Feed the Birds... uh.... Ducks

The other day, Riley and I decided that we had not had a grand adventure in a while so we set out in search of one. I grabbed a half empty bag of bread, loaded Riley into his car seat (an increasingly difficult chore) and headed out to Salem pond. Now, while I have driven through Salem on a semi-occasional basis, I don't think that I had been to the pond in oh, probably 15 years. As I wind my way through the streets, praying that my memory is steering my correctly I come upon the south parking lot to the pond and I instantly remember the last time I was there. Rachel and one of her gymnastic friends (Allison?) who lived in Salem, and I had gone to some hair store in the Orem mall and bought temporary dye. I believe Rachel's friend died hers blue, Rachel did purple (which didn't really show up on her dark hair) and I had dark cherry and subsequently stained the shoulders of my white t shirt. The day after dying our hair I believe that I was on the Payson Community Theatre float for the Salem parade, which started in the south parking lot of the Salem pond... or ended there. It was 15 years ago, people.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the present, Riley and I pulled up. I scanned the water for any signs of ducks, but saw, perhaps 2 floating way over on the other end. Ok, I tell myself. It can still be fun, if we can get them to swim close to us. There was a pier jutting out a few feet into the water about half way around the trail that edged the pond that I thought would be our best bet to get them to come close. As we got onto the trail and just around the first curve, we stumbled into where the rest of the ducks were. Up on shore, resting in the shade of the trees. I am talking dozens. Riley was absolutely enchanted. We stopped about 15 feet back from them so I could juggle the camera in one hand and pull out a slice of bread for Riley and show him how to break it into pieces. He was so excited he kept hollering to the ducks, "Hang on, I'll be right there!" Once he grabbed the piece of bread he headed right into the middle of the herd. It made me a little nervous, even more so because I stepped back a few feet so I could get some pictures but on the whole they were fairly well behaved, except for one duck who raised up on its legs to grab a piece of bread out of Rileys hand and nipped his finger. Riley promptly labeled that one 'Grumpy' and we decided that the next time we come out to feed the ducks, we aren't going to give any bread to 'Grumpy'. Anyway, here is a video of Riley feeding the ducks followed by some pictures. Enjoy!

Mom and Dad's New Bathroom

At the beginning of August, Casey re-tiled Mom and Dad's bathroom. Since they have yet to post any pictures, I snapped a few and loaded them on here so Adam and Rachel can see what an awesome job Casey did.



Looks awesome huh? My house next, Casey!

Ok - Ok Here you go.

Dad's A B C's.

A- Attached or single: Attached for 31 years.
B- Best Friend: Mom - No one else would put up with me for this long.
C- Cake or Pie: Pie!
D- Day of choice: Saturday. I can do what ever I want........well actually I can do what ever mom wants.
E- Essential Item: Music. Couldn't live with out it.
F- Favorite Color: Blue
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: Yuk to both.
H- Hometown: Born in Loa but have actually lived longer in Santaquin.
I- Indulgence(s): Travel. I would be on the go all the time if I could afford it.
J- January or July: July. I hate snow.
K- Kids: 4 - All my children. (Oh sounds like a soap operea.)
L: Life is Incomplete Without: Family and friends. Ditto Ditto Ditto.
M- Marriage Date: April 29, 1976.
N -Number of Siblings: 2 brothers, (One living one deceased.) 1 sister.
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples of course. I live in Santaquin, the apple capital of Utah.
P- Phobias or Fears: Dieing a long slow death. I want to blow out not rust out.
Q- Quote: I have 2. Scarlet O Hara's statment in "Gone With the Wind" "I'll worry about that tomorrow and also Thora Ross use to say - "Nothing can be sliced so thin that it doesn't have two sides."
R- Reason To Smile: Spending time with Good Friends and Family.
S- Season: Spring. I love to watch the world wake up after a long winters sleep.
T- Tag Three: Casey, Reed & Mom.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I am the world largest source of natural gas. Oh wait you already knew that didn't you.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Meat - Meat - Meat.
W- Worst Habit: Farting in bed.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I've never had either one.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Anything Italian
Z- Zodiac: Aries

Ok I'll post something

Heather Tagged me Andrea and Adam trying to get us to write stuff on the blog so here it goes.
Rachel's A B C's.
A- Attached or single: Single.
B- Best Friend: Cindy forever but right now it's Cassie My roommate.
C- Cake or Pie: Pie I hate Cake. You all know that since I never want b-day cake. Always wanted b-day pie. Or Ice cream cake.
D- Day of choice: Saturday. I don't have to get up early if I don't want to.
E- Essential Item: Cell phone. You all know how attached I am to that thing.
F- Favorite Color: Orange, but yellow holds a close second.
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: Neither. Gummi's are made from horse hoofs.
H- Hometown: Santaquin, UT.
I- Indulgence(s): Buying shoes. I'll spend more money on shoes than anything else.
J- January or July: July.
K- Kids: 1 - Riley, my favorite little guy in the world (I agree with Heather)
L: Life is Incomplete Without: Family and friends (family you are born with and you make them your friends. Friends are the family you choose.) They are one and the same.
M- Marriage Date: None - Still single and very happy about that.
N -Number of Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples are easier to eat but they make my stomach hurt if I don't have other food in my belly. Oranges I hate pealing but I love to eat them. So I guess Oranges, even though I eat apples more offten because their is less work involved to eat them.
P- Phobias or Fears: Not sure that I have any real phobias or fears.
Q- Quote: Like Heather I love Helen Keller Quotes. "Always face the sun that way you never see the shadows." - Helen Keller
R- Reason To Smile: a good joke, waking up every morning with my health.
S- Season: Fall, I love the smell and the color of the leaves.
T- Tag Three: Mom, Dad and Riley, because if Adam and Andrea do this we've got to keep it going so we know about everyone.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I love to go skinny dipping.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Vegetarian. DUH!!
W- Worst Habit: Picking at my finger nails, I pick hang nails and they scab and scar.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: X-Ray. I've had many of these.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Sushi
Z- Zodiac: Pisces

I've been tagged!

