Bates Fam

Jinxy

2010-08-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

The other day we were watching a show about cats on tv and I had to snap this picture of Jinxy... She was soooooooo interested in what was on. It had her attention the whole time. It was so funny!

Kolten's Track Experience

2010-05-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday was such and awesome day for Kolten. He had his first track meet at the Ravsten Stadium. He won every race he entered (not by a little) and had so many compliments on how fast he ran. He even had football coaches come up to him and tell him he needed to sign up for football and that they would sure like to have him on their team. Almost every person on the field left knowing who Kolten Bates was because of his accomplishment. We are sooooooo proud of him and hope he continues to do well while striving to do his best in everything he does. Good job Kolty! We love you!

It's About Time!!

2010-05-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

K, so I know I haven't been on here forever so I thought I better update. To make a long story short, we went from our house by the airport, to my aunt and uncle's (Ron & Toni's), and now to some apartments by Smith's on Woodruff. I would say we are "Movin On Up" don't ya think? Well, to tell the truth, we are waiting patiently to save up a little money to build our house in Shelley. I don't yet quite know when that will be (hopefully soon) but I do have to say that even though we are in apartments now, it sure beats the heck out of living in the neighborhood by the airport... I hated that house for so many reasons! So now that we got you up to speed on what has been going on in the Bates' house, I will try to update this more often. Hopefully with more great pics of family camping trips coming soon! Oh & boating...

Desi's Frame and Pic

2009-12-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

Well Desi & Scott ended up buying a house just recently so I made them a picture to hang in their living room. It turned out pretty good. Scott loves old barn wood so I made this out of an old pallet of wood that was sitting on the side of my mom's barn. The picture ended up not printing at a true 20x30 so I had to improvise by gluing a lariat onto the inside of frame... Not too shabby. Hope they like it.

Green Canyon 09

2009-10-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

We went camping at Green Canyon with Jake, Tracy, Erika, Kayla & Brooklyn last weekend and had a blast. We were a little worried that it would be freezing up there but it ended up pretty nice weather. When we first got there we went 4 wheeler riding and then hiking up some huge rocks with cracks in them that the kids had a blast crawling through. Then it was dutch oven time. Tracy made the famous dutch oven chicken and everyone dug in leaving no room for any kind of desert until a couple hours later when it was time for smores over the campfire.

After a cozy night in the camper, it was off to shoot some 22's. As we were making our way to shoot, we drove upon some moose off in the distance. At the time, I thought it was a good idea following Jake as we hiked up the hill to take a few snap shots of the beautiful creatures, but once I had lost my breath from being so out of shape, it was hard to hold the camera steady and the results were a few fuzzy brown spots in the lense - sorry, I couldn't hold my breath long enough to take some good pics. It was fun watching Rick take the beasts head on though. Then watching him get a little worried when he got too close for comfort and hauling you-know-what down the hill. Awe, good times... After scaring Rick and the moose off it was time for shooting. FUN! Rick and Jake were our gofers when all the cans had been blasted off the barrels. Rick was a little bummed when he saw someone had drank all the liquor from the bottle on the ground. I think he was expecting a little reward for walking down to set up cans. Too bad Ricky-Pooh.

After a while of shooting, the kids decided it was time we went swimming in the hot pools. This is when Jake and I decided to have a contest to see who could sit in the freezing pool the longest. He never mentioned the fact that him and Kody did the same thing a prior time and Jake sat in the pool for 15 minutes and then made Kody get out when his lips turned blue. There is no way I will ever sit in that pool that long. Not worth winning in my opinion. So I technically lost when Tracy insisted that we get out once seeing the goose bumps & chattering teeth set in. I was the first to step out so that officially made Jake the wiener. Oh well! It was fun watching him freeze his butt & more off.

Once we made our way out of the pools it was back to camp for dinner and packing up to leave... So sad. Our camping trip had come to an end. Rick had to work the next morning. Just as we were leaving Kody and his girlfriend showed up to eat dinner and chat for a few hours. Too bad for us though, it was time to head home. There is always a next time, right guys?

Another Edited Photo of Jess & Fam

2009-08-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

I found this free program on the internet for Mac computers that helps you do some awesome editing to photos.

Tauphuas Park

2009-08-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post these pictures for a few weeks now but haven't had time.

The cousins - Kayla, Brooklyn, Kaden & Kolten all took a trip to the zoo a few weeks ago and got to feed the pelicans. They had a blast.

Kolten's immitation of a turtle I guess.

The pics were taken from my iphone - sorry they are a little blurry.

Kolten On The Tramp

2009-08-15T19:43:00.001-07:00

How do you like that title?

Kolten has learned some pretty "Killer" tricks on the trampoline. This is the stuff he tries while staying the night at his friend's house.

Pics of Jess & Shelley

2009-08-15T19:07:00.001-07:00

I took some much needed family pics of Jess, Shelley and Kaden the other day. Kaden was a pretty difficult subject to work with but we managed to get a few good ones. I had no idea it would be so stinking difficult to take a good photo. Jess and Shelley had to make sure they were positioned correctly cause all I could concentrate on was trying to get Kaden to look at me. Obviously, it didn't work.

