We lost....AGAIN!

Sarah with pregnant daughter, Bristol & baby, Trigg

2007 Costume

2008 winner's 'Blades of Glory' included an amazing routine - haha.

KISS arrived 30 minutes late with 2 pregnant members.

Each year we pull out all stops to win "Best Costume" at the Martinson's party. Last year I was the 'Brick House Girl' and Chris was, of course, the brick layer (get it?).

This year the obvious choice - Sarah Palin & her pregnant 17 year old daughter, Bristol (carrying Sarah's 7 month old son, Trigg). Sarah needs all the votes she can get but she didn't get enough to win 'best costume'! It went to Randy & Nicki Gates as 'Blades of Glory'. Hope to post the group picture as soon as I get it.

Each year we're forced to out-do the year before. Bring on 2009!

4th Annual Carmel Apple Night

Adam teaching Randy the Kitchen 'smack that' moves

4 hot chicks in the kitch

'But you say he's just a friend!'

Ireland, McKenna & Jana wrapping pretzels

Sheridan rolling carmel

Great Ways to Spend a Warm Weekend

A cool plunge

An intense game of croquet

Co-Chillin' with girlfriends

Swimming at the High School Musical II pool

Sugar'd up on 3 hours of Sleep

A hot tubby

(With a little attitude)

This is how it all went down...

UEA – Utah Education Association. The 5 day school break in Utah when most men pack up their precious hunting gear and head out into the wilderness in search of ‘The Big One”. Chris was once all caught up in it but time has mellowed him and so has golf. So for the last couple years we spent the week in Palm Springs with neighbors. This year the neighbors decided to stay home and watch the crash of the stock market & debates. Frankly, all the kids really want is warm weather, a swimming pool & friends to share it with. Oh wait, maybe that’s what I want. Either way we packed up 4 families and headed south. The first night we left the kids with a sitter and went to Les Miserables. It was a great production…same story, same music, very well done. The next day we left the bread winners at home with the littles and headed to Vegas to spend their hard earned cash. At a favorite place – Lululemon Athletic clothing store the clerk put me thru a series of breathing techniques after he announced my total being billed to my Visa. A series of 4 letter words crossed my mind. My hands were dripping sweat. My girlfriend, Tricia, piped in “you husband doesn’t care!”. I took deep breaths and then realized what had happened just moments before…. We had a mother/daughter shopping team with us. Melissa (age 15), the daughter had just returned to the Lululemon store and announced to her mother, Rosie, that she had purchased and was wearing a $50.00 bra from Victoria Secret. There stood a very speechless Rosie who I am sure has ever raised her voice or expressed an overly strong feeling about anything without doing it with the utmost kindest of words. The look on her face said it all. Rosie, like me, was probably close to throwing up. My thoughts… “HEY! At least when I walk in a room everyone will actually SEE the over-indulgence that I’m wearing.” And throughout the rest of the trip Melissa made certain that EVERYONE was aware she was wearing a $50.00 bra.

Justin Timberlake and Friends. We REALLY liked him and his friends made it that much better. He played a sold out show at Planet Hollywood Resort on the Vegas strip. How cute was he??? He introduced each act and each act was AMAZING.

The Jonas Brothers, Stomp Out Loud, Leona Lewis (‘Keep Bleeding Love’ & winner of the British Idol), Boys to Men (yes, the trio from the late 80’s early 90’ and sounded exactly the same), Esme from Holland (JT has written some songs for her), Rihanna (she is fabulous), then Justin came out and sang a few songs from the last couple albums. He did duets with Will Iam from Black Eyed Peas, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 & Lionel Ritchie (JT’s favorite song of all time is ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’). After a few songs on his own 50 Cent joined him. 50 did a couple of his own songs and then Justin finished off the show with basically everything on his most resent album and a few from the past. He DID NOT DISAPPOINT! He sang for almost 2 hours everything we wanted to hear. We crawled in bed at 5 a.m. and it was worth it. We will not miss it next year!

Saturday we took the kids to Entrada where they could swim in the same pool where Gabriella & Troy swam in High School Musical 2. Sunday we spent the day at the Russell’s beautiful home. They are long time friends of Jana & Randy. Roger, Jill, Sarah, Michael, & Heath (likes to be referred to as ‘cuteness’) were fun hosts. Our littles were in heaven. We really enjoyed the Russell hospitality. And, who knew, they love to make movies.

Here's the line-up....

Justin playing golf - his second passion.

My girlfriends & I plan to leave the littles with our husbands as we spend a night with Justin Timberlake & 'Friends' 4 days from now in Las Vegas. Up until yesterday we questioned 'what friends could they be?'.

And when we didn't think it could get much better than JT himself he threw in Rihanna & the Jonas Brothers to start out the night.

I could hardly contain my excitement but unfortunately cannot share this info. with Chris - who really likes Rihanna or the girls - who LOVE the Jonas Brothers. I will not be poplular with any of them when news gets out.

Sheridan's equal 'air time'

Sheridan plays a song for Great-Grandma.

Ireland Play's 'Happy B-day" to Great-Grandma

We took this video for Great-grandma on her B-day but never had a chance to download until now.

KATE'S BLOG REQUEST

The following 'outline' was posted by Kate on her blog with a request that I actually FILL IT IN. I never do these things but I was up for the challenge:

20 years ago I
1. graduated from Highschool.
2. moved away to college
3. endured a summer of Yellowstone fires.

10 years ago I
1. Had finally met the man of my dreams.
2. Quit a great job to work for that man.
3. Built our first house.


5 years ago I

1. was raising 3 year old Ireland & 1 year old Sheridan.
2. Built our Second home next to the first =)
3. was trying to keep Ireland from beating Sheridan.


1 year ago I
1. Took a road trip to Denver to see John Mayer & actually met him!
2. rode a raft on an amazing tidal bore in Nova Scotia.
3. Had a MRI – 2 bulging disks – no more running =(


This year so far I
1. Went on a John Mayer cruise.
2. (I attended 2 different High Schools) had 2 very fun 20 year class reunions.
3. Allowed my husband to bring home a Harley.

Yesterday I
1. Spent 2 hours volunteering at my girls school.
2. Spent 3 hours helping my girlfriend with her business.
3. Sent a special happy b-day to my 93 year old grandmother.

Today I
1. went on a school field trip to the Landfill (very interesting!) & Kennecott Copper Mine (Officially changed it’s name to Rio Tinto this week).
2. One last ride in my convertible before the very cold weather hits tomorrow.
3. Helped my neighbor hang some pictures.

Tomorrow I’m
1. Boot Camp - a 16 week challenge.
2. Going to a movie with friends.
3. Most likely eating some sugar.


Next year I
1. Will do far more surfing at Lake Powell
2. Will be on the next John Mayer cruise March 26th 2009
3. Will enjoy my 30’s one more year.

Happy 93rd Birthday Grandma Streeter!

For our (Great) Grandma Streeter. We wish you a very happy one. All our love - Ireland, Sheridan, Tarilee & Chris.

Brats & Brew

Sunning ourselves on the Snowbird deck & Ireland on the Bungee Trampoline.

Sheridan's favorite position on the Bungee. Ireland with her vacation buddy Keaton.

Sheridan and riding partner, Jessica.

Each September we take a little family vaca to Snowbird. Always during Octoberfest when a beer & a bratwurst set you back $10.00 EACH. Thankfully, neither appeal to us girls (Chris even skipped the brat & brew- Haha) which saves us astronomical amounts of cash. The girls are simply there for one thing….an all-day activity pass. Unlimited rides on the alpine slide, mechanical bull, rock wall, bungee trampoline, inflatables, and all the German chicken dancing you can handle. It’s like Disney at 8000’ with a few drunk Mickey’s & Goofy’s - even a tipsy princess or two. These drunknuts kept the adults entertained while waiting for the littles.

By far the greatest find this Octoberfest (besides an amazingly beautiful ‘Hell Is For Heroes’ zip-up sweater Chris found and bought for me in a ski shop) was the newly added Cotton Candy stand. TWO BUCKS…for cotton candy! Screaming deal. This may seem like the average cotton candy price to some of you…maybe even a bit inflated for 2 tablespoons of heated sugar. However, I failed to mention something from last weeks: “NOT The Greatest Show on Earth”. The Circus price for cotton candy was TWELVE BUCKS…$12.00…..paying that price is like being striped of any dignity. Granted it came with a 50 cent plastic hat. We opted for the $3.00 box of Milk Duds at the concession stand.

Those German folk make some fabulous cotton candy. The girls chose between 5 flavors made fresh while we watched. The candy was HUGE and still warm on the stick. A far superior choice to the bizarre mystery meat served in a bun by lederhosen wearing men.

SAVE THE LETTUCE

At 4 a.m. I woke up remembering the lettuce in the salad spinner sitting on the kitchen counter. 2 minutes later I knew in order to get back to sleep I would need to take care of the lettuce so I jumped out of bed and headed to the kitchen. BAMMMM! I ran head first into the open hall closet door. I grabbed my eye and forehead repeating ‘oh crap, oh crap, oh crap’ it hurt SO bad. Surprising even myself, not one swear word passed my lips. Heaven forbid if I let that lettuce sit another 3 hours so I took care of it first, grabbed 3 Tylenol (Ibu would have helped the inflammation but not my empty stomach) and headed for bed with an icepack. Feeling the vertical bump rising above my left eye made me nauseous. The ice on my forehead made the pounding almost unbearable.

On any other night, Chris would have been on his feet yelling “What was that? What’s the problem”. But Chris was fast asleep 2 states away in Portland. The ONLY night he’s away and I would have given anything for a little sympathy. He’ll have an alibi when society starts the domestic violence questioning.

I would have unleashed on my children in the morning for leaving the closet door open but this time it wasn’t their fault. DANG!

6 hours prior to my ‘door ding’ I was watching a T.V. show in my bedroom about 8 OBESE people from Mississippi who were attempting to lose a certain amount of weight in so many weeks. I went to the hall closet for some Pledge and a rag to dust my bed while watching the ridiculous show and failed to shut that closet door.

There is no way on earth any of those 8 people would have gotten themselves out of bed at 4 a.m to save the lettuce.