Cali ...Part 1

So I've been trying to recover from the violent re-entry into reality since our fun filled week in California. I thought I'd share the 317 photos I took during the week. Just kidding - here are the cliff notes...

In a rare moment that I didn't have an activity planned, we decided to drive until we hit the beach and we ended up at Newport Beach. Caitlin whined the whole way there (shocking... I know) that the beach would be boring. Guess who didn't want to leave the beach.

Hey Austin - you should take your cell phone out of your pocket. It might get wet. You do look handsome though.

Oops - too late. No texting for Austin this trip (an unexpected treat). Caitlin "HATED" the beach just as she thought she would. See how miserable she looks?!

Then it was on to the planned itinerary (yes - I had it on a spreadsheet). Caitlin doesn't remember her first trip to the Magic Kingdom (see the Flashback Corner). I've now got 100+ pictures to show she went this time.

I don't quite know how this photo moment actually happened, but I'm glad it did!Reality check... Austin will be taking driver's ed this year. No photos of Caitlin who will be waiting until she's 20 to drive based on her performance at Autopia (I fear the photos of my disastrous drive with Caitlin could be used as evidence later in her life). Brian was busted playing poker on his blackberry (again), so he covered it by posing with his children at Thunder Mountain Railroad (which was one of their favorites). Little Mr. Austin who won't go on a ride at Lagoon (other than the Wild Mouse - go figure) went "all out" on all the rides. Having your little sister not be afraid of the rides is a GREAT motivator.Yay..hmm.. the Teacups. We were glad Caitlin graduated to better rides.Exhibit #1 proving her bravery.Exhibit #2 - proving all of our bravery.

We had to explain who the "Army Men" were to Caitlin (relax - I bought the Blue Ray Toy Story today... we'll get her educated so we can see the sequel).

After multiples trips on "California Screamin," our 2 days at the Magic Kingdom came to a close, but not before a couple more pictures.

We were off to the Angel's game.

We were hoping for some foul balls to come our way, but wouldn't you know it, most of the batters were righty's, so no luck there.It was a delightful evening of baseball, but we brought bad luck to the Angels who lost in a blowout.

I promise I'll get to Cali... Part 2 - there was more fun to be had!

Random Bits

Another month has gone by and still not much going on - of course that doesn't explain why I seem to not have any time.
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We have been golfing as weather permits. Austin was golfing yesterday with his friend Riley and Brian. At one point in the day, all 3 of them hit their drives into the trees (evil trees). When they got to their balls, Austin said, "look Dad, we're in a treesome." Maybe you had to be there. Caitlin forced us to take her golfing - she played one hole and didn't want to play anymore. She (again) was far more interested in driving the golf cart which is why we have the rule now that you can only drive the cart if you're actually golfing (she hit the ball really well after that).

The 19th hole.

One day, Caitlin came home from school and started talking about a walk for autism. One of the kids in her class has an autistic sister so he asked Caitlin if she would do this walk. Before we knew it, we were walking in sub-zero temperatures (okay, not sub-zero, but it WAS snowing/raining the entire time).

Look how the cold weather impaired our judgment ... this is Caitlin posing with Cosmo the Cougar!?! Austin clearly wasn't as affected by the weather and adamantly refused any contact with Cosmo. Upside - Caitlin was wearing red & black. Also, are you proud of my restraint - no "Perez Hilton" style graffiti on the picture (although I do have a couple of great ideas)?

Austin has played a few (seems like very few) baseball games. It seems like they've all been rained/snowed out. Their team is doing much better than they did at the beginning of the season. Here's hoping we get some of the games made up before fall (Mother Nature willing).

Austin doing his stand-up routine in the dugout.

There are some BIG kids on Austin's team. It's funny to watch the kids leave the games and get into the driver's seats of their cars - okay, maybe not so funny because that could be Austin next year (get me the paper bag - I'm hyperventilating now).

The kids were dreaming of dogs again. They tried giving the me the "oh-so-sad" "please-please-please" eyes, but as usual, I was unmoved - no dogs for us. This is as close to a dog as the kids are going to get (this is Caitlin's newest Build-a-Bear "Brownie"). If only they could learn to take care of their rooms... maybe things could be different.

Mattie's Big Day!

So it is great to be eight (you might just get a "Panda feast")! We all zipped down to St. George for Mattie's baptism. She was so pretty in her white dress!It was a beautiful (and BRIGHT) day! The motley crew...

Look at these handsome devils!
Coming up next on "The Discovery Channel"... "The Lizard Hunters" starring Trevor Swain and Austin Nuttall. Watch them terrorize small reptiles and separate unsuspecting lizards from their families. The network will probably sell it better in the commercials. They successfully trapped a large daddy reptile against the wall (the lizard was seen doing push-ups earlier in the hunt - or so I've been told). After several failed attempts to keep the lizard in the box while moving it away from the wall, the reptile (I'll call him MacGyver) managed to escape from the clutches of our intrepid hunters. Much screaming ensued as the reptile made his escape.

