A beautiful day for a flight...

After two days of rain in Las Vegas, today was a beautiful, sunny day. A great day for the kids first small airplane ride. Our friend, who is a pilot and a very good dog trainer too, was kind enough to take us up for a morning flight. The kids really had fun, they were a little nervous at first. The girls and I went up first and then Todd and Aaron after us. Todd actually has his private pilots license. The last time he took us on a flight, I was pregnant with Ariel...so it has been a very long time.

I have braved the crowds every year to join the happy shoppers of "black Friday." This year I decided it really wasn't fun for me anymore...so I stayed home. I have to say I was a much happier person not waking up so early and hanging out with grouchy, selfish people all day. I didn't even have a newspaper or look at a single ad...that made it easier...I didn't know what I was missing.

Thanksgiving Day

We have so much to be thankful for today. It was a quiet Thanksgiving, just the six of us. I had prepared a lot of the food yesterday to ease the cooking burden today. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is a tradition at our house...I don't know why...no one watches it. It just plays real loud for three hours in the background of our morning. We ate our dinner around 1:00. There was only one T.D.D.D. (Thanksgiving Day dinner disaster) that was the stuffing. It was way back in the bottom corner of the oven and basically tasted like burned hard croutons. That was dissappointing. Aaron learned how to carve the turkey and had a little try at it. He did really good. After we ate, I watched football and Todd and the kids did all the dishes. That is only fair. Zoey was passed out on the couch all afternoon on account of the turkey drippings that were drizzled over her dry dog food. Everyone (but me) felt so sorry for her that she could not have dinner with us. I am strictly for dogs eating their own food, so not to encourage her to become a beggar and all. We were hoping to take a family picture today for our Christmas cards but it rained all day.

Why "family meetings" should try to be avoided...

So we tried to have a family meeting tonight to discuss some things. I was to take notes...so I typed as fast as I could to capture all the "fun" that was going on... (This is kind of long but entertaining...)

Family Meeting to discuss fun family activities and goals
Sunday Nov 23, 2008

1. Dad suggested that we hike the grand canyon in April - 17 miles...Ouch! (He cautions us not to get off on a tangent as the discussion starts to go in every direction) Dad will be very disappointed if everyone does not do it. Accomplishment equals satisfaction!! Summary: Get in shape. Do stair stepper and walk etc. Prepare to do a hike at red rock in the next month to get in shape. Mom suggested December for a Hike at Red Rock. Ariel says "It sounds like absolute torture"...she would also rather shoot herself in the face. Ariel suggested that next month we climb the Stratosphere as a family, barehanded with no ropes or harnesses we just need to practice. She thinks we could do it easily.

2. Dad says he is concerned because the girls are inactive which means lazy. Girls do not realize what bad shape they are in...Dad does not think they can run across the street. Ariel says, "yes we can!" Dad says if you are ever in a bad situation you wouldn’t be able to help yourself or someone else..Ariel said, "Like running across the Grand Canyon." Megan said, "We can have an adrenaline rush-they are very common, you can google it." (Lots of arguing going on...) Dad says you probably can’t even do CPR and Megan says, "Yes I can I am CPR certified until March 2009" Megan is performing CPR on a pillow.

3. Another family goal Dad has for us is to make some music together. (Megan feels real awkward about that) He says everyone needs to practice on their own and that Ariel needs to get her violin out. Ariel suggested to Dad that he teach himself how to play the violin. She says, "stringed instruments are way harder than drums." Ariel thinks it is annoying that we keep giving her the suggestion to teach herself the violin. Dad says he is not taking guitar lessons now. He also does not know what is going on in Ariel’s brain. Summary: Effort first equals lessons.

4. Fun family activities that the kids are suggesting:
Ice skating at the Galleria Mall Parking Lot..Ariel says it is more fun and cheaper than the other ice skating rink.

Megan suggests for us to go to Africa she says we can do a lot of fund raising for the family.. She is sure we would thoroughly enjoy it. Dad says we cannot afford to go to Africa. Megan really wants to go on a wild animal safari. Aaron says, "sure we can all spend $2,000 a person to go to Africa. Megan replied, "That is why we are doing fund-raising."

Ariel suggests that we breed puppies. She says we can reverse Zoey’s "issue" and have puppies and sell them...

Megan suggested that we should open a farm and it will be in our backyard because we have plenty of room .

Snow boarding: The girls said we have never skied or been snow boarding. It is Megan’s dream. She says just because we (her parents) didn’t pick it up like everyone else in the world...they should still get the chance to do it.

Shark Reef - Ariel said Dad said we could go there but he tricked us.

Megan wants us to go to Mandalay Bay to see the dolphins. She actually wants to swim with them...it has been her life long dream. Aaron says it is his dream too...he wants to be rescued by a dolphin that he doesn’t even know...Ariel wants to know if he knows a lot of dolphins.

Megan suggested that we go to Bonnie Springs to ride horses..Ariel says "No, it smells like poop." and Megan says there is that really good restaurant there. We can go to the petting zoo and have the peacocks chase us and scare us. Megan said, "Bonnie Springs is realistic."

Aaron suggested that we go bowling...he says, Bowling is actually realistic.

Megan suggested that we all become pirates and sail the open seas.

