Happy Birthday!

Today would've been my mom's 64th birthday.  She shared a birthday with her mother.  My grandmother turned 91 today.  It was easy for me to remember my mom's age because it always had the same last digit as my age because she was 30 years older than me.  Also something else cool is that my mom's dad was 30 years older than her and I am 30 years older than Jason.  So now Jason needs to continue the tradition and have a child when he is 30 years old in 2036.  The pressure is on!

I've been scanning lots of old photos during my stay in California. I came across this one.  It is my mom and grandmother's 37th and 64th birthday.  It's too bad nobody made a cake for them.  All they got is bowl of Jello with whip cream and a candle.  It was probably too hot in the August heat to turn on an oven in a house without AC.

August 29, 1983

Old Friends

Friday night I arranged a little get together with some old friends from Junior High and High School. Two of them (twins) I hadn't seen in 10 years.  It was so good to be in touch again.  We were all buddies during Jr. High, but when it was time to go off to high school, we lived in different zones and the twins went to a different high school than Kelly and me.  However we remained friends and would travel to Catalina Island every summer for a week, where the twins' family had a summer home.  It was like old times, except with kids.

I brought out the slide and it became the main attraction until Rachel decided to run down it and fall flat on her face.

It was Kelly's birthday, so I baked her a cake.

A picture of us and our kids.  

It was a great night.  Now if only I can get them to join Facebook!  They just don't understand its value!

Blogigation

Last night my husband and I went out on a date.  We took some pictures and he made a comment that went something like, "You can put it on your blog."

 I said, "Yeah!"

Then he said, "Like you're really going to put it on your blog."

Then I said, "What do you mean?  Did you go to my blog today?"  (I thought he probably saw that my last post was a week ago.)

Then he said, "No.  You just have guilt written all over your face.  Slacker."

He's right.  Maybe if I extremely abbreviate what's been going on in list form, it will make things easier.  Let's begin where I left off so I can fulfill my blogigation.

1. Went to Salt Lake City. Emily got altitude sickness, so we left.  Thankfully we saw most of Temple Square the previous evening.  But I cried because I really wanted to see Conference Center.
2. Took the scenic route south in Utah and stopped by Zion National Park.  Spent the night in St. George.
3. Toured St. George.  Went to most of the Church History sites.  Fun.
4. Headed to California with a stop in Las Vegas.  We stopped briefly at Treasure Island.  Took the monorail to the Mirage and left.  It was cool seeing the lights.
5. Drove to Southern California and arrived at my Dad's house at about 2AM.
6. Have spent the past 3 weeks in CA.  
7. Have watched a LOT of Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel.  LOVE that show!
8. Went to Hollywood.
9. Touched the Pacific Ocean.
10. Went to the Reagan Library.
11. Saw some old friends from high school and college.
12. Watched more Phineas and Ferb because we love that show.
13. Played lots of games - Battleship, Monopoly, Mancala, Stop Thief, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Clue, Trap Door, Scrabble, Solataire, Chinese Checkers, Aggravation, and more.
14. Watched TV.
15. Had a birthday party for my sister.
16. Have been scanning lots of old photos from my childhood.

More to come..  Here's some pics:

Salt Lake Temple

Manti Temple.  I think this one is my favorite.

Sick Emily.  I'm pretty sure she had altitude sickness.  At breakfast in SLC she said everything turned white and blurry and she nearly passed out and then she vomitted.  When we returned to normal altitude, she felt better.

This is proof that we went.  We were only there for a few hours.  We took the tram ride through the park.  We didn't get to hike or do cool things.

At the St. George Visitor's Center

On my next Tithing slip I'm going to donate $3.00 for Windex.

St. George Temple.  It was beautiful.  We were told at the visitor's center that a long long time ago a baby was born in the temple and was named Templeina.

A quick stop in Las Vegas before final destination.

Salt Lake City

What the heck?!  I just uploaded a bunch of photos and words and now it's blank!!  Darn Blogger! I want to cry.  It's no wonder that blogging can be so discouraging!!  I'll try again tomorrow.  Here's a picture not of Salt Lake:

Playing Battleship at Papa's house.  

They look so sweet, but about 10 minutes into the game Bradley was in tears and accusing Emily of not playing fairly.

More Vacation Documentation

Ok, so I just realized that I never finished documenting our drive out here.  Here is some more:

Day 4 - Drive from Nauvoo, IL to Cheyenne, WY (August 1/2)

Planning this part of the trip was tricky.  We spent Sunday in Nauvoo and we planned to stay at my brother's house in Cheyenne, WY for an evening.  If we stayed in a hotel on Sunday evening we would get to Cheyenne too late and wouldn't be able to spend much time with them.  So I planned to drive through the night in order to get to Cheyenne in the morning.  Since my husband is not a total night owl, I volunteered to drive.  It was a lot of fun having a quiet van with sleeping people and a lot of radio stations with good music to listen and sing to. I found it amusing that Omaha had a radio station called 101.9 The Big O.  However, during the night we drove through 2 state capitals.  My husband was kind enough to take my picture at 12:30 AM in Des Moines, IA and 3:30 AM in Lincoln, NE (above picture).  We stopped at a Perkins in western Nebraska and made it to my brother's at about 11 AM.  I was tired.  But....

