Summer So Far - A Hodge Podge

A trip to Grandmommy's.
It's not a trip to Grandmommy's lately without checking out what new Angry Birds game she's got on her iPad.

A walk in the rain

Some carnival rides at Liberty Park

Some creative cooking experiments:  Chocolate Mousse and Key Lime Pie

Really tasty if I do say so myself!

Homemade bagels (I made doughnuts too but didn't take a picture).

A trip to Island Park over Memorial Day weekend with some family where we celebrated cousin Ty's birthday!

A little Wii playing

Jim and Josh got some fishing in (it was snowing).

Paige and I drove back home for church on Sunday so she could give her talk in primary.  She did a great job/  She drew this picture after we heard a lovely violin piece.  I love it.  I need to get her started on the violin.

Some new haircuts

A bunch of yard work, really un-doing yard work.  Jim ripped out the bushes we had here because we hated them.  I'll post after pictures, it's starting to look great but we're not done.

Nanny and Papa helping in their nice work clothes

We found an injured bird in our window well one day.  We tried to set it free but I don't think it could fly.   Paige took it on as her new "pet."  I made her wear rubber gloves.

Indie was surprisingly gentle with the little guy...I think she wanted to play, don't really think the bird was too excited about it.  It was either really calm or paralyzed with fear because it just sat there.

I don't think Indie would make a very good hunting dog.  She's too nice.

A bike ride/run around the riverfront with some very frequent stops to look at the mommy ducks and their cute baby ducklings

A very rare moment of sibling love.  We have to document it because the summer fighting, bickering, punching, yelling, screaming and torturing is in full swing.
Help me.

Fishing

We took the kids fishing the other night with Nanny, Papa, Bryn and Luke.

Jim really gets into a zone when he's fishing and is very intense.  The only thing I'm this intense about is maybe.....shopping???  How shallow, I need a new hobby.

Indie loves it.  All I can think about is that all that money we just paid to get her groomed is down the drain.  She always gets so dirty!

Crew fished for about 2 minutes and then spent the rest of the time playing with his worm.  We named him "Jerry."  Crew wanted to know if he could build a little bed of dirt next to his own bed that Jerry could live in.  He wanted to keep him "forever and ever and ever."

Jim caught a couple of fish and let the kids bring them in.  All I could think about was the poor, slimy, fish with that hook piercing it's mouth, struggling to breath outside of the water, terrified it would never see it's little fish family again.  Can you tell I'm not much of a fisherwoman?

Hailey, on the other hand, is a total fisherwoman.  She's got a great cast and stuck with it the whole time, she definitely takes after her dad.  Here she is when she thought she had caught a fish.  It was actually Aunt Bryn she had hooked, but it was fun to see how excited she was.

It was a nice night.  Good to be out in nature.  I love the weather here this time of year.

And the Best Son-In-Law of the Year Award Goes To...

...my super-human, handy-man (and not to mention HOT) husband!

He spent 2 straight days rebuilding my mom's deck.  Three actually, if you count the entire day it took us to rip the old one out.  I was of course helping out too, but there are no pictures of me, thank goodness, I looked like a hillbilly. 

My brother and my sister-in-law Alicia and their adorable son Jaxon's visit happened to coincide with the project so lucky Uncle Wil got to help out. 

My dad even came and pitched in.

Just a cute picture of Hailey and Crew checking on the progress.

My mom and Crew enjoying the finished product!

Mother's Day 2010

We had a really nice Mother's Day.  My mom came up on Saturday. 
The girls all went for pedicures on Saturday afternoon (Hailey opted for a manicure).  Paige got a hold of the camera and took a bunch of shots.

Blurry toes, I know but I only had our little point and shoot camera and I couldn't get it to focus.  They both got little flowers.

We went to dinner at our favorite Idaho Falls restaraunt, The Snake Bite, afterwards.  It was a fun night! 

