Is It Naptime Yet

If you’d like to read the short post that goes with this long picture post, visit Family Vacation 2011-Part 7.

We started the day seeing a moose! So exciting. Anna and Kevin told us this was once called “Moose Country” and had a hike, until the tourists bothered and got into too much trouble with the moose.
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One of the beautiful waterfalls in Glacier National Park.
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The girls and Jon with Bird Woman Falls behind them.
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One of the views from the road.
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Weeping Wall. Jon thought it would be funny to roll down my window and drive close to the wall on the return trip. Eden thought it was funny until he rolled her window down.
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Momma and a baby mountain goat that’s behind the equipment. (Near Logan Pass Visitor’s center.)
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The girls by the snow at the visitor’s center in Logan Pass.
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Me with Blackfoot and Jackson Glacier behind me. (Not sure which, but there is a glacier up there.)
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The girls with Wild Goose Island and St. Mary’s Lake behind them.
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Pretty Flowers. Eden wanted her dad to take this picture.
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St. Mary’s Fall. We saw this on our hike.
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Lilah loves mud, and mud loves Lilah.
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Eden near some of the cascades we passed on the hike.
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Virginia Falls
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It was a little cold by the falls.
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Jon and Lilah really close to the falls. It gives you an idea of how tall they were.
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We went down stream a little bit and let the girls put their feet in the water.
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It was a little cold.
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More wildlife. We saw this guy near McDonald’s Lodge. (It’s too late for me to remember what he is, but he posed nicely for us.)

Here are the pictures that go with the Family Vacation 2011-Part 6 post.

Please do not walk into the water girls. 🙂
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Lake McDonald inside Glacier National Park.
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The rocks near the shore were just begging to be thrown in.
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The girls on our hike, Trail of the Cedars, with a cedar behind them.
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Avalanche Gorge, Glacier National Park.
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The girls in a cool tree.
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Lilah by the creek.
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The girls and I by the creek.
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It’s primal. Little girls must throw rocks into any lake, river, creek, whatever it is.
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What was overhead.
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Us by a huge cedar.
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Lilah picking the nose of the “nose tree.”
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Jonathan by McDonald Falls.

For the post that goes with these pictures read: Family Vacation 2011- Part 5.

Bacterial mats are everywhere. The colors come from what bacteria are inhabiting the water and correlate with what temperature the water is. The bluer the water the hotter it is. The orange and red are cooler temperatures, but still hot, and have different bacteria and organisms.
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This spring is what fed the previous bacteria mat.
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Twig Geyser. (These pictures come from Fountain Paint Pot.)
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Scenery at Fountain Paint Pot.
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Excelsior Geyser. See the people on the other side, that gives you an idea of how large this geyser basin is.

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The Grand Prismatic Spring. It was so steamy you couldn’t really see to the other side. I was sad that I wasn’t able to see it well.
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Then I read the sign that said it is often cloaked in steam. (I thought I’d get a better view, something similar to the picture, but from the ground.)
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A cool picture of one of the other springs in the same area, the Midway Geyser Basin.
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Lilah really wanted a picture of us walking into the steam, ironically she was walking in front of me and cannot be seen.
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Firehole Spring. It was really cool to sit and watch because it had bubbles of water or air continuously coming up and erupting at the surface.
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Great Fountain Geyser, it was said that it might go off at 9-11 pm the night we saw it.
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My crazy family in front of Firehole Lake
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The moon rising over Yellowstone Lake.
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A huge heard of bison. It was the largest group we had seen. I’m pretty sure we’d seen most of them, just not together like this.
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Newest Yellowstone Junior Rangers.
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Roosevelt Arch, at the North Entrance of the park. I was so excited because I thought it was on a different entrance, and didn’t know we’d be exiting through it.
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Some of the Rocky Mountains! It was so cool to drive along side of them.

To read the post about these pictures visit Family Vacation 2011- Part 4.
(It’s actually one of the shortest posts)
We took nearly 800 pictures on this trip, and I don’t want to have tons of long posts, so that’s why I’m breaking them up.

