Where have I been?

I honestly can't believe two months have slipped away without me posting anything. Where in the world have I been? I could start with a list on the various events that have seemed to consume my time but that could be very lengthy and a good possibility of being a tad boring so I will stick with the highlights!

Hiking-We drove up to Government camp and hiked into Mirror Lake. Since it was such a beautiful day it drew in large crowd. We only heard a few complaints from the girls. We honestly thought it may tire them, but we were wrong! The girls were great hikers.

Father's Day-We had my whole family at my house for a salute to the great and amazing fathers in our family. We had some great food, lots of laughs and kids wrestling. Aurora had the great idea of "fake" bandaging the younger kids up with toilet paper. Avery ate up all the attention she received for her ailments.

Picking Strawberries-You can't live in Oregon and not eat the berries. I was so sick the next day after we picked. I honestly think forcing someone to eat 5 pounds of strawberries and deal with consequences can be a form of torture. I didn't stay away for long-two days later I was right back eating them, but in moderation! The girls are some of the best pickers. We were lucky enough to have my mom here and my sister Laura and her daughter Kate. Thanks Mom for spending a week with us!

Pre-school Graduation-After two great years of co-op preschool Avery will start Kindergarten in the Fall. The kids bounced and played until their hearts were content at Out of this World Pizza and that was followed by a perfectly short ceremony.

Half Marathon-Whew-glad it is done! Helvetia half is a beautiful but very hilly run. I had some of my great friends there! Way to go girls! I was a little slower than last year, but chalk one up to training better for next year.

Fountain Fun- Maile found a great park with an even better fountain. We weren't really prepared, nor was it the right weather to be playing in the water, but that didn't stop my kids. Avery took extra precautions by wearing her bike helmet while playing. She was actually riding her bike in between playing in the fountain. My Mom made a killer rhubarb pie and crisp we ate while we were down there. I have been dreaming of it since!

Girls Trip to Seattle-This time my girls are old enough to go! We had such a great time,Pike's Place the fish throwers, the rainbow roses, the freshest fruit, amazing food and fun. Maile's parents were very generous to let us have their house. We stayed up and watched Mama Mia and it is a very good thing we watched it with just girls. My husband may have lasted 5 minutes into that movie. Right after we arrived in Seattle, we emptied the car and changed. We quickly found out that Myah had left her and Aurora's suitcase in Nate and Maile's backyard. It was a really good thing there was a Target right around the corner and we were only gone for two days. Thanks for the good times sisters!

Avery's Birthday- May 2nd she turned 5! She was just excited to have her cousins at her house, open a few presents and have chocolate cake per her request. She laughed her way through the "spanking machine" and went to Utah with Dave for Great Grandma Luella's funeral and Grandpa Don and Grandma Tanny's mission farewell.

BYU and UVSC Graduation-The last weekend in April I flew to Utah to see Audrey, Laura and Ryan graduation. Congratulations graduates! We were busy from arrival to departure with ceremonies, moving, celebrating,talking, seeing family and enormous amount of rain-especially for Utah, great pizza at Pizzeria 712 and fabulous frozen yogurt at Red Mango.

Are you still with me? If you are I'm impressed! Hopefully I can keep up a little better over the summer.

Baptism and little spring please!

Myah was baptized the first weekend in March. We are so grateful we had so many family members that were able to come and support us. She was really excited to be baptized and to start going to Activity Days.

After her baptism she quickly dressed-it was a little chilly and was confirmed. We had a great day and loved being with our family and friends on that special day!

We traveled up to Kalispell to visit my parents for Spring Break. We were really busy, but I must say the weather was not anywhere close to spring. Snow was abundant 4 of the 5 days we were there. We happened to plan our ski day on the most beautifully sunny-but cold-day. We could lookout from the top of Black Tail Mountain and see clear out to Glacier Park and most of Flathead Lake. I miss the amazing beauty of the mountains and the valleys of my hometown. The mountains in the background almost look like clouds.




Grandpa and Avery getting off the chairlift.

My Dad came up skiing with us. He skied our pants off- his form was impeccable and Avery talked his ear off on the chair lift. Not many little girls get to ski with their Grandpa! As we were leaving to go skiing we had a major car problem. Dave hopped into my parent's van and the automatic door shut on him. He pushed it back so it wouldn't keep closing in on him and the door came off the track. Dave and my Dad tried to fix it, the motor for the door had already been having problems, but it was done. As they were trying to just get the door on track to close it, the back window shattered all over the place. There was just enough pressure on the window to shatter. We transferred everything over to our van and took off for Black Tail Mountain.

We went out to eat at the Somer's Bay Cafe. The girls shared some juicy ribs, Dave had some Buffaol meatloaf, I had Prawns on a Grit cake and I think my mom's meal was the best-chicken with an amazing sauce of mushrooms, onions and who knows what else! Avery was "starving" and ate 4 pieces of bread before her grilled cheese even arrived.

