The most important things in life aren't things. . .

The winds of change . .

2009-08-30T21:29:00.003-06:00

Here we have the newly released bishop of our ward and his beautiful young daughter. A day of mixed emotions to be sure. He won't be resting long though (especially on Sunday mornings!)He was sustained as the new stake executive secretary today and will now have meetings beginning at 6:00 on Sunday morning instead of 7:00. :p

A very merry birthday. . . to us!

2009-08-30T21:22:00.003-06:00

On our birthday Amy and I met at Angies for our traditional birthday breakfast. It was a lot of fun!
I should have waited a few minutes longer to get the traditional early morning milkshake she orders. It was a beauty this year. Blueberry with whipped cream and real blueberry on top. but you will just have to believe me since we didn't get a picture.

...and the rains came down and the floods came up

2009-08-18T21:01:00.013-06:00

Saturday we started out hiking with the top of Timp in mind for our destination. Mother Nature had other ideas.
Some where up in those clouds is the top of Timp.

And no, that is not a river, it is the trail.
We reached the first waterfall and stopped for a Kodak moment before parting company with the littles and their parents.
The first waterfall is beautiful and a great hike for little people.Aren't they fashionable in their rain ponchos?
After the falls the path is unpaved and as we headed up the mountain the rain created some mighty slick mud as it mixed with the dirt, so here we are running back down the mountain soakin' wet! We'll have to return and conquer sometime next month!

Moving Day

2009-08-01T09:24:00.003-06:00

Thursday Daniel & Sharon took Stephanie and headed up to get their apartment packed and ready to be moved. This is a picture of the building they were living in.
This is a picture of the . . .

um ...

...the work crew?
. . .guess if you use the term loosely . . .
NOT! Actually everyone worked hard and because they had worked so hard getting packed the day before, once Steve and I got up there with the van and trailer it only took a couple of hours to get everything loaded and the apartment ready to turn back over to the landlord. It was a quick trip, but it will be great having them back in town!

A little bit of wave running fun

2009-07-28T00:01:00.014-06:00

Daniel and Sharon talked us into going waving running Mondy evening. It's a good thing they are around to remind us to go and have some fun once in a while! They are so convincing even Grandma came along.

Floating in the choppy waters of Mantua

& laughing on the shore.

Going for a ride . . .

and getting ready for more . . .

Being careful not to make waves . . .

At least some of us were. . .

Okay, that second to the last picture is not really what the camera makes it look like, but wow! talk about amazing timing!He is even looking the opposite direction which makes it look even more realistic. And the last one Daniel was just demonstrating how cold it was outside of the water.

~SuMmEr FuN~ ...Biking

2009-07-26T12:59:00.005-06:00

The evening of July 10th we set out for a 22 mile moonlight ride. It was a blast! Started at 10 at night, finished about 2am, and we got home at 3 in the morning. Soooooo tired the next day.

Not everybody who wanted to be there could make it; :( I guess there is always next year. Those that did had a great time.

And the guy who never wins anything won the grand prize... a brand new mountain bike! That is him there in the center holding his certificate, surrounded by his admiring fans. (I don't know how come they always line up in the same order for pictures)

Here he is with his new mountain bike geting ready for his first ride which we did last Friday.

Went to Mantua and took Daniel and Sharon along. Discovered a trail that will challenge us for the next... hundred years!(not the one in the next picture, that was just a little hill the gugs decided to play on)

Daniel showed off his tricks; jumping with great skill and finesse. Too bad the camera didn't catch it.
Ain't life great!

My Turn with Mom

2009-07-16T14:46:00.004-06:00

Well, last week was my turn for doing something with Grandma Vollmer. With the busyness of the the week (girls camp Monday-Thursday and the Moonlight Ride on Friday)I kind of cheated and we did lunch just this past Monday & went to Joanne's and shopped around for a while. I think she enjoyed it; shopping is one of her favorite things to do. You have to watch her though because she will literally shop 'til she is ready to drop if you don't. (I had to set her down in the shoe department at Wal-mart and march up front for a wheelchair once. Now I know better.)Would have taken pictures of our most recent outing but I never remember the camera.
Here is a recent picture though, taken the next day, Tuesday, at Carissa's birthday party.
Tried to get a smile on her but it proved to be impossible.She is sitting behind me in her chair looking at pictures right now and just told me when you tell kids to smile so you can take their picture they have the funniest little smiles. Well, I don't think they have a lot over on her.

