Time flies!

I can't believe that tomorrow is August! This summer has just flown by. I do have to admit that several of the happenings did not go as planned, but overall, it has been fun. I know we have 18 more days, but I thought I'd write about a few things that were fun.

Some of the highlights so far have been:
1. Completion of the pool 2 days before school was out!
2. Having friends over to enjoy the pool with us.
3. Sleeping in. Well, that didn't really happen, but we usually didn't have to be as rushed as usual. (I'm not a morning person.)
4. Getting to go to Ft. Myers, even though Aislinn, Greyson and I had a shorter trip, we still had fun.
5. Going on my vacation with Mom, Gail and Carole. We were so busy and did so much, but I always joke that this is the time that I get to laugh for the year. Life is quite stressful sometime for me and I really enjoy the time that I am afforded to be a 'kid' again. :)
6. Last, but certainly not least, being able to spend so much time with the kids. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all fun and games, that's for sure, but overall, we've had fun together.

Yes, I'm alive...

barely alive, but alive!

Make sure you go all the way back to July 19 to see all my vacation posts. I think it's getting cut off before then, just click Older Posts on the bottom of the page.

I had an amazing time. The children and Chris did really well while I was gone and Nashua and Nellie were exceptional! It was kind of funny when Chris' cell phone called me Sunday morning, but he wasn't aware of it. I got to overhear his helping the children get ready for church. I was impressed! He does even better than I do. I overheard, "Lauklan, go feed your dog". "Brennan, empty the dishwasher, Greyson, go get your shoes", and so forth. Good job Chris. I talked with him later and told him about hearing it and how I thought he did a great job. His response: "You weren't supposed to hear that!" He likes for me to think that he can't do it, but he really does step it up when I am gone. What a blessing to have such a supportive husband who encourages me to spend time with my mother and takes such great care of the kids so that I can spend that time with her!

I had a great time, but it was nice to get home too.

On our way home

Carole and I

Gail and I before we left the hotel.

Here we all are getting ready to head to our seperate destinations. Mom and I to Tampa. Gail to Salt Lake City and Carole to Nashville. Little did we know...

That we would be delayed for 10 hours due to weather and traffic! I think it was a good thing that we didn't know and that the time kept getting pushed back gradually. First it was just a 30 minute delay but from there, it just got WAY worse!

Mom telling Dad the bad news.

If you can't read this, it says Flight 53 to Tampa 1:29, Now 10:15 (or close to that). Later on, it changed to midnight. However, we did get to leave at 11 and arrived at Tampa at 2 a.m. It then took me an hour to get to Mom and Dad's then 2 more hours to get home. I arrived home safely, but tired at 4:45 or so. Chris took the kids next door at 8:30 that morning so I could sleep. Aislinn only let me sleep until 9:30 or so because she came home ringing the door bell and screaming for me. I just let her in, poor thing. I'm glad that I was missed.

What a great trip! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Temple, Jersey Boys, purses and dinner

Gail and I headed off to the New York Manhattan Temple this morning. We had a great time there, of course. It was wonderful to have such quiet, tranquil place in the middle of that VERY busy city.
After the temple we grabbed a quick bite at the little deli right next door then we were off to try to get tickets to Jersey Boys. Gail got 3 of them and Mom, Carole and Gail went in while I waited in the stand-by line. I got in about 5 minutes after the show started. We all really enjoyed it and were scattered throughout the audience.

Following the show, we walked a few blocks to purchase some purses. Now, I can make it until next year. :)

For dinner, we ate at Gallagher's and then headed back to the hotel. It was a busy, but fun day.

Central Park, shopping, eating and Wicked

We started off tired this morning, can you tell? Jeffrey had the morning to spend with us, then he had to head to work. So, we decided that we wanted to see some of Central Park.

Trying to get going.

Jeffrey and I

We got on some bikes pedaled by some very tired fellas one of which was from Turkey and the other from Russia. They took us around part of Central Park. We stopped at the fountain for some pictures.

After Central Park, Gail and I went to Macy's to shop. I found some really cute clothes one of which I decided to put on right away for our night to dinner and to Wicked.

Before Wicked, we decided to eat at Stage Deli. We ate there last year from a suggestion by Doug Carter. We decided to go back again. You'll see why in the next picture of our strawberry cheesecake. It is divine!

After dinner, we walked a few blocks to Wicked. I enjoyed the play, but fantasy is not my favorite genre. I am glad I saw it though.

A great day around the city.

Jeffrey, Gail's son that lives in New Jersey right across the river from the city came to spend the day with us.
Grand Central Station

Inside Grand Central Station. Carole decided that she would go and stand in the rain all morning to try to get into the Regis and Kelly show. She did get in, but missed some of the morning fun.

I just had to do this. However, I thought it was quite funny because sitting to my left was a lady that very obviously did not care what the sign said.

Carole finally joined us at Rockefeller Center. We purchased tickets to go to the top which they call The Top of The Rock.

Some very nice Italian boy took this picture of us. Central Park is right behind us. The view up there was just amazing.

After Rockefeller Center, we went to the Seaport and saw the 4 waterfalls that are there for a limited time. Here is one of them.

For dinner we went to some really quaint Italian place in Greenwich Village. After dinner we walked a few blocks for some fabulous gellato.

Fly from Burbank to New York City!

