Round 2!!!

Well, in my previous post I talked about how we traded in one car for a newer nicer one with a better payment.
So, we thought why not do it again?!?! So we did just that! We were driving what we called, "The Crappy Car" a 2002 Hyundai Accent with 100,000 miles, back windows that were taped up because the gears broke so they couldn't roll down or up, but would frequently fall down. No guts, AT ALL. It struggled to go up the slightest hill. OK, so I guess we were lucky because we never had huge engine problems, but come on. That good news can only go so far. So, anyway this car lead us to go back to the dealership for round two!

Round two brought us back to the dealership for more test drives and more calculating from Doug Smith Dodge. We knew we were a little upside down in our crappy car, but they were so awesome and gave us way more than we thought we would get! We only had to pay $72 bucks to get out of our car! Awesome! So, they were able to get us into a car that would have been $8,900. We ended up getting it for just under $6,000! And again, lower payments than we had on our crappy car! Just kept getting better and better!

The car they found for us is a Dodge Stratus. 2005, only 61,000 miles, and definitely NOT a crappy car! We got lucky again! They gave us a great amount for our trade, lowered the amount of this car almost $3,000 bucks, and we were able to get a newer, less miles, WAY better car. We are super excited, and can't believe how lucky we are! Everything fell into place for us! We are so grateful! We have been blessed!

A trip to the car dealership!

Well, it is sad day for the Thorpe Home, Our Dodge Caliber's lease is up! Which means on halloween we have to go give this car back to Doug Smith Dodge. This has been the best car we have ever had! It is just the basic model, but we loved it! It is spacious, awesome color, great gas mileage, and I love the hatchback trunk space! This car would be a perfect family car, could fit three car seats if I needed to (would most likely get a bigger car with three kids though) Plus, it is blue, for the cougars!!! All in all it has been the perfect car! I sound like I could be in a commercial huh! Ha!

Anyway~So, Last Thursday we headed down to Doug's to start the process of finding a new car. We only work with Doug, no other car dealerships EVER again! Too much hassle. Plus, since it is a family business we always get the Smith Family Hookup, very nice! So, for the last few days they have been searching for a new car for us. Yesterday, they found it!!!!

Our Pretty New Car!!!

That's right, we got another Caliber! Told ya we loved it! However this is a newer model, with tons of extras! It is an R/T, Sunroof, Leather seats, heated seats, alloy rims, chrome accents, cruise control, radio controls on steering wheel, ESP, which means Electronic Stability Program - is accident avoidance, power everything, night vision rear view mirror, Homelink - garage door opener built in to the car, subwoofer in back that pulls out for tailgating, chill zone drink cooler, low mileage, excellent exterior and interior. This car has everything! We love it! Best part of all! Our payments will be cheaper than with our other Caliber! We are super excited for this car and for the payment! Gotta love the Smith Family Hookup!

A bunch of fun stuff!

Conference Weekend we had a blast!

We stayed at my sister's house in Layton (which is a tradition) Friday to Sunday. Saturday morning we woke up early to go to the kids soccer games. All three kids play, it was awesome to watch them! Taylor's team was awesome and scored 9 goals! Morgan played next and it was so cute to watch this big clump of girls go after the ball and get it into this cute little goal. She NEVER stopped smiling! So cute! Kelby's game was last and he also did an awesome job! Jon is his coach and Jamie is the coach of the two girl's teams. I am glad we got a Saturday off for Conference and we were able to see the games!

Taylor is in Pink

Morgan was great at going to the ball!

After the games we went back to Jamie's to watch conference. It was a great session! Mandy came up too. She had to work Saturday morning, but was able to join us for the second session of conference! Saturday night we always have a girl's night while he boys go to Priesthood. We all bring a ton of food, pig out, play games, talk, laugh, and the kids all play. Unfotunately we played too hard and forgot to take pics, but it was a lot of fun! This year Rod Works had 50% off any one item, so we went there after the girl's night. We all got some really cute house decor.

Our Conference weekend, like always, was a ton of fun! I'm so glad we have this tradition and get to do it twice a year!

Ashlee is 21!

Our next fun outing was for one of my best friend's brithday!
Ashlee turned 21!!! So, we went to Chili's to celebrate! It was a ton of fun!
We got her a bunch of jewelry and some lotions from bath and body works. I think she ended up having a great brithday!

Me and Christian

Meghann and Carly

Ashlee and Jake

Company Party

We had a company party on Sunday, the 11th. We went up Millcreek Canyon and got a large picnic area. It was pot luck and we had a ton of great food! Our Store Manager has recently moved from Texas, so he wanted to show us what Texas BBQ was like. I am here to tell ya, AMAZING! He made Ribs and he seasoned them with barbeque sauce, brown sugar, and heaven! They were juicy, they practically fell off the bone! It was just Really yummy!

We also had a fire there which was awesome! I love sitting by the fire, especially with all of our friends from work just sitting there mingling! It was great! And the canyon was gorgeous! We had a great time laughing and talking with everybody in such a relaxing environment.

For most of the night Christian and I stole Scott, our store manager's, baby. He was so cute and wouldn't cry when we took him! We tried to get Scott to trade him for our turtle, but his wife said no. :(

This is all of us around the campfire, great shot of me Christian!

Austin and Kaycee, so cute!

Austin is 20!

Saturday night we went to Texas Roadhouse for a surprise birthday dinner for Austin! It was awesome becasue he was truly surprised! There was a bunch of us there waiting and I had been texting Kaycee and we got it all situated, told her where we were in the restaurant, and she brought him back! It was awesome to see the look on his face! Even better was the look on his face, that you see here, of him on the Saddle while they yelled to the entire place that it was his birthday! It was great! And oh man was the food amazing! We were all so stuffed! But it was a great night, and yes, I forgot to take pictures other than this one at the very end. haha! Oh well!

Great weekend Kickoff!

We have not been back to the Bountiful Temple since we were endowed there almost 3 years ago. We were heading to Layton to stay for conference weekend so we planned to go to the Bountiful Temple with my family. My sister Jamie and her husband Jon met us there, as long as my mom and step dad Jeff. As we were walking in my sister said, "Hey do you guys wanna do sealings?" So we all said sure! Our Sealer was amazing. He shared so much with us while he went through it. I felt he spirit so strong. Plus, I have not done sealings with my family so it was so great to watch my parents and my sister completing a sealing. It was a great experience!

After the Temple we went to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. Unfortunately I did not take any pics, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Christian was extremely excited when he found out the served breakfast all day. HAHA It was great to catch up with the family and share the temple experience. It was the perfect start to our great conference weekend! Blog about that coming soon!