Friday, July 22, 2011

Lake Ouachita

After going to Utah, we drove to ARKANSAS!
Why? Because Arkansas is only the best EVER!! :)

The first thing we did was sleep... J and I drove to Arkansas in 22 hours. straight. We trade off and sleep while the other is driving. It works rather well. We learned this time that Kansas has lights at EVERY on-ramp and off-ramp. It makes it hard to sleep when every half a mile has tons of bright lights. The rest is dark though.

We drove straight through Denver this time instead of around. We decided we would deal with traffic instead of the tolls there. When you drive on certain Denver roads, they take a picture of your plate and send you a bill about 6 months later. Then, another month or so for the way back. It was irritating, so we went through Denver. It worked out well because we were driving through at I think 2 on a Thursday so it wasn't rush hour.

We got into Little Rock at 6:30 am.
And went straight to bed. We were exhausted.

That night, we drove to Hot Springs to go to Lake Ouachita. It's a beautiful, large lake that is great for boating. My parents got a cabin and we stayed the night and played games. The next day, we had a boat and boated alllll day. It was marvelous. HOT, but wonderful. I love swimming in lakes and being with my family on boats. I even got my 5 year old niece to go on the tube with me!!

Here's J with the boys playing twister.
There was a downpour of rain when we there the evening before. It was really cool looking.
MMae, Jonas, J, and Christian on the boat
J water skiing. He's pretty much a pro.
Wonderful first weekend in the natural state! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Utah for 4th of July

July was/is a month of lots of traveling. First on the agenda was going to Utah. J's Grandma and Great Aunts were having a family reunion, it was J's Grandma's birthday on the 4th, and DCI was on Wednesday.

So! on our way down to Utah, we went on a caravan drive with J's parents and younger brother.
We hit 160,000 miles on our Honda! What a good car.
J's Grandparents live right next door to their old house. Where their current house is, is where the orchard was. The old house was owned by a mean, scary lady who would get mad if you lost your ball on her side of the "fence" of trees, so you would be scared to get your ball back.

Now, someone else has bought the house and is repainting and renovating it. So we got to go see it!
Complete with green shag carpet!
And a cool retro phone that would take FOREVER to dial! :)
A beautiful front door,
Very pretty windows,
And the front porch that J's mom slept on one night when she was little.
Here's the current house.
Each bedroom has a nickname.
There's a green room, a blue room, a carpet room, and a red room (I think. I haven't seen that one yet, but I think Greg's room is red). The colored names only come from the color of the carpet. Each room has a different colored carpet.

