Dear Adonna

We returned from CA and began to settle into routine when my Mom called me on Tuesday afternoon to inform me that my beautiful Grandmother had passed away. She was the last surviving Grandparent that I had after my Grandfather died almost two years before.
We packed back up again and left on Friday night to attend her funeral Saturday.
My Grandmother has always been such a lady (hence her requested title). So fun and vibrant and quick witted. She loved travel and art and life. She raised 9 children among other wonderful accomplishments. We will miss her but I can't help but feel so happy for her. She is with her best friend and husband now and must be so happy to be home. And what a legacy she has left! I grew up with so many cousins, fun aunts and uncles and family events. The chapel was full of most of them and many many friends who cared for her. I am honored to come from this family. I look forward to the better times we'll have ahead when we see her again.
On this last trip to Utah we attended the regular Friday family lunch where she was always there, no matter how she was feeling, looking her best. Now I'm especially glad we made that trip so I could visit with her that one last time.

Laguna

Trip #2. After returning from Utah and having a week to rewash and repack, I loaded up the kids and joined some friends in Laguna Beach. We left on Monday morning and met them at the beach that afternoon. I had a wonderful, relaxing time! Because the plan was to do nothing but sit on the beach. There are so many things to do in CA that I find myself fitting in errands and shopping when we visit. But this time- No. And as a result we enjoyed lazy conversations and sunshine as the kids played and we would plan as the day went on. This change for me made for a great vacation. Here are some pics of our fun (I didn't take many- I was lazy).

Here are Luke and Sadie at the grocery store. They thought it would be so funny to reverse roles so they swapped glasses, hats, hoodies and voices. Sadie is Luke and Luke is Sadie. They posed like each other and I just noticed they even swapped flip flops. I was laughing harder at them laughing at themselves.

Some shots from the beach. I was too cheap to acquire beach toys so I made some eco (or ghetto) ones out of our recyclables. Owen is wearing one of the cut off milk carton 'scoopers' on his head. That works too, I suppose. Luke covered in sand.

My friend Allison took us to an awesome park up the street with some great climbing equipment. It was nice to play at a park again in cooler temps! The kids enjoyed this ring that spun around and got quite brave with their game of who-will-be-the-last-one-standing.

After a couple of beachy, dirty days we decided to go to the Sawdust Festival up the canyon one afternoon and I was SO glad we did (Thanks for the recommendation, Angie!). It was a beautiful outdoor art festival with really cool things to do with kids. Rows with booths of art all shaded by tall eucalyptus trees and cool breeze. I loved it. Here we are waiting for the trolley to take us up. It was Me, Allison and Jennie (three moms) with ELEVEN kids between us all. It was a class field trip, I tell ya.

Here is a glimpse of the environment. I love going to stuff like this! Good thing Scott was joining us the next night so I could soak it all up without him getting bored. :)
There was a great little art station for kids where they did finger painting and other projects that changed throughout the day. They sculpted wire art at another booth and one of the best shows was watching the glass blowing. Glass blowing! How often do you get to show that to kids? How's that for a job. I want his job. A shady, breezy office being creative all day to my tunes... sign me up.

But the best, BEST BEST thing that I'd read about on the website... that made me want to come the most... was a little ceramics session you could sign up for your kids. For FREE they could throw a pot with these sweet instructors and keep it OR for $15 they'd fire and glaze it and mail it to you. Done! We all did one. I just loved watching the kids get all dirty and explore this. Makes me want to take a ceramics class like the old days again.
Here is little Sadie...

And Luke (with Milo behind him)...

And Elliet. These little bowls and pots will be fun treasures from the trip.

After we got home that day, we were kind of wiped out so the kids played around the house while us Mom's vegged a bit. Then we fed them dinner and ordered Thai for us (yes!). After we walked a block away to Gelato Paradiso and had a some creamy heaven.

We swam with our friends on Thursday in Newport where Scott and I were joining Bob & MJ for the weekend. That night he drove in with the other husbands and it was so nice to have him with me again. That little spot where he was missing in Utah was also noticable here so I was glad he could join the fun for a couple of days. We spent the remaining time relaxing with them, going to the beach, getting cupcakes and more gelato and some shopping. It was a little tight squeezing in this last trip but very worth it. For sure we are doing this every August! Thanks A & J for the fun times- we loved it!

