Another Girl?

Tomorrow evening a new member of our family will be arriving via airplane. Check back on Thursday to see pictures. Can't Wait!!

More Geo Caching

Note: If you haven't read the post below this one, do so now...




It was a beautiful day today and perfect for hiking around discovering some new places we've never been before. Today we found more caches in the Kaysville pond area. We had to do some true hiking, which meant changing the gps into pedestrian mode so we could wander the trails in search of the treasure boxes.

There were some very cleverly hidden ones. We had to climb a tree or two, scour through some bushes, and trudge through the gazillion bugs next to the water. It was totally worth it with some great finds. The kids have practically emptied our cheap giveaway items throughout the house to exchange though. We need to make a trip to the dollar store.

My handsome hunk at it again showing off his muscles

Treasure Hunting - GPS Style

We discovered geo caching this week. I may have found a new hobby. Easy. Cheap. Keeps the kids entertained. And they got some free stuff! Who could ask for more?




If you've never heard of geo caching, it basically consists of logging in at www.geocaching.com, entering in the area you want to search, clicking on one of the sites you are interested in finding, loading the gps coordinates into the the love of my life (aka gps), then hit go. Some of the sites have ammo type boxes with "treasures" inside. As long as you put something in, you can take something out. You also get to sign your name in the log book and see how many other people have been to the same spot. Cool, huh? I think I'm hooked.

When we came home, Kimberly showed me the rainbow catcher she retrieved, but it had a dog tag on it that said "Travel Bug - Do Not Keep Me". We found out that it is an item that you can track online to see where it goes. So far, the rainbow catcher has been in Arizona, Colorado, and now Utah. We need to find a good location for it to go next. Too bad we're not traveling anywhere interesting in the next couple weeks.

Interesting Food Concoctions

This week Kimberly was excited to make some Chango bars she got off a website from school. I was outside visiting with some neighbors while she made the bars, so when I came inside and saw them cooking in the oven, they looked a little funny to me. I referred to her recipe to see what might be wrong. The flour seemed a little bit off to me, so I went to the website she was referring to and noticed the problem(s): the recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter AND a 1/2 cup margarine. She just assumed that since she already had butter, there needn't be any margarine. Then, she wrote down 2/3 cup flour instead of 2 1/3 cups flour. Big difference, hehe.

However, her bars turned out really good. I have made the real version today, and I have to say...I think I like hers better!! We may have to call her recipe Kimberly's bars.

Also, while I was on the phone this morning, trouble-maker Natalie got into the brand new Sam's Club tub of grapes and pulled off every single grape and put them into baggies. I guess she just saved us the trouble of pulling off all those grapes from their stem.

New Memories

I traveled up to Seattle this last weekend for the first time since my dad's funeral. It was hard. Harder than I thought it would be. Something unexpected happened though. From the moment I arrived, the healing process continued and the time spent with my mom and two of my siblings was filled with laughter, love, and happiness mixed in with a few tears. My spirit was lifted in a way I wasn't expecting, but needed desperately. Now I have new memories in the Northwest and I know it is possible to continue having joyous family relations even when someone we love dearly is missing.

Some of the fun memories we made included:

Visiting the glass museum in Tacoma, aka - the armpit of the state. Don't be thinking I'm being rude here...this is totally true. The city used to have a bunch of factories that emitted some terrible smells. Recently, the city has done away with those and has worked really hard to get their city up to snuff.


Later in the day we went for a walk down by the waterfront near Brice's house. In the evening, we went out for dinner at P.F. Changs. The day had been filled with a lot of laughing and good times, but near the end of dinner, we started talking about our last moments with dad while he was in the hospital. We all started getting a little emotional, which of course was right when the waiter came up to check on us. After assessing our emotional states, he quickly turned and said he would be back later.



On Sunday I did a little star gazing at church. We were sitting on the pew right next to Ken Jennings. Yup, he lives in humble Mountlake Terrace and does not live in a fancy, schmancy house with all of his Jeopardy winnings. He's just a regular ole Joe like the rest of us (except for the really fat bank account he's got sitting around somewhere).


We also visited the cemetery where dad is buried. It is in a beautiful location right next to a fountain and a bench where you can sit and look out over the trees and see the mountains. Since Shannon wasn't with us, we made sure she was included in the picture with a one-of-a-kind hand drawn picture of her.


All in all, it was a fun weekend getaway. My thanks to John for watching the monkeys while I was away (sick kids and all), to my mom for making my stay so pleasant and enjoyable, and to Christy and Brice for taking the time to come up and visit as well. We missed you Shannon, so I'm glad we get to see you in June for our annual beach reunion.

The Rimington Wicked Witch

Did I really buy the kids watercolor paint?


It was even up her nostrils. Wait...where is that paint brush again?


Guess I better pay closer attention to her next time I'm exercising.

Move Aside Saturday Chores

Rather than doing my usual Saturday chores, I had some fun by taking Kimberly and her friends ice-skating for her birthday party. Now that is what I'm talking about for a party. No party favors to buy, no games to plan, no kids to entertain for an hour - simply plop them in some skates, sit back and watch them skate around the rink, which actually was highly entertaining since most of them had never been ice-skating before. Normally I enjoy party planning and such, but since I am still trying to keep myself sane getting adjusted to 4 kids, the lack of party planning was very refreshing this time around. Besides, it is exactly what Kimberly wanted to do for her party and I was more than happy to oblige.

In the evening, Kimberly had an Irish celebration with her Irish dancing class. All of the students taught us non-dancing folk how to dance like the Irish, which was basically their own version of square dancing with very high knees. We had a blast. I couldn't believe how tuckered out I was after each dance. That is a killer form of exercising. No wonder Kimberly plops herself into the car like a wrung out mop rag after each of her classes!



But, all fun must come to an end, so I am headed off to clean the house now.

I'll never do another star cake again...

...Because I have discovered how easy and fun it is to do a fondant cake!!

Thanks to one of my friends who taught me how to make an easy fondant with easy-to-follow instructions, Kimberly has a fabulous cake for her birthday! I will forever more be using fondant instead of stars. A star cake usually took me several hours. This cake? One hour with Kimberly's help.

Update: We ate the cake last night, and all of us were in agreement: the fondant does not taste very good. All of us ended up pulling the fondant off and eating the cake with the yummy butter cream frosting used to stick the fondant to the cake. (Even Natalie spit the fondant out with a resounding "ewww") I'm not sure how this will affect my future cakes. I think I will use the butter cream frosting to frost the cake and smooth it over as much as possible, and then use fondant for the cake decorations.

Cool Awards

This last weekend John received an awesome award - Commissioner of Scouting. There was an awards banquet and everything, to which we had a babysitter so I could be there too. John was conducting the event, so he went early to set up while I was at home getting ready to go when Natalie got really sick. I was quite saddened to miss out on the event as I really wanted to be there to cheer for him.

So while John was receiving a cool scouting award, I was receiving the cool mom award taking care of a sick kid.

Sometimes being a mom is like working in the trenches. The work is vital, but there aren't many awards handed out to the trench workers, who are up to their elbows in dirt and sweat. Eventually though, the trench is complete and we can step out, admire our work and reap the rewards, which is actually coming quicker than I expected.

Kimberly turns 10 this week, which to me is absolutely absurd when I think about how fast those 10 years have flown. In fewer than 10 more years, she will be spreading her wings away from our home. I look back and can honestly say becoming a mother has been one of my greatest joys in life.

Dana (in a much younger state) and Kimberly (5 months old) 2000

Yes, it is hard to put some dreams on hold to raise children. Yes, it is hard to have kids argue with you. Yes, it is hard to see your children struggle with sadness and frustration. I severely underestimated the emotional and physical aspects of becoming a parent, but truly the rewards far surpass all of the dirt and sweat.