Junior High and High School Art

I was going through some things at my parents house and came across my old junior high/high school artwork folders.  Some of my pieces were incredibly laughable.  However, I thought I'd take photos of the decent ones or ones that had special memories before throwing them out.  Here they are.  In all their glory.  ;)  Be kind with your judgement. 

 This states: Hey dudes!  I"m Sally.  Well, my friends like call me surfing Sally like because I like totally like surfing.  Ya know, I'm like totally always at the beach and I like totally love to TAN!

This one was a declaration of love to a Mr. MP.  He shall remain nameless.

Okay, so may be the MP won't remain nameless.  Poor guy.  Never liked me back.  His loss. ;)

Do you see the vases.....and the faces?

This was a painting.

Tilt your head.  It says Dance.

We were able to decorate our folders as we pleased.

I wonder what Freud would have to say about this one?

This was yet another declaration of love to another boy.  But I was sly this time.  His name was Levi. Never liked me either.  I'm seeing a trend.

 This was the outline that was used to create a kaleidoscope with metal on the outside.  It was one of my most favorite projects we did.  I don't have the kaleidoscope but I remember it turned out great with this outline in the metal on the outside.

Self portrait

 A couple of my other favorite projects were stained glass, molding plastic, and Pysanky Eggs.  We also were able to play with clay and make pots as well.  Those were some of the coolest classes I remember from junior high.

Speaking of junior high...

Oh boy...

Winter Fun?

I hesitate to call it fun when it's freezing outside.  I'm very much a warm weather type of person!  However, here are a few 'funner' winter scenes.

 Remember when it snowed in Utah?  Good times.

Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr and his dream, we were able to walk on water!  Heading home from my parent's, the girls and I were talking about all the ice fishers out on Pineview.  I thought.  Hey.  We have time.  We're together. The ice is sufficiently frozen.  Let's go walk on the water!!

Side note: 

 It's kind of mind boggling to me that in all my 21 years living in the O Valley,  it wasn't until my 20th year that I finally headed out on the frozen lake, with my then boyfriend, on the Millennial New Year's Eve, with fireworks going off all around the valley.  I was hoping for our first kiss but it didn't happen then.  Boo!  Would've made a heck of a story though right?  

Any who, it was exhilarating (being on the ice) and I wanted my girls to experience this little adrenaline rush.  I think I'm sort of a junkie sometimes.  Allie was totally up for it and Ellyse was like NO! NO! NO MOM! NOOOOOOO!  I dragged her along anyway and guess what?!  She loved it.  See what happens when you bully your kids into doing things?

They loved being able to see down in the holes.  We didn't have coats on us so we made use of the blankets in the car.  Viola!

 This would be one awesome sledding hill!

 I accidentally started taking like a hundred photo's somehow and some of them didn't turn out too bad.  So, I tried taking some more.  Who knows, may be a career in photography is in my future?  

 Nah, probably not. ;)

Grace's Home.

Soon after my grandma had passed away, I still had a key to her home. I stopped in her house soon after she passed, to look around one last time. I had myself a good cry right then and there. I will always have that day in my memory. I still dream of that house quite a bit. It amazes me how much homes become almost a living breathing part of the people who live in it. I did not think to take the time to take photo's or a video to look back on in the years to come. I could kick myself for not doing this. So, when grandma Grace passed, I knew I had to do this. Here's to the memories:

TRADITIOOOON! Tradition!

Tradition # 1. The Christmas Tree.

Behold:  Our very first live Christmas Tree as a married couple/family. 

 Tradition Fail:  I've been very hesitant to getting a real tree because of the cost. Also because when I was a child, I remember my parents having a fake tree...once.  And it got so dry, we could never turn the lights on for fear of lighting the tree or house on fire.  I just recently found out that back in the day, instead of watering the tree like you're suppose to, my parents decided not to water it at all.  Umm, What?  Any one who knows my parents would be shocked to know they thought it'd be okay to do this. haha!

Tradition #1- The kids tree.  Every year the girls get to go to Rainbow Gardens and pick out a favorite ornament for their tree.  This was a tradition I grew up with and have cherished memories of.  My mom would take her kids there and let us pick out 1 ornament each.  I love looking back on all the ornaments I've been able to keep.  Plus, once Jason and I were married, we never thought about needing ornaments for a Christmas tree.  When I already had a stash to start with, it was a very nice way to bridge the first Christmas away from home and fill in where we couldn't really afford to go buy a ton of Christmas decor.

 Tradition # 3- Breakfast with Santa Clause with the Breakfast Exchange Club.  This is a relatively new tradition that started only about oh, 10 or so years ago but when we go past the Ogden Golf and Country Club, our kids shout out.." Hey, there's the place we go with Grandpa Boyd to eat Breakfast with Santa Clause!"  I think it'll be one of those memories they'll hang on to for years.

