10 Years Today

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the day we moved into our home.  I remember the day we drove in from Columbus, OH to look at houses.  We only had one day and we had 3 kids in tow.  We looked at around 9 houses that day and this one was head-and-shoulders above the rest.  With room to grow, a recently remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, and an asking price within our meager budget, we moved in on July 31, 2000.  Since then, Jeff has put on a new roof, new siding and new windows as well as finished the basement, landscaped the yard and built a new garage.  And that's only the outside. This years big project is to have the original hardwood floors refinished in the living room and dining room.  We've redone pretty much every room inside and it just keeps getting better and better.  It's a great house and we love it!

This is the house ca. 1916:

Here it is one year after we moved in:

And here it is today:

We love coming home!

Friday Funny

Three older ladies were discussing the travails of getting older. One said, "Sometimes I catch myself with a jar of mayonnaise in my hand in front of the refrigerator and can't remember whether I need to put it away or start making a sandwich."

The second lady chimed in, "Yes, sometimes I find myself on the landing of the stairs and can't remember whether I was on my way up or on my way down."

The third one responded, "Well, I'm glad I don't have that problem; knock on wood," as she rapped her knuckles on the table. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "That must be the door -- I'll get it!"
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Please share your favorite clean joke in the comments section!

My Buddy

How can you not love a kid who posts this on the refrigerator door?  Don't feel too bad for Jeff.  Sadie's got him wrapped around her little finger.

 

Round Barn

This unique barn is in the country outside of town.  We don't get out that way often, but I smile whenever we happen to drive by. 

Stocking Up

We're on our last jar of freezer jam.  Fortunately, our peaches tree is bursting with ripe peaches so I spent the morning making jam:  peach, strawberry, and strawberry peach.  I think I'll make 2 more batches of peach tomorrow and we're set.  Yummy! 

Kudos to Conan

For the record, I'm not a big follower of Conan O'Brien.  I never watched him on the Tonight Show or before that.  But earlier this year when he lost that gig, I was curious.  With so much media coverage about the so-called-scandal involving Conan and Jay Leno and the shows they should or would host, I read plenty about the various goings on.  I even watched Conan's last Tonight Show on Hulu and, well, I was impressed.  I was especially impressed by what he said during his final monologue, so much so that the following quote made it into my kids' lunchboxes. (I'm big on lunchbox quotes!): 

"To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me.  I'll think about it for the rest of my life.  And all I ask of you is one thing, and I'm asking this particularly of young people...please do not be cynical.  I hate cynicism.  For the record, it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.  But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

                                   --Conan O'Brien

Friday Funny

A lawyer, a priest, and a little boy were on an airplane that was going to crash.  There were only 2 parachutes.

The lawyer said, "I have spent years in school and, as the smartest man on this plane, I deserve to live."  He grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the little boy and said, "My son, I've lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace."

The little boy answered, "No, Father.  There are enough parachutes for both of us. The smartest man on the plane just jumped out with my book bag."
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Please share your favorite (clean) joke in the comments section!

That was a close one

Normally I'm not happy about my kids getting sick.  Especially when the sickness includes throwing up.  But this time I won't complain.  Why?  Because Soren started throwing up about 1.5 hours after we got home last night.  I am so glad that he didn't throw up while we were all captive in the van!  Can you imagine?  He's been a sleepy guy today, but he's happy and is going to be just fine.

The long road home

After arriving at their house late Saturday night, we spent all day Sunday with Jeff's brother, Jeremy, and his family in Colorado.  The kids, once again, had a great time with cousins we hadn't seen in far too long.  Unfortunately, we didn't pull out the camera until bedtime and those pictures could be used as blackmail so I won't publish them here!  Jeremy and Krista treated us to homemade burritos that equal anything you can order in a fancy restaurant.  Yummy!!!!  Then, as if that wasn't enough, we had homemade cookies-and-cream ice cream for a bedtime snack.  Just what we needed to gear us up for another day of fast food in the van! 

Our drive home on Monday wasn't bad as far as 1000+ mile drives go with 8 people in a van.  We drove through a fierce thunderstorm about 45 minutes from home, but we still made it home in good time to find everything as it should be.   Total trip miles:  4146.8.  It's good to be home!

Family Faces

Some of my favorite people from the cabin.

(The list of those not pictured is equally as long - this is in no way inclusive.  Some people are easier to photograph than others...)

It was hard to say goodbye.  Thanks for a great three days!

The Biggest Catch

Spencer loved fishing at the cabin.  Unfortunately there was no photographer on site to document the two huge rainbow trout from day 1.  Here is the big catch from day 2.  You can't really tell from the photo, but the fish is almost as long as Spencer's legs - somewhere around 20-22".  Way to go, Spencer.

The Cabin

The reason we drove to Utah was to end up at my brother-in-law's cabin for 3 days with the whole Martin clan.  This cabin is amazing!  We are having a great time.

Old Friends

We had a great day visiting our good friends who moved away from our little corner of the world 6 years ago.  Savannah was so excited to see her BFF, Augustine.  They were as silly and giddy as ever.  Can you tell how much fun these 2 have together?  It had been 3 years since they'd seen each other but they quickly made up for that!  Fortunately, theirs is the type of friendship where they can simply pick up where they left off.

Happy Birthday!

Sadie got to spend her 5th birthday at Uncle Steve's and Aunt Jenny's house.  Hard to believe my baby is five!  Lots of family came over in the evening to celebrate.  Later in the week, Grandma gave her a golden dress for her birthday.  She looks like a little Princess. 

Family

We said goodbye to Jay's family in the morning and Todd's family after church.  It was so fun to spend time with all of them and for the kids to see their cousins.  It's been 2 years since we saw them last!
 

Minersville Reservoir, etc.

What a fun day!  Todd temporarily has 2 boats so we each hitched one up and spent a great day on the water.  Jeff's youngest brother, Jay, and his family drove down to spend the day with all of us as well.  Sadie was thrilled to finally see her closest cousin, Ana.  They had so much fun together.  I was able to get up on one ski on my 2nd try, but sadly there is no photo proof.  I did capture Sam and Jeff up on skis.  The rest of the gang were on the other boat tubing.  They had a great time, but the camera was with me. 

The next photo was the last ride of the day.  Jay and Benson may have felt like they were riding a bull.  The weather turned nasty pretty quick and, while the picture doesn't really show it, the water was choppy to say the least.  It was one wild ride!  From the smiles on their faces, they don't seem to mind too much.

On our way back to Todd's, we stopped at Parowan Gap to see the Indian Petroglyphs and Dinosaur footprints. 

In the above photo, can you see the silhouette of an Indian face in the rocks?

In the center is a three-toed dinosaur footprint.  It looks like it's been cast because the rock formed in the print.  A great day!

Kanarraville Falls

After a day of relaxing at Uncle Todd's house, Jeff, Todd, and Debra took the older kids on an awesome hike to Kanarraville Falls.  I stayed behind with the youngest ones.  Much of the trail was literally through the river.  It looks like they all had a great time.  (I'm not sure I would have been too happy to have to climb up that makeshift ladder to get to the falls...)

Bryce Canyon

Admittedly, the kids were done by the time we arrived at Bryce Canyon so this may not be high on their list of happy things.  However, I loved it.  We'd seen so many rock formations already.  What more could there be?  It turns out some of the best were waiting for us in Bryce.  Beautiful!