I Won...I Won...I Won, I Won, I Won!!!!!

Well Guys blogging finally paid off for our household today! After all my complaining about Gina being on the Internet, I finally was given a dose of humility. My sexy wife decided to enter a drawing from TheMeanestMom that she follows religiously, to win some cool free stuff! With a chance of winning less than 1% we were victorious, bathed in glory! I am right now thinking of all the great things we can do with our new prize. I am sure you are wondering what this awesome prize is…oh the suspense…. We won (drum role)….

1 set of 3, 12” Chalkboard Vinyl Circles from ScribbleIt!!! I am going to use this to write all of Gina’s Chores, and things for her to get me at the grocery store!! Ha ha JK!! Actually I am pretty proud of her for winning, even though it wasn’t a paid 10-day vacation to Hawaii! She was so excited, cuz she says she never wins anything!! Well Baby…dreams do come true!!

Gina- I am so excited I won!! I feel like I did win a trip to Hawaii! I love this blog and read it everyday! I laugh out loud at how funny it is!! I can't wait to get my Chalkboard Vinyl Circle! I'm gonna slap that baby on the fridge and write all over it!! And three is the perfect number. One for me, one for the bottom of the fridge for Olivia to doodle on and a replacement for when Olivia uses too many wet wipes to clean hers and ruins it!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Jana for making an ordinary Monday AWESOME!!

~ Yellowstone Park ~

Last weekend we were able to jaunt on up to Yellowstone Park for a little getaway!! We had such a fun time together! We got our rooms for $55.00 a night, killer deal!! Our hotel and room were really nice and had a comfy, comfy king-sized bed. Our stay did however also include a continental breakfast that even the starving wouldn’t eat. It featured a hot chocolate machine that only spewed hot water, orange juice that had blue-orange boogies in it, waffles that you had to cook yourself that burned no matter how close you watched them, jelly for toast that was so old it was textured like taffy, and to top it off, pastries that were hard from being in the fridge since last summer. However the bagels were pretty good, so Lane told me. It was the first thing he grabbed and ate peacefully while I went through the above odyssey trying to find something suitable. After that first morning’s awesome eating experience we didn’t return for breakfast there again! It was just a little too much to stomach.

In fact, all of our eating experiences in Yellowstone turned out to be a bust! In the po-dunk town of West Yellowstone, besides all the trailer parks, and dogs is an array of 2 restaurants from which we could choose. For $20 a plate you could purchase some of the most bland, salt, and flavor free food on the earth!!! We figured out too late that we should have bought TV dinners for half the price that would have been 10x’s more satisfying.

We biked around West Yellowstone. Lane was chased by 4 dogs while we were biking!!

Yellowstone Park, itself, was majestic, raw, and beautiful! We visited so early in the season (we arrived the first day the park opened) that there was hardly anyone there, allowing us to tour and hike most of the time completely alone!! We were able to visit Old Faithful and all of the Canyon Falls. There was still so much snow in the park. At times, we would be in places where the snow was almost as tall as Lane!! And at Norris Basin, there was still a good 2-3 feet of snow on the boardwalks that we had to walk on top of!! It didn’t stop us from touring the area though! The geothermal ponds were colored, sky blue, orange, green and creamy white. They also featured the aroma of phosphorus that smelled like a sewer, which, Lane described as “smelling like Mexico”.

Waiting for Old Faithful

Snow as tall as Lane!

The boardwalk covered in 3ft. of snow!

Us at Upper Canyon Falls

Click the Picture to see the images bigger!

We saw Bison or “Ta-Tonka” (as Lane so lovingly refers to them as), elk, coyotes, and a big drooling grizzly bear that was only 40 ft. away from us across a river, which allowed us to sit and observe it without being in any danger. It was so cold but Lane and I cuddled under a blanket on the bank and watched the bear for a good 20-30 minutes! It was so cool to actually get to watch a wild bear in it’s own domain!

Cuddling while we watched the huge Grizzly Bear!

It's cold when the sun goes down!

