Summer Vacation

This year for our family summer vacation, we went to visit Jason’s sister Betsy and her family in California. They live just outside of Sacramento in Granite Bay. As is our norm, we drove straight through the night to get there. Thankfully it was only 12 hours and not the 22 it takes to get to Montana.

Our family of 5 took up a lot of space, but the kids happily slept each night on the trampoline.

Unlike the nights in Phoenix, the nights in Sacramento get nice and cool. You definitely would NOT try this where the overnight lows are in the 90’s.

Betsy and Jim have a great yard complete with big diving pool, a duck and chickens. I’m pretty sure someone got in the pool every day we were there.

Even the duck went swimming a time or two.

Jim is pretty funny…and obviously not afraid of duck poop.

Jared was glad that Parker had an X-Box to play.

Looks like Parker is taking a break while Jared plays…

One of our day trips was to Old Sacramento. Cool old town buildings right next to the river.

Another day trip we took was to San Francisco. Betsy said to be sure and bring jackets since it gets cold there even in the summer. Everyone followed her advice except Jacob. And he got COLD. Especially when we went on the cable cars.

When we crossed one of the bridges to get there, I snapped a couple photos. It was pretty foggy.

 

Here’s some of our group coming out of the parking garage.

 

There’s Alcatraz Island in the distance.

…the kids posing with a new friend.

Jared, Jacob, Brittany, Jessica, Olivia,

and Parker. All the kids wanted to be “Standees” on the cable car.

Betsy & Jim had to sit.  

And so did Jason & I.  I’m so glad we got the opportunity to do this.

On our return cable car ride, Jason and I both got to be “standees”. I was right in the front and had a great view (and it was really cold!)

Many thanks to Betsy, Jim & their kids for putting up with all of us for a week.  Jason & I hope to host the Burman family at our house if they take a trip to Phoenix.

Time for an update

My little blog is being neglected. I see it every time I open the internet since it’s my home page, yet almost 3 months have gone by without any updates. So without further ado, the update (and I will include lots of pictures) -

I really like our new place. Every house I’ve lived in has it’s own “feel”. When we first moved in, this one had quite a bit of energy to it. Elvis was a real spaz for a few weeks until he adjusted to it.

Jason was taking a break on our 2nd night there when I snapped this photo. Seems to be quite a bit of activity going on.

We moved in just in time to see the pool get resurfaced. This is when it was halfway done draining. All the stuff in the bottom is from the tree that fell onto the house. When the guys came to remove it, lots of stuff fell into the pool as they were chopping it up.

It was pretty loud when the pool guys were jack hammering the surface. I grabbed this picture during one of their breaks.

And now it’s almost full. Filling it took a few days.

Jared made Student of the Month in January. I’m really proud of him.

 

I made the mistake of using my steam cleaner on a spot in my grout where I’d dropped something and worried it would stain it. It was a mistake because I learned how dirty it was and ended up having to clean the entire kitchen and family room. Lucky for me that Jacob wanted to earn some money and he did the largest part of the job. He is a very good cleaner when he sets his mind to it.

Jason installed a new faucet for our kitchen sink. The old one had apparently been leaking for some time and the whole under sink area is warped. We used this opportunity to reseal the whole thing back down since it didn't have a very good seal.

Our whole family went to Organ Stop Pizza. This was a pretty fun place. Not one we’ll do again any time soon since their pizza is a bit pricey.

I couldn’t stand the color of the girls’ bedroom, and we wanted to do something for organization in their closet, so it went from this….

…to this. I love the bright green. And if you’re wondering, we got the shelving units at Ikea.

We took a trip out to Lake Pleasant with my sister Suzee and her family to go shooting. Jason and I have been a few times to other places by ourselves, so this was a fun change of pace.

Jason brought his .30-06 with him and I got to find out how LOUD that thing is. Made me jump. I also experienced first hand how much kick that bad boy has. Came close to getting a black eye.

A big ol’ bumble bee came flying inside when we had our front door open to enjoy the fresh air and breezes. I really didn’t want that thing inside, so my sweet husband got busy getting rid of it.

See what he does to make me happy? There was no other way to reach it, so he used the pool net. It took several tries, but he eventually got it on the net and flung it towards the front door and the bumble bee flew right back outside. My Hero!

Jason and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary on April Fool’s Day. The next day we drove to Palm Springs, CA and spent a couple days with our friends Scott & Maureen. This picture was taken at the golf course where they all golfed and I rode along and cheered them on (I don’t know how to golf…yet).

As you can see, it was a beautiful day. It was great getting away with Jason.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the update. Hopefully it won’t be another 3 months before I come back.

Moving sucks

For the past week, my husband and I have been moving. Again. In just a year’s time. You would think we enjoy the process. You would be wrong.

