Together Fore-ever

20 years sure goes fast...

2011-07-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Recently, we celebrated our 20th anniversary. I know. It's crazy! Hard to believe it has been that long. I thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and post some then and now pics. Two things really stand out to me when looking at these photo comparisons...yes, we were babies when we got married, and we both definitely had a lot more hair back then! Cut me a little slack...it was 1991. At least it was past "the claw" phase!!!

While celebrating our 20th on a cruise with some friends, one of the formal nights happened to fall on our actual anniversary night, and we had these portraits taken. It's fun to compare the pictures and realize that even though 20 years has flown by, we are still happy and together!

Looking forward to another 20!

It has begun...

2010-09-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

The never ending question of "Mom, can I borrow the car?" has finally begun at our house. I can't believe the day has finally arrived! On the very day he turned 16, Justin was at the DMV collecting his license. He finished his driver's ed this summer and even passed all his tests over a month ago. It was a long month just waiting for the birthday to arrive so he could become official--without an adult! So, if you ever see the kids and I walking somewhere, it's probably because I caved in and let him take the car. Stopping to pick me up would be appreciated..... =)

Getting his license was only part of his fun day. He got the day off work just so he could go do that. That, in and of itself, was a good birthday present. We had tried to gather up a bunch of his friends to have a little surprise party for him that afternoon, but I guess Monday afternoons are hard with teenagers' schedules. We didn't think anyone was going to make it. However, a couple of his friends were able to come over while we were on our way back from the DMV for a little surprise. They scared the pants off him when he came downstairs! It was awesome! I only wish I had been downstairs in front of him to take a picture! Since I just got home with him, I was unfortunately behind him. It was hilarious, though! The kids stayed for dinner and ice cream cake. Another funny moment was while we were singing happy birthday to him, his friend Brett blew out the candles right before the song ended, just as Justin was getting ready to do it himself. I thought the girls would die laughing! Justin was totally put out. It was pretty funny.

Don't you love the "1,2,3" candles? I am the worst mom ever! I OFTEN forget to buy candles, so we had to make do with what we had. We decided the 1 was for the 1 in 16, and then 2x3 makes six, so it works, right?...

The night ended with a quick family home evening lesson and watching "Prince of Persia." He even talked me into letting him go chalk a friend's driveway whose birthday was the next day. He said it was one of the best birthdays ever. I'm so glad he had a fun day. He deserves it! We love you buddy!

Hammond Family Reunion

2010-08-02T08:27:00.001-07:00

Every year we try to have a Hammond Family Reunion. Each year a different sibling plans it. This year, Paul's younger sister Jennifer and her husband Jimmy planned it. We rented a "cabin" at Bear Lake. It was amazing--more like a rustic mansion than a cabin. I wish I had taken more photos of the actual cabin! In fact, I realized I never got one of the outside even, so I am borrowing this one from Paul's sister Heather--one of my many amazingly talented sister-in-laws! Thanks, Heather.

The cabin was at the very top of the hill in Harbor Village and had an amazing view of the lake and the harbor with all the boats. We loved the wrap around porch that overlooked it all, and spent as much time as possible out there enjoying the shade and rocking chairs.
The week was so much fun! I hope we go back there every year. Way to go, Jen and Jimmy! Awesome reunion! Anyway, we did a lot of fun activities, and we took a lot of fun pictures. It was hard to decide which ones to post, so if you get tired of looking, I'm sorry. Even though I'm not one of the photographers in the family, I think I got some fun shots!

We started the week with shopping and driving up there. The kids were all good travelers, so that was a plus. We all enjoyed exploring the cabin once we got there. There were 5 private rooms and bathrooms, and one large bonus room with 3 queen sized bunk beds for all the kids to sleep in, and a couple of the adults to supervise. There was a nice big kitchen and a family room area with a big screen tv and fireplace. Once we were all settled in, we decided to head over to the Minnetonka Caves for a tour. It was a hard decision as I really just wanted to keep my rear end planted in the rocking chair on the shady porch and do nothing but look at the scenery. However, family peer pressure won out, and we loaded back in the car again. The caves were really amazing, but extremely cold! I was glad I brought my heavy hoodie so I could trade with my California sister-in-law whose blood is definitely thinner than mine. I guess I am not a California girl anymore...too many years here in the freezing winters! So sad! Anyway, the other really amazing thing is that all 18 nieces and nephews plus Grandma and Grandpa survived all 880 stairs inside!

The week was chuck full of plenty of time to hang out with all the cousins! My boys were in heaven! They LOVE all of their cousins. This is Justin and his cousin, Alec.

Can you tell which one is from California? :)

The following morning was spent doing some great crafts with the kids--thanks Aunt Kris! Then we hit the beach for the rest of the day. What a beautiful place! I've never been there before, and I fell in love with it. We had a ball! Here are some of the highlights of the day...

Canoeing and kayaking

Making amazing sand castles with intricate motes

Riding in Aunt Alisha's raft

Playing in the sand

Making sand angels

And we especially loved the sand figure Jen and Jimmy created for Justin when it was his turn to be buried...he was a good sport, only complaining and cracking it a few times...

We all returned tired and hungry, but managed to enjoy another great night full of good food and visiting, even a movie, before falling into bed. The next morning, we decided to mix it up a bit and go rent some of the fun bicycles built for 8 we saw people riding around on the day before. When we got there, I think we rented everything they had left, and we still had to take turns. It was a lot of work, especially for those adults who got stuck with all kids to help them peddle (sorry Alisha!), but we had a lot of fun anyway...

Now that is a lot of Hammond leg power there...

Once we had had our fill of bicycling, we took advantage of the snow cone shack that was right there before grabbing lunch and hitting the beach again. Uncle Matt and Uncle Aaron went to the marina and rented a boat for us to add a little variety to the day. Each family took a turn going out on the boat and riding the tubes behind it. The boys had a ton of fun with it! Jordan was a real trouper when he got bounced off. I know it was kind of scary for him. And Uncle Matt had a lot of fun trying to knock Justin off on purpose. Tyler was the only one who somehow managed to stay on top of his tube. Eric decided to just watch, but he had a great time too!

We had to say goodbye to the cabin on Thursday morning. So sad. Here is our final photo from the porch with a view of the harbor. We all had a great time. I know it will be one of those vacations the kids remember forever. It was great hanging out with all of you! Thanks for the good times!

Happy Anniversary!

2010-05-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I could catch up on, like Jordan winning 3rd place in the state science fair, Tyler earning his bear badge in cub scouts, Justin passing his test for his driving permit, and Eric scoring multiple goals in his first season playing soccer...Congratulations to all my boys! But the most important thing to blog about today after months of silence is a big shout out to the 1st "boy" to join my family--my hubby! Thanks for 19 amazing years, Paul! I love you! Here's looking forward to many more....

Oops! I did it again...

2010-03-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

So this is the 2nd year in a row I have merrily sent my poor unsuspecting kids off to school without a stitch of green on them! Not on purpose, mind you. It might stem from some bad childhood memory that I've suppressed when I was pinched all day for forgetting to wear green myself, or it could just be that I think the holiday is ridiculous so it usually just slips my mind. Hard to tell. Whatever the reason, I am feeling bad again this year, hoping my children are not scarred for life.

St. George Road Trip

2010-03-10T07:30:00.001-08:00

Paul had a winter golf tournament and PGA meetings to go to in St. George in Feb. It happened to be on a week when the boys were off track, so I thought we should take full advantage of that and go with him just to enjoy a nice little break and hopefully find some sunny weather! Well, it definitely was a great break! The kids were all really well behaved, and we had a great time!

We had several things planned for the week, but first and most important was the swimming pool! Isn't that every kid's most favorite thing to do when staying in a hotel? The kids wanted to hit that first thing Monday morning, despite the cloudy weather and slightly chilly temperature. Good thing the pool was heated and the hot tub super hot! We swam in the pool every day, sometimes more than once--rain or shine! Yes, we really were out swimming on the second day when it started sprinkling. These pictures were taken a few days into the trip when the sun actually came out, but it was still only about 45 degrees outside! Notice the steam coming off the water?

Despite being slowed down by a quick trip to the Urgent Care to check Eric's ears (sure enough, he had an infection), we made the most of the rest of the 1st day with a stop at the Dinosaur Tracks museum in Washington City. It was a huge display of dinosaur footprints, swimming drags, and other cool fossils. We got back just in time to grab dinner with Dad at The Brick Oven (Ahhh, the memories of college days in Provo!) before heading out to meet up with one of Paul's roommates from college. He was the best man at our wedding, but it's probably been almost since then that we've seen him! We had a fantastic visit with he and his wife and kids. All the kids had a great time getting to know each other, and we had a great time catching up! They have 3 beautiful teenage daughters, and when Justin found out we were going to visit them, he was completely bummed about staying here for school for the week! He's seen their pictures on Christmas cards. Anyway, what a fun first day!

The rest of the week was spent swimming, watching videos, going out to eat, going to Jumping Jacks, going to the Rec Center to (you guessed it) swim some more (they had water slides!), going to the wildlife museum, and finally making a stop at the temple and visitor's center.

We ended the week by stopping at my aunt and uncle's in Richfield on the way home. We had dinner with them Thurs. night and played a ton of games. After spending the night and enjoying one last delicious meal that I didn't have to prepare, we headed home. What a fun time we had! It was so nice to do some new and different things with the kids and get them out of the house and away from the Wii while they were off track! A favorite memory from the trip will be Eric calling our hotel home every time we talked about it or passed it on the road or whenever it was time to return after any activity! We stayed at the brand new La Quinta down there, and it was surprisingly really nice! But now anytime we pass a La Quinta, Eric always shouts out, "There's La Quinta!!"

From Paradise to Snow....Reality Stinks Sometimes!

2010-01-26T17:21:00.001-08:00

Just two of the many amazing, beautiful, and WARM ports and beaches we had the pleasure of spending time at last week on our vacation. (Don't look too closely as I'm pretty sure this beach shot if from Happy Bay in St. Martin and there were total nude sunbathers at the far end of the beach!! By the end of the day, the beach was covered with them--good thing we took a shot of the beach before it got crowded!) Anyway, for my birthday week, Paul and I spent 10 glorious days in the Caribbean, 7 of them sailing on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas.

But before you get too jealous, here is how the first 3 days began in San Juan:

Yes, he really is bracing against the wind and rain!

This is us completely drenched sightseeing in Old San Juan at El Morro, a Spanish fort built in the 1500's to protect the harbor.

This was our only stop at the beach in San Juan (we had hoped to spend all of Friday there, but alas, Mother Nature had other ideas!). We only stopped by long enough to see it and wish we were laying in the warm sun instead of standing soaking wet in the pouring rain. Notice the rain drops on the lense?

We decided to make the most of it anyway and enjoyed our tour of old San Juan before heading out for our night kayaking excursion to the bio luminescent bay. It was amazing and so fun!

Saturday was still rainy, so we decided to skip any more sightseeing, sleep in a little, and head over to the port early. We got on the ship with no problem a little after 1, even though all our info gave our boarding time at 5:30 p.m. and everyone told us the port wouldn't even be open until 2! Our ship was amazing! We loved it! We've never sailed on Royal Caribbean before, and we were really pleased with it and are sure to sail with them again. Our cabin was tiny, as usual, but the beds were so comfortable! That's really the only thing that matters as you are never in your room except to sleep and change! Here are a few highlights of the super fun things we did during the week:

Exploring The Baths in Virgin Gorda (the huge boulder formations in the first 2 pictures below) before enjoying some amazing snorkeling at Devil's Bay. Yes, it did rain on Sunday off and on, but that was the last we saw of it!

Hiking the hidden trail to Happy Bay from Friar's Bay in St. Martin. Happy Bay was supposedly a quiet, beautiful, little known beach with good snorkeling and swimming. I guess it was little known to everyone but the nudists and a few brave souls like us! Happy birthday to me! Not quite the "present" I was hoping for! We made the best of it, swimming and snorkeling far from everyone else, and laying on the beach in a spot that had some greenery blocking most of them!

Golfing in Antigua!! Super hot, but really fun! You'll have to imagine the photo as I realize it is still in the camera that Paul has in Florida at the moment!

Zip lining in St. Lucia!! Can you believe we did it? Two people that are afraid of heights? It was soooo much fun, and yes, Kim, there is screaming video footage!!