Boating in August Again

2009-08-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

What a WILD ride...

Notice Shelley is pointing and laughing at Rick... She said his face was hillarious everytime he wrecked.

Just before this wave, Shelley was yelling - Let go of my tube!!!!!!!!

She better be thankful Rick held on to her tube, she might have gone even higher.

I almost missed this one... They didn't even hit a wave yet.

It was my turn to tube with Shelley. All I can say is HOLY CRAP! I'm sure you'll notice that there aren't too many resting times for us to even think about what was happening.

There are so many things to be said about this photo.

Notice my smile... It was only because I stayed in the tube and Shelley didn't.

Not only does Shelley smash Kolten, she does it to me too.

What a mess! Shelley's hair tells it all...

By the time everyone was done riding on the tubes, the water turned to glass. It was awesome!

There's nothing like a wad of shorts crammed into the wetsuit...

This is why I married this guy... He's so goofy!

Congrats to Amber and Daxter!

2009-08-06T10:23:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Amber and Daxter are having a baby! I'm so excited for them. The baby is due on Feb. 27th. I can't wait. Congrats you two!

The Price Is Right

2009-07-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has been to the car auction with us might find the humor in this... When my family gets done at the car auction in Salt Lake, we always take our name tags off and carefully put them on each other's backs so that the person we put it on has no idea they are wearing it and parades around all day in restaurants and stores with it stuck to them. I can't tell you how many times my mom has worn our name tags without knowing. Well, when we were done at The Price Is Right, Rick and Kolten were on to me when I took my name tag off so I had to find another sucker. It's too bad this poor old lady was standing in front of me when I got the idea. But, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?

Kolten wasn't as sneaky, Rick caught him.

I almost forgot - We went to Joe's Crab Shack as well and everyone but Maria, the party pooper, put on a bib. Too bad Rick has my photo on his phone so I wasn't able to put my pic on here. Darn. Before the night was through Rick was trying to buy a shirt that said - My waitress gave me crabs. but ended up buying the one that said - Got Crabs? on the front and - We Do. on the back. He ended up wearing it the night we went to The Price Is Right and everybody staired at him as we walked by on the strip. Ha...Ha...

And one more photo I found on the phone... This was taken at the Belagio Hotel while at the light and fountain show. So beautiful.

Vegas... Vegas...Vegas...

Trip to Vegas July '09

2009-07-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Waking up at 4am was not fun but, as soon as the sleep wore off, we were all pretty excited to head out on the road for our 9 hour drive to Las Vegas. After showering, loading up, and dropping the dogs off at my mom's house, I started the trip off driving since I was a little more awake than Rick was. 2 and a half hours later - we were in Salt lake. I got the best of the deal since that was the last time I drove til we headed back home. Along the way I had to snap some photos of the pretty mountains just past St. George. St. George has the most beautifully colored landscape but it is so cluttered with people and houses that it ruins any chance of taking a decent photo.

Yes! 10 hours later including an hour lunch break and 1 pee stop, Vegas was within our sights!

The first thing on Kolten's agenda was swimming in the 80 degree pool in the 103 degree weather. We were lucky to have gone when we did. The temperature dropped the days we were down there from 110 degrees to around 103 when we got there and the next two days were slightly cloudy with a few rain drops, believe it or not, with temps around 97. The day we left was a scorcher though - I think it was 113 degrees.

Pictured below is RyLee (Matt's daughter), Kolten and Jodus (Kara's son).

While the kids were out having fun in the pool, the boys were in enjoying their own way of cooling off - TV and popcycles...

We planned this trip around the first of this year because Rick had some friends at the station that were going to be competing in the Enduro Cross Motorcycle Racing. It was a blast to see those guys compete. Although, we forgot to bring the camera in to snap photos of our friends so right after their race, I made Rick go grab the camera from the car. Take a look at the track...

If you look at the bottom of this next photo you will see some stairs, right at the bottom of those stairs and to the left along the railing is where our seats were. Freakin Awesome!
Our two friends in the middle of the photo - Mike (in the red shirt) and Dave (sipping on the pepsi cup) after their race was over. We got better seats than they did. Ha...Ha...
And the race was on.

Guys were falling down all over the track. The track helper that was helping this guy get his bike up almost got ran over and pushed off the rocks backwards by a guy that later needed his help getting his bike off of himself.

There was constantly a big pile up on this rock mess you see below.

This guy almost went over his handbars.

Lights off for this race.

Then it was time for the pros to come out and play.

Even they tipped over constantly.

These guys wrecked because they were competing around this corner and the one still up on his bike tried running the other guys bike over to get through. Didn't work though, he ended up pulling his bike off to make it around.

Bike number 111 ended up winning but just barely. It was a photo finish. Sooooo crazy!

After a lot of shopping, eating and swimming we were ready to head home from this dirty city. I got some funny photos on the drive home of a trailer court all by it's loansome self in the middle of the 110 degree dessert. I just have one question: Who would live there????????

No wait - I have another question... You can't see it very well but toward the bottom right hand corner of this next photo is a For Sale sign. My question is: Who in their right mind would buy this chunk of ground???????

