Collin and the STATE Chess Tournament

Collin is a chess geek!  Yep, he's in Chess Club!  At the ripe old age of 6 and in kindergarden!

And then the club went to state tournaments.  Lucky for all of us, it was here this year!

So, of course, we had to go watch him.

This was a planning meeting - him and daddy.  They thought that maybe the kid he played in the round before maybe made two moves at once so Terry is helping him figure out how to score his card so he could make sure it was all equal.

I think Collin was more excited about getting his own can of Dr Pepper!

  

This was a SERIOUS thing, folks.  There were 563 participants!  K-12

There were chess tables set up ALL OVER the hotel - all the conference rooms! 

These were just for K-1.  I can't remember for sure but I think there were like 8 ?? rows of tables - all for the little kids!  It was ridiculous!  And there were like 10 boards set up in each row?  Crazy!

Here's Collin, all ready with his score card and his board....where's his opponet?  NOOOO where to be seen.  See the glass of water?  She brought that to the table, sat for a minute, put her head on the table like she didn't feel good then got up and went to her mom.  Turns out, she didn't want to play any more!  But Collin had to sit there, watching all the other kids playing while he waited for someone to determine if it was a forfeit or if she was going to come back and play.  She didn't so we didn't get to see him play!  Darn it!

I can't remember what the final results were - he had 4 matches on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  But his team did well - they each got a participation trophy and Collin got a ribbon!  He was really excited.

We are really proud of him. 

(I wasn't there for the awards ceremony but this is a shot Terry took with his phone.  I should have left the camera with him!  The shot is really blurry but Collin is down in front!  Looking so proud!

But seriously?  Just between us?  Chess is one B.O.R.I.N.G. game! 

 All day long in a hotel lobby?

At age 6?

Who thinks up these things!?

Birds!

We had a nest up in the corner of our back patio. 

I climbed up (on a ladder) to get a picture  on a Saturday evening.  They were soooo cute!

Then Kimi said I was going to make them blind with my flash!  So that's all I took of them.

The next week, I looked and I could only see three and they had feathers and everything! 

When I climbed up to get a closer look, they took off!  They scared me so bad I nearly fell off the ladder.

And ladders are NOT my favorite thing to be on when birds fly at me!  I assume the other two had already flown away.  The next day, we saw one on the tree by the fence in back of our place and momma was feeding him.  Guess I scared them off!  Dang it!  The nest looks sad up there. 

All alone.... empty.

And filled with birdy poop!  Ewwww.....momma wasn't a very good housekeeper!

Easter

We had a fun Easter.  Even though Heidi and crew weren't here and Lawson and Phoebe were recouping from their Chicago trip.  We had a brunch here this year then Collin got to hunt Easter eggs.  He wanted to hide them then look for them.  We convinced him that wasn't how it worked and he had to stay in the house and away from windows while WE hid the eggs!  Silly kid!  He was pretty lonesome, doing this all alone......

We hid one in the green plants - a green one, of course!  It took him and Poppa looking to find it!
(Sorry this is in the middle of the pictures!  I have tried everything I could think of to get the words
UNDER the pictures!) Thanks Heidi!  It helped....... :)

Poppa is evil!  He has been the first to feed Liam all sorts of new stuff.  A cookie when he was just a few weeks old, pieces of popcorn, etc etc.  You get the idea.

Sooooo who gets to be the first to give him the first Peep?  You guessed it!

Poppa

Yep, he liked it!  Of course!  Who doesn't like Peeps?

After naps, we went over to Uncle Jason's parents home for a WONDERFUL dinner and another egg hunt.  Only this time, one of Aunt Kimi and Uncle Jason's friends and their kids were there....so Collin got to hunt eggs again but with other kids.  I think he had more fun doing that!

Collin was so busy running around, I didn't get a picture of him.  But these are the two little girls where were there.  They were so cute!  The youngest tried to wear her basket like a backpack!  It was cute. 

Then Jason's mom, Barb, came out with a big bottle of bubbles and a long bubble wand. 

And then I got distracted and forgot to get pictures of kids! 

These are sooooo cool!

The bubbles were HUGE and so beautiful!  And so relaxing for Barb and I! 

Who can resist bubbles blowing in the wind? 

If I had photoshop, maybe I could have figured out how to get the power lines out of the picture!

So we had a fun Easter with most of our family!  We hope you did too!

My trip to Spokane

As I said in an earlier post, I went to Spokane to spend time with my mom before she had an angiogram to find out what was wrong with her ticker.  We are so blessed that she only had one blockage.  And to make it more interesting, it was on one of the bypass arteries that was done several years ago!  So, they scheduled her to have a stent put in the original artery (the one they bypassed!).  They said that if they had had the technology 8 years ago that they have today, they would have done all stents, not the bypass surgery! 

When we got home from her angiogram, we wanted to get a group shot of those of us that were there.  There are seven of us kids and not everyone could be there. 

 We sure missed them but it was easier to get us all in the shot with two less! 

(Ahem...we aren't as small as we used to be!)

We took one shot where some of us were sitting down but we I didn't like how it turned out.  But I got a shot of Leora getting up off the rock!  She's so stinkin cute!  Love you Leora!

After we took the shots, Mom saw a weed ***GASP*** growing in her flower bed!
DIE WEED!

Remember, this is right after she came home from getting her angiogram.  I love her refusal to be down!

Before her angio, I managed to get a NASTY cold.  And of course, since mom taught me to always share,
I did!  And so her angioplasty to have the stent inserted, which was scheduled for the next Thursday, had to be postponed.  Yep, bad me.  I shared with mom.  But being the over-achiever that she is, she had to turn it into pneumonia!  grrrr.  So it was about two weeks later before she had the stent.  I was back in AZ by then but my sisters were there for her.  And she, naturally, pulled through with flying colors!  My sister Mindy was on spring break so she and her hubby were able to stay with her 24/7 until she was cleared to be alone. 
We are so greatful for them!  It amazes me how things always seem to work out so!  If she had the procedure when it was scheduled, no one would have been able to stay there with her!  Since I shared, it delayed it long enought that Mindy was free! 

Well, that's enough for now!  I will get Easter posted soon!

 So come on back, ya'll, ya hear?

Catching up!

I just downloaded my camera and can't believe how many pics I have and then I realize that I haven't posted in on here FOREVER. So this will be done in pieces so no one is overwhelmed! I apologize in advance!

Followup on our Anniversary

For our anniversary, we decided to buy us a TREE!  Sad, I know, that this made us so happy, but if you knew us BEFORE AZ, you would know that we had a LOT of trees in Idaho and I have missed them (And our space had NO trees!).  Soooo........ we bought us a tree!
It is called a Red Leaf Photinia.  The new foliage comes in red then turns dark-ish green.  It is an evergreen tree and it says it attracts birds.  It says (on the tag) that it can stand cold to 0 F... but not ME anymore so hopefully, we don't have to test that!  It also has a low water usage, a plus in AZ.  What better tree for us?!? 

It's not very big yet, but it will get there!  It is supposed to get up to 20' tall and 10' wide unless we trim it back.  There are mini-roses planted around the base but we need more of those!

Also for our anniversary, Collin made us this card! 

He was so proud because it has a part inside that pops up!

And of course we LOVE it!  He is so creative!

The strip says "Happy Annaversary" (spelling is direct!)

 

 

 

Happy 40th Anniversary to us

We celebrated our 40th Anniversary on Tuesday! 

It was one I'm sure we won't forget soon!

I took our Rascal dog to the groomer on Monday and 'surprise' we have....fleas!

So...... we got to buy spray for the dogs, spray for the carpet and furniture and spray for outside and THAT'S what we did for our anniversary! 

sigh...... Good thing we don't get to hung up on celebrating on THE DAY of something! 

But LAST Night......

Kimi came over with a gift from all our girls and their families.  She got elected to deliver because she lives just down the street about a mile or so from us.......

And this is what she delivered!

Heidi had a 'PLAN' and it was super!

40 years  =  4 gift cards (one for each decade)

Each gift card  =  $40 (10 for each decade)

Cool, right?  We are so excited. 

How did they decide what to get us?

Well, Red Lobster aka Crab Lobster to us (Collin has called it this since he was little)

for dinner - our fav place!  hmmmmmm wonder what we will choose?

Gas Light Theatre for a show -

we LOVE LOVE LOVE (did I mention we love??) Melodramas! 

We have seen several in West Yellowstone and in Virginia City. Good good times!

And so stinking much fun to 'get into' the whole thing!

Bed Bath and Beyond - because an anniversary is celebrating a wedding and brides and grooms always register at Bed Bath and Beyond, right?  So of course!  Kimi suggested new towels, Heidi thought about all the kitchen stuff SHE has that need replaced and they have only been married not quite 15 years so my goodness, the shape OURS must be in!  Katie hasn't weighed in on it yet! 

 I'm sure if we have trouble spending it, they will be willing to help!

And Home Depot - ahhhhhh a bit of heaven in our books! 

We love to just wander around there and smell the plants and all that yummy fresh cut wood smell! 

I know, we are weird - but since we are BOTH weird in the same way here, it's all good!

And we need to get paint for bathrooms or the guest room or.......

more plants for the yard?  A neat planter?  oooooo I know, A FOUNTAIN!

(Wonder what Dellas will want to get?  New saw, any new power tool.... hmmmmm)

On Monday, we went to Home Depot (before the lovely gift card) to get the lovely flee spray

and found a beautiful little tree! 

We decided that we needed to buy it for our anniversary gift to each other!  It is really nice and the new growth in the spring comes in red then turns green!  And it is an evergreen (not pine/fir kind but AZ kind of evergreen - it will have leaves year round - new come on old drops off) so it will be pretty year round.

I'll get a picture of it and post it when we (ahem.....Dellas...) gets it planted.

So, all in all, we did have a great Anniversary (ignoring the flee stuff!) and are looking forward to the next 40!

This is what it is ALL about!

Liam learned three new things while I was in Washington!  He learned to clap, to do "Indian" (don't know how else to describe it!  He will make a noise while you gently tap his sweet mouth or run your finger up and down his lips!), AND to drink out of a sippy cup!  Ok, he doesn't have that one nailed yet but he's getting there!  So darned cute! 

And now I am feeling a bit sad, ya know? 

Not so much because he's learning so much and growing up - even though that is a bit sad.

 But that I missed so darned much of the other three kids!  Holy Cow! 

 I got to see bits and pieces and the girls were really REALLY good at keeping me updated with pics and emails and letters but still, it just missed, ya know?

Like Saturday.  Katie and Kim came over with the boys (I was finally well enough to see them and not worry about sharing) .  Liam showed us his new tricks and Collin was snuggly/cuddly with me (I think he missed ME too!)  Then we were watching Liam try to crawl!  He'd get up on his hands and knees then raise up to his feet with bum in the air!  Then he'd rock a bit and boom, he was over on his side with hands and feet in the air!  We'd laugh, he'd laugh and roll over and try it again. Poppa tried to coax him to crawl by putting a toy out of reach but he didn't want it bad enough to go for it! 

 I hear today that last night, Liam wanted a punch ball bad enough that he just crawled over to it! 
And I missed it!  But I will get to see him crawl this weekend and that is awesome to me. 

And then sad sets in. 

I missed Kira doing that, and walking, and her first words, not to mention rolling over or smiling or ANYTHING!  Same with Evan. We missed seeing him with his first trains, but we got to see him with his first BIG BOY trains at Christmas!   I got to see a bit more of Collin's 'stuff' but not brand-new-to-him type stuff..... just because ALL his grandparents lived in Idaho so they came to see us more often than Heidi and her family got to.  And I understand that. 

But I still missed it.

NOW do you understand why we had to move here?  Why we had to leave good jobs in Idaho and friends and memories to move clear to Southern AZ? 

 Yep, it's a no brainer!