California: Part 2

California: Part 1

Our first stop on our California vacation was at my brother Ben's house in Turlock, CA. We love getting together with them whenever we can, because our kids enjoy each other so much and have very compatible personalities. I love to just listen around the corner to Reese and Jack 's conversations. And Anna and Emily are like sisters! Sam giggled every time we talked about going to visit Maya and Bella. They play so well together. Just cute little kiddo games. Like "working out" in Ben's living room. Sam had those girls doing push ups and kick boxing, and relays. And they loved every minute of it. It was quite inventive.Then there's Jessica, the oldest, TALLEST, most mature of the bunch. She really is so grown up! It wasn't until she drove the baby stroller like a nascar driver through the parking garage that I remembered she is 12. (That's a good thing Jess, be young as long as you can!!!) I tried to discreatly tuck baby Jeffrey under my arm as we left, hoping know one would notice. But Blake made me give him back! What a cutie!!!
Anyway, we felt lucky to attend Anna's baptism while we were there. The above picture was how well behaved our group of nine cousins were....during the baptism. The below picture is a better depiction of the cousin memories made throughout the weekend.

And through it all, my sis in law Emily put together a lovely baptism program, and a delicious luncheon without breaking a sweat. Impressive. Thanks for a wonderful visit!!!!


The slide show below is of our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had taken a trip there 9 years ago. When Emily was a baby and Blake was working in Modesto, CA. It was a fun trip then, but even better to take all our kids back, and watch them enjoy it. I have to say that all 9 of the kids were well behaved!!! A huge accomplishment in my book!

Feeling younger instead of older!!!

So, Blake asked me what I wanted for my birthday (which I thought was pretty brave considering the fact that I made him go to a Shakespeare play the last time he asked what I wanted to do), and I told him I would like to go skiing. And being the wonderful husband that he is, he found a way to make it happen. With a little help from Aunt Becky, who watched the kids for us, we spent the night in Albion, and went skiing at Pommerelle the next day. Neither one of us had been there before, but had always wanted to go. I was nervous the first run because it had been a while. So I told Blake we had to find a green or a blue run to start with. But it didn't take long to find out that even the trails marked black diamond were pretty mellow. It also helped that we had rented our equipment. I have to say that skis have come a long way since my "Rad Dog" days at Targhee. They made me look like a much better skier than I really am. It was a gorgeous day! And I ended up feeling alittle youthful, instead of older. We also found THE BEST place for scones in Albion. With the most delicous honey butter and raspberry butter to slather them with. YUM! It's just a really good thing that you have to go all the way to Albion to get them!!!!

The one Spring skiing tip we forgot was Sunscreen. We both went to church the next day with red faces and outlines were our sunglasses and headbands had been. LOL! (by the way that is the first time I have used LOL ever! What a dork I am!)

I will start with the excuses first, and move on to the actual reason for the post. I know I have been absent from blogging for a while, and the last post wasn't even written by me. But the above picture and following explanation are an attempt at deriving understanding, if not pity (ok maybe not pity). Anyway, it was 5 weeks ago that I took my favorite pair of shoes to the repair shop to get some stitching repaired (did I mention these are my all time favorite shoes). As usual, I was in a rush and told the boys to sit tight while I dropped them off. But as I was rounding the corner I tripped over what I later found to be an uneven sidewalk, and was on the ground before I even knew what had happened. All I knew was that my fingers hurt like crazy. Then I looked at them....you guessed it....dislocated.....not a pretty site!! Now, I can handle alot of medical emergencies, and gross stuff, but orthopedics is the one thing I CANNOT HANDLE. For what ever reason I am not equiped to deal well with broken bones and dislocated joints! Especially when they are mine! Needless to say I was left with 2 options: 1. Drive myself to a hospital and let someone else fix it (knowing that I would have to look at it the whole way), or 2. Pop it back in myself. I quickly picked 2 and thankfully it was fixed in a split second. But it has been the sorest, and most swollen injury I have ever encountered. The above picture was taken 5 weeks after the "incident" and they are still sausages!! (middle and ring fingers on the right). Not a great excuse, but it's what I've got. It was 2 weeks before I had the courage to return to the "scene of the accident and retrieve my shoes (did I mention they are my favorite). The thing that really had me miffed was that I had just chopped my hair off short that same day, and I couldn't "do it up cute" until just recently. (sorry no photo, I am sick with a head cold today, and not feeling photogenic). At this point they still don't bend very well, and are pretty crooked, but I am still hopeful of a full recovery. If not I will definitely need to come up with a better story than "I tripped" to go along with my crooked fingers.

Now for the reall reason for my post. It is a rare thing that I have anything crafty to share, but I was just so darn proud of how Emily's school valentines turned out that I had to share. I got the idea from Family Fun website (so who knows, there may be a million of these passed out on Friday) and I thought they were both adorable and easy peasy to make. You just wrap a candy heart box (4 for a $1) in colored paper cut to size, and add the ipod cut out that you down load from the site. Genius!

Blake even had me take a picture in a docking station to show how "realistic" they look.

Elmer Fudd Hunting Journal

Dear Diary,
I do not know where to start. Above is a blind used in goose hunting. Can you see me? Neither did the geese. So here is the basic plan. You lay down hidden in the blind and make goose calls. Once the geese fly over head someone yells take'em then you pop up like a Jack in the Box with a loaded 12 gage shotgun and let the sky have it.
Here is the aftermath.
Next was the Elk hunt. Last time I went elk hunting the thing I learned was that I could not out run an Elk. So this time I decided to use the truck to out run them and get in position for the ambush.
Things I learned this year elk hunting.
1) Go for the head shot.
2) When you are gutting the elk do not I say again do not puncture the stomach with your knife.
3) Bring lots of water and rags to wash up with.
4) Elk meat is pretty dang good. I even have Josie and the kids convinced.

Jack turns 6!

This was the first year Jack got to have a "friend birthday party". They went to an indoor bounce house gym here in Twin Falls called "Hop2It" So of course we had to make "hopping" frog cupcakes to take to school.

These guys had so much fun running from one thing to the next. It was fun to sit back a watch, and be glad the chaos and maheim was going on here and not at my house! It wore them out quicker than I thought though.

I love this "David and Goliath" match up. Sam could hold his own though.

It's great to be 6!!!!