BIG BIRTHDAYS

Jim and I will be turning 50 this year (well Jim has already turned) and I will be soon. Anyway, I have wanted a Bicycle Built for two for as long as I can remember. Our neighbors, Wally and Betty Green had a really nice Schwinn bike years ago and I loved to see them on it. I called them a couple of years ago and asked if they would sell it to me but they had already gotten rid of it. So I let it go for a couple more years and this year I decided that even if Jim was not that excited I would look for one. My search began on the internet and I found a great vintage bike on ebay (and it was even in Ogden, Ut) but I did not dare bid on it and I lost out. Anyway I went to ebay and found a site that sold them. I had no idea what I was buying, type speed etc. but it looked like a pretty good bike so I bought it.
Well we got it shipped to us and it only took a couple of days to get it. It probably took Jim and I longer to put it together than it took to ship it to us. We worked hard and it was very hot but we got it done. It ended up being a pretty nice bike. 21 speed, nice seats and quite nice to ride. We had our first test run and it did not go too bad. A little scary because I thought that I had bought a slow cruising bike and Jim apparently was in it to race. The only instructions with the bike were "You must be able to communicate in order to ride this bike" boy that is an understatement. When one stops pedaling the other one has to. You have to yell out "GLIDE" and then "PEDAL". Well I kept yelling "GLIDE" and Jim kept saying "PEDAL". Anyway we are having alot of fun with it so far. My mom (almost 84 years old) really wants to have a go on the bike but I am a little leary. She does ride her cruiser everyday, when it does not have a flat tire, that is. Maybe in a week or so I will get brave and let her ride with me.

Addition to the Family

Is she not the cutest thing you ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!! We went and picked her up yesterday and she has been a great little puppy so far. We are struggling with picking a name for her but I think that we have decided on Milee. She is about 3 lbs right now and will probably only get to be maybe 5 lbs. This is the perfect size of little house dog. I know that I don't have a great record with animals but I had a little puppy just like this years ago and I loved her (hold your tounge stacy) This one is a keeper.

PACKING UP AND COMING HOME

Our group went up on Friday night to get the trailers out of the hills for the season. It was a quick overnighter just to pack up and get everything winterized. We got got there about 5:30 and there was already a fire built by Grandpa Ferrin. We cooked hot dogs and S'mores and then just sat and visited till about 12:00 midnight. It was pretty cool but not really cold.

The next morning we had to wake up "Mr. Hollywood, Boyd" and cut down a couple of trees so that they would not fall down onto the awning during the winter.
They had to discuss the way to cut down the trees over breakfast muffins.

This was our last campfire of the season.

This is the supervisor puppy, Gracie. She stood watch over everything that was done to make sure that we did it correctly.

Rylee slept thru most of the packing up until I had to move him in order to make his bed so we could pack up the trailer.

All in all we had a great time and are very glad that we have this opportunity to go up to Lava and share good times with our friends and family. We look forward to going up again next year and expanding our property to include our children and friends.

Thankful Thursday

Everyone has a "Thankful Thursday" so I thought that I would try it. I was thankful yesterday that I could help with the grandkids so that Zac and CJ could work on installing their new vinyl fence at the home that they will be purchasing from Zac's grandparents. They are working so hard and the kids make it a little tough. I was also tending Blakeley because Mackenzie was working. CJ will be tending Blakeley in the afternoons after she gets out of kindergarten.

Well we were playing outside and it started to sprinkle. I remembered how much I enjoyed running out in the rain so I left them play. Well the rain did not let up and they got soaked. They had a blast and then we went in side and I fixed dinner for everyone and bathed all of the kids.


AS FOR BEING THANKFUL......I am thankful to be a grandma but I am also thankful that I don't have that many young children at home anymore. They are a handful and are very tiring. I loved every minute of it and would do it (and probably will do it) again in a heartbeat....

Love grandma

NEW KITCHEN AT LAST

Well here it is at last. My before and after pics of my new kitchen. This project started last January at the good ole Home Depot store. After many trips down picking out all of the details, colors, textures etc, we got everything ordered. We really did not want to start on this before late March or early April because I really wanted to add onto the front of the house. Well the city decided that was not an option for us so we settled and just gutted it out and redid everything. I mean everything. Of course we got our appliances on sale so we had to take delivery of them by the end of March and we did not even start until April. Anyway we stored them in the garage and began the process. I will spare everyone of the horrible details and just show you the before and after pictures.

BEFORE

AFTER

WOW, my hat is off to those of you who blog alot. I cannot figure out how to get the pictures on in a creative way so this is the only way I can get them on here. Anyway after alot of hard work, some horrible paint samples we have things done and are very pleased with the outcome.

We should have been on the HG TV "Weekend Warriors" show, maybe they would have come and bailed us out long before now.

FRONT RUNNER RIDE TO SALT LAKE CITY---

Pauline decided that it would be a good idea to take mother to SLC on the new front runner. So today we loaded up with Florence Mae, Pauline, Monica, Eden (Monica's daughter), CJ, Treyson and Tagg and Me (Shirlee) and we went to Ogden to catch the train. Treyson threw a big fit and did not want to get on it cause he was thinking that it was either the Zoo train or Lagoon ( and he could see neither).


We finally got Treyson on the train and settled down and away it went.

It was a very smooth ride and after it got going Treyson decided that he liked it afterall. Eden or Tagg did not have a problem with it at all. We stopped in Roy, Clearfield, Layton, Farmington and Woodscross before we got to downtown SLC. It took us maybe 45 minutes in all.

After we got back to Ogden, we went and had lunch at the Union Station Grill. All in all it was a great day and we had a good time.