Utah!

After Jill's yummy dinner on Thursday and some Must-See TV, Rich & I headed back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep (we'd been up since 3am, after all) and got to the temple in the morning.We had a lovely time doing initiatory work at the Jordan River Temple Friday morning! Afterward, we couldn't get hold of Jill or mom (they had our kids, so we figured they must have taken them out or something), so we stopped at Target for some essentials and went to the hotel to change out of our Sunday clothes and into something comfy to wear to the zoo. We picked up some Chadder's for lunch (which is almost as good as In-n-Out), tried to find Mike & Amy, and found mom at Jill's with my kids and Jill just arriving with hers. They were working on Jill's yard and waiting for "the guys" to come home from golfing.

***

We got our kids ready to go to the zoo because we had promised Heidi she could see the elephants as part of her birthday celebration. As we got ready, more and more kids wanted to go, so my mom handed me $20 and we broke the law by double-buckling a couple of kids, and headed up to Hogle Zoo in SLC.
Zoo Entrance (not my photo)

Heidi, Addie, Ally, & Belle waiting for their zoo tickets.
Here's most of the gang that ended up going to the zoo Friday afternoon.
(Jake, Matt, Matt's friend's daughter Brooklyn whom the Posties were babysitting, Belle, Abby, Sam, Addie, Ally, Rich, Heidi, Jack & James in the stroller, and me)

Jake, Heidi, & Belle at one of zoo potty breaks

Addie & Ally
James showing Jack his Diego elephant
Heidi, Addie, Ally, & Jake check out the albino alligator


TRIE LOVE! Heidi with the elephants
This isn't a great picture, but James loved watcing the monkeys--they were so entertaining!
Addie and the lemurs

Matt made friends with a giraffe
Sanck break at the giraffe building. Amie brought strawberries and crackers, I brought graham crackers, water, and gummi bears. We all shared and the kids stayed in good spirits.
Heidi & Jake with the turkeys

Toward the end of our visit (3:45-ish), we rode the zoo train. I got to sit with James and my adorable nephew, Jack.
James loved the tiny train!
From the train we discovered the zoo playground, so we gave the kids 15 minutes to play there. Here are Belle and Addie coming out of a turtle shell.

Addie being fake-devoured by an alligator
Belle & James on a caterpillar
Heidi & Jake hatching from a dinosaur egg.

Heidi pushing the water ball--

you can see Belle, Jack, and Rich in the reflection, but I don't know the boy in the green jacket.

Here's the Zoo Crew(click to enlarge) on the way home (Matt & Amie had already taken off to meet up with the Bailey's and give them their child). I had planned to stop in Holladay to visit my old friend M.E., but the traffic and the tired kids proved a bit too much for a good reunion, so I sadly had to postpone.

***

We got back to Jill's just in time for me to freshen up and go out to dinner before Janet picked us up for Girls' Night Out/ Amie's Birthday Party in Provo. Rich and the other Daddies took the kids swimming together at our hotel. We ladies first stopped in American Fork to pick up our little sis, Amy. We waited around for her for a while and finally called her cell and found out she couldn't come. So we just headed straight to the movies cuz we were too late for dinner. Jill and Mom had made us all some crazy birthday hats to wear and that was pretty fun (see pix on Jill's blog). We watched "27 Dresses" which was a pretty cute movie. Amie's mom and sister were with us for the movie, and then her cousins joined us at Olive Garden for desert (which turned out to be dinner cuz we were starving--I had the tilapia and it was great). We were expecting Amy Drews, too, but she couldn't meet us there, either, dang it! I got back to the hotel near midnight.

***

Saturday morning came fast and we all took showers and got dressed for another busy day, including a solemn assembly to sustain our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and a new apostle, Todd Christofferson. We ate breakfast at our hotel and then went to Jill's house to watch the first session of conference. We'd planned to take the kids to see Horton during the break, but they voted for playing wiht cousins instead! So we folded clothes and listened as the kids played together quietly (mostly). We stood by quorums and auxiliaries to sustain President Monson and we were taught some good principles. Between sessions we went to Tai Pan for some home decor and Cafe Rio to pick up lunch. We hung out with the Petersens for lunch and then headed over to Posties for second session and dinner (they had invited us). We kind of had to rush through dinner to get Willy and Rich to priesthood meeting on time, and so I could get to the Trax station to pick up Aunt Marti. Then Mom, Janet & Christa, Audrey, Jill, Marti, and I ended up at the pool at mom's hotel to swim during priesthood session. We got the kids in their jammies and met the Daddies (Will & Rich had gone in Herriman, Mark & Steve had gone in So. Jordan, the Mayberry boys had been at Temple Square, and Drew had gone with his dad). Jill offered to let all the girls have a slumber party at her house, but then she felt bad for Marshall and invited him, too. She took off with a car full of niece and nephews, so Rich and I had yet another restful night! We grabbed a bite to eat (thanks, uncle Ralph!) with Mayberrys and Drews, and hit the hay, exhausted again!