You can click on any image to enlarge.

A picture of the Yellowstone River’s Upper Falls, from the Lower Falls trail.
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My cutie-pie with the Yellowstone Canyon behind him. You might know him as Jonathan.
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Us at the brink of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
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Lilah took this cute picture of Eden.
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The Yellowstone Canyon.
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An up close and personal picture of the Lower Falls.
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The osprey nest we saw, through our binoculars.
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The Lower Falls, from far away.
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Adorable sisters.
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Lilah saw Obsidian Cliff with Daddy.
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Mammoth Hot Springs
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A nursery of mama and baby elk. The Old Fort in the Mammoth area is the only place that has planted grass, and the elk have always come and eaten it.
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Lilah with a petrified redwood. Her and Daddy took they walk, while Eden and I kept dry and looked at it from the car.
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This pictures makes me laugh for a few reasons: It was cold and windy on this mountain, hence our cuddle pose, Eden’s hair is crazy, my eyes are closed and Lilah’s expression is funny.
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Baby bison. Ahhhh.
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Can you find the grizzly bear?
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OK, neither can I, but I outlined the area we saw him in.

To read the blog post that goes with these pictures visit Family Vacation 2011- Part 3.

Click on any image to see a larger version.

Lilah looking over Yellowstone Lake on a stormy day. (Fishing Bridge Visitor’s Center.)
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One of the first bison we saw. We soon realized they loved to hang out by Mud Volcano, especially since we had to drive by the place 4 times on our visit.
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Lilah with Mud Geyser behind her.
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Mommy, Eden and Lilah in front of Mud Geyser.
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Jonathan and I in front of Mud Volcano.
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This is what it looks like when we’re not blocking it.
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Some cool geyser off the side of the river.
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Artists Paintpots.
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Eden inspecting the pink mud pot/ mud geyser.
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This white mud pot made the coolest sound. Gloppy, boiling mud is really cool.
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Lilah near a hot spring at Artists Paintpots.
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Hot spring at Artists Paintpots.
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Me being silly. I had no idea the sucker I had just finished had turned my tongue green.
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The girls and me in front of Gibbon Falls.
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Firehole Falls, one of the small detour, one way scenic sites in the park.
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A cute ground squirrel while we were walking around at Old Faithful. (It’s a ground squirrel because chipmunks have stripes on their face and back.)
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Whoa little squirrel! He decided to groom himself right there.
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A pretty hot spring. (According to Wikipedia, this is the Blue Star Spring.)
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The girls near a small geyser spring.
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It’s official, we saw Old Faithful Geyser, but Eden and I don’t look too pleased about it.
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The main attraction, Old Faithful! This eruption was a shorter one, but it was still really cool.

To read the long entry that goes along with these pictures visit this post.

You can click on all the pictures to see a larger version.
Many of the beautiful landscapes were just to beautiful to keep at the smaller image size that I usually post.

What we saw at the end of our little hike.
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The girls and I at the end of the hike.
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Our official picture by the sign for Zion National Park.
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Sunset on a mountain of Zion.
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Ice cream is meant to be worn as well as eaten.
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The classic cars at our hotel in Cedar.
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My Great Aunt Margaret’s grave. My mother was named after her, my grandmother’s sister.
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Lilah being silly.
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Apparently she gets it from her mom.
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The girls drawing pictures of Lake Utah, which was right by our hotel in Orem. They were also rolling down this hill a little earlier, don’t let their cute smiles fool you into thinking they’re always this sweet and demur.
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DeEtte’s youngest daughter, Drea. (Pronounced Dray-uh.) There’s just something about messy faces.
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Jonathan, Rawlin, Eden and Lilah.

This year Lilah turned eight. I’m still in denial about her being that old, I’m pretty sure she was just a toddler yesterday, but I guess the calendar doesn’t lie.