I did a picture of Cheyenne, WY.  Woo hoo!  That night we watched The Bachelorette finale and we departed on our way to Salt Lake City the next morning (about a 7 hour drive).

To Be Continued....

Day 11

Are y'all mad at me for not blogging?  Because I'm mad at myself.  I'm so flaky!  It's day 11 of being in California and for goodness sake I have lots of things to blog about.  I mean I could be blogging about every single episode of Phineas and Ferb that my kids have watched on the Disney Channel.  I could blog about all the hundreds of photos I've been scanning from my childhood.  I could blog about all the games we've been playing.  But, nope, instead I sit and watch the Bachelor Pad with my sister and neglect my poor poor blog.

So I though I would give a quick update on my status.  We are still in California enjoying some cooler, unhumid weather, sitting outside without the threat of rain, gnats, or mosquitoes.  It's been enjoyable.  the other day Wendy or Sarah (I forget which one) remarked, "Why are there no clouds in California?"

We haven't done a whole lot besides the above mentioned activities.  It's been nice just hanging out with my dad.  I bought a new camera before we came and it takes awesome pictures.  I thought I'd share one:

Ok, just kidding.  The picture I was looking for must still be in my camera.  Instead here is a different one:

George is getting really good at smiling.

Back to Blogging

Ok, so I had this unrealistic expectation that on our drive out to California that I would blog every night once we arrived at our hotel with free wi-fi.  The truth is I am not Super Woman.  After driving nine hours and fulfilling my promise to let the kids go swimming in the hotel pool until it closed, getting clothes ready for the following day, and downloading photos from the camera memory card, I was just too exhausted and pretty much fell asleep with the computer on my lap.  So now a week later I will have to do a brief overview of our trip.  I might have to split this up into a couple of days because I'm tired right now too.

Day 2 - Lexington, KY to Macomb, IL

I have a life goal of getting my picture taken in front of every state capitol building.  It all began in college when I drove with a college roommate of mine to her home in Washington State. On the way we visited Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia.  Since then I have visited several more.  I think I have collected more than half of the states.  Anyway, after leaving our hotel in Lexington, KY we had a short drive to Frankfort.  I knew that Frankfort wasn't a big city, but I was a little confused when the GPS told us that we arrived at our final destination.  It was a trailer park having a community yard sale.  I took a picture anyway in case it was the capital.  As we were leaving, we saw the sign, "Capital City Mobile Home Park".  I guess that confused the GPS system.  The GPS eventually directed us to the correct destination.

We also stopped at Springfield, IL.  We visited Abraham Lincoln's old home in addition to the capitol building.  Did you know that Abe is still alive?  We drove around the block three times to try to get his picture.  He seemed pretty annoyed with me snapping pictures of him.  Now I understand why the paparazzi spend a fortune on telephoto zoom lenses.  I probably could've gotten his picture on the first time around the block and been a little more discreet about it if I had a fancy zoom lens.  I was thankful that the homeless man begging for money stalled him for a while.  I wonder if Abe gave him any money, perhaps a five dollar bill along with some pennies?

We also went to Indianapolis, IN and ate Subway on the steps of the Capitol building.

Day 3 - Nauvoo

We spent most of the day in Nauvoo.  We attended Sacrament meeting and then toured the Church Historical sites.  There wasn't enough time to see everything.  We hit the highlights and collected our free souvenirs.  We got a brick, rope, candles, and a mini horseshoe.  We also visited Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was killed.  It was a busy day in Nauvoo and Carthage because it was the day after the last day of the pageant.  Our tour group at Carthage had about 50 people in it.  It was hot and crowded in the tiny rooms.  When we were upstairs looking at the actual room where Joseph was shot, I found a nice spot on a bench by a window where I could sit with George.  He was fussing so I stuck him on my breast because I forgot to bring the pacifier.  As I was sitting there with my boob half exposed because I didn't have a blanket either, the tour guide directed the attention of the group to the window from which Joseph fell to his death.  It was the window I was sitting by. People began to snap pictures.  Nice. Let's hope none of those pictures end up on somebody's blog.

After Carthage we found a nice park in Iowa and ate a snackish dinner of tuna fish and crackers and let the kids play at a park.  We then embarked on an all night drive to Cheyenne, WY.

To Be Continued......