July 2008 archive

OKC Adventure Log: Pictures, Part 1

Here’s the first batch of pictures from the trip. We didn’t remember to take very many (too much driving will do that to you, I think), so they are kind of sporadic and random. There are more to come, though, so keep watching.

Ily and the boys made shirts at our house in anticipation of the 4th of July festivities. ... See my Tabblo>

Pictures from the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, ID. This is where we ended up on our first day of driving when we couldn’t make it all the way to Salt Lake. It was pretty, but Bryan had a major (for him) allergy attack down here. He hasn’t had one of those in a long time. ... See my Tabblo>

We spent the day with Ily’s Grandparents and her uncle Ron who all live together in Manhattan, KS.
... See my Tabblo>

Posted by Bryan on July 29, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Saving some Moolah.

Ok, so a friend of mine emailed a link to the coupon mom website www.couponmom.com which teaches people like me to be a strategic shopper (AKA Jennifer Hale who is in my ward and other people like her, though Jennifer may do even more- she is amazing) in plain and simple terms. It is really cool and I was appalled to find that I spent too much on diapers today, but I digress. Oh well, so I was clicking around and found a link to this article on the blog section.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/accent/epaper/2008/06/27/a1e_minor_web_0627.html

It is hilarious. and yes, I think I spend too much on food too…. even though I make my own bread, I think I totally still spend too much.

So now my curiosity is how much do you spend on your weekly food? I think I actually spend $110 to 150 at Fred’s each time I go which is at least once a week! Usually that does include more than just groceries, though. And sometimes I can run in just for milk and nothing else. And FYI, diapers are cheaper at Fred’s than Target here in Vancouver, and I did not buy them at Fred’s today argh!!! I thought it was the other way around darn it!

Oh well, I am having an aha moment tonight. Maybe I will become a coupon mom here soon.

Posted by Ily on July 23, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Why our 9th year together has been wonderful

We were thinking about some of the best things that we have done together this year and we had a really great list. Here it begins…

We sent our oldest child off to first grade! He is getting so big so fast!

We started our 2nd child in pre-school. It seems like he was just born not long ago.

We had a Christmas with just us. It was nice for us to have that day together. We got bored and were happy to drive off to Kennewick to be with family after that, but it was still nice to have Christmas morning at our house and begin some of our own traditions. Secret Santa for the 12 days of Christmas was such a hit. I don’t think we can travel again at Christmas just because of that tradition alone! The boys loved being stealthy to drop off the gifts. I got a kick out of ding-dong ditching too!

We both turned 30 this year! We even had a birthday party. With a lot of people there. And we were so tired by 10pm that we wanted to leave and go to bed, but ha ha! we couldn’t. It was our party.

We became a one car family again. That was nice of Bryan to accept the fancy new bike as a trade for getting rid of his car.

We trained together for a triathlon and had a great time doing it together. We did a relay. I loved waiting for him to tag me after his bike ride so I could start the run, it was a big “I Love You” moment.

We bought our first brand new car. Well, a mini-van really. It was so hard to pick which one to get, but I think doing all the shopping together, and research, and test-driving was a good experience for us. I think we could have made a whole car payment with the money that we used for babysitters while we went out and test drove for those many months of shopping.

We weathered sickness together. Serving each other during trials like the stomach flu really makes you love each other more. How can you not love someone who is helping you with puking kids? I think Heavenly Father gave us sicknesses so we can serve each other and have the by product be lots of love.

We went on this crazy long road trip where we drove 4600 miles together with our kids all the way to Oklahoma and back and had a really great time. We still can’t believe we did it and that we still like each other and our van.

Posted by Ily on July 18, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: The Rest of the Story

The Oklahoma Adventure has come to an end. Yes, we made it the whole way there and back, and actually had quite a fun time. I’m sure it will seem like it was even more fun as some of the driving memories fade and the memories of time with friends and family grow fonder.

I will never have the time to type up each day like I did the for July 4th, so here is the outline that Ily and I came up with for the rest of the days of the trip. I also added the last few days that we’ve had at home, just to completely catch you up. Some pictures and video will be posted later, but honestly, don’t hold your breath.

If you have any questions or want more details on anything (like how the police unjustly baited Bryan in Oregon), please comment and we’ll do our best.

