Only those of you with Google Reader will probably read this post, since I started it nearly two weeks ago and am just now finishing it. Oh well, at least I'll have it in my personal records!
Believe it or not, besides closing her eyes when asked to smile, Clara does a LOT of other funny things. It's amazing (and sad) how quickly things in my mind go forgotten if they aren't recorded.
The other night we were having family prayer and after it started, with her arms folded, she reached up and tapped Jason's forehead. I told Clara to close her eyes. She did, for a second, then opened them up. I gently put my hand over her eyes to try to help her understand we keep our eyes closed the entire prayer. After a few seconds, I removed my hand and her eyes obviously stayed open. I told her again to close her eyes, so she put her hands over her eyes.
While Clara was eating her mac & cheese, she decided she just couldn't shovel the food in her mouth with her spoon quick enough. So she attempted to dump the bowl in her mouth. Seeing that wouldn't work either (she was cautious) she set the bowl down and began grabbing fistfuls of her orange dinner and shoving them in her mouth.
I was sitting on the couch talking on the phone and Clara, sat right next to me "talking" on her phone. She started talking faster and then would bob her head and then laugh really loud as she threw her head forward. Hopefully I'm not that animated when I talk on the phone...
Recently Clara has decided it's really fun to "honk" my nose. Fortunately for me, she's fairly gentle when she does it.
I'm not sure if Clara is attempting to be a baby again, or a dog, but she thinks she's hilarious when she crawls all over. And to her, she's even funnier if she puts her head on the ground as she does it. One morning she even crawled into my closet and buried her head under the pile of clothes.
At Scouts, when we do the Promise, you are supposed to raise your right hand up with your hand making the peace sign. Well, Clara does it along with us using just one finger. She also does this while we say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Last night, 7.26.08, at the restaurant we ate at, Clara was totally ornery. When I tried to make her eat some chicken off a plate before getting more fries, she shoved the plate away. Then today (7.27.08) after not getting a nap, she was off the wall. One second she was crying and the next she was laughing on the ground. She threw her baby on the ground, pranced around like she was hopped on sugar, she turned on the TV and when I told her to turn it off because we don't watch TV on Sunday, she laid face down on the floor and threw her head up and down and kicked and screamed until she realized I wasn't going to leave the TV on. She also walked around shrugging her shoulders and had us laughing our heads off all afternoon and into the evening.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Opportunities
Before we went to Organ Stop Pizza with Lily Thursday, we went to Kathryn's. Amy, Kathryn and I wrote a statement for the November ballot stating our opinion of the importance of amending the Arizona Constitution to state the that in Arizona, "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state." Kathryn's friend and her husband have put forth much time and effort to get others to take action, so Kathryn asked us to do this with her. We wrote a short and sweet statement that we felt really made some good points. Doing this got me thinking about all the issues like this. So often I think, Oh, let someone who knows what they're doing take care of it. Or, It's not my responsibility. Or even, What do I have to offer? And then I remember something I once heard, "If not you, then who; if not now, then when." I realized that if everyone had the same attitude as me, society could be worse off than it is now. So thank you to Marily (Kathryn's friend) and her husband and Kathryn for giving me the opportunity to realize the importance of being involved. Hopefully, this wasn't the last time I attempt to get my voice out there.
I had the opportunity to do fun things this weekend. Friday night I played Bunco with Beka and then Jason and I watched Dan in Real Life. I heard it was good, but I really liked it. I don't want to say it was super good, because then it might find you disappointed. I was a little sleepy through it, but I don't remember there being much language (it was PG-13, so it wasn't exempt from it, but it was pretty clean) and I don't recall any scenes that made me feel awkward. Plus, the music was really great. Saturday afternoon I played Bunco again, with my new Bunco group. It was fun seeing and visiting with people from high school that I haven't seen since high school.