We left Burbank, California at 7 PST. We arrived at JFK at 3 something in the afternoon. We caught a taxi to our hotel room and the headed off to Serendipity. Oprah loves their frozen hot chocolate that you'll see below.

See, I'm really there!

All of us right after our food arrived. Gail got sick after eating. She had gastric bypass surgery the beginning of June and has to be very careful when she eats.

The very popular Frozen Hot Chocolate. It is quite tasty!

Tour day!

We decided to take a tour today of Hollywood. Here are a few things we saw. I didn't see any stars, of course!

The Hollywood Bowl

Famous Beverly Hills sign. We had to stop the tour bus to go to the bathroom and we went to the Beverly Hills hotel. It was really nice and right as I was walking up this Lamborghini was pulling out. That thing was SUPER loud. Mom and Gail were behind me and they said that the mother from the Mary Poppins movie was leaving as we came in, but I either didn't see her or I didn't know her when I did see her.

The bus stopped at the Santa Monica Pier for us to get out. We had to walk by The Hotel California and I had Mom take my picture because I really like that song.

Well, you'll just have to take my word for it, but that's the Santa Monica pier sign.

Mom and I on the pier and in front of The Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory. Do you remember in Forrest Gump when he is running, he goes to the Santa Monica Pier. That was kind of neat. The pier was all wood, of course which had a neat look and made odd sounds when cars were driving on it.
The tour bus driver was AWFUL, and that is being nice. However, the bright side is that we lived through it and are better because of it! :)
That night, we ordered pizza to our room.

The Price is Right!

Carole and I got up at 4:00 this morning to go to the Price is Right. You have to request tickets online. Then, all that does is give you the "chance" to go to the show. You have to get there REALLY early and sit around and wait all day. No, I'm not kidding, ALL DAY!

We got to the line outside the studio's at 5:30 this morning and we were still numbers 189 and 190. That just meant that we got to wait even longer to see if we could get in. If large groups come, you get bumped.

I was pretty excited.

After a VERY long day, we did make it in. You had a very brief thing they call an interview where they ask you in groups of 15 or so your name, where you're from and what you do. A woman in our group got picked and I could tell that she was going to. I told her afterwards that she would be picked and sure enough, she was!

This is what Gail and Mom did while we were gone. They stayed in the hotel in bed all day. Carole and I stopped at Inn and Out Burger for dinner. We took some home for the sleepy heads. Tasty stuff I'm telling 'ya! I refer to this day as the Robert and Maria Valentich day. Robert LOVES Inn and Out Burger and Maria is a die hard Price is Right fan. I had a great time you guys, thanks for all the tips. :)

Visiting the beach, temple and family

I wanted to take a picture of the sand. We have white sand on the Gulf Coast. I thought it was neat how different the sad was on the Pacific Ocean.

Mom and I at the Santa Monica Beach. Carole did a great job with this one, didn't she?

Santa Monica Pier

The family statue at the Los Angeles temple. I LOVED it there! The temple was huge and the grounds were just beautiful.

Los Angeles family. Left to right, Don Evan ( a cousin), Mom, June (married to my mom's cousin who is now deceased), Gail, Melody (a cousin that I was named after), and Carole.
Don Evan and Melody are June's children. Gail and Carole are sisters. June married Mom, Gail and Carole's cousin. Confusing.

That night, we ate at the Queen Mary, a docked ship from England. Caroline who is Gail's daughter met us for dinner. There was a submarine there too, but it was closed. That would have been fun to check out.

We're off to Los Angeles

The Golden Girls and their escort (me).
We met at the JFK airport. David, Gail and Carole had gone to the keys a few days before, and all the girls were going to LA and David was being 'shipped' back to Utah. No boys allowed!

David and Gail
Gail is my mother's first cousin, but they are like sisters. Carole is her sister.

We ate dinner at Johnny Rockets in Hollywood.

We got into Burbank and rented a car. That car rental place was just a mess! I think that it took us about an hour and a half to get a car. But finally, we were off to our hotel and then to dinner in Hollywood.

I'm getting ready to leave

I leave tonight when Chris gets home to go to my mom's. We leave the Tampa airport bright and early in the morning on our way to Los Angeles. Stay tuned for pictures after I get back. We stay in LA for 4 days and then NYC for 4 days.

Memory Game

This should be fun!

I got this latest "blog game" from Tricia and I've decided to play along...

Rules:
1. Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together (it doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, just anything that you remember).

2. Re-post these instructions on your blog. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

New tile

We had carpet in front of our sliding glass doors that was always getting dirty from coming in and out all the time. When we added the pool, it was not only getting dirty, but wet. So, we decided to add tile in front of them. I really love it!

Happy 7th Birthday Lauklan James!

7 years old

6

5

4

July 14, 2001 birth day!

Lauklan is a great child with an energetic and animated spirit. He loves to dance and entertain. I think that I use his middle name more than anyone else's because Aislinn thinks that everyone's middle name is James. Does that tell you something? :)

Love you Lauklan!

Its working!

No fever this morning!

WAHOO!

Lauklan's little party

Lighting Lauklan's cake

Grandpa and Grandma Kenney (cute face, huh?)

Doug and Suzy

We had an impromptu party for Lauklan today since Dad and Kenney were her to drop off the kids from the beach. I also made a quick call to our friends Doug and Suzy Bell to come with their boys. It worked out really well for being so spur-of the-moment. We grilled out hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken and ate birthday cake.

We started the fourth antiobiotic today, I sure hope this one works.