I love Christmas time!  I'm grateful for all the traditions that happen each year. I'm also extremely grateful for our Saviour who's birth we celebrate at this special time of year!  Without Him well, nothing else would matter.  Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

California Vacation 2012 - Part I

Just a fair warning: Very long post.

 Off we go!  Watching the planes take off and land at SLC!  I Love how excited they were to see the planes!  Almost as excited as me! ;)

 Landing in Long Beach, California.  Girls first plane (official) plane ride.  They did marvelous!

 Long Beach airport is different.  We had to exit the plane this way.  I liked it.  You get off and on so much faster! Plus, it felt like we were back in the fifties.

 Our first night there (Wednesday) we headed to Downtown Disney.  They had DD on a lamppost and I made the mistake of asking the Wood boys what double d meant.

 Cute!

 Thursday, we headed into Disney's California Adventures.  This above picture is the square space in between the two parks. 

 Away we go!

 Our first celeb sighting!  Mickey!  How appropriate @ Disneyland.

 As you can tell, Jason didn't really like all the motion on the Mickey Ferris Wheel.

 Love her expression!

 Aw Woody! 

It was so cute to see Colter meet his idol.  He was a little timid at first but then was all over Buzz!

 This was taken after Toy Story Mania.  Some people just rave about that ride.  I thought it was fun.  I really liked how easy it was for the kids to play the game!

We had to hit Disney on a 100 degree day, in September. This pond looked really welcome to play in so, I started a water fight with the kids. Found a sign nearby here a little later that said, please watch your kids. Meaning, hey idiot parent don't let your kids play in the water fountain and don't START the fight.

I thought it was cute how Donald signed the autograph books.

 Look at Colter's face. :)

 The famous Cars Land. 

 Luigi's tire ride.  Kinda boring. I gotta say, I'm not the best Disneyland advocate.  It was fun but I didn't quite get what all the hype surrounding it is all about.  Annnd, I just offended all 3 of my readers.

Friday, we headed up north.  Never been to LA before.  It was exciting for me!  We did see the Hollywood sign but didn't have a good chance with the camera to snap a picture of it.

Ellyse found a splash pad.

 Universal was okay to me until we went on the tram and got to see these:

 THE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES SET!!!!  My day just got so much better!  I am a huge fan of the show and so when we turned the corner and I beheld the whole 'Wisteria Lane' I about jumped out of my seat.  I was all here. Take a picture. Got it?  Get that one.  And that one.  Oh crap, we're gonna miss Gabby's house...........Nerd-o-rama! 

 So, for those of you non D.H. watchers.  This first house was Bree VanDeCamp's house. The yellow one is where Susan 'lived.' 

 This is where Lynette and the Scavo's 'lived.' ( Yes, I understand that they really didn't 'live' there. )

 This is where Edie and Vanessa Williams character 'lived.'

And the one I thought we'd missed but was super happy to finally get a shot of..Gabriel Solis' house.  Sooo Cool!!

That night the boys and I went to Halloween Horror nights.  Lots of lots of spook alley's to walk through. No doubt it was Jason and Lance's favorite part of the trip.  They had fog machines all over and in some parts of the park, you couldn't really see in front of your face it was that foggy. I liked that part.  Made it more fun to actually get scared by some of the walking cast members.

We headed back to the Hotel at about 1:30AM.  The park was open till 2 AM but we had had it and plus, the lines were too long to sit in anymore. It was a sold out night at Universal.  Those L.Aliens love their Halloween Horror Nights!  Crowded!!

 Saturday + the beach = my favorite moment of the trip.  The girls first time seeing and playing in the ocean.   I loved being there with our girls to get to see them experience the ocean for the first time!  It was great!  We went down and got our feet wet and collected sea shells.  I took a nice long walk and found a really big one.  It was awesome. I heart the ocean!! 

We were at Santa Monica Beach and on the peer we finally got to see Minnie and Mickey.  They had to hold their ears up to take the pictures.  Yeah, a little weird for me too! I think by the expression on Allie's face, she caught on that they weren't the 'real' Mickey and Minnie.

 On the drive back to Anaheim after the beach. ;)

 Sunday, we finally made it into Disneyland.  It was my first time as well as the girls.  So fun but sooo crowded!  And hot! 

 I really loved the atmosphere in Fantasyland.  I loved the little European looking villages surrounding all the rides. So cute and quaint.

 And the famous tea cups.  The girls could've rode these back to back several times if we would have let them.  We adults could only take so much though.

I left my camera in the hotel on Monday and so, this menagerie of photo's will have to stop for now.  Jason took some photo's that I'll have to load later.

Overall, it was a great trip!  A bit hot, a bit too many lines, but I loved being with my family 24/7 and getting to enjoy Disneyland, Universal, and of course, the beach all together!!