My dad is famous!

Well, maybe not famous... but in parts of the lawyer-ing world he is! Some attornies really dislike him. And I think it would be safe to say that General Motors pretty much hates him. My dad investigates car accidents for a living. He will then be hired by an attorney to prove whether an accident is the fault of the driver or of a faulty tire or seatbelt or whatnot.

Law and Order was calling around to some law firms to see if they had referrals for someone in the reconstruction industry that would have photos that they could purchase of a car wrecking under a semi for their show. They had several referrals to contact my father. So they did. Can you imagine getting a phone call from "Law and Order". Weird. Since my dad is one of the few experts that specialize in this kind of crash they called him asking to purchase some photographs for their show. He sold them a cd that he sells to law firms.

We taped Law and Order last night with Robin Williams in it. Here are the pictures they used. I took a picture of our tv. So they aren't the best...

Anyhow! My daddy is famous now!!!

FrontRunner

The train that goes from Ogden to Salt Lake (FrontRunner) opened over the weekend. It's free for the next couple of days. So I took my friend's kids and my kids downtown to have lunch and play in the fountains at the Gateway. (For you out of towners - the fountains at the Gateway: there is water that sprays up from the ground in this one area of an outside mall.) So we met our other friends and we get to the stop by our house - they obviously didn't plan for parking...

We ended up parking across the street. A busy street. SO I take kids that aren't mine and I have them j-walk. (Sorry Steff) We were running across the street and Dallin's shoe falls off. He runs back to get it and I am freaking out. I guess we should have gone up to the light. But it was a REALLY long way! So we just tightened up his sandals.

We got to the station and waited. And waited. And waited...

I guess we should have looked at the schedule on line before going. But then we finally got on the train and were on our way - along with the rest of Ogden, Roy, Layton, etc. It was PACKED! We were a huge crew too. Lasca, her hubby Brian, their 3 kids and 1 stroller, Lasca's niece and her baby and stroller, me, my 2 kids, my friend's 2 kids and a stroller. But we got there and got lunch at the food court.

We ran into my cute friend Amber with her 5 year old and 3 week old. It was SO random! SO fun! She of course looks fabulous for having just given birth and totally sleep deprived!

Oh - I didn't change Maggie's diaper before we left. By the time we got to Salt Lake - she was soaked. And so was I. And of course I didn't bring extra pants.

But - my friend Lasca who has a shopping problem has a daughter Maggie's age and went and bought her pants so Maggie could have them. Thanks Lasca!! I will get them washed and back to you!!

Then we were off to the fountains!!! It's 75 degrees and we are ready for some cooling off!!!!!!!

And then we were disappointed! They are being maintained and vacuumed until Thursday. How lame is that?? So we decided to play in the grass for a while.

I would love to be able to do that again~ oh wait ~ maybe I never could. I would love to be able to do that period!

And played in the little water that was flowing on the sides of the fountain.

Oh... what's that?

Oops... I guess that we ought not to play there. (Sorry Steff - again) So then we decided to go to the conference center.

This is my friend's little boy that was such a great helper with the stroller.

Mary is quite the helper too. She loves to push the stroller.

It was really cool in the conference center. (air conditioned) My friend we went with and her niece sat down while my friend's husband and I took the slew of kids around on the tour. Older couple missionaries are so funny! They kept telling us that we were just the cutest family!! So here is my "cute family".

By this time it is 4:15. We obviously didn't plan this well all the way around. We got to the train station just in time for rush hour with people going home from work. UGH!

All in all - we had a very fun day. I got fried again. But at least I didn't fry my kids! I got the SPF 50 on them. Just not me.... Oh well~

Cous Cous

We had cous cous tonight with our Apple Cider Pork Chops. It was ok. We will try it in the crock pot next time. Dallin has decided that he LOVES cous cous!!! This is a good thing!

Maggie - not so much...

I found out that cous cous is MUCH easier to clean up off the floor than rice!!! And much easier to make!