Driving our little speed boat all over the shoreline of Grenada before making 2 different stops to snorkel and swim at beautiful beaches there.

And last, but not least, our wonderful dining room waiters for the week and my hilarious and memorable birthday dinner which included our waiter giving away my birthday cake and singing to the lady at the table next to us! Funny story which I will share with anyone who asks. I figure this post is long enough as it is!

So, as you can see, it was a wonderful week in paradise which always makes the return back to reality so difficult, especially when it is cold and snowy! But it is always worth it!!! Already looking forward to next year! Who wants to join us? It will be the year of the 40th birthday and our 20th anniversary, so it better be a good one! Everyone should start saving now so we can all go and party together!

Happy Birthday, Eric!

2009-12-23T17:26:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe my baby is now 5! What a fun little guy! We sure love him and are glad he is part of our family! Having a December birthday is pretty hard. Not sure WHAT we were thinking that March, 5 years ago!! The pour kids will probably never get a really cute decorated birthday cake like all his brothers did. Luckily, when I asked him this year what kind of a cake he wanted, he just said a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Whew! That was doable on the Monday before Christmas.

I decided that even though I still had a million things to do, I'd better take some time to do something fun with him for his birthday, so I took he and his buddy, Tysen, to Jumpin' Jacks for some fun and exercise. They ran and bounced and slid for a good hour and a half before coming home to continue playing.

We had Grandma and Aunt Barbara over for birthday dinner, presents, cake and ice cream. He loved every present he got and has played constantly with them all!

5 Great Things About Eric:

1. He is the world best snuggler.
2. He loves to be a big boy and help with everything.
3. He is a smart kid.
4. He loves his family.
5. He makes me laugh!

Thanks for always making our days full of laughter and surprises!

Redemption!

2009-12-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

Not the best pictures as they were taken with my phone, but you can see the excitement on our faces at the end of the game, and the beginning of pandemonium on the field! We went to the BYU vs. Utah game (of course), and with the exception of the mean and hostile men in front of us, had a fabulous time! As usual, it was an exciting game with a last minute play in overtime to cinch the win! This is one game every year that never fails to surprise us in some way and nearly puts us in cardiac arrest at some point! What a great game!! Way to go cougs!

Congratulations, Jordan!

2009-12-02T08:33:00.001-08:00

See that proud smile? That's my Jordan accepting the Award of Excellence for the song he composed and played on his violin for the Reflections contest at his school. Way to go, buddy! He worked really hard on his song, practicing it and writing it out all by himself! He was so excited when he won! He very proudly showed off his medal to all the Grandparents and family members he could and is now anxiously awaiting the next round of competition in January.

Here he is, showing off his certificates, ribbon, and medal. We are so proud of you, Jordan!

The Happiest Place On Earth

2009-11-15T19:16:00.001-08:00

Our fabulous family vacation started out with a stop at my Aunt and Uncle's house down in Richfield. They are like a second mom and dad to me, and the boys just love them. We ate yummy food and played games with them. We slept there Sunday night, and set out for Disneyland, 2 1/2 hours closer the following morning. The road trip was great, and we got into town with plenty of time to swim and eat a good dinner.

We spent two fun filled days in Disneyland and California Adventure. We LOVE both of them and have been lucky to visit them several times in the last few years. This year was a lot of fun as there was no throwing up (refer to humorous stories of our last visit to the happiest place on earth! If you haven't heard the story, feel free to ask anytime!) In fact, every time we passed the lovely restaurant where we all got food poisoning last time, at least one of the boys would say, "This is where we got sick last time! DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!" It was pretty funny, especially when Eric yelled it out loud while passing several diners at said restaurant! I'm sure they really appreciated us. Other reasons why this year's trip was so fun: We took Grandma Barfuss with us; the weather was fantastic; everyone got along; there were practically NO lines and we rode all the big rides at least 5 or 6 times; and we finally convinced Jordan to try rollercoasters again--he rode all of them, including California Screamin' for our very last ride of the trip! Way to go Jordan!!! After traumatizing him when he was quite young by forcing him to ride the Matterhorn with his dad, he has refused to ride any of them. Like I said, he rode them all this year, and even said that Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were his favorite rides. Eric was also very brave, riding all of them but California Screamin'. I love that my kids are all old enough and big enough to ride everything together. It is really a fun way to experience Disneyland. It's fun when they are little too, but oh so much more exhausting and very limited to what they can and want to ride when they are little. Here are a few photos of the trip.

One of the super fun bonuses of the trip this year was running into one of my best friends, Jocelyn. We went to high school together, and we still keep in touch now. It was so fun to see her so unexpectedly, and it was really fun to meet her kids. She has met mine when she has come to town for our high school girlfriend reunion weekends, but I had yet to meet hers.

I love this picture because it just says it all. It's the end of the first day in the parks, and we are all exhausted and starving, waiting for our food. I think Eric is actually asleep in this shot. We had to wake him up to eat.

Another fun thing about the time we went this year was that it was right when they were switching over the Halloween decorations to the Christmas decorations. The first day we were there, everything was still Halloween. The next day, there were several Christmas things up as the transformation had begun.

The trip continued the next day at Legoland. We have tried several times to take the boys there when they were younger, but everytime we had a free day when we were in town, it was one of the days Legoland was closed during the week. The boys still had a good time, but it is definitely geared to younger kids, and it was a little bit of a let down after Disneyland, in my opinion. However, it was a fun day, and I'm glad we got the kids there finally. Eric was in heaven with all of the Thomas and Handy Manny models in the park. Everyone loved Miniland with all of the amazing models there. The model of the capitol below is from that part of the park.

This is, unfortunately, all we saw of the ocean this trip. We made a quick stop there after Legoland, but it was already just past sunset. The boys were a little sad, but that just gives us a good reason to go back!

We finished up our visit at Paul's brother's house. We had such a great time with them. The kids love to see their cousins and play with them. Justin got to go to a high school football game and tail gate party with his cousin, and the little ones just played and played. We had Alisha do a few quick family and kid photos for a yearly update. Some of them turned out hilarious. You've got to love kids when you are trying to take family photos! Anyway...a few of them turned out great, and I'll post them later. We are so grateful to have been able to take this trip! We had a great time, and everyone is looking forward to the next one!

Fun Fall Days in October...

2009-11-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

I love Fall. I love the colors, the cool weather, and the fun activites. October brought with it the end of another season of soccer for Justin and his friend Brett. It was an awesome winning season! Justin always seems to be on a team that is a little challenged, and it has been discouraging for several years. This year, most of his team were 9th graders, and they played really well, winning all of their games up until the very last one. Bummer way to end a season, but they did great!

Here are a few of the other things the Hammonds have been up to this month...

Tyler's first Pinewood Derby with the cub scouts. He worked really hard on his BYU car, and he ended up taking 4th place. He had a little melt down thinking that was last place. Guess we need to work on that sportsmanship a little! But he had a good time, and he felt a little better about all his hard work after we explained the places and no matter who took last, everyone was a winner for trying!

A favorite fall tradition of ours is going to a pumpkin patch and picking out pumpkins. This year were went to the patch next to a corn maze and did both activities in one night. The kids picked out some great pumpkins, and we all had fun in the maze!

We always love going to the ward chili cookoff, eating some great food and visiting with good friends. This is Eric and his buddy Tyson having some fun after chowing down.

One of Paul's least favorite things to do in the fall after picking out the pumpkins is carving them. But he is always a good sport to help the boys do it. They had a great time for family night drawing their faces and watching Dad get dirty carving them!

And lastly, in anticipation of the many hours we will spend in the car this week on our trip to California, Eric got a little early birthday gift so there wouldn't be any fighting over whose turn it was to share their DS with him! He was very excited!! We will be too, if we find enough ear buds hanging around so that the children will be seen and not heard!!

We are now all patiently waiting for Dad to get home from meetings so we can hop in the car and head off to the happiest place on earth! Disneyland....here we come!

Happy Birthday, Justin!

2009-09-30T08:07:00.001-07:00

Friday morning we woke up to some fine chalk art renditions on the driveway courtesy of some of Justin's friends from school wishing him a happy birthday.

They also decorated the tree. We were just glad it was a happy birthday sign and not a case lot of TP!

Later that night, Justin and a few of his friends met up at the park for some football, soccer, and capture the flag. He even had a girl (one of the same who decorated the yard) call to see if she could come to his all boy party. Nice. It has begun. Not sure if I am ready for it. (Did I happen to mention he is now officially old enough for proper documentation that allows him behind a wheel to drive?! Very scary!)

His real birthday was Sunday, so there wasn't a lot of major partying going on that day, but he did enjoy presents and two cakes...an ice cream cake by mom, and a yummy chocolate cake by another one of his friends.

Loser Mom forgot to make sure I had enough candles, so from the few we had kickin' around in the cupboard, he chose to be 1 again. Sorry buddy!

Some of the great things about Justin:

He is kind to everyone.
He has great integrity.
He is a good example to others.
He is a leader.
He knows what is right, and he isn't afraid to tell others.
He keeps us all honest!
He is a great student.
He is responsible.
He is quick to help those in need.
He is fun to be around.

Thanks for being who you are, Justin. We couldn't ask for a better son! We love you!

The Long Awaited Rematch!

2009-09-08T07:55:00.001-07:00

Last spring, Justin and Crazygirl were dishing out some serious trash talk about who was the better soccer player. This, of course, led to a challenge game between families. After about an hour of "serious play" we ended the match tied--one game to one. All the old people decided we were too tired for a tie breaker and opted for ice cream instead. It also allowed us all to save face. Well, that may have been an error on our parts because ever since, Justin has been begging for a rematch! It has taken us over a year to arrange it, but it finally happened! The kids decided to make it just a kid rematch, which suited us just fine! Here are all the happy (and friendly) participants before all the fun began.

Stretching is critical! (At lease it is critical to making you look like you know what you are doing. I'm pretty sure the girls completely dominated in this pre-game skill!)

Here are the two "captains," playing nice and exchanging words before the game begins.

That didn't last long! The gloves came off pretty fast and the trash talk and fighting began!

A friendly kick here, a little shove there...it's all fair in a friendly little game of soccer!

Well, the girls started off with a bang, scoring 2 goals in the first few minutes! Justin was getting a little worried and was complaining about something. I believe Kim's comment was along the lines of "Give me a break! You're wearing shin guards!!" The boys were decked out in shin guards and cleats. The girls were wearing no socks and cute little tennies I believe! We'll unfortunately for the girls, those were their last two goals. The boys scored 5 of their own, and play continued until Dancingqueen declared game over! Just in time for us to get home for the REAL game of the day.....BYU vs. Oklahoma!

What an AWESOME game! We grabbed some pizzas and sat down to enjoy the first game of the season, in pretty high spirits, even though we were all sure of the beating about to come! So we were completely surprised and ecstatic with the winning outcome instead! There was a lot of cheering and yelling coming from our basement that day! It was great to enjoy the game with good friends and some good grub! Thanks for a fun day, Fosters!

Here are some happy, true blue fans!!

Ward Camp Out

2009-09-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

The boys always look forward to going to the ward camp out. I personally think it is a whole lot of work for a very short trip, but I'm just the mom and the only girl in the family. What do I know? Luckily, once we got there, most of my work was done. I sat back and let the boys get busy putting to use all of their scouting skills.

For the last two years, our ward has gone to a campsite in Wallsburg. It is actually pretty nice. Very beautiful scenery and nice facilities, so once we get there, it's usually pretty fun! This year the camp out unfortunately landed on the same weekend as an activity for some good friends of ours. Their son has juvenile diabetes, and Saturday was a 5K walk and fundraiser for JD. Since Paul is over activities in the ward, we decided we needed to stay overnight at the camp out to support that. So to show support for Parker and his activity, we decided to wear our "Parker's Posse" shirts that everyone in his group had for the walk to the camp out. They were pretty sweet shirts, and it was easy to find all my kids since they had on matching shirts!

Once camp was set up, the boys got right around to having some fun with each other, friends, and playing some stick throwing game called Coob or Cube or something like that!

This was the nice little bridge and river that ran past our campsite. I could hear the gurgling river all night. On one hand, it was very peaceful and naturey sounding. On the other hand, that may have been one of the many contributing factors to me not getting any sleep!

