Silly girls

For those who've requested more of Eva's laugh.



Dum-ditty dum-ditty dum dum dum.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

We went camping this weekend with G and KT's family to celebrate G's new found freedom! The Sheffers accompanied us, too - because we had to help Karen get over her fear of camping with kids ;) Love ya Karen ;)



Anyway, on the way home, Bryce took his hat off - which he'd been wearing almost constantly because it was cold. As I looked across the car to my darling husband, this is the lovely view I beheld.

We were devastated when we arrived at home and the apartment complex was without water. Man, I needed to wash. Since I couldn't, I just went for my long run this week - 7.5 miles in 2 hours! I was way impressed with myself! I ran outside for the first time. I ran on the Rail Trail - it was a fun, kinda hilly trail. I'm excited to do it again. Oh, and, I got brave and asked a couple people from church to go running with me (although I'm a turtle) and they said they would love to! Yeah. When I got home - all sweaty and stinky - the water still wasn't on. I waited about a half an hour and then called Karen to save me. She, being the saint she is, was very willing to offer her shower AND feed me dinner.

I took the girls with me over there but stopped to get gas on the way. Remember that I'm still gross and in my too tight running clothes that were stinky... Some little teenage girls in a Mustang were on the other side of the pump from me and one girl said, "she should not be wearing those pants" the other girl looks at me and says, "I know, huh"... You will be happy to know that I didn't resort to violence - although I would have momentarily enjoyed messing up their made-up faces - I just acted like I didn't hear. But, dang it! I was proud of myself for having just run 7.5 miles! When did they ever do that! Argh! Oh, well. It did remind me that I had said similar things like that when I thought people didn't hear. And, who knows, maybe they had just lost 50 lbs or something equally amazing. I need to be kinder. Even when I think the people don't hear me, God does and it hurts his feelings when we hurt his children.

When people are dirty and stinky, maybe their apartment was without water...

We did all get clean today and were ready for church on time. Note to self, find more space to put water storage. A water purifier doesn't count.

Happy 4th Birthday, Eva!

Eva's Birthday was last Sunday, May 4th. (Happy Birthday also to Kimberly, Marla, and Rachel!) I know there were many who were sad to miss this fun event! It was great. For Isobel's birthday last month, Isobel wanted to invite lots of friends to come to Chuck E. Cheese's with us and have a 3 layer checkered cake. Whew! Lots of work. Eva, being completely opposite of her older sister, wanted to go to the park and have coconut cream pie. Well, we didn't go to the park, but upgraded to Tent Rocks National Monument. It was a fun day of hiking and being with my brother G's family and our friends, the Sheffers. We had the same group join us on Sunday (the actual birthday) for pie and rhubarb crisp. Yummy!

Here we are, singing to the birthday girl!

Please take note of the pink Barbie ballerina dress that Eva is wearing in the video. Grammy bought that for her when she was here. She loved it and had to put it on before we could sing to her.

This is the little outfit that G and KT gave to Eva. Aren't the shoes great? I promise she didn't only get ballerina clothes, although, you've seen how skilled she is as a ballerina and is in need of encouragement ;)

Grandma Polly got Eva a kids cook book for her birthday while she was here. It has all kinds of fun recipes!

Eva has been loving it! She looks thru it to find what she wants to make. She loves measuring things. And TASTING them in the process!

She had a great time baking with Grandma Polly while she was here - and I had a great time eating their creations!

So, since Bryce and I don't really enjoy encouraging the Babie thing, we got her measuring spoons, cups, silicone spatulas, and a cupcake pan with fun shapes.

This is one of the shapes - Daddy and Eva made banana bread with her cupcake molds. (It's lips, if you can't tell ;)

After the cake and whatnot, we found the men dancing in the livingroom to Swan Lake with all the girls. Aren't they wonderful dads?

We are so happy to have our dear little Eva! Her laugh is infectious and her smile brightens my day! Thanks for joining our family! (I can't believe it's been 4 years - I feel old;)

The BIG 2nd Anniversary...after only 8 years!

I know, this post is way overdue. The point is, I am doing it. I am going to confess to a bit of cheating - I am mostly going to copy this verbatim from my journal. These are my personal thoughts - I am not posting this to win a Pulitzer. Ok, here goes.

