Word on the Streets

vacation at home day 3. . .

an afternoon and evening at the lake with friends. it is the first trip we have taken to the lake since moving here in 2002. first time on a boat with our kids. and it was just a joy. 

our friends had this awesome float tube that was so stable it never turned over. it was perfect for jack and morgan to get used to being pulled behind a boat. they rode with dad and then by themselves at a slower speed. good thing our friends are all about getting little kids used to the sport by starting them off easy. 

see how chill they were while being pulled. well i would be too at that speed!

sitting still while we anchor for some dinner

as soon as the boat stopped it was a race to see who could jump in first. morgan here below:

and flying jack:

their favorite part i think was just swimming in the lake. morgan said his favorite part was jumping off the front of the boat into the water. jack's favorite was watching daddy and carl wrestle while riding the tube at full speed.

rod and morgan below on the ride home:

on the ride home i could not help but think how happy we had all been today. i was relieved to know that there are days in our future of going to the lake with our kids and enjoying it. when the boys were littler i just had this thing about going to the lake--a flat out fear. maybe it was because we had two at at time and i just felt like i would never be able to watch them close enough. but now we are venturing into new territory. they swim well and enjoy it. (lifejackets make it easy too.) they are not crazy boys. they usually approach new things with caution. that makes their momma sigh with a relief. all things have a season. before this summer, it was not our season for the lake. from now on it seems there will be many seasons of summer fun like this.

i would say that for having planned to go to our family cabin this weekend and then not, we have had a great vacation instead right here around home.

friends like this....priceless

last weekend i had one of the best weekends ever. i went to the bay area in northern california to one of my best friend's weddings. the fun thing about weddings is the old friends you get to spend so much time with in and around the wedding festivities.
for me girlfriends i made in my 20's have become permanent fixtures in my life. funny enough though--we don't call each other weekly and with some of them it is really only an annual christmas cards exchange that keeps us filled in on one another's lives and looks. with others it has been since my wedding 8 years ago that this gang has been together. that is far too long! the thing is though--when we do get together it is as if no time has passed at all and we pick up right where we left off as if we saw each other yesterday. there are no apologies for not emailing, calling or visiting each other. nope. nothing like that is ever voiced. it is just understood that when we do get to see each other--we take it from where we left it and run with it.

after i graduated from university i moved to the palo alto, california area and with the incredible help of my girlfriend nancy (the bride this last weekend--in the middle below) i found a great place to live and a job. i also found a cadre of incredible women with whom i would remain dear friends for life. we all attended the stanford university singles ward. we all saw people come and go and we had upteen million discussions about the various guys coming and going and some never going from the stanford ward. my experiences as a single adult woman during that post undergraduate time really rooted my commitment to my faith, strengthened my self-esteem and  cemented my friendships with a group of women who i view as some of the most competent, faithful, dear, serving, intellectual, leaders i have ever known.
all i can do when i am around these women is be so grateful that they consider me a close confidant. we uplift one another. we "get" each other. we respect each other tremendously and when we talk about how much we mean to one another--well--not really a one of us can do so without it evoking some serious emotion within us.

above: stephanie, lori, nancy, julia and lesli
*did i mention that one of the best things we do is eat great food together? above we went to lunch with the bride to be the day before her wedding and below we met more of us for dinner together sans the bride to be.
below: stephanie, susan, lori, julia, jennifer

below: sheri, lori, lesli, julia, heidi, susan at nancy's wedding reception

below: some of us with the darling bride at the oakland,ca lds temple
*notice her adorable "wedding" dress she chose from anthropologie! so nancy!

*there are a few of "the dear ones" who are missing from these photos. if any of you gals happen to have a photo from the night at lori's after the wedding please send it my way!
parting note: it will NOT be another 8 years before we do this again. i am so up for another rendezvous with you all in the next year or two. the "5cent-home" on channing with its roaring fireplace, resident racoons and stunning hostess is right where i wanna be!
thanks for a weekend long over due ladies!

shlumpadinka. . .

