Adam and Heather Hayes

We had some nice weather last week, too bad it didn't last. We got more snow, bummer.

Anyway the girls made a club house/playhouse thing on the swing set. 

They got it made, then they needed a picnic basket full of food to eat inside.

Then they insisted I get in and play with them.

As you can see below, we used blankets and plastic sleds for the walls.

Clara loved having a new place to play.  I think she gets bored being in the house all day.

On a sadder note, Adam's aunt passed away last week and we had the funeral Monday.  She was Tricity's kindergarten teacher as well.  Cancer is everywhere isn't it?  I hope everyone is looking out for their health (and finances).  

• A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
• B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
• C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. 10 Years ago (1997/1998)
1. I had just finished working at the auto parts warehouse
2. I went into the MTC on Jan 31st, 1997 (my amazing new years party consisted of going to bed at either 9:30 or 10:30 (can't remember)
3. I was back in my on and off again relationship with McKenzie Adamson.
4. I took my first airplane ride. After 15 hours on the plane the novelty wore off.
5. Spent most of 1998 living on two islands off the coast of Korea.
2. 5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Clean up after our New Year's Eve Party with Daniel and Darcy Lundquist
2. Finish the box that the heater in my office sits on andand carpet it so it blends with the office.
3. Clean the new office
4. Finish some odds and ends on websites that I'm working on
5. Relax and try to catch some football
3. 5 snacks I enjoy:
1. My wife's chocolate chip cookie dough (and the cookies too)
2. Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
   
3. White Chocolate anything
4. Cinnamon Bears
5. Ice Cream
4. 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Build my parents a new house
2. Build a new High School for Ririe with two really nice gyms
3. Visit Korea with my family
4. Spend a lot more time reading and studying things I'm interested in learning about (art, painting, wood working, volleyball, etc)
5. Spend lots of time having fun with my family
5. 3 of my bad habits:
1. Taking on too many projects
2. Messy (just look at my desk compared to the rest of the house)
3. I get bored with the same old same old so finishing big projects becomes tedious
6. 5 places I have lived:
1. Ririe, ID
2. Kojedo, South Korea
3. Youngdo, South Korea
4. Milyang, South Korea
5. Idaho Falls, Idaho
7. 5 jobs I have had:
1. Lawn Mower
2. Truck Driver (small auto parts truck, not big rigs)
3. Professor's Assistant
4. Webmaster
5. Business Owner
8. 5 things people don't know about me:
1. (Excluding my parents) I attribute a lot of what I've become today to my high school coach, Coach Gardner
2. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from BYU-Idaho with a 4.0 GPA
3. I coach one of the club volleyball teams for Ririe
4. I took piano lessons for 5+ years when I was young and can still play a little (I have 7-10 songs that I can play quite well, but I can't sit down and sight read a song)
5. I still get together with my high school buddies once a month
9. People I tag:
1. I'll list them when I get a list together... (I have to run...)
   

We try to go on a road trip every summer and this year we decided to go to to the West Coast.

MONDAY July 23, 2007

We left our house at about 9:30 in the morning and drove straight up and over to Moses Lake Washington. It seemed to go really fast. I read Harry Potter 7 aloud and it kept our minds off the clock. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle Allen and Christine Quinn's house at 6:00 pm our time but, oops, 5:00 pm their time. They were very gracious hosts to us even if we were an hour early. We were fed well, updated on what all my cousins were up to, and got to see some pretty hilarious pictures and YouTube videos. Lisa let us sleep in her newly painted room and entertained our girls to their heart's content, bless her!

TUESDAY July 24, 2007

We left the Quinn's after a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast and headed for Canada. This is where our perfect trip started to mock us. We had never gone through the border before but wow, don't get in the left lane! The right lane is 5-6-10 times faster! So after looking at the peace arch in Blaine Washington for a couple hours we finally got through the border.

Canada doesn't look that much different from Washington! There were lots of people picking berries out in the berry fields and the people are very proud of their country and they know french. That's the impression Canada left on me. We went straight to Vancouver which is huge and has a lot of Asians. We tried to find some Korean shops for Adam's Korean pleasure but we burned out of walking downtown before we found any. We learned there are no left turns from 8-6 on several major roads in Vancouver and when you see a big sign that says Parking you'd better take it fast! We went on top of the Vancouver LookOut which is like the Seattle Space Needle but not as tall and you have to stay inside the glass. It was cool. I love seeing the lines of boats and seagulls and all the sights you never see in Idaho. We then went to Burnaby with the intention of going to a "see what it was like in the old days" Burnaby Village, but alas it was closed and wouldn't be open until 11:00 the next day which we didn't have time or patience for.

So we went to the "Second best campground in North America" which is in Burnaby to camp for the night. We checked in and asked if there was anywhere close to eat and they said there was a Subway a ten minute walk from there. We didn't think the kids could last so we drove with a scribbled map on a paper and the ten minute walk turned into a 2 hour lost in Canada adventure that eventually brought me to tears. They rename the roads every mile or two in Burnaby and we kept accidentally getting on the freeway and leaving Burnaby and trying to turn around and get back in and find the campsite. It was a joke. So the swimming pool and playground had lost their zing when we finally made it back. We got the tent pitched and all the kids settled down the best that was humanly possible and then the air tram/train something LOUD sounded like it was going over our heads FOUR times that night. Viola would finally be asleep and then ROAR and WAAA! It was NOT a good night's sleep. Needless to say as soon as it was light we got out of there and didn't look back till we saw the American border.

WEDNESDAY July 25, 2007

You'd think we would have learned our lesson about the left lane but alas, we obviously didn't because we were in it again and the right lane just WIZZED through. We sat there for an hour which is better that 2 hours I'll admit but still, I guess I have patients issues.

