Where I am From

Thanks to 8 hours for the tip on this writing exercise. Everyone should try it. I caught myself thinking about things and people that I haven't thought of in a long time.

Where I am From.

I am from 5 cent slot machine, from Ironport and Cherry and Macintosh.
I am from Fruit trees in the back yard. Family snowmobiling trips and the smell of Sunday dinner

I am from the home grown pumpkins, wild roses and tulips in the front yard.

I am from singing “Tiny Angels” on Christmas eve and faithful and unwavering, from Aunt Clarece and two Uncle Rogers and Eckersell.

I am from the making meals for everyone and tickle attacks.

From remember who you are and your family is more important than your friends.

I am from Faithful Mormon falling away, then finding myself again.

I'm from West Jordan and Rigby, Omelets and corned beef hash.

From the Senator and Mortician that lived in a Funeral Home, the owning and fling an airplane, the married for over 60 years.

I am from the old boxes in my parents basement that look and smell old but make me very proud every time I see them.

Antenna Saga

The day after Thanksgiving last year, I had a family photo shoot for someone that my husband works with. We were going up the canyon to get pictures of them in the snow. (For a family that is from California, this was going to be pretty cool) We decided that since my husband knew the family he would take the kids sledding while I took pictures. It had been snowing there all night and there was about a foot and a half of fresh powder to play in. It was a fun photo shoot, but everyone was tired, wet and cold by the end of the afternoon. It was starting to snow too. We started packing up our gear in the jeep and getting the snow clothes off of the kids. In the few minutes that it took to get little dude undressed and in his car seat, my little princess climbed into the front seat and locked the door right after we had closed it. This was not good since the keys were sitting in the cup holder so they wouldn't get lost in the snow.
Do you ever have moments in your life where time really does stand still and you think to yourself, that really didn't just happen? Then it hits you like a ton of bricks that your kids are now locked in the car by themselves. While you are standing out in the cold, up a canyon, it is getting dark, and starting to snow pretty dang hard. What a moment! We kept trying to get her to unlock the doors, but she didn't understand. Every time we would yell through the window to "push up" she would laugh and wave like it was some sort of game. We tried everything to get into the car. There really wasn't many people in the canyon at this point because no one is crazy enough in Utah to hang out in a small canyon when it is snowing pretty hard and getting dark. The family that I had just taken their pictures did stay and try to help, but we were still clueless as to what to do. About an hour or more after endless tries, someone had the idea to take the antenna off of the jeep and see if we could pry the door open enough to get it in there and unlock the door. It sounded like a good idea so we found a tool, and went for it. I think that after a half an hour and very close to a nervous break down I said something to my husband that went something like "If we can't get the blankety-blank thing open soon, we are going to call the police to get our kids out of there." About five minutes after saying that about 3 cops show up and right as they were pulling up "CLICK" the door came unlocked! What a blessing! As we were leaving we actually saw about 7 cops coming up the canyon. I still have no idea how they knew that we were up there, or who called, but Utah doesn't take the safety of kids lightly.
Since that day we have been driving around with a VERY bent antenna on our jeep. Every time I see it I think that it is totally funny because I can picture this innocent face smiling and waving through the window and laughing that mommy and daddy were locked out.
The saga of our antenna isn't over yet though. A few weeks ago we were in a drive through car wash, and the spinner thing got caught on the antenna (which before then has been bent back a little so it didn't look too bad). It pulled up the fender and bent the antenna even more before the car wash stopped. We got out and couldn't believe that had just happened. We made a complaint with the place that we were at. They said that they will have to look into it and get back with us because the sign says that no jeeps are allowed in the car wash and that you are supposed to take off your antenna before going in. WHAT THE...! This didn't make me very happy to hear, it sounds ridiculous. Well the did get back to us and said they might fix it and to get some estimates on how much it will cost them to fix it. So we did that. It is going to cost over $500.00 to fix! Crazy huh!?
Good thing that the whole car wash thing happened. If I had to pay for a new antenna on my own I would have to kill my little princess instead of laugh every time I think about her locking us out.

Girls. Girls. Girls. oh and two more Girls

I hosted a baby shower at my house last night. It was for a friend that already has two girls, but she is having twins, girls. Lots of girls. It was really fun, we had about 20 ladies come so it was really nice to sit outside and visit.

Hosting anything really makes me tired. There is always so much to do. You wouldn't believe what I can get done in a short amount of time though. In one hour, I vacuumed my floors, swept and mopped my floors, did a load of dishes, put out balloons, got dressed, put make up on, did my hair, set out chairs, wrapped a gift, and made rice crispy treats. It was a lot of work but really worth it! I told my husband that I am so tired that I am going to do nothing today. So he better not complain if he comes home and I am still in my pj's sitting on the couch.

In other news, my little dude is doing awesome in his swimming lessons. I found out that he gets to move onto the next class. This is great since he had to repeat his last class. He is so full of energy and always wants to be outside. Which is fine with me. Anything to not have him run a muck inside.