We were up early to break camp and help with breakfast so we could make it back for a friend's baptism. Here are the boys cooking.

And for those of you who have patiently been waiting to see if Justin's second attempt at camp cooking went any better than the last....well, see for yourself...

He was very proud! And they tasted good!

Opening Day at Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the "opening day" (for lack of a better term!) at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It is also the last day of summer for the junior high kids. I figured what better activity than to partake in something spiritual before being bombarded by real life in the junior high, so I took Justin and two of his friends, Brett and Victoria, to do baptisms this morning at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I'm so excited that they had a chance to not only serve and be uplifted, but also to be among the first to participate in that ordinance at this new and beautiful temple! Not many people can say that they attended a temple on "opening day!" The only bummer was forgetting the camera to record the event!

Along the same topic, we had a great experience on Saturday at the temple as well. I mentioned a few months back that I had been asked to sing in one of the choirs for the 5th session of the temple dedication. It was such an honor to be asked and an amazing experience to be a part of! From the very first meeting we had with all the choir members from all 9 choirs, I was in awe of the talent around me. When we sang just the opening song for that first meeting, I was almost literally blown out of the seat by the pure volume, talent, and spirit! It was awesome! (If only it could sound that way every week in church!) My choir was no different. It was obviously much smaller than that initial meeting, but full of so many talented people! 4 of the 31 in our choir were from our ward, and our choir consisted of 3 stakes! Speaks to the talent in our very own neighborhood! The whole experience was just fun.

We were able to have a practice in the temple before the dedication where we realized just how closely we would be standing to the prophet. I ended up directly behind him, about 1 1/2 feet away. We joked about rubbing his head, being as close as we were, but we were informed that should we get rowdy like that, his bodyguard in the second row was trained to jump over everyone to land directly in front of us and take us down! :) We decided to refrain.

Since I was in the choir, Paul received a ticket for that session as well. He was able to get 3 more tickets for all the boys but Eric. They were sitting in one of the endowment rooms. What a neat experience to have almost all of my family in the temple together to participate in such a great event! The boys were amazed to see me on "TV" and kept commenting on me standing right behind the prophet!

The meeting was really great! The spirit was incredibly strong. I have never sung the choir part of the Hosanna Anthem before, and it was an incredible experience. Many times while practicing that song, I was moved to tears. I know there were choirs of angels singing with us that day! I'm so grateful for the chance to be a part of the dedication, doing something I love that evokes such feelings of the spirit. I also feel very blessed to live where we do as it affords us many opportunities to be involved in experiences like this!

Father and Sons Camp Out

2009-08-18T13:19:00.001-07:00

After weeks of wedding planning, the boys were definitely ready to go do some male bonding! The day after my sister's wedding was the ward Father and Son Camp Out. Before going off to get dirty, Paul and the boys had to make a quick stop back at Mt. Timpanogos temple with me. My oldest brother and his wife were sealed in the same temple, and in fact, the same sealing room as Denise and Dale the day before. Paul popped in long enough for that ceremony, and then he and the boys hit the road. It was a small group of campers this year, but they said they had a lot of fun.

Of course a camp out wouldn't be complete without a good breakfast and some goofing around. Apparently Justin told the cook that he could make better pancakes. He was given the chance to prove himself. Unfortunately, this was his result! Better luck next year, Justin.

The boys also had a great time on the lake. They fished, skipped rocks, and rode around in the boat.

Good times for the boys! I, on the other hand, also look forward to Fathers and Sons...it means girls weekend for me! After my brother's sealing and grabbing some lunch with a lot of the family, I headed back home to go out with a girlfriend. We shopped, went to the movies, and grabbed a late dinner. Then I went home and slept in until 10:30! A much needed reprieve after all the wedding madness!

Denise's Wedding

2009-08-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

There are so many fun pictures, it was hard to pick! I still uploaded a bunch because I think they are fun. We'll start at the beginning....at the temple. Denise and Dale's engagement was relatively short...7 weeks. They were fairly certain that Dale's temple clearance wouldn't come through soon enough and had planned for a civil ceremony at The Point. About a week and a half before the ceremony, the clearance came through! What an amazing surprise and blessing! They were able to arrange for a sealing in the morning and planned for a ring ceremony at The Point, since a ceremony was already planned there. Besides, Eric was telling everyone he was the ring bearer for her wedding! Here are a few photos from the temple. There are 16 grandkids too young to attend the ceremony, so they were all waiting outside with countless other cousins for the ceremony to end and the bride and groom to emerge.

First....the boredom set in....

Then the creativity and fun kicked in....

With 16 grandkids running around, it wasn't all fun and games. Too many boys, often means trouble. This is so typical...

But then, the bride and groom finally made it outside.

After much running around and loading and unloading, we finally all got to The Point for a quick rehearsal before getting dressed. Here are the cute flower girl (Denise's new step daughter) and ring bearer with the bride before the ceremony.

This is The Point set up for the ring ceremony. We added a white runner down the isle.

So, we were all worried that Eric might bolt instead of actually walking down the isle. This was even better.....don't you think?

Once he got down the isle, he was actually pretty good to stand there quietly with the pillow, even though he did hide behind the best man for a while...

The happy couple.

This was the best part of the ceremony. After much encouragement, Eric finally walked forward with the pillow and promptly covered his eyes with his arm and held the pillow out with the other arm.

Once the ceremony was over, the fun began.

Dinner was yummy, and then it was time for the toasts. I had frantically worked on mine on the way down to the temple that morning, and memorized it on the way back from the temple. If I do say so myself, I think it turned out fabulous! A little bit of sentiment, a little advice, and some good humor. I was seriously glad to get it over with though!

This is the place the children spent most of their night--the candy buffet. The other place was the endless drink bar!

My sister-in-law does wedding cakes, and she did this one. Isn't it amazing?

After the toasts and cake cutting, the real fun began. Dancing....Here are the boys with Denise as the festivities began. Then they all took turns dancing with all of the 9 girl cousins!

As you can see, everyone had a great night! The kids all said, "Let's do that again sometime!" If only they knew how much work it was! I'm so happy for my sis and her great hubby! They are awesome, and I wish them the best of luck!

Pre-Wedding Festivities!

2009-08-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

Finally...the event that has kept me busy all summer so that I hardly recognize any of my friends has come and gone! My one and only sister got engaged Memorial Day weekend, and it has been a whirlwind of planning and running around ever since! Huge thanks goes out to all my friends for all of the random help they gave me...from Kim going with me to preview wedding sites, to Amanda and Dawne loaning me tons of scrapbook supplies, to Loralie spending hours with me going through music and helping me while I made the video to show at the reception. You guys are awesome! Thanks!

After weeks of working and seeing very little of my friends and family, it was time for a little reward. The day before the wedding, Denise, "the Bino's" (Bridesmaids In Name Only--guess they really didn't want to wear "the dress"!), and myself--the Matron of Honor (that really makes me sound old!) headed to the spa for a little R & R. We were on a mission to turn "Bridezilla in the Princess Bride"--as one of the Bino's so aptly put it!

Before treatments--don't we look excited?

One of the finished products...matching French manicures.

From the spa, we headed up Provo Canyon for a family cookout. A lot of the family from out of town coming for the wedding got into town just in time to meet us there. Here are some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen for a long time!

My awesome "little" brother who isn't so little anymore.

Denise, the Bino's, friends, my sister-in-law Amy, and myself.

A couple of adorable and goofy boys.

After the cookout, we were on another mission...some kind of bachelorette party....IN PROVO?! Yeah, I know. Not a lot of options. We finally just hit Los Hermanos for some drinks, snacks, some seriously loud and embarrassing singing from the employees topped off with the fabulous sombrero for the bride to wear.

All in all, the day before the wedding was full of fun! The only bummer part came when I realized I had yet to come up with my speech/toast for the next day. AHHHHH!! I seriously began to stress! I haven't been to a wedding in probaby 15 years, and I know I haven't been to one where there was actually a toast made that I heard! I got home close to midnight with no idea! Tune in to the next post to see how it all turned out!

What a month!

2009-07-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

No, I am not dead, but some days I feel like it! It has been a crazy month! I have been busy helping my sister plan her wedding (1 day left!), celebrating two birthdays, traveling to California for my class reunion (let's just leave out how many years it's been...), housing and visiting with family from both sides, more wedding planning, and trying to squeeze in all of the regular things in life that keep me busy on a daily basis. Here are a few highlights from the 2 months...

Way back at the beginning of June, we went to the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with the Fosters...We had a great time touring the temple and grabbing some dinner after.

Tyler worked hard all year to earn his Soaring Eagle award at school. Here he is with a few friends who also earned it.

Eric was so excited to go to preschool this year with his friend Tysen. Here he is at his preschool graduation with Teacher Salli.

One of my many acts as Matron of Honor for my sister's wedding was to throw a bridal shower for her when she was here at the beginning of July. Good times! Couldn't have done it without help from my sister-in-law Amy!

The 4th of July was great fun! We hit Lagoon with several of Paul's sisters, his parents, and one brother that we haven't seen for many years. The kids had a blast at Lagoon-a-beach and riding all the rides with their cousins.

Jordan's birthday snuck up on us! I can't believe he is 12! He was excited to take a bunch of friends swimming for his party before his birthday and even more excited to go to California to visit Grandpa for his actual birthday!

The real reason we headed to California was to go to my class reunion. Wow...it has been a lot of years! We will leave it at that! So fun to see good friends and visit my dad. We don't get to see him often enough. Here are a couple of photos of some of good ol' "Yuba Duba's" finest...I wish I had taken more than 4 pictures all weekend! Oh well...

This one is for all of you out there that might actually know someone in the picture...get out your magnifying glass!

We all had a great time visiting with Grandpa. He has several beautiful dogs, and the kids love to play with them.

And last, but not least, the weekend of the 24th of July! We had a great time celebrating with cousins from both sides. On the 24th, the boys went laser tagging with all the cousins and aunts and uncles from my side. Then we had dinner and fireworks with the cousins from Paul's side. We finished the weekend off with a full day of fun with Paul's family. Here they are down below...notice the lack of girls!

There are things I've missed, like Paul's big birthday (we have no photos as he was in Pittsburg for work), and Brett and Justin heading off to EFY for the first time! Tons of fun. They can't wait for next year, and maybe then I will remember to send a camera with him!

Sorry to all who had to endure the long summary of our lives this summer! It's been a good one so far. We are looking forward to another full month of fun this summer!

Temple Celebration

2009-06-23T07:24:00.001-07:00

I've decided I am getting just as bad at blogging as I am at journal writing! Kind of like the same thing, so it really isn't such a shock to me! But I am sorry you have been looking at the same lovely picture of Justin now for 2 weeks, wondering what that was all about! As it turns out, it has to do with the new LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple that has just been built. We are lucky enough to live in that new temple district, and because of that, all of our youth had the opportunity to participate in a Temple Celebration. It was a huge production, involving about 8,000 youth from the Salt Lake Valley here in our district. For 3 months they practiced every week to learn dances and songs to perform in the Conference Center in Salt Lake for the Prophet and General Authorities of the church as well as thousands of family and church members. Each stake was assigned a different dance theme depicting the history and different cultures of the state. Our stake was assigned the Polynesian Culture. They learned the hula, the poi balls, a Samoan dance, the Hakka, and I believe a Tongan dance. Justin, of course, was demonstrating the final pose in the Hakka in my last post. Everyone worked so hard, and the final result was an amazing production! Youth who did not participate in the dances were a part of the choir--2,000 strong! It was incredible! I was lucky to be friends with the gal in charge of the whole thing for our stake, and she asked me to be a captain over some of the youth from our ward. That meant I was at every practice, helping and watching as it all unfolded and progressed. What a great experience, for myself and our youth! Here are just a few pictures from the day of the event.

For the final dress rehearsal and production days, we were assigned the same kids to ride in our cars. I had the best group of the bunch! They were all so much fun. Their excitement and enthusiasm was contagious! Here are a couple of shots of them.

On the way out to the car after the performance, it was so crowded and busy, the girls were afraid we would lose Jordan among all the people since he was one of the shortest there. They decided to be his protectors....oh yeah, he was lovin' it!

