Spring Break: Family

Most of Har's side of the family lives in the Grand Junction area, so during our visit we got to see his parents, both grandmas, aunts, uncle, nieces & nephew, counsins, cousin's girlfriend, old high school buddies....and the list goes on.
Harland's grandma, Jessie, is a tough and feisty ol' girl farm girl. Everyone gives her a hard time. EVERYONE. I think she's 80 and she just quit her volunteer job after more than 14 years as a "foster grandparent" in a daycare where she was working with 2 and 3 year olds. Tough. She kind of reminds me of a female Walter Brennan, especially if you've seen his character, Stumpy, in the John Wayne movie Rio Bravo. I love Grandma Jessie!
Our last night in town lots of the fam came over for one last visit. It was one last chance for Har to teach his favorite card game: GOLF (if you don't know how, give us a call and we'll schedule a game night). And thanks to a suggestion by Harry (we'll call him an uncle) we made s'mores. Just like our whole vacation it was the perfect night!


Thank you to all of our Grand Junction family and friends. We had a great time and we miss you guys. Hopefully, our next visit won't be too far off. Love and big fat hugs!

Spring Break: Snow Angels

This is about half a mile up the mountain from Powderhorn at the base of a sledding hill where we might have tried sledding if we had gloves, warmer jackets...or sleds.

Spring Break: Powderhorn

One of our first mornings with no plans, we kidnapped Grandma Ginny and went up to the Mesa to check out the snow. Great idea! The drive through the canyon with snow flurries and a little hail was exciting for us Californians, but then we got to our first stop: Powderhorn Resort...

The parking lot and stairs to the resort were...well, you see above.The yellow sign in the window surprisingly reads: CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. We found someone to let us out onto the bridge so we could pose for the Powderhorn cam & Har could call his buddy from work and tell him to check us out {wa ha ha ha}!

The thermostat reads 20 degrees...maybe that's why Nash is shivering, Dedan is holding tight to Grandma and Har is jumping for joy.

Spring Break: Horses!

Most of Spring Break we'll be in Colorado. Grand Junction, to be specific, where Har grew up and most of his family still lives. We're staying with his sister (and only sibling), Tracy and her husband, Bill. They recently bought a great house on two acres where they have 2 horses and 2 dogs. Heaven for kids from the suburbs. The first day here Uncle Bill got the horses saddled and took the kiddos out to the corral for a ride on Zena and Zandy. It was a bit windy, but that didn't stop the fun.

Vons vs. Mom

Potty training has had it's challenges, but we know that Nash is motivated by reward. After taking initiative to go potty on the toilet without any help, I picked Nash up to show him the cookies Har had just brought home from the store and offer one to him.

My beautiful son said, "No, I want one of those!" as he pointed to a plate of cookies I had made. One of the many reasons I keep him around...

The Bearded Man

Har grew his facial hair for almost four weeks before he could tell I was sick of it. He let me take some pictures before he shaved. Yes, it took four (count 'em) four weeks to grow this.

Variety Show

The kids' elementary school does a variety show every year. Of course, my kids wouldn't miss an opportunity to be on stage. There were many long afternoons of rehersals at the school and evenings of coming home and realizing I should've thrown something in the crock pot. We had two great directors again this year whom we LOVE, Irene Smolsky & Lillian Boyle. Their home lives during Variety Show must be insane, because they are always at the school. These two wonderful women (PTA moms volunteering) made it a great show. My kids learned self confidence, discipline, an appreciation for everyone's talents, and how to work hard while having fun. It was a blast....well, that is easier said now that it's all over.

Dedan sang with the chorus in the opening act. Emma danced with the 6th grade act to Michael Jackson's Thriller & had some MC parts. Together they did an act to the Miley Cyrus song, Fly On The Wall - Emma sang and Dedan... was the fly. I took videos on the night of dress rehersal that you can watch if you CLICK HERE.

I am grateful for an active PTA and a school that puts the arts into my kids' education even on a crappy California school budget.

Road Trip!

We had a great 2 and 1/2 days in Arizona. We saw Hartungs, Garvins, Hurtados, and Frandsens. We spent hours and hours and hours and hours in the car. We played Ms. Pac-man, drove bumper cars, climbed walls, enjoyed time at the temple, tried to hide & seek, ate at Crackerbarrel (yum), played Wii, laughed at kids, shot laser guns, watched fish and turtles swim, slept a little, found more friends who got laid off (it's every where) and enjoyed every minute we spent there.

Nearly 3 year-olds Nash & Calleya partying like toddlers do.

Emma, Dedan & Caits climbing walls. Took a few tries but they all got to the top to ring the bell.

Fun with the Frandsens! I love all the fruit punch smiles.

Emma took these during our hours in the car.

Saturday at the Mesa Temple.

Lunch with the Hurtados.

L-O-V-E

Since Harland isn't working we've been enjoying the freedom of weekends like never before (we're making lemonade). For the weekend of Valentine's Day/President's Day we went to the Knowlton's. That is always fun! We even had a Valentine date night. Dinner, movie, frozen yogurt, talk about our husband's celebrity crushes....ah, the romance! In the pic: No, we're not making laminated lists Har and JP are trying to figure out the name of one of said crushes. I've got to learn to take pictures of more mundane things like eating seafood in front of a fish tank.

Go ahead...Be jealous

Recently, on Facebook I listed 25 random things about me and one of them was how much I HATE laundry. Maybe he's paying attention or maybe he, too, was sick of looking at the overflowing laundry basket, but yesterday....yesterday was the best thing he has ever done for me - EVER (husbands pay attention). The man did all of the laundry. I don't mean he washed a couple of loads. My man spotted and washed the mountain of clothing my family of five produced this past week. All day my outstanding husband was running back and forth from the garage to our room where he folded laundry as soon as it came out of the dryer until the hamper was totally empty - totally empty. I didn't ask him to do it. He never complained or asked for help. He just did. Close your mouth. You're going to catch flys.

Deadline: Four Months

I signed up to do the Mud Run on Camp Pendleton with a couple of friends on my birthday, June 6th. Today I realized just how close that is and I got a little nervous. Below is a map of the course...just looking at it scares me and makes me think I need to step up my training. Heaven help me. I don't want to be the last one to finish!

Little Drummer Boy

I've been comparing Nash to Animal from the Muppets lately. Now he's mimicing Animal's talent too. Here's 11 seconds of what I've been listening to over and over and over...and over.