4 days= 10 Ladies Scrappin', 1001 Sheets of Paper, 9 Hours Total Sleep, 2 Baptisms, Countless Happy Memories

Well, I've finally put away enough of the *stuff* I packed on my scrapbook weekend to not feel too guilty for sitting at the computer! Can I just say, I wasn't too sure that I was going to have very much fun bunkered down in a windowless room at the Best Western for 4 days with 9 other ladies and a bunch of scrapbooking supplies. Was I ever wrong! It was the BEST! The awesome part is all due to the 9 other ladies - I got to know them all better and had soooo much fun! I got the least amount of scrapping done, but I also was the one to take advantage of every "Let's go get something to eat" offer!

Um...this photo? We realized LATE Friday night that 2 of the ladies were leaving early Saturday morning and we hadn't taken a group shot yet. So we called the security guard and asked him to come to the scrapbooking room. When he got there, we asked him to take a picture for us. Is that wrong?


The photo journaling was cut a few hours short for the best reason: The baptism of our neighbors, Keith and Elizabeth!

They have been taking discussions for quite a while at our house, and it was heartwarming to see this day finally come! 6 of the 7 Elders who have taught them were able to come (Elder Faux is already home), so it was awesome to see all of them too! Geoffrey is an inspired missionary, he always has been, and I know it was so special to him that Elizabeth asked him to do her baptism. It would be hard to put into words how thrilled we were, so I'll leave it at that.


So I'm recovering from my lack of sleep, trying to clean up the house, and pay attention to my sweet husband and children. Easton informed me tonight that this was "one of the worst days ever" and it wasn't "all Mom's fault, but mostly"". That's great. We've also fallen off the family scripture bandwagon, we just haven't gotten it together to read EVERY morning since we went to Powell. Good thing I've had a fantastic weekend to charge my batteries! Tomorrow is a NEW day, and I'm hoping to be a little better as a mom!

Is this Legal?

Geoffrey and I were leaving Salt Lake after watching Ballet West's Giselle and taking Sara out to dinner when she was done. We're waiting to get on the freeway. I hear a loud motorcycle and see this:The Real Salt Lake Lion getting on the freeway! Crazy! Can he see out of that thing? He was more than willing to pose for my cell-phone camera. A man in a lion suit on a motorcycle on the freeway is about as good of an idea as my leaving my husband and 3 children alone for the next 3 days.

Oh, I'm supposed to be packing for my 3 days of scrapbooking with ladies from my ward/friends at a hotel in Salt Lake. Whatever possessed me to sign up for this?! Do you have any idea how hard is to pack enough stuff to scrapbook for 3 days? What was I thinking?

Jealousy: Justified?

af*fair', n. 1. business matter. 2. event. 3. amorous relationship

am*or-ous, adj. expressing love

Having established the definitions, here's the story. Geoffrey loves Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy. Has for a while. Never misses reading his espn.com updates. Loves to tell me all about how funny he is. OK, whatever. Then, I start hearing about how funny Bill Simmons' wife, the Sports Gal is. I guess she writes for espn.com too. That's fine, he can give this other man and women his undivided attention everyday and talk incessantly about them without my feeling threatened. This is when I began to worry:

Me: "Welcome home honey, how was your day?"
Geoffrey: (rushing to computer) "Let's watch The Bachelor"
Me: "The Bachelor? The trashy reality show with slutty girls and a desperate-to-get-laid man?" Geoffrey: "Yes, the Sports Gal and Guy say it's really funny."

So my husband is watching The Bachelor: An Officer and A Gentleman (Jeremy! Why didn't you think of doing this first?) so he can read the Sports Gal's blog about it?!? Sounds like something you would only do for an amorous relationship to me!! In the true spirit of if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em, I have watched the first 2 episodes of Lt. Andy Baldwin's quest to find his soul mate. As evidenced by the fact he eliminated the one girl who said she was "conservative and a virgin", I stand by my original assessment of the show. Lt. Andy seems to work out quite a bit, and for the sake of standing by my husband and expressing my love for him, I will keep watching and reading the Sports Gal's musings of the happenings (I'm keeping my eye on you Sports Gal). Whew, I'm so lucky that abc.com lets you watch this quality show on-line.

In other Barber news ...Nixon's arm is going to heal just fine. He had a red cast put on in honor of our Halos. Sara's first performance of Giselle is tonight. The YW had a fun dinner this week; each YW invited a sister from the ward who was new or that they didn't know very well. It's been a while since I've done anything creative, but Sara and I made the name tags and that was fun:
Hope your day is super!

