Cougs vs. Lobos

Every other year, we get to go to a BYU game at the University of New Mexico, right here in Albuquerque. This year the score was a little closer than I'd hoped, but the Cougars won, and we had fun going to the game. Poor UNM has had a very disappointing season, and their fan base is severely diminished. I think there were as many BYU fans as UNM fans at that game.

We brought the whole family, and the kids all did pretty well. We were surrounded by lots of other families with kids, so when they got antsy, they mostly just annoyed each other. I was dreading keeping track of Hayden--he is into everything these days and never sits still. But we only lost him once, and the rest of the time, we just had to keep him from mooching our neighbors' nachos. (He likes to lick the cheese off the chip, and then get more cheese on the same slimey chip. gross, I know.)

Go Cougars!

Belated Anniversary Trip

Last weekend, as a belated Anniversary trip, Arthur and I went up to Denver for some fun. We arrived early afternoon so Arthur humored me and took me on a tour of the Molly Brown House. (You know--Unsinkable Molly Brown? Famous Titanic survivor?) I LOVE that kind of stuff--learning about historical figures and seeing where they lived, what is fact and what is fiction.

Here I am in front of the "Molly Brown House"

An interesting fact I learned on the tour is that Margaret Brown never actually went by the name "Molly" in her lifetime. Everyone knows her by that name because of the musical "Unsinkable Molly Brown."

After Molly Brown's house, we battled the traffic to meet my cousin & his wife, Lamont and Melissa, for dinner at Benihana's. Yummmm. oh, I love their filet mignon! Thanks for meeting up with us guys! It was super fun to visit with you and catch up a bit!

The main reason we flew up to Denver for this trip was this:

Yahoo!!!! We finally saw Wicked and loved it. We had a great cast, especially Elfaba, (the Wicked Witch of the West.) The show was amazing. You don't get any better than the first act, though--you need the second act to tie up all the loose ends, but it's a little anti-climatic after "Defying Gravity." I'd pay to see it again, for sure.

The next day, our flight didn't leave until 6 p.m., so what better way to spend a day than on the slopes? We drove up to Arapahoe, (just an hour outside Denver,) for some early-season skiing.

I had to get a picture of Arthur and our rental car. They gave us this giant truck that was BRAND NEW! Seriously, there were only six miles on it. Apparently it was part of their new winter fleet--for all the skiiers/boarders who come to Denver for the snow, and need 4 wheel drive!

Except for the wind, it was a perfect day! Blue skies and sunny!

Arthur is normally a snowboarder, but he's been learning to ski the last couple of years so he can teach our kids how. (One of the things I love about Arthur is that he loves to learn new things, and he's good at just about everything he tries! I sometimes joke that I don't want to give him voice lessons, because if I did, he'd probably learn how to do it even better than me, and then what would I have?)

So he was brushing up on his skiing skills since there were only two runs open anyway. We skiied those runs probably about 8 times each, it seemed like. The snow was great, but it would have been nice to have a little variety.

I guess I really can't complain.

We were skiing on November 6th for crying out loud!

After we got tired of the two runs, we headed back toward Denver and stopped to check out Historic Golden on our way out. This picture is about the only thing to do there.

In all fairness, if we'd had time, I'm sure there were fun things to do. We only had fifteen minutes so we just got out and stretched our legs, looked unsuccessfully for an ice cream shop, and during our walk, a friendly local offered to take our picture here.

Then we left, battled more traffic to get to the airport and fly home. For all it's virtues, one major detraction from Denver's appeal is all that traffic! I guess I'm a small-town girl because I can barely tolerate Albuquerque traffic.

Thanks a MILLION to Steve and Erin who took our kids for a couple days! With all the craziness of rehearsals lately I feel like Arthur and I are just ships passing in the night.

It was really good for us to have this time for just us.

So thanks again Schmutz's! You guys are like family to us!

Dang it!

(That title has to be read in a "Kip" voice from Napoleon Dynamite.)

I got an unpleasant surprise in the mail last week from

the City of Albuquerque.

It was a

Notice of Violation Fixed Speed

fine: $75

Those blasted speeding cameras! I swear they don't have the warning bumps on that intersection, because I always slow down when I hit the warning bumps.

