Rayners' Ramblings

Rafting. Get ready for the adventure of the century.

2010-08-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

Okay. I'll try to make this quick, but it might be hard. We decided to go rafting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Kaylee, Philip's wife had been on the river before and they boys' boss, Mike had been on the river before, so he was our 'guide'. We picked up the raft and got to the drop off point.

Here are the boys getting the raft blown up. There were all these 'precautions' while blowing up the raft that we were getting worried about doing something wrong. We sooo didn't want to have to pay extra for the raft!

Cute Philip and Kaylee. Well, cute Kaylee. Weird Philip.

We do love each other. We really do. Even if you can't tell.

Now there's the love!

We realized we didn't have any 'water appropriate' shoes for the boat so we got the Wal-Mart 5 dollar special. We thought we were pretty cool with matching water socks!

Everybody waiting in the water for Mike to get off work and meet us there.

When Mike showed up, the fun really started. He's so silly and makes any occasion hilarious -- even the part you're going to read about soon. :)

Little did we know when taking this picture what was to come. And here we go...

The rafting was a blast and we kept looking forward to 'Lunch Counter' which is supposedly this giant rapid that's really fun and you "have to stay to the left side of the huge rock in the middle of the river" according to Mike and Kaylee.

We ran into this one giant rapid that made the raft fold in two. I was at the front with Kaylee and while we were going in this HUGE swell, I felt myself falling backwards. I looked to my right at the moment and saw this really tan arm. I thought to myself, "Hmm, the boys aren't that tan and neither are mom and Emily. That's Mike!" Yeah. Mike was at the back of the boat, but during this rapid he thrown to the front with me and Kaylee. I wish we had a picture of our raft folding. It must have looked hilarious.

Anyways, after this rapid, Mike and Kaylee assured us that it was not 'Lunch Counter.' We kept turning the corner of the river and they'd say, "It's just around the next corner." "No, NOW it's just around the next corner." "Okay. Maybe the next corner." The water was so calm that we had to row. There was a boat ramp to the side but we were going to fast and we missed it. Mike kept saying that it was not the turn off and we still had a ways to go. Whatever. We soon realized after rowing forever that 'Lunch Counter' was indeed the rapid that folded the raft in two. Oh no. We're stranded.

The river had one mountain on the left and on really steep mountain on the right with the freeway all the way at the top. We pulled over to the side and Ethan and Mike tied us up and started climbing to the top. We waited for what seemed like hours and started wondering what kind of creatures may be out in the mountains. Ethan and Mike eventually showed up and said that they hitch-hiked back to the car and drove down the river a few miles to somewhere closer to us. They hitch-hiked back to the point where they climbed up and climbed back down.

We had a few miles until the car, so we just rowed our hearts out. We soon realized that we weren't getting anywhere quick, so we pulled over again. The guys thought we'd be able to climb the cliff and pull the raft up behind us. We started climbing, but once we neared the top, we realized there were too many trees to get the raft through. So, we climbed back down got back in the raft (after Sarah had a little melt down about climbing back down the cliff) and rowed some more. We were all so exhausted that we couldn't go any longer. We pulled over to a spot with a lot less trees and got to the top.

We were still about 2-3 miles away from the car, so Kaylee and I started running down the freeway while the guys got everything up the cliff. Kaylee and I hitch-hiked a little here and there, but no one would stop. Finally a nice girl who knew Kaylee's sister stopped and gave us a ride to Ethan's car. Thank heavens!

We got the raft back just an hour and a half late and only had to pay $25 extra. Next time we'll know where to actually turn off the river so we don't get stuck. That evening, Mom kept saying, "Besides missing the turn off, getting stranded, rowing for hours, climbing three cliffs and running down the freeway, this was the most fun experience of my life!"

4th of July. Warning: Picture overload.

2010-07-24T18:10:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July (in Idaho it was actually the 3rd of July, because the 4th was on a Sunday) started out as a nice relaxed day. We just played around the house, went out shopping and got ready for the BBQ at Ethan and Philip's friend's house.

After the BBQ at Mike's (the boys' friend and boss), we all made the trek to the fireworks show. Mike, Ethan and Philip have the same spot every year. Right off one of the overpasses on the freeway. It's right next to the river where they shoot of the big fireworks. It was like having front row seats! The boys said that it's so close to the fireworks that every year they get hit by 'shrapnel.' They weren't joking!

After the big walk there, we got to rest for a couple of hours until it got dark enough to start the show.

Andrew and Mikaela LOVED playing with the Pop-its. Ethan finally had to tell them to sit down once they accidentally threw one in a car window!

Right before the show started, Andrew and Mike's kids all got glow stick necklaces and bracelets.

The fireworks were so bright that I was able to get pictures. It was such a great show! Luckily, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, so we didn't get pelted with shrapnel until the end of the show. All of a sudden the fireworks seemed to be getting closer and closer, and then pieces started flying into the onlookers. One piece even hit the top of a car! Then, we look down at the river and a whole bunch of fireworks toppled over and shot right at the crowd and we saw people scrambling. It's really not that funny, but we're cracking up right now as I type this! After the people dispersed, we noticed a brush fire. Ethan said, "Not to worry, that happens every year." Okay. What is wrong with Idaho people? What city lets people sit that close to fireworks?

It got so bright at one point that Emily and I had to put on our sunglasses! (Well, we didn't really NEED them, we just wanted to bug everyone else!)

After the show, we all headed back to Mike's for our 'personal firework show.' The guys bought a whole bunch of giant (cough, cough -- illegal) fireworks. The guys kept saying, "The police will definitely show up this year." Luckily, they never did. But it sure was funny trying to keep one eye on the fireworks and one eye down the street!

Here was our very first fountain -- remember this one for future reference. It worked just fine, but at the end the entire right side didn't work. We just thought it was messed up.

Remember the first fountain? Here's the right side all of a sudden working! An hour later, it decided to burst into flames right as Mike was trying to light a firework next to it! Too funny!

You can now look forward to our next blog post about our lovely rafting trip in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He he.

Philip's birthday!

2010-07-23T14:25:00.001-07:00

Two days later was Philip's birthday. As you can see from the next picture, Emily and I got Philip the same yellow construction hat and bilingual caution tape. Kayden loved it a little more than Philip.

After Philip opened his presents, Philip, Kaylee, Emily and I went to go see a movie. Mom was so excited to spend some time with Kayden all by herself. She took TONS of pictures. Here are just a couple.

Kayden kept trying to make his way into Philip's golf clubs. He's so cute!

For his birthday dinner, we went to Red Robin. I discretely stepped away from the table and told the hostess at the front that it was Philip's birthday. Philip kept watching all of the other tables with 'birthday boys' and he kept saying, "Don't any of you dare tell someone that it's my birthday!" He had no idea that I did it! Mom even asked when I had slipped away -- I guess I was really sneaky because no one noticed!

Philip had to wear the balloons under his chin. . .can you tell how thrilled he was about that!?

If you look at Kayden in the bottom left corner of the next picture, you can see him staring at the singers. He kept turning around but kept his arm on the table -- too funny!

At the end of the evening we went go-kart racing. We had a blast!

And one more picture of cute baby Kayden.

Ethan's birthday!

2010-07-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

June 30 was Ethan's birthday. We were so excited to be there to celebrate with him. Mom got him a couple of fun surprises but the funniest present was from me and Emily. We bought him a bright yellow construction hat and bilingual caution tape. I say 'bilingual' because it says 'caution' and 'cuidado.' English and Spanish caution tape! It's amazing! (Ethan just thought we were a bunch of weirdos.)

Then we went to this awesome restaurant where they had the best ribs ever! They serve your entire meal on a giant trash can lid in the middle of the table. It was so much fun!

I just have to share these pictures of baby Mikaela -- she was coloring with her right hand...

...and then her left hand! She couldn't be any cuter!

Ethan got a free giant ice cream treat and he shared it with all of us.

Then we went back to Ethan's and had some yummy birthday treats that Linda made. It was the best strawberry pie/cake thingy. . .I can't really remember what it was called.

And Mikaela thought it was her birthday as well.

Thunderstorms, Burger King and Idaho drivers.

2010-07-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Idaho Falls just in time for the biggest thunderstorm we've ever seen in our entire lives. The wind was literally howling, the rain was blowing sideways and there was lightning every 5-10 seconds. When the first part of the storm passed, we all decided to meet at Burger King.

Several members of the family wanted to wear the Burger King crowns. Too bad they had the dumb 'Twilight' characters on them.

And my personal favorite. . .

Andrew and Philip acting funny. (Notice the windows behind them -- it looks like it's nighttime when it was really 5 or 6 in the evening! I'm telling you, it was a crazy thunderstorm!)

And then we have baby Kayden thinking, "Why am I stuck with this family?"

Andrew LOVES taking funny pictures. Every time I take one of him, he can't be serious. He's got to do something funny, and then he asks "Can I see the picture?" Then Linda just tells him to wait to see it on the 'internet.' (our blog)

So Andrew, here are just a few of your funny pictures:

And now Mikaela has decided to copy everything Andrew does. This is her version of 'thumbs up.'

And then we ended the evening at WalMart. Obviously WalMart is the cool place to hang in Idaho Falls. And a quick explanation on the next picture. Kaylee and I were behind some dork brain who had his left turn signal on while making a right turn. And he had it on the entire duration of the right turn. Dumb Idaho drivers.

Okay. I know. We haven't blogged for 2 months!

2010-06-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

We are alive -- just WAY busy. It started in April with the neighborhood garage sale. Then we decided it would be best to rearrange the house. We pretty much had the whole house in disarray because we had to change every single room. Sometimes I wonder about the ideas we get in our heads. The house is finally done!

In all the chaos of rearranging rooms, we celebrated Emily's 17th birthday! We didn't get too many pictures, though.

Among her favorite gifts were an antique sewing box, an antique pioneer dress (that will surely come in handy at church!) and Michael Buble CD's.

Then just 9 days later, we celebrated Mom's birthday. Emily and I stayed up really late the night before Mom's birthday and made this.

