The Kandells: 2014

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Had a blast at Disney World

Hailey and I took the kids out to Orlando for a Disney World trip this past week and had a great time. We have tried to always take the kids with us when going out of town, or at least as frequent as we can and we realized this time how much easier it has become at their current ages. Hailey left about 12 hours before me as I had to get work done and she took Ady and Max. She said they were the easiest ever to fly with. I took Lucy late that night and she did not sleep once, but she was great. I did not even have the car seat to strap her into as it would not fit so we gate checked it. I am not sure exactly why I share all this other than their current ages really allowed us to enjoy this family trip a ton!

Here the kids are being as calm as they can be on the first morning awake, just looking out at the park in the distance

This was the best Snow White ever. She was flirting it up with Max big time and he had no idea what to say or do

"rolling" Kandell Style in the Disney Double Stroller that we made a Triple

Walking around Disney with 3 kids is no easy task at any age. The weather was great, we all got sun burnt and thank Heaven for the Disney stroller rental. Oh on a side note for anyone thinking about a trip to Disney World as opposed to Disneyland. I would not suggest the extra money for the park hopper if you have kids under 9-10 yrs old. We thought we would get to Epcot, Hollywood Studios, etc but these parks are not like in California where you can just walk to them quickly. To get from one park to the next you have to take shuttles etc and it is very time consuming not to mention most of what young kids want to see is at Magic Kingdom. So there, that is my money and time saving advice for anyone thinking about Disney World

I sure got my working out in each day. From sun up to sun down if I could not get 3 kids in the stroller, then one was on my shoulders it seemed.

They are trying to make sad faces as we are checking out of the hotel

These two princesses were in HEAVEN every day.

I love this picture. I think it really captures our spirits this trip, we all had a blast just being a fun family!

Can you believe it is already March?

Hailey and I took a relaxing weekend getaway to Cabo Mexico and had a great time!

In late February Hailey and I had the opportunity to sneak away for a quick weekend of sun and relaxing down to beautiful Cabo, Mexico. Most people do not realize that you can get their direct from Salt Lake and it takes just a bit over 2 hours! We had a great time just relaxing and spending some time together. We try to take our kids with us as much as we can when we go out of town, but I have to say, this time it was quite nice to just have some adult time!

Last weekend we took the kiddos skiing in Park City and hung out all day with the Desatoff family. We went skiing at the Park City mountain resort and had such a fun time. At first the kids, especially Adyson, were a bit overwhelmed by the difference in size between the Park City Resort and where they normally go at Sundance. After a run or two it was much better. There was one hill/run that was over 3 miles long! Can you imagine? I thought it was awesome to see how cousin Sophie played the roll of oldest cousin and I was so impressed with how kind and supportive she was being to Ady while Ady was struggling at first. Way to go Sophie! We had dinner with Mariah and Danny and all the kids later that night at a local sushi bar.

On the ski lift at Park City Mountain Resort with Mariah, Sophie, and Oliver Desatoff

Little Lucy and Hailey roasting Smores in Park City

The night before we went skiing we actually stayed in Deer Valley with the kids and they just loved all camping out in a room together. You forget how cool the kids think it is to be laid out all over the floor in the same room with mom and dad. They loved roasting marshmallows and making Smores too. We had a great time.

Ady and her schoolmates doing their science project

Both Ady and Max had science fairs this past month. I was able to attend Adyson's project and Hailey went to support Max. What was really cool is that Ady and her class did something very similar to the project I did while I grade school. Her class was trying to determine which soil types filtered water the best and also how to create wells to get water out from the ground. I was very impressed with her and Hailey said Max did a great job too.

Ady continues to want to be in the kitchen as much as she can. It is a daily request to help with dinner or make something. She made the famous Smoot Family Flavor All the other day (similar to a home made ranch dressing) and here below she wanted to make cookies from scratch. They turned out very tasty.

Ady loves the kitchen and cooking. We rarely ever bake and these cookies were from Scratch!

Grandma Sue was in town the final week of February and is still here until tomorrow. She has been spending lots of quality time with the grandkids. My sister Lisa has been talking up the waffle luv truck so I thought I would take my mom while she was in town and she loved them. Here is a link to their site.

We took my mom to the famous WAFFLE LUV truck while she was in town

Adyson has begun dance competition season and the two pics below are of that. My sister Lisa brought all her kids (4 of them) with the help of my mom, over to Thanksgiving point to support Ady. It was so awesome to see, Easton, Zach and Max all staring and oohing and awwing as the girls danced. You would have thought they were more interested in Dance than a video game. Anyway we are so proud of Ady, she took first place in her division both on her solo and team dance. Way to go Ady.

Our little nephew Tyler looks like he could be my very own

Ady and her dance friends after their small group number

it is already the first week of February 2014

Ady sipping hot coco at Sundance, man she is growing up fast

Boy oh boy where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we started a brand-new year yet here we are already in February.

The American Girl Tea Party at the Harris home after skiing

This past weekend Adyson went and had a ski lesson with some of her friends. It made me realize how old she was getting that we could drop her off at the mountain and then have somebody drive her home afterward. We of course did not leave her all by herself, she was with an instructor and some of her friends but it did cause me to stop and just think about how fast she is growing up.

Lucy getting ready to sip some tea at the American Girl Tea Party

After she was done skiing the Jodeeh Harris brought her back from Sundance to her house or she met up with Lucy and the girls and they had an American girl tea party which was very fun for them.

Speaking of growing up little Max continues to be a bit crazy at times but he brings so much fun and energy to our home. Just last night he and Lucy were wrestling when he fell backwards and nailed his head on the side corner of an ottoman. You should have seen how loud he was yelling and how read his face turned. It scared me and him a little bit when the back of his head had a big knot in it but it was gone the next morning so that was our excitement with Max last night.

Lucy is currently in this phase where she only wants to wear one gnarled up old and dirty white princess dress. She continues to believe that she truly is Elsa from the Disney movie frozen. And she wants to put this dress on the moment she wakes up and she wants to put it on the moment she comes home from school and she wants to wear at any time we go out and did I mention she also wants to sleep in it?

This sushi was great!

This past weekend Hailey and I went to the Bailey's home on Saturday to watch the UFC fight and have a sushi chef make sushi at their home. The sushi was very fresh and the chef did a great job of preparing it.

The Super Bowl of course was on Sunday and it was the Denver broncos versus the Seattle Seahawks and was one of the biggest blowouts in Super Bowl history. The game was actually pretty boring but it was fun to relax around the house. While Max and I watched the Super Bowl Hailey, Lucy and Adyson made a hair salon and did each other's nails. The boys did boy stuff and the girls of course were doing girl stuff.

Work continues to go well and I believe we have close to 90 loans in processing at the start of this week and the goal is to be over 120 or 130 loans by the end of this week. It has been a much larger task then I initially thought it would be but we are also growing and progressing at a faster pace than I was hoping for. So all and all starting my own mortgage company has been a very good thing that's far.

Two weeks into 2014

The wonderful Lucy, aka Elsa, at the Midway, Utah Ice Castles

Well I had a new year's resolution to try and post a weekly family blog and am very close to 3 weeks behind. Time is flying by and there is a ton going on. Ill do my best to summarize the Kandell's happenings from the past couple of weeks.

Does it get any cuter or chubbier than this?

Love my Ady bug

Skiing with the speedster Max is always fun

The weekends have pretty much consisted of non stop skiing up at Sundance. Even little Lucy has gotten in on the action. It's so much fun to ski with the kids. They just love it. Max is a speed freak and just wants to dive bomb the hills as fast as he can. Adyson takes her time and does her turns and is cautious. This past weekend we even got Hailey up on the mountain and she had not been skiing in 15 yrs. it really is great to be out in the mountains as a family laughing, skiing, eating and whatever else. We are certainly looking forward to the rest if the winter season.

In addition to skiing we have, well I have at least. Really enjoyed our church starting at 9 am again. It just seems like the days allow for more family time, get togethers and sheer relaxing.

The kids, Ady and Max have started robotics class once a week after school and seem to really like that too. Ady is in the heart of dance performance time so she is keeping way busy with that.

As you may have seen in the top picture, we spent one evening up in Midway at the Ice Caves and this was so cool. The Midway Ice Caves are particularly awesome this year due to the hit Disney Movie, Frozen. They have all these kids believing that Elsa made the ice castles.