7/5/08

Science museum in OKC, eat lunch there, go to planetarium, gymnastics hall of fame, and the explosion show-and yes, the explosion show was the coolest.
Go to the grocery store, and crazy enough, in Walmart Ily meets no one that she knows. That is very uncommon for her there in Oklahoma.
Watch movies, eat chips and dip, Bryan starts reading One Minute Millionaire
Go to the Orgills to try and catch Ily’s old friend Randy (one of Richard’s brothers). End up at Richard’s birthday party instead.

7/6/08

Family lunch: creamy chicken spaghetti recipe from my friend Shannon Browns’ blog. This recipe is amazing! Thanks Shannon!
Church in Edmond, see some of Ily’s old high-school friends there.
Ily visits the Crane family while kids nap and Bryan finishes One Minute Millionaire (took more than a minute, and he’s still not a millionaire)
We hang out with Joe Orgill, another one of Richards brothers and Ily’s old friend, at Richard’s house.

7/7/08

Swim at Melders (Peery family friends) backyard pool in OKC. Bryan gets sunburned. We all have a great time.
Drive to Hayes, KS and experience a big midwest thunderstorm with rain that almost forces us off the road.

7/8/08

Head for Ft. Collins, CO
Stop at Denver to see Kelley Larsen and rest during another huge thunderstorm
Arrive in Ft. Collins
Play Wii with the Wrights, decide Nolan’s Wii Sensor Bar isn’t powerful enough for how far his couch is from his TV and make plans to fabricate a new, more better one.

7/9/08

Get subs from Silver Mine Subs
Buy components for a new mo’ better “sensor bar”
Go to the Lee Martinez farm and watch the kids go wild feeding sheep.
Go to Poudre river where Ily, Bryan, and Nolan fully submerge themselves in glacier water and the boys throw mud at each other.
Build prototype sensor bar, it works smashingly
Play Ruckus (card game)

7/10/08

Kids play in the yard
Go to the Ft. Collins science center
Eat dinner in Loveland at Old Chicago. Ily says her pizza was delicious.
Take the kids to see Wall-E. Ily decides that it is part Teletubbies when Reece begins yelling, “Eva!” and “Wall-e!” at the screen along with the movie. Bryan has to admit similarities: both shows feature extremely simple dialog (if any), strange machines, and rotund humanoids in jumpsuits. Seriously though, he thought it was cool and the boys loved it.
Work on final version of mo’ better sensor bar
Play Seafarers of Cataan.

7/11/08

See some camels in Colorado just before the Wyoming border.
See bulbous moon rocks in Wyoming again.
Take an emergency potty stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, WY.
Arrive at Grandma’s in Salt Lake tired and headachey. Some food, rest, and a walk to the park help.

7/12/08

Visit Aunt Jennie’s newly remodeled house in Holiday, UT. It’s beautiful. Kids have fun on the trampoline.
Visit cousin Josh’s house in Highland, UT. Swim in their pool (Bryan wears sunscreen this time), have snacks, and climb on the world war II tank.
Leave UT at 6pm and drive to Twin Falls in about 3 1/2 hours. Stay at Ameritel Inn again.

7/13/08

Attend Twin Falls 10th ward sacrament meeting at 9:30 on a whim, I mean uh, due to inspiration (wasn’t in our original plans).
Get on the road at 11.
Idaho never looked so good.
Bryan gets a speeding ticket just past Ontario, OR (speed limit drops from 75 to 65 when you go from Idaho to Oregon. Bryan and Oregon are not on good terms right now).
The Dalles never looked so good.
Trip odometer hits 4,600 miles exactly just a couple miles from home.
Make it home by 7:30, and there is much rejoicing!

7/14/08

Bryan wakes up with a sore neck.
Bryan takes van to get first oil change, plus a vacuum and car wash.
Ily swims laps in the evening and feels like a fish returned to water.

7/15/08

Bryan goes on a long (for him) bike ride and it feels very refreshing.
Take Reece in to the doctor because he is happy all day but won’t sleep at night. He has a fever all day too, but it won’t stop him from having fun.
Bryan and Ily celebrate 9th anniversary by trying a new (to us) Mexican restaurant in Washougal called, Los Dos Compadres. Their Carne Asada is excellent.
Isaac and Micah have their first soccer games of the season. Micah scores a gooooaaaaal.
Bryan and Ily continue anniversary celebration by watching a movie (Avatar actually) and then taking care of a screaming Reece (he’s got an ear infection- wahoo…. fun for us).

