Sam's Birthday

We had the girls here this past week and since Sam's birthday is next week after we take them home, we went ahead and did a little party here for her the other day. The timing actually worked out pretty well since I was taking my final cake class the day before we were going to do it. So for her birthday cake she got a 2 tiered "wedding" style cake! She was kind of hoping for a music cake, but with having this one already (4 boxes worth of mix) I didn't want to do another one on top of having all that...so insead I made her some music shapped cookies. I put them in a glass container that I picked up and then painted music notes on that as well to match, and then made the cookies on sticks so it looked like a bouquet of them. I still have a bit to learn with my icing technique, but they still came out kind of neat looking. We have a tradition that on your birthday you get to pick your special dinner, so we had homemade chicken pot pie that night...unfortunatly though it came out REALLY salty (and if I'm saying that you can be sure it was really salty). So I'll have to make that up to her next time.

It has been really great having the girls here again, the week has flown by so quickly that already it is time to take them back.

Rocky Mountain High

This past week we used part of Scott's spring break to venture into Colorado. It worked out where Scott was ending his 2 week break right as the girls were getting ready to start their break. So we drove up there to see the sights and pick up the girls to bring down here for the week. We got to see all kinds of neat things while we were there. I have to say though that it really was a long drive there. As we headed north in AZ there was lots of snow in the mountains there to see. Really a pretty site to see here in the desert.
Once we got out of AZ into New Mexico the miles past kind of fast...that is until we turned onto I25. I swear that has got to be the longest straighest road in the entire country. Honestly there were NO turns in this road for hundreds of miles. When they did have that rare random curve in the road they would post all these huge yellow signes with arrows to warn you in the hopes of pulling you out of that 30 mile stare you develop as you are going. You really need to click on this picture to enlarge it to get teh idea of the long and never winding road. So as I said our drive was long and uneventfull, but I'm enclosing a few pictures to show you some of the views I had along the way there.

So after a really long drive we got to Castle Rock rock around 9:30 and just went to bed. The next morning we went down to Fort Carson to see some of Tim's friends that were there. We also stopped in the PX and there Scott found "Wacky Packages" cards. For those that don't know these they are made by Topps and are spoofs of different products. Now let me interject something about Scott here before I go on. Scott is a really easy going kid that just takes life in stride. However when he finds something that he likes he dives in head first. For example he has gotten into Lego's. It has to be the kits though, since Christmas he has bought many differnt kits that are to the theam he is into. Well we made him wait till dinner time to open his packs that we got. We picked up 2 for each of the kids. Well within the day he had all his memorized and was begging us to go back to the PX for more. We made him wait till we got back home and when we went to Wal Mart he bought a box of the packages and was able to collect all the regular cards and is now going crazy trying to get all the special cards that they make...and has discovered that there were other sets out there before this one. Anyway I'm way off the track now. After our visit to the fort we drove back up to get the girls for dinner. On the way I was just staring out the window looking at all the wonderfull sites along the way. When all of a sudden I see an elk head up in the distance on the back of a truck. I was courious about that one...as we got closer I was able to verify without a doubt that yes it was an elk head. I've added this picture just because it was one of the oddest things I can ever recall seeing on the road. Back to dinner, it was great seeing them again. Talking with them they are really missing their daddy. After dinner we drove around their neighborhood a bit and then stopped at Michaela's school for them to play a bit. Scott was so excited about seeing snow again. Every minute of our trip all he wanted to do was play in the snow! Our next day there we went out and about and played the tourist that we were. Our fist stop was the Butterfly Pavilian in Denver. This was a small quaint little place. It had 3 different rooms. The first was filled with different bug habitats, and there Scott got the chance to hold a trantula. The next room had a few marine type animals like star fish and urchin's. The last room was set up as a tropical enviroment that was filled with beautiful flowers and tons of butterflys. I'm adding the pictures for these a bit futher below. After there we went to Hamonds candy factory for their tour. The last thing we went to do was the Natural History museum. It was full of all kinds of dinosaur bones and all kinds of neat things to look at there. I wouldn't mind going back there again to spend a bit more time enjoying the exibits that we didn't get a chance to see.

Ok...I think that is enough for now. I still have some other pics to share from the ride home, but I'll save those to share with everyone when we get back from taking the girls home. That's right we have to do the trip again!

Hell froze over!

