Random Summer Fun

After our family reunion in June summer seemed to fly by. We spent a fabulous week up at our cabin, and Lauren came home for a visit that we kept extending, much to the dismay of her roommates. Yes, this is what we do at the cabin, why else would you go somewhere with no phones? Everyone decided a Sunday nap was in order, including Ferguson. We celebrated Lauren's birthday at the park, and grandma did a little show for us :) We had a wonderful visit with Alla and Asher and their family - it was great to finally meet Anastasia! No summer is complete until you have been to the State Fair and seen Jack (the cookware demonstrator) perform. John Deere and fried snickers are an added bonus!

Armour Family Reunion

Every other year, my Grandma's family tries to have a family reunion. The last few years it has been in California. This year, they decided to bring a little bit closer to the Utah families. So we settled on meeting in the middle, in St. George. Now, if you know me well, you might understand that although I absolutely love spending time with this side of the family, I was not looking forward to the reunion. St. George, in June? No thank you! I HATE HEAT! :) I must really love my Armour family members if I was willing to brave the 100+ degree weather for them. Our family drove down a day early so we could see Tarzan at Tuacahn. It was a fabulous show and we had a great time. My grandma enjoyed meeting Kerchek after the show the best. She thought he was cute. The next night my cousin had arranged for us all to go to a baseball game. We had box seats right next to the visiting teams dugout. I don't think they get huge groups reserving their box seats often, so the team manager came over to introduce himself and make sure we were having a good time. In case the picture with Kerchek didn't give you a clue, my Grandma has turned into quite the flirt in her old age. So, she flirted with the manager a little, and let him know that we were all dragging this 85 year old around with us. He thought she was fabulous. So, he had he announcer welcome our family and especially Donna Klenk, who is 85, over the PA system.

(Sorry for the sideways video - I forget you can't rotate it)

We had a fabulous time dancing to the music, well, mostly watching Grandma dance to the music.

At the end of the game, the manager brought some of the team members over to meet this 85 year old grandma who came to their game. They also gave her a baseball signed by all the team members, that is now proudly displayed in her living room. In order to get to the box seats, you had to go down through the basement, which meant walking past the team locker rooms. We were visiting after the game, so we left a little bit late. I don't think the team members were expecting anyone in the basement, so as we started walking through, one of the players came out with just a towel wrapped around him. Immediately my dear, sweet Grandmother called out to him to come over. Knowing her flirting skills, and her slightly innappropriate humor, I was REALLY worried about what was going to happen next, and was wishing the earth would just open up and swallow me whole. My entire family was DYING - just knowing that she was going to make some comment about his towel, or even de-towel him! Thankfully, she just wanted to see the tattoo that he had and we quickly ushered her up the stairs! Never a dull moment with our Grandma! The next morning we were up bright and early for a side trip to Zions. I loved what we saw in the morning. But by noon I was feeling the heat and was ready to be done! We all met for lunch at the lodge, and then decided to take one last hike before leaving. The hike itself, was not difficult, but I was SO HOT and miserable - I have never been so happy to see water dripping from the rock so I could cool myself off! Zions is beautiful - but next time I am definately going in October or November! :) On our last night we had an "Unbirthday Party" and everyone brought a $10 gift for a gift exchange. I had put together an "Armour Family's Got Talent" video, with serious and funny talents as displyed by different family members. We spent the afternoon before the party at the dollar stores buying silly prizes to award to everyone in the show. One of the videos was of my Grandma flirting with my cousin's husband, so we gave Doug the "He-Man" award. The best video of the night was Lauren's interpretive dance to Don't Stop Belivin' - which she performed and recorded on her computer a few years ago - as in - after her mission. If you haven't had the good fortune of seeing this fabulous video - it's similar to this:

We gave her a tinkerbell ribbon baton for her award. After the party we were all talking in my parents room and my mom decided to demonstrate the baton. She got a little excited and I got a little too close, and well, I got hit in the face by my own mother. Haha, what an ending to our trip! My Grandma and her brothers - any craziness in our family comes directly from them!