Rabbit Recap

Good thing I have a camera I love to take cute pictures of my kids dressed up for church. Oh wait! I forgot to do that. Here is what you are left with ...

I remember taking my sweet children to the neighborhood hunt with their hair done and dressed in cute little outfits:

That was 2003. Now it is 2007, they are older and dress themselves more often. So now I end up with pictures like this:The two with blue buckets on their heads are mine. Well, we still had a good time. Really, this is a fun neighborhood. We even let everyone use the gazebo we consider to be ours for treats after the hunt!

Sunday was a great day. In Young Women's, we did a completely silent lesson. The girls watched a DVD that had pictures of the Savior, quotes about Him, music playing, and the girls had journals with some questions to help them think about their own personal relationship with the Savior and their testimony of Him. I was nervous that not speaking for a whole lesson would be hard for them, but there was an awesome spirit in the room, and I could hear lots of pens earnestly writing, it turned out awesome! We have such great young women in our ward and I know that Heavenly Father loves them so much!

Our neighbors the Wentlands came over for Easter dinner. This family has had a lot of challenges this year. They eat Sunday dinner with us almost every week. We ate, played board games, and the missionaries stopped by for desert. It turned out to be a lovely weekend!

Crash & Burn

Thanks to one of the darling boys we went to Powell with, we have this to forever remember Sara's skill and grace on a wakeboard. (He made us a DVD of the whole trip, it is great, but this is by FAR the funniest part!) Thanks Nic!

Love the Lake?

Looove the Lake! Who doesn't love the lake?! (Not to be confused with the Drake).

So our first real family vacation (meaning one that didn't involve a commitment to extended family like a wedding or baptism or graduation) since Easton was 2 and we went to Disneyland for a week! I know, I know what you're thinking. Isn't a trip to a lake, (which is code for a collection/breeding ground for creepy crawlers and bacteria, and where all activity involves water, high speed motor craft, small planks of wood and rope), just a recipe fraught with potential for a nervous breakdown for anyone who is a germ-a-phobe and/or worry machine? Even though I am certified in both of those ailments, it was the BEST trip!!!

All the credit, of course, goes to the two GREAT families we were vacationing with - the adults all had fun together (even though the 3 men mostly bonded by "email/phone runs" 3 times a day to this one spot on the channel they knew they could get service). What are the chances we would vacation with families that were also headed up by work-a-holics? The kids all got along sooo great. And if you're going to do Lake Powell, a big houseboat and a few speedboats is the way to do it! We feel so grateful to the people we were with - they made it great!

There are LOTS of photos here. Before Sara gets a chance to complain, there are not too many of her. This is because she was having serious complexion issues and didn't want many photos taken. (Don't you wish you'd just let me take pictures now Sara?) So here are some of my favs:

Sophie, Jessie, Will, and Easton riding up top on the houseboat while we were cruising for a beach.

Nixon and Wade getting ready for a swim (brr)

We hiked to the top of these Indian Ruins. We're so high up in this picture! It was so cool!

Sara might turn into a wake boarder after all. She had a great time and got better everyday!
Easton was so happy to zip around on the knee board!


I wanted to put one of the pictures of Geoffrey crashing, but in the spirit of love we've built on our vacation, here's one of him not crashing!

And the last, sad part of the story:

This is Nixon laying at the bottom of a cliff our first full day there. The big rock on the right? That's what broke his fall - on his elbow. It was pretty scary. It took awhile to get him out of the canyon where we were hiking in, then we boated over to the Bullfrog Marina medical clinic. I thought for sure they would x-ray it and say it was fine. Well, it turns out, there is no x-ray machine at Lake Powell. We had to drive 3 hours to PRICE! Of course, I was wearing a bathing suit and capri's and a sweatshirt! He did break his arm right above the elbow. We'll know Wednesday if he will need surgery or not (the break is close to his growth plate). After we left the ER, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Price and bought a toothbrush, toothpaste, sweats for Nixon to sleep in, and pain killers for him. By the time we got back to Powell, it was 2am. We stayed in Defiance Lodge at the Marina and resumed the vacation in the morning. Poor buddy, no water sports for him, and he was feeling some pain. He was a trooper though, and we all made the best of it.

hmm...I need to end this now, as I have NO plan yet for Easter dinner or treats. I guess I have some shopping to do.

Well, again, thanks to the AWESOME families we went with - it was a GREAT time. I guess we're on the path to being a boat family now - We really do LOVE the LAKE!