We got through and drove straight to Seattle and parked the car by the Underground Tour in Pioneer Square. Walked in and found out they do it on the hour and we'd missed the last one by 5 minutes so did we want to wait for 55 minutes? We probably should have but no we walked to Pikes Market. It was a refreshing walk with the ocean breeze blowing in at you. We didn't see them throwing fish I'm afraid and the high class luch we bought was too high class for the kids. They refused to eat it after waiting an hour to get it. But they liked the fresh raspberries we bought and free samples of other fruits. That market is huge takes up both sides of a road and like 8 levels! Adam really wanted an oriental painting but we thought it would get ruined (or get too heavy) while we walked.

Then we walked to the Space Needle. Tricity was NOT coping well with the walking by this point. It was fun. You could go outside and feel the breath catch in your throat as you looked down.

When we were done and heading to the children's museum the kids couldn't stop staring at the rides around the base of the space needle. I told them we only had time for rides or museum, and what do you know, they chose rides! There was a monorail right there by the rides and we took it to get closer to Pioneer Square. When we got off we found out that they offer FREE buses to all the tourist spots in downtown Seattle! Now you tell us! There were no buses to be seen and we really needed to make the next underground tour so we walked the rest of the way anyway. We saw a lot of Seattle that we probably wouldn't have noticed by bus at least. There was a shop that had a gorgeous full size fox I really wanted but again, how could I carry it? Or find room in our packed car where it wouldn't get ruined?

The underground tour was very funny and interesting. We were the only ones with little kids. Vi finally fell asleep, but our poor arms were so tired from carrying her all day, it was a task walking up and down the stairs to the old underground Seattle buildings. As soon as it was done we rushed to our car and rushed to Adam's high school buddy Clifton's house. Clif had just barely moved there from Arizona so he didn't know the area that well yet and his directions were a little sketchy, but luckily we made it there just fine.

It was so nice to see Clif and Bree! After a LONG day of walking it was heaven to sit back, relax, eat the amazing barbecue they had prepared for us, see their new twin girls, and chat to our heart's content! When it was the kid's bedtime we said goodbye and headed for our hotel which after about an hour of trying to find it we realized it had a 3 foot concrete median in front of it and you could only get to it from one way! Mapquest can be a blessing but it can also be a cursing because it doesn't know the little details, or, how to tell you there is a median down the middle of the road for 10 miles!

The hotel gave us a room someone was already in. AWKWARD! But It's much funnier now than it was then! Oh well! The important thing was we did eventually have a room to stay in.

Thursday July 26, 2007

We did have a pretty good night's sleep to get us going Thursday morning. We left Seattle and drove to highway 101 right as Washington meets Oregon. We were under the impression that highway 101 gave you a view of the coast from Washington to California. It does follow the coast as best it can but it's not a constant ocean view. In fact it's a s-l-o-w, winding, occasional ocean view kind of road. It's absolutely beautiful! But very slow. (Especially if you're used to taking the freeway!)

Most of the 400 pictures we took on this trip are of the Oregon coast. We have a less than 20% sample of all the pictures we took in the image gallery if you would like to see more than you see here. (Which is worth the time, I promise!)

We wanted to see all the lighthouses we could between Seaside Oregon and Florence Oregon. Sadly again we planned more than we had time for. The Lighthouses that were open to visitors were only open from 11-4 and we never made it to a touring one during those hours. So we made the best of it. We went to Seaside to see the Lewis and Clark Monument that probably said something like "That's ocean, so I guess this is as far as this land goes, let's turn back and tell the President" but we never found it!

We did find a beautiful beach though, so we let the kids get a taste of the ocean and the beach and Vi, the sand. They loved building sandcastles, collecting shells, and running from the rip tides. The next day they got a little braver.

We saw four lighthouses, one really close up (Yaquina Bay), the other three, not very close up. One was on it's own little island (Tillamook Rock) and another was on a rocky ledge we couldn't find a road to (Yaquina Head). The Cleft of the Rock Lighthouse is actually an old lighthouse keeper's house he built like a lighthouse but you can't get too close. The Yaquina Bay lighthouse would have been fun to tour if only we could have made it between 11-4!

In Newport Oregon I REALLY wanted to go to the Newport Aquarium but it closed at 6 and we got there at 6:45. I must say if nothing else I learned some valuable lessons about planning opening and closing times into family vacations! We had reservations in Florence so we couldn't just camp there and go to the museum in the morning. (Another valuable lesson learned, reservations aren't always the best way) We got to our campsite at Honeyman State Park quite late because 35 mile an hour curves only let you go so fast down the coast

FRIDAY July 27, 2007

We got up early and went to the Sea Lion Caves just North of Florence, there were tons in and outside the cave. Then we went to the Hecta Head Lighthouse which is right next to the Sea Lions but we didn't think the kids could handle waiting 2 hours then hiking up the trail to the lighthouse, so we didn't tour it. We took lots of pictures on the beach there of the kids and the lighthouse. Erith and Tricity loved getting their legs and feet wet this time. It was so beautiful. There were about 15 painters out there that morning painting the beautiful scene.

Then we drove across Oregon, all day long.

We started Harry Potter over again because we were in such need of an escape. It was quite beautiful, but not very fast, till we got to the desert and drove like the wind.

We got to New Plymouth Idaho at about 8 pm. Our old neighbors from in town Ririe moved back there after they were done schooling at BYUI. It was so fun to be out of the car! Our girls played with their girls and the parents could talk and relax and have ice cream. We spent the night there and chatted and ate great food and went to a classic car show next door.

SATURDAY

It was a great end to a less than great road trip! The drive from New Plymouth to Ririe took about 5 hours. Which wasn't too much compared to what we had been doing each day! We arrived back home at about 6:00 pm and were amazed at how hot it was. The coast had a nice 70s feel to it, Ririe Idaho was over 100!

