Where there's a Flo there's a way..

A long, long time ago, our family took a trip to Florida with Josh's entire immediate family and all their children. I spoke of posting about it here, but sadly, was too intimidated to document this week long trip to a place I'd never been. There were 1200 pictures, many days in the sun, sporadic outings to various spots near West Palm Beach..... and I just couldn't bring myself to narrow it down to one blog post.

However, my father-in-law made a point to remind me that I hadn't finished what I started, and I needed to follow through with my promises. So here we go.

Toward the end of June, we flew out to West Palm Beach and met up with Larry, Mayetta, Tasha, Derek, Lori and Bruce.... and everyone's offspring. The resort was beautiful and the air was thick with smells of the ocean that was just a boardwalk away from our swimming pool.

Jack had a plethora of cousins to play with. He had so much fun and could name them all for you. All 9 of them. They ran back and forth from swimming pools to rooms, and playgrounds to the beach and really kept themselves busy.

I was asked to take a family picture, so I did what I could, and we came out with a few. Not to mention one of the very few pictures of our own little family..

There were many beautiful things around us. It was fun to have the lenses I did, and take such great shots.

Each and every day was spent at the pool. The extreme humidity and heat combined- practically mandated it. But it was a really nice pool and we always had a place to gather. It was great. Plus the resort provided lots of fun activities, like for example the Magic Show, which was truly hilarious.

It was Mayetta's Birthday on the 24th, and all the adults got to go to a nice dinner, while a couple of teenage strangers watch all 10 of our children. It was wonderful.

We got out of the Resort one day to go to a Water Park, my first actual waterpark experience. Jack was very hesitant at first, but once I pushed him down the slide and he saw how much fun it was, he was thrilled and couldn't stop going up and down repeatedly. These are my brother-in-laws... posing for next years calendar.

We rented a Kayak for an hour or so and took turns taking it out, which was fun.

All in all, it was a great trip, and a fun time to get to know Josh's family better. We are grateful that his parents gave us the opportunity to have such a fun time and enjoy each other's company.

Till next year!

Old Fogey.

This is a list of the top ten things I frequently say that make me sound, feel, and probably look Old.

1. "Chew your food into small pieces."

I have to say this for a couple of reasons, one, is that I do honestly believe your body can absorb the nutrition it needs by helping out the digestive system by chewing your food well. Also, Jack once had a poopy diaper with WHOLE olives in it, and since then I've noticed he'll typically swallow things whole if he can get them down.

2. "Stay out of the street!"

I remember having this yelled at me. By all sorts of people. A also remember thinking 'Duh, I'm not going to get hit by a car.' But honestly not only is it dangerous, but it's just annoying. I hate driving down the street where there are a bunch of kids and it takes them forever to clear out of my way.

3. "Did you wipe?"

This is something that shouldn't even have to be asked. But for some reason, kids don't mind walking away from the toilet dirty. Nevermind the fact they don't flush, but they take part of the experience WITH them and I have problems with that. So I make a note to ask. Every time.

4. "Kids and their damn cell phones."

Every. Single. Time. I encounter a stupid move on the road, it's usually some teenager texting away on their cell phone. Or they are talking too loudly on it in inappropriate places, or on it during dinner, or any of the other rules I mentioned here.

5. "When I was your age.."

This often comes up when Jack's DS dies, or something. We'll be in the car and whatever entertainment he has gets old, or the battery dies, I have to pull out the 'when I was your age, we just looked out the windows.' Although, this comes out way MORE than just in the car.

6. "Walk! Don't run."

It freaks me out so much to see wobbly little kids who aren't aware of their surroundings, stumbling around on concrete or asphalt and about to fall flat on their faces. Ugh, makes my stomach turn. Road rash is no one's friend.

7. "Don't stand so close to the TV!"

We already have guaranteed Jack some horrible eyes, destined for lasik, but it's the SIZE of the television and the weensie-ness of Jack that makes me think that TV could smash him in a second.

8. "Because I said so."

You really don't understand this one, till you're a parent. Because when you are a kid, you want to know the REAL REASON WHY you were asked to do something. Like, "go wash your hands" for example. Forget the fact that you need to wash your hands, I am your MOTHER and I ASKED YOU to DO IT, and YOU DO WHAT I ASK. That's why.

9. "Don't go outside with your head wet."

I still don't know if this is a proven fact- that you will get sick if your head is wet and you go outside. But I'm not about to take any chances.

10. "Who is Justin Bieber?"

I still don't know if this kid is a singer or an actor or what. But I just figure he is a female version of Miley Cyrus and assume that is accurate.

Yellowstone/Tetons

I could give every detail of this trip. I could. But I'm not going to. So for YOUR benefit, I'm going to narrow it down to the key, best moments. Completely in random order:

We were lucky enough to see Old Faithful faith it up TWICE in one day. Not many tourists do that.

These are the party animals Jack and I went with.

This is a picture I took, that I actually compare to an artist that Laura has showed me, Aron Belka, who Laura commissioned to paint a topographical image of Lover's Point for my dad, shown here:

I thought they were somewhat alike. Though one is my photo, and one is his painting.

Jack had a super buddy on the trip. He loves his Teagers.

This particular Bison strayed from his herd to spend a while rubbing himself on this pole. The kids loved it.

Jack is great at making pictures look like we are filled with joyous emotion.

This is one of those pools.

This is an old gas pump in one of those weird Wyoming towns.

