Okay Okay Here they are -

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Francisco

One of the biggest reasons for the trip was to be able to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan Town. We were there on Sunday which was the last day and had the costume contest and the big parade.

These guys were the winning entry in the cherry blossom festival. There is a person in the wolf costume.

The announcer had said that this group has won the last three years and were not going to compete again but then changed their mind. They are characters from the game Zelda and the Twilight Princess

This person wore this and walked in a parade and all around the festival for several hours in 90+ heat.

This costume was way cool because the cat could actually talk and the mouth moved and everything. He is from the movie the Cat Returns
Most of the kids at the festival love to pose so here were a couple while we were at the big mall in Japan Town.
This is one of the really cool costumes I thought. It is a nintendo DS and was funny.
Ty and Boo at the cable car museum - Very cool museum and also free. If you get a chance to go to San Fran make time to go. It is on two of the cable car lines and easy to get to.

This the the entrance into the administration

side of Alcatraz. If you look close you can still

see where the sign was changed in the 70's

when the indians were living on the island



This is one of the cells at Alcatraz. It is one that they have fixed up and made to look like they did when there were prisoners there. The cells are very small, in fact that was the one part of Alcatraz that surprised me. It was very small. The area that actually had the cells was not a large space and there were not a lot of cells. Boo went into the cell in solitary that was the worst in the prison. The picture did not turn out very good because it was so dark. It was a creepy cell and gave you goosebumps to go into it.

D, Ty and Boo walking down from the cellblock. They were all feeling Johnny Cash that day and dressed in black (D's sweater is actually blue) I thought it was a neat picture and shows how steep it is to walk around Alcatraz. It is like climbing up a thirteen story building from the bottom where the dock is up to the cell block. It is really steep and not for the faint of heart.

This is the building where the prisoners went to work everyday. They made all kinds of stuff in this building. You could not get very close to it as it is not safe but is one of the areas that they hope to open someday. The only areas you can tour on the island is the cellblock building at the top and in the old fort at the bottom where they have a cool museum set up and a movie about the history of the island.

There were also some cool burned out buildings from when the indians had taken over the island. I did not post them because the picture thing on the blog drives me nuts trying to make them all work.

This is from the cable car looking down one of the really steep streets

Memorial Day

We look so forward to Memorial Day as it is the first official day off from work for several months. It seemed like this year the time from presidents day to Memorial day both speed by and dragged. It has been such a crazy couple of months catching up seems to be the mode of the days. 

Yesterday we met D's parents at the cemeteries in Ogden to put flowers on his grandparents graves. As we drove into the very busy cemeteries we were somewhat taken back by seeing hot dog trailers. Thinking these places had sunk to new lows to sell hot dogs at the graveyard! We were much relieved to find that in fact the wagons were simply giving away free drinks. Still somewhat weird but at least they were not selling something. 

D's parents 47th wedding anniversary is this thursday and to celebrate they are going on an Alaskan Cruise this coming weekend. I hope that they have a nice relaxing trip. My parents anniversary is a day later and I apologize for not remember the year exactly. I think is it either 43 or 44 years. I think it is a great example for my kids to see that marriages can last and to have both sets of grandparents who have both been married for many years and still seem to like each other. 

Short update pictures to follow

I know I am bad. I have not updated in many days and I am sorry. So much has been going on in our days that by time we have a chance to breathe it is too late to do anything. 

To start 

Boo is back in track and playing soccer two games a week and three practices a week. She is really busy and because she can't drive yet, we are really busy driving her to various practices and games. There is not enough hours in the day to get her to everything.

Two weekends ago we took the older girls on a trip to San Francisco for the weekend. The four of us rode cable cars, went to the cherry blossom festival and alcatraz island. We also hooked up with my way cool cousin and her parents and had dinner. It was a fun trip, very busy. It was Boo's first plane trip and she seemed to handle it just fine. We left the younger two with my awesome sister who graciously babysat for four days. Thanks sis we appreciated it and hope to be able to pay you back. That is the pictures will follow. We took some good pictures of the festival and alcatraz. By the way it was the hottest ever in san francisco at the festival and D and I got a bit of heat exhaustion. 

Graduation is Saturday and to top off the busy week I just went through grueling three hour interviews for the new position at work. 

I promise to post pictures (as soon as i figure out how to get them off the camera)

Oh and I got the job

How do you say goodbye?

