The final day

I took Abby this morning and went over to the Choke Cherry Tree to look around and we did pick out some fun things to bring home including of course the carmel's.
Okay so it turned out to be our final day in Pagosa Springs. There is a storm coming in and we felt like we needed to leave before it came in, so mid morning we decided that we needed to pack up and leave. We made record time and got out of there by 1ish. We made it further before Tori started to melt down and she did cry herself to sleep for a while on the drive home. This was while she was still in a god mood.

We stopped and had dinner at wonderful McDonald's and let the girls run around in the play area for a good half hour. Then back in and off we went. Needless to say we made it home without incident and a good time was had by all. I think that we stayed plenty long enough for all of us and it was sure nice to have Chris around again.

I have to say I didn't realize how often I am calling him to do something until he wasn't there and then boy did a notice.

Day Five

Today was a fun day, this morning Abby came upstairs looking like this:When I asked her what happened, she said she didn't know...she did let me take this picture, but she sure looked grumpy. Considering that she went and put my eye liner all over her face, I think I should be the one looking grumpy.

After lunch headed to the main attraction, the hot springs, this is one of the things I was looking forward to the whole week. When we were getting ready to go there Abby said "are we going to go get in the big fart water"? We yes it is sticky, but I bet you will not mind too much after you get in there. I was right, both Tori and Abby loved it.

Each of the pools is a different temperature and you can try them all out. The girls were very good and enjoyed most of the springs. The favorite was the 95 degree one and we spent most of our time in it. We did get in the swimming pool and at 83 degrees it sounds good, but it sure felt cold. Once we got out we all had to shower to get some of the smell off, in the changing rooms they have this neat contraption that you put your bathing suit in and it spins off a lot of the water. Maybe this isn't new, but I had never seen one before, it was nice not to take home a soppy wet suit.

Here are a couple of pictures of the springs I took, I didn't take the camera with us as I didn't want to haul it from pool to pool so we aren't in any of them.

By the way the river isn't heated, and it is colder than cold, so we opted not to go in it all.

On the way home we were going to take the girls for ice cream, but they fell asleep so instead we went to The Choke Cherry Tree.

I sat in the car while Mom went in and checked it out. They had tons of cool home made and unique gifts. They had a sample area in the back where you were able to try all the sauces, jellies, and cheese balls to see what you wanted to take home. Mom was gone a long time and said it was super fun...I will have to go tomorrow and check it out. By the way they do have a website (listed above) and do ship too...
Here are the carmel's that they make there... they gave us some when we checked in and they were super yummy. We will need to make sure to get some before we leave.

When mom was done shopping we did go get ice cream. It was an old "50's" shop and the cute little old man that helped us had to be be at least 80. You had to go very slow and often repeat what you wanted. When we were all done getting our ice cream I had to remind him about 5 times everything we got as he slowly entered it into the computer screen. Then when I handed him a coupon out of book we had picked up he said "oh I don't have any idea how to do that." How can you get mad at that, so I told him don't worry about it.

The ice cream was good and entertaining trying to watch the kids eat it. After we were done there we headed home for a yummy, yet creative meal of chicken tenders. Here is the recipe in case anyone wants to try it:

Chicken breast as much as you need cut into strips

1-2 eggs beaten

Ritz crackers crushed up about 1 sleeve full (more or less depending on the amount of chicken)

Dry Ranch Dressing mix (like hidden valley), about 2 tsp.

Mix those two together in a plastic bag.

Spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray and then take the chicken sprinkle a bit of salt on it, run it though the egg and then the cracker/dressing mix and place on the cookie sheet. Spray the top with cooking spray and place in preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes

Flip the pieces over and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Take out and serve with Ranch dressing or BBQ sauce.

It was one of those "what do we have on hand" recipes but it turned out really good. We will have to try it again.

With that we ended our day.

Day Four

We sent Dad and Chris home first thing in the morning. Abby and I went for a walk down to the lake and she pointed out several pieces of trash and I commented about how that was a bad choice that some people made to leave their trash outside. Her reply was "that sure isn't helping to keep America clean." As much as I wanted to crack up laughing I had to say "yep you are right", I am still not sure where she got that from, but it sure was funny.

