Summer Road Trip - July 2015

Last summer, we went on a road trip. As we drove into Twin Falls, Idaho, there was a place to stop with a scenic view of the Snake River. We were entertained for a while watching skydivers jumping off the bridge.

We headed up to spend a couple nights with Randall and Gina and their kids. We were there for the fourth of July and they set off fireworks in the backyard. Pretty thrilling for the California cousins who live in a city where they are illegal.

Heather took Kelly for a ride while...

...Keaton explained things to the city cousins.

We had a wonderful time visiting with loved ones and were sad to say goodbye.

After we left, we took a half hour detour just so the kids could say they had been in Oregon. And, we bought gas where someone else pumped it and washed the very dirty windshield of the van.

Next, we headed to Nevada to see the bristlecone pines, because that is what botanists and their families do for vacation - see famous trees. We've already gone on trips to see the redwoods and sequoias. Any suggestions for our next vacation?

There was awe...

...kissing...

...life lessons...

...and five adorable siblings.

Beyond the bristlecone pine grove, there was a trail heading up to Nevada's only glacier.

There it is! See it before it's gone!

Naomi practicing her photography skills.

We started to hear thunder and decided it was time to go back. On the trail down, we first got hit with hail, which was a novelty, then rain, which was wet.

We went back to the cabin we were renting and asked the very nice owners if we could throw our wet clothing in their dryer. We had an afternoon appointment for a tour of Lehman Caves and knew we'd be too cold, underground, in damp clothes.

The caves were very cool. They used to have parties down there and all the dancers, musicians and food had to go down a rope ladder one by one.

In the little town near the caves, we saw a swallow feeding its babies.

After Great Basin National Park, we drove on to see Jeff and Teresa. I'm sad I don't have any pictures of our time with them, but I think I was afraid to take my camera on the boat. Sheena came over with her kids and Jeff took us out on Lake Mead. We had a wonderful time!

On the way to Teresa and Jeff's place, we saw a nondescript sign on the side of the road, passed it because we were too slow reacting, flipped a u-ey and stopped at the Oak Springs Trilobite Site.

We got sweaty, dusty and, yes, bloody, but we found trilobites! Smashing rocks and finding fossils were definitely favorite activities on the trip.

February 2015

Naomi and I both have birthdays in February. It is my favorite month of the year :) Last year, Naomi turned eight and had a strawberry cake. We are so lucky to have her in our family. She is so fun and smart and a delight to be around.

She went to a Daddy Daughter Dance with her dad and got all dolled up.

I was out of town with Heather and Gwen for my birthday. We went to San Fransisco for Codex - a dream of mine. It was a great birthday present. Talk about presents! I bought myself some Cave Paper, some gorgeous paste paper by Madeline Durham and an adorable scroll book by Susan Angebranndt. I was so overwhelmed while we were at the book fair (the words don't do it justice) that I didn't take any pictures, but we did get some at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, which was just lovely.

Well, it is good to be back!

This is me looking relaxed. Heather took some pictures of me last Sunday because I went to the community college cosmetology school and had my hair bleached - just for fun :) The girl who did it was so nice. We ran out of time for her to style my hair, so she asked for pictures for her portfolio and I complied.

Coincidentally, the Sunday after I had my hair done, and the day I had a chance to take pictures, I was released as RS president, after four years, so that is why I looked so relaxed. It has been a tremendous blessing for our family and for me personally. I have learned so much and am really grateful for the chance I had to serve, and am also relieved to not have the responsibility. I always felt like I should have been doing more, because there is always so much I could have been doing! I am sure I will miss things about the calling, but am also excited for a new calling - coming soon!

So, I thought I'd start catch up on some things that we have been up to. Last month, I drove to Arizona for the wedding of my best friends' daughter, Magan. Here she is - isn't she lovely? She is a delightful person and a wonderful mother, just like her mother :)

It was a really beautiful wedding and I loved seeing so many people I love! It was also great meeting Magan's husband Nick. He's a great guy. Being the introvert that I am, I had to take a couple breaks and hide in the bathroom - so silly. I just needed quiet for 10 minutes or so and I was good to go. One of the times, I resorted to taking selfies and sending them to Stan, who I missed so much while I was gone.

On the way home, I stopped in Quartzite and saw this stuffed bear wearing an impressive squash blossom necklace. I bought stuff for the kids and Stan. It is always fun to bring tchotchkes back from trips.

This picture is out of order chronologically (we dyed eggs the Monday before Easter for an FHE activity), but it is a good reminder that I made it home in time to spend Easter with the family I love so much. These are my two favorites that I decorated. I might have pictures of everyone else's somewhere else, but this is what I had on my phone. The one egg was cracked, so I did faux kintsugi on it and wrote haiku with (mostly) walnut ink on another.

fine porcelain shell

white elliptical beauty

waiting for chroma

Some other things that happened in March, were, Stan going to Tehachapi for work and taking this picture...

...and me seeing this amazing sun pillar on the way home from dropping the kids off at BYD.

In April, Stan and I went to Catalina for an early anniversary trip, or maybe it will a pre-anniversary trip and we'll take another one in July when our 24th anniversary rolls around. It will depend on time and money, like so many other things do. We had a wonderful time, anyway, whether it was our official anniversary trip this year, or whether it was just a trip because we like each other. It was a "free" trip we got for listening to a time share thingamabob, but we did pay for the pain of dealing with the time share people in blood, sweat and almost tears. My they are persistent! We also shelled out for taxes, parking, food and a kayak rental, but all in all, it was totally worth it! We had a great time. One of the things we did was buy some fish food to feed the fish from the kayak, which didn't work too well, but we had great luck feeding the fish from the pier. I love these Garibaldis - they are so pretty!