Bowling

We took our kids bowling for the first time ever tonight! It was so much fun! We went with our friends Kevin and Connie and their kids are our kids' ages (within months of each other). It was such a great time! I realized that I STILL cannot bowl to save my life - but hey - that's ok. I still like me!!

Here is Dallin's first try.

After a while he really would push it off! He got into it!

And what is this??? Nice - uh - form, honey!! Ya - that's what I was going to say...

Here is Maggie's 2nd try. We couldn't get the camera to focus on the first try! Oh well...


It was so funny how everyone tried to steer the ball as it was going down the lane!

And the final score....

MR (me) 70
SR (scott) 117
CD (connie) 116
KKD (kevin) 108

Yep! I really suck at this! But THIS game was better than the one before it!!!!

Fun Fun!!! We will definitely be doing this on a regular basis!!!

True Friendship is...

This is something that a True Friend sent to us today! I think it's pretty hilarious! And oh so true! This is for all of my dear dear friends out there!

True Friendship is none of that

Sissy Crap!

Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems

that always sound good, but never actually come

close to reality?

Well, here is a series of promises

that actually speak of true friendship.

You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card-
Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad --

I will jump on the person who made you sad.
Like a spider monkey.

2. When you are blue --

I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile --

I will know you are plotting something that

I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared --

I will rag on you about it every

chance I get.

5. When you are worried --

I will tell you horrible stories about

how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused --

I will use little words.

7. When you are sick --

Stay away from me until you are well
again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall --

I will point and laugh at your clumsiness.

9. This is my oath.... I pledge it to the end.

'Why?' you may ask;
'because you are my friend'.

Friendship is like peeing your pants,
Everyone can see it,
But only you can feel the true warmth.

I think #6 is my favorite! People always need to use little words around me! :)

Retiring the White Belt

A week and a half ago, our little boy advanced to his Orange belt in Tiny Tigers Karate. This was his belt changing ceremony...

Pride may be of the devil... but I am so proud of my boy I can hardly stand it!!!

I want to stay up during naptime!

Last night we went to a Utah Blaze game. We got Dallin to bed at 12:03 am. He was thrilled that he "got to stay up until tomorrow." Well - today during quiet time he said he wasn't tired and wanted to stay up. So I said he could listen to one of his book on tapes while he laid down to relax. I went to check on him and this is what I found. My cute boy fast asleep after having piled all his stuffed animals into the corner of his bed... What a funny boy!

Then after Maggie got out of the bath tonight she got into the coat closet, put on a hat, shut the closet and came to me saying, "Bye Bye!" Then she went to the garage door like she was actually going to be able to leave...

My kids crack me up!

Please say it's a typo!

Ok - I really try to stay out of political/newsie nonsense on our blog. I simply don't care about most of it. But I absolutely HAVE to say something about this...

This whole FLDS roundup of children in Texas... I don't really want to talk about the issues there - I just wouldn't know where to start... BUT - as I was reading an article online tonight something struck me as so totally and completely HILARIOUS!!!

A few years back a man here in Utah got sentenced in prison for marrying a 13 year old child.

(CBS) Outspoken polygamist Tom Green, who was convicted of child rape in connection with his 1986 marriage to a 13-year-old girl, was sentenced Tuesday to five years to life in prison by a judge after the victim spoke tearfully in his defense.

Green, who has five wives and 33 children as part of the polygamist lifestyle he espoused, cried and expressed remorse for his marriage to Linda Kunz Green, who is now 30.

So Tom got his sentencing, blah blah blah....

Tonight as I am reading this story from http://www.ksl.com/ I think - hmmm... that Courthouse name sounds a little familiar:

The future of 416 children is at stake tomorrow as Texas officials go to court to justify the mass roundup of children in the FLDS polygamy compound. A judge will have to decide if the children should remain in state custody.

