We have returned

Whew! That was a long absence. I have gotten the sense that more than a few of you have spent your days twitching because of the withdrawals. I sort of picture it as what would happen to my dear Mother should she have to go without Diet Coke for too long. Just way too much suffering for any human being to be able to endure.

We had a great time up in Utah. We rented the condo of a friend of a sister of a friend of a friend’s. They are in Law School (I think?) and are in California for the summer doing the intern thing. So we had a nice place to setup camp for the nearly 4 weeks we were in Pleasant Grove. 3 bedrooms, 2 (and 1/2!) bathrooms, with a small, but very functional trampoline out back. We only hope that the place survived. We think it did.

We went to Park City, up the canyon for picnics (and saw a moose!), to sliding rock up north of Alpine, and all sorts of fun places. We spent some good time with Julie’s parents, who seem to be doing well. I got beat handily by my sister in law in racquetball. Of course I played with some friends here in AZ on Tuesday night and got beat handily there as well. Maybe I’m not as good as I think I am.

I also got reacquainted with office life. There’s so much potential material there for The Office that it’s really quite depressing. But it was good to walk around and pretend to be relevant again. Now I will go back and crawl in my hole as I conquer the world from afar.

On the way back home, we had a nice stop over in Bryce Canyon for a Jenkins family reunion. As per the norm, I was the life of the party. I think. Bryce Canyon is an incredible place. I highly recommend it. There’s nothing like it on earth, I’d imagine. I imagine that because only about 30% of the people there spoke English as their native tongue. So apparently the falling dollar is helping these folks come over here for a song. And speaking of high, I didn’t know that the elevation was so high at Bryce. The resort/hotel place we stayed at must have been about 7800 feet. We drove up to a spot at the south end of the canyon that was 9100 feet! Wow. It was strange to wear a sweater and jeans on Saturday night at the rodeo (I’ll tell you later) and then be melting in the pool Sunday night in AZ.

We have lots of pictures to share, whether you like it or not. We’ll get them organized and shared as soon as we can. Lots happening. Julie is finally looking like she’s pregnant and is just lovely. The girls start school on August 11. So things are a-happening.

More later. Not 30+ days later. Maybe just a few.

Beaches and Bums

Unfortunately we’re not really beach bums. We’re just bums who happened to get to the beach recently. Me, I was able to make it to some beaches in Havasupai. The whole family was able to take in the cool breezes of Oceanside.

Unfortunately (again) I didn’t take a camera to Havasupai. Actually, that’s not true. Michael and I bought one of those crappy disposable 35mm cameras in the once-booming town of Seligman. I’m sure it was happening in its heyday, but it’s hurting in today’s day. I figure that we probably paid $.50/shot. Plus I haven’t even gone down to get them developed. Who knows where I can even get them developed these days. The long and short of it is that there are no pictures. But here’s the run-down for those of you who care:

We got up to the rim just as it was getting dark. Luckily I checked the weather the day before (Saturday) at about 11:30pm. The temperature was 33 degrees. So my struggle over whether or not I needed to take a sleeping bag was quickly resolved. Michael and I got all of our sleeping gear out of our packs on Sunday night for sleeping. The other 5 guys that went with us decided to pull up a chair or something in the van they all came in. Apparently it was so cold that they ended up turning the thing on every couple of hours to try and thaw out. Needless to say, they were ready to go at the first hint of sunlight. I almost threw something at the guy who woke me up, but at least I was well rested.

After the long hike down into the village, we all decided to look into the easiest way out of the canyon a few days later. I had read that the helicopter doesn’t run on Wednesdays, which, of course, was the day we planned to hike out. We unfortunately were able to verify this rumor. So the next order of business was to see about getting some horses to carry our stuff out. We were eventually able to sort that out.

Havasupai is truly a beautiful place. It’s like the garden of eden in the middle of a desert. The falls are spectacular, if a bit cold at the end of May. We did lots of hiking and I did lots of sleeping. I got into my bag on Monday night at around 7pm and didn’t wake up until about 7am on Tuesday. Surprisingly, I got a reputation of being a social reject. That’s certainly the first time I’ve been labeled as such.

Michael had to get out of Dodge on Tuesday to get back to some work. One of the other guys had to go as well, so they trekked out and rode back to civilization in the luxury that is my Hyundai. We headed out the next day. I don’t think I will ever walk out of that canyon again. 3 times is enough. Plus the helicopter ride is only about twice as much as the donkeys. And you get there 100 times faster.

