Flying HIGH!

Wendy's birthday was the week before we arrived, and she had wanted to do a zip line course! Thankfully she waited for us to go with her! The boys started out by playing a little basketball. It was pretty hot and humid!

So the ladies hung out under the fans, until our "guides" got us ready.

We had two "guides", a term I use very loosely. Ariel -a red haired, bearded, tree huggin' man who taught us ecology through dirty jokes. And then, there was Brandon. He somewhat resembled Napoleon Dynamite, and smelled as you would expect Napoleon would smell after not showering for several weeks while camping with Tina his llama. He STAAAAAAAANNNNNKK!

The course had 3 bridges, and 6 zip lines. This was the first bridge we crossed, I was a little nervous. I am a recovering acrophobe!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

YEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!

Ryan was having some difficulty adjusting to the harnesses!

Thank you Heather for braving the tour with your professional camera! Our first attempt at a group shot.

Bushmans in the trees!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! No matter what time the kids finally go to sleep at, they are UP bright and early! One of the first items of business was an Easter egg hunt. And they did it again. And again! And AGAIN!


The cousins had so much fun together. They played hard, and they slept like rocks, once they finally went to sleep.

Good night!!!

This could be my son

For those of you who don't know this plump face, shame on you! Does "Who's on First?" ring any bells??? This is Lou Costello. I used to walk my young little legs across the street, to our neighborhood video store, Top Hat Video. To rent the VHS tapes, we would pull a circle, brass tab off of a nail, give it to the owner - who I was on a first name basis with, and I tried to coax into hiring me from about 9 years old on - and they would make sure it was rewound before giving it to me. I watched "The Naughty Nineties" and "Meet Frankenstein" and "African Screams" and "Meet the Mummy"... I even considered starting with the first, and watching all of them in sequence.

It may be genetic, but Cannon has begun the circular conversations that Costello was notorious for, i.e. "Who's on first?" Today, I tried to remember it verbatim, just so I could share! Here we go:

Me: Cannon, you need to pick this up.

Cannon: I did pick it up.

Me: No, you didn't. It is still all over the floor.

Cannon: What's on the floor.

Me: The pretzels!!! Pick them up!

Cannon: I did pick it up.

Me: Cannon. No you didn't. Pleeeeaaaaasssseee help me clean up the pretzels (said, while

gritting my teeth)

Cannon: What pretzels?

Me: The ones on the floor that I am cleaning up! Please pick them up!!!

Cannon: I did pick them up.

Me: (I finally just pick up all the dumb pretzels!)

Cannon: Mom?

Me: WHAT?!?!?!

Cannon: (Sighs, and smiles) You're the best!

I swear this kid understands everything he is doing, and gets the biggest kick out of it! I need to show him some of the old movies, and see if he finds it hilarious when someone else does his schtick! And now that I see his picture, Cannon does resemble Costello...

President Barack Obama's First Ad of 2012

This was WAY too good not to post. Hope this means the Republicans are ready to show up in 2012!

Latest Project

We have a cream couch. Bad choice while raising young children. You need washable. You need resiliant. Our couch had stains, tears with stuffing coming out, but was extremely comfortable! My initial move was to buy a chocolate brown slip cover from Bed, Bath and Beyond on sale. With scotch guard. The existing pillows didn't match. I pulled out my brand spanking new sewing machine, and put it to good use! For my first sewing project, I feel like I did pretty good! I love, love, LOVE the fabric that I found. And I think they turned out pretty good!

Bible Exhibit

Our Stake President went on a cruise last summer, and he met a man named Jim Fowler who is a Christian pastor who collects amazing Christian biblical artifacts. The highlight of his collection is a 1613 2nd Edition Gutenberg Bible! He does "travelling exhibits", and lets you touch everything! You could turn the pages of this bible, along with all of his amazing artifacts.

Here is a Hebrew

We brought Brenna and her friend Alyssa, while Alyssa's mom generously watched Brooklyn and Cannon. I am SOOO glad we didn't bring the youngest two, not only the value of pieces in the exhibit, but there was a very large crowd and it would not have been enjoyable!

Here is a facsimile of the Vaticanus B Codex. There are only over 100 in the world, 40 of them still at the Vatican. It was amazing.

Here is an original Torah Scroll Fragment. Written on leather. This was covered in a plastic covering, but you could still feel the softness of the leather.

Here is the cover of the 1613 Bible.

Here is an upclose shot of part of the 1613 Bible.

Here is Brenna standing in front of a "geneology chart" at the beginning of the Gutenberg Bible. At the top is God, then Adam and Eve, then Cain, Abel and Seth, and so on through out the entire Old Testament.

My Baptism Dress

I have been browsing the stores in person and online looking for Brenna's baptism dress. Spring is the time to find a white dress! Even if her baptism isn't until November. I was going through some of our kids clothing tubs in our attic, and found my baptism dress! It fit her perfectly, which means she might grow out of it by then. I don't think it looks too horribly dated! But, my little Brenna has been so good about happily wearing hand-me-downs, that she needs her very own, brand new, baptism dress. Although, she looks better in mine than I did (with my permed hair and jelly shoes!)