Anyway, though I planned it poorly, we have family memories that we'll never forget! The kids handled a lot of time in the car amazingly well. It was poor Vi's first road trip and she got a little anxious when we put her in her car seat shortly after that, bless her heart. But we survived it! Our kids tell anyone who asks how the trip was something like "It was GREAT! The best trip ever!" So how can you have any regrets! :)

I really thought we didn't have anything exciting to write about, but today I realized that I'm doing this blog so I can have a history of our family.  So if every entry isn't that exciting to you, I'm sorry, but it's information I want to remember.

I need to remember my first time calling Poison Control, which happened last night.  My sweet little two year old Viola has learned to use chairs and stools to climb onto tables, counter tops, pianos, and anywhere else we thought was a "safe place."  She climbed onto the bathroom counter and grabbed an Air Wick scented oil with fan refill and sucked on the wick like it was a straw.

She started bawling and ran to me.  She smelled very strongly like Harvest Orchard oil and said she needed a drink.  We gave her lots of water to drink and Poison Control said we probably gave her too much to drink which might make her throw up, which might get in her lungs, which might give her pneumonia, which might start an infection, but most likely she would be fine.   Which she is, just fine today, didn't even wet the bed after all that water before bed.

She is definitely in the terrible twos though.  She has to do everything her way. Don't even think about helping her out of the car.  She fell flat on her face at my mom's house a couple weeks ago getting out of the SUV by herself and skinned her forehead and nose. I had to cancel her picture appointment that week.  Since Erith and Tric are at school five days a week, Vi has 2 less sets of eyes to watch her.  She  is quite the adorable trouble-maker!  She is communicating so much better though.  She says simple sentences and knows how to count to 13 in English and 6 in Spanish.  She can say the ABC's pretty clearly and knows the color red.  She can play several games on the Ubuntu computer that Adam set up for the girls to play on. She knows who's turn it is for family prayer which we do by order of birthday! Crazy huh!

Erith lost her fourth tooth last week.  She has lost 3 on bottom and 1 on top with two more quite loose.  She can read quite a few books and verses of scripture without any help now.  She knows how to change Clara's diaper and draws and prints picutures on the kid computer nearly every day. (We had to give her a paper limit per day recently.)  She is taking piano lessons and doing quite well, when she practices!

Tricity is quite the social butterfly.  I hear story after story about all the kids in her kindergarten class when she gets home.  She loves to help me cook.  She likes to draw and play on the computer as well.   She is quite good at remembering to practice the piano.  She is doing great at school and has helped me find homes for 10 of our 19 kittens.  (You heard me right, 19!)

Clara is jabbering a lot and she seems like a permanant hip ornament on me.  She is definately a momma's girl.  She laughs when Vi or I entertain her.  She rolls like crazy but is not wanting to crawl or sit up on her own much. She is eating lots of new foods and seems to never get full.  She's very cute and sweet and I love her a lot.

Adam's business is picking up again, it usually does right before year end.  His brother is working for us in the evenings so Adam's challenge is to NOT stay in the office from morning till 11 at night.  He got to meet Dallin H. Oaks when his stake presidency got replaced, that was cool.  He likes the boys in his scout group really well, they are going swimming tonight.

I have been crocheting baby booties for humanitarian newborn kits.  I am still quite slow and have a lot of mistakes, but they keep Clara's feet warm, so I'm sure they are good enough.  I have lots of Primary stuff to do before the end of the year and I help a lady I visit teach quite often, and the PTSO have something they want at least once a month.  I just keep busy without a whole lot to show for it.  It's kind of frustrating, but I hope I'm making a difference.  Adam and I are going on a date this week if it kills us!  It's been about a month.  Between his schedula and mine, there's never a free night.  I really want to do a session at the Rexburg Temple, I haven't done one there yet.  We're still in the Idaho Falls temple district.   Have a great day!

I think we are going to have to kiss our Spring Break bye bye! It was absolutely horrible today and then at about 3:30 pm it just stopped. We had Tricity's carpool mom stuck in a 3-4 foot drift at the top of our driveway yesterday and it took Adam with a shovel and a neighbor with a tractor/plow 45 minutes to get her out! Today her husband came over right in the middle of the worst part of the storm, with a HUGE tractor and cleared us the widest path we've had in over a month, bless his heart. The piles of snow he was pushing were so big, the girls couldn't wait to get their sled on them!

This winter takes me back to my childhood when almost EVERY winter was like this. You'd drive down the road not able to see over the wall of snow on either side. Jenny, Nicole, Lindy, Kendall, Bethany and I would make the most awesome snow caves and tunnels you ever saw! I remember thinking I was paralyzed after going off an icy jump and losing my snowtube at the Ucon Pit. Good times! It's fun to see my girls starting to use their imaginations out in the snow. They go out to play once or twice a day wind permitting!

This is what Erith has to say about today:

"I found the red sled, it was burried under a mountain. We went sledding. I tried to make a snowman but the carrot kept falling out so I just ate three carrots. Tric ate one. We went in the house and drank hot chocolate."

This is what Tricity had to say about today:

"We went outside, then we went on a hill, but Erith ate all the carrots but one. We rolled down the hill one hundred times. Then we went on a new hill and went down it 6 times. Erith got tired so she had a nap on a different hill. Then we went in the warm house and had hot chocolate."

Right before I got sick I had a Mormon Wonder Woman day, my friend had a whole wonder woman week recently and so it inspired me to document my one Wonder Woman Day.

I cut by hand 20 pints worth of beef roast chunks, and canned them.

I made rolls, cookies, and soup for a friend's family who was sick.

I babysat a four year old.

I set up and started tieing a quilt for a family whose house burned down.

I had a clean kitchen the whole day. (who cares what the rest of the house looked like, right?)

I "burried" a dead pet cat. (Vi came into the house cuddling a cat, and said "Mom, I have a cat, I think it's dead."  I told her to put it back where she found it and go wash her hands.  Where she found it was right where all the kids were playing outside, so I had to get rid of it pronto.)