And this is a bear, that we saw in virtually the same place that we saw THIS one last year. It may very well be the same one.

There you go.

The Weekenders

I am now confident that if I were to run a marathon over the course of a weekend, I could do it. Though I haven't, I sure feel like I spent the weekend running around, huffing and puffing. But in the whirl of it all, I did manage to have a great time.

We spent the regrettable occasion of Natalie turning 30 at my cabin, in Midway. It was truly a blast, and a great way to blaze the trail for all the others of us turning 30 in the upcoming months. We discovered new species, ate kabobs, opened presents relived horrible moments in our past, ate rainbow cake and dug 1973 Jeeps out of ditches. Splendid times.

It was nothing but the luxury of Fall.

If ANYONE knows what this spider/grasshopper/potatobug/alien is, please contact me.

ANSWER: Jerusalem Cricket.

This cake was kind of the bane of my existence.

Our southerners.

Our welcomed new-comers.

Our islanders.

Our birthday girl.

Our fat dog.

Our skinny dog.

Our twins.

Our dog-lover.

Our hair-cutter.

Our candle-lighter.

Our wish-maker.

My masterpiece.

Josh's masterpiece.

Jeep getting stuck story: Josh, Jon and Jason decided to skip off for a minute to go four-wheeling in the Jeep (Mind you, we may be driving it, but it is not OUR Jeep..) I guide them of where to go to find a fun trail, and they disappear for a couple of hours. The sun began to nestle itself deep in the west, and I called them to see when they'd be back. Josh informed me in a high, squeaky voice that they were "stuck." Debating on whether it was serious or not, we decided to accept Tyson's generous offer to take his f350 up to see if he could help. I went with him to tell him where to go. The path quickly became narrow, being that the 350 was HUGE. We kept going further, and honking to see if we were close, but they could never hear us. Once the path was nearly impossible to get through, I started hiking in the pitch dark with my wee little flashlight to find them. They hiked down to Tyson's truck and we all took turns holding back trees so Tys could get through. Eventually we made it to the Jeep- which you see above, tucked in the mega-deep ditch. Turns out, the 4-wheel drive button is in the glove box. So they switched that on, cut down some trees, planted some logs in the ditch, hitched up the tow, and Tyson mightily pulled the Jeep out to safety.

Yep. The Jeep's OK.

Fairview, UT

(I hadn't heard of it either..)

This weekend we took a family trip up to one of Joshs's partners' cabin in Fairview. Despite our efforts to gather a group to go up to this nice, accommodating cabin, it turned out to be just the three of us. Nevertheless, we had a blast, and spent most of our time on the ATV exploring the surroundings, doing our best not to bother "Sherm" the neighbor. Or the sheep we kept running into.

At first it took us a while to find some good trails, but we ended up taking a good hour trip up a mountain to the skyline, and it was beautiful. Jack was an absolute trooper, bouncing around on that ATV. He calls it, lovingly, the "motor."

I also got some excellent star shots after our marshmallow roasting session in the fire pit. There were millions and millions of stars, and my camera in fact caught more than my naked eye. So here is a taste of "Fairview" and we invite you all to come up next time.

(Love it up there with those leaves)

(Some cliffs we rode by)

(Jack loved the "motor" but had frequent stops, due the lasix)

(Some views from the skyline trail)

(A picture Jack took)

(Our picnic spot)

(Thank heavens for camera timers)

(The view from the trail when we finally realized we were getting somewhere)

(All those stars)

(Sheep- looking at us menacingly)

(Some surprisingly clear water)

(This is not the cabin. The cabin has doors and windows..)

(Our source of fun)

(the source of my fun..)

Seriously, come with us next time.

Facebook.

I hate that I am a facebooker. I do. I won't lie, I "hide" a lot of things on my wall. However I am not a crazy facebooker; I don't rely on it for valid information and I wouldn't go there first to get any. I also don't like when people EXPECT me to know things because they "put it on their facebook."

"Oh, you're pregnant?"

"Um, YEAH, didn't you see the sonogram on my facebook?"

"Gosh, no, how insensitive of me to have called you before checking your wall."

But I sure do enjoy the frequent changes it has. It's certainly not like blog's or email. The turn over time for facebook is really quick. It's great. And I like being able to throw things out there to find out new things, like recipes, places to go, hobbies I can adopt. Not to mention being able to stay in touch and up to date with people you don't see very often. Just enough contact with them- but not too much..

I do have a Top Six Things I Hate About Facbook list, though. Kind of an etiquette list, as it were.

1. Post NO MORE THAN three status updates a day. Beyond that and we feel like we are invading your privacy, or are way too involved in your day-to-day activities.

2. Be careful with your vagueness.. it's fun to make people think, but not to make them guess.

3. Don't bring death to facebook. RIP'ing someone on your status grants more disrespect than it does anything else, and again, makes the rest of us feel uncomfortable. Seek sympathy elsewhere.

4. Stop it with the Farmville. It is facebook cocaine.

5. Please don't "heart" things. Unless you are twelve. Otherwise you just look stupid.

6. Do you REALLY have 1,497 friends? Really? Only accept friend requests from people you ACTUALLY care to read about. Not just as a point to add to your popularity list.

Now, I understand I may offend people with this post. But really, I am just trying to give and gain some perspective on the whole thing. So I apologize in advance to those that this post offends, but know that if you are my friend on facebook, we are TRUE friends... cause I'll accept nothing less.