Well it happened just last weekend, but hell finally froze over! We hadn't gotten rain up here in the desert for 143 days. Now let me put that into prospective for you. Thats the same as 5 months or 20 weeks. So not a rain drop since October here. No snow in the mountians, nothing! Our old record for the desert was a mear 101 days, so needless to say this was shattered. If you've seen the movie "Holes" there is this scean in there where they are back at the camp and the jail gaurd tells them a story that went something like "Once upon a time there was a place that never ever rained....and your standing in the middle of it!". Everyday I've thought of that as I would look to the sky and see not one cloud.
Well Saturday...the day of the community garage sale, I got up for drill to a light drizzle that was a downpour once I hit the freeway. It rained all the way to drill....all the way home from drill...all the way to the play we went to that night...and all the way home too. By the end of the night we had gotten over 3 inches in the day. The water level in our pool was up to the sidewalk. But that was nothing, because most of the cities north of us got several feet...thats right FEET of snow! All the mountians around us were covered, and I do mean covered almost to the bottom with snow. It almost made this place pretty!
So there you have it folks, it is possiable...Hell can freeze over!

Off to the Rodeo

Recently Tim won us tickets to go and see Blake Shelton, Andy Griggs, and Tracy Bird (the country "rat pack" in concert. Our tickets said that the show started at 6pm, but when we got there at 5:45 there was a huge line standing outside the bar where the show was. We ended up standing outside for the next hour and a half. They finally let us in around 7:30, and the group took the stage a bit after 8pm. So a late start, but while we stood in the line Tim went and checked out the different radio boths that were set up and at one of them he got tickets to see the rodeo the following week. Well a friend of ours that had Scott for us that night is a huge rodeo fan, so we went and got a few more tickets for them and the boys to go. But more of that in a minute. The concert was really good. I have to say that I love when "big names" play the bar scean. So much fun, and if your pushy enough you can get right in front by the stage. We had a few girls in front of us that were pretty funny to be by...they kept trying to take pictures of each other and we kept sticking our faces into their shots. Then there were 2 drunk couples next to us. The girls seemed to be very happy in each others company, and the boyfriends didn't seem to mind one bit. Part way through the night though one of the girls hit that "I drank so much so I'm going to cry for no reason" stage. So boyfriend helped her through that...after it was over her and girlfriend were back with eachother again. Crazy night.
So then it was off to the Rodeo. We went with our friends Mike and Tammie and their son Michael and daughter Danille. We stopped on the way at this really yummy mexican restraunt. Once we got to our seats (was just a general admission type of thing in the bleachers) we had a laugh over the guy sitting a few rows in front of us because of his Tshirt. I've encluded a picture of it and in case you can't read it...it says "Tittie's and Beer, Thank God I ain't Queer!". The rodeo was kind of neat to watch. After the show was over we took the boys over and gave them a chance to ride on the mechanical bull that they had set up. The operator of it was nice in setting it pretty slow for them, but after a bit he would bring the speed up a bit, make it turn a bit more. It was funny the look on the kids faces when they realized that there was no way that they were going to be able to hang on any longer!

Warm weather, Cold pool

This past weekend we had some really nice weather, up in the mid 80's. It has been pretty nice here latley, however we haven't had rain here now for more then 134 days and there is none in our forcast either. After going out to pick up a soda machine for Tim we had some friends stop by for a lunch BBQ. The boys were having fun and being crazy, so we let them just dive in and have fun. The water was only around 55 degrees, but that didn't stop them. Oh yeah, and if you ask Scott, his favorite moment was when he pushed me into the pool. So I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the water was COLD!!!
This wasn't the first time this year that Scott had gotten in. In fact early in Feb. he talked me into it. Then the water was only about 50 degrees. After I let him go in...all he could manage was to dip his feet in before he realized that I was slightly right in the fact that the water was on step away from an ice block. So cold in fact that after only a short time in the water, his feet were beet red from it!

Teeth

Well back in January I told you about Scott having a jaw spreader in. Our 2 weeks past by fairly uneventfully. He had a few hurdles to get over, but was a trooper. After the 2 weeks of turning we had to just let it set. Today we went back to the dentist to have that removed and his braces put on. Right now he actually has only 5 brackets on this front teeth. He picked 2 different greens for them. So in the 1st picture to the left is our starting point. Where his teeth were on day one. The top left is one of Scott getting adjusted for the evening. The bottom right is after two weeks of turning and his teeth have spead apart from the adjustments. On the bottom left is him with his brand new braces. He'll have these now for the next year or so.

Cakes

Well I have just compleated my 2nd of 3 cake classes. I've learned all kinds of neat things about how to properly bake a cake, to frosting. We learn all kinds of neat stuff about different types of flowers and what frostings we can use on them to make them last forever. I have the one last class to go over the next month that will teach me how to create a formal cake. Just thought I would share some pictures with you of the different creations I have done.

Scott's New Wheels!

So as you read in the blog titled "Scott's first heartbreak" he had his bike stolen from school a few weeks back. Well after I told my mom about it she was so upset that her and dad sent out a check to Scott so he could go and replace it right away. We took him to Toys R Us first to look around to see if there might be something different that he would like....well he found this one that was really "tricked out". It has the hand breaks, a gear shift, and a speedometor with milage tracking. After he picked that one out, I found some really neat eyeballs that are valve covers that I got to put the finishing touches on it! Here are a few pictures of him with his new bike.