Happy Birthday Carissa!!

2009-07-14T11:11:00.000-06:00

Materpiece Dance Recital

2009-06-09T16:44:00.007-06:00

After a year of modern dance, Carissa danced at the annual Recital in the Park. Thursday evening the family gathered and we went to watch.
Her little dance was called "Gathering Sea Shells". So cute!Afterwards Landon showed us how real men drink

...out of the container, of course!

It's a bird!...it's a plane! it's the Thunderbirds!

2009-06-09T16:10:00.007-06:00

This is how we spent our Saturday.

Jennifer and Brian joined us along with the kids. Carissa was there for the snowcones. Landon decided to catch a few zzzzzzz's.

It was great to see them.

Sometimes it takes a whole crew . . .

2009-03-29T21:04:00.004-06:00

. . . to make a princess for a day.

Partying @ Poppy's

2009-03-29T20:55:00.003-06:00

The grandkids came and spent some time with us. It is always a lot of fun to have them, as you can see.

2008-11-03T08:17:00.002-07:00

There's the cake. It really was cute!

and here's the kid's playing with Uncle Matt and Aunt Stephanie

2008-11-03T07:55:00.003-07:00

The family gathered for Landon's first Birthday Celebration on Sunday. His birthday was actually earlier in the week so he had a private party and then an extended family celebration. It was a lot of fun. It was good to have the family together and to see the Haddocks again too.

Here are some more of the revelers

For being warned I was taking a picture some of them didn't responod well. Maybe Amy was just over come by the moment, and Tony? well, he was probably eating again. :)

Isn't that a cute cake?? Jenny just has too much fun. It was delicious too. None of this out of the box quickie cakes. It was a pumpkin spice cake with pumpkin mousse filling and cream cheese frosting. Yummy! Ok, where did the cake picture go?? It was here just a minute ago before I started typing! No time to redo all this I will just add it to the top of the page in it's own little blog.

Having fun with the 'smash cake.'
Getting some help from big sister with the gifts.

This party animal is worn out. That is

one pooped Poppy!

Witches Night Out

2008-10-26T21:24:00.004-06:00

Saturday my girls and and I got together and went to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. What a hoot! Such a collection of witches ! - from good to bad to ugly to cute. There was even a tiny weeks old witch in her tiny witchy boots and hat. So very cute! My girls were looking good too, as you can see!

The shops were fun to visit but very very crowded. Every witch within a hundred miles must have been there. The Christmas Shop was great fun and Sharon even bought her first nativity set. Unless I am planning on buying something I have a difficult time doing it. I will probably go back and get the final pieces to one of my nativities, but I just couldn't up and do it when I wasn't planning to . (good thing the price of gas is going down) The carmel apples were great! The scones smelled great but the line was long! And the fudge must have been something else because that line went out the door and down around the building's for two blocks!

Here we are with "Winnifred Sanderson". She was great! She and her "sisters" were working at the quilt shop. There were dance contests, cackling for coupons (with which my own dear little witches can now probably blackmail me with if ever I don't behave) Sharon has a great cackle! Such a talented girl!

The art gallery was a lot of fun to visit. The artist Jay Bryant Ward was there and it was fun to visit with him for awhile. The night ran late and we were tuckered out enough to leave before the 10:00 drawing. Figured we never win anyway. Next time we are going to have to really get into the spirit of the occasion and really dress up, maybe ditch the hats all together or go with something without such wide brims (always colliding with someone else's hat!). AND we will have to invite more of our favorite witches to join us. It was a blast!

2008-09-25T08:37:00.007-06:00

Tahoe is a beautiful area and we had a great time!

Did you know that there are 15 ski resorts in the Tahoe area? I didn't either. As we were driving through the beautiful Tahoe countryside, soaking in the clear blue lake, the majestic Pondersoa pines, and wildflowers on the mountains, suddenly Steve called out "You should be taking a picture of that mountain!" Quickly I looked to see what it was I was missing. "Why that mountain?" I ask, not seeing anything special about it. "It's got to be a ski resort. See that running up the hill?" Only a true skiier would pick that out on a perfect autumn day without a snowflake in sight.

We stopped at Squaw Valley and looked around. Got a terrain map and studdied the runs, noting there were no double black diamonds, and comparing snow conditions there to snow conditions in Utah.

