Cruisin' the San Juan Islands... Day 1 & 2

Just a quick note from the yacht!!! Yes it is huge, and beautiful! Brent and Mona are wonderful hosts and their friends that are with are really fun. We traveled all day yesterday, it was like planes, trains and automobiles... first a flight to Seattle (blowing kisses to Jordan) then a 2 hour shuttle to the coast and then a 3 hour ferry ride to Sydney, then a taxi across to Brentwood Marina. We met everyone and then went over for a visit to Buchartd Gardens, which was right across the bay. It was beautiful and amazing, 55 acres of perfectly kept gardens. This morning we came around to Sydney Harbor where we spent the day and this evening. We took the scooter and went exploring the pretty little town of Sydney. Tomorrow we move on the highlight, Victoria, where we will spend Canada Day Wednesday. All the stores window are decorated in red and white for the holiday. Jeremiah and I are enjoying ourselves, it is our first trip with just the two of us in long time, but we are missing the kids, and I am missing the pets. We talked with the kids today and they are doing well. I have lots of fun pictures, but I am using Brent's laptop, and so they will have to wait till we get home. Happy Sailing!

Haircuts, movies, and vacations...

Haircuts... Our new SISTER-IN-LAW, love that! Came over and hooked up our family with haircuts last night. On a whim we cut Elisabeth's up to her shoulders! OMG, don't worry I can still do fabulous hair dos, but we got rid of a bunch of really blond damaged hair, and the length is really CUTE on her.

Movies... After unsuccessfully trying to see TRANSFORMERS Wednesday night, we were able to see it last night. It amazes me the talent that people have who can make that type of movie. They showed a preview for GI JOE, and Sam's says okay they made a movie about a toy... ummmm what do you think TRANSFORMERS are? And speaking of Sam and movies, we really need to stop taking him to PG-13 movies, he is understanding way to much of the humor!

Vacation... my kids started their vacation from their parents today. They headed to the cabin tonight and will stay till Sunday. We leave for THE YACHT in the San Juan Islands on Sunday morning, so that means I will be without my kiddos for EIGHT days! That is the longest we have been apart! I'm gonna miss those TWO. But we are very fortunate to have been invited by Brent Brown on this trip, and we are excited for a totally new experience. I will be taking lots of pictures!

TA DA! No More Cast!

Elisabeth is happily sporting a new look! No more pink cast! Everything healed great, and three weeks went by pretty fast! She kept the cast all clean and pretty until the moment pictures were done at Joe's wedding, and then she went to work getting it autographed, and then she filled it in with color, it was really "pretty!"

Summer Do...

Summer is a time for more casual hair-do's, you just never know when you may go swimming or take a shower bath, and who wants to hurry and get hair done on a lazy morning. So we do lots of braids and ponytails, but this morning I felt inspired... so here is our latest creation.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my dad's 70th birthday! He does so much for us, we can never thank him enough. A couple of my favorite memories are singing with him in the morning when I was little and he was getting ready for work. Visits to Dick's Cafe in St. George. And one memory that came up tonight, was when they took Lisa and I to stay at the Hotel Utah before it closed. We had a wonderful dinner at the Garden to celebrate. All the little kids were there but we were missing some of the big kids. Happy birthday Grandpa!

We Love to See the Temple...

We headed downtown tonight for my dad's 70th birthday dinner, and we got to spend a few minutes walking around Temple Square before dinner. The kids were really impressed that they could "touch" the Temple.

New Pets...

After watching this baby quail for about an hour and never seeing any other family members, my kids decided it needed to be their pet. They held it and made a next for it, but in the end they put it in the bushes where we had seen others.

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The Wedding...

The wedding turned out perfect, I am pretty sure it was everything Randi wanted. The rain held off, and they had a beautiful ceremony in front of the waterfall. Joey choked up, making us all a little misty eyed. Then on to pictures and the reception. The kids ate ice cream till they were sick, because "Uncle Joey told us we could have as much as we want!" They had a lot of people come through the line, and then at 8:00 it was time for the cake. Joe was very kind, and Randi tried to get him, but he is just so tall! Then they had their first dance, and Randi danced with her daddy. We sat looking at Elisabeth all dressed and knew it will be her time way to soon. Speaking of the kids were terrific they did a great job in the wedding, and are ecstatic that Randi is now officially their AUNTIE. They had dancing and cake to end the evening, Randi, Elisabeth and RJ danced with everybody. It was great fun, everybody could just relax. Then the limo picked them up to take them back to their place, and today they left to Mexico. One of the funny things was that they had to call and have Randi's little sister, Brittany, come meet them, since she had their house key. It was a great day, and it's hard to believe that after all the work, it's over! I guess it's kinda like Christmas that way, all the work and build up and then in one evening it's over.

Joe and Randi...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Rehearsal and Dinner

My New Man...

I have a new guy in my life...