Check out my friend Amanda's blog for photos from the actual performance...she was our stake photographer and has some great shots from inside the conference center.

Rounding out the kids talents

2009-06-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

May was a busy month for us! It included lots of performances for our family. Tyler loves to sing and has enjoyed being a part of the school choir called Melody this year. They had their spring concert last month where they sang several songs from popular movies. Here's a picture with one of his friends before the concert began.

Jordan is still enjoying playing the violin in the school orchestra. Every spring the school district does a "monster concert" with all of the elementary school orchestras in the district. It's really exciting for Jordan, and this year they did a spectacular job!

Now, we are a little bit worried about the new talents Justin has been developing....

There is a story behind the photo....more to come soon....

Final Soccer Game...

2009-06-03T14:12:00.001-07:00

Who knew soccer could be such a dangerous sport?!!!!

Poor Brett really did get smashed in the face during the final soccer game of the season while playing goalie. I think he took a cleat to the face, to be more accurate. Not only did it mangle his glasses (which luckily got repaired), but it left quite a bloody mark on his face, that unfortunately won't heal quite as quickly as the glasses got repaired! Justin, on the other hand, was reclining quietly in the big rocking chair during the final soccer game due to the fact that he had surgery on Monday. As many of you know, he was born with a club foot. Thanks to an amazing doctor 14 years ago, he walks and runs and does everything else just like any 14 year old boy. However, one of the things that can happen with a club foot is that his feet, calves, and leg lengths tend to be different. To avoid future problems, the doctor put some staples in the growth plate of his right leg to hopefully allow the left leg to catch up to it in length. After they gave him his valium before taking him off to surgery (see pictures below--too bad I didn't video it--he was hilarious!), the doctor came in and talked to us about putting a screw in the growth plate of his left ankle to help even out the growth there as well as help bring the joint more parallel to the ground. Right now it rolls in by about 9%. We had talked about it before, but we didn't know going into the surgery that he would decide to do both things that day! We agreed to it, and I didn't think too much about it until Justin was finally coming out of the anesthetic and asked what the heck had happened to his foot! (It was wrapped up.) He apparently was too doped up when the doctor talked to us about doing it to remember the discussion and was completely cluelss when he woke up! Poor kid! He came out of the surgery just fine, and we were lucky to be able to come home that same night. He is slowly improving each day and is hopeful to make it back to school tomorrow or Friday for the last day or two of school (probably in a wheelchair).

All doped up right before going off to surgery...they give every patient at Shriners a teddy bear...his got lost somewhere between the holding room before surgery and returning to his room after surgery.

After 3 hours in surgery and recovery, he finally came back to the room. This picture is about 3 hours after that, when he finally looked like himself again.

I am woefully behind in posting events from May, but I thought I'd get this one posted so you would all know that the surgery went well, and he is on the road to recovery...hopefully very soon!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-05-27T21:38:00.001-07:00

This is our new temple here in the valley. It is beautiful, and oh so close to us! Paul and I had a chance to volunteer and be ushers last Saturday for part of the open house for the contractors and their families. I ended up stationed in the mechanical room of all places. Pretty cool...none of you will ever see it, I'm sure! It was only open that afternoon so all the contractors and construction workers could show their families where they had been working. It was fun to tag along with their little private "tours" and learn a lot of interesting stuff about all the machinery. It's amazing to me what it takes to run a small temple! Oh, I almost forgot that thanks to a friend of mine that was also working down there, we stumbled upon the "secret" door to the bottom of the baptistry. It was cracked open just a little, and being curious to know where it lead, my friend opened the door and found herself face to face with one of the oxen! When she looked up, there were people on the regular tour looking down at her from the baptistry waiting room! Needless to say, she closed the door very quickly! Pretty funny! When we finally figured out the latching mechanism (gotta be smarter than the door!), we opened it back up at the end and took a little look and stroll around. Pretty cool. On a final note, another cool thing happened on Sunday when I was invited to sing in one of the choirs for one of the temple dedication ceremonies with the prophet and apostles. I am honored to be asked, and I am really looking forward to it! I hope those of you around here get a chance to attend the open house! The temple is very unique and beautiful!

Mother's Day Surprise

2009-05-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

So, I know Mother's Day was almost 2 weeks ago, and I am a little late with this post, but I would be very ungrateful if I didn't give a belated shout out to my 4 cute boys! (The 5th one is pretty cute too, but he didn't get home until the surprise was made!) Saturday night I jokingly said to Justin, "So what are you making me for breakfast tomorrow since Dad will be gone to meetings?" He looked a little startled and said, "Umm.....toast?" You see, none of my boys know how to cook much of anything. I think the closest they could come would be throwing some pizza rolls or chicken nuggets in the microwave. There was one time they actually tried to cook cup of soup in the microwave without any water (not a pretty sight or smell!). I don't think that actually qualifies as cooking! Anyway, he said, "If you show me how to make an omlete tonight, I'll make it for you in the morning." I didn't show him anything, but I did mention how to do it. The next morning, I woke up when Paul got home from his meetings and told me to come out as the boys had a surprise for me. They had a full on breakfast prepared that each of them had made part of. It included an omlete (though creatively cut so we all had a piece, it was one of the lightest and fluffiest I've had!), toast, sausage, waffles, and juice. Pretty cool. They were so proud of themselves. I figured it required documenting it in photos, and definitely a spot on the blog along with a big thank you!! When I got up last Sunday to see Justin making omletes again, I began to wonder why I have never taught him to cook sooner!!

After breakfast, the surprises continued with a dozen beautiful roses, some of my favorite treats, a couple of fun gift cards, and a new phone to replace the one I've been yelling about for weeks. Thanks guys! You are the best!

After church, we met up with my family and Paul's folks for dinner. It was a great day! I hope all of you mothers out there had an equally fabulous day! I know you all deserve it!

Paul with his mom and dad.

My brother, mother, and myself.

Girls' Week in Nashville

2009-05-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

Right after my fun weekend with the girlfriends, my mom, aunt, and I flew out to Nashville to visit my sister for a week! It was a great couple of weeks for me in April! Many thanks to my hubby for being a good sport and playing Mr. Mom so I could get away! Our girls' week started a few years ago when the three of us flew out to D.C. to visit Denise while she lived there. We try to do it every year, and luckily, Denise always lives somewhere that is fun to visit. Besides D.C., we have gone to L.A. and now Nashville a couple of times for a week of total fun and laughter! This trip was no exception! We had a few new people who joined us, and it was a lot of fun. My Aunt Pat joined us as well as my sister in law Michelle and her mom. We also were able to meet and probably terrify Denise's boyfriend, Dale. Great guy, and such a good sport to hang out with and chauffeur a bunch of loud, crazy women around for a week! Our week was busy and full of fun outings. Here are a few highlights:

Visiting 2 plantations dating back to the civil war...

Browsing the booths and eating yummy funnel cake at the street festival in Franklin...

Enjoying yummy meals--many of which I didn't have to prepare...

Rocking out at our very own private concert featuring Dale of the "Stupid Dogs" band...Oh yeah...

Competing in some serious foosball games (note the intense look of concentration on my face!!)...

But most of all, enjoying time with my sis! Can't wait for the next girls' week!

Girls' Weekend

2009-05-02T21:26:00.001-07:00

Back in high school....oh so long ago....I was one of few LDS girls in our school. I counted myself extremely lucky to find 4 amazing and beautiful gals that surprising liked hanging out with me. 3 of the 4 were also LDS, making for great fun at all of our church meetings and activities. We even tried our hand at some missionary work with the 4th. I look back at all of the things going on around me growing up in California, and I count my blessings often for these wonderful friends who helped me have a total blast in high school while making good choices along the way...most of the time!!! =) We had our share of ups and downs as girls typically do, but in the end, we always knew we could count on each other and be accepted for who we were.

Over the years we have kept in touch, some years better than others. A few years back, we decided it was time to get back together for a little reunion. The 5 of us hadn't been all together since high school. We had a fabulous time and decided it needed to be a yearly occurrence! A couple of weeks ago was our 3rd annual high school girlfriend reunion. We spent the weekend relaxing at the spa, eating yummy food, watching movies, shopping, and laughing a lot! It is extremely therapeutic for us all!

This is the first place we usually stop when everyone gets into town to grab a little snack and catch up. We get a kick out of all the little divas who work in the Tea Room, with all of their rules and signs posting said rules all over. I'm pretty sure they hate us there, as we are not very quiet!

We always have to hit the breakfast buffet at our hotel (above) at least one of the mornings! Another place we like to go for dinner is the Melting Pot! So yummy and fun! But we also like to try out new, fun little places that Krista comes up with. She lives downtown and knows all the best places to go. Here we are at a great little Italian place called Trio. (And just in case you are wondering...only one of those yummy little drinks is fully loaded!)

It's amazing that after so many years of living our separate lives, we all mesh together as well now as we did back then! True friendships should be cherished. They are sometimes few and far between! Thanks for a great weekend, gals!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-17T07:13:00.001-07:00

I love Easter. Not only do we get the chance to reflect on our Savior and His atonement, but it is also finally the time of year I can usually start to believe Spring has come! Well, reflecting on the Savior is always a great experience. Unfortunately, I am beginning to believe spring will never come as it was cold and raining for Easter weekend and has snowed since then! I'm beginning to believe spring is just a mirage that Mother Nature is taunting us with! See the spring blossoms budding out under all that snow?

Anyway...back to Easter. Every year my dear mother colors eggs (sometimes by herself if none of the grandchildren are there to help) and hides dozens and dozens of them for a big Easter egg hunt on Saturday for all her grandchildren. The event is complete with real eggs, plastic eggs filled with candy and money, and a big treat basket that is full of gift bags for each grandchild with special prizes and treats in them. She always makes everything extra special! The kids look forward to it each year almost as much as I do--you see, it means I never have to color eggs (unless we are there early to help mom) or hide the eggs!! It's great! Well, this year the egg hunt was the morning after the piano recital, so we spent the night, and I had (I mean got) to help color eggs and hide all 8 dozen inside her condo as the weather was too cold and rainy for any outside! That was amusing, trying to find enough "hiding" spots for them all! And then since we spent the night, the boys had a definitely unfair egg locating advantage over the girl cousins since they had a couple of morning hours before the official hunt began to scope out all the hiding spots!! Oh well. Everyone still had lots of fun. Thanks, Grandma!

Piano Recital

2009-04-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

Another part of our weekend included the boys piano recital. My mom has been graciously teaching them all piano, as I am sure if I did it myself, it would be bad! Something about parents teaching their own kids anything always causing problems! Anyway...they are all doing great! Tyler really seems to be a natural and picks it up so easily. The others boys work really hard at it, and we were really proud of them. Jordan also played a couple of his violin pieces. He is really getting pretty good with that instrument also. Hopefully they will all continue to enjoy and be involved with music!

Here is my mom with all of her piano students! 7 of the 8 of them are grandchildren. She does 8 lessons a week for free!!! What a great mom and grandma!

Happy Birthday, Tyler

2009-04-12T20:40:00.001-07:00

It was kind of a party week for us, but we will just start with Tyler's birthday. The kids were out of school early on Wednesday for spring break, so Tyler invited a few of his favorite peeps (along with his brothers) to head on over to the rec center for 2 hours of fun filled frolicking in the pool. (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure boys should be described as "frolicking," so let's go with "goofing around" instead!) They all had a fabulous time, and I think it ranks right up there with easiest parties EVER for me! We met there, played for a couple hours, and handed them a cupcake on their way out the door!! The best part was, they loved it!!!

Tyler's actual birthday was on Saturday. We celebrated that with his Grandma, Aunt and Uncle, and some cousins. All the kids and the 2 dads watched 2 movies on Uncle Todd's big screen tv and pigged out on pizza while Grandma and the mom's went to the BYU Ballroom Dance Concert and out to dinner! Fun for all!

9 Interesting Facts About Tyler:

1. Loves soccer, basketball, and golf

2. Plays the piano like a pro

3. Loves to build and draw things

4. Sings with perfect pitch

5. Great friend and helper to his little brother

6. Loves electronics of all kinds--his DS, Wii, Gamecube, etc....

7. Loves chocolate of any kind

8. Learns how to do almost anything he tries until he masters it
9. May break many bones before mastering his new heelys!

Happy birthday, Tyler! We love you!