It was a tough weekend at our house. Our beloved Izzy passed away yesterday of kidney failure. She has been failing for several weeks and we had been back and forth to the vet with her. The response of the PA over the last month has been simply - she needs to lose weight, she will be fine. By Tuesday of last week she was very lethargic and had not eaten for several days. By Friday she was loosing fur and D got mad enough to take her back to the vet in insist that there was something really wrong and they needed to find what it was and now. After several hundred more dollars worth of tests they finally determined that she had been suffering from kidney failure for the last year and her kidneys had finally failed completely. There was nothing that could be done her body was full of toxins and infection. This must have been a genetic problem because they don't see kidney failure in dogs until they are usually ten or eleven. Izzy was almost eight.

D brought her home Friday so that we could all say goodbye. The kids took some great pictures of her and gave her love and hopefully made some good final memories. D then took her back to the vet Saturday morning and had her put to sleep and out of her misery. The Vet had said that she would not make it through the next week. We had her put to sleep to prevent her from suffering any further. D brought her home she was put to rest in our backyard. We plan to put a tree over her this summer so as we can all remember her.

We are all sad and feel like a part of our family is gone. I walked into the kitchen all weekend and missed seeing her laying by the couch. I miss her greetings when we would come home and she would run to the door with her tail wagging. I miss her love of treats and how she would play tug of war with the puppy. I miss her coming up under my hand and wanting to be scratched. I miss her getting in the way when I tie my shoes and how she would push and get in the way so that you would have to scratch her.

This has been the first big loss for the kids and I am glad that we do have Kimiko to help them not feel the loss so badly.

Izzy we did not want you to go, we all loved you so much. I hope you are happy in puppy heaven and getting to chase balls and toys until your hearts content.

We love you!!

AWWWW!

Today started out to be a let down. I took the day off work because class finished last night. 

I had hoped either mom or my sister would want to do lunch or go celebrate. D had said that he would take me to lunch but then he just slept. When he got up nobody really said much about school and I was feeling pretty down

D said take Boo to soccer practice and I will cook dinner. This was not really what I wanted to hear. I wanted to go out to dinner since D has to work tomorrow. I sucked it up and took Boo to practice. 

On the way home Boo asked to go to meemers house for just a minute to show off her learners permit. I was cranky and tired and mad but after a couple of miles of puppy dog eyes and quivering lip I turned into Meemers street. 

To find that my family had planned a surprise party to celebrate school being done.

We had yummy chicken and salads and my mom bought a cake and there were presents. 

Thanks family, you are the best!!!

I got a really cute frog planter and an awesome Jack sparrow shrunken head to hang in my car. 

I love you guys and thanks for the surprise and to know that I am loved. 

by the way 

YOOO HOOO I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!!!

sad puppy and tired mom

Well it is the home stretch. School is done on thursday. I have one big team project due on thursday and then I can hopefully become sane once again although I think sanity may be overrated. I have been working Saturdays for the last couple of weeks and I have one more to go. I hate working Saturdays because nothing gets done at home and I come home to mess cause the kids are home all day, no dinner because everyone is on the computers and forgets. It really sucks. 

The sad puppy is that Kimiko got fixed or broken, however you choose to look at it. She went into heat early and we were scrambling to get her to the vet. She missed puppy school graduation because they did not want her to come and be a distraction to all of the little boy puppies. Poor girl.

Work has just become interesting. One of the branch librarians is leaving and going to St George to be an assistant director which opens up his job. This is why I have gone through the last eighteen months of school so that I could qualify for this level at work. I am a little freaked because I did not expect this for a year or so. I am stressed because I don't know if I can get my transcripts and such all updated in time to apply. I am one of the only ones qualified for the job but the library insists on putting you through horrible interviews so it is not a guarantee that I will get it. I have hope but you just never know. 

Boo has her learners permit and I really feel old. How did I get to have two kids old enough to drive? We finally move Bee into her own room and we have had fun decorating it. It is purple with pink and green accents and is actually turning out cute. Her dad bought her a cute canopy to go over her bed and I did some fun letters that spell her name on the wall. Next we will put G-Bears room together, paint it and make his cool loft bed again. Slowly I will start to decorate my poor little house. It has only taken  two and half years to get this far. 

Happy Birthday G-Bear

Happy Birthday G-Bear

I can't believe that you are already 11

Thanks for being such a good kid and I hope you have a happy birthday

I still remember the day you were born. We had such trouble getting you here. 

lots of close calls and worries and we were so excited when we found out you were going to be a boy. After all of the problems we were excited to round out our family with a boy. When the Dr decided that it was time I remember going over to the hospital from his office and getting already thinking it would be many hours of labor. Instead you decided to rush things along and the Dr almost missed you. 

When we brought you home we kept saying you looked like baby Elvis with your sideburns and black hair and you used to curl your lip. 

Happy birthday