His name is Ken... Ken More.
He doesn't do many things...
But he does one thing really well...
He washes dishes!

It's Almost Time...

After 5 years of dating and 9 months being engaged we are just three days away from Joey and Randi's wedding! It has such a surreal feeling, I know I will be a mess when they finally say their vows. They have done such a great time planning their wedding and I am so happy for them that it is all coming together. There engagement pictures were darling, thanks to Randi's friend Jennilynn, I had a great time making a book for their wedding guest to sign. And her bridal are gorgeous, but although I have them all on my computer you have to wait to see the bride, just in case Joe sneaks a peek. And speaking of Joe, he might kill me for the purse picture, but some things are just Joey being Joey!

The One Armed Bandit's Piano Recital...

Elisabeth, our one armed bandit, was somehow able to play at her piano recital tonight, cast and all. She had a piece she had really been working on, and thankfully it was mostly on the right hand. She had to improvise and play anything that used her left thumb with the right hand, but she figured it out and she did great.

What's going on...

This Sam and one of his brilliant ideas, he thought he would try to get Koda on the tramp, he's using a treat to lure him, no it did not work. His next idea is to try to get the cat on, very bad idea!

Well the kids have been out of school for one week, and it actually hasn't been to bad, here's the run down:

*Elisabeth had a sleepover at the BFF's to celebrate school being out, and Sam and his dad went to a boys only movie, "Land of the Lost," where he learned some new PG-13 humor.
* Rain.
* The yard is looking really great, we now have little mini sprinklers and grass growing so fast you can almost see it grow.
* Rain.
* Our friends the Monsen's blessed their cute little baby boy.
* Rain.
* Time with cousins.
* Rain.
* Shopping for my dad's 70th birthday.
* Rain.
* Elisabeth started her sewing class at the Finishing School, and LOVES it.
* Rain.
* Sam headed to Boondock's for a friends b-day.
* Rain.
* Congrats to my cousin Kelsey and her hubby TJ who had a new baby boy.
* Rain.
* Daddy's day off included the movie "UP."

And.... drum roll, please...

We bought a dishwasher!
2 years ago we didn't plant on being here to long, and so we've been doing dishes by hand. Now with no real end in sight to the crappy housing market in St. George, we will be here a while longer. And so on Monday morning I will be getting a dishwasher! Yahoo! I will be posting pictures, just like a proud mommy.

Oh no, what do we do now?

So all you mothers by now have asked yourself this question??? School is out, and as for my kids this afternoon wasn't the best start!
Thankfully field day went well and did not get rained out, and our traditional soaking by the Murray Fire Department also went well, and then it started to rain! 550 soaking wet kids all had to come back in the school (the plan is to have them bask in the sun to dry off before the final bell.) So my kids came home cold and hungry, plus add tired since their nice parents took them to a movie last night. Any how they were grumpy this afternoon!

Now Elisabeth is at the BFF's, for the BFF's sister "end of school"/b-day/sleepover party and Sam is waiting for his dad to get home and go to a late movie.

And me? I will be enjoying the silence, wondering what we will do this summer?

Y is for Yachts and Yard Work!

So this week has been filled with Y's, no not the yucky kind from the school down south, but fun and exciting kinds.

Y is for YACHT - This week we were invited to join Brent Brown (our boss) on his yacht! We will be leaving the end of June for a whole week (I haven't been away from my kiddos that long since they were really little, scary) we will be in Canada for their independence celebration and we will also celebrate our Independence Day on the yacht. Don't we sound all la-de-da saying we are going on the yacht! I'm excited because we will be seeing the coast of Washington and Oregon, and Victoria, Canada all places I have never been.

Y is for yard work - 2 years ago when we moved in this house the yard was 95% bark, we moved and hauled bark, and planted sod for many hours. We left an area by the curb with big boulders and bark and I have been planting perennials. Well, this spring we decided to pull out the ugly bushes between us and our neighbors and then had to figure out what to do with the space. Soooo... we decided to do it up right. We had our friend Tom, who is a landscaper, help us and we moved some the boulders, added small rocks and new plants and trees. The front bed got the same look. It looks awesome! We also made the front bed smaller and added a border, and planted more grass. These pictures are the project today, I will post when the grass and flowers fill in.

Good, Better, Best!

Today we went to Primary Children's to get Elisabeth cast. The people in the fracture clinic were wonderful, I can't believe how nice it is to be somewhere that specializes in kids. I also couldn't believe how many kids were there with slings and wrapped up arms! They were seeing 120 kids today, that a lot of casts! So here's the news on Elisabeth's broken arm...

Good... The cast starts below the elbow!
Better... She only has to have it for 3 weeks!
Best... It is completely water proof!

She can shower, swim, run in the sprinklers and whatever else. So she is blissfully clean tonight from head to toe. And the cast is a lovely shade of pink, to go with her flower girl dress she will be wearing in 2 weeks.