Graham's School Pictures

I love his "ham face!!"  I can only imagine they told him to "say cheese".... and this is what they got.

But I love it!! 

What to Write About???

The last couple of days I have been thinking how neglected our blog has been the last couple months. I was thinking of all the things that have happened and what I should write about...

Well, this morning a "Blog Worthy" event happened....

Let me start at the beginning.

Peter had dropped off Dakota and I had asked Graham to go up and get the Legos I had built for the boys to play with yesterday.

I then went downstairs to go to the bathroom.

I heard Graham crying... really hard.

My first thought, "great the boys are already fighting over the toys."

Graham then comes downstairs and his face is all bloody!

He proceeded to tell me he fell down the stairs and got hurt. I carried him to the kitchen and grabbed a clean towel and held it to his chin; which now had a lovely split in it and was bleeding all over the place. (at which point Dakota told me that Graham was hurt and that his Legos broke... which was pretty funny!)

For a split second I thought "Maybe I can butterfly bandage this." But I knew it needed stitches.

I quickly put on my shoes and coat, put on Graham's coat and put both boys in the car.

Tommy met us at Parker Adventist Hospital. That comforted Graham to have his daddy there, Tommy took Graham and checked him in.

Well, long story short.... we are home, Graham is doing great.

Right before they stitched up his chin (yes, he was still in his jammies!)

They put numbing gel on a cotton swab and "taped" it to his head...

Graham and Dakota watching Beauty and the Beast waiting for his chin to numb and for the Doctor to come in.
They were both such good sports and Graham was such a trooper!
At one point he said "it's ok, I'm tough. I'm tough"

The staff gave them each a Beanie Baby and a Book... that definitely made the entire experience easier! Gotta love Parker Adventist!!



I will never say I have
nothing to blog about again!!

Shopping Cart

So, today my family got together to celebrate my moms birthday... which is actually on Tuesday.
For her birthday she asked us to make a "mixed tape" of songs that reminded us of her. Well, that got us reminscing of all the songs we listened to on family road trips. Many songs were from Barry Manilow... at the copa copa cabana... Billy Joel... uptown girl... and so on. Of coarse as we got older the music changed, as my parents allowed us to control the radio a little more.

My aunt Amy had made me a tape of Ace of Base... I mean who doesn't love "I Saw the Sign" or "All That She Wants"??? I mean really?!! *and when we listened to it on family trips my dad would do this wierd, rave like hand/arm dance thing while driving - pretty dang funny to watch!!-... it became the "Dad needs a pick me up to drive" music) Anyway, she left a little suprise song at the end that I guess she thought I would like... here it is



It just makes me laugh! I used to have the entire song memorized... ok, I still do... got a problem with that?

How Do You Work Out???

One of the funniest things happened yesterday!

Imagine if you will...

You are sitting at your desk doing some work on the computer...

WHEN...

Your son comes up the stairs to surprise you...

BUT...

You see that he has pulled his t-shirt over his head but left his arms in...

AND...

You tell him he is silly and he starts to laugh.

SO...

You go back to work...

THEN...

A piece of clothing is flung at your head and falls to your lap...

SO...

You look down and find the article is not the shirt you were expecting it to be...

BUT...

Your son's underwear instead...

THEN...

From behind you, you hear a noise...

AND...

You turn to see what it is.

THEN...

You see your son COMPLETELY naked, working out on the elliptical!

SO...

How do you work out???

True Story!

I took pictures...

BUT...

I don't want my son naked on the internet...

BUT...

They. Are. HIL-AR-I-OUS!

Family Reunion at Gilbert Ranch

In June all of Tommy's family got together at a ranch in central Nevada. I was thinking it would be pretty desolate there, but it was actually quite beautiful.

We first drove to Las Vegas and on the way there, instead of going I-70 to I-15 we decided to take a detour.

It did make our trip about an 1.5 hours longer (so it was 12.5 hours) but it sure was pretty... I think it is actually worth the extra time!

We drove through Zions National Park and it started pouring... and I mean POURING rain!

Below is a pic I took through the windshield. Do you see the waterfall? Well, that is not usually there... that is how hard it was raining!!!

Here is the barn at Gilbert Ranch in Nevada. It had a huge living area and a table that actually fit all of Tommy's family!

Here are the four bedrooms in the barn. Tommy's 3 sisters and 1 brother stayed in the barn.

Beautiful huh? We were really roughin' it!

This is the house that we stayed in with one of Tommy's sisters.

It was nice having some private space away from everyone, although I constantly

had bad dreams of Graham waking up in the middle of the night and

going out in the pond... it was really terrifying! I actually ended up sleeping on

the sofa by the kids.

This was our room

And this was our view

Graham and his cousin Drew at the chicken coop. Graham loved those chickens! He even went inside and collected eggs!

Tera, Tommy's sister, put together some crafts for the kids to do:

Decorating Visors

Tie-Dye T-Shirts

Graham was not really interested in crafts

Him and his cousin Drew played with a remote control 'digger' instead.

