IKEA

Kristen has been asking to go to IKEA all summer long, and I have wanted to pick up a few things.  On the last day of her summer break, she and I road tripped down to Highlands Ranch and spent a couple of hours wandering through the store.

The carts have crazy wheels but are necessary in navigating down this escalator.

We are looking forward to having a new IKEA closer to home, but that won't be for another two or three years.  Until then, we'll have to make a day of it.

Ft. Collins Sneak Preview

Chris was asked to help facilitate the ushering assignments in our stake for the Ft. Collins open house on two days during the open house--August 18 and September 2.  It had taken a lot of his time getting things coordinated, answering questions, sending out emails, and filling new requests.  Because of his service, our family was offered the opportunity to attend a sneak peak of the Ft. Collins temple.  It was meant to be a dry run to make sure the tour was staffed as needed, to make sure that the tour ran smoothly, and to ensure that the number of volunteers was sufficient to handle large amounts of people.  We were thrilled to attend.

The temple was amazing and beautiful, and we were excited for its close proximity to our home.  I noticed as we walked through the temple, that Kristen would press her thumb against the floral decoration on the door knobs.  She was already allowing the temple to have an impression on her life.

We saw some of our friends and enjoyed time soaking up the beauty of a night well spent.

And the sunset as we drove home...beyond beautiful.

iPad Pick Up

This idea of going back to school has always been met with excitement in previous years for Kristen.  She has always loved school and learning and friends.  6th grade, now that was a big, fat scary deal--new school, new friends, new teachers, a bus ride.  A couple of days before school officially started, the school had iPad pick up for sixth grade students and new-to-the-district students.  Kristen and I walked in to the school library to find two friends from elementary school, and already things were looking up.

This was Kristen with her own iPad before getting the school-issued iPad.  She'll keep hers and leave it at home during the day.  Since she isn't able to add so many apps to the school-issued device, I'm sure this one will still get used and be loved.

Swimming Lessons 2016

Kristen has been taking swimming lessons at Sunset Pool for the past two weeks.  It was a good time of the summer to sign her up as the classes, parking lot, and pool aren't nearly so crowded.  Unless she were to take diving or advanced classes, I think she has progressed about as far as she can with swimming lessons.  She  is a good swimmer and it makes me more confident letting her swim down at the beach.

Youth Temple Trip

Misha went with a group of youth from church to the Denver Temple.  It hadn't been announced much in advance, so Amy did not know to request that evening off and was not able to get someone to take her shift.  She was sad to miss the opportunity.  For Misha, it was probably one of the last trips she will make to the Denver Temple as the new Ft. Collins Temple will be dedicated on October 16, 2016.

While I Was Gone

While I was in Utah visiting my family, Chris and the girls held down the fort.  Amy worked some, they attended Tacy's open house (she was our babysitter for many years), and they drove up in to the mountains.  I have come to the conclusion that I was really homesick for them.  I enjoyed visiting my family and parents, but I sure did miss my peeps.

Chris worked down at the beach trying to get his solar system set up, while the landscapers worked on installing our flagstone patio.  This was the picture he sent me to show the progress.

A Quick Trip to Utah

My parents planned a visit to Utah for a couple of weeks.  Knowing their schedule, I booked a flight a couple of months ago to spend a weekend visiting them and the rest of my family.  Having Amy as a driver made leaving so much easier as she was able to drive her sisters places, and take my place in driving Kristen to her swimming lessons.  Chris was home in the evenings but working in Ft. Collins during the day.

I checked parking before leaving the house and found that the Pikes Peak lot was a full.  Boo.  That meant I had to go all the way out to the Mt. Elbert lot.  Not my favorite lot.  It is just too far away.  For the distance, it should at least be a lower daily fee.  Chris suggested that I leave a little earlier, like right then.  I was packed and just waiting to leave.  

This sad face was my last view as I backed out of the garage and watched the door close.  Poor girl would miss her mom.  

I found my way to Mt. Elbert and parked, noticing that a shuttle bus was close by.  I hurried to the closest waiting area and it moved on before I could reach it.  The blessing was that the driver must have seen me jogging with my luggage in tow to his next stop and waited for me.  Lucky for me, since that was his last stop before heading toward the terminal.

I planned to carry on my luggage so I bypassed check-in and went straight to security.  When Chris last checked, the wait on the south end was only supposed to be ten minutes.  Hmmm, things must have gotten a little busy and by the time I finally got through security and its long winding line, I had waited 30 minutes.  No worries, I still had plenty of time before my flight boarded.

For a Friday afternoon, it was not a very full flight.  I found an aisle seat where my window seat mate had "claimed" the middle seat with her laptop.  My perk as I enjoyed an empty middle seat next to me, and she slept most if the way.