I know there are those out there that see the beauty in not having too long to collect “stuff” that you just store in your homes for 30 years or more. This is actually a great way to pare down on those not so used items. Or perhaps there might be some out there that love the adventure of cleaning a different house for a change. Let me share with you some of the FUN things I got to clean up before I could move my possessions in.

 

Ok, so this wouldn’t stop you from using it, but it is pretty gross.  How about the top? Is it any better?

Nope. And that’s not just dust. I was lucky enough that it was also greasy.

This is what I got off the fridge top after wiping it down for the 3rd time.

It’s just the top of the fridge. What’s the big deal? Those kinds of things are easy to overlook. I’m sure the cabinets are clean.

Oops, looks like someone forgot something. Either that, or it was left on purpose since the cabinet had to be pried open and I’m sure they were super tired from all the cleaning they had already done. HAHAHA! I crack myself up.

I wish you all could have touched the sticky, greasy cabinet fronts. It’s the kind of experience that kids getting ready to go out into the world on their own for the first time should have. Then they would understand why mamma tells them that they need to wipe down the cabinets when they clean the kitchen. Just because you don’t necessarily SEE the dirt doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Moving on. Lets go upstairs and see if there is anything interesting to take care of….

 

HEY, this is cool! Not every day you find candle wax melted into your bedroom carpet.  Time is wasting. Lets unpack the bathroom boxes and store our things.

YIKES! I’m not putting my things in there! Looks like I need to work a little harder.

There…that’s better. Hey, shouldn’t we be finished moving by now?

Uh oh, here comes the rain! It NEVER rains in Arizona! Guess we will put the move on hold and just relax for a bit.

WHOA! All that rain and strong winds ended up knocking the neighbor’s tree down. Right into our backyard. I wonder what else we have to look forward to? Fiery hail? Plague of frogs? 

The next time you hear me talking about moving, just smack me in the forehead.

Susan Boyle - Wild Horses

If I didn't know this was a Rolling Stones song, I would never have believed someone telling me it was. Simply AMAZING.

He likes it! Hey Elvis

As Jacob was showing me a Family Guy movie clip on his iPod touch, he noticed our cat enjoying a gross cookie and grabbed the camera.

(this is our loft coffee table, so please pretend that you don’t notice the mess)

I’d brought the cookie upstairs to get a picture of him for my Project 365 (see post #362) and then I handed him to Jacob, who put him on the table.

I am beginning to wonder if it wasn’t really a cookie for cats. It was pretty gross, but Elvis licked this guy for couple of minutes.

 

Glad that at least one member of this household was able to enjoy the little guy.

A Christmas memory

One Christmas memory of mine is the year my mom and dad went out and bought a REAL tree. We’d never had a real tree in my lifetime before then. I remember being so excited and how I couldn’t wait for them to get home with our first real tree.
Our house had a big picture window looking out to the front and when they got home, my dad stopped in front of the window to display our new tree. My heart sank. Imagine, if you will, Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I wondered how they could have bought such an ugly tree. I remember the biggest smile on my mom’s face. Oh how that woman loved to play tricks on people. (Something she’d learned growing up)
It turned out that the tree was beautiful on the other side and that only about a third of it was a Charlie Brown tree. They must have gotten a great bargain, and my mom, being the incredibly smart woman that she was, realized that we would just put that tree in a corner and that back side would never be seen. When it was decorated, I felt like there had never been a tree a beautiful as ours.

(this is just a photo I grabbed from google images…and we never had a fireplace, either.)
Of course this is a great memory. But one thing makes it even better. Our cats. You can imagine that a tree with not many branches on one side and the other side all decked out in ornaments might not be so balanced. Add the weight of one curious cat and you have a recipe for a very funny story. Yup, that tree went down with the cat. Broke some ornaments and spilled the water out of the tree stand. I can only wish there had been home videos back in those days and that one had been pointed at that tree.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

Today I am testing out Windows Live Writer for my blog post today. If updating my blog and inserting photos this way is easier, then I’m all for it.

We spent the morning with all the kids. Jason made bacon and eggs and I made French toast. Once we were finished, we sent our kiddos off to their other parent’s homes to eat their Thanksgiving feast. No, the boys aren’t standing on a platform, and the girls aren’t standing in a hole.

Since Jason and I were alone, we went to share my sister Suzee’s turkey and fixins. We had a good time (even though Jason spent the better part of it setting up the Jones family wireless printer).

As you can tell from these pictures, the guys all stayed in the office while the women folk set up for the meal.

See how lovely Suzee’s turkey is? It was delicious, too.

Beverly was also alone with no kids, so she carpooled with me and Jason to the other side of the world. I don’t think Suzee and I could live any further apart and still be in the Greater Phoenix Area.

 

Thank you Jones family for including us in your Thanksgiving feast. We’d love to get together with you more often.