Spain!

The Rain in Spain stays Mainly On the Plain!

I have been on vacation. Since June third it has been go, go , go around here and I haven't managed to keep up on this blog business. Quick recap is in order:

Dan and I spent our fifteenth anniversary in Spain at my dear Spanish sister Marula's wedding. It was an incredible event, fit for kings, movie stars, or well, just cool people like us. I tried every crazy food once. Some twice... some not so much... I would recommend the gazpacho soup over lobster and of course the paella was excellent.

Marula gave me her bouquet! It made me cry to think she would honor me that way! We will always be sisters, no matter time nor distance!

Dan and I found this great little cafe just off the beach and as we sat waiting for our food I had one of those moments where you just feel complete happiness. I had to put time in a bottle the only way I know how, I took a picture! What a beautiful place!

We visited many old cathedrals, fortresses, and saw one old town from the twelfth century that could have been right out of the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean".

One warning: Beware of the beaches, you can't believe the "free spirits" there. Shocking!

The best part of our trip? Coming home and hearing the delighted screams from our kids. We felt like rock stars. Macy said every day for several weeks. "I missed you Mommy. You went to pain didn't you? I missed you. Don't go again, ok?" We missed them too, but they were in great hands! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Browning and Grandma and Grandpa Bryan for helping out! We love ya tons.

Wellsville Mile!

GO ZACH GO!!!

Zach did us proud today as he took sixth in his heat during the Wellsville Mile. Several schools participated and it is a lot of fun to watch as these kids run their hearts out! I was really proud of Zach.

He did awesome!

Keane concert

Keane!!!

We went to the Keane concert last night at Kinsbury Hall for my birthday and had a great time. Chase is a big fan so we took him too. His first real concert. He knew more songs than either Dan or myself so it was a rousing time for the whole family.

Speaking of, we had an eclectic group last night to be sure! First we had gramps and gram up in front of us; she stood and he sat-- with his finger over his hearing aid the whole time. Then you had the primary president with her Dorthy Hamill hair cut totally rocking out with her two kids and husband. Dan was pretty sure they were headed to "This is the Place" Park after the show--or maybe they were coming from it--the jury is still out on that one folks. And don't even get me started about the old guy rocking out up front the entire time! I mean when you've got grey hairs coming out of your ears do you really think that you should still be headbanging? So where did we position ourselves? Well, we are the people that stand the entire night. It's a concert folks, not a movie.

Pretty mellow group in all. Dan was lamenting that there wasn't a little more headbanging going on, (besides the old guy of course). Hello, old man? Our thirteen year old son was there! Sometimes.... Thanks to Caitlyn for showing up and helping out with the kids.

Amazingly, Chase did not miss the bus this morning! That kid is going to need a nap!

Our favorite song of the night was crystal ball. They did a great job on it. If you aren't familiar with Keane, check them out on pandora, they are a poetic, easy on the ears alternative group. I find their music to be inspiring, helping the creative juices flow as I write while they play quietly in the background. That or I steal from their lyrics all the time, but hopefully it is the former. If not, hope they don't mind.

We came home to a clean, quiet house, so all is well in The kingdom of Bryan.

May days

May! It's finally Spring!

So far I am not doing so well with this blogging thing. Hopefully I can get in a rhythm and be more consistent, if not, well, at least you'll hear from us every few months or so.

May happenings:

• I had a birthday. Still eating cake one week later.


• Chase had his final guitar concert and did awesome! He even taught me one of the songs, but I've already forgotten it.


• I planted my flower boxes Saturday. I would take pictures, but my camera decided to have a dead battery. I'll have to do that later. Hopefully the weather is turning and they won't die. I also bought seeds for the garden. I am going to try a few new things this year. beets, onions, watermelon and rasberries. I'm really excited about the rasberries!
  
  

• Was treated like a queen for mother's day. Dan worked so hard he had to have a nap. Poor baby! Zonked out for at least an hour and a half! I just basked in the sun all afternoon!
  
