It was THIS BIG!

A few weeks ago, we took the kids fishing to this free fishing day at a local plant nursery. They do this every year, I guess, and stock their pond with trout. We get there and there are tons of people there, all along the lake. We picked a spot and started fishing. All of a sudden, these people beside had caught a fish, then another, and another, and the people to our other side had caught one, and another! We still didn't have even a nibble. We have taken our kids fishing about 5 or 6 times in the last couple of years and haven't ever caught a thing! Today was going to be a new day! The people beside us started to feel sorry for us because we told them we had never caught a fish before and they were reeling them in left and right! One of the ladies got a fish on her line and let Ethan reel it in! It was so nice of her! It was just a sucker fish, though, so we threw it back. Those people left and decided to leave us with the bait they were using. We tried their bait and low and behold, the fish started biting! It was so exciting! Finally we had caught a fish!
We fried them up on the BBQ the next day! Yummy!

Honduras Adventures

Well, the end of May, Mike and I went on a vacation to Honduras. We went with a friend of ours that went on a mission there 10 years ago. We thought it would be the trip of a lifetime! Well, it certainly was. After flying all day to get there, we were surprised to find out that our rental car had been given away and "the only one they had left" was an SUV that cost 3 times as much. Of course. Then, we drove 3 hours to our hotel in a very scary city that, little did we know, was having the carnival of the century. They gave away our hotel room since we were a couple hours late. Since the carnival of the century was going on, there were no other hotel rooms available. By that time it was close to 3am and we were dead tired. Anyway, we ended up sleeping in our car in the 80 degree, humid, sticky, nasty, scary place by the side of the road. The next morning we took a very bumpy ferry boat to an island where we were going to scuba dive. The ferry made me chuck ALL OVER! It sucked! The island was very nice and the beaches were ok. I did get a very nice tan! Long story short, we will not be going back to mainland Honduras EVER! We did get some nice pictures of some stuff though.

Catch-up Time!

Well, my internet is finally working somewhat good enough to post a few things that happened, it seems like, a million years ago! I took some cute pictures and couldn't resist posting them, even though you might think they're lame! Here's Jacob's first bike ride experience way back in May. He was so cute, just looking around at everything, even though Daddy's big butt is in his face the whole time! He would say, "Oooooooo" at everything; birds chirping, dogs barking, etc. So cute.

All Crapped Out

Yes, I know, I know. It's been forever since my last post. I thought I could keep up with this whole blogging thing, then our computer decided to crap out! I hate computers!! Why wasn't I smart enough, back in the day, to realize how important computers would be in my life? Why didn't somebody tell me to be a computer science major instead of a useless family and consumer science major?! Uuuuuggghhh! This life stuff is hard! It seems like everyday there's more life stuff to figure out, fix, or change. For example, our air conditioner crapped out also. We realized this when it was almost 90 degrees outside and our poor little house was a scorching 77! So, of course, we call the repair man and he can't come until the next week! Meanwhile, we are dying in our house, sleeping naked, and trying to find relief any place we can think of...the freezer, the fridge, neighbors air conditioned houses, etc. My poor neighbors! Lately we've resorted to hanging out in the kiddie pool all day. I'd show ya a picture of it, but my computer is still not working and I can't download pictures on this one! Such is life. I guess the crap never ends, I'll just have to get used to it! :)

2 Wheels!!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Hopefully I can keep on top of things a bit better. Anyway, Asia got a bike for Christmas and it has been relatively nice outside lately, so we decided to try it out. We didn't put her training wheels on yet. (Mostly because we're lazy!) We just told Asia that she'd have to learn to ride like her big brother. She was very scared at first and was adamant that we know that we were not allowed to let go of the bike at any time. Mike rode alongside her for a couple of passes down the cul-de-sac, and then he just let her go on her own, still making it look like he was still holding on. She just got it! Now she's a little biker pro!

General Conference

We usually make our kids at least be in the same room as us while we're watching conference. It's just too hard to make them sit there and listen to all of the speakers. I even have a hard time sitting still! This is what kept Ethan busy the whole time... We were being ambushed!! Maybe that wasn't an appropriate activity for a church day, but it kept him busy. I knew he was listening, too, because at random moments he would blurt out what the speaker had just said that was interesting to him. Such as, "faith" and "the Prophet Joseph Smith" and "Our Heavenly Father", etc. It was pretty funny!