This was the wierdest location for a half built house that I think someone actually lived in. Talk about seclusion - minus the interstate.

At least it wasn't a boring drive like a trip to Boise is.

We also went to a Las Vegas version of The Price Is Right. Rick said that they didn't allow you to bring your cameras in because they wanted you to buy their video taping of it. So we couldn't snap any photos while inside but, I did snap one photo that my mom and dad and anyone who has been to the car auction with us might think is funny. I'll have to download it from my phone and post it in the next post for you to see. Obviously, we didn't get picked to go up on stage or that probably would have been the first thing I talked about on the blog. We are losers!

Picture of the Day

2009-07-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

You know how I always try to do a picture of the day? Well, I have a "Picture of the Day" for you from boating on Friday but, I have to warn you, it might make you throw up in your mouth cause I just did. I'm only putting this on here to teach Jess a lesson. He constantly makes us suffer by putting his crack out there for all to see, so I'm just giving him a taste of his own medicine by showing him how gross his crack really is!!! Please comment as much as you want on this one... Maybe it would help Jess and the rest of us out!!??

WARNING

CRACK KILLS!

I just threw up again!!!!!!

You might be a Redneck if...

Your son and your dog use the same tree.

Your mom’s front porch collapses and more than six dogs are killed.

You teach your son to put his underwear on yellow in front, brown behind.

You might yell to your wife, "Cum'n here an' lookit this afore I flush it."

You cut the cheese and say, “That’s gonna itch when it dries.”

Someone says, "SAY NO TO CRACK!" and you know they are telling you to pull up your shorts and you completely ignore them.

Hey Jess, Hint...Hint...

Boating again

2009-07-21T15:16:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of our last boating trip for Trevor's B-Day last Friday (July 17th). Again, we had a blast!

Shelley laughed about the funny faces everyone pulled while boating the last time. Let's see what she has to say after looking at this round of photos. I'll start off with pics of my own since they all laughed about the mascara running all over my face.

Yah, Shelley tried to put on a pretty model face at first but, it didn't last long.

You really don't need to fix your shorts, no one could look past your face to see if your shorts were riding up.

Almost every time Shelley wrecks she has to plug her nose. The only time she doesn't is if it's a quick wreck and she doesn't have time.

Hey, didn't we see Trevor in the last set of photos with this same face?

I wonder if she is about to plug her nose?

Yup!

Nose plugged? Yup.
This is what Shelley's mom had to deal with while Shelley was having all the fun...

Shelley, where did the model face go?

Oh, there it is...
She just could keep it though.

After watching some pass-er-by-er's surf boarding, Shelley wanted to see if it would be worth buying a surf board so she decided to try surfing on the kneeboard.

After watching her wreck a million times trying to get up and listening to Jess tell her how she was doing it wrong, I wondered if the surf board would be worth it? My conclusion... Definately!!!!!!!!

Once Shelley gave up trying to get up on the kneeboard, it was Kolten's turn to try. So Shelley gave kolten what she called a little "Motivater" to get in the water.

Almost there.

Uh-oh!

Gluttan for punishment, just like Shelley.

Darn it.

Oh my gosh! Everyone was doing it so wrong!!!!!! Jess will have to show them exactly how it is done...

Don't you dare wreck, we are all watching.

Is he going to do it?

And the crowd goes wild.

But only because his pants were about to fall down.

I was going to be a little pissed if they fell down! HELLO - YOUR MY BROTHER, GROSS!!!!

Good thing there weren't any boats behind him. I'm sure there was a full moon out that day.

Hal-La-Lu-Ya. No one saw a nasty 80's porn flick that day.

Check out Jess' face pulling...

This is what Trevor would like to make you think he did...

This is what really happened..

Sorry Trev, there were just too many witnesses.

Back to Jess' face pulling.

He looks like he is about to run into a train.

Trevor's got the tongue out to help him balance...

Question: How do you know Kaden & Trevor are decendants from my mom's side of the family?

Answer: They stick their tongues out every time they are thinking hard about something.

That was our fun for the day!

Blacktail - July '09

2009-07-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Jess and Shelley invited us all to go boating. We had a BLAST! The group included: Jess, Shelley and Kaden (of course), me and Kolten, Trevor and our family friend "Beavis". Rick and Tiffany had to work, Jake and Tracy's family went to Lake Tahoe and Desi & my Mom and Dad went to Arizona barrel racing. To bad for them, they all missed out. Below are pics of the day in Blacktail.

Enjoy!

Let's get this party started...

The feet you see in the following photos belong to Beavis (left) and Jess (right).

Well, they made it over the first bump.

Kind-of...
After all that, Beavis thought he was a gonner.

So he let go of the handle to fall out... Big mistake!

Little did he know, his ride wasn't over yet.

So, he hopelessly tried to hold on again.

But to no avail.

Whooooah!!!!!

Hello!

Good Bye!
That's what he gets for letting go to soon.

Let's see how Jess (left) and Trevor (right) do.

Ready? Set?

Go!!!!!!!

It's a tie.
Uh-Oh!

Hold your breath, Jess.

Do tu do...

Whoooooooah!

