Pyper's Baptism Video

This is the video Pyper begged me to make to play at her baptism. She'd seen some other kids do this and just had to have one, too.

Of course it brought on many tears while I sifted through 8 years of photos and tried to find just the right music to use. In the end I was glad I took the time to make it, and Pyper loves watching all the images of herself growing up.

Mom wanted you all to be able to see it, so I thought this would be the easiest way to share it.

I dreamed a dream.

I had a dream last night that we went on a huge trip to Holden Beach as a family in a rented suburban, and since we were spending all of our money on gas, the only food we could afford to eat was bread with sriracha chili sauce and seasoned salt on it.

It was mildly unpleasant.

I'm all for the beach part, just please never make me eat a chili sauce sandwich.

Umm...

Why can't I see the photo at the top of the blog? It flashes there for a second when the page loads and then goes black so all that I can see is a big black box with the white words in it. Anyone? Anyone?

Starving college student.

Yes, this is my second year of college. However, this is my first year of having to actually feed myself, since I was in the dorms last year and had a meal plan. I foresee some weight being lost due to good ol' apathy and the unwillingness to dirty dishes just to feed myself.

However, I am now accepting ideas anyone might have for quick/easy/cheap dinners that I can try out. I've been on this cooking/baking kick the past couple of months and I get really excited when I get to try out new recipes, so don't be shy! Help a baby sister out. (:


I can only eat ramen with peanut butter, soy sauce, and sriracha chili sauce so many times before my heart gives out...

Trip to Roanoke

We just got back from our trip to Virginia on Sunday, and I’m just now getting around to posting something about it. We had a great time and really enjoyed our stay with Bryce and Dena in Roanoke. We got there on Friday afternoon after a redeye flight from Vegas to Atlanta to Greensboro Thursday night, so we were pretty beat. But we felt better after a nap, and went out for dinner that evening. On Saturday morning, we went down to the farmer’s market downtown and Mom and Dena did some jewelry shopping.

Jewelry shopping at the market.

Then we went for a short hike to a place called Roaring Run that had an old iron smelter from Civil War days and a small waterfall upstream a bit. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs right through the area, and we drove a little ways on that, as well. Sunday, we relaxed and ended up going to a baseball game in Salem.

Even Zoey was smiling!

Bryce had to work during the week, and rather than hang around and drive Dena crazy all week, Mom and I loaded up Monday morning and drove to Parkersburg, West Virginia to see Uncle Frank and Aunt Jeannine. We spent the night there and had a good visit with them and got to see 4 of their kids (Mom’s cousins): Jane, Judy, Doug and Clark. It was fun to see them and we got to visit a few of the places Mom remembered from visiting there when she was little.


On Tuesday, we went up the river to Tip and Joan’s house above the Ohio River and had a nice visit with them, as well. Cousin David was there with his pet gray wolf, and we got to visit with Cousin Darren and his family as well. After our visit there, we drove up the state and ended up in Washington, Pa for the night, where we found out that hotel rooms are at a premium all through West Virginia and the surrounding areas. It seems there is a huge natural gas drilling boom going on in the state and all the motel rooms are occupied by the drilling crews. So we ended up staying at a place that was - shall we put it kindly? – less than acceptable. We plan to forget that part of the trip, so I’ll move on.

Yes, that's a full grown gray wolf.

Wednesday, we spent basically just exploring the mountains of West Virginia. We found a place called Prickett’s Fort, that is a rebuilt pioneer fort from around the 1770 era. They had living history people dressed in period costume and doing period things. We enjoyed it so much, we ended up spending half the day there. I got to spend about half an hour just talking to the blacksmith. There were ladies weaving woolen blankets on a loom very much like the one my great-grandfather built in Idaho way back when. We made our way down to Elkins, West Virginia and spent that night in a much nicer motel and room, which made us feel better.

We headed back to Roanoke on Thursday, but stopped at a place called Seneca Caverns and toured their cave. They also had a mining sluice setup out back, so we bought a bag of dirt (or mining rough, as they called it – but it looked a lot like dirt to me) and sifted through it for the gems inside. It was really pretty fun.

Mining for gems

Friday was mostly a goof off day (it was a vacation, after all!), but we got to see more of the house that Bryce and Dena are in the process of acquiring. It is an older house in a historic neighborhood of Roanoke and is being remodeled by some contractors to (mostly) their specifications. There has been some miscommunication and misunderstandings with the contractors that have nearly driving Bryce and Dena crazy, but the end may be in sight soon. It’s a beautiful old house with tons of room, a big back yard and a giant garage/shop that Bryce is looking forward to.