The Wildlife!!

My favorite part of the trip…every second spent together!! We laughed so hard on this trip and just plain had a great time together! It was so good to spend so much uninterrupted time with each other!!

I love this guy!!

We played the lotto in Idaho and won $2!!!

~ Short and Sweet ~

So I'm lacking in the blogging area lately. Before I can blog about last weekend I have to do a short and sweet blog about the weekend of Easter that I haven't got around to yet.

The Friday before Easter me and some girlfriends took our lil ones to Baby Animal's Day. I don't have much that's nice to say about the experience, it was mostly filled with long lines to stand in to hold baby animals that we could hold at our local IFA store. Which is exactly what I think we'll do next year and bag the whole Baby Animal Day. But here are some cute pics from the day.

Then Saturday morning my friend Amy and I took the Concealed Weapons Course! Now we are "BAD A" and maneuver like Max Payne. Okay, not really, but we are a heck of a lot better at loading and handling guns! It was just something that I had been feeling like I needed to do and had been wanting to accomplish. Lane already has his concealed weapons permit and I feel a lot better knowing that we've both had the training.

So Max Payne looking!!

~ Happy Easter! ~

Today could not have been more beautiful to celebrate our Savior's resurrection! It was the warmest day we've had in weeks and really brought out the spirit in the holiday! Just being in the warmth of the sun reminded me of the Lord's comfort in our lives.

I love Easter! The weather is slowly turning and getting warm! Spring is on its way (even though it should already be here!) This Easter year was interesting to say the least (and not just the crazy weather we've been having). Olivia somehow got the notion that the Easter bunny was scary! I have no idea how this came about but I have had to spend the last week explaining that Mommy knows the Easter Bunny and that she's very, very nice and will hide eggs for her to find and even bring her a basket of goodies!! While the basket of goodies and all were appealing to her and even after visiting the Easter Bunny at Baby Animal Days (which she wouldn't even go near) she still has the notion that there is something sketchy about her. So much for the Easter Bunny being as cool as Santa!! Maybe next year!

She did have a blast however finding her hidden eggs! She'd scream with excitement when she found one! And she loved getting a new dress-up dress (which she immediately had to put on) and bubble blowing gun among the many other goodies in her Easter basket! It was a great Easter! I hope Easter was great for all of you too!

Coloring Easter Eggs!
Easter Day!! She loves the new dress-up!

~ Spring Cleaning ~

Wednesday at work was spring cleaning day! We shut down the office and cleaned and sanitized it inside out which was great cuz I got sick AGAIN last week!!I did however find a great combo for those of you to try who come down with sinusitis-I did Airborne in the morning and the nighttime Airborne at night, Dexamethasome (RX) for 3days, Zicam nasal spray and Sudafed 12 hour (the good stuff! not the otc, doesn't do anything Sudafed. The hidden behind the counter, sign your life away for GOOD stuff. Which I have had to get twice in the last two months so now I'm probably on the most wanted list!) I didn't even really feel sick at all and I got over it alot quicker!

So us girls got down and dirty and did some major cleaning! We actually had tons of fun doing it too and we laughed alot, especially when Chelsea had to wear a sweet Rocketeer style vacuum strapped to her back to vacuum the leaves on the treehouse! Priceless!!

~ Princess Parties and Such ~

Saturday my niece Emma had her 5th birthday party and my sister hired a girl that used to work at Disneyland to come and host a "Princess Party". If this didn't just fit in with MY little princess's obsession right now! The party was absolutely adorable and the girls were in absolute awe of Cinderella and hung on to her every word. Olivia especially cause she was dressed as Cinderella too!