Mom loved it so much that we kept it up for the rest of the week! Every student that came into the house that week asked, "Oh, is it your mom's birthday?" to which I replied, "No. It was on Sunday. We just wanted to keep the balloons up." Then they looked at me like, 'Okay, what's her deal?'

Here is proof that our cat has to have the attention ALL THE TIME. It doesn't matter if it's some one's birthday, she thinks she can be a part of the party.

On June 12, I ran, yes RAN the entire Helvetia Half Marathon. (I only walked about 10 minutes of it!) Mom and Emily came to greet me at the finish line. It was so fun to see them at the end and I even shaved 37 minutes off of last year's time!

I am on the left side of the picture -- some random man stuck out his hand to high-five me ... and Emily got a picture of it. :)

And here I am at the end of the race, with my finisher's medal and a smile on my face.

And then some not-so-happy news. One of our favorite families from church is moving this week. We did a mini photo shoot before the kids left. We love them sooooo much! The kids even call mom 'Grandma.'

You can tell by the next two pictures how much fun we have with the kids. They're just the best!

Next adventure = take Emily's senior pictures. Yes. I said SENIOR pictures. :)

Mormon prom.

2010-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Emily had the chance to go to the 'Mormon prom' on Saturday night. We went to Macy's last week to find a cute formal dress. We found this adorable one that was tea length and had a pink satin sash across the waist.

Emily didn't have any shoes that were formal enough, so naturally, we had to go to the Nordstrom kids section to find some. (What almost 17 year old has to wear a size 2 1/2 in kids?) All the cheap places to buy shoes didn't have anything fancy enough for her dress. . .so she got these cute shoes.

She had so much fun with her friends and she danced the night away! Now she'll have a dress for her senior prom! Hey, we killed two birds with one stone!

Spring Burst 5K.

2010-04-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I participated in the Spring Burst 5 and 10K. My good friend from church, Rochelle and our friend Bethany participated also. We drove together and got there nice and early, but it was FREEZING! (And windy, so that didn't really help.)

Before the race! We're freezing our pants off!

Rochelle got the camera out and shot a picture of me crossing the finish line. . .yeah, I pretty much passed that guy on the left. :)

Next was the awards ceremony. I totally didn't pay attention, because I mean, look at me. . .do I really look like I could get an award at a race? They got to the 20-25 year olds and read off 1st place and then 2nd place, (mind you, I'm not listening at this time) and then I heard "Sarah Rayner." I pretty much had no clue what they were talking about! (The thoughts going through my head, "Is there another Sarah Rayner? Is there a 'chubby person who can run the entire race' award?") I went up there and got my red ribbon, and Rochelle and Bethany were like, "Sarah! You got 2nd!" I couldn't believe it. It made my day!

We waited around for the rest of the results and Bethany got 1st place in her age group! Totally awesome!

And then we had to have at least one funny picture.

Idaho -- Part 4.

2010-04-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

I think this will be our last Idaho post, but we saved the best for last. (And there are a huge amount of pictures to go along with it!)

We all ended up at Ethan's house to just hang out and talk. We pulled out the camera to snap a few pictures of the family.

Philip, Kaylee and Baby Kayden.

Ethan, Linda, Andrew Max and Mikaela Rose.

And, as usual, we wanted to get pictures of the four kids. Yeah, that worked out real well. . .

We were trying to be serious in this one. . .everyone but Ethan pulled it off. He tried really hard, but failed.

And then we were making progress. Each of these pictures would have been great except for one person. I think we can all guess who that person is. Yes. The one in the grey shirt -- second from the left. Yes, I'm talking about YOU Philip! (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger -- so you can clearly see what I'm talking about.)

Great picture, except for Philip. Seriously. It's always Philip. He's been this way his entire life. Could he just be serious for one second?

And then I climbed on top of my brothers and sister. They obviously liked it a lot. He he.

Then, Andrew and Mikaela felt they needed to climb on. It was a family affair!

We just love our family. We would go to Idaho every month if we could afford it!

WalMart -- Idaho -- Part 3.

2010-04-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

We not so regretfully have to interrupt our blogging of really cute children and not so cute brothers to send you this story. . .

Isn't it sad that the cool place to be in Idaho Falls is WalMart? We sure made the best of it, though! As we were checking out, Kaylee noticed one of those carts with an additional seating place for children. The cart read "For children and adults -- Weight limit: 200 lbs." Okay, children AND adults? No way! We hopped right on and headed for the door. Several workers were watching us, but who would stop two adults and say, "Um, excuse me. It looks as though together you weigh more than the 200 pound limit." We went right on outside; Emily pushing with all her might. Our family kind of ditched us, so Emily started running. Once they were in the parking lot they heard the sound of a giant shopping cart on asphalt. . .going full speed. They all turned around and started cracking up. I probably would have peed my pants from laughing if I saw it. . .oh wait. . .I did pee my pants from laughing with Kaylee on the cart! (Just kidding.) (But I almost did.) :)

Kaylee, these are SO going on Facebook once I'm done with the blog!

Idaho -- Part 2.

2010-03-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

The next morning, we went over to Ethan's for breakfast. Andrew, yet again, had many poses he wanted to try for the camera. . .I don't think there is a funnier kid on the face of this planet! (Or a kid who wants their picture taken as much as Andrew!)

Then there was the baby girl sitting on Grandma's lap.

We decided to head out to the store, but Andrew had other plans, so naturally, he started pouting. I love getting pictures of him pouting. . .he totally knows we're taking pictures, and he just plays it to the camera. . .we just love this little guy!

Then I thought the baby girl was pouting. . .

There's a smile!

A little while later, we went over to Philip's so we could get ready to get together with the entire family again. Philip was playing with Kayden and swinging him so his feet would kick a little bouncy ball. Kayden's laughter and screams could be heard from a mile away. It was so adorable!

Here are a few more cute pictures of baby Kayden.

And then there was Wal-Mart. . .

Stay tuned. . .

Heh heh heh.

Idaho -- Part 1.

2010-03-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

WARNING: The next few posts will be picture overload!

We went to Idaho/Utah for the first part of Spring Break. We weren't going to be able to go because our car broke down and we had to replace the entire ignition. But, our very good friends from church offered to trade cars with us. They are too nice! So, we ended up making the trip and we're grateful we did, because we got to spend time with Ethan, Linda, Andrew, Mikaela, Philip, Kaylee and baby Kayden.

We went to Johnny Carino's the night we got there. It was so much fun!

Here we have cute baby Kayden waiting to be seated.

And then we have cool dude Andrew and sweet girl Mikaela.

One of Andrew's favorite things to do is make funny faces and cool hand gestures for the camera. We finally had to tell him to be serious so we could get a nice picture. . .and this is what we got. :)

Poor baby Kayden couldn't see over the table in the high chair!

And then we have the two crazy boys. They still haven't grown up. . .

Mikaela kept trying to hug her baby cousin. . .I don't think it could have been any cuter!

But I think she really just wanted Kayden off her daddy's lap so she could give him some big kisses!

School checklist.

2010-03-18T11:30:00.001-07:00

Dishes -- check.

Towels and wash cloths -- check.

Bedding -- check.

Crying, because you realize you're leaving your mom and sister -- check.

There are still WAY too many things on my checklist for school items, but at least we have a start. We went to Macy's last week to get my bedding and when we got home, the realization that I'm actually leaving set in. Mom was in the kitchen when I tapped her shoulder and she turned around and saw me crying. . ."I don't want to go!!!!" I told her. I am so excited to get to Utah and start school, but I will deeply miss my home and my momma. Thank heavens for cell phones! I have a bad feeling that I'll break down crying every time we go to the store to get me something for school. I keep telling mom that I'm okay with the planning and getting things for school, but I can't think about leaving for school and being at school and not being in my favorite place. :)

Beautiful weather.

2010-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

We've been having some real beautiful weather this last week. The buds are starting to pop and the kitty LOVES being outside.

Car thief.

2010-02-25T13:29:00.001-08:00

Some crazy person broke into my car on Tuesday night. They left the trunk ajar and the car a mess. When I opened the driver's side door I saw all the little trays and compartments that slide in and out of the dashboard ripped out and laying on the seats. The glove compartment was left open and all it's contents on the seat. Luckily, I don't keep any personal information in there; like insurance cards and registration. . .those stay in our wallets and the garage door opener is in mom's car which is in the garage. From what I can tell, he stole about 47 cents from the ashtray (yet he left the other 20 cents in a separate compartment. . .even though he left that compartment open,) three quarts of motor oil that was in a bag in the trunk, and my rhinestone sunglasses. He probably saw the fake rhinestones and thought he hit bank. . .yeah, those glasses are worth about $2.50! I was relieved to see that he left my Gap Kids knitted gloves in there; those things are my favorite! But I swear I had two feminine napkins in the glove compartment and now there's only one. . .

:)

We called the police just to let them know about it. . .it's not like I want to find the guy so I can get my rhinestone sunglasses and 47 cents back! An officer came to the house and told mom that there has been a kid that breaks into cars on the other side of the main road next to our neighborhood, but we were the first ones to report in our neighborhood. A guy had a security camera watching his yard and it caught the kid. He rides a BMX bike and wears a black sweatshirt. The officer said it's only a matter of time before they catch him. So, I have the police department's phone number in my cell phone. . .so if I ever see a kid on a BMX bike wearing a black sweatshirt, they will get a call from me. And I will pursue this kid until I knock him off his bike! :) I was joking with mom saying that if I saw him, I'd stick a branch in his bike spokes so he falls off and then I'd kick him in the shins. Or I may just get our super-soaker squirt gun ready with some kind of household cleaner like, say, bleach. . .or ammonia? He he. (I was only sort of kidding.) :)

On Tuesday, it was pouring down rain when I brought Emily home from school and I remember leaving the car door unlocked. I didn't want to go back out in the rain just to lock my stupid doors. . .but then that very night, after the spirit kept telling me to lock my doors, I got my rhinestone sunglasses stolen and I'm now 47 cents poorer.

A lesson to us all; lock your car doors and have a super-soaker and a branch ready if you ever get robbed by a kid in a black sweatshirt on a BMX bike.

Funny students.

2010-02-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky to have some pretty silly students. I was talking with one of the parents of a student yesterday and she was telling me that she had a conversation with her son that went a little something like this...