Grandma and Grandpa meet Jacob

This was the first time Grandma and Grandpa Simington had met Jacob. It was pretty special. He was so good and didn't even fuss when they were holding him. He loves his Grandma and Grandpa! He also loves his tongue!!

Spring Reunion Pics

All of the cousins having a snack


Line up for one of many pics!! Oliver and Olivia are missing here. It goes Madalyn, Ethan, Taytum, Alice, Asia, Avalon, Asher (Rosie), and Jacob (Christina)

Spring Break to Lethbridge

We were able to drive to Lethbridge to spend a whole week with my family. It was so nice just to get away and have a holiday. We stayed at Auntie Cynthia's and Uncle James'. They were so nice to let us stay there the whole week. We got to go swimming at the Ramada Inn (it has 2 waterslides, that Asia HATED!, a wave pool, and a fun little kiddie spray pool), hung out outside in the balmy weather (40's!!), got our van fixed, visited Grandpa George at work, and had a little reunion with my cousins and second cousins. It was quite the eventful holiday. Grandma and Grandpa Simington got to finally meet baby Jacob and so did all the aunts, uncles and cousins. It was great to see all of them again. The kids had so much fun. Auntie Janet and Auntie Rita went through so much trouble organizing projects and dress-ups and food. They are amazing! Now were back and trying to catch up on laundry again! Can't wait to go back again!

Even More Easter 2008

Sorry, I don't quite know how to put pictures where they should go yet. I need to take a crash course in Blogging! Duuh! Anyway, after the Easter egg hunt, Ethan really wanted to dye some eggs. So we did. They turned out pretty cool. Easter Sunday we had to get to church early since the choir was singing and Mike is the choir director. I, of course, strolled in late to sing only one verse of prelude and called it good! We did sing later on in the program and it went quite well. Anyway, after church we were invited over to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's for Easter dinner with all of Mike's brothers' families and his sister's family. We had a yummy ham with funeral potatoes. I love funeral potatoes! After dinner, the men went outside and hid the Eater eggs for all of the gandkids. My mother-in-law is a retired 1st grade teacher, so it was all very well organized. Each grandchild had their own color to collect and there were 10 of each color. The grownups even got their own color! It was pretty fun. Ethan's color was yellow and Asia's was purple. Jacob slept through the whole thing!! Oh well, he had enough chocolate the day before!

More Easter 2008

We had to hurry that morning to be able to get to an Easter egg hunt. There were a few happening around town, but we decided to go to the one closest to our house at EITC. (the technical college). We made it just in time. Ethan and Asia were so excited to go get all of the eggs at first. Then, when they blew the big bull horn, Ethan ran out to get his stash, but Asia started crying. She said she was too scared and didn't want to do it. She wanted me to hold her hand, but the parents were instructed to not go with their children so it would be fair. I finally had to hold her hand a bit and she grabbed 3 eggs that were right by her. Then she was done. Ethan, on the other hand, stayed searching for eggs until he was the last one out there! He had to inspect every little piece of trash, leaf, and dirt clod to make sure it wasn't some fancy egg for his basket! He did, however, find some FLARP which is his most favorite thing in the world. Anything that makes the sound of a gross bodily function is right up his alley! He also got a special note in one of his eggs that let him pick a special prize inside EITC. This was the sneaky part of the whole Easter egg hunt. The people putting it on were also having a rummage sale inside the building. In order to claim your "special" prize, you had to go into the building and see all of the junk that they were selling! It was a great idea, I must say. We didn't buy anything though. Ethan did, however, win this cool egg that hatched a dinosaur after 2 days. He was pretty excited about that!

I thought I'd better post all about our Easter happenings before it gets to be too much in the past and I can't even remember what happened! I swear I'm getting Alzheimers. Anyway, the Easter bunny came to our house Friday night, so Saturday morning, Ethan was the first to wake up and sneek downstairs. He usually comes to our room first thing in the morning, but not this day. He was so excited to see what the Easter bunny had left for him. After his quick peek, he came running upstairs to tell Mike and I what he had gotten. Asia and Jacob soon woke up because of all the commotion. Then we all went downstairs to see the loot...
Even little Jacob got an Easter basket. He just loved shaking the eggs and chewing on them...