Guess which one of these people are NOT pretending?
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Pictures
Yea, I know. I should be blogging a lot more. I have no excuses.
I found these fun images on the camera this morning. Most of them are courtesy of Aspen.
OK, I'll pose, but I won't smile. (A few days after his tonsils were taken out.)
Do I look famous?
Sunday afternoon fun.
I found these fun images on the camera this morning. Most of them are courtesy of Aspen.
OK, I'll pose, but I won't smile. (A few days after his tonsils were taken out.)
Do I look famous?
Sunday afternoon fun.
"Spy kids"
(cue spy music in background...)
(cue spy music in background...)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
McDonalds mouth
Friday Jonathon and I went to the temple. It is easier for us to go on a school day than any other.
We dropped the kids off at school and hustled ourselves onto the road. With the time difference we made it in time for the 11:30 session. I don't think that I have ever had a more welcome greeting than I did Friday.
"Are you here for a session?"
"yes."
"Oh we are so glad!"
And on they went.
It turns out that there was only one other person set to go on the session that morning and they needed a witness couple. Before we were even out of the lobby we were pulled aside and asked to be the witness couple and given our instructions. It was 11:25.
It was a great session, except that I am always so tired after the four hour drive and then an immediately sitting and (trying to) give full attention is hard.
After we sat in the parking lot and ate our lunch and moved a little.
Back into the car. Four more hours. And we are home.
My friend picked up the kids from school. ( I love car pooling!) Took them to another friends house who then watched them until we got back.
7:30pm We are back! Jonathon drops me off at my friends house (She is 6 houses up the street!) and I ring the bell. I hear racing to the door. Cedar pulls the door open and smiles the biggest toothless smile ever.
He lost a tooth.
Fast forward.
Today (Saturday)
Kids finally put to bed with threats of staying put (or else!)
Boom, boom, boom. Down the stairs come little feet.
"Back to bed!" I don't even look up from the computer.
"It came out!"
The other tooth is gone now too. Cedar has a McDonalds mouth. Little pink arches grace his toothless smile. It is so cute!
We dropped the kids off at school and hustled ourselves onto the road. With the time difference we made it in time for the 11:30 session. I don't think that I have ever had a more welcome greeting than I did Friday.
"Are you here for a session?"
"yes."
"Oh we are so glad!"
And on they went.
It turns out that there was only one other person set to go on the session that morning and they needed a witness couple. Before we were even out of the lobby we were pulled aside and asked to be the witness couple and given our instructions. It was 11:25.
It was a great session, except that I am always so tired after the four hour drive and then an immediately sitting and (trying to) give full attention is hard.
After we sat in the parking lot and ate our lunch and moved a little.
Back into the car. Four more hours. And we are home.
My friend picked up the kids from school. ( I love car pooling!) Took them to another friends house who then watched them until we got back.
7:30pm We are back! Jonathon drops me off at my friends house (She is 6 houses up the street!) and I ring the bell. I hear racing to the door. Cedar pulls the door open and smiles the biggest toothless smile ever.
He lost a tooth.
Fast forward.
Today (Saturday)
Kids finally put to bed with threats of staying put (or else!)
Boom, boom, boom. Down the stairs come little feet.
"Back to bed!" I don't even look up from the computer.
"It came out!"
The other tooth is gone now too. Cedar has a McDonalds mouth. Little pink arches grace his toothless smile. It is so cute!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Douglas Lake swim-a-thon
Today was the day! Jonathon swam in the Douglas Lake swim-a-thon in Dandridge. He did a great job finishing at one hour and forty minutes.
Look at that pull!
With his boat couple. Every swimmer needed to have a boat to take them out to the starting area and shadow along them in case they needed to get out of the water. This was a fun event for Jonathon. All of the money went to 2 local charities. One lady said there were over 50 swimmers, almost twice what there were last year. It seemed to be a huge success. I wonder if it will be a tradition for our family?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
And they're off...
It's 8:45am.
I am sitting here, in an unusually quiet house. I have the radio on to mask the silence. The breakfast dishes are done, the table cleaned off and I am straining my ears to hear forts being made upstairs, or someone swinging outside.
Someone should be coming to me in just a few minutes asking for a snack, or a drink, or to settle a fight.
But no one is coming.
Everyone is gone, and I am alone.
Olive will be home 3 days this week. They do a staggered start school year. I have never been able to figure out why they do it quite like they do. I always assumed it was for the teachers, though if asked I think that those in charge would say it's for the kids. But now, I think it's for the parents. Especially those like me who just left their babies at the BIG school and won't see them ALL DAY. 
For a few days I will be reveling in the time. The ease of getting things done. But there will always be the mornings alone in the house.
I wonder if my ears will stop straining to hear them.
3:00pm sounds like a long way away.
(I think I'll go make something chocolate. I'm going to say it's for the kids...)
I am sitting here, in an unusually quiet house. I have the radio on to mask the silence. The breakfast dishes are done, the table cleaned off and I am straining my ears to hear forts being made upstairs, or someone swinging outside.
Someone should be coming to me in just a few minutes asking for a snack, or a drink, or to settle a fight.
But no one is coming.
Everyone is gone, and I am alone.
Olive will be home 3 days this week. They do a staggered start school year. I have never been able to figure out why they do it quite like they do. I always assumed it was for the teachers, though if asked I think that those in charge would say it's for the kids. But now, I think it's for the parents. Especially those like me who just left their babies at the BIG school and won't see them ALL DAY. 
For a few days I will be reveling in the time. The ease of getting things done. But there will always be the mornings alone in the house. I wonder if my ears will stop straining to hear them.
