isaac

He's handsome, he's mellow, he's a good eater and sleeper, and yes, it looks like he's going to have redish hair!

National Parks Rock!

Americans spend a lot of time complaining about the government, this or that is mismanaged, slow, full of pork, etc. Yes, there is a lot to be fixed, but I'd like to take this moment to pay tribute to the national park system in our GREAT and BEAUTIFUL country. Last month we went on vacation to St. George, Utah and since we were planning on 3 national parks and a national monument we decided to get an $80 year pass instead of paying for each park individually. That week we did a day in Bryce Canyon - spectacular - and 3 days in Zion - Wow! The parks were clean and beautiful. The exhibits interesting and there was something to do for all ages. We especially liked Zion - paved short trails for kids and a fantastic shuttle so the traffic is zero - ahhhhh! Besides, kids LOVE buses. On our way home we hit Pipe Springs National Monument an old Mormon fort on just south of the Utah border in Arizona. They have restored and furnished the fort, have animals, exhibits on the history of the region and great rangers. Wow!

For Memorial Day weekend we ventured forth again. On Saturday we headed north an hour and a half to Montezuma's Castle and Tuzigoot. Montezuma's is a cliff dwelling on the Verde River - very pretty, especially the sycamore trees. Tuzigoot is a hilltop pueblo you can climb in and around. The kids especially liked climbing to the very top to see all around.

On Monday we loaded up again (can you tell Ryan does not like just hanging out at home) and picked up cousin Mitchell and headed north east to Tonto, also a cliff dwelling. This one looks over Roosevelt Lake. The hike was a mile round trip but pretty darn steep for little legs, but the girls made it.

In a month, as we trek up to Idaho we are going to mosey our way through Teaton and Yellowstone. I can't wait!

I guess my point is, the feds may not be great at health care, tax reform, efficiency, etc, but our national parks ROCK! There were a lot of families from Europe in Zion and more than one commented "We have nothing like this in Europe!" And they were not just talking about the cool canyon, they were talking about the great, organized, beautiful, easy to use and enjoy national park system!

On a final note - our new camera should come today - yipeeeeeeeee!

laundry day

Today is "Laundry Day! The day our dirty clothes get clean!" (to be said in a super hero voice). With 4 kids, potty accidents, and a clean sheet fetish we do lots of laundry and I like to do it all in one day. I don't really mind laundry all that much - dirty to clean, disorder to order, a few days of the kids being able to wear their favorite clothing items, but it is a big job and sometimes I forget to be grateful for the wonderful machines that do the work for me. You see, I served a mission in Honduras and Belize - both third world countries with third world laundry. I did my own laundry in all but one area (Bless that woman - it was worth every penny paid). I keep this picture framed in my laundry room to remind me that no matter how much laundry I have to load, fold, iron, and put away, it is NOTHING compared to third world laundry.

Laundry in third world Latin countries is an art/science passed down from mother to daughter (men DO NOT do laundry).

First - fill tank (that think on my right). Sometimes you had to turn the faucet on the night before and it would drip all night to fill the tank because the water supply was sketchy.

Second - for sheets, fill a bucket with water, detergent, bleach and sheets. Mix up and let it sit.

Third - For normal clothes. Take a piece of clothing onto the board. With the small blue bucket scoop water onto it and then take your blue block of laundry soap and rub the garment all over

Forth - Scrub the heck out of your clothes on the ridges of the wash board - lather, lather, lather

Fifth - with the little blue bucket, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, and rinse (this is where the lazy gringas were different than our companions from central America) They would then do softener and even more rinsing!

Sixth - place in a bucket with the rest of the clean clothes

Seventh - Ring the living daylights out of your clothes with your hands

Eighth - Hang to dry and hope it does not rain. Honduras is VERY hot and humid and sunny most of the year and the hot and sunny usually beat out the humidity and get the clothes dry in about 30 minutes. When it's rainy or the few weeks it gets really cold - just give up hope of dry clothes and wear them wet.

Ninth - remove sheets from bucket, rub with blue soap, a section at a time, rinse a section at a time without getting the clean part on the ground or back in the soap. Fact - sheets are a royal pain to wash by hand and really hard to ring out. You may ask, "Why wash them every week then?" Curse that McKay upbringing. McKays are into clean sheets. My great grandmother even changed her pillowcase every day.

We usually did not iron on the mission because 1- it was so humid your clothes just went limp anyway and 2 - landladies were usually concerned about the amount of electricity used in ironing.