7/16/08

Micah has soccer practice
Ily watches Carly and Lauren Ray so that their mom Karen can attend Cub Scout Day camp with her oldest Kenny who is just a few months older than Isaac. Ily is so excited that Isaac will be going next year too! The countdown to age 8 is getting exciting.
I’m sure that’s not all that happened, but it’s late and I can’t remember what else was exciting this day.

7/17/08

Ily picks the first blueberries of the season. They are delicious.
Bryan plays Ultimate Frisbee at work and has much fun.
Isaac has soccer practice.

Posted by Bryan and Ily on July 17, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

OKC Adventure Log: 7/04/08

After we ate at Pops last night and bought souvenir hats and shirts (Isaac and Micah wanted the Route 66 hats with flames on them), we went and took pictures in front of the Round Barn, another Route 66 landmark in Oklahoma. It was closed though, so we didn’t stay long. It was about time to find where we were staying and get the boys to bed, so we followed our directions to the Orgill’s house. Richard is the older brother of one of Ily’s best friends from high school and he and his family were very nice to let us crash at their house while we were in Oklahoma. Everyone slept well, except for me at first. Their yard has a lot of trees that are full of cicadas, an incredibly noisy bug that we don’t have up in the Great Northwest. You seriously couldn’t carry on a conversation without yelling a little outside their house. Earplugs were a lifesaver for me, even though the cicadas didn’t seem to bother anyone else.

The next morning we got up early (for us, we pretty much stayed on Pacific Time the whole trip) and went to the 4th of July Parade in Edmond. I have been to a parade or two in my life and I can honestly say that I have never seen more Shriners in my life. I think they made up a good 3/4 of the parade. Ily’s mom had saved us a good spot in the shade and the boys enjoyed all the motorcycles, horses, and old cars. It was great.

After the parade we drove to Oklahoma City, picked up Ily’s grandma and went to T.G.I.Fridays for lunch. We pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves (I guess because of the holiday) and the boys were being really good so we took our time, ate, and played a dice game together called Toss up.

After that we went back to Ily’s parents’ house and relaxed until fireworks time. When it got later we drove down the street to University of Central Oklahoma campus and found a grassy spot to watch the fireworks from. Even though we knew nobody around us at first it felt like a ward activity. Everyone was playing frisbee or soccer together and watching out for each others kids and just being neighborly like that. People are friendly in Oklahoma. Some friend of Ily’s mom from her ward found us and their kids had fun running around with ours.

When it got dark the fireworks started and scared poor Reece to death. I held his ears and covered his eyes and he eventually calmed down. Isaac and Micah loved the show. Ily and I thought it was great too. It was a fun 4th of July.

Posted by Bryan on July 11, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: Quick Update

We have been having a really fun time not driving so much and therefore not having much time to blog, but I’m sitting in our friends’ living room in Ft. Collins, Colorado and their nice laptop is staring at me, so I figured I could give a quick update. We had a great time in Oklahoma (we’ll write that up eventually, I promise), and are now on our return leg home. I don’t have the energy to do the play-by-play updates while we are driving any more but we left Oklahoma last Monday afternoon and drove to Hayes, KS and stayed the night there. Yesterday we drove from Hayes to Denver, CO and spent a couple hours with our friends the Larsens, and then continued on to Ft. Collins to stay the night with our friends the Wrights, and they are showing us a great time today. Allright, we’ll post more later.

Posted by Bryan on July 9, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: 7/03/08 -- Arrival in Oklahoma!

11:00 am: Leave Manhattan, KS. The kids spent time playing out in the Knapps’ yard and Isaac explored the creek with his cousin Tanner before we left. We also bought gas the night before for $3.95/gallon. $62.49 total.

12:00 pm: Stopped for lunch in Salina at a McDonald’s with not only a Play Place, but with free wi-fi too (it’s at exit 90), so we upload a few overdue blog entries while the kids play. 78 degrees outside, much cooler than yesterday, and less humid too. We also noticed that our trip odometer hits 2000 miles in Salina.

3:30 pm: Potty break at McDonald’s. 84 degrees. Ily says it feels nice and realizes it’s been 8 years since she has been home (in OK) in the summer.

3:53 pm: Pay a toll for the Kansas Turnpike. Only $1.60. That Denver turnpike is definitely not getting our business again.

5:23 pm: Arrive in Edmond, OK, and then drive down Route 66 a few miles to Arcadia, OK to meet Ily’s parents at Pops for dinner.