We landed on time and I met up with my older brother Brad as I exited the terminal.  We stopped at Costa Vida for takeout, close to Thanksgiving Point, and drove up the hill to his home.  My parents were staying with him.  I hadn't seen them since Christmas, and Brad since January. Nice to be together.

My dad went fishing with my other brother, Dallin, on Saturday morning, and Brad had to work.  My mom and I shopped for awhile at the Outlet Stores at Traverse Mountain for the morning.  I had an eye appointment with Brad just after noon.  We hurried to pick up my dad as he returned from a very successful fishing trip and then headed to Draper and "The Practice" to see Brad and get my eyes checked.

When I had my eye appointment last October, my other Optometrist brother, Dallin who works with along with Brad at the practice, told me that though my prescription had changed, it wasn't enough to warrant a lens change if I wasn't noticing a difference with my glasses.  I wasn't.  Then.  It was in the last couple of months that I noticed that my progressives weren't working quite so well no matter how hard I tried.

I also picked out a new pair of sunglasses.  Most people, according to my brother, are not quite so picky as I am, but I need to be able to put the glasses on my head without the nose pieces catching in my hair; the nose piece needs to be a solid plastic piece.  I finally found a pair of Maui Jim's.

We made a quick stop at Harmon's on our way back to Brad's.  While in the store, it started to pour rain and hail.  After checking out, we stood under the awning for a time waiting for the hail to let up, but it continued on.  My mom just happened to have an umbrella in her purse, so Brad made a run for his truck and came back to pick us up under the drive through grocery-loading area.  We dropped my Dad off at his car, and then wisely chose to head over to the gas station where we waited under the awnings until the hail stopped.  It was crazy.  My mom noticed that the back window in their car was opened.  She opened up Brad's back window in his truck and yelled at my dad to close it.

We decided to chance driving home as the hail seemed to let up, but we hadn't gone too far when we pulled off at a Maverick gas station and weathered the hail storm under the semi truck gassing area.  Fortunately the area was empty.

We waited for another five to ten minutes and then headed around the point of the mountain to Lehi.  And suddenly the rain and hail stopped completely.  The road was totally dry.

Brad and my dad worked on Brad's new deck for the rest of the afternoon while my mom and I snoozed and watched tv.  We chose Zupa's as a place for dinner and went down together to get takeout.  It is a popular restaurant in Utah now.  I ordered a kale and quinoa sandwich with a Tuscan enchilada soup.  It was so-so.  The soup was seriously salty.

Sunday morning dawned not so early with the huge mountains looming in the East.  I got up and went for a walk.  I walked the same path as Saturday morning, but slower for a Sunday morning.

Church was at 9 am and then we relaxed for the afternoon until we went to Dallin's for a family dinner.  We did not realize that it was not only Dallin's family, but also Donna's as well.  People overload.  The food was great, especially the desserts.

I went with my youngest brother, Mitch, and Brad on Monday morning to hike up to Timpanogos Cave.  It was a popular early-morning exercise spot.  Mitch does the hike numerous times a week. It kicked my butt.  I started out at his pace but wow, I am not in that kind of uphill climbing shape.  I had Brad and Mitch continue on ahead of me to the top and met them as they came back down.  Still a couple of miles and a good workout.  Mitch said that one of the ladies did this hike two or three times every day.  Uggghh.

I had forgotten to check-in for my Southwest flight and was glad that I remembered about twenty minutes late. I got B16.  Not too bad for checking in late.  Must not be a very full flight.

Brad had the day off so he and Dad continued working on the deck.  Mom was happy that I took her shopping.  We went first to a great little shop called Rod Works.  I got some great ideas.  We then headed over to Thanksgiving Point and were sorely disappointed to find out that they had closed the Emporium and were planning to replace it was a butterfly pavilion.  What the heck!  Butterflies?  That was the best store ever.  Chris and I bought our first Christmas tree there and still use it every year.  

We drove back to Brad's house (I drove my parent's car), made lunch, and then my mom and I went down to American Fork to Hobby Lobby and Seagull.  We had originally thought to go to the Parade of Homes, but would have only had four hours or so.  Seemed not worth it when you had to buy tickets for $15; Brad was happy to have Dad helping him on the deck.  I didn't want to take away a good work day for him.

They stopped after 4 pm so that Dad could get in some more fishing time up American Fork Canyon.  I came up later with Mitch for a picnic.  We stopped at Jimmy John's for sandwiches.  Dallin and Donna brought their kids up after their dinner so that the kids could fish with Grandpa.

Donna wasn't fishing, she just got stuck holding them.

I was up early Tuesday morning for my 7:50 flight back to Denver.  Brad drove me to the airport, leaving his house just before 6 am.  Security took about twenty minutes.  As I arrived at my gate, I quickly learned that the Salt Lake Southwest Airlines computers were down.  I was feeling proud of myself for using my iPhone to check-in, but to speed up boarding, I took my phone to the help desk and they created this lovely written boarding pass.

Our flight was a half hour late boarding and then leaving.  I left my backpack on the seat next to me and was happy to have another empty seat beside me for this flight.  I wasn't sure if anyone would be home when I arrived since the girls had to go to the high school to do registration stuff in the morning and then Amy took Kristen to swim lessons.  I guess she brought Misha back to the house because she greeted me with a great big hug when I arrived.

I was impressed that the house was mostly clean and tidy.  They are good kids.

Kristen and Amy returned home from swim lessons around 11:45.  Kristen came racing up the stairs yelling, "Mommy....."  So nice to know that I was missed.

My Dad's Converse

My dad taught his first couple of years of high school in Utah.  At the end of the year, the students would leave school for the summer and leave behind much of the stuff in their lockers.  My dad said that the janitors collected a pile of shoes about five feet tall and eight feet wide.  They invited my dad to look through the pile and find shoes that would fit him.  My dad picked out about eight pairs of shoes that were relatively brand new.  As a poor teacher 53 years ago, those shoes were a blessing.

These Converse were a pair that he picked out of that pile and he has worn them over the years when fishing.  They are definitely worn on the soles and not so effective for climbing over slippery rocks, but he has a hard time parting with them.  The Converse have lasted him well.

Misha and Girls' Camp

Misha was a fourth year camper in the Young Women program at church this year which meant she and the other girls her age went on an additional hike before Girls' Camp started.  I drove her and three other girls up to Hermit Park outside of Estes Park on Monday morning and dropped them off at their cabins.  The leadership was a little disorganized, so Carli Siders and I hung around for awhile until the cabins were unlocked and we felt as though the girls were all situated.

From Hermit Park, the girls were then transported up to Camp Batel on the Colorado/Wyoming border early Tuesday morning.  Misha stayed there until Friday morning.  She loved the time with friends, she put her heart into the service project of removing extra trees, and was most happy to see me on Friday afternoon when she was dropped off at the church.

And she was wearing pink as that was our ward's color at camp this year!  She looked great in pink.  It was probably one of the last times we will see Misha willingly wearing pink.

We gathered all of her stuff and headed home for her to unpack it all.  At least I hoped it would be unpacked as I was leaving for Utah shortly after she got home.

One of her leaders had this to say about Misha:  "She was very sweet and I loved her testimony. This morning when I woke her tent up she totally responded and started getting everyone else up. She was great! Thank you for sharing her with us!"

Apropos Mug

I found this mug at Marshall's and thought it most appropriate in describing Christopher.  We rely on Chris a lot for his knowledge, technical support, and help.  So grateful we can just "google" Chris!

Lunch Date

After swimming lessons, Kristen and I had a girls shopping and lunch date.  We found her some cute clothes for the the school year and had lunch at Twisted Noodle afterward.  She loves the clothes and kindly modeled them for Chris later in the evening.

Human Needs

I came across this list of Kristen's in the laundry room.  Hmmmmm....

6th Grade Shots

Kristen knew the shots were coming, but she was not excited in the least.  In fact, dread might describe her feeling about the shots most accurately.  She bravely submitted to them while holding my hands.  I tried to distract and relax her so that she wouldn't feel them quite so much.  And then they were done.

Apparently a 7-11 Slurpee was the required antidote to the pain.

When Your Daughter....

When your daughter leaves your sliding door screen halfway open, letting hundreds of bugs come between the glass and the screen, and then the bugs fly in to your bedroom when you open the glass door at night, you have to grab the vacuum the next morning to suck up all the mosquitoes. And when you finish with the mosquitoes, you see all of the dead bugs in the slider track and have to clean that out. And then you decide to clean the tracks on the windows in the bedroom as well. So you might as well clean the ceiling fan. But before you do that you start the wash with all of the bedding and fluff the pillows in the dryer. Keep on going and you take the entire bed apart to vacuum the carpet under the bed frame and dust all of the crevices. And you run down to the kitchen to get the wood polish and windex, and before you know it, it is 3 pm.

When your daughter leaves your sliding door screen halfway open...

Super Man

Amy and I gave Chris these cuff links for Christmas last year.  With or without the cuff links, we love having a "Super" man in the house.

The Super Bowl

Our future next-door neighbor is grateful that we bought some floaty toys for the beach and lake this summer.  Jamie, who is two, likes to call it the "Super Bowl".  We don't mind that he loves to play on it.

Peace Lily

This peace lily has finally found a good home.  It has moved with me a couple of times.  I am pretty good with keeping plants alive but always wondered why the lily had brown tips and why could I never get rid of them?  Plants need sunshine to grow right?  Well, when I finally began researching, it turns out some plants like indirect light more than sunshine.  This plant now lives in my loft and seems to be loving it. This is the first time that I have had three flowers at once.  I'm hopeful that the brown tips will no longer be a problem.

Dabbing Man

Misha came out of the laundry room with her wooden art mannequin and asked, "Who made him dab?"

For those of you who might be asking, "Dab?"  This is from Wikipedia:

The Dab is a dance in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm and the elbow in a gesture that has been noted to resemble sneezing… The Dab has its origins in the Atlanta hip-hop scene, but there is disagreement about who originated the dance.

There is also speculation that the dance originated from Dabbing, an action taken where someone snorts cocaine from their elbow while acting like they are sneezing.

Babysitter Training

I took Kristen and three of her friends to an all-day babysitter training class. 

Kristen is most excited with the prospect of babysitting when she turns 12 next year.  I posted this picture on Facebook and our future neighbor posted, "We have clients for her." 

Kristen was telling me about the class as I tucked her in for the night.  The instructor had them change a doll's diaper wearing gloves.  She smeared mustard on the glove so that she could tell if the girls were removing the gloves properly. 

Ok, I NEVER, EVER wore latex gloves when I changed diapers or even thought about taking them with me babysitting.  Such a different world we live in today.  Plus the instructor was extremely thorough in teaching the girls how to properly wash their hands.

Kristen loved learning to take care of the "baby"--feeding the baby, burping it, wrapping it like a burrito--and most impressively, she is now certified in CPR and First Aid for infants and toddlers.

Ward Breakfast

Our ward had a breakfast for Pioneer Day.  Chris was key in helping to plan and organize it.  To make things simple, breakfast burritos were ordered from a local restaurant (Santiagos), and fruit and drinks were provided.  Ward members were invited to bring chairs and blankets to sit on and some kind of shade structure if wanted.  As people began to settle in with their plates of food, the telltale sound of sprinklers turning on could be heard and a mad scramble away from the sprays of water ensued.

Some people moved to dry areas where the sprinklers were inactive and settled in again, the food table was re-situated, and other families crowded under the pavilion.  Someone used our small plastic table as a guard against one of the poorly placed sprinkler heads.  Who turns on sprinklers mid-morning?  Don't these people know that watering is better in the early morning hours?  Apparently not.

And twenty to thirty minutes later, the next zone turned on.  All those in the line of fire (or water) had to make a quick scramble again.  Fortunately it didn't take away from the good conversations as well as the fun for the kids.

Chris' Night Biking

Chris hasn't been able to participate in a lot of the biking adventures with his friends this summer, but he was happy that the annual night bike ride was scheduled when he was home.  Biking always does his heart good (in many ways).

Open your eyes!  It is already dark enough!

They Thought It Was Pineapple

Well, this was a surprise...

I set it out for dinner and my family thought it was pineapple.  It tasted pretty much like a red watermelon, but I will admit the color kind of psyched us all out.

Driver #2

Misha started her online driver's education course in May and finished a week before her 15th birthday.  Unfortunately we had to wait for the certificate of completion to arrive and it took over a week to get here.

Congratulations to Misha for working so diligently to finish the course.  I took her to the DMV on Monday morning.  We actually didn't have to wait long which was amazing, but I don't think I have ever been to the DMV when I haven't had to return to get paperwork.  This time it was for Misha's social security card.  I think sometimes they make up paperwork requirements because I know we did not have to have Amy's social security card when she went to take her driver's permit test.  They were happy with Amy just telling them the number.

The dude that was helping us said it had to be the actual copy and showing them a copy of it from my online files would be considered a "fraudulent" use of the card.  Puh-lease!  So we returned home to get Misha's card and drove back to the DMV.  Misha passed her test and then the real waiting began.

The DMV had eight counters to assist people and ONE counter for picture-taking.  All eight counters funneled clients to the one counter for picture-taking.  We waited well over an hour just to get a picture taken!

Success!

That Pesky Picnic Table

When we were first looking at the lot we now live on, it was dotted with these funky seats made from tree trunks, a heavy steel table, large landscaping rocks, and a picnic table.  Chris undertook the project of replacing some of the boards (or maybe all of the boards) and then had the girls stain the table to be used down at the beach.

Fast forward two years and we had moved the picnic table while on vacation so that the landscapers could work on our beach area.  Unfortunately, we returned home to find that a careless worker had backed over or into our picnic table rendering it unusable.  Once again, Chris undertook the project to rebuild the picnic table into a usable piece of furniture again.  He tried to reuse as many of the pieces of wood as possible.  He has invested a lot of $$ and time into this table.