Saturday afternoon Lily had a syncro swim meet. By the way, her and her partner got 2nd. Yeah Lily! Before going, I called the 1st Counselor in our Bishopric to see who was speaking in Sacrament. Long story short, there was only one speaker. The 2nd, had fallen through the cracks (not literally). The poor 1st Counselor sounded devastated. So I did what anyone would do (right?), I volunteered to speak. I actually have been secretly wanting to speak in Sacrament for quite some time. For the 20 months or so I've been doing the bulletin, I've been waiting for them to tell me I'm the lucky winner.
There are a few reasons I was wanting to speak. First, I have only spoke once in this ward and it was a disaster. Well, whenever I speak, it usually ends up as a disaster. I have all these great thoughts in my head, they never come out the right way, I cry because I'm nervous, then I cry because I'm crying and then I squeak through the rest of my talk, sniffling obnoxiously into the microphone. In a way, I wanted to see if I would ever be able to overcome this. And the only way to know is to speak. I also just love preparing for a talk. I get to read so many powerful quotes, ponder wonderful scriptures and feel the promptings of the Spirit.
Anyway, when I told Bro. Bevell I'd speak, I'm pretty sure he didn't think I was serious. I was and I was excited for the opportunity to serve. After all, I've been asking for lots of blessings lately and clearly I needed to have the opportunity to do certain things so that the desires of my heart would be granted (Kathryn, when can I watch your girls? :)). Sometimes we have to be willing to make our sacrifices BEFORE we are granted our blessings. Plus, I usually work Saturday night, but for some reason I had energy and motivation to get my stuff done Friday during Clara's nap (trust me, it is very rare for me to work Friday afternoon unless I absolutely have to). What else was I going to do?
Back to the talk (yes, it gets better). Saturday evening I had my topic and spent a few hours gathering quotes, scriptures and trying to determine an outline for my talk. Nothing was coming. Normally if I have a topic I can go on for ever. I started getting sleepy and I decided to "rest". Ha ha, yeah right. I fell asleep, Jason carried me to bed and I woke up at 7am with almost nothing ready. At 7:45am I received another frantic phone call. My topic was actually what the other speaker had been assigned. I got my new topic and at first, I was like, this isn't even a "real" talk. There seemed to be very little doctrinal substance, more of reminiscing about history and bearing a testimony. But I prayed and imagine that, everything all of a sudden came together. It was a true testimony of how the Spirit can guide your preparation for such a thing.
We got to church about 2 minutes before it started, but only because Jason helped me so much. He made me breakfast in bed, watched Clara all morning and got her and her bag all ready for Church. Oh, he put her down for a nap and copied the bulletin too. I was a little embarrassed when Bro. Bevell relayed this story to the congregation because I saw it as a way to show the Lord that I will continue to do the things He's asked as he blesses us with the things we need. The opportunity was a blessing for me, not just an attempt to ease the apparent burden this put on Bro. Bevell.
Anyway, the deliverance of my talk was great. I didn't cry once (not that it's bad to cry in a talk, but when I do, it's more because of nervousness, not the feelings of the Spirit, so it's embarrassing). That may be because I read my whole talk (I had a good excuse not to memorize it), but either way, I felt like my talk, for the first time in my life, went well.
And had I known Bro. Bevell was going to mention the situation, I would've shared the top 5 reasons it's good to find out on Saturday night you're speaking in Church:
5. I wasn't worried about preparing a talk during the week
4. No time to get nervous
3. Who starts preparing before Saturday night anyway?
2. I got breakfast in bed
1. With little time to prepare, there was no time to memorize so I was justified in reading my talk, word for word. :)
I had the opportunity to do fun things this weekend. Friday night I played Bunco with Beka and then Jason and I watched Dan in Real Life. I heard it was good, but I really liked it. I don't want to say it was super good, because then it might find you disappointed. I was a little sleepy through it, but I don't remember there being much language (it was PG-13, so it wasn't exempt from it, but it was pretty clean) and I don't recall any scenes that made me feel awkward. Plus, the music was really great. Saturday afternoon I played Bunco again, with my new Bunco group. It was fun seeing and visiting with people from high school that I haven't seen since high school.
