Fancy Riding

Last Saturday my brother Derek was down visiting from Canada so we went up to my sister's house to see him and his family. We spent the early afternoon swimming and the late afternoon was left to some fancy trick riding. First of all, my sister recently posted on her blog about how my parents used to enter and win the Rescue Race at local rodeos around where they grew up. In case you missed her explanation, it's where the guys line up at one end of the arena, race their horses down to the other end, turning around a girl waiting at the other end and pulling her up behind and then racing back. Pretty exciting, eh? So we begged and pleaded for my parents to show us. Which they did at a mild lope with an old mare, but it was still fun. So then ALL the grandkids had to try. Dad lasted for a few then Wyatt took over.

Hours of amusement--till Wyatt's arm became sore.

Eli on horse.

This was the other popular ride. A couple fights ensued over it as I recall.

Ana's getting to be quite a good rider. This was another fancy stunt they were performing for us. Riding under the monkey bars where all three girls dismounted by grabbing hold. Wyatt and Cassidy.Danica, Ana and Katelyn.This was there other stunt they were trying. I remember Kayli, Wyatt and I doing the exact same thing on Brownie at Grandpa's ranch.Wyatt couldn't be outdone. Then just Danica and Wyatt rode--they started loping pretty good.

Okay, nobody rode the goats. But the babies were really cute.

That would be seven kids on poor Fahselle. Isabel, Cassidy, Hailey, Kirsten, Maloree, Anders and Lynnaea.

And yes, Elena never rode the horse but she's quite the fancy cowgirl. (Oh, my cerviche was a huge hit! I'll be posting the recipe soon.)

Fútbol!

My husband is obsessed. How come it took seven years for this to surface?!? I don't know, but I think it has to do with the bad influence of his BYU lab partners. And I thought BYU students would be a good influence. Here's a small tribute to his obsession.Actually, one reason for the obsession is this player here (#10). Lionel Messi. I wouldn't be surprised if Leo wanted to name our next boy Lionel. Seriously. He has a running dispute with our Sunday School teacher over Real Madrid and Barcelona's teams. Our Sunday School teacher is from Madrid, and well, Messi plays for Barcelona. Hence, Leo's new hat is a Barcelona one. By the way, our Bishop gave a little speech the week the World Cup started about not missing church to watch soccer. In that way I guess the Superbowl is kind of nice, at least it only lasts one Sunday a year. We have had incredibly low attendence lately despite the Bishop's talk.

Here's a little background info:

Lionel Messi - The best bloopers are here

And a little taste of what he can do:

Another cool thing is that, well, Real Salt Lake is pretty stellar too.

No joking. I mean a couple of years ago that would have been a joke. But they were the MLS champions last year. (Take that LA Galaxy *cough* David Beckham.) Real Salt Lake has players from Canada and Colombia on the team too. Nifty, eh? And while we wanted to go watch a game this year, I don't know if we'll make it. Maybe. We'll see if the fútbol fever lasts in my house. Also, I changed my playlist in honor of the World Cup--all soccer tunes. Enjoy!

Music and yogurt

So it's not quite as good a title as Music and Lyrics, but whatever.

Here's my random review of yogurt and music.

I tried making yogurt from two different types of yogurt. One called Wallaby Organic Creamy Australian Style (who knew Australia had a style of yogurt?!?!). It was extremely yummy and sweet and smooth. But it was also very running and gave a relatively low-yield of yogurt compared to the Mountainland I had used before. It had L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, bifudus, and S. thermophilus. I loved the taste, but it was kind of sad how little yogurt I got.

Then I tried The Greek Gods also bought from Sunflower Market. It has S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, and L. Casei. I really didn't notice much difference between it and the Mountainland kind. It definitely produced more yogurt then the Australian style, didn't taste as good though.