The biggest courtroom in the Tom Green County Courthouse seats 300 people. The lawyers alone are enough to fill it up and spill into the hallways. The children will be represented by at least 350 lawyers, plus there will be more attorneys representing the state and other interested parties. An overflow courtroom has been set up in a nearby auditorium with 1,000 seats, 100 of those reserved for the media.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is it just me - or does it hit anyone else's giggle spot that there is a poligomist trial going on at the TOM GREEN County Courthouse?? Maybe it was just a really bad typo.... UGH!!!

Day 6 - Home again Home again Jiggity Jig

We had a lazy start this morning as I was trying to get the Day 3 blog entry posted. Dallin hadn’t watched his PBS cartoons in several days – so we thought it would be nice for him to watch while I took advantage of the hotel’s free internet! And of Scott’s willingness to watch for Maggie and packing the van.

Throughout the last few days Maggie and I have been having the same conversation. She signs "Help". I ask her "What do you want help with?" She takes her hands and tries to get her car seat undone saying "Ahhh Dahh." I say "You're all done in the car seat?" And she nods her head yes. Then I have to say "We aren't done in the car yet." And then she screams. When we pulled into the garage tonight and went to get her out of her car seat, her face lightened up and she said very enthusiastically, "AHH DAHHH!!!" And I said "Yes - all done!" And she clapped her hands with joy! What a doll!!

At the stop after the second barfing incident Scott got a car air freshener. You know the ones shaped like a tree? Well, he got the "Bouquet" scent. I will forever associate "Bouquet" with barf. I never want to smell it again!

We have come up with some things that we have learned on this vacation.

1 – Maggie gets motion sick. Good to know for the future.
2 – I am not driving Lynnette home to Arkansas in May with the 2 kids!
3 – We ARE keeping the van.
4 – A 13 hour road trip (according to Mapquest) actually takes 18 hours with a 4 and 1 year old!
5 – Our power inverter does NOT run a hair dryer.
6 – Tweezers don’t work to change a blown fuse.
7 – Energy is wasted on the young!
8 – Wherever we vacation: Dallin will find rocks to throw and Maggie will find dirt to eat.
9 – If our vacation is sunny – we WILL forget sunscreen…. And aloe vera.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Redwood forest! I can now cross one thing off of my list of things to do before I die.

Thanks for enduring through our journal of our family vacation.

Day 5 - Avenue of the Giants

We woke up this morning to our first foggy day. The weather has been absolutely perfect for us on our trip here. We even bought rain jackets for everyone before we came here thinking that it’s April and should be pretty rainy. But it has been gorgeous! We really lucked out!

This morning – I am so glad that we had a foggy morning. It was so eerie yet so beautiful!

This is the beach that we look down to from our campsite. It’s the one that we went to the first night that we were here.

We made a campfire and breakfast. Maggie was just chillin’.

Dallin is of course totally taken with the fire! My little pyro!!

We decided that we had seen just about everything that we wanted to see after we went through the Avenue of the Giants today – so we thought we would head down to San Francisco. We really did NOT want to drive back home through Redding again. So we took down camp, packed up the van and headed south to the Avenue of the Giants.

Why am I NOT surprised about this???

Scott had not had an experience in the middle of the Redwoods yet as he took a little snooze with Maggie yesterday while D and I went into the forest. It was fun to see his expression and awe at the incredible wonder of nature that our Father in Heaven has created for us!

My family in front of a huge redwood tree!

Dallin loved running through all of the clover looking for Roger Rogers (his name for robots in the Star Wars movies).

Maggie is such an independent little bugger! She would NOT take a hand to get over the big fallen trees in the path…

Of course we had to drive through the big redwood tree!

Good thing we pulled the mirrors in!!!

We decided that since we are out this far west we ought to let Dallin see the Golden Gate Bridge and then we could stay over and explore San Fran. Then the more we drove we decided we just wanted to get home. So we went over a few bridges that we could NOT get Dallin awake to see. Here is a picture.