Friday night, we went with Bryce and Dena and another couple they are friends with to a little town called Floyd, where every Friday night, people gather on the 3 blocks of the main drag, bring their instruments and just get together in small groups and play music. It’s pretty informal, with the players maybe moving from group to group during the evening, people walking around and listening and just a great time by all. Mostly bluegrass music by some extremely talented musicians. There are also some uncommon instruments to be seen – a washtub bass fiddle, some kind of big box with wooden tabs that works like a bass, and the week before, they saw a weird Swedish instrument called a nyckelharpa (Bryce googled “Swedish stringed instrument” to show us a picture of it). There was also at least one very uncommon person wandering around. But it was really fun and not something we had expected on this trip.

Saturday was the return trip to the airport after lunch in an old fashioned soda fountain with Bryce and Dena and Jason and Katie (the friends from Friday night). With the late arrival in Vegas, we got a motel room there and took the shuttle back to St. George on Sunday when Jennifer picked us up. Like I said, it was a really fun vacation and we appreciate the chance to visit Bryce and Dena (and Zoey!) and see their new place. Roanoke is a great place to visit, and we highly recommend it.

Zoey's goodbye face

Elk Ridge continued...

Here's a few pictures I took the day Kris and I were there.

 

Who says you can't look good while camping?

I do say, we're having a spot of good weather this fine morn.  Cheerio.

Who do you think would win a game of tug of war?

Guess who's super excited to take pictures?

"Let our flavors combine."

I see you.

Adorable.

By gum...I will smite thee back to the flames of heck from whence ye came!!

Elk Ridge - at least a bit of it

I was hoping one of you would do a post on the reunion, but it seems to be up to me. I'll just put on a very few of the pictures I took (of about 370, not counting videos), and if you don't like my comments and captions, feel free to make up your own. ;)

Strange, alien creature

Master chefs at work

No further comment

I'm sensing a pattern here.

This is one way to do it, as demonstrated by Wesley and Kimberly.

And Bryce and Keith.

But there is a better way.

Tripod fun

The Big Crowd

Goofing off. Bryce looks like he's trying out for UFC.

The smaller but more orange crowd.

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. D'I mean...

It was a great weekend and we thank all of you for making it possible. It meant a lot to us and especially to Mommer and Popper. Of course, this is just a small sample of the pictures I took, and if you want to send me a CD with your pictures on it, I'll combine them onto another one and send it back with everyones. Until next time... Dad

Hey, Dad- look what I found

I was in a thrift store yesterday and stumbled upon these two framed pages of Norwegian paper dolls and their outfits.





I thought they were pretty darn cute. They need new frames, but someday I plan on hanging them up in our play room.

Fun, huh?

Aunt Lillian

The other day, when Dad called to tell me the news of Aunt Lillian's passing, I experienced one of those moments where sadness and joy collide. Losing a loved one is always sad, no matter what the circumstance, but I couldn't help but be happy for her, knowing that she had lived a long and happy life, and that she was now reunited with her husband after being apart for so long.

That night I lay in bed thinking about her, about our trips to
Englewood, Florida to visit her and Uncle Ray at their beach house when we were little. I don't have a very good memory I'm afraid, but the more I thought, the more things I was able to recall. I was amazed at how many vivid memories I still have of those visits.

I remember playing on the beach for hours and hours, looking for shark teeth, building castles and moats in the sand, and burying one another up to our necks then hunting for sand fleas to scare the buried victim with.




I remember digging down into the sand to collect coquinas to give to Uncle Ray. Seems like he even cooked them once in a while, but I don't remember ever eating them. Maybe we just fed them to the seagulls. That's another fond memory- taking a loaf of bread out to the beach and tossing chunks into the air until we were surrounded by so many seagulls that it got kind of scary.




They also had a coconut tree in their yard, and it never failed to drop one or two for our visit so Uncle Ray could split it open and share the fresh coconut meat with us.

I remember Gertie, the egret (or was she a heron?) who frequented their yard as well. Maybe that's who got the coquinas we collected.

I remember learning to play cards around their table, especially Golf since it wasn't too hard for a kid.

I remember how sweet Lillian and Ray always were to us, and how much Lillian reminded me of my own Grandma Anderson who lived so far away that we only got to see her about once a year. I was grateful for their resemblance because it made me feel closer to my grandparents who I loved and missed so much.

I don't think I can keep going, all this remembering has made me cry. But I thought I'd post the photos I found of a couple of our trips, just to help you guys remember, too.

1987