Summer's Here!

Ok. It's been here for quite some time, but it didn't really start for us till after Jon and I got back from Florida and things kind of got settled down. For most people, summer means it's time to get out. Here it means it's time to get indoors away from the heat, humidity, mosquitoes and rain! Summer started with Scout Day Camp. Long story why we went, since Collin isn't even a cub scout anymore, but we always have a great time and he got to be a Jr. Staff which he loved. This year was great because it was indoors - a rare luxury in the 90 degree and 90% humid Houston summer! Here are some more pics of what we've been up to. . .

This is the start of our 4th year here. We always start the summer by making a trip to the Blue Bell Factory. We came here right after we moved and were living in the Super 8 (Grace STILL wishes we lived there!) waiting to close on our house, so it always marks the year point.

Devouring the Blue Bell ice cream. Nothing says Houston summer like it. Funny that we only eat Blue Bell once a year, at the factory!

So, remember when you were 11 and you were saving up for your first Samurai sword? Yeah, me neither, but Collin is determined to get one and is always thinking up ways to earn an extra dollar. He opened his own stand with lemonade he made himself (almost every "customer" as he calls them asks him if he made it himself).

Jon is obsessed with Gelato. And what better place to get a great Italian cup of Gelato, than at Gelato Cup in Chinatown??

They have a few of the usual flavors, and then ones like Black sesame, Taro (Collins fav), and Green Tea.

They have all sorts of tropical fruit flavors (the pineapple, passion fruit and guava are divine). They are famous for their Durian gelato though. I am very proud of my kids. They both tasted it and they both get un American flavors when we go there. I love that they try new things!

Summer also means swimming lessons . . .

Except that it is also the Monsoon season and the classes get cancelled if there is thunder! The rain also tends to dampen beach plans. More on that later.

Half Way to Christmas!

Just checking on the decorations and counting down the months till they come out!

Confession . . .

Over the last few months Jon has been saying I need a new car. My "Mitsubichi" (as Grace use to say) Montero, aka The Whale, has been with us for 5 years.

Look how young my babies were when we brought The Whale home!

She has taken us across the nation to Texas, on numerous camping trips and other adventures in Southern Utah and even gotten a few bumps and nicks with us in, and out of her.

So, when Jon has suggested getting a new car, I realized I am emotionally attached to my car. I LOVE my wonderful Whale! Just because he needs a different one every other year, I don't! And though I've put my foot down about getting a new one ("don't fix what ain't broke" OR "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"), when the eventual day comes when she just won't go anymore, I will be SO sad!

Not My Year!

So, when I fell off the goblin, the first thought that went through my mind (and Jons too) was, "Oh no, I can't get hurt or I can't get surgery!". Yes, I got to have another surgery this year! To make a long, complicated story short, I have Hyperparathyroid Disease. One of your parathyroid glands (normally the size of a grain of rice) starts freaking out and turns into a tumor. It's a hormonal tumor, not a cancer one, thank goodness! But it causes high calcium in your blood from high hormone levels that makes you not feel very good. There is a Parathyroid Expert in Tampa, Florida and I was lucky enough to be able to go to him right after we got back from Utah. We got there the day before surgery and walked around the hotel . . .

The morning of surgery. I was so happy to be there! Crazy huh?

Jon told Dr. Norman not to mess up my "beautiful neckline". :) I had a scan done of my neck to find the tumor before the operation. Dr. Norman came in after and said, "It's a big tumor day!" Mine was half as big as one side of my thyroid, directly behind it. It was about 1 inch long and 1/2 " wide (I even got a picture of it to take home with me!). He said he guesses it's 12-15 years old.

I don't remember this beauty being taken, obviously after surgery!

Don't really remember this one either . . . Me with an ice pack around my neck and Dr. Norman - my hero!

The next day we decided drive to Orlando to go to the Epcot Center. We had gone there years ago on a business trip . . . ON the Disney Resort grounds and didn't go, so we had to this time!

Jon at the Canadian Village (we got chocolate with Maple Crunch - yummo!)

We also rode the ferry while eating Limone gelato and took this picture of the French village where we ended up having a FAB dinner that night.

Any guesses where this was? Japan had the COOLest store out of the whole resort. Jon could have gone crazy in there. I finally had to sit down while he continued shopping, not that that is anything new!

The Japanese koi pond and village. Collin is obsessed with Japan and manga and anime right now, so it was sad seeing all these things the kids would have loved and not having them with us.

Looking back I probably over did the first day post-op, but after sleeping for 12 hours (could have slept for about 20), we drove to Honeymoon Beach, since, you know, after being married for 16 years, we are still on our honeymoon. It was so beautiful and Jon was entranced.

Beauty!!

It was hard to come back to the real world after this scenery! Although I am still healing, the recovery has been about 500 times better than that darn gall bladder removal! Akshee, now that I have that tumor out of my neck, it might just be my year!

Moab '10

We had a GREAT time in one of our favorite places ever and enjoying it with my family. We go to Moab every year. This year the weather was about as perfect as it could be. The kids loved hiking and climbing around, but most of all, they loved being with their cousins!

Collin, Christian, Jens, Grace and Lia

About to be blown off the South Window by the strong wind!

Look at all those white legs and great hair (did I mention it was a little windy?)

Getting ready to hike to Delicate Arch . . .

The Big rock face . . .

Me and my hiking buddy! She was the perfect companion for me this year. With my bruised body, I wasn't in tip-top shape and when she stopped for a rest, it always seemed to be just when I needed one too. I'm sure next year she'll be up at the front with Jon and Collin leaving me in the dust!