***

Sunday morning we took bagels and cream cheese over to Jill's to eat breakfast and let the cousins say good bye one last time. Rich & Drew went out to Saratoga Springs to fetch some of Rich's tools at Jeff's and look for Matt (Matt was on his way to conference in the conference center).

Mom and Mark came and got their kids and went over to the Grays' and we left for home (after taking this picture of all the kids). We stopped for lunch in Draper and drove to Poky through the last conference session (we listened on KSL radio). It hailed like crazy on the way......but the sun mercifully appeared so the girls could get their ya-ya's out!

We stopped in Pocatello to visit with my dad, Becky, and two of Becky's daughters and their kids. Dad had grilled a giant round steak and made a deluxe salad bar, so we all visited and played and ate. Dad & Becky gave Heidi her bday gift early--it's a light tabel/ coloring desk so she can trace pix of Littlest Pet Shop pets and color them...a perfect gift to use in the car.

However, she didn't get to use it in the car because she and Addie were OUT in like 20 minutes! We left Pocatello at 6:20pm, and they crashed before Blackfoot! James never did settle down and drove us nuts all the way home whining for a bottle and to get out of his seat. I guess that's how it goes--as soon as you get one kids out of the crazy toddler stage, another one starts it up.

Despite ominous clouds and hail, our trip home was pretty nice and mostly clear. We arrived safely at home around 10:30pm Sunday and were glad to be here. It was a great trip.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig...

We arrived home safely from Utah last night after a little pit stop in Pocatello to see my dad, Becky, and step sisters. We drove in hail most of the way, but the sun mercifully came out for the kids to play for a while at Papa's house. Our trip was wonderful --and even restful, thanks to Jill and Drew being so kind as to let our kids sleep over at their house while we slept soundly at the hotel. You can see some pix at Jill's blog--I took most of the Priesthood meeting pool party pix because I didn't swim. I will write the travel log when I upload our pix. Thanks everyone who made our trip so nice--Mayberrys, Posties and Postums, Petersens, Laytons--and M.E., please forgive me for not making it over to your house for a visit. I promise all my Utah amigas that I am making a "friend-trip" ASAP (ME, I can help you pack!). The family has just gotten so big and all-consuming, it's silly to try to plan other stuff when we're all together. SORRY! I LOVE YOU!

I am in a post-trip fog, doing laundry, catching up on email and blogs, and I feel so heart-broken right now. I read on my friend Jessica's blog that her 9-year-old niece drowned in the bath tub on Sunday morning (do you remember my NC friends, the Smiths? Decker and BJay and Paige? It was Paige's daughter and I am so sad). It's a horror, every mom's nightmare, and I can't stop praying for Paige and her family to be strengthened and comforted. (And my girls can forget about bathing alone...) All my love and sympathy to the Smith's & the in-laws...

Later...

Adieu

We are leaving for Utah at 4am and meeting Matt & Amie at 8-ish for (Amie's Birthday) breakfast at IHOP! We have been promising Heidi "Horton Pancakes" for her birthday forever! It's gonna be a fun weekend!

Hey, when I get back I'll have to upload pix from Tuesday morning. Remember Sunday night when I blogged about the snowstorm? Well, it didn't stop snowing til Monday night! We got about a foot. Today the sun came out and all that snow will make our grass green and flowers grow...YAY!

Anywhooooo...if you're comin' to Zion, we'll see ya there! We're staying at the Comfot Inn in Draper, so call us on the celly so we can hook up. Also, if you're a bad guy and you're reading this, please don't rob our house. There is a guard dog. Yeah...that's the ticket.

The Google Image Game

"Google Image Game: Answer the questions by finding pictures from Google Images and choose a fun pic from the first page that comes up."

