Thanksgiving ETC...

Warning: Picture overload!! Too cheap to buy hats we just posed in the store - I think its great for the Christmas card don't you?
So as you can probably tell we spent Thanksgiving at Disneyland and Six Flags. What a weekend! We got up a 3am on Thanksgiving and drove to Disneyland, spent the entire day and evening there and then checked into our hotel at about 11:30pm. Got up the next morning and spent the day at Disney. We did take a break, rest, eat at a normal priced restaurant and then closed down the park. The Fireworks and Fastasmic are amazing. I really do love to go to Disneyland, but not necessarily with my closest million friends!




Us on Splash Mountain.





The end of Small World. If it could only be that easy.

The Castle was beautiful. It changed colors as the fireworks went off and the music changed.

WOW

- can they come and decorate (then come and clean it all up) at my house?

Nothing as boring as California Screamin......

Aren't we all just cute?

Eating our Turkey legs - I cannot find the one of Brenn and I. It must be on her camera. This is my SIL Shelly and her girls. We spent a day at Disney and then Magic Mtn with them - what fun. Allison - the one on the right - is a super rollercoaster rider now!
On the coaster at California Disney.

Why does Dallin have to make that face? Of course I am my usual photogenic self.
We had a ball - super tired when we got home - but it was so fun to spend that time with our kids.

We rode all of the extreme rollercoasters at Magic Mountain.

When they say EXTREME they are not kidding!

WOW!!

Who thinks up these things? Better yet, Why do I feel the need to ride every single one?

Love it!!

Does your Husband read your Blog?

I wondered about other Husbands.

I know Brad sometimes comments on Jenny's blog, so he must read it sometimes.

My husband does not read my blog.

EVER.

Well except once, when he thought I put an increminating picture his friend Wade talked him into when we were dating. He strongly impressed upon me that he would be very unhappy to find that posted to the internet.

Maybe someday when I am sure he will never check it and it will come with a pledge from all readers not to tell him.


But back to my query, Does your husband read your blog?

Should this hurt my feelings? I guess if I have to ask, probably not. But doesn't he want to know what is rolling around in my head during the course of a day?

At least 5 others (those who commented on my last post) want to know, so why doesn't he?

Or maybe its because he calls me everytime he is driving somewhere (yes, he is hands free in his cell phone calling) so he already gets enough of Karen.



How about you, Does your husband read your blog?

PS - I took this with my phone (My husband left the camera at work) so it is a funny color, but I wanted to show how much Stella has grown. She is the one with the green collar.

What a sweet picture.
Remember she is only about 7 months old!!

Trying to get in the Christmas Spirit

As I was wondering around the Christmas section in my local Fry's Super Center. I browsed through the new and old Christmas music and there it was...

Something

GUARANTEED

to bring that special feeling into my home.

'Nuff Said!

What's the deal with my counter??!!

Disclaimer: I have a headache - I have had a worst one this last week - this is crappy and I am on a lot of drugs today (prescription and safe) but if this is a little "out there" (more than normal) just enjoy the ride!

What is up with my counter?

I have counter envy. I will admit. When I visit another blog and the counter is in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands (see me green) I wonder if they are more special than me.

And then one day, yes literally one day my counter went from the mid 2000's to the mid 12,000's. I thought "WOW" I must be catching on, what I say and how I say it is better than I think it is and my writing skills must not be as bad as all my English teachers said (only if I really believed that, I know Jenny and Sue must cringe).

But alas, my counter for the following month has been as normal as it was before the jump. So this leads me to conclude (remember the medication) that all counters are flawed. Except of course NieNie and C jane of course because they have been on Oprah and you know what that does to book sales, is it any wonder it would raise their readership?

Even though I am, of course, witty and funny, I really believe my counter shorted out for a minute (maybe just to make me feel good) but I still have only a few readers, love you all, but now I think I will just have comment envy because you just cannot rely on the counters to be accurate.

PS: I will not download a new counter because that would reset to 0, and at least if a new person actually reads my blog I will look more popular than I am (yes, I know, just like High School!)

