Family Time!

We had a fun time in April because nearly ALL of the kids were gathered together. We were only missing Damian and Casey, so that wasn't too bad. Katie was here for a baby shower and it happened to be Lexi's birthday that weekend, too! It was a fun time. Here's a group just gathered in the living room hangin' out.




Katie felt like she needed to ELEVATE. Probably a good idea.










Guess what Caroline learned to do that weekend? Ride without training wheels! You can certainly see how pleased she is with her new skill!













Caroline also has excellent READING skills, demonstrated here as she reads to Lexi. She really reads, too. She just finished Kindergarten.





My family is kind of weird in that they can't be satisfied with just spraying an ant nest with poison and letting them die. Noooo, they have to set them aflame, too! Weird. It's not just Mike, however. Notice how Katie is there, recording it on film. It's not like you could hear them (the ants) screaming or anything. But it IS a tad morbid, if you ask me.




PLAY BALL! In the afternoon, the back yard is a great place to try out a new baseball and bat, especially with Katie there to pitch the balls.


Lexi





Caroline






Braeden. You gotta watch out when that kid gets a bat in his hand. He can really WHACK it!







So cute. But duck. Really. He hits HARD.

Katie's Baby Shower

Katie made the long Drive to Cedar City in April for her Baby Shower! Casey wasn't able to get time off of work, so Kate brought a friend to help drive and keep her company, Ellie.
Here's the cute Diaper cake Gail created for the shower (and for Katie's use after)







Decorations by Gail. Food by Gail.







And here's Gail! And Katie.













Katie with her Grandma Liebhardt.










Me with Ella and Gail, enjoying the refreshments.






The reason for the baby shower. Wow. She's about due!










Katie opening a gift from her mother-in-law, Michelle Rossman, on left. (Ellie is between Katie and Michelle). Katie's sister-in-law, Kaysha, is next to Michelle.







Opening gifts.







Tandy with Ella.

Nick and Eric's Trip to Reno

Nick and Eric traveled to Reno, Nevada to visit Katie and Casey. They went at Easter time.


This truly is America's Loneliest Highway. Really. Look it up on the Map. It's in OUR atlas. Reno is about a 9 hour drive from our house. "Crazy" to quote Nick. And anyone else who has driven this stretch of road.

There are a FEW things to see and do along the way, however. Not spectacular things, mind you. But you must remember that we are easily entertained.

One thing is a stretch of white dirt with black rocks. Messages are written. So, of course, they stopped to write THEIR message. Not very original, but effective nevertheless.



This is Nick. You can see that they are still out in the middle of no where. Oh, enough civilization that they were able to have car trouble and get a belt replaced in one little town. That was a miracle --that it happened in a town and not out here.



Eric









Katie and Casey and their silly doggies and the boys. Kind of like Dog-Pile, the game, but not exactly. ;-)

The other interesting thing that is quite famous to travellers of this highway is "The Shoe Tree." Just a lonely cottonwood out in the middle of nowhere (seems rather redundant, no?) and people have slung shoes by the hundreds into the branches. It's, um, unusual. . .?












Those are just some of the sights they saw.


This is Eric's Passenger Face and that is Nick's Driver's face. Who looks more scared?

They really took a lot more pictures and they have them posted on their Facebook page if you are interested. IF you can find them. Supposedly it's easy, but not for me!

Lexi Turns Five!

April 27, 2008 was Lexi's fifth birthday! Hooray for Lexi! She was princess for the day, complete with scepter and crown. Well, at least a wand and a tiara. She was really more interested in playing with cousins that standing still for silly pictures. Note the look on Ella's face as she gazes up to her big sister. ;-)



And of course, there were presents. I am trying to help Lexi read one of her cards in this picture.


We spent the afternoon with the family out at Grandma Pam's house in Kanarraville, where we had dinner, ice cream cake and lots of fun and games in the back yard.

Here's a cute shot of Seth and Braeden enjoying their cake and ice cream in the gazebo.



The swings were the most fun. Here's Lexi, Caroline and the rest of the kids










Gail took the cute shot of baby Ella enjoying her first ride in the swing. She's so smiley!

The boys had a nice time just relaxing in the warm sun. Quite a contrast from a month later (today) when it's snowing on the mountain and we're covering our tomato plants to keep them from freezing! brrr But April 27 was VERY nice!




Every body get Braeden!



The trouble is, Braeden can get you BACK, Uncle Eric!! Ha HA!

Field Trip

April 18 and 19 I chaperoned Eric's High School Orchestra field trip to Provo and Salt Lake. We went to a workshop at BYU and those kids were treated to a really cool session of instructions from a well-known conductor (Kory Katseanas), then they watched a rehearsal. Went to a Mall in SLC, ate out, attended the Utah Symphony concert in Abravanel hall on Friday evening.

And the fun stuff started the next day when we went to LAGOON! It's a theme park in Farmington, Utah. I hadn't been in years, and there were new roller coasters. So we rode and rode and rode. There were no crowds, so we could just walk right on the rides some of the time. THAT was fun. I don't have pictures of roller coasters, but I have a few shots of Eric and his friends. I also don't have a picture of us AFTER we rode the wettest ride in the park. I don't have a record of me looking like a drowned rat because on the "Cliff Hanger" I got water in my ears, up my nose. . .I may as well have gone swimming! I went into a bathroom and RUNG OUT all my clothing over the toilet. Honest-- ALL my clothing. It was ridiculous. Eric apologized all over for making me ride it with him. "I'm so sorry, Mom!" he kept screaming through the streams of water running down his face on the ride. ha. Yeah, well. We dried eventually.



Eric and I still love roller coasters, and since they go fast, they helped us dry off. The air quality left much to be desired. On our drive home along the Wasatch front, we could not see the mountains at all through all the dust and particles in the air. It was way windy and way bad air quality. Mostly just dust. We were so gritty. The air cleared up in the central part of the state. But driving along the freeway and NOT being able to see mountains is really weird. That might be the case during a snow storm, but this was not snow or anything wet--just dry dust and guck blowing through the valleys.




And we were exhausted when we got home. But a fun time was had by all. Eric even had enough energy to attend the Junior Prom at his school that night! He left Lagoon a little earlier than the rest of us and got home in time for that. I stayed and rode the bus home with the rest of the chaperones. It was a bus full of some really nice kids.



Show us your wettest side! And we thought we looked wet after riding "Rattle Snake Rapids." I don't think so! Can you tell I was trying hard to take a quick pix of the 8 of us in the raft before things started getting wet so I could my camera quickly away in my purse. This was before the Cliff Hanger fiasco.