My favorite might just be the carpet room. It has swatches of lots of different colored carpets on one of the walls. It's like a puzzle. The popcorn ceiling in the carpet room has sparkles in it, too! It's the room I stayed in when I first went there and when J and I were fasting about whether or not to get married, so it's a sentimental room to me, too.
Grandma and Grandpa Greenhalgh have a beautiful garden. Grandpa likes to show it to us whenever we come. He LOVES his garden. He has had lots of health problems, but still goes out and works on that garden.
He has one spot in the front that is ALL snapdragons. I love it.
The garden
A rose that separates their yard from the old house's yard.
So for the family reunion, we drove down to Monroe, Utah where Grandma and her sisters lived.
This is the house they lived in. The most prominent feature they remember and that was still there was this bookcase behind them.
The whole Musig family that came for the reunion
Grandma Greenhalgh (left) and her two sisters.
This tree trunk was sitting in the garden as if it were supposed to be part of the decor.
I don't remember what he was showing here, but I think the left hand is how big the tree was when he dated Gma.
Gma's sister wrote all she knew how to write on this brick. Yes, No, and her name.
This is in Gma's house. On the wooden piece is a star for each month. Then, each month has a ribbon. On the ribbon there are stars with the birthday of each child, grandchild, great-grandchild and each anniversary in gma and gpa's family. Then, to differentiate between Gma, Gpa, their children, their children and their children, the sides of the stars are color-coded.
I want one of these one day. When my family is big enough!
J and Tyler played trains one afternoon.
4th of July, it POURED rain. We sat outside and watched and the Greenhalgh girl cousins played in the rain.
I made friends with these beautiful, sweet girls. They are just a joy to be around and invited me in so easily!
This is the whole family that was there for Gma's birthday.
Megan, Gpa, Wes, Janet, Jodi, John, Kristin, and Holly.
This side is Linda, J, Blaine, Janet, and Gma.
Yes, the brothers both married Janets. :)
Here is the beautiful cake that Linda and Kristin made Gma.
It was yummy, too!
J and me before the fireworks. He's silly.
Before the fireworks, we shot off rockets. sadly, the parachutes only worked once out of 6 times... but it was epic!
I got to shoot one off! You push a doorbell! heehee
J shooting one off
Kristin, Megan, Jodi, Holly, and me at the fireworks. Beautiful girls
Add J into the mix and here we are really.
Happy Independence Day! What a wonderful country we live in!!
Tuesday, we went to the Manti Temple with J's parents. It was a beautiful experience. I am so thankful for temples and the strength we receive from the Lord when we go.
John and Linda
Gpa Greenhalgh used to be in the temple presidency, so we asked to see the staircases that are in the steeples. There are two spiral staircases on both sides of the steeple you see on the right in this picture. One staircase goes clockwise and the other goes counterclockwise. Each stair supports the weight of the one above it. There are 151 steps to the top. There are no elevators.
They were gorgeous stairs. and it was a gorgeous temple
Wednesday, we went to Salt Lake to visit with some friends from Rexburg. We got to see the Pixtons and hang out with them. They made us stuffed crust homemade pizza. YUM.
Then, we wen to DCI. It's brass and percussion marching bands that tour the country. It was spectacular.
Here's a picture of my favorite band from the night. The white uniforms are angels and the red are demons. Very cool.
Utah was fun. We spent some quality time with family, and relaxed. I spent a great evening sitting in a porch swing with J's aunt talking about life, love and happiness. I crocheted a lot. I learned a lot about J's family. In fact, here's a cool fact. J's related to someone who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Father's Day and the Air Show in Boise

For Father's day, we went to Fast Kart Racing and had a little fun. J and Tyler split the cost for their dad to go racing.
I think I'm too cautious. I was in last place in almost all of the laps between the four of us.
But I did keep John behind me for a couple of laps. He tried to pass me for a while, but I did my best to stay in front of him. After a while, I could tell he REALLY wanted to pass me, so I obliged.
Then we played mini-golf. They like mini-golf. I am still not so good at it...
J and his dad did the batting cages. It's another reason I don't do baseball. It was frightening for me and I wasn't even in the cage!!
This is J's father's day present. No, he's not a dad and no, we're not expecting, but he's still my wonderful husband and will be the father of my children. He was going to buy the bow eventually, but had to sell his bass guitar to buy the bow. No one nibbled on the guitar, so I let him buy the bow before for father's day.

This is my Legolas. ;)
Then, I got SICK SICK SICK!!! I had a nasty nasty cold and just felt so crummy! I hated it! And people would just blame it on allergies or see my miserable face and say "oh, I know. I have allergies, so I know what you're going through." ummm no. I felt like crap. You didn't...

ok, I've vented... Sorry if it was too much. But the reason I brought up being sick is that J got me to go to an air show when I was sick. It was cool, but I was miserable. I hope I didn't ruin it for him.
So here's a warthog...right?

Monday, July 18, 2011

Pictures of Hawaii from MMae

Here are the pictures I promised from MMae's camera

This is MMae and I after going to the whaler's village down the walk





Shaved Ice
Us 4 awesome girls

The whole group!
This is the Hula Pie. AMAZINGLY GOOD!!! :)
This is Jake's Henna tattoo that he got. Pretty, huh?
MMae copied my tattoo. :)