Saturday, December 25, 2010

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Jingle Bell Rock


My Grandpa and his wife Betty sent the kids a singing dog. They love it. My daughter just wants to sing and dance to it. We'll see if mom makes it to Christmas before it gets hidden?!
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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Slowly Heading to Home?

 
After our side trip we went to North Carolina for 2 weeks. It rained most of the time and we were ready to go home, only we had forgotten where that was exactly. Steven accepted a job with his sister in Oklahoma. So we went back to our old home, Utah, for a few weeks. We switched out our summer clothes for winter clothes. By now we are professionals at packing up our car. We can get quite a bit to fit into small places. We also fixed the car up a bit and prepped ourselves for one last road trip, well for at least 6 months.
Everyone told us the route we were taking from American Fork, UT to Denver was the long way so we decided to try their way. It added 2 hours to our trip. Instead of an 18 hour car ride we decided to make it 20 hours.
Although it took longer than we would have liked we finally ended up in one place and we're ready to settle a bit. Now the adventure of staying in one place for a while begins. While we make Oklahoma a home, we will see who wins Stevens business for next summer and where we will go...
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Leaving the Country



After Long Island we took a side trip before our destination to North Carolina. We wanted to go to Palmyra, NY first. Unfortunately about 2 hours from our destination we had car problems. The day that was meant for church history tours was spent waiting on our car to get fixed. We made the most of it of course.
Our stroller and belongings were packed so tight, there was no way to get it out with ought unpacking the whole car. So we bought a $10 stroller from a close by pawn shop. We walked to the park, an Italian restaurant, and to a bakery for some gelato and chocolate mousse.

 
So when we finally made it to Palmyra it was a lot later than I had planned. We didn't see as much as I had first planned, but hit the highlights.


 
 
 
We heard Niagara Falls is better on the Canadian side so we booked a room. We heard we wouldn't need more than our license to get through. WRONG! We got a really hard for not having passports and not having proof that the kids were ours. Usually when we have gone to Mexico we never have a problem leaving the US but getting back in. Canada is a little backwards. We were given a really hard time leaving the US (but made our reservation none the less) and had no problem getting back in the US. Weird?!
 


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NYC Superstars


Now that I finally got to go to place I have wanted to visit since my best friend growing up went, I too can be a New York Superstar. We had so much fun going to Little Italy, Chinatown, Staten Island, the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Ground Zero, Times Square and so much more.
We even took the kids to see The Lion King, which was amazing. I really wanted to see Kristen Chenoweth in Promises, Promises but oh well. Another time another day.
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Montauk Beach


We  moved to Long Island for about 6 weeks. It was crazy, busy and fun. There was lots to see and do.
Taking the kids to the beach was probably our favorite part. I just had finished reading the Percy Jackson series so it was fun to go to Montauk beach, like in the books. Montauk is past the Hamptons and at the tip of Long Island. The kids loved just throwing sand into the water. It was our daughter, Yesenia's, first time at the beach. We are big beach lovers so this was a highlight for us.
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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Thing I'll Miss...

Here are a few thing I will miss in Louisville:

1. People's accents and how they say Louisville. We have heard it pronounced a dozen different ways. We have heard slight southern accents to the thickest of thickest. Surprisingly I will miss being called ma'am, and hon. It is very normal for everyone to call everyone these terms. I use to think being called ma'am made me feel old, but when you live down here it very normal and common.

2. The Brown Hotel's 4 star food. It is not a place we could afford to go to often if we lived here, but when you do go, it's amazing!

