Death Shudder

 Anyone that is left with nothing better to do and is reading this blog......it just had a little death shudder.  Life has been busy and I can't bring myself to log on to my blog.  What with having to put in my password and all, it's quite a chore.  Here are some things that have occurred over the summer.  Mostly this is for my own journaling.  If you happen to read.......please do enjoy.

Above is Jason running the Lunatic Triathalon earlier in the summer.  This is a fun event that happens in our area and takes place at night.  This kids made posters and cheered their dad on.  He had a really great time of 1 hour 8 minutes.....a really great time considering he didn't prepare by doing anything.  Some people have all the luck with their bodies!

 Another fun time was when Jason took the nuggies fishing and hooked his own hand on the way out of the truck.  He stuck it out of course and finished fishing with them before coming home and heading to the ER.  It took quite a bit to numb the old finger.  Then they cut the hook, unwrapped the fly, and pulled the hook out forward.  He didn't even bleed.  They put on a band aid to make themselves feel proficient.  It was a busy night in the ER but since Jason wasn't high on meth we were triaged to the front of the line.

 Piglet finally convinced me to let her cut Rasta hair off.  It was long and gorgeous, but awful to care for!  She donated (or will when I get an envelope) to Locks of Love.

We had a fun time going to Seven Peaks water park, staying in a condo in Park City, going to baseball games, camping, and hiking Timpanogis. Here we are high above the valley.

Mads let me do a photo shoot of her with her hair!   She is so adorable.  This picture should have been with the short hair one........but alas I am not patient enough to go back and put it in the right place.

School just started.  Here are Ri and Mads on the firtst day.  Ri is in 6th.  Mads is in 1st.  They seem to be enjoying it.

This is Jack's first day of co-op.  We are co-opping with 3 other families.  The moms are awesome and the kids are great too.  Jack has really opened up since starting homeschool.  Many people have commented that he is so much happier and approachable.  He is willing to do activities and socialize, which he was not willing to do before.  He will be starting football in a week and seems excited.  He loves school!  What a blessing. 

Is Your Mamma Gonna Miss Ya Now You're Gone?

The incident occured Sunday October 31st around 0530.   The only witnesses to the crime were the handsome couple toodling down I-15.  The children were rendered unconscious from hours of Halloween partying and sugar withdrawl.

Witness statements.....
     Officer Handsome:  I think a jackrabbit just jumped in front of us.
     Lovely Lady:  What the *&^%$#@!  Aahahaha!  Something just flew at us!

Despite the dark nature of the night sky Officer Handsome signals and moves to the right.  Upon reaching the off-ramp he completes his stop and exits the SUV with an LED flash light.  He examines the bloodless carnage and returns to debrief.  Handing over the flashlight to Lovely Lady, he snickers and insists she should find interesting the scene at the front of the vehicle.  With much trepidation and a sense of foreboding, she rounds the SUV and finds herself face to carcass with an extremely large, and quite substantially dead owl.  Having known this is what she would find, she shrieks with pride, "I told you so!".  Then with the fear of God like ice water in her soul.....she runs down the off ramp pawing at the arteries in her own neck and shielding her ears from her own terrified screams.  It appears to be a case of suicide by SUV/Cop.

The body remains afixed with a rigid determination to the front of the vehicle.  Upon reaching Cedar City and the breaking of dawn across the morning sky, they were able to peer into the dead yellow eyes of the owl.  Contemplating removal of the body from the grill, their decision was made by the quickly growing crowd of excited Asian tourists.  The handsome couple were forced to move on with the corpse still firmly implanted, amid the flash of high quality Asain cameras.

The couple made many friends as they crossed Southern Utah, Arizona, the sinful and ugly Nevada, into the unsavory village of Barstow California.  People love to be entertained as they drive the Godforsaken desert.  This day, their dreams were realized.  Many hand gestures, smiles, gasps, and screams were exchanged.  For the few tenderhearted still remaining in the soul parched Nevada, there were tears shed as the owl triumphantly sped at great speeds, past their waning vehicles.

