A peek into our Colorado week...

I have to admit that I was scared.  Scared to drive the 350

miles to the cabin in Colorado- just Haven and me.  Alone.  Not cool.

Luckily she was just short of a halo over her head and did

pretty darn good.  Unfortunately she only slept probably an hour total.

Amazingly though we only stopped once in Moab.  (I'm kind of

hard core when I'm driving... I just wanted to get there and 

thankfully Haven and her diapers were up for the challenge.)

  So these pictures mark the beginning 

of our week in Colorado:

As you can see... she LOVES hats...

playing with her cousins...

and making me laugh.

I have some of the most gorgeous nephews... ever.

-The Buzz in Honeyville-

Here's Haven, Lexi, Bryson & Landon checking out

 the indoor, glass-walled beehive.

LOVING time on the lawn mower and ANY and ALL attention 

she could steal from Papa Updike.  She would seriously BAWL

if he even thought about doing anything without her in the equation.

Getting kisses from Daddy before his ride.

Sorry... I just really like this one. :)

Daddy Updike MADE them wear helmets this year... much to their dismay.

I say FINALLY!  Figh-NUH-LEE!  I've been waiting for it to finally hit them

before the asphalt does.  I'm proud of our boys.  I know it was hard.

Haven & Grammy

(who she calls "Dah-mee" & has missed so much since we left...)

She LOVED this little bridge... we couldn't get her off of it.

She thought it was a "weeeee" which in Haven terms means a slide.

Heather was surrounded by her beautiful pouty faced kids

who were so distraught when Jeff left on the ride.

Grammy and Haven having one of their cute little moments

Haven loved playing with all the boys...

 and their Tonka toys...

and throwing the ball.  Who'da thought?

She loved playing with them all so much... she didn't care if it was raining.

Between the fun company of her cousins... the "weeee" bridge... and the boys

toys... she was in heaven.  Rain or shine she wanted to be outside.

Here she is with her beloved daisy headband that she calls her "HAT!"

Yes... the same hat that she had to wear the ENTIRE drive from

California to Utah with my parents while we were on our cruise.

Whatever makes her happy.

ROUGH RIDERS

I forgot to include this picture that Kylan took of all our 

Harley boys who although were depleted in number this year 

still look like a pretty intimidating bunch... or not. :)

(I love that none of them even know, or care, this is being taken.)

Annual Harley Ride 2008

The guys that went this year were: my father-in-law Jim, 

brother-in-law Jim, Jeff, (Steve was missed), Greg, Gary Knight, 

Jason and Jared Knight, Tom, Tommy, Doug, and Chris Grover 

and their bro-in-law Jeff, Mark Shady, and Ken and Kylan Lundeen.

(they normally have 20+ bikes but the Jensen's went hardcore to Sturgis,

and Randy, Aaron and Tony Knight were unable to come.)

POWELL VACAY

US

ALL OF US

David, Stacey, Greg, me, Haven, Kira & Preston

Here's the story of 3 macho boys that decided

they were going to push a HUGE boulder into the water...

because they were tough, and thought the three of them together could do it.

(even though they had no shoes and were burning their feet all-the-while.) 

So they swam to the side, and hiked up to it.

They pushed and they pushed... but to no avail.

They then decided that they would try a smaller

boulder... but try as they may... it just wouldn't budge.

(Their feet were pretty fried by this time.)

So with blistered feet, they finally settled on the realization that they would 

have to push a tiny rock into the water... and what do you know!?

THEY DID IT!!!

And then celebrated their victory on their swim back to the boat.

The end.

Here's Me & Stace

 We had SOOO much fun

There are so many cool caves... next time

I really want to go just to explore.

When Greg was out surfing and wakeboarding

Haven couldn't get enough of Doritos... waving... and saying

"HI DADDA!!! HI!!!" Even she was proud.

Okay... so maybe we're juvenille but Stace and I had 

to continue our name leaving tradition.

This time it didn't say Shavonne & Stacey BFF...

but us and our hubby's initials... CUTE!

SHAVONNE LOVES GREG

Cutest little bootie around...

she wouldn't take my cowboy hat off for the world

60% of the time... the boat put her to sleep EVERYTIME.

Girl time!

Asleep again...

Preston being Preston

Haven loved the water...

so much in fact she kept trying to drink it...

nasty.

Just after Stacey's tube SUBMARINED!  

Greg and Preston... funny boys.

Beautiful Sunset

LOVE HER!

Haven almost died of excitement when we turned

on the T.V. and YO GABBA GABBA was on...

that's what I call divine intervention.

Life Jacket Diapers

We couldn't stop laughing... 

'cause until we'd seen them on my camera...

we could only imagine how ridiculous we looked!

YAY FOR LIFEJACKET DIAPERS!

GREG'S GOULASH... mmmmmMMMMMMAZING!

LET'S HEAR IT FOR MY BOY!  Awww.... LET'S GIVE THE BOY A HAND!

My cute chef of a husband, Greg has officially won my stomach after today.  When he told me yesterday that HE needed to go to the