Winter Carnival

It's winter out there, folks! Time to party in the cold and make the most of those mittens, scarves and gloves!! That's what we did a couple of weekends ago, when we went to the annual Winter Carnival in McCall. (For those who don't know Idaho very well, McCall is a smallish resort town, set on a beautiful mountain lake with very expensive real estate.)

Schedule of events included: delicious pancake breakfast, Mardi Gras parade, AMAZING ice sculptures, hay ride, and tubing on the lake. Brian and I took our kids and Brian's parents, plus we met up with Mark and Dalana and their kids, as well as Reed and Alysa. Here's most of our group, in front of one of the sculptures...
It was quite the celebration. For those "in the know," it somewhat reminded me of Maplefest, (a lovely, frostbitten March-time celebration in New England to announce the beginning of maple season, when all the trees are tapped and syrup is brewed.) The Winter Carnival was it's own festive celebration (no stealing from the uniqueness of Maplefest). I guess the only real similarity was that we started with a grand slam pancake breakfast at the Senior Center. I didn't get pictures, but you can imagine the eggs, sausage, all-you-can-drink o.j., biscuits and gravy, and piled-high stacks of pancakes with syrup. (No, it wasn't real maple, Randi. But it was still tasty stuff.)

After breakfast, we headed to watch the parade. It was one of the only winter parades I've seen, and was quite entertaining, for all the freezing fans. My favorite float was the cabana dancers...
They were all 50+, and totally into their dancing! This lady (below) had 3-inch long fake lashes, and a whole cornucopia on her head...
Here's our group watching the parade...
Since it was a Mardi Gras parade, they were throwing out all those funky beads, along with tons of candy. We came home with a whole new collection for Sammie's "princess" jewelry! Here she models her new necklaces...
Poor Spence couldn't stop sucking his little finger, so his hands got icy cold. But he was a good sport about things, even taking a nap during part of the VERY LOUD parade. Look at those blue eyes...

I just can't get enough of him...
After the parade, we finally met up with Mark and Dalana's family (so sad there was so much mis-communication all day long -- they missed the breakfast and parade, rats!) and we went to look at the sculptures. They were AMAZING!

This is the best shot (below) of the grand prize winner, though it's not a great shot. It was called "Camelot" and featured a knight, fighting a dragon, a king and queen inside a castle, sitting on their thrones holding court, and a very slick mote with drawbridge. As I said, not the best shot, but you get a bit of a feel for it...
Here was another favorite, called "Fantasy Castle" or something like that. It was sooo tall, with little caves carved in the trees below the castle. The group...
We thought this one was quite creative...
There was one that had a huge slide for the kids, with a really slick, twisty ride onto a huge sheet of ice at the end. Here you can see Sammie's head as she zooms past, and I think that's John in the black coat at the top, waiting his turn?
We were really surprised to see Cooper coming down head first, because it really was quite a steep, slippery ride. But he said it was fun, little daredevil!
My personal favorite was a whole yard set up to look like the Candyland game board. They had gumdrop mountains, peppermint stick forests, lollipop woods, etc. It was really fun, wandering through... they even had a little path with pieces carved to look like the game board. Here's Sam, on the slide at Gumdrop Mountains pass...
And here she is on the rainbow trail bridge...
Look at how huge the lollipops were in Lollipop Forest! And so detailed, too!
These little two-foot gingerbread guys were on the wall surrounding the entire display, so cute!
And this little candy shack was probably 10-12 feet tall! Wow! I thought Candyland should have won first prize, but they were fourth place.
After looking at the sculptures, (and piling 13 into our van to get Mark and Dalana back to their van. shh, don't tell), Grandma and Grandpa thought a hayride for the kids sounded like fun...
All the kids seemed to love it. (I personally was ready for a foot heater by that point.)

We stopped to watch people tubing onto the frozen lake for a little while. (This was before the Lake Erie icy fiasco last week, so no one felt too threatened to be out on the ice, I guess!) John and Cooper had brought their tubes, so they got to go down a few times. Our little family was too cold to stay for that part, so I didn't get any good pictures of them, but I heard they had fun.
I had to include a shot of this one-man-band guy that we watched for awhile. He had quite the set-up, and Sammie was completely mesmerized by his performance. She's watching, (with her purple coat and red pants). She clapped after each song, and even danced along for a bit.
That's all the pictures for now. It was a fun and memorable outing, even Samantha said so when we got home. I do have to say that my feet were WHITE and NUMB by the end of the day, despite my warmest shoes and two pairs of thick socks; I don't like to be cold. Samantha doesn't either -- she did more than a little bit of whining and crying about cold feet and hands, poor thing. But we will probably do it again -- next time with warmer shoes, a better cell phone connection (sorry again to Mark and Dalana), and a thermos of hot chocolate!

