Swan Falls Dam

Last night Joseph spent the night at his friend Zach's house again. It was Stake Conference and we have to go at it with a 'tag team' effort and it was my turn this time. (There is NO way our kids can make it the 2 hours). When I got home, our friends invited us to go to Swan Falls Dam with them, and since they already had our child, we thought we would tag along. We had been there very briefly before and thought it was so gorgeous and today was no exception. The weather was perfect and it was nice to get out and picnic. I have no pictures because I forgot my camera. We got to walk around the dam, throw rocks and stick and watch Ducks take a ride on the stick dibre in the water. They have a nice place for picnicking and lounging. Swan Falls Dam is just 30 or so miles straight south of us. It is flat with some hills all around, Lava Rock here and there with the Owyhee mountains in the back, and then all of the sudden there is this huge canyon out of no where with the Snake River running through it. Joseph was in the car with the Lundquist's and I guess he had a hard time driving down the canyon road (scary for him). It was a nice day and we all got a little sun kissed and are ready for bed! I am tired so that is why this post is all over the place. Sorry 'bout that!

Here are a few photos I found of the place: Keep in mind this is a 20- 25 minute drive from our house!

These aren't my kids, but let us imagine mine there....

This is the Dam house. haha. I love the architecture. I believe it was constructed around 1901.

This is an overhead shot. I took it from my personal helicopter.

Happy late Easter!

We had a very fun Easter at home this year (Our first). We started the festivities on Saturday at our ward Easter Egg hunt. They boys had fun, but it was really windy and cold! The Easter Bunny showed up and they got to do a cookie walk. That afternoon Preston was able to get my garden trellis and that is when Joseph locked us out.

We got threw that and dyed Easter eggs. The boys were really cute.

Easter morning came and it couldn't have been a prettier morning! There was actually blue in the sky! Church was actually enjoyable for the most part, even though it was apparent that most children were on a sugar high during Sacrament meeting). Here is a picture of us before church, Thurston lost his Sunday shoes so he had to wear his hiking boots, and he refused to put his tie under his vest. Joseph's pants were way too big, but they were new and he insisted on wearing them.

This is what the Easter Bunny Left:

We had our usual group out for Easter Dinner and it was delicious! We have grass this year so we were able to do our own Egg hunt. We finished off the night with an encore viewing of "Sharks In Venice". It was fantastic.

This was our table. It didn't have any fancy Easter stuff so I went for tacky. They centerpiece is a bobble head chicken on a purple nest.

The best ways to spend money

What I have learned this week about the best ways to throw your money away. 1. Not unplugging the hose from the faucet for winter $1000 (at least) This can cause the line to freeze and bust and "leak" into your house. This can also cause a swimming pool in your laundryroom and a nice excuse to remove base boards and drill holes in your wall and place giant fans all around to dry inside your wall and your carpet. I see it as an excuse to use the trusty Wet Vac. We were lucky that it wasn't very bad, but bad enough that we had to call in professionals...but not lucky enough to get new carpet. We always hit the middle. This happened the same afternoon that the Air conditioner repair man came out to finally finish the job he started LAST June. 2. Teach your child how to lock the door. This will come in handy when he decides to come out and play with the whole family, who does not have any keys on them....$40 At least it was a nice afternoon and the sun was out for a short bit and our neighbors were kind enough to lend us a phone book. I did get some extra weeding done and Joseph got a reading lesson with Daddy from the phone book. AHhh, it's been a fun week. They say that these things happen in threes. I guess all we can do is wait for some random thing that doesn't seem like a big deal and hope for the best. On a better note, we finally were able to pick up my Garden Arbor Trellis thingie. It is adorable. I will post pictures when the flowers are more in bloom.

Sharks

Preston found a movie on Netflix and instantly decided that we must see it. We knew it was going to be bad, but we had no idea just how awesomely bad it would be! "Sharks in Venice", with that title, you cannot go wrong, right? It starred Steven Baldwin, here is the official plot synopsis from IMDB:

" The seemingly tranquil waterways of Venice are terrorized by the perfect killing machine. In search of his father who has mysteriously disappeared diving in the city, David stumbles across the cryptic trail leading to the long-lost fortune of the Medici. As the unwitting pawn in a Mafia plot to recover the treasure, David's girlfriend is kidnapped at gunpoint, plunging him into a desperate race against time. If he has any hope of saving her he must enter the deadly waters. Can David out-gun the Mafia assassins and survive the voracious sharks laying in wait beneath the surface, or will he succumb to the same fate as his father? "

