Sep 17
Ain’t Life Grand?
icon1 memilyrae | icon2 Thoughts | icon4 09 17th, 2008| icon32 Comments »

Okay – I’m so sorry Lindsay but I have to laugh. Talk about bad luck…or location…or however you want to look at it!

My poor friend, Lindsay, and her hubby have now had 2, yes TWO, cars crash into the same corner of their living room in less than a year…less than 8 months! I’d say you need to move, but I also think these people need to pay for you to put up blockades as a fence (like those sturdy ones you see in front of businesses and banks). I sure love you and am so glad you’re okay. You looked really cute on the video too!

Everyone, take a look-see and be sure to watch the video!

http://www.newsok.com/article/3298959

Sep 8

Sep 7

Wow. What a weekend. We are done with the 2008 UTOS Conference and it sure has been a busy week! Luckily I have an awesome family that helped with my kids and when I say ‘help’ I mean watched them nearly 24/7…well, actually 24/4. I slept in the same room but was gone before they woke up. So, thank you!

On Wednesday I did a little running around before heading up to Salt Lake Community College – Redwood campus. We were so lucky to have a lot of volunteers who helped with banners, registration, and room management. Some helped set up on Wednesday. Our Sponsors also came to set up booths. Wednesday evening we went to Fiddlers’ Elbows for a speaker’s dinner. It was 21 and over so we had to show our ID’s. The food was fantastic! I had 2 servings of ribsΒ  but my favorite part was the bread triangles and spinach and artichoke dip. Will kept stealing it from me πŸ™ We had a ton of fun. I left Steve with my Benji (Ben Payne) so I could down to my sister’s before the kids fell asleep. Evie was wide awake when I got there but Spencer was passed out.

Thursday was our first day of the Conference. I woke up at 530 (AH!) and met Steve to carpool up. We got there before the inside doors were open so we hung out a bit. Once inside we set up registration and our swag boxes (Novell laptop bags with more swag inside). Around 10 we started getting a slow flow of attendees that needed to sign in to get their swag and badges. Luckily I had awesome volunteers that helped with the madness of registration. Throughout the day we had registrations plus during each class time I took pictures of the speakers and attendees. Thursday evening was the Keynote dinner and I attended for a short amount of time to let another core team member leave the registration desk.

Friday was an early morning again. More registrations, more pictures, and more fun. That evening a group of us (near 50 people if not more) went to Tucanos. YUMMY!

Saturday was the last day and, to tell you the truth, I was glad for that. It ws such a long weekend with so much work that I was excited to be done. I was able to sit in 2 classes – Inkscape and Gimp (both open source graphics programs) and learned a few things I didn’t know as well as had some questions answered.Β  We also had Family Day on Saturday so we had Smokehouse BBQ for lunch and bouncy houses for any kids who came with their parents. I ended up leaving around 5 when the BoFs and Games started.

Here are a few pictures. The rest are on flickr

Sep 7
Random Favorites
icon1 memilyrae | icon2 Family Events | icon4 09 7th, 2008| icon32 Comments »

I just wanted to upload some random favorites since I’ve been so bad at blogging lately. Enjoy!

Sep 7

We were pleasantly surprised to know that our whole family was going to be here for Gavin’s baby blessing! Matt came out on Thursday, Mom and Dad on Friday, and Brent and Steph on Saturday! Yahoo! Matt, Brent and Steph were only able to stay for a couple/few days but we were still glad to have them around.

After attending my sacrament meeting, we went to Mike and Nicole’s building. Gavin’s blessing was beautiful (given by his daddy) and I teared up being able to be there and see the love that my biggest brother has for his son (such a cool thing!). Afterwards, we headed down to Annette’s for the food and mingling. I brought my camera out half way through so I didn’t get everyone who came.

We also got to see pictures from Stephanie’s trip to Ireland with Vince and his parents. Ireland is gorgeous and really makes me want to extend our (some day) honeymoon to more than just Italy! πŸ™‚ Thanks Steph for sharing with us! It was beautiful and looks like you guys had loads of fun!

I also got to help Brent see what his racecar might look like painted. I never usually get to do anything with Brent so it was really cool to be able to help him (yay for Photoshop!)

Sep 7
A Camping We Will Go
icon1 memilyrae | icon2 Family Events | icon4 09 7th, 2008| icon31 Comment »

We went on a spur of the moment camping trip with Jed, Leona, Reid and William starting on the 15th (back in August). We shopped for food, packed and got the heck out of Dodge. We were heading up to Flaming Gorge…I just wish I knew the Wyoming side was ugly and dead compared to the Utah side! We set up camp around 100 or 130 a.m., hunkered down and slept. It was chilly the first day we were there but it seemed nicer than the heat. Stephen and Jed went fishing for HOURS at a time, leaving us to pass the time playing in the dirt, building a fire pit (which then had to be moved since we didn’t account for flying ashes possibly burning down the tent), feeding the kids, getting the kids to nap (ha!), going on short bike rides around the campsite, and for me, burning. (yah…that sunscreen stuff is around for a reason!) Speaking of burning, poor Evie chose the wrong thing to put her arm on as she was walking…put her arm right on the side of the grill AFTER we got done using it. πŸ™ Poor thing. The boys did great the first outing, but not so well on Monday. We watched them prep the fish (gutting, skinning or whatever they do to them). I even got to experience first hand a scene from the movie, Finding Nemo. You know the one…Nemo’s siblings eaten by a barracuda. (insert up-chuck here). Steve had a head cold so the 10 hour fishing outing on Monday was too much…actually, it was too much 4 hours into it. To tell you the truth, Monday was just a big mistake anyway. I’m not a camping girl so 3 nights is too much for me – especially in the heat and dead surroundings. We left Monday after 3 or 4 (can’t remember) and once we got cell reception had a whole new adventure waiting for us.

That’s right…this ‘spur of the moment’ camping trip is not like me and my family got worried – REALLY worried – since I didn’t mention it to them and our cell phones had zero reception there. We realized how much my family loves us – that’s for sure. Again, family, sorry for everything that you went through and to my neighbors, sorry for the phone calls from my family! πŸ˜‰ love you guys!

Sep 7
Zoo Trip
icon1 memilyrae | icon2 Family Events | icon4 09 7th, 2008| icon3No Comments »

Okay, so I’m SUPER UPER behind on my blog. So, here’s my attempt to catch up.

In August, we went to the zoo with Leona, her boys, and most of the kids she babysits. We were gone for a few hours but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be with 8 kids.

Evie was my biggest struggle…Little Miss Independent with short legs.

Explored everything…

Watched the elephant show…poor little Evie got the mini fan stuck in her hair…

Drank out of the lion’s head…

The carousel was up and running…

We had fun at the monkey house…

Saw the white alligator…

Got a long look at the giraffe and her baby…

Touched a centipede…

Got ice cream to cool off…

And rode the train…

I know that’s a lot of pictures but what can I say? We have some cute kids!

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