As for music, have you ever noticed how radio stations play a different variety of songs depending on where you are? Seriously. In Florida, the "Hits" radio station played an over abundance of old Michael Jackson songs, the country stations only played redneck country songs, literally, if the word redneck wasn't in the song, it was surprising, and then the Latin channels only played reggaeton and cumbia with a couple Shakira songs thrown in. And of course there was about triple the number of bible-thumping preacher channels as compared to anywhere else I've lived.

In New Mexico the "Hits" were composed solely of Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguillera (this was a couple of years ago.) The country channels actually had good music. And Latin channels were only rancheros (did you know there's a Spanish version of Achy Breaky Heart? There is.)

Then in Arizona, there was actually an awesome Latin channel that played really good music, like Juanes and Maná. But the country channels were lame. And well, the "Hits" channels were good. Mostly I listened to that one Latin channel though.

In Chicago, the "Hits" had a wider variety than in Phoenix. Although Plain White Tees got a lot of air time since they're from there. The Latin channels were mostly reggaeton or ranchero. Blah. And country was nonexistent. Although they did have a Polish channel and Hindu channel.

And here in Utah, the "Hits" channels play the most old 80's U2 songs then I've heard in a long time. Latin channels are sadly all rancheros. And the country channels are decent.

That's my opinion anyway. Sorry that's just was what I was thinking about last night after hearing yet another U2 song.

And just to throw another random review in here. Has anyone seen Charlie and Lola? It's my favorite kids show. I love it, makes me laugh anyway. Here's a sample.

Missing Chi-Town

I have to say that I've been the most "homesick" after this move than I have since I was 12. Seriously. I miss so much from Chicago. I miss my friend Jenny. (Okay, so she's in Fance now, but still I miss her and her family.) I miss playgroup. Here Leo and I are the only "young" couple with more than one kid. It's weird. Our friends here asked us for parenting advice. It's not quite as good of a fit as our friends in Chicago, at least in stage of life fit. I miss the Yeats and yes, they're in Italy now, but whatever. I miss the Francos (they're still there). I miss the cool stores I used to shop at in Chicago, especially Valli. Plus, meat is sooo expensive here. Or, if it's cheap it's junky. Shop and Save used to have great meat sales that were decent cuts. I miss our friend Bro. Serrano. He was the best DJ and I miss the dances we had in our ward there. I miss having the big green trees lining the streets. I miss the diversity.

Not that I'm not thankful for things we have here, like our AWESOME house, which I love. Or having a backyard, and a dishwasher, and washing machine and dryer that are hooked up. Or the mountains nearby and family nearby. And Leo home every night.

Well, that's my reminiscing for the night. Goodnight, everyone.

Sebastian and Ana

Isn't he the cutest boy ever???! I think he's teething, by the way. He doesn't have any teeth that I can feel, but he gnaws constantly.

I love his smiles!

And then there's beautiful Ana. She's doing awesome on swim team. Placed first in one of her events at her last meet. Sweet.

YW Fundraiser

Last night was our YW's fundraiser. It was a dinner and dance that was 1950's themed. I am worn out. Seriously. It was a lot of work and can I just say that I really hope I wasn't completely flakey when I was a teenager. I mean, I don't know, not having an adult perspective, but when we have an 18 yr. old whining about having water and not something else and has no concept that we were worried about breaking even on the money, let alone, making some, I just really wonder about kids--I mean she could see that no one was there. Yeah, so if you didn't guess, it was a complete flob. We had about 40 people show up when we had planned for around two hundred. And yes, we did break even and raised a little bit of money, but it's not nearly enough to cover the costs of camp. It makes me tired thinking about it. Plus, our DJ wasn't my favorite. I'm really not that much of a fan of cumbia. Not nearly enough varitey--especially of 1950's songs for my taste. It was almost all cumbia (luckily we had put our foot down beforehand and insisted on no rancheros. Ughh.) Plus, our ward in Chicago rocked. It was pretty much any excuse they had to eat and dance they took. Mother's Day, Father'd Day, any day--dinner with a dance afterwards and EVERYONE danced! It was so much fun. Umm, not the same here. So sad. Remember how I wanted to sew recently? Well, making poodle skirts for my three girls and helping 14 flakey YW, who spent most of their time texting, ended that desire. Okay, I'm being unfair, a few of the girls were actually pretty good. Here's Ana and the scarf I made her.

