Marathon blog post

In reading some various blogs today, I realized that there are two types of bloggers, those that do short blogs every couple of days and those that do marathon blog posts once every couple of weeks. You guess which one I am.

Cole finally found the stairs in our house the other day. He ventured up two of them before sitting down. He stayed on the step for a bit but then didn't know what to do so he started whining. Mom came to the rescue.


This picture of Grant in a box makes me question why we spend money on toys. He loves this box. He put a pillow in it and asked for a blanket. He loves to climb in and out and hide in the blanket and under another box. A couple of days ago, his friend Olivia was over playing and they started fighting over the box. Luckily, we still had moving boxes on our front porch so I was able to make a "home bed box" (as named by Grant) for her too.

Our poor pathetic dogs. Chad was loading up the car two Fridays ago to go to Tucson to work on our house. When the Jeep hatch opened up both dogs hopped right in and sat in the car as long as we could let them. They were sure that they were going on whatever outing was being planned. How sad they were when they got kicked out. Barry also hops into the front seat of the Camry every chance he gets. He did it tonight when we were loading up to go get dinner. He kept moving from one seat to the other and running around the car. Chad questioned who was dumber, us or Barry.

My dad and brother, David, came to visit from Sunday, August 9 through Wednesday, August 12. On Monday, we all headed out to Goldwater Lake for the evening to do some crawdad fishing. My dad had this outing planned for weeks before he arrived. He really wanted to take Grant to do this. He and my brother even spent an entire day driving all over Phoenix looking for a crawdad trap, which they did find. (Is anyone else wondering why they didn't just call places before they went driving around?) We had a blast doing this. Grant loved it and so did Chad and I. We brought hot dogs and raw chicken to tie on the end of fishing poles. You drop the line with the bait to the bottom of the lake. It's fairly shallow so you can see the crawdads crawling around and see when they latch onto the bait. When one or sometimes two latch on you slowly reel them up and then just before you pull them out of the water you slide the net under so it drops in the net. The trap worked really well too. We got about 10 with the trap. We also used Chad's stinky garlic fishing spray. It was awful but it worked really well. The best pole for the catching was Grant's little Barbie pole because it was so short. My dad got grabbed by one of the crawdads as he was trying to put in the bucket and almost got stung by a bee about 500 times but he was the only casualty. When daylight was gone we headed home and my dad did the dirty work. They all had to be snapped in half to remove the tail with the meat then the middle fin has to be pulled out to remove the small intestinal vein. Gross, I know. That's why my dad had to do it. My dad got them all cleaned up and bagged for dinner on Tuesday night. Tuesday night we boiled them and then peeled and ate them with our steaks. It was delicious. They don't have much of a taste until you dip them in garlic butter. They are good.

(Grant so excited for the outing brandishing his crawdad net)

(David, Papa and Grant crawdad fishing)

(One of the victims of our little outing)

(Hanging on for dear life are five crawdads while being torn apart on deveined)

(The bucket of crawdads we caught. The water is dark because of all their poop)

(The pile of crawdads waiting to be cleaned)

My dad's birthday was at the end of July so when he was here my sister, Shelli, suggested we make him a cake and celebrate. My dad's favorite cake is german chocolate cake from scratch so that's what she made. It didn't turn out as beautifully as we had hoped but it sure tasted good.

My family left on Wednesday to go back to Phoenix and I headed down with them to make my way to Tucson for a couple of days. Me and the boys stayed over night with Shelli then headed to Tucson on Thursday morning. We made it in time for playgroup at Amy's house and stayed there until Saturday afternoon. Friday we just hung out and went swimming and Saturday I went with Amy to Super Saturday at our ward. I didn't sign up for anything because I didn't think I would be there but I had a great time seeing my friends. My friend, Sandra Nixon, finally got back from two months in Utah and it was fun to see her. The boys had a great time playing with each other and exhausted each other every day. They played outside as much as they possibly could.