• Tomorrow we are going to the Keane concert in SLC for my birthday!!! I am so very excited! I will post after the concert and tell you how this band has been a huge part of my writing experience.
• Dan and I are preparing for our trip to Spain in June! I am so excited I can hardly stand it

Here are some funnies as of late:

Jake: My brain has been thinking and so I made a deal with it. I could just get off the bus and go right to Tate's house. That way you wouldn't have to take me to baseball at 4:00. (He gets off the bus at noon.) Nice try buddy. Give me another...

Jake: Dad, when you were a little boy did you want to be a Dad?

Dan: Yes Jake, do you?

Jake: Yeah, so I can wrestle them!

Macy: I have a frog in here (points to throat) and it goes ribbit ribbit. She had a sore throat.

Ellie: Home sick from school all last week and being bored, decides to call her friend Nicole at ten in the morning. Nicoles mom laughs that Ellie has forgotten that Nicole is in school. What is that saying about all kids think the world revolves around them?

Which reminds me we watched the Truman show the other night. Oldie but a goody. One of the few Jim Carey movies I can stand. In fact one of my kids said, "Hey that looks kind of like Jim Carey, well sort of."

Park City Weekend

Weekend Getaway plus Seven!

Last Friday we took the kids, plus two friends to Park City to go skiing and to visit Grandma and Gramps. They were gracious hosts as always, fed us constantly and I again had a difficult time controling the "grazing" issue that I seem to have at Grandma's House. The kids obviously had a fun time and I think Chase and Zach loved having friends to go skiing with.

The weather was really warm, making for crappy snow, but also providing many hours of fun play time outside, which Macy took advantage of. It was picture perfect, so I took a few.

I love the sunglasses girl!

Jake, falling again. He just wants to go down fast!

On Saturday we ventured off with SIX KIDS and two adults to Park City ski resort. Can you say CRAZY? It was a circus for a while.

This is our theory about kids and skiing. Put the youngens on skis, send them to the top and then let go. They are so resiliant that even when they crash down the mountain they come away unscathed, uncut with nye a broken bone to be found. Super good time. Of course, this goes without saying that there is much weaping and wailing going on, cause they think it hurts to crash. Whatever! Deep down they really, are having a wonderful time, as are Dan and I.

Our Ellie,who consistantly, though very cautiously made her way down the mountain.

Two clever ten year olds!

Lucky for us the older ones are now beyond this type of torture and can venture out by themselves a little, mostly cause we are so far behind with the youngers that we can't keep up with their "SKILLS". However, later we learned that both sets of boys ventured into double black diamond territory and ended up at ski lifts that were closed. One set of boys took an elevator (That is what they said. They even called it a glass elevator! I think I believe them?) down to a neighborhood road where they then asked around and found a BUS STOP which took them back to the RESORT! While I am in the car waiting for skiers to return--because I'd had to take tumbling, crying child home-- I suddenly see these two little boys stepping off the bus! I was shocked. Minus two for parenting skills. However it got even better when we had to wait another forty-five minutes for our oldest two boys (Chase and friend) to venture back to reality as they too had gotten themselves stuck at a closed lift and had to walk their way back. (They aren't as clever as to find a bus to take them back. Two points for the younger sibling and friend)

Two less Clever thirteen year olds, but we still love em!

Over all a great success! And Dan was red as a beet that night. Sunscreen? He says he did...Oh well, he had great form on the hill and that is all that matters.

MACY HAD A BIRTHDAY!

I can't believe it, but my baby just turned three years old. She had a great day; first thing in the morning we do a breakfast in bed. I didn't know if Macy understood this concept, or even if she would catch on that it was her birthday, but when she came down and saw Dan cooking pancakes and setting up the bed tray, she said "Oh, is that my pancakes for my bed?" and when Daddy said yes she said, "Okay, I'll go back to my bed." And she rushed back up the stairs and waited in her bed for another twenty minutes. An amazingly long amount of time for her, but she stayed put.