Last week we were lucky enough to be able to go to Oceanside again. This is about the 4th or 5th time we’ve been there, and it’s always great. Oceanside is pretty low-key compared to most of Southern California, and that’s how we like it. This time we invited/persuaded/manipulated our friends into coming with us. I’m sure that they wonder how they got stuck with a bunch like us, but we had a great time.

Beach:

The gals

what a splash

Oceanside beach 2008

Legoland:

hold on tight

Abby and Brian

this is awesome

what Gwen does best

Terrorist at Legoland:

Leggo dude

On the way to San Diego:

San Diego temple in La Jolla

Old Town:

Arriba

tired of shopping

Bus/Boat thing:

Gwen on boat/bus ride

sea lions also smell

Our lively company:

Rob & Amy

Dinner at Seaport Village:

are we having fun?

Where we ate dinner at Seaport

More beach:

Jackson

Grace sizing up her board

Abby

baby sisters

surf and turf

Checking out the scenery at the beach:

dude number 2 on the beach

some dude hangin on the beach

More beach:

Amy & Julie with her fro

camp on the beach

fun times

Etc, etc, etc.

Unfortunately it all had to come to an end too soon (for us at least). Summer in Phoenix finally decided to come, just as we returned home. Hopefully the furnace will burn out soon. Or at least hopefully the temperature will moderate. This global warming thing is killing me. I’m ready for the next ice age.

LOTS more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

When the boy goes away…the girls will PLAY!!

cute little ladies with cute little summer purses!

So, Brian left with a 50 pound backpack on Sunday eve to hike the Grand Canyon. He and about 6 other brave boys decided to hike to the bottom of the Canyon to Havasupai. Brian and I did this together about 10 years ago. It is about a 15 mile hike to the bottom where there are several gorgeous blue green waterfalls. I wanted to go too until I tried to lift his backpack:).

While he has been off having his fun, the girls and I have definitely found ours. Monday we woke early, cleaned the house, and hit the park with some Sonic. It was a nice breezy afternoon holiday! We came home and the girls swam and played sidewalk chalk. After dinner we watched a good ol’ chick flick, Far & Away. I don’t know if the girls liked the popcorn or the movie better.

Today we slept in, and scrambled to get everyone dressed, fed, and to the gym on time. They enjoyed their two hours of crafts and fun while I enjoyed mine. I did a pilates class and got ready there. Afterwards we decided on Panda Express for lunch, and then braved Walmart to pick out some ribbon for our summer craft.

Gwen with her Marc Jacobs Satchel

Lucy lovin' the Louis Vuitton

It’s officially summer at our house now. Fortunately, I made up a calendar of events a couple of weeks ago to keep the little ladies busy! We had made these jean purses in Young Women’s a couple weeks back and I thought my girls would really enjoy it. It was good to get rid of a few pairs of pants with holes in the knees and some old sewing embellishments!

back of Grace's purse

Abby stylin' with her designer Prada purse

Tonight we are watching What About Bob with more candy…of course. I go in for another OB appointment tomorrow. Hopefully all the sugar I’ve been craving lately won’t tip the scales. The girls are still so excited about this boy. Lucy asks me daily when the baby brother is coming. We have already found a few cute outfits online and in stores that this little guy will need. Who said shopping for boys is no fun…especially when I have 4 little ladies opinions. Bring on the blues, browns & greens!

they each knew what colors they wanted

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

In the news

Oh, Boy!

(more on that later)

This has been an interesting week here in AZ. Sunday we had our first 100 degree day of the year. Then on Monday we promptly had our first 110 degree day of the year. Tuesday our pool started boiling. Apparently Friday is supposed to be down in the 70s. I’ll let you decide which of those sounds the most reasonable for the desert in late May.

Our summer holiday begins this weekend as the girls finish their school year. They’ve both had really wonderful years, all things considered. We really couldn’t have asked for better teachers. Both were just perfect for what each of them needed. Now we’ll see what we can do to keep the girls’ interest through the summer. Surprise’s first movie theater opened today, so I think that summer movies might be in the works.

We’ve been very proud of Gwenyth and how she’s become so independent. Swimming lessons helped her build a sense of empowerment, especially as it relates to fashion. She’ll come down the stairs most days with her favorite garb on. It’s always particularly exciting when she dresses herself for swimming.

back view/trap door

In other news, Julie is pregnant w/ #5. And . . .

It's a boy!

I’m sure that Gwenyth will help out with the masculine stuff like sports:

Gwenyth in wrestling/swimming? suit

Here were yesterday’s predictions/comments before today’s ultrasound:

Abigail--her guess on the baby

Gwenyth--clueless

Gracie in shock

Lucy is excited

We are registered at The Sports Authority.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/