3. How green and beautiful it is!

4. The neat birds that come eat Kadan's bird seeds he has left out for them.

5. The mass choices of restaurants. You have such a large variety of yummy choices all within a close driving range. My tummy loves it too!
We have enjoyed our time here and the people. I don't know if we will get a chance to ever come back, but we loved our stay here. I never learned to make a mean collard greens, but I didn't leave empty handed either.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Full House


So a few of our favorite sales reps were stranded for a week. The company paid for their extended stay for a week but because they checked in late they lost the reservation and the money. Understandably the company said you're on your own for a week. We are too nice to let these poor guys find a place on their own, so we offered ours. Kadans room still has 2 twins, and we still have that aero bed, why not? So we split our king apart with Kadan on one twin, and Steven and I on the other. We just set up Yesenia's bed in our room, which gave us limited walking room, but it was worth it. The kids were happy to have people to entertain and I actually had people to cook for, it really wasn't to bad.
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Friday, August 13, 2010

New Orleans VS New York



We heard a few weeks ago that we would most likely be going to New Orleans for the post season. I was thrilled. I posted it on my facebook, texted my family, called my mom, practically yelled it from the rooftop like in those funny Japanese shows that you can't understand. My sister went there along time ago and had a grande time. Ever since then I have wanted to experience the culture. My husband use to live near there as a child and has small memories. The idea of working two more months was looking that much brighter.
That is until we got the call that New Orleans was out and Long Island was in! Which is just as exciting, only it's just as exciting in the opposite direction of home. I will save the email my sister sent of all the funs things to do for another time. Delete the New Orleans sites links from my favorites, and tuck away my notebook of must sees for another day.
The kids are excited with idea of living on an island, I can't wait to go see a show and be a New York Superstar. New York has also always been a dream to visit for me. So in two more weeks off we go to follow the yellow brick road.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Fly Like Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee


We decided to spend a day doing the touristy thing. Our family friend Cody wanted to go see the Muhamid Ali Center. There was a lot of neat and interesting things there. Kadan loved the boxing gloves they had that you could touch. Kadan says, "Mom come look at this..." and BOOM "...that's what it feels like to get punched my a boxing glove Mom." Thanks son.
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Where did I just put my trash?


In case you're not sure where you are when your throwing away trash. The citys garbage cans clear that up themselves.
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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Rain Rain Go Away


We are finally making ourselves at home, getting use to the new job and its crazy work schedule. We love how green and beutiful it is here, but lots of green also means lots of rain.

When I "kissed" the rock with the side of the car, the rock also gave the door a bear hug. This resulted in a slightly tweaked door. When we finished our drive from Oklahoma to Kentucky we put rags in the door to keep the constant air flow noise out.

The noise we have gotten use to. The wet arm when driving in the rain, not so much. We keep a rag under the seat to dry off a bit. The worst part is a day later when the sun is shining again. Why you ask? Because of the mildew smell it leaves behind I answer. Nasty. The whole car has that gross, stuffy smell. Steven was regretting not calling the insurance company right away when driving around in that all day.
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Monday, August 2, 2010

Home Sweet Home ...Next Week


As soon as we get to Louisville we were thrilled to just be there. It was so green and big. Lots of freeways, restaurants, shopping, and lots of everything! After a slight apartment confusion we finally got the keys to our new home only to find out the furniture hadn't arrived yet. They said it would be there in 2- 3 days. No worries, right?! We like camping, we can make furniture-less work for a few days. So we bought a extended twin air mattress and a lamp. The rooms were the kind where you had to have a lamp when you flip the switch, if that makes sense. Just so you know, the extended part does not actually make the mattress any bigger by the way. I recommend spending the extra $35 for a full!
1 week later...
Yup Steven and I are still sharing the twin mattress, Kadan was on the floor and Yesenia was the only one happily in her own port-a-crib. We got to eat on pillows, Japanese Style, which was fun.
Almost 2 weeks later...
We finally have furniture! They accidentally brought us 4 twin mattresses like the other non married apartments. We were so thrilled just to have furniture we decided to buy some king sheets and make the most of it.
We had a our own little porch where we bought a cute cheap yard sale kitchen set. The kids loved to play there, until it was too humid for Mom and we had to take a break inside. We also were at the opposite end of where Stevens brother and family were. Though they only were there for a month we enjoyed our walks back and forth to eachothers apartments.
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Nauvoo