1. My First Job (besides babysitting), age 14:

2. My Wish for 2008 (not to be elderly, but to be a strong & healthy woman!)
3. My Favorite Flower (Ranunculus)
4. My Favorite Color (Sage Green) (pretty cake, huh) (also known as "Lucky Nuptial Green" at Tryst Press!)
5. Name of an old pet: Jason, my Uncle's Dog, the only dog I ever loved

6. A Nickname (James--now I have a child by that name!)
7. My Age on my Next Birthday (37)

8. A Place I'd Like to Visit (Scandinavia)

9. A Favorite Place (Tucson during monsoons)

10. Favorite Thing (s) to Do (Clean House, Take Baths, Write Letters--I foudn a photo that comines the first two! EWWWWW!)

11. Favorite Food (at the moment--lettuce wraps! We can't stop making them!)
BONUS: My Name...
..shucks! That dang little skank has my middle name, too!

Bloggin' the Swing Shift

WARNING: This is actual live blogging of my Sunday Night shift. It is boring and rambling. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Hola, dear readers.

I am working at the hotel again tonight, covering for Wendy whose husband only comes home once in a while from working in the middle east and is home this weekend. Or something like that.

Last night by the time I went home at 11pm, my back was killing me and it only got worse when I got in bed. So I got up and found an ice pack for my obviously-swollen sacro-iiliac area and lay down on the floor with my legs at a 45-degree andle on the couch, trying to think my way into feeling better, trying to relax each muscle in my back and stop the pinch, ache , and tingles. The ibuprofen finally kicked in around 1:00am, but I still didn't sleep well.

This morning mid-way through dressing the munchkins, I realized that going to church wasn't the best idea. I found a substitute for Primary music and stayed home with James. I did a little Denise Austin yoga and took some more meds and felt a little better but SO TIRED. James didn't want me to nap, though, so I am still draggin' bootay. To do my penance I have read the Ensign and Friend almost cover-to-cover and got all the April music stuff ready, incuding visual aids. Luckily it's slower than heck here and there is very little laundry to break my back.

I am watching the sun go down as the mountains get covered in some serious snow. It looks like January out there with the wind and the strung out, frothy clouds hanging over Livingston Peak.

I just had a couple of trippy time warps listening to our local AM Radio station. Whoa--I went to the Stake Dance for a few minutes there! First there was "She's Always A Woman to Me" by Billy Joel, which provided another memory besides a quad-stake dance in Tucson. I just now remembered (probably for the first time) this one night when I was dating a once-and-future boyfriend's little brother, lounging on a loveseat in his parents' living room while he serenaded me at the baby grand. He eventually broke out in this song, throwing my name into the lyrics and being pathetically, irresistibly (and eventually, annoyingly) charming (he also did a mean "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" which made me swoon, although I hated Poison with a passion). He fed me ice cream after that. What a weird memory of a weird time.

THEN..."When I'm With You" by Sherriff came on! Holy Cow! I'd forgotten all about that song, but it was a classic slow dance at the stake dance (just like Scorpions' "Still Loving You" and The Cars' "Who's Gonna Drive You Home", which still tend to give me the adolescent butterflies). I'm not a hairband fan, but that is a GREAT power ballad. It made for some dangerously romantic moments, if I recall correctly, and not just for me and whomever I was with, but for lots of folks. Frankly, I think this song was way more provocative than, say, "Devil Inside" or "Let's Go All the Way," which were, of course, banned from church dances.

8:11 pm-I just made a new key for a guy who also locked himself out last night. He kind of reminds me of Dennis Quaid and he's kinda flirty, but he's here on railroad business and squawking on the cell phone a lot. [9:53pm: he just walked thru the lobby in a hoody and gave me The Dude wink & nod]

Oh, dude! Hello, eighth grade! It's "Straight From the Heart" by Bryan Adams. Get out your lighters! Everybody sing along! "...tell me we can make another start/ you know I'll never go/ as long as I know/ it's comin' straight from the heart..." you go with your synthesizer! "...I'll see you on the street some other time/ and all our words would just fall out of line/ while we're dreamin'..." Now it's "Carribean Queen." I love being old enough to have my own oldies station. I used to think it was so lame when my mom would go off about certain songs on the 60's & 70's station ("Oh my gosh!...'Jeremiah was a bullfrog/ was a good friend of mine!' This totally reminds me of driving around with my seminary friends and blasting this song! It's so great to sing along to...!") I totally get it now. It's like you're still "wet cement" during adolescence and music, especially, makes deep impressions that are still very tangible decades later--part of who you are, interwoven with all your formative experiences.