You wouldn't be laughin Trev if you knew what was just about to happen to you.

Whoooooah...

Oh, darn it. To bad.

Kaden just had to put the sunscreen on himself.

When we all started laughing, he decided to rub it in.

No matter how hard Kolten tried, he just couldn't make it up on the dock.

So Jess was nice enough to help him... If you consider choking Kolten with the life jacket nice.

What the ???!!

Well deserved, Shelley!

The BOAT. (I don't know why but this picture reminds me of something shown on a 1980's "Old Spice" men's cologne commercial)

Is this outfit to "Hey - Look At Me?"

Pretty good diving skills for an 11 year old!

Say CHEESE.
Best of Freinds! I could just squeeze them, they're so cute!

Jess is teaching Beavis how to knee board for the first time. Are you amazed that Jess isn't showing any crack? - cause I am!

Watch out! Here comes the Tsunami! J/K

Beavis did it!
Not for long though...

But, he tried again.

And did great!

He even went once with Shelley.

Good Job Beavis!

Jess is so proud.

Trevor's jealous.

Holy Crap!

If at first you don't succeed, try again.

Shelley & Beavis -

Don't worry Shelley, your turn is coming.

right about -
Now.

Pictured below - Beavis.

Shelley & Beavis -

Beavis, Kaden & Shelley

Jess -

Who's too cute for the camera? Give up? Kolten and Kaden!

It's good to see Trevor found the time to break away from the farm long enough to bust some moves on the wake board.

Look at these two...

It's like Trevor was saying - Hey Shelley, let's see if we can pull the same face for the next couple of pictures.

And Shelley said - Great idea Trev. I think that's the best idea you've ever had!

Trevor just couldn't get enough of pulling faces for the camera. That's it Trevor, work it, work it!

The picture below is by far the best picture of the day!

This is how we do it!

2009-07-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

4th of July

Island Park

Mesa Falls

West Yellowstone

We had fun over the 4th of July. Rick, Kolten and I went camping with Phil & Melissa and their kids to Island park. We ended up spending one of the days going to West Yellowstone to see the hot springs and Old Faithful and got some great pics. Take a look.

Below is Mesa Falls.

These next few photos were of Phil fly fishing. We got up at 5 in the morning to go fishing in Island Park and didn't catch a thing. If you zoom in on the picture below you can see Phil way in the back getting ready to get in the water to fish.

The only thing Philly caught was a glimps of the breath-taking view of the lake.

This was a view of the lake right when we first got there at 5-5:30am. Steam was still rising off the water.

This bison was staring at an old lady that was probably 30 feet away taking it's picture. Rick kept saying, "Hurry, get the camera! I want to get a picture of that lady when she gets gored." She was so dumb. There was no way she was going to get away if that thing decided it was going to charge her. You would think people would wonder if they might be protective of their calves.
And, yes, we have a zoom on our camera. There was no way I was getting that close to these things.

As we were leaving for the day, we saw some bison walking across the geysers so I made Rick pull over to take some photos. The photo below is deceiving, it looks like it was really cold that day but it's actually just hot springs steaming in the background and the ground had turned white from the hot spring water. I bet it was probably still 75-80 degrees out that night.

This was a sign that they posted near one of the walking paths saying don't jump into the hot pools because it might burn you. Rick thought it was hillarious. I guess he figured if you were too stupid to figure that out yourself than you deserve to get burned.

Below is a pic of our cute little nephew, Dillon.

This was a close up of the ripples the water made from the hot springs.

You might think that these next few photos are of a lake but these are actually photos of about a quarter of an inch of hot spring water trickling across the ground.

There were the most amazing colors throughout the park. The ground in places looked like marble.
This little stream was a yellow-green and the ground around it was colored the same and then would fade out to oranges, reds, browns and greens. I think Yellowstone is so interestingly (if that's a word) gorgeous.

The next couple of pictures below are of the fireplace in the Yellowstone Lodge.

While inside the lodge, there was a squirl that came in through the doors and was running around eating crumbs off the floor.

You can't see it very well but it ran right under my legs.

As usual, Rick and Kolten were messing around on the walking paths next to the hot springs when they weren't suppose to. Maybe that sign was posted for them???!!!

Relay Rick

2009-06-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Kolten and I got to witness Rick hard at work. Ok, not really, but they do play a lot at work. This was a relay race that the city put on after a class they gave for Rick to try to get promoted. It included firemen from all over the surrounding areas, Jefferson Co., Ammon, and I'm not sure where else. I guess no one from the Idaho Falls Fire Department signed up to participate in the race and the chief wasn't letting go that easy. So before Rick went to class that morning, the chief came and told him and a few other guys at the class that they would be participating in the race. Rick was so excited (not at all correct) so he called me and Kolten to come watch. My camera battery was dead so you get to see the pics from my iphone. (If you can imagine - I guess some guys actually practiced for weeks for this relay race so it was hardly fare. We didn't even stick around to see who won.)

Enjoy...

Rick getting ready to go.

To start out the guys had to have their oxygen tanks taken off and replaced with new ones. I guess the city has pinched a few pennies on our tanks so they are really hard to unscrew and screw back on.