So, there you have it - third world laundry and the reason I truly LOVE my machines. I cannot imagine doing all our laundry that way now.

it has begun

High in Mesa today:107 degrees. After a pretty mild spring here in the valley, I guess summer is going to hit with a vengeance. Now, I know many of my dear friends and family would give their right hand (the frostbit one) for a little triple digit weather after the VERY long winter up north, so I will refrain from complaint. I will only say, the thought of 4 weeks in Sandpoint keeps me going as the mercury climbs.

technical difficulties

One of the reasons I started a blog was to motivate me to take more pictures. Now our poor little 5 year old camera is languishing (weird purpule-ish, wavy, grainy pictures). Actually our digital graveyard is growing. In the last week we have lost not only the camera but the DVD player suddenly went caput and the CD player surrendered to Emily's constant and not always gentle use.

Incidentally, Emily is the reason for most of our technical difficulties. She not only killed the CD player, she also managed to ruin the photo/UBS thingy, and I have a strong suspicion she is the reason our fridge was turned all the way up resulting in very cold milk (yum) and the frozen green peppers (yuck). The fajitas tonight might suffer. On a side note, refer to bonappetitfriends in my family and friends list for my friend Holly's scrumptious fajita recipe, so, so, so good and EASY. And yes, we do have a fridge lock - Emily figured it out in about 30 seconds. grrrrr.

We'll see if the camera becomes a priority to replace, we have quite the list.

a relaxing brain massage

Do you watch Curious George? Well, according to him, feeding ducks is like "a relaxing brain massage". I liked that concept, feeling like my brain could use a massage now and again. Not having a lot of ducks around I had to go for the next best thing, a very early morning walk. It used to be that I could go a'walking with the stroller. With Diana I would walk the Esplanade in Boston. Emily brought on the double stroller in Texas (that walk even had a little pond with ducks). Nora and Isaac have complicated walks. Diana likes to ride her tricycle, Emily does not and unlike my friend Tiffany, I do not have the ultra-mega triple jogging stroller. So, my only option for a relaxing, brain massage walk is to go by myself early in the morning. Ryan gets up at 5 and so the last little while I sneak out of the house before any kids can stir and declare hunger. I have to tell you, although 5 is early, it really does stir up the old grey matter and clear my head for the day ahead. I tend to have a lot better day if I start it with a walk. So, if you lack ducks nearby, try a little walk.

Don't swing on a string, it'smuch too frail, the best kind of swing is a tigger's tail

The kids LOVE their swing-set Ryan built for Chirstmas almost as much as I love it. It adds a whole new room to the house.

On a completely different note. Happy Mothers Day to all y'all. You inspire me!

H.M.S. Pinafore

Nora likes to help me cook, so for her birthday I made her an apron. I got a little carried away and made instead a super cute pinafore. She never figured out that it was an apron for cooking and insists it is a dress. It's a MAJOR battle to get her to wear shorts and a shirt under it. She is a nut!

chocolate covered explaination

I have debated for a while about a blog and when I finally decided to do one there was the dilema of what to call it. Dad had a late meeting last night so the kids and I ate early and decided to use the two for one cupon for the frozen yogurt place down the street. Diana is a chocolate FREAK and the rest of us like it just fine, so we got 2 chocolates and shared. You can see the result - chocolate covered Chases.

Here we are!

I LOVE reading my cousins and friends blogs and now that Stephen and Rosie are part of the fun and I know my mom would read this I'm in! Sometimes we feel very far away form all the parties since we are the only ones in Arizona, so this is how we are going to share for a while.

I cannot promise continuous updates, but I am going to try to be a "good little blogger" and keep you informed and entertained.

Update time:

Ryan - WORK, WORK, WORK (and some play). He's still at Intel, doing very well, enjoying it most of the time. He loved our vacation to St. George and came back with renewed energy and a fresh view on life.

Me - MOM, MOM, MOM. Actually, sometimes I thing my name is "Mom, can I please" (at least they say please). I'm also the beehive lady at church (that means 12 year old girls - fun!).

Diana - Diana just turned 5, as she told EVERYONE in Zion Natl. Park as we hiked. She is finishing up preschool and is excited for the big K.

Emily - Emily is 3, very excited for her birthday in July at Grandma's house. She is my never-ending potty project. When not hanging out in the potty with Mom, she likes to climb rocks with Dad, read books, conduct music as she listens to CD's and watch SUPER WHY!

Nora - Nora is 2. Ryan calls her Sunshine and it fits most of the time. She is learning LOTS of new words and gives very sweet kisses.

Isaac - Issac is 5.5 months and just got 2 teeth, likes to rock on his hands and knees and thinks rice cereal is OK as long as it's mixed with applesauce. He also give GREAT kisses.

So, that's us. More as more happens. I hope this is fun