9:32pm-can you say CRAZY!? The OWNER of this property (Larry, whom I have never met) just came in with his family to swim around 8:20, then I went and changed loads in the wash, and as I began to fold towels a NUTTY-as-a-fruitcake lady came in whining about the roads in Yellowstone being closed and needing a family discount without a discount card. She had such a fit that Larry made arrangements for her to stay and have her discount card faxed over and now she is gettin on my last nerve! She begged for a suite and now she wants me to go get her some milk! WTF? No good deed goes unpunished!

10:01pm: "Girl, I want to be with you all of the time/ All day and all of the night"...this makes me happy after the past stressful 90 minutes. That snow in the mountains came down to town and made lots of people pull off I-90 and check in here for the night. I've got 13 rooms filled tonight--that's a lot for the winter (usually 4-8 rooms). [10:41pm--three more families coming out of the snow--that's 16 rooms!]

I am brainstorming another treasure hunt based on President Monson's Ensign message for April. I'll post what I come up with. I am so excited for conference--new prophet and new apostle and lots of guidance and edification--yum, yum!

10:14pm: Just checked in a weary traveler from Renton, Washington. She's nice. Stevie Wonder "Superstitious" makes me want to boogie. My throat hurts, but my back seems better. Of course I took more ibuprofen at 7:30. I'll have to get adjusted tomorrow! Drinking Montana Treasure Peach flavored water. It's pretty good. Crazy Lady just asked for directions to Utah--she's taking an elderly care job in Centerville. I told her I was headed down to Utah on Thursday to visit family and she asked me for my sister's phone number so she'd know someone in Utah. Ummm...no. I told her that she woudl meet lots of nice people there. She said people keep telling her that Utahns are nice and that they will make her a Mormon. I told her that would be a great thing for her, and that her new neighbors will take good care of her whether she's Mormon or not. I hope that's true! ;)

Oh heck to the no! "Voices Carry" by til tuesday featuring one of my fave musicians, Aimee Mann on vocals circa 1985. Must. Resist. Singing. Along..."he wants me/ but only part of the time/ he wants me/ if he can keep me in line/ hush, hush/ keep it down now..." do you have any idea how many til tuesday songs I figured out on the piano? LOVED THEM. Aimee Mannis Sean Penn's sister in law.

10:24pm: I am going to go clean up around here and count out my money while "Roxanne" plays (and I will try really hard not to sing along to this song, too!). I believe this concludes my live blogging of the swing shift. Hope you loved it. Have a Happy Monday!

On This Date in History...

...my Grandpa Elrey (that's him on the right with his mama, circa 1927) was born! Happy Birthday, Grampy!Read more here.

Papa Bill shares his birthday with Elle MacPherson, Cy Young, Pearl Bailey, & Amy Sedaris. March 29, 1973, US Troops left South Vietnam, and in 1848 for the first time in recorded history, Niagra Falls stopped flowing. An ice jam in the Niagara River above the rim of the falls caused the water to stop.

Today and Yesterday

Yesterday my kids were surprised by a fun package of animals (I told you they were spoiled!). Here they are rejoicing over their new toys (Addie is especially thrilled about her new soft whale, which she just calls a dolphin because she collects dolphins now). They had fun playing outside in the nearly-fifty-degree spring weather while I made dinner (taco salad). Later we had a "working-together" Family Night to get the upstairs clean (Ad is becoming a great bathroom-cleaner, and Heidi did a great job helping Bub clean up his room). Daddy mopped the wood floors while I cleaned up the kitchen and baked some brownies. Later we took them to the Young Family because they have two birthdays this week, and we came home and hit the hay ourselves. Happy Melin Kids!

***

Today was the last day of Addie's spring break, so we tried to live it up. After a silly morning of playing we all got dressed and went to the store where we bought tons of yummy produce and other groceries and filled my prescriptions (I signed up for the monthly refills/ reminder call because I keep forgetting to get my meds before I run out--I've been out of tapazole since my Saturday night dose--DUH!!!). When we got home the kids played outside while I made lunch and did some dinner prep for the next few nights. While they were outside, James got genuinely dirty for the first time! Rich put him in the tub while I fed the girls some lunch.

My filthy toddler--pre-bath, lunch, and nap today.

***

For dinner, the girls wanted lettuce wraps so I made TONS. They had their friends Kelli and Gracie over today so I made stuff while they played. After we took Kelli and Gracie home, we raced Daddy home and the girls set the table in about 2 minutes flat! It was so great! Here they are, ready to eat dinner at about 5:20 tonight.

Here's our colorful, yummy spread! I highly recommend lettuce wraps--they make a great meal, and James just eats the meat filling with rice since he is too little for lettuce. You should google "PF CHANG'S LETTUCE WRAPS" and do your own version of their recipe (I throw is all the veggies I can find and use ground turkey instead of chicken as per my amiga Debbie's version).