Next they had to jump in some foam and search for the hose cap to screw on the hose for the next part of the race. Below on the right hand side is Rick coming out of the foam handing off the cap.

Then one of the guys from the team had to spray a ball with the hose around some cones to the finish line.

Rick enjoyed the clean up time but not as much as Zippy, the guy spraying him off.

4 Wheeler riding in Heise this last weekend

2009-06-02T11:45:00.001-07:00

Kolten and I went 4 wheeler riding again last weekend with Jess, Shelley, Kaden and Beavis. We had a blast.

Here was the veiw from the top of the hill when we finally made it up there. The dirt was blowing in the wind through the valley so the pics didn't turn out the best but who cares, look at the gorgeous valley below.

As we were riding we rode past some old cow bones. About 5 minutes after riding past Kaden kept saying he wanted to go back and see the dinosaur bones.

Here's Kadens new gangsta pose. I think that stands for Westside??!!
Jess and Kaden exploring the streams.

Kaden and Kolten cleaning their shoes and hands off in the snow.

Snack break for us... Beer break for Beavis...
Below are shots of the group trying to block off a stream... Why??? I do not know.

For Kaden it was more of a bridge.... back...

and forth...

and back again...

That was our day of fun. I'm too embarrassed to show you the photo of my dirty face after the ride... Sorry.

Spring Time in Idaho Falls

2009-06-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you know where these pics were taken. I decided to take the dogs for a walk the other morning down by the river and brought my camera along to snap some shots of the hints of spring time. I guess this is what keeps me here in Idaho. Some pics are a little crooked but that's the cons of bringing the dogs with me.

Remembering Family

2009-05-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

We went to a couple of different cemeteries today to visit family that has passed away. We still need to visit Grandma Bates but for those of you who are not able to make it to the gravesites this year, You might appreciate some of the next few photos... ( I will post Grandma Bates headstone when we make it there.)

My Favorite Pics

2009-05-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going through some my pictures tonight and decided to share some of my favorite pictures of Kolten and Rick. The last one has a short story behind it that is so funny. They are a little blurry because I had to scan them in to my computer, sorry.

These first two are of Kolten's first Halloween. He was a year old in these two photos.

This photo was of a time when we went camping and Rick caught a fish. Kolten helped clean it. You can't see it very well but he posed for the camera by sticking his tongue out.

This one, Kolten had some glasses that came with his teddy bear and he decided he wanted to wear them and pretend he was reading his book. He was probably 3 years old.

This last photo was of a time when we went camping. Kolten was around 3 yrs old in this photo as well. He had a stick and was playing with it in the fire. I went over and took the stick from him and put it off to the side of the fire and when I turned my back he started playing with it again & got black all over his hands and then rubbed his face. After repremanding all we could do was laugh. He tried hiding behind my leg because he was embarassed but Rick made him stand there and get his picture taken anyway. Now it's one of our favorite memories.

Time Flys

2009-05-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't reported in a while. It's been busy!!!! Rick and I had our 12th Anniversary on the 22nd of May. It seems like we got married yesterday!

I feel so blessed to have the hubby that I do and also my sweet little Kolty. I love them so much!

For our anniversary, we bought a new grill (since our last one fell apart into a million pieces when we were moving) and new firepit. Yesterday we had our first fire in the new pit- roasting marshmellows (sorry, I forgot to take pics - next one, I promise). It was a blast and the weather was perfect.

I also need to show you the blessing dress that all of the aunts and uncles went in on for Desi and Scott's new baby, Alisha. After talking to everyone - Jake, Tracy, Jess, Shelley, Trevor, Tiffany, Jason and my grandma, we all decided to go in on a blessing dress for the new baby. I went shopping all day looking for a dress and found so many, it was hard to choose. So I decided to take photos of the dresses I found and let Desi pick out the one she wanted while she was in the hospital. This is the one she chose:

Alisha Marie Wheeler was born today!

2009-05-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

My little sis had her baby today. She is sooooo adorable! Desi and Scott named her Alisha Marie. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 ounces. She looks so healthy too. She has a perfect shade of rosy pink to her and has cute little chubby cheeks. I didn't get to see her little hands because she had mittens on so she didn't scratch herself but I wish I could have. We also had to keep her bundled up in the cool air conditioned room so all I pretty much saw was her sweet little face and thick dark hair. That was enough for me to fall in love. I just wanted to kiss her all over!!!!

Here are some pics of her only a few hours old.

HAPPY B-DAY ALISHA!

What do you think?

2009-04-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

After taking the photos in Palasades a little while ago, Rick and I decided that we really liked the photo of the little shack so we decided to have it blown up and put on a canvas. We framed it above our bed.

We had to build a custom frame for it because it was such an odd size. Rick and I both worked on building it and then it was left up to me to paint it. I wanted to try for the old rusted patina effect. It took me forever to paint it because of all the layering I had to do with the paint.

Here it is...

What do you think?

Our New Puppy

2009-04-16T15:07:00.001-07:00

We have a new addition to our family. I would have put a photo on a week or so ago but the little poop won't hold still long enough for me to take a photo. We named him Jethro. He gets along well with Jiggy, my other Yorkie, but Jinxy, our big fat cat, swats at him with her declawed paws and wonders why it doesn't faze him!