On Sunday, I had to speak in church...yikes!  I guess I'll post my talk after this because my dad wanted to read it and at least I'll have a record of it if I ever have to do it again!  Luckily church was at 9:00 so after the talk was over, I was able to relax for the rest of the day.  Jim made Mother's Day Lasagna which has become sort of a tradition.  I forgot to take pictures but it was really, really yummy.  Red and Marianna came to dinner and brought the most delicious strawberry/lemon meringue, which she calls "Heavenly Pie."  It was all delicious!!!!  A great mother's day!  I'm learning to enjoy it!

Sun Valley 10th Anniversary Weekend

Jim and I went to Sun Valley for our 10th Anniversary, which is coming up in a couple of days, April 28th!  We decided to use the navigation system for some reason and learned that she's not always right.  She tried to take us on a "short cut" that took us about 3 hours out of the way.  We were actually only about 11 miles from Sun Valley when we discovered that the short cut road had not been plowed!  It makes me mad to even think about it.  I was so tired and cranky by the time we got to Stanley, I was ready to eat at a gas station.  Luckily, we found a little dive that happened to have pretty good pizza.  We finally made it to Sun Valley at about 11 pm.  Grrrr.

After sleeping in on Saturday morning (a VERY rare luxury), we got up, hopped on our bikes and had a nice 2 1/2 hour bike ride.  It was really fun even though it was snowy and muddy in some parts, I didn't mind getting dirty.  Jim's rear somehow got most of the mud.  I wish I had gotten more of his soaked back, we were working hard!


The ski hill, still snowy.



We ate at a really, really good little Italian place on Saturday night called Cosi.  It was the best pasta I have EVER had!  I can't wait to go back.  Sunday, we just took it easy, had brunch at the lodge and then headed home.  It was such a nice get-away and very much needed.  I was so thankful that Jim's parents are willing and able to take the kids for us.  It's not easy!

Jim turns the big 4-0!!!

There is a lot of pressure on the spouse of someone turning 40.  I definitely felt the pressure, but not the kind of pressure to throw an extravagent over-the-top surprise party.  I know my husband well enough to know this wouldn't have been something at the top of his list to end his 3rd decade in life.  Or, at least he said he wouldn't enjoy it, either way, I was glad not to have to throw some big black-ballooned, this-is-your-life gathering.  So, about a month before the big day of February 16th, I was brainstorming ideas of how to pull the big event off .  Skiing, massage, nice dinner??? That would've been nice for say, 35, but not 40...I knew it had to be good.  So, I put our hard-earned Skymiles and my Priceline hotel skills to work and booked a trip to his (which happens to be mine as well) all time favorite city - NEW YORK!

 I could hardly contain my excitement in the month that followed.  It was hard to keep it a secret but I didn't spill the beans until Jim came home from work on Wednesday night, tired after a few nights of consecutive call, to a new suitcase with a red bow around it, telling him to pack for a cold weathered 3 days.  Needless to say, he was surprised and excited!  I was a little worried about how he would react.  He loves traveling, but does not love leaving our kids in someone else's hands...he's a worrier.  I have to admit, I was a little worried as well.  My dad, who has been known to instigate indoor water fights, food fights, and loves throwing children up in the air, onto couches, beds, dangling them over railings in a Michael Jackson-ish manor, purely to produce sheer terror from little children for his own entertainment, readily agreed to do the job for a couple of days.  Red and Marianna, Jim's parents, agreed to take the weekend.  My dad assured me he would try his hardest to be "responsible" and keep the horse-play to a minimum.  I wasn't sure how the kids would take this new side of Grandpa, seeing as how, he's always full of fun and games.  It was evident when he showed up and Paige jumped on his back and asked him, "Grandpa, are you available for fun?"