Yoot in August

So August came and it was mostly open. I decided to cram in two remaining summer trips that I wanted to take with the kids. One of which was back up to UT for some relaxing time with cousins and family.
I spent a shopping/lunching day with my Mom, Juls & Jess (no Randi due to school- wah), went on some bike rides and hung out with my parents mostly. It was really nice to slow down.
A little.
Because we found time to fit in a Halloween craft! Cool old looking candy sticks (instructions in Academe if interested). They were really easy and fun. I want to make some for Christmas next. Also, my Dad has had a spot welder that he let me try out so I made this little bike. What a cool gadget that is! Um... Dad... can I borrow that for a while?
I made some other things I'll eventually get posted.
I realized that, as nice as it was to fit in another trip, I missed not having Scott with me. I don't know if it's because the kids are getting older or what... because as babies the break was always nice, but now it's noticeable that our family is not quite complete when he's not there. Don't get me wrong- it was still nice. :) But I also appreciated noticing that feeling. That we are becoming a growing, close family. We missed you Dad!

It Is Upon Us

How fantastic is this new children's Halloween book? Rhode Montijo has some great illustration skillz. I love the art and colors. Oh yes. It will be mine.
It's never too early, you know.... Halloween is always 'in'. It's always 'now'. It's always 'super fresh, yo'.
I've even made my first Halloween craft of the season whilst in Utah two weeks ago (yet another delayed post) so despite these last weeks of summer, it'll git ya a bit excited yerself!

Ellie-Eight!

Finally I am catching up on these posts! Our great, oldest girl Elliet turned eight the last week of July. She wanted to forgo a Birthday party and have a special night out with Mom and Dad instead (thank heavens, too- I don't know when I would have had time to plan one). We went to the movies and to any restaurant she wanted. She chose BJ's for the pizza and then ordered corn dogs. Makes sense. We had a great time with her. The following week were all the activities- a family Birthday party with an "ice cream oreo cake" she requested. It tasted good but man it was a hot mess. Jennie- how do you make those cake pans work? Mine still stuck with the WS spray! It was fun to connect with family, friends and cousins.
Later that weekend my parents came to town for her Baptism. What a special day that was. Elliet was so happy and said she was only a little nervous. We had a nice family brunch before and then headed over to the church. Scott's mother made her a beautiful special white dress for the occasion. When we headed to the font room, it was packed! Saturdays are busy and we know it's hard to take time for these things and were touched to see so many family & friends there. We also received thoughtful texts and calls from family and friends as well. So wonderful to have such great support around us! Thank you for sharing Elliets special day. She is such a sweet and smart girl. I can't believe she is EIGHT YEARS OLD and going into THIRD GRADE. High heels are coming before I know it!

More Minions!

If you have not seen this movie yet, you need to go see it.
We took Elliet out on a special date with Mom & Dad for her Birthday and this is what she wanted to see. I wasn't that impressed with the previews so I wasn't expecting much. It was fantastic!!!! Scott and I were laughing out loud through the whole thing. Great quick witted humor and so fun for the kids. We liked it so much we went back a week later with my parents (while in town for Elliet's baptism) and the twins. Still great!
I highly recommend it (and more fun than Toy Story 3).
PS- Don't overlook the soundtrack either. I don't buy them much but this one I did and we've had lots of fun listening to it. Plus, with a stylin guy like Pharrell Williams doing most of the music, it's got some boogie (cookie?). My favorites are Prettiest Girls and My Life which I have been singing out loud on my bike rides. I think this explains why I usually ride alone. (Rich- "My Life" is upcoming party playlist worthy, no?!)

Retry, I Did.

Yes. Yes.
I finally gained enough Jedi courage to try the cookies again. This time I used the correct amount of butter and they worked! Fancy that.
See how nice the imprint stayed after they baked?
(Next image)
Now see my earlier point illustrated here? What good are the lines when all slopped over with frosting? Oh well.
I was lazy and didn't make red or any fun colors. Just stuck with white, greens and black. And then at the end I got super serious and gave Yoda some personality. Mmm. They sure was good, fillin' us up with all kinds of force powers. Like forcing my pant size tighter and stufflikethat.

May We Present

So - months ago (MONTHS! I am a loser) my friend came to me with two curtains (that she was about to donate away) and an idea. She asked if I could make a puppet curtain out of them. The deal was make one for her and one for myself.
After figuring out how to do some of the steps, here is how they finally ended up. Finally finished, I should say. It's the brain work that slows me down cuz, you know, I'm kind of slow up there. But once I got that figured out, they went together really fast. I will try to get steps up in the Academe site soon (promises, promises) if anyone is interested.
It's edged with bias tape so I could slide a dowel in each side preventing sagging when hanging. This top picture was the finished result but I thought it needed a little fanfare so I embroidered the letters on felt and made a little flag banner. Awww! There are two pics of this- one with triangle banners and one with notched square banners.
After adding this fun fringe on the back, I realized that the viewers wouldn't really see it... but at least the performer feels a bit fancy.
Then a little tension rod and tada! hung and ready to play.
This spawned days of creativity with the kids. It was really fun to play with. I pulled out my pipe cleaners, little fuzzy puffs and googly eyes and we made all kinds of things. I tried to make a marionette with old blocks. She is always surprised.
The kids were clever with their bugs. We tied them with fish line on BBQ skewer sticks so they could 'fly' around. Big dragonflies down to teeny tiny bees (a simple fuzz ball with googly eyes).
Elliet made all these beautiful flowers. My fave is the Dr. Suess looking bouqet now permanantly resting in my office.
You have a couple of weeks before school starts. Go make some puppets!

Back To School

Elliet brought home a book from school during this past year to share with me. That girl understands some good wit. I was laughing out loud at some of these things (this part especially). So, this summer during one of our library trips we snagged it again. I took these photos to share with you (a month later!) and seeing that school is right around the corner, the timing couldn't be better.
Here's to those worries of new teachers. Luke & Sadie are split up this year so I have three teachers to worry about. I hope she isn't green!

Lake Powell 2010

Ahh Lake Powell. How I love thee.
My parents and siblings (+ spouses) were all able to make the trip again this summer, albeit with much sacrifice. Work, kids and other responsibilities are difficult to get away from but it is always worth it. We are really close and I love this time together. Here are some of the things we did!

These views are from our beach. We were quite a way up the channel where the canyon walls were taller and more narrow.
I also get really fat this week. We each take turns planning a couple of menu items and everyone brought great stuff. Which reminds me... I need recipes. Post them here please! Randi- I tried to find those Mango Chicken wraps and the recipe I used did not taste the same so please send it over. Jess, the BBQ chicken. Mom & Juls, you too... (Mom, don't forget the apple syrup. Wait... do. I can't have that in my house.).
Poor Marty, so starved and hungry. Time to eat!

One of our exploring days brought us to Rainbow Bridge. It was so freaking hot we all dipped in for the short hike to the arch. It didn't help much. We were still hot. Can you tell? :)

Poozles. Many, many poozles. This is a very much love/hate thing we do. But with good tunes and cold drinks, one can endure even the best album cover nightmare.

Another great pastime is cruising around during the twilight time of night. This is my favorite time of the day. We saw some beautiful sunsets and found some neat things....(that's me!)

One of our little exploration hikes brought us to this beach of layered sandstone. So cool! Like tightly pressed brittle sheets of paper. I found some that thin, too. And zen I crlushed them veeth my muscles!

Another night we saw this unassuming pocket in the wall and realized it opened up to a large room that fit the boat. Would you risk it and go in? Same here! (whatliesbeneath!)

It was big enough to fit inside and spin around. Dance party there next Friday. You in?


Here is Scott. He is spooked (not really).

Another night we found this tall sliver that, from the front, blends right in with the wall.


These times are so magical. Warm air and smooth water with all this beauty around. *tear*

On Sunday we killed the calm hours with a craft! Last year we made rockets. This year we stenciled Tshirts. I brought a can of neon yellow spray paint & we found a can of black. Again, good music and cold drinks can help anyone get their crafty on.


We went on some fun hikes, caught frogs, read books, played Rock Band, wake surfed, saw millions of stars... on and on. On Sunday we had FHE floating out in the bay at night and my Mom commented on how this place is special because it is represents our family.
Is that why I love it? Because my family is awesome?! :) Thanks Mom/Dad, Marty/Jess, Cody/Juls & Rich/Randi. We had a wonderful time!

And what better way to spend an afternoon than brush up your mad synchronized diving skillz?