Blue Men

At our lovely Mountain View High School football games the wrestlers dress up as the

Blue Men

as a way to show school spirit. Remember this is Arizona so although it is not super hot it is not that cold either. Usually it is only Seniors and occasionally Juniors that are considered and the Coach picks who gets to be the Blue men for the game and Dallin got to finally dress for success in BLUE! Don't you think the blue sets off his hair?


He is of course the 'S' in TOROS -

S for Smiley,

which is his nickname. Most of the kids and parents do not know his name is Dallin. He was christened Smiley the summer before his Sophomore year by the wrestling team because they went to a miserable camp, they had to camp for a week in the football field of a school in Colorado. It rained for 4 out of the 5 days. The food was terrible and they all lost like crazy. Not a fun camp, but through it all Dallin kept smilin', hence the nickname Smiley.Tate (the kid on the cliff) was the T and assorted other wrestlers fill in the letters. The boys do push-ups on a board held overhead when the team scores.At the end of the night instead of being able to shower - the paint clogs the drains - they had to hose off with the garden hose.

BBBRRRRR!! Dallin and Mason waiting for the team to come back at halftime doing an Irish jig. Wish I had the video camera with me!!

Dallin is a great son and I am sad/excited for him to graduate this year. His mission is not that far away, boy does the time fly!

Happy Halloween Picture and Brenn's Art Project

This is Stella - one of Zara's puppies - not the best picture but she is enormous!! 6 months old and as tall as her mom, she does not quite have Zara's width but I really think she will be bigger than her mom! She is trouble! She can get to

ANYTHING

on the counter and will eat what ever is in reach. She loves Grandma and her morning toast, she lays her head on Grandma's lap until she gets a bite. Pretty soon she will just raise up and steal all the toast!!

I am a failure as a mother because I did not get pictures of all the kids and their costumes. Brenn and Ashley were by far the cutest!


Brenn and I were hunting for her costume (she is the Cheshire Cat) she told me something pink and purplee, preferable with stripes, cute but not slutty. I find the perfect dress, turn it around and it has a zipper right up the front!! A little slutty but so perfect we bought it anyway!
Found the perfect tights, great pink shoes, and purple cat ears! Check out Ashley's boots, they crafted a costume around them because they were too good to pass up!

Logan went as the Hungry Howie's pizza delivery guy - we had pizza delivered and POW great idea, sorry no picture.

Dallin and his friends worked most of the afternoon and evening on their costumes and I went to bed before they finished so no picture either.

Brenn had to do a project demonstration different lighting techniques. Most of the kids used a marble, but Brenn thought that was boring so she used one of her old eyes instead.







Seems to match Halloween just a bit!

Post Edit: For those who do not know my darling daughter Brenn, she had cancer when she was 9 mos old and lost her right eye to that beast. Between Cryotherapy and Radiation her left eye was saved and surprisingly enough, she has really good vision from that. So her right eye is fake. I know you can't tell, well I can, but most people can't tell the difference. All of her life she had been proud, not embarrassed of her fake eye, boy do we have stories, someday I will recount the best of them. But that is where the prop came from for her fun art project.

Catching Up!!

I am behind in my blogging - here are some of the other things going on in the Cole house.

Dallin went to Homecoming with Sam. She is a cute girl (I see her every Tuesday) and I know they had a ball! Dinner was served at one of Dallin's friends house with Gabe's mom (who is the bomb and cooks authentic Mexican food) as the cook. All they wanted for dessert was Cinnamon Rolls so that was my part. I love that they do this, not only does it let them save some money on dinner but then we as parents get to interact with them a little more (checking to see if they are gentleman when we are not pushing!) They closed down the dance and danced every dance. I always loved it when the guy would actually DANCE!

Then they went to the park with another group to go ice blocking. Apparently that is against the law in Gilbert not to mention that since Dallin is only 17 he was breaking curfew as I was informed at 12:45 am by the police officer on the phone. So he was sent home in the care of his date, who was 18. The funny part was that since they did not have any other clothes and the boys did not want to ruin their dress pants - yes - they ice blocked in their boxers covered by towels. So when the police showed up and all the kids ran and jumped in to various cars, Dallin shoved his feet into his pants but did not do them up. The police car blocked his exit and when she (yes, the officer was a woman) shined her flashlight into the car Dallin's pants are undone!! At least she did see them ice blocking and the girls did not participate because they did not want to ruin their dresses. What a night!

