Spring Break 2013 - Day One: Easter

Sunday, March 31, 2013

We woke up early Easter morning and drove into St. Charles (we are staying in Troy with Steve's sister Heather and her family) to go to church with Steve's dad and sister Lisa and her family at the ward Steve grew up in.  Steve's brother Mike and his family are on Spring Break this week too and they drove in from Kentucky to spend a few days with us while we are here.

After church all the other families went to have lunch at their in-laws for Easter.  Our family and Mike's family went back to Heather's house and had lunch together.  Spencer was an excessive fork ninja as he ate in his new ninja clothes with about 20 forks.

Zac was an excessive mess ninja with his spaghetti eating abilities.

Steve and Heather just moved into a new house in an awesome place with a forest in their back yard.  Zac and Asher were in Heaven.  They spent the remainder of the day outside.

Finally everyone started gathering at Heather's house.  We ate Easter dinner together and just enjoyed each others company.

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The girls loved holding the rabbits

We had a family egg hunt

We got to meet Steve and Heather's foreign exchange student, Mandi.  She is from Beijing.

Emily and Meagan - these girls are crazy together

The Grandsons with Grandpa and Uncle David. And Addy who ran in and jumped into the picture as I was taking it. 

We took a big family picture but I don't have a copy of the real one because we took it with Heather's camera so here is one I took during our set up.  It was a fun day and I am so glad we were able to spend it with family.

Spring Break 2013 - The Drive

 It has been a year and a half since we last made our way to St. Louis.  A few months ago we were trying to decided what we wanted to do for Spring Break.  Our kids have so much fun with their cousins when we are all together.  Like so much fun it is beyond fun.  We actually all have a way super indescribably awesome time when we are all together.  The kids are all getting older.  We have 2 cousins getting married this year.  And 2 graduating from high school next year.  Then after that it will just snowball and we will have kids graduating and getting married and going on missions like crazy.  We realized we only have a short time to get these young'uns together.  So it was settled.  Spring Break in Missouri!  I was excited because every time we go it is in the winter.  I was so looking forward to some warm Missouri weather and a chance to do all the things we never can do when it is so cold.  At the time we decided this, we were experiencing our bajillionth straight day of single digit weather and we had several feet of eternal snow on the ground. Yep.  I've been lookin' forward to this trip for a long time.  Just a few days before our trip, school was canceled in Missouri because of snow....I was not happy.  The weather forecast showed to warming up right before we came and then getting cold and lasting for our entire trip.  

So last Friday as soon as the kids got outta school (Emily didn't want to ruin her perfect attendance) we loaded ourselves into the van and began our journey.  We were leaving the most absolute perfect weather in Utah for the most absolute freezing weather in Missouri.  I was not happy about this whole situation, but I remembered it was not the weather we were going for.  

We stopped for dinner at KFC in Wyoming.  I am still incredibly irritated when I think about what happened in that KFC parking lot.  When we first pulled in and parked, we parked in one of the only open parking spaces, which happened to be next to a parking space filled with the containers and trash from someones dinner.  After we ate, we were sitting in the van getting ready to leave and we had the side van door open waiting for one of the kids to come out of the bathroom.  This incredibly judgmental old man and his wife pulled up in front of us and were talking and motioning to us.  I thought they were trying to tell us that we had a flat tire or our gas tank was open or something.  I told Steve to open his window and see what he was trying to say.  The old dude just pointed to us and then pointed to the trash and waived his hand with a look of incredible disgust on his face and then drove off.  I still didn't get what we was trying to say until Steve said something about the jackdonky thinking that we were the ones who left that trash there.  I was so mad that  someone would think I was trashy enough to sit in a parking lot and empty out all our trash with four kids sitting there.  I seriously told Steve to go follow that rude and judgmental old man so we could tell him that we were not the ones who made that trashy mess.  But we still had a kid in the bathroom and by the time they came out the old man was no where in sight.  Still.  I'm still incredibly irritated when I think about it.

Later that night we stopped at a rest stop.  While Zac was waiting for the rest of us to come out, he climbed a tree.  His cell phone was falling out of his pocket while he was climbing so he took it out of his pocket and put it in the trunk of the tree.  We were quite a ways down the road when he realized that his phone was still in that tree trunk.  We were trying to decide what to do.  The phone wasn't that expensive and we could have bought him another one when we got to St. Louis.  But he started freaking out because he had all his contacts and pictures in that phone.  I'm a softy when it comes to pictures.  We couldn't remember how long we had been driving but we estimated it had been about 30 minutes.  So we decided we would turn around and go get it.  Unfortunately we had to drive forward about another 15 miles to get to an exit so we could turn around ( we were in the middle of nowhere).  And then after turning around, we realized we had been driving a LOT longer than 30 minutes.  And the best part was that after we retrieved the phone we didn't have enough gas to turn around and drive forward again so we had to continue back peddling until we could find a gas station.  So we pretty much spent the entire evening traipsing back and forth across the middle of Wyoming.

