Cabo Anyone? No really I mean it this time.

We had the opportunity to take a trip to Cabo San Lucas a few weeks ago. It was so beautiful. It was relaxing and the food was wonderful. We (me) laid by the pool and soaked up some vitamin D. Dave spent time going snooba-ing. I just don't know how to spell that. I'll have to post those pics later. He also went jet skiing or is it ski jetting? I always mess that up. Anyway we had a great time.
This is a picture of the pool I hung out at. There were 2 of them and a bar pool. I never went there to the bar pool, not a fan of drunk swimmers and I thought there might be a lot of pee in the pool.

My sweetie and I on the beach. It was so beautiful. Those rocks you see behind us are the tip of the Baja Peninsula. I hear the water on the other side which is the Pacific Ocean was crazy. I of course did not venture over. I'm a big chicken.

Dave, Paul and Jake checking out the waves. They were really high and strong. When they crashed it sounded like a cannon boom. I loved it. Dave and I had an ocean front room and we kept the door open and just listened to the waves. I think they may have been left over from the tsunami, because a couple days later the water was really calm and the waves were pretty much gone.

I really know how to party. These are some awesome glasses I found. We were supposed to go up to Cabo Wabo, Sammy Hagar's restaurant/bar, (he was the lead singer for Van Halen after David Lee Roth left the band, for those of you who don't know who he is), and meet some friends, but they wouldn't let us non-drinkers in. So I decided to party my own way. There were some other glasses too, but I decided this was a family friendly blog and I just didn't feel right about wearing genital glasses on my face.

So of course the next picture of us is at church. I planned that picture well after my last comment.

We decided to check out the church down there in Mexico. It turned out to be fast Sunday and it was so amazing. I have not felt the spirit like that in a long time. It was so amazing to see these people rush to get up on the pulpit. The testimonies didn't stop. They were wonderful. They were such humble and grateful people. Taught me a little bit of a lesson. Of course I didn't understand but a few words that were said, and when I looked around the room it was standing room only. And there were people standing. As we all bowed our heads for the closing prayer it took me a minute to realize that I was understanding it. I thought maybe I'd been given the gift of tongues. No such luck it was in English. Still the experience was great and one I won't forget.

Isn't this sailboat beautiful. I may not like to be on boats, but I can appreciate the beauty and grace of one such as this.

Dave and I with the view from our balcony. There were lots of cruise ships that came to port each day. If I might point out that I am more tan than Dave. It will be the only time. I had to make it known.

Some of the group at a local place called Pancho's. It was delicious. The chicken burritos were mui bein. I hope I spelled that right. I hope I used that right. Anyway fun night. We went down to the marina after dinner and looked at all the yachts. Crazy. I also had a local man say "hey you blondie. I like you." to me. I'll take it as a compliment. Who doesn't like to be liked?

See the romance isn't gone. It's been rekindled in Mexico. I sure love this crazy guy.

Such a wonderful trip, the warm sunny breezes and the sound of the waves gave me a little time to reflect on just how lucky I am to have a wonderful family and how blessed my life is. It was truly great.

Cabo anyone?

I bet you thought this post was going to be about Cabo. Well you are wrong. Looking at these picks made me want to go back to Cabo. I'll post about that tomorrow. Before we went to Cabo we went for a little get away weekend to McCall, Idaho. Dave and I had never been there but heard it was a quaint little town. I had to add this picture about because it's just so beautiful with the clouds covering the Treasure Valley. This is coming down from the ski resort Bogus Basin in Boise. Crazy that there is a city under all those clouds. We went to McCall the first weekend in March. It was a great winter get away for us. The house we stayed at was beautiful. It was a true home away from home. Except it had a hot tub. I might just need to get one of those. It was so relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves. When we went into town we saw some spectacular icicles. I swear when we'd walk under the eves of the buildings you could hear them breaking as the day warmed up. Dave almost got clobbered by a bunch of snow that came down off one building. I laughed. It's what I do at inappropriate times.

Here I am visiting the original city jail. The inside consisted of a wood stove and a pot I think. That was for the guard. I couldn't see into the cell itself, but I'm guessing not where you wanted to spend alot of time. Or anytime really.

Here is the main street of McCall. Some really cute shops. We were told to try out the Sushi restaurant in town. That is was great. Surprisingly it was. Very good sushi. Who would have thought that in the Mountains of Idaho you would find such yumminess. Then we went home and had lots of naps and read, and watched movies. It was a very needed getaway. I'd definitely go there again.

Maybe next time we'll take the kids.....but then again.....

Don't give up on me....

Ok I know I haven't been posting very much lately. Mainly it's because I can't get my pictures downloaded onto the computer and I just don't think my writing is witty enough to keep you all engaged without a little bit of eye candy. The eye candy being the kids. They are pretty cute and usually covered in candy. So you see my point. Well actually you don't because there are no pictures.

Anyway I'll give you a little bit of a heads up as to what is coming and it will help me remember as well. Stupid brain cells that haven't returned since the birth of my kids. Yep that's right I'm blaming them.

So in the future you will see some pictures of beautiful Cabo San Lucas. You will also pics of the coolest pinewood derby car ever!! You might see a few of the kids opening their Easter baskets. And not to forget that Abigail turns 3 on Saturday so there is probably going to be pictures there too.

See what awesomeness you have to look forward to?

Red was the color of the day!

I am still being challenged at being able to do things on the blog. Now I can't find the cable I need to download pics from the camera to the computer. Seriously. Who needs this headache?

Once I find it I will have spectacular pics to put on here and facebook. So until then I don't have anything good to say! Sad I know. I'm sure you are missing my witty banter.

I guess I can relay my day yesterday. Monday was yesterday. It was an ok morning. Got the kids off to school. Good. Had my workout. Good. Went and paid taxes. Crappy because I had to give my money to the gov., but good, since they didn't take all my money this year! Delivered forms to my scouts for day camp. Good. Came home to people cleaning my floors and toilets. AWESOME!!! Threw in the boys wash. OK. Ate some lunch. Tasty. Then.....

As I went to the kitchen to put my plate in the sink, who do I spy? My sweet little Abigail who looked like she killed something. No joke... She was covered head to toe in red.

Red what you ask?

RED PAINT!!! Yep that's right. Red paint. She had been watching Noah paint his pinewood derby car. Noah didn't clean up the paint before school. Guess who decided to help Noah? Don't have to guess do you?

Yep that's right. Abby decided to help Noah paint. She painted his car. She painted the floor. She painted the chair. She painted the counter. She painted her clothes. She painted her hair. Yep she got a lot of painting done.

Well I was freaking out. As I do. And poor little abby got the shock of her life as her clothes were ripped off her and she was thrown into the tub and scrubbed till her skin was naturally red. Then she was sent to bed. Sad I know. Really she was just helping, and didn't think she had done anything wrong.

Sydney was then sent to her room. Why you ask again? She sat at the kitchen table and watched Abby paint away while she ate ice cream. Her reason for not telling me or stopping Abby? I couldn't find the words to tell you. Nice.

Well I couldn't figure out what I was going to tell Noah. So I grabbed some disinfecting wipes to see if I could get the paint off my floors and what not. It came off pretty easy. Weird. I thought back to Abby in the tub and I probably didn't have to scrub so hard. It seemed to have come off ok. So I took a wipe to Noah's car. It came off. You couldn't even tell. How awesome is that?

So Sydney decides the right thing to do is tell Noah what happened when he got home from school. I thought he'd be mad. Do you know what he tells me? Oh that's ok the red paint is washable. Nice. So all my stress for nothing. I mean seriously. And here I thought I was a miracle cleaner.

So everyone is just fine. I wish that were my only red color experience for the day, but it wasn't. Nope there was one more. The wash I threw in had a red jacket in it. Yep that's right. Now that load of the boys clothes are a bright pink. Poor Jacob is so upset Noah is going to tell his class Jacob has pink jeans. We had to squash that before they left for school this morning.

So on my Monday red was the color of the day. I hope Tuesday's is yellow. As in some sun shine. That would help me a lot.

Challenged

I am truly blog challenged. Maybe not blog challenged but computer savvy challenged. It might just be like I said before.... Dave is a Mac and I'm a PC. I still can't figure how to get some pictures from there to here. I am blaming the computer because I just don't want to believe I'm actually this challenged.

My last post still isn't up because I can't figure out how to download the pics. I know it is a sad sad day.

Maybe I'll ask Abby.... She seems to have the iPhone and iPad figured out. She might know this too.

Rain rain go away!!!

Last week was our spring break. I always thought that March was supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Well it came in like a lion and went out like a pack of lions. What is with that?

