Devanie.com

I’m now in Boise Idaho.

I didn’t think I was going to make the trip, but after my Brothers car broke down and My Mom needed to do a car exchange with Mollys 4 kids and I needed to hit a church distribution center, I figured visiting more cousins and my brother’s family would be worth a trip.

It’s an 8 hour drive. Zach was wonderful he slept and played. Sierra definately needed a nap, the night before she had 100.4 fever, last night she puked koolaid that she claims she just drank too fast, Hailey on the ride to Idah loved looking at the map and following our course through Lovelock, winnemucca, NV and McDermitt, OR. I followed my Mom the whole time and her phone was out of battery so the few times I wanted her to pull over for a potty stop for Hailey – She thought I was playing games with her. When I wasn’t. Eventully we made it to a sick stinky reststop and Hailyu is finnicky about things like that. But she had to go bad enough after over 1 1/2 hour of holding it, that she would take almost ANYTHING – except the side of the road!

We are going to take the 10/12 cousins that are here (all girls but Zach) to the pool in a few.

After being in Utah and Nevada on this trip I think I quite like the Boise area. Definatly better than NEVADA! And probably better than Utah. . .Nathan if you are reading. Maybe you can check jobs in Boise – housing shouldn’t be too bad.

Zach got to pet a horse on our trip up. the girls got to feed it weeds from the side of the road. Yesterday evening when we got to LeeJoe’s house Zach Climbed his first step. Now we just have to teach him how to get back down. He’s just had his first ride in a Walker and really like scooting around in it.

We will probably leave here next Wednesday or Thursday to make it back for one of the 2 HS reunions I go to in August.

I’ll try to keep you posted.

So I took the girls Mountain Climbing. I guess I told them before we went on our trip that I would let them climb up a mountain.

We got to the mountain range I grew up playing on. I found a dirt road that would take us to the side of it.

We got out and I sent the girls up the mountain. I told them when they got to the top to turn around and look down. Well, what a scary experience!! In this mountain range to them there is no “top” especially since the SUPER STEEP (no-ford taurus can clim) mountain road keeps GOING AND GOING. I thought they would get to the top of the bump turn around and come back. Instead almost as fast as their feet could carry them, and I trying to get the car to climb a mountian they went FARTHER and Farther up the dirt road. I left the car vicariously verticle clinging to the sige of the mountain, and with Zach in tow Ran up the hill in my high heel sandals as fast as my feet could carry me SCREAMING at the top of my lungs “GIRLS COME BACK”. I carried on this way for quite some time and though reaching the top I could see the girls, my voice was dry and hoarse and I was worried about Zach dehydrating. They still could not hear me. So I pressed on. Finally Sierra, whom was closer, hear my pleas. I told them the mountain didn’t stop and that they needed to turn around NOW. Sierra relayed the message to Hailey, who finally headed back. It should have been a fun experiance. I felt pressed for time because I told a friend I was going to her house. We didn’t put sunscreen on in the scorching heat. Zach had diareah all week and wasn’t drinking enough, and we just weren’t prepared. So to make it a better trip and since they were already so close we walked over to one of my childhood favorite destinations “Frog Rock” where my siblings and I spent many hours climbing and playing on, we even took crayons up once and drew eyes on the silly rock. I only brought my Cell Phone Up with me, just in case I needed to call 911. So I was able to get some pictures on that, however those won’t be downloaded until Aug 16th.

So needless to say they really enjoyed climbing up a mountain despite Moms frantic panic and the ask which mountain has “Frog Rock” on it and ask if they can go again(when we have sunscreen on). And ont the car ride out of the range we saw 3 Wild Horses hanging out with 1 tame horse(probably sharing the good food) Maybe we can go again sometime soon.

Pictures from Dial up are hard to upload, so I’ll have to do some modifications Hope they turn out OK for you.

Ok I’m going to try to start from the beginning and follow from there.

July 11, 2006
We were supposed to leave Hartford Airport at ontime, We ended up boarding the plane on time but because of the lightning and rain storms we were in the plain 1 hour longer than necessary. They founf a way to make a different route to the Atlanta airport for us but we needed more fuel and we waited on that. The kids were relativly easy to handle the whole way out. And there were a few with arms wide open to help a single mother traveling with 3 little ones including an infant and there were others that asked us to be more quiet. There was laughter, there were questions. We ate lunch at t he airport and Zach got a pirate bandana. It was so cute I took a picture, and He also enjoyed his 1st Chicken Nugget

We knew we were going to have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta I was looking forward to lazing around and walking slowly to the next plane. However that wasn’t going to be that easy since the delay in CT. Well we rushed semi ran pushing Zach in his stroller into and out of elevators making wrong turns along the way. Having panic attacks and finally making it at the 1/2 hr boarding mark. They started boarding, we got on and headed out to Salt Lake City. where Grandma and Grandpa S greeted us with open arms and perfecly made warm, clean beds in a beautiful home where we rested our heads til morning.

We got to stay 1 day in Utah. and I filled it to capacity!

I hit Deseret Book in the morning to get a CD from an album we listened to as kids “Songs for a Mormon Child” by Janeeen Brady – Which I think I left in Utah. I met up with Aunt D and her kids. We shopped Deseret Book, went to and indoor carnival place, Grandma S met us there. Then we ventured over to The PII (The Pie) for a YUMMY pizza lunch. We would have had ice cream too but we had gorged so much with pizza there was no room.

Then it was a trip the the S!@$#%^& Farm with Chickens, a sweet little kitten, and a load of workers and cleaning help getting the house ready for visitors.

Then Grandma and I went to Spanish Springs to do some house shopping. I had fun! The prices were reasonable, but the area was too far out for my liking really. Maybe if the job wasnt’ 45-1 hr away. We still have yet to find a job within the company. That will work for us.