We left early Thursday morning and arrived in New York City around 3 in the afternoon.  We stayed at the Marriott Marque, right in Times Square - I got a great deal on Priceline!  We changed and headed out to find a place to eat and stumbled upon an incredible family style Italian restaurant just off Times Square  called Becco.  It was incredible food, definitely authentic.  After dinner we decided to walk around and check out the different shows and decide what we wanted to see while we were there.  People were just lining up for Billy Elliot, which I had seen a year before with my brother and LOVED!  I knew Jim would like it so we waited in line to see what kind of tickets they had for the next night.  They said they had 7th row seats available right then so we jumped on it and decided to go spur of the moment.  It was an incredible show, so much better in the 7th row.  Now I'm ruined.  I used to think nose-bleed seats were just fine!  Phil Donahue happened to be up in the first row on the side, our one celebrity sighting of the weekend.

The next day we slept in, had a really good lunch at Cosi and walked around, shopped a little.  We had Indian food that night and saw the show Memphis.  It was surprisingly good.  The singing and dancing was amazing.  Saturday we got up a little earlier and worked out in the gym hotel overlooking Times Square.  We headed out to the SoHo and NYU area to have lunch and to shop a little more.  Aren't I lucky to have a husband who will shop?  That night we had Turkish/Mediterranean food at a little place called Ali Baba with my brother Wil and his wife Alicia.  It was great to see them and we had a really nice time.  Sunday morning came too quickly and we started for the airport at about noon and didn't get home until almost 1 am Idaho time.  A long day of traveling but so nice to have time to just be together.

Jim's actual birthday wasn't until Tuesday and he had to work during the day.  I invited his parents and his sister and her husband to dinner.  I was all set to make my friend's amazing chocolate cake when the doorbell rang and a dozen cupcakes were delivered to me as a late Valentines Day present - how sweet! So, I skipped the chocolate cake and made steak fajitas with homemade guacamole and Bajio tortillas.  It was a nice night with family.  The kids and I made a card "The Top 40 Things We Love About Our Dad."

40. You tuck us in at night

39. You take us to school

38. You are fun

37. You take us skiing

36. You take good pictures

35. You took us on an airplane

34. Reading stories to us at night

33. You take us sledding

32. You took us to Mexico

31. You took us to Hawaii

30. You make good hot dogs

29. You are nice

28. You drive the car to Salt Lake

27. You push us on the swings in the summer

26. You play with us outside

25. You make good popcorn

24. You taught us how to ride bikes

23. You kiss and hug us

22. You take good care of me when I'm sick

21. You are a good doctor

20. You keep us safe from danger

19. You are funny

18. You don't yell

17. You got us a dog

16. You bought us a nice car

15. You try to air our the room when you toot :)

14. You help us with our homework

13. We love your beautiful gray hair

12. You care about us

11. You took me snorkeling

10. You are a good person

9. You gave us good stuff on our iTouch's

8. You are wonderful

7. You let us eat lots of candy

6. You always tell us you love us

5. You work hard so we can have the things we need

4. You are happy

3. You like to eat candy

2. You like to go on trips

1. YOU ARE THE BEST DAD IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

Special "thanks" to Grandpa Ron and Nanny and Papa Red.  I know it's a sacrifice to take time out from their busy schedules and to take care of 3 young, energetic and sometimes demanding, kids.  I know Hailey, Paige and Crew enjoy the time spent with them and am glad they get opportunities to learn and grow from all four Grandparents.

I hope it was a happy, memorable birthday.  I don't know if I could ever adequately express how thankful I am that I am married to such an amazing man.  He is truly my best friend, I not only am deeply in love with him, I am deeply in like with him.  I am so thankful for all of the sacrifices he makes for our family.  He is fair, sensitive, kind, thoughtful and trustworthy among many other amazing qualities.  I love you Jim!

New Door

I have hated our front door for the last 3 years. It just bugged me and it bugged me that every other person in our neighborhood had pretty much the same door. I convinced my super handy man husband that buying a new, unfinished door on ebay would completely change the look of our house. Well, 2 weeks later, it's finally been hung, sanded, stained and finished! I think it was well worth it and I'm so impressed by Jim's handyman skills...I had no idea when we got married that he was so talented in this department, what a bonus!