavering faith, love for life, family and friends was the spring in his step. He was rarely seen without a smile on his face. Nolen cherished the opportunity to help others and serve a cause greater than himself; even now he continues to serve others as an organ donor passing along a new hope of life and health. He is survived by his wife Shellee and children Jamie, Phoenix, Lyndsi (Josh) , SLC, Jett (Amber), Logan UT, Kylee and grandson Cael. Viewings will be held Tuesday, June 2, from 6-8 p.m. and preceding the funeral from 9:30- 10:30 on Wednesday June 3rd. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on June 3rd. All services will be held in the LDS Stake Center located at 1651 College Pkwy, across from Great Basin College. Nolen will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and all who were fortunate enough to have known him.

Memorial Day in St. George

We were so excited we decided last minute to head to St. George for Memorial Day. If Tyler & Adrienne & their boys weren't going down we might not have been as tempted. 1st night we had to hit the new Pirate Island. Pizza+Arcades=hours of kid entertainment!!! Chase would spend 1/2 hour on each ski-ball game. He could never make the ball over the hill, it just returned back over and over and over!

Did I mention pizza? 24 inches....1/2 of this pizza fed 13 of us with lots of leftovers!!!

The slip-n-slide never gets old!! Children & adults had plenty of turns sliding down the hill. Chase would fly in the air at the bottom and race back up the hill-with no help EVER-and say 'my turn' and slide right down again. Good thing there were only a few of us so there were plenty of turns!!!

On Sunday, Damian, Jeremy & Dayna came over to play on the slip n slide too. Damian LOVED watching the kids slide down, and would slide down the grass, but wanted nothing to do with the slide. I wish I would have had my camera when he was laughing hysterically @ everyone going down the slide. He was soooo funny to watch!!

New to St. George (since I've lived there) are splash pads at a lot of the parks. Chase was a little hesitant at first, but then we couldn't pull him away!

Whats a weekend with the family if you can't catch a fish. Chase loves to poke his pole in the water and try to fall in. Luckily just as we started to pack up Mitchell finally caught something we could take home.

Whats a trip to St. George without playing in the red dirt? Chase LOVED playing with his cousins. Its so fun to see him grow up and be able to play & connect with other kids! Such cute Marrott boys!

And I saved the best for last!!! An added bonus to have JR & Aubree in St. George with their new little baby....YEAH THATS RIGHT!! I'VE SEEN HER! Baby Avenlee liked to sleep when I was there, but she is so so precious!!! Can't wait to see how beautiful she will be!

Long time...no blog

So I've honestly been meaning to blog about our recent trip to California...but I am so so sooooo mad that we forgot the camera!!! I really really tried to get the pictures I took off my phone, but I couldn't get them uploaded on blogger....so if you would like to see some visuals, look on my brother Ben's blog post "Firsts" and you will see part of the weekend. For those who don't mind a post without pictures, read on....

Chad & I both had several days off work the beginning of this month, which I thought would be well spent in California. Visiting my brother's cute family and making the last 3 months of training pay off in a 1/2 marathon. Yeah, thats right. I'm running again.

***side note*** when traveling.....always book hotel rooms @ priceline/hotwire. We got a screaming deal @ a nice hotel!!!

After our 1st night of catching up and bbq-ing, the next night we were on our way to Sacramento...where the American River Parkway 1/2 was. We had a great night @ John's Pizza Co. Where they had a pizza/pasta/salad/dessert buffet, which was perfect for our carbo-load, and tons of games & rides for the kids. It was a really fun night.....Jaden claims the BEST day ever!!! He had a lot of tickets to redeem for cheap cheesy prizes, that broke before we got home.

Saturday...race day. Very nervous runners, wondering what weather we were going to wake up to.....night before was a downpour!! Luckily it was just a little more than a sprinkle. We got to the park in perfect time to pick up all our race junk, stretch & line up! I guess in the 5 years of racing vacation I've had, there have been changes. No more chips? just a tag you can cut off and throw away. Super nice running material shirts, and little bottles with as much goo as you want to take with you on the race. Pretty nice. Anyway, my brother was unsure he would be able to run the whole way, he was planning on walking a bit, but we went at a slow enough pace we didn't get too worn out. 11 min. miles was the average, and we finished just under 2 1/2 hours. Seems crazy huh? With a lot of stretching and good food after we were able to not be too sore!!! Yay!! We were pumped!

So after a fun filled weekend of playing games and eating, we headed back home. It was so fun to play with our California nieces & nephew. We even left with some going away presents from Jaden. :) Megan & I got in some much needed pedicures, and I could not stop holding/queezing/pinching/biting Lanie's cheeks!!! Cute cute kids!!!

Back to Nevada, and time to camp!! Last year we were out a month earlier, so we have been itching to sleep outdoors. Chase & Chad getting ready to 'catch fish'.

If you look close you can see what Chase is fishing for (Bud light). Redneck fishing is what popped into my mind. He'd catch all sorts of garbage with his pole and throw it back in just so he could think he was catching something.