This is us on the little fishing boat, taking a little drive around the pond

Our niece, Rory, got in and we went for another spin.

Graham kept wanting to touch the water, so he would lean over - while holding my hand, of coarse! - and I would lean over the other way to balance.

There were rainbow trout in the pond and occasionally we would see them surface

There were probably 5 or 6 four wheelers, so Tommy and I went for a drive up

a steep path just north of the ranch.

This is a pic of us at the top of the trail

The view at the top of the trail... that is the side the ranch was on

It was so beautiful up there!

Who would have thought this was Nevada?!

The view from the other side of the trail. We followed the trail down this side

for a little bit before heading back.

Some of Tommy's family that had gone on this trail later that day, had an

encounter with a deer. It pretty much jumped OVER one of them on their 4-wheeler.

Pretty crazy!

Before dinner that first night, we went shooting. It was actually a lot of fun! I have shot

rifles before but never a hand gun. I thought the hand gun was WAY more fun!!!

I shot a 9mm and 22. The picture is of the 9mm.

I really liked the 22 because there was no kick back... but I could do a 9mm again

I'm pretty patriotic, huh?!

This is Tommy shooting the 9mm. He is a really good shot, so watch your back!

The next day we shot rifles. But we didnt' get any pictures of that. The one below is the

one I shot, an AR-15

This one Tommy shot, a 50 caliber rifle.

Let me just say... HOLY COW!!! That was a big gun!

Tommy's brother, Trent, was the first to shoot it (without any warning, I might add)

and the sound was absolutely deafening! You could actually feel the pressure

of the gun firing and I was like 3 feet away.

We had a really fun filled day and I am so grateful for Tommy's family and that we could spend time with them... and one of the greatest things is there was zero cell reception

and no internet. It truly was a getaway! Hopefully we can do it again!

Gilbert Ranch... The cold day

The second day we were at the ranch it was pretty cold, especially since we weren't really prepared for cold weather. It was rainy most of the day and maybe 50 degrees. Most of us spent the day inside the barn eating, playing Rock Band or hanging out.

Tommy's sisters had planned a treasure hunt for the kids, so once it stopped raining it began.

Everyone piled into the four wheelers to the first clue.

At the first clue, the rip line by the pond.

Off to another clue

Graham holding one of the clues... obviously more interested in the chickens

The last clue was at the chicken coop. They had to walk 100 paces toward the forest.
They look so cute lined up!

Here they come, out of the mountains with their treasure. There was a bag for each kid with goodies inside. They were so excited about their treasures!

Rock Band had been on all day, and needless to say, the adults needed a little break. We turned on a movie for the kids, and this was Graham's seat of choice... yes, under the coffee table. Don't ask me!

Gilbert Ranch Family Pictures

Tommy is one of six children in his family; all the sisters still live in Las Vegas and all the brothers have moved away. We live in CO (obviously), Trent lives in Seattle, and Tyler lives in Albany OR. So needless to say it is hard to get everyone together. They haven't all been together since Tommy's mom passed away 6.5 years ago. We had to have good documentation.... and the family has grown so much since then... 10 more grandkids and 1 more on the way

Tommy, Trent, Tyler, Jim Bob, Cherie, Traci, Tate, Tera

Yes, they all have "T" names, and no, we are not following that tradition

Papa and Nana with all the grandkids:

Front Row: Tricia, Jaxson, Hannah, Drew, Graham, Bryan. Middle Row: Baby Samantha, Jordyn, Papa, Rory, Nana, Payten, Parker, Rilee, Maddie. Back Row: Sydney, Harrison

The entire family in front of the barn

The family looking down at the pond

We are grateful to have such wonderful families that get along so well. When we left, I told Tommy that this vacation really made me miss being so close to his family. We have already planned to meet up with two of his sisters and their families in August in San Diego. SO excited for that!

Gilbert Ranch Last Day

The last day we were at the ranch was Father's Day. We had a nice big breakfast then started packing and cleaning. Once we were done all the kids that wanted to ride the horses got to (including me!)

Graham had been obsessed with the horses the entire time we were there, he even fed them! I was really happy to see that he wasn't afraid of them.

Jordyn (w/ glasses), Rilee (pink hat), Sydney, Graham, and Uncle Jeca

Jordyn and Graham

The first round of rides

Jordyn and Graham again. Jordyn is such a great cousin!

Me and Madelyn taking our turn. Madelyn is such an animal lover! It was so fun to see how she interacted with all the animals on the ranch... which is a lot!

Rilee, Bryan, and Maddie.... The girls were pretending to pour Coke on Bryan.

They thought it was so funny and asked me to snap a pic

Picture from the Barn looking down at the pond

While packing up we put most of the little kids in the truck bed so we could get stuff done. They all stayed put, all we had to do was give them "loaded" water guns.

Drew and Graham.... are they related or what?!?!

We had such a fun time at the ranch and are hoping that we can all get together there every other year or so.