It was her turn for a low key party or gathering this year. We decided to do some swimming with her friend Britta, have a picnic lunch with some cake, then head home to get ready for the opening night of the play.

Sam’s neighbors are living away from their house, so they asked them if they would watch the pool for them and keep it full and in exchange, they could use it. (They still have a pool person coming by.) They said we could come over and swim, so we did! We also had the picnic lunch in Sam’s backyard. It was a fun a little gathering. Lilah chose bagels with strawberry cream cheese, watermelon, chips and lemonade, since everyone loves lemonade on a hot summer day.

I didn’t get many pictures of us at the pool, or of the day in general, so this is what I have.

A very long Eden on her daddy. (I’m also in denial about her getting so big.)

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Matilda, she was just coming back from stealing more grapes.

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Lilah was there, and she swam with noodles and stayed closed to the edge of the pool. (Sadly our swim teacher was doing lessons while the play was going, so we missed them this year.)

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Britta and Lilah like to stay close to one another.

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Like I said before, they stay close to one another.

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Cake! We sang to Lilah in the play house, because it was too windy in the yard.

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Due to time we came home to open presents.

We also too a quick trip to Pine Valley for Lilah’s birthday. I didn’t take any pictures though. Really, it was the only 24 hours we could get away, and Lilah said she wanted to enjoy the fresh air for her birthday, so we did.

The play opened last week. It’s been fun and I was a little worried about how we’d pull it together, but it’s been going well. Now I just hope our ticket sales go up, because that’s been the only disappointing part thus far.

The play schedule is a little different this year. We have the theater a week longer than normal, so instead of cramming 9-11 performances in a two week period, we have 14 over three weeks.

While we were at the theater each day last week, having dress rehearsals, then family night and finally opening on Thursday, this week we had three days off.

So we spent Father’s day at the house this year, cleaning and getting it in some sort of order, then Monday the girls and I went up to Pine Valley to spend a mere 24 hours in the fresh, cool air. We came back Tuesday so Jon could see us, and tonight we start performing again, each night and then twice on Saturday. Then next week we’ll perform Tuesday through Friday, and get back to our normally scheduled life, at least for a little while.

I’m so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel, while I hate that the play season is almost over, and it may be the last one the organization does due to recent rate changes for the theater, I’m happy to be a part of a wonderful production.

Here’s me and the girls in our play attire.

I’m a zebra, in case you didn’t know, and they’re cadets.
www.lvfamilytheater.org

Just this past weekend my brother-in-law Rawlin moved up to Logan, Utah. It was a whirl-wind decision, but one that I think will be for the better. He’ll be in a group home where young, cute, nurses can take care of him, Rawlin and Jon’s description not mine, close to his daughter and only grandchildren, and it now allows my mother-in-law to focus on my father-in-law and her two down syndrome children, who she hasn’t been able to see as regularly due to helping Rawlin.

In a short time his house went up for sale, he had an angioplasty, pack up some of his belongings, but left many behind, and left Las Vegas, which has been his home for much of his life, to live in an assisted living home due to the affect Parkinson’s has had on his health.

Amazingly his realtor is Tim McKenna, whom my sister Carolyn works for. Rawlin’s lawyer works with Tim and recommended him. Rawlin said he recognized Carolyn and her name immediately. She told me she asked Rawlin if he had a brother named Jonathan, because how many Rawlin Blake’s can their be? I was really happy to hear Rawlin had chosen Tim, of course I found it funny that I saw Carolyn the same day as her appointment with Rawlin, but she hadn’t told me, because she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to. Rawlin’s decision to sell the house is sad, he first bought it with his brother Kumen 32 years ago, only to buy it from him later, and has called it home for over 20 years now.

Over Mother’s Day weekend Rawlin was hospitalized for heart problems. The Monday after Mother’s day they cleared his blocked artery and discharged him on Tuesday. Since everything went well his doctor gave him the OK to move, and so the plans continued on his move. Kumen stayed with Rawlin till the Monday after his surgery and I picked Shauntae up at the airport that evening. Packing and organizing ensued once she arrived because before that it was, “Shauntae will take care of it.” The week was full of figuring out what to take and what to leave. I wasn’t there to help much, but I gave my assistance on Thursday and then drove them to the airport on Friday.

Friday was the day Rawlin left. I arrived at noon with a cranky Lilah. I thought she was just tired, but I soon discovered she was running a low fever. She didn’t have much choice to but to take a nap and tag a long for the ride. We got the last of the things loaded into the truck and Rawlin said his goodbyes to his good friend Kristi and his son Glenn. We then headed over to his parents house to drop of the U-haul, to see Dad Blake, and say the final goodbyes to his parents. It could very well be the last time Rawlin and his Dad see one another, due to neither of them being able to travel well.

It was odd driving Rawlin and Shauntae to the airport, but I’m so happy I could give that service. (I’d become the designated airport shuttle service for Shauntae, which I highly enjoyed.) Once we pulled up to the passenger drop-off the airline attendants helped Rawlin into a wheel chair and nearly whisked him off before I could say goodbye. I gave Shauntae a quick hug then found Rawlin for my final hug and goodbye.

Jon drove the U-haul up to Logan on Saturday, visited briefly with his brother and came back Sunday afternoon.

Over the past 7 or so years I’ve watched as Parkinson’s has deteriorated Rawlin’s health. I’ve helped when asked over the years, though it seems like it was never enough. It’s hard having a young family and it seems like there is never enough time. I’ve been over and have seen Rawlin more in the last year and especially the last few months, and I’m sad to see him move. I am happy because I think this means we should, and will hopefully, take more trips to Logan, even if only once a year, so I’ll be able to Shauntae and her family more, though I’ve seen her regularly over the past couple years when she’s come to visit Rawlin.

I hope he’s well cared for and enjoys being the spring chicken at the group home. He’s by far the youngest resident.

Rawlin and the girls
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Mom Blake, Rawlin, and Dad Blake
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Rawlin’s new room. This one is only temporary, it’s for two people, but it’s all they have at the time. Nick, his SIL is trying out the chair that stands you up for you.

I let my girls fold and put away their own laundry. This is a good and bad thing. One, it’s good because I don’t have to do it. Two their clothes aren’t really folded nicely, so they always look like they’re wearing wrinkled clothes from the clothes hamper. And three, even though we have the drawers somewhat organized, they can still never seem to find what they need at times, like a matched pair of socks or even underwear on some occasions.

The girls each have two large drawers. One drawer is the regular clothes, shirts and pants, not a big deal, the other drawer is the underwear, socks, tights, undershirts, and pajama drawer. Lets just say socks and underwear get lost and it becomes a really big jumbled mess.

With my bringing out of the Spring clothes, just in time for it to get cold again might I add, I wanted to get things a little more organized and into actual compartments in their drawers. I thought I might buy some plastic containers to put in the drawers, for socks and underwear, then my friend Sam mentioned I could buy some drawer things to split the area, or make compartments. I thought I’d buy some, if I knew where to get them since I hadn’t seen them before, and mentioned it to Jon. Of course being the thrifty, waste not want not, kind of guy he mentioned that I should just use cardboard.

Cardboard?

I wasn’t too hot on this idea, but then I figured it was in their drawer, which only we see, I did have a big vacuum box I needed to recycle, and the final nail in the coffin, for two things, it was $20 at Bed Bath and Beyond. I needed 3 sets for the four drawers, so I would have needed to spend $60, and that seems silly when I got the dresser for free.

So I went to work making my ghetto fabulous drawer compartments, and I’m hoping it helps keep things a little more in order. Sure, they look cheesy, but hey, they get the job done and it only took a couple hours of cutting cardboard and taping them so they’d stay together, and not get cardboard bits everywhere.

So am I cheap or inventive? I think a little of both.

What I could have done for $60:

What I did for pennies, since the tape did cost me something.: