Oh Happpy Day!

Last August, the 25th to be exact, Misha's grin took on a new dimension--braces. She was a trooper. The braces were intended to shift her jaw into alignment, and consequently, she suffered a lot each time they made changes to her mouth. Her jaw was successfully realigned in the past year and earlier this week she had those wretched pieces removed from her mouth.

Before

After (her hair has changed a lot in the past year as well)

We went to her first appointment on Tuesday, September 13th for the removal and casting for a retainer. We went back on Wednesday morning for a quick retainer fitting. And just in time for picture day on Wednesday.

Cinderella

Last Sunday, Kristen wore one of the fancy dresses her grandma had made for a wedding.  As Kristen walked down the hall, a little girl being held in her daddy's arms, pointed to Kristen and said, "Look, Daddy, it's Cinderella."

(This picture shows Kristen wearing the smaller version of the same dress last year.)

Couch Surprises

I am always amazed at what I might find stashed in the crevices of the couch.  I had hoped to find the Apple TV remote, and was successful, but I also managed to find a few other treasures.  Now, you might think this is a pepperoni stick, but then you might think, "Hey, that's a cheese stick package!"

Pirate's Cove Water Park

Chris and I had originally thought to go out of town for Labor Day weekend, but since we had tickets to Les Miserables, we were limited.  We had a Groupon to Pirate's Cove Water Park that actually expired on Labor Day (the last day they were open for the season) and decided to make use of it on Monday afternoon.  The morning was spent in doing some chores and catching up.  After lunch we were on our way. 

 The park was packed.  I can't even imagine how they fit all the people in on a hot summer day.  It took about ten minutes around the parking lot a few times to find a parking spot.  We had two cars, making it doubly hard, because Chris was headed to the airport later in the evening.

We found a small shaded spot to drop our towels and snacks.  Misha and Amy headed off to the slides, while Chris, Kristen and I checked out all of the different areas.  We ended up at the lazy river, standing in line for at least twenty minutes.  Misha and Amy found us there and happily joined us in line.  The river was quite nice for floating around in, though Kristen was probably a tad too small for her tube.  After one turn around the river, she gave up her tube and rode on Chris' lap instead.

We went from the lazy river down to our shady spot for snacks and then jumped in the pool there.  I retrieved our water camera from the car and got some fun shots for the day.

We stayed until about 4 pm.  By then, Chris and I were ready to wrap things up.  We stopped for a picture with Mr. Pirate dude.

We parted ways for the week as Chris turned left toward the airport and the girls and I turned right for home.  We made a slight detour at Chili's for dinner and a last-of-summer hoo-rah.

Les Miserables

Chris and I had the fantastic opportunity of attending Les Miserables last weekend.  It started out as a lovely evening in downtown Denver, though I made the mistake of wearing mighty uncomfortable, blister-inducing shoes.  In fact, they were so uncomfortable that I heeded Christopher's urging after dinner to just take them off and walked part of the way into the theater barefoot.  I know, not kosher, and I've gotten ahead of myself.

We found an ideal parking spot and walked to our chosen restaurant.  We started with a lovely meal at a quaint little place called Osteria Marco in Larimer Square.  We both had the Mixed Green salad.  By its name, you would never think it to be so delicious, but it contained strawberries, pickled red onions, goat cheese, and candied walnuts.  Delish.  The dipping sauce for our grilled ciabatta bread was made of pesto, parmesan, balsamic vinegar and sun dried tomatoes and then we shared the Basil Pesto pizza.  It was a wonderful dinner.

We had plenty of time to walk from Larimer Square back to the Denver Performing Arts Center (DPAC).  It would have been lovely if hadn't already had blisters on my feet.  Thus the removal of my shoes.  Like I said, we had plenty of time, the theater doors were not even open yet when we arrived.  Once we were allowed to be seated, we easily found our seats and marveled at how fortunate we were to find great seats so close to the performance (I had called the ticket office to ask about seating for some seats and they informed me that they had other tickets returned and would I be interested in those.  Yes I was.)

We watched with interest the variety of people attending the show and the wide range of clothing styles and levels of dressing up that they had chosen.  "We could have come in shorts!" I told Chris.  Both Chris and I thoroughly loved the performance, however, just prior to its beginning I made a comment that pretty much soured the evening for both of us (for which I am terribly sorry).  We both became "Les Miserables".

When we exited the theater, I was not looking forward to walking what I thought was a long distance to our car.  Chris directed me to take a short cut through the DPAC parking garage, and blessed day, that was where we had parked.  I am so directionally challenged that I didn't even realize that we had parked so close. 

Things that make you go "Doh!"

So my little six-year old dumped her backpack and lunch box on the kitchen counter after school on Tuesday afternoon.  I noticed right away that the backpack was wet and inquired as to what was causing the wetness, "Oh, it's just my water bottle."  That would have been the preferable option.  Instead, I began emptying things out only to find that, bless her little heart, she had left a half-drunk Capri-Sun in her lunch box.  Sweetie (three syllables)!  "Doh!"

So, I dumped everything in the dish drain to drip and then realized I had apple juice all over my counters.  After cleaning that up, I transferred Kristen's back pack and lunch box to the laundry room where I would take care of it later.

It was easiest just to dump the back pack and lunch box into the washing machine with my colored load and let it go.  It became a "Doh!" moment for me when I realized that I had not unzipped the front pocket of her lunch box.  It now contained plastic lunch bags filled with smushed chocolate cookies and something else.  The leakage was minimal, I think.  I'm still waiting for that load to dry.  Not only that, I forgot to empty the pocket on her back pack which she had proudly filled with a small kleenex pack the day before.  "Doh!"  What was I thinking!?

Parade of Homes

I love to look at new homes, to peruse floor plans, to watch House Hunters on HGTV. Maybe I should have been a realtor. Chris kindly agreed to go with me to view some of the homes in the Parade of Homes. Amy had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, so we dropped her off and packed two unwilling little girls in the car to go with us. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the homes were south of us, so we had a bit of a drive.

As we entered the first home in Aurora, Misha and Kristen went cra-zy. "Mom, look at this" or "Did you see that?" or "Look, there's a movie theatre." And then, "Can we buy this house?" Cra-zy. They had a little more fun than they thought they would. We ended up at a street full of million-dollar homes. The place was packed. We didn't stay very long, but it was still fun to see. And there was only one house where the girls said, "We don't like this one. Let's not buy it." Okay.

Phase 10

Kristen loves to play Phase 10 with me. During the summer she and I played at least one game a day on most days. She's good. In fact, she is pretty savvy. Today she started keeping a tally. I am not sure what she was tallying, but the tally ticks were definitely in her favor--15 for her, 1 for me. After a while, she started to feel sorry for me and my lack of ability in earning tallies and comped me 15. She was up to 20 by then, so making my score 15 wasn't a big deal for her. Surely she was going to pull ahead some more.

We have played so much Phase 10 together, that we have created a lego card holder because she can't hold ten cards in her hands very easily. Even with the card holder, she lays her cards in front of her as she gets ready to lay them down. It is impossible for me to not know what she is working toward in her phases. Yet, she still seems to win.

On our last phase, she and I were organizing our cards when she nonchalantly asked, "How many wilds do you have?" I had none. A couple of seconds later, she asked, "Aren't you going to ask me how many wilds I have?" I hadn't planned on it, but inquired, "How many wilds do you have?" "THREE." She had been lucky with cards the entire game and made me laugh with her next comment, "I know they don't have brains...but these cards really like me." I'll do my best to steer her away from Vegas!

Misha's Glasses

I remember when I was a little girl, I had a pair of plastic-rimmed, lens-less glasses that I wore around. My brother thought it was stupid to wear lens-less glasses and would hide them any chance he got. Bradley!

I took all three girls to the grocery store with me last week. As per her usual attire, Misha wore her favorite lens-less glasses. Seriously, anytime I see her wearing them, I can't help but laugh. She even wears them to school!

As I was picking out zucchini in the produce department of King Soopers, a gentleman inquired of Amy and Misha (he hadn't seen Kristen with them yet), "Are those girls your daughters?" Now, there is something about talking to strangers that causes my children to come quickly to my side. I laughed as all three girls converged upon me--Misha with her glasses--and responded, "All three of them are mine." He chuckled and indicated toward Misha, "They are all beautiful, but she has a lot of character." I laughed and agreed with him.

The cashier commented on her glasses as well. I will just have to make sure she doesn't wear the glasses for school pictures. That's my Misha.

The Cow

I don't know what Kristen has against spaghetti sauce. IF she has any with her noodles, it always has to be on the side. I usually make my sauce with Ragu, ground beef and spices. Still, she has something against tomatoes. I made noodles with sauce for dinner this past week. Kristen took forever to eat, and came in to the office to bargain with me about what she would and wouldn't eat. Finally she came in and said, "I'll eat the cow but not the sauce!" Really, since when did we start calling hamburger "the cow"?

Kristen Again

Chris and I were having a heart to heart talk with Kristen. As Chris pulled her onto his lap he asked, "Is it hard being a kid sometimes?" She nodded yes and then asked, "Is it hard being a parent?"

Kristen

Kristen was playing with a balloon which then popped. She said, "Oh no, I bursted my own bubble."

My First Grader

Kristen was the most excited of all my girls to start school. She just could hardly stand the wait. She was up, dressed and cheery Thursday morning. As she said the blessing at breakfast, her heartfelt prayer included thoughts for her mom: "Please bless Mommy so she won't be lonely without me this year while I am at school." Bless her heart. But I won't be lonely!!!!! Okay, maybe a little.

It was only the first day of school for Misha and Kristen as Amy didn't start until Friday morning (who starts school on a Friday?) The reasoning behind the delayed start is to let the 6th grade students have their first day of school without the 7th and 8th grade students to stress them out. Still, who starts school on a Thursday!?

Back to Kristen. Misha helped Kristen pack her lunch and get things loaded in to her back pack. For the first day of school, I told Kristen that I would walk with her to her school. She'd be happy if I walked with her everyday and picked her up from school everyday as well. I followed her and Misha in to the gymnasium where they lined up with their respective classes and waited for the bell to ring. I gave my girl a quick hug as she stood to leave with the other first grade kids. Just a little bit of sadness in my voice.

Later that evening as I tucked Kristen in to bed, she was quick to say that she didn't want to go back to school. What? She proceeded to tell me that going half a day was fine, but she didn't really like being gone all day. I think she missed me.

5th Grade Misha

Misha was so-so about going back to school. She was looking forward to seeing her teacher, meeting up with old friends, and well, that's about it. Seriously, she'll get back in to the swing of things quite quickly. She had her outfit all picked out since last week when she got her new jacket in Utah. I tried to tell her that it would still be 90* outside, but she was determined.



Wait for it....

Wait for it....

Misha's full outfit.

Amy the 7th Grade Girl

So, Amy didn't go to school until Friday the 19th. She definitely wasn't looking forward to the 6:30 am alarm--she's one who sleeps at least to 8:00 am. On Thursday as Misha and Kristen were in school, Amy and I ran errands in town and stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-A. Made her happy.

Since I had taken pictures of the other two the day before, I almost forgot to snap some pics of Amy on Friday morning. She was almost ready to head out the door when I said, "Wait!" She rolled her eyes.



I took one picture inside and then suggested that there would be better light outside. More eye rolling. But we were quick. Mostly because friends were walking to the school bus stop, and taking first-day-of-school pictures is so 5th grade.

Popularity

Misha was looking at Chris' most recent copy of Bloomberg Businessweek with "The Popularity Issue" written across the front and a woman adorned in a dress covered with popular consumer products. Her question to me, "Does this teach Dad to be popular?

Utah Trip - Monday thru Wednesday

We were checking out Monday morning from our Family Reunion around 11 am, but there were many who left earlier for work and band practice--Chris among them. He left with my younger brother, Shane, around 7:30 am. Shane drove Chris to Draper where Chris then picked up a rental car. He had a full day of meetings scheduled Monday and half of Tuesday, so that left us girls a little time to hang with cousins.

We cleaned up the cabin which wasn't anything like leaving the cabin in Montana. We only had to strip beds, take the towels to the laundry, load our stuff, and do a general tidy of the place. We headed down to my sister's home in North Orem from there and hung out with her for awhile. The cousins played while Susan and I unloaded stuff. Before we knew it, it was lunch time. She pulled out leftovers from our Sunday dinner at the cabin and fed the whole lot of us.

She was called in to the Young Women presidency in her ward on Sunday, so she was already scheduled with meetings on Monday afternoon. That was okay since my parents and I wanted to see the movie "17 Miracles" before leaving the state. Amy came to the movie with me while the younger two saw "Smurfs" with their cousins Jenna and Nathan. I was glad to not have to sit through "Smurfs", so thanks Jenna and Nathan.

Before the movie, we stopped at University Mall for a little shopping. My girls picked out some fun jewelry and clothes. Misha spotted this jacket in the store window as we entered the store and went immediately to find it in her size. Well, and then there's the mustache necklace. We didn't buy it.



After the movie, we dropped King cousins off at home, realized that one of the rings Amy had purchased at "Forever 21" had not made it in to our bag. I graciously offered to take her back to the mall to retrieve it. With that stop and traffic, it took us about 40 minutes to get out of Orem. Traffic is bonkers in Utah. There is construction absolutely everywhere.

We drove to our Homewood Suites hotel in Midvale to meet up with Chris for dinner. We found a Santa Monica Pizza and Pasta for dinner which seemed to satisfy everyone. Chris had a lot of work to do, but graciously offered to take me to Nordstrom Rack to return some items I had purchased in Colorado. Yes, I brought them all the way to Utah to return them knowing I would be somewhat close to a Nordstrom Rack in SL county. It was nice to have just some "us" time. The girls had hoped to visit the swimming pool, but having told them no, they were already in their pj's when Chris and I returned to the hotel. I knew that Chris had a lot of email to read, so at 9 pm, I told the girls to put on their suits. They were thrilled and Chris had about 45 minutes of peace and quiet to concentrate. I sat in the hot tub while the girls jumped back and forth between the hot tub and the pool. When it was time to head back, there were no arguments and they promptly fell asleep. Good plan.

Chris had more meetings Tuesday morning. My plan was to get Misha's birth certificate amended to her new name. I had an address, but my stupid Nav system in the Pilot would not let me enter it. It tries to be all intuitive and make life easier when entering info, but that morning, its intuition was off. I finally called the State Office and asked to have the address confirmed, and then when it wasn't any different, I asked for some streets and landmarks. Redwood Road. I knew it was west of I-25, so I then called my brother and asked how I would get to Redwood Road from where I was. It was quite simple. Until I made a wrong turn on to North Temple which took me out to the airport! I am so bad with directions. Amy could tell I was past my limit and helped all that she could. We finally arrived at the correct address, filled out a form, paid money, and waited.

Misha's name was finally called and they only wanted me to sign a form to verify that the information was correct. There would be a longer wait for the actual birth certificate to be created. I asked if they could simply mail it to me. Yes. Great, then we were off back to my brothers' optometry practice to have lunch with them. Crazy day!

Chris met us at the office where we got all sunglass issues sorted out, new cases purchased and started on our way. We had to return the rental car a short distance away and then headed home. At least part way. Since we were getting a late start, we were going through to Rawlins, WY for the night. Of course, we made a pit stop at the outlet mall in Park City, and then we were on our way.

Chris asked if I would drive so that he could work on his email. Crazy the technology that exists in our vehicles nowadays. The girls watched a dvd in the back, while Chris plugged his laptop in and spent the next three hours working.

If you have ever driven I-80 through Wyoming, you've seen the "Little America" signs posted all along the way. We've only previously stopped for gas and a restroom visit. This time we decided on dinner in the restaurant. While it was good, it took for.e.ver. So slow.

Wednesday wasn't too exciting. I drove once again so that Chris could continue working and catching up. We made a few stops for gas and food, as well as an unscheduled SOS stop. A couple with kids were stranded on the side of the road, and up until we stopped, no one else would pull over. They had a phone but no cell service to call for a tow truck. Chris was finally able to get through to 911 and had help sent. I am grateful for a husband who sees someone else's need and is willing to help.

We pulled into our driveway around lunch time and got busy unloading the car, getting lunch, and unpacking. Amy and I headed off to her school to pick up her schedule and bus information before they closed for the day. We had to do a little changing around with her schedule but were grateful for the help. The computers were mostly down, with only one working in the office.

After that I took Amy to an appointment at the doctors office. I suspected that something was going on because she just wasn't fully recovered and Melinda (from our trip to Montana) had reported that she tested positive for strep. Amy too! Though Kristen's test was negative. So glad to finally be home.

The rest of our evening was filled with back-to-school nights for Kristen and Misha. Such a busy day. In the midst of all of that, Chris left for Toronto. I had hoped to be home from the doctor's office to say goodbye. No such luck. Busy day.

Utah - Rice Family Reunion

Our drive through Yellowstone Park took two and a half hours. The traffic was quite cooperative and Chris liked to think that he jinxed us later on Friday evening by commenting on it. We stopped twice for Amy, once while still in the park, to make a hasty exit from the car to throw up. While she was never successful, her stomach took a long time to calm throughout the day. She was counting on the promises from her blessing to help her feel better for the Rice Family Reunion. The second time we stopped for Amy, I just couldn't help but take a picture.



I wish that I had taken another once I got closer to her, because I was certain she was standing next to some marijuana plants. If you zoom in on the picture, you can kind of see one of the plants. I called Chris over to look, but having not much experience with marijuana plants, neither of us were certain.

We ate lunch at a quaint Subway while driving through Island Park, ID. Amy wasn't in much of an eating mood but the rest of us were quite hungry. This Subway even offered personal pizzas. We continued on our way and made good time until outside of Pocatello. The traffic slowed to a complete stop. Gradually there was very little traffic on the north-bound side of the freeway either. It took us a long time to finally turn around. If you know Chris, you know that making a u-turn via the grassy median is one of the seven deadly sins, almost. But we were glad to finally be moving, even if we had to back track a ways before starting to head south again. We found our way to the frontage road and there we came upon ALL of the north bound traffic. They were backed up for miles and miles and miles. It was going to be a long night. A semi hadn't negotiated a turn very well and dumped his load. The police were quick to move his rig off the road and keep what little movement going. That little mishap set us back about three hours. Turns out some propane truck overturned and the entire freeway was shut down. Boooo.

We finally arrived at my brother, Mitch's, house around 10 pm with three tired kids. While we sat in traffic, Kristen began to fever and had body aches. More CRAP! Amy was doing better, but wasn't 100%. I was so tempted to just head on home.

Chris was prepared to keep the girls at Mitch's house while I went to the family reunion. I even bought groceries anticipating a couple of days of being shut in for them. When I returned from the store, they were all up and cheery and feeling great. We decided to go. (I should have known better though. Kristen's fever came on strong again as we reached the cabin.) I'm so sorry my family.

We finally arrived after waiting for other family members to catch up and let us through the gate with the entrance code. The cabin my brother had rented was amazing, with views off the deck of Stewart Falls.

My responsibility was lunch Saturday afternoon as we arrived. I picked up rolls and sandwich meat, veggies and fruit. It was nice to have so much help in the set up and the clean up. That's one thing that I always notice about my family, or maybe that we were simply taught to chip in and help out. We enjoyed lunch on the deck listening to the rustling of aspens and watching the beautiful scenery. The cousins had fun getting reacquainted over lunch.





Mitch had planned some fun games in the style of "Minute to Win It"--hanky panky, junk in your trunk--to name a few. It was a great opener.



Our weekend together was wonderful. My oldest brother, Brad, was in charge of our weekend and planned a lot of interesting activities with family history and traditions. Thanks so much for all of your efforts.



My mom planned her traditional "Grandma's Fish Pond" with fun little gifts for everyone. We all had fun with it.



The view from the deck:



Misha was thrilled to sleep in the bunk bed room with other cousins. Amy had wanted to as well, but she just wasn't feeling up to par. Not sure what was wrong with her. Her stomach had calmed and the fever was gone, but she still wasn't herself. Kristen wasn't either. She requested a blessing from Chris and my dad and was promised a full recovery. I think the blessing really covered the rest of the family and kept them from getting sick. Kristen's stomach flu had to follow its full course before she finally regained her strength a couple days later.



I put her on the blow-up pad next to my bed Saturday night and listened to her groaning and talking throughout the night. She lay under the coolness of an open window with a wet wash cloth on her forehead. I got up to go to the bathroom around 5 am and came back to find Chris holding a bowl under Kristen's chin while she threw up. Poor little thing. She couldn't even keep water down. She threw up a number of times.

I sent Chris off to church with the older girls and stayed back at the cabin with Kristen. We tried to nap. I tried to nap. Kristen was feeling better enough that every time I was almost drifting off to sleep, she would ask, "Are they going to be back soon?" Apparently while at church, Amy had a back ache and her cousin, Jenna, took her back to her house for Amy to rest. Not sure what the back ache was all about.

