Here’s a funny conversation Rock overheard recently between Levi and Liberty:

“Yeah, Bill Cosby started Microsoft, and he’s the richest person in America.” 

And there you have it.

Tips for An Easy Thanksgiving Dinner:

1. Have one of your kids get sick so that half your guests decide not to come.
2. Assign out all the last minute food items that make you crazy and wish you hadn’t offered to host after all like gravy and mashed potatoes so you don’t have to worry about it.
3. Buy your rolls at Costco and your Pumpkin pie too.
4. Make sure your “fresh” turkey is really fresh and not half frozen.
5. Don’t actually cook your turkey.

This year, thanks to a sick Libby we had just my parents, my sisters and us.  I planned it just right so I only had to worry about the turkey at the last minute.  I did not follow tip #4, unfortunately and when it came time to get the turkey ready, I realized it was partially frozen.  Sigh.  But it only bumped us back an hour and our turkey was cruisin along ready to be done in 2.5-3 hours.  At 2 hours I checked it in 5 different places and the temperature was 10 degrees higher than was recommended for a done turkey. Gasp! I texted our few guests, “The turkey is done early and you better get over here pronto!” and we scrambled to get the table set and the last few things done.  They rushed to get everything finished, arriving shortly thereafter and we proceeded to cut the turkey.  When Rock kept running into bone and couldn’t find the meat we realized that we’d put the turkey in upside down and that it was not, in fact, cooked yet. Yes, we are turkey challenged.  Thank goodness for the microwave!  Our turkey was perfectly moist and miraculously tasted great despite our ineptitude.  Alli put it perfectly when she said, “This was the easiest Thanksgiving dinner ever.  You didn’t even have to cook the turkey!” 

Luckily the turkey turned out ok and we were not reduced to eating our new hamster.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We have a pet at our house.  Well, a pet more exciting than a fish.  Levi worked very hard and saved for a long time to buy a hamster.  It is the first exciting pet we’ve ever had and Levi is very proud of his Snickers. 

It’s that time of year you all look forward to… when you get to see my cherubic little ones prancing around in a fall wonderland of pumpkins and corn, sweetly smiling at their mother in angelic cooperativeness as I take their pictures. Ok, so that’s not how it works.  They are no longer chubby or cherubic (were they ever?) and they have never smiled sweetly in total cooperation.  It’s more like they run around as fast as they can ignoring my constant pleas to “Hold still for ONE SECOND so I can get a picture for the blog, dangit!” Time marches on and they get older and older.  I wish they’d stop that.  But, here they are for your viewing pleasure. I might just add in some oldies just to remind you that they once were cherubic and chubby.

We went on a cruise! The end of September. Don’t know how to describe it really.  It was fun to get away, fun to see how the whole cruise thing works and fun to hang out with Derek and Penny.  But the food was blah, our shower flooded the entire bathroom every time we showered and I spent the second day of the cruise with blurry vision.  All in all I’d say it was a good experience even with the few hiccups.

Waaaayyy back in August we had Rock’s family reunion in our favorite place, Eden, UT!  Loved the views, loved the company! 

Still catching up from Summer… my goal is to be all caught up by the end of October!!!

While Reagan was away on his 50 mile hike this summer we took the rest of the kids camping up at Red Fish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains.  We couldn’t let Reagan have all the fun. It was beautiful and fun and peaceful and unforgettable.

We did have a few small hiccups on our drive up.  The first was not so much a hiccup as a really sad commentary on the dessert where we live or more likely the fact that we need to get our children outside more.  In our defense, family outings are rather painful at our house so we don’t  do them as often as we should.  As we drove up into the mountains Liberty asked, “Mom, is this a forest?” Mom: “Yes”. Libby again: “Oh, at first I thought it was just a big tree farm.” 

Before the drive up I had stashed the DWWWDOC in the glove compartment of our trusty minivan for use at some point down the road.  For those of you not familiar with modern day car travel that acronym stands for Devices With Which We Drug Our Children more commonly known as ipods.  After a pleasant first hour drive I went to pull them out, but the glove compartment wouldn’t open.  I pulled and yanked but it wouldn’t budge.  Finally we had to pull over so Rock could try.  The kids got to enjoy some dangerous scenic overlooks while we wrestled with the door.  I could have sworn I took a picture of them dangling themselves over the cliff while their father and I tried to save the devices, but I guess not.  We did finally get it open but not without breaking it.  It would no longer close, but hung open on my legs the entire rest of the trip.

The next hiccup was more like an upchuck.  Libby got car sick.  Luckily her mother is uber prepared and whipped out a ziplock back for her to be sick in so we had no messes to deal with.  Handy things, those ziplock bags.  Just think what MacGuyver could have done if he’d had those in the 80s?!  Libby managed to recover, but only after a good sleep.

The rest of our campout went swimmingly.  The kids loved the gigantic rock right near our campsite.  I was not as thrilled by it’s mammoth size, but that only added to their pleasure.  They had a great time climbing to the top over and over.

More belated summer travels for you…..

In July my sisters, mom and I drove to Washington so we could visit my aunts.  I have four wonderful aunts who were a big part of my growing up years that we never get to see anymore because even my parents are no longer in Olympia.  It was so much fun!

We set off bright and early one Saturday morning We set off rather late in the morning much to our Trip Nazi’s chagrin.  Allison is our Trip Nazi.  She likes to leave early, make good time and she likes to stay busy.  My mother, who is the Heat Nazi and not the Trip Nazi is more…relaxed in her approach to traveling.  Sarin and I fall somewhere in between.  The mix of approaches does not always make for happy travelers, but we survived none the less and even managed to have a good time.

Part of Alli’s trip nazi-ness is that she likes to stop for gas when her tank is half full.  Thus necessitating more stops than most travelers are used to (or think necessary).  This would have been fine if the gas stations had cooperated with her.  But they didn’t.  In Oregon we talked for 10 minutes before we turned off the freeway about how annoying it is that we can’t fill our own gas tanks in Oregon.  We then tried to convince her that she didn’t NEED to get gas yet and could wait until we were out of Oregon.  Apparently we all have some blonde in us, well, three of us do anyway, and none of us caught her before she pulled into the gas station, got out to pump her own gas out of habit and was accosted by the Oregon gas station employee.  “Can I help you, Miss?” (ie. “Don’t you dare pump  your own gas here or we’ll have you arrested!”) It’s rare that I laugh so hard I cry, but if it happens, it happens with my sisters and mom.  This was one of those times. She meekly got back in the car after telling him what gas she wanted.  When it came time for her to give her credit card, he really did want to arrest her because the one she gave him didn’t even work.  She was in deep mortification by then, but we were absolutely no assistance as we were helplessly laughing ourselves sick.
We pulled away from the gas station grateful we live in states where we can pump our own gas.  But Alli’s gas troubles were far from over.  The very next time we needed gas, well, the very next time she thought she needed gas, we pulled into a station, she whipped out her card and the machine would not respond.  She pulled ahead to the next one and it didn’t work either.  She tried a different card, she tried staring at it for a while silently pleading for it to work while her family died laughing in the car.