A good morning's work.

The girls got up, fed themselves, and spent the morning outside.

First snow of the season!

It's actually kinda late this year.  I can't remember ever getting through September with no frost and no snow.  It was really glorious this year.

And it will warm up to the 70's again next week, so winter isn't exactly here yet.

But my girls all got snow boots this week.  And Miss D got new skis last night at ski team equipment night.

Here comes winter!

First Annual Weilenmann Wild Run

Daddy J, Miss D and I ran this 3-mile trail race fundraiser this morning.  It was a tough, uphill course, and there were four "challenges" that we had to get through as a team.  Miss D was a total champ, running the majority of the course and pushing hard at the finish.  We did it in less than an hour, putting us right in the middle of the pack.  Thank you to Annabelle and Aliyah for watching the two little ones for us while we ran.

Can't wait for next year's run.  Hope the outdoor education and PE departments of the school were able to raise a bunch of money for equipment and programs!

Four Wheeling Fun!

Last Saturday, we took the girls four wheeling in Wasatch Mountain State Park.  We rented a big six-seater four wheeler, and took it out into the mountains for about 4 hours.

We explored all over the mountains, up and down, around, through streams, even through a little rain.  It was really a lot of fun.

The Wasatch 100 was being run through the park, and we even picked up one "pacer" who had fallen behind and one competitor who was not going to make the 5:00 p.m. cutoff.

Quite an adventure!

Miss D broke her arm.

Poor angel.  A beautiful Saturday morning.  Ice cream for breakfast (long story).  A ride on the swings in the back yard, jump off the swings, and *snap* a broken arm.

She has a supracondyal fracture, which is the most common kind of fracture in kids her age.  Hers was a III which is the worst severity.  Basically, her humerus bone snapped just above the elbow joint and the bone displaced itself over two centimeters.

She had a little surgery to put in three pins to hold it together while it heals.  In a week, she will have a cast put on.  Three weeks after that, it should be all better.

It is her non-dominant left hand, so school should not be a problem.

This picture is Miss D in the car leaving the clinic on our way down to Primary Children's Hospital to see the orthopedic surgeon.

Sun Valley, Idaho - Glamping

The whole fam (on my side), all 13 of us, trekked to Sun Valley, Idaho, this weekend.  Grandma Libby and Grampa Irv camw down from Pullman, Washington.  I drove up with our three girls and my sister's oldest two and her youngest one, pulling our camper.  It was my first time pulling the camper, and it was white-knucklish for me, but we made it! 

We met at Easley Campground, 14 miles north of Ketchum, on Thursday night.

My sister and the rest of her family came up on Friday afternoon.  We stayed until mid-day Sunday.

There was a hot springs pool right by the campground.  The kids rode bikes a ton.  Daddy-J and I got to do an awesome 12-mile mountain bike ride.  8 miles of climbing and 3.5 miles of rip-roaring downhill!  Seamus came with us and did really well.

Sunday we took a whole-family bike ride.  K-Wiggles is our last kid on training wheels, and she is "this close" to being able to a two-wheeler.

We ate a ton of food, as always.

It was a really great time.  Not sure we'll go back, 'cuz it's a really long drive, but it sure is a beautiful part of the world.

Picnic lunch

Cloudy outside today, so our picnic moved into mama's bedroom, but it still looks yummy!

Ice skating beauties.

Here is a "before."  Hope the "after faces are just as happy!

May be posting more frequently again!

My posting slump this year has been mainly due to never getting on my computer.  Since I got my droid phone, I keep up with 99% of my,computer stuff on my phone.  But posting to my blog through my phone's internet was cumbersome at best.  It finally dawned on me to look for a droid app to update my blog, and voila, I found one!

This afternoon we are at Temple Har Shalom where Miss D's violin class has been this summer.  Their playground is nice.

Now we are off to ice skating.  Yes, today is the first crazy day we've had this summer.

It will be nice to make more blog posts like this!

One More Starvation Photo

This was the sunset from our cliff-top campsite on Friday evening...

You can dye the blonde hair...

but it doesn't take the "blonde" out of the girl.

Recently, we sold my '05 Honda Pilot and bought a 2010 GMC Yukon XL.  See, I drive a carpool with 5 kids, regularly tote around 6 kids, and just needed something bigger, especially something that still had room for more than a bag of groceries when the third row seats were up.  Soo... YukonXL it was.

Anyway, so I've had the Yukon for a couple of weeks now, and I love it.  But tonight, it found a mind of its own.  I got home from karate, turned off the car, threw the keys in the console and got out of the car.  It beeped at me, and I thought "that's weird, I wonder what it's beeping about."  I got out, shut the doors, and they promptly locked themselves, with my keys inside!

So the first thing Daddy-J asked me was "where is the extra key?"  See, we paid $62 for an extra key when we bought the Yukon (who knew, fancy keys cost a lot!).  My response?  The extra key is on the key fob inside the car (brilliant, right?  And this isn't even the blonde moment!).

Next step: try the OnStar service that Gary, our fleet sales rep, told me was activated when we bought the car.  Nope... after calling OnStar Canada (don't ask) and then OnStar US, no record of me or my vehicle.  They recommend calling GM Roadside Assistance.  Voila! They send out a local towing service and get my car unlocked, no charge.  Great, right?!

Yep, fantastic.  I get the keys out of the (now unlocked) car, take one of the keys off the fob, go to hang it up with all the spare keys and you will NEVER guess what I see?

Oh yeah, a whole other key fob with a whole other key to guess what?  My YUKON!!  Argh.  I had no idea we had bought a third key and a second key fob.

Blonde moment!  Oh well.  I guess at least now I know how the GM Roadside Assistance works.  I also learned during the evening that I can get 3 months of OnStar for a free trial... all I have to do is push the OnStar button inside the car (which of course I couldn't do while I was locked out of the darned car).

*sigh*

Camping at Starvation Reservoir

Along Highway 40, on the way to Vernal, Dinosaur National Monument, and all points Colorado, there is a little reservoir called Starvation.  It is just outside the town of Duchesne (pronounced Doo-Shane).  Between the two of us, Daddy-J and I must have driven past it (and over it... there's a bridge) 100 times at least.  We have always said "that looks like a cool place to explore."  But since we're always on the way to somewhere or home from somewhere, we've never stopped to explore it.

So a few weeks ago, we decided that we'd go camping there this weekend.  And guess what?  We actually did!

We took my new Yukon (love it!), pulled the camper we bought last year (love it!), and G'Pa Larry joined us in his "big rig" pulling our boat.  We took a few moments to explore the brand new full-hookup RV park that is right on the beach (seriously, walk out the back steps of the camper and you are on the beach!) which has been under renovation since last spring and just opened this weekend.  But since we had the dogs with us, we decided to skip that this time and we went to one of the primitive camping areas, called Indian Bay.  It has 75 "sites" (in quotes because really it's just a bunch of dirt road with randomly placed fire rings that sort of indicate a spot to camp!).

We got there late, about 8 p.m., and still found a fantastic spot right by the water.  We were perched up on a cliff above the water and saw a beautiful sunset that first night.  The weather was less than perfect, but it was still a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning, we explored the lake in our boat.  Larry and Daddy-J took their fishing gear.  At one end of the lake, we spotted a whole mess of carp in the shallows, apparently mating.  The boys helped the girls cast some lines out with lures on them, and each girl got to hook a nasty, ugly carp!  Seriously, that is ONE UGLY FISH!  But the girls loved it, and Mama-V took a nap in the boat!

We took another cruise in the late afternoon, which all the girls slept through!  And we saw the weather on Sunday was not going to be good, so we packed up the boat Saturday night and took off Sunday about noon.

The best part is that this place is only about 90 miles from home, so we left the campground at noon, stopped at Daniels Summit for lunch, and still made it home by 4:00!

Following are just some random pictures from the trip!

 Needless to say, we will be going back to Starvation Reservoir.  The gal at the gate said the water should get up into the 70s once the weather warms up.  That's a lot warmer than Jordanelle ever gets!

Miss D's 7th birthday party

We are going low-key for Miss D's seventh birthday party this year.  Her birthday fell during spring break, so most of her friends were out of town.  We had a quiet family celebration at her favorite restaurant on her actual birthday.

This Friday, three of her girlfriends are coming over for a pajama party.  We will do dinner and movies, make tiaras, eat popcorn, and then head out for ice cream at about 10:00 p.m.  Yes, P.M.!  One of the girls is not staying all night, but two are going to attempt a sleepover!

Last time Miss D went to a (non-family) sleepover, I had to come get her at 1:00 a.m. because she couldn't sleep!  Yikes!  Hopefully, these two intrepid seven year olds who are spending the night will fare better than Miss D did!

I am looking forward to having some "girl" time with my big girl and her friends.

Two cooking victories this week!

These are so small in he scheme of things, but they have brought me such happiness...

Since I have lived at high altitude for 11+ years now, you would think I would be an expert at high-altitude baking by now, right? Nope, not so much. My cakes over-rise, collapse, and the texture is crummy and terrible. Pancakes come out like inch-thick hockey picks. Seriously!

So this week I made Jim's birthday cake (from a mix, of course) and before I made it I fired up my trusty internet and tried to learn something about high-altitude baking adjustments. From what I learned, I decided to simply add one extra egg to the mix and raise the baking temperature. Voila! Beautiful cake, not over-risen, no collapse, and decent texture!

Add to that success my mom's suggestions to make good pancakes from Krusteaz pancake mix. Add an egg and use half milk/half water instead of just water. Amazing! The pancakes came out fluffy and Yummy and light!

And so, I have two cooking victories this week! Score one for the stay-at-home mama!

Daddy-J's birthday.

Daddy's birthday was Wednesday, and we went out for pizza that night (his request) but we didn't find time to make his birthday cake until today. Lemon cake, raspberry filling, lemond frosting. Yummy! Happy 41st Daddy-J!

Ski season update.

Ok, so it was a busy ski season this year. Miss D ran two ski races, we had a lot of house guests, we skied a LOT of powder, M-moo and K-wiggles ripped it up in ski school for eight weeks, and Daddy-J blew his ACL skiing in March and had reconstructive surgery on March 24.

So maybe that is why I haven't updated the blog in a while? Life gets in the way of blogging about life. Somewhere there are pictures of lots of things we have done this winter, so tomorrow I will try to find them and put hem up here.

Summit Ski Team

Miss D joined the Summit Ski Team this year.  She had a little tryout with the coaches at the end of last ski season and they invited her to start in their new "January" program for 6-year-olds (previously, you had to be 7 to start with Summit).  We have been so thrilled with her experience there.  It is a very family-friendly organization, with lots of parents involved in the program and having a great time.  Most important, though, is that the emphasis truly is on creating life-long all-mountain skiers, with racing as a part of the program, but only as a part.

Miss D skis with Summit every Saturday, in a group with four kids and one coach for the whole season.  Her experience in ski school last year was pretty uneven and Summit has been so much better for her!

Today was her first ever ski race.  It was a YSL (Youth Ski League) race for J4, J5, and J6 kids, which means kids from age 6 up through 12 years old.  Miss D's J6 division includes kids up to 9 years old (USSA does their "J" years based on the kids' age on January 1, so kids who were 8 on January 1 but have since turned 9 are still considered J6).  Confusing?  Kinda.  But the point is that the J6 girls that Miss D was racing against were anywhere from her age up to 9 years old, pretty big spread!

She got a little nervous earlier in the week.  I should mention that we weren't even going to have her race at all this year (totally optional with Summit, thank you!).  But when her coach asked Daddy if she was coming to this race, he answered "no" and Miss D piped up and said she wanted to race!  Ok!  But as time went along, she started talking about not wanting to do it.  After drilling down, I finally figured out that she knew she wasn't going to win, so she didn't want to race if she wasn't going to win!  So we got to have a long talk about what ski racing was all about and that there would be 300+ kids at the race and almost none of them would win, but that it could still be fun to compete and try and get better, etc. etc.  That seemed to help.

So off she went this morning, got her bib, got her ticket, went up the lift, inspected the course, and lo-and-behold she raced!  And even better than that, she had fun!  It really was a blast.  The team set up a tent at the bottom of the race hill and the parents brought all kinds of food and drinks, even a bbq with hamburgers and hotdogs.  It was really a great fun time!

As for the actual race, well, Miss D would have been last in her division, but she missed a gate and got dq'd!  When the kids go up to inspect the course in the morning, it is drilled into their heads not to go through the timing gates at the finish (because it messes up the timing tests that the officials are doing, etc).  Of course, when the first little kids start heading down for the race, they go where they went the last time, right off course, not through the timing gates at the finish!  Miss D did exactly that (creature of habit much?!), then had to hike back up to get through the timing gates and get her time.  She has also trained gates maybe 2 or 3 times total so far, so when she got out on the course, it got confusing with all the red and blue gates everywhere and she missed one about half way down.  We haven't told her any of this, of course, just want her to feel a sense of accomplishment for getting out there and doing it.  She had a good time and that's all that matters at 6 years old!  (Though you'd never know it from how some of the kids and parents at the races were acting.. sheesh!).

No idea if she'll ever go on to continue racing or be any good at it.  Our goal all along has been to make sure our kids become competent all-mountain skiers who love the sport for a lifetime, and if racing is part of that, then great!  And if not, no big deal.  There are so many options for kids out on the mountain these days that they will all find something to do!

Anyway, enough preaching... I have some pictures to share, but they're stuck on my phone due to technical difficulties, so I will have to come back and upload them later.

Happy New Year!

It was a relaxed New Year's Day at Casa Llamedos.  Miss D went off to her first day of Ski Team, with Daddy-J so proud he could burst!  It was so cold (and an optional day) that Miss D had a coach all to herself for the whole day (usually they are in packs of 4-5 kids with 1-2 coaches).  She was pretty nervous about getting started, worried that she wasn't going to be able to keep up and that she didn't know any body.  We had quite a few talks about it being ok to be scared or nervous but that we had to try things even when we were nervous, to see how they turned out.  She had a fun day, though she hasn't wanted to talk about it much.  Funny girl!

M-Moo and K-Wiggles and I stayed home all day.  They flitted from their DSi's to some art projects to their workbooks to dressups to puzzles to books.  All in all, they didn't make too much of a mess, so that's good.

As for me, I had it pretty relaxing.  I loaded the dishwasher, made some coffee, but didn't finish the dishes!  I sorted all the dirty clothes in the bedroom and actually started one load of wash (hasn't made it to the dryer yet, but the night is young!).  I took off my nail polish and gave myself a nice gel manicure.  And I watched a bunch of college football on tv.  So far I have had both my picks win (Florida - go Urban Meyer; and TCU - go horned frogs and Mountain West Conference!).

Daddy-J shared the last of his precious pirogies with me and the girls, and now they're heading to the hot tub!