Jethro is the one on the left, Jiggy on the right.

Jinxy was looking at the dogs like - Ha...ha... You have to stay outside!

Compared to Jiggy, Jethro is so shaggy and sometimes looks like a mop!

Here is our spoiled kitty cat, Jinxy.

Easter

2009-04-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend we had...

Friday - we had a little Easter egg hunt at Jess and Shelley's with Jake and Tracy's family. We also invited Cole to come but Desi said he had broncitis so he had to stay in all weekend, poor kid. Anyway, after the Easter egg hunt we went out for pizza. The kids were a little routy at the restaurant - putting ice down people's shirts, running around screaming and laughing - I know the people eating probably applauded when we left. Oh well, as long as we all had fun, right?

Saturday - We ended up with a bright and sunny day and I had plans of going to another Easter egg hunt with Jake and Tracy's kids at the Fire Station's egg hunt but, Rick didn't want to go - so we ended up going golfing instead. (Sorry Jake and Tracy, Rick didn't know that I told you guys to go to the egg hunt and I thought Jess and Shelley would go for sure...didn't mean to leave you hangin!)

Sunday - I was a little sick with a sore throat so Rick and Kolten went to church and then when they got home we went to Phil and Melissa's house for a family get together and to eat goooooooooood food again.

Nick was to interested in the movie, Bedtime Stories, to smile for the camera.

Kali was sad because they used her colored easter eggs to make deviled eggs for everyone to eat. Look at that little face... it makes me want to cry.

So Grandma cuddled her until the tears were gone.

Below is Matt, Whitney, and Little Dyllon.

and me holding Matt & Lisa's new puppy, Pico.

Here is Pico and RyLee striking a pose.

and Madyson...

Matt again.

Nick, still watching the movie.

Phil (or Hottie, as Madyson later called him).

Melissa was a little concerned when we got there because she had forgotten to put the ham in to cook. Luckily, the Bates family usually eats alot of food when we get together, so someone else brought a ham and we had just enough.

Kali's happy again...

How cute is this... That's right Dyllon, steal those lips before Grandpa kisses them.

Golfing at Cedar Park.

Palasades

2009-03-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Rick and I took a drive over the weekend up to Palasades, which ended up being about an hour drive from my house. I took the camera incase I saw something interesting to take photos of. It was a lot of fun. We ended up driving down some neat trails and roads and snapped some pretty photos.

Enjoy...

Our Carnival Cruise

2009-03-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, we went on a cruise in February. It was our first and I have to admit, I am not a fan of cruising. I hated how the ship rocked and if you are not a drinker or gambler, which we aren't, then there is really little to do on the ship. I think if we would have went with friends, it might have been a little funner but, really, I don't think another cruise is in my future. I kept on thinking while being bored on the ship that I could have been relaxing on a sunny beach somewhere or exploring an island. Which we did stop in Key West (beautiful) and Cozumel (not so beautiful), but did not get to spend much time there to see what the islands had to offer. I went on the trip with the intention of taking a lot of photos but, we were there for such a short period of time that we didn't have a lot to look at, in Key West anyway. Cozumel was mostly jungle brush (thick, half dead brush and palms) and their beaches were dirty and had a lot of lava rock. I'm sure Cozumel had one or two small, pretty beaches to visit but you had to pay to visit them. We also rented scooters and drove around the island so we didn't want to waste our money on the beaches that were full of people that couldn't even swim in the water because it was too cold. The temperature most the time on our trip was in the low sixties to high fifties with gusts of wind. We did found one little spot with really pretty, peachy/tan sand next to shore and the water was this gorgeous turquoise color but about 10 feet from the shore it was littered with trash and debris. Across the street from this beach we stopped at was a little hut that held a store on the lower part and a restaraunt on it's upper deck - normal, right? Well, when we went to get on our scooters to leave, we noticed this huge 300-400 lb. pig behind this restaraunt that must have been dinner for the next group of tourist. NASTY! You wouldn't see that in America.

By the way, we boarded the ship in Miami, FL. I thought Miami would be at least as pretty as sunny California, but I was wrong. It was mostly concrete, city, cargo shipping, very little beaches and hardly any trees. It was full of Spanish speaking Cubans. Don't get me wrong, I really like Cuban people but, did you know that English is a second language in Miami - Spanish is their first? Everyone there has some sort of accent and it was hard to find any people there who were friendly. Plus it was way expensive, dinners at restaraunts cost you at least $80 for 2 adults and a child, and you couldn't go anywhere in a cab without spending at least $40 one way, 10-15 minute drive. It was also so humid there that I don't know how the people there hold a hairstyle, my hair was flat in seconds.

OK, so I vented enough about our dive of a trip. I'll end by saying, don't make the same mistake we did!

Check out the photos... Start at the bottom and scroll up, I accidently put them in backwards.

It was sooooooo time to go home. Even if that meant a 7 hour flight home. Luckily it was broke up by one little lay-over in Minneapolis. It gave me an excuse to break down and finally buy the Stephanie Meyer books and read them on the way.

