Hiking the Mesa Trail

The girls and I meet Amy, John and Lucy at the Mesa Trail head on Monday. We hiked for about 2 3/4 hours.







Caylee got pretty tired during the first half as it was mostly uphill in the sun. Coming back down was a lot more fun. That trail was in a valley next to running stream.

We kept seeing a funny beatle/fly insects. I have inserted a picture of one. At one point, one landed on Cami's arm, she screamed and clung to me!

Cami and Lucy wanted more time together after the hike. When Amy and I agreed it would not work that day, they held a "sit-in" in the field at the parking lot. I think they thought it was the 1960"s! It didn't work!

There were beautiful flowers in bloom. Some of the time, we stood still and quiet and listened to all the insects and birds.

We told Amy about the pine trees distinctive scents of vanilla, strawberry or chocolate. She could smell butterscotch. As we got toward the end of the hike, the wind picked up and storm clouds started rolling in so we decided it was time to go. It was a fun, glorious day! Gotta love it here!

Gorgeous New Hair Cuts

Cami, Caylee and I decided we needed haircuts for the summer. It was Cami's idea and she barely had her hair trimmed. Didn't seem worth paying for to me!

Caylee went drastic. It is much shorter and layered. Cara would call it sassy!

I would send you a picture but I can't find my camera. I am a little worried about that. I hope it turns up! I pilfered my old digital camera from Cami's room to take the pictures of our new "dos". She had the battery recharging. It gave enough juice to take my picture and then that was it.

So sorry, you are stuck with just my cut and not cute little Caylee's. Cay says I look like Willie Wonka. I don't think that is a compliment at all. Who wants to look like Johnnie Depp! Cami thinks it is a a cute cut for a "younger person". Good thing I have self esteem on my own and I am not depending on these two to feed it!

Sunday Dinner

Cara, Dave and Layla came over for Sunday dinner. They were already here when we arrived home from Church. Dave had already emptied my dishwasher and set the table for dinner. I love having him over! He had placed folded napkins on our plates. We wore them on our heads like hats. Such irreverence!

I got to hold Layla in my lap and feed her her bottle while I ate my dinner. I dropped only one piece of carrot slaw. It landed in her ear! Caylee
thought it was sick that I ate it anyway. I am not sure if it is because she didn't like the carrot slaw or the fact it came from her ear.

After dinner and the dishes, Cayle and I played a card game - Aye, Aye Nephi! Caylee whomped on me! Layla sat in my lap and watched the action. After Cara and Dave left, Cami made some delicious milk chocolate chip cookies. She brought some to our neighbor Larry, to say thank you for letting her borrow their oatmeal. He looked at the plate and said something about how the cookies would not last long!

We delivered another plate (actually two because a bunch of boys lived there) of cookies to a family in our ward. The mom was having a hard day.

They were not home, we tried the door, it was unlocked so we "broke in" and left the cookies on the table. When they arrived home, one of the sons said , "Someone stole our TV and left cookies instead!" It scared the Mom until she listened to her messages and heard where they came from. I wonder who took their TV?...

Layla's Blessing Day

We all convened for church in Aurora on Sunday for Layla's big day!

She wore the blessing dress that was given to us when Caylee was born. I love that dress. A sweet sister in the Longmont Stake made it and sent it home with Rod one day. I was so surprised! What a sweet gift!

The Prices all came down from Loveland. We had a picnic lunch in Derek and Mary's back yard. We ate, visited, played ping-pong, jumped on the tramp and enjoyed all the little people.

Brandon started off playing in the little house then moved to the tramp and then the kid bikes he found in the garage.


Aiden was all smiles and begging for our food. He was passed around in church because he is just too cute! I think it is fun when I hold him in my lap and he jumps up and down as if he is in his Johnie-Jump up. One time he leaned down and bonked his head on Brandon's head. That didn't feel so good!

Caylee was our little waitress. She was very happy to go back in and get us more food. She loved to jump on the tramp especially when she could convince Quinten to get under the tramp and push up with his feet. She would go flying! She cried when it was time to leave because she still wanted to play ping-pong. She thinks we need to get a ping-pong table for our basement.

Even though Layla was the main party guest, she pretty much slept through the whole thing!

It was great to catch up with the Prices. We enjoyed visiting with Stephanie about her year in Hawaii and Braden about his Mission. He just got home 4 days before. I have included some pictures of the big event.

Summer Fun!

Since the last two Summers were full of moving and weddings, we are trying to make the most of this summer. Last week we went to Lafayette to hang out with the Houlihans at their neighborhood pool. Two of Cami's friends, Rylee and Sarah showed up, so she was having a great time.

Our friends, the Jensen's were in town for Gavin's wedding. Ali Jensen came over for the day last Wednesday. Caylee had a play date so I decided to take Cami and Ali to the movies. I am a cheap scape so naturally I took them to the discount theater. We arrived to find the theater closed down with the windows covered in paper. Luckily for us, the theater across the parking lot in the Westminster Mall was a new discount place, $5 a ticket! We bought our tickets to see the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian and headed for our seats. During one of the previews, the movie slowed down, stopped and we watched in horror as the film burned up! The lights came on. Cami said, "That can't be a good sign!" Sure enough it wasn't. We were told the projection motor burned up and given our money back! Cami and I were disappointed because we had been trying to find a time when we could see this movie when Caylee was occupied elsewhere. We heard there was too much fighting for her.

