Overwhelmed & Overloaded

That is what I think of when I look back on this summer.

Overwhelmed.

Overloaded.

As I sit here watching "One-Hit Wonders of the '80s" on VH1 (#7 is Modern English's "Melt With You" by the way), I can not believe I'm even coherent enough to tell you all about it.  I know travelogues are boring but if I don't document this in some way, well, what is my posterity gonna know about the summer of 2010??  I mean, right?  Their future testimonies might depend on this post, you gize!!

I'll do a quick overview here today, with pictures to keep it interesting, and then I will go back in future posts and get more detailed (again, for my posterity, not for indulgent nonsense purposes).

JUNE 24

Photographed one of my favorite people of all time for her senior pictures while the boys ventured off to Cub Scout Day Camp.   I present to you Taylor.  I wish I were her when I was 17.  Funny, friendly, charismatic, spiritual, adorable....she's the total package.  If she didn't think it was so awkward I'd hang out with her on the weekends. 

(#4 is Tommy Tutone's "867-5309/Jenny" just FYI)

JUNE 26

Maggie has a vet appointment where a "full geriatric panel" was done on her blood, she got her yearly shots, etc.  Her blood work came back perfect & we started her on some arthritis medicine (which I promptly ordered 3 months worth of totaling about $180).  I know this seems random but it's important information for later.

JUNE 29

Fly to Las Vegas, where I meet Kimi, and we hitch a ride from Jespy to Bako for some Eclipse fun.  I didn't get my camera out, like, at all so click here for all the deets on that.  We ate at a restaurant three meals a day (my stomach still hasn't shrunk back to its original size), hung out with the Visors, saw the midnight showing of Eclipse about 2 feet from the screen, played games, chatted like school girls, saw Eclipse from a normal distance the second day, and ate way too many caramels.   I loved that trip.

JULY 2

Drive back to Vegas with Jespy & Kimi, hit the Pawn Stars pawn shop (Rick, Chumlee & the Old Man weren't there...bummer.  Neither was the disgusting son thank goodness) & fly home to Denver.

JULY 5

Drop Maggie off at our friends' house north of Denver and head to UT for a two week vaycay chock full of reunions & family fun.

JULY 6

Our friends call us and say that Maggie is "not doing well."  Her breathing had suddenly become labored & she wasn't moving or responding.  They take her into an Emergency Animal Hospital where it's determined she is in congestive heart failure.  After some discussion of options we decided it was time to let her go.  We all bawled & bawled all night and still have moments of sadness.  She was our baby before we had babies!  We've had her for 12 of our 14 years of marriage.  The worst part was being in Utah & having to make the decision but, at the same time, I'm almost glad I get to just remember her wagging her tail as we left her in Colorado.

It became more of a reality when we got home & she wasn't around the house.  I've had to stop myself from finding her before I got to bed or checking the back door to see if she's there waiting to go in or out.  I also hadn't realized  how much we dropped on the floor at meal times....we are total slobs.  I had no idea that Maggie had her own chores she did everyday (cleaning up our mess) but that does explain her being overweight. Oopsy.    She was a good dog & will be missed.

JULY 9&10

Camp Beaver (which is code for Gty's mom's side of the family's family reunion) in Ogden, UT.  Again, no pics taken by me.  I just enjoyed the meals, Olympics & night games and visiting.

JULY 11

My sweet Uncle Visor passed away after a four year struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  I have never been so glad to have just been to Bakersfield in my life as I had just visited with him a couple weeks before.

JULY 12-15

 Bear Lake reunion with Gty's side of the family.  I will do an extensive post on this later but rest assured, there was never a dull moment.

JULY 16

I fly to LAX from SLC.  I meet my parents there and we drive up to Bakersfield for UV's funeral.  How adorable was he, huh??

JULY 21-24

Go to Girl's Camp.  More on that later.

JULY 24

HotPants & fam stop by on their way through Denver.  They were supposed to stay the night but decided to just stop for dinner & keep going.  Apparently driving with sleeping kids is easier & more pleasant than driving with awake kids....whaaa????    Fine.

Also on JULY 24

Gty & the boys flew to SanFran for some boys' trip fun.  They went to a Giants game, an Oakland A's game, toured Alkatraz and then headed up to Eureka where Phil's family lives.   This means Beebs & I have been here alone all week.  I've been decompressing from the summer's activities while trying to keep Beebs entertained.   But the summer festivities will continue on....

JULY 30

The boys return from their trip.

AUG 2

Beebs starts gymnastics.

AUG 3

JBird starts his tackle football season with four practices a week in August!  (TBone will be starting soccer soon too but I'm not sure of the exact date)

AUG 4

The boys start school.  5th grade for the JBird and 3rd grade for Tbone.  This is the first time I'm dreading it.  It's too soon to get back on a strict schedule and I feel like we haven't even been home.  Ah well,  unless I'm gonna homeschool I guess I don't really have a choice here.

AUG 17

Fly to Boise for my side of the family's family reunion.  Well, really my Dad's and AV's side of the family.  It'll be a good time.  We were waffling in our decision of whether we would go or not but now that the tickets are booked I'm excited.

Are you still reading this?  If so, you probably won't be surprised to find out that "Come On Eileen" was the #1 one-hit wonder of the 80s.

Spring Brizzzeak (with 3 Zs now)

Now for some warmer weather activities cuz, you know, it's Spring afterall.

On Saturday we celebrated Easter in a grandiose way.  It actually started Friday night with the dying and decorating of 4 dozen eggs (no pics were taken).    Then Saturday the group pictured above hiked from Grandma & Grandpa's house up to Utah State campus for the Annual Anderson Easter Egg Roll down Old Main Hill!  The rest of us drove up & parked like normal people.