Adam is pretty happy I'm finally using the quilt stands and frames he made for me two years ago for the first time.   I really got on his case to make them for me so I could tie this exact quilt, but alas, all the parts and pieces have sat in the basement family room for 2 years untouched till now.  Well, Wonder Woman Days don't happen every day!

Last night at about 12:30 am I was in my living room reading a good book when I heard a loud crash noise.  It was soon followed by a strong scent that resembled a SKUNK!

I ran to the dining room window which was OPEN letting in cool night air and heard something crunching on cat food. I proceded to shut all the windows and turned on the back deck light.  This is what I saw.

I got Adam and he shot it with his paintball gun, but that just made it do a full handstand spray right at the house and it ran under the deck instead of AWAY from my property!

Let's just say it was a LONG REEKY night.  In the morning we found out that the outside smelled tons better than the inside of the house.  So we've been airing out the house all day. Marinating in skunk musk is SO DISGUSTING. REVOLTING EVEN!

AHHHHHHH!!!  I hate skunks!  Never leave catfood out at night! Or even dusk!

This was our first vacation in our new SUV.  It was nice, and very different.  Our Saturn Outlook is an 8 passenger vehicle, it's like a short suburban; thus one person had to sit way in the back.  The other 2 back seats we folded down so we would have more room for our stuff.  This is a sampler of our vacation pictures.  To see TONS more go to the IMAGE GALLERY up above and then click on 2008 vacation.

Monday we left home early in the morning and drove to Ogden and went to the Eccles Dinosaur Museum.  It was mostly out of doors, which we weren't expecting, but they had made some very cool dinosaur recreations/interpretations.  There are a bunch of different dinosaur museums in Utah.  This was not the one I went to in elementary school.

They had lots of photo face hole places to take pictures and the kids insisted on sticking their heads into EVERY hole!

They had places where you could dig up or brush off dinosaur bones and eggs.

There were real fossils and fossil replicas inside. Oh, and one robotic dino display.

After we were done at the dinosaur museum we drove to Midway.  My cousin Camille lives there and we stayed there that night.  We had an excellent barbecue lit by torches AND glow-in-the-dark earrings!

Tuesday we started the day with cute hair for once! (Thanks to Camille)

Then we went fishing!  We didn't catch anything, but we'd rather catch nothing than catch a duck, right Camille? :)

Camille invited a family of cute little boys to come along and teach my cute little girls how to fish.  Fun fun!

Then we headed to our hotel in Salt Lake City.  We dropped off our stuff and then went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum by riding the TRAX.

The Kid's Museum had a ball blower machine, a house, farm, grocery store, water works, TV station, helicopter, magnet wall, and tons more.  Its was pretty fun, but again, I was disappointed it wasn't as cool as I remember MY children's museum experience being. :)

Then we went to Temple Square.  The kids were pretty tired by then so we didn't stay too long.

We went back to the hotel to swim in the pool and sleep.  Erith and Tricity learned to float that night in the pool, that is a big accomplishment for them!

Wednesday was Lagoon Day!  Adam's whole family and Uncle, Aunt, and Cousins met us there for a day of fun!

This is Vi with her Uncle Gabe.

LagoonABeach was NOT a good idea for 2 adults with 4 little kids. Let's just say we got to play for less than an hour before Vi had a BAD accident in her swimsuit (Which was the only accident she had all vacation I might add) and I couldn't find Adam with our locker key. :(  And to top it off I am now 3 little girl swimsuits less than when I got there. One I THREW AWAY, the other 2 were accidentally left there. So this is the only picture I have of these cute suits, sniff.

Adam's family took the kids so Adam and I could go on some thrill rides like Wicked and the Colossus.  I was too chicken to do the Spider. I don't do a lot of spinning.  Then we did some all family rides, like the train as you see above.

Erith and Tric even did the WHITE ROLLERCOASTER! That was quite a step up from the kiddieland rides they did all day.  Vi rode the merry-go-round about 8 times that day!

Thursday was our last day and sadly we didn't charge the camera so there aren't a lot of pictures of this day.  We went to Hogle Zoo then This is the Place Monument then to Ogden to have dinner with Adam's sister Andrea. Here's what we have:

This is the Place is much cooler when you can go into Pioneer Village but we showed up 5 minutes before they closed. Darn.

Well, it was fun to play more, drive less this vacation.  We recomend all the places we went if you are planning a vacation for little kids! (Lagoon is for everyone of course!)

Hello everyone, I can't believe a month has passed since Clara was born. Erith and Tricity have had their end of the school year parties and programs, and T-Ball practice starts this week. Summer is here! Now if we could just have more than one day of sunshine at a time...

I have been inside with the baby watching the rain and actually longing to do some gardening and yard work! Clara is growing up so fast. She likes to use her neck even though she probably shouldn't. She is awake more. She's very alert and loves being entertained by her sisters.

Viola is very interested and protective of her. When she cries she gets Adam or I and says "Mon! Mon! Baby!" as she pulls on our hand.

Erith has become my second set of hands, bless her heart. I am usually taking care of Clara when Vi needs assistance, so Erith helps, like a second Mom. I sometimes have to remind her that I am still THE Mom though!

Erith may be the baby/toddler tender but Tricity is my cleaner. It's amazing how messy a house gets with four kids, and Tric is my quick to obey house cleaner, yeah for her!

I really love my girls, and wouldn't trade a one of them. They have a sweetness and a goodness that they were born with that has nothing to do with me. Even when I'm tired and grouchy they still love me and forgive me and want to be by my side. I have noticed Erith hanging out with me A LOT lately. She is constantly watching and mimicking me. I definitely need to watch my words and attitude. It's embarrassing to see some of my episodes repeated!

Well, we are glad to have water again (read Adam's explanation on that) and wish you all a Happy Memorial Day!

(There are a bunch of new pictures of the baby and the other kids in the Image Gallery under Kids 2008 , check them out!)

Day 6: California Adventure

We didn't get to bed till super late Tuesday night, so we had a late start Wednesday morning.  (Plus I felt like we should take it slow so Adam could have his daily health issue.  But, he didn't have any more problems that trip!)