I was so tired of having sick kids. Just get better already!!!!!

Okay, maybe she was starting to feel better.



Shane

Montana - Thursday and Friday

Thursday dawned way too early. It was the second morning in a row that a sick child, not my own, had woke me up. Thursday morning, Makayla D. was throwing up in the toilet. Her parents didn't hear her, so I had to go and wake Mark up and then try to go back to sleep.

We hiked with the group later in the morning up to the Woody Creek waterfall. Kind of a crazy path. It was quite clear to begin with, but after a short time was strewn with all kinds of branches. Obviously the forest service was trying to keep someone off this path. Mark kept saying it was to deter people on four-wheelers from causing damage to the trail. "Hmmmm," I thought, "Those forest people went to great lengths to cover the path." (This picture shows a rather tame portion of the limb-strewn path. We climbed over and under fallen trees a number times.)



It became quite apparent as we came to a fork in the road that the ground cover was meant to keep traffic of the two-legged variety off the path as well. The other path we came to was completely clear.



We continued up the path to the waterfall without much further impediments.





Chris and I planned to take the girls in to Yellowstone National Park, while the guys were going to continue hiking up the mountain. Rochelle and Melinda brought the rest of the kids down. Our descent was much faster.

We headed off to the park and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the bison, Mammoth Falls, ice cream and lunch. Okay, maybe not lunch. It was an extreme disappointment to Kristen who was expecting lunch in the restaurant at Roosevelt Lodge. The wait was at least 45 minutes and it was already well past lunch time. We opted for sandwiches and lunchables from the little country store next to the lodge. Kristen was not happy at all! and took forever to eat. Chris and the older two wandered off exploring while I sat and waited for Little Miss Muffet to finish.



Amy slept a lot while we drove. We figured she was plenty tired from lack of sleep. Being in the loft, the girls heard the adults late at night and the early risers in the morning. It wasn't until we were back at the cabin that Amy admitted that she was feeling sick. She had quite a fever (like the other sickies at the cabin), and she ached all over. She was most upset that she would be sick for our family reunion in Utah the next day and worried about sharing her germs with my family.

I had her lay down on my bed, but her stomach was already beginning to churn and hurt. Chris and Mark gave Amy a blessing and promised that she would make a full recovery in time for her family reunion on Saturday. She latched on to that idea and hoped to feel better soon. That didn't mean she wasn't going to experience the full throes of the stomach flu. She threw up a couple of times just before bed. She felt a little better but was still as hot as could be. I tucked her in to her bed with a bowl next to her face and she luckily slept until 5:15 Friday morning. As I checked on her, she woke and needed to rush to the bathroom. No more throwing up for her, but she lay on the carpet outside the bathroom and next to our bedroom groaning with body aches. I hated to see her feeling so poorly, yet hoped that no one else would be sick either.

Melinda also became sick Thursday evening and found out later that she had strep. Crap!

Since we were the last visitors to the cabin for the season, we had to clean everything before leaving. Not fun, though I was impressed that my children (minus Amy who languished in bed all morning) were quite helpful. After more pictures (again minus Amy), we were on our way around 10:15 am.

Montana - Monday thru Wednesday

Our trip to Montana began a day earlier than planned. Chris was able to use his hotel points to get us a room part way on our route to Cooke city, MT in Casper, WY. Must have been something happening in Casper because up until Monday morning, rooms were scarce. Chris hurried home from work, the girls and I finished packing and loading the car, and we were quickly on our way. I think I forgot to water my plants.

We stopped for dinner at Denny's in Cheyenne, WY. I am pretty sure that was my first experience eating at a Denny's. It was nothing stellar food-wise and offered pretty slow service. Seemed to be our luck. We continued on to Casper and drove up to the entrance of the Hampton Inn around 10 pm. We had two queen beds with Kristen on the floor on a blow-up mattress. Someday she's not going to be so keen on being relegated to the floor all of the time.

After breakfast at the hotel and a few grocery-type stops, we were on our way. . . . . . . . . Yep, driving through Wyoming was that much fun. We stopped again for lunch in Thermopolis at a Blimpies and then again in Cody, WY for gas and milk. We made a minor stop at the Sierra Trading Post in Cody as well. Nothing special, I had just seen their website online and was curious.

