06 October 2010

How quickly things can change....

 Here we are last week out at Lake Pleasant - it was a pleasant 106* for the high on the last day of September.  We had a bit of fun - Katie even got up on the water skis!  Her 3rd try and she's up - she's also been up on the wakeboard and skiied on the kneeboard.  She has incredible balance.  I, on the other hand, almost made it up the other day, i'm sure in a few more tries i might make it up, but once I get the hang of it, i'll have to find another way to do the splits and clear out my sinuses.  :) 
 And on Friday, the first day of October - sunny, beautiful....




 Corin going in for the slide and overtaking Niko (he has no fear)
 Our beautiful backyard, with a lovely vegetable garden (just out of sight), we loved our Cucumbers....
Before the Storm
After the Storm
 We had a crazy afternoon of thunderstorms yesterday - and this was the worst one.  We had golf ball sized hail, had winds around 60mph and the temp dropped 30* in 30 minutes - from high 80's to 50's. 

check out those 'golf balls'

certainly was exciting!

looks like a winter snow

see the ice at the garage door
  I've been wanting to see a big storm - our Monsoons this year were few and uninteresting. 
all of the ice balls on the trampoline
My garden is decimated!  I can't believe it - it was so wonderful, with such big cucumbers and the tomatoes and peppers were flowering.
I went out today to take a good look, to survey the damage, now that everything has dried up....

that in the middle - the srawny twig with some leaves at the top - was our bell pepper plant

see where the hail hit - i had been planning to recover the chairs in outdoor fabric, looks like now i have to

took down some of our cacti - the pad at the top is bent over b/c it has a hole in the middle - powerful hail!

if i really liked these bushes i might be more upset that they were thinned out, but instead it's given me ambition to start removing them

our pool cover now has about 4,628 holes in it

broken garage window

Brad's dented up truck

Broken windshield on Brad's truck

ruined window screens

broken light bulb and broken light sensor

my poor cucumber

what's left of our once-thriving little garden

My birthday present!

Here's my birthday present - maybe also my Christmas present, and Valentine's... for the next few years, maybe? 

Brad knew there was something up when I started measuring our bedroom set one day while he was asleep, he woke up with "what's wrong? oh, nothing. ok. (going back to sleep, wakes back up) what are you up to now?"  So, it goes like this.... Katie needed a bigger bed, and one not so wobbly (she had a twin bed with trundle, which was never used), and they all needed dressers.  I've been considering for around a year + to buy them a bed set, but then had the epiphany one day (see measuring day above) that they could have our bedroom set (very nice, by the way) and we could get a new set, as Brad had mentioned (maybe once) that a California King would be nice so that he could actually stretch out.  Later that day I checked Craigs List and found a great bedroom set, but it was kinda pricey, but it was nice, so then after a couple of weeks (maybe actually a few weeks) of writing to the lady with the set and convincing Brad it was a good deal (new sets were 2 or 3 or 4 or more times more) and it would work, we went to look at it, negotiated and got it the next week.  That was back at the end of August and it took a month to get the mirror put up (it's big and heavy).  And it was a good thing Jamie and Charley were visiting the day we got it b/c they helped us carry the set up, actually slide, push, get a hernia (not literally).  It's very heavy, solid wood, marble tops.  Thanks Brad!  

Oh, by the way, Katie got Alex's bed which had originally been hers anyway before Alex took over her room, it's a Queen, she also has our previous dresser with mirror and nightstand; Alex received our bed - big massive bed, sharing a room with Niko who has a small twin (poor guy felt a little left out), and they also received our Armoire and a little dresser which had been Katie's.  Corin got a colorful bookshelf which had been in Niko-Alex's room.  So, now everyone's happy (well, not Katie, she does like to complain (the bed takes up too much of her room)). 

 Here's the set - came with the CA King bed, dresser, mirror and 2 nightstands.  The bedposts are 4" shorter than our ceiling and the canopy touches the ceiling.  Also, the fan is inches from the canopy, I determined it would all fit - so the one night I moved the bed (before mattresses) from where the dresser is and it is HEAVY!  But, I had to move the dresser out of the way and it is PAINFULLY HEAVY!  I was sitting on the floor pushing against other furniture and the other furniture was moving, pushing against the wall and i was moving, but I did eventually get it moved enough (the chiropractor loves my antics).

19 August 2010

Boating - many days in August

Now on to what Brad really wants to see here - his new boat and him on skis.  The kids all seem to like going out on the knee-board - as long as the water is very smooth.  Corin even wanted to go out on it the first day, he said "me too knee board" - not bad for just starting to talk.  He held on and never fell off - laughed all the way - I was panicked....

since we needed to put a hitch on our car, we decided to get a new car, well, same car, 4 years newer a 2011 Toyota Sienna, I didn't like it so much at first, but it's really nice, it's won us all over. 
Corin getting ready to go...
there's Corin in the water
this one is not fearful of anything - he'll be flipping on this and on to the wake board soon
Alex - he tried standing on this surfing-style - lasted a few seconds - he'll also be doing flips soon
Niko is content to hold on and not let go and not move
thought this looked interesting with the focus on the water spray

1st Day of School 2010

The first day of school - ever - for our little Sweet Pea, Niko - he was very sad to leave me, but has had a great time in Kindergarten - yea!  Poor Corin is so lonely with just me that he's been trying to convince George, our cat, to play with him, but G just wants to nap. 






at least Niko looks excited - too early, too sunny for Alex & Katie
there's Niko on his 1st day of K
his 1st day was only 1.5 hours long and I stayed with him the whole time; seemed to be a good transition for him

Salt Lake City - 30 July 2010


It's such a long drive from Yellowstone to Phoenix (17+ hours non-stop) so we decided to stop and stay the night in Utah at Mom & Dad Nelson's (although we missed Mom - she was camping at girls' camp).  Plus, after 3 nights of camping, we needed beds and showers.  :) 
so angelic... at least it lasted long enough to get the shot
the other photo has Corin putting his pointer fingers in his nostrils... this one was much better

Dad gave us a tour at the Museum of Church History in SLC and here we are at the children's area "I Am a Child of God."  Katie thought it would be cute to put a lamb from the Nativity on Brad's head...


trip to Yellowstone - 26-29 July 2010

Our family vacation to Yellowstone!  Ok, one of the main reasons for going was because we were going to be so close to ID anyhow (in Logan) and Yellowstone wasn't much further, and then I could go to Montana, I'd never been to Montana before, and I could add another state to the ones I've been to (still need HI, AK, WA, ND, SD, WI, ME, VT, MA, CT and RI - one day I'll convince Brad we need to go to New England and I'll get a lot more states added, been trying to convince him we need to take a cruise to Alaska from Washington, then I could add 2 more states and a country (no, never been to Canada - both of my sisters and parents have been, but I still haven't).  So, if you didn't already know, I like to travel, and I'm trying to visit every state and country, but enough of that b/c Yellowstone was amazing!  It was so spectacular, besides worrying that Corin would run off of the walkways and ..., I think that even the kids thought it was cool.  So here are our pictures - enjoy - and just in my opinion - Old Faithful really wasn't that interesting - and it was 20 minutes later than it faithfully was to go off.
the only bear we saw
read the sign and see where our runner/darter is safely at...
still safely secured....
we let him down here - we're at a small (non steaming) stream
 
why is it there's always one who doesn't smile for a picture?
we have a webshots of this view (my favorite webshot)- of course it's in a better angle, and at sunset/rise, but i was excited to have found it