Or maybe it was all the Spanish being spoken over the Miami Airport intercom. They would announce the flights in Spanish quite a few times before it was time to board the plane and then once it was time to board they would announce the flights once in English. How crazy is that?!
I think all that water and the rocking the ship was doing made Kolten a little goofy.
Then it was back on the cruise ship at 9:30 that night. I was not looking forward to being on the ship for 2 days straight heading back to Miami.

I must say, it was beautiful at night.

Besides jewelry, this was about the only other kind of stuff to buy in Cozumel. If you did find anything else worth buying, (and let me tell you, you had a hard time doing that) they had it marked up so high that you could buy ten of the same thing in the States.
This was our ship below.
We found the Cozumel Fire Dept. Yeah!
OK, I know, I look just as dorky.
Woot, Woo!

If you can look past Rick's shiny little yellow scooter hat, you'll see they found a blow hole that the ocean water kept coming up through. He wanted to walk out and take a look at it and when he got there he didn't notice where it was at until the water came splashing through and almost soaked him. It just missed him though dang it!
This is the beach we were on.

This is what most of the beaches are at Cozumel. Lava rock.
There it is. HUGE, huh? Also check out the jungle brush in the background. That is what half of Cozumel is covered in.
This is the place that had the pig behind it.

Kind of a neat little Mexican hut though.

This was the true beach we were on. There was broken bottles, dirty dipers, lost shoes and trash all over mixed in with the seaweed. Sad too, it would have been awesome to be on if they just took an hour a day to rake up.

Don't let the next few picture fool you. Yes, the beach does look beautiful from these angles.
This was the little restaurant I was telling you about earlier. We didn't dare eat there but we did get a bottled coke.
The buildings would have been awesome if they weren't so filthy.
This was looking the other direction.
This was looking downtown as you got off the ramp from the ship.
I couldn't get enough of that water.
Imagine parking these babies!
This was looking down at the water as we pulled up next to a ship that was already docked.
Welcome to Cozumel. Don't judge a book by it's cover. This book sucked once you started reading.
Looking down from the ship at some people helping the ship dock. I'm still wondering what their job was on the dock. Was it to hold the boat with their hands so that it didn't hit the dock...ha...ha...ha...
This was what the water turned into.

Then as we pulled up to Cozumel the water glowed with this BEAUTIFUL torquoise blue color. That was by far the best thing in Cozumel!
You could tell when you were headed toward Cozumel when the water color started to change. The water from Key West to Cozumenl was this dark purple/blue color that you see below.

Rick was most of the eye candy I looked at but he did a lot of candystore peaking all around the ship on that sunny day.

Finally a sunny day to go swimming. To bad everyone else had the same idea.
Every night they turned down our beds and made us towel animals. That was probably Kolten's favorite part of the whole trip. Shouldn't Kolten's shirt read boatsick instead off carsick?
I made Rick stand there so I could get some proof to take to the bishop of him buying some booze on the trip. Just kidding, it was virgin Pina Coladas @ $5 each.
Picture of the ship.
This was looking toward the back of the ship from where Kolten was swimming.
But of course, again, Kolten had to go swimming.
The wind was whipping my hair and the blanket around like crazy. Also if you notice, no one else was out on the deck like us crazy idiots.
The picture below is the front of the ship. It was about 6 or 7 at night. The sun had just barely gone down. That night was freezing cold and all we had to look forward to was ocean until 2pm the next day when we reached Cozumel.

What a cutie!
Leaving Key West.
Leaving Key West.
That's all he ever got done doing.
Of course, Kolten had to swim again!
It was actually half way sunny that day, windy though. Look behind me, there must have been more Idahoan's on the ship.
Leaving Key West.
Isn't the water gorgeous!
Standing next to the ship, ready to get on.
Residential Street in Key West.
Key West.
People made money in the strangest ways in Key West. This guy was standing on the street holding a snake and would let people hold it and get a photo for $10. I swear Kolten held that thing for like 2 minutes. What were we thinking? Apparently we weren't the only suckers. He had a short line to hold the snake.
They had really different names for the local hangouts. Kinda neat.

The ship below was one of MANY along this long dock that cuddled next to a bunch of fishing markets, tackle shops and whatever other kind of shops you could think of for fishermen. All of the shops where made out of old rustic looking wood too. Kind of the color of the deck they are standing on. It was so beautiful. It kind of reminded me of the old Jaws movies. I was an idiot though and forgot to turn the camera to the left and snap a shot.
This was a cool little restaurant we stopped at for lunch. The residants in Key West were so friendly. A lot of Americans travel on vacation to Key West and never leave. Just like Miami and Cubans.
We stopped at Ripley's Believe It or Not while in Key West. Kolten will one day regret all of the faces he pulled in the photos we took. This is him standing next to the tallest guy in the world record books. By the way, Kolten is 5' tall now.
City of Key West. See the spruced up golf cart. That is what you saw most of on the streets in Key West. People were clearly on vacation when you hit this island. I think shorts and tanks were the dress code.
Key West.
Key West.
Key West.
Key West.
We rode a trolley from the ship in to the city of Key West through the residential streets. It was really neat seeing the character of the island houses. So charming, I thought. Plus they had the coolest trees.
The ship also had a fun little water slide. Check it out, Kolten was the only one swimming most of the days on the ship. Again, proof that we are from Idaho.