Lane and I watched Marley and Me this weekend. What a cute movie! I knew the ending but that didn't stop me from crying my eyes out! It reminded me of my two incredibly sweet Boxers Bettis and Keely that I used to have that are both in a better place now, no doubt waiting for me at The Rainbow Bridge (click the link for the poem). Before Lane and Olivia they were the loves of my life! Just ask my friend Lisa!! They were the most spoiled dogs ever and were treated just like my kids! I loved the part in the movie where Jennifer Aniston is dancing with Marley in the window because I used to do that all the time with my dogs. I miss them so much that to this day I wake up sometimes crying because I've dreamt about them. I had one dream that was so real once where I was at someplace, like a library, looking at books on a shelf when a dog ran up to me and was jumping on me so excited to see me! I realized at once it was my female boxer Keely. A man was with her and while I was crying and playing with her madly the man spoke and said "I've been watching over your dogs for you and wasn't sure if I should bring them to see you, but now that I've seen you with Keely, I have Bettis too that would like to see you." He lead me over to Bettis and we had a brief reunion and then I woke up crying . Lane thinks he's an angel watching over my dogs for me and he knew that I could use a visit from them. I like to believe that too....

Bettis
Keely

I know this post is getting long, but just on a side note, I went to Sam's Club tonight to pick up a life preserver jacket that I had called ahead TWICE to make sure they had in a girl's toddler size and I was assured both times they did. Nevertheless, sure enough when I arrived they did not have it....AGAIN!! They had mistaken the women's life jacket's for the little girl ones. This exact thing happened to me last year, hence why I am still trying to lay my hands on one this year. Anyway, I picked up some other things and while waiting in line I noticed the woman in line behind me had a cart full of pretty heavy stuff so I asked to help her unload her cart and she was so grateful! She thanked me like 10 times. It reminded me that doing even the smallest services for others a day really makes a difference-in both the lives of the giver and the receiver!!

~ It's True! ~

Ha ha! It's all true! Everything in Lane's last post is all true! I'm a freak when it comes to the laundry! It's just better if I do it! Ha ha! What he forgot to mention was that is just the beginning of a long list of my O.C.D.'s that he's had to adjust to! You can read more about some in my 100 Random Things post. Or maybe you'll get lucky and my new blogging husband will post more about them in later posts! Ha ha! I'm proud of you for learning honey!!

As he mentioned before, I posted a video of him doing his impression of the "Mr. Bean Dance" in a post long ago. I told him our readers were going to be confused about it cuz I had taken the post off because he was so embarrassed about it. So just so our readers don't get confused and wonder about this elusive video I am going to repost it. Better watch it while you have the chance cuz I've no idea how long he'll let it remain on our blog!!

~ My Wife's Laundry O.C.D. ~

Proper Washing and Drying Instructions!

This is my wife spraying the edges of shirts so they fold down!!

Hello women bloggers!!! I feel as men we don't get to enjoy the the lovely blog scene as much as you gals do. However, we seem to always be the ones written about and posted in pictures on the blogs. Like the one time my wife decided to post a video of me doing some crazy, retarded dance, or the time she posted me playing my guitar. I was so embarrassed, how could she post those things?...and her only reply to all this was, " Well, I thought you'd be happy that I figured a way to post video to our blog..." like that was suppose to make it okay... So in retribution to all these women blogging, and for the sake of all men who always wonder why their wife is taking pictures and on the computer constantly, I have decided to post a few things of my own! It's entitled My Wife's Laundry O.C.D... She is very particular about her clothes, from how they get washed, dried, folded, to how they're hung up. When I was a bachelor the proper way to wash clothes was pretty easy!! Just throw all the whites and colors into the washer with some soap and call it good. When I got around to it, days...weeks... later I would throw them in the dryer(unless they were moldy smelling, then I would have to re-wash them). After the dryer I would throw them in a pile on top of my bed and then re-do the laundry when the pile of wrinkled clothes were used up. My one roommate refused to wash his dirty socks, he just bought new socks every week. I have had a quick learning curve as to how the "proper" way clothes are processed! To help me memorize some of it I hung up instructions on how to do the washing task effectively! So for all you men out there please follow the instructions and you will have a happy wife!! And when my wife reads this blog my reply to her will be, "Aren't you happy that I learned to post a blog!" Ha ha! I never knew blogging could be so fun!!