A Work in Progess

My big summer project this year was my kitchen. Lauren came home for a visit and needed some money, and Dan has been bugging me for months about redoing my kitchen, so after the family reunion, I decided it was time. I wasn't going to blog about this until it was all done. But, I have decided to put the renovation on hold for a bit so I can see the pyramids (fingers crossed) so, here is my work in progress. The kitchen wasn't that bad before, just a little boring. I wanted to do something different.Dan and I removed the tile backsplash so we could mud and sand all the walls to get them smooth like the living and dining room. It was SO LOUD! We had to wrap paper towels around the crowbar to try to muffle some of the noise! I was a little lazy and didn't want to take everything out of my cupboards, so we just taped plastic over them to try to keep some of the dust out. It got SO hot in there when we were sanding and had it all sealed off. After our fun process of mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding, we primed all the walls. Then came the really fun job. Removing all the cabinet doors and cleaning and sanding all the cabinets. Lauren and Dan were really good about trying to keep things numbered so we knew how to put them back. We primed the drawers and the cabinet fronts and then it was on to the next big project. I decided I wanted beadboard in the doors. My Dad was so wonderful and had it all measured out so we only had to buy two sheets of beadboard. Then he and Lauren piled all the doors in the car and over to my parents so we could work on them in their garage.We glued the beadboard in place and then set cinderblocks on them to dry overnight.

Then it was time to cart them all back to my house so Lauren could prime and paint. My house was a disaster for about 10 days, it was an obstacle course to get from the front door to the bedrooms. We woul paint one side and prop it up on a couple of videos and then flip it the next day and do the backside, it was a time consuming process, but we finally got them all finished, thanks to some late nights and early mornings on Lauren's part. We got all the doors put back up and then it was time to decide what color to paint the walls. The first green shade I chose ended up too green and my kitchen looked like camoflauge, so we had to paint a lighter shade over everything. And here is the semi-finished product. At some point I am getting new countertops, new backsplash, new appliances, new floors, and new lighting. But, I love how much brighter the kitchen is thanks to the cabinets! I think we did a pretty good job. Thanks Laur and Dan for all your hard work! What room should we do next?

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.