Me: Ben, how old are you?
Ben: 4
Me: How old am I?
Ben: 307 (said without a blink of an eye!)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
On the Road...
The Second Day on the Road!!!!! ALRIGHT!!!!!! Usually we drive at night, so I was already a little tired of the "are we there yet?" parrots in the back seat by the end of the first day. We started off the day taking some beautiful pictures of Escalante Grand Staircase national monument before heading off from the hotel. Of course, there has to be a beautiful fountain where the kids get to almost dunk themselves before getting in the car for the day.... Our original plan to start the day was to visit Moqui Cave, which we had passed on the way into town the night before. I started to get the feeling that maybe it wasn't a hot idea though so I asked the front desk. They told me it was basically a glorified gift shop that had an entrance fee. The proprietors want you to believe its an American Indian settlement relic. Apparently that is a popular scam... more of that to come! And we were off.
On the way out of town we got a picture of the fake cop the city had planted in a real cop car on the road into Kanab. We thought it was pretty funny. People coming over the hill from the desert see this guy and just hit their brakes.
Then it was on to Lake Powell. Benjamin LOVED Lake Powell... it was the first (and only) time all trip where he didn't get in trouble for throwing rocks. I don't know what his facination with throwing rocks is, but he can't help it. These pictures are taken at Wahweap scenic lookout. You can see for about 50 miles across the landscape. Unfortunately, the camera didn't quite capture the beauty and majesty of the place. Right next to Wahweap is the Glen Canyon Dam (insert your own damn joke here). I'm not sure exactly how many hundreds of feet the drop is, but that's my children climbing on the safety fence... yep, we're bound to come back with one less by the end of this thing.
Then it was on to the Grand Canyon. Everybody slept on the way there, but that didn't keep people from starting to get a little grumpy. We first went to Watchout tower on the South Rim, which we thought was on old ancient Indian ruin built on the edge of the painted desert. Nope. It was built in 1930 by some lady architect who apparently hand selected every stone so that it would LOOK like an ancient Indian structure. In reality it's just a tall gift shop with a spectacular view of the Grand Canyon from the top of it. So we got a great shot of B in front of some fake American Indian art. Unfortunately, we did not get a great shot of the canyon.... tempers snapped, and people on the North Rim of the canyon could here B yelling "I DID NOT LOSE MY MOVIE!!!!!!" all the way back to the car. Things calmed down enough for us to eat lunch, and then we were on the road again. This time on to Flagstaff.
Some pictures of Little K in the car. The pictures were taken not 5 seconds apart and that pretty much sums up how the car ride went at the end of the day. To make it better when we got to our hotel in Flagstaff they told us that all the water was turned off for plumbing repairs. When I delivered that news to K her response was "so what are they going to do about it!" with that look on her face like they better make this good... it was a long day in the car. She went inside to smooth things out and we ended up staying there after all. Good thing too, because they had an amazing pool. To end the day we treated ourselves to an AMAZING dinner. I "killed the fatted calf" and ordered veal, which kind of ruined it for K, but I think she still enjoyed the chocolate mousse :).
On the way out of town we got a picture of the fake cop the city had planted in a real cop car on the road into Kanab. We thought it was pretty funny. People coming over the hill from the desert see this guy and just hit their brakes.
Then it was on to Lake Powell. Benjamin LOVED Lake Powell... it was the first (and only) time all trip where he didn't get in trouble for throwing rocks. I don't know what his facination with throwing rocks is, but he can't help it. These pictures are taken at Wahweap scenic lookout. You can see for about 50 miles across the landscape. Unfortunately, the camera didn't quite capture the beauty and majesty of the place. Right next to Wahweap is the Glen Canyon Dam (insert your own damn joke here). I'm not sure exactly how many hundreds of feet the drop is, but that's my children climbing on the safety fence... yep, we're bound to come back with one less by the end of this thing.
Then it was on to the Grand Canyon. Everybody slept on the way there, but that didn't keep people from starting to get a little grumpy. We first went to Watchout tower on the South Rim, which we thought was on old ancient Indian ruin built on the edge of the painted desert. Nope. It was built in 1930 by some lady architect who apparently hand selected every stone so that it would LOOK like an ancient Indian structure. In reality it's just a tall gift shop with a spectacular view of the Grand Canyon from the top of it. So we got a great shot of B in front of some fake American Indian art. Unfortunately, we did not get a great shot of the canyon.... tempers snapped, and people on the North Rim of the canyon could here B yelling "I DID NOT LOSE MY MOVIE!!!!!!" all the way back to the car. Things calmed down enough for us to eat lunch, and then we were on the road again. This time on to Flagstaff.