Wednesday was the coldest day of the trip.  We had shorts and short sleeves thinking, it's hot in California.  But alas it was windy, overcast and sprinkled on us a couple times!  We should have brought some warmer things!

We started out in It's a Bug's Life and rode Flik's Flyer.

We let Andrew take the camera for a while, it's nice to see us all together.  It was kind of cool to see what it's like to be tiny like a bug.  I'm used to the opposite, too tall to see the underside of things.

We did the spinning ladybugs next, and like I said, Andrew had the camera.

Adam, Clara, and I chose to be together so we wouldn't have to spin more than necessary.  Ugh.

Our girls were terribly impatient to drive the bug bumper cars.  They all feel it empowering to be the driver.

Wonderful Drew stayed out with Clara who was too short and took pictures.

The rides seemed a bit short and non thrilling after the wild night we'd just had, but this vacation was for the kids. 

I didn't go to Disneyland till I was 18 for my senior trip and I wanted my kids to have some fun kid memories. 

The Heimlich ride was more a ride for your senses than anything.  We traveled through a watermelon rind that smelled and felt wet and juicey, and an animal cracker box that smelled like some of my favorite childhood snacks.  Like I said, not thrilling but creative.

This bug land place had SO many fun places to take pictures.  We didn't put a dent in the possibilites. 

They had a fun 3D bug show with a stinky stink bug, black widdows coming down from the ceiling, and wiggley maggots.  I love 3D shows like that.

Wade joined us and brought us lunch.  Clara had a tradition of falling asleep through every meal.  It was so cute to see Vi share the stroller and hug her till they both fell asleep.

Oops, I forgot to flip that pic.  After lunch we went to the forest rangery part. 

They had a cave to tell you what your inner animal was.(Adam was a skunk!) rope bridges, tire swings and Clara's favorite: rock slides!

Poor Vi barely made the height measurement at the bottom of the swings, walked all the way up the rope bridges to the swing ride just to be told she was too short to ride.  She cried and cried and said, "That lady thinks I'm little and I'm not, I'm a big girl, waaaaaaa!"  Gotta love it!

Adam took Vi back down and while he was comforting her, she decided she wanted to get a picture with Brother Bear.  Good idea Vi!

The lines at California Adventure averaged about 30 minutes except the next two: Mickey's Fun Wheel and Toy Story Mania, those were looooong. (probably an hour)

The fun wheel was way too high for Adam's taste, I was afraid he might toss his cookies for the third time on that one!  It's a huge feris wheel with most cars on rollers.  Vi and Clara put on their brave faces.  Andrew, Wade, Jerica, Erith, and Tric were making theirs rock and roll like crazy!

Toy Story was a shootem up video game ride, I was terrible, Andrew and Wade smoked us.  Then we went to the tortilla factory for free tortillas and the sourdough bread bakery for free sour dough.  Then we ran into these green army guy musicians.  That was pretty cool.

We went to a super cool Aladdin live production.  Who knew you could get a 45 minute Broadway show at California Adventure at no extra cost!? We then had dinner in the brr cold and split into groups again.  The big kid group did Soarin' Over California (which is VERY cool, if you're on the front row you don't have feet dangling above you and it really feels like your're flying into the green screen!) and California Screamin'.

Screamin' is pretty intense!  It was Erith and Tricy's first upside down rollercoaster!  Erith said she was too scared to scream, Tric asked, "Did we go upside down yet?" Yep! (Get Fast Passes to both, like we did!)

Yeah right Wade, even a ride pro like you couldn't fall asleep on screamin'!  Then the boys took off to play stake volleyball.  I'm not sure where Ryal and Cory took the little ones while we were gone.  I believe they did King Triton's carousel more than once.  We girls met up with them and watched the electrical parade, then the second it was over Ryal, Erith, Tric, me, and yes Vi, did Hollywood Tower of Terror! Sleeping Clara stayed with Aunt Cory.

Remember Where's Waldo?  Where's Viola?  It was a pretty scary story line (Twilight Zone) and it is probably too much for an almost 4 year old, but I didn't think she would behave for Cory while we went, so I took her, and she did it!  I told her it was all pretend and she was extremely proud of this picture. "HER picture".

Vi threw a huge fit on the way to the car.  She wanted me to carry her, not Ryal, not the stroller, give me a break kid, you're heavy and I'm tired!  Another late night, got kids to bed and did 2 loads of laundry.

Day 7: Drive to San Diego to see Trevor at Camp Pendleton

My brother has been at Camp Pendleton since last summer when he went to do marine boot camp to join the marine reserves.  He tore the cartilage off his hip while doing the usual drills and whatever and was declared physically unfit enough to finish. (2 weeks before his graduation no less) He has been sitting in the the hospital wing for 5 months waiting for his discharge papers to come home.  It's very depressing and he longs for company, so we came to visit.

He can't leave the base, he got leave to have this visit with us, and they have an awesome rec center to play and eat in, so we played and ate.

We bowled 2 games at the bowling alley and then had lunch, hamburgers and pizza. (There were about 4 choices on the menu)  Vi wailed on her big sisters at bowling! (Bumper buddies and a ramp helped!)

Then we hit the free arcade.  Trevor's favorite game is this shoot deer and elk game, I think he liked having a gamer like Adam for competition.

I couldn't pry the sunglasses off Erith's face this trip!  That was a dark room!

Tric loved the basketball hoops game, Clara loved the one thing she could climb on by herself and reach the controls!  Vi had too short an attention span to do much of anything.

I had to give them my driver's license to get the air hockey puck and paddles, so muscle men, don't hit the puck hard enough to jump the table and lose it!

Speaking of losing things, Clara lost one of her shoes and it took forever to find.  Guess where it was? Behind the propped open door, that tiny triangle of space was the last place I thought to look!