And Steve dreamed of skiing.
We also stopped at Heavenly. Searched and searched for a terrain map. Couldn't find one and came to the conclusion there must be two sides to the resort and we were on the backside.

We tried to do some mountain biking in the Tahoe area, but the only rental places we could find only rented bikes to peddle around the city on and get to the Cassinos. That was our only disappointment. Even so, we had a great vacation!

Grandma Hicken came to visit

2008-08-29T22:05:00.003-06:00

Of course we had to have the traditional Sunday night pink popcorn. It had been a long time since we'd had it. Sooooooo yummy!
Grandma Vollmer certainly enjoyed having her around too. They are quite a pair. Great ladies.
She actually did help us tie the quilt.

Hey this is Stephanie again. I have a really funny story to tell you. It is so funny. We laughed so hard.

It was morning, and Amy, Tony, Grandma Hicken, and I were sitting around the breakfast table. My mom was over washing the dishes, by hand. Now that you know the set up, I'll tell the story.

So, my grandma asked me to pass her a box of cereal, and so i reached for the box, and started to pass it when all of the sudden, one of my fake nails popped off. I started to say, "op there goes my nail for the day," but right before I finished, my grandma picked it up and kinda laughed and said, "oh thank you!" and she popped it into her mouth. Amy and I just looked at each other horrified, wondering what we should do. I was sad, becuase I was just going to glue it back on, but she put it in her mouth to eat it. I was nervous too, becuase it was plastic, what was going to happen? Then my grandma got a kind of bewildered look on her face, and then she took it out of her mouth, and was like, "oh it's your nail. I thought it was a piece of cereal that had fallen out of the box." By this time my mom and Tony were wondering what was going on because of the funny looks on our faces and so we retold the story, and we all laughed together about it, it was great! She is very funny and real entertaining at times!

The Open House

2008-08-28T11:50:00.008-06:00

The Open House August 22, 2008

Getting everything set up and put together for the open house.

Yeah, she's mine!

Amy and Tony posing for another picture.

Choices choices choices.

Picking a wife was easier than this! I wonder how many i can get away with.

This is the amazing cake that Jenny made for the wedding.

The neighbors enjoying the open house, ice cream, and company!

Landon, Sharon, Amy and Stephanie all standing around at the end of the open house just waiting to help clean up the yard.

2008-08-14T19:40:00.001-06:00

And they drove off into the sunset, sort of. They actully were heading east when we last saw them.

2008-08-14T19:32:00.003-06:00

They danced. . . Adam & Carissa danced . . .

Daniel and Tony thought about dancing

2008-08-14T19:28:00.002-06:00

They ate cake . . .well, Amy made sure Tony wore his! Didn't Jenny do a beautiful job on the cake?

Amy and Tony's Wedding Day

2008-08-14T18:53:00.004-06:00

August 13th turned out to be a beautiful day to celebrate Amy and Tony's wedding. Family and friends came and made it a perfect princess day for Amy - and what a beautiful princess she was!!

Cute little Landon

2008-07-21T16:01:00.003-06:00

Amy's Bridals

2008-07-16T21:45:00.005-06:00

Amy had her bridals done today. Here are a few of the pictures her Dad took. She looked great, don't you agree?

Taylorsville Daze 5K "Fun" Run

2008-07-15T13:05:00.003-06:00

Bridal Shower!

2008-07-15T08:48:00.004-06:00

Landon even had a great time at the shower

2008-07-15T08:30:00.002-06:00

Carissa was so much fun to watch open gifts. She loved each and everyone - ooooing and ahhhing them.

Blowing out the candles was an interesting event. Her dad got relighting candles because Carissa enjoys blowing out candles so much. In her efforts to get them to blow out and stay out she ended up with singed hair and eye lashes. He was right though, she had a great time!

2008-07-15T08:26:00.002-06:00

As you see here, Dad bagged his buck on Saturday. Rudolph met his dimise and the neighborhood is up in arms. We'd better come up with something great to replace him before Chirstmas or we will be toast!

2008-03-31T15:35:00.001-06:00

Stephanie and Landon hiking Walter's Wiggles at Zion National Park. It was a great spring break!

2008-03-31T15:32:00.000-06:00

Our sweet Carissa!

Happy Day!

2008-03-31T15:24:00.002-06:00

Tony and Amy Soon-to-be Lopez

2008-03-31T15:01:00.002-06:00

On top to the world at Angels Landing

2008-03-30T22:22:00.001-06:00