Angela's first accident since receiving her license at the tender age of 16

Friday I had my first car accident. I was picking Megan up from school in the church parking lot. I was parked in the stall and when Meg got in and I was going to back out...I felt the need only to look over my left shoulder and was quite surprised when I started backing out to feel the impact of the car driving behind me on my right side. I smashed up the back bumper of the "family van" really good for my first try. The teenage boy I hit was OK, his car was OK...he thought I was an idiot (which I am.) I was really upset and wanted to cry... Megan said, "Don't cry mom, you will just blur your vision and get in another accident." I had to laugh at that. We left the parking lot without notifying the police and I was informed later that I committed a small "crime" by leaving the scene of an accident. Since this was my first one, I didn't have all the rules fresh in my mind.

A partial week "get away" to Utah

Last week I drove Ariel to Cedar City and dropped her off at Southern Utah University for a campus tour and to spend the rest of the week with her friend. I drove up to Bountiful to see my family for the rest of the week. It was a nice break from my mom duties...Megan was already in Montana for the week. So Aaron and Todd had less time to be "nagged" by me and more time to do some bonding activities.

I really enjoyed my time there and saw some very special friends that I don't get to see enough(that was so wonderful!) I shopped and went out to eat a lot (which I love to do)...thanks to the kitchen remodel at my parents house.

It was great to see my parents, brothers and some of my sisters, sister-in-laws and my niece and nephews. The little boys showed me a lot of cool "tricks" on the trampoline...some of which I had never seen before...and of course it was good to see BYU win again.

Wendy and Angie's Vegas Vacation

Today my life long friend Wendy came to have a Vegas Vacation with me. Her husband was here on business. We did some a lot of shopping and sight seeing. We had lots of fun taking pictures of ourselves. We asked several random strangers to take photos of us along our travels. After I asked one lady to take the first picture of us, Wendy laid down some ground rules...she said I had to ask people who spoke English. The next person I asked to help us took some pictures of us across the street from the Eiffel tower. The point was to have the tower in the photo with us. She said, "I will take several so you make sure you have a good one." We thanked her kindly and then looked at the pictures and the top half of the Eiffel tower was missing in all three pictures. The next guy didn't do so good either...so we finally had to break out the tripod. My tripod has legs that can wrap around a tree branch so we took photos with the tree tripod. They turned out much better too. We got some concerned looks from other tourists though.

We ate lunch in Paris (at the buffet) I spoke all the French I knew (which was about three sentences) Wendy spoke some French too. I am sure it was NOT all the French she knew...she took seven years of it! Porquoi? Wendy would not eat the bouillabaisse (fish head soup) that I dared her to eat. She did eat the Ratatouille (on account that she liked the movie and all) I skipped that too. My favorites were the quiche and the grilled zucchini. We both got giant crepes filled with fruit and carmel sauce and topped with a large plop of whipped cream. They were delicious. We thoroughly loved our dining experience and we ate all we could eat.

We left the hotel and headed back to my house. We put on our climbing gear...after Wendy was in her climbing harness I handed her my bike helmet and told her that she had to put that on too. She was reluctant, but obeyed. I took a photo of her and then said, "O.K. you can take it off now. I just wanted a picture of you in it." She made me promise not to put it on the blog...I don't know why...it was a very lovely photo. We climbed to the top of the tree house and I have to say, I was very impressed with Wendy's climbing skills. She was a climbing maniac!

Then we went shopping again. Wendy played the role of my personal shopper and brought me all sorts of things to try on. My girls will be very glad to see she was my personal shopper today (I have been said to be "fashion challenged") I hated to see our Vegas Vacation come to an end. It was great day!

Two fun filled weeks with grandpa...

We had a great time with Grandpa Lonny this past two weeks. He performed a lot of slave labor for us. He put in a new dining room light and three ceiling fans. We were very glad for his skills. The boys also went hiking out at Red Rock. Most of the time we were pretty boring hosts...we usually are. We are so glad he came to visit though and will miss him!

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year was a little nontraditional. The kids had the day off from school because we were "privileged" to celebrate Halloween and Nevada Day simultaneously! How convenient. In the afternoon, Todd stopped at the store to pick up some pumpkins...they were all sold out. So the kids didn't get to carve any pumpkins. (I know...I know I am a loser. My motherhood license should be revoked.)

Aaron left to spend the evening with his "joker" friend at 5:00 p.m. He was gone until late. Ariel went to watch a movie with her friends. I did make us some nice soup for dinner. Although, there was only Grandpa Lonny, Todd, Megan and I here to enjoy it. I bought some donuts to put on the black cat's tail, but I didn't want to haul the cat down out of the box in the garage...so I left the donuts in the cupboard. Maybe the cat will come down a day late. Megan left after dinner to be with her friends. Zoey hung out with us adults and snuck a pack of M&M's out of the trick or treat bowl. Luckily, I caught her before she got it opened.

We had only about 10 doorbell rings with children saying "trick or treat" (our neighborhood has always been pretty low on the "desirable" place to trick or treat list.) When I got to about group number 5, I was worried I was going to have leftover candy (which is dangerous to me, I lack self control.) So the last 5 people who came got a lot of candy. I got Todd and Grandpa to watch what they said was a "chick flick" movie with me. Dan in Real Life. I enjoyed it...they did not.

According to Megan...I am a 'Halloween Nazi". I am not sure what that is but I don't think she was giving me a compliment.