We did some crafts today sponsored by the timeshare including painting a birdhouse, coloring some wildlife pictures and making a banner. They both seemed to enjoy the little break and we didn't get too much paint on the clothes.

After lunch we took the girls on a bird watching adventure and then on a hike.

Abby did good hiking up most of the way and Tori even got out of the backpack and walked part of the way. At the top of the hill Tori decided she had walked enough and just hit the ground for a rest.

Finally we got her moving and headed towards this huge sculpture that this mad made out of wood, I should have gotten pictures of all of it, it was really amazing, but here is what I do have to share:

It was amazing to think he did this all out of the trees that had died there.

On the way up the mountain Abby decided that she wanted to be the Mom, so I was the sister, and Grandma was the brother. We didn't have names just titles, so when she wanted to address me she would start with "sister...". When we were done with our hike and got back to the car, I said, well only Mommy's drive and so she hoped right into the front seat. Very cute, ha ha, but when I said, no I was just kidding and went to move her into her car seat, she got very upset with me. While I was buckling her in said yelled at me "Mommies don't ride in car seats"!!!! Lucky for this "sister, she is still bigger than her Mommy.

We did go to the pool again, which Abby loved...we stayed until little Tori was blue and then called it quits.

After that we headed home for the day.

Day Three

Today we got up and headed out for Sacrament meeting. My mother had said the day before, it is always fun to go to a new ward, because you never know who you will meet. So needless to say we got the the Pagosa Springs ward and there were not a lot of members there.

Halfway though Tori decided she just couldn't be quite, so I got up and went out. Halfway down the hall, I saw a familiar face...it was my old friend Jason Peterson. He had two of his kids with him and his wife was off feeding their 3 month old little girl. So needless to say I got to visit with her also and it was a quick game of catch up for all of us. Who would have thought that we would run into them here, but it sure was nice to see them. There kids were cute and route, so mine fit in just fine. I wish I had my camera and could have taken a picture, too bad for me.

After Church we headed back for lunch at the timeshare. Then we decided to go back to the wildlife park and check out the gift shop and the stuffed animals. My Dad won't admit it but he was really bummed when he realized on the way home we had missed all that stuff. First we went inside and the girls followed the cats around and we all looked at the animals both mounted and stuffed, they were really cool. Then we went back and looked at all the animals in the front (instead of paying admission again to go to the park) and the kids were able to feed the goats and bunny. Here are some cute pictures of them feeding them.

Dad showing them how it worked.
Abby taking a try at feeding the goats.
Abby feeding the sheep.
Tori didn't quite get the hang of it, she would take the food and toss it to the animals.
After we were done there, we went back to the timeshare, but first we stopped off to look at the hot springs. When we got close Abby said what is that smell? It smells like a big fart. We all started laughing, it was pretty funny. That of course encouraged her and she kept saying it over and over. We told her that we were going to go to those one day and that she might not mind the smell, well you can guess that didn't convince her. We will see.

We did go back and get in the pool again, both the girls really liked being in the water and Abby even went under the water with Dad a time or two.

Day Two

Today was a really fun day. We played around the house, took walks down to the lake, did a time share presentation (more on that later) and after lunch we went to the "wild animal park", I say that loosely as there were a total of 20 animals and the loop would take you all of 10 minutes to walk.

Here is Abby in front of one of the Mountain Lyons. Tori and Abby both loved the big stuffed bear at the entrance. Check out the cute glasses on Tori!!

Abby gave him a hug each time she walked by him.
It was actually a lot of fun. It was feeding time when we got there, but oops we went the wrong way on the loop so we met up with the group about halfway through and followed them the rest of the tour. It was interesting to listen to the lady talk about the different animals, what they feed them and some history. The Emu Sydney was let go by a rancher and no one knew what to do with her, so they called these folks to come get her, and she has been here ever since.
This was the younger Mountain Lyon, his Dad was also there, but not social at all. His mother had died earlier this year and was stuffed inside the gift shop. They had these strollers that you could take on the loop, so we but Tori in one and then Abby traded and rode for a while. They were in pretty rough shape but they worked so it was nice not to carry kids the whole time.