3:00pm sounds like a long way away.
(I think I'll go make something chocolate. I'm going to say it's for the kids...)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Chattanooga- day 2 -Rock City
Warning: This post is long on pictures and short on words. I wanted to give you a feel for what Rock City is. I've been there and am still at a loss of how exactly to explain it. Take a look for yourself, I'll describe it at the end.
After breakfast at the hotel (the kids favorite!) we headed to Rock City. It was going to be super hot and humid so we didn't dawdle at the hotel. I am sooo glad we went when we did. By the time we were through there were a lot more people and it was already in the mid 90's.
The barns I talked about. They sell little birdhouse barns like this. I thought about getting one, but passed.
Fat mans squeeze.
Nice face Cedar!
One of the bridges.
The wooden bridge. Cedar wanted to run across.
The view from Lovers leap.
Pointing out all seven states that you can see from here and how far away they are.
The kids standing on the states that they were born in.
We were suckered into the climbing wall.
The overhang below Lovers leap.
They had little trolls (like on Travelocity) behind the bars. They were all over the place.
Inside "Fairyland" It starts out inside an actual cave, or rock crevice...
All the stuff is glued on the walls and ceilings. There were coral and shells and cave formations. It started off kinda neat...
We wove around and somehow ended in a building (that was disguising itself as a cave) where there were all of these mother goose displays. They were painted neon and lit with black lights. The first few were ok, but as they went on got progressively freakier. (Sorry, no pictures.) It ended in Mother Goose Land. A big room that you walk around the display of all of the nursery rhymes. All neon and black lights. That was really, um, interesting.
That was the end, and of course, we ended by going through the gift shop.
So what is Rock City? It started out as someones house and property. The wife (Can't remember her name) loved the rocks and how they were formed on her property. She took string to mark out a path through her "garden." She made bridges, paved the ground and put in landscaping. (this was all 100 years ago.)
Rock City reminds me a little of Red Cliffs. There are big boulders, slabs of rock and sides of mountains making little trails and natural "areas." The difference is that it is very green. The landscaping is beautiful, the bridges are really neat. Big rock bridges are all over. And that wooden bridge was super fun.
From start to finish Rock City is about a mile's walk. You go between rocks, over the trails you just went through, through cracks and crevices, and onto majestic views. All ending up at the "Fairy Land." (Which I think I've said enough about.)
When we were driving home we talked bout all that we had seen. I think that the consensus is that we have been spoiled growing up so near the amazing natural wonders that surround us in the west. Rock city was neat, but nothing compared to Zion or Red Cliffs. (Both of which were fresh in my mind.) The other striking difference is how UN-comercialized the parks in the west are compared to the sites we saw.
The entrance fees were not super high, but for only being there an hour and a half, seemed a bit steep. They also seemed to try too hard sometimes to enhance the beauty of something that was already gorgeous.
So, to top it off. I'm glad we went. If anyone wants to come out and see it, we will take you there, but, we probably won't make it a yearly visit.
After breakfast at the hotel (the kids favorite!) we headed to Rock City. It was going to be super hot and humid so we didn't dawdle at the hotel. I am sooo glad we went when we did. By the time we were through there were a lot more people and it was already in the mid 90's.
The barns I talked about. They sell little birdhouse barns like this. I thought about getting one, but passed.
Fat mans squeeze.
Nice face Cedar!
One of the bridges.
The wooden bridge. Cedar wanted to run across.
The view from Lovers leap.
Pointing out all seven states that you can see from here and how far away they are.
The kids standing on the states that they were born in.
We were suckered into the climbing wall.
The overhang below Lovers leap.
They had little trolls (like on Travelocity) behind the bars. They were all over the place.
Inside "Fairyland" It starts out inside an actual cave, or rock crevice...
All the stuff is glued on the walls and ceilings. There were coral and shells and cave formations. It started off kinda neat...
We wove around and somehow ended in a building (that was disguising itself as a cave) where there were all of these mother goose displays. They were painted neon and lit with black lights. The first few were ok, but as they went on got progressively freakier. (Sorry, no pictures.) It ended in Mother Goose Land. A big room that you walk around the display of all of the nursery rhymes. All neon and black lights. That was really, um, interesting.
That was the end, and of course, we ended by going through the gift shop.
So what is Rock City? It started out as someones house and property. The wife (Can't remember her name) loved the rocks and how they were formed on her property. She took string to mark out a path through her "garden." She made bridges, paved the ground and put in landscaping. (this was all 100 years ago.)
Rock City reminds me a little of Red Cliffs. There are big boulders, slabs of rock and sides of mountains making little trails and natural "areas." The difference is that it is very green. The landscaping is beautiful, the bridges are really neat. Big rock bridges are all over. And that wooden bridge was super fun.
From start to finish Rock City is about a mile's walk. You go between rocks, over the trails you just went through, through cracks and crevices, and onto majestic views. All ending up at the "Fairy Land." (Which I think I've said enough about.)
When we were driving home we talked bout all that we had seen. I think that the consensus is that we have been spoiled growing up so near the amazing natural wonders that surround us in the west. Rock city was neat, but nothing compared to Zion or Red Cliffs. (Both of which were fresh in my mind.) The other striking difference is how UN-comercialized the parks in the west are compared to the sites we saw.
The entrance fees were not super high, but for only being there an hour and a half, seemed a bit steep. They also seemed to try too hard sometimes to enhance the beauty of something that was already gorgeous.
So, to top it off. I'm glad we went. If anyone wants to come out and see it, we will take you there, but, we probably won't make it a yearly visit.
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