Friends

One of the things I miss most from Sacramento are our good friends the Dressers. Their oldest son, Jeffrey had a basketball tournament in town the week that we were on spring break so we were able to get together and enjoy our friendship. It was the first time that we were able to meet their new addition who is now 7 months old. Jillian is their 4th child and 2nd daughter rounding off their family beautifully. Aaron was

in heaven with Jeffrey and Jordan. Juliana was able to spend the night once with Olivia. We weren't able to watch Jeffrey play in his tournament, but we did get to watch him practice with his dad at the gym in our church building. I was amazed at the dedication of an 11 yr old. He seriously has some mad skills. And what was even better was the fact that Jeff, dad, could drill him

HARD and Jeffrey would just keep at it. It was fabulously therapeutic for me to have Jen here for even a short time. I can't wait for fall when the soccer tourneys are in town. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Kitchen Renovation/Re-do

Towards the end of February it was raining a lot. "A lot" here is every day it rains all day and the total rain fall is 1/4 inch! Anyways, it was enough to do some damage. I noticed our kitchen floor was... mushy, we had a leaky seal in our slider door. After WEEKS of renovations, it took way longer than it should have, we have a brand new slider, and brand new laminate flooring which was installed a million times better than the original, new baseboards, trim and new paint. All at no cost to us since it was the builders fault for the leaky door. So, this is our 2nd free kitchen floor. NICE! (The mildew testers that ripped up the water damaged areas did such a poor job that more of the floor needed to be replaced. AND, when they took out the old flooring they scratched the existing floor all the way to the garage. Too bad they didn't carry it out the front door!)

Growing Up

For Livi's 6th birthday, Grandpa and Nana gave Olivia a gift card to Home Depot for her to "remodel" her room. The room has yet to be completed but we knocked out a huge chunk by redoing her closet. Everything is now accessible by her. Upon making more room in her room, and making it work better for her, she decided to sacrifice some of her things from when she was "little". Dolly, who was given to her at her baby shower by her great Aunt Debbie was given final hugs and sent on its way. As well as her princess trunk stuffed to the brim with dress up clothes and her princess jewelry box stuffed with jewels. I was surprised that she wanted to get rid of these things. I knew she didn't really use them except for when friends came over, but I was happy that she was able to let go of some of her younger play times. WOW do they grow up fast of what?!

Cancun

The Marriott Casa Magna

(March 1st through the 6th)

Let me first start off by reminding myself of why we were so fortunate to go on such a FANTASTIC trip. Rachel, you were husbandless for 7 months! Yes, nearly 3 years later Bill and I were able to reap the rewards of his training and vacation for 6 days in the beautiful Caribbean. I really could not believe the colors that were so perfectly painted onto that canvas. The sand with the lightest hint of tan fading into the shallow pale blue waters and then on to the amazing turquoise hues of the Caribbean Sea. Breath taking. Had my mom ever seen it in person, she never would have come home.

Man, am I lucky or what?!?! What a great view. Perfect guy, perfect beach...

The locals said it was the coldest winter they've had in YEARS! It was high of...72. But we still laid out by the pool everyday in hopes that the clouds would separate and our skin could be kissed by the sweet sun. (In between the clouds we would quickly cover with extra towels.)

On Wednesday we walked a few miles down the beach to get to the flea market and some malls. I was determined to find great shells for the kids. Well, along our walk I found a great conch

shell and decided to lighten its load by rinsing the sand off of it. As I waded into the ocean Bill must have been searching for sharks because the next thing I know a huge wave and just kissed my face "good-morning" and drenched my body. Bill didn't even see it. I couldn't stop laughing

at myself. And the conch, I ended up trading mine for one under a stair case where a bunch had been piled up. It was just as heavy but in better repair. The shopping was fun. We went through two malls that have all the regular stores that you'd find here and then caught a bus to get further on down to the flea market. This is where we bought the kids souvenirs.