Happy Anniversary! February 29, 2008
What an unexpected day. Last night we drove into Derry. We stopped at the B&B in Rick Steve's book - one of the few good things about the book - the other being current prices and open hours. The B&B is called Saddler's House. It was a nice place - tiny lou - but it was close to the wall. The people were SO friendly. The gentleman who met us; showed us around, asked us about where we're from, told us places to eat, etc - he was very chatty. Then we went to Flaming Jack's (hehehe) for dinner. After dinner, we walked all around the wall of Derry - it was so nice. Just me and Bryce on the wall - looking over the city. When we got back to the B&B, the woman came out and asked us about our dinner - etc. They were so nice. This was the first place with hot chocolate in the room (everywhere has tea in the room) - and kit kat's!

This morning we woke up snuggling - Bryce was so sweet. We ate breakfast with an American woman from PA and a Scottish guy. They had LOTS to say. We were planning on walking round Derry to see some monuments, shops, etc - but it was SO rainy and cold, we decided to try out luck moving on. It rains about everyday, but it's usually stop and go - sun and clouds - wind and calm. So, we hoped it would calm, stop raining, and we could walk around the other things we wanted to see. We made it to Portrush and realized the weather was getting worse. We stopped at a coffee shop that had sandwiches and Internet. Bryce was so disappointed in the way the day was turning out - he had so wanted to get me flowers or SOMETHING ... It was fine. It's nice to know he was thinking of things - Oh, he thought about going on a boat ride, too, but the weather was too nasty. After lunch he tried to get me ice cream at a treat shop but the man didn't have the ice cream because he thought it was too cold - and it was! But I love good ice cream :)

We went to Dunluce Castle and got blown into the ocean along with the servants and dinner in the 1630's.

(Here's the story: This castle is built on an island with a bridge out to it. One night during a terrible storm, the edge of the cliff where the kitchen was - fell into the ocean along with several servants and the nights dinner.)












(Here is a picture of Bryce holding onto his hat - which, although it is very tight, it felt like it would blow off - on the bridge to the island bit of Dunluce Castle.)

















(Here is a picture of me pretending that I am sitting in a beautiful bay window on a spring day reading a book. Did I mention it was freezing out?)


It wasn't rainy, though.













We decided to move on to Giant's Causeway. It was SO crazy windy and rainy that we spent several minutes in our car before it got blown over (you saw how little it was in earlier posts, right?) and we moved into the info center :) There we filled out and sent postcards. We finally decided to brave the wind since it wasn't currently raining. WOW! What an adventure. We got blown down the trail, into the rocks and into the ocean :)

Really, the wind pushed us down the trail and it felt like it was going to take my feet out from under me! It did start raining and with the wind it drenched my whole backside. After we went thru one particularly scary pass, I thought we should take some photos and work our way back up. So we did - try to to take some photos.

(As you can see from the waves, it was a bit windy)

It was so scary and windy - I slipped once on the rocks and got muddy and wet - but I was alive:)





(Basic story about the Causeway: The legend is that the Giant, Finn MacCool, was building a trail across the ocean to Scotland to his love. The geologic perspective is that when all this basalt cooled, it formed these crazy, almost hexagon shaped, columns. Pick your favorite story to tell people. Note in this picture how the shapes of the rocks are extending in a path out to the ocean.)

(Also, note the foam on the rocks.)




(I like to call these pictures: camera one and camera two. I was sitting on these columns that I was attempting to climb over - and yet trying to take some good pics. I was so nervous because of the wind that I kept just firing off shots so I could hurry and get down and safe. I just love how these turned out. First the waves in the background are getting blown backwards because of the wind. Second because in the first frame the wave is just reaching the columns and in the second they are having their second big crash. Beautiful. Too bad I was too scared to enjoy it at the time ;)

Some of the foam from the waves blew up into my mouth a couple of times - eww! We were now back on the path (the one pictured here) and getting pelted in the face with rain flying at 100 mph - OUCH - luckily Bryce grabbed my hand and we were able to push up thru it together.

Once the wind and rain subsided a bit - I started to laugh. "Happy Anniversary!" I said, "This is a romantic walk along the beach!" We had a good laugh at ourselves.

We went back, soaked thru to our skin, and drove to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge just to check to make sure it would be open the next day. The sign said it opened March 1st so we are praying there isn't too much wind.