This made for a super long day Saturday.  We ended up eating lunch in the middle of Nebraska which is usually where we stop overnight.  Here we are at our lunch spot.  One good thing about traveling in the Spring instead of the winter is we can picnic along the way.  We made it into St. Louis around midnight Saturday night and we have been having fun ever since.

FINALLY! Happy Birthday Emily!

Can't see the video?  Click here.

My dear eldest daughter, Emily, turned 13 on Wednesday.  She has been bugging me every day since then to post her Birthday Video.  Well, it took me a little time to make it but it was finally ready yesterday.  Kind of.  I could not figure out what music to use.  Earlier in the week she sent me a text with the music she wanted in her video (she is not demanding or anything).  But it just didn't fit with the video, in my opinion.  So I tried to find some other music I knew she would like. I found some, I put them in the above video.  And it was just ok.  So then I tried it again with her music and, frankly, her music is more exciting than mine.  So I have been trying to decide for the last 24 hours, between the two.  All the while being pestered to post the dang video.  So I finally said WHAT THE HECK!  She has been "patiently" waiting for 4 days- she deserves 2 videos!  The above is the video with the songs I chose.  The video below is the one with her songs.  As I was on itunes purchasing the songs she wanted, I must admit, there was a part of me that wondered if she selected those particular songs so I would have to purchase them.  Although I'm sure she would never do that...

Can't see the video?  Click here.

On Wednesday I brought her requested lunch to her at school - a foot long meatball sub from Subway.  After school we went to Get Air with some of her friends.  Then we went to my mom's house for dinner, Chinese, per her request and a special cake my mom made her.  Then she went to a Young Women activity at church.  Followed up by viewing the latest episode of her favorite show, Psych, with her friend Anika.  So even without a video, I'm thinkin' it was a pretty decent day.  Here are some pictures:

Here is a video of the kids entertaining themselves after the party.

Happy Birthday Owen!

My nephew Owen turned 7 yesterday!  The year he was born 3 grandchildren were added to our family.  My 2 sisters and I were all pregnant at the same time.  Kristy had Owen in March, Farrah had Matthew in October and I had Addy in November.  I love you Owen and I hope you had a fabulous Birthday!

Click here if you can't see the video.

Two Of A Kind, Peas In A Pod, Like Mother Like Daughter

Just a little while ago I was telling Emily she needed to go get ready for bed.  She said, "Hold on."  

At the exact same time I started singing, "Hold on to the night..."

And she started singing, "Hold on to me as we go..."

Why Yesterday Was The Most OZsome Day Of The Year

So, we've had 3 feet of snow in our yard since before Christmas.  Don't be fooled by the above picture.  It was not as pretty as all that.  Well, it was pretty.  PRETTY DANG COLD THAT IS!  It was a very very very long very very very cold winter.  That is why I was so amazed last week when in two days ALL of that eternal snow was melted.  We have had the most lovely weather the last few days.

Pair that with the fact that my dear husband, which I still claim to be the hardest working man alive, has been working 20 hour days for the last 2 weeks.  Every day.  There was one day last week when he went 48 hours with 2 hours of sleep.  And they weren't even 2 consecutive hours.  One was from 5-6AM  and the other was from 5-6PM.  The rest of that time was spent doing back breaking labor.  The kids and I have hardly seen him at all in the last two weeks.  

So when Steve announced that he would not have to work yesterday, AND the snow was all melted AND the weather was fabulous, well, you couldn't ask for a better combination.

We all went to see the new Oz movie and we took Aubrey's friend Grace with us.  I must say, I wasn't a big fan of the movie - what I saw of it, that is.  I saw the whole beginning and the whole end which was plenty enough for me.  I kept trying to keep myself awake and after a while I was like, this dang movie is so boring, why am I torturing myself.  That's when I gave in a succumbed to peaceful movie theater slumber.  Once I gave up the fight to stay awake it really annoyed me that Addy woke me up every 5 minutes.  But I found it very easy to slip right back into my rest.  I found out that Emily also fell asleep.  And outta her seat.    This is what I have to say about that movie.  Don't waste your money.  And could they possibly have had any more boobage in a PG Disney movie?  Probably, but then I don't think they would have been able to call it PG.

