Bocce Ball and Shenanigans

Our Logan family introduced us to Bocce ball.  If you haven't played it, all you need is the Bocce set and a rock-free area.  You throw out a white ball and then each player throws their colored ball, trying to get closest to the white ball while not being knocked out by someone else.  The kids played for hours and probably every day while we were there!  I think we'll all be purchasing this game. 

 Jared, Mariah, Isaiah, Jujuan, the prince, Andy

There was much Shenanigans at our reunion too...including some nice white elephant prizes and a cool "ginger" mustache.

 The prince and his gator hat.

 Matt and his pirate hat.



 Ariana

Grandma

Tuesday at the Pool

Tuesday we rented the covered area at the aquatic center, brought in a little lunch, and had a GREAT time.  Everyone got a little sunburn--even those of us smart enough to use sunscreen, but we had a blast!

 Mariah and Ariana

 The princess, Becky, and Mariah

 Andy, Becky, and Ariana

 Libby and Jajuan

We are going to pretend I cropped Ariana out of this one!

 Jared and Isiah

The Great Arm Wrestling Tournament that Jared barely won!

 Liz and Matt

 Robin and Blake

Mariah, the king, and Grandpa

Baseball and Ice Cream

After a fun afternoon at the pool we had dinner and then headed out to watch Matt play in a baseball tournament.  They won, which meant we got to watch him Thursday too!  He didn't feel great, but he played like a trooper--who wouldn't with 20 people cheering, "Matt, Matt--don't break the bat!"

Matt waiting on 3rd and about to score a run.

After the game we went back to the house so the king could make us some DELICIOUS home-made ice cream.  He had some great helpers.

 Andy, Isaiah, the king.

Ariana, taste-testing for us.

Lagoon!

Wednesday was Lagoon Amusement Park Day!  We were so excited.  And although we knew it would be hot, we over-estimated how the heat saps you of energy.  Still the teens and Becky took off for the extreme rides.  Shelley and the king did most of them as well.  The rest of us were happy to Tilt-a-Whirl all day!

 The princess, Jajuan, Mariah, the prince, Jared

These guys had a blast, and since there were 6 of them

 (Becky took this photo),

they easily rode all the rides together!

 The rocking pirate ride.  It's the king's favorite, but twice on it was all Andy could take.

Grandma, the king, Isiah, Libby

Shelley, Andy, Marty

What you don't see is Ariana, Me, and Blake-who took this photo.

 Marty, Andy, and Isaiah on Rattlesnake Rapids--getting drenched.

That didn't stop them from going again TWO MORE TIMES!

And at the end of the day the "big kids" rode the SKY COASTER!  It takes you up in the air about 150 feet.  You pull the ripcord and then you fly at 40-80 miles per hour!  Jajuan wasn't going for it, and Matt wasn't well enough for it, but the others had a blast!! 

 The prince and princess.

 Mariah and Jared

Liz and Becky

There is video on facebook if you want to see the prince and princess' flight!

More Swimming

After an exhausting day at Lagoon, we met in the evening for some pool fun at the hotel.  We made sandwiches and did a White Elephant exchange.  Somehow no one was willing to trade Uncle Blake for his pink pig scrubby. 

 Some guy we don't know, Ariana, Jajuan, prince, Jared, princess, Isaiah.

Jajuan, the prince, and Jared, throwing Isaiah.

Matt and Grandpa.

Batting Cages and Shopping and the Zoo

While Marty and Matt were golfing in a tournament, the girl cousins all went shopping.  There is no photographic evidence, but trust me, they served the Logan economy well.  Later the girls went to the zoo with Grandma, Shelley, and Libby while Grandpa and the king took the boys to the batting cages.  They had a good time!  Thanks for the fun, Grandpa!

 Jared

Jajuan

Ghetto Campfire and Baseball

The plan had been to drive up to the Skabelund cabin to have a fire, roast dogs, eat smores, and play games.  We did all manage to caravan up there only to find that it was far too dry and too big a fire risk to light the campfire.  We headed back to town and bbq'd the dogs instead.  Uncle Marty came through with charcoals in the street for smores.  (Maybe that's more redneck than ghetto.)  Baseball was fun too until someone knocked the ball into the neighbor's yard.  Good thing the dog didn't mind when Jajuan jumped the fence to retrieve it!  After dinner we headed out to watch another one of Matt's baseball games.  Final hugs good-bye after it was done and our awesome reunion was a wrap...until 2014 in Colorado Springs.  Let the planning begin!

Jajuan, Isaiah, prince, Jared

The princess, Andy, Mariah, Jajuan

About "The Hypnotist"

I gave "The Hypnotist" by Lars Kepler 3 stars.  It was a very good read.  I had not heard of this book, but the sequel was recommended in a magazine, so I thought I should read this first.  It is set in Sweden and is by a Swedish author (authors, really--a husband and wife wrote it together under a pen name and when this book came out, all of Sweden searched for Lars Kepler) and was compared to the "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" series.  It's not as good as that series, but it was a good book, and I have the follow-up on hold at the library.  This book is about a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to help patients until an "incident" where he promises never to use it again.  When a killer is on the loose though, the police ask him to use hypnotism to get some answers from someone, and this opens a can of worms that includes someone trying to kill the hypnotist and someone else kidnapping his son.  Lots of characters and multiple story lines keep this book hopping.  I recommend this one for all you mystery lovers out there.

Sheesh!

A mother should not have to tell her 17-year-old son to quit playing Ultimate Frisbee, take cover, AND GET OUT OF THE LIGHTNING.  Seriously!

She's so brave!

The princess finally decided it was time to get her ears pierced.  She has never had any pressure from us.  We've never cared one way or the other, and until recently, she was not interested.  But a couple of weeks ago she asked if she could get it done.  She had rules though and at the top of the list was NOT having it done at the mall where people might see her!  So we found a salon that does it.  Her other rule, which only became apparent as she was looking at her earring choices, was no gold.  Though they burned a little 20 minutes after it was done, they haven't bothered her in hours.  I hope she sleeps okay.

"The Hunt Club"

I gave "The Hunt Club" by John Lescroart 3 stars.  A book jacket review claimed he was better than Grisham.  I don't think he was better than Grisham, but he was certainly as good as Grisham when Grisham is not at his best, which is still pretty darn good.  So I liked this book and may try something else by him in the future.  This story is a murder mystery complete with a missing person, lots of lawyers, a hip private investigator, a Mormon detective, and the California prison guard union.  It's a good page turner with plenty of dialogue for MB though I did think it dragged on a little about 2/3 of the way through.  The who-dun-it was good, I didn't guess it until close to the end.  A good read!

Only Jared...

Cousin Jared posted this story on facebook today.  I told him it was going on the blog!  Thanks for the laugh Jared.

Allow me to relate the most recent terrifying experience of my life. While tearing off the most wasp infested roof I've ever seen in my life, I lifted up a few shingles, where underneath lied a nest with easily ten wasps in it. I exclaimed, "Lucifer's rectum!" and looked for somewhere to run. Unfortunately, I was on the side of a steep roof and there was nowhere to go. So I had my co-worker Chase toss me the Spectracide and did battle with them for a few minutes. That was frightening, especially since sting allergies are known to exist in the family.

July 2009

These guys have sure changed a LOT in 3 years!

My Fortune

Yesterday we checked out the new Panda Express here in town (love me some Panda Express when sitting in an airport for an extended period of time).  Dinner was great, but the fortunes were lacking.  Here's mine:

If you befriend yourself, you'll never be lonely.

Seriously?  On second thought, this might be a great middle school mantra!

For Jeanette

The princess wanted you to see this.  If you had facebook she would have sent it to you herself.  None-the-less, this is how she feels about camping.  :)

Photo Shoot

Though she's been practicing at 6am all summer, this is the first time the princess has gotten to wear a cheer uniform.  They did a photo shoot.  I don't think she gets to keep it yet though.  But it is pretty exciting and feels sort of real now!  Wahoo!

Enough

Tired of extreme heat.  Where are the pleasant 80*s?

Fancy Party

Yesterday the prince was invited to a going away party for a friend.  Off he and Travis went, in their t-shirts and shorts.  Alas, they were home about 20 minutes later.  They were not dressed appropriately.  This was a FANCY PARTY!  So Travis borrowed the prince's clothes---way too big, and they were off.  I thought perhaps the baseball cap would not be up to par, but the bouncer told him that since he had been wearing it all day, he could keep it on.  Baseball caps are better than hat-hair, I guess.  And Travis' flip-flops were okay too, since that was all he had.  Too funny!

That's a mighty big bowl of soup!

We went to a Chinese restaurant the other day.  Andy ordered a bowl of wonton soup.  We had no idea that bowl would be so big!!!  To his credit, he did make a pretty good-sized dent in it.   And he said it was pretty tasty...and salty...he was drinking water all afternoon.

