Monday, June 30, 2008
Our Kids Love Smores
Our kids are having a lot of fun cooking outside. Smores are a favorite, thought I'd share the pics!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Bike Wreck!
Lori is certainly paying her mountain biking dues. I wanted to embellish this story to include “table topping” a Volkswagen, ditching the cops, and a grand finale involving Mt. Timpanogos temple security and an inconveniently-located dumpster.
I was told that if I was going to write anything, it had to be the truth, so here goes. . .
We (the whole family) decided to ride our bikes to Grandpa and Grandma Stevens' house in Alpine for Grandma Retta's birthday. For the sake of the younger members of our family (insolent whiners!), we drove the truck to Lone Peak High School and unloaded the bikes, cutting about 2.5 miles off the trip.
Our travel plans had Stockton, Lori, and Earl riding non-stop to Alpine, with Sawyer and Annika switching off at the halfway point. Lori bought this brightly-colored trailer setup for Sophie, and Annika and Sawyer took turns riding with Sophie.
I got the honor of being the pack animal for the trip. I've seen ladies in our neighborhood pulling these trailers around, so I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Well, it feels like you're towing one of those fat Wal-Mart security guys back to the golf cart recharging depot. With that in mind, it was 95 degrees, and uphill all the way to Alpine.
OK, so I can handle the physical abuse - - it's the mental abuse and male ego-bruising that was the most painful. Annika's constant commentary from the back was mind numbing: “Why are you going so slow?” and “Why are you breathing so hard?”. I looked back once to respond to one of her questions and saw, for the first time, the spectacle of our journey. It looked like a gay Mardi Gras parade: Rainbow colors, loud squawking, garish costumes. . .yes, the stares were long and frequent.
Anyway, the journey went as expected. Annika and Sawyer each whined the entire time their feet were on the pedals. Stockton and Lori performed admirably, and we all eventually made it to Alpine.
After celebrating with Grandma Retta, Lori and Stockton volunteered to ride back down to the high school to get the truck (no way we were going to get the whiny little ones to ride back). Ten minutes later, Stockton came running back in the house shouting “Mom biffed it!”. We found mom in the bathroom nursing her wounds. She had moved off the sidewalk to avoid a trailer parked in the way. When she tried to merge back on the sidewalk, there was a disagreement of some sort between her tire and the curb. I opened the bathroom door to find Lori nursing some nice road rash.
Lori's face and knee received some TLC from the sidewalk. Luckily, she was wearing a helmet, otherwise we'd be talking about more than road rash. Stockton later said that he saw mom “just laying there” on the sidewalk, and that he was really scared. A driver saw the event and stopped to offer help, which was nice. Anyway, we were all scared there for a bit, but the damage is temporary and cosmetic. The nasty chin abrasion is healing fast (no, I do not point at her and yell “leper” in public places). The big knee bruise/abrasion will take a little longer to go away, but it will also heal.
I thought Lori would be a little gun shy after the wreck, but she climbed back on the bike two nights later for another family bike parade up Provo Canyon. A big shout-out to my trail-warrior wife!
I was told that if I was going to write anything, it had to be the truth, so here goes. . .
We (the whole family) decided to ride our bikes to Grandpa and Grandma Stevens' house in Alpine for Grandma Retta's birthday. For the sake of the younger members of our family (insolent whiners!), we drove the truck to Lone Peak High School and unloaded the bikes, cutting about 2.5 miles off the trip.
Our travel plans had Stockton, Lori, and Earl riding non-stop to Alpine, with Sawyer and Annika switching off at the halfway point. Lori bought this brightly-colored trailer setup for Sophie, and Annika and Sawyer took turns riding with Sophie.
I got the honor of being the pack animal for the trip. I've seen ladies in our neighborhood pulling these trailers around, so I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Well, it feels like you're towing one of those fat Wal-Mart security guys back to the golf cart recharging depot. With that in mind, it was 95 degrees, and uphill all the way to Alpine.
OK, so I can handle the physical abuse - - it's the mental abuse and male ego-bruising that was the most painful. Annika's constant commentary from the back was mind numbing: “Why are you going so slow?” and “Why are you breathing so hard?”. I looked back once to respond to one of her questions and saw, for the first time, the spectacle of our journey. It looked like a gay Mardi Gras parade: Rainbow colors, loud squawking, garish costumes. . .yes, the stares were long and frequent.
Anyway, the journey went as expected. Annika and Sawyer each whined the entire time their feet were on the pedals. Stockton and Lori performed admirably, and we all eventually made it to Alpine.
After celebrating with Grandma Retta, Lori and Stockton volunteered to ride back down to the high school to get the truck (no way we were going to get the whiny little ones to ride back). Ten minutes later, Stockton came running back in the house shouting “Mom biffed it!”. We found mom in the bathroom nursing her wounds. She had moved off the sidewalk to avoid a trailer parked in the way. When she tried to merge back on the sidewalk, there was a disagreement of some sort between her tire and the curb. I opened the bathroom door to find Lori nursing some nice road rash.
Lori's face and knee received some TLC from the sidewalk. Luckily, she was wearing a helmet, otherwise we'd be talking about more than road rash. Stockton later said that he saw mom “just laying there” on the sidewalk, and that he was really scared. A driver saw the event and stopped to offer help, which was nice. Anyway, we were all scared there for a bit, but the damage is temporary and cosmetic. The nasty chin abrasion is healing fast (no, I do not point at her and yell “leper” in public places). The big knee bruise/abrasion will take a little longer to go away, but it will also heal.
I thought Lori would be a little gun shy after the wreck, but she climbed back on the bike two nights later for another family bike parade up Provo Canyon. A big shout-out to my trail-warrior wife!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Cascade Springs
Grandpa and Grandma came to visit us this week and we had lots of fun. We went for a drive up American Fork canyon and then onto Cascade Springs. The canyon is really beautiful right now, since we had lots of snow this year. We hiked around a little and looked at the fish. We also saw two cool waterfalls on the backside of Mt. Timp. Hopefully, we didn't wear the grandparents out and they'll come see us again soon.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Lori's five-floor pagoda of birthday fun
Oh yeah, she got the VIP treatment this year. Our June two zero included three out of the following five amazing activities:
1. All-night dancing, and Patron/Henny shots at Skybar (are those still the high-end liquors of choice? Probably not if a white guy from Utah knows about them).
2. Fondue adventure at the Melting Pot in SLC. No burns, spills, or bum attacks at the ATM!
3. No kids for 24 hours (thanks Grandma 'Retta! We owe you a night on the town a la #1 above)
4. Full Mexican dinner immediately followed by a romantic off-road jeep excursion at the Saaaand Dunes.
5. Lori's maiden mountain bike voyage: 1,000 vertical-foot climb in 1.5 miles. She conquered the 3-mile loop like a champ, with minimal whining about the heat, caterpillar attacks, my map-reading skills, and two flat tires.
OK, so I had fun on her birthday. . .I've yet to get much feedback from Lori -- she's still a bit groggy from the Henny -- but at the barely-legal age of 34, she'll bounce back.
1. All-night dancing, and Patron/Henny shots at Skybar (are those still the high-end liquors of choice? Probably not if a white guy from Utah knows about them).
2. Fondue adventure at the Melting Pot in SLC. No burns, spills, or bum attacks at the ATM!
3. No kids for 24 hours (thanks Grandma 'Retta! We owe you a night on the town a la #1 above)
4. Full Mexican dinner immediately followed by a romantic off-road jeep excursion at the Saaaand Dunes.
5. Lori's maiden mountain bike voyage: 1,000 vertical-foot climb in 1.5 miles. She conquered the 3-mile loop like a champ, with minimal whining about the heat, caterpillar attacks, my map-reading skills, and two flat tires.
OK, so I had fun on her birthday. . .I've yet to get much feedback from Lori -- she's still a bit groggy from the Henny -- but at the barely-legal age of 34, she'll bounce back.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Happy Father's Day!
We hope you all had a nice Father's Day. We had a fun weekend at our house. Earl built a fire pit on Saturday. These are standard equipment in a Utah yard, gotta have somewhere to roast marshmallows and cook Dutch oven. I'm going to enroll Earl in Dutch oven cooking classes to get back at him for the cyberbulling post. In case any of you don't know Earl well enough... the whole cyberbullying thing is his creation. Anyway, the fire pit is half done, we are going to add a paver patio around it. Hopefully, we will also have some grass soon.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Annika
Hi my name is Annika. And I love stuff like babies, parks and friends. and the thing I do best is play, do chores.and I hope you like this blog bye!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sophie Sprouted Pigtails
I have been toying with the idea of cutting Sophie's hair for the last few days. She has super fine wispy hair and it is all different lengths. Earl suggested I try pigtails so she would look more girlie. I gave it a try this morning and here are the results! She looks cute, but I still think her hair may grow better if I take her for a trim. The kids call her pigtails (Yoda ears)!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Stockton's LEGO blog
Hi, I'm stockton. I started this blog for you to see my LEGO creations. My favorite things to build are robots and spaceships, mostly from Star Wars.But you will see many other creations also.so come see my new LEGO models!!
Hello Everyone
The kids and I have decided to start this blog as one of our summer projects. We have been checking out our friends' and family blogs. You all are doing a great job, you've inspired us! I also think this may be a fantastic way to occupy some of Stockton's immense free time. I hope you all look forward to his posts.
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