See?  We all stand at the top of this super steep hill and roll our decorated eggs down the hill.  There are contests to see whose egg goes the furthest and stuff, of course.  The womenfolk then stand at the top while the children and menfolk run down and pick up the eggs/egg pieces.  Or some menfolk roll down themselves.

He felt sick to his stomach the rest of the day, btw.  His mom warned him not to do it.

A couple of the womenfolk.  Milly & NutShell.

Rosebud & Jbird.

We then went over to the "A"on campus for a little photo shoot.  Do you know about the "A" on USU's campus?  Well you should.  

See, there is this thing called a "TRUE AGGIE."  It's a prestigious title to hold at Utah State.  My SIL, NutShell, made many many boys True Aggies during her tenure there at USU.  Apparently in order to become one, you must stand atop the "A" and be kissed by another True Aggie.  If neither of you are True Aggies you have to kiss on the "A" on Homecoming night.  Also maybe something about a full moon?  Any True Aggies out there feel free to correct me.  I didn't get a chance to read the little plaque they have posted there.  

 Here is Phil with his grandkids.

 Can you tell I had just gotten mad at TBone for not following directions??  Yay for photo shoots!

 Then we headed back to the house for some more Easter fun.  NutShell had created an extravagant scavenger hunt complete with 7 or 8 rhyming clues which were hidden all over the neighborhood.  The kids ran from spot to spot as they figured out the riddles.  It ultimately ended with them finding their Easter baskets in "it's down by the river and it looks like a house, but nobody lives there, well, maybe a mouse."  Can you guess? The shed, doyeeeee!

 Here are the kids enjoying their spoils on the deck.

The kids all loved it & I was grateful for NutShell's energy as I would never do anything like this on my own.   This is exactly why she has the title of "Favorite Aunt" pretty much in the bag.  Grandma was integral as well and I just played along.  

 We then packed up the car the next day and headed home exhausted from all the fun.  Thank goodness we had another week of Spring Break at home to recover before school started again although all of us would have loved to stay a lot longer.  Thanks for everything Grandma & Grandpa!

{this is the end of my Spring Break photos & commentary, in case you were wondering}

 

Spring BriZZeak 2

Toldja I wasn't done.

So, on Friday Gpa Phil was kind enough to tote 4 beginner skiers up to Beaver Mountain for a day on the slopes.  That's right.  All by himself.  He's a trooper, that Phil.  Aunt Stackey was able to go up for the second half of the day which was nice & Milly & I went up to the lodge to have lunch with the crew.

Here are the future downhill skiing Olympians in the lodge at lunch.

::humming Which Of These Things Is Not Like the Others::  I don't even try anymore.  Srsly.

And in action on the slopes.

My boys had skied once last year and apparently didn't forget a thing.  They were beeboppin' and skattin' all over the hill.  At one point Gpa Phil got held up a little and when he got to the bottom of the hill, Tbone and JBird had already gotten back on the lift and were on their way.  This was Rosebud and Vee's first year and I think they enjoyed it as well. 

They have a thing here in Colorado where all 5th graders get free season passes to a few of the ski resorts nearby.  I'm thinking we will be taking advantage of that badboy.  JBird and TBone want to try snowboarding next year as does Gty.  I'm guessing I'll either stick with skiing or staying home with Beebs.  It all depends on my mood, ya know.  And how cute my end-of-season snow gear I'm gonna buy this year is. 

Part 3 is coming.  Don't worry.

Spring Brizzeak

Is it still cool to put "izz" in the middle of a word?  Oh well.  I still like it anyway.

Some people might be asking where I've been lately.  Why did I have a guest blogger for my AI post?  Why haven't I been here discussing all the mundane things in my life?  Why do I have no Facebook status?

The answer is simple.  Spring Break.

We loaded in the van and headed off to Utah for some fun at Gty's parents' house.  Utah might not seem like a glamorous place to vacation, but to us it's the perfect destination.  Activities included ice skating, downhill skiing, hot tubing, roller-blading, Broadway show watching, Easter egg rolling, Easter basket scavenger hunting, out-to-eating, movie watching and river swimming.   Where else can you do all THAT, I ask you.

This post will be dedicated to the ice skating.  They built a huge ice skating practice facility in Logan when the Olympics were being held in Salt Lake City in 2002.  Since the boys are suddenly obsessed with hockey we decided to head on over to check it out.  They have skates to rent and cute little walkers for Beebs to ice skate with making it enjoyable for everyone.    We went the first day in town and then went back again after a couple of cousins flew into town.  Gty's sister flew in her two oldest girls from California for some winter time funtivities.  We will call them Rosebud and Vee.


Ice Skating Day One:

Despite that last picture up there, Tbone was an excellent skater.  JBird was even better.  It's amazing how quickly they can transfer rollerblading skillz to ice skating.  Beebs started out with her walker thingy but by the end of the week she was going out on her own.  If we lived there I'd have her signed up for figure skating lessons in a heartbeat.  She loved it.


Ice Skating Day Two:

Phil gets Grandpa of the Year for ice skating with all the kids both days.  He was making Milly and I worried sick (as we sat in the seats and watched) with all of his fancy tricks he kept attempting.  He fell a couple of times and jammed his shoulder pretty good once.  He is now worried about how it will affect his golf game.  Such sacrifice for the grandkiddies. 

Oh you think this is the end of my Spring Break pictures?  Ha!  Nice try.  More to come, my sweets...