Saturday afternoon Lily had a syncro swim meet. By the way, her and her partner got 2nd. Yeah Lily! Before going, I called the 1st Counselor in our Bishopric to see who was speaking in Sacrament. Long story short, there was only one speaker. The 2nd, had fallen through the cracks (not literally). The poor 1st Counselor sounded devastated. So I did what anyone would do (right?), I volunteered to speak. I actually have been secretly wanting to speak in Sacrament for quite some time. For the 20 months or so I've been doing the bulletin, I've been waiting for them to tell me I'm the lucky winner.
There are a few reasons I was wanting to speak. First, I have only spoke once in this ward and it was a disaster. Well, whenever I speak, it usually ends up as a disaster. I have all these great thoughts in my head, they never come out the right way, I cry because I'm nervous, then I cry because I'm crying and then I squeak through the rest of my talk, sniffling obnoxiously into the microphone. In a way, I wanted to see if I would ever be able to overcome this. And the only way to know is to speak. I also just love preparing for a talk. I get to read so many powerful quotes, ponder wonderful scriptures and feel the promptings of the Spirit.
Anyway, when I told Bro. Bevell I'd speak, I'm pretty sure he didn't think I was serious. I was and I was excited for the opportunity to serve. After all, I've been asking for lots of blessings lately and clearly I needed to have the opportunity to do certain things so that the desires of my heart would be granted (Kathryn, when can I watch your girls? :)). Sometimes we have to be willing to make our sacrifices BEFORE we are granted our blessings. Plus, I usually work Saturday night, but for some reason I had energy and motivation to get my stuff done Friday during Clara's nap (trust me, it is very rare for me to work Friday afternoon unless I absolutely have to). What else was I going to do?
Back to the talk (yes, it gets better). Saturday evening I had my topic and spent a few hours gathering quotes, scriptures and trying to determine an outline for my talk. Nothing was coming. Normally if I have a topic I can go on for ever. I started getting sleepy and I decided to "rest". Ha ha, yeah right. I fell asleep, Jason carried me to bed and I woke up at 7am with almost nothing ready. At 7:45am I received another frantic phone call. My topic was actually what the other speaker had been assigned. I got my new topic and at first, I was like, this isn't even a "real" talk. There seemed to be very little doctrinal substance, more of reminiscing about history and bearing a testimony. But I prayed and imagine that, everything all of a sudden came together. It was a true testimony of how the Spirit can guide your preparation for such a thing.
We got to church about 2 minutes before it started, but only because Jason helped me so much. He made me breakfast in bed, watched Clara all morning and got her and her bag all ready for Church. Oh, he put her down for a nap and copied the bulletin too. I was a little embarrassed when Bro. Bevell relayed this story to the congregation because I saw it as a way to show the Lord that I will continue to do the things He's asked as he blesses us with the things we need. The opportunity was a blessing for me, not just an attempt to ease the apparent burden this put on Bro. Bevell.
Anyway, the deliverance of my talk was great. I didn't cry once (not that it's bad to cry in a talk, but when I do, it's more because of nervousness, not the feelings of the Spirit, so it's embarrassing). That may be because I read my whole talk (I had a good excuse not to memorize it), but either way, I felt like my talk, for the first time in my life, went well.
And had I known Bro. Bevell was going to mention the situation, I would've shared the top 5 reasons it's good to find out on Saturday night you're speaking in Church:
5. I wasn't worried about preparing a talk during the week
4. No time to get nervous
3. Who starts preparing before Saturday night anyway?
2. I got breakfast in bed
1. With little time to prepare, there was no time to memorize so I was justified in reading my talk, word for word. :)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
100 Years
Civil Engineers are in charge of the drainage in our world. They design for the worst case scenario: the 100 year storm. In other words, they design how to best move water from the worst possible storms which are expected to come around every 100 years. Some government agency created Isopluvial Maps (Jason says maybe the Flood Control District for Maricopa County?) which define what a 100-year storm is for certain areas. Over by us, they are required to design for 2.6" of water within two hours. The storm on Thursday that washed half of Mesa away was about 3" of water in less than an hour. So what is that, a 1,000-year storm? I imagine it was a lot like the thunderstorm in These Is My Words. :)
Anyway, Thursday evening Jason, Daniel and Daniel's friend moved a desk from Ryan's to our house. Jason called asking if it was raining. It wasn't (Lily was over and we went on a walk). My words exactly? "It's not even sprinkling". At 7:02pm, we went inside. By the time they got here with the desk, less than five minutes later, we were in the middle of a torrential down pour. It was awesome! The desk got unloaded without being too wet (the wettest piece was the one in the cab that had to be carried into the garage). Daniel took me to Ryan's and University was full of water. I was amazed, the whole time. I stayed at my mom's for a bit so to avoid some of the craziness on the roads.
On Brown, there was a cop and as I got closer, I realized the road was flooded (one lane in the opposite direction) and water was bubbling up about 3 feet (Jason said it was probably a storm drain). I kept driving and later on, Brown was closed. I thought it might be an accident so I went to cut through a neighborhood and realized the road was flooding and water was gushing into the neighborhood. The rushing water was flush with the curb, it was crazy. I was glad to be in Jason's car which sits a few inches higher than mine.
When I got home I told Jason of my adventures and he, of course, had to go on his own adventure. He wanted to go check out a road nearby his project.
He took TONS of pictures, but these are my favorites.
This is our backyard. You can't tell how deep the water was (Jason said it was about 1.5-2") but I love the ripples from the raindrops.
This is the retention basin by our house. It's not huge, but it's pretty deep. It was totally full and flowing over the curb. Speaking of the curb, you can see the moving water on the road was a good 2" or so deep.
Friday morning, Jason and his "team" from work went to go check out what happened over at the site. I think it is incredible seeing the damage rapidly flowing water can do. Here's the start of the next Grand Canyon.
This is a box culvert (4 barrel 10x3, if you want to get technical like Jason) that is supposed to be a 3' opening. After the storm, it was no more than 2' because there was 6-12" of sediment in it.
Erosion along Ellsworth. Jason said the City graded this wrong which is why the water destroyed the bank and ripped off pieces of the road. It was supposed to go across the road.
And now, before my favorite picture, I have to explain a bit about retention basins. Retention basins are designed to hold all of this water during the 100-year storms. Most neighborhoods have their parks as the basins. This is why a few neighborhoods around here had water in their retention basins higher than benches/tables. That means the drainage is working as it should. Well, on Jason's current project, they designed and the contractor has graded such a retention basin. As Jason and his co-workers were looking at the retention basin, the contractor (not the developer) came up and confronted them saying they better be authorized to be there or leave. Jason said they were and mentioned they worked for the Civil Engineer firm. The contractor said, "Then you guys are responsible for this!" And by this, here is what he was referring to:
That's right. He had all his semis, a pickup, a tractor and a bobcat parked in the retention basin. Jason explained to him that with the basin full of water, it was actually working exactly as it was designed. The guy then went off on the Panama Canal, Canada, Japanese vs. American chains and so forth. He sounded like quite a character. Character or not, I sure hope his engines weren't destroyed (he claimed he had $150k in engine damage). I hope he doesn't think it's a good idea to keep his construction equipment stored in a retention basin in a master planned community, complete or not. I want to get this picture blown up with a caption that says "You think you're having a bad day?"
Anyway, Thursday evening Jason, Daniel and Daniel's friend moved a desk from Ryan's to our house. Jason called asking if it was raining. It wasn't (Lily was over and we went on a walk). My words exactly? "It's not even sprinkling". At 7:02pm, we went inside. By the time they got here with the desk, less than five minutes later, we were in the middle of a torrential down pour. It was awesome! The desk got unloaded without being too wet (the wettest piece was the one in the cab that had to be carried into the garage). Daniel took me to Ryan's and University was full of water. I was amazed, the whole time. I stayed at my mom's for a bit so to avoid some of the craziness on the roads.