Our arrival at the cabin met with some shushing. Kids AND adults were sleeping. We were the fifth family to add to the numbers. Debrys, Allreds, Siders, and Wagners had arrived ahead of us and were already reveling in mid-afternoon naps. Others were playing games, and sadly, some kids were laid out on couches with bags resting on their stomachs. Hmmmmmmm. The bags weren't a very welcoming sight.

We unloaded our luggage and trudged upstairs to the last remaining bedroom. The girls would have to sleep in the loft area. We stayed up late talking, with Mark D. sharing crazy exploits from his younger days--he should have been arrested. Seriously.

The fun thing about this cabin that my girls quickly remembered was that there were pairs of cowboy boots everywhere, and the girls had a fun time searching to find a pair to fit them, and a cowboy hat, and any other necessary part to their ensemble.









While the first group headed out for horse rides on Wednesday morning, Chris and the girls got in a little more shooting practice. Because of the size of our group, there were two shifts. Chris and the girls were in the second group.







I thought it was pretty funny when I drove up to the horse ranch and saw this scene. I couldn't resist snapping a picture.



It wasn't certain that Kristen was going to be able to ride the horses, there were so many others wanting a turn. Let me just say that tears and crying do get you what you want, and she soon found herself on the back of a horse. I took pictures of the girls, Chris and the group as they were leaving and hoped to meet back up for more pictures as they passed by the cabin.



Brenda W. and I made it outside just as I heard Chris' voice over the hill. Shoot. We had missed them. We hopped in Brenda's van and hurried up the road a little ways to another clearing where we were just in time to catch some pictures. Kristen was all smiles. The owner of the horses led the group and held on to Kristen's reins the whole time.







Shane A. was intent on swimming Wednesday afternoon, so a group of us headed back to the river. For the longest time, Shane was the only one brave enough to jump in the river with the rope swing. A lot of people swung out on the rope, but they were all fully clothed and landed most of the time back on the shore. Shane had to assist a few of the times. The tree from which the rope swing hung had a lot of short branches which happened to interfere with the swing of the rope. Rob W. decided to remedy the situation and hiked on back to the cabin for an axe and a hacksaw. He was even brave enough to climb up the tree and removed the worst offender of the branches. AND, he even removed his mosquito netting off his head. Let's just say he doesn't like mosquitoes.



Some of my girls had fun fishing and canoeing, and I was surprised when Kristen asked if she could get in the water. She had a long shirt on under a fleece pullover, so I stripped her down to her shirt and undies. The water was cold, but she gradually eased herself in until she was actually swimming. She swung on the rope quite a few times, but never was brave enough to let go. I don't think she was too keen on going all the way under.







Misha caught a fish that got away as she reeled it in, and then Chris was actually able to catch and release one. Amy tried and tried but never got lucky.

Grapefruit Saga

Kristen had to eat a sliver of grapefruit for dinner today. It took her a long time to get it down. It didn't help that her sisters weren't very positive, "It's sour." Well, that pretty much sealed the deal. She whined, she begged not to eat it, she whined. "Help me." What? You want me to feed you grapefruit? I pulled the fruit off the rind for her. After an initial taste, she whined some more, "It's too sour." Finally, with exasperation, I said, "Then sprinkle a little bit of white sugar on it." So really, this picture says it all.



After taking a bite of her sugared delicacy, she gagged and continued to do so the entire time while trying to swallow. Finally she mumbled, "I'm going to throw up!" which she promptly did. At least she made it to the sink.

Camera For Sale, Refurbished

Amy and Misha had a lot of fun pulling it apart.

Airports and Cousins

Our Texas cousins had a looooooong layover in Denver last Tuesday. Since we don't get to see each other often, I took the girls to the airport to meet up for dinner. It was a little crazy with seven kids, five carry-ons, four backpacks, and two moms. Candace is a trooper for flying alone with her kids. She brought her kids from the gate to the terminal to meet up with us and had to go back through security to get back to her plane. We got pizza for all of the kids at Dominos, but they had more fun playing than doing a lot of eating.

The time flew by and Candace needed to get through security which had gotten a lot busier while we had been having dinner. So after helping her get her carry-ons to the entrance of security we hugged and hoped to see each other again soon.