Hike to Ensign Peak with some Senate wives

Yesterday, during Intrum Day for the legislators, a few of us Senate wives decided to hike Ensign Peak, (which is located just above the capital) It had just stopped raining and was a muddy mess!

But after much slipping and sliding in the mudd we made it. What a fabulous view of the Salt Lake Valley. This was the same hike that Brigham Young took to lay out the city in 1847.
Salt Lake is below us. We have Georgia Knudsen, Anna Kaye Waddoups, Janis Christensen,Lane Hinkins, Merilee Stowell, and Me. Erin Maddson is taking this picture. We then met up with about 5 -6 more wives for lunch. All the pages (which are ladies that help out during the session) came too. Which made for about 25 of us for lunch at a little quaint cafe called "Em's". I'm just sooo glad that the weather held out for us.

A weekend for repairs!

After 3 years of having our "Maintance Free" cabin at Bear Lake; we noticed that our hardy board was chipping. It was supposed to have a 12 year not touch guarantee. We paid the extra money so that we would NOT have to repaint every 3-5 years! So we were given 5 gallons of primer and 5 gallons of stain. That was our warrantee after the first year. So we bought a power washer to remove the chipped stain. The picture shows that it stripped it almost all off. While we were waiting for it to completely dry, Scott tried to repair a broken window thanks to a crazy golfer hitting a range ball down the wrong way on the golf course. What was supposed to take about 1/2 hour, ended up taking 3 hours to repair. They had given us the wrong size window and Scott ended up breaking the new one also by trying to "shove" it in the opening. So time wasted and we have another broken window!

Matt and Irene came up to help us. Thank goodness that they did! Here they are applying the primer with the help of a lifter that we rented for the weekend. The sprayer that we had bought didn't work; so every coat of primer and stain had to be hand applied.

The stain needed probably 4 or 5 coats to make it as dark as the original color! We ended up only applying 3 coats before we ran out of time. We clocked 17 hours of use time on the lift.
While Matt and Irene were up on the wall, Grandpa and Owen went looking for golf balls. In just a short time they had collected over 35 balls! Thanks again Matt and Irene for taking your ENTIRE weekend to help us.! Next weekend....another 2 coats of stain will have to be applied! All to a wall that was supposed to be hands off!

New toys for a larger playroom

Having thirteen grandchildren; I was in desperate need of a larger "playroom". So I cleaned out an extra bedroom and bought some new toys. Cameron (Erik's boy) enjoys a new kitchen set.

Kate the doctor (also Erik's daughter) plays with the "new Dr. outfit." She looks just like what her mom Kelli looks like at her work.
Cameron the construction worker. Ready for the "repairs" needed at our house.
Hannah (Erik's oldest child) poses with an awesome shopping cart that seems to be the favorite new item in our toy room.

Painting has begun!

So basically, this is why I didn't want to paint that back room myself. Look at all the plastic!

Whoops! Vader brushed up against a wall while it was still wet! This is the second time he has painted himself!

Painting the back family room

Phase two in our remodel; paint the back family room. After what I went through with the kitchen; we decided to hire it done. Our painter we hired had someone come in for a day to plaster all the cracks.

Well the cracks proved to be a HUGE problem. We had rust and bubbling of the plasterboard. A one day job has turned into a 3 day and still counting just for the replastering and repairing!

And that is not even the painting part! Painting was to take at least 3 days. I'm alittle nervous as to what will happen when the painting starts. And now that the furniture is moved out of the room; I definately need a shampoo job!

Happy Birthday Scott!

Last Tuesday, April 13th Scott turned 60 years old! Boy was he depressed! But this past weekend all the kids came home and we went to Taggarts to celebrate.

Then on Sunday we all had dinner here. When we are all here; it makes for a very FULL room.

James had just gotten new glasses. I think that he looks so cute. He's not sure however; that he likes them yet.

My girls pose for a picture together while we were outside eating cake and ice cream. What a great day to be outside!

Happy number 5 for James

Saturday was James' birthday. He turned 5 years old. This boy loves sports of all kinds and that's what he wanted for his birthday. A basketball from Mom and Dad.

A T-ball bat and mitt from Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins. He is on a team this spring and games start up soon.

James is a great boy and we love him very much and wish him a happy happy birthday.