After the movie we returned home and built a fire in the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  This is one of our most favorite ways to entertain, because we are just so classy that way.  If you have been a guest in our home in the summer months, you probably dined upon such delicacies by the fire side.  It wasn't summer yesterday, but after a winter like ours, it sure felt like it!

Then my children brought out their arsenal and we were joined by a whole gaggle of neighborhood children.  Zac got really mad at me for taking a picture of him with Addy's pink BB gun.  (Don't worry, Steve took this as a great chance to teach all the kids about safety, and proper permission was obtained by all their parents)

I LOVE our neighborhood.  I LOVE all those kids pictured above.  And I LOVED our day yesterday.  I spent the majority of it reclining in my chair watching Steve and the kids and enjoying the sunshine upon my shoulders.  It made me happy.  

That evening Steve and I were able to go see our friend Spencer bless his new baby.  I didn't take a picture but here is a picture taken just last week at Zac's Eagle Court of Honor with Steve and some of his former scouts turned grown ups.  We were lucky enough to get a double dose of Burgoyne this week with the Court of Honor and the blessing.

Then after we left the baby blessing, I made the old man take me to my new favorite joint.  Dickey's.  HELLO!  I had no idea such a place existed in the state of Utah.  Steve took me there for the first time last month and I have been craving it ever since.  So as we were getting ready to leave for the baby blessing last night I told him, "I fully intend on making you take me to eat at Dickey's after the blessing."  To which he replied by looking down at his suit and tie and giving me the look that after 17 1/2 years of marriage I know meant, "No way in heck am I goin' to eat BBQ dressed like some schmuck in a suit."  To which I verbally replied, "You ARE taking me there, so suck it up and deal with it."  

It's the fried okra.  It's like kryptonite to my native Texan blood.  I still vividly remember the first time I was needing a fix.  I had been living in Utah for about a month.  I was lonely and homesick.  I needed some comfort.  So I drove through a "chicken" joint and when the girl came over the speaker asking if she could take my order, I ordered the only thing that could speak comfort to my soul at that moment (Because I already knew I couldn't get Bluebell ice cream in Utah).  Fried okra.  "What?"  "Fried okra."  She had never heard of such a thing.  I was so confused I was reeling.  You call this place a chicken joint?  How in the world do you eat chicken without a side of fried okra?  Seriously?  Well, 21 years later...

I just read over this and I don't think the kryptonite metaphor and my needing a fix of Texas goodness really go together.  I mean, kryptonite isn't something Superman craved fortnightly.  It doesn't work, but I'm leaving it.  Because I'm tired.  And it's easier to type this explanation than to come up with a better way to say it and then have to go back and change it.  

Just know that yesterday really was the most perfect day of 2013 thus far.  And just know that after all the lovely weather last week, it was freezing cold today.  I am not happy about this.

OK, so I just did a spell check and read over the whole thing.  I've changed my mind.  I do think kryptonite works.  It's my weakness.  It was Superman's weakness.  I knew there was a reason why I left it before.  It's really not my weakness, weakness.  I mean, before last month I can't even tell you how many years it has been since I've had it.  I mean, a weakness is something you deal with much more frequently.  Although now that I know it is easily accessible...it could be moved up the weakness ladder.  Oh, good golly miss molly, shut up and go to bed already.  Enough of your excessive rambling  on about nothing!

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Cub Scout To Eagle Scout

Flashback: June 2007

Zac the Cub Scout

Flashforward: March 2013

Zac the Eagle Scout

Go Foot, I Mean Fish

One day last month Addy had her friend Naomi over.  I was in the other room and I could hear them playing Go Fish.  When I walked into the room they were in, this is what I found.  Two silly girls, playing go fish with their feet.  Crazy girls.  I have  no idea where they get it from...

How A Teenage Boy Redecorates A House

                          

One night last month when Steve and I were out on a date, Zac did a little redecorating.  We came home to find our family picture that hangs in our entry like this.

And our computer screen was changed to this funky astronaut creature.

And he was also in these picture frames.  I don't know why, but I died laughing when I walked into my bedroom and saw this.  When I laugh hard, I laugh with a silent laugh.  It runs in my family.  My children have picked up this family trait as well.  Whenever one of us is doing the silent belly laugh, we can't help but join in.  So when I started the silent laugh, Zac did as well.  And Steve just stared at us both like we were crazy.  And rightfully so.

And don't forget this one.

I'm pretty sure all the pictures have all been rectified.  Although the computer screen keeps getting changed back.  Zac and Em now have an ongoing computer screen changing battle.  And those pictures in the black frames that are in my room.  I'm thinkin' those are still like that.  Zac, why don't you be a dear and fix those.  Please.