Camping Trip

This year's camping trip was a bit unusual compared to the other years we've gone, but still always enjoyable. Through some scheduling errors and other mishaps, we missed out on most of our extended family going. So as it turned out, only our family and Karen's family went! Although we greatly missed everyone, it was rather nice just the 7 of us. (In fact Ivy kept naming off everyone that should have been there.)


John doin' what he does best...STEAKS!! Too bad there were no campfires allowed or he would have been grillin' them...





It rained quite a lot this trip so the kiddlets had plenty of time to do camp crafts.







On the second day we all decided to talk a walk, and I got a bunch of nice pictures!








Mornin' Sunshine!

First cup of Cocoa is always the most important...

Happy 18th!

Haha...no I'm not celebrating my 18th birthday for the 2nd time...

Bridget's now an adult!

Scary thought...just cuz it makes me that much older!  12 years older to be exact!

Happy 18th Birthday Bean!

Riley's Birthday

Well, after many delays...we finally had Riley's Birthday Party.  Even though I think we did it some time in April (when his birthday's at the end of Feb!) it will sit in the right order in the scrapbook...if I ever can get to that point!

Ivy's Art Work

Talent in the fine arts must run in this family...Bridget's a fantastic artist, I'm a pretty good author and Dad's great on both ends of the artistic spectrum!  Well, add another artist to the list...

Ivy's in love with drawing lately.  Everything from 'Toothless' the dragon from "How to Train Your Dragon" to bikes, flowers, birthday cakes...and the list is always expanding.  Now she's learned to write 'love you' from memory and is busy making love posters for everybody.  Here's a few...

After drawing this one, Ivy runs up to me and asks "How write Kim?"

                                 

I asked her for which Grandma this was for and Ivy said both!

I love the 'corrections'  on this one...This was for her Grandpas, but she used the wrong word example and re-wrote Grandma.  I wrote out 'Grandpa' and she looks at me and says, "I got an idea!"  Ivy added the 'p' in front of the first 'a' and then said, "There, all better!"

Don't feel left out if you didn't get one named to you...I'm sure there's more to come!

3 Things About Me!

Its fun to learn new and different things about our friends.

3 names I go by:

1. Jennie

2. Jennifer

3. Oneesama (Bridget's name for me in Japanese, meaning 'Honored Older Sister')

3 places I've lived:

1. Mesa, AZ

2. Queen Creek, AZ

3. San Tan Valley, AZ  (same house...new city name)

3 places I've worked:

1. Walmart

2. America West Airlines

3. Fry's Food and Drug

3 places I go every week:

1. Ivy's school

2. Work at Walmart

3. Post Office

3 places I've been on vacation:

1.  North Carolina

2.  Four Corners

3.  Disneyland!  (I think you'll notice a trend here soon...)

3 people who email me regularly:

1. Linda (My mother-in-law)

2. My mother

3.  John / Kim (they email me about the same)

3 people who text me regularly:

1. Kim

2. John

3. Mom

3 people I'd love to see right now:

1. Kim and Steve

2. Karen and Fam

3. Either parent of mine

3 places I'd rather be right now and with whom:

1. On a Alaskan Cruise with John...(hopefully next year!)

2. Blue ridge reservoir with the Family

3. On a road trip somewhere with the family

3 things I did before noon

1. A load of dishes

2. Played with kids and their play-doh

3. Took Ivy to school

 
3 foods I love to eat:

1. Japanese/Chinese

2. My in-law's Italian cooking

3. John's steaks

3 places I love to eat:

1. Taco Bell

2. Red Lobster

3. At home with family and friends

3 goals I have:

1. Keep losing weight

2. Get the many project I have done-- scrapbooking, writing...

3. Get my house cleaned up

3 things I am looking forward to this year:

1. Seeing Kim and Steve in June

2. Disneyland!

3. My 10th anniversary

3 people I've talked to today

1. John

2. Kim

3. Bridget

3 places I want to visit some day:

1. Japan

2. Ireland

3. Hawaii

Anyone that wants to take a shot at it...by all means, have fun!

Odd Little Boy

So Riley likes to go to bed wearing things.  It started off with a purple 'ski' cap and now it appears he's moved onto sunglasses.  Half the time, we're not even sure he's asleep or faking it!

 

This family just keeps getting bigger...

It's so interesting to see how many people from different backgrounds and upbringings you can get into one family!  Ivy and Riley just gained another uncle (Steve) almost a year ago, and now they have a step Aunt and Uncle.  Pam's son Charles (my step brother) and his fiance Kiera tied the knot earlier this month while on graduation leave from Marine Corp boot camp!  We're all so happy for them and very proud to add another Marine to our long list of military family members.

 Congrats to you both!!

Easter

Hope everyone had as much of a nice Easter as we did!

Happy Birthday Kim!!

Yay!  Whoo-hoo!  You're 28!  

Wow...don't you feel old...

cuz, I know I sure do sometimes!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

We're Back...

Yup...we're back home! North Carolina is so beautiful, so different from Arizona. It was so nice to visit with Kim and Steve, and help them settle into their new apartment...for all of 4 months until their deployment. Geez, I'll miss them so much!

Had a lot of firsts on this trip...

* First time nearly running out of gas in the middle of nowhere. (NOT my fault...I always fill up at 1/2 a tank on road trips, but the only station available at the time was an unlit creepy single pump...like out of a horror movie. And at 3am, I thought it was wise of me to move on!)

* First time experiencing black ice and skidding off the road into a snow bank. This is one of many reasons why I live in Arizona!

* First time driving that far across the country and for 40 hours straight. I started forgetting just how long and what day it was since we'd been in the car for so long!

* First time narrowly missing making additions to the roadkill population. Stupid Jackrabbits and ELK!

I'll post the few pics we took shortly...but there's not much cuz we didn't do anything! Just sat around watchin' Star Trek movies, playin' Mario Cart, and generally just vegging-out. Too bad we were so lazy, there was a zoo and a botanical garden I thought the kids would enjoy. Oh well...next time! Perhaps a trip when they get home from deployment...

AND...
My computer is working again! The motherboard crapped out so I had to use John's for two weeks. But it's back...thank goodness! We thought it was my hard drive, so I was prepared that I lost almost everything. But nope! All is saved and accessible again, so hopefully I'll be able to finally get more of my projects finished up and all my files backed up. It's hard to do since they're constantly changing!

I must say...my husband rocks...seriously. He always manages to fix my computer before I have a total melt down of anxiety. It's just one more reason (out of about a million) why I can't live without him.