Memorial Day and Beyond

For Memorial Day we BBQ's like most of America.

It was a gorgeous day and we had an amazing meal if I do say so myself.

Burgers, shiscabobs (sp?), fresh corn, 

shrimp dip & chips, salad, strawberry shortcake.. YUMMO!

We also enjoyed Sadie learning to ride her bike.

She had been working really hard at learning and finally..

it clicked!

Yeah for no training wheels!!

Yeah for Summer!

Yeah for Tanner's special face he likes to pull for pictures!

We hosted a few of my nieces for a day or so. 

We partied HARD.

And by partied.. I mean we went to church and then went to Oquirrh Lake and fed the ducks.

They also waded in the Lake and played on the awesome playground.

We also took some pictures at all of our beautiful temples.

We finished off with a look at the UP house in Herriman.

Love these girlies!

These are my gainfully employed children.

They have both been working hard for a few weeks.

Both of them strive to do their very best at In & Out in Midvale.

Maddie is also a cashier at the Riverton Lowes.

Yeah for me not having to give them money all the time!

Yeah for white pants!

Yeah for Maddie in her cute hat!

(Still haven't been able to catch Tanner all dolled up in his In & Out costume..)

Here is my devil child, Lukifer.

Mischievous little monster just threw a popper cracker thing at my feet.

Gotta love poppers that explode on bare toes!

Yeah for bloody burned toes!

Yeah for devil spawn!

And this..

this.. 

well, it is my piece de resistance (say it like you are french, ya dumb!).

This is my in-laws trying to do a "duckface" selfie picture with Maddie and Tanner.

I am fairly sure that Rod had a stroke and that Jeanne swallowed a bee.

Wow, is all I can say.

Yeah for Todd playing football!

Boo for Todd getting hurt playing football!

Yeah for medical insurance!

Yeah for Dad with clippers!

Yeah for Luke as an old man!

Yeah for Luke with a really bad haircut!

Yeah for summer!

Yeah for jumping pictures in front of the temple!

Hummingbirds and Coyotes

This is my hummingbird.

My little pet.

That egg is the size of a very small jelly bean.

Everytime I go sit on my front porch,

I feel as if I might get my eyes

impaled with the momma hummingbird's

horn or stinger or whatever it is.

She gets all aflutter when we are near her baby, 

but I couldn't help myself.

Had to snap this pic.

Can't wait until the other twin decides to join us.

-Hope it isn't a dud :( 

We went on a new hike today, Coyote Hollow, via Clark's trail.

It is a beautiful little hike right behind the Draper temple.

I am so happy that I have 2 children that aren't working and can

come on adventures with me.

We tried a selfie with the temple in the background.

We suck.

CUTE X 1 million!

Love her.

She is my trooper.

She is the one child of mine who loves hiking as much as I do.

We are already planning our next hike.

With no whiners allowed!

Luke insisted on being the leader.

Such a cute boy.

He was counting the steps until we got to turn around 

and head back down.

Not really his cup of tea.

I love this photo because it captures the very essence of my children.

Sadie said she could see our house.

Luke had to argue with her that "NO YOU CAN'T! SADIE"

"YES, I CAN!"

"NO, YOU CAN'T!

Said over and over and over.

I wondered if I just let them continue, how long would they go??

After about 10 cycles of YES, then NO..

I lost my will to live and yelled at them to STOP.

AAhh.. the peace and quiet of the great outdoors.

Sadie gives this trail a thumbs up!

Luke is just glad it is over...

Another selfie with my crew + the temple.

600th post

Say WHAT?

Yes, it really is my 600th blog post.

I can't believe I have had that much to say.

That much to complain about.

That much to laugh at.

But, alas, Blogger says it is so and so..it is true.

And for this post, it is fitting that I am neither complaining, nor laughing.

I am not even on my period in this post.

(Holy hell, can you even imagine? 600th post + menses = serious beotching)

I will be gloating in this post.

Gloating at the fun adventure I had in Hawaii.

This may be my last Hawaii post, but I think this was my favorite thing we did.

AT LOW-TIDE, WE WALKED TO CHINAMAN'S HAT (an island off the shore of Oahu) ON THE CORAL REEF. THEN WE HIKED TO THE TOP OF CHINAMAN'S HAT FOR AN UNOBSTRUCTED VIEW OF THE OCEAN.

