Sweet Moves

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13th - 2008

Joe and I went to the park today so Joe could practice his sweet breakdancing moves.  

Here is Joe resting at the park after practicing his sweet breakdancing moves.
It's harder than it looks, but it's also a lot of fun.

Go Fish

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12th - 2008

Today was a lazy Sunday.  We took it easy.  We slowly unpacked from our trip, did a few loads of laundry and played lots and lots of Go Fish.  For some reason,  I hardly ever win.  Today was no different.  Brian and Joe pretty much took turns winning.  I did finally win 1 game today.

Look at Joe's pink windblown cheeks and red chapped lips.  He's still feeling the effects of all that wind on top of Greens Peak yesterday.

This is why I came - Cabin day 3

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11th - 2008

So this is the biggest reason I wanted to take this trip to the cabin:

I wanted to see the aspen trees changing to their fall colors.  So today we drove up to Greens Peak (about a 20 min. drive from the cabin).  The drive is very scenic, we passed tons of aspens on the way.  They did not disappoint.  My dad thought I was crazy when I wanted to stop the car and get out to take some close up shots.  I took tons.  This was one of my favorites:

Before we actually left for Greens Peak, we had a hard time leaving the cabin.  Paul was in the truck with the boys and had no problems getting out.  My mom, dad and I were in my mom's Lexus.  We TRIED to leave and immediately got stuck in the mud.  It had rained off and on all morning.  My dad kept trying to get us out, but the car would only go in reverse.  This is how far he went in reverse before Paul came back to rescue us:

Paul braved the rain to tow us out using the Bobcat.

We finally made it to the top of Greens Peak.  One of the boys favorite things to do is to climb the watchtower.  Sadly, it wasn't open today.  The wind was blowing fiercely at the top of the mountain.  This is 3:00 in the afternoon.  It is 45 degrees outside, but with the windchill it felt much much colder.  Alex was too funny.  He got out of the truck and then got right back in it.  He doesn't handle cold well.  Joe thought he could tough it out in his shorts and t-shirt.  Luckily I had his sweatshirt handy.  Here he is struggling to get it on:

Joe is like me.  He loves the cold.  He also loved the view from the top of the mountain.

The wind was blowing so hard that you could lean all your body weight back into it and it would hold you up.  At first I thought Paul and Joe were exaggerating, but then I tried it for myself.  I leaned back into it and sure enough, it held me up.

The gorgeous view from the top:

It was a great day.  After leaving Greens Peak we headed to El Rancho for a late lunch and then headed for home.  We got home around 8:00 tonight.

Cabin Day 2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10th - 2008

Here was the view this morning from one of the upstairs balcony's.  This was in Darrel and Trina's room.

Today was a work day.  Joe and the rest of the boys helped Grandpa pick up garbage all around the inside and the outside of the cabin.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so there was garbage all over the property.  The boys got to take the ranger out to round up the trash, so it wasn't too bad.  They also had to pick up trash inside the cabin and in the garage.  Here is Joe taking a rest from his labors:
My mom and I did some much needed cleaning.  We did the 3 upstairs bathrooms.  We also cleaned the tile in the kitchen/dining room, and we worked on the wood floors in the rest of the cabin.  Then we went into town to get some supplies.

My dad and Paul unboxed and set up furniture almost all day.  I'm sure they were happy when my mom and I went into town.  We had them moving around the couches all morning trying out different lay outs in different rooms.  The saddest was when they had put the brown leather couch upstairs and we had them move it back down and put a different couch upstairs.  Poor guys.  They probably sighed a huge sigh of relief when we went into town.  We were bossing them around pretty good.  Hey, isn't it a woman's prerogative to change her mind?
On the plus side, most of the furniture in the house is put together now.  It's definitely live-able.  This is a picture of the game table in the family room.  We are going to play a lot of Yahtzee, Nertz, Dominoes and Hearts at that table.  I can't wait.

Cabin Day

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9th - 2008

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Today I got to go here:

It's been over a year since I've been up here, and I've been going through major withdrawals.  In fact.  I've been going through withdrawal's since the old cabin burned down (was that in 2001 or 2002?).  Brian, Joe and I used to go up there A LOT.  We miss it.  My dad has been working on this cabin for years.  It is so nearly completed now.  We should all be up there for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait.

Anyway, my mom and I packed up the boys (Joe, Michael and Alex) and headed up north.  You get a real interesting insight into the mind of boys when you are trapped in a car with them for 4 hours.  But that is another story.  

This was the first thing they did when they got to the cabin (of course).  My dad, Paul and Dallin had gone up earlier in the week to work.  When Joe, Michael and Alex got there, they took the ranger out for a ride.  
The boys pretty much had free reign of the upstairs, and they made good use of it.  I love the cabin because the boys don't sit around watching t.v. or playing video games.  They hang out together, go for hikes, go for rides, make up games to play and just have a good time.
I also love the cabin because the days seem so long.  You can be up there 2 days and it feels like a week.  Also, the weather is SO much nicer.  After dying from the heat all summer, it was nice to get into the cool air.  

This was a GREAT day.

A new obsession

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8th - 2008

I think Joe may officially have a new obsession. It's called break-dancing. After seeing Gev last night at the show (pictured here) he has been watching old episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. He's also been on line looking up break dancing videos and moves. We've been searching for local break dancing classes. If any of you out there know of any, please let me know.

We must have watched Gev's break dancing solo about 20 times today. It's ok with me. I love Gev. I could watch him dance all day.

By the way Elise, we saw the pictures of you and Megan after the show with the dancers. We were more than jealous. Joe of course loves the one of you guys with Gev. My favorite dancers this year were: Gev, Mark, Twitch, Courtney and Chelsie H.

Good times.

SYTYCD

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7th - 2008


Everyone else already blogged about this (I'm always behind). Tonight we went and saw So You Think You Can Dance. It was awesome (of course). Tonight happened to be the grand opening for Ganem Jewelers in Scottsdale, so Brian ended up missing the show. We gave his ticket to Michael. Here are Joe and Michael showing their support for Twitch by sporting the Twitch glasses and the 4-real sign.

This was my favorite performance of the show: It's Twitch and Katie dancing to "Mercy".

This was Joe's favorite of the show: It's Twitch and Kherington dancing a waltz to "A New Day Has Begun." Both Joe and Michael are fans of Kherington. They think she's gorgeous (who doesn't?) Joe made sure to rub it in to Brian that he would be missing out on seeing Kherington (Brian is a fan of hers too).
The show was great. Twitch was Joe's favorite before the show, but after, it was all about Gev. Gev really stole the show. He was hillarious. He is now officially Joe's favorite. He especially loved Gev's breakdancing solo. If I new how to add video's I would add it here, but I don't

Well Kim...here you go:

It was a great night. I can't wait until next year.