We stayed by the pool until at last Friday, our last day came and

the wind had died and the sun was shining and we ventured out to the sand. We let our youth come back to play and swam in the ocean and tried out body surfing. It was a blast. We swam out to the buoys, to see what we could see... still just a lot of ocean. The sun did start to play

peek-a-boo so we made it back up to the pool deck where we ordered the tastiest
burgers ever, poolside. HOW FUN! What a treat to have such a perfect day. Later we went out to a Thai restaurant on site. I had never had Thai and Bill wanted me to try it. It wasn't bad. This day we finally got color.

Bill, a little too much on his trunk, I said he looked like a strawberry. For me, it was my legs and my back. I'm pretty sure I had Bill put sunscreen on my back...hmmm?! That night in bed even the sheets were a little too much for our lobster crusted bodies.

Tuesday we did zip line tours at a place called Selvatica. There were 12 different zip lines through the jungle. Bill said what I was thinking, "I wish there was more to look at than just... trees." But I suppose it is the jungle. According to the staff we just missed the monke

ys. They say they come out and hang around the lines at lunch time. We did our zip tour in the morning and then had the opportunity to swim in a cenote, a natural pool in the jungle. Pretty cool if you didn't look at the garden hose... it couldn't have been supplying all the water, perhaps just pumping water up for the planted vegetation?.?. Bill did the bigger zip line into

the pool where the little one was enough for me, even though my feet were practically touching the water by the time you let go. The water

wasn't too bad. A little cold but I stayed in for a while. After our swim we went back to

the hut and had fajitas, YUM, and watched video of our group from throughout the day. Bill and I both were able to do some of the lines upside down which was a fun experience. We both bought shirts for memorabilia, Bill's states that, "I did it upside down" and has the jungle trees upside down. Great experience and would highly recommend it to anyone. (They even said they could accommodate kids as little as 3 years old.)

I loved being able to see coconuts on all the trees. Not everything in Cancun is different, they still have McDonalds which we took advantage of for a cheap meal one night, but I even took a picture of that because it was in CANCUN! We bought the kids mexican candy bars and other souvenirish things. A shirt and pajamas for Aaron, a swim cover up and bracelet for Livi and of course post cards and shells. (The post cards...argh the post cards. I wanted to mail them home so they would have all the neat stamps on them. Bill, being practical, said, "No, we'll get home before the cards." Well he let me win and gave them to the front desk to mail, we've been home almost a month and still no cards. I'm pretty sure they don't travel by donkey anymore... ARGH! They were great. One was even of the coast line and our hotel was front and center.

On Thursday we took an all day excursion to the Yucatan and saw one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza Pyramids. It was incredible to stand at the base of the 31 meter pyramid and learn only a small part of it's history. (The largest one is in... Brazil, I think, and stands at 90 meters!!!) Even more incredible to tie it to everything we know from the Book of Mormon and the ways that people worshipped. The

mayan culture was fascinating to me and if given the chance I would love to go back and study it from the church's view. Something that was so different to me was that the mayan people are a small people and look very much like the chinese. Because they are small, they build things, well, small. (It was just really funny to me. I don't know why. When you're having such a great time joy is found everywhere. Even in small bathroom stall doors.)

They said that the concrete that was under foot was all the ruins that had yet to be uncovered. The mayans built cities on top of cities. When crops would die they would move to new territory. Only to come back many of years later and rebuild on top of what was already there. Many of the buildings were ruined due to french explorers who heard of "Mayan Treasures" so they used dynamite to get in to the temples and other buildings. The treasures were the bodies. The french were obviously disappointed but it helped archeologists discover once hidden rooms.

This was the observatory and to build it took mind boggling calculations. The sun comes through the door shown at an exact time of year, one of the solstices, I think. Everything about the pyramids had to do with the calendar. The main pyramid, above, has 91 steps on all four sides = 364 days with the 365th day being the last step up to the temple on top. And on and on and on. It really was incredible. It's also said to have perfect acoustic sound and has had several famous singers perform. Pavaratti was one I remember and Elton John was due to perform for the spring solstice. There is a fun echo that is heard if you clap near the base of the pyramid you can hear a bird calling back to you. In another courtyard of sorts one clap would echo 7 times.

7 and 13 are very important numbers to the mayans. The information was all very amazing. There were peddlers along the way that were selling everything from marble carved domino sets to

jaguar heads, jewelry, pot holders, etc. we bought the kids each a pyramid. AND there were iguanas everywhere. This one on the left, was next to the the cenote that I'm kneeling in front of, on the right. I walked past again, later and wasn't paying attention, the lizard moved and scared me so bad I nearly fell over.

Our tour guide was fantastic and after the tour we were able to relax at the Mayaland hotel and enjoy their buffet lunch and dancers. The food was just what I needed to satisfy my authentic mexican food craving.

On Saturday it was time to go home. We enjoyed one last deep breath of ocean air from our balcony, from which we had heard the ocean crash on the sand every night we were there, and then headed downstairs for one of the highlights of the week, which we benefitted from 3 times... the breakfast buffet.

Needless to say we didn't lose any weight on this trip. Between the buffet, the pool side service and room service, oh yeah and the icecream shop downstairs, we ate like kings. WHAT A BLAST! Thanks babe. I'll vacation with you any day. It was awesome. And all within budget, I LOVE IT!

And then to come home to this! And this wasn't even comparable to the decorations that flooded our garage or our kitchen, banister and bedroom door! Thanks Dad and Sue for helping the kids have such a great time while we were gone.

... and then she was SIX!

Six, really?! WOW! I think she's catching up to me, however that would work, I'm not sure, but my goodness. Olivia really had a fun birthday. This year her birthday fell on a Thursday which meant she was able to experience something I never had the luxury of, cupcakes at school, ON HER BIRTHDAY! I felt awful about it though.

Livi was insistent that she wanted chocolate cupcakes and her teacher, Ms. Lee is so

good to Olivia and, bless her heart wouldn't say no, but chocolate and Kindergartners don't mix.

(Oh, the stresses of being a teacher, I remember them all too well.) We were extra meticulous with clean up.

This picture is one of the new outfits Grandma sent, that Livi HAD to wear to school the next day. You can tell how much she loves it. The jeans, so Olivia. She started doing that a while back, on her own, and now the thought of putting leggings or tights on just seems strange. I love it. She totally pulls it off and makes it cute! I just want to know where she gets the idea of a pose like that? (I suppose it's Vegas culture seeping in!!!)

We were all happy that our company had arrived, but Aaron was ecstatic!

Dad and Sue (dad's significant other) got in late that night so we opened up family gifts and had cake and ice cream with them. The next night they took us out to dinner at Famous Dave's, it's a BBQ place, only after the Roadrunner roadhouse we had raved about had apparently gone out of business sometime in the previous 1 1/2 weeks?! Olivia made sure to wear her gold medal birthday medallion that Dad had cut out and we had painted, to dinner so that the servers would be sure to recognize her as the birthday girl. The waiter was so nice about it he brought a sundae for the whole table to share!

Loved this picture. There was one "good" picture but this one is great. The kids personalities show through so much. Aaron, all about the food (like his mom), and Livi, so in to her poses that she knocked me out! Bill's always looking suave.

The next day, Saturday was the much anticipated birthday party.

We had made invitations and sent them to her friends and were planning an Olympic themed party with olympic games to play.

I wanted this picture because it catches Livi in her "shy" moment. It's very subtle and watching her no one would even know that she's embarrassed about what's going on around her. She could be talking to you just fine but, there she goes with her left hand, to tuck her hair behind her ear, and she'll do it again and again. LOVE IT! (Also, notice the purse on her right

shoulder. A new birthday present that she had just opened from Ellie Gardner, a jean skirt purse. She wore it every where the next few days, even to church.) The picture on the right, yep there goes the left ear tuck, just as we're starting to sing "Happy Birthday" on her birthday night.

