Safety Glasses

The other day I was driving with the kids in Kelly's truck. Nalani found a pair of safety glasses and put them on, then looked at Maika very seriously and asked, "Hey, did you know Dad was a scientist?" She then proceeded to tell people all day long that her dad was a scientist...funny girl!

Dilly Beans

This summer my mom gave me her big pressure cooker and cold pack canner. I have been searching yard sales in hopes of finding old canning jars and have hit the jackpot a few times. This morning I got about 40 jars for ten bucks. Now I have quite the collection and need to start filling them with stuff. I have hopes of canning pears, peaches, salsa, and tomatoes, and I already made about 36 pints of strawberry jam. We went a little crazy picking those strawberries:)

My garden has been producing a ton of green beans! So today, I channeled my Grandma Holden. She made the BEST pickled dill beans! I remember raiding her pantry many times, swiping a bottle of these babies, and running out to her orchard to eat the whole bottle before she could find out about it.

When I would return to her kitchen with an empty bottle (and I can hear her voice in my head), she would just smile, shake her head and say, "Oh Heavens, Aundie!" (Aundie was my nickname back in the day.)

I can only hope they taste close to Grandma's...

P.S. Siblings: I'll send you a bottle for your Christmas present:)

Blue Mountain

On our recent trip to Utah for Kelly's family reunion, we took a little detour to Monticello to see my dad. While we were there,we (meaning I,) wanted my kids to experience one of my favorite childhood memories...cutting fire wood. I thought it would help my dad out too, since that is the primary source of heat for his house during the winter time.

And, just so you know, this is what my dad's house looks like during the winter! So, you can tell he probably needs quite a bit of fire wood:)

Okay, back to the nice hot summer weather! Besides cutting wood, my dad brought a few guns for us to shoot while we were there. Here is Maika. When she got the gun in her hands her arms just fell, I don't think she was expecting it to be so heavy. Logan was all business, I think she even hit the soda can she was aiming for, after taking awhile to figure out how to see through the scope.

Bronson couldn't wait to get his hands on those guns. He didn't want to listen to Grandpa's Gun Safety Lecture, he just wanted to pull the trigger. I think he was just wanting to be like Indiana Jones:) It's hard to be a three year old and have to listen and obey...

Nalani wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with shooting the guns, but Kelly and I took our turns too. I'm still a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself!

Kelly had a go with the chain saw. I think he had a good time, too. We were cutting some huge trees that had fallen during the winter snows. All our backs were pretty sore for the next few days.Nalani had fun riding the tree-horse we made. I used to love doing this when I was little, too!
Here's my dad with my kids. In the quakie trees. Quakies (Aspen) are my absolute favorite tree! I love hearing the wind blow through the leaves!
Logan and Maika.
Our family picture.

Thanks for indulging me Kelly and Dad! I just love the sights of the mountain on a warm summer day. I love the smells of the chain saw, the saw dust and the wood. And I love the sounds of the wind in the leaves...just takes me back to being a kid again! The only thing that could have made it better was if Grandma was there to make her ground roast beef sandwiches!

Where's the IPod?

Yesterday, I bought Nalani a new little sleeping bag. Her old princess one just wasn't warm enough...not that she's ready to brave sub-zero temperatures in this one, but it's better. She was excited to tear into it and was pretending to camp on the living room floor while watching Sponge Bob. I decided to go check emails and could hear her talking to herself in the other room, so I go in to check on her. She's desperately searching the little duffel the sleeping bag came in...

Me: "Nalani, what are you looking for?"
Nalani: "Where's the IPod?"
Me: "What IPod?"
Nalani: "That one!" (pointing to the picture on the tag, of a little girl laying in the sleeping bag listening to an IPod.)

