Bud's Birthday Hike

We asked Bud what he wanted to do for his family birthday celebration, we gave him all sorts of options and he came up with a hike.



So we called the family up and invited everyone to go. There was a nice turn out.



Uncle Itchy came with his kids. They all did really well, even Jo his youngest.



Uncle Brook and Auntie Andy came with their kids. I think the kids all loved the fact that the trail followed a stream so it was nice a cool plus we could play in it when we stopped for lunch. It's amazing how kids gravitate to water.



Of course we all had fun too. It was a great idea. I hope Bud felt very special with how many people showed up to help him celebrate his special day.

Phoenix, Az

Big D had a business trip to Phoenix and he wanted me to come with him. It was initially suppose to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but it got changed at the last minute. I'm fine with that because I've never had the opportunity to explore Phoenix. I love going places I've never been, which would be just about anywhere outside of Idaho.



We tackled a lot of good food, let's face it when you're on the company dime you try stuff you wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford. Big D calls himself a connoisseur of burgers so he is always in search for his next favorite. I honestly didn't think he was going to be able to eat this one, it was huge. He ended up taking the onion rings off so he could fit it in his mouth.



One day Big D got out of work early so he was able to go to the Apache Trails with me. We went through a ghost town. I don't know if you can really call it a ghost town because it's still being used as a town. There are stores and tours and a saloon. I think the only thing that wasn't still in use was the brothel.



We got there after the town was all close up but we still enjoyed looking around. Big D got a little frisky with a cactus, I don't know if he thought those pokies were fur or what, but he learned real quick that there were no softies in that town.



The church even had a sign out front inviting people to come to their Sunday Mass.



Outside the brothel we found this cage, they had some massively huge birds back then.



On one of the days I went on a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West house. He used this house in the winters and ran an architect school out of it. It is still being used as a school. In the Summer he would stay at Taliesin East in Wisconsin. They used to require their students to live in a tent the first year of school. After that they had to build their own residence. They still have the students build their own residents but they don't require them to live in a tent for a year first.



Wright had an ingenious design, he had this pool in the front of his house and as the hot winds out come up the mountain it would glide over the water and cool and air conditioned the house. This picture is of his personal studio. It was the first room they took us in and I couldn't quit thinking about how it would make an awesome green house with just a few more windows. I bet it made a wonderful studio with all that natural lighting too.



One night we went to a Diamondbacks vs Yankees game. The Yankees won 9 to 3.



On our hike of the Apache Trails we found so many wonderful things to take pictures of.



We were in the mountains when the sun started to go down so we took pictures as we were heading out.



Then when we got out of the mountains the sun was setting over the desert floor. It felt like the sunset just kept going and going.



It wasn't quite a full moon but it was close. And that just gave us more to take pictures of.



On a mountain ridge it looked like a bunch on tombstones but they were cacti. I tried to capture it but I don't think it work they way I saw it in my head. But it's still a cool picture, I think.

Mesa, Az Temple

On Big D and I's trip to Phoenix I got to go to the temple in Mesa. It was beautiful. I was surprised to not see an angel Moroni on top but I do know there are a couple temples that don't have one.



Of course, the grounds are kept exceptionally nice. Beautiful flowers just pop with all the dry brown background. It looks like an oasis in the middle of the desert.



There were palm trees all over Phoenix but for some reason they were just more beautiful on the temple grounds.



In the back there was the petrified log sitting there. It was a gift and it used to be about 100 feet long, if I remember right. But it looks so cool, it looks like a log but it is solid rock.



I loved the reflection pool, it was calming, almost as calming as the inside was. There was an incident inside though. A young nursing mother was fasting and she passed out. They had to call paramedics to come help her. They said when she woke up she was complaining that she couldn't feel her hands. It was weird to see people who didn't belong in the temple. But it didn't take away from my wonderful day.

Ragnar's Wasatch Back: The Bod Squad

My sister, Ann, ran the Wasatch Back a 186 mile relay race from Logan, Utah down to Park City, Utah. She did awesome and her team finished the race with in minutes of their estimated time. The Wasatch Back is one of the most popular races in the United States with about 1,300 teams of 12 people each and another 300 teams on the waiting list. People came from all over the U.S. just to do this race. Some teams were made up of families with kids as young as 11 years old running. One lady had a shirt on that said, "I married into the wrong family".



No this is not Ann. This is one of the other runners that I just had to take a picture of because her whole team ran with these fake bums hanging off the back of their pants. I think they were running their butts off. There were a lot of really cute costumes that I'm sure they were rethinking while having to run with it all on.