Living Color!

Big, BIG, B I G THANK YOU to my lovely cousin, Serenity, and her daughter, Brecken, who volunteered to have Sammie come play for a day this week... so Sammie's mommy could paint! Sammie LOVED having a play date with Brecken and all Brecken's toys.

In the meantime, here at home, I spent the entire day painting (and occasionally patting Spencer's head or handing him a cracker, etc.). After our start-up painting experience (explained in my previous posts), I was afraid it would all be quite the fiasco. But once I got going, things actually came together much more quickly than I anticipated. So... in one day, I finished the trim in Sam's room, painted the wall in our bedroom, and painted the kitchen wall, as well. Here are the results...
Spence loves Sam's new room. Above, he waves hello while holding onto her bed (which he just learned to climb up on!). It looks purplish, here, but really it's pink pink pink. (Check out Spencer's darling little snaggle tooth. He's cutting the second front tooth now, so these one-tooth-smile dayse are almost at an end.)More of a full-room shot, below. It will look more complete (and even more pink) once we get her pink stripey curtains hung and the pink butterfly pictures on the wall. Eventually we'll add a white board to cut between the two pink colors... not yet, but sometime soon.
Here's the lovely kitchen wall... golden honey yellow. I love it, especially at night.
And a daytime view...Here's our new little "computer nook" in the corner, with my new cute little laptop sitting at it's new roll-top desk home.
This picture shows the colors best, I think. Plus, I love the "peaches" sign, and how well it matches the paint.
I also love the green hutch on the yellow wall. Brian laughs at how much I love it, but it just turned out sooo much better than I even expected. And it was easy and fast!
Here's a shot of our bedroom wall. It's the same color as the kitchen, but the lighting is totally different (darker) in our room, so it looks like a different color to me. I have big plans for decorating that wall. Stay tuned!!
And, last but not least, I thought I'd add some pictures of our new couches. These shots don't show the reddish-orange and gold accents in the couch, but they show the overall look of the room. A nice change and so fun to see things coming together like we want them to look!

Once more, big thanks to Reni for her help in our decorating projects!! And thanks to Brian for putting up with all my woes and frets as we got things organized. Next paint project -- Spencer's room. It might be awhile though. :)

Our latest...

I've been a terrible blogger lately. And I have no real excuses (other than painting, as mentioned earlier.) But I do have things to tell, and a few minutes to write right now. So, forgive me for the lack of photos, as I share our latest.

1. We got a new computer! YAAAAYYY!! This really is BIG news for ME, because it's supposed to be MY computer, to keep in the kitchen at a new little desk where I can use it and still do all the stuff I'm supposed to do. I LOVE it so far! I confess, it's still not as easy as I dreamed it would be to log on while being climbed on by two little monkeys. But we're working things out as we go. It's been very exciting so far. Many new posts are in my mind now, just waiting to be typed up on this pretty little laptop.

2. We got new couches and a new entertainment center. Well, they're new to us, though they're actually from craiglist (our new addiction). The couches are gorgeous new ones, from a model home and they look great in our living room. We put the 3-month-old orange couch upstairs and it looks great up there! The entertainment center is still in the garage because it's heavy enough to give any good man a hernia. But we hope to get several good men over sometime soon to hopefully help us haul it upstairs and really start "finishing" our family room.

3. Spencer now has SIX teeth! SIX!! Unlike Samantha, who cut them one at a time, every month or so -- Spence cuts them two at a time, or three, it seems! And he bites FAST and HARD!! Ouch! He apparently is not familiar with the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" addage, because he's always chomping my fingers.

4. Samantha is the queen of trying new words, and mixing them up. I love all the little made-up words she comes up with... kaprise (for surprise); pasta flakes (instead of frosted flakes); tellable (instead of terrible). One of her favorite phrases is when she's sad or I tell her not to do something, she breaks down to near-tears and says, "that makes my feelings sooo sad!" I think it's cute. The other day I had both kids ready for bed and I said, "Oh, I have two of the cutest little angel babies!" Samantha got really serious and said, "No. Spencer is NOT an angel." I asked, "He's not??" "No. He's a sheep." (It's true, he was a sheep for the Christmas nativity; and she was an angel. Let's keep things straight, Mom!)