And of course the truck has to go everywhere with us these days. Including his crib when he goes to bed. He'll have 2 or 3 of his favorite trucks/buses that have to go 'nigh night' with him. Usually the horse trailer is full of matchbox cars or other toys.

Happy Mother's Day! After a great breakfast and surprise flowers, we were ready for church & decided to take a few pictures of who made me a mommy. I wondered why Chad kept telling me to move left, right , down....perfect. (yes that's the newest addition)

Chase is never afraid to pose for a picture, but you won't always get a genuine smile!

Happy Spring Break, Easter & Birthday!!! Caution: Picture Overload

We had a few days off work the first part of April so we headed down to sunny St. George. We really love it down there and it will always have a place in our hearts as long as we have a place to stay!! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Marrott for the vacation home. Not too many pictures from there, all Chase wanted to do was 'catch fish' and watch the cars & big trucks driving on the freeway.

Chase wanted nothing to do with the hot tub! The other grandkids practically live in it so we were very surprised. It wasn't quite warm enough while we were there to hit a real pool, and I guess its a good thing since he was not interested.

The next weekend was Easter, and we were excited to spend some time with the Wright cousins. You might notice a lot of 'ball' eggs for the boys, but there is a crown & flower in the mix for princess Ella!!!

Chase was taking way too long of a nap, so he was not able to participate in the coloring of eggs....we were too excited to wait!!! What a cute group!!

Here they all are lined up ready to go on their hunt!! They had so much fun playing together all weekend.

The hiders that fun putting the eggs in hard places. Don't poke an eye out Chase.

Now these are our kind of baskets!!! Racecars and spiderman...what could be better?

Ella with her Ballerina Bunny. It was almost was cute as Ella!! Thanks to Aunt Sara, there were some fun prizes along with candy in the eggs. The boys got 4-wheelers, swords & stickers, and Ella got play food, a doctor/nurse play set & of course the adorable rabbit.

That night we went to the Jazz game, thanks to Chad's friend Joel, and a guy in my dad's bishopric that has season tickets. Mom & I had row 4 seats for the 1st half, then I traded with Dad for his row 15 at halftime. Both were amazing seats....close enough to get a picture of the bench!!! We love going to Jazz games, but it was hard to swallow a loss to Golden State that night.

This was the real reason for the trip to Utah Easter weekend. Chad's deer & elk were finished and needed to be picked up from the taxidermist. It makes us sad we aren't able to hang the elk up at our house, but we just don't have a big enough wall for it....Elk are such large animals & so unique looking we would love to add it to our collection, but we are going to need a bigger house. And that won't be happening any time soon.

I know everyone has been talking/blogging about how much snow and how crazy it was, so I just have to add my totals as well. Over 18 inches combined over 2 days!!! It is almost melted so we really can't complain about our prayers being answered for MORE MOISTURE!!!

Chase threw the biggest fit Wednesday morning when I dropped him off at Rachelle's house. He wanted to play in the snow soooo bad. I promised him we would play in it all afternoon and we did. It was fun to wrestle in the snow for a few hours with Chase, while daddy cooked dinner. It wasn't even that cold either....

We decided to head to the marina to feed the ducks a loaf of bread that was WAY past its due date. Chase was loving all the birds swarming to him....I on the other hand after the first 20 got a litte nervous. Luckily it was a small loaf.


Chad's birthday was this weekend, and so we went to this awesome cafe in Lamoille to have breakfast. Afterwards on our way home we decided to take a drive up Lamoille canyon and see if we could see any big horn sheep. We've both had a lot of patients tell us they are everywhere so we went to check it out!!! There was one sitting right on the road!!! We had to drive in the opposite lane of traffic to get around it.

The amazing thing about these sheep is the way they scale up vertical inclines!! And because of the snow storm there was a lot of waterfalls too....it was AMAZING to see them just dart right up a wet slick surface. I'm guessing that's why this one has a chunk of hair missing-! Great Nevada wildlife for my great wildlife husband on his birthday.

Hope you feel up to date on the happenings of the Marrott Family!

Tagged: Ten C's

10 Things I love that start with C:

1. Chad

2. Chase

3. Chocolate

4. Candy

5. Christ/Christmas

6. Camping

7. Chicken enchiladas

8. Country music

9. Cafe Rio

10. Clean house

I really feel like this was actually a great letter for me...I feel like if you know me, you know these are all very true!! Thanks for the tag Trish!!

I tag:

Janae: H

Dayna: D

Natalie: J

Anyone else who wants to be tagged!

Birthday P.S.

I hope this works, I've tried a couple of times to download this video from Chase opening presents...I just want to say that he taught himself to speak "elk"...Enjoy!!

Chase was playing with his new tractor the other day and making the sound...haha choo, like the tractor was snoring....it took me a minute to realize what he was doing. If you are familiar with "Cars" then you know he was tractor tippin'. How funny the things kids remember!!!