There was one team that was all super heros and another that was high schoolers (prom queen, athlete, cheerleaders, etc). The teams also decorated their team vans to match their costumes. There was one van that was titled "Business Time" from Flight of the Concords. In big letters across the side it said, "It's Business time and conditions are perfect". People got pretty creative with their decorating skills.



Here is Ann on her first of three legs of the race. She did so good on this leg that she shaved 18 minutes off her time. This was also the only time I got to see her run. I had to volunteer at the 5th exchange and this one is the 3rd. I thought it would be no problem getting to my exchange in time since Ann only had to run a little over three miles. Boy was I wrong.

After the 4th exchange it was all dirt road so everybody was going real slow as not to run over or dust out the runners. It took us an hour to drive ten miles. Oh, and if a volunteer is 30 minutes late for their assigned time the team they are volunteering for gets disqualified. Needless to say I was freaking out because they asked me to be there @ 1:30 and I wasn't able to get there until 2:30.

Thankfully they were very understanding as to why it took us so long to get there so we didn't hurt our team. Big D and I spent the next five hours trying to make runners, and drivers, laugh as they came into the exchange. It was funny to us how many people do not have a sense of humor. One thing that really stuck out to me was how many people thanked us for volunteering and telling us that they couldn't have the race without us. I thought that was really nice and thoughtful to acknowledge those standing out in the scorching sun just to help them so they could have this race.



I'm not going to lie to you, I was more than a little nervous about how my little Sis was going to do. Her doctor told her that her knee wasn't in the best of shape for a race like this. Her second leg started about 1 a.m. Marie, our baby sister, put a book on Ann's Ipod for her to listen to. Ann started listening to it on her second leg to help her not get freaked out about running in the pitch dark all alone. Needless to say, the book Marie put on there was about ghosts. We all got a kick out of that story.



Ann did finish the race. Her team had some medical problems but none of them were from her. They had a guy drop out of the race the night before it was to start. So, their team captain had to wrangle someone at the last minute to join their team or they couldn't race. The guy they got just happened to run a marathon the weekend before and his body wasn't totally healed from that race yet and he ended up tearing his achilles tendon in the middle of his second leg.



Caught up in all the excitement of the race, they were asking who would like to run the race next year and I said I'd do it. So, Ann and I have a race to train for next year. Big D said he'd come and be a volunteer for our team. What a supportive hubby I have. I tried to talk him into running it with me but he has a lot on his plate this next year, graduating with his Masters and getting his Black Belt. Who knows, maybe we'll do it together the next year.

Bear up to Bat

My baby gets to play baseball for the first time this year. He is super excited.



You can't really see the excitement in this picture, but trust me it's there.



He is a natural at the tee. He hit the ball off the tee the very first try.



He even knew right were to run. I think this is going to be a great baseball season. Of course, I'm going to be living at the ball park with three kids playing. The only one that didn't get to play was Bug. She is just out of the play for fun and into the competitive sports bracket, which wouldn't be too bad except their season starts a month earlier and I missed the boat on signing her up.

Trust me she tells me every day how unfair it is that she's the one who loves to play and she's the only one not playing. I try to make it better by telling her she's all signed up for soccer this fall, but I'm still in the dog house for baseball.

Family Birthday Party 2010

We had our annual family birthday party at a gymnasium. Brook and Andy were in charge this year and they did an awesome job. We played at the gym for about two hours then went up to a park to do our BBQ and presents.



We had fun racing up a big blow up obsticle course. Some of the adults, I won't name who (Brook), used their wife's head to help him get over the top. Beaner is being patient waiting to help me up to the top. Good luck with getting me up there the last time I had to use Jason's head to get up.



Bug didn't want Rae Rae to be left out so she helped her through the course too.



There were so many fun things to play on that no one got bored and no one had to stand in line. Bud is very proud of his balancing skills.



Some kids brought some tude with them so Auntie Ann stood behind them during picture time to help them with their smile. Grandma Lovely didn't want to her smile to be left out of the picture so she snuck right in there at the last second.



Uncle Jason was a favorite among all the youngens, including little Rae Rae.



This is Auntie Marie and her fiance, Walker's, first family function together. I think they really enjoyed themselves. Hopefully next time his kids will be able to join us and meet the rest of the family.



Uncle Brook is such a poser.



See what I mean.



I think he's also rubbing off on his wife. It's too bad Big D and Uncle Itchy had to work and weren't able to enjoy the fun with us. We decided we are going to try and rent the gym for Bud's birthday. Maybe then they can play with us.

Anyone Need a Contractor?

