Fruit Flies and Mice!

Suni was working hard in their booth at Swiss Days and I got to pal around with Max and Luke for a day! I was left strict instructions to figure out a way to get rid of the fruit flies in Suni's kitchen. At first I thought, gee what is she talking about........well yeah until Luke left half of his banana on the kitchen counter, WOW, I'm surprised they (the fruit flies) didn't cart us all off!! I knew there was a homemade trap, I called LaVon and got instructions. I also needed some sticky mouse/rat traps, seems like I have mice living in the base of my hot tub, yikes! So the boys and I headed out to Smith's to get our supplies for our traps! Along the way we found a couple of hot wheel cars that were 60% off the lowest price, hey, they were practically free! I did find a fruit fly trap (jars that you fill with water, fly bait, dish soap), we threw that in our cart as well. First we had to get to my place and fill the hot tub and set those sticky traps (I can't buy the "real" mouse traps because I always am afraid I will set it off and catch my finger.....I talk from experience!!) Max was SO excited to look in the hot tub for the mice, he is such a character. He was pretty bummed that there were no mice. I took the hot tub apart and showed him where they were trying to make nests and stuff. We got the hose started and Luke and Max played while I worked on the hot tub. We never did see any mice - thank goodness!! However, Max was certain they would turn up in the water!!

We headed back to their house to set out fruit fly traps........first Max got me a piece of computer paper, we cut it into a square, then wound it into a cone, secured it with tape (Max found that for me too), put some ripe fruit in the bottom of a fruit jar - in our case we used ripe plums Suni already had on hand! Then you put the paper cone in the jar, pointy side in the jar, tape the cone all around the top of the jar, walaa, a fruit fly trap........they smell the ripe fruit, fly in the jar and they just can't figure how to get out of the jar! Max made his own trap too......he cut a chunk of paper, put a l-o-n-g piece of scotch tape hanging from it and then we taped that to the cupboard. The store bought traps went on the counter and under the sink. Then we waited, sure didn't take long until we were catching those pesky little devils!! No great photos of the traps! Just reallly cute guys playing in the yard and helping me out! Love you boys!

Dublin Diversion!

On Tuesday, August 19, I flew to Oakland to visit our Dublin kids! Marisa always has a lot of fun stuff planned to keep us all busy and happy! We went to a fun area where there was this Little Farm, as you can see my FAVORITE animal of the day had to be this beaut of a turkey!! You can tell that the animals are well loved and taken care of in quite a high quality fashion! They are only allowed to be fed celery or lettuce (of course we didn't bring either....but a real nice mom there shared their celery with the girls, Kaylee & Lucy were excited to feed the cows and sheep!)

Here are the four Dublin girls! Lucy always manages to have something great going on with her hair and/or head wear, I LOVE that she is such an independent little gal, and she can pull off any look at all and still look GREAT!

We also got to ride on a steam driven train. It was fun to feel the mist from the steam engine and of course scream in the tunnel!! This was such a cute miniature caboose, everything was so tiny!

There is a great car show in Danville, Ca that happens every August. It was fun to be able to see all of those old cars. I remember when my dad taught me to drive a standard transmission with the shifter on the column, yikes, it was quite a wild ride! The car was about a 1945 Chevrolet (ancient!)
The people watching was another terrific sport we engaged in, tall shoes, tight clothes, the lack of clothes, lots of people trying to be younger than they really were...you get the picture, it was entertaining!!!

Kaylee and Lucy are so cute to pose by their favorite cars! Here they both are in front of the one Kaylee loved, purple of course!

Give this little gal, Lulu, anything orange and she is in heaven!! There were a few orange cars, we snapped more than one photo while Lucy flashed us that great smile with the dimples!!Well we ended my stay with a quick trip to the bowling alley. Kaylee and Lucy earn free bowling from their school and for me to bowl was only $1.98, not quite sure how that worked out, but hey what a cheap date, huh??! There were a few highlights, but I think perhaps Sofi took the cake with her bowling technique. She would rub her hands over the air vent, pat her hands on her legs, walk up to the line and give the ball a mighty push (with a little help from me!) then she would turn around and throw her hands up.......of course everyone was cheering her on!
The main reason I went was to buy some school shoes for the girls. We DID get the shoes, I don't even have any photos of them, trust me they were cute! It was a fun trip, thanks to Marisa, Eric and those cute girls for showing me such a good time, hugs and love to you all!!!

A Wakeboarding Fool!

We had a great Young Single Adult activity Friday, August 8, 2008 - skiing at Pineview! Janetha went with me and we had a blast! I was so excited when the Stake leaders started to plan this event!

I grew up in Kennewick, Washington on the Columbia River. My best friend, Kathy Robertson and her dad, Robby, would take us skiing everyday in the summer, it was heaven! Robby was a milkman and would finish delivering the milk about 6:00 a.m. and then come get us, the water was smooth as glass and just perfect for skiing. We would usually ski double and always had such a good time!

My brother, Gary, taught me to ski behind our tiny wooden boat when I was about 10 years old. I would ski a lot with my friends as I got older, they had nice ski boats and we would make a day of it! When we couldn't get a boat we would hook our ski rope to the back of a truck, put on our skis and ski in the canals, now that was really "the good old days"!

About 10 years ago we went to Lake Powell with friends and family. This was the first time I was able to see Doug in action behind a boat, what a treat to see him flying high, jumping the wake, doing flips, etc. Well-my mind always being way younger than my body decided it would be a fun thing to try.........after quite a few times of trying with a great teacher, Cecily Gubler, I finally got the hang of wakeboarding and WOW it was so much fun! I was a little timid and couldn't get across the wake very well, but just skimming over the water was exhilarating!! (of course in my mind I was doing the jumps and flips!!) Janetha also took up wakeboarding and would go as often as she could.

So fast forward to now, 10 years later, a body 10 years older, but a mind that still thinks the body is 25 and this is what you get:



I am sure I am giving the driver of the boat some very serious instructions!! The water was warm, but hey this was a BIG guy's board and this big guy had BIG feet too! I figured I could give it a try and after just one spill was able to pop up.


Well I was a little shaky at first, I was using muscles that seriously I didn't even know I had!



I really am enjoying myself here, even if it looks otherwise! I absolutely love the feeling of being on the water and not in it! We didn't get other photos, but Janetha and I discovered a beautiful red boat that had a girl's wakeboard, smaller, lighter and just the right shoe size. Talk about a different experience with great equipment, can I just say WOW! We had a terrific time with the Powell girls on their boat, thanks!

This cute gal didn't need much coaxing to hop in and get that board on! Since breaking her arm Janetha had only been wakeboarding once last summer, she was incredible!! Behind the red boat she was really able to show her stuff, trust me she was great! Her arm wore out before she did, so she stopped, didn't want to risk an accident the day before she was leaving for Hawaii!

I managed to try out 2 or 3 more wakeboards, I was totally exhausted when the sun went down and we HAD to get off the lake! There were just so many boats and not very many kids so I figured I better put the boats to good use! By the time I got home I realized that those muscles were going to be hurting Saturday morning. I fell into bed and felt pretty good in the morning. However, as the day wore on I absolutely could not walk, lift my arms, squat, turn my steering wheel, or open a bottle of water (are you getting the picture here!) By bedtime my skin even hurt, lying down was painful, but wow would I get up and go again??? you bet I would!! It was crazy but oh so worth it!!


I haven't gone out and bought my own equipment (yet!), but if any of you out there need an extra hand on the boat, just give me a call!!

Maxwell Thomas Mason Turns 5!!

Well Max hit the "Big 5" today!! He was lucky enough to have not just one party but two, a friend party and then a family party (I was lucky enough to be invited to both!!). I stopped in to say hi on yesterday, he and his cute friends were having a super time doing the slip and slide along with Mike helping them do the zip line.



Today we went to the Mason's for a yummy Sunday dinner (Mike's a darn good cook!) and then celebrated with cake, ice cream, balloons and presents. Max is always ready to say "cheese" (see above photo) but I don't think he took time to even look at me (in the following photos), he was so excited to open more presents!

Max is a terrific guy! He LOVES Star Wars anything! He is a great big bro to Luke and even shared his birthday balloons with him! He always has a hug for us (not real big on the kissin' part!), he tells us "thank you", and "i love you", he is always on the go until he finally conks out for bed at night! He can make really great noises for a lot of his Star Wars guys/stuff! He's real excited to start kindergarten in a couple of weeks!! Happy, happy birthday Max, we love you tons and thanks for inviting us to your party!!! Papa Randall and Nana Sue xoxo

James Taylor......WOW after all these years!!

Thanks to our kids Randy got tickets to see James Taylor in concert at the Usana Ampitheater for Father's Day and his birthday, wahoo! We rounded up Gary and Annie Robertson and made it a great night! We headed to Takashi for some wonderful sushi, this is the best place ever, we ate til we were stuffed. However, when I have sushi and eat a lot I never really feel THAT full, weird huh?
Then off to the concert. Hey do you have any idea how far the Usana Ampitheater is, I think we could have gotten to Wendover in the same length of time, oh well. I had my camera and was so excited I had 1)charged the battery :) and 2) remembered to take it , boy I was set to take some great shots and then we saw a sign that said No Audio Visual Equipment allowed. Like a dummy I left my remembered camera in the car.......after walking forever, we finally made our way to the ticket gate only to find out I could have taken my remembered camera in, boo! No way was I trekking back to the car!

It is always so exciting to have tickets that say something like "Section 101, Row L, Seat 6" you know it could go either way huh? Well can I just say the seats were UNBELIEVABLE, literally about 45 feet from the stage (yep, and me without a camera.....) James Taylor started singing at 8:20 and with only about a 20 minute intermission sang until 11:00pm, and WOW can this man sing, even after 40 years of performing! He has such an incredible trade mark sound and it is still so beautiful to listen to, whether it is his mellow songs, the oldies, or rock and roll, it was all so, so great!!


Annie and I went and got t-shirts during intermission and when we got back to our seats we noticed he was signing autographs.......off we went to get our shirts signed. Fortunately Annie is about 5 to 6 inches taller than me so she was able to reach up high to hand him our shirts, in the mean time all the other people were using my shoulders to lift themselves up to get their stuff signed, so glad I could help them out! Yep, we got his autograph and boy could I have used my camera then, oh well!!

We had such a fun time, thanks kids, we love you all!!

RDB Turns 57!

Randy loves to have something fun to look forward to, he loves to plan, plan, plan and he is TERRIFIC at it! I am a lucky lady to be his companion and the recipient of a lot of his planning, we continue to have a fun time going and doing! Here he is enjoying our outdoor shower in Costa Rica. If you let him, he would probably be catching a flight down south every few months. He served a mission there over 35 years ago and we have enjoyed going back over and over again. Can't wait until we can take our whole family there and experience it together!!


Janetha posted a great tribute to her dad and pretty much hit on every little detail that is specific to Randall. I too agree, he thinks through everything, he ponders an awful lot, but to his credit I don't think he has ever made a very big mistake, has he kids? He certainly measures twice and cuts once, unlike his eternal partner who doesn't even bother to measure and ends up with a real mess on her hands!!

He LOVES to be with family and friends. Randy loves unconditionally and is quick to forgive.He love to EAT!!! We have a great time deciding where we will go out to dinner. He is not picky when we eat at home. I usually stress about what to cook and in the last couple of years I have realized how easy going he is when it comes to dinner. Many times he is happy with a bowl of Raisin Bran as long as we have half and half in the house!!
He makes me laugh everyday!! Corny jokes or poking fun at one of my many crazy rants!!
Randall, you're a gem, thanks for so many years of love and happiness. Thanks for being a good dad to our kids, Papa Randall to our grand kids and a terrific husband and friend!

Happy, happy, birthday to you!!