On Brown, there was a cop and as I got closer, I realized the road was flooded (one lane in the opposite direction) and water was bubbling up about 3 feet (Jason said it was probably a storm drain). I kept driving and later on, Brown was closed. I thought it might be an accident so I went to cut through a neighborhood and realized the road was flooding and water was gushing into the neighborhood. The rushing water was flush with the curb, it was crazy. I was glad to be in Jason's car which sits a few inches higher than mine.
When I got home I told Jason of my adventures and he, of course, had to go on his own adventure. He wanted to go check out a road nearby his project.
He took TONS of pictures, but these are my favorites.
This is our backyard. You can't tell how deep the water was (Jason said it was about 1.5-2") but I love the ripples from the raindrops.
This is the retention basin by our house. It's not huge, but it's pretty deep. It was totally full and flowing over the curb. Speaking of the curb, you can see the moving water on the road was a good 2" or so deep.
Friday morning, Jason and his "team" from work went to go check out what happened over at the site. I think it is incredible seeing the damage rapidly flowing water can do. Here's the start of the next Grand Canyon. This is a box culvert (4 barrel 10x3, if you want to get technical like Jason) that is supposed to be a 3' opening. After the storm, it was no more than 2' because there was 6-12" of sediment in it.
Erosion along Ellsworth. Jason said the City graded this wrong which is why the water destroyed the bank and ripped off pieces of the road. It was supposed to go across the road.And now, before my favorite picture, I have to explain a bit about retention basins. Retention basins are designed to hold all of this water during the 100-year storms. Most neighborhoods have their parks as the basins. This is why a few neighborhoods around here had water in their retention basins higher than benches/tables. That means the drainage is working as it should. Well, on Jason's current project, they designed and the contractor has graded such a retention basin. As Jason and his co-workers were looking at the retention basin, the contractor (not the developer) came up and confronted them saying they better be authorized to be there or leave. Jason said they were and mentioned they worked for the Civil Engineer firm. The contractor said, "Then you guys are responsible for this!" And by this, here is what he was referring to:That's right. He had all his semis, a pickup, a tractor and a bobcat parked in the retention basin. Jason explained to him that with the basin full of water, it was actually working exactly as it was designed. The guy then went off on the Panama Canal, Canada, Japanese vs. American chains and so forth. He sounded like quite a character. Character or not, I sure hope his engines weren't destroyed (he claimed he had $150k in engine damage). I hope he doesn't think it's a good idea to keep his construction equipment stored in a retention basin in a master planned community, complete or not. I want to get this picture blown up with a caption that says "You think you're having a bad day?"Friday, July 11, 2008
FOF
Five happy thoughts for me...
Fresh {cheap} berries are fantastic, but giant ones, are awesome.
A nice brother and SIL who gave me a smoking deal on a new desk and a nice brother who helped move it.
We went with Lily to Organ Stop Pizza with Lily's piano teacher and her other students. While there, this made me laugh:
Lady: I'll take a picture of the three of you
Me: Okay, thanks.
Camera:
Daughter: Oh, the baby's eyes weren't open
Lady: Okay, I'll take another one
Camera:
Daughter: She did it again
Me: (After realizing what was going on) Oh, right, that's just how she smiles... That face will always make me smile.
Apparently all the picture taking worse the girls out, After about ten minutes in the car, this is what I saw when I looked to see why Lily was so quiet.
Two weeks...
Clara has been waking up in the morning and after her naps just talking away. She rarely cries for me. One afternoon, I went to get her and she didn't want to get out. She talked to me, bounced around, ran back and forth in her crib, blew bubbles in her slobber, made funny faces and just laughed at herself for at least 15 minutes. I just sat and took pictures, responding to her babbling ocassionally. That was a fun afternoon.
Five happy thoughts for Clara...
Riding the "roller coaster" at my mom's. I must say, this thing is pretty cool, and even better than Clara can ride it by herself.
Daddy AND the water bottle (Don't worry, Jason is actually covered in sweat, not water)
Baby spoons, laundry detergent and shoes (I was naive thinking the reason Clara wasn't opening the door while I was putting blankets in my car was because she'd gone and played with her toys).
Being carried in a blanket.
Fake laughing. Oh, it's hilarious. And then when you laugh at her, she tries harder to do it and starts coughing.
Fresh {cheap} berries are fantastic, but giant ones, are awesome.
A nice brother and SIL who gave me a smoking deal on a new desk and a nice brother who helped move it.We went with Lily to Organ Stop Pizza with Lily's piano teacher and her other students. While there, this made me laugh:
Lady: I'll take a picture of the three of you
Me: Okay, thanks.
Camera:
Daughter: Oh, the baby's eyes weren't open
Lady: Okay, I'll take another one
Camera:
Daughter: She did it again
Me: (After realizing what was going on) Oh, right, that's just how she smiles... That face will always make me smile.
Apparently all the picture taking worse the girls out, After about ten minutes in the car, this is what I saw when I looked to see why Lily was so quiet.
Two weeks...
Clara has been waking up in the morning and after her naps just talking away. She rarely cries for me. One afternoon, I went to get her and she didn't want to get out. She talked to me, bounced around, ran back and forth in her crib, blew bubbles in her slobber, made funny faces and just laughed at herself for at least 15 minutes. I just sat and took pictures, responding to her babbling ocassionally. That was a fun afternoon.
Five happy thoughts for Clara...
Riding the "roller coaster" at my mom's. I must say, this thing is pretty cool, and even better than Clara can ride it by herself.
Daddy AND the water bottle (Don't worry, Jason is actually covered in sweat, not water)
Baby spoons, laundry detergent and shoes (I was naive thinking the reason Clara wasn't opening the door while I was putting blankets in my car was because she'd gone and played with her toys).
Being carried in a blanket.
Fake laughing. Oh, it's hilarious. And then when you laugh at her, she tries harder to do it and starts coughing.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sweet
I only had one Scout today so we just had a "fun" day. Scouts is always fun, but today we weren't doing any of our requirements, just fun activities. I figured making and decorating sugar cookies is fun for any gender and any age, so that is what we did. As I was looking for other things to do, somehow I stumbled across this and realized TODAY is National Sugar Cookie Day. Who knew? What are the chances that the planned activity coincided perfectly with a declared holiday?
PS I like decorating sugar cookies nearly as much as I like to eat them.
Random Thoughts, Random Pictures
I love to have homemade pizza and smoothies for dinner. Rachel introduced me to the idea last Summer. Plus, it really is fairly healthy. Garlic crust (sometimes wheat, usually not b/c I don't have any wheat ground right now, ha ha), sauce, cheese (2% mozzarella), pepperoni and onions is healthy, right? My smoothies are really healthy. The only ingredients are frozen strawberries (I buy them when they are super cheap and then freeze them in a Ziploc bag) and the organic Vanilla soy milk from Costco. According to Clara, it's even better when you dip the pizza in the smoothie. She ate most of her pizza this way.
Apparently, just before sunset, my curtains act as a perfect light filter because I was able to get the sweetest pictures of Clara. 
She gets in "lovey" moods and will lay her head on me, hug my hand or whatever else she thinks I'll laugh at. 
Apparently, just before sunset, my curtains act as a perfect light filter because I was able to get the sweetest pictures of Clara. She gets in "lovey" moods and will lay her head on me, hug my hand or whatever else she thinks I'll laugh at. Finally, Clara has learned to hold the phone with no hands so she can multi-task...
I think frogs/toads are cool. These toads (probably from the canal) come hang out in our yard in the Summer at nights. This guy is pretty large.
Free pets that take care of themselves are the best.