We got Trev back a tad late for his 4:00 cut off, oops, bad shoe.  We're glad we could see him.  We zipped back to LA without too much traffic trouble and then climbed in the passenger van for an Angels game!

Praise to Andrew again for the tickets and chicken burgers hot and ready in the van when we got there just in time to leave.

This is our family's first major league baseball game. 

We didn't have as much red as the average fan.  But I did buy a t-shirt before we left.  I know, I am a junkie for vacation suveniers!

The angels did not win I'm afraid.  They lost to the San Diego Padres 5-2.  The whole experience was awesome though, being able to buy hotdogs and peanuts from your seat, the great american pasttime.  I have to say though, Adam playing here at Tauphaus Park moved tons faster! (no raking the dirt!)

Surprise Tricity!  When we got back from the game this was waiting for us!  Andrew is magic, I'm telling you!  Tricity's surprise princess birthday party!

Day 8: We drive 11 hours to Andi's in Ogden Utah, goodbye California, Wheelers, Trevor, we love you!

Only a cool sister like Andi would let 6 people crash her one bedroom apartment at 12:30 AM!  Thank goodness she did because we were having a hard time getting that far, all the way home would have been misserable!

Day 9: Conference, birthday presents, meeting the infamous Mike, and Fat Cats.

We finally got to meet Andi's best friend she's been hanging out with for 3 years.  We met up for a between sessions lunch.  I liked him a lot, we need tall men in this world like him!

This Fat Cats place had a ton of fun things to do, but we just didn't have enough time to do all we wanted before conference started, so we settled for Jazzi style bumper cars and ice ball. (skee ball)

It was a fun ending to a fun vacation, I'm very glad we went.  I'll write about Tric's birthday later, and that's all she wrote!

Day 5: Disneyland!  We had to delay our departure to Disneyland by an hour Tuesday morning.  Why? You ask, because Adam was puking again!  He passed 2 kidney stones that morning!  Some people's bodies just don't know how to kick back and have fun! 

It could have been worse though, they only took an hour to pass, he wasn't on a ride or driving in traffic.  Praying for safety is definately worth it!

As you can see we got there safe and sound.  The first thing Vi wanted to do was the carousel, even though we have those in Idaho we jumped right on.  Those who smile get put on the blog! (hint, hint, Erith)

Then we did Toad's wild ride, (which our friend Wade tells us is the only ride in Disneyland, all the others are 'attractions') Peter Pan, Pinocchio's daring journey,Snow White, Flying Dumbos, and then bought some cute Mickey/Minnie Mouse ears on our way to lunch.

Gotta love waiting in line.  It was a hopping day that day.  Most lines took 50 minutes which is still tons better than summer lines I'm told.

I have to say that my kids were amazingly patient in the lines.  I was way more annoyed at waiting than they were.  They just gaped and stared at everything going on around them. 

I had a backpack full of snacks to give them something to do in line and I only brought stuff out twice the whole day.

Andrew was key to the success of this vacation.  He drove us around once we got to his house, he dropped us off at the gates, he left and brought back food right at mealtimes, he volunteered to take Clara and/or Vi when they were too short for rides.  He bought our girls big pens and other treats. He saved Adam's life in the ocean, he is a miracle man, we owe him big time!  Oh, and he's single ;).

We got to meet his little boy Jake for the first time that day.  He hung out with us at Disneyland for a while.

This outside picnic area became our home away from rides for a couple days.  We'd get our hands stamped, walk out and into it's hard to see entrance and there would be Drew with food for us.  It was awesome!

After lunch Aunt Cory, Jake, and Drew joined us for Roger Rabbit, (that was the worst long line with cranky kids we had this trip) when we got out there were tonsof fun picture opportunities before we did the Rescue Ranger rollercoaster.

Notice the pink Mickey Mouse balloon on the stroller?  Some nice random lady gave it to Vi. It made the other's jealous I'm afraid, but it did help us find our stroller among the thousands there.

We couldn't forget Adam, the usual picture taker!  I have a picture of Adam 9 years ago in this same spot on our belated honeymoon.  I should scan it and show how he's changed!

The Rescue Ranger rollercoaster, the line anyway, our first thrilling ride of the day.  Clara went with Cory, Brenda, and Drew to the play yard/picture area next door.

Clara loved the slide and the jack-o-lantern.  We couldn't resist taking a few pictures when we came to pick her up.

She is so cute and sweet when she's not throwing a tantrum!

Gotta love 5 cute girls on boxes.

Vi is the kind of kid that makes you forget your useless cares and just smile...or laugh!  (Again, when she's not throwing a tantrum)

We wanted a picture with Mickey or Minnie, but the wait time was close to 2 hours, so we opted for the 5 minute wait with goofy instead.

After that we popped into It's a Small World, which was better and newer than the last time I went.  I then draffed the younger croud who joined us to go to Captain EO, Michael Jackson, 3D show.  Then we did a fast pass onto Autopia.  Erith and Tric were big enough to drive themselves.  Vi drove me.  Clara fell asleep in the stroller with Cory on the way to dinner.  After dinner it was dark and we split into 2 groups: Erith and Tric big kids, Vi and Clara little kids.

Adam and I were in the big kid group.  We did Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, Thundermountain Railroad, (during the fireworks) Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, and with 7 minutes to spare till midnight, Adam, Wade and I booked it to Indiana Jones.  Poor Tric was asleep standing in line for Space Mountain.  Andrew took the two girls on the train to get to the car to sleep while our crazy trio ran to Indiana Jones.  Not bad for s day's work!

I got majorly soaked in the front of that log.  I didn't want anyone else to be wet and cold that late at night, so I guess I took one for the team.  I could hear Tric behind me saying "Mom, you said only you would get wet, I just got a little wet!"  Thanks to Evie and Gregg for braving it with us.

Poor sleepy Tric looks like Cousin It in this pic, and Wade and Andrew are hilarious as always.