(Cole had his first popsicle at Amy's and loved it)

(This is Grant on Nicholas' huge off roading tricycle. Notice the blocks on the pedals so the kids can even reach)

The first week of August, I planted a small garden at our house. I got it in just under the wire. It was tough to do though. There were so many rocks in the ground that had to be dug up. I had awful blisters even though I wore gloves and it killed my back and arms. I got most of the big ones out though, except two huge ones that I think are actually connected deeper underground somewhere. I ended up having to plant my garden around the big stubborn boulders so I use the big gaping hole as my compost. Because of the poor quality of the ground here, I had to add in several bags of compost, mulch and manure. But guess what, something's growing. My little broccoli seeds are sprouting and it is so cool. I just hope they don't get eaten by deer, javelina, skunk, racoons or whatever else decides to wander through our property in the dead of night. As an aside, this afternoon I was in my living room watching Dallas when my dogs started barking like crazy. They wouldn't stop so I turned around to see what the fuss was and I saw a large doe standing at the far edge of my driveway, stone still. Sooner was half way up the drive barking and of course, brave Barry was by our front porch barking and growling. All of the sudden the deer bolted and Sooner took off after her. Sooner reappeared in the yard from a different direction about 10 minutes later. Who knows where that chase took her?

(The giant boulders that I could not get out. One is in the bottom left corner and the other is in the top right corner. There is light dirt between them)

(One of the giant rocks I dug out)

(One of the piles of rocks that were removed from my garden)

(My small broccoli plants)


On my list of 101 things, I put that I wanted to start an herb garden, as well as plant a garden so I have started some herbs in pots. I also planted a jalapeno plant for the fun of it. Believe it or not, the jalapeno plant is flowering. It may actually grow jalapenos. I planted basil and cilantro as well. I am not so sure about those. They are yellowing and a little wilted. I am not sure if they are being under or overwated and sunned. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am borrowing several large pots from Shelli and will plant more basil and cilantro so that I can actually use it in my cooking. I hope they stay alive.

(My jalapeno plant -- see the little white flowers)

(My cilantor and basil - notice the wilt and discoloring. Maybe it's too much water. I don't know)

The boys are loving our front yard to play in. They were outside all morning, playing and running/crawling around. We don't have a sandbox so they just dig in the rocks that surround our cement driveway. They don't seem to mind.

Cole has discovered the Cozy Coupe and loves it. He loves to sit in it and loves to have Grant push him around. He squeals and shakes and moves the steering wheel. He also loves to open and close the door.

Below is a picture of our dog pen and an ugly blue and gold flowered pull out couch, just to provide visual aids for the story of how we got this pen to our house. Chad found the pen on Craig's list for a steal of $110. The measurements were perfect so I called the guy and he said he'd take $75. I drove out of town about 25 minutes the next day to look at it. I was supposed to bring the checkbook to pay for it immediately but forgot it because Cole took a way longer nap than expected and we were 30 minutes late. I checked it out and knew we wanted it but now we had to figure out how to transport it. It is 13 feet long and 7-1/2 feet wide and 6 feet tall. We needed a flat bed trailer but that wasn't turning out to be easy to find. My dad was coming up from Phoenix with a moving truck to bring us a queen size guest mattress but the truck opening wasn't going to be big enough. Then we thought luck had struck, my dad went to pick up the truck and they were out of 10 foot trucks so he was upgraded to a 16 foot truck. Yeah, we thought, we can get the pen when they get here. We unloaded the truck then all headed out to get the pen. We backed up the truck to the pen, each took a corner and lifted only to discover the opening was 6 inches too narrow to fit the pen. Great. My dad suggested we call some family friends, the Andersons because they have horses and trailers and all of that. We arranged to borrow a truck and flat bed trailer the next day. We picked up the trailer and their Excursion and drove out to get the pen again (trip #3). We backed up the trailer to the pen, tied it down and hopped back in the car to head home. However, when my dad went to turn on the car it died immediately. Now we had a trailer with the pen strapped to it but a dead car. We had to call Jeff Anderson and wait for him to drive to Big O to pick up his truck then make the long drive to us to see about fixing the car. We waited about 35 minutes for him to arrive then another 30 minutes to try and fix the car. It wasn't going to be fixed so we had to roll the Excursion down the hill, hitch the trailer to the truck, leave the Excursion and bring the pen to my house. The pen was on a slope and you could either drive up the slope or go around drive down the slope. My dad almost drove up the slope but at the last second decided to go up and around. Thank heavens or that Excursion couldn't have been moved. The side effect of this mishap was that the couch pictured below was supposed to have been dropped at Goodwill in this plan. We were going to get the pen, take it to my house, pick up the couch, drop it at Goodwill then return everything. Now, the couch is still sitting on my driveway waiting to be donated. It's been there so long now that I'm kind of getting used to it and finding myself questioning whether we should keep it so I can use it outside. I think I need it gone ASAP.

(Video of Grant pushing Cole in the Cozy Coupe)

(Cole finally crawling, out of sheer necessity because the cement was too rought on his belly)

(The boys and their couch cushion slides - I have no idea where Cole gets his guts from)

(Cole stacking donuts - he's gotten so big and learned to do so much)

We have moved

It has finally happened. We moved to Prescott. We spent the first 17 days of July packing up everything we own and getting our house ready to rent out. On Saturday, July 18, we headed out and drove to Prescott. We had a great amount of help from friends and family to get this move done and we are very grateful. Chad's mom and brother, Vance, came into town for a few days to help pack, make repairs and paint rooms. While Vance and Barbara were here Chad and I made a deal. I could hire someone to clean the house instead of doing it myself and he could purchase Guitar Hero for our Wii. We both won and we were both happy. That's the best kind of deal. We had several guys from the elder's quorum in Tucson come help us load the truck. Our 26' truck was loaded in less than 90 minutes. My brother David came into town to help us drive a car up to Prescott and unload. We had several members of the ward here in Prescott meet us to unload. It is sad to be gone from Tucson but we are enjoying our new home. We have more space inside and out and the weather is much more tolerable although significantly hotter than when I was growing up.

(The door that was finally repainted - Sooner scratched it up and now it's good as new)

(Grant playing Guitar Hero)

(Barbara playing Guitar Hero)

(Our living room while being packed)

(One of many stacks of boxes and bins)

Just a few short days after moving to Prescott, we headed to Estes Park, CO for a Jones family reunion. That is Chad's mom's family. It was great fun but much too short. We headed to Phoenix Wednesday evening and flew out Thursday morning. We had a fun Chuck Wagon dinner on Thursday night. We got to see all of the family that we haven't seen in ages. Grant met up with his "friends" and after dinner disappeared for the rest of the evening. On Friday, we went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We took a fairly easy trail to a lake and enjoyed lunch and the view. It took longer than it should have to get there because Grant was whiney and very slow. He made it though. We wee going to head back after that but Grant said he wanted to hike more so we went on to the next lake. Of course, he whined and was very slow up to the next lake but we made it. We took a detour on the way back and found a beautiful flowing stream with waterfalls. Friday night was the adult dinner. We left Grant with his cousins and some babysitters and went to a church our family rented (not one of our churches). We had dinner and enjoyed a hilarious skit by Barbara and her siblings. Cole slept the whole time in a crib in one of their nurseries. We need some of those at our church. On Saturday, very early, we headed white water rafting. We left with the boys with Kim, Barbara and her kids. The boys had fun with their grandma, aunt and cousins while we floated down the river. I have not had so much fun in a long time. I definitately plan to do that again. Chad's cousin Julia fell out of her boat and a boat of younger kids flipped on the easier rapids but no one was hurt and everyone had a great time. We all rushed back from rafting to watch a video Vance made of a bunch of family photos we all submitted. It was great to watch. We watched it in an actual movie theater we rented. Saturday night was family game night. We were back at the same church from the night before. All of the kids were playing in their fantastic nursery with tons of toys. At one point I went to check on Grant and he actually told me to go away and leave him alone. I think he was afraid I would say it was time to leave. Overall, we all stayed up way too late with our family relaxing in the hot tub and hanging out. Grant had so much fun with his cousins. I am in love with Colorado now and want to go back and even move there. Sadly, we were only there for two days really. We left Sunday morning to fly home.