one of my really sweet neighbors who is also a stay-at-home mother of two little boys younger than mine called me tonight just to tell me that i am not a "shlumpadinka" as described on the oprah show today!
see here: shlumpadinka defined
she was watching today's episode that she had tivo'ed and was kind enough to call and find out if i watched the show today. when i said yes i did, she told me how she notices each time she sees me that i am "put together".
WHAT A NICE NEIGHBOR FRIEND IS SHE?
it just made my night!
after thanking her tons and then saying goodbye i went right upstairs, pulled my hair up in a messy ponytail, took my make-up off and dressed in some seriously elastic waist sweats and slipper socks! shlumpadinka style! i thought to myself--if only i had a carton of bon-bons or ice cream dips in my freezer i would walk on over to her place and share them with her!
are you a closet shlumpadinka too?

finally!!!

for the past 4 years we have participated in the most fun school fund-raiser for our friends' montessori private school. it is a road race, scavenger hunt, amazing race - type of event complete with crazy trivia, silly attire, lots of puzzles, and some serious games of identification. are you totally lost yet? well it is just one of those nights when you expect to hire a babysitter for a good 6 hours and go with your teammates to put your minds to the test!
we ran the first year with the wallaces.
the next year the evensens asked us to run it with them so we agreed. ever since our first run with the evensens we have talked smack about winning the entire race! we talked so big. last year we came in an hour earlier than every other team, turned out answer sheets in confidently and felt proud. that is until those scoring our answer sheets took huge gasps of breath and shockingly told us that we had not filled in any of the answers (apparently we overlooked the part that you had to fill in every single part of the paperwork even if you could figure out the clues to get from one location to the next.) we came in 16th that year. it was rotten. simply rotten. we could not talk smack at all.
this year we put our pride and anxiousness aside and strolled through the entire race. we crept like turtles and filled in every possible thing and then some on the paperwork. we practically wrote essays and double, triple, four-ple checked everything! and this year we came in only 15 minutes before the designated finish time for bonus points.
and this year--we actually placed 3rd!

here we are at the final meeting place: at mustang sally's diner in the ford motor company dealership (who knew that ford car dealership had a diner in it?! so fun)
rod, me in my grandad bunker's big grey goose stetson and jeni and lars evensen.
yep. you guessed it--it was cowboy theme this year and it rocked for us that both jeni and lars are true hillbillies! (no mans land oregon and montana upbringin's.) when it came to clue's those two knew most everything and we filled in where we could. thanks to rod and his blackberry acting as a modem we had internet in our car! thanks babe!
we only missed 1st place by like 11 points and that was because of the bowling leg of the race where our team didn't throw down as many pins as we needed. so all things considered--take the bowling factor out and we really did amazingly great this year. we reached our goal as a team: to just place in the top 5. so we were thrilled with 3rd and we won 4 tickets to a magic show down on the strip: this is vegas of course!
after a night like this one the last thing i wanna see is another crossword puzzle or word game for a long long time! yippeee kaaayeahh cowboy. another road rally down....so many more to come.

boys n blocks

today while cleaning out the garage we found these blocks dave & sharon brought us from the farm. it was an extra good find to keep boys occupied. jack and morgan built huge creations with much help from their hero--mitchell (neighbor).
thanks again, mitchell!
below: jack, mitchell, morgan

thick as thieves

when jen willits and i get together i feel like we are right back to our liberty square days of sharing clothing, food & friends. old roommates for me are a treat! i feel totally connected to this gal. our lives have taken us on varied paths from one another but we have managed to keep a close connection and appreciation for one another. i think the world of this woman and get tickled pink to see her. this visit was such a treat to get to see her beautiful daughter too. if she only knew what kind of goofy things her mom and i did in college together! we were thick as thieves in college and somehow we feel just the same whenever we've met up through the years since then. but isn't that how it is with the best of friends? here's to us as mom's, girlfriends, confidants, and life coaches for each other! love ya girlie. thanks for the visit!

take a looksee...

so the fever starts...i love fellow bloggers now who find it fun to think in terms of new posts. i am sure my little circle of friends will soon all be connected through checking one another's blogs. doesn't that sound fun at the end of a long day?
keep in mind i love comments as much as you will so be sure to leave one when you feel like it.
here are the first two in the line up who are off and running.
come ya'll get yours up and running and let us all enjoy!
dadays, fancy pants and kmarie--your turn! hehe

larae's blog
elizabeth's blog

RedRock Tour with Uncle Matt & Aunt Shelley

Our friends Matt & Shelley came down from rainy Vancouver, B.C. to dry out! We took them on a little jont to Red Rock Canyon just outside Vegas to show them the colors of the desert. (matt w/morgan, shelley w/jack)

Jack's treasure!

lesli, jack & morgan (age 3).