Happy Birthday to Me in Moab

For my birthday this year we went to Moab! The first night we ate out with my parents and stayed with them at a FIVE STAR RESORT!  It was amazing!  You really do get what you pay for.  And we usually stay in cheap nasty hotels or camp so this was a special treat.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

The arch over the pool had flames coming out of it at night!  Notice the fire pit?  And waterfall?  And hot tubs?  It was paradise!

The next morning my parents took Avery to the Rotary park, which is the best park ever!  While they were playing Todd ran the Moab Trail Marathon, and I ran the half.

Our friends ran the whole (Van) and half (Kate) too!

Mile 3.  I'm smiling but I really wanted to throw up when Van took this picture.

Mile 9. I felt like a million bucks!

My parents and Avery cheered us on at the finish line.  It took me 3 hours 50 minutes, including a 30 minute wait at a bottle neck.  Slow but steady!  Todd says he doesn't care if I mention his time and I'm too lazy to look it up.  But he was amazing and fast as usual.

That evening we went out to dinner with Van and Katie, Matt and Megan Nelson, and Mike Finger and family.  It was good company and good food.  Everything tastes good after a hard workout!

That night Megan and I hot-tubbed at our nasty hotel and had girl talk. :) It was fun!

After breakfast the next morning Todd, Avery, and I went bouldering.  I lost the photos of Todd but here's one of me:

I forgot my shoes.  Who needs 'em!

Avery bouldered too!  She loves climbing but I think she had more fun playing with the chalk bag this time.

Teaching Avery to make kerns while Todd got in his work out

We went for a nice ride/stroll along the river to wear Avery out before the drive home.

She was asleep in the car within 15 minutes. 

We had a great time!  I love you Moab!

News

Barefoot and pregnant. :)

Due mid June 2015

2014 Family Photos

It was 32 degrees and overcast when we finally got around to taking family photos.  Avery decided to skip her nap that day but fell asleep while we were driving to the shoot (that's a recipe for disaster!)  Here's the one photo that was the least ridiculous. 

This is unedited but a good example of the rest.  Poor unhappy red-nosed baby.

November 2014 House Updates

I haven't updated the blog with house projects in 7+ months...  Let me say the projects have slowed way down and I'm pretty burned out right now.  But I have managed to do some fun things over the months.

For my birthday I asked for new door hardware!  It makes such a huge difference from the nasty old hammered brass that came from the 70's.

Original handle.

I had to chisel out new openings for the door latches and fill the space around the new deadbolts.  Lots of work but worth it!

So much better!

We revamped our front flowerbed.  Wish I had a before-photo.  It was a small ugly rectangle with some dead plants.  I still have some final touches to make on this.

Come and stay a while on our swing!  Let's sip lemonade and tell stories. :)

I built a wall cabinet using a tutorial from www.shanty-to-chic.com  

No one should ever see the inside of someone else's bathroom cabinet (gross) but I had to show all the storage!  I love this thing and it cost me around $30.

We had the bathroom floors tiled!  Hooray!  It was only $300 for both of them.  But the tile guy left our doors off their hinges, he left the toilets in the showers so we couldn't use the toilets OR showers, he busted up our baseboards and wanted to charge $150 to tile new ones, and he didn't seal or caulk.  He also left the sewage lines open (you're supposed to stuff a towel in to prevent nasty gasses from entering the house.) We went on vacation and came home to a sewage smelling house and a ton of work.  Good thing I'm handy.

The original bathroom with nasty yellow linoleum floors

I hate the 70's counter above the toilet.  Yuck.  Some day I will rip that thing apart with glee.
Also, our light has a short in 2 of the bulbs.  I need to rewire it but blah, who wants to spend the evening rewiring lights you just put in??

I made a barn door to cover our closet/bathroom opening!  Finally I can stay asleep without bright lights bothering me while Todd gets ready for work in the morning! 

It cost me about $55 and I still need to find a way to cover up the rolling door hardware.  Ignore that part.

So much better! 

The LOVE sign.  People admire this beauty all the time.  I copied www.shanty-to-chic again to make it.  

We planted fruit trees!

And a lot of berries.

Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween!  Avery was a Nay like her best beloved favorite special nasty stuffed unicorn she carries around. :)

Her buddy Ruby dressed up too.  Unicorns unite!

F.A.L.L.

This is the feeling of FALL.

I simply love this season.  And it's genetic. :)

 We watched my sister's dog for a few days. Avery and I fell in love with her!  Todd and the cat on the other hand... Well they tolerated her.

What a smiley dog!

Daisy wasn't too thrilled about having leaves dumped on her all afternoon but Avery sure had fun.