Clara has been "jumping" lately. By jumping I mean trying to jump and then usually falling. I was taking pictures and she actually got off the ground 1/2 an inch or so. I got it in picture, which I thought was fun. But then I realized that the lady in the TV in the background has her mouth wide open and her right arm in the air, just like Clara's. Neato.
Free pets that take care of themselves are the best.Now for the coolest picture...
Clara has been "jumping" lately. By jumping I mean trying to jump and then usually falling. I was taking pictures and she actually got off the ground 1/2 an inch or so. I got it in picture, which I thought was fun. But then I realized that the lady in the TV in the background has her mouth wide open and her right arm in the air, just like Clara's. Neato.Monday, July 7, 2008
Blowed
We weren't planning on going anywhere for the holiday weekend, but decided to go up North for Macy's baby blessing. Jason's whole family was up there for the weekend so there was lots going on. Clara had quite the fun weekend and loved that all her uncles seemed to love playing with her. She got her first 4-wheeler ride not long after we got there. She thought it was the best thing ever and screamed when her ride was over.
Since Kevin and Chrystie were staying at Jason's parent's, so was Harley, their dog. Clara loved it and conveniently learned how to say puppy on Thursday. So she would follow the dog everywhere saying "puppy".
Like I said, she got a lot of attention from her uncles...
Saturday night most everyone went to the rodeo. I kind of like rodeos, but we didn't have the clothes for it (we all had shorts and flip flops on and nothing to change in to), I didn't want to pay for it and I didn't think Clara would enjoy it more than five minutes. Instead, Len and Maricel came with us to DQ and to watch the fireworks on the backside of the temple.
Clara was too busy eating ice cream to smile for the camera.
Don't ask me why the fireworks are on Saturday, I guess it's just after the rodeo instead of on the 4th. 
Back at Jason's parent's we were up until 1am watching the boys play this golf ball game. It's actually pretty cool. I never played it, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities at the reunion.
Sunday we got up and went to Springerville for the baby blessing. That morning, as Clara was destroying the lincoln log house, Jason said, "I think Godzilla was a kid". Good point.
Of course Clara has to be sitting by and petting Harley.
Great-grandma Penrod with Macy
After the blessing we had lunch at Lacy and Terell's. They have a huge front yard with a fence around it so we just sat outside and visited while the kids played all afternoon. Actually, I did more picture taking than visiting and annoyed everyone. The weather was beautiful and there was hardly any wind. I told Jason if the weather was always like that, I'd consider getting a cabin up there.
For some reason, I always look so white when I take pictures with Maricel. :) 
Cutest little cowboy.
Clara loved seeing the horses.
She also loved going down the slide all by herself, it was just her size.
We left around 4pm knowing we might have a little traffic. Well, about 8 miles outside of Star Valley, we came to a stop and thought there was an accident. Nope, just a bottle neck; traffic flowed pretty freely the moment the road opened back to two lanes in Star Valley until we got home. It took us 50 minutes to drive those 8 miles. But don't worry, we had LOTS of fun. To pass the time, Clara talked on the phone.
Jason talked on the phone. 
And I took pictures of myself. I even took pictures of myself taking pictures.
Jason told me if I took a picture of a car they were going to think I was crazy. I replied, "Um, I'm pretty sure every person that has driven past and seen me holding my camera out the window already thinks I'm crazy." I discovered some randomly short hairs on the left side of my face. I think my happy hairs/horns have finally decided to grow.
I always wonder what I look like from other perspectives. I see myself at the same angle, the same way every time I look at myself. Which is why I took pictures of myself from below, 
above 
and straight on. 
If you are a lot shorter than me or a lot taller than me, I'm a little uglier from those angles. Next time you look at me, try looking straight on. That's my best angle. Come on, we sat in traffic for way too long, what did you expect?
Since Kevin and Chrystie were staying at Jason's parent's, so was Harley, their dog. Clara loved it and conveniently learned how to say puppy on Thursday. So she would follow the dog everywhere saying "puppy".