Too bad for us both...that would've been a smokin' deal to get a free IPod with the purchase of an $11 sleeping bag! Funny little girl:)

Jackson Hole 2009

We just got back from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Thanks Mom and Gary for letting us tag along, and for sharing your condo with us all! It was a tight fit (up to 17 people in a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom) but so much fun! All the grand kids had fun sleeping on the floor. We told (silly) "scary" stories one night. The favorite was about the missing hairy toe:) Like Kelly said, people would think we were crazy for choosing to spend our vacation squished, but honestly it was one of the most relaxing, low-key vacations we've had.

So, this will pretty-much be a photo journal of our trip.

I decided to start off with our attempt at a family photo. A week before we were at these falls, some college kid jumped in to show off for his friends and was killed. I'm thinking he had a little "liquid courage" in him, because the only way I would jump in those falls would be to try to save one of my kids! One evening we decided to go miniature golfing. Nalani has such a natural stance, don't ya think?

And, here is Miss Maika, looking so cute!
As the only grandsons, Bronson and Spencer stuck together. "Bence" is sporting a butterfly bandage in most of these pictures, because he ran into a BBQ stand while playing Frisbee. He cut his eye pretty good. The next night, while playing baseball with some kids from the condos, he got hit in the head by the bat...poor kid! He's a tough one, though!This momma moose and her baby were right in our backyard two or three mornings, nibbling on some leaves. One night the kids were playing at the park and these two came running through the field and actually stepped on Spencer's bike and broke the hand-brake. Not too many kids can say their bike was broken by a moose:)
We spent the majority of our time at the pool. Every day we would pack a lunch and spend hours over there. This is Spencer, Macy, and Logan.
And, here are Bronson, Maika, Nalani, and Hannah in the hot tub.Quite the action shot of Bronson jumping to Kelly. That's Nalani's head...she just finished jumping in and was getting ready for her next turn.

Auntie Rachel with all her nieces and nephews.
Grandma Marcia with all her grand kids.

I think Logan was trying to take a self-portrait, but got Uncle Jesse instead... My mom and Gary in front of some geysers.
Nalani's "boom-boom fire power!" pose.Beautiful Logan!

We saw some other "wild animals" sticking their heads out of the truck while stopped for road construction in Yellowstone. That's Maika and her huge smile. All the kids fought over who would get to ride with Grandma and Gary.

This huge buffalo was about five feet from our truck.

No, this isn't a lake. The morning we left was super cold and foggy. We loaded up the truck, said teary good-byes to Logan and Maika (they rode home with Uncle Jesse and are spending a few fun-filled weeks with Kelly's sisters in Utah...more on that in another post), and started the drive up the mountain. At the top we started seeing blue skies and sunshine...we pulled over at a lookout point to take a picture. Jackson is buried somewhere beneath all those clouds, you can see the whole valley was covered and the mountains sticking out on the far side. It was so beautiful.

Are You My Mother?

My sister Melanie and I are twenty-one months apart. We've always been told we look like each other, but were always kind of bugged that people couldn't tell us apart. We definitely look like sisters but I don't think we're that similar.

Today when Melanie got to Jackson Hole, Kelly and I were on a drive (cleaning out our disgusting truck). Bronson thought Melanie was me and kept calling her mom and asking her to do things for him. Well, you should have seen his face when I walked in the door and was standing next to Melanie! He was so confused and embarrassed and immediately turned shy. For the next hour or so he would just keep peeking at Melanie from behind my legs, making sure he had the right mom. I think the thing that threw him for a loop is that I pulled my hair back in a teeny-tiny ponytail today and nobody is used to seeing my hair like that.

So what do you all think? Are we that similar?

OPA

I need to check around and see if there is a local chapter of Otter Pops Anonymous. This kid is addicted. For some reason, after about his seventh or eighth of the day, he comes to me like this. Does he think that if I can't see his face I won't say, "no!"??

I had to call Sears to see if they had a key that would fit my freezer. Ours is long gone! Luckily they did and now our freezer will stay closed, our food will stay frozen, and I can try to curb his addiction.