Upon entering Barstow, the town where life no longer has meaning, the handsome couple prepared to lay their new friend to rest.  Lovely Lady retrieved her secret stash of surgical gloves, secreted away in the secret compartment, for a scene such as this that she secretly knew would happen one day.  Pressing them into the caring, yet strong and manly hands of Officer Handsome, she exclaimed, "Don't touch that foulness with your bare hands!"  The bird was swiftly removed with little trouble, despite it's ability to ride the grill through four states.  Pictures were taken to document the momentous occasion.  The bird was toed by Officer Handsome just to be sure no signs of life remained after the arduous journey.  Nope, it was truely dead.  It was time for goodbyes and a few photo ops from the new crowd gathering at the Carl's Jr.  Farewell friend that gave us such memories!  Farewell.

Day 11

Day #11 Another picture of me and my friends.....
I suspect this challenge was meant for a high school kid.  I mean seriously, if you go by my number of friends based on the amount of pictures I have.......I have no friends.  I don't often stop to pose while I am talking mom shop.  So here is a picture.  A picture I should be ashamed that I am using. 

Day #5

Day #5 A picture of a place I've been......
Obviously I don't get out much.  This is a picture of Buffalo Bill's in Nevada.  We stopped there on our previous trips to Disneyland.  This would be the buffalo shaped pool and also Jack's favorite part of the trip.  Yep, that's right.  I forked out a couple grand and this is what my kid liked.

Max's 3rd Birthday

Max opted to spend his day of birth doing testosterone jello shots.  Dada, Dackie, and Coppa took old Maximus out for some four wheeling.  They rode some fun trails all day and stopped for dog food soup (bean and bacon....which in my book smells like a can of Alpo) and a celebratory brownie.  Only one near accident occured when Dada dismounted the four wheeler to open a gate, leaving Max to grab the gas, throttle the heck out of it, and speed off.

The day before the Max's big day, the whole family went to the Gateway.  The kids played in the Olympic Fountain while I melted into a puddle and Superman went looking for cold liquid.

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A Maxism:   A few days before his birthday, Max and I were having a cuddle on the bed.  He'd had enough resting and threw himself knees first into my lower back.  As I blinked back tears and let out wimpers of pain, he said, "Ifs you foe up, cops west you.  (Not a threat at this point....I wouldn't have minded being lead off in a patrol car to my own hard bunk.....with no children to beat me.)"  When I told him I didn't think I was going to throw up anymore he said, "Then you wanna buy new ouse (house)? Beeeooo (blue) or bown (brown)?"  He obviously knows my love of realestate.

Triple D Treasure Map

For posterity sake I am laying out my Triple D weekend. I don't want to forget a moment and I want to remember how to get back.
After my moments of hysteria began growing closer together, I knew it was time to take a break. The chicks and I hit the road for our Triple D weekend. That would be for Diners, Dives and Drive-ins, not our combined bra sizes.
We checked into a swanky downtown hotel. Every time we get together we have to have our little matchies, once we had jammies, and bags, and this time scarves. We messed around making ourselves into Punky Brewster and gypsies and then hit a sweet little French bakery. After a roast chicken and pesto pannini with a fruit and vinaigrette salad.........we picked up a box of pastries and made out way to an outdoor concert. The night was gorgeous and the music was beautiful.
Hot tubbing was exciting until the weird hairy dude showed up. I tried to ignore him but he wouldn't let me. I had to move on. A can of Coke and a bed free of baby elbows and I called it a night.
Even though it was supposed to be a vacation weekend I couldn't sleep past 7. We headed up the canyon to one of our hot spots from Diners Dives and Drive-ins. The mile high biscuits should have been enough food for a family, but we still managed to squeeze in a whole breakfast. Phenomenal Eggs Benedict.
Pedis were next on the list. The little man that did my feet was Satan's little aesthetics worker. He ripped off my cuticles, sugared my legs until he drew blood and then painted my tootsies Camp Fire orange. Not so relaxing.
Having my body tensed up for 45 minutes put me in the mood for another Triple D. This time we hit a gritty little downtown joint. I couldn't stop myself.........I had a Benedict Omelet....it was filled with glorious hunks of peppered bacon. My cardiac arrest was signed for at that diner.....I'm pretty sure.
I have to spend the rest of the week doing Tae Bo and drinking water (YUCK!).
We spent the rest of the day walking the mall to stave off the bloat. We were nearly evil eyed out of one store for lewd behavior.
Now that's a vacation.

