The Family Cabin

Grandma Dixie and Papa Joe years ago at the family cabin

We packed up the kids, dog, and a months worth of gear, and ventured out on a 3,000 + mile road trip this summer.
Our first stop was the Cannon Family cabin in the High Uintas. We love the cabin, and the kids loved spending an entire week with their cousins & Wrigley was in Heaven!

Hour 7: Somewhere in Idaho

Outside a Crappy Budget 8 Motel in Ontario, OR (right on the border of OR/ID)
Ontario's slogan: "Where Oregon Begins"
Amy's slogan for our motel: "Where Horror Films Begin"

15 hours of driving, a couple of detours, a bag full of suckers, over $600 in gas (our cruiser gets 13 mpg) lots of crying, tantrums and spontaneous outbursts and finally we had made it.

We were so excited to be secluded in nature.
The first hike we ventured out on was a "short, easy" one to the lake. It had been raining for days at this point and so at the first glimpse of blue sky Chad and I took all the little kids and the dog out. Mid way through our hike it started to rain, and after a few minutes it started to hail... hard. We hid out under tree branches waiting for it to let up but it never did. So I ran ahead to the cabin with the older boys. Poor Finley, completely soaked, was on top of Chad's shoulders and started crying when the hail began pelting her already wet legs. I was afraid she would be traumatized and not want to go on another hike but she forgot all about it the next morning.

With no cell phones, Internet or TV it was a true vacation.
We enjoyed gorgeous views, the sound of the river out back, a good book, bonfires, hiking and great company. Fin and Tuck loved the treasure hunt, feeding the horses, fishing and eating loads of junk food. We can't wait until we can visit again.

The whole crew

Pictures of the The Kitchen Remodel for Papa Joe
It's not quite finished, they are continuing the counter top to the right of the tall pantry
and are purchasing a new kitchen table

A photo shoot

A darling family from Chicago came into town for a wedding and asked me to take some pics of their cute kids. Here are a few. It was a great shoot until the bouquet of white helium balloons we were using came untied after a minute and 1/2 and flew away. Try calming a kid down after that.

Grandma Soto

1998

I love my Great-grandma, Francisca Alsina Soto. She is an amazing woman.

She was born and raised on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.
She was married to my Great-grandfather Salvador for 74 years and gave birth to 11 children.
She lived 105 year and passed away this morning.

1996

I will always remember her patterned dresses that she wore every day of her life. With the collar buttoned, or zipped to the the very top and pockets filled with things that jingled. She had the softest skin and would hold my hand or arm when she would talk with me. She always made me feel important.

Grandma Soto was funny. She had a great sense of humor and the most incredible smile and laugh. Once you heard it you couldn't help but laugh right along with her. I loved her thick Spanish accent and listening to her stories of when she was young and of coming to America. She talked often about my great-grandfather and how much she loved & missed him.


Christmas Eve 1993

When we were little she would play football with us in the front yard, and take hikes with us in the mountains. She stayed with us for Christmas one year. On Christmas morning she made her way down our staircase and through our "Santa Trap" without ringing the bell. She slid down the staircase on her backside and laughed the whole way. We couldn't believe her!


Christmas morning 1993

My Grandmother cooked the most delicious food. We loved to visit her. When you walked through the screen door into her home you were always greeted with "un abrazo y un beso" (a squeeze and a kiss) and the mouthwatering smells of Puerto Rican arroz con gandules, platanos fritos, carne asada, and pastalillos. We loved her cooking.

Grandma Soto, Her daughter (my Grandmother Eva),
my Grandfather, and my Mother (the baby)

I remember my Grandma Soto as a kind, hardworking, happy, life-loving, determined and beautiful woman. I always felt incredibly loved by my grandma. I am going to miss her dearly.

photos taken 3 weeks ago
we were able to capture 5 generations

Parties

You know I love a good party.
May and June are always packed full of them.

We just attended a darling Star Wars Birthday party for Fin and Tucks' cousin Kayson. When Fin woke up this morning she was still talking about it. It was such a clever party complete with a Certificate of Jedi Training. Her fave (besides the goody bag) was the lightsaber made out of 1/2 a pool noodle and duct tape. The food was great too! "Wookie"-wieners and "chewie"-bacca chocolate brownies.

Last Friday my friend and I threw a mother-daughter Super Hero Party for our Achievement Day girls. I dressed as Incredi-girl, which should have stood for incredibly bad speller. Can you see the mistake!?

We sent out these invitations and asked the mothers and daughters to make each other capes describing the others Super Hero powers. We served this delicious food (scroll down to cafe rio pork salad), and had a secret mission for them to complete at the end of the night. A dinner party for 40 is lot of work, but well worth the end result. One of my favorite pieces of decoration were the place mats. I didn't end up getting a great shot of them, or anything else for that matter. Too much work, too little time.

The Crowd of Super Heroes decorating their masks
We also had them write a letter to each other and we glued it to the back of the place mats.

The Food
It really was so super delicious try out the recipe. The link is above.

The Place mats

Keely colored in 40 Wonder Woman pages from a coloring book and I cut out everyone's face and glued it onto the body. I must say some were hilarious!

The Secret Mission
There were six tasks to complete based on the Wonder Woman comic. One required them to have NO FEAR as they reached into a bucket of goop to pull out their next clue.

Nothing Can Defeat You
When life gives you Lemons you must learn to make Lemonade

Some of the other Tasks were:
Wonder Woman helps those in need. Sanitize one Nursery toy each.
To be a Super Hero you must have a great costume. They earned bracelets of victory and used her tiara like a boomerang to knock over a pyramid of cans.
The Golden Lasso of Truth: You must decipher the Lie. (Keely had 3 truths and a lie of her own)
Mine were:
A. Used to own and train purebred horses.
B. Once rode a camel through the desert to the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
C. Has come face to face with a Grizzly Bear
D. Is married to her 5th grade boyfriend.



On a totally different topic
...here is a random picture of the garage of my dream house for ali.

Tucks 1st Day

It was Tuckers first day of Nursery today. This means I can finally return to class after a 3 year interruption. It means no more aimless wandering of the halls wondering if it would be better to stay home and put my child to nap while I read the Ensign. Does this mean a lighter diaper bag, less distractions, more time to ponder and reflect? Or does this mean a possible calling into the Nursery because my child has MAJOR separation anxiety?! Time will shortly tell.

GETTING READY

The morning got off to a rocky start. He spilled his bowl of cold cereal all over his Sunday pants and had to got to church all wet.


THE POUT

I'm sure that having his big sister in class to show him the ropes helped to ease his first day jitters.

The days are long...

One of my favorite people moved away and now I am sad.

When I get desperately sad I will I drown my sorrows with spoonfuls of this most delicious cake. It is completely impossible not to be elated while savoring a piece of chris' outrageous chocolate cake.

I wondered how long it was going to take Finely to notice they were gone. Last night (the day after our friends moved) she asked, "I want to play with Owen at the park". I explained that they moved to a new house in Utah. She replied, " I want to go to Tah too!"