Dam Security

Maybe I shouldn't be proud. Maybe I should be concerned. I am in fact proud. Our family went to Hoover Dam along with my parents and my sister & her family.  Keith knew that this was a government facility so the stupidity factor would be really high..  He also knew that he needed to leave his preferred weapon of choice safely hidden in the luggage. The rest of our party didn't want to part with their weapons of choice.  We got down a few flights of stairs and Keith pointed out that various pocket knives would also not be allowed.  He asked every one in the group if they had any and and he volunteered to return said knives to the car. Just to keep the record clear, he specifically asked Corrine 3 times if she had her pocket knife on her.  She assured him that she understood the stupidity of government facilities and had left her weapon in her luggage. Keith left and took the other knives back to the car.  The rest of us ventured down another flight of stairs to proceed to dump everything we own into bins and be subjected to all kinds of scrutiny and invasions of personal space. At this point in time, my mom decided that her weapon of choice (its not a pocket knife) had probably better go back to the car.  Can I just say a major security check point with a 2 year old, 5 year old and 7 year old and two pre-teens can be rather stressful entertaining. Here is a picture of something to break up my crazy story. Its about the only good thing/view from the day.

My sister set off the alarms with her bracelets.  The security guard was convinced it was HER though. He was rather insistent. After stripping and dumping pockets of all the kids, we thought we were home free until Corrine started setting off all kinds of alarms. She sent her purse through the x-ray machine and the security guard asked her if she had a leatherman knife in her purse.  She assured him she did not. They had her start dumping out her bag and running it through again. This isn't any kind of purse.  Do you remember that bag Marry Poppins had?  The one where Mary pulled out a lamp and a large mirror?  Corrines purse is the same type of bag. After 3... THREE times running it though, we got down to the actual leatherman tool.  Yep.  At the same time Keith was finally going through security, Corrine got flagged for having a leatherman in her purse.  I wish I had been quick enough to get a picture of her face. It was pure HORROR.  She wasn't afraid of the security guard.  She was afraid to show Keith! It was hilarious (to those of us that hadn't walked back to the car 2 times already) The security guard was even more scared. He picked it up like it was a large poisonous snake and handed it to her to take back to the car.... again. My mom had finally returned and had set off alarms of her own.  They finally pulled her out and wanded her several times.  They couldn't figure out why she was setting off the alarms.  She had forgot that she had knee replacement surgery.  Oops. After the family got through security, we found out that the place we were at charged $17 a head to take a tour of the dam that would require a 30 minute wait.  Uh, no thanks. Have you seen the 2 year old?!  So, after all of that, we promptly walked out. So, if you are ever wondering, my family FAILS security check points in grand dam fashion.(this isn't the grand canyon after all.. we should have gone there) We are also cheap.

The Hoover Dam was ok, and some of the scenery was beautiful but I could go my entire life and never go back. I'll bet I survive.

 

The kids had fun so that was worth most of the hassle.

Route 66

Thank you Pixar. Because of the movie Cars, my kids know what route 66 is. We were able to ride a little on route 66 on our way to Phoenix. I love the little towns and I can see how the big interstate just killed the economy in most of those towns.  However, I love the big interstates. I like to get where Im going as fast as possible.  I did enjoy a little stop for lunch and a quick museum tour on route 66.

We enjoyed the little train museum.  When I say "we"... I mean Kate. They had a little train that went on tracks throughout the building. She would chase it around the room.  After that little museum, we went outside and there was a real train the kids could climb on.

I do like my schedule, however, once and a while, its fun to do something unplanned.  It was nice to stop and see this little town and let the kids play. I think there is a little lesson in route 66.  As much as I like the interstate and "getting there as fast as possible", we also need to look around us.   Be aware of the little moments we are in. Thank you for the reminder Pixar and Route 66.

St George!

This weekend we went to St George to be with my brother and his family as they blessed their baby. It was a fun weekend! I wasn't sure how it was going to go at first. We had been in St George about 20 minutes when I broke a salsa jar in the middle of the grocery store and cut my foot. The rest of the weekend went much better. We stayed at my Aunt and Uncles house.  This house is the house I dream about. It was PERFECT. Perfectly clean. Perfectly organized. Perfectly decorated. I told the kids we needed to leave it better than we had found but then we all laughed because we knew that was an impossible task. Sariah LOVED rolling chairs around the kitchen table.

Kate loved playing games with grandpa. Actually, she loved telling him what to do.

All the Cain grandkids together.... we had to drive to St George to pull it off.... but here ya go!

Awesome girl cousins.

These are all but one of the boy cousins. Wesley did not want to participate in the silliness. He is smart that way.

We took a tour of the Jacob Hamblin house. This place was pretty cool.  He had 2 wives (only 2 at a time) and 20 something kids. Crazy.

Hayden LOVES grandpa.

Jakob likes to read any information he can find about the places we are visiting.

After the Hamblin home tour, we went to the St George Temple.

I love the St George temple. Today its the most beautiful temple ever.

Hayden enjoyed cartwheels on the temple grounds. Sunday appropriate activity on the temple grounds?  Hummmm.....

Time with cousins is most wonderful!

I can't get enough of this beautiful temple.

Groups.

