Just a few more snow pics

A couple more pics from the snow that I could not add to the last post!

Trying to be Good!!

Me that is... I am trying to be good and post regularly to this site. If only so that I can remember all the funny things that the boys do!

So from basketball to the snow. This year myself and the boys went with my sister Kari and her family to the snow. We stayed in Sacramento and met up with my sister Jenny's family as well. The plan was to drive to a snow park about 40 minutes out of Sacramento and go sledding and tubing. the park had a tubing hill which you could pay admission to get in and use their escalator to avoid having to drag the tubes up the hill; That was worth the price of admission! The drive to the park turned out to be almost a bigger adventure than the actual park. The weather on the day we went to the park was very snowy. In fact at one point, we were stopped by CalTrans and told to put on snow chains. Peter, Kari's husband, is a fix-it guy and was able to put them on relatively quickly. The unfortunate part is that because it does not snow very much in Bakersfield, Peter and Kari did not know that the chains were supposed to go in the back, not the front. Needless to say, about five-10 miles into the journey, the chains had to be removed because of the damage they were doing to the car. Miraculously we made it to the park even though we had no chains. I like to think of it as destiny.

Once we got to the park, it was evident that the driving conditions deterred many from getting there as we almost had the place to ourselves on a Saturday! The downside to having a snowy snow park day was that the snow was very soft and almost up to my waist in parts. So walking to the sledding area was really difficult. Here is where the twins personality really shone through.

On the tubing hill. Luke went down once with me and then absolutely refused to go again. He stayed in the lodge with his Aunt Kari and Cousin Hayley. Adam loved the tubing so much that he cried when we left. Walking to the sledding area, Luke whined pretty much the whole way. When we got there, I was so over his whining that I almost turned around and went back. Adam meanwhile was having a ball and only got upset when he got buried almost up to his neck in a snowbank. The boys tried to sled but because the snow was so soft, the sled really did not go that fast.

I took a few pics of the day to remind me of all these details. In summary it was a fun trip and hopefully we can make it an annual event!

Me Bad....

I looked at the last post date and thought yikes! Where have the last six odd months gone??? To summarize, it has been a very busy six months for me and the blogging just got pushed to the bottom of the list. But I have emerged from the ashes and march forward to blog.

I thought I would start off by adding some recent pics. Adam and Luke played their first season of basketball this year. I was hoping that some natural genetic talent might shine through for them.... not! But they did have a good time running as fast as they could into the padded wall at the end of the court. I think Luke and Adam both managed to make one basket each for the season during a game. Adam had a funny moment during the last game of the season. Jada was one of a few girls on the team. She is pictured three from the right in the team pic. Jada was more worried about who was looking at her than about the game; and rightly so because the ball was almost as big as she was! Anyways, Jada kind of lost track of where she was supposed to be. So Adam decided that he needed to help her out. As soon as Adam's team turned around to head down court, Adam would look for Jada, grab her hand and run up the court with her hand in hand. It was too cute.

The Next Chapter in the Adventures of Adam

Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. But then I was never really that good at the journal thing. I thought that new technology would inspire me to be better and it has... to a point!

Anyways, I have to record Adam's most recent adventure as Superman (or so he thinks). So it is Sunday afternoon and I am trying to cook and get organized for the coming week. I hear the boys playing in the background so I am thinking... no fighting, playing nicely, things are good. Next thing I know, I hear Adam crying. I knew something was wrong because this cry was the pain cry different from the "my brother pinched me or talked to me wrong" cry. So I rush over to where the noise is coming from and find Adam and Luke at the bottom of the stairs. I could kind of figure out what was wrong because the boys had dragged all their pillows and blankets from their beds down the stairs and had made a little landing nest. So I ask Luke what happened and he told me that Adam jumped off the stairs. Come to find out he did not just jump, he did a runup to jump a little higher. So apparently on the way down (because you know that no matter how much you might wish that you were Superman, unfortunately the reality of gravity eventually catches up to you!) he did not quite clear the stair handrail and hit that with the heel of his foot. That was a lucky break for Mom as this meant that although the pain felt was quite high, the aftermath (ie broken bones or sprain) was relatively minor. As I was feeling around for broken bones or trying to see if he had sprained his ankle, I was thinking what fun we would have at the ER on a Sunday afternoon because with everyone else in the household away, that would mean not just one but two little boys to entertain. Not a problem right, because of course everyone knows how quickly you get seen at the Kern River Valley Hospital on a weekend!

All's well that end's well. But I am sure there will be more chapters to add to Adam's Adventures.

The Things Kids Say!

So the purpose of this blog for the most part is to document those cute things that your kids do and say so that in the future you can remember it or shame your teenage children with the evidence.

So here are some funny things that have the twins have said recently:

Adam: Harley was making some homemade rum ice cream. He of course was using pure rum to add to the mix- for those who are thinking it, YES! Anyways, Adam comes over and wants to smell the rum. So Harley lets him take a whiff and Adam says, "That is the sweetest smell I ever smelled".

Adam: At the moment, the boys have an absolute obsession with the Justice League. For those of you out there who are my peers, you may remember this cartoon from your Saturday mornings. The Justice League consists of such great characters as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, The Wonder Twins, Fire Storm etc. The arch nemesis of The Justice League is Dark Side. He talks in a kind of raspy whisper and his super power is xray beams that shoot from his eyes- kind of an interesting character. Anyways, Adam has apparently taken a bit of a shine to Dark Side because he really wants to shoot xray laser beams from his eyes. So he told me in the car the other day that he has a new father. I kind of looked at him like what? And he said, "yeah, my new father is Dark Side and then he will give me his xray superpower so I can shoot things with my eyes". I of course had Adam repeat that to Harley.

Luke: He pretended to be Dark Side all weekend. Complete with raspy voice and added a scrunchy nose so that he could add a bit of a snarl to the whole thing. He would not come when called unless we addressed him as Dark Side.

Luke: Per my post about the Beach house experience at Oceanside. As you can imagine, by the end of the day, the boys were very tired and cranky. One evening, Adam had a bit of a meltdown over some thing that I cannot now recall. I had them in the bedroom and Adam was crying and generally not coping. And I was saying to Adam, stop crying, you are tired, you need to go to sleep etc.. Luke is standing on the bed and turns his head toward me and says to me very seriously, "Mommy, leave Adam alone, he is having a Moment."

BFF's + Beach House + Beach= 100% Fun

I believe that you can never have too many BFF's (Best Friends Forever). You know the kind that you can not see or talk to for days, months, years and whenever you do get together or talk again, it seems like you have never been apart. Well I am fortunate enough to have friends like that in both the USA and Australia (you know who you are!) And last week, myself and Adam and Luke were able to meet up with the Larsen family at Oceanside. Now myself and the Larsen family go way way back. Okay, we won't count the years but it is more than 10! Here is the story

There once were three girls living together at BYU- Michele, Michelle and Julianne. They were fun loving gals and the two Michellllle's shared both a name and clothes (because they were the same height- what were the odds of that happening!). These three girls graduated, married and had some kids; okay Michelle and Julianne outdid Michele by about a ratio of 2:1 but hey, I had the twins! We have also moved, lost touch, found each other, called, emailed and just generally kept up with each other over the years. Oh yeah, and I did introduce Michelle to this really great guy I met on a leaf raking service project at BYU. 5 kids, 10+years and a few more assets to the balance sheet and this guy is still great- good catch Michelle! Anyways, it is also good to keep in touch with people that work hard and get lucky enough to own a beach house in Southern CA about a block from the beach. Add to the fact that Michelle and Dave also happened to have two boys about the same age as the twins and well you have all the makings of a pretty fab holiday. Which it was. I would have uploaded more pics except I kept forgetting to take the camera with me.

We were also lucky enough to connect at the same time with some other BYU friends (Hi Stowell family!) and have a mini-reunion on Friday at the beach. We kept the party rocking with 10 kids(the Larsen 5, Stowell 3 and Alfred 2) and some awesome burritos from To's. I mean how could you not be happy with enough food to feed 15 people all for $30. To finish off the night, we watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games and managed to outlast five of the kids and one of the adults. All in all, a great trip. One for the memory books.

Taylor (My Niece) Gets Baptized

On Saturday, the 2nd August, the Alfred family traveled to Bakersfield to see my niece Taylor get baptized. The baptism itself was not scheduled until later in the day. But the event proved to be a great reason to stage a mini Luke/Merta family reunion. My Luke cousins, some whom I have not seen for many years, just all happened to be in LA for the summer. So my Aunt Joan pitched the idea that we should all gather for Taylor's baptism and also spend the day together at Kari's place. It was so nice to see my Aunt's, Uncle and cousins again. Their kids are great. For the most part, I have not been able to meet any of their children. So it was a great day to see how everyone has grown up. I have really missed being apart from all of these family things. Taylor's baptism was really good too. The boys of course were completely wired up from the days activities. And probably also from eating too many brownies and cookies. That did not help. So we get to the chapel for the baptism. I helped my sister out by looking after Bella. She can be a little bit BAD at these types of events so I thought that I would do my best to keep her and the boys quiet. As a side note, my boys have taken to hero worshipping the Bushling boys so it was perhaps too much to ask of them to sit quietly when both the Bushling boys and their cousin Austin were sitting behind them! Needless to say, I don't think they would have received any points for reverence. But the funny thing that Luke kept asking was when Jesus was going to come into the chapel. Probably gleaned that concept from my answer to his question, "Is this Jesus' house (meaning the church building) to which I replied, yes it is." So he was getting a bit disappointed that Jesus had not put in an appearance. Lucky for me, the video shown after the baptisms was the first vision. Which of course has Jesus in it. Luke was very happy to see him as was his cousin Bella who kept pointing to the screen and saying, "There is Jesus". Luke's comment was that Jesus flopped his hand (when he pointed to Joseph Smith). He is observant! Bella's crowning achievement at the baptism was when all the kids were invited to come closer to the font to witness the baptism. Bella races up to the front and then turns around to her mother and raised her dress up and says, "Mama, my diaper come off ", as she is taking off one of the tabs on her diaper. My sister moved pretty quick to head off that disaster I must say. The boys fell asleep on the way home. Adam was so tired that when I took him upstairs and changed him for bed he lifted his arms and legs but never opened his eyes. A good day is had by all when the boys conk out in the car!