Birthday Guests.

Josh "the Joker" really enjoyed everyone who came to his party,including Blackbeard, the pirate...but, who's the goofball with Olivia?

This is the PLACE!

I think this is exactly how Brigham Young must have looked...

Snips and Snails and Cousin Tales.

Will C&R be adding another boy to this mix, you think?

Severe Weather Alert:

There's a twister a comin'!

Captain's log 5.02.2009

The first day of mountain biking was a harrowing, but interesting experience. I learned a few things. Lucky day for all who are reading this blog...I shall list them now.

1. Always ride with someone. They can help you get up when you fall.
2. You think chicken skin is easy to cut? Try MY skin. Those bushes and branches really reach out and grab you. I feel like I was whipped with a cat 0'nine tails.
3. Age 58 is a little late to start doing this, but it is better late than never.
4. A good bike is worth it's weight in balm.
5. Surely, somewhere, someone, has invented a "cupping hands" seat that is more comfortable than the one I have.
6. If you think you do not need padded gloves...think again.
7. Note to file: your thumb will not bend that far back again--be very careful.
8. If one is to fall--save the teeth and face first...all other things are important, but teeth and face are good to save.
9. Padded shorts are a life-saving device and as important as any gear you might buy. I admit, I felt a little strange, but they are also worth their weight in balm.
10. Going downhill is a different challenge--look out for big rocks.
11. One can fall going either downhill or uphill. Hills have no respect for who I really am.
12. My prediction for the next time I go? PAIN.
13. I expect the pain to subside as I get better at manipulating the gears and avoiding cactus.
14. If you encounter cactus, my son-in-law has experience with this. Call him.
15. Get out there--it is a lot of fun and the experience will be so taxing to your brain, you forget about the problems of the day. You spend so much time and brainwork trying to avoid serious injury that you focus on that and nothing much else.
16. I have to consider this sport an experience, not an event. I am ready to go again.

Black Beauty

Here it is...sleek and black--a credit to its heritage and ready to hit the trails. I think I will start out on the bunny hills first so that I do not hurt myself. Then, when I can feel comfortable enough to open it up, I can do so. I hope this will take me up hill and down and all around the town. I sort of like the full-suspension, the noblity of the steed--muscles toned and honed and ready to break out into a full gallop. Believe me, this will be hard to hold back. It is a half-horse (front half of those of you who ask) of power for now. I am excited about the upgraded features and the only things holding me back are: the time to go and the fact that my wife has not purchased sun-screen for the season just yet.

Bugs on teeth--here I come!

Cardboard Boat Races...

Last weekend we went with Cameron and the boys to the cardboard boat races in Tempe...we had so much fun and thought it would be fun to make a boat to race as a family next year! Any takers...it can hold up to 8 people and will hopefully get to the finish line! I call I am not in the back in case goes down first!

There is something wrong!

In the Big Apple, we decided to attend the tea-party! How excited we were to see many people from all walks of life who appreciate the conservative and principled teachings of self-reliance. I felt motivated to be with a good crowd of honest citizens who have had quite enough with the tax-and-spend congress and administrations--of BOTH parties. I think we are ready to go in a different direction where things are on a more even track. We know that some tax is fair because we have to provide for the common defense and promote the general (not specific) welfare. This current system and the way we are headed is going to hurt a lot of people. First, they have too big of a hand in our personal business. The waste is way over the top! Imagine millions spent on stupid programs such as trying to find out why pigs smell. I already know the answer to that one--because they do not have good hygiene! After all, they are pigs. Now I find out that Al Sharpton owed $1.8 million in back taxes and cut a deal to only pay half of the money owing to the government. YOU BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS OUT THERE--COLLECT IT FROM HIM AND THE OTHER DEADBEATS IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION INSTEAD OF RAISING MY TAXES! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! IT IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY. THERE ARE MANY AMERICANS WHO FEEL THIS SAME WAY! STOP IT! IF ALL THESE DISHONEST POLITICIANS PAID THEIR FAIR SHARE THE BURDEN OF ALL WOULD BE LESS. THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO LIVE ON A BUDGET--IF WE CANNOT AFFORD IT, WE SHOULD NOT SPEND THE MONEY ON IT.