Vay-Cay

2009-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

So Paul and I just got back from our vay-cay...here we are, spending a little quality time on our African Safari hanging out with the Pride at their rock....

and catching up with a few of the giraffes having lunch....

Okay, so we were only on African Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Oh well. Frankly, I think that is about as close to a safari as I really want to get. I'm more of the tropical beach kind of vay-cay gal! I was very happy to be able to tag along with Paul on his last travel itinery though. His company is a sponsor for Children's Miracle Network, and his district happened to raise the most donations for them this last year. As a reward, the company sent him to the annual Children's Miracle Network Celebration in Orlando, Florida. This is the 2nd year we have had the opportunity to attend the Celebration, and it was just as fun and exciting as last year. Every year, CMN chooses one "champion" child and their family from each state to attend convention. It is a full paid vacation for the family. They get to attend convention and share some of their amazing victory stories with all of us, and then they get a great Disney World vacation and a trip to Washington D.C. as well. This year, I understand President Obama was planning on greeting them in person. It's quite an event for them, and it is so neat to meet all of them and cheer them on. They have a medals ceremony for them where they introduce each of them and have them come out on stage to receive a medal. It makes me cry every time! They are so precious and have such amazing stories of overcoming some really incredible things. Many of them come out jumping and cheering like it is the Olymipic games. Last year one little boy came out just overcome with emotion...crying and hugging everyone. It was really touching. When the families walk with them at the champions parade, many of them are crying and thanking you as they walk by. It is such an incredible experience. It makes me so grateful for healthy children and for a 1st class facility like Primary Children's to take our children to when we need to. And in that regard, it is a little more personal for us since we spent a lot of time there with Justin and his club foot after he was born. Because of that, we are big supporters of CMN, and are glad that Paul has the opportunity to help in some way with his business being a sponsor.

As part of our trip, we were able to spend 2 days in the parks at DisneyWorld, and we had a great time! We enjoyed the beautiful weather, the pool, the hot tub, and all the fun events at Celebration!
This is a picture of Paul and one of his General Sales Managers with the Utah Champion and his family.

Thank you Golf Galaxy for another great trip!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little slow posting this, but just in case you were needing a laugh for the day, here it is. I realized last Tuesday morning after sending all the kids off to school that I would seriously be a final contestant in the "Loser Mother of the Year" contest. Yes, it is true. I sent all three of my kids off to school without any green on them! Being a former elementary school teacher, I knew how traumatic this could be. I could just envision my kids coming home telling me tragic stories of relentless pinching throughout the day.

After school as we were in the car going to the dentist, I asked the boys how their day was and apologized for not reminding them it was St. Patrick's Day. I asked if they got pinched a lot. Tyler began to tell me his tales of woe--poor baby! Third graders can be obnoxious about that, but 5th graders can be downright mean, so I was curious to hear Jordan's story. When I asked him, he said he did get pinched a few times until he started showing everyone the green on his pants. I was a little confused as I knew he was wearing jeans, and they weren't green. I kept asking him what he meant. He was pointing to his pant leg and repeating that he had green on his pants. Up in the front seat, I couldn't really see what he was pointing to. When I became completely frustrated and pointed out that there was no green on his pants and I didn't understand what he was talking about, he replied,

"Yes, there is! Can't you see the grass stains?!!!"

Sure enough, after Paul and I wiped the tears out of our eyes from laughing so hard, we were indeed able to see several large deep green stains on his pants! I bet he did that on purpose at recess! So there you have it--I get the loser mom award, and my son gets the most creative problem solving award!

An afternoon with Thomas and Friends

2009-03-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true. I now have a forth little boy obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. I think we probably have almost every piece of track and every train represented in some form from the first little metal die cast engines to the big wooden ones, to the motorized plastic ones with remote controls even! The collection keeps multiplying every year, with each new kid! So, when one of my best friends, Amanda, called last November to see if I wanted to buy tickets to go see Thomas Live on Stage with she and her son (Eric's best little buddy), of course I said yes. We took the boys yesterday, and they seemed to love it. I, myself, couldn't understand a word Sir Topham Hatt said with his fake little accent, but I was totally impressed with the actual trains. Their mouths moved when they spoke; their eyes moved; their facial expressions changed, they blew smoke out of their smokestacks, and they moved around stage, even turning on a dime. It was fun to see the boys so excited to go see Thomas--they clapped and cheered, and called out the trains names when they appeared on stage. All in all, it was a fun one on one excursion with the 4 year olds.

Justin's Website

2009-03-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Justin has been learning how to make video games now for about 2 years. He has tried out a few different programs. He has also made his own website to publish his games so his friends and other "gamers" can play them. He really wants to be able to sell his games at some point. I am pretty impressed with his efforts! He has basically taught himself all about coding and the various languages that are used to make games. He continues to prove the idea that kids are so much more technology-smart than we are! So, I'd like to introduce his website to all of you so you can check it out!

www.justintimegames.webs.com

For all you fellow gamers out there, check it out--or have your kids check it out! Justin also wants me to put in a plug to become a member on his website. You'll receive notice when updates are made and have access to members-only pages.

For all of you fellow ward members, he also wants to let you know that he will have his games available at the ward scout fund raiser auction on Friday, April 3rd. Happy gaming!!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

This year, Paul and I decided to go out for Valentine's Day a day early and avoid some of the crazy crowds. We decided to spend Saturday with the kids doing family things. We started the day off bright and early (way too early for me!) with Tyler's final Junior Jazz basketball game at 8 a.m. (Who schedules games at 8 a.m. on a Saturday?!) Anyway, it was a great game. Tyler has learned so much this season and improved a ton! In fact, the other day he was outside playing with Justin, and Justin came in all winded and going on and on about how much Tyler had improved and how he was out there telling Justin and Jordan all the rules they were breaking. It was pretty funny! Tyler had a great coach! There were a few kids on his team that he knew from school, so that made it fun. They played 8 games and only lost 2--I think it was their first two games. After that they were on fire, often hitting the mercy rule of 20 points more than the other team when the scorekeepers just flip the white cards over the scores. For once, I had a kid on the team you always hate to play against! It was pretty fun! He still has a lot to learn, and we definitely have to work on his running skills, but overall, it was a great experience for him.

For the next part of our family Valentine's Day activities, we took the boys to see the Draper Temple and go through the open house. It was pretty cold and snowy. We couldn't stand outside very long to get a clear picture or admire the beauty of the outside of the temple, but what a great experience to take our kids inside the temple and experience all the beauty inside and the quiet, peaceful spirit that resides there! I loved the opportunity to show them what going to the temple looks like, and more importantly, what it feels like. It was also another good opportunity to explain to them that what happens in the temple is not secret, but very sacred to us and encourage them when they are old enough to be able to go and experience it for themselves.

We ended our day with a family pizza and movie night. Good food, good show, good times!

A little exercise...

2009-02-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

Off track in the winter is always hard! The kids can't really go outside to play for any length of time, so inside all they want to do is watch tv, play video games, tear up the house, or wrestle and fight! So yesterday I decided it was time to get out of the house for some good old fashioned exercise for the kids and their friends and several hours of hanging out and chatting with my girlfriends! We headed to Jumpin' Jacks. It's a huge warehouse full of bounce house type things with slides and obstacle course blow ups as well. Lots of fun! The best part was the kids had a nice change of scenery, played with good friends, got some exercise, and except for the unavoidable interruptions of "Can I have a dollar fifty?" "I'm thirsty!" "Eric got hurt!" "I'm hungry!", I had 3 1/2 hours of sitting and chatting with my friends. All in all, it was a good "field trip!" Thanks Amanda and Kim for keeping me company and providing playmates for my kids!

Proof children really do listen in church!

2009-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in stake conference, a member of the stake presidency was reading off all of the names of the general authorities of the church for our sustaining vote. When he read off the name L. Tom Perry, Eric turned to Paul's sister and said, "L. Tom Perry?!!! That's like Tom and Jerry!!" (Which happens to be his current favorite cartoon of choice!) Cracked us all up! Living proof 4 year olds can rhyme AND listen in church!

Frustration!

2009-01-28T08:41:00.001-08:00

So, I thought I'd be a good mom and register Justin for EFY this summer. He and his cousin have been planning on going together as soon as both of them were old enough. Two weeks ago was the early registration period. You could get online and request sessions any time during the week and then they would do a random selection process to place all the applicants. So, I waited patiently for 2 hours to get onto the registration page. I filled it all out and linked him to his cousin. When I hit the final processing button, I, of course, get an error page and it boots me out. So later in the day, I again patiently wait my turn "in line" to REQUEST sessions--not even actually register him! 2 hours later I finally get on and the process does go through. Then I had to wait 2 weeks to see if his request had been filled for one of the sessions we wanted. Unfortunately, his request was denied!!!!! The e-mail actually says they are able to place 90% of their applicants in one of their requested sessions. Apparently we are just in the losing 10%. So, starting today, all of the rejects get a "2nd chance" to sign up for any available spots. When I got on today, of course, there are no spots available at the school we wanted--unless he wanted to miss the last week of 8th grade to attend. So basically 5 hours of my life have been wasted, and there wasn't a darn thing I could have done differently. It's the luck of the draw. I'm not sure how I feel about the random selection. On the one hand, it does seem to be a fair way to do it. On the other, I'm sure I absolutely sent in my "request" before others who are now securely registered for the spot we wanted! Ugh!! I am totally frustrated! On top of that, next week I get the joy of trying all over again to get him into a local session. This time I'm sure is just first come, first served. Wish me luck!!!

A Salute to Infancy

2009-01-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

I guess it all started when Eric was three months old, and he came with mom and dad on a trip to Texas. For ease of packing, I only brought along 2 small receiving blankets--you know, the waffle looking kind. Anyway, I started throwing one over the top of him in his infant seat everywhere we went, to keep the noise, cold, and germs out (or so I deluded myself to think that a thin receiving blanket could do all that!) Anyway, he apparently got really attached to those blankets, and ever since, we could never go anywhere without one. I think I must have had at least 10 of those blankets when Eric was born, probably all dating back to the birth of Justin 10 years earlier. By the time Eric was 2, I was down to 4 of them. In the last year, we could only find 2. He ALWAYS had to sleep with them, and often dragged them around with him. Finally, a couple of months ago, Paul told him this one final blanket needed to be thrown away since it had holes in it and multiple stains that wouldn't come out! It was a sad morning when Eric finally agreed to drop blankie in the garbage. He gave it a final salute before turning sadly away. So for a while there, we thought our little soon to be 4 year old had been broken of his "Linus" status. Miraculously, a few weeks ago when cleaning the basement, he unearthed the one remaining blanket that has been lost for some time. (See what cleaning brings? Pretty sure I'm done with that from now on!) He was overjoyed--running up the stairs shouting that he had found his white blankie!!! So, we are back to having a "Linus" in the house until this blanket either disintegrates, or is secretly taken by daddy. (Maybe that is what happened to the other 8 that were lost!)

While we are on the subject of my favorite 4 year old, I realized with all the craziness of the holidays, I kind of skipped over Eric's birthday last month! Poor kid--it's sure to happen more than once in his life with a Dec. 21st birthday! Unbelievably, he turned 4 on the 21st! It's hard to imagine he is growing up so fast! He is such a smart little cookie! He is also very black and white--you always know what he likes or dislikes. He's completely bossy and pretty much a control freak--apparently the less desirable genes got passed right along with the ones that made him so completely adorable! (Good thing the later genes came with the less desirable ones, or he might not have made it this far!)

Things Eric loves:

Preschool and play dates with his buddy Tysen

Playing the Wii

Current favorite movie--Walle

Candy and chocolate

Frozen waffles--thank you Tysen

Mickey Mouse

Thomas the Tank Engine

Reading with mom

Being with his brothers

Playing games with Grandma

Snuggling with daddy

Here he is after about 4 different attempts to blow out the candles. Notice only one is out, and no they are not trick candles! Maybe some of my "special needs" genes got passed along too! Bless his heart! Good thing he's cute!

