And the winner is...

#3

 Congratulations, Aenea Westbrooks.


Since I had told Kenneth the people who had commented I felt that he was no longer random enough. So standing in line at TJ Maxx today I turned to Theron and said, "Pick a number between 1 & 4. It can be 1, 2, 3, or 4." He picked 3. Then he was wondering if he won something. Yes, he won an all expense paid trip to TJ Maxx. Lucky kid.

Aenea, I will drive the prize package to you in a few weeks. Hopefully you have enough space for it.:)

My first giveaway.

I am giving away...

Stampin' Up Stuff!!

woot-woot! 

Here's what this amazing prize package contains:
Eyelets
Fancy Fibers
Classic Stampin' Pad in True Thyme
Stamp Set: To You & Yours
Stamp Set: Happy for you
On Board Something Seasonal

So seriously, I won this stuff at a raffle at the Pony Express 5k, which Ian, Amber Baker and I ran in on Saturday the 5th. We rocked it. Anyway, I ended up winning a bag of, what I'm assuming is card making stuff. Clearly I do no participate in this kind of activity, the card making or scrapbooking type of activity. So instead of sticking it in a box in my storage, never to see the light of day again until I decide to DI it, I decided to give it away to a very deserving reader. That reader could be you. 

All you need to do to win is live within an hour of Utah County. That's how far I'm willing to drive. If you live outside of Utah and would like a chance to win, then you either have to pay for shipping or I can hold onto the stuff until you come to Utah next. 

Next, you must leave a comment telling me about your exciting plans for this summer. The contest will run until Wednesday at midnight. Then a winner will be randomly chosen as I count the number of comments and then turn to Kenneth and say, "Pick a number between 1 and --. Then we will have our winner. I will let you know who that is on Thursday. Yay, all very exciting. Good Luck! 
 

Fly Away

This was Orion's year to leave us for his first foray into time away from parents for an extended period of time. Off to Seattle, drive to Canada, spend a week, drive back to Seattle and then down to Medford, OR, spend a few weeks there and then up to Bend, OR., where we will meet him. Luckily, as you all know, a lot of driving is cake to this kid.

He was super excited; I was a little wary. I don't like sending my child away. I know he will love it and I know he really wanted to go. He was so sweet, as we were packing he came up to me and put his arms around me and said, "I'm going to miss you." I think he was doing it just to be nice to me, but it felt great. He was able to fly last year, so at least that was not new to him. He was very cool about it all. There was another unaccompanied minor flying with him. That always makes me feel a little better. They did sit together, but he said they didn't speak until the plane was preparing for landing. So funny. He was busy with his DS and she was busy with her iPod... modern kids.

We spoke the morning after he arrived and he seemed very happy to be there. This year is different because he will have cousins from North Carolina there with him. He felt so lucky to be able to spend more time with them.

Thanks to Nana and Opah for taking him on. We will really miss him here, especially his best friend/worst enemy, Dylan.

How much pure joy can 48 inches hold?

It's a lot. This year was THE year. Dylan is now tall enough to ride all the rides at the water park. He is crazy and if I would have let him he would have done all the scary rides by himself. You know, the several story drop ones? I told him that he needs at least another year before I let him do those.

His first big slide was Shotgun Falls, a tube ride with a few drops where you can get some air. He loved it and his face was priceless when we were finished. We also did Boomerang, which is the scariest slide in the park. I was super nervous to go with him and I'm a screamer. He didn't make a sound. That scared me because I thought he must be too terrified to even speak. Wrong, he loved it! We went straight to the next one, Vortex. It's fun, but not too scary. He really was so incredibly happy to be tall enough to ride and it makes it so much nicer for all of us now that one of us isn't stuck in the kiddie pool. It was a fun day for the whole family.

A Year Supply of Chocolate!!

Amano Chocolate is having a contest to win a year's supply of chocolate worth $830. You may remember I mentioned Amano in this post. All you have to do to win it is guess the origin of their newest cocoa bean.

 *Photos by Amano Artisan Chocolate

Not an easy thing when you realize that they currently have beans from Venezuela, Bali, Madagascar and Ecuador just to name a few of the exotic locals where their tasty beans grow. You have 24 choices of countries to choose from for your guess. I would suggest that you find 24 friends, each guess a country and then split the chocolate when one of you wins. Your share would be 2 bars in the year of chocolate. Hey, it's better than nothing. Amano is wonderful chocolate. You should treat yourself to a bar sometime. You can find them on the Amano website or at Pirate-O's in Draper.