About 80% of the movie was thrown together using stock footage from National Geographic or PBS/ NOVA shots, and a collection of tourist videos for Venice. We are pretty sure that the acting shots were taken on one shot, as Preston commented " I can't imagine that they acted that out several times and decided 'yeah, that was a good take'". It was fun trying to find all of the special scenes and mistakes, like films out of sequence, showing him getting bit by the shark, then climbing a rock wall, wondering how there is a dry tomb underneath Venice, the fact that the shots with the actors on the canal were actually blue screened, and they only had 5 seconds of footage on the canal so the same people keep movie past them. (a man with his 2 sons happy and looking in the same direction the shark fin keeps appearing.) One of our favorite parts was watching the divers having conversations with air tubes in their mouths. I totally recommend watching this movie, but not alone, the more the merrier. I think we will be watching it again real soon with our friends. Preston is convinced that they did not make the movie until we put it into our netflix Que. There was a short wait on it, so it only adds to his suspicion. He thinks it was a joke/ dare and when we actually wanted to watch it, they were like "oh crap, we better hurry up and throw something together." The police captain's name is "Captain Bonasera", which I love because it is lame, and totally spelled wrong. I am convinced that I know more Italian than the writers. "good night Senioriella". Love it. As a warning, it does drop the "F" bomb at the end a few times. However it is said by Bulgarians trying to pull off and Italian accent. I could go on all day about this movie, but will stop here.

The scariest part, was I was looking at pictures of Preston and I when we were in Venice and I hadn't noticed this before. Maybe there is some truth to this movie. It is scary just how close we were to danger.

व्हो क्नेव ठाट

My Birthday Dinner

So we have a great group of friends that work at Micron with Preston and we get together for each of our birthdays and always have a blast. It was my turn and since we always have a theme, I decided I wanted the theme to be Italian food. I basically just wanted to have a large spread of super yummy food, and that is what I wanted. At the last moment we decided to have the official name of the party "my Friends with out benefits party", to celebrate the cancellation of Micron's 401k match. ( a little dark humor).

Here is the spread:

My homemade Lasagna (amazing if I do say so, and I do)

Anti pasto: Bruscetta, Mozzarella and prosciutto

Preston's signature dish Pasta Con panna e pollo:

Preston's Steaks that absolutely ROCK:

Rosemary Bread ( a copy kat of the rosemary bread from Macaroni grill):

It was an amazing spread and we were all so full and suffered from pasta shock, but it was well worth it. This is Rob with Jazz, we like to tease Rob because he likes cats, and then Jazz jumped up on the seat next to him. He's a fun sport:

This is a horrible picture of me, but the Tiramisu was absolutely amazing! Preston substitutes the espresso with Pero and it tastes just like the original. I am holding the gift they gave me, it's a BUTTScratcher (funny reference from family guy):

This is Jazz and Tan To, they tolerated each other, but if I had to put in a bet, it would be for Jazz.

Jazz

I will often come down in the morning and find random items in or by my cats food dish. There would be pieces of plastic, toy hillbilly teeth, milk caps, small toys and even a hungry hungry hippo ball (that was in his water). For the longest time I thought it was Thurston tormenting him, until one day I saw for myself that the perpetrator was in fact, my cat Jazz. That explains the noises he makes at night while "hunting" and "playing". I really wish I could see him carrying the hillbilly teeth (it's one of his favorites), but I always miss it. Anyway, this is what I found this morning, it's a "The Tick" action figure, too hilarious!

This is him sporting his new name tag. He keeps trying to bite it but it is too far under his chin. Possibly more entertaining to watch than a dog chasing its tail. It was his belated 1 year birthday present. Happy Birthday Jazz.

And yes, I realize that I am dedicating an entire post to my Cat, but I think he's rad. Just to change things up, here is why you invest in microfiber and a steam vac: The couch needed cleaning anyway.

Dancing

I'm not sure what is funnier, watching a dog chase its tale, or my cat trying to bite the new tag he got that is under his chin. I might need to video tape that. So on to my post. We often dance around in our living room, sometimes I cheat and say that that is my exercise for the day. ( The Wiggles are excellent and can give you a good work out bythe way). My boys tolerate Abba because of the awesome dance beat, but whatever it is, I love watching my boys dance, they are hilarious! Sometimes we can get Daddy in on it too (which is too hilarious itself). I found this video that I took in January. I walked in the living room and the boys were dancing to Dragon Tales, it was so cute I had to tape it.