Reality Check

2009-01-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to me! As I continue to get older, I am not sure how I feel about that. Paul summed it up this way--every birthday is just another year closer to death. Exactly why do we celebrate that? This, of course, was after I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday this year since it is going to be one of those new decade birthdays which always seems like more of a big deal to me! Anyway....here is the reality check that actually cracks me up, even though it confirms that I am no longer as young and hip as I constantly try to think that I am. Last night as we were walking out to the parking lot of the temple, there was a younger couple talking behind us. The girl was going on and on about wanting to go back to Europe. She was telling her husband that she wanted to go soon, not when she was 40 or something, so he was just going to have to figure it out. Then as a final blow, she said, "I'm not waiting until I'm OLD to travel again!" ......And there you have it. Straight from the mouth of babes (and they never lie)--40 is "old"! Now, I'm not quite "old" yet, but I will be fairly soon. Wow. I don't know how this has happened. It seems like just yesterday I was as loud and obnoxious as she is. Okay, I know what my dear friends are thinking...I'm still as loud and obnoxious as she is, but now I can add old the that list! Happy birthday to me!

Snow Buddies

2009-01-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

We have had so much snow since Christmas, I'm already ready for spring...but I'm sure I've already mentioned that! The Saturday after Christmas, we decided to take advantage of all the snow and our own convenient snow hill at the park by our house to try out Eric's new 2-man snow tube. He LOVED it! He would squeal all the way down the hill! Everyone took turns going down with him.

Then he got brave and wanted to try Jordan's one man tube. I wasn't so sure about sending him by himself, but off he went. He REALLY squealed all the way down the hill this time, and at the bottom, he hopped off, stuck his thumb up in the air, and yelled, "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Here are a few shots of the other boys hitting the slope and riding the tube train down the hill.

Towards the end of our sledding excursion, I looked over at Eric, and he was laying on the ground making a snow angel. It was so cute. I have no idea where he even learned to do it since you all know I wasn't laying in the snow teaching him!!

What a great afternoon--even if my face almost froze solid! It absolutely reminded me how fun it was to just be a kid!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T12:50:00.001-08:00

New Year's Eve brought several firsts with our family. Justin and his friends, Brett and Victoria, are finally old enough to go to the New Year's Eve dance at the church. They were all very excited.....well, okay, Victoria was very excited and the boys were skeptical! However, they all had a great time hanging out together in their own little comfort zone. Maybe next year they will branch out a little and meet and dance with some new people!

The rest of us went to a little party with a few friends. While there we found out who could and couldn't sing along to some of the classics from the 80's--Duran Duran, Madonna, Men At Work....etc. We discovered that although Paul and Dan were not the best at Dance Dance Revolution, they could do a pretty mean imitation of Madonna's Material Girl and other equally embarrassing and hilarious 80's tunes.

After watching Dad take the mic, Jordan and Tyler decided it would be okay to try it themselves upstairs where the kids had their own karaoke party going on with Disney's Sing It. They chose to rock out with the Jonas Brothers.

All in all, a great time was had by all, though I'm not sure how long it will take Sydney to get over the fact that she got beat by Paul singing their "Material Girl" duet! Practice, practice, practice, Sydney...there's always next year! Happy 2009, everyone!

White Christmas

2008-12-26T22:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, and a whole lot of snow came with it! Every time we shoveled out, we turned around, and it was snowing again! Despite all the snow and wind, we had a wonderful Christmas and hope that all of you did as well. I was glad we didn't have to travel anywhere and could just enjoy the snow from our warm home. We woke up this morning with another 8 inches or so! Crazy weather after such a mild fall! It took Paul and Justin about 3 hours to dig us out as well as his sister and our neighbor who is ill. They were beat, but the other boys had some fun!

My sister Denise and I braving the snow and cold just long enough to take some pictures.

Denise and the boys

Eric wanted to "help" shovel, but he had more fun making snowballs and throwing them at nothing in particular.

"My snowball's bigger than your snowball." And this is when I turned and ran inside!

Now that I have enjoyed a nice white Christmas, I am looking forward to an early spring!

Christmas Eve Traditions

2008-12-24T21:02:00.001-08:00

"The children are nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums dance in their heads...." or something like that! As I sit here waiting for them to fall asleep so that Santa can come, I thought I would update the blog with some family traditions we have for Christmas Eve. We started the day off by baking sugar cookies. It just isn't Christmas without our decorated sugar cookies! I hate making them, but I love eating them!

After cleaning up and having some lunch, we headed off for another family favorite on Christmas Eve--the movies. Today we saw Madagascar 2. It was really a fun movie. This tradition started when I was very young. We were so obnoxious and roudy on Christmas Eve that my mom sent my sister and brothers to a movie to give us something to do for 2 hours and get us out of her hair for 2 hours of peace and quiet! As we grew up (I think we became less obnoxious), and it turned into a whole family tradition. Now we do it with our kids. We usually pick up some pizzas on the way home for dinner, finish up any last minute wrapping, and watch some Christmas specials. The boys then get to open one gift (always the same every year)--new pj's that I make from the dollar flannel at walmart! Easy to do, and it's a fun tradition. My grandma used to make us elaborate nightgowns when we were young. Good thing I only have boys! I'm only good with straight seems and simple patterns!

The night ends with magic Christmas cocoa (works like a charm to help the little ones sleep--and no, it's not spiked!) and their magic Christmas pillow cases sewn by Aunt Susan, guaranteed to help them fall asleep and sleep all night!

What are some of your favorite family traditions?

Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas, from our family to yours!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-13T22:57:00.000-08:00

Finally! For a while there, I was sure we wouldn't get any snow for Christmas (and I was secretly a little happy!). Not that I don't like snow on Christmas. I just think it should fall on the night before Christmas Eve, stay beautiful and white through Christmas Day, and then make a hasty retreat the morning of the 26th, not to be seen again until the next Dec. 23rd. What can I say...even after almost 20 years of living in Utah, I am still a California girl at heart! I hate winter, and I especially hate the snow unless all I have to do is sit in my recliner in front of the fireplace watching it fall quietly outside while drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate and watching a great movie or reading a book. If I have to actually go outside in it, forget it. And don't get me started on the gray, dirty, ugly piles of it that never go away by the time January rolls around! Oh well....I seem to have digressed from the intended topic! I'm still a little behind on my blogging, so here we go.

Once we wisked the kids away from Grandma and Grandpa's on Thanksgiving without getting any leftovers for dinner :( we started to think Christmas. I love the Christmas trees and all of the lights and music that go with the holidays, so we usually try to get them up soon after Thanksgiving. We worked on it that very weekend this year. It was nice to have the boys old enough now to assemble the whole tree with decorations downstairs while also giving a little help with the one upstairs. I always enjoy putting all the decorations up....it's taking them down that is not so fun. Maybe that is why people leave their Christmas lights up until June, sometimes. I guess I can relate to that, and I might even stop secretly mocking them. Who knows. Maybe that will be one of my new year's resolutions. Hope you have all had fun decorating for the holidays! It's always a lot of work, but I love having a whole month to enjoy them!

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-12-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hello again. So, it's been a looooong time since I've posted! I have no good excuse other than I have been busy. You know, the usual post-vacation blues, trying to readjust to reality, Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and decorating...blah, blah, blah. Again, no good excuse! Since this is a post about Thanksgiving (albeit, belated), I'd like to say thanks to all of my dear friends who secretly wanted to write me hate comments telling me to update my blog--or else.....thanks so much for only thinking it, and not really doing it, even though we all know you wanted to!

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed down to Paul's Mom and Dad's home for the extended family potluck at the church. It actually turned out better than I thought it would (I've never been a big fan of family gatherings at the church). The food was all yummy--and I didn't have to cook it all! There were lots of fun relatives there, good games, and a lot of really good pies! Here's a few of the family pictures from the event.

Paul had a lot of work to get done later that night, and I had a sale at Michael's to get to, so we headed out pretty early after putting the church back in order. We had eaten at noon at the church, and it wasn't until we were on the road and all the kids wanted to know what we were having for dinner that we realized our mistake...we had left before taking advantage of leftovers for dinner!!! That is one of my favorite parts of the day!! And we hadn't even stolen any of the leftovers to take home with us. I'm still feeling deprived of my proper Thanksgiving experience. I guess this is one of the drawbacks of not cooking it all myself at home! There's always next year.

A Week In Paradise...

2008-11-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

Paul and I just returned from a fun filled week on board the ms Veendam. What a great trip! We went with my mom, brother, his wife, and my sister. It was to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday this year. I wasn't sure Paul would survive 8 days with my family stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean, but he did! The week was full of many great memories! Here are a few of the highlights:

Most Memorable:
Being waited on hand and foot. Dressing up for amazing 5 course meals every night--if you want one of everything on the menu, they will bring it to you!

Spending time with family in amazing and exotic parts of the world!

Most Relaxing Shipboard Activity:

Sitting out on the promenade deck, watching beautiful sunsets over the ocean.

Favorite Treats:
Of course there are always amazing amounts of treats and gourmet desserts on board ship, but one of our favorites, and a daily treat for us was the ice cream bar, practically 24/7! Tastes so good after an afternoon of lounging in the sun!

Another fabulous treat we discovered in Key West was Key Lime Pie on a Stick! It was frozen and dipped in chocolate! Yum!!!

Most Relaxing Excursion:
There we were, in the middle of the rain forest in Guatemala, and what did we do? We went to this really cool, beautiful resort complete with private pools, private beach, hammocks, a turtle and iguana farm, water slides, a light house, and great shopping! It was so fun! We had a riot on the water slides and in the pool, but we also just had plenty of time to lay in a hammock or chaise and just relax!

Place we spent the most time on board:
The lido deck! Yes, they really have lido decks on cruise ships--not just on the Love Boat on TV!

Most Interesting Excursion:
The Mayan ruins of Altun Ha in Belize. Due to flooding, our original excursion to the Xunantunich ruins was cancelled. We went here instead and really enjoyed learning its history and climbing the temple behind us in the photo!

Most Fun In Port:

Here we are in the hurricane ravaged port of Costa Maya, Mexico. We hadn't planned an excursion here. Just planned on enjoying the beautiful beach below! Once there, however, we decided to rent a jet ski for an hour of endless fun and exhilaration! After that, we hopped on a boat that took us out to the reef to snorkel for an hour, and we saw some great fish! Really a fun day!

Funniest Moments:

The day we found out there was a "peasant revolt" in Roatan so we couldn't get off the ship there (that was a bummer, but the peasant revolt cracked us up! Especially since right in our daily program Roatan boasted the fact that there had never been any political uprising in their history!) The next funny moment happened later that day when Paul and I snuck up to the completely empty "Teens Only" area (thus the reason for sneaking as we are clearly past teenage years, though compared to the rest of the passengers, we could pass for teenagers!) to lay in the hammocks up there for a little nap. I very gracefully sat on one and proceeded to do a complete 180 in it, effectively dumping me on my rear end on the floor! Paul wished he had the video camera rolling for it, but he was laughing too hard! He did make me stay on the ground until he could snap a quick photo to document my graceful moves!

Lastly, volunteering my brother and sister-in-law to participate in the Newly and Not So Newly Wed Game. Once up there we learned all kinds of things about them, including my brother's not so appropriate pet name for his wife. But the funniest part came when they had to announce in front of all their family where was the most unusual spot they had a little fun (if you know what I mean)! Poor Todd! Nothing like sharing it all with your mom and sisters in the audience!

All in all, a great vacation! I can't wait for the next one!

A Weekend of Firsts...

2008-10-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

Now, nobody faint or anything--especially those of you who know me well and have heard me say many times that this is something I would never do--but I started the "weekend of firsts" off with a little homemaking session. I canned carrots that we grew in our garden!!! I know. Shock and amazement are written all over your face! For those of you not so familiar with my background, here is the long version. I am a California girl. My parents had the brilliant idea one summer to rent space at a farm to grow a garden. Ugh!!! I hated going there every Saturday to weed and take care of it! I hate ANY kind of yard work, especially weeding! So, I really had no desire to have a garden of my own someday. Needless to say, I am still not a great gardener! My kids and husband do most of the work! But, nevertheless, I did have a small part in growing and harvesting these carrots. As for canning....I always swore that I would never do anything so "molly" as canning food! Yuck! I grew up on fresh fruits and vegetables which makes me kind of a produce snob I guess because I really hate canned items. But the bigger reason behind never wanting to can is I'm basically a lazy person, and it just seems like so much work! Well, last week, a good friend of mine mentioned she needed to can her carrots. When I mentioned that Jordan had just pulled up a whole bowl full of carrots out of our garden, she invited me over to can with her. Now that is my idea of canning! Going to someone else's house, making a mess in their kitchen, using their equipment, being told exactly how to do it, and then leaving before the cans actually cool down! Wow! Canning for dummies (lazy ones to boot!) So, long story short, I did something I said I'd never do; they actually turned out; and I am very proud! =)

So the weekend continued with doing new things....A few of my friends invited me to join them at Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village. I've lived here for several years and have never gone. For those of you who don't know what it is or live nearby and haven't gone, it is basically a huge GNO around Halloween when every girl (all ages) dresses up like a witch and heads to Gardner Village for shopping, eating, dancing, and hanging out with all your friends. It was a ton of fun! Here is a shot of the craziness and a couple others of my friends and I in our finest witch's costumes! Great time, girls. Thanks for inviting me!