I was super happy that we tried it and that we didn't die trying it.

Jodi and I together are a bad combination.  Stacy's ideas + Jodi's crazy = WARNING, WARNING

She is always willing to go along with all of my bad ideas.

(I will never forget the almond allergy, Dear sister-in-law Jodi).

I read about this adventure on a blog that I came upon while researching our Hawaii trip.

One blog. Just a few words. No real instruction. Some warning.

The blog mentioned a few dangerous things-
1. High tide
2. Tiger sharks
3. Technical climbing, not for the weak or inexperienced
4. Sharp coral rock

However..
I am like Steve Irwin (before he died..)..
I laugh in the face of danger,
and high tides,
and tiger sharks,
and climbing sharp coral rocks.

In other words, I am an idiot.

And unfortunately, Jodi is an idiot too and thought my proposal sounded A OK!
The only one of us that was of sound mind, was Brad, Jodi's husband.
He is always the yin to our yang--the smart to our dumb.
He thought it was a bad idea.

We ignored the yin. Our yang was much louder and forceful.

So here is our adventure in a nutshell.
Or blogpost as it were..

Above photo is us starting our trek across the coral.

At low tide.. or semi-low tide.

(We were a few hours late for LOWEST low tide.. whoopsie daisy!)

The others in the picture are some cute twenty-somethings that we met on the beach.
They had never done this adventure before so they wanted to come along with us.
They had a friend who stayed on the beach because she HAD done it before.
She decided to never do it again because it freaked her out.
AWESOME!
LET'S GO!

This is me.

Almost panicking.

We had lost our coral trail (dontcha just hate when that happens..)

I was thinking we were going to have to swim the entire way.
Let me just say, I am not a good swimmer.
And the more that I am required to be a good swimmer,
the less I am a good swimmer.
I was near hysteria (even with my floating board), but then

we regained our trail and onward we went.
Disaster averted.

Yippee! 

We didn't die.

(or did we... and we are in heaven right now, in this picture..)

Nope. No death yet.

The beginnings of our hike.

The middle of our hike.

Plus, some of Jodi's cleavage.

This is where it started getting sketchy.

Or sketchier.

Todd is trying to tell me that everything is A OK.

"Come this way"

"It's easy"

"I promise you will make it"

All words that I have heard before.

All words that make my blood turn to ice.

All words that make me realize he is trying to convince me 

to do something that I don't have the athleticism to try.

C'mon Jodi.

Bring those "girls" and come up the sketchy trail.

You can do it!

Todd says, we can do it!

Teensy bit of the sketch...

This pic was taken in a spot that I thought would be my last resting place.

I was unwilling to go any further.

The rock face was steep and unyielding.

I was scared.

I had a feeling of impending doom.

Todd was frustrated with his mule of a wife.

He kept yelling at me to "Come UP!"

"It is really easy!"

Jodi and Brad and I would not have done well in high school with peer pressure.

We all caved.

We all went up the steep, precarious cliff.

This is the picture of the twenty-somethings who scaled the precarious cliffs

with no shoes and 

obviously no clothes.

Funny thing-- they were from Salt Lake City too!

Fellow Mormons looking for alcohol-free adventure.

(It is a good thing we don't do drugs, can you imagine the stupid things we would do!)

Stupid twenty-somethings didn't tell me to pull down my shirt.

Hello, world.

Here is my muffin top!

Accentuated by horizontal stripes.

I sure do love those skinny beotches who took my picture.

This is us and the bikini clad mormons climbing back down the precarious cliffs.

HELLO!?

I was convinced that someone was going to die on this part.
So.. of course I snapped a picture...

Todd getting ready for his descent.

YEAH!

No death!

Nor accident!

Not even a scratch or a bloody toe!

My sister-in-law captured this shot of us making our way back.

WE ARE ALIVE!

AND... I CAME HOME AND UPPED MY LIFE INSURANCE

FOR THE NEXT TIME JODI AND I TRAVEL TOGETHER!

YEAH FOR RESPONSIBLE MOMS!

YEAH FOR CHINAMAN HAT HIKE!

YEAH FOR MUFFIN TOPS!

YEAH FOR 600 BLOG POSTS!