Happy Birthday Myah

Playing in the river June 2006.

Myah Valentine's Day 2004.

Myah playing soccer fall of '07.

Myah almost 8 and with a new haircut!

WOW-like all moms, I am asking myself, "Where did the time go?" I can't believe Myah just turned eight! It seems like just yesterday I went to the doctor for the 36 week check and never left! She told me, "You are having this baby today-maybe tomorrow." It was four in the afternoon, so they admitted me and I called Dave and told him to come quickly! He was driving from Sun Valley where we lived at the time to Brigham City, Utah where I had Myah because I still carried my health insurance from teaching in Ogden. I labored for a while stalled for a while, they said it was my epidural stalling my labor-so tough luck-no more epidural! Finally after almost strangling Dave we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl at 12:40 A.M. March 2, 2001!

We love having Myah at our house. She is a peacemaker,understanding and selfless. She loves to go to bed early and get up early! She is the healthiest 8 year old I know! She loves good healthy food. Last time I took her to the grocery store, we came home with about 20 different items from the produce department-many of them not in season-but it is hard to turn down and cute little girls who wants strawberries in February! She is always willing to help out and is very afraid to loose her teeth! She loves to wrestle with Dave and help me cook. She is a great piano player and amazing skier.

That's my girl

We enjoyed our quick trip to Utah this weekend for Dave's parents 50th Wedding anniversary. Dave and I were able to go skiing-BY OURSELVES- at Snowbasin. Wow that is an amazing resort. The snow was lousy, but it was a fabulous date with my husband. We had a great time riding the gondola up and talking with the other people on the lift. It must have been senior day on Thursday because there were so many older people up skiing and many of them had patched on their coats saying 70+ skiing club and 80+ skiing club. Can I say I was AMAZED. Kudos to those men and women who have beaten the odds and taken good enough care of themselves to still ski at that age! We were talking and said it cost us just as much to go skiing as it does to go to dinner and a movie and pay a babysitter. Dave enjoyed the next day snowmobiling with his brother. On Saturday we prepared for the reception for Dave's parents. We had it at the senior center in North Odgen, Utah. There were quite a few people show up. We had loads of fabulous treats and it turned out beautifully. Congrats Don and Tanny to a great 50 years and I know there will be many more.
My nephew's wife Cassandra was in charge of taking pictures and she did a fabulous job. She was asking Avery a a few questions and the conversation goes as follows:

Cass- "Avery, if your sisters Myah and Aurora had a foot race who do you think would win?

Avery- "HMM-I don't think either would win, I think my mom would win because she has three gold medals!" (finishing medals from 10K's and 1/2 marathons-they think they are fabulous)

Cass- "Do you think your Mom could run faster than your Dad?"

Avery-"Ah yes! I don't think I have ever seen my Dad exercise, especially not run!"

I promise- no brainwashing involved!

A few good days

We have been spoiled this year skiing! We have had some fabulous, sunny, 45 degree days. The opportunity we have to go skiing is a little daunting sometimes with three little kids. Yes, I know we make a choice to go-but I do have to say, it is much more enjoyable when the weather is sunny and beautiful. In fact I have been downright hot a few days, mostly because I am still pushing Avery around a little, but I love the "warm" skiing weather. The girls have become quite good skiers and Avery will follow anyone she can recognize into about anything. Dave has had to have a few gentle reminders that he has a little shadow behind him and unless he want to wind up at the "Mt. Hood Hospital" he has to watch out where he is going.

The weather on this particular day was obviously not as nice, but the clouds were amazing and they continued to change throughout the whole day.

Avery thinks she is deprived because we have not bought her poles yet so she has improvised by using her arms as little fins to push herself along.

The 4th of the 4th

Tag of the 4th of the 4th! Here is my fourth picture from my fourth folder . It is a picture of Avery dressed up in a Tinkerbell costume at the Elementary school my girls are at. Every year the school has a "Fairy Tale Ball" for the second graders. So this is Aurora's ball last year. The music teacher teaches them some dances and songs. The event is really cute and of course Avery needed to dress up for it too. I tag Julie, Robyn, Maile and Lisa.

Life is not Fair!

So I know that I really shouldn't have done this, but it was just so funny! After a absolutely beautiful day skiing at Beaver Mountain in Logan, Utah Avery had a meltdown! We couldn't have had a more perfect day except that fact that Dave couldn't go because he injured himself SERIOUSLY in the crazy sport of snowshoeing two days prior to this. That is a whole other story that I have been meaning to post but just haven't gotten around to it. So Avery really does amazingly great all day skiing for a four year old. One small problem is, she follows just about anybody in front of her, so Myah goes off a jump, she tries to go off a jump. This was the case with this temper tantrum. We were on the cat walk and Myah found a little lip to get a little air off going up hill. Avery can't quite handle this yet, nor would she have enough momentum to continue on the cat walk so I snagged her right before she went off the little tiny jump and this is what happened!