She was princess for a day with her new crown, but princess didn't cut it and she announced she was Queen Macy and though she is on most days, today she had the crown to prove it.

We went to the fun park and were joined by dearest friend Avery and the rest of the dirty rotten Kirschman clan, (they are moving and I'm not happy can't ya tell?) Grandma and Grandpa Bryan showered her with gifts and love and cousins Cassidy and Bridget and Abby and Josh and Matt came along. We had a great time playing laser tag, roller blading and playing in the soft play. I have no pictures since I was too busy playing in the soft play. NOT by choice though. Macy was freaked out by the mere fact that there were two hundred little scampering children bullying and pushing their way through like little mice. I have to admit I was a bit nervous myself. Everybody in Cache Valley had spring fever on Saturday and took it out on the Fun Park. Great time was had.

Happy Birthday Mace!

March is living by its name!

So I woke up yesterday morning, lifted the blinds and found this lovely, actually gorgeous picture in my window.

The best part, and I failed to get a picture of it, but the greatest moment of my day came when my almost three year old crawled into bed with me and together we watched Daddy shovel snow. Dan's hat had so much snow on top that Macy commented that Daddy was a snowman! It was really beautiful and if I must choose whether to have snow in March or April, I know without a doubt I'll take it in March.

It's a wet, heavy snow and my kids came in from playing yesterday afternoon completely soaked through. Only this morning did we realize that Zach's coat was still in the garage, wet and cold. We double layered him in jackets and sent him off. So much for being prepared.

On another note, our carpet will be laid today. Pictures to follow...

And on yet another note. My dearest Macy Jane will be three on Sunday. I can't believe that our baby is three! She is such a hoot and so much fun (when she isn't throwing a tantrum) I love having her around. She is such a helper and loves her older brothers and sister so much. This morning on their way out to catch the bus she yelled to each one individually, "Goodbye-- Name of sibling--, have a good day. See ya later. Then when Jake failed to return the salutations she yelled, "SAY GOODBYE TO ME JACOB!!!" What a sweety.

The family room is nearly complete!

After nearly three years of using this dark spider infested space for junk, boxes, odds and ends, old college binders you just might need one day; we bit the bullet, forked out the cash, lived with the dust and mess and now have a wonderful new, bright family room, minus the carpet and touch up paint, which I plan on doing, but couldn't bring myself to pull out the brushes again today. Perhaps because I couldn't deal with Macy or Jake's "help" We've already ruined and outfit a piece and Macy put her adorable stamp on several pieces of trim when she began painting them with the wall color...yeah, I'll finish the paint tomorrow.

We are so excited to have a bigger, more family friendly room to watch movies and hang in that we can hardly stand to wait for the carpet. Which should be here any day... just waiting... and waiting...

Dan and I were very pleased with all the things handyman Mckibben did,(he doesn't really go by that, but it seems to work well for this purpose, so we we'll leave it at that) with of course a slight amount of help from us, but we made one very slight error and I know that it will be the first thing that Dan will point out to every one, since he loves to share all our mistakes with others that come to entertain with us, so I am going to get it out of the way right now, so that it never has to be discussed again. Got that Dan? This is it, for all the world to see and then we are going to zip it cause I ain't moving the darn things!

Okay, so here is the dealio, we, okay-I- told them were to put the pendant lights and I swear there was a reason behind it, like there were big black pipes everywhere else and it was our only choice, but we'll never know since the ceiling is all nice and tucked away under a layer of paint, sheet rock and insulation. When we went to hang the pendants once the cabinet was in, we discovered that it didn't hang over the sink--directly-- but more like over the person using the sink. Okay, so I made one teeny, tiny mistake, but who cares? It's not like it's in the kitchen or anything, and it's in a corner far out of every ones provision anyway.

So there you have it in black and white, my first mistake ever! I know, it's pretty amazing isn't it. Besides that one little fop aw, the room has turned out quite nicely, now if we could just get some carpet...waiting...still waiting.