"Hey Mom, do you know what I want to give up for lent?"

"What?"

"Piano!"

Yeah, right, not happening! :)

Last week, I had a student who was sight reading his new recital song, when he stopped right in the middle and said, "What in the world does poco rit. mean?" At first I was thinking, "Have I taught you nothing?" Then I went on to say, "Poco means 'a little' and rit. means to start slowing down." He just sat there for a second and said, "Why does music use such dumb language? They just need say, 'slow down.'" I don't think reading his statement is quite as funny as hearing it. He had this ticked off tone in his voice when he said, "slow down" and I just started cracking up the second his said it. Then he looked at me like, 'What the heck is your problem, lady?' Oh how I love my students.

Then, one of my students yesterday was saying, "When we get a new teacher will we still be able to come to this house for piano? Or will your mom and sister not live here anymore?" It's so funny how comfortable children get with their habits and daytime routine. I was like, "No, you will have to go to a new house even though my mom and sister will still be living here." To which she quickly responded, "Well. . .I guess I'll just have to quit piano!"

Nothing to blog about.

2010-02-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

You know the Rayner family has nothing to blog about when they start posting pictures of their cat. We seriously haven't taken any pictures lately...except of our cat. So...

Here is what we found in the family room the other night. Who has a cat that sleeps on TOP of the pillows on the couch? There is no cat around that is more dysfunctional than ours.

Ashley likes to sleep under the covers whenever Mom takes a nap. . .so Emily got a few cute pictures.

And this is seriously the most ridiculous sight in our house. Whenever we start a fire in the fireplace, the cat will walk into the family room and plop herself down right in front of the hearth. She couldn't be any more ridiculous if she tried!

Holy cow!

2010-01-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness! Linda (sister-in-law) just put this on her blog of Mikaela! We always say how Mikaela looks like me, but seriously, I can't believe this! Too cute! Same smile and everything!

How's this one for ya?

2010-01-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

Old pictures.

2010-01-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

We've been scanning some old pictures that we want to get on a CD and print out.

Oh yeah.

The most adorale thing EVER.

2010-01-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

Our neighbors have this cute little box that we used to think was a bird house. . .but a couple of weeks ago we realized it was a little storage box for a squirrel to hide nuts! We were looking out the window and noticed a cute little squirrel running along the back fence. Then he jumped over to the tree and lifted the lid to the little 'house.' He pulled out a nut and started chomping away! It was so cute! Emily didn't get a chance to see it; she only got to hear about it from us, and if you know Emily, you'd know she was totally bummed out to not be able to see an adorable little critter in the back yard. But a few days later we noticed him jumping over to the tree again! Emily finally got to see it! (And we actually got to get a picture of it!) (And you know there's really nothing to blog about once we start writing about a squirrel eating his nuts!)

Snow!

2010-01-02T17:54:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, it started snowing around 2:00. It just kept snowing and we eventually had 5 inches in just a few hours! The funny this is, the weather forecast showed no sign of snow! What a treat! Luckily, we got our errands done by 3:00 because shortly after that, the freeway had bumper to bumper traffic, and all the streets near the freeway were grid-locked. Totally crazy!

We got several really pretty pictures. . .

Emily took this picture of me in my new 'Eskimo' coat I got for Christmas. . .what a perfect time to use it!

Emily just gets so excited when it snows. . .obviously her favorite thing to do is eat it!

We sure hope this wasn't the only time we get snow this year, because it only stayed around for a day or two. . .although, we don't want a repeat of last year with the whole 14 inches of snow and everything!

Thanksgiving.

2010-01-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

I know Thanksgiving was like a month and a half ago, but we need to get these pictures up.

I just have to say that Mom makes the best turkey ever and we always love when it's time to eat. Philip was especially having fun with those turkey forks. . .I love the look on his face while he's trying to poke Mom.

And we can't have a post with Philip without a funny picture of him. (That's what he gets for being such a trouble-maker!)

We had so much fun visiting with Philip, Kaylee and baby Kayden. We couldn't believe how much Kayden has grown since the last time we saw him. He is such a doll and the best baby ever! He always has a smile on his face.

We miss them so much and we can't wait to see them again!

Snow.

2009-12-29T16:16:00.001-08:00

It's been snowing for the last two hours like CRAZY! I'll take pictures and post them later!

First Christmas present.

2009-12-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

When we went to England this last May, we ran into our new favorite store, Cath Kidston.

Mom describes it as Laura Ashley on steroids. You can order from the US online, so I decided to take a look at their Christmas line. Oh boy. . .too cute. Mom has been wanting new mugs for hot chocolate and soup, so I found these little Christmas mugs at Cath Kidston. When they arrived in the mail (addressed to 'Miss Sarah Rayner -- so English), I couldn't resist not giving them to Mom right away. I figured, since they're Christmas mugs, we better enjoy them now. But the real reason I gave them to her early is because I couldn't wait. I just love giving her presents early! (And she loves it, too!)

They each came in a little Christmas tin! Too cute!

This is the only present I have given her early. . .there is one present that is really exciting that I will give her at noon on Christmas Eve. She keeps wanting me to tell her what it is and where we're going, but I won't give it up. She will nonchalantly say, "What are we doing on Christmas Eve?" just to try to catch me off guard. What? It's like she thinks if she randomly brings it up in a conversation that I'll say, "Oh yeah! We're going to. . ." Yeah right, Mom! :) I can't wait for Christmas Eve!

Family pictures.

2009-12-02T11:54:00.001-08:00

Our wonderful friend, Sister Ashby, took our family pictures for us a couple of weeks ago. We haven't had our pictures taken for years, especially with just the three of us girls. It was so much fun, but now we can't pick which one to put in our Christmas cards!

Canon Beach.

2009-11-13T22:12:00.001-08:00

For Halloween weekend we took a little trip to Canon Beach. Mom had a couple of gift certificates from her boss to stay at the Ocean Lodge, so we decided to stay a couple of nights there. We got a corner beachfront room, so we had a view of the ocean from every window!

We had so many gorgeous views from the balcony. . .the first few minutes in the morning were taken up with taking tons of pictures.

Haystack Rock was right outside our window. Mom kept saying, "Hey! We can walk to Haystack Rock!" Yes, we could, except for the fact that it's surrounded by water!

Every time we stay at the coast, we take a little drive to Astoria. It's kind of become a tradition to go see the Astoria Column.

This year, we decided to actually climb it. We had never done it before, but it was so fun.

Views from the top!

Down in the parking lot, they have this sort of Indian replica thing. We have yet another tradition where we always have to take silly pictures climbing all over the rock. I know, we're kind of crazy. Okay. . .a lot crazy.

We took a drive to Indian Beach and Ecola State Park. We got some of the prettiest pictures.

The last day, Emily had to search the beach for seashells. . .it's one of her favorite things to do. She found so many this time and even a clam shell that was completely whole and still in one piece!

We had dinner at Mo's (the best clam chowder ever!) and saw this lovely sight out of the window. What a perfect ending to the perfect day on the Oregon coast!

Good news.

2009-11-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

Emily and I had a classical piano competition on Saturday and there were tons of different students participating. We both felt like we did a good job, but not good enough to win.

Well, we talked to our piano teacher today and she got the results!

Emily and I both got first place! Woo Hoo! Way to go Emily! This is only her second competition and she won! We're so excited we just want to tell everybody and run and yell down the streets of the neighborhood!

Ethan's family photo shoot.

2009-11-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ethan and his family came out to visit over General Conference weekend. They made sure to bring matching outfits so I could take their family pictures at the park. I love how they turned out! (Except they look kind of grey on blogger. . .they don't look that way on the computer, though.) (And, yes, Ethan and Linda, I will make a CD of all the pictures and send it to you.) :)

Cute Mikaela and her Daddy.

I love this picture because they both have the same expression on their face!

Andrew was WAY into this whole taking pictures thing. He loved hanging from branches and jumping around. I love that little guy!

Cute baby girl with her cute little hair.

Some of my favorites.

I kept shaking Mikaela's stuffed animal by the camera to keep her occupied. It made for some really cute pictures!

Some of the cutest pictures were taken on the bridge. There were too many cute ones, so I decided to just pick my two favorite to spare you from looking at 1,000 pictures!

Andrew wanted to take picture in this tunnel by the creek and he came up with his own poses. . .it was hilarious!

And this last picture might just be my favorite one. It had the potential to absolutely perfect, but I kind of like it how it is.

Brace yourselves.

2009-10-26T09:54:00.001-07:00

There are a ton of cute pictures in this post! When we were in Idaho, we took a drive to Star Valley, Wyoming for Kayden's blessing. We got to the chapel a little early, so we just hung out in the parking lot/church grounds while we waited for everyone to arrive. We decided to take pictures of Andrew. . .and we got some hilarious pictures!

Every time I'd ask him to smile, he'd give me a funny face. I don't know if I love his smiles more or his funny faces!

After a few minutes with Andrew, the baby girl came along. I couldn't get enough of her!

She would make us laugh with all of her funny expressions!

Then we tried to get a few of the two kids together, but that obviously didn't work out too well.

And then my two favorite pictures of the day.

I LOVE black and white!

2009-10-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

More pictures. These things are taking me forever to edit. . .but I love them!

2009-10-21T08:18:00.001-07:00

Even more pictures.

2009-09-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

More pictures.

2009-09-30T09:05:00.001-07:00

Okay Philip, these are the only ones I have ready right now. Wait a little longer for more. When I have more done I'll put them up.

Sneak peak.

2009-09-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

We're back.

2009-09-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

We went to Idaho over the weekend for the blessing of Philip's baby. I took TONS of portraits of beautiful Kayden. I just have to get them on the computer and edited. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get some on here. (And yes, Philip, I will get you a CD as soon as they're finished you impatient little boy.)

Back to school.

2009-09-23T09:56:00.001-07:00

We totally forgot to take pictures of Emily on the actual first day of school, but luckily we got these shots the day before the first day of school.

And Emily will kill me for posting this shot. . .it just shows that we cannot take pictures without acting utterly ridiculous. (Who puts a marigold behind their ear? Clearly, only us.)