5. Brian has volunteered to help with the Special Olympics, which is being hosted in Boise, starting this coming week. He'll be helping with a delegation from the Middle East, and will be serving as translator. It sounds like a really fun opportunity for him to use his Arabic, which is great! But we won't see much of him for the next 10-12 days as he will be on site with his group for the games. Anybody fancy a road trip to visit Kamber and the kiddies??

6. I'm painting a wall in our bedroom yellow. It's more of a dusty golden color really (at least I HOPE it is -- you'll get an update once it's actually on the wall). I just find it interesting, because when I was 13 we repainted our house, and I got to choose which color my bedroom would be. I chose a bright banana yellow. I guess I like yellow, even though I've always teased my mom for her yellow kitchen.

7. I'm planning a trip to Utah for a few days around the middle of February. Unfortunately, Brian won't be able to come with me, but I'm looking forward to seeing some people and having a change of scenary. Unlike other Utah visits, I'm trying to resist the temptation of overbooking myself. There are always sooo many people I want to see (since all you fabulous people seem to congregate there), that I flit around spending an hour here, an hour there -- never very much quality time anywhere. So, I'm trying to be more "stationary" (or is it stationery... with an e? I never can remember which is which, but I mean I'll be staying in one place, rather than trying to be a piece of note paper.) Hopefully I'll still get to see people?

8. We have had four or five days of sunshine in a row!! That is FABULOUS news to me, because prior to that we had what Treasure Valley locals call "the Inversion." I HATE it. It basically means we saw NO sunshine (other than one 7-minute sunset) from the time we got home from Hawaii. (I know, I really can't complain because we DID go to Hawaii) But remember I am a SUN person. I LOVE the sun, hate the cold, overcast, dark Inversion. The fact that we have had several bright happy days in a row has filled my life with joy!

9. I'm hoping to finish up that paint job first thing tomorrow morning (with the very kind help of my cousin, Serenity, who volunteered to watch Sammie. YAY!! This means I must get to bed now so I can actually do the painting I've planned. I hope I'll be able to add some pictures soon.

Ciao for now!

To those who wish to paint

This is my special note to those novice painters -- like myself -- who get it into their heads that they can change the space they live in with just a few dollars, a can of paint, and a little elbow grease.

First, words of caution: the dream of painting is just that -- a dream. It has realistic qualities, for sure. But the morning reality (or the morning daylight that streams into the window on that newly painted bedroom wall) can be far different (and a far different color) from the dream.

Next, a few tips I missed with my first go-round:

• All rollers are NOT created equal, and the ones for bumpy walls really DO only make it through one coat.
  
• No one ever mentions taping in its proper context. People should say, "I'm TAPING my bedroom, then eventually I will paint it, I hope."
• Three-year-olds CANNOT sit on a chair in the room with the painter and quietly watch the painting proceed. (I know that should have been obvious from the beginning, but we were optimistic)
• "April Love" and "Sugar and Spice" look much different-- and sadly, better and lighter-- on the swatch, and even on the two feet of "test" paint than they do when they cover an entire room.
• Plastic disposable drop clothes are tantalizing toys for 11-month-olds, but they fall into the same category as those suffocating grocery bags and should not be a source of baby entertainment. (No, our baby didn't almost suffocate, but I sure had to keep pulling the drop cloth away from him!)
  
• Another note on plastic disposable drop clothes; they do not stay down with painting tape very well, and they don't cover a large bedroom very well unless you tape several together.
• That special blue tape they use for painting actually leaks paint colors in tiny little bumps where you don't want it, especially if you don't untape it right away (which is problematic when you have to do several coats to paint over that "neutral" dark beige)
• Stencils and sponge stamps don't work very well on bumpy walls.
• One gallon is NOT enough for two coats in a large bedroom. And if you're covering that "neutral" you WILL definitely need TWO coats.
• When matching paint colors to go with a room, pick colors that go well with the existing trim color, so as to avoid painting over the even-darker beige "neutral" trim.
• Don't leave any paint within reach of 11-month-olds. They WILL find it, and it WILL spill, and those pajamas WILL be paint-soaked. Not to mention that lovely make-shift taped-up disposable drop cloth will need to be cleaned and repaired or discarded altogether.
• Trim ALSO requires two coats of paint because that darker beige "neutral" is even DARKER than one might have thought to begin with.
• Those clever "neutral" window casings that matched that darker "neutral" trim will NOT match the white trim color that goes on the windows, doors and base boards. This may look slightly tacky and will require special curtains for covering the obvious color differences. (But it would be more tacky to paint the plastic window casings, wouldn't it?)
• Poor, sympathetic husbands will be dragged into the whole mess whether they like it or not.
• Even if that make-shift drop cloth rips apart AGAIN, it will still be mildly amusing and cute to watch the "trying-to-be-still" three-year-old pretend to be a bear, and a ballerina, and a choir director... all from her little chair.
• The end result might be worth it.

