Blonde Moments

Monday, July 19, 2010

Greece, chapter 1

We had a wonderful trip to Greece this summer! My parents are there on a mission until March, so we took advantage of our United flight privileges and went to see them. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Be forewarned, these next few posts will be photo-intensive and are serving as my journal of the trip. They are NOT for the casual blog-reader! Plus, I have siblings
who want ALL the details! So here goes:


We are jet-lagged in this picture, and we don't ever want to see an airplane again, but all that is forgotten when we see Mama Judy and Grandpa! We stayed at the Marriott, which is a 10-minute walk from Mom & Dad's apartment. A couple of the kids would stay at their apartment each night. This is the lobby of the Marriott.

Mom and Dad wasted no time in showing us around Athens. What an experience it was for my kids to see a place where most people get around on the subway. In this particular metro station, there are ancient statues just sitting there. Only in Greece.




Walking through the Plaka shopping area, we came across Hadrian's Library. Impressive.






Mom & Dad's apartment as seen from the street. Almost every morning, Dad would be watching for us and waved to us from the balcony. I'm not sure why Rachel looks cold. It was very hot in Athens the whole time we were there.




This is at the Church/Young Adult Center where Mom and Dad work. There are classrooms and a chapel, but we discovered that the top floor is the place to be! Here, Dad is creaming Kevin in ping pong while the girls try out the pool table. Notice Hadrian's Arch across the street. People just drive by it like it's nothing, but it's thousands of years old. Amazing.






So, we walked across the street to see Hadrian's Arch, and Kevin artistically captured not only me and the Arch, but the Acropolis behind it in the background. Bravo, Kevin!









Here we are on the metro. It cost one euro to go anywhere for 90 minutes. After one particularly crowded and smelly train ride, Natalie said, "I just don't like my fellow human beings THAT much."

The station we get off at to get to Mom & Dad's apartment. We got a little confused when we had to get around ourselves, so we were pretty proud of ourselves when we were able to get all the way to the port and back for our cruise.







Mom speaking Greek to the bakery lady. She's really good at it, too! The lady understood her! Unlike my father, Mom has really studied her Greek. She says she still doesn't know it very well, but while we were visiting, she finished her reading of the Greek Book of Mormon that she started before leaving last summer! Wow!

Here we are at the neighborhood grocery store. I don't know how Mom understands ANYTHING.

An octopus in the frozen food section. This grossed out Shannon.











Most days ended this way. We have a very strict ice-cream-every-day-while-on-vacation policy. Dad was happy to oblige.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Explanation for my Absence

I'm sure it's not news to any of you that May is an exceptionally busy month. So, in an attempt to explain my absence, I humbly submit the following:
The end of the school year involved some of this...

And some of this...


And this...


And this, too...

And still more....



Then, we were lucky enough to go to Hawaii again, and this time we got to bring Kevin home with us! So, that involved some of this...


And some of this...




Then, add water, and you get this...


We also found a little of this...


And at Natalie's insistence, some of this...


And of course, some of this...


OK, maybe a LOT of this...



But now, we're home, and I've got my Handy Man back. So, we're doing some of this...


And MORE of this...


And some guys delivered some of this...


So we could do some of this...


So we could be hot and sweaty and wear outfits that embarass the family and scare the neighbors like this...


All to get a patio that looks like this... (pretty, huh?)



And now, I need a little of this...


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How 'bout them Wolverines?

I'm sure it was bigger news in Utah than it was here, but it was great to watch Utah Valley University on "Dancing with the Stars" last night! Dang, they're good! You may not know that my brother-in-law, Scott Asbell, is the director of the Ballroom Dance Team there. We don't have TV, so we didn't watch it live, but we voted! Scott even got some face time. It's on YouTube this morning; you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN5hqrf5Rys Depending on the votes, the winner of last night's match-up will compete against Purdue next Tuesday.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Some new pictures...

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Of course, it seems like May is always the busiest month of the year, doesn't it?

Kevin traveled to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas for a conference last week. So, since he was back on the continent, I flew out to meet him for the weekend. We had a great time. We did some of the "Vegas" things, but one of the highlights was a hike we took to Mary Jane Falls, about 45 min outside LV.



When I returned home, we celebrated Rachel's birthday. Can you believe my baby is 12?!? We do "friend" parties only every other year, so this year there were 11 girls here for a "cooking party." They decorated aprons and made pizza and homemade ice cream. It was fun!

We also had the end-of-year band concert at the high school this week. I actually LOVE these concerts, because as opposed to the middle school concerts where they're still kinda learning their instruments, the high school kids sound wonderful! Here are my beautiful musicians.

And, I'll add a picture of Shawnie, just for grins. I just love the guilty look on her face as she sits next to the deflated basketball - haha! Have a great day, everyone!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Prom!!!

Natalie went to her first prom this weekend! Wow, what a production it was. All we did for two weeks was eat, sleep, and breath PROM. She and a girlfriend decided to go together because they weren't asked (what is WRONG with these boys???). A bunch of them rented a limo and went to Kansas City for dinner. The limo driver got pulled over for speeding - the kids thought that was hilarious! Then, back to Warrensburg for the dance and "after-prom," which was just us moms making breakfast. Natalie looked BEAUTIFUL and had a great time.

We did a YouTube search for "prom hair," then practiced a few times before the big night.

The other mom hired a make-up artist to do the girls' faces. She was awesome! I was taking notes.










Friday, April 9, 2010

"Hello Kitty" Friday...

OK, I have to tell you how funny Natalie is. She finally got her ears pierced a couple of months ago. She has this friend Michelle, and the two of them are so cute together. They went earring shopping, and now they have this earring "schedule." It goes: "Whimsical Mondays," "Hoochie Mama Tuesdays," "Classy Wednesdays," "Dangerously Dangly Thursdays," and "Hello Kitty Fridays." How funny is that? Teenagers can make anything fun, can't they? Whaddaya say...anyone for "Hoochie Mama Tuesdays" with me?

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Spring Break!
















It was spring break for the kids, so we took the opportunity to go see Kevin in Hawaii. Yes, there were beaches and sun and beautiful flowers and wonderful fruit, but the highlight was just hanging out as a family! This deployment has taught us that nothing else is worth it! The sad thing for us was that Natalie didn't come with us. She had some band commitments at home and felt bad she couldn't come with us.