Our wonderful spring break, that sounds like I'm being sarcastic but it was pretty wonderful, started out with the baptism of our niece Ava Quist. She turned 8 at the beginning of the month and chose to enter the waters of baptism. We are so proud of her decision and I know she will a become a beautiful young lady.

She did so great and actually sang a solo all by herself. She brought tears to my eyes with her sweet voice. Her grandma almost couldn't give her talk following her song. Truly beautiful.

After the baptism we went and had some yummy food and then all the kids wanted to go to Sky High. I just thought it was the name of a Disney movie, but no it is a jumping place. Lots and lots of trampolines. The kids loved it. The parents loved it for about three jumps and then came to sit down in pools of sweat. It kicked the adults butts. I choose not to jump, but take pictures.

The next day we got to celebrate Grandma Lorraine's Birthday!! She turned ???? Well we'll just say she has decided not to age anymore. I'm just not sure what number she decided to stop at. The kids were excited to have yummy cake. The only down side is our sweet little Sydney decided to get a fever and couldn't come to the party. She had Grandma Parker call and ask if we would bring her some cake. So we did.

The next day brought us to the Coast. We decided to head down to Cannon Beach. Mom and Dad took the kids and the dog, while Dave and I decided to take advantage of Outlet stores and no sales tax. Heaven. Found some fun things for our Mexico trip this week. Grandma and Grandpa decided to brave the wind and took the kids to the beach for a few minutes. It was miserable, so they came back to the house and rode bikes for a minute or two. They bought Abby her own new purple bike. It's her favorite color. She was very excited.

Grandpa with the girls on the very windy beach.

Noah and Jacob digging in the sand. We use shovels in the hard, wet sand.

Abby on her new bike.

Well the rest of the 3 days we were there were soggerific. So we busied ourselves playing card games. Golf and Apples to Apples were a hit. We also went and saw the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. Then sadly we had to take Syd to the urgent care because she just kept getting sicker. As a treat we went and got Tangled for her to watch and it is now Abby favorite movie for the time being.

Grandpa bought another little sculpture of a mouse. The kids had fun playing with it.

The kiddos also hung out on Grandpa's giant bear sculpture. You make your own fun when it's yucky outside.

Abby and Sydney after a tub. Pretty cute.

Playing sure tuckers you out. Always love a good snooze.

Of course one hour before we left the coast the sun decided to peek out and the rain stopped. We still had a great time playing games as a family and spending all that special time together. Grandma and Grandpa even felt sorry for Foster and let him in the house. It didn't hurt that he had a haircut right before we came.

Once we got back to Portland the weather decided to behave for a day and we were able to go to the park. It was a lot of fun and much needed to see the sun for a few minutes. Dave went golfing and then to a fantastic Blazer game with family and friends. The kids and I helped Grandma get ready for a surprise party for her best friend. It was pretty fun. I got to decorate a fake cake. It was made of styrofoam. I think it turned out pretty good.

Ever wonder why they are called monkey bars? Yeah me neither. Pretty cute bunch of monkeys.

The fake cake and myself.

Of course the rain came back as we left and on our drive home we encountered rain, wind, snow, hail and about 30 miles from our house SUN!!!! As much as I love Oregon I have grown pretty fond of the sun here in Idaho.

We had a fabulous trip!! It was a great Winter Break. I can't wait for Spring break to finally get here. ( Hope it makes it before summer does.)

I thought I could read music

Today I had my first experience ever being the primary chorister at church. It consists of leading the singing for both the younger kids (3-6) and the older kids (7-11). I had 15 minutes for each group. Not too bad.

I grew up singing these songs. I thought I knew the words. Better yet I thought I knew the melodies. Holy cow batman... Where oh where has my little mind gone? Where oh where could it be?

I had to keep checking back at the book to see the words. I think they changed them. I'm pretty sure they are different from when I learned them. Ok it's just been a really long time since I've sung them.

I am not a fan of singing in front of people. I don't have that great of a voice. I think that's why I play instruments. Still musical just in a different less voice cracking off pitch sort of way. For the most part the song time went really well. The kids sang loud and participated. They did the arm motions (which of course I couldn't remember). I did the arm motions to lead the music. Sort of. At one point I thought the song seemed off and realized I was conducting in 4/4 time and the song was written in 3/4 time. Wow, senior moment there or really in my case brain fart.

But really I'm pretty proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new. I will probably say yes to subbing again. Of course all of the other leaders stroking my ego and telling me I did a great job, probably helped that a little too.