Abby wanted me to take a picture of her "silly face".

Abby was most interested in the wolfs and kept asking to see them the whole time. So we got to look at them for a long time. After we looked at them we stopped by and looked at the bunny on the way out. We went back to the resort and went swimming. Abby did really good, she has historically been scared of the water, but today she played without too much fear. The kids part was small, so she did swim around with the adults in the big pool. We finally got out and went out to dinner with our certificate we got from sitting though what they referred to as "an update about our time share" but was really a "lets get you to trade your time share for our time share and pay us a couple of thousand dollars".

We have been though so many of these now we can predict what is going to happen next. First they talk to you the nice person that asks you about how you are doing, pleasantries, then they take you on a tour to see one of their timeshare places. Then they come bring you back and the next person comes in to see if they can help you get rid of your old timeshare that isn't doing you any good (not that they really asked that but that is the assumption), then when you say no again, they bring in the second closer. Again you have to go through the no process.

The whole thing usually takes a couple of hours and at the end of it they give you something for your time, a gift certificate, or some other monitory compensation, usually between $50 and $100 dollars. We have only had one really bad experience, but this is not the place to recant that, so after saying no about 50 times and 2 hours (versus the 45 minutes they told us up front) we headed back to our town home with our gifts.

Dinner was good, and after that we headed back home and got kids ready for bed and ended another fun day.

Day number one

Okay so off we went on our vacation once my parents arrived, and we were only about 1 hour behind schedule. We headed down the road and all was well for the first 2 hours. By then the girls were ready to get out of the car and so we stopped for lunch at McDonald's, except it was an evil trick, there was no McDonald's under those golden arches just a wood frame of a one day to be McDonald's, so we looked for another option...Wendy's would have to do. We all ate, let the kids run around a bit and headed off again. I have to say Abby did great the whole trip, never a compliant, however Tori was another story. About 4 hours into the drive, she started to whine, which turned into crying, which turned into screams. Wow, the lungs at that girl are scary and especially when you are sitting 2 feet away, that sound could shatter glass.

The drive got even better when we were heading through Wolf Creek Pass and my low gas light came on, oh crap!!! If I run out of gas Chris and my Dad were behind us, but the mockery would never stop. This is partially because I gave Chris such a hard time about his tank not being full before we left. So we were booking it up the mountain and then coasting down the other side, all the time praying that we would make it to the next station.

Remember, Tori is now screaming bloody murder in the background, my low fuel light is coming on and still no gas station is sight.

Well I am happy to report that we did make it to a gas station so there will be no mockery and Tori looked pretty bad by the time we pulled into the time share office. Between the fruit snacks stuck to her face, red streaks from all the tears and the other food we dusted off her, once she could get out the car, she was a changed girl. I should have taken a picture it was quite the look.

We got into our Townhouse type unit with 2 bedrooms a main room and a full kitchen and dining area. We quick made up some pasta that we brought with us and then Mom and I headed off to the store to pick up some food for the week and Chris gave the girls a bath in my monstrous tub.

I hope we get to fire up the jets once this week, but doubtful. They loved playing in the big bathtub and what better to entertain than a couple of leftover containers. These will also be great blackmail pictures one day!!

We got everyone off to bed and we put Abby to bed in the "big cool bed that came out of the couch". We will see if she stays there all night, if not our bed is a king, so there is always room for her there.

Off for Vacation

Well today is the day we are heading out to Pagosa Springs for a couple of days. My parents are going with us to the time share that we traded for, and we are all excited about the trip. I hope all goes well with the girls, because otherwise it will be a long six hour drive. Here is a picture of the place we are staying for the week.

The plan is for all of us to drive out together and then Chris and my Dad will come back on Monday so they can both go back to work on Tuesday. Well check back for the updates on the week.

New love

Tori has recently discovered Ketchup and BBQ sauce. Now she loves anything that she can dip into the stuff. She has not discovered how to eat it without it getting all over. This were too cute not to post...

An awe moment

We had the missionaries over for FHE a couple of weeks ago and they showed us the restoration video. I didn't know how Abby would do, but she set through the whole thing and didn't fuss, I was pleasantly surprised. The whole time she kept asking Chris the typical 3 year old questions like what are they putting the ground (seeds), what are they doing (planting), who is that boy (that is Joseph's brother).

When the video got to the part when Joseph was in the grove praying and Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to him, she asked why don't they go sit by him, to which we had no answer. Then in amazing style, she has asked to watch the movie several times since then, and will sit through it just like she does with one of her kid movies.

I guess the lesson here is that you can never underestimate the understanding of a child.

Zoo visit

Today was such a good day to visit the zoo, the sun was out, it wasn't too hot and we went early to get in a trip before it got crowded. I have become a huge advocate for going places right when they open with the girls. It seems to go better, less crowded and you can leave as the madness starts.
Today we got to the zoo right after they opened and did a visit based upon the animals that Abby had picked out the night before. Here Tori and Abby were both loving the giraffes.
Next we had to stop for lunch (yes by this time it was already about 9:30 a perfect time to eat). We think that they must both be in a growth spurt, because they are eating a lot more these days so 2 semi-cold hot dogs were right on track for a early lunch.
We also did the carousal and train ride. This was the happiest that we saw Tori on this ride, once it started, she was not very happy, so I just had to hold her the rest of the ride.
Abby on the other hand thought it was great and laughed and smiled the whole time. She is still talking about it and has already asked if we can do that next time we go to the zoo. I guess as $1.50 each, it won't break the bank.
Overall it was a fun day and as I predicted when we left at 12, all the parking was gone and there was a line down the street to get in.
On a side note, nothing makes me more happy than as I am getting ready to leave a parking spot, someone is waiting for the one I have. It makes me feel kinda giddy, strange yes, odd perhaps, but happy absolutely!!

Spring time means sunglasses

I always thoughts kids in sunglasses were too cute, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy some sunglasses this year. They each got a pair for easter in their basket and I couldn't help but buy another pair for each of them. Children's place has super cute ones for only 2 for $5, which is a steal for such cute ones. When I brought them home, of couse the girl's were really excited and had to put them on right away

Here is Abby sporting her new glasses...

And Tori sporting her new glasses...

New beds??

We were doing some cleaning this weekend and one of the things we did was to move the changing table to the basement. Abby and Tori of course thought this was their opening to start playing with it. Amazing they haven't touched it in months, but now with it in a new spot, it is a toy!!
So anyway they thought this looked like the perfect place to curl up for the night, but not to worry they did actually make it their beds for the real bedtime.

The finished product

After hours, yes hours chopping up chocolate, grinding gram crackers and mixing, layering and layering. I pulled out of the oven, cupcakes that had fallen in the middle, stuck to the paper cups and didn't look at all great. At this point I started to question, what did I do wrong, I looked at the directions about 15 times just to make sure I added everything when and in the amounts I was supposed to, but the end result wouldn't reflecte the hard work. So needless to say I didn't even get use the blowtorch. However I think I can use it fix Abby's bed, so not all is lost.

Here is a picture of what I should have seen

This was a receipe from Matha Stewarts cupcake week called Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow which looked so easy on the show.

I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture because it was so sad. So I quick baked another tried and true cake and layered some strawberries and put some frosting on it and yes Abby added her sprinkles to this cake.

For some reason I can't determine why only some of my cakes will bake in a paper cups and why some of them seem to fall instead of rising nicely. I think I might need to invest in a oven thermometer as well as some other tricks I read about today.

Had the cupcakes turned out I sure would have loved to use my new toy. On a positive note, fixing the saw made all the difference I cut the wood so fast today, I couldn't believe it. So what did I learn? If your blade is catching or spinning, it isn't tight enough...right!