"It's [been] a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...would you be mine? Could you be mine?..."

(Mr. Rogers would have turned 80 last Thursday! Next year I'll remember THIS to celebrate) (CLICK HERE FOR A SMILE )

Easter Meaning

Before all the Easter Morning Hullabaloo, we had our own little family "Sunset Service" at home. After the kids got into their pajamas at about 6:30 Saturday night, we all snuggle up to watch "Lamb of God", which I had tivo'ed last year off BYUTV. We were able to watch it together, to pause and answer their questions, explain what was happening to Jesus and why (in pre-school terms, of course--try breaking the whole Gethsemane/ blood-from-every-pore part down--we did our best), and skip some of the more graphic scenes when Addie began to cry (she cried when the sadducees spit on Him--"that's too mean," she said as a tear fell down her face--broke my heart!) We talked about how the resurrection is for everyone, and they went down the list of people who have died that they would like to see again--Addie is always excited to meet Grandma Adeline and for me to "get my Grandma back" (my Grandma Layton died last winter and I think that's the first time she saw someone get sad about death). We also talked about how Jesus got to keep His scars so people would know who He is, but that all of us would be well and whole again, grown up but young and healthy--Addie's eyes got wide and she exclaimed, "I'm so excited about that!"

That exclamation made my heart smile because it's our natural reaction to the "good news" of the gospel of Christ, isn't it? I'm excited about that, too, Addie. I am so thankful for Jesus and I am so thankful that Heavenly Father let me play a part in giving you that beautiful, perfect body of yours--that vehicle that will, after a glorious resurrection, take you closer to Our Father. I am so thankful for ALL the things that Jesus did for us during that Holy week that make it possible for us to be a forever family and be with Heavenly Father again. I'm so excited about that, too.

To celebrate my half-birthday...

Back in the Day

On Saturday while we worked on the yard we blasted The Best of INXS. How can I keep forgetting what an excellent band they were? and oh, mercy, the crush I had on Michael Hutchence...my heart races just THINKING about it! Have a gander at two of my very favorite videos EVER:

Easter Fun, Melin Style

H E L L O !
It has been a l--o--n--g week--2 holidays and a temple trip--but we're back to blog it all!

I still don't have pictures from our FHE treasure hunt (3/17), but I wanted to tell ZUZANA thank you for the easter package! The girls love their hair bows and we used all the yummy candies as the treasure last Monday night (the leprachaun's "pot of gold"--the gold chocolate coins were perfect!) . I am sorry I didn't take pictures of us opening the package. It came during our sick week and cheered us up! We had a wonderful Easter and we hope you did, too!

Another thing I don't have pictures of is the snowy weather on Thursday and Friday--way to ring in spring! We tried to make it a fun spring break for the girls by doing some Easter crafts inside, but we missed going to the park in the sunshine!

Easter Preparation: Addie kicked off her spring break by coloring eggs on Thursday afternoon...

James and Heidi helped, too, and we put up some of our decorations (late, I know--I couldn't get into all the advance-celebrating this year--still worn out from the sickies, I guess!)

Sunday (easter morning), the kids discovering thier booty! (Candy, books, kindereggs, wooly willies, and Smarties Connect Three games)

***

After snarfing candy & boiled eggs & toast for breakfast, we went to church adn then to Grandma Melin's for a yummy dinner and egg hunt.

Heidi, James & Addie in all their Easter glory...

Ready for Grandma's egg hunt!

Cutie Pies!

Ad and Me being silly

Heidi styled me and took this photo...
Grandma making a yummy green salad to go with the ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, green beans, etc...)
The girls were so excited to see Uncle Mike!

Grandma giving the kids instructions for the Easter Egg hunt
James stopped in the middle of the hunt (yelloe eggs) to start eating his candy!
Heidi hunted orange eggs

Addie hunted pink eggs
Daddy, Uncle Davy, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa helped ths kids find thier eggs
This is what we got when we tried to take a picture of all the kids together...Addie and Danny with their full baskets.

***

I followed all of this fun with a NAP--Addie came and woke me up at 6:30! We web-cam-chatted with Uncle Jess in Florida for a bit. We came home and put the kids to bed, enjoyed the tivo'ed abc shows and a chat with Sam & Jill. It was a very nice day & we felt very grateful for Christ and his resurrection, and for the beauty and hope of spring time. We hope each of you had a great Easter, too!