In other Andy news, he was going to post these photos on his facebook page until he saw them.  He didn't like the way he looked so decided just to post the soup bowl photo.  You know what that means?  He's reached that teen-age stage where he cares how he looks.  Another one of our babies is growing up.  Darn it!  Besides, I think he looks great in these photos.  What do teenagers know anyway?

4th of July Fun

We had a great 4th of July.  The temperatures cooled off so we were able to enjoy the great outdoors.  We invited friends and family over for a bbq and then went to the king's sister's house to watch the big fireworks display.  A shout out to the church who put on the show.  They were even better than last year.  So great!  

 Waiting for guest to arrive for the bbq.

Fish lips.

 All lined up and ready for the light show.

 Oh wait.  Maybe we'll see better in the back of the truck.

Unfortunately they didn't all fit!

Look Who Came To Visit!

We were so excited when the Skabelunditoes called to ask if they could come visit for the 4th of July.  They were worried out the short notice, but we said, "Heck YES!"  There were lunches out, a premier showing of the new "Spiderman" movie, 4th of July fun, and of course, lots of ice cream.  It is a hot summer, after all!  So glad you came to see us!!!

About "At Risk"

I gave "At Risk" by Particia Cornwell one star.  The book started out okay, handsome detective assigned to solve a 20-year-old mystery using modern day DNA techniques, but it soon turned into a jumbled mess.  Too many characters not well developed and a convoluted plot that jumped all over the place.  It was sometimes hard to follow, and after I finished it I went back and skimmed the whole thing thinking I must have fallen asleep while reading it and missed something.  I didn't.  It's that messed up.  To top it all off, it was only about 200 pages long and a small book.  Good thing.  I probably couldn't have taken much more of it.  Don't bother with this one folks!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!  On MSN.com today I found a list of all 50 states and a corresponding tv show that is set in that state.  Some of the shows I had not heard of, and some were quite old.  There is a link to the complete list at the bottom of the page.  I listed the states that I think might interest my readers.  I feel the need to apologize to UT and MT although I didn't put this list together.  They used Big Love for UT which probably offends most of the people in UT, and they had to go clear back to 1958 to find a show set in MT, and it only aired for 1 year.  As for me, the only show of this listed that I've seen regularly is ER.  The king loves American Pickers.  I hope you spend your day with friends and family, celebrating our freedom and not watching a lot of tv!

Arizona:  Medium
Colorado: Community
Florida: Nip and Tuck
Idaho: Napolean Dynamite (the cartoon)
Illinois: ER
Indiana: Parks and Recreation
Iowa: American Pickers
Montana: Buckskin
Nevada: Reno 911
North Dakota: My Secret Identity
Oregon: Portlandia
South Dakota: Deadwood
Utah (sorry!): Big Love
Washington: Grey's Anatomy
Wyoming: Longmire


http://tv.msn.com/summer-tv-guide/

Happy Birthday Dad

This post is primarily for my brother and sisters, but all readers are welcome to enjoy.  If our dad were still alive, he would be 70 today.  Happy Birthday Dad!  I have a year book from his senior year and scanned these items from it (although they did not scan well).  He went to a small high school and was very active in sports and the arts.  Throughout his life he was one of those people others gravitate to.  We miss him.  

Old year books were so cool, listing all this stuff.

Of course, with the large high schools in our town,

it would be more difficult (costly) now.

He and Linda were Mr. and Miss High School...

I don't even know what that is!



 Lookin' pretty tough!



 Prince of the Ball (Winter Ball, maybe?)

He looks really young in this photo.

Oh look, here he is again with Linda!

Prom King and Queen

The Confession

I am giving "The Confession" by John Grisham 4 stars.  Finally, a 4 star book after too many 2 star books!  This book is vintage Grisham at his best.  The story centers around a man coming forward to confess to a crime that another man was convicted of.  The convicted man is on death row and 48 hours away from being put to death.  Enter the dynamic lawyer and a Luthern minister to save the day.  Do they do it?  You'll have to read the book to find out.  One of the things I love about Grisham is how he ties up all the loose ends.  You are never left wondering, "What about....?"  GREAT READ!

Waldo Canyon Fire Photos

My parents have friends who live in Colorado Springs.  They were evacuated the other day and took these photos as they were leaving.  No word yet on if they lost their house.  So heart-breaking.