A couple years ago Big D and the kids were wrestling on our bed when Big D put his foot through the wall. I thought a quick patch job is all it needed until I started taking down the broken sheetrock and discovered black mold. We were in no position to fix it so we didn't bother it for awhile, I know that probably isn't the smartest idea but when you don't have the $$$ what are you going to do.

I finally decided to tackle the wall and see just how far this mold went. I was scared it went all the way into our restroom and up in the ceiling. I ripped out one complete wall and it kept going and so did I. I had to rip out our closet but it stopped before it reached our restroom, yeah! It also didn't make it up to the ceiling, few.

In order to fix our bedroom, which is in the basement we decided it is a good time to upgrade at least one of our windows and make it an egress window. Long story short we had to move out of our room to get every thing done that needs to be done.

We ended up getting rid of our toy room and turned it into our quiet room/office. The former quiet room is now our bedroom, yes, that would be upstairs :0(



The last time the toy room was painted was ten years ago when it was our oldest, Bug's room. We took every thing out and I figured I could live with patch marks on the walls before I could live with big holes every where.



So our little contractors in training helped patch the 150 holes. Grandpa would be so proud. I think construction is in the blood.

Needless to say, all our bedroom project has told us, is we need to redo our whole house. Thank goodness we can do it one room at a time.

Primary Activity

We took all the kids, that were interested, to the temple for a tour and a picnic. A lot of people thought we were crazy for wanting to take that many youngens to the temple grounds. They all did fabulous!



Bug standing in front of the Baptism for the Dead entrance which is going to be remodeled starting next month.



Bear and Bud standing next to one of the oldest trees. It is a Linden tree and it will probably be ripped out in the near future.



Beaner is standing in an arch that they use to take bridal shots.



Bear is standing in front of the temple holding his card he received from the visitors center after we watched movies about sharing.



Beaner enjoying being center of attention. She's going to make a b-e-a-utiful bride one day.



Bug hopefully practicing for when she comes back to get her bridal shots in front of the temple, but not for at least another ten years.



Bud showing off his card as well. I don't know why they felt like they needed to hold those up, maybe they were just proud of their trip.

Charlie, Kinz, and Bug Play

Kinnzi was so cute with her babies. She was such a good mama and when it was time for them to all go to their new homes, she was just fine with it, probably because now she doesn't have to share the attention anymore.

After Princess left, a week before Charlie, Bug treated him like a prince. We actually started calling him Prince Charles because Bug would carry him around on top of a pillow. He spent more time outside his kennel than inside. I had to put my foot down when she begged to have him sleep with her. I didn't think it was appropriate for a puppy to sleep on the top bunk.

Charlie knew when Bug was around because first thing in the morning she'd get him out. When we'd come home from running errands, she run to get him out. Those two bonded so much I thought there was going to be tears when he left. I think she always knew he wasn't hers to keep.

A Day of Haircuts

The Primary Presidency took all the kids from Primary to the temple for an activity. We had a nice tour of the grounds where they showed us plants that aren't grown anywhere else in Idaho Falls (just because they won't grow) Flowers that are going to be ripped up next month to make a reflecting pool, and the entrance people usually use for Baptisms of the dead which too is being remodeled next month.

We watched some movies in the visitors center, learned about nebulas (places where stars are born), and how tiny our planet really is in the grand scheme of the universe and all the Lord's glory.

On our way home Bud got ahold of some putty which ended up in his hair, so guess what we got to do when we got home?



We get to cut hair. Since I had to cut Bud's I figured I'd torture Bear as well. If you look close you can see the putty in Bud's bangs.



This is how he looked after I just removed the putty. I asked him if he wanted me to leave his hair like this, he said probably not.



I usually shave both boys head, and Big D's too, but I wanted to leave it a little longer on top with Bear, Bud didn't have that choice anymore. I think they turned out pretty cute. It will be a nice summer haircut, at least for two weeks until we have to do it again.



The girls and I decided we wanted nice summer dos too. We looked at a bunch of different hairstyles on the internet and which haircut looks best to match the shape of our faces. Each girl picked the cut they wanted and we were off to the barber.



Beaner chose a cut pixie haircut. She has so much trouble with her brushing her hair, it's so thick and gets rats nests so easy. She gets mad every time I make her brush her hair ten times before it looks good. I think this is the best choice for her, I'm glad she decided on this one.

Bug and I actually chose the same do, a layered bob. I think it makes her look so much older, which I tell her every day she really must stop doing. This will be nice because she wanted it off her neck, which it is, but it isn't too short as to accentuate her round face and make it look rounder (if that is even a word).

Both girls have already had a lot of compliments and I can't quit running my fingers through Beaner's hair, because I can.

Now the only one who needs a haircut is Big D, where's my razor?