I'll tell you how it turns out, when I actually REACH the end!! Two days into this, over 10 hours invested (not including the 10 hours of interruptions), and we still have a couple more coats to do on the trim, and a board around our boarder to tie it all together. This is Sammie's room (if you couldn't tell). We've done two shade of pink... one the color of bubble gum, the other the color of pepto bismol -- not what I had planned, but it sure is girly pink! I'll put up some pictures at some point. This is only the first of four different paint plans... we'll see if we actually attempt another go-round!! Just had to shout out to somebody (so poor Brian can catch a break!) Wish me luck!

Hawaii -- Part II: Condo on the Coast

First, thanks so much for all the fun comments. I know I have been a TERRIBLE blogger person. I should not even expect anyone to keep reading. But I'm glad that you do. I want to hurry and get more of this Hawaii trip blogged out, because now there's other "life" going on, much of it worth blogging about. So, on with the blog...
You may be wondering how the whole Hawaii thing came up in the first place? Well, Brian's sister, Janice, and her husband Jay have a time share. I'm not sure exactly how those things work, but this year their "destination" was Maui, and they invited us to come along with them. We had three really nice condos with two bedrooms each, with tons of space for just hanging out and enjoying being together. We had a fun time cooking meals together, playing games, watching movies, and just hanging out in each other's rooms. We stayed there for a whole week, just playing on the beach and taking some fun trips around, doing "stuff." Here's part of our group, playing a dice game.... (Gooo Farkel!)...

And here's Grandpa with his new buddy, Spencer (who just ate an m&m, as evidenced by the slobbers)...
Not too many pictures inside, because we preferred to be out at the beach, or wherever! Here's a few shots of us at "our beach" (which was PERFECT for the little kids, with smaller waves and good sand).
Ha! Brian has short legs!!
Here's one of the sunset picts I got, but it wasn't great. Our camera doesn't take great sunset shots, I think...

Spencer and me at the beach... Aside from playing at the beach or pool, we actually did a lot of fun outings, checking out the island. Some of the highlights for me include:

• Shopping and seeing Lahaina -- a cute, trendy little coastal town
• Big Beach -- my favorite beach on Maui, so picturesque and such perfect waves!
• Visiting a town called Paia -- Sammie has a fun beach story from there.
• Snorkeling by the lava fields -- few picts, but a nice memorable morning.
• Driving to Haleakala -- the volcano crater.
• An all-day boat snorkeling trip -- with the whole family!

Here are some of my picts, and more details about each of those fun things...

Lahaina
We had so much fun walking around this cute little town, with lots of fun touristy shops and cafes, right next to the beach and harbor. This was the ONE time we ate at a restaurant all together (imagine asking for a table for 18!! -- we just figured it was easier eating at the condo most of the time). Here we are, enjoying Cool Catz hamburger joint...

Right in front of the Town Hall in Lahaina is this AMAZING bannion tree! It is absolutely MASSIVE, with several different trunks, all connected....
Sammie had fun climbing some of the easy-reach branches, and Spence liked posing for a quick shot...

Not pictured, but also part of our Lahaina visit was the PERFECT Hawaiian shaved ice we got just as we were leaving. It was coconut, with sweetened condensed milk over the top. dreamy.

Big Beach
This was my favorite beach on Maui. It was just so beautiful, with jagged volcanic cliffs in the background, and perfect sand and waves. The water was an amazing blue color, and perfect temperature. Oh, and the day we went there was really sunny, which I loved.

Here's Sam, building a sand castle...
Sam and Kam, testing the waves. What this picture doesn't show is Samantha running back to the sand after two seconds in the water -- her normal pattern on this trip.Here I am, after my one and only attempt at body boarding.
I watched this 50-something guy surf the waves over and over. Finally, I thought, it can't be that hard. So I got our board, paddled out, and tried to catch my own wave. I got pounded into the ocean floor, several times over. I came up sooo sandy and disoriented, Brian was laughing so hard. But hey, he had his day in the dirt, too. Turns out we both are NOT good at body boarding, something in common!