Some pictures of Little K in the car. The pictures were taken not 5 seconds apart and that pretty much sums up how the car ride went at the end of the day. To make it better when we got to our hotel in Flagstaff they told us that all the water was turned off for plumbing repairs. When I delivered that news to K her response was "so what are they going to do about it!" with that look on her face like they better make this good... it was a long day in the car. She went inside to smooth things out and we ended up staying there after all. Good thing too, because they had an amazing pool. To end the day we treated ourselves to an AMAZING dinner. I "killed the fatted calf" and ordered veal, which kind of ruined it for K, but I think she still enjoyed the chocolate mousse :).
Sunday, June 8, 2008
We're Off!!!
Alright, this is my first post since K took over the blog so I'm sure to embarass her in some way. We made it to our first stop on the way to Albuquerque. We took I-15 down to Utah State 20 and US-89 and then across Garfield and Kane counties to Kanab. "Color Country" is aptly named. I dont think I have ever seen a prettier Utah. It is gorgeous down here. Almost hard to believe that its only a couple miles to the west and you would be in the barren desert that we normally traverse on our way to California.
We had a time of it getting out of Provo to say the least. Yesterday, the sump pump in our basement seized and our house smelled of raw sewege. Luckily, RotoRooter was there in half an hour working on it. It is interesting to note that a massive wad of paper was found in the can holding the pump, although that apparently was not what caused the failure. Neither child will own up to it.... big surprise.
On top of that Little K came down with a 103 temperature yesterday and A started getting congested. K was up until 4 trying to get things going, and by 1 pm on Saturday we were on the road. Only 5 hours late... Luckily, we broke the trip up into pretty small chunks so it wasn't a big deal.
We made it to Kanab and K took the kids swimming while I rested with A. They were back in 5 minutes with K completely drenched. She had gone down to the pool fully dressed with 2 kids under the age of 5 and had somehow imagined that she wouldn't get wet! Come on K.... how old are you? :)
Our first hotel in Kanab sits in the nook of Grand Escalante Staircase National Monument and the scenery is beautiful! We ate at Houston's Trails End Restaurant in "downtown" Kanab (downtown is marked by THE streetlight). Then we walked through Denny's Wigwam where we bought some fudge and B almost bought us (read broke) a $300 geode. Seriously, I think stores put expensive stuff where kids WILL break them and their parents WILL then have to buy them!
Well, we're on the way to Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Baby Blessings
Yesterday we were able to bless Andrew with his two little cousins. It was such a wonderful day! The three little boys were all born within 4 days of each other. Andrew was born on a Thursday, Hunter two days later on Saturday, and Caden finished it off Sunday. What is even neater is Brittany (Hunter's mom) and I are only 2 days apart, born the same year and Emily (Caden's mom) is born two days before me. So our little boys are all born within 4 days of each other and their moms are born within 6 days of each other. All three Dads gave amazing blessing and their was just a wonderful Spirit about the whole day. I hope these three boys will always be close and the best of friends.
Here are the three little guys - Andrew, Hunter, and Caden
Three happy Mamas with their babies
This was really the first time Andrew has been out and among a lot of people. It just wore him out! He is doing great and you would never know what a rough start he had. This week is the end of our 6 weeks keeping him in and I am a little sad. It has been nice to have this time with the kids and not have to feel guilty about not getting to the store or running all my errands in a day. It has been great to just have to stay at home and play with the kids. On the flip side it will be nice to be able to run errands or take the kids out and play if I want to and not have to worry if anyone gets sick!
Here are the three little guys - Andrew, Hunter, and Caden
Three happy Mamas with their babies
This was really the first time Andrew has been out and among a lot of people. It just wore him out! He is doing great and you would never know what a rough start he had. This week is the end of our 6 weeks keeping him in and I am a little sad. It has been nice to have this time with the kids and not have to feel guilty about not getting to the store or running all my errands in a day. It has been great to just have to stay at home and play with the kids. On the flip side it will be nice to be able to run errands or take the kids out and play if I want to and not have to worry if anyone gets sick!
Cousins
Can you tell who is who?
This past week while Christopher was out of town for a conference, Mike brought his family down from Rexburg to stay with me and the kids. It was also the first time we were able to see eachothers new babies. It was so fun to have such a full house with 5 crazy kids running around. We always love when they come and are sad when they leave!
Caught!
Kallie was a little surprised when I caught her red handed after she sneaked a second ice cream Popsicle. She pulled the chair up to the freezer and just helped herself....and obviously thought she had outsmarted me!
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