I can listen to an intellectually honest, deliberate debate on health care issues and some of the other programs--although I am not in favor of universal anything--except the opportunity to plan our own lives and live free from governmental interference. If they will leave me alone, I can spend my money better than they can. I can paint my home and employ several men for a week or more to earn a living for their families. They, in turn buy paint from manufacturers and groceries from merchants who also employ people and pay their bills. LEAVE US ALONE and we will do just fine. Whatever these men and women earn is their money and they should oversee their expenditures--not some freaky congressman/woman who never read the stinking bill they signed that obligated our grandkids to pay for a study on why pigs stink. I told you before, it was because they have very poor hygiene.

My dad was a poor man who earned a meager wage as a blue-collar, non-union worker. He paid his own way, too. He went without a whole lot of things to have what he wanted to have and never asked another man to carry his burden. He worked hard, but at the end of the day, he could look himself in the mirror and say that he was self-reliant and honest to the end of his life. He never could afford for any of his kids to go to school, but all who wanted to go found a way--flipping hamburgers or working days and attending evening classes. It took longer and was harder, but it did not hurt to do it that way.

I tell you, the tea party crowd was wonderfully behaved it was fun to see good people out on the street standing for something noble and uplifting: FREEDOM.

God bless America...she is on a very slippery slope right now.

Family resemblance?

Ya think?

Negotiations...

I'll give you 20 jelly beans for one pack of M&Ms...

Good things come to those who wait!

Maebe figured it out as well! She was placed into a trove of eggs and had a successful hunt. Of course, the eggs were delicious, but the grass and a few leaves were added into her recipe for a good time and she did not discriminate. She was happy to be there with a crowd and she acted like she had done this before.

Yellow and white are the hardest!

I guess there really is a spring in NYC! Here is little Addie dilly-dallying through the daffodils trying to find a treasure trove of Easter Eggs that had been left for her. Let's just say that "her basket runneth over". It was a great success. She got the hang of it and was a wonder--going for the gold.

Nick's birthday.

The searching is over! Now I know EXACTLY what to get Nick for his special day! Won't this be great, sitting next to his computer at work? I assume it can be wireless too...
Here are the INSTRUCTIONS, if you'd like to make one for yourself...

Anyone want a "pack" of grapes?

Ah, yes. The first appearance of little packs of green grapes on the vines! I can just feel them right now--picking, washing, refrigerating them to get the cold and juicy and then stuffing them into my mouth as fast as I can and letting the juice drip right down my chin and onto my shirt! That is how they are to be enjoyed--at least that is the way it is here in Grapelandia. Can you relate?

Hey, Artie!

Well, well, well now. The first artichoke of the season pokes his fist-size little head up and looks around the yard. There are a few more on this little plant that did so well last year. This one is the armor-protected little fruit that does so well in the back yard. I am not saying that they are the very best tasting in the land, but the show is awesome and we seem to do allright with this bush. I find it hardest to think that WE are actually growing artichokes. They have their honorable little place on the grill but that will come later on...just you wait Mr. Art E. Choke, you are enjoyable now, but your days are numbered.

The other orchid blooms

Sorry, but I just love the beautiful little orchid trees we planted two years ago. The spring weather has been good to them and they, in turn, have been good to us--bursting forth in a good bloom. How we love to stroll around our plantation and bark out orders to the hired hands who scurry out of our path--so as not to look us directly in the eye. After all, we are the king and queen of the realm and these particular subjects have opened their hearts to us all dressed up in their purpley splendor. How they love us and how we love them.

Number 6!

This was taken at Landon's first birthday party.
It is amazing that he will be three this summer.
Time flies!!

It ain't easy being grey!

Here are the new tires for hiking. They did not make me walk up any faster or down any more sure, but they were comfy and I swear I heard someone on the trail say "get a load of those nice shoes" or was it "gosh, that guy sure is a slow-poke on the trail." No matter. I was in my own groove, skipping up and down that trail like a CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN mountain goat puppet. I was thinking that we need to go to Switzerland, as there are not that many places on Camelback Mountain to twirl around and sing. The hike was good. I am down to earth now--tired, sore and my age is showing up all over the place. I do have nice shoes, though.

It ain't easy being green.

However, it sure is fun to have some new, green shoes to go hiking in! Here are a pair of stylish lace-ups that took their maiden voyage up Camelback Mountain this morning. It would be a sad thing to say that she tripped lightly, but on this summit, she never tripped at all. It must be the suction cups on the underside. I daresay we are getting better and better at the going up and the coming down. No falls, no spills, no bumps, no bruises and we took the mountain right down to its knees. We walked all over it-looking for the right trail of course.

For all you cat-lovers.

Check THIS out.