Soda Springs

This weekend we took a semi-impromptu trip up to Soda Springs. I say semi-impromptu because we had planned to go a week ago, but when we were all feeling under the weather this week (yay head cold season), our decision to go was up in the air until noon on Saturday.

Derek's cousin Chad is the proud father of the darling little girl above who just turned one, so her little party was just the excuse we needed to head up to Idaho. We spent the afternoon enjoying the ranch, wandering around and taking... ahem... over 500 pictures on my baby, the Rebel. I got all artsy in some, others were just practice with settings and still others were just us taking as many pictures as we could in hopes of getting one or two that looked good. As it happens, I've already deleted a substantial amount of the bummers... but it still took a lot to narrow it down to a mere 10... make that 14... no, wait... 20 pictures to post here! So enjoy our photographic journey around the ranch with our girls. (Maybe you can tell we were digging the B&W...) On a side note, of all of our pictures, I was least impressed with the ones at the party. I couldn't seem to account for the lighting in the best way and I was kind of disappointed... I was hoping to get some great shots.

Here we have my little Avril squeezing through the cattle chute in the corral. Let me just mention here, that somehow, I, too was able to squeeze my ever-expanding body through this all-too-narrow space. I tried to get her to look up at me, I think it would have made a rad pic if we actually had her face in it, but I still think it looks cool.


Throwing babies is always a good time.

Derek surveys his domain atop the cattle chute. I think he looks pretty hot...


Snuggle-break. We took a family ride on a four-wheeler out here and played around. After our snuggle-break, the baby promptly went and got stuck in some mud, which she found quite distressing.

There's an old chicken coop that allowed for some great photo ops, both with the girls and on it's own as the artsy type thing. Derek was looking for stickers in Avril's shoe while the girls looked on.


Me next to the coop.

This super cool old-school semi was parked out there, so naturally Avril wanted to get in and try it out.


That's right.

Xandri was bummed when I took her off the 4-wheeler when she and Avril started fighting... but sitting on the tractor cheered her up immensely. Of course, Avril couldn't miss out...

We took off into the pasture to check out the horses. The girls LOVED them! Xandri was practically crying because I wasn't getting her to the horses fast enough.

Yeah, remember the crying from being to slow? Nothing compared to the crying when we took her off this horse! Avril was not to be out done and obviously required her own little "ride".

Meanwhile, Derek had gone back to get the horses some oats. This turned out to be a potential mistake... at least it made me really nervous when ALL the horses decided it was time to come over and shove their noses in the bowl. I'm not gonna lie, there was a little jumping and kicking going on. My imagination took a wild ride as I pictured our broken and bloodied bodies lying in the aftermath... As it happened, one horse seemed to be protecting us- which made me feel slightly better. Derek handed the bucket over to Avril... she held onto it for a few minutes, then when it got to be too much, she ditched it and watched from a distance!

The girls got a hands-on lesson in climbing fences and ample opportunity to practice.


Too bad this outhouse has been out of commission for too long...



And let's go ahead and top off the day with a piece of five-layer cake!

Trust the Midas Touch...

I hope I got that jingle stuck in your head.

In any case, here's a shameless plug for Midas- I am now a customer for life!

So here I am today, I walk out to take Avril to preschool (a little bit late) and she exclaims, "Mommy, our tire's flat!" We'd already had a discussion about our tire being kind of flat before when I went in to get it fixed last Friday. Unfortunately, the two places I went were backed up for an hour, so I figured I'd call and go in later. One of the two was Midas and they filled my tire for me and off I went.

I called later and they were booked for the day. "Oh well, it's been leaking since August, a couple more days won't matter," I think to myself.

Well, apparently they did, because when Avril said it was flat, it was dead flat. Like nervous-to-drive-the-5-blocks-to-Midas-flat. So quick change in plans, we're going to Midas instead of being on time for school.

We get there and I can tell all the garages are full. We go in anyway and the girl at the desk says they're not supposed to take anymore today, but she'll ask. The manager guy comes in, takes one look at me, my two kids and my pregnant belly and says they'll take care of it. I mention Avril's preschool and he offers to take us there so I can drop her off!

So after Avril gets to preschool, we go back and wait maybe 20 minutes and when they're done I walk up to pay the bill. Now, I've called in before and they said it costs like $15 for a flat repair. Well, the girl at the desk says, "There'll be no charge..."

Long story short:
I get my flat tire fixed on an extremely busy day,
my kid dropped off at preschool only a couple minutes late instead of 40,
and there's no charge!

That, my friends, is customer service.

Back Post: Rotations So Far

Posting Date 8/9/2016... so sad, wish I could remember what I had planned to write! From this vantage point, it is like going back in time, trying to wrap my mind around the people we were so many years ago. That short, white coat... that grown out hair... the little white car... All brings back memories of pregnancy (Roman), walking and biking a few blocks away to dance and to the All Academy Preschool, friends and neighbors of that time period. And now, fast forward 8 years and two big moves later, among other things this guy is a Real Live Certifiable DOCTOR!

Camping up Logan Canyon

watch in high quality by going to youtube and clicking the button on the bottom right of the video


EDIT: Derek posted this, but failed to mention when this actually happened- no, we did not go camping this weekend- we WOULD have frozen! This actually happened like two weeks ago. And it was AWESOME! ;) Seriously, though, I would probably have to rate it the funnest camping trip I've ever been on.

Derek's EDIT: Yes even though this camping trip wasn't as manly as I'm used to camping trips being (bigger fires, hatchets, dead animals, guns, etc.) I had an extremely enjoyable time. It was just nice being up the woods with the family and not having any of the usual distractions (telephones, internet, TV, housework, studies). I was able to enjoy everyone's company in a way that just never happens anywhere else.

Beautiful Girls

Just look at them. They make my heart melt.

My Day in Pictures...

Note that my day didn't really start until I got this in the mail at 4:00

Yes, the brand new Canon Rebel XSi. I got it new on eBay for a delicious $618. I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase. So if you got a better deal, don't ruin it for me...

Before I got the mail today, though, I finally opened up my other birthday present



and started to use it to fix Derek's shorts. Any tips on patching? I fixed the rip, but he needs patches over all the special places.


Then I made some delicious orange cranberry scones while these people slept:

(first picture with the Rebel!)

(miraculously she didn't wake up to the noise and the flash)


(this one did wake up to the noise and the flash-- my bad. This is after that, though. It clearly didn't affect him too badly, though.)


Then later I fed all the sleepers this- from Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals". It's known as "You-Won't-Be-Single-For-Long Vodka Cream Pasta". It's amazing.