We also saw a sheephead! I've never seen one before. Stan and I are like a couple of kids when we feed the fish :)

While we were there, I kept up on one of my New Year's resolutions. I am trying to make something everyday. It usually ends up being a drawing because I can be quick, but I've also included some baking, sewing, my favorite - bookbinding, and various other creative endeavors. One even included jelly beans. I haven't missed a day yet, but the quality varies wildly from day to day. I have been having fun! Here are the two I did on Catalina. If you want to see more, I have a blog for my daily makes, which I have been updating every month or so, or if you prefer instant gratification, I post my daily creation on Instagram every day under the name @budgiemakes

Finally, a couple pictures from today -

I found cookies in the back of our second freezer from Summer and Rachel's wedding shower (almost a year ago!) and so we ate them. Gwen made icing and they were delicious.

I snapped this darling picture of my five kids who are still at home hanging out together in the backyard after church. It makes my heart sing when I see my children being friends :)

A Man with An Opinion

On our road trip, we passed a couple of Adopt-a-Highway signs that read -

A fool and his trash are soon parted - M. Bibb

Like nose hair, litter is ugly - Mike Bibb

I like this guy :)

Happy Earth Day!

Spring Break! Road Trip! Woohoo!

The kids and I (Stan had to work and we missed him) hit the road last week. We headed east and stayed with my darling friend Mandy in AZ. These signs on her fence made me smile. I'm guessing the first one is spot on, but the second one is a little bit of an exaggeration.

Here is her dog Ginger...see what I mean?

The kids LOVED Ginger and they also loved swimming.

Mandy made a chocolate cake for Heather, whose birthday was on Thursday. Heather really scored. She had three different birthday cakes this year. Amanda and I took care of the beaters!

Here is a video of the amazing birthday candle Mandy put on Heather's cake.

We had fun listening to Amanda and David play the piano and drums together. When they were done, David let the kids mess around and play his drums. They had a blast.

We spent an day (during which we went shopping at some really fun stores) and two nights in AZ. It was wonderful spending time with Amanda and her family.

The next day, we headed east again. The desert we drove through, especially for the first hour or two, was beautiful. The picture doesn't come close to doing it justice. There were flowers of almost every color of the rainbow in bloom. My favorite was the ocotillo - so lovely!

I am glad my sister-in-law Steph gave me the heads up, because when I saw the Gila Valley Temple on the side of the road, I stopped and we had lunch, instead of driving by with my mouth hanging open in confusion :)

We went to see Matt, Steph and their darling girls in NM next. They had pu pu platters for dinner when we got there. They were amazingly delicious and I ate way more than fit in my stomach...oooo full!

Matt and Steph also had a cake for Heather (cake #2 - lucky girl).
Aren't the cherry blossoms pretty?

Here is birthday song video #2. Can you guess what my favorite part of the video is?

After dinner, Summer and Rachel both got on Facebook and chatted with each other. I kid you not.

We piled most of the kids in the living room which is just how they wanted it, at least until the middle of the night, when some of them wandered in to the room I was in to snuggle.

Here are all the cousins together.

We spent two nights and a day with Matt and Steph. The day we spent with them, they took us to the coolest place, Hueco Tanks State Park. The pictures pale in comparison to reality. It is a honeycomb of boulders, caves and crevasses to climb and crawl through - kid (and parent) heaven.

Opal, Matt and Steph's youngest.

One of the many crawl spaces.

You never knew where someone would appear. I looked up and there was Matt.

Steph and their oldest, Ruby.

Coral, their middle girl.

Gwen was really in her element.

Here is my beautiful Heather on her 13th birthday.

After we hiked around for a while, we ran all the kids through the restroom and started on our tour. I thought the old archeologist who was our guide looked like the Pied Piper most of the time.

Here is Newspaper Rock, with paintings and graffiti layered on top of each other from the 1800's to thousands of years ago.

The cactuses were blooming.

The kids were excited when the guide showed them a rock smoothed by woolly mammoths wanting a scratching spot.

These masks were some of the older paintings on the rock walls.

These are more recent and were painted by Apaches.

He took us to one spot near water that had a slide smoothed by generations of Native American children playing. Our kids did their part to erode.

Naomi was a trooper on our hikes. She kept going and going until she tripped and fell near the end and then she wanted carried for a bit. One of the men on our tour said she did better than some of the adults on a hike he took a month before. It was a wonderful day and especially fun to spend it with Steph and Matt :)

Somehow, I ended up with three kids in bed with me that night, on a full sized fold out couch. When I woke up in the morning, Michael had a leg over me on one side and Naomi had a leg over me on the other. It was tricky getting up...

Friday we headed back to AZ to stay one more night. David planned Mandy's birthday party for that night, a bit early, so that I could come. It was so nice of him and so fun. Somehow, Amanda got me on the dance floor which brought back memories of stake dances when we were teenagers. How did the time go by so fast?

Here she is with David and her son Nathan.

We made it home safe and had one more birthday party, this time with brownies and ice cream :)

Happy Birthday Heather!