Kayla tagged me to complete my own alphabet. :) Ok, here goes:
A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Reed and Riley
C- Cake or Pie: Um... wow... so many choices... if it were pie it would be either apple or pecan pie, and cake, always, always chocolate.
D- Day of choice: Sunday. And mostly because I was born on Sunday and there was a poem in my room when I was growing up that always made me feel special. I won't write it all out but it is here if you want to read it.
E- Essential Item: Books. I love love love books. Cannot imagine what I would do without them. If I were ever imprisoned in solitary, I would entertain myself by writing them in my head.
F- Favorite Color: Green
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: Gummi Bears. I love the little guys.
H- Hometown: Santaquin, Ut
I- Indulgence(s): Buying books... see letter E
J- January or July: July. So festive, so warm, so many things to do.
K- Kids: 1 - Riley, my favorite little guy in the world
L: Life is Incomplete Without: Family (I left Kayla's answer in because I feel it is perfect)
M- Marriage Date: June 3, 1999
N -Number of Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples in summer, oranges in winter
P- Phobias or Fears: Spiders, snakes, werewolves, and being trapped in the rocks between two extremely large people while going through that small tunnel at mesa verde national park :) (remember that vacation family?)
Q- Quote: "The beauty of the human spirit when first recognized is something we must never forget." - Helen Keller (This was my official Miss Santaquin 1997 quote for the pageant.)
R- Reason To Smile: So many things to smile at. Family, friends, good books, good movies, sunsets, sunrises, shooting stars, I could go on and on. My favorite reason to smile though, is Riley. Almost everything that kid does makes me laugh.
S- Season: Spring, perfect temperatures and it is the beginning of warming up not the beginning of cooling down. It always seems like good things are on the horizon.
T- Tag Three: Adam, Rachel, Andrea (we have to get them to post somehow)
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I choose not to answer this so that I may remain the mysterious person I am. Haha! I actually can't think of something that the people at my work AND my family don't know. Sigh. Sorry.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Mmmm. Meat.. (Sorry Rachel and Adam) I will take chicken over anything else. In fact, I am convinced that manna from heaven is some type of celestial chicken, because everyone always says "Taste's like chicken." So I think it works in reverse. Manna is heaven's chicken, where it IS chicken but can taste like anything else you want.
W- Worst Habit: Chewing on pens. I have been labeled as the person who chews on pens at work and willingly admit it. I cannot stop. However, anytime anything appears to have been the object of obsessive tics (i.e. someone picking at the handrests on our chairs) I am immediately suspect and have to plead innocence to be believed.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I believe I have had each. X-ray for my broken ankle, ultrasound for Riley. But if I had to choose it would obviously be ultrasound because I would rather have a baby than a broken bone.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Chicken
Z- Zodiac: Taurus

Best Picture Ever

I saw this on someone's blog the other day and it made me laugh so very hard that I had to post it here. I miss drive-in's. If I had a million dollars I would open one and play nothing but double features like this. For a sampling of the movies I would play what do you think of.... Ol' Yeller and Silver Bullet? Or how about the Care Bear Movie and Child's Play? If Reed were going to offer a suggestion it would probably be The Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz because he thinks Return to Oz is downright freaky. That's just him though. I personally love that movie. I want your suggestions on what you would play at your own twisted combo drive-in.. Ok, fam, let your freak flags fly. :) Love ya!

Don't forget to watch Rachel's Verizon commercial. It should be showing up in Riley's movies on the sidebar. It's so cool to know someone famous. :) And did you guys catch that I linked Rachel's weatherbug site and Adam's clothing store too?

Belated Pictures From Grandma's Birthday

Here is Grandma at her birthday party, crowned and surrounded by great grandkids.














Here we all are playing baseball in the park. Don't you love that old church behind us? It's one of my favorite buildings at grandma's.














We are up the canyon having a little picnic and a drive. Here is Rachel and Dad...















And here is myself and Riley, all enjoying our lunch.














Our lunch is finished so we set the camera on the picnic table and took a group picture before we drove up around Nebo Loop.














Here are Rachel and Riley with their feet out the window.















And what post would be complete if we didn't have some random picture of Riley in here that can be used to embarrass him when he gets older. :)

Simpsonize Me!

Adam, here is what you would look like if you were a Simpson's Character. :) Enjoy! - Heather

San Rafael

Our lease ended on our house in Rohnert Park and the landlord sold our house so we were forced to move. For a while I thought we were going to be homeless, but a week before we had to be out of our home and on the streets we found the perfect place in San Rafael. It is a 3 bedroom townhouse that big enough for Alex, Darren, Cw, myself and all of our junk. Oh yeah, and our back yard in the bay!



This is the view from our back patio



And this is the view from my bedroom.