Christmas 2012

Two years ago we decided to go to Hawaii for our Christmas/family vacation.  Ashlee was a senior and you never know how life is going to change when the kids grow up and move on with their lives.  Because the kids are from divorced parents I knew this would work out because their mother does wonderful christmas presents and so technically they would still have a lot of presents to open. 
This year we decided to go to Playa Del Carmen Mexico.  And it was "AMAZING' We had a nice resort and we always do something out of the ordinary because again Cortnee is a senior and we never know what will happen once she graduates.  This time Ashlee and Cortnee swam with the dolphins. The resort we stayed at was all inclusive and in addition to room service which Ashlee and Cortnee really enjoyed. It also offered Kayaking on a cenote, snorkeling in a cenote, bike riding around the property. We did snorkel and Kayak, which did not end up being so much fun for Ashlee and Cortnee.  That is quite a lot of work for inexperienced kayakers. Which we are.  But we survived and it was a lot of fun.  The resort was called Hacienda Tres Rios and I would highly recommend it.

I was going to upload some pictures but it has been awhile since I blogged and things here have changed and I do not have the patience to try to figure it out. So maybe I will get some pictures posted.  Love you all and have a Happy New Year.

Leavenworth, Washington

we love going on vacation.
Mom and Dad invited us to join them at Worldmark at Leavenworth Washington.  We of course cannot pass up a vacation.
Ashlee and Cortnee are on vacation with their mom in San Diego and so off we go.
We left on Monday the 20th of August and drove to McCall Idaho.  It was a beautiful little town and we are having a week long family reunion there next year so we did a little investigating of the town in preparation.
Tuesday we headed off for Leavenworth. It was most of the day driving but we finally arrived. It is also a beautiful little town.

 This is the view from our patio

 This motel has flowers amazing flowers hanging from all of the balconies

 Marc and I as we walked along the Wenatche river (which I think we will float sometime this week)

 Mom and Dad our wonderful traveling companions

It is a Bavarian/German town and there are flowers and murals everywhere. This is on front street. Very cute little town.

christmas 2011

It has been a year and a half since I posted. I guess now would be a great time to post again. Marc and I have not been home on Christmas for the last 5 years. last year we took the girls to Hawaii, the year before that we were in Vegas, I guess in 2008 we were home. Ooops. 2007 we went to Rosarita, Mexico with mom and dad.. So I guess 4 out of the last 5 we have been gone. I kind of like it. Christmas at home just gets a little (lot) to crazy. We just watch nice movies, some christmas some not. This year Christmas was on a Sunday, we left Salt Lake on Friday and went to the Vegas temple that night. It is a beautiful peaceful place to be after traveling all day. Saturday we went for a bike ride west of Vegas it is a beautiful place to ride. That night we were able to get discount tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil - Ka show at the MGM. It was good. there were some way crazy things that they did. We enjoyed it. Sunday we went to church, it was all musical and was very nice. Monday we went to the Bass Pro shop at the silverton casino. It is similar to Cabelas in Utah but Cabelas is much larger. After that we went for another bike ride. Marc wanted to go about 15 miles. The trail we rode was about 6 miles. He had fun and so did I. Tonight we are headed to the Venetian to see "The Phantom of the Opera". I am very excited. Marc is not dreading it but not excited either. the plus of both of the shows is that we paid about half price. Still a decent amount of money but half price is much better. Love Christmas, love my family, love spending time with Marc.
Posted by Judy at 6:38 PM 0 comments

projects

I have taken some inspiration from my sister Lora. She has been sewing and sewed some very cute aprons. I haven't sewed my apron yet but I did wash the fabric. But I did finish a Halloween stiched bag that I have been working on or planning to work on for several years. It turned out really cute. I started sewing a snowman pillow but it needs some adjustments so maybe it will get done and posted sometime soon.

Snowshoeing January 2010

For Christmas Marc and I got new snowshoes and we went out two weekends and then Marc went out two weekends by himself. It was beautiful out there. The first time I went we figure we went about 1 mile and 3/4 in an hour and a half. The second time we went about 3 miles in a couple of hours. I am sure Marc was much faster by himself. Maybe I will get out again this weekend. It was funny we bought new snow pants and very nice warm gloves. We were shedding clothes fairly rapidly. I didn't even use my gloves most of the time. But now we know.

