We were lucky enough to get tickets to the BYU/OU game in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium this last weekend. It is just an 8 hour drive from our home so it is a fun little jaunt. We had a total blast and the fact that BYU won made it all the more worthwhile. Our hotel was in Ft Worth so Saturday we went over to the Stockyards again to see the Texas Longhorns out for their morning walk. Their horns are just huge. The Stockyards also have a bunch of fun little shops and dining options.
Now I normally run all errands for the week on Fridays. But because we are headed down to Dallas tomorrow for the BYU/Oklahoma game that isn't going to be possible. So I'm doing my stuff at WalMart and I ALWAYS buy the store brand of whatever I need before name brand stuff but this was a deal I couldn't pass up. I don't know if this is a Thursday thing at WalMart or if I just lucked out. But I was in the cheese section and all of the sudden this associate starts bringing out all these carts with stuff on them for either $0.50 or $1.00. Several people just rushed to the carts and started piling stuff in. What I added to my cart was this. Cottonelle Toilet Paper 20 roll for $1.00. Original price: $10.00 Sparkle Paper Towels 6 roll for $1.00. Original price: 5.97. Cascade Dishwasher Powder 5 lbs for $1.00. Original price: 5.97. Maybe I should switch to Thursdays.
What a gorgeous day we had today. High of only 75. Decided to go to the Deanna Rose Farmstead with some friends. We hadn't been in a couple of years and there were a lot of changes. They had the new front red barn entrance and are in the process of working on the town bank. The farm is free but they take donations and have corporate sponsors. They are in the process of saving for the Ice Cream Parlor building. They've raised about $351,000 of the $500K they figure it will take to build it. It is an awesome place for the kids. Lots of animals, plant life, a dairy barn, old fashioned school and more "pioneer like stuff". A fun dinner at Old Chicago. We couldn't have asked for a better day!
They have arrived! Our documents for our Disney trip have arrived. The luggage tags are totally awesome. We got tired of having to worry about ours weighing more than 50 pounds with clothes for all four people so I bought the girls their own luggage at JCP probably a year ago. Now we don't have to worry. I'm not one of those women that have to take 1/2 their closet on a vacation. I am ALL for minimizing. I personally am so excited for this family vacation with JUST OUR FAMILY. We have not been on a major family vacation with just the four of us since 2000. I'm not talking about weekenders to St Louis or Oklahoma or the cruises Mike & I have been on compliments of AAKC. I'm talking about major vaca time. In the 11 times we have been to Disneyland, we have NEVER gone as just our little family and that is just sad. Our two girls are growing up so fast and will be doing their own thing with husbands and children in the blink of an eye. And that is how it should be, so while they are still young I want to create great memories for them of fun things with Daddy & Mama. The best part is they are both old enough and tall enough for all the rides with neither of them scared to go on anything. What a great week its going to be!
As you all know the announcement was made in General Conference on Oct. 4, 2008 that Kansas City Missouri will be getting a temple. We were SO excited. Our district now is St Louis which is a 4 hour drive from our home. The Winter Quarters Temple in Omaha, NE is only 3 hours but they don't have a Spaghetti Factory. Anyhoo, it was such a beautiful afternoon yesterday we decided to take a family drive out to the site of our temple. Rumor has it that groundbreaking will start next spring. Its not much to look at now, but we hope to post pictures as the progress goes along. It will also be visible from I-435.
It seems only a short while ago that the girls were out of school even though it has been 13 weeks. And what a summer it has been. A cruise, two weeks in Utah, swim lessons. But alas it is back-to-school today. Savannah is in the 5th grade and has Mrs. Olberding as her teacher. This will be her last year in elementary school. Sixth grade is moving up to Jr High next year. Haylie is in the 2nd grade and Mrs. Griffen is her teacher. Me, I look forward to a little peace and quiet for a time, being able to grocery shop without someone bugging me to buy them something and getting back to the fitness center. They will be missed during the day but I will be anxious to hear about their days in school and seeing what they are accomplishing.
Spent a great evening at the park with a little ball between the men in the ward. Elders Quorum won by 6. Way to go guys! Enjoyed pizza, salads, drinks and desserts with all their families afterwards. What an awesome night.
Another year of swim lessons completed. Savannah passed Level 5 with flying colors. Only one more level to go. Haylie finished her first year of Level 4 but still has three items that need to be passed off. Great job and we'll try it again next year.
When we had our home built 3 years ago; for some stupid reason the landscapers put in all plants that need sun. Now if you are not aware of this... our home faces north. So the two front planting areas rarely get any sun. So we ripped up most of the plants and killed all the weeds. Next we decided on a border that would compliment the rock on our home. Then it was off to the nursery to buy plants that do well in the shade. This is going to be our Hosta Garden. Because it is the end of the summer of course there was not a huge selection. But I am pretty pleased with the 7 plants that we did pick out for now. Hopefully we'll be on the ball and get a few more next spring and also hope to put in a water feature in that left corner. So this is still a work-in-progress.
14 Days. That is how long we were gone. Drove the 2200 miles roundtrip to see extended family the first part of July. I had seen all the wind turbines near Palm Springs, CA but I didn't know that Kansas had them too! Stopped the first night in Denver and ate at the Downtown Aquarium. Same place we had eaten at in Nashville. We spent the first 5 days with my side. Was able to celebrate my grandmothers 93rd birthday in Price. We then spent the 4th of July at Sugarhouse Park to see the fireworks. Liberty Land in Lehi was also on the agenda. A cute little theme park with go karts, mini putt putt, roller coaster, laser tag, rock wall, water bumper cars was a lot of fun. We went as a family to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house before spending the last 5 days with Mike's side of the family. We visited Temple Square and of course had to head up to East High to see HSM turf. The girls totally loved that. We spent a fun day at Lagoon with cousins. Family pictures at Wheeler Farm were also done. The last night there had a big bbq with extended-extended family. We had a lot of fun but I was happy to finally be back in my own home.
Savannah's "special" party was spent overnight at Great Wolf Lodge. She invited her friend Regan from primary and Haylie was able to bring Allison from the neighborhood. They spent the afternoon in the waterpark then we headed over to Famous Dave's for dinner. They all had ribs. Then it was back to the waterpark until they closed and again Friday morning for several hours.
They say things happen in threes so I should be good for a while. I made my normal trip to the pharmacy Wednesday afternoon for our normal ongoing prescriptions. That same day Haylie came down with a raging ear infection. So off to the ER we went that evening. When Mike got home I headed to the pharmacy again for her Tylenol w/ codeine, Amoxicillan, and ear drops. We came home today from Great Wolf Lodge and low and behold Haylie had caught pink eye! So again to the doctor for a look over. Trip number three to the pharmacy for her eye drops. I've got so many meds going on right now that I've got a chart on our kitchen counter so I make sure she gets the right Rx in the right dosage the correct number of times a day. I hope I'm done!
Sweet Savannah turned 10 this month. We did a swim party at our neighborhood pool and invited a few friends from church and school. We were a little concerned when we had a thunderstorm the night before and had a plan B of going to an indoor pool. It wasn't as warm as we would have liked it (76 degrees) but the girls had a good time. Needless to say they spent a fair amount of time in the nice warm shower in the clubhouse! A total 180 degree turn was made from absolutely hating Hannah Montana to wanting that for her party theme. Her "big" celebration will be staying overnight at Great Wolf Lodge and doing the waterpark this week with one special friend.
Mike and I have talked for several years about putting our queen size bed into our guest room (which previously just had a full size bed). We had stayed at the Hilton Hotel several times and fell in love with their Serenity Beds. So we finally took the plunge and used a little of our tax return this year and bought this king size bed from Hilton. It is so luxurious! It includes a feather bed topper, down pillows and a down duvet. One of our better investments. Am in the process now of getting new side tables, decor and finding the right shade of blue and brown to paint the walls.
Our previous rider mower finally got too much for us to tinker with and maintain. We were able to sell it on Craigs List for $300 and put the money towards Daddy's new Craftsman mower. Savannah got her Schwinn 26" mountain bike for her birthday. Her poor knees were hitting the handle bars on her old bike. We told her this was the last bike we were going to buy her.
Our flight back home was not leaving until Monday so when we got back into port we headed over to Knotts Berry Farm. We always like that place. Its not as crowded as Disneyland and its just a fun, quaint place to be. The bobsled is an official Olympic sled they have on display. Didn't see Snoopy around this time, but we got him at Worlds of Fun earlier in the month. Now its off to summer activities!
We had 3 total days of actual "cruising" which means we weren't docked anywhere. So pictures of things around the ship are what we got. The Royal Promanade is a great place to hang out. Mariner's highlights are: ice skating rink, rock-climbing wall, in-line skating, mini putt putt, Johnny Rockets restaurant, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and the casino. On the Promanade are the General Store, Jewelry & Gift Shop, Logo Souvenier Shop, a pub, Perfume Shop, Fashion Boutique and the Cafe Promenade. If you like people watching, this is the place to be. There were two formal nights on board in the dining room, the poolside calypso band was a hit and the towel animals are always fun.
Mariner of the Seas is not Royal Caribbeans largest ship by any means but there are a lot of fun activities. We took advantage of the one day that it was REALLY warm outside to do anything. The girls and Mike did the rock climbing wall. Haylie was filmed by the cruise line and ended up on the Cruise In Review DVD they were selling. The 9-hole mini putt putt is always fun and the girls had a blast ice skating. Whoever thought you could ice skate on a ship?! The pool is always a hit. The ship had the Solarium which had a pool and huge hot tub just for adults, but the general area included two pools and four hot tubs for everyone to enjoy.
This is my kind of city. We'd live here but for the status of the housing market which is out of control. Pike Place Market is THE place to see. I was hoping since it was a weekday that it wouldn't be so crowded. It was until the people off the ship disbursed to various places. You can get whatever you need in this place. They sell fish, meat, art, toys, flowers, fruit. Just a plethora of things. If you need it, most likely you can get it. Notice there is not a price listed on the HUGE lobster tails. Down the row we found out they are $40 per pound. The pic of the girls is on the Harbour Steps. This is a beautiful place of stairs (if stairs can be considered beautiful), with fountains, eateries, and places to sit and enjoy. They go from the waterfront, clear up to 2nd St. Always a great pic of Mt Ranier. As much as I love Seattle, I would hate to be there when that thing decides to blow. Everyone thought St Helen's was bad. Ranier is going to decimate the Seattle area.
For those of you who have not been to British Columbia, Victoria is a very sleepy town. One of the major attractions is the Parlament Building. We didn't take any shore excursions, but just bummed around. Had lunch at Sam's Deli, bought a great ornament at The Christmas Village and got ice cream at Rogers Chocolates (aptly named). Their local mall is called The Bay with 85 stores. The 2010 Olympics are going to be held in Vancouver so several things were purchased with the Olympic theme. We were in port that day until 11:30p.
Our first stop was in San Francisco. As you can see cruising into the area was a typical foggy morning. It was cold, windy, and I thought that we wouldn't be on shore for very long. An amazing thing to experience is going under the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the Captain, the ship cleared the bridge with only 13 FEET to spare! By the time we docked at 2p the sun was out but it was still windy. We got clam chowder in a bread bowl at Boudin and bought chocoate at Ghiradelli. Which is funny because we can get it at Wal-Mart! Haylie was playing funny with the skeleton pirate.
We have had to drive 15 minutes to church for the last several years. However, our new building will be done in the next little while and supposedly by July we'll be in it. They tweaked the ward boundaries yesterday and everyone is to go to their designated ward. Once we are ok to get into the new building our ward will now meet at 11:30. Which is great with me AND it will only take us 2 minutes to get there! Yee-Haw.
Had a great time with Ryan/Karie at Worlds of Fun. Thank you to Anesthesia Associates of Kansas City!
Here's the scoop. I was checking Royal Caribbean's website just to see their prices now for our upcoming cruise since the itinerary has been changed. In our original reservation back in January we paid a total of $2863 for the four of us for the cruise, taxes, and RT transfers between the airport and pier. However, because of the change in itinerary I am sure lots of people were canceling. So in order to fill the ship they were having a "deal". So I just had to do it. One itinerary change option was to cancel the cruise without any penalties. Normally at this point in time, you would loose 50%. You guessed it. I canceled our original booking for a full refund. THEN I turned around and re-booked it with everything staying the same for just $2102! That is quite a chunk of change in savings. And the funny thing is, our cabin is now just down the hall from the first one we had. Got to love those savings! I am going to check the website the night before we leave to see if any balcony cabins or suites were left unfilled and see if we can get upgraded when we check in.
Well I must say that I am thoroughly ticked that the human race is making such a big deal out of this Swine Flu. Don't they realize how stupid it is? Let's check the numbers. 30,000 people die each year just from the normal flu that comes around every winter - 30,000!!!! Last number I heard: a whopping 88 people in Mexico have died from the Swine Flu - 88!!! What the heck?! And the reason those 88 people have died is because they know that the health care available to them is not that great so they don't even bother going into the doctor. We're in America. I think our health care rocks. So if we have access to Rx that will help - GO GET IT! So in lieu of this issue our Mexican Riviera cruise has now been changed to the Pacific Northwest. Are we going to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta? NO! We are now going to San Francisco, Seattle and Victoria BC! WE HAVE BEEN TO ALL THOSE PLACES A COUPLE OF TIMES. Unfortunately we don't want to change it because it will cost us more money for a different cruise not to mention changing our flight plans. I guess the upside is since we have visited these places we know our way around, what to see and do and know the transportation so we don't need to pay the cruiseline for our shore excursions. And maybe the upside is we can get Steve/Claudia to hang out with us for a day in Seattle.
Mike and I went to see Phantom of The Opera last night. This is probably my 4th or 5th time seeing it. It is SO awesome. And the best part was our seats. When I bought our tickets several months ago it didn't click with me but we couldn't have done any better. We were CENTER ORCHESTRA FRONT ROW! The only other time I have gotten tickets that good were 4th row seats for Neil Diamond. What a wonderful play it is. I highly recommend it to anyone.
OK. I spent two hours in the kitchen, brought out the china, the silverware, the crystal, we ate in the formal dining room and this is the result.
I made Flag Chicken from the Rachel Ray show per request from Mike. I thought it looked pretty good. Its chicken breasts, fresh basil, fresh parsley, boison herb cheese, EVOO, tomatoes and fresh parmesean. I added balsamic vinegar on my own.
The annual family pic.
I didn't get one "thank you mama for making this Easter fun" or "great meal mama."
Ungrateful buggers.
We are so proud of our Haylie. We received a letter from the Olathe School District. It said that her artwork has been selected to be displayed at the Instructional Resource Center for the school district. Hundreds of people will be able to enjoy it. Way to go Haylie.