Family Photo Shoot

2008-10-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some of our favorite shots from our weekend photo shoot with Paul's sister-in-law. She's really been developing her photography business lately, and we think she does a great job! We are really grateful to her for spending part of her vacation working with us! Anyone need a photographer.....? Let me know!

Fall is definitely here!

2008-10-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend for BYU's homecoming game we were looking forward to a visit from Paul's brother and his wife from California. We don't get to see them often enough, so we were looking forward to it. I've been wanting Alisha to do a family photo shoot for us, and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity! The weather has been fabulous, and there were plenty of fall leaves up the canyon for some great outside shots! Wouldn't you know it....just my luck....the one weekend they are here and able to do the family photo shoot....it is not only supposed to be freezing but possibly raining and snowing! Unbelieveably, the weather held long enough for us to get some great shots, but we froze our toes off while doing it! It was a rude awakening that fall is definitely here! A huge thanks to Matt and Alisha and their thin California blood for enduring the cold with us on not only one, but two separate occassions to get all of our pictures taken! I totally stole this proof from Alisha's blog to post as a little sneak peak of more to come! When I get the DVD full of pictures, I'll post some more! This was one of my favorite pictures of the boys!

A Witch Hunt

2008-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

It was a mighty cold day for a witch hunt, but we persevered anyway!! Loralie and I decided a fun fall activity would be to head on down to Gardner Village to check out all the witches and other Halloween decorations. Great idea, minus the cold weather. But despite the chill, Eric and Carly had so much fun running from one witch to the next. They really got a kick out of all their costumes and funny poses, however, I think Eric was secretly a little scared of them because when I tried to get him to pose for a picture with one of them by himself, he was having none of that! He did get brave enough to pose with Carly by a few of the fabulous witches. The weather did make for a great excuse to end our outing with some hot chocolate and cookies! Yum!

Great Date Night!

2008-10-08T08:26:00.001-07:00

So, as most of you know, Paul and I love to golf. Here is one of our recent outings.

We have been wanting to arrange a couple's golf tournament for our ward all summer. Paul wanted to play at The Bluff, a course he helped to design and build. He then worked there for the first half of our marriage. It's a great course! Well, he procrastinated a little getting it organized (don't know why with all he is dealing with at work, plus all his bishopric responsibilities!). Anyway, when he finally got to scheduling it, the only day available was on a Friday afternoon/evening. We started out with 28 players signed up. It dwindled down to about 16 a day before the event. An hour before leaving, we were down to 12. Two couples didn't show, so we took off with only 8 of us! Oh well. At least all of the main meal dishes were present! We had a light dinner in the clubhouse, and then we played the back nine at The Bluff. Only about 3 of the 8 had ever played more than a couple of rounds in their lives, but everyone did great, and we all had a fabulous time! We played a scramble, so no one had a chance to get too discouraged. My team even used 2 of my drives (over my husband's!!! Had to get that little bit of info in! It doesn't happen often!!)! A good time was had by all, and we hope to repeat it next year and have a better turnout!

The whole group after finishing up.

The amazingly awesome girl half of the group.

Oh,... and the boys.

Our awesome team! (We totally beat the other team!!! There was no unfair advantage, either, like maybe a PGA pro on our team...)

And...the runners up. Better luck next time, guys. Just kidding!! So glad you all came. It was a ton of fun!

Birthday Boy

2008-10-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, JUSTIN!

Can't believe he is another year older--mostly because that means I am also another year older! What a great kid! I just wanted to take a minute to tell everyone I have an awesome kid here. He helps out around the house; he babysits; he mows the lawn; he gets good grades; he's fun to be around; and best of all, he has a good heart! Love you kid!

So, here's a quick shot of Justin the night of his party. Only a couple of his friends ended up being able to come, but they had lots of fun. It was kind of a switch for me as I was gone that night, and Paul got to be in charge of the whole thing. Wow! Way to go, Dad.

20 Years of Cougar Memories

2008-09-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

Rise and Shout! The Cougars are out!!! I love this time of year! I love the fall weather; I love the leaves changing color; and I love Cougar football! This love of BYU football was ingrained in me at an early age. Even growing up in California, we watched every game! I swear my mom paid off the PFR in our stake to hook up the satellite and a TV every Saturday so that we could all troop over to the church with popcorn and drinks to cheer them on. And, I have vague memories of a family home evening when I was quite young where we learned the ENTIRE BYU fight song!

So, it occurred to me this weekend as I was watching another great victory over the Wyoming Cowboys at LaVell Edwards Stadium that I have been cheering the BYU Cougars on to victory IN PERSON now for 20 years!!! 18 of those years I have been going with my awesome hubby and true blue Cougar fan, Paul.

Now, after you pick your jaws up off the floor because I know you are all thinking we couldn't possibly be that old, let's take a look back in time. Turn back the clocks to Fall 1989--I was a happy, carefree BYU freshman coed (yes, I know this is dating me. Be sure to help me up the stairs next time you see me! It's been a long time since I climbed the "duck pond" stairs south of campus multiple times a day!!) Anyway...I thought it would be fun to look back in time to one of my first BYU home games. And yes, I was one of those annoying students who stood for the ENTIRE 4 hours of play!! (What's that all about? I can't even remember! I just know that's what we did, and they still do it! Again, I ask, why? I really must be getting old!) Anyway...here I am with my sis--everything looks pretty much the same, right?

Okay, so only the mountains and the number of fans look the same! Obviously this was my younger, thinner, bigger hair version--long before gray hair, wrinkles, and having 4 babies! Even Cougar blue has gone through a revision in shade, and Cougar Stadium has undergone a name change. However, the one thing that hasn't changed in 20 years is the fun of the game! There is nothing better than watching and cheering for the Cougars of BYU!

Now the game is always great fun, but just as much fun is enjoying it with good friends!

Another great highlight is seeing who can turn their tongue the appropriate Cougar blue color by ingesting a monster grape icee!!

Lastly, one of the things I love about BYU football games is running into old friends! This was one of my cute laurels when I was Young Women's president. She actually saw me sitting across the stadium and came to find me!

Thanks to BYU for all of the awesome years, and here's looking forward to at least another 20 years at LaVell Edwards Stadium! Hope to see you all there some day!

Golf is a 4 letter word!

2008-09-18T21:57:00.002-07:00

This is exactly how Loralie and I usually feel about our golf games, but we NEVER say any actual 4 letter words while playing (except maybe "Fore!" a lot of times) because that would be bad and totally inappropriate! We try and try every season, and we seriously can't figure out why we aren't getting any better! Oh well. It is a goal we continue to chase around.

This, however, was how I felt about several of my shots tonight!

I did shoot a 60 at Glenmore, so watch out Tiger (so what if it was only 9 holes?!). It was pretty good for me on that course. My goal is to shoot in the 40's consistently, but until then, we just go out and try to have some fun without losing too many balls! Luckily Paul is the most patient golf pro and husband ever, and Jonathan and Loralie laugh at themselves almost as much as they laugh at me!

3 Year Old Logic

2008-09-18T21:57:00.001-07:00

Sometimes Eric amazing us with his intellect. For example, yesterday he single handedly showed and told "Grandma Kemple" how to find his favorite cartoon in her "On Demand" menu on cable. Then there are other times he makes us say, "Huh, he really is a 3 year old."

(Earlier tonight....)

Paul: Eric, why aren't you in bed yet?

Eric: 'Cuz I aren't.

Tagged!

2008-09-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

For all of you sick of looking at the same picture and post for the last 10 days, I apologize. On the other hand, maybe no one has looked or cared! I feel some pressure to post something witty, amusing, and interesting, but alas, either nothing has happened, or one of my friends has beaten me to it, pictures and all, and I am not about to try to compete with their blogging! So, alas, by default, I actually have to respond to the two tags I received quite a while ago. Lisa and Dawne, I apologize for taking so long to get around to it. I assure you I got the tag in a timely fashion, and I have given it some thought, here and there. I will now force myself to really dig deep and put thought to paper...again, the pressure.

3 joys: 1. My 5 handsome, delightful, and sometimes difficult boys (though Paul is rarely difficult!) 2. All of my amazing and fun extended family--on both sides. 3. Many fabulous friends that bring fun and laughter into my life--thanks!! (Can I add chocolate? It's always in the mix, and on some days ranks at #1)

3 fears: 1. My house catching on fire while we all sleep!! (This fear of fire steams from a young age when my normally responsible and competent parents allowed me to watch "The Raging Inferno" or something like that. Scared the crap out of me. I've been terrified of the possibility of being in a burning building ever since. Now that I have kids, the fear has magnified--what if I can't get to them? Scary....) 2. Dislocating my knee--either one--again! This is a constant worry for me. It started in third grade doing cartwheels at recess, and it has happened multiple times on both knees throughout my lifetime--the last one in a very public place when I was 8 months pregnant which ended in an ambulance ride and a doctor having to pop it back in (that was a first, and it was awful!) 3. Lastly, heights! Yes, I am afraid of heights! It makes hanging over the railing of a cruise ship a little difficult, but I tend to do better at that than Paul!

3 obsessions: 1. Current top of my list is "Twilight" and anything related to it. (Guess that means reading is an obsession also--just ask my husband!) 2. Always at the top of my list is chocolate--the good kind, no cheap imitation brand. (Yes, I am a chocolate snob.) 3. Always wishing I could lose a few pounds, but never willing to give up #2 on the list long enough to actually see big results!!

3 surprising facts: 1. I played the accordion when I was in elementary school, and I looked and sounded mighty fine, if I do say so myself! (How, and more importantly, why--you may be asking? My dad played one, and I pretty much worshipped him and thought he was the coolest.) 2. I love ballroom dance! I danced in many classes and on a back up team at BYU. Wish Paul liked to do it too so I would have a partner to keep at it! 3. I grew up in a small town in Northern California where the local high school colors were an ugly brown and gold (before either one became a popular color), and the mascot was "the honkers!" How cool is that...NOT! However, I am still a California girl at heart! I hate Utah winters. I hate the snow, the ice, the cold, and the ugly, muddy slush! I am not ready for winter to come again. Didn't it just end?

Well there you have it. Everything you ever wanted to know about me and then some! I tag Deanna, Kris, and Alisha. May you procrastinate a little bit less than I did!

The yearly matching shirt picture!

2008-09-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

The story begins long ago--I mean a really long time ago as we are getting seriously older! Anyway...it all started with my husband's family. There are 8 children in the family. Paul is the oldest, so he has experienced this the longest! His mom always used to make them matching outfits and dress them alike! Now, I guess this wasn't always a daily occurance, but definitely when they were going places so that she could always keep track of them--a good idea when you have 8 kids, I think. One especially funny memory my husband has is of a Disneyland trip when they all wore matching whale shirts (or so he says! I've seen the pictures, but I can't truly remember if it was all of them, or just the girls in the whales and boys in coordinating colors.) 30 some odd years later, it is still a yearly occurance for each family to take a photo with everyone in the family wearing matching shirts so Paul's mom can use it for her yearly scrapbook page. Some of the kids express some of their teenage rebellion each year about doing it, so it will be interesting to see how many more years before the tradition is given up. For now, her yearly scrapbook page is always fun to see! So, Alisha and Kris--are yours done yet?! Can't wait to see them!:)

Why?...Why?...WHY?!!