Around the corner from Delicate Arch . . .

And there it is! It's funny because every year the hike up seems shorter and easier.

Sweetness!! Collin and his best buddy Christian, who is his same age were chit-chatting NON-stop this whole trip! He is the oldest on both sides of the fam and while he loves playing with all his Bybee cousins (all girls closest to his age), I am so glad he has a pal his age to hang out with.

We had a GREAT time and must have had too much fun because the kids Zonked on the way back to Provo, and they NEVER take naps! Thank goodness for all the pluffy animals to use as pillows!

The morning we left, there was much bawling (and I mean SOBbing) and complaining about leaving "the family" and having to go back to "stinky ol' Texas". There was also a record setting SNOW storm that left 2 inches on the ground!!

I most definitely won't miss that, but I will everything else! We love you family!

The Fall

Ok, maybe not THE fall, but MY fall. . . Let me start at the very beginning. . . Goblin Valley is one of my favorite places in Southern Utah. It's like an Alien planet. In fact, it was an Alien planet in Galaxy Quest - remember the rock people? Anyway, Jon and I were talking about it and realized the kids didn't remember ever going there, so we decided to go there on our way down to Moab (more on that later). It was so nice to get into warm sunshine! The colors in Southern Utah always amaze me. They did more than usual this year because you just never see orange dirt in Texas. You see LOTS of orange with UT memorabilia, and it actually is the same color, but NOT the same.

Can you believe this landscape???? The "goblin" part of Goblin Valley refer to the pinacles of sandstone everywhere. You can run all over and climb and explore. . .

So we did just that!

I was exploring a goblin about 15 feet high. I looked out over the valley to Jon on a goblin across from me, and felt something going on around my foot. I looked down and what I thought was rock was turning to sand and melting away. I remember thinking, "I wonder how long it will take to hit the ground" and the next thing I knew, I was seeing a blur of orange rock and blue sky. I hit the ledge and thought, "Oh, that came faster than I thought it would" as I bounced down the next level and thought, "I wonder how many more times I will hit" and then landed for good. Jon said I looked like a rag doll falling (he wanted to do an illustration on this picture documenting The Fall with where I landed etc.). I certainly FELT like a rag doll. I had scrapes and bruises on all sides of my body, but amazingly no serious injury. This is the offending Goblin and if you look right under my left hand, you can see a blur on the landscape made by my backside.

I don't think I have ever seen Jon run as fast as he did, and you'd never know he had a bum knee! Looking up at the Goblin I fell from. It looks scarier looking up at it than looking down when I fell. We keep saying how amazed we are I didn't get really hurt! How many people can say they fell off a Goblin??

I thought about posting pictures of my bruises etc, but I'll spare you those. (JK, I REALLY don't have pictures of that!)

The kids on various goblins and caves . . .

Definitely a memorable day. Even though I left a good amount of skin and blood here, it will still be one of my most favorite places ever. Coming up . . . Arches, Tampa and tumors . . .

We're BAAAA-aaaack!

Being away for almost a month made it hard to come back! We had so much fun and took lot's of pictures, but the best part was just hanging out with our family in big groups and small! Here are just a very few pictures of some of the highlights of our trip . . .

We went to Brick Oven - or as we grew up calling it, "Heaps" the day after we got there with my sisters. It was SO cold!

Our timing was great because Grace and I ended up being able to go to the DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) Closing Social. I don't think Grace is old enough to be "official" but she thinks she is. It is so fun having 4 generations, plus my great-aunt and aunt there too. It's also fun to see old friends. They kept asking if we had moved back and if we were etc.

The reason for going to Utah was that Grace wanted to get baptized with all the family around she could get.

I can't believe she's so big!!

It was great to have everyone living in Utah be there for this. There were so many that they had started leaving by the time we got around to getting pictures taken, so we never did get one of everyone who had come.

We had a BBQ at my moms house after (when it finally got warm enough for that!) which was fun for the kids. Most of these girls are within 2 years of each other so they had a blast.

Grace sizing up her aunt that is 9 months younger but 6 inches taller than her.

Before Jon met us up there, we got to go up to SLC to visit the Beehive House and have lunch. The kids want to do that every time we go. The grounds were so pretty with all the flowers blooming! We had spring in March here, so it was fun to have it again in Utah.

We also got to have our picture taken by an Asian tour group that we were behind. We waited for them to take pictures of the temple and then they all wanted pictures of us so we obliged.

Jons brother Seth works at BYU doing . . . um . . . DNA research (is that right?) so he gave us a tour of the cool labs and experiments going on there.

One of the most important things about vacations is the food, and we got plenty of that. We had Italian at Glorias in Provo. Do you SEE the size of my Lasagna!! Click on the picture, it is giNORmous. It lasted 3 meals. We also had great desserts and gelato.

There is PLENTY more where these came from, so stay tuned!

Long Time No See!!

Midge with her new cupcake jaminas, monkey Mo and chocolate divine!

So much to tell and every time I get on here to do a blog, it will only let me upload this picture and then errors out and I'm too tired to figure out why. GRRRrrrrr. Anyway, we've had a busy month. My baby Midge turned 8 years old in April. We decorated Easter Eggs and all sorts of stuff. It has been a very busy month. And May looks like it's shaping up to be just as busy!

When asked what she wanted for her Birthday, Midgey Moo said, "A monkey Pluffy and to go to Utah." When asked what she wanted to do for her baptism she said, "Go to Utah so the family can be there." It sounds like the Mafia! Anyway, we obliged and are heading up there next week for all the festivities. I hope it doesn't snow!