Happy birthday to me! ;)

Today is the big 3-1 for me and we are heading out of town. Yippee! We are going to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus in SLC. The kids are beside themselves with excitement. Heck, I am excited. I bet it's better than the 4 person type circus we saw as kids in Wyoming. :)Amy and Don and co. are coming too. It should be a fun weekend. Then on Sunday Zane is speaking in church before he leaves for his mission. We will put a few miles on the old Dodge. Have a a great weekend! :)

The saga of poor Nellie

Poor Nellie. (or Uncle Fungus if you ask Brynn)
Our 1990 Plymouth Acclaim(Nellie) with 250,000+ miles finally bit the dust and it wasn't at our hands but at my brother Kendall's. We sold it to him this weekend for the great deal of $2 and with the promise that he wouldn't call us with any problems. We also assured him that it may die at any time. (we did think it would probably go for a few more hundred/thousand miles) Kendall and Zane were excited about their new bargain. My mom wasn't thrilled with the thought of another car in her driveway, but she didn't complain too much.

With a smile on their faces the boys took off with the title in their hot little hands, with Zane driving the car, and Kendall in his own car. All was well apparently until a big hill near Swan Valley when the car started smoking and gave up the ghost right then and there! It was all over for poor Nellie. True to his word, Kendall didn't call us. The state police did! We got a call about an hour after the boys headed home. "Mr. and Mrs. Ehnat, we are calling about the car that was abandoned on highway 26!" That's as far as I got in the message when I frantically dialed Kendall's number. Sure enough, the engine had burned up and Kendall had called to have the poor car towed to a junkyard. He was really cool about it. He was going to pay the entire bill per our agreement, but we offered to pay at least half. We consider it a disposal fee. :)

All joking aside, that car had gone forever. It was stolen in 2000 from a park and ride in WA and when it was found the thief had ruined the transmission so the insurance replaced it with a new one. We had put so little into that car and it got us from Washington to California, to Georgia, back to WA and finally to its resting place in Idaho. Rest in Peace, Nellie.

Happy birthday Big Z!

My handsome baby brother Zane turns 19 today! (the snake is another story) I truly can't believe it! I am the oldest of 5 and he was only 6 when I left home. I can't believe he is actually going to be leaving in a few weeks. Time SURE flies! He is going to the temple this weekend and leaving the first week of October. I know he'll have a great mission! He has grown up a lot in the last few years. My uncle McKay has been a great influence on him and I am grateful for that.

We are mired in a den of sickness around here again. I am SO tired of it. Brynn had strep throat the entire week last week. She even missed her 5th grade class trip to Pine Basin. She was devasated about that but she was a little happier after I bought her Full House season 7. She watched it for hours while recuperating. Kate started getting sick this weekend on our way back from Yellowstone and she was sick for 2 days. I thought we were in the clear when Zachy woke up this morning just burning up . It's so hard when kids are sick. I feel so badly for them and I get so behind. Thankfully, Zachy has been having a long nap so I have almost caught up on my work. Poor little dude.

Mark's buddy Ken is coming to town this weekend and with Zane's events it should be crazy!

Quick weekend jaunt to Yellowstone

Saturday morning Mark and I were feeling restless. We were pretty caught up on things and we just wanted to get out. Out of the blue I suggested running to Yellowstone, fully expecting him to say no. Surprisingly, he said "Let's do it!" We then got ready in record time and took off for the park. We have lived here for almost 4 years and we had never taken the kids. Surprisingly, it is only 109 miles to West Yellowstone, MT. I can finally say I have been in the state of Montana, albeit a tiny corner.

I can say it was the perfect day. It was beautiful, warm, uncrowded, and fun! We all got along and we had fun playing the license plate game. I am glad that the kids forgot to bring their dvd's for the little dvd player. We had a better time that way. Thankfully though, a Wiggles dvd was in the player already so Zachy enjoyed that. We had perfect timing Sat. We weren't at Old Faithful for 3 minutes before I went off! We were worried because it goes 92 minutes between eruptions.

We saw lots of game this trip. We saw probably 25 head of elk altogether, several bison ( we almost ran into one in the dark that was ambling down the road), 3 coyotes, and a few smaller animals. The kids loved spotting the different animals. Brynn wanted to see a wolf, but I was okay with not seeing one. I didn't really want to run into a bear either. It's amazing how that works. When you're a kid, you are fearless but when you are a mom, you become very aware and protective. We ate at a cafeteria at Yellowstone Lake, and when we got out, it was dark. As we were walking to our van, Mark suddenly stopped and whispered for the kids to get behind him QUICK! There were two buffalo standing right near our car! Thankfully, they just wandered away. I know better than to mess with 2 full grown buff's! I am so glad we went and it made us want to go again. Next year, I think we will get the yearly pass.

Sunday was interesting. We got our new ward boundaries last week and it was fun to see things happening Sun. It was a lot smaller but strangely, the nursery still had 25 kids! I like the people running it and I helped out on Sun, but I don't want to leave my baby alone in there with that many little kids. A bunch of them are 3 and pretty dang wild. I don't know what to do.

Have a great week! We take Ryan in to the eye Dr. today to see if he needs glasses. It should be interesting.

Target finds.....

I found these fun scrapbook items today in the Target DOLLAR SPOT! Dang, I love that store.

Livin' in a material world and I am a material girl....

Just a few things (of many) that I have been obsessing over......

Do you think it would be too mean to have Zachy be a skunk for Halloween? I think it's too cute!

I can't wait to buy this digikit by Shabby Miss Jen. Along with the Shabby Princess, she is my favorite digikit designer.

I really want this dual waver from Bedhead. My friend Ricanne has a similar one and it makes the coolest waves in your hair reminiscent of 40's movie stars. Amy and I have this one figured out. We are getting each other one for our birthdays! Aren't we sneaky? :)

I really want these shoes by Clark. I just haven't been able to justify the $85 price tag. But they are so cute!

My memories of 9/11/2001

I posted this back in May but I am thinking about it again today on the anniversary of that horrible day in 2001. May God continue to bless America.

I need to write about my feelings on 9/11.Short version is I was up with baby KateLyn and turned on the TV. Usually I wasn't up that time of morning 6:30 ish Pacific time and was horrified to see the towers burning. I remember I was watching NBC. I couldn't comprehend the magnitude of it. Surely there weren't many people there. Shortly after I turned it on the towers fell one by one. I remember looking at it in horrified fascination watching it unfold live on TV. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I thought that maybe there weren't that many people in there since it was fairly early in the morning. Up until that time, I wasn't sure what the world trade center was. I thought they were some UN type of buildings or something. I remember panicking. I tried to call Mark and I started flipping channels and QVC was on and they were still selling things. That seemed so strange to me. In a few minutes, they had stopped selling things and had a banner that due to the days events they wouldn't be airing their programs.

Brynn had preschool that day so I took her to school and remember driving by the Puyallup Fairgrounds on my way and the fair was going but there weren't many people there and I can remember the feeling that it all seemed so odd to see fair rides going when the world was upside down. It was eery. I had a gift card from Target so that day I stocked up on food and water in case the world was ending. There were only a few people in Target which was odd since it's usually packed! I was scared to be in a store. It was such unfamiliar territory. I didn't know if the terrorists were "done". I had felt so safe before like the US was just too big to be hit significantly.

I remember standing on our deck that night and thinking how strange and quiet it was because they had shut down all air travel and we lived near McChord AFB and were used to seeing planes. It was a really scary time not knowing what was coming next. In the days following it was heartening to see several people standing by the side of the road waving large American flags.


I didn't cry about it until about 6 months later when I was watching something sad about days events and then it all came out. I felt such sorrow for the senseless loss of life the families of the victims endured. The story I still remember almost 5 years later was of a man from California whose wife was at the WTC on business for just a few days. I remember him pleading to let him know if anyone had any information about her. Like so many others, I don't think he found her. I hope we never forget about the people who lost there lives so senselessly that day and the heroes who saved so many lives on the planes and on the ground. If you haven't, I would encourage you to write down your thoughts on this historic, horrible day.

Quiet weekend

We are so enjoying a quiet weekend. We have been traveling for so many weekends in a row I have lost count. It is SO nice not to have anything planned this one. I am Mark's favorite wife ;)ever since I bought him the new Harry Potter book. He's been wanting to read it ever since it came out. The problem is Mark doesn't sleep or eat while he is reading a book. I don't expect to see him much until he goes work on Monday in a tired stupor.

I went out today shopping by myself and it was heavenly. It's just amazing how much ground you can cover when you don't have 4 monkeys hanging off your cart. I am excited to have a new shirt for church tomorrow, which incidentally, they are splitting our ward in half tomorrow! This week there has been tons of speculation as to how they will split things and who will fill all the new positions. It should prove interesting!

I ran into my one of my favorite people today. Her name is Lori and she was my favorite church teacher growing up. She is such a kindred spirit. We caught up on all the news. (she is one of my mom's good friends and has a son my age) Isn't it amazing how one person can have so much good influence on a person? I bet you all have a teacher like that.

Not too much else to report......and for now that's A-OK!

B-Don starts school!

My funny little nephew Brandon started preschool today, FINALLY! He has wanted to go to school for so long! GIT-R-DONE Brandon!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Claire is my cute little niece! Happy birthday sweetie. I wish we could be there!

More reunion pics.......

Wild Weekend!

I love the Erickson reunion! This one was even better than usual. Sat. we woke up and gave KateLyn her presents. I can't believe she is 7! It's not possible. She is such a joy to us and we are so grateful for her fun, sweet, and spunky spirit! She was so excited to receive a new bike and she especially liked the basket we bought to go with it. She has always wanted a bike basket! She also got a Littlest Pet Shop house and a cute little baby doll from us. We let her try her stuff out and then we headed to Wyoming with no spare room left in the van. We really need a trailer or something!

When we got to the camp site the silent auction was already in swing. This reunion is the Kay and Delsa Erickson reunion which are my dad's parents. They are great. Even though I am 30, they are only in their early 70's. They have always been hip, young grandparents. My Grandma has had some health setbacks recently but they still go 100 mph. This year we held a silent auction for my Dad's cousin who was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It was awesome. People donated services (like haircuts, sewing time and photography gc's) and new items like Dutch ovens, shirts, scrapbook stuff, signs, etc. They also donated homemade goods like my Aunt Alice's famous pickles, Grandma's homemade taffy and fudge, etc. It was a huge hit! Between my Grandparent's 7 kids, and all us grandkids we raised over $1500 that day, plus it was fun trying to outbid each other! Shopping+camping=tons of fun! Amy's kids bid on a few things without her knowledge so that was funny when my aunt Heidi read their names as winners. The auction gave the reunion such a positive energy. People were nicer to each other than usual. (we are a family that LOVES to tease(harrass) each other)

We had a pinata for Kate. She loved that. My cousin had brought rappeling gear and we hooked the spongebob pinata to a giant bungy. Man, that old sponge FLEW! The kids really enjoyed it all.

That night my cousin Nick smoked a bunch of different meat in a big smoker that they have. It was HEAVENLY! We eat so dang well there! Everyone tries to outdo each other. The evening wasn't complete without my two brothers having a little wrastling match. :o Kendall had the nerve to take Zane's chair. The horror! I sure wish I would have got a picture of that. My mom was horrified but I believe my dad was egging them on.

Sunday morning we had a yummy camp breakfast! My kids love that the most. We always have a little church meeting up there. I am sure it's not sanctioned but it makes us feel better for missing our meetings. I love to hear my grandparents speak to us all. They love each of us and they have always taught us to love the Gospel. They are great! Zane said a few words about his upcoming mission plans. He looked a little sad that day. He's going to have a lot of changes really quickly.

My cousins wife Jeralyn put together a sawdust treasure hunt. The kids loved digging through the sawdust for jewelry, candy, glosticks, coins, and lots more. They were good to each other and made sure everyone got a bunch.

My stomach hurt from laughing so hard Sunday night. We had a home movie night! We played home movies of all of us when we were younger.(powered by a generator shown on a big sheet)What a riot! I cringe when I think of all of the 80's hair I saw on those videos. :o

Zachy was so difficult Saturday night (we ended up going out to my mom's at 1:00 am) that we decided to go home Sunday night instead of staying until Monday for the bike jumping. Several years ago my cousin Nick started a tradition of jumping bikes into Cottonwood Lake. Every year the jump gets bigger and scarier. We get more and more spectators every year. It's funny. We wanted to be there but I needed a few hours of sleep more.

If you have made it this far, CONGRATS! It's been a long one. :) The week is going fast already. Have a great one!