Like I said, she got a lot of attention from her uncles...
Saturday night most everyone went to the rodeo. I kind of like rodeos, but we didn't have the clothes for it (we all had shorts and flip flops on and nothing to change in to), I didn't want to pay for it and I didn't think Clara would enjoy it more than five minutes. Instead, Len and Maricel came with us to DQ and to watch the fireworks on the backside of the temple.
Clara was too busy eating ice cream to smile for the camera.
Don't ask me why the fireworks are on Saturday, I guess it's just after the rodeo instead of on the 4th. 
Back at Jason's parent's we were up until 1am watching the boys play this golf ball game. It's actually pretty cool. I never played it, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities at the reunion.
Sunday we got up and went to Springerville for the baby blessing. That morning, as Clara was destroying the lincoln log house, Jason said, "I think Godzilla was a kid". Good point.
Of course Clara has to be sitting by and petting Harley.
Great-grandma Penrod with Macy
After the blessing we had lunch at Lacy and Terell's. They have a huge front yard with a fence around it so we just sat outside and visited while the kids played all afternoon. Actually, I did more picture taking than visiting and annoyed everyone. The weather was beautiful and there was hardly any wind. I told Jason if the weather was always like that, I'd consider getting a cabin up there.Fry bread factory
For some reason, I always look so white when I take pictures with Maricel. :) Cutest little cowboy.
Clara loved seeing the horses.
She also loved going down the slide all by herself, it was just her size.
We left around 4pm knowing we might have a little traffic. Well, about 8 miles outside of Star Valley, we came to a stop and thought there was an accident. Nope, just a bottle neck; traffic flowed pretty freely the moment the road opened back to two lanes in Star Valley until we got home. It took us 50 minutes to drive those 8 miles. But don't worry, we had LOTS of fun. To pass the time, Clara talked on the phone.Jason talked on the phone. And I took pictures of myself. I even took pictures of myself taking pictures.Jason told me if I took a picture of a car they were going to think I was crazy. I replied, "Um, I'm pretty sure every person that has driven past and seen me holding my camera out the window already thinks I'm crazy." I discovered some randomly short hairs on the left side of my face. I think my happy hairs/horns have finally decided to grow.
I always wonder what I look like from other perspectives. I see myself at the same angle, the same way every time I look at myself. Which is why I took pictures of myself from below, above and straight on. If you are a lot shorter than me or a lot taller than me, I'm a little uglier from those angles. Next time you look at me, try looking straight on. That's my best angle. Come on, we sat in traffic for way too long, what did you expect?Jason couldn't figure out why we were behind all these cars. After all, look at those open lanes to the left, why weren't we on those?
Possibly the most laughter during our traffic stop and during our entire trip home revolved around a new word we learned this weekend: blowed. That's right. Blowed. As in, "That car almost hit us. We could have blowed up." Or, "Look, a big storm just blowed in" and "Sitting in traffic blowed." It really simplifies conversations. Instead of having to use the proper tense of blow, just replace with blowed.
I had no intentions of posting this picture. Sometimes, I try to pretend to be cool like Angela. And by cool I mean graphic designer cool, not accountant cool. We all know I don't have to try to be accountant cool. So anyway, back to the picture. Today Angela posted a picture of herself almost just like mine (minus the seat belt and background). I sure hope this makes me cool.
Possibly the most laughter during our traffic stop and during our entire trip home revolved around a new word we learned this weekend: blowed. That's right. Blowed. As in, "That car almost hit us. We could have blowed up." Or, "Look, a big storm just blowed in" and "Sitting in traffic blowed." It really simplifies conversations. Instead of having to use the proper tense of blow, just replace with blowed.I had no intentions of posting this picture. Sometimes, I try to pretend to be cool like Angela. And by cool I mean graphic designer cool, not accountant cool. We all know I don't have to try to be accountant cool. So anyway, back to the picture. Today Angela posted a picture of herself almost just like mine (minus the seat belt and background). I sure hope this makes me cool.
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