Cara and Layla came to stay last Thursday through Saturday since Dave was away. We loved having them visit. On Friday, we all went to Celeste's house. We ended up having a picnic in the park. Brandon loves to have his aunt Caylee come down for a visit. He ignores the rest of us when Caylee is around.

Caylee went home with Cara to hold Layla so Cara could get some work done. Rod and I took advantage of that by going on an afternoon date to Golden to the car show. Cami and I took advantage by going to see the Narnia movie that evening. This time I shelled out the BIG bucks to go to a decent theater. Cami was relieved! It was a fun movie. I was sad when it was over. I ran 13+ miles on Saturday morning so I was also very stiff after sitting still for 2.5 hrs. Cami thought I was pretty funny when I tried to move. We walked around a bit so I could work out the kinks!

Hanging Out With Ellen

Last Monday evening, Caylee, Cami and I drove South while Ellen drove North and we met in a park. We watched ducks, played with Ellen's dog Ruff, played bingo, ate brownies, did the monkey bars and last but not least spotted a big owl on a near by tree. It was a fun evening.

I am so glad Ellen and Dave live close. We are talking about meeting them for a concert in the park close to their house later this week. A group that imitates the Beatles is playing. That should be fun!

A Day at the Zoo

We decided to celebrate freedom from school with a day at the Zoo.


Caylee brought her school journal and wrote down every type of animal we saw. It was a challenge for me to help her with the correct spelling when I couldn't see the information board. Caylee and Brandon rode the Carousel. She wanted to record that also. I was having trouble spelling it, Let's see C A R (I think there is a U somewhere in this word...hmm?) A lady sitting on the bench finished if off for me. "A S E L". When we got over to the carousel, I saw she had it all wrong! She said it with such conviction too.



Layla slept through the whole experience. She will be six weeks old on Wednesday.



Brandon tried to run the show. He asked for a map as he came through the gate and picked out where he wanted to go. He loves the Bird house. Brandon wore his monkey backpack which has a long tail with a loop on the end so he can be tethered to us. It was a good thing too because he is likes to get up and GO! When I was attached to him, he would pull on the tether and say "Gwama, let's GO!"



Little Aiden would smile from his stroller, arch his back and reach out to us. Sometimes, we gave in and carried him. He is pretty irresistible!

This past weekend was a biggy for Cami and Caylee. Cami graduated from Elementary School (again!). It is not that she flunked, just moved to a new district that includes 6th grade in Elementary whereas the last district kicked them out after 5th grade. So we went to her "Continuation Ceremony" to celebrate again. Here is Cami and her teacher Mr Hack. She celebrated by having five girl friends from school over for a hot tub party and sleep over. Some of them (including Cami) managed to stay up until 4:00 am. Thank goodness for basements!




Caylee has been in a gymnastics class this past school year. She recently moved up to Level II. Way to go Caylee! Last Friday evening we attended the gyms Spring Festival. All of the participants received medals. Caylee is pretty excited about hers. She worked really hard on her balance beam routine.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Whoa! I am reaching out into the world of cyber-space today. I love the blogs my kids are doing so I have decided to join them and start my own blog! Here I go!

I have a big goal. I turn 50 this September and decided I want to try and run a marathon in honor of the event. It is a little scary, a lot of hard work and exciting. It is scary because I am wonder if I really will be able to do it physically. It is hard work because, I am sure you can imagine why, I have to run a whole lot! I ran 11 miles yesterday. It took me 2 and a half hours. Whew! And I don't even have an IPod to help me pass the time. Actually, I worked on memorizing "The Proclamation on the Living Christ" while I ran. That helped pass the first hour. After that, as I started to tire I decided to just run and enjoy the scenery. My goal is exciting because I love each mile stone as I pass it. I love feeling strong while I run and recognizing my progress. I love the support I get from my family, especially from Rod. He is my cheerleader. I told him I was going to quit yesterday. He told me "No Way!" So OK, it is NO WAY, I am going for it!

I am following the Jeff Gallaway training method. I follow what he says exactly. I figure he knows what he is talking about and I want to succeed so I am sticking to his plan. Which means I get to take next Saturday off and only run 6 miles before I push for a 12-13 miler the next week. Yea! I am looking forward to this Saturday. Actually, I am looking forward to the next one also just to prove I can do it!

I have discovered I need to drink a lot more water and a lot less chocolate chip cookies. The runs do not go so well when I don't follow that advice. I have also learned I need to fuel my body for the long runs. So far, I tried eating almonds - bad idea. The almonds were way to dry. Next I tried vanilla flavored goo from a little packet. That was all right and helped me get through the long run. On Saturday, I tried lemon flavored gummy squares. They were good! I need to stock up on a few packages of those. I also have a package of chocolate flavored goo in my stash for another day. I am not so sure about that. The goo stuff is just barely tolerable.