It came from the 80's. . .

Ahh. . .August, school beginning, humid nights. . .you know what that means. .

State Fair time!!

Christy and I headed to the fair to check out the sweet 80's rocker. . Pat Benatar!! We "invited" several other worthy people to join us, but when we were met with "Who's that?" and "What does HE sing?" we decided it was going to be just us! We got to the fair and of course loaded up on our state fair grub. . .I know it's totally nutritious food. . .you won't have to remind me. As Christy and I were headed over to the outdoor stage for the show, we thought, I wonder if people think this is for a bunch of people. . . .NOT!!! All for us, and we didn't have a hand for the funnel cake until later.
Hey, Christy, no snitchin' 'til the photos are done!!!


After we found our spot (a little shady, grassy spot just outside the fence to the stage), we settled in for some grub and some nice people watching. . .I mean, really, why else do you go to the fair? There were some seriously interesting people there.

We tried to get some anonymous photos, but alas, our cameras were usually not fast enough!!

people of note. . .
1--woman, at least mid-20's, "walking" with one of those pretend leash/animal things with a stuffed cat attached. Except she wasn't even "walking" it, it was more like "floating". Come on, do it right please.
2--several Pat Benetar wanna-be's, actually the look is back, leggings, mini skirt, off the shoulder shirt, high heels, bandanas; but we saw one outfit that we were sure was "vintage".
3--one guy with a vintage concert shirt from 1981, I think.
4--classic rock couple (mid-40's), with their baby rockin' at the show, I got a picture of him chillin' in the stroller, but I'll have to post it later (blogger won't let me put anymore on this and I'm not pushing my luck with it today)
5--one couple behind me talking about how their dog sheds way too much in the garage, and that he saw on tv a lady that made sweaters out of dog hair. . .maybe that was an option? Really? Are you really having this conversation at a Pat Benetar concer?
6--A chick with a WAY TOO TIGHT pink shirt that had the virgin Mary on it that said "Mary is my Homegirl." Yep, some sweet people watchin' tonight!

And last but not least. . .this was our view for most of the show. . .check out the sweet rat tail, tie-dye, and mullet on these "chicks"--see there IS a reason I titled this "It came from the 80's". I do have to give it up to them--mullet's camera was sweeter than mine (I'm sure she got some rad pictures of Pat) and rat-tail was a crazy rocker. . .I mean check her out. .

and that is on like a 7 foot fence!! The security guy came and told her to get down and she shook the fence back and forth right in his face!! Rock on!

We could've done without the opening band, but you have to have them right? So after about an hour of anticipation, here came Pat Benetar!! She was rockin' it in a sweet Matrix like black long jacket and of course, gloves. . .unfortunately we were too far away to see if they were leather or lace. . .and may I add right here that it's amazing that she has been singing for so long with that raspy voice of hers. . . Christy said she read that she's even Opera/Classically trained. Nice.

(I kept thinking what a dork I was thinking the whole time, oh, I need a picture of this for my blog, and what can I write on my blog, so in true blog fashion, we decided we needed a play list for our blog. Christy got out a piece of paper and pencil so we could keep track for YOU!!)

And just in case you were wondering, yes, those are lit up palm trees with monkeys. . .enuf said.

I will help you out if you can't find your 80's tape, by providing some of the key lyrics to spark your memory. ..

1. All Fired Up. . ."will you believe there comes a time, when everything just falls in line, we live and learn from our mistakes, the deepest cuts all heal by fate. . .All fired up"

2. Shadows of the night. . ."we're running with the shadows of the night, so baby, take my hand you'll be all right, surrender all your dreams to me tonight, they'll come true in the end"

3.Wide awake in dreamland. . .waa. . .waa. . .I didn't know this one. . .come on, let's rock already.

4. Invincible. . .Pat said this came from one of the worst movies ever, it must have, I didn't know it. . .but, maybe several others around us did, 'cuz they had that same haircut??

5. True Love. . yeah, yeah, I know you had to bring your husband on this tour with you but, this isn't Pat Benetar unplugged aocustic stuff, let's do the Battlefield dance!!

6. We live for love. . .see #5

7. We Belong. . .ok, now we're back "we belong to the light, we belong to the thunder, we belong to the sound of the words we've both fallen under, whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better, we belong, we belong, we belong together"

8. Let's stay together. . .(let's not, and say we did, but really let's sing Battlefield!)

9. Hell is for children. . .really? Is it? Mmm. . .maybe Pat Benetar is ALOT different than I thought she was. . .half-way through the song, Christy and I looked at each other with puzzled looks and said, "is that really what she's saying?" Yes, it is.