Disneyland Trip #2

In May, my siblings and I took our second trip to California to visit Lauren and go to Disneyland. We flew into Long Beach Saturday night and raced to a comedy/improv club where they were doing "Streep Tease". Julie was obsessed with Meryl Streep at the time and heard of this show where an all male cast recited monologues from Meryl Streep movies. It was pretty funny, especially since Julie won the prize for the biggest Meryl Streep fan. Dan was excited because some guy from the TV show Friends was in the cast (yes, some guy, I didn't know who he was haha) We went to church with Lauren on Sunday and her friends pointed out that we were the stoplight sisters - with our red, yellow, and green purses. After our miserable, wet evening in January, we came prepared with ponchos for this trip. We got some really funny looks while we were waiting in line for Grizzly River Rapids, but we were the ones laughing when everyone else got soaked. About a week before we left I was trying to fall asleep and had this scathingly brilliant idea, we should have a "bump-it" day at Disneyland. So, I bought a couple packages of bump-its and we all got one to wear to the park. As you can tell, Lauren was the only one who could figure out how to get it to work. We also made Dan spike his hair so we all had big hair (well, as big as you can get in our family) Lauren ROCKING the bump-it! Lauren wanted to get on Dan's back for this picture - it didn't really work out that well, but the experience did give my siblings their new favorite phrase "What is the 'h' guys!" Some of Lauren's friends met up with us our last night there - of course we were all tired, so general craziness ensued. Basically it was another fabulous trip to Disneyland with more fabulous memories.

Minnesota Don'cha Know

I have been blessed with a pretty amazing group of friends. We have been friends since Junior High (and some of them since elementary school). One of my friends was living in Minnesota for her husband's schooling and she invited us to come visit her for a long weekend. So, in April we all flew out to visit Jessie and see her new baby. Our first stop was downtown Minneapolis where we saw the Mary Tyler Moore statue, and the house they show on the opening credits of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. One of my friends loves the show and brought season 1, so we spent most of our evenings watching episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore show and laughing. Jessie was living in Rochester, which is about 90 minutes away from Minneapolis, so we spent quite a lot of time in the car. Phoebe was the perfect baby - we could talk and laugh and sing along to the radio all we wanted and she just slept. Our next stop was the Mall of America - my friends were incredibly patient with my need to spend an hour in H&M :) The Lego store was AMAZING! The next day we got up bright and early, which is hard to do when you are up giggling and talking until 2 or 3 in the morning, and went to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Temple. Then we changed our clothes and headed back to the Mall of America, yes, we went there twice, and yes, we did some shopping both days. But the real reason for our return trip was to go to the Aquarium in the mall. I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend the money and time to wander through an aquarium, but I am so glad we did. It was AMAZING! I especially loved the jellyfish exhibit. Phoebe was just so adorable, and, once again, willing to just sleep through the drive. After church on Sunday, we discovered that we had a flat tire. After about an hour of the "the men" working on the tire, they were finally able to get enough air in it to get the car home, but they didn't have the right tools to jack the car up or get the tire off. So, Monday morning, we went out to see what we could do. Jessie's visiting teacher dropped off her car jack for us, unfortunately she was driving a suburban, and Jessie's car was a little Camry, so the jack didn't fit. So, I decided to read the instruction manual for the car - which showed exactly where the jack for the car was - it was there the whole time - leave it to men to not read the manual. So, we got the car up and the lugnuts off, but the tire wouldn't come off. SO frustrating. By this time we had wasted an entire morning just trying to put the spare tire on. I finally got really smart and decided to renew my AAA membership that had lapsed a few months earlier, and have them come fix the tire. Within 20 minutes we were on the road again. So, we all learned how to change a tire, call AAA. Another Phoebe picture, that kid was adorable! Once we were finally on the road again, Jessie wanted to take us to the Mayo Clinic in downtown Rochester, where she was working. What a beautiful facility. I loved all the architecture and the artwork. My favorite part was the hundreds of wheelchairs they had at the lined up at the entrances. I had to leave before everyone else to get back to work. You know your friends really love you when they are willing to get up at 4 in the morning to take you to the airport. I am so grateful for my fabulous friends! It was so fun to have a girls getaway and spend time together. And I am so grateful that my friends have all married such good men - MeLynn's husband was amazing for being willing to stay home with their three kids so she could come with; and Jessie's husband was so patient with three girls invading their home, he slept on the couch the whole time so we could all sleep in the bedroom. I hope to find someone just as amazing some day! Thanks for such a fabulous trip girls!! Sorry it took me almost a year to blog about it!