Mattie is very fond of crawly creatures. This tree behind her was ripe for the picking (see the contents of her bucket below).

This was Devyn's reaction to the contents of the bucket... (well not really - just a little photo manipulation).

The girls are assuming the position...(the "Olson girl arms folded position" that is).

Devyn watched the lizard hunting from the safety of the retaining wall (we didn't tell her that the giant lizard they were chasing lives in that very wall).

Austin and his unsuspecting prey (no - this wasn't the large one they were after). Now go wash your hands!

Zane kept us entertained chatting about horses and Santa's reindeer, playing hide and seek and generally zipping around. He refused almost all photo requests, so here is a good snippet of Zane...here one minute, gone the next.

Here is my duet with Jaedon that we played at the baptism.

I was starting to lament that life just wasn't "blogworthy" anymore. After reading this post, you may agree! So now you all get to suffer through pictures of the boring stuff we've been up to since I blogged last.
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We're back in the game! Baseball is in full swing and the calendar is full again. My questions is... what the heck was Austin doing playing 1st base?!!A moment of peace with Grandma Jessie on the way to Grandma Kathy's house for Easter. Is it wrong to use my children for manual labor? I say "no!" Between Caitlin and Austin, they managed to paint the first coats of paint in their rooms. The second coat wasn't as fun - you couldn't see the difference as much as the 1st coat so I was on my own for that one, but they did keep my Diet Coke filled.Don't you just LOVE Caitlin's hair that was crimped to within an inch of her life? I picked her up from her sleepover the morning of this picture and I wasn't sure who she was.

We went to the BEST. CONCERT. EVER! We got tickets to Muse a while back, but only the night before the concert did I realize that it was the NCAA championship basketball game on the same night. Austin was anticipating being my date, but Brian stepped up and drove through the blizzard (in APRIL!) to the concert. I was all impressed that he would forgo the game until we got there and the tv in our suite was turned on to the game. He didn't miss a basket and had FABULOUS background music.It's a boy!!! We've been awaiting the birth of the little guy here (this is of course BEFORE we realized that Caitlin is more than likely allergic to horses - unfortunately, I didn't get the AFTER picture where she looked like Rocky Balboa after Apollo Creed got through with him). Each time Catie would pet the horse, his nose would get lower into the hay - it was precious! He was just a few hours old here.

A couple of days later, he was up and around his corral and showing off for his visitors. By the way, the momma horse (also named Catie) was the horse that dragged Catie around the arena at the rodeo (July 2009 "Rodeo" post - I couldn't figure out how to link).

One last little tidbit (this is for you Michelle)...Austin went to a party last night in which they went door to door playing "bigger or better." They had to go to a different neighborhood as they've worked over ours pretty good playing this game in the past. Unfortunately, the owner of one particular home didn't answer. Apolo Anton Ohno really shouldn't leave his UPS packages on his front porch (one was from Italy). Maybe they'll catch him next time. (Sorry - no photos of this one).

A tourist in my own town...

So I can't rememer if I've ever been to Temple Square in the spring. I really think I would have remembered considering it was so pretty Friday night (when I didn't have my camera - GAH!) that I had to come back on Sunday for some pictures. The trees were slightly less "bloomy" today, but stunning nonetheless.I DID have my phone on Friday night, so I was texting Mom pictures of the flowers and the siren's call of the blooms was too much for her so she made the trip to the city as well (and Annie came to make it a girl's afternoon).Seriously - it looked like the trees were glowing and this was AFTER they had lost a bunch of blooms.

Ah - the hyacinths! You could smell them everywhere you went.This tulip was about 6" in diameter. I had never seen anything like it (but Mom had - she probably has one in her yard).

Random Thoughts...

Okay, so I've finally seen a drawback for DVR's. As I was zipping through commercials during the Oscars, I missed this little gem. Obviously all was not lost - I surf too much to have missed it totally.



More randomness... while we were watching the Jazz game last Saturday night, I hear Caitlin say, "there is my second husband." This caught my attention so I asked her to explain. She told me that Sundiata Gaines is her second husband in case she and Kyle Korver ever get divorced, but she doesn't think that will happen because she and Kyle are "just so cute together." Here is the video of where it apparently was love at first sight (if she breaks up with Kyle, that is):

Caitlin and I had a girls night out last week (yes - last week... this is the first time my computer has been free between Club Penguin and poker on Facebook). We went to visit my future son-in-law. I guess that is what I should call him since Caitlin calls him "my future husband." We speak of course, of Kyle Korver of the Utah Jazz.

Caitlin: "Mom... did you know that Kyle is only 28?"Caitlin: "Mom, can we get a little closer?"

Since he's been out injured this season, there was a bit of rust, so Caitlin rubbed her jersey 26 times and then stared at him for 26 seconds (I think it was actually longer) and lo and behold, he had the best game of the season!

The Jazz won thanks to Caitlin and her voodoo spell . School night? What school night? Let's go watch the post game interview!

Eventually we made it home through the blinding snowstorm, but it was a great time!