This time we decided to stop in a city called Nauvoo. It has a lot of LDS historic sites there and we were so close we couldn't pass it up. It may have added an extra 2 hours to our over all trip but it was worth it.
We stayed in a hotel right across from the Mississippi river. We started out by going to Carthage jail, this was a great teaching and spiritual time for our family. We were the only one on the tour and so I didn't have to worry about our children distracting others. It was very nice, that alone was worth the side trip.
Than we went to some of the old historic buildings and saw how things were done. We went to the blacksmith shop, saw how they baked bread, made candles, made rugs and Kadan's favorite, made ropes. It was a rainy day so we didn't do as much as we could have. The temple was unique and absolutely beautiful. Although we lost the pictures from this trip it was amazing. Kadan still has his rope that we made as a family. It reminds us how we can't be as strong if we do things by ourselves, but as a family we can be extremely stronger.

The kids favorite part were the bathtub pools. We had a jacuzzi tub in our room and they thought it was our very own mini "bathtub pool." Later that evening I go to give the kids a bath when I notice Kadan had a weird round piece of skin coming off his belly. Or was it? I call Steven in to come take a look, sure enough it was a tick. His first tick, well our first tick. He was fine up until we got it off and he realized it was a bug bitting him. Dad telling him it was sucking his blood didn't help either. So that is partly why we moved East, to sell pest control. They have a lot more bugs!

Oops

On our last night in Oklahoma Steven and I decided to run to Sonic and get some drinks before we watched a movie. It was dark outside and I hadn't done much of the driving, so I forgot about this elephant sized rock at the end of the driveway. I quickly turned left out of the driveway only to feel the tension of the rock against the car, and hear the air exiting my front left tire. We hopped out of the car to our surprise we saw the scratch and the tire quickly flattening. I tell Steven to hurry and re-park it (out of the way) before it goes flat all the way. I was very nervous about Steven's reaction and relieved when he said, "Hey honey, at least you didn't swear when you hit the rock." Thanks hon!

Luckily we gave our self a whole day to get ready to go to Kentucky. Steven spent it getting a new tire. This was an issue because we just bought all brand new tires before we left and were trying to find a Big O due to the warranty. I packed our stuff while Steven was out feeling awful, and the rock was relieved to have a new view 2 inches to the left. Luckily we found a cheap tire and Stevens family provided us with a car roof carrier to take the tire with us. The Big O was to far out of the way and not worth driving to for a free tire, although there was one in Louisville.
I will never live that down when I go visit his family. My first car oops since we had been married.

Oklahoma where the wind blows sweeping thru the plains...

Steven's Sister and her family lives in Oklahoma. We hadn't visited them for a while so we took the opportunity and took slight detour. We went to the zoo, aquarium, and saw some family history. Stevens dad took us on a tour of his memories and where family graves were. It was fun to hear his Indian culture and family genealogy.
They also took us canoeing which was so peaceful and relaxing. That was my favorite part. We went and had a picnic, enjoyed the outdoors, and canoed down the lake. Steven even chased a beaver around with his brother in law. Steven loved this a little too much. He is already pricing out canoes.
I am sure our family was ready for us to leave but we were ready to stay another week.

Casa Bonita Baby


So we left good old "Happy Valley" early. Like 5 am early thinking the kids would sleep (yeah right!) We decided to stop in Denver which was only about 8 hours out. We needed to eat and stretch anyways.
As a little girl I remember getting to go eat at this place called Casa Bonita. We got to choose where we wanted to eat on our birthdays and we usually chose that or McDonald's. That was a luxury to me growing up. Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant with awful food, all you can eat free sopapillas and great entertainment. It was EXACTLY as I remember it. Kadan loved the the cowboy skit where the he got shot into the water and Yesenia was a little nervous when the gorilla came running by our table. We still ended up eating food elsewhere afterwords.
It was nice letting my kids now have some of their own memories of a place I have so many at as well.