Ode to our late van.

This is the side that got smashed while we were spinning around. The door no longer closes.


This is the side the at-fault driver hit. (I'm so p.c.) That is the back bumper on top of the van, and there is no glass in the sliding door window. The pictures don't do it justice. They don't show the smell of gas (still!) nor all the wasps that moved in while it sat here. THAT was fun.


so now to the ode. Oh van, we loved your eight seats, your power sliding door, your cupholders, and your huge gas tank. We loved your great gas mileage (hey, everything beats the Explorer), your trip odometer, your mileage and compass and temperature display. We loved your clean carpet and brakes. Ah, we will miss you.

A select few photos from WA

So I decided to come back to the funeral pictures later. I think we took about 500 pictures on our trip to Washington to see my family. I'm not exaggerating. It took a while to upload from our camera. So these are just a few of the delights. In a few days I'll post the before and after pics of our late, departed van.

A sad reason for a fun reunion.

On Monday, we went to Orem and Provo for the funeral of Mike's grandma, Rosalind Bandley. It was a very nice, very moving service. My favorite part was that all of Mike's siblings were together for the first time in four years. I enjoy watching them enjoy each other's company and watching cousins chase around. Outside the church, of course. Chasing inside isn't reverent. :) I have more, but that will have to wait until next time. Lots of pics to share.

The Zoo and Hayden leaves the house!

This was an accident, but it looks like Hayden has long Mike Meyers hair! (It's really Emily)

the baby giraffe we all wanted to see

Tate wanted a lot of pictures taken of himself

this is the after picture. Tate's only annoyed because this is the fourth try for a picture.

The sprinklers were on at the park.
Hayden happened to be upstairs at the moment and was persuaded to leave the house and go get wet with Tate. It was a lovely spontaneous moment. When I say "happened to be upstairs", it's because he's been in the basement, on the computer, playing some game I don't care about for so many days now. A power outage might be just the thing......

We did the Zoo very quickly on Saturday (sorry no time for visits) because the weather was so cool and pleasant. Sadly the weather will not stay that way....

I'm not so clever.

So many of you have enjoyed Mike's imagination-interactive post that I know I can never top that. So I will not compete. That's how I roll. If I can't win, I won't play. Just kidding. sort of. So we don't have any pictures from our last two swimming trips because the camera doesn't belong in the water, and Tate doesn't belong in the water unless I'm right next to him, in the water. Which is why I am sunburned, despite my children's best efforts. They do pretty well, but there are always strange-shaped sunburn spots on my back. Ah, summer. Also I didn't take a pic of us hitting the garage sales this morning. We all found some kind of treasure. I found two upholstered armless chairs. They were sturdy and the springs were good. They had clean lines, so covering them in new fabric won't be a problem. I was stunned to find they were $1 each. I grabbed them and threw them in the van. On the way home I think I figured out why they were only $1......the smell was overpowering. We had to open all the windows. So it looks like I will have to slice them open and strip them down to the springs, cover with new muslin, padding, muslin and fabric. Which is more than I had intended to do. Now mind you, I will not back down from this challenge, although it must get in line with all the other half-finished projects. Perhaps the smell will bump them up in line some. They can't sit behind the house forever. See, I told you that I'm not so clever.

Salt Lake Bees vs. Colorado Springs Sky Sox vs. Camera at Home

So, we went to the Salt Lake Bees game tonight. It was fun. We like to go to at least one baseball game a year, just for the experience. We used to go to games in Calgary (usually when they played against Salt Lake) and we go to Ogden Raptors games sometimes as well. This particular game went into extra innings, but only the 10th. No one even scored in the game until the Bees scored 2 in the 7th, Colorado Springs scored 2 in the 8th, then sadly Colorado scored 1 in the 10th, winning the game 3-2.

Anyway, we forgot the camera, so this is a Use Your Imagination post. Just pretend that the following photos actually exist. Enjoy.

[Photo of all the family smiling, sitting in a row in the ballpark]

[Photo of baseball players on the field starting the game]

[Photo of the Bees mascot entertaining kids]

[Photo of the visiting San Diego Chicken entertaining kids]

[Photo of the visiting San Diego Chicken beating up Barney the Dinosaur]

[Photo of the kids looking tired later on in the game with Tate on Mike's lap instead of in his own seat]

[Video of us singing during the 7th inning stretch followed by commentary about how it would be funny if we sang "The Good Old Hockey Game" song instead]

[Photo of the kids eating purple cotton candy]

[Photo of the scoreboard ending the game after 10 innings]

[Video of the kids running around the bases on the field after the game]

I hope you enjoyed the imaginary photos and videos of the game just as much as we enjoyed being there. Next time I'll have to try this type of post for my fishing trips.

The lovely colors of summer.

Ok this makes twice I've accidentally deleted a picture and it takes so freaking long for the pictures to upload that I feel like screaming. I feel all cranky now. I'm not going to retrieve the missing ones. Here are some pictures. I was going to say how much I love color and all that. How my favorite color is lots of color. How these pictures are a portion of the colors I love about summer. And how I didn't take a picture of the lobster red of the back of my neck. Bah. dumb computer.