Bear World

Somewhere in the void of America that is Idaho.......is bear world. Everyone that had ever been to Bear World said we would scratch out our own eyes with regret if we didn't go. So on the way back from Yellowstone.........we did. Mostly the choice was made once nature let us down and all of the bear and moose in Yellowstone hid from prying eyes.

Mads now wants her own pet deer.

Which doesn't seem like a bad idea considering they survive on nothing but shoelaces.

Baby bears. If you want to spend as much as you spent on the whole vacation, you too can feed a baby cub a bottle. We knew forking out the money would make us scratch our eyes out with regret.

Yes, that is a picture of a window reflection. I cannot bring myself to break a rule even when every one else is.........so when the caretakers (ie teen age boy at the gate) said DO NOT roll down your window.......well I didn't. So all of the bear pictures also have pictures overlaying them of my legs or Bear World pamphlets on the dash.

Griz. All alone so that he doesn't eat anyone else.

The white elk. Pretty cool.

All in all it was an okay place. There were little amusement rides also which the kids loved and I had to keep pulling them off to look at the animals. We had a great time being together though so I guess it was worth it.

Jellystone Park

Two days in Yellowstone gave us just enough time to see some great stuff and far too much time for me to spend with the hordes of other vacationers!


Terraces at Mammoth

I didn't get quite the right angle for the effect I wanted. Superman wasn't thrilled that I would make our baby pose like this.......but it was too good to resist.

The LONG trail down to the falls. One of the families behind us had a girl that counted the steps. She said there were 339. I bet there were more for Superman. He had to carry Max and come back for Mads when she got tired.

The breath taking canyon where the falls dropped to.

Finally at the bottom. You can't really tell how big they are. We were there for 3.5 seconds before the other tourists pushed us out of the way and we started back up.....only 339 more steps to go!

The kids kept seeing signs that said to stay clear of the wildlife because they are dangerous. They were a bit worried they were going to be gored by this buffalo.

A break at the lake to pose for pics!

Mads preferred to take some model shots instead of looking at the buffalo we risked our lives crossing traffic to see.

Big Daddy

A huge elk herd in North Yellowstone

Madison.........at Madison

That's what it's all about.

These two were trashed by this point.

After boiling in the heat while waiting for Old Faithful........we took the walk around the area and saw some other beautiful geysers.

Chillin ..... waiting for a cheese stick and some Gatorade.

Like it says Continental Divide

The sweetest little lilly pond right next to the Continental Divide.
Like Mads likes to say 'gorgeosity'.

These hot pots were some of the most fascinating and beautiful things we saw. The colors were so clear and gorgeous. I can't even use words to tell how great they were.

We're Goin' to Jackson

Day 1........Helper at about 6 am. Everyone still in jams.

Dance stop. Max had to get out and shake it in Brigham City.

Eep.......Idaho, other wise known as The Twilight Zone.............yep, we took a wrong turn while concentrating on our pizza and ended up faaaaaar away from where we were supposed to be.

The cabin in Jackson Hole. Lots of room to spread out.

Antler arches.

Max during the old west shoot out. Smart boy. I was busy taking pictures when the cowboys ran by with their pistols. I was deafened without my earplugs.

Wild storm that blew through that night. It was gorgeous. A great ending to a great day.

Getting ready to run through the rain to the pool.

Or not..............