Shopping buddies

Tonight when I got home, we raced through dinner so Abby and I could run up to the store(s) and get a few items we needed for tomorrow nights dinner. All I have to say is Abby do you want to go shopping and she is all over it. So off we went, first to Sam's Club to pick up the bulk items. Some things are just too good not to get there, for example you can get EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) for about 1/2 the cost as the grocery store, bottled water, which we always carry in our cars is also about 1/2 the cost, so we buy it by the case.

Of course we had to get chips because Abby asked for those so she could put them in a bag tomorrow for her snack.

Then we were off to Home Depot. I needed a blow torch for my cupcakes for tomorrow night, picture to follow, tomorrow, and because I needed to have someone look at my blade on my I mean "Chris'" saw that keeps slipping. When the nice man asked me what I needed I am sure it sounded weird to say I need a blow torch, but not too big so I can cook with it. Needless to say I left with both items in hand and am now ready to go back to my shelf building with a fully functioning saw.

Lastly we went to King Soopers, where again Abby was wonderful and helpful, I let her pick out some new sprinkles and the cupcake papers for tomorrow, she was in heaven!!

We made it home about 2 hours after we started and had a great time. It is amazing to me how much she likes to shop and she is go good about it most times too. I think it is hereditary, because I also find it very relaxing.

Okay so check back tomorrow for the finished product of the blow torch purchase....

Random thoughts

I keep having all this random thoughts that I would like to post about, but they don't really go together so I am just going to throw them all out there together and see how it goes.

1. Somehow so many of the stories I feel I share involve poop or something of the sort, but some are just to funny not to share. Last week Abby went off to the bathroom by herself as she often does and was singing and talking so I thought nothing of it. Next thing I know I hear the toilet running and running. It was one of those moments when you think to yourself, something is wrong. So off I got to the bathroom, as I open the door I can see water overflowing out the toilet, a plunger in the toilet and Abby looking at me as if to say, I don't know Mom, but it wasn't me. I yell up to Chris hurry bring lots of towels, the toilet is overflowing. By this time the whole floor is covered and the water is making it's way into the hallway. I shut off the water valve to stop more water, use the plunger to get the extra amount of toilet paper down and the water starts to go down. Next I start to put down towels to collect all the water. After an entire basket full of wet towels I ask Abby what happened to which she replies, I don't know, maybe too much paper?

2 We watched my sisters kids this weekend and all I can say was it was the weekend of poop here. Poor Tori had diarrhea the whole weekend, so we had to keep changing her every couple of hours. We let her run around for awhile outside with just a shirt and shoes to "air out" in true white trash style. Then there was my niece, she is having some "bathroom issues" so I got the privilege of assisting this 5 year old girl, change her clothing about every 2 hours as she soiled herself. Her brother only had a couple of accidents, which is understandable as he is potty training. By Sunday afternoon, I turned to Chris and said, my house smells like poop, I can't take it anymore...after which I found and started to burn a couple of candles. What a weekend, between the poop, feeding and sleeping, we were exhausted.

3. Abby has her imaginary friends called the power pokeums which go with her everywhere. They also get into trouble a lot and Abby is constantly putting them into the naughty point or telling them to come inside, upstairs or any number of commands. You can usually tell what kinds of day she is having by listening to how much trouble her power pokeums are in , they usually correlate.

4. This weekend we watched my friend, Janae's, cat, and Abby and Tori were both fascinated by Mario. Tori would go to the closet and say "owe", which is how she refers to the cat. I would come ask her if she wanted to give Mario a treat, to which she would get a huge smile on her face. I would hand her a treat and she would either walk around with it until you took her upstairs to give it the the "owe" or put her arms out to have you pick her up and take her upstairs. She would go look at the cat under our bed and hand you the treat to throw to Mario for him to eat. I can't image what she would do if the cat would have come out and let her pet him. She is waring Chris down and he really wants to get her a cat, he even said, well we might have to get a cat while you are away...to which I reply, you better not just bring one home, if we do get one, we need to talk about it first...then I remind him how our house smelled like poop all weekend and I don't know if I want a cat...we shall see.