It is a good thing we as parents have a good sense of humor!!

Dallin bought special vans (shoes) black and white! He was so stylin'!!

Dallin and Kai were able to get extra credit by building and sailing a cardboard boat. They were only allowed to tape the seams, no other waterproofing and it had to hold their weight and cross the pool. They got extra, extra credit for dressing the part.

Scavenging for cardboard.Starting - need I mention it is now about 11pm? They finished up about 2 am.They built some scale models of what would work and had to calculate it out as to how tall the sides needed to be not to swamp the boat.Lots of glue - they glued the boxes closed so the water would not soak quite so fast.
Resting.....

The finished product and the correct way to dress. They thought they were sooo cool.Preparing to launch...A little help from Jake....Don't they look official? Their boat was the best we saw by far. Here is a video on my SIL blog.They took several turns around the pool and then beached it for a while - put it back in and then it really started to take on water. Cardboard only lasts so long when it gets wet!!

Exciting pictures

We love Lake Powell! This year we invited the Darren and Ruth Cook family - which consists of Darren, Ruth, Zach (who is at BUY-I) Elena, Caroline and Julia. They also brought a friend named Macey. We let Dallin and Logan bring some friends so Dakota, Tate and Kai joined the merry group! Zach and Brenn had to stay and go to school :( This is our houseboat - not to fancy but it works really well for lots of kids.

Lunch is always a busy affair.

Macey, Logan, Dakota, Elena, Caroline and Julia

This is a picture of our stuck climbers - the rescue climbers and I are at the top -

This is a close up - Dallin and Kai are on the right - Tate in the middle and I am at the top with the rescue climbers.

As to what happened - Ken and the girls went to the marina and out wake boarding. The boys didn't want to go so they thought they would go for a hike. They scrambled up a little face and climbed as high as they could and waved to the houseboat. Then, thinking they did not want to go back down the same way saw a ledge that looked to be a good height to jump in the water and swim back to the boat. Unfortunately they were not as safe climbing down to the ledge as they should have been and at one point Tate slipped and grabbed Kai's leg, that leg was the only thing keeping him from falling about 150 feet. Kai lowered him to a more stable place while Dallin crab walked on to the ledge - almost falling himself. As Kai scooted over and crab walked like Dallin, Tate climbed up to take Kai's place. Thankfully, Tate knew his limit and since the close call he elected to stay where he was on the rock face. Kai and Dallin decided it was really to high to jump (Yeah, for some good thinking) and started to yell for help. I did not realize how really stuck they were or how serious the situation was until someone went out on the Kayak and saw were Tate was hanging out.

I am disappointed in my lack of stopping and thinking. If I had taken it a little more seriously and thought it through I would have done a few things differently. Darren and I hiked around the canyon trying to find a better way up to the boys but did not find anything. Ruth actually climbed out on the rock and helped me start and I had little trouble getting above the boys - the problem was I brought the only rope I could lay my hands on quickly and it was too small and short for the job. Just as I got up there Ken was being pulled over by a Park Ranger. I have to say we have been boating at Lake Powell for a lot of years and I am pretty sure I have never seen a Ranger so far from the Marina. But, here they were in the very canyon we needed them to be. Logan and Dakota were on the Kayaks at the mouth of the canyon waiting on Ken and told him the situation, the Ranger then went to call for help. I know that was a blessing from the Lord in answer to all of our prayers. The rescue was not fast but they were very safe in all they did to get the boys up. SIL Kirsten (Kai's mom) was in the temple while they were climbing and had put his name on the prayer roll before she started - that would have been when they were doing the risky human ladder and Tate slipping. I know that angels held up those boys - they have important work to do. Ruth pointed out to them that evening as we sat around and they told us the WHOLE story, that they must have work to do on this earth and it would start with their missions.

Ken was not happy that I had climbed up there but the boys told me they needed me there so I was glad I made the effort. I do wish I would have stopped and thought for a few minutes - I would have gotten the sturdy anchor ropes in a backpack and some water and snacks for the boys. As it was I felt kinda dumb, but still protest that I was not stuck!

This is the rock face we all climbed. The Ranger who climbed it first and strung the rope for the others was named Keen - he ask me if I climbed that, I said, "yes" and he said it was amazing what 'momaline' could do. I told him I have climbed a lot of things like that when I was younger and thought is was challenging but not that bad, he told me I did a good job.

The helicopter - the boys were fantasizing about the helicopter and wonder if James Bond would be lowered, then thought it would be better if it was Pussy Galore (hormones), then maybe it would be cool if the copter turned in to Optimus Prime (still a hint of the child). I told them not to count on it but they could dream. After about 5 hours the boys were rescued and we got to eat dinner. What a day. I told Ken, there is always drama at Lake Powell, but this was more than usual.



I think the boys were bored at this point.

How many clothespins can you fit on your face?

Catching air on the wake board - way to go Dallin!

Kai thought he got some awesome pictures for his facebook profile!

Ken relaxing on the tube with his new sweatshirt - can you find him?

Last but not least how can you go to such a beautiful place and not know God is in charge? The water was so still - it was hard to know which way is up and which is the reflection. I love alot about Lake Powell, the beauty of the canyons, the stars at night, laying on the top of the houseboat getting ready to sleep and talking in the dark with everyone. Playing lots of cards and game with each other, reading books, playing catchphrase over and over, listening to the kids play Mafia and just enjoying a simple life with no electronics or other distractions. I always have such a hard time going home. At least I know we will always be back!

Lake Powell is always exciting!!

4 stranded on cliff above Lake Powell are rescued
Oct. 15, 2009 03:28 PMAssociated Press
PAGE - National Park Service rangers say they rescued a woman and three teenage boys who became stranded on a cliff in the Iceberg Canyon area of Lake Powell.
Rangers on boat patrol Wednesday were told by kayakers that four people in their party had become trapped on a cliff and needed rescue.

The boys were with a two-family party on a houseboat and the group had been camping in Iceberg Canyon when the three boys decided to go exploring.

They were about 100 yards from the houseboat when they became stranded and a mother of one of the boys also got stranded while attempting a rescue.

Rangers located one teen clinging to a sheer cliff face, struggling to maintain his footing on a 4-inch wide ledge 150 feet above the lake surface.

Two other teens were trapped in an alcove near the first boy and the woman was trapped on another ledge 50 feet above the boys' location.

Rangers say none of the four people required medical attention. Their names and hometowns were not released.

Needless to say our trip was exciting! I just want to set the record straight - I was NOT stranded. The National Park Ranger would not let me climb down once they got there, they made me wait for the climbers - in a helicopter - What a story. I will post more and the pictures once I get unpacked and the food put away!

Cinnamon Roll Tuesday

So it is no surprise that I am not a great cook, but I do want my kids to fondly remember something they ate at home that did not come frozen from Costco first! I learned to make cinnamon rolls at a Young Women's activity I planned. I am not sure the girls cared but all three leaders were glued to Jessie Merrill as she taught us her magic.

Last year Dallin spent every Thursday lunch at Spencer Kings house because it was Bread Stick Thursday. Every Thursday the wrestling team and assorted others would gather at the King's to enjoy her ability to cook tasty treats.

So he suggested MAYBE I could practice making cinnamon rolls every Tuesday and he and his friends test them out....

Up by 7:30am to mix 2 batches of dough....Roll out and add sugar and cinnamon....I did not get a picture of them all done - the kids came and poof.....First table.... Second table...

And a few in the family room and outside. Not much left now just the pans with the ends.

I could complain, getting up and running by 7:30am - should I confess that since both boys are up and gone before 6:30am and they do not need me I sleep until 8:30 about everyday (isn't that terrible?) -but really I love having all of the kids around and getting to know ALL of his friends and even a few stragglers.