My little princess is really jealous that she isn't in swimming lessons, but loves to go and watch. She loves to play outside too, but she gets more dirty than her brother. I think the she just likes the bath. One thing about her lately is that she has been learning how to sing more songs. She was singing at the store the other day and some lady stopped just to tell her she was singing a beautiful song. It was really funny. She can sing her ABC's really well though.

My husband has been working really hard. At work and at home. He is always busy, but has a little helper everywhere he goes. Little Dude love to be like daddy and do what daddy does. We are trying to find time to go camping so that we can have some more fun family time. He has worked really hard in the yard to make is as beautiful as it is, and we got a lot of compliments on it last night! Thanks for all your hard work hubby!

With me I am trying to figure out if I want and can afford a new camera. I don't mind the one that I have, but I have really been wanting a Canon 30D lately. I love the pictures that I have taken with it, I think that it works better for the way that I take pictures. It is about double of what my camera is worth though. It is a big investment, but I think that it will take my talent to a new level. We will have to see though.

And for the birds, (I just have to add this because I think that it is funny) As some of you may or may not know, I have two birds. Pavo, which mean turkey in Spanish, and Pollo, which means chicken in Spanish. Yes our birds are called chicken and turkey. They have been put through a lot in the past. But I think that the kids are trying to make up for it. The other day I found that one of the kids had tried to feed them a chicken nugget. Every time I think that someone is trying to feed my bird Chicken, chicken it makes me laugh. Is it wrong to feed a chicken chicken? Ha Ha Ha (dumb story, but really I think that it is funny!)

Mazatlan, Mexico Trip Part 1

Mexico was a blast! After the crazy year that we had last year we really needed some time to be alone and have a good time. We went with our friends that just had a baby and really needed some time alone too. They are like family to us and are always really good company. We all had an awesome time.

I want to share stories and pictures so I will give you the story and you will have to check out the slide show to see the pictures.

As soon as we got there we had to go swimming in the ocean. It was fun, I haven't been in to the ocean since I was a little kid. The water was surprisingly warm, and tastes really nasty! We worked up an appetite so we got dressed and headed to Senior Frogs for dinner. What a fun place! They made all of us these insane balloon hats. The waiter took our picture, you can tell that we were having a great time already.

The next day we went on a tour of the resort that we were staying at. It sounds really boring, but we got to eat breakfast in a really neat restaurant that had a great view of the beach. And they gave us some free tickets for activities. The place that we stayed was really nice. It was right on the beach, and every meal you would eat outside. Our room was nicer than my house. It had a balcony that over looked the ocean (see view in slide show) with a hot tub on it. The room actually had two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sauna, a kitchen, a dining room, and a family room with a huge flat screen TV. Really, I could have lived there! They had two pools that were so much fun! We decided that we liked swimming at night so we would go out there and jump off the rock cliff and go down the water slide when all the kids were gone.

We pretty much just played in the water the rest of that afternoon. I don't have very many pictures of that because we went body boarding, kayaking, and jet skiing. It was blast! That night we decided to hit the town and do a little shopping. We had to take these taxis around that really are no bigger than a golf cart. They are fun, but I am convinced that there isn't a single rule in driving there. SCARY!

On Sunday we took a boat tour. We went around Stone Island that had pirate caves in it. It was really neat, but the best part was just around the corner. When we started heading to the island that we were going to spend the day at, the captain saw some dolphins jumping out of the water. I have always loved dolphins. This was something that I have wanted to see my entire life. The captain wanted to get a little closer so he went a little off the path so that we could see them. Well, we sure did get to see them! There were about 20 in the front of the boat where we could see them, then there were tons more on each side of the boat. They swam with us a really long time. They were jumping out of the water and it looked like they were trying to play. It was a really neat thing to see. It made me sea sick though. So the rest of the day my stomach was a little upset, but I was still able to enjoy the private beach that we sailed out to. I even tried snorkeling. That was actually pretty cool. We some some really pretty coral and fish.

After the boat ride I was really beat! I was sore from jet skiing the day before and still a little sick to my stomach. So my friend and I went and got a massage. Can I just say that everyone needs to get a massage on vacation! It was so nice and relaxing. Which made me want to just sleep when we got back. Even though our room was really nice and I could have stayed there the entire time, I also wanted to get out. But before we went to dinner we had to check out the breath taking sunset from our balcony. Wow!

Well, I better rap it up for the first part of our trip. I have more stories and pictures, but it might have to wait. I used up all my space on flickr. Stay tuned for more fun.

Tired

We got back in town from Mazatlan, Mexico late last night. I am pretty tired so I am not going to post anything about the trip until another day. I just thought I would let you all know where I have been. I haven't dropped off the planet or anything. I was just getting some much needed vacationing time with my hubby. I can't wait to share with you all the fun things that we did and saw. Oh lets not forget the pictures! We got some really fun pictures! So check back in a couple days and I will have something to share.

A fun day for the kids

Today was a very fun day. The kids went swimming in the back yard while I babysat my nieces. They had a picnic and had some nice summer treats. Check out the slide show of all the fun pictures of them playing.