Not a very good one.

Dallin thought this was a hilarious name for a restaurant – and since we usually try to go to places we can’t go to at home when we are on vacation – we decided to have dinner at Jack in the Box.

We should have stopped in Sacramento. There really isn’t much past that until Reno. But we didn’t and ended up dragging our sorry butts into Reno at 10 pm. We were NOT going to stay at the Silver Club Hotel again so we pulled into a Days Inn. I don’t remember much except thinking that it was the most comfortable bed I had slept in for about a week!!!

Day 4 - What a hiker!

This morning we went back into Trinidad and dropped our laundry off at this little laundry mat. They actually do it for you! I mean you pay for it! It’s however much the laundry costs to do x 3. It turned out to only be $10.50! I would say that was worth it for us to keep sight seeing and not be stuck in a laundry mat for a couple of hours. It freed us up to go whale watching – and someone else is washing our barf and sand clothes!!!

Dallin – what a trooper today! He hiked his little heart out! We went to Klamath River Overlook. This is where a river flows into the ocean.

It is very beautiful. There was a ¾ mile hike down to an overlook that is pretty steep. Dallin had a blast going down it. On the way back though he was very discouraged and hot and tired and wanted to be carried. But he did really really well!! We got back to the top and he said, “I don’t want to hike something that tall again.” It was a tough hike for mommy – I can’t imagine what Dallin felt like!

I really wanted to see the whales migrating while we were here! And I got to do that today! These pictures aren’t all that great – but until I can afford a bigger lens they will have to do.

I thought the whales would be farther out – not right close to the shore. But – I was pleasantly surprised! (By the way - it's a little difficult to draw a straight arrow in a moving van)

Then we went back through the scenic parkway we had gone through the day before. This time we stopped and Dallin and I took a little hike into the forest while Scott and Maggie took a little snooze in the car.

Dallin preferred this hike over the earlier one. So did bunny…

I am absolutely amazed at the enormity of these trees. It’s crazy how the sound of everything but birds is blocked out by these trees.

Just beautiful.

We are quite surprised at the sparseness of towns around here. It really adds to the character of the area – but it’s hard when you need a gas station and there isn’t one on every corner.

This is where we had to get gas before going to the beach yesterday.

We actually passed the "Got Gas?" sign not really thinking it could possibly be a gas station. We saw this in the distance. But then we got up close and saw that it wasn't exactly working.

Although - when was the last time you saw one of these???

Then we went to another beach. This one was good enough to have a warning sign about the water posted clearly for all to see!

I was in heaven going to all of these beaches. Dallin was too.

Maggie on the other hand – as soon as her feet were touching the ground she would turn right around and go back toward the car. She was not at all interested in being there. But Scott was good and held her the whole time. Except for when we tried experimenting with her feet touching the ground. It was hilarious!

We got there and saw there were surfers out.

I love the continuous shooting mode on the camera! It makes me feel like a professional photographer – even though I am not even close! But hey – I can think it!

Dallin now wants to have a surf board when he gets bigger.

He wanted to get into the water again today. (way to get back on that horse!!) But he wanted to take off his pants. Yesterday when “mommy and me got waved” his pants got really heavy and were falling off.

But he never actually got into the water this time.

We hadn’t showered yet on our trip because in the mornings it’s too dang cold. So we decided to head back to camp, make grilled cheese sandwiches and shower. I was pleasantly surprised at how hot the showers were. But then there is the dilemma of drying my hair. I have very thick hair and I knew if I didn’t get it at least partially dry it wouldn’t be dry before bed which would result in a VERY cold Monica that night. We brought a power inverter for the car and I thought ok – I can just plug the hair dryer in. It didn’t work. And I managed to blow a fuse. I did make the trek over to the bathrooms and use the outlet there after Scott and Dallin got back.

After we got all clean and fed we went back into town to pick up our laundry and propane for the Mr. Heater that we borrowed to keep our tent warm at night.