I could not keep my hair out of my face or anyone else's that came near me...
This weather really sucked!
This was one little spot we thought was really pretty in Miami. We snapped this photo as we were leaving for Key West. It was one of the last pieces of land we saw until the next day when we made it to Key West.
This is what you see most of in Miami... I don't know about you but, I really appreciate Idaho after seeing this.
Check out the gray skies. This is the weather Kolten was swimming in.
Finally, leaving Miami...
Miami.
Miami.
Take a look at the water in this picture... This was in Miami. I would say it is the typical color for most of America. Compare it to the water I will show you in Cozumel and Key West. It is very interesting.
Didn't we make those life jackets look good! (Yeah Right) Notice how much fun everyone was having while they instructed us for an hour how to put on a life jacket and find our embarking letter incase the ship sunk. It probably would have taken me or you about 1 minute to discuss.

It was in and out of the hot tub the whole time, though.

Here is the only tiny swimming pool on the 1500? vacation passenger ship. Notice Kolten is the only one you see getting in the water, yes we are from Idaho, and yes we swim in water when it is only 60 degrees outside and windy.
Our small little inside cabin with a fake window (it was wall behind the curtains).
More city... More Miami...

Leaving Miami... I really liked the below photo with all the boats.

Miami Photos... I know I said there weren't many trees in Miami but, this was pretty much the only spot they had trees grouped like this.
This is what most of Miami looked like.
This was when we first got on the ship, we went straight to the back to look out.

Boarding the cruise ship...

Night photo from the balcony of our hotel in Miami...
I forgot to mention Rick got sick a day before we left on our trip. He had a really bad sore throat and runny nose, bumber, I know...
This was one of the restaraunts we ate at in Miami. It was really pretty.
Rick posed for me in the Miami hotel room. I thought I better not share the other photos... Just kidding, we had Kolten with us.

My Family

2009-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

OK, so I got thinking about all the people that look at my blog (friends and family) and realized that not everyone knows the breakdown of my family so it is problably weird to read my blog and not have a clue who I am talking about.

Here is the breakdown (Family Tree)...

Cindy's immediate family includes:

Mom & Dad: Merle and Terri

Their Kids (Cindy's siblings):

Jake (oldest @ 41 yrs old)

Jess (40 yrs old)

Jason (36 yrs old)

Cindy (30 yrs old)

Desi (25 yrs old)

Trevor (24 yrs old)

Cindy's siblings' spouses:

Jake & Tracy

Jess & Shelley

Jason (not married)

Cindy & Rick

Desi & Scott

Trevor & Tiffany

Cindy's siblings' kids:

Jake and Tracy have:

Shayne

Kody

Erika

Kayla

Brooklyn

Jess & Shelley have:

Kayden

Jason has:

no kids

Rick & Cindy have:

Kolten

Desi & Scott have:

Cole

baby girl on the way - due in May

Trevor & Tiffany have:

no kids

Rick's immediate family includes:

Mom & Dad: Clay & Maria

Their Kids (Rick's Siblings):

Matt (Oldest @ 34 yrs old?)

Phil (33 yrs old?)

Rick (32 yrs old)

Kara (30 yrs old)

Ryan (26 yrs old?)

Rick's Siblings' Spouses:

Matt & Lisa

Phil & Melissa

Rick & Cindy

Kara (not married)

Ryan (not married)

Rick's Siblings' Kids:

Matt & Lisa have:

Nick

Whittany

RyLee

Jodus (Kara's boy that Matt adopted)

Phil & Melissa have:

Madisyn

Cali

Dyllon

Rick & Cindy have:

Kolten

Kara has:

Dora (killed in bicycle accident)

Jodus (Matt adopted)

Ryan has:

no kids

Hope this helps so that you are not confused when I have pictures of people in my blog.

Joaquin Phoenix

2009-02-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

Check out this AWKWARD interview between David Letterman and Joaquin Phoenix that aired Feb. 11th. What's up with Joaquin???!! Maybe I'm wrong to judge but, it makes me sad because I really like Joaquin's movies and I think he is a great actor. I just can't believe he would go off the deep end like this. Do you really think he is going to get a good film maker to film him when he is sabotaging his own career? Again I am probably wrong to think that way... Hollywood does do things that sometimes shocks us all it seems and it wouldn't be the first time they hired an actor/actress that went off the deep end. (Push pause on the music first.)

Kody Wrestling

2009-02-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to go watch Kody wrestle. He did awesome! We are so proud of him. He missed the lower weight group by 3 pounds that he tried so hard to shed. So he was bumped up a weight group and I could sense he was a little worried that he wouldn't do so well. By the end of the night, he almost made CHAMPION but was barely beat by a hair and came in second. Way to go Kody, YOU STUD- we still think you are a champion!

Jake, Tracy, & Kody

Jake, Tracy, some of Tracy's family, Kody & his girlfriend (sorry can't remember her name)