My handsome 50's boys.

It was so worth it making skirts for my girls. They were adorable!

Here's the YW performing a dance they choreographed themselves in the poodle skirts they made.

I just thought this was a cute picture of the backdrop we made (we were selling photos for $1--we sold a total of 2).

More of the decorations (I didn't do the streamers or balloons in the back.)And did I mention that our plans for cooking the hamburgers fell through, so then we were trying to cook hamburgers on ONE little round grill??! People were waiting for an hour to eat. Ouch. It was fun watching Elena dance the entire time! She's so cute. She absolutely loves to dance.
Anyway, at least I can say that I fit into my poodle skirt that my mom made me when I was 14. Well, sort of, I couldn't do it up, but I got it on and safetypinned it. That counts, right?

Timpanogos Cave

Last Saturday we met Megan's family and Grandpa and Grandma to go hike Timanogos Cave. Olivia pretty much rocked because she carried Sebastian all the way up and down the moutain. Sweet. It was a beautiful day!! I love the mountains!

Grandpa and Grandma were a little scared. Mostly about Elena following over a cliff. Or into the river. I don't blame them. She wanted to walk as near the edge as possible. Errrr....

The cave was awesome! I remembered it a little differently from when Megan took me there 14 yrs ago. Crazy how time flies and the mind deteriorates.

Leo's hat took a flying trip off the edge of cliff--thanks to Elena. He was not happy, especially since Isabel had chewed up and wrecked his only other hat about two weeks ago. But after he received his new Barcelona fútbol hat in the mail (an early Father's Day present), he wasn't as upset. Which, what's up with my husband?!?! The whole six years we've been married he's never watched a single soccer game. This year, the World Cup series is on constantly. Crazy man.

I LOVE these poses, Danica!!!

It's sad that my six-months pregnant sister kicked my behind climbing up that mountainside. But it's Megan, really I never expected anything else. Good times.

Tonight

Tonight we went and ate at friend's house. He used to be a biologist in Peru, now he works at Olive Garden. Anyway, their family is really nice. His youngest daughter babysits for me all the time. The kids love her. Then we came home and Isabel started coughing (she chews on random stuff all the time.) Then she threw up on the living room floor. So I grabbed her to clean her up and Leo started cleaning up the carpet. Once I had cleaned her up and had her in new pajamas, she threw up again. So once again I changed her and had her all cleaned up when she threw up again. I'm a slow learner. Meanwhile, Elena wanted to see all the action so she was climbing up onto the bathroom counter, only she didn't look first at the toilet (which she uses as a ladder) and ended up with her foot in the toilet, which of course, hadn't been flushed. Nights like these I need an extra dose of chocolate.

In Search of the Perfect Place

The other day we went in search of the perfect place. For our family reunion next year. This is a hard task. I'm not joking. We have basically have enough money in our funds to go camping--I tried to think of every possible alternative, but unfortunately, camping was the only viable one.So we went to check out some sites. It was cold. Colder than we expected, as you can see from the shorts my girls are all wearing and the snow on the ground.Yes, I chose to marry that crazy man. It was beautiful though.

This is the road we took to Silver Lake. It was a very bumpy road. And no, for all my worried brothers and sisters, the lake was eliminated, so you won't have try to make it up it to.This is Tibble Fork reservoir and it would have been absolutely perfect, only they don't allow swimming there. Ruff.Silver Lake was at the end of that very bumpy road. Beautiful, no? But eliminated because it was FREEZING--and yeah, July might be better but it was really high up in the mountains so maybe not, and well, no trailers were allowed on that nasty switchbacked road. We stayed all of five minutes because we were so cold. In short, we are still in search of the perfect place. I don't know that Isabel will be able to handle the very rigid search---I mean look how frazzled she was after just one day of it. Ana, on the other hand, loved it!