The little kid group did Winnie the Pooh, Astro Orbiter, Dumbo again, and the train.  Then bless their hearts, Ryal and Cory took Vi and Clara home and put them to bed.

I was very impressed that Erith and Tric could handle the big rides.  As you can see from the look on my face, I can barely handle the big rides!  The Matterhorn was Erith and Tric's favorite, Thundermountain was mine.

We got a surprise visit from Adam's sister Andrea over the President's Day weekend. My girls were very excited! At Sunday dinner at Grandma Hayes' house we had all of Adam's brothers and sisters and us married-ins and a girlfriend. That's the first time since Kami's mission farewell, so almost 2 years. It was a packed house, it was great. Then on Monday we went sledding with anyone who could come at the Ririe pit.

Tricity really surprised us. She's usually the one who gets tired first. Not on President's Day! She was energizer bunny! Up and down the slopes, usually at the steepest points.

Vi did okay after she fell asleep for a while. Erith was go go go as usual. Adam tried to practice snowboarding on a child sled and it didn't work too good.

But alas he did quite well on his first snowboarding trip ever. He was very sore before he started, (from club volleyball starting) so you can imagine how sore he was after. In fact he's passed out on the bed right now and I decided to write this blog because it's way to early for me to go to bed! I even went down three times. (Shhhh! Don't tell my doctor!)

I was really perking up during the warm, snow-melting days we've had lately. Then Adam started us off on a LONG week! He was up at BYUI from 7-3. When he finally made it to Jacob Quinn's mission-come-home party he had a high fever and was hungry but couldn't eat much. He slept the rest of Sunday, most of Monday, all of Tuesday, by Wednesday he could at least get out of bed and work. All this time he ran a 103-104 fever. He'd be fevered, then it would break, then a couple hours later he was fevered again. It seemed to come out of nowhere. He had a sore throat and a cough, but who knew such a fever would come with that? By Wednesday Viola had it too. Thursday Erith had it. We took everyone into the doctor and they said we all had the flu.

So we all started TAMIFLU and it really helps! The fevers went away super fast. We're still working on the sore throats and coughs. Viola broke out in a huge swelling rash Thursday night, the day she started taking Tamiflu. So I called the doctor and said she must be allergic to it but he said that was not a side affect of that medicine and it must be an allergy to something else. Well, I did switch laundry detergent that week. So lucky me, I got to go buy the old detergent and rewash everything. Two doses of children's Benadryl and rewashing took care of the rash thank goodness.

Then Friday Vi woke up with goopy eyes. By Saturday they were swollen and pink and would hardly open! I was really starting to wonder if she was supposed to make it . We got her on Vigamox eye drops and by Sunday they looked normal again.

Here it is Monday and I'm praying the sunshine will bring health and happiness back to this house! I never got the fever but the sore throat/cough part has not been a laugh. Tric never got the fever either and bless her heart, she's been such a good little nurse. She checked Erith's temperature and gave her cool rags for her forehead all day Thursday while I was taking care of Vi.

And I guess I should say Vi and Adam who got it the worst really pulled through! The sleepless nights were worth it!? I can't tell you how humbling it is to see the thermometer say 103.9 at one o'clock in the morning and knowing if you just let your body give in to sleep your child or husband may have a fried brain in the morning.

I LOVE GOOD HEALTH! I love to see my kids with energy to run and play! You don't know what you got till it's gone!

If you're wondering if we have a lot of parties at our house, this months representation should tell you!

Adam's friend from high school Clifton Koon and his wife Bree and their son and twin baby girls came to his parents' for Thanksgiving so the day after we had a party with all the gang at our house.

Adam's other friend Nate and his wife Shannon were pregnant with twins, and they came to the party Friday, and went into labor and had their babies Saturday!

Dan and Darcy don't have any babies yet but boy do Clif's babies look good in their arms!

We've been telling our friend John that we should have his family over for dinner for about 4 years.  We finally set a date and did it!

John and Adam are competative stake sports guys and Heidi and I are the much more relaxed, happy to be there wives.  Our kids are about the same age so they had a blast dressing up together.

Our newest game is called settlers.  We love to play it and always seem to convince our company to play with us.

If we invite you over for dinner, watch out, we're getting pretty good at it! (Or at least Adam is!)

Where have I been the past few months?  Well, this is Idaho, and it is winter, so believe it or not, I've been cooped up in the house.  Reading books, watching old movies, and for the past couple weeks exercising! 

I have a goal to lose at least 30 pounds this year. I've joined a group of ladies in my ward who walk 3 miles every morning (5 days a week, M-F) and lift weights immediately after on Tuesday and Thursday (our whole stake is invited to that).  I hope going from nothing to this will be a big improvement.  It has already helped my mood a ton.  January always makes me so stir-crazy.  I'm usually broke after Christmas, thus I don't leave the house much.  I feel like everyday is the same, and there is nothing to look forward to, and I just get down and sad/grouchy.  So I am LOVING the happier mind-set exercise gives me, and I'm sure my family is too. 

We are going to do a complete overhaul on our upstairs bathroom when we get our tax return back.  (Since we incorporated in 2008 we had to pay 90% of Adam and Heather Hayes' AHFX 2007 earned income AND AH Digital FX Studios Inc., so this years return should be a good one) 

Our bathroom is straight out of the 70's from baby blue sink, toilet, and tub to the blue plaid carpet. Yeah, gross, I know. So all new everything, even cabinetry.  Yes, the carpet is going, it will be replaced with: most likely tile.  Post on the comment section the likes and dislikes of all your flooring and counter tops.  We are leaning towards tile floors and granite counter tops.  (Is tile to hard and cold on your feet and does granite show too many splatters and fingerprints?)  We will do before and after pictures of it.

We'll be adding more toys to our swingset, and hopefully... laying some cement for a basketball/volleyball court. It should be a fun, busy year! 

It's been a busy few weeks for us! Erith started kindergarten after getting a cute new haircut by Aunt Jaleesa!

She feels very grown up and smart now that she rides the bus and has homework.

Tric had to wait till last week to start her second year of preschool at a lady in our ward's house. She loves it. She was very bored while Erith was gone to kindergarten so now she feels grown up for a couple hours three days a week. I send them to this preschool purely for social reasons. I've taught them everything they learn at this preschool before they start pretty much (colors, ABC's, numbers, a simple curriculum). But they love it and the teacher makes them a nice scrapbook each year packed with pictures so it's worth it to me for just that!

Poor Viola doesn't know what to do in such a quiet house while they're gone. She usually falls asleep! It make me feel kind of boring!

My girls have been very patient with a busy set of parents. We finished the shed and filled it with all our stuff with help from the whole family. Grandpa Stuart Purser has been coming over a lot to help us with our projects.We framed in the garage door hole when we put it on the shed and now we are wiring and soon to be insulating our old garage/new office. It is such a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. Our poor kids waited in a shopping cart for 2 1/2 hours while we picked out lights for the new office. Then there wasn't enough room in the trunk for them so they held them on their laps! It made me remember hating to go to home improvement stores with my parents because I knew the ride home would be an uncomfortable one. (My dad didn't get a truck till after I was married so I usually had 2X4's pressed up against my cheek in the mini van! Good times!)

Anyway, besides getting the office done Adam has to have 3 websites done for a land developer before the Parade of Homes which is... Thursday. Plus all the millions of others that wish they could be done that soon! It's been a juggle we aren't used to doing but we can do it! I just hope we find some good interns once the big office is done because, I am a lousy website assistant! I get tired and cramped quite fast! Yes Adam, I do appreciate you!

Well, Adam just told me in a frenzied voice that there is a skunk in the old garage/office, so I'm off to try to get it out! Wish me luck!

Well, here comes another quick update for posterity sake on what I've been up to. 

Work has been going well and I'm scrambling to keep up. It feels like I just run and run. I just signed up with the new family search and I'm loving it. It is my escape now to search for people. We did a quick trial run and got 3 families ready for the temple and then Heather and I did a whirlwind day of everything for one family from baptisms all the way through to sealings. It was really fun to go through for people that I had gotten from family search and turned in. These next ones will be even cooler because I'll have done the research and finding myself.

I also helped out a buddy of mine that needed another player for his city league softball team. I went to 7 games and we won 5 of the 7. It was a lot of fun. We did a couple of games a week, so it seemed like a lot in a short amount of time. I got to play 1st base the whole time which brought back great memories from childhood.

I fixed the deck, (see the other post for in the middle picture). It seems to be holding up well and we'll see what happens after a year has gone by how they hold up.The stain seems to be working so that is great compared to our first attempt at protecting the deck (the paint wore off within weeks in some spots last time)

I also did a number of days over at another friend's house helping them move some trees (little trees from 1 1/2 feet to 7 feet tall. I'm guessing I helped out with 1500ish trees of the 7500+ they moved. It was fun even though I got sore fingers and a couple of blisters out of it. 

Erith and Tricity helped me the other day go get potatoes and deliver them to a bunch of people. One of the farmer's daughters in our stake did a young women's project and gave away a bunch of potatoes. All you had to do was show up, pick them up, and haul them off. Erith and Tric had fun picking potatoes with a little bit of dirt clod throwing (mostly at me).

All in all it has been a crazy summer and I think we've accomplished a bunch.

Adam and I went to the Miss Idaho Paegent last week and did some buisiness advertising and had a fun get away from life. 

We went to an Art Museum, which had exhibits of Idaho Artists.  It was okay, nothing that inspired us too much.

We then went to Camel's Back Park to hike up the camel's back.  It was steep up onto the hump and then had a bunch of winding trails around the top and down the sides. 

I thought we were lost after 45 minutes and finding a stream instead of the park. 

But we were just one hill curve away from the park.

We spent 5 hours in the Boise Temple Saturday, it was a great oppurtunity to get ahead on our family names.  Thank you to all the Quinn family helping with our family names, we should have enough to do a huge 8-12 couple sealing session by the end of the summer, thanks for all your help!

We were happy to see our kids again when we got back.  They have been having tons of fun feeding and collecting eggs from our 4 hens everyday. 

(I highly recommend a few hens for teaching kids responsibility!)

We used a trail of cracker crumbs to lead our neighbors free ranging chickens into the coop.  (they gave us permission to take them) We got to play Momma kitty to a batch of kittens as well, that story does not have a happy ending I'm afraid.  We tried!

Well this has been quite the year for politics.

I'm normally not one to talk about politics (except between myself and Heather). However, this year (and last) I've followed the primaries fairly closely. I've watched as the field has narrowed to practically one candidate (McCain) on the republican side and two candidates (Clinton and Obama) on the democratic side.

As I've watched I've noticed something quite unique in the approaches of the candidates. There seems to be only one candidate that is playing end game. As I listen to victory speeches, there was only one that was truly trying to appeal to both sides (not just their party). One that was speaking of uniting a nation instead of merely uniting a political party. The only one that is speaking of us as a country, instead of the usual us versus them of politics. The only one that is playing end game, that is gathering supporters from all walks of life, political backgrounds, and economic status is Barack Obama.

I have to say he is extremely good at speaking. Now, that doesn't qualify or disqualify him for political office, but invigorating speeches of unity, change, and hope surely aren't going to hinder his chances of getting elected. Play this clip and you'll get an idea of his eloquent speaking ability.

I absolutely love the line "In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

There are numerous issues that we disagree on, but I doubt I'll ever have a candidate that I ever fully agree with unless I run for office (and I'll never do that.)

I think that tomorrow after the Texas and Ohio primaries the field will narrow down to Obama and McCain. I'm doing my research into both to get a better idea of where each one stands on issues.

Regardless of how I vote this upcoming November, from what I've seen I think that Obama will win the election with over 65% of the votes.