5. Tori also loves dogs too. Lots of people we know have dogs and so gets lots of opportunity to spend time with them. She calls them pups and love to look, touch and talk to them. Even when they do knock her down. I would be more inclined to get a dog then a cat, if you were to ask me. They seem more kid friendly.

6. I have been coughing for about 2 months and finally decided to go to the Dr. (after cancelling my appointment and then remaking it) and found out that it was more than allergies. She said I had lungs that were enlarged/swollen probably from a cold which I had gotten over prior. So now I am on steroids for the next couple of weeks to get the swelling down. She said it was like trying to breath through a straw and there wasn't enough air getting out, so I would breath a lot in and then have a huge coughing fit to get it out. Nice, so that may explain why I have been having a harder time as I was working out in the early hours, not enough air.

7. Chris and I have recently changed schedules which means he goes to work about 5:30 AM and I get to get the girls up and ready for daycare/preschool. Then I go to work after that. This means that I usually get home about 6:30 now, which I have to say sucks!!

I called Chris last week to tell him what a great guy he was and how I didn't know how he did it. That morning I got up Abby, who didn't want to wake up, got her downstairs, breakfast, and dressed. Then I got Tori up and got her food and dressed and out the door only about 20 minutes late, both in tears and at my wits end and it wasn't even 8AM!! Abby was upset because I didn't get the right breakfast, the right movie to watch and hurried her to be through with her food. I didn't get Tori food fast enough, then had the wild idea to change her diaper and get her dressed, which she cried all the way though and then, being the mean Mom I am I made them wear their coats. I told him he could have him mornings back, I didn't like them...but I don't see that happening in the near future. I had to mention on a good note, it sure is nice coming home to a cooked dinner most nights which he does a great job with.

8. Abby is very funny with some of her words. For example she kept calling The Easter Bunny, "Easter the Bunny". When she wants to see in the mirror, she says "let me show in the mirror." When she tells me something and proves me wrong, she loves to say "I told you Mommy", she like to say things like " I can't even believe it" or "Mom how could you". When she wants to put on chap stick, she calls will ask, "Mom can I have my lips?" It is very comical when she mixes up her words and sometimes uses words that are too old her for her like "Crap, I spilled my drink" or "Oh my goodness or Oh my gosh".

9. Abby has a very good memory and knows a number of songs and can repeat books back to me, this weekend I was telling Chris about the Congressional meeting I was at and how we started with a prayer and then presented the American and Colorado flag, followed by the pledge of allegiance and the star spangled banner. Abby piped in with starting to say the pledge of allegiance. Which is really cute I will have to post it, because she doesn't get all the words just right and misses a few others. On Saturday Abby and her cousin had a contest to see who could say it faster (I think they were about at the same speed for the record).

10. Tori is getting so much better with her words which is really helpful. I know Abby was talking more by this age, so I am sure it is frustrating that she can't communicate. She can say Mom, Dad, Ab (Abby), pup (dog), owe (cat), ball, shoe and is working on more every day. She also shakes her head a lot or turns her head away from us for no or gives us a smile for yes.

Okay I think that is all I have to share today, I am sure there will be somethings I forgot so look for more random items.

New couch

It was time for a new couch, really time, I guess after 13 years so this is the goodbye of the old

and in with the new, super comfy couch.

My aunt and uncle were getting a new couch and so they needed to get rid of their old couch, and we were lucky enough to be on their good list. So for much less than we could have purchased a new couch, and a day of hauling thanks to Chris and my Dad, we are now the new owners of this fine couch set. It is so comfy we have all fallen asleep on it already and I must say that it doesn't stain, so far we have gotten juice and pen marks off with just a little rubbing, I love this thing. It is microfiber and I would recommend it any day of the week. I really wanted leather for our next couch, but will take this not to mention the price was right.

We are trying to find new homes for our other two couches, so if you know someone who could use them, all we ask it that they move them.