2008-08-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'd forgotten how annoying, and yet utterly amusing, the 3 year old "Why?" syndrome can be! They suck you in slowly with innocent little questions like, "Why are you doing that?" Then they move to slightly less subtle questioning tactics like asking, "Mom, why are we stopped?" every time you are at a stop sign or a red light when you know darn well you just answered that questions 3 blocks ago, today, yesterday, and the day before that! That continues for a while until they finally reach the level of total abandonment when every word out of their mouth is "why?...why?...WHY?!!" It doesn't seem to matter how thoroughly you think you've answered their 1st or their 10th "why?" because the annoying and amazing thing is that they can ALWAYS still ask you "Why?" It's a game that can go on forever!! It's only slightly less annoying than the catchy tune This is the Song That Never Ends--an all time favorite of all 9 of my 5th and 6th grade classes, especially when sung (or yelled) at the top of their lungs on a field trip bus all the way from Ogden to Salt Lake! That is a scenario I have experienced way too many times!! But...back to the 3 year olds...it has been almost 5 years since I have had to endure this endearing little phase with any of my kids, so I really had to laugh today as I realized Eric has now successfully moved into phase three, the perpetual "Why?" I'm sure by next week, I will have moved past the laughing stage into the groaning stage myself! His only saving grace ( and the same reason Tyler survived to see his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and even 6th birthdays) is that he is just so dang cute!

It's hard to stay mad at this face (the optimum word being "stay"!) So, for now I am laughing and reminding myself that this is the last one to do this to me, that is until they all start producing adorable grandchildren, which my mother assures me are impossible to get mad at at all!

Preschool Bliss!

2008-08-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the day has finally arrived!! My baby is finally off to school--of course I am using that phrase liberally since it is only preschool. However, for those 2 hours on Monday and Wednesday, I am a free woman! It's very exciting!! The bonus is, Eric loves it, is learning social skills he desperately needs, and he comes home happy and ready for a nap! What could be better? (Maybe all day kindergarten?)

Eric was so excited for his first day of preschool! He asked every 5 minutes when it was time to go!
This is Eric's buddy, Tysen. They are both 3. They both love Thomas the Tank Engine. They are going to preschool together 2 days a week, and they are both very excited about it. Here they are waiting for Tysen's bus to come pick him up!

8th Graders Rule!

2008-08-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Check out the difference a year makes!!!

Here they are on the 1st day of 7th grade....

Here they are as amazing 8th graders!!

We had a fun little after school gathering on the first day of 8th grade. Last year it was a breakfast before the first day of 7th grade. This year, we decided it was just too dang early to have to be up and moving, so we moved it to after school! We hope to make it a yearly event to chronicle the passing years of these teenage friends!

Brett and Justin before heading off to school.

School starts....and life is good again!

2008-08-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

2 months of summer with 4 boys plus various friends over makes for one active and sometimes very loud house! We have enjoyed our time together this summer, and I have definitely taken advantage of the ability to sleep in!! Something I have dreadfully missed the last two days! However, it is time to get back to a routine with homework and projects, reading and spelling lists, and did I mention projects? (I was a project teacher for 9 years before having any school age children of my own. What was I thinking?!!!!) Anyway...this is the first photo edition of this topic as Jordan and Tyler started school yesterday, and Justin and Eric will start next Monday. The boys were excited to get back to school, at least for the first day! The excitment is slowly draining away at the end of the second day! However, my excitment is only just gaining momentum as my days are quiet and relaxed once again...life is good, until 3:30 when they all come piling through the door demanding snacks and help with all of their homework and projects!! Oh well...at least 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. is all about me (and Eric)!

Road Trip!

2008-08-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...the dreaded road trip with 4 kids stuffed (literally) in between 5 sets of golf clubs, 3 skateboards, 3 helmets, 6 pillows, 6 suitcases, 4 bags of travel essentials (such as toys, game boys, CD players, cars, trains, books), 2 portable DVD players with multiple required chords, 1 large cooler full of food, and 5 or 6 other bags of various snacks intended to lure the kids into eating too much so that they would become drowsy and sleep! Good times!!! Oh, I forgot to mention the most important item that traveled the estimated 2,000 mile round trip with us---my copy of Breaking Dawn! Any of you familiar with that will know that my road trip was great! I was really good at tuning out the four kids all demanding one kind of treat or another for 11 hours straight so that I could finish my book!

Anyway....let me back up a little bit. Paul had to travel to Renton, Washington to do some interviewing for a new store he is opening up there. Since my Grandpa and my aunt and uncle live a couple of hours southeast of there, we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We had a great time visiting with my relatives! Paul was able to run up north for a few days to do his business, and then he rejoined us later in the week. My grandpa is 90 now, so this was probably the last chance I had to visit with him. Here are some highlights of the week:

Having lunch with 4 generations--My Grandpa, my Aunt Bev, Me, and the kids.

The kids LIVED in the pool! Luckily, it was sunny and hot most of the days we were there! The younger boys really gained a lot of swimming and high jumping confidence as they spent many hours a day jumping in the pool off the high deck and swimming the length of it. The slide was a blast also!

My aunt and uncle live practically on top of the country club. He owns his own golf cart which to my kids means he should be worshipped, especially when he lets them drive it! Each night, my uncle took one of the boys and then Paul out to play golf at the country club! They thought it was the best!

My cousin was house sitting for a gal who lived on a beautiful lake with tons of ducks and geese. We went over every night to feed them. There was a mother duck with a bunch of little tiny ducklings in the lake. The kids especially loved them. They were less than fond of the big mean geese who came over and practically snatched the bread right out of Eric's hand since he was about beak high! Feeding a few means feeding all the fowl on the lake! As soon as we started to feed a couple, ducks and geese from every direction and distance across the lake would make a beeline for our grassy area and fight each other for a bite of bread!

My aunt and uncle live up on a hill. They have fabulous views of the valley off their deck. One night while we were out enjoying the evening, there was an amazing sunset! We really just enjoyed seeing another part of the country, visiting family, and enjoying some of nature's beauty.

Skaters In Training

2008-08-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Justin has been saving his money all summer to buy a Ripstick. He finally earned enough to buy one on Friday. He has been practicing every chance he gets, even though he had his foot cut into on Thursday! He must be a teenage die hard! Anyway...Jordan just happened to have received a skateboard for his birthday a few weeks ago. He seemed excited about it, but not really brave enough to try it our until Justin was out in the streets with him! Then the dilemna! What to do about Tyler? Quick thinking reminded me that the scooter Justin got for his birthday years ago-- before Razors were invented and before scooters were any kind of phenomena--was the kind of scooter that was really a skateboard with a handle on it. So, a few twists of the screwdriver later, and the youngest skater in training was hooked up! They have been outside practicing like crazy all weekend! It has been divine to have a diversion from the video games, and it will continue to be so until the first broken bone!!! I apologize to all of my neighbors in advance if they don't get out of your way fast enough on the streets!! You have my permission to honk and yell at them!!

"The Three-Year-Old Bike"...FINALLY!

2008-08-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

For weeks now, I have been trying to get Eric to try riding a real bike. He would have nothing to do with it! He continued to push himself around on his little riding train or his tike bike instead. He's so tall that doing either of those things took real skill and talent not to scrap knees or stub toenails while riding! Finally, he told me yesterday, "Mom, I want to ride my three-year-old bike." This is the name we had to give it as he called his other modes of transportation his "bike". Anyway, it was slow going for a while, but he finally seemed to start to get the hang of it with a little bit of help from Dad.

Birthday Boy

2008-07-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

Jordan turns 11!! It's hard to believe little Jordie is growing up so fast! He just celebrated his birthday last Friday with the family. Dad was out of town until afternoon. Poor Jordan got abandoned mid afternoon on his birthday so Mom and Dad could go up to girls' camp with the rest of the bishopric and their wives for bishopric night. We felt bad, but Grandma Barfuss was here to take care of him. We did have a fabulous made to order breakfast of oven eggs, bacon, and grapefruit. Then we braved the scary dollar theater in West Valley to watch Campus Road Trip--a gripping, all-too-Disney movie extravaganza. After lunch, I just had time to grab a bite of this delicious ice cream cake before I had to leave. (One of my best birthday cake concoctions yet, if I do say so myself!! Yum!) We made up for the abandonment the following day with a friend party at the park--laser tag, pizza, cupcakes, presents, and then home for a movie and goofing around. Here is a photo of the gun slingin' group at the park:

Yes, that is a lone girl gun slinger! She held her own with the boys!

Nice Shiner!!

2008-07-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

So, Paul and I escaped for a couple of days to celebrate his birthday (I won't say how old he is, but I will just make a comment that he is OLDER THAN ME!!). We weren't gone more than 5 minutes when Eric ran into the arm of the couch as Grandma's house and ended up with this nice shiner. Apparantly this is looking really good (2 days after the incident) compared to the day of when it was practically swollen shut! Good thing Grandma didn't call to report it or we would have added another worry to our list as we were trying to relax! We were already worried about Justin up at scout camp since he called us the first night we were childless to report a whole list of woes, starting with his club foot which is already a pain issue for him daily. But add on to that a plantar's wart on that heel, and a twisted ankle on the same foot which occurred 5 minutes before leaving for camp Monday morning. All in all, it was a week of injuries and self pity for the Hammond boys. On the flip side, despite worrying a little about Justin, we had a great time on our little get away!!

Beating the Heat

2008-07-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

So, now that summer is finally here and we are enjoying temperatures in the 90's and 100's, the electrical company decides it must be time to "do some work in the area" which requires them to turn off our power for a mere 9 hours! (or so the notice on the door said this last week) Now you might think the thought of no A/C all day was truly the most devestating thought, but I must say, coming in a close second at least was the realization that there would be no Disney Channel or DVD player to keep the 3 year old occupied so that I could sleep in!!! The power was to go off at 8 a.m. on Friday. So, I prepped the kids really well Thursday night explaining how there would be no TV, video games, or computer on Friday. I told them they would have to wake up and actually play with the boatload of toys that litter our toy room in the basement. I also went over how they could not get into the fridge or freezer unless I was present (they tend to try to air condition the house with that appliance--anyone else have that problem?). Well, as I was trying to sleep in (not always possible with Eric), I kept waiting for my nice cool ceiling fan to suddenly stop. But, low and behold, it kept going. The kids actually played with toys and games, and I did get a little bit of extra sleep in between Eric tattling on everyone or informing me that he needed to go to the potty. Why do kids have to announce that? Anyway....we had made plans to go to the pool as soon as it opened at noon and spend the afternoon, trying to stay cool while the power was supposedly out. By the time we left, the power was still going strong. It went out shortly before we returned when I realized that my keys to the house were in my other purse, locked up tightly inside of the house. With no power, no electric garage door. We were so close to being stranded outside in our swimwear for the everning, but shockingly, I had neglected to lock the back door preventing the breaking and entry plan I was about to put into action! All in all, an interesting day. Here are some photos from our pool excursion.

Eric hangin' with his friend Tysen.

Justin with his good buddy Brett.

Tyler and Jordan are trying out the new snorkling gear.

Making a splash at the fountain.

I didn't do it!!

2008-07-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

"Mom, I think that window is broken. It has cracks all over it." --This is the lovely surprise I woke up to Monday morning! Nobody would claim credit for it--I wonder why? After blaming Tyler for quite some time, we finally got it out of Eric that he had, in fact, done it. How, you might ask? He threw a marble, of course! Said marble was laying on the floor under the "bullet hole" as we so lovingly call it! When the snap, crackle, pop sounds died down, I called a repair shop to explain the dire need for it to be replaced before the whole thing crumbled to the floor. When the receptionist learned I had four boys, she basically told me to "have your vacuum ready! It won't last through the day!" Luck must be on our side. A week later, waiting for the replacement to come in, and it's still going strong!

4th of July

2008-07-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July the three older boys, Mom, and Dad enjoy 18 holes of fabulous golf (using the term loosely as only Dad got anywhere near qualifying as "fabulous") at Schneiter's Bluff up in West Point where Paul used to work. It was overcast and breezy, and we had a great time! Eric enjoyed the parade, games in the park, and a movie with Aunt Alisha. We ended the day with a BBQ at home, sparklers, and some fireworks.

Eric got brave this year and tried out the "sprinklers"--as he calls them.

Still fun at 10.

Not so much at 13!

I think Tyler's just burned out!