New Haircut

Wow I love it. My sister is the best cosmetologist ever. (Any bets how it will look tomorrow when I try to do it) I have been wanting to do a new hairdo for so long I finally did it today.

2010

Well it is a new year and has been for 16 days. I have much to be grateful for and I am going to try to post more often.

I am grateful for the beautiful house we have to live in.

I am grateful for the job that Marc has. He has been working lots and lots. Cortnee likes to complain sometimes about her dad being gone so much. I tell her she would hate it a lot worse if he were home all of the time because he didn't have a job.

I am grateful for Ashlee and Cortnee and the opportunity to be their second "mom" I don't think they know how much I appreciate them.

I just accidentally happened upon a blog and the lady was writing about turning our wants into gratitude. Her son was at the store with her and kept saying I want, I want, I want, she turned to him and said we are not going to play the I want game any more how about i am grateful for the bread in our cart, I am grateful for the milk and cereal. she talked about how it is a lifelong lesson and if we don't repeatedly remind our kids of this, it won't change.

I am grateful for the family and friends that have blogs that I am lucky enough to be able to read!
Love you all.

A little Karaoke, a little rope climb, games

Heidi did a great job planning the reunion. Most everyone enjoys sitting around playing games, we also have fun with the skits, this year Heidi added Karaoke and a movie. So all of that plus lots of food and little sleep and lots and lots of visiting. It was a great time and I loved spending time with all of you.

More family reunion pictures

I have been keeping scrapbooks of our family reunions since we started and we have been doing this for 17 years. There are 8 children and we have each had two turns planning the reunion all except Heidi, this is her third time. whew. We sure missed the family that were not able to make it and sure glad that the ones that made it were able to take time out of their lives. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!

I love my family

D and A K family reunion 2009. We had the reunion at mom's family cabin. It was great fun. Except that nobody showered for several days and we all looked and felt like it. But it was great fun and we had a great turnout.

Blueberry picking in Oregon

While I was in Oregon one of the things we did in addition to the Coast and moving, Blueberry picking. It was quite interesting and fun. I can't remember the name of the patch that we went to but the lady was very nice. There was a competition to see who found the biggest berry. We picked 29 pounds of blueberries. We ate a lot, had a blueberry cobbler and blueberry pancakes. It was fun. Here are a couple of pictures.

Ashlee and Cortnee do the shopping!!!!

The girls were given the responsibility of doing the grocery shopping while I was gone. I told them they had $100 to spend each week and if they could stay as much under that as possible that would be great.
I had to laugh when I looked at the one receipt that was in the kitchen when I got home. They had only spent about $50 but this is what they bought. TV dinners, chocolate milk, pillsbury biscuits, pillsbury orange rolls, gum, Tonys frozen pizzas, they actually bought fruit. It was funny. These are the things they like and it was fun for them to actually have the responsibility of doing the shopping. Ashlee told me it was pretty weird. But they did it. The first week I had put things on the grocery list and she did get all of those things and some fun things I won't always buy for them. New and exciting things.

Oregon trip for Judy

I offered to go to Oregon to help my sister Lora move. She has really been struggling with her back and so I thought I would help out. She called and suggested that I call our brother Russ, he and his family are going up to go camping with Lora and her family. Then I could drive back to Utah with her and her kids when they come for our family reunion.
Russ and Jenni and their kids were wonderful for taking me with them. We camped at Camp Lookout by Tillamook Oregon. It was a nice campground, kind of old but close to the beach. The temperature was cool but the kids and Russ actually played in the ocean. We camped from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. We went to Lora's house for Friday night. Russ and his family headed out early Saturday morning. They took Lora's two youngest with them. Anyway Saturday we did some packing and to the farmers market in Hillsboro. Sunday church and then Monday the moving happened. George had hired some movers, boy were they ever a treat. But we got most everything moved out of the old house and into a new one. And it was sooooooooo hot. We learned later in the day that it was 105 degrees. We were literally dripping. We were hot and tired but felt that by the end of tuesday we had things pretty good. Lora felt that she could leave the next morning and be gone for almost 10 days. So we headed out at 4:45 a.m. We actually made really good time and made it to my house in 14 hours. Marc had headed out for a high adventure camp in the tetons so I won't see him until Saturday. this is the longest I have actually been away from him and the girls. He has been gone and the girls have been gone but I am usually home....i missed Marc and girls but I was glad I was able to go.
I have asked my neice to send me a couple of pictures if I get them I will try to add them to my blog.