We headed back to the house packed up for a picnic in Logan with All of the Utah gang Kathy, Aaron, Mike, Grandpa, Grandma, Alice, some cousins were there. Sierra went to the Park with Aunt Alice and Hailey cringed at the bugs at the picnic table the whole time!

Zach tasted some new table food and he really liked the red jello!

We headed back to the comfy beds where the minute I laid down Zach woke up, the phone rang with bad airport news from Uncle Mark, and we hoped they could make it to Utah soon. I got about 3 hours of sleep with Zach in my arms becasue he wouldn’t have it any other way(travel made him sick and cranky). 6 AM we were headed off to the airport missing Shana and Mark bu about 1/2 hour. I made it to Nevada at 9:30 amd the plane ride was only an hour. Just enough tome for Zach to take a nap – Perfect!

It’s been soo Busy.
The reunion lasted about 20 hours with the complete family + or – some friends and a few neices and nephews.

Some family members stayed longer than others. We had some good times just sitting around Grandmas living room chatting.

And life with this side of the family wouldn’t be complete without some kind of crisis or emergency. That is a trait that Grandma L has always possesed and seems to have passed on.

We had a family picnic in Virginia City Nevada and took pictures there. Everyone had a good time! And Leonard even wore a white shirt!

We had Dinners and Lunches and Buffet breakfasts at the Carson City Nugget Casino. Went to a local park and had a taco picnic, went swimming in 101* weather. Went to Circus Circus in Reno, Tripped up to Lake Tahoe to swim and get some sun-fully covered in sunscreen, Went out for pizza, Rode the VC V&T (Virginia and Truckee) Train in Virginnia City, we have been NONSTOP since I got here on the 13th. I’ve almost cured a case of the sugar ants too!!

As soon as MaryAnne leaves in the AM things should quiet down – Maybe Jet lag is trying to set in but I’m keeping to busy to find a moment to sleep. The Girls are having a BLAST!! Zach is puking and making and aweful mess in his pants. He’s happy one minute and a moment later his belly hurts and he needs rocking and cuddling.

The Crisis/Emergency we encountered was yesterday when Kim and Leejoe were about 2 hours from Carson City and the Transmission in their van went out. My parents jumped into 2 cars and zoomed up to get Leejoe, Put the 6 girls up in a hotel and make arrangements to get the van towed to Reno (via Thomas’s Truck) They took my parents big car to Idaho 8 hours away and asked if I could come up and visit them for a little while, bring their van up and return my parents car. I said yes. But hopefully my parents will be able to come and help with the kids in the car on the way.

I need sleep So I will report more on another day.

I forgot to mention girls night out. After playing at Mels house all day Friday we went out with Chris and my niece Megan. We drove to Chris’s new house and saw the outside and where it’s located! We had dinner at Uno’s and went to play at a local arcade. We raced pretend horses. My horse Hoof Hearted came in 12th place of 12 horses 5 of the 6 times and 11th one time. (Stinkin broken machines!) But I learned a creative way of getting paper out of hard to reach places! Take 2 credit/gift cards, smash the item between them and pull. It worked with the stuck horse race card and the ticket recipt. Chris got lucky when I told her to put her coin in the coin spilling machine and got almost 600 tickets, makingit possile for each of us to bring something home to the kiddos!

We laughed and had a good time.

Ben got a Spideman sucker holder, Jito got a light up fan with a sucker included, and the girls are going to get their “Mood Rings” on the plane trip to UT. We leave tomorrow morning. I hope to be able to blog from there what’s going on.

C-YA

Zach Loved Riding the teeter tauter with Sierra and Hailey. He laughed as I took the pictures.

Thanks for having us up Aunt Melanie.

Awesome Vacuume Reccomendation

We researched.

After having the girls stand on the end of the old vacuume just to make it touch the carpet I finally complained enough that Nathan agreed to get a new vacuum. Sierra would stand on the olf “Phantom” vacuume and the pressure of her weight was just right. If Hailey got on it it would start smelling like burning rubber. I considered a few times just wrapping a sack of rice onto it, but though how impractical and what a waste of rice! So for 3 years Sierra has had to stand on the vaccume to apptly the correct amount of pressure. Then I’d chase her around with it from sofa to sofa when her hands got tired and her feet got either hot or slippery.

It’s the newest Hoover Savvy U8172 900 for $200 at Sears and WELL worth every penny. It does bare and carpet floors, optional brush movement great height adjustment etc. I looked at the price of the Dyson Machines $500.00 I think we made a great informed decision and if you are ever in the market for a good vacuume. (Chris and Cliff you are getting a new house) This works really well. It’s worth it!

See your house

See how much it’s worth!
Zillow

http://www.zillow.com/?kwg=zwillow

and

Another cool site

Google Earth

http://earth.google.com/

Download the player and you can see in topigraphical, true north, arial views etc of the planet – where you live etc. I guess you can also check out Nevada’s Area 51 and see all the crazy buildings things out there. I suppose the pictures are about 2-3 years old but you’ll get the picture.

Wild Fires in Nevada.

I’m heading out there on Tuesday.

I have a friend that posted some pictures on her myspace account. Scroll down just a touch. That’s RIGHT by her house! Some pictures taken from her DRIVEWAY. One of my brothers had a Voluntary Evacuation. I’d be outta there! Another friend and her family were having a hard time living with all the smoke they are only 15 minutes from the fires. I think they have them under control. But LOOK! If you haven’t been “there” and done that like I have(Lived in NV 17 years and one brushed right through our backyard) Can you IMAGINE? It’s pretty scary. to say the least.

http://www.myspace.com/tayahsmommy

Wish us luck!