Amanda, my niece who's blog link is off to the right under "Amanda & Taylor" enjoys finding old pictures and posting them. I thought I'd show her this one. Left to right, Lisa, Laurie (Amanda's mother), Mom (or G-rents as Amanda calls her), and Favorite Aunt Kim.

I was probably 7 or 8 in this picture, but I don't remember posing for it - I do remember that hideous sweater Lisa is wearing. I never liked it, too furry and itchy. Also, please appreciate the curls, which were achieved by sleepless nights in pink sponge curlers wound too tightly.

Happy Birthday, Charlie



You're such a cutie-patootie!

From the Great State of Texas
We had visitors this month! My brother Malcolm, sister-in-law Jennifer, and their two cutie kids Dylan and Caitlyn. It rarely happens that I have visitors from my family so this was way cool. We had plenty of fun times around the house, and they also checked out the tourist parts of Vegas as well.

• Hoover Dam tour
• Belagio dancing waters
• Two nights of walking the strip up and down checking out all the Casinos
• A sweet 8,000 penney jackpot
• Shark Reef and Mandalay Bay
• Rio Buffet
• Ethel M. Chocolate factory and cactus garden
• Family dinner at Matt & Ashley's
• Trip to the 'butterfly' park (Buffalo Dr. and Elkhorn)
• Blue Man Group show
• Tour of fire stations (o.k. maybe that's just a fellow firefighter tourist thing to do)
  

That's quite a bit for 5 days. Dylan and Caitlyn are the same ages as Drew & Charlie so we had the perfect playmates.

Dylan and Drew at the Rio Buffet.

Jennifer, Malcolm & Dylan petting sting rays.

Dylan in front of fish

Malcolm & Jennifer

Jennifer, Malcolm, Rebekah & Caitlyn

Jennifer & Charlie

Drew & Dylan. And the scoop about the table -- Dylan loves to play with the hot wheels cars. He also loved to play with them on the coffee table, (believe me - he's not the first little person visitor that thought that's what the table was for. I guess I really do have a 'grandma' house.) I felt bad asking Dylan to play with the cars on the floor all the time, and didn't want him to remember me as the mean aunt that got after him, so on a whim I decided to turn the table over. Problem solved. Dylan walked in the room, looked at it kind of funny, and played with the cars on the underneath side of the table the rest of the week. I hope it wasn't rude, but to me it was problem solved, he had a surface for the cars, I didn't worry about the top of the table being scratched. Dylan also loves Thomas The Train. I had not watched any train cartoons for 20 years, so it was nice to catch up on the adventures of Thomas the Train. Caitlyn was just trying to decide if she should take a few steps and walk or not.

Thanks for coming Malcolm & Jennifer!

CON TE PARTIRO'

Time to say goodbye

Next overdue update. Time to say goodbye to Lexi.

I was going to try and hold on till the fall, but worried what breakdowns might occur this summer. 120 degree Las Vegas heat tends to bring out the worst in engines and if anything's going to break, the heat will do it. So a few weeks ago I unexpectedly got an offer for Lexi which was too good to pass up, the logical side of my brain took over and she was sold. After 4 years and 134,000 miles she is now a memory.

There were three things that made Lexi awesome:

• Bose sound system
• Navigation system
• Backup camera.

In any car I'm driving, I'm constantly looking at the dashboard now - before I backup, when I'm wondering what the next street is I'm coming up on. I know I was at that construction office 2 years ago, how do I get there again?

The music was the best. The official CD of Lexi was Confessions, by Usher; with Yeah! the theme song. It could be found in CD position #2. Open up the sun roof, crank the radio, and goooooo!

I am a major SUV/truck lover so I'm on the lookout for I think a Tahoe/Yukon. I like the new '07 models, but the above three items have me spoiled and to get the top of the line model that has upgraded stereo/nav sys/backup camera, it's a pretty penney. And in today's economy with the penney costing 1.7 cents to make, that could be a problem. I'll probably end up driving around Scotty's truck when he leaves (shhhh, don't tell him, he doesn't like to hear that) and then look for something next fall.

In the meantime I'll leave you with another song that I loved to play in Lexi. Your computer speakers will not do this justice, but in Lexi, this song sounded great.

Good-bye to Lexi

I know, I know. I've been such a blogging slacker. After many repeated requests from my kids, I'll start the updates.

Baja, Mexico Ride 2008

Ron, Matt, and Scotty went on the ride this year. Very few injuries, mostly bumps, bruises, and sore muscles. If I understand the story right, this is what happened: After a very short distance Ron and Scott broke down. Ron started driving the truck, Scott got on an extra bike and kept riding. After a couple of days then Matt broke down and joined Ron in the truck. Several others joined in during the week, as well as being the go-fer vehicle for extra parts for others broken down. Ron didn't call as much as he usually does and it turns out he arrived late at night on several days because he was rescuing. But it is sooooo much fun! The scenery does look pretty.

The group they go with (UTMA - which is a motorcycle group out of Utah) does a lot to help the people of San Felipe where the ride starts and finishes. Every year on Sunday after church, they do quite a service project. All riders bring down bags of clothes to donate. The last couple of years there's been an Scout that uses this as their service project. The clothes are gathered, divided up into smaller bags by gender and then passed out. Hygiene supplies are also handed out. A big favorite with all the kids is the CANDY that is thrown out in the crowd. The bishop of the ward suggested that a donation to the ward for temple trips would be very appreciated. Also the bishop, or past bishop, was in need of cataract surgery ($800) and that was paid for by a rider in the group. Matt and Scott each took a woman shopping for groceries and then carried them home for them.

Here are pictures from the trip: