Elia's Life

Okay, I think this will always be one of the coolest things I've done. It was such a great concert, and so much fun and all-around AWESOME!!!!!!! First of all, I have to say, it's totally cool that Annette came all the way from Arizona just to go to the concert with me. Second of all, we had a great time once we actually got on our way. Well, actually we had a great time after we got over being lost on the Freeway. Our original plan was to leave Ogden early enough to stop by the Gateway, do some recreational shopping and then go to dinner and then go down to West Valley for the concert. First of all we didn't leave Ogden nearly as early as we had planned. Somebody decided to get a treadmill for her birthday and it just about killed us trying to get it in the house. By the time we were actually on the road, we didn't have time for the Gateway and a nice dinner. So we decided to do the Gateway and fast food. Then we missed the exit to the Gateway (which I am unjustly blam...

When we all descended into Reno to start our family reunion, we decided to start things with style and visit Circus Circus. Funny enough, this was my third time to Circus Circus in a year. I don't think I had statistics like that even when I lived in Hawthorne. Anyway, here are some pictures from dinner and the Midway. Anika was more interested in playing with food at the buffet then eating it. She did manage to spill a glass of fruit punch all over her though. Yeah, wet, sticky and red. Coleman enjoyed some green jello... We were able to catch a couple of different Circus acts. They were the same group of six Chinese sisters both times but once they were on unicycles (which I had already seen) and the other was with regular bikes. It was still pretty cool. Makadie loved playing midway games. She was even more excited when she found out that if you win a game, you get a prize. Anika enjoyed the prizes too. This was one of our favorite games You can probably guess who won this r...

This was probably our last visit to Walker Lake ever. Definitely our last time as a full family. If I think too hard about this, I'll probably start crying. Walker Lake is the most beautiful lake I've ever been to (and yes, I really mean that.) It was always one of my favorite things about living in Hawthorne, probably second only to the close proximity to Yosemite. It just seems fitting that our last time visiting was as a family. Anyway, here are some pictures of our beach front picnic. :) It was kind of un-typically cold for being June the entire time we were in Nevada. We had all planned on being able to swim, but when the day finally came, it had rained and was cold. In short, most of us chickened out and didn't go in the water. Well, Coleman and Dad decided to show off how macho they were and decided to go for a swim. I'm not sure if they showed off that or the fact that they were wimps. It took them FOREVER to actually get into the water. They just kept walking a...

Okay, so I am starting to go through all the pictures that we took while we were together in June for Dad's retirement. So hopefully, the next couple of weeks I'll have some random, out of order postings. Enjoy. One of the best things about having us all together in Ogden was that we had force in numbers. We had two, very busy little girls, and five semi-capable adults. This meant that there was always someone for Anika and Makadie to convince to read or play with them. Here are some pictures from one of those many play sessions. Alita and Annette took Makadie and Anika out to play airplane in the backyard.

If any of you out there in internet land were worried about Dad and his new life as a retiree, you don't need to. He has been keeping himself pretty busy and he hasn't even started on all of his projects. :) He has been spending a lot of time in the garden and that has been nice. Surprisingly enough, I really like fresh green beans. Anyway, the other day, he went outside and really caught the hang of this whole retirement thing...

So, I'm not in the habit of posting emails I receive from people on my blog, but I just received one from Roni that had to be put here. This is the cutest thing I've heard in forever... Elia, So I was babysitting today for a friend that had to be at girls camp. I walked downstairs this morning to this conversation! Makadie: "OK Beetle you can put it right there" Isaac: "My name is John Lennon, not beetle!" Makadie: "But you said you were going to be a Beelte" Isaac: "Well I am John Lennon" Makadie: "OK, John Lennon can you hand me that baby bottle so that I can feed the baby!" It was kind of fun to have John Lennon playing in our basement today! I thought you would get a kick out of this! Hope you guys are having a great weekend! Love-- Roni Is that not the cutest thing you've ever read! One of these days when she gets a little older, I'll have to introduce Makadie to the real John Lennon. I wonder if she'...

For those of you who might be reading my blog and don't know, Armed Forces Day is May 19th. It is also the biggest town celebration Hawthorne ever has. That's the time when they do a parade and fireworks and all that jazz. It was a very big deal when we were growing up there. In fact, I marched in the AFD parade every year from the second grade until I had graduated and gone to college. Well, this year, someone had the idea that Mom or I should get to Hawthorne and surprise Dad for AFD. Well, we both talked about it and decided that I would try and go. So I immediately sent out a message to the four friends that I have and asked if anyone wanted to go for a weekend road trip. The responses I got were all pretty "mheh" so I disregarded the idea and began looking forward to a rather dull weekend. About two days before AFD weekend, I finally got some interest. And then the day before, Amanda told me that she was in. At this point I was very, VERY excited. Okay, so I was ...