4th of July 2009

We didn't do much for the 4th of July. But Marc, shilo and I did take a hike at the top of Millcreek Canyon. We hiked for a couple of hours. There was lots of shade and lots of water. So after wearing Shilo out hiking we gave her a bath with the hose at home. (she hates baths!!) I told Marc this hike was tons better than grandeur peak that we did a couple of years ago on the 4th.

Marc and I in St George

The first weekend the girls were gone to Florida Marc and I headed out Sunday after church and stayed in St George until Tuesday. We started out visiting with Ruth Ann and Thom in Cedar city. That was a perfect start to our get away. St George was great. I actually went Mountain biking with Marc. We went to a place called Goose Berry Mesa. It is west of Hurricane about 14 miles. It was very pretty and hot. After all of the rain we have had at home it was warm. Then ride out and back was about 10 miles. I had a pretty good blister on my thumb of my right hand but other than that I thought I did pretty good. It took Marc I bit to believe I could actually ride but after awhile he figured out that I would get off and walk if I didn't think I could do it. I think the hardest thing for me was that it was the first time I had ridden a bike with shocks. But I think I still did a pretty good job. And surprisingly I wasn't even sore the next day. One of our main objectives in going down other than to just get away was to try and go to Tuachan Theatre. Annie was playing on Monday night and that is not one I really want to see. So I passed. Usually, when we are in St George there is nothing playing. I was trying to be somewhat frugal with this trip so we passed. But we did spend some nice time at the pool and the hot tub. We were able to make a session at the St George Temple on Tuesday before we headed out of town.

Ashlee and Cortnee in Florida

Ashlee and Cortnee went with their mom to Florida for 9 days. It was a whirlwind June. Cortnee left for Oakcrest (church girls camp for beehives) the monday after school got out. She was gone for a week and then they left for Florida on the following Monday. Ashlee took her friend Lexi with them. They have a step brother that Cortnee hangs out with and so Ashlee needed someone to keep her company. Here is a picture of the four of them (taken with Ashlees camera) and then Ashlee, lexi and Cortnee at a Luau. They arrived home on Tuesday and Ashlee headed out to church girls camp that afternoon. She was gone the rest of the week. So as I said we have a had a whirlwind June. But then things settled down.

Family Pictures

Family Pictures usually end up being torture for us. Not really sure why. Well Memorial weekend we bribed Ashlees friend Cami to come with us and take the pictures. I think she did a marvelous job. The bottom picture is our favorite

Cortnees birthday is actually May 3rd

Just thought I would add that I am really behind on posting and so I should tell you her birthday was a month ago. Here are a couple of pictures of Cortnee wearing Ashlees dress for The Sweethearts dance. And just a very cute picture that Cortnee took of herself.

Cortnee and hair extensions!!!

Cortnee decided that she wanted to get hair extensions. Marc and I went with her to a beautician that puts them in your hair. Very expensive!! They said probably $90.00 for each section and she would probably need 5 sections. Plus 2 hours to put them in and that would be $30.00 an hour. Whew!!!! So then we went to Sallys beauty supply. She could buy clip in extensions for $79.99. Well she didn't think that was too bad. We (I thought) made it pretty clear that we thought they were too expensive but she was welcome to save her money and buy them herself. Well she was totally upset that she didn't get them for her birthday. But she did ask if we would be upset if she returned the sun dress and the bag that we gave her for her birthday. That would give her $30.00 plus some birthday money she was sure she would get from her moms house. Well she did end up getting enough money for her birthday and bought the extensions. This is a picture of them curled. Pretty cute. She wore them for a week and then decided they were too much of a pain so they are out. Hopefully a lesson was learned from this experience.

Cortnee turns 14!!!!

Cortnee received a new flat iron for her hair, a pretty yellow sundress that she really wanted last time we went summer shopping, but didn't have enough money and decided that she needed shorts more. What a perfect thing to happen so I could give it to her for her birthday. And last, a bag. Happy birthday cortnee we love you.