Olivia's choice for cake was my mom's recipe for a quick cherry cheesecake. I tried to convince her for a long time to let me make a cake for her, but she wanted the cherry cheese

cake that we had made for Valentine's Day. So, that's what we did. By far the easiest birthday dessert ever. I did make the graham cracker crust from scratch, and we made it "American-ish" by adding blueberries. In the end, Olivia and our family loved it, the girls, not so much. Oh well.

She had 8 girlfriends that came (2 weren't in time for this cute photo op.) and they all had a fun time. The games we played were, speed skating, long jump, javelin throw, shot put, and bob sled.

Natalya, spinning on the left, and Brea on the right, are doing the shot put, with a cotton ball. Megan, in pink, just threw her javelin, a toothpick.

Ashlyn, on the right,
and Zoey on the left

are bobsledding down the stairs in a mummy bag. (Zoey went too fast for me to hold on to). And Aaron was thrilled to show all the girls how to do our version of speed skating, running and sliding. I fortunately am spry enough to have

demonstrated all the sports as well. This is my speed skating and bobsled run. Although, I wasn't quite prepared for how fast the bobsled would actually go. WHOA!

Every olympian needs a gold medal, so as the girls came to the party Olivia draped around their necks gold medals that said, "Olivia's Gold Medal Friend". After each even the girls got gold, silver and bronze hershey kisses and at the end they all stood with their dum-dum bouquets lifted high in the air, for one final pose. (Once again, what's with that pose?!)

What can I say about Olivia that I haven't already said. She amazes us all the time. She started playing the violin in January and actually made me cry while I listened to her do a duet of Twinkle with her teacher on the piano. She's doing Suzuki method, so those who are familiar with it know that Twinkle isn't your average Twinkle. Practices are sometimes a struggle but I remind her that it is her choice to be playing and that if she doesn't want to practice she needs to go call her teacher and tell her she won't be in for lessons the following week. This gets her every time. Sad, but true, when she's really in trouble, I threaten taking away her violin and she cracks. I did take it away once and one would think the world was going to end.

She is dramatic but with that drama comes intense emotion. Emotion for good, for bad, and for the spiritual things in life. I took her to an photo gallery at the new City Center down on the strip and showed her a photo of where we go camping. I said, "Oh, look. There's where we

camping every year. That's where we would go camping with Granma. (Appropriately it's called "God's Garden" by Robert Lough Jr.) I kid you not. She cried for the next 10 minutes over that photo. She had even found it in the book that was on display for sale and sat there and sobbed. I had to keep wiping the tears away so they wouldn't spot the page in the book. I was finally able to tear her away, but as soon as we got home she drew the picture. Which leads to another thing about her... so very ARTSY CRAFTSY! She loves making little art projects. Our recycling bins are her treasure boxes. She made these robots completely unassisted after watching a Curious George episode about robots. So fun! (There's the hip.) The strings are to control the robot's arms. And to tell you the truth, I'm a little concerned, I said she made these completely unassisted... how the heck did she cut out the eye holes??? Let's just say, for good parenting sake, Yeah, I did that part. ?!?

Olivia has really been enjoying reading Judy Blume lately. She's into the series, "The Pain and the Great One". It makes her laugh so hard she's cried. I love that.

Her love for her family is great but she needs to be reminded often to love her brother. She is already a teenager when it comes to sleep. We know not to wake her unless it is imperative. Aaron is so excited in the mornings and doesn't want to wait. When Livi is screaming with a raspy throat, "Aaron, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" we know he wasn't as patient as he should've been.

Livi, (which she told me that she wants to go by now), we love you and everything you give to our family. Happy 6th Birthday princess.