Paia
I don't have any pictures of the actual town of Paia, even though it was really cute and trendy (and spendy!) But the beach was most memorable for us, anyway. The waves were really big, and only surfers were going in at that beach. Here's Allie, watching the waves and surfers...

We only had four kids with us -- Connor, Allie, Samantha, and Spencer. But still, it was hard to keep them from wanting to get in the water. We kept telling them to get back, but the temptation to be close was hard to ignore. Sammie went right down to the water's edge, in a hurry, and I started yelling for her to come back. "You'll get your shoes wet," I hollered, thinking that would get her to come back. Instead, she kicked off a sandle and it landed right where a monster wave was coming in. Samantha saw the wave coming for her shoe and started running, full speed INTO the water to save her shoe. Brian, Janice, and I all started running for her, seeing the wave was one of those kind that would gobble her up and spit her out somewhere way down the shoreline. It was so scary, for two seconds. Brian caught her, just as she was getting bowled over. She was pretty shaken by it all, but mostly buy the fact that she LOST her SHOE! It was nowhere to be seen, after getting swallowed by that huge wave. But then, guess what? Ten minutes later, it washed up a few yards down from where we were sitting! Brian retrieved it, and all was right in Sammie's world, once again. (Except she was soaked and freezing). Here she is, holding her recovered sandle...

Snorkeling in the lava fields
It's hard to get great pictures of snorkeling, unfortunately -- unless you have an underwater camera (which we don't). But one of my favorite mornings was when Brian and I woke up early with Janice, Brent, and Jenalyn. We drove down the coast to a lava field, where it is rumored you can snorkel with the dolphins! We didn't actually snorkel WITH the dolphins, but we did get to see them, off in the distance while we snorkeled near the shore.

Here's Brian and me on the way to our snorkel spot, standing in front of the lava field, flowing down from the volcano in the background.
And here's one of my favorite pictures of the lava field. Doesn't it just look like some dark soil, newly tilled and ready for planting? But nope. Those rocks are sharp and pokey, and forbidden to touch or take.
An interesting tidbit about the lava rocks --One of the guide books said the tourist offices in Hawaii get tons of lava rock mailed back to them from unlucky tourists who removed them from the islands and received terrible luck! Funny, huh? So if anyone "accidentally" took some lava home from their Hawaii trip, and is now suffering from bad luck -- mail it back! ha.

Haleakala
That's the name of the HUGE volcano on Maui, that makes such crazy weather patterns for the island. It sits at 10000 feet high, and is often covered with snow. We took a drive to the top (very winding and slow-going, but scenic too), and had a nice time seeing the clouds below us as we went.

Here's our group, huddling under a rock at the top. It was freezing cold, and raining. Sammie was not impresse that THAT was our destination, after a three hour drive! too cold!!
Here's our family near the top, stopping at an overlook to watch the clouds shoot up by the crater. It really was gorgeous!
Spence and me. Brian likes this picture of us, so I had to include it...
Brian, standing at the lookout tower. We would have gotten a family shot there, but the rest of us were too cold, and were already sitting back in the car by the time he and Brent investigated the lookout tower!
A view from near the top. Doesn't it look like we're in an airplane, with all those clouds?!
On the way down, cute Eric, fast asleep...
And cutie Spence, wide awake...

Snorkeling day trip on the boat!
Our last day all together, we went snorkeling together for the day, and it was so much fun! Here's our group, on the boat before getting in the water...
And here's me, after the first round of snorkeling. (Check out the poor lady behind me. We had a few sea-sick fellows in our group, but nothing like that poor lady went through! I was talking to her after, and she told me she even owns a boat, and goes out regularly, but for some reason this trip made her sick. We all felt sooo bad for her.)
Brian's parents were soooo nice to "come along for the ride" and watch all the little kids while the big kids and adults got to snorkel. Big thanks to them for being so thoughtful! We got to swim with sea turtles, and see a few whales breach along the way. Very fun!

Below is the island of Lanai, where we snorkeled. It had a nice reef and some beautiful fish.

And here's part of our group, on the bow. It looks like Connor's about to jump ship, but I think he was really just um... "being sick" over the side. Poor guy. And, that wraps it up for our Maui condo portion of the trip. Stay tuned for the finale in Oahu!!