Yes, we made it to Oklahoma!!

And if you are being very technical, we did not go all the way to OKC (Oklahoma City) on our OKC Adventure today. Edmond, where Ily’s parents live, is a close suburb of OKC. We’ll head into OKC proper tomorrow to visit her grandma.

Posted by Bryan and Ily on July 7, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: 7/02/08

We didn’t travel today, so I won’t give you the play-by-play trip log. We spent the day with Ily’s Uncle Ron and her paternal grandparents, Lloyd and Dorothy (Dot). We started with the tour of Ron’s little house and property on the hill overlooking Tuttle Creek Reservoir. It’s pretty wild out there. Then we drove into town for lunch at the Little Apple (in Manhattan, get it?) brewery and steak house. The steak was good. They gave the kids little glasses with crayons in them and it didn’t take long for Reece to toss his on the wood floor and see it shatter. The waitress was hardly phased by it. I figured she’d probably seen rougher characters and dealt with worse messes. This was Kansas after all.

After lunch we took the kids to Anneburg park to let them get some pent up energy out. It had rained a bit while we ate lunch, and I thought this would cool things off a bit. It was only in the 80’s, but it felt more humid than I thought possible. The boys didn’t seem to mind as they played at the playground, but I was feeling like I was practically under water. “Somebody give me a snorkel!” I wanted to scream. I’ve realized on this trip that the last few times I’ve been out to visit Ily’s family it has either been Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I had totally forgotten what summer was like here. Ily’s grandparents had wisely stayed back in the van with the air conditioning on. Air conditioning is an amazing thing.

After the park we drove past some homes that Ron’s home building company is working on and then headed back to his place. We were hoping the boys would fall asleep for nap time, but no such luck. We put a movie in at Ron’s house and everyone fell asleep, except the boys. After the movie Ron showed us pictures from his tour in Afghanistan with his National Guard unit. Very interesting, at least to me. By the time that was done it was time for dinner so we packed up the van (it was nice that all 8 of us fit) and headed to Texas Star restaurant in Aggieville. Texas Star was Tex-mex food that was tasty. Aggieville is just off K-State campus and houses many purple-clad college student hangouts. Micah and Reece fell asleep, finally, on the way there. We just carried them into the restaurant and let them sleep through most of dinner.

Aggieville also has Coldstone ice-cream where we went for dessert, having been tipped off that Kaitlyn (sorry, not sure how that’s spelled) Knapp works there in the evenings. We had only seen her briefly last night as she came home from work and we headed off to bed, and she didn’t recognize us as we came in the store. Finally Ily caught her eye and said, “Hi, cousin!” and Kaitlyn’s eyes went wide and she turned red with embarrassment. She apologized for having not recognized us (and then made sure we got her family discount), but I couldn’t blame her. If it weren’t for Ily and her superpowers by my side I don’t think I would have been able to pick her out in a crowd, though she does look like a Gage.

While we were eating it rained again, hard. Reece insisted on getting no help in keeping his ice-cream cone from dripping all over, and to top it off he ran all over the store with it the whole time we were there. He was totally nuts! It was funny. When the rain stopped we all piled into the van and took Ron, Lloyd, and Dot back to their house and said our goodbyes. As we drove we saw lots of lightning. I told the Knapps when we got back to their house that we had the whole Kansas experience today: humidity, thunderstorms, steak, and Aggieville. Sterling informed me that I hadn’t had the whole experience—I hadn’t been bitten by a chigger. I think I’ll be OK if I can pass on that one.

Posted by Bryan on July 3, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: 7/01/08

10:30 am: Depart for Manhattan, KS. Ily is at the wheel. Around 85 degrees. There are actually a other cars on the road in Colorado!

11:00 am: 90 degrees already. Bryan is a little surprised at how flat this “mountain state” is. Oh sure, we can see big mountains in the distance, but the cities here aren’t nestled up against them like in Utah.

11:35 am: Hit the toll booth on E-470 that goes around Denver, CO. $2!! Ily is more familiar with toll roads than Bryan, and she thinks this is pretty steep.

11:40 am: Another toll booth! Another $2!

11:45 am: Yep, one more toll booth. $6 to drive around Denver! Insane! It wasn’t even that fast with all the tollbooth stops.

11:48 am: Got on I-70 and away from that rip-off road. 90 degrees, Ily still at the wheel. Avatar disk is finished, boys eat some snacks and listen to the book, “Howliday Inn.”