 Group A is Jakob and Corrine. Yesterday Corrine started her first "real" job. She is working at the same place Jakob is... so now I get TWO professional bathroom cleaners and vacuum experts. Its going to be fantastic. Now I expect Corrines bathroom to be spotless all of the time.  Oh, I digress.  Corrine started working.  These two do a lot together.  They go to stake dances together.  They are on the same robotics team. They go to mutual together. They go to the temple every Tuesday morning together. Jakob even smuggled Corrine into a seminary morning-side to listen to Hank Smith.... Corrines very favorite speaker.  Now, they work together.

Because of Jakob and Corrine being gone a lot, Hayden and Sariah are spending a lot of time together.  They tend to be Group B. They do school together, play together, read together, and go to Tae Kwon Do together.

Poor little Kate spends a lot of time being my team mate. She and I are Group C.  Once and a while we let Keith join our group. Kate goes shopping with me when the other groups are busy. She and I are pretty good buddies. I have a pretty cute team mate.

PrototypeX in Utah

This weekend was the Utah Regional competition for our robotics team. I have looked forward to this weekend all year long! The plan was to spend a lot of the day on Friday at the competition and then all day on Saturday. We got in the car early Friday morning and made it almost 2 miles from our house when Kate started throwing up.  In the car.  So, we turned around and I haven't left the house in 2 days. She spent the day playing... with the puke bowl.

To prove that she is smart enough to know not to play with the puke bowl, she sorted counting blocks all afternoon. She sorted them by color many, many, many times. Im proud of her. For the longest time we wondered if she was color blind because she could not recognize colors at all. With or without  puke bowl on her head, we think she is pretty smart.

My very good friends Abe & Betsy took Hayden and Sariah to watch some of the robot competition. Thank you Fox Fam for taking them!  They also look forward to this weekend all year long! Corrine and Jakob LOVE this part of the robot season. Look at my two kids be so safety minded.

Last night the team came over for some dinner and a scouting meeting. We looked at film of all the teams we were going against and teams we might want to form an alliance with. (look at me talking all formal and sports like)

We made it into the final rounds! So excited!

This is Keith and the drive team. They are such a great group of young men. Im so glad my kids have the opportunity to be friends with them.

The kids were able to meet Dean Kaman. He is the head guy of all this crazy robot stuff. He is quite the celebrity around these games.  He signed our robot!

 We had some pretty impressive stacks! The more stacks the more points! Our team made it to the very final rounds, but sadly we didn't win.  We came in 2nd.  We are consoling ourselves with the knowledge that we have the Arizona competition coming soon.

This was after scoring the highest points in qualifying matches for the entire 2 days!

I was sad that I had to spend the entire weekend at home and watch the games over the internet. I am very grateful for the internet and the ability to watch the live feed.  Even though I watched more Curious George than I would like to admit, I also enjoyed hanging out with this little girl.

Yes, I realize she is on the couch and is obviously not over 40. I refer you to a previous blog post about things I can't say no to.

Greetings from Couchville

This month we celebrate my 40th birthday and our 20th wedding anniversary. The guys at work were very insistent that Keith needed to do something BIG. I have wanted new couches since we moved into this house almost 5 years ago. Our current couches were bought 11-12 years ago. Considering they have been through 3 (4 if you count going into storage) moves and 5 kids, I guess they held together pretty well.

Notice the holes. One of the foot rests doesn't go up anymore.  Another foot rest has been repaired by Keith more than once. During the move to this house, the fabric on the big couch got ripped in two different places. Julie, my SIL had to teach me how to repair them.

I wonder where the stitching for the center cushion went.

If you are squeamish as all, you might want to look away. This is the under world of couchville. It is a very scary place to be. We clean it.... sometimes.....

 No, we don't keep the little girl in couchville. She is trying to scavenge treasures.

Clean carpet!  Please don't be disgusted by the carpet in this picture. Consider this a "before" picture. Im pretty sure this is the original carpet in this 16 year old house. The people that lived here before us kept their dogs inside. Needless to say,  we are getting wood floors in May. There is a high possibility Keith will come home from work very soon to find half of the carpet ripped out.

Keith got a bonus at work and he really came through with the BIG birthday/anniversary gift. NEW COUCHES!  Happy birthday to me! Happy Anniversary to us!

Please note the new couch rules.
1) No eating on the couches if you are under 40.
2) No sitting on the couches if you are under 40.
3) No pencils/pens/sewing needles, scissors, hair pins, legos, fruit snacks, hair elastics, or combs near the couches if you are under 40.
4)No touching of the couches if you are under 40.
5) No looking at the couches if you are under 40.
6) No anything else not mentioned in #3 on the couch if you are under 40.
7) No flash photography of the couches if you are under 40.
8) No diapers on the couch if you are under 40.
9) No animals on the couch if you are under 40. (This includes stuffed animals)
10) No couchville in these couches. If you are from couchville, you just got moved downstairs.

I noticed that several rules have already been broken. We will have to think though some of them. Heaven knows I don't like dictators. Go ahead, relax. If you don't understand the couchville reference, you are obviously NOT a Studio C fan and I will have to re-examine our friendship. Go to youtube and look up Studio C couchville.  Thanks Keith for the couches! These are the things a 40 year old gets excited about. It might be sad and pathetic, but Im ok with that.