(Lindsay, Cole, Grant and Chad on the wagon ride before the chuck wagon dinner)

(Kym, Trent, Vance, Barbara and Alisha on a wagon ride before our chuck wagon dinner)

(Alisha, Vance, Ellie, Trent, Jake, Barbara, Chad and Grant at the chuck wagon dinner)

(Chad and Vance at the chuck wagon dinner)

(The cousins, Hayden, Brookie, Sage, Ellie, Little Vance and Grant with Trent relaxing in the hot tub)

(Chad with Grant trailing behind hiking to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park)

(Chad, Lindsay, Cole and Grant at Crystal Lake)

(Brooke, Vance, Ellie, Brookie, Kim and Little Vance at Bear Lake)

(Chad, Lindsay, Cole and Grant at Crystal Lake)

(Trent, Brooke and Cole - the three redheaded Mellens)

(Trent with the Siebers, Hayden, Steve, Sage and Jake at Bear Lake)

(Cole and Jake hiking)

(Brooke and Cole hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park)

(Grant and Cole taking a lunch break at Bear Lake)

(Brooke, Brookie, Little Vance, Vance, Ellie, Cole and Jake at the secret waterfall we found)

(Kim with Little Vance, Ellie and Brookie at Barbara's condo)

On Tuesday, July 28, Amy, Nicholas and Zachary Studley came to visit and see our new home. Grant and Nicholas had a great time as usual. Those two are more like brothers than friends. I loved having Amy here. She is like a sister to me and I will miss seeing her daily. Grant and Nicholas spent a lot of time driving around in the Powerwheels. They figured out early on that Grant was the better driver and Nicholas the better gas pusher, so despite repeated warnings from moms that it was too dangerous, Grant steered and Nicholas pushed the gas. We spent a full morning at Goldwater Lake on Wednesday. We took the boys on a hike to the dam and back, had lunch and threw rocks in the water.

(Nicholas and Grant enjoying a chocolate chip cookie outside before bed)

(Nicholas, Grant, Zach and Cole having breakfast before going to Goldwater Lake)

(Grant and Cole at Goldwater Lake)

(Nicholas and Grant at Goldwater Lake)

(Nicholas, Grant and Zach on the swing after hiking around part of Goldwater Lake)

(Nicholas and Grant climbing a tree at Goldwater Lake)

(Cole at Goldwater Lake)

(Amy and Zach hiking at Goldwater Lake)

(Cole on the grass at the Square dancing to the music from the cloggers)

We are enjoying our new home here. Grant did finally figure out how to steer his PowerWheels Jeep by himself and loves to drive around our property. He particularly loves it when Cole rides with him. We have done some hiking at Pioneer Park and the Willow Lake trail. I plan to do more with the boys and dogs. The dogs are loving the freedom and the cooler weather. They are free to run here and Sooner has become a whole new dog. I almost don't hate my dogs anymore now that they are outside more. I have started a garden. I am still trying to dig up the dirt and remove the rocks but by the end of this week it will be planted.

(Grant and Cole Jeeping)

(Grant and Cole hiding in a bathroom cupboard - my whole bathroom is unpacked and this cupboard is still empty Yeah!!!!)

(Cole in our new giant shower - he climbed in while I was showering so I took off his diaper and let him play - yes, the shower is as big as it looks)

(Cole stayed in the shower and played while I was getting ready)