1:00 pm: Stop at Limon, CO for lunch. McDonald’s doesn’t have Play Place! We decide we might as well eat somewhere else then and go to Arby’s. Reece creates his own Play Place by climbing up the backs of benches and rolling on the floor with Micah.

1:45 pm: Depart Arby’s with Ily at the wheel. 94 degrees.

1:57 pm: Pass Arriba, CO. Sign says it’s 5228 feet in elevation. The landscape is flat as a pancake.

Here’s something we forgot to document from Monday. Ily was sleeping in the passenger seat and one of the boys (who will remain anonymous) was holding a bag of crackers. For some reason he decided that when he was done he would just drop them over the seat in front of him. They landed behind Ily’s neck. We aren’t sure exactly when this happened or how long they sat back there as she tossed and turned, but when she woke up and leaned forward a bit, cracker crumbs went all down the back of her shirt and pants and onto the seat. She was pretty shocked.

2:30 pm: Enter Kansas and pass north of the highest point in Kansas, “Mount” Sunflower which is 4039 feet tall. Bryan’s GPS indicated that we were at about 3700 feet on the highway. That may be why we couldn’t quit pick it out on the horizon.

3:10/4:10 pm: Enter Central Timezone. 100 degrees outside, and Micah and Reece are fighting over a blanket. Air conditioning must be working.

5:00 pm: Stop in Colby, KS to stretch legs, switch drivers, and fill up the gas tank. Like home, the lowest octane is 87, but unlike home, it’s only (only?!?) $3.99/gallon. There is also a playground at this gas station, but it’s too hot outside for the kids to really enjoy it. Bryan decides that 100 degrees in Kansas is hotter than 100 degrees in Idaho. Bryan at the wheel.

8:00 pm: Bryan actually has a need to turn the steering wheel. The plains have been replaced by hills and trees around Salina. Kansas is looking pretty. 88 degrees.

8:30 pm: Arrive at Bryan’s cousin’s house in Manhattan, KS (home of the Kansas State University Wildcats). Bryan steps out of the car and is immediately soaking wet. He is embarrassed that he ever complained about “humidity” in the Northwest. The green rolling hills are amazingly beautiful (prettier than the Northwest, or just a much welcome contrast to desolate Wyoming and the endless plains of east Colorado and west Kansas?) and fireflies are just cool. The boys have fun exploring the Knapps’ backyard and chicken coop. We all have fun chatting and then hit the sack at about 11.

Posted by Bryan and Ily on July 3, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

OKC Adventure Log: 6/30/08

9:55 am: Again, no early start again today. We had nice morning at Grandma Coate’s house. Bryan is at the tiller again and it is 86 degrees. We are heading east on I-80 on a road we don’t remember driving on before. It is pretty green. Oh wait, there’s Park City, we have driven this before.

11:30 am: Stop at Evanston, WY for gas. $3.89/gallon. Purchase a road atlas. 95 degrees. Leaving with Bryan handling the tiller. We pass many windmills that are not moving.

12:16 pm: It looks like we are driving on the moon.

1:14 pm: Watching Avatar. Eating nutter butters, Grandma Sycamores bread, oreos, and crackers. Counting prairie dogs: 3 (alive) so far.

1:20 pm: Pass Bar X Road. 86 degrees. Lots of billboards for steakhouses. Ily almost wants to stop and eat tons.

1:33 pm: Elevation 6930 feet, we cross the continental divide and a truck emitting lots of black smoke. We don’t think it passed emissions.

1:49 pm: Car miles we have driven this trip so far: 1023 at mile marker 183 on highway 80. When we started this trip we had just over 1000 miles on this new van.

3:00 pm: After watching the car in front of us get pulled over, we stop in Rawlins, WY at yet another McDonald’s with a Play Place for lunch. Bryan sneaks over to Subway to grab lunch for Ily and him.

3:56 pm: On the road again with Bryan at the tiller. The boys are watching another Avatar disk.

5:30 pm: Potty break just past Cheyenne, WY at a huge fireworks stand. We leave quickly when we see a man smoking in the parking lot. Bryan manning the tiller.

6:00 pm: Arrive at Steff and Nols place in Severance, CO (just outside Ft. Collins, CO)). Hooray! We have a nice evening with the Wrights with the boys jumping on the tramp and the adults playing games.