It's like this...

Saturday we spent celebrating Allison's tenth birthday by having a party with a Hawaiaan Lua theme. MIL made salmon on the barbecue and macademia nut encrusted halibut with various salads and I made some stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. MIL made some delicious mushrooms with a coating. I know they weren't shitake...were they chantrelle? I'll have to ask as they were amazing. Here's part of the feast. Here are some of the guests. That's (L to R) MIL Bonnie and FIL Roger, Roger's cousin Gary and his wife Edie (Not sure I spelled that right) Here's the birthday girl with her plate. She wanted an ice cream cake and that's what she got. Her grandparents gave her a stuffed doggie (she loves stuffed animals) and a Tamagotchi . If you've never seen one of these, I'd have to say you're lucky. She now has three of them and Ashley has two. They are virtual pets. They beep. They make noises when they are 'born', when they 'poop'...

I took this picture of Steph with my cell phone camera as we were traveling from Utah to Vegas on Thursday. Lance dubbed it 'Big Hair In The Middle Of Nowhere' Stephanie did not appreciate the humor. Poor thing.

Today is Saturday. I'm sitting out in the driveway of my in-laws house on my laptop. It's the only place I can piggy back on someone elses wifi signal. Bad, bad me. Yesterday we played in the pool most of the day, with breaks for lunch and dinner. We also went to see Pirates of the Carribbean. The new one. Loved seeing Johnny Depp sashay around again. I enjoyed the movie and especially the movie theater seats as they were very tall and you could push the cup holder/arm rest up and snuggle closer to the person you wished to snuggle with. Hubby and I snuggled. I missed that man so much. Here's Ashley leaping off the diving board into the pool. She's invincible in her life jacket and LOVES the pool. As I type this, she's there right now with her daddy and Allison. She woke us all up, saying we needed to get into the pool. ' Here's Chris in the shallow end. We played water volleyball last night and it was so much fun! We had a wonderful dinner of s...

We made it to Las Vegas earlier than I’d thought and caught my in-laws by surprise. Well, not when we got there, but when I called them from about an hour out from arriving. My father-in-law said he thought we were coming tomorrow (Friday) and I said I thought Lance had told you we were coming today (Thursday). Nope. Apparently he told his mom we might be there early. They had just gotten home a half an hour earlier from their road trip to where we live. And there we were. After we unloaded the suburban we all put our swimsuits on and got into the pool. It was 101 degrees. The pool, not the air. The air temperature was in the low 90’s and the pool felt more like a hot tub. Lance arrived late as his plane was delayed due to inclement weather here in Vegas. FIL went to pick him up while we splashed around in the pool. When he arrived it was wonderful. We all missed him so much. He joined us in the pool before a wonderful dinner that MIL prepared. Greek chicken Ceaser salad...

Yesterday (Wednesday), I took the kids up to Squaw Peak in Provo Canyon. The view from the top is something amazing. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working so I had to take pictures with my cell phone. Here is Ashley and Allison looking over Happy Valley. That's Utah lake in the distance. We met a family up there that live the next town over from us in Washinton. Small world, eh? Then we drove up to the Deer Creek Resevoir. The roads have changed so much since I was there last. We skipped Sundance and then went back down the canyon to stop by Bridal Veil Falls. Here's Steph and the girls dipping their toes in the freezing water. I went in as well. The inital cold shock wears off and then you're pretty much numb from there on out. Here is Chris, Ashley and Allison on top of one of the rocks in the waterfall. Ashley was a little frightened. Here's Ashley a bit calmer and mugging like a mermaid. Chris kept moving large boulders around in the stream. So odd Th...

We decided to stay another day in Utah and then head for Las Vegas in the morning. Should be hot fun. We're taking Steph down to the BYU campus to show her around and then I think a drive up to Deer Creek Resevoir and Bridal Veil Falls. I have some fond memories of Bridal Veil Falls from college. I spent the day yesterday with China (Chee-na) I lived with her when I lived in Valencia, Venezuela. We've kept in touch all these years and I adore her. She doesn't look like she's aged a bit. I took that with my camera phone in Annabella's living room. She'd given China and I some Malta. For those of you gringos that have been to Venezuela, you will vividly recall this drink. I'm not sure where she managed to get some up here. She was so excited to give it to us and ..... we managed to drink it. Ok, and here's my little venting of the day. I cleaned out the suburban with the kids (Ash and Ally) and we vacuumed it. By the time we were done I was H...

God Bless America