10. Hit me with your best shot. . .the best, but you could tell Pat is a little OVER this song. She said that every year before tour she asks if they can skip this one this year, so we had to sing most of it which worked just fine. . sing along please "You're a real tough cookie, with your long history of breakin' little hearts like the one in me. . .(and now, my favorite lyrics) before I put another notch in my lipstick case, you'd better make sure you put me in my place. . .Hit me with your best shot, why don't you hit me with your best shot, hit me with your best shot. . Fire away!!" When I used to play this old 45 record with my siblings we would all sing and run around trying to smack each other on the arms. . .good times. . .good times.

11.Heartbreaker. . .totally nostalgic. . .I think this is the one where Christy said "I feel like I should be in my roller skates!" "You're a heartbreaker, dream maker, love taker don't you mess around with me, you're a heartbreaker, dream maker, love taker, don't you mess around. . .no, no, NO!"

12. Promises in the Dark. . .ok, I KNOW that was NOT the last song. . .

Encore. . .

13. Love is a Battlefield. . . "We are young, heartache to heartache we stand, no promises, no demands, love is a battlefield, woh, woh, woh, woh, woh, woh, woh, woh, wooooohhhhhhhhh." And yes, I ripped out some dance moves, circa 1986 MTV video, see the pic on Christy's blog, I'm ready to break out that shimmy dance, but you have to click the picture to see the true teenage angst I'm displaying. . . (and a lot of gum tissue too)

Let's see. . .shall we hit the midway before we go? Nah, that was SO 80's.

Not often enough. . .

We took at trip back east this summer to visit Matt's grandparents. They live just outside of Baltimore. We haven't been able to visit since Madison was Whitney's age, WAY too long ago!! Most of our vacations are go, go, go. One thing right after another. This trip was actually a vacation!! We had things that we did everyday but the best parts of the day were just sitting in their beautiful backyard and talking. We had some wonderful conversations. We listen to his grandfather talk about his military service, and Matt's grandmother shared some wonderful memories about Matt's other grandpa (the one that brought their family to America from China). He had a very debilitating stroke when Matt was fairly young, so his memories pre-stroke are vague. It was wonderful to watch her talk about what a kind and loving and hard working man he was. Here are the girls with Grandpa on our train ride into the inner harbor of Baltimore. We went to the National Aquarium. It was awesome, and a must see if you're headed that way. We stayed for a few hours and grabbed a bite before heading back. One of our days we drove up to Hershey and went to Chocolate World. I swear you could smell the chocolate when you got out of the car. They had a fun 3-D movie and a little car/amusement ride through a mock-up of the real factory.
The girls were even put to work on "the line" packaging up hershey's kisses. Oh, and of course, there was the store. HOLY COW! I'm sure I forgot to take a picture because I was overcome by it. They have every kind of candy and chocolate sold by them, and you even get to buy some of their new stuff. We bought and ate up quickly the new "Hershey's Nuggets Truffles." They are sooooooooooooooooo good. Ok, not as good as these, but they'll get you through until Easter!!

Most of all, our kids loved being there and I could see that Matt's grandparents loved having them around them. Even Matt's grandfather, who we tease a lot for being such a gritchity, grouchy guy, melted around them. Whitney loved just climbing right up in his lap!!

Sorry, you've been demoted.

Get this. . .

Can they really do this? Well I guess they just did. . .sorry Pluto, and all you kids who are now going to have to redo your planet solar system mobiles.

A little annoyed. . .

So, we headed back from Baltimore (Blog and pictures coming soon!!) just a couple of days after the terrorist arrests in the UK. Not only did we have to be at the BWI airport 2 hours early (Hello. . .that's like 4:45 in the AM!!), but Matt's grandparents live about 45 minutes away and we had to return the car too! I was all prepared to be an hour early but TWO?

Ok, I'm happy and fine doing what I need to to be safe!! I'll even pack all liquids in my checked bags. . .even lipgloss, and baby Tylenol ("No medication without a prescription") and even (this was a stretch!) Whitney's gas drops--we call her Toots around here. I even had the gas drops in my pocket for a last minute dose, but I forgot to throw it in the checked baggage so I had tossed it in the garbage before we got to security!! We dumped all waterbottles and even emptied Whitney's sippy cup.

Here's where it gets annoying--there were announcements over the speakers about the no-liquid rules but no one even asked me if I had any in my carry on, and no one searched through my bag. . .HEY, SOMEONE GET OVER HERE AND CHECK MY BAG TO SEE HOW COMPLIANT I AM BEING. thank you.

Hallelujah!!

In honor of Mothers of school-age children everywhere!!

Please go HERE!!

Customer Service. . .

It's amazing in these days of SuperWalmart, Superthat, Superthis, that any small hometown business/grocery store can stay in business. I figured out why this small store in the middle of town has been in business for about 50 years (I have no idea really how long, but I would guess about 50.)

I was at SuperWalmart and literally waited in line (I did at least get some good celebrity magazine reading done) for at LEAST 15 minutes. Ugh. Snotty cashier, noisy, dirty store, why the heck am I shopping here?

Later that week I forgot something and ran down to our neighborhood grocer--Leon's. I had maybe 2 things I was buying and when I got to the checkout a man stepped in line to checkout behind me and the cashier (get this. . .) called for another checker. Someone was there on the spot to help him out. And they also asked if I needed help out with my groceries. . .my whole 2 items. . ."Thanks, I got it this time!"

Can I get a Amen for customer service??

Guess Who??

Ok, bloggers, guess who I met/saw in Nauvoo? She was one of the YPM (Young Performing Missionaires) that are there every summer for 3 months to do shows and other activities. . .

Spittin' image don't ya think??

No clues. . . . .yet.

One Crrrraaaazzzzyyyy Summer

Here is my riduculous summer (in no particular order--I changed over to Netscape so I could load all the pictures but now I can't move them around like I could in Internet Explorer. . .ugh)Here comes the Ox Cart, OH, how slow. . ..It's hard to tell from the picture how huge these Ox really are. HUGE!! We got the last ride of the day in Nauvoo, the days were too hot so they usually quit around 11 am.
I think every 16 month old has done this. . .doesn't she look so pleased?? (I was helping give my nephew a mini bath in the other room and I guess Whitney decided she was thirsty. . .)
My brother Todd and Whitney at the big family dance.

The girls in the kid parade before a big show in Nauvoo
Hannah was baptized when we got back to Tooele after family camp was over. Cutie.


Whitney and Annie taking a dip in the pool at family camp.
Lisa and I just kept trying to get Whitney and Hugh to kiss!! Hey watch it with that open mouth Hughie!! They were adorable!
All the kiddos in the big tree at El Clarkos.
Miss Phoebe
Provo 4th of July parade. . . .
We stopped to visit our friends the Robisons. They adopted our nephew Xander 10 years ago (2nd from the left), and went on to adopt 3 more and just had their 2nd biological babe. They are an amazing family. It's an incredible story how we all got back in contact with each other. . another day, another blog.
How the heck did we get here? Aren't we still 12??
Molly riding our friends horse Sunny. She asked if she could ride him all the way back to Nebraska.
The Clarks at the parade. Classic 8 year old boy evidence in the front row.

My nephew Justin. . .remember when he was just little like this???
Yummy late night shakes courtesy of Rod.


Get ready for installment 2 and 3 of our crazy summer. . . . .I'm still recovering

A time to DANCE!

This summer we did a fabulous hula for the big family talent show at Aspen Grove!! Check out little Whitney right in front!!

Todd totally smoked me in DDR (come on guys, get with the 00's--that's Dance, Dance, Revolution!!
Mom even tried it out with Heidi!
The homies were just chillin' at the big family dance the last night of family camp.
Uncle Scotty gave Molly a big fly ride
Do you recognize that sweet 80's move I'm demonstrating for you?? My niece Sarah looks totally perplexed by my obvious talent.
Please ignore my outfit. . .we came straight from playing sand volleyball.

Mark Burnett where are you?

Ok, in the last few years we've had some long vacations with family and I have a fantastic idea for a new reality show!!

FAMILY VACATION SURVIVOR!!

See, each day you get to vote someone off the vacation!! Can you just hear it now?

"Hey, I'm just playing the game!"
"It's not personal"
"This is just a strategic move. . .my vote is for. . ."
"We've got to break up that kid alliance. . .they'll never see it coming and we'll bust this game wide open."

So, who would you vote for??

What I learned from my summer vacation(s). . .

Having spent 3 of the last 4 weeks on vacation with extended family here's what I've learned. . .
--I'm not sure I believe in that "you get to pick your family" pre-mortal business. . .
--games are fun but not the "pass-around-the-stomach-flu" game.
--not everybody "parents" the same
--sibling rivalry still exists, well past the ages of 10-12 (I think it maybe just got worse--oops.)
--When you're 32, you can't survive on 4 hours of sleep a night, like you did when you were 22.
--having not played golf in 8 years, you may not want to pick it up and play for 1 hour solid on a "golf simulator" game.
--DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution) put me in my place.
--Sunscreen is a good thing.
--2 out of 3 kids puking in a car for 14 hours does not equal a "good trip."
BUT
--Apsen Grove is an amazing family camp