Pride, Pajamas, & Picking Presents

1. Pride:

BYU-Pride, that is. Arthur makes BYU football a high priority around here. We don't miss a game. period. The kids know that every Saturday we will be cheering the Cougars on -- even when they get worked, like the TCU game. :( Arthur's excitement rubs off on the kids, and they really get into it:

The funny thing is, they get excited, and make these cute signs and posters, but mostly what they care about is if friends are coming to play with them. To his credit, Dallin checks in on what the score is, and will sit and watch if there aren't any friends to play with.

2. Pajamas

So we have varying levels of obedience in our family.

This little pajama story illustrates.

We tell the kids to go up and get their jammies on and then they can stay up for a little bit longer.

Dallin & Daphne go and do it the first time they are asked.

Sean ignored several requests and is totally oblivious that anybody is wearing jammies.

Hayden went upstairs, opened up his pajama drawer, and grabbed the first thing his little hand could reach.

They were swimming trunks.

A+ for effort, little buddy.

3. Picking Presents

I remember hearing stories about my mom and her siblings pouring over the Sears catalog when it came and how the pages became worn and crinkled from everybody looking and looking at all the wonderful things in there, and wishing they might get one of them for Christmas. Well, I don't know if Sears puts out a catalog anymore, but my kids have really been wearing out the pages of the Toys-R-Us add.

sneaks

The other day, after lunch, I gave Sean and Hayden a chocolate bar for dessert. I didn't notice Hayden sidling toward the dining room until Sean said, "Hayden, we don't have to hide. We didn't sneak these."

Halloween Festivities

The first time we had two kids dress up for Halloween, I thought it would be fun to do coordinating costumes for them--And it kind of turned into a tradition. So now every year we do a family theme. If I have time, even Arthur and I dress up. (I love dressing up--I'll take any excuse I get.) I thought it would be fun to show the different themes we've had so far.

2004 from "Robin Hood"

Robin Hood & Maid Marion

2005 from "Peter Pan"

Captain Hook & Tinker Belle

(Sean was born just two months before and my awesome mother made their costumes when she came out to help me.)

2006 from "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe"

Sir Peter Wolfsbane, Queen Lucy, and Aslan

I had great plans to be the ice queen, and make Arthur a wardrobe costume, but I ran out of time. Plus, Daphne's costume turned out to be pretty pricey!

2008 from "Harry Potter"

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger

And Professors Snape and Trelawney

(yay! we finally got to dress up!)

2008--recycled our Harry Potter costumes, and added Hedwig

And . . . Drumroll, please . . .

The 2009 theme was

STAR WARS

Princess Leia, Obi-Wan-Kenobi, Yoda, and R2D2

and . . .

Padme Amidala, and Anakin Skywalker a.k.a. Darth Vader

Obi-Wan's costume:

Tunic and boots from Good Will,

Jedi Cloak, borrowed,

and the rest we had on hand

Leia costume:

White robe-borrowed

boots from Good Will

and yarn for buns, from Walmart

R2D2

This costume I actually made

It's a big piece of white felt and a beanie that I sewed colored felt pieces to make all his gadgets.

Sean loved his costume and wore it all over the place.

Yoda

I love this costume!

totally borrowed--no effort whatever

From our ward Halloween Party:

(great job, Amber--it was awesome!)

The kids enjoyed frosting sugar cookies

and face painting

Arthur (who is on the activities committee)

did a bang-up job of cooking the hotdogs!

Sean won "the most technologically advanced" costume award.

Hayden souped up on sugar!

And, what do you know?

Our family won "Best Family Costume!"

Here we are with our major award

Halloween Night

We had some tasty treats for dinner:

pumpkin cheese ball

"Mummy fingers"

don't know why this picture didn't rotate, but you get the gist.

Apple "bites" with carmel

And Witch's Brew

trick-or-treating

We went with a group of kids who, purely by coincidence, were ALL Star Wars characters, and none of them were repeats!

Sean & Hayden devouring their spoils

Every year, we go to visit our next door neighbor from our prior neighborhood. Her name is Barbara, and she is the sweetest lady ever. She brings the kids treats for Easter, and gets them a special treat for Halloween and really looks forward to them coming to visit her every year. I try to visit more than just at Halloween, but she especially loves to see them in their costumes.

We love sweet Barbara!