We went to a restaurant in Ballintoy that also had a B&B. We sat next to the heater to warm ourselves. While we were eating, a group of guys, who apparently had just gotten off work - some kind of construction it seemed - came in and started playing pool and having a pint of Guinness. A man sauntered over to the jukebox to pick some songs. After several minutes of serious contemplation, a Tina Turner song came on! I couldn't believe it! Maybe he pushed the wrong button. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Next song: "Complicated" by Aviril Lavigne! This was too much. I was trying not to laugh and wondering if his comerades were going to come raz him or even beat him up for what he was playing - but they didn't even seem to notice! I got out an old recipt and started writing down the songs he picked. It got better. After some techno and that one song - "I wanna stand with you on a mountain..." - my jaw dropped to the floor.

"You raise me up" by Josh Groban! Who is this guy! I kept waiting for a Lisa Loeb song next. When I finally got my turn at the jukebox, I saw there wasn't any Lisa Loeb - maybe that was why. I was able to play "Sweetest Thing" for Bryce. I think this is one of "our songs" because of the "blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl" line. Love it.

We went up to our room (beware gorey details;) and got into our jammies and snuggled under the covers. We talked about fun memories and things we love. We watched a program on TV about a little region in Ireland. These cute little kids were telling folktales, acting out Viking stories, and singing traditional songs. It was so fun!

I do love my Bryce. He tried hard today - because he loves me. I love that he tries. I love that he likes to snuggle with me and say nice things to me. I love that he sang "I love you in the morning" to me this morning in bed. He is wonderful and I'm glad he is mine forever.

I Wanna Be A Ballerina When I Grow Up

I don't know if any of you remember this commercial - but here is a remake.

These are my girls dancing to their new movie: "Barbie in the Nutcracker" (thanks, Mom!)

That's one for the blog ;)

Share keeps calling me lately to keep me updated on our coming schedule. I am flying to Utah to see her run in the 1/2 marathon (way to go, Share!) and to play for a few days. To my friend Karen, I have two words - Scrapbook Expo. :D Ok, but really, the point is, everytime Share calls to update me on what else she has recently planned, I tell her a story about Eva. I guess Eva is just too sassy lately.

Before I tell you what she said, I want to tell you a bit of background. About a million years ago, my sister had a nasty basement apartment in Rexburg, Idaho. In this apartment, were found a few girls who lived there, a cat who lived upstairs but figured out how to get downstairs thru Share's closet just to jump on her in the night, a cat beating stick, and an ugly green refriderator (to name a few). Whenever someone said something particularly funny or noteworthy, they would write it on the side of the fridge -no explanation, just a quote. Our friend Mark had a great desire to have his words immortalized on the fridge. One night, probably too late to be night anymore, he said something really funny. As we are laughing our heads off, he says, "Is that one for the fridge?" Who knows what he said first - but, this quote was even better and went on the fridge. I think that is the only one I even remember.

After telling Share a couple stories, she said, "That's one for the Blog" - in the same way we'd say, "That's one for the Fridge." So - here's Eva's quotes for the blog.

Mom called to tell me she loved me and then Eva wanted to talk to her. After handing Eva the phone, I noticed that she had grass and stuff in her hair. I said, "Eva, you have stuff all over you."
She held the phone away from her ear and mouth and whispered, "Mom, I'm on the phone. Don't talk to me when I'm on the phone. Okay."
Betcha can't guess where she's heard that.

While at McDonald's tonight, Share over heard me say to Eva,
"Don't lick carmel off the table."

I can't remember what other funny things have been said lately - help me out, Share.
If any of you have any funny quotes you wanna share- Bryce or anyone - remember, "that's one for the blog."

Platform 9 3/4

So, If you know NOTHING about Harry Potter - you won't get this. First of all, I didn't read Harry Potter til we moved here to Santa Fe. Actually, I didn't read them - I listened to them on tape because I drive all over the place. So, in London, Harry is supposed to go to platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station to get on the Hogwart's Express. Since I finished the books just before we left - I had to go to King's Cross Station when we went to London.

When we left Ireland, we were pretty ready to go home. All we had planned to do in London on our last day was to go to Jane Austen's house and King's Cross Station. It took us all day to get to Jane Austen's house and back. We took trains all over the place and that night when we finally got back into London, we took the tube to King's Cross just before going to our B&B.

By the way, as the story goes, Harry has to run his cart into the platform to get thru to the wizarding world. Here I am on my way into that world.

Overall, the last London bit of the trip was a bit uneventful. However, when we got up early to catch a few trains to the airport, we were graced by this beautiful sunrise. This was a good way to say goodbye to our trip and to start our journey home.