What the...?!

Hakan brought this in the other day from the field around our house.

He was trying to be sweet by bringing his Mommy a flower, but the first thing that flew out of my mouth was something like, "EW! What the crap is that thing?!"

First of all, this was the BIGGEST dang dandelion I've ever seen. It was a good 2.5" in diameter, about the size of a carnation. Second of all, well, LOOK at it! There's a dandelion growing out of a dandelion! It's a mutant!!


This is just wrong. I find it unsettling. Freaky things are happening around here, and I don't like it.

I don't like it one bit.

Just sayin.

I just wanted to celebrate with all of you the great news I got in the mail today. It's called: I just got a $5,000 scholarship to SUU, in addition to my Founder's Scholarship, which is $2,500 a year for 4 years. I'm just gettin hooked up in all sorts of ways! Hurray for college!

A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

It may be April 21st, but here is the proof that Mother Nature has a sense of humor! This amount of snow would have closed the entire school district in Lumberton!

This little unseasonable snow storm not only blanketed all the vegetation around the park, but about a mile and a half up the road (near the sledding hill) the snow fell so fast and furious that for a quarter-mile stretch, it was close to 4" deep and someone sent the snowplow out here! Naturally, the 'meadow' is a muddy mess--talk about your crazy weather patterns! This may be Old Man Winter's last parting shot, but you never can never be too sure...

Easter 2010http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RSFPAqRXE6o/S8FovcNI5jI/AAAAAAAAAGI/fX_Uff3kzq8/s1600/_MG_0498%232.jpg

I don't know about anybody else but Kristen and I had a BLAST hanging out with a lot of the family in Utah. Those little mugwumps were cute especially Rambo....I mean Pyper. She was pretty aggressive about getting those eggs. I can't wait until we get to hang out again. Here's a few pictures of the kids and a family picture with a happy Aaron.

Portrait failure

This WOULD have been a really good photo...

...except...

...Aaron thinks it's funny to be uncooperative.
I should be annoyed by this, but I still can't help but laugh.

Dad's California Trip

I’ve been wanting to do a post about my trip to California last month, but have been a little too uninspired until now to do it. So here goes. As most of you know, Grandma was able to go on a cruise with and old friend of hers and that friends sister. The sister lives in St. George, so they flew into Las Vegas and drove to St. George. I was able to get the week off, so I drove to St. George on Monday morning, picked up Grandma and we headed to San Lorenzo. I stayed ‘til Friday and came home. How’s that for a post? What? You want more? Oh, all right.
Ryan was able to come and stay Tuesday and Wednesday, so we did a fair bit of goofing around together, as well as a little bit of constructive effort. When we got there, Grandma’s magnolia tree in the back yard was in full flower, and lots of the petals were in full free fall, as well.

We cleaned it up for now, but there were more waiting to fall. In fact, some didn’t even wait for us to get back in the house. Oh well. We went and met Bart and Jane for lunch and then got to go see Issac and Becca’s new baby boy Aiden.

There was a pretty good fight to hold him, but we each got a turn.
Then on Wednesday, Grandma decided she needed to stay home and do laundry, so Ryan and I took a trip to the coast and Bean Hollow. The tide was high, so the rock pools were covered, but the surf was up and we got some pretty great waves coming in, as you can see from a couple of pictures.

There was foam all over the place.
Then we drove down the coast a bit and found Pigeon Point Lighthouse, so of course we had to stop and take some more pictures. Ryan and I can be bad influences on each other when it comes to cameras.

Then we went home, picked up Grandma and went out to visit Janae’s family, which was also a lot of fun (as usual).

Munchkins vs. Jolly Green Giant?

Ryan left from Janae’s to go home. Thursday was mostly spent relaxing and shopping with Grandma and then I drove home on Friday. It was a quick trip but lots of fun. I plan to do it again sometime soon, if I can get away with it. This year is Grandma’s year to have Thanksgiving dinner at her house for my brothers and sisters and we are planning on being there for it this year. I’m sure I speak for Grandma if I invite all of you to join us if you can swing it. Not sure yet of the exact schedule, but we’ll work on it as it gets closer.
The posts have been a bit sparse of late, so I’m going to encourage all of you to think of something and put it on here. A new post from one of you is the highlight of the day for us. Love you all. Dad.