Leaving Idaho.

2009-09-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

We woke up the morning we were leaving to Andrew and Mikaela. They came in and started horsing around. It was so funny. Andrew kept saying, "Grandma, I don't want you to leave." Mom would say, "We have to leave so we can get back to work," to which Andrew replied, "But I WANT you to stay." Then Emily and I said, "You don't always get what you want kid." We are so mean sometimes. Then Andrew resumed playing with Mikaela on Grandma's lap.

We were packing the car up and they followed us outside. Mikaela thought she was going to climb in the car with us!

We wanted a few pictures of the two kids on the front porch, but the sun was a little bright. Andrew wasn't very happy about it.

In this last picture, Andrew just about had it. It's probably my favorite one. :)

Lesson learned.

2009-08-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

When everybody wants to go to Fiesta Ole for lunch and Andrew says, "No! Let's go to Taco John's!" we need to listen. Emily, Ethan and I got so sick we were throwing up for almost two days! So much for Fiesta Ole. I don't think we'll be able to eat there again! Next time Andrew suggests a restaurant, we'll listen!

Adorable pictures.

2009-08-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'll post more pictures from our Idaho trip later, but for now, I'll post a few from the first 5 minutes at Ethan's house. We arrived in their driveway and right away Andrew and Mikaela were climbing all over us and the car! These two are the most adorable kids!

And the best for last. :)

Pictures for Ethan.

2009-08-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

This post is for Ethan. He's trying to pick pictures to frame in his bedroom.

Ethan -- just leave a comment on this post and tell me which ones you want me to upload on Scrapbook Pictures.com.

Baby Kayden.

2009-08-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

We went to Idaho for a few days this week. We got to see Philip and Kaylee's new baby. He is so beautiful, we could just stare at him all day!

Woo Hoo!

2009-08-05T22:26:00.001-07:00

Philip and Kaylee had their baby boy today! Kayden Scott was born this afternoon weighing in at 6 lbs., 1 oz. and 17 inches long! We can't wait to see you Kayden!

The last of England.

2009-08-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

We went on a little walk the last evening we were in London. You can't leave London without seeing Big Ben. The confusing this is getting off at the Big Ben tube station! There are like 7 different exits that take you to 7 different parts of Parliament Square! We seem to always take a different one every time we go! This time, we ended up on the wrong side of Big Ben. The cool part was we realized the London Eye was so close, when we used to think it was too far of a walk! We decided to ride it for the first time. There were so many awesome views of downtown London. If I knew we were riding it, I would have brought my telescopic lens so we could get some really cool close up shots, but I wasn't prepared. We did get TONS of pictures, though!

It was well worth the trip! If we ever go again, we'll definitely make time for a ride on the London Eye!

We for sure couldn't leave until we got 50,000 pictures of Big Ben. (Okay, maybe not 50,000. We got more like 50.) Here are a few of our favorites.

Now that we're done with our England posts, we will go back to inconsistent blogging. Hopefully something exciting happens around here. The weather forecast calls for thunder storms over the next couple of days. Maybe the other half of our tree will get struck by lightning and fill our backyard with debris! (Just like the last thunderstorm!)

How is this okay?

2009-07-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

It's so hot here our candles are melting.

Heading to London.

2009-07-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

After York, we left for London and had to turn in our car. We took the tube (London's underground system) to our hotel. There was a central tube station right across the street from the hotel.

We stayed in this hotel during our last trip and it was a Holiday Inn, but they upgraded in April to a Crowne Plaza. We still got the same rate for a better room! It was so fun!

We went to some of our favorite stores.

Marks & Spencer

Laura Ashley

Cath Kidston

We discovered Cath Kidston in York and found that they have more stores in London. We couldn't quit visiting this store! It's adorable! We thought we loved Laura Ashley, but we love Cath Kidston just as much (and we'd hate to say we might love it more!)

York Minster.

2009-07-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

After Edinburgh, we traveled back to England to stay in Leeds. Leeds is about 15 minutes away from York. We wanted to stay in York, but we couldn't find a place to stay because they had the York horse races on May 13 and 14 . . . which happened to be the exact dates we were there. So, it was easier to stay in Leeds and just drive over to York.

Our British Heritage Passes were going to expire on the 13th, so we got to Leeds early enough to visit Leeds Castle. When we got our hotel room all situated, we got back in the car and entered "Leeds Castle" in our navigation system. The route showed it would take 4 hours to get there. What?!?!?! We then looked at the detailed directions and they lead to London. Apparently Leeds Castle is in London, not Leeds. How ridiculous! So our passes expired and we couldn't use them anymore. We just explored Leeds the first day and decided to drive to York the next day.

York Minster was absolutely amazing! It reminded us so much on Notre Dame (but on a smaller scale.) We have so many awesome pictures, it was so hard to just pick a few!

Dirleton Castle.

2009-07-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

The next day we went to find more castles. The roads in Scotland were so beautiful! We drove along the eastern coast to find Dirleton Castle. They had such a pretty garden and an even prettier castle!

You could totally imagine where things were in this castle. We walked down into the dungeon and walked through the Great Hall. You could just imagine the tables set up and a roaring fire in the fireplace!

Emily decided she didn't want to walk up the stairs provided by modern day technology. She wanted to take the "stone stairs."

On the way out, Mom had to use the restroom in this little park by the parking lot. There was a jungle gym and what looked to be like a giant swing. While Mom was away, I climbed into the swinging disk and Emily grabbed the camera. We were laughing so hard when Mom came out! Mom took the camera so Emily could join me. It was a two person swing! They need to build some of those close to home!

The drive back to the hotel was yet another gorgeous ride. It was so interesting to see the different landscapes across all of Great Britain.

Back to England.

2009-07-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

After Wales, we headed up to Scotland. We had to take a stop in the Lake District to see Beatrix Potter's house. It was the actual house she lived in. She gave her house and all her belongings to the National Trust and they have kept everything in her house the same as how she left it. A lot of the furniture is still arranged how she had it. It was so cool. (But we couldn't take pictures inside.)

They even kept "Mr. MacGregor's" garden the same! It was so cool!

On our way out, we got kind of lost, but luckily we did because we got this awesome picture!

When we got into Edinburgh, Scotland we had kind of a panic attack. The navigation system took us right through downtown. Imagine the traffic to be similar to Times Square in New York. CRAZY!!! Plus, there was construction, and the road the navigation system wanted us to turn on was closed! We had to figure it out on our own, and the directions we had weren't much help. The fact that the architecture was COMPLETELY different than in England didn't help much either. It made you feel like you were in a different country. Oh wait . . . we were!

We had dinner that evening and went to bed. We were absolutely exhausted from the drive. In the morning, I went down to ask the concierge how long it would take to walk to the castle. He said about 25 minutes, so we thought we could take it. Yeah right. How about more like a 50 minute walk. Our feet were ready to fall off by the time we got to the castle. Then we realized the castle was on a GIANT hill! How rude! Could they have at least thought of future generations that would come to visit their castle? We aren't as physically fit I guess! It was horrible! But it was good training for the half marathon!

There wasn't much to do at Edinburgh Castle, but there were many beautiful views.

And how could you end a day in Scotland without seeing these guys?

Totally awesome!

Helvetia Half Marathon.

2009-07-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Way back in April, Ashley asked if I'd like to participate in the Helvetia Half Marathon with her. I thought, 'Hey, why not.' I started speed walking every morning and kept increasing the distance every week. I felt like I kept training even while we were in England because we walked so much while we were there.

So, the night before the race, which was held June 13, Ashley took me around the course so I could see what we got ourselves into. I pretty much started hyperventilating when I realized how many hills there were. Especially this one GIANT hill around mile 4.

Well, we headed to the stadium around 6:30 a.m. There were so many people, it was kind of stressing me out. It started raining while we were waiting for the race to start, but it soon passed. The weather ended up being perfect. It was cloudy so I never needed to wear my sunglasses and it never got too hot.

It was a frenzy going across the start line, so we started running with everybody at first to try to get out of the pack. We found a good pace and kept at it. I started stressing out the second we turned the corner and saw the giant hill. At that moment, we both turned on our i-pods so we could concentrate.

By mile 7 I thought the race was never going to end. My hips went out at about mile 8, and I felt like mile 10 was much longer than the rest. By mile 12, I was thinking, 'I want to call mom and tell her where I am!' I didn't have my cell phone, so I couldn't call her.

In the mean time, I didn't realize that mom and Emily were driving down Hwy 26 trying to find me on the side of the road. The course runs on a country road parallel to the highway. They went back and forth and back and forth until they finally saw me!

I thought I had heard honking while I was on that stretch of the race, but I never thought it was for me. Mom said later that they were honking and yelling out the window at me. They are so surprised they didn't get in a car accident. They were going 40 miles per hour on the highway trying to get my attention. . .I'm sure there were many annoyed drivers! :)

When I got to mile 12, I decided I was going to run the last 1.1 miles. I started running and saw some very familiar people turning the corner. Mom and Emily found me on the road behind the stadium and were walking on the sidewalk. I was so excited to see them. They took lots of pictures.

Over the next few days my hips were killing me. I had a blister next to my big toe, but I got over that pretty quick. Before the race, I thought I would only do this once, but after the race (besides the pain) I realized it was fun! I would totally do it again. There is a 5K coming up in August that I'll do and I'm going to run the whole thing. Running 3.1 miles is so easy now! Over the next couple of years, I'll work my way up to running an entire 13.1 mile half marathon . . .but that's going to take a while. :)

4th of July -- a little late.

2009-07-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

We're going to try to catch up on several things that have happened this summer. Then we will resume with our England posts.

We stayed home for the 4th of July. This year, it was just us girls, so we decided to do our favorite fireworks -- SPARKLERS! We could entertain ourselves for hours with these awesome things!

Here's Emily trying to hold as many sparklers as she could at one time.

We always try to write our names with the sparklers. You have to slow your camera's shutter speed WAY down to catch the entire name, but sometimes it still doesn't work out because the person holding the sparkler cannot figure out how write their name correctly!

Mom's birthday.

2009-07-10T17:01:00.001-07:00

Mom's birthday was on the 30th of May. We had such a great day. Emily and I tried to wrap her presents really cute. It's one of our favorite things to do!

We had to take a picture of Mom holding every present and a picture of what was inside every present. I will spare you and just show a couple of cute pictures.

Before it got dark, we went on a bike ride around the neighborhood and had tons of fun!

And we finished off the evening with yummy Chantilly Mousse cake from Whole Foods.

Emily's Birthday.

2009-07-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

We have to interrupt our England posts to post about Emily's 16th birthday. I have come to realize it is now July and her birthday was May 21st!

The day started off with Emily waking up to Happy Birthday signs in the yard. (Made by the lovely Tingey family.)

Then we opened presents and later went shopping for Emily's new bike.

Then we had a Marionberry pie from Marie Calendar's. It was the best!

Conwy Castle.

2009-07-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

This was the third castle in one day! Man we were busy! (It was actually the fourth, we just didn't get out of the car for Criccieth Castle because it was too windy. We did get pictures though!)

This castle is on the coast of Northern Wales. Luckily the rain clouds blew away and we had gorgeous weather which makes for gorgeous pictures.

We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Caernarfon Castle.

2009-06-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

The day started out kind of dreary -- we even had some sprinkles. But this castle was so fun even in the gray weather. (Although the weather didn't really help with the picture taking.)

This castle was so cool because you could walk up the spiral stairs to explore a section, then walk up and down a different flight on stairs and end up on a completely different part of the castle grounds. It was so fun!

This picture is totally blurry, (because it was so dark in the staircases) but it shows the steep stairs and the rope you have to hold onto to even walk up.

Afterwards, we found a cute place to eat and then had to use the bathrooms. I'm only telling you we had to use the bathrooms because this is what we saw in each stall.

No smoking, yet you can shoot yourself up with who knows what. (I know the "sharps" dispenser is probably for diabetics, but what kind of message does it look like they're sending?)

When we finished eating, the sun decided to come out. How nice! Right after we leave the castle with all these gray pictures, the sun decides to pop out. Couldn't it have come out just 30 minutes earlier?

These pictures are from the parking lot. It was right next to a little stream that lead into the ocean.

Oh, and here are some pictures of the signs as we were leaving. Do you see what I mean? You get caught up in reading "ARAFWCH NAWR" and then it's too late to read what the sign is actually trying to say!

And then my favorite photo of the day. These adorable elderly people were sitting on a bench by the castle talking away. I hope I'm that cute when I'm old.

Dolwyddelan Castle.

2009-06-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Yet again, we found this castle in our British Heritage Pass pamphlet. This castle is on some one's property. They must have bought the castle grounds and kept it open to the public. We had to walk up this long, steep gravel driveway. . .only to find nobody around but the sheep.

We had to walk up to their kitchen window to buy the tickets, but no one was around. We heard voices up on the hill, so we decided to open the gate and hike up to the castle.

This was another ruined castle, but it was so pretty. Once we got up there, the other visitors left so we had the whole castle to ourselves. It was so windy, though. We had to have our hoods on just to save our ears!

Then we looked over the cliff and found mountain goats/sheep. It was classic England. (Even though this was in Wales.)

Denbigh Castle.

2009-06-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

This was BY FAR one of our favorite places on our trip. We found this place in our British Heritage Pass pamphlet. We noticed it was 15 minutes away from our B&B and figured we should go and see it since we arrived in the early evening and still had plenty of time to accomplish things.

We had to drive up these tiny streets that could hardly fit one car let alone two! And we were really in trouble if somebody had decided to park their car on the side of the "road."

Up and up we drove until we saw the most beautiful views. (The sun was in the camera lens, so it was really hard to capture what we saw, but I think this picture is pretty darn close!)

This castle was clearly a ruined castle, but Emily and I have so much fun climbing and exploring old castle grounds. Mom also LOVES taking pictures of her girls!

When I look at these pictures I realize how truly blessed we are. Not many 16 and 20 year olds can say they've climbed castle ruins in Wales. We're so lucky to have the discipline it takes to save for a trip like this and we truly cherish the opportunity we have to visit such beautiful places.

Eyarth Station.

2009-06-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

We successfully found our B&B -- no thanks to the navigation system. Eyarth Station used to be a train station! It was so beautiful and the views were breathtaking. If we stay in Wales again, we will definitely stay at this B&B again!

The breakfast room was amazing! The views were unbelievable. If I could, I would soooo live there.

Ruthin.

2009-06-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

We headed up to North Wales to stay for 2 nights. The little town is called Ruthin but pronounced Rithin. Don't ask me why. There's a town called Llangollen and they pronouce it "Tlangotlen." Who in their right mind would do that?!?!?! In Wales, all the signs are written in Welsh with English subtitles. By the time you've been confused by the Welsh, you've already passed the sign and never got to read the English!

Here are a few pictures of our trip from Southern England to Northern Wales. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive.

We had to drive on these tiny roads to get to our Bed and Breakfast. They hardly have any main roads in Wales. . .they're all teeny-tiny.

We couldn't find our B&B, so we decided to take a little rest in the town near it. (Ruthin) Here are a few photos from around the town.

Windsor (again).

2009-06-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

The morning we left Windsor, we decided we should actually explore the town in which we were staying. Smart idea, huh? Windsor is the cutest little town. I love how every shop and restaurant looks different. It adds so much character.

We had breakfast at a cute little restaurant. . .that of course had the pub right next to the dining area. You couldn't get away from that in England! At least this one didn't feel like a pub.

Then we went on a little walk and saw Windsor Castle. . .

. . .and the crooked house. . .(yes--it's really crooked. . .they even have postcards of the crooked house!). . .

. . .and more cute doors.

Then we got in our cool car. . .

. . .and headed for Shirley.

We didn't really go there -- we just thought it would be cool. (We were actually on our way to Northern Wales. More pictures to come.)

Blenheim Palace.

2009-06-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

On our way back from Stratford we stopped at a place called Blenheim Palace. It was where Winston Churchill was born and grew up. When we walked up to the front, this is what we saw. . .

There were tons of trucks and what seemed to be a crew of some sort. There really is nothing worse than going to a cool attraction and finding construction. It ruins all of your pictures and I'm not good enough to edit any of that out.

As we walked further, we saw signs that said 'Fox Studios UK.' We thought, 'You've got to be kidding me. . .they're filming a movie?!?!?!?' When we walked in the main courtyard, this is the sight we saw.

We soon learned that JACK BLACK was filming 'Gulliver's Travels.' Unbelievable.

Here is a giant ice sculpture that is supposed to depict Jack Black's character. You can totally see the resemblance!

Here are more pictures of the outside courtyard.

They didn't allow photography inside the palace, but I'm sure you can believe it was gorgeous.

As we were leaving, we noticed the most beautiful lake behind the palace. We could have sat there for hours.

This will probably be a picture we frame. GORGEOUS!

Shakespeare's House.

2009-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in Stratford, we needed to find the Information Centre. We noticed these metal plates on the ground that read, "Follow the Diamonds to the Information Centre." It was like a little treasure hunt. There were literally diamonds on the ground for you to follow.

We found the place and got our Heritage Passes. We decided to hop on the Shakespeare tour bus and visit a few sights. Here are a few pictures from the top of the bus.

The first stop was Shakespeare's birthplace. It is the neatest looking house.

We were lucky enough to get pictures of his house without people in them. Last time we went, I couldn't get a picture without somebody standing in the doorway or walking by the windows. But I'm very pleased with these ones.

We then had lunch across the street and walked around a little while we waited for the bus.

I kind of had this thing with taking pictures of adorable doors -- and Stratford had an endless supply of cute doors. I couldn't help it. Why don't we have doors like these at home?

Then we headed out to visit Anne Hathaway's cottage. (Shakespeare's wife)

(A picture of the square outside Shakespeare's birthplace.)

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

They used willow branches to make these little domes in the garden. Last time we were there, it was April, so the leaves hadn't bloomed yet. They were so pretty!

They had a beautiful woodland walk that wasn't there last time. Everything was just starting to bloom so I can only imagine what it would look like in the summer.

And this is my favorite picture of the day. The bus had stopped and we happened to look over the edge and see this cute old man crossing the street on his bike.

Windsor.

2009-06-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

We stayed at the Holiday Inn near Windsor for the first two nights of our trip. We actually survived the drive there. Luckily it was only 15 minutes away from the airport. The only problem we ran into was the fact that we had too much luggage for the particular size of car we reserved. We had to upgrade!

This was the lovely view outside our hotel room window. Windsor Castle.

When we woke up the next morning, we decided we should go get our British Heritage Pass. It allows you to get into many attractions for FREE! We had to go to the Stratford-upon-Avon Information Centre to pick it up. Then we realized we forgot our map. We had to head out in morning traffic to find a store that sold a map. We ended up getting lost in a tiny little neighborhood with TONS of cars.

We got back on track and found a Tesco. (Kind of like a Wal-Mart--but nicer.) It was a 2 story building with parking on the lower level. There was nothing worse than figuring out which side of the parking structure you drive on. . .absolute craziness!

When we walked in, you had to take a "trolley" and go up the "trolley escalator." It was soooo cool! You pull the cart up to the escalator and a magnetic force kicks in and holds your cart in place! That way, when you have a cart full of groceries, you won't roll out of control on the way down! I wish we had that here!

We got our map (and a few other goodies) and were on our way. The next few pictures are from the 30 minute drive to Stratford. We decided we would go do all the Shakespeare things while in Stratford since we'd have our Heritage Pass.

We'll post all the Stratford pictures soon. . .I promise.

We're back.

2009-05-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

We're so exhausted from our fun trip to England. . .so you all can hold your horses for our England posts. We'll have them up in a few days.

:)

More yard pictures.

2009-05-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Garage Sale.

2009-05-04T11:13:00.001-07:00

We participated in the annual neighborhood garage sale this year. It was going great until this man showed up.

He's our lovely Sunday School President in our ward. (Or not so lovely. . .he he) He is pretty much one of the funniest people in the world. The only reason he showed up was to harass us! He finds such great joy in teasing and pestering us. (I guess it doesn't help when we laugh the whole time!)

He brought along a tape measure and started measuring everything. He shouted, "This doll's nose doesn't quite fit her body. It seems to be half an inch too short!" or "This is false advertising!" People kept looking around like, 'Who is this guy?' and we just kept cracking up.

The last thing he did was check to make sure the change we gave him was in fact a real 5 dollar bill!

Good news.

2009-04-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Emily and I had a Romantic era piano competition in downtown Portland. We got to play on a beautiful Steinway piano. There were around 500 students playing that were divided into classes of 7-10 students. There are honorable mentions (which are only given to 1 student per class -- and that's only if the judge even wants to give out an honorable mention) and then there is the first place winner out of the entire competition. This was Emily's first competition. . .she was so nervous, but she did AMAZING. We got to play in the same class so we could support each other. We both gave each other big smiles after our performances.

We got a call from our piano teacher this morning with the results. . .

THE GOOD NEWS-----

EMILY GOT AN HONORABLE MENTION!!!!

It's crazy she got an honorable mention on her first try! Way to go Emily!

THE SECOND PIECE OF GOOD NEWS-----

SARAH GOT FIRST PLACE! (For the 3rd year in a row) (Out of nearly 500 students!)

Easter.

2009-04-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

We don't have any pictures from our Easter, so I took some from Ethan and Linda's blog. (Sorry guys!) It's so fun to see how big Andrew and Mikaela are getting. They are way too cute! We can't wait to see them this summer!

Andrew carrying Mikaela's basket and helping her fill it with eggs. (He couldn't be any cuter if he tried!)

Bike ride.

2009-04-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

We went for a bike ride on Sunday evening because the sun was out and it was finally in the 70's!!! After General Conference, we made dinner and quickly cleaned up so we could have a good amount of time for our ride.

I can't believe we got so many pictures. . .it sure is hard riding a bike with one hand while looking through a view-finder on a camera! I nearly ran into a curb 20 times!

Mom also almost ran into the curb because it was so sunny! She kept saying, "These sunglasses are worthless!"

Emily and I had fun by riding our bikes without the pedals. Emily called them our scooters.

This is Mom getting on her bike after deciding to walk up a hill. It doesn't really help to laugh hysterically while you're trying to get up a hill.

My favorite picture of the evening.

Funny students.

2009-04-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today I was teaching one of my brand new students how to play "Ode to Joy." I asked her if it sounded familiar to her. I told her a man named Beethoven wrote that piece. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Beethoven? I've heard of him! He lives around the corner from my house!"

I couldn't help but laugh. I then had to explain to her who the real Beethoven was.

I'm so happy to have a job where I can teach these adorable little children.

Emily in first grade.

2009-03-31T23:38:00.000-07:00

Emily found a spiral bound book that she made in first grade. Apparently she drew pictures and had an adult help her type out her words. It was some sort of journal/story book for the kids. We just wanted to share some hilarious words from "first grade Emily." (If only you could see the artwork that accompanies each entry.) (You also have to picture the most adorable little girl with big, beautiful brown eyes, a cute ponytail with a bow and a Hannah Anderson dress with leggings.)

Okay. . .she's about 5 years old in this picture. . .but we don't have any first grade pictures on the computer right now. It's pretty acurate, though. . .she was just a little taller in first grade.

"We are going to have a fun time at school, because it is fun." 10/1/99

"My brother went to buy some balloons at the store. Then we brought them in the house." 10/18/99

"I am going to have a good Halloween when it is Halloween. I just like Halloween. I like Halloween." 10/21/99

"The hamsters name is going to be chicken. Because it is a good name for her." 11/9/99 (I'd like to know what hamster she was talking about. . .we didn't have a hamster when she was in first grade!)

"I like my friend. She is a good friend. I like my best friend. She is a good friend." 11/15/99

"I am going to get my Christmas tree today with my sister and my brothers. I am going to have fun and my brothers are going to my house. I like Christmas. I like my mom." 12/6/99

"I like reading my books because I like reading books. You should read them. I like to read. My sister likes to read. I do too. Do you like reading? I do too. Do you like reading? Are you reading? Reading is fun." 12/10/99

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST--

"I am happy today. I am not bad. I am happy, you should be happy. My sister is good. I am happy, she is not bad. She is good. I am not liking this. My sister is not good, she is bad. She is bad, I am not." 12/15/99

Now that I have humiliated Emily on the internet, I have to go through my old first grade projects. Boy, there must be some really ridiculous stories in there. I don't think I want to look. . .

Congratulations!!!

2009-03-31T09:17:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Philip and Kaylee Rayner -- They're going to be having a cute little baby boy! We are so happy for you guys! We love you!

Spring flowers.

2009-03-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pretty things around our yard. Our tulips and hyacinths haven't bloomed yet. . .they always bloom so much later than any other yard around the neighborhood. Hopefully I'll take some pretty pictures when they finally decide to bloom.

Lazy bones.

2009-03-29T13:48:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post these pictures a couple of weeks ago.

The silly kitty thinks any bed in this house belongs to her!

Enrichment.

2009-03-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Enrichment Night last Thursday evening. Tari told me to not post pictures, but I couldn't resist.

We learned the hula from Brother Mossman. I can't tell you how funny it was to see all these grown women try to dance.

There's Tari again!

You can sort of see her again in this one! (Way over to the left.)

Sorry Tari. :)

P.S. I am going over to the Tingey's tomorrow to take pictures of their cute new baby. Hopefully they turn out okay. I might post a couple of my favorites tomorrow.

We did it again.

2009-02-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

Last night Emily and I performed our "Chopsticks" duet at the LDS Performer's Concert. We have never performed in front of such a large audience. We weren't nervous during the first half. After the intermission we got totally nervous. We were 4th from the end, which at first I thought was great, but we got so nervous waiting. Mom was worried Emily was going to have a panic attack. She kept saying, "Mom, my throat is closing up and I can't breathe." I guess that would be the definition of a panic attack! Once we got up there, we turned towards the audience and put on our "Groucho Marx" glasses. Everyone started cracking up. That helped us lighten up a bit. We had it memorized so we didn't have to worry about page turns. We choreographed the whole piece with swaying back and forth, jumping up and down, looking out at the audience, trading places and much much more. Emily and I could hardly contain our laughter up there because people kept cracking up at us. I guess it was the silly glasses. After we took our bow, we couldn't believe the applause! We even got some whistles and woot woots. It was so much fun. (After the fact.)

Lap cat.

2009-02-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

Our cat is definitely a lap cat. This is what I saw when I walked by Emily's room the other day. Emily was just working at her desk and the cat thought it was okay to be on her lap. (Where there was practically no room whatsoever.)

Later that evening Emily pulled down her covers in preparation for bedtime and walked out of the room for just a second. The cat quickly jumped up on her bed and plopped herself right on Emily's covers. She knows exactly where to lay herself to make it the most inconvenient situation for you. Emily got in bed, yet she couldn't pull her blankets around her. She had to wait for the dork cat to move. We get so fed up with the cat's behavior we've gotten to the point where we have to physically remove her from her resting place and put her on another family member's bed. Then they can deal with her.

Valentines.

2009-02-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

I was going to post several pictures from Wednesday evening but something weird happened with our camera card and some of the files were "corrupted" but I don't know how to fix it. So here are the 2 pictures I could salvage from Wednesday night. (The first picture isn't too good. It has Emily up front and then Sophi and Kathryn blurry in the background. The second picture is of cute Sabrina.)

The Young Women's had Valentine deliveries for a Girl's Camp fundraiser. Emily and her group came over with half-inflated balloons and they sang funny songs. (The valentine was not really from the fundraiser, they just wanted to be silly.) Then another group came with real valentines and they were actually serious when they sang the assigned songs. I wish the pictures were okay, because there were some funny ones of the girls dancing on the front lawn and singing at the door.

A couple funny things.

2009-02-02T21:42:00.001-08:00

Emily and I have been begging Mom to let us get another cat. She keeps saying no but that doesn't keep us from asking. We were driving by Petsmart where they have a cat adoption center and I told Mom we were going inside to see if "Albert" was still there. Albert is a cute little Russian Blue just like our kitty. He was there a few weeks ago and if was still there tonight, I was going to get him. Mom kept saying "We're not going in there!" and my response was "Hey, I'm the one behind the wheel. . .I have control of this car and where it parks!" I also said, "If Albert is no longer there, we will not walk out with a new kitty but if Albert is still available. . ." Well, you get the point. Mom kept making it clear we were not going to get another cat. (Of course.) I told her I had prayed about it and I received an answer to go ahead and get a cat. (ha ha) Emily quickly agreed that she prayed and got the same answer. Mom just laughed and said, "Okay Emily. . .that might be believable if you actually prayed!" Emily responded, "Hey! You don't know my life!" It was so funny we just couldn't control our laughter. Lately Emily has been coming up with these HILARIOUS one-liners that keep us laughing every day. Now whenever Mom asks "Why didn't you clean the bathroom?" or "You should get the trashcans out" we respond "Hey! You don't know my life!" (And by the way. . .Emily keeps telling us she really does pray. She's not a bad person. We believe her.) :)

We also had family night tonight. Emily was in charge. Usually not a good thing. :) The first thing that came out of her mouth when we all gathered in the living room was, "Okay. I was looking through the New Era trying to pick an article to discuss and I only read ones with pictures I liked. They're not worth reading if they don't have good pictures." Mom had to have her stop right there. She is too funny. This is why she probably shouldn't be in charge of family night too often. She finally said, "I actually picked the shortest one. We can get this over with quickly."

Everyone thinks Emily is so cute and adorable and so quiet. They can think again.

Here you have it...I hope it was worth the wait.

2009-01-28T12:33:00.001-08:00

Okay. . .I guess I'm going to have to explain a few things first. On Sunday afternoon we were playing this Nancy Drew computer game Emily got for Christmas. (Yeah, I know...we're pretty pathetic...while all these teenagers are playing "Battlestar Galactica" and "Age of Empires" or whatever all those dumb games are called, Emily and I are playing a Nancy Drew mystery game.) You can "search" through certain things like bookshelves or street vendor tables and pick them up. We found this silly book about Kung-Fu or something like that. We were cracking up so hard because the pictures were hilarious. They went through instructions on how to perform certain moves and the "battle cry" for each of these moves. Really. . .it was so stupid. . .but oh so hilarious. We decided we wanted to make our own instruction pamphlet for Kung-Fu but one thing led to another and it kind of morphed into this "A Day in the Life of a Kung-Fu Master" type thing. So, in the next month or two Emily and I will print these pictures and make a "scrapbook". Now you have to keep in mind, Emily and I usually don't dress up and do stupid things like this (although Mom begs to differ). We thought it would be hilarious because we were both wearing our grey sweatsuits. We also mock and make fun of anyone who likes Japanamation (or whatever you call it) at every opportunity possible. So keep these things in mind as you view these ridiculous pictures. . .

Now, a Kung-Fu Master has to start her day off with a good dose of meditation. . .

(Yes, we have a pile of logs in our garden. . .Brother Merritt brought them over to chop up for our fireplace.)

Then, a Kung-Fu Master has to do some yard work in preparation for battle.

And then it's time for a nutritious (invisible) meal.

(Yes, we have a stove/oven in our back yard. We are soooo cool. No, actually we just got a new oven and that's our old oven that will slowly be taken apart and put in the recycle bin. Everything that isn't metal will go to the dump.)

Then we burn off all those calories with some exercise. (Actually those bricks were ridiculously heavy and my hands were too small to really grasp them. . .I was in pain. I kept yelling "Emily! Come on! Take the stupid picture!")

(No. . .the garden hose was not heavy. Emily was just being stupid.)

And then a Kung-Fu Master has to have a log throwing contest.

Master Emily was the winner. (Yeah, real far, I know.)

Shhh. . .the tiger is coming. . .HIDE!

Hide some more!

Now it's time for battle.

This move is called the upper right chop. I know...very creative.

Here it is in action! (Whaaaam!)

This move is called the face punch.

In action! (Hee-Cha!)

What's that I hear? Is that a baby tiger in trouble?

A Kung-Fu Master always has time to help the helpless.

The battle resumes.

We call this the chest punch...still...very creative. (Okay, maybe we'll have to come up with new action names for the actual book we make.)

In action. (Foo-Shaw!)

The belly punch.

In action. (Eee-cha!)

All in the day of a Kung-Fu Master.

Okay. . .do you see what I mean? We are so ridiculous. At least making this "scrapbook" will give us something fun to do some Sunday afternoon in the future. And I am very sorry if we've offended anyone who likes "Kung-Fu", "Tai-Chi", "Tae-Kwon-Do" or anything that has to do with ancient Japanese "art forms."

Not again.

2009-01-27T09:48:00.001-08:00

Somebody PLEASE make it stop!!!!

It's snowing again. It snowed Sunday morning but luckily melted away by the afternoon. But this morning it's been going strong for a couple of hours. The weather guys say it will change to rain and I sure hope it does. Normally, I'm so exicted for snow but after our crazy weather in December. . .not so much.

Dinner.

2009-01-26T19:13:00.000-08:00

As we were sitting down at the dinner table eating our very healthy meal (hot dogs) (ha) we were talking about how much mayonnaise Emily slathers on her hot dog bun. She makes these comments like, "Oh, I can eat a lot of mayonnaise because it doesn't hurt my body." I tell her wait until you're mom's age and we'll check your cholesterol levels. (Actually, Mom had her levels checked a few years back and they were so far off the charts the nurse had to check twice. Not a joke.) (But her cholesterol is fine now, she doesn't even take medicine.)

We were talking about all the chemicals that exist in our food now that are truly harmful for our bodies. Mom was commenting on the food she ate as a child. All they really had for junk food was a couple varieties of potato chips and cookies. Butter was essential and people who had margarine were thought of as poor. Then we got on the topic of how several "low-fat" foods taste really gross and there really is no substitute for butter in cooking. We love a lot of "organic" and "healthy" foods. . .but we won't give up our butter. (Or our 2% milk.)

Anyway-

Here's my favorite line during dinner.

Emily: "You know that 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter?' Well, I can."

Stay tuned.

2009-01-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a little preview of what's to come. . .

You don't even want to know.

Sunday evening.

2009-01-19T17:38:00.001-08:00

I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Sundays this year. Church starts at 8:30 in the morning! I don't know how the leaders think that's okay! I mean, come on! I now have to shower Saturday night and get to bed early, meaning I might have to miss some of my favorite Saturday night shows! My face is always puffy in the morning--no amount of make-up will ever help! My car is an ice cube every morning so I have to get up even EARLIER to scrape the ice! The even more annoying part is that I wake up, scrape the ice off my car, get dressed, apply make-up and run out the door. . .only to find NEW ice on my windshield. I also can't just get to church right at 8:30--no--I have to be there at 8:15 to start organ prelude! Speaking of playing organ at 8:15 in the morning--I have never heard our chapel so quiet! Last year I used to complain about the noise level. I felt like I was playing prelude to invite the spirit but nobody was listening. Everybody thought it was time to socialize or make last minute arrangements for primary or Sunday school. Now everyone is trying to finish their sleep! It kind of freaks me out being the only noise in the whole chapel! I guess I shouldn't have complained so much last year!

Now that I have complained publicly on the Internet (about church none-the-less) I'll explain the part I LOVE about church starting at 8:30.

1) There's always time for a nap.
2) We have time for lunch AND dinner.
3) We can scrapbook.
4) There might even be time for another nap.
5) We have from 11:30 to bedtime to relax. (Making "keeping the sabbath day holy" commandment much easier to follow. . .Sunday is the day of rest and we are truly resting.)

After Emily and I got home from ward choir we asked mom if we could play a game, perhaps Racko (one of mom's favorite games). Mom's initial reaction was "No. I don't play Racko anymore because I never win." We begged her and she finally gave in.

Now, if you've never played Racko before I'll let you know it is one of the most irritating games to play with my mother. You get a hand of cards you put in your tray. They're all out of order and you have to use various discarded cards to get your tray in order.

The reason it's very annoying to play with my mom is because she always gets this smirk on her face right before she gets Racko. When she has one card left out of order she gets all excited and Emily and I just get annoyed. She always seems to get Racko right when I only have one card left! How is that fair!?!?!? Yeah mom, "I never win Racko. . .I don't play that anymore." WHATEVER!
And here's the cute kitty wanting to join in the fun. Emily always brings her in the family room snuggled up in a blanket. This cat has issues--and it's 100% our fault.

Christmas. . .Finally.

2009-01-12T22:39:00.001-08:00

I finally have time to sit down and post our Christmas pictures. We have so many it was very hard to choose!

One of our favorite (and only) Christmas traditions is to go to Red Lobster on Christmas Eve. I think we have only missed this one year (and that year we went to P.F. Changs). We weren't going to let the snow stop us from getting to Tigard! And yes, the snow was STILL on the ground for Christmas! It was just wrong! Anyway--here are a few adorable pictures of the Christmas Eve dinner.

I couldn't get Andrew to be serious for more than a couple of pictures!

She wasn't much help!

I don't know what they were looking at but I was so lucky to catch this adorable picture. Mikaela Rose is the sweetest baby ever!

More cute Mikaela.

I love seeing Ethan with his cute baby. . .it makes me feel so lucky to have the best big brother in the whole world. (That doesn't mean Philip's not the best, though! I love him too!)

Now that Mikaela is 10 months old it's much easier to get to know her. It was so fun for us to play with her and make her laugh. We can't wait to see her again!

After yummy dinner we went home and had Ethan and his family open their presents from us. As you can tell from the picture, baby Mikaela was VERY interested in getting the presents open. But oh no, she didn't want to open them with her hands, she wanted to open them with her teeth!

Andrew giving Grandma a great big hug! He loves giving and getting big hugs and kisses from his family.

Another one of our traditions is to buy matching Christmas pajamas. This year we found matching P.J.'s at Old Navy. We loved them! (Mom is the plaid, Emily is the reindeer and I'm the Christmas trees.) (And Mom is wearing her new wool booties I bought her from Eddie Baurer. She kept saying (since September) "I really need some new booties, mine are falling apart." I found them on sale and bought them well before Christmas. Every time we were in a store with booties, I was afraid she was going to buy them for herself and then her present would be ruined! But that didn't happen this year.)

One of Emily's favorite presents was the cute kitty book called "Dewey." I think I'm going to have to read it after she does!

Mom got so annoyed with me this Christmas. I found some gum she really liked (but I bought the Costco size--12 packs--yikes!) and I wrapped each one individually and put them in her stocking. She had to open every single one. . .I was cracking up. . .she wasn't.

And this was one of my favorite Christmas presents. Ina Garten's Back to Basics cookbook. We were watching a Food Network show on her and I kept telling my mom "She's my absolute favorite! I want to be just like her when I grow up!" I guess Emily caught on to what I was saying because the next day we went to Target and she got this for me! It was such a surprise!

Mom pointed out I even look like her! That's great because I think she's the most adorable lady ever!

And here's proof we have the most annoying cat in the world. Why does she have to get on all the wrapping paper when we're done opening presents? She's soooooo weird!

But at least she's cute.

Stir Crazy.

2008-12-18T12:59:00.002-08:00

Yesterday was the third day in a row with the snow. Today is the fourth day and tomorrow will be the fifth. This snow is going nowhere fast. We haven't had this much snow in the longest time! We were kind of going crazy yesterday feeling like we were trapped. . .oh wait. . .we WERE trapped! We couldn't get down our driveway without slipping everywhere!

Luckily cute Brother and Sister Ottley offered to take us to the grocery store with them. They have a 4 wheel drive Suburban that didn't have too much of a problem driving on the slippery snow. (Although Roy did keep saying, "I'm not having too much of a problem driving except I can't see where the ditch is!" Or he'd say, "Okay, now where is the curb?") It was so funny!

They took us to Office Depot so we could ship the boxes to Philip and then we went to the grocery store to get our list of things for the next few dinners. They needed to run to Target so we got a few extra things for Christmas and then we went home. It felt sooooo good to get out of the house!

When we got home we started a fire. . .my favorite thing on a cold day.

We bought the best clam chowder ever at Safeway (thanks to the Ottley's for the recommendation.) That was our lovely lunch.

It was soon interrupted by Philip calling. Mom always puts Philip on speaker phone because he's so funny to listen to.

We were talking to Philip and looking out the front window when we saw a car slide off the road and into our front yard!!!!! We couldn't believe our eyes! We were all laughing hysterically and the passenger jumped out of the car and saw us laughing so it kind of lightened things up. If I drove into some one's yard, I would be scared out of my pants!

The driver was putting his foot on the gas but the wheels were just spinning and the passenger couldn't push the car. Finally, some random person was walking down the street and helped push the car into the street. I have never seen such a funny sight! The only thing that wasn't funny was the fact that he had just ruined our snow! It hadn't been touched until he decided to turn the corner too fast and slide into OUR SNOW! :) (And yes, I was lucky enough to have the camera in my hand at the time of the accident so I can document this event for all my posterity to see. Like they'd even care!)

Emily and I then took a few things to our neighbors and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I can't believe how gorgeous it is!

Snow.

2008-12-16T19:43:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it! There's no school for the third day in a row this week! I think we're going to have a three week Christmas Break! Woo Hoo!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

2008-12-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

A whole bunch of snow fell Sunday morning. . .okay maybe not a whole bunch. . .but it was about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch before we left for church. By the time we got home from church it must have been a couple of inches! We get so excited when it snows! Every year the weather usually teases us with falling snowflakes that never stick, but it's a real treat when we actually get accumulation! The snow isn't going anywhere fast. Our overnight low is supposed to be 13 degrees! They just canceled school for tomorrow and there is another huge snow storm scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday! I don't think Emily will have school the rest of the week! And guess what. . .next week is Christmas Break! She will have a three week break if that happens!

After church Emily and I put on our snow gear and walked around the front yard. We were hoping for freezing rain after the snow so everything would freeze over and we could slide down the driveway on trashcan lids. But no such luck.

Emily did have fun making a snow angel on the hood of my car, though!

We would never make a snow angel in the grass because we hate when our snow gets all messed up. Ha ha. . .do you like how I say "OUR snow". We're so possessive of the snow in our yard. I hate when other kids walk all over it!

Here's a picture of Emily eating the snow off my car.

And another picture of Emily eating the snow. . .

And yet another. . .

And another. . .

And yet another. . .

Can you tell she likes eating snow?

And here's a picture of Emily after saying, "Snow, what snow? I didn't eat any snow!"

I LOVE the snow!!!! Can you tell how much I love it by the look on my face?

I guess there is one downside to all this snow. We need to do get to the mall for a couple of last minute things for Philip before we can ship him a box. How are we going to do this with all the ice on the roads?

And my favorite picture of Emily. Could she be any more beautiful?

How to decorate a tree. . .Rayner style.

2008-12-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

Step 1 - Place gold eucalyptus branches in tree.

Step 2 - Place Christmas crackers throughout the tree.

Step 3 - Put really cool ornaments of all shapes and sizes. And of course, they have to all match.

Step 4 - Put up any adorable tree topper. . .but it has to match! Duh!

We decorated for Christmas last night. We have a fake tree that is pre-lit (but it looks completely real!) so it's really easy to set it up and make it balanced.

We filled these cool jars last year and I was sort of dreading putting them together again. I found a bin in the shed that was really heavy. I opened it up and I realized we stored all three jars with all the contents still in them. How easy was that?

I found this cute nativity set at the farm store where I work.

I made these a couple of years ago out of Styrofoam cones. I glued anything silver or gold I could find. (Even pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. I could sell these for a lot with all that change!)

And of course we have to make one new thing every year. I love natural looking things and we decided to try and keep with the "natural" theme the best we could.

And what post would be complete without a picture of the silly kitty. Every time we bring out the decorations she goes crazy! Her back starts twitching and she thinks she has to sniff anything and everything!

Thanksgiving.

2008-11-29T22:43:00.001-08:00

We had such a nice Thanksgiving. The Cameron's invited us, along with the Tingey's, to Thanksgiving at their house. Laurie made the best turkey ever! Her rolls were also amazing! The Tingey's brought a Honey Baked Ham -- my FAVORITE!

I had no clue there was such a thing as an electric turkey carver! Brad whipped it out and just carved away! It was so quick and easy! We'll have to get one for next year!

Laurie informed us the second we walked in that they have no particular family traditions, but Kyle and Kevin had made one up just for the guests! They put a single feather in each napkin and whoever had the purple feather got to eat first! Emily got the purple feather! How lucky was she?!?!!?

After the food we played the coolest game. It was so fun to play with the Cameron's and the Tingey's. We were all busting at the seams with laughter.

The best part was at the end of the evening. . .the pie. Rochelle brought a pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, Laurie made another pie and we brought one also! So many pies to choose from!

And at the end of the evening we finally came home to this cute baby.

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving.

2008-11-26T23:36:00.000-08:00

. . .and all through the house, not a creature was stirring. . .especially Mom, who doesn't have to worry about cooking anything other than a "Cherry-O" pie. We're going to the Cameron's for Thanksgiving dinner and all we have to bring is a dessert. . .which really doesn't entail any cooking. We went to Safeway to get a graham cracker pie crust and we got a little side-tracked. Safeway has the best bakery. We couldn't resist the yummy treats!

England here we come!!!!!

2008-11-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

I told Mom earlier this year that her Christmas present was going to be a plane ticket to England. Well, my hopes were soon crushed when I looked at the price of tickets! They went up nearly 500 dollars from the last time we went two years ago! It's pretty ridiculous! I was visiting teaching the other day and we were having a conversation about the scary economy. Cute Tari mentioned the airlines weren't going to have a gas surcharge anymore! I got online and did some checking but United airlines and Air Canada (the airline we took two years ago) still had their gas tax! Mom reminded me to check Scandinavian Airlines (the airline we took our very first trip to England--they're totally awesome and even more amazing than Air Canada.) I couldn't believe my eyes. . .they had no gas tax and they were even cheaper than the tickets we bought two years ago! We couldn't resist the cheap price! They were apparently having a deal. So, Mom's Christmas present this year really will be a trip to England. (And yes, Emily weaseled her way into a ticket. She'll be coming along for the ride. . .we couldn't leave her here alone while we're having fun in England!)

I get so excited when I look at our old pictures!

This is Gloucester Cathedral where they filmed the outside of the Harry Potter movies. This was one of the corridors that we found very familiar when we recently watched one of the movies.

This is the outside courtyard in the Harry Potter movies. This trip, we're going to find Lacock Abbey where they filmed most of the indoor scenes.

England is the one place on earth (other than our home) where I feel the best and most complete as a person. There is so much history. . .I could spend three months and not be able to see all of England. One of my favorite things is planning our itinerary for these fun trips we take. It's so fun picking out the cute Bed and Breakfasts.

A little late for Halloween decorations. Sorry.

2008-11-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

Hey Tracy. . .remember this? It was pretty much our cutest Halloween decoration this year! (And for the past who knows how many years!)

Mom's cute cards.

2008-11-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

Look at Mom's cute cards she made for Enrichment.

So many women signed up, it was crazy! She spent so much time cutting out every piece and she made a few extras of every card just in case somebody messed up. And sure enough, people needed extra pieces. :) It's always good to be prepared!

The grocery bag.

2008-11-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Did you remember the grocery bag from the earlier post? Well, here ya go!

We went to Whole Foods one evening last week and happened to come across some organic catnip toys. We thought it would be fun to bring it home to our kitty but I guess the whole "organic" catnip meant "much more potent catnip." I have never seen our cute kitty act so crazy! And when you throw in the grocery bag with a hole in the bottom corner and mom sticking a pencil in and out, it only equates to a more rambunctious psycho cat!

She also got very mad at me for taking pictures of her stupidity. . .If you look really hard, you might notice a tear in her left eye. Poor girl!

If only I had cute kids.

2008-11-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last night at Enrichment, Tari reminded me I hadn't updated our blog forever. I just checked the blog and it seems like the last post was last Tuesday. I don't call that too bad. Although, if one of my friends hasn't updated their blog in 3 days, I start getting antsy and I'll probably drop them a reminder e-mail. . .I'm so impatient! (And clearly way too nosey!)

Well, I have discovered the partial reason for my lazy blog. If I had a baby that looked like this. . .

I might have more to blog about.

(Sorry Tari, the lighting in the church kitchen is not best for taking pictures of beautiful babies. And the camera was at a funny angle and you're taller than me, so the picture is taken from below, but it's still pretty darn cute!)

Cute Kitty.

2008-11-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to heat our house with the fireplace this year. We attempted this idea last year and really saved a lot of money, it's just we kept running out of wood. Cute Bro. Merritt, our home teacher, figured out several ways to help us store wood more efficiently, therefore, we have plenty of wood! Already we've had more fires than last year and our heating bill has showed! You're probably wondering why in the world you'd care about our stupid heating bill, but the picture is the zinger.

Our kitty, Ashley, LOVES the fire! Not a joke, when she hears us crumpling up the newspaper and starting the kindling, she crawls out of one of her various hiding places and snuggles up in Mom's recliner. It's really cute, but can get VERY annoying. Mom will walk in the door from a hard day at work and need to sit by the fire, but there's always a surprise waiting for her. When you try to pick the cat up and off the recliner, she tries her best to squeeze into the corner. (Here's the only problem with that: She's a 25 pound cat and her squeezing into anything smaller than a WinCo grocery bag is out of the question.)

P.S. Keep in mind the grocery bag. . .it's coming up in another post. . .real soon.

Fall in our front yard

2008-10-28T23:47:00.001-07:00

Just some pretty pictures from our yard a couple of days ago. It was kind of dark out but the pictures turned out pretty good for horrible lighting! I'll try to remember to take pictures during the DAY.

Adorable Baby

2008-10-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

We got to visit Lori, the secretary at Mom's work, after she had her baby last week. We got some adorable pictures of this little guy. . .here's my favorite.

Some pretty pictures from the farm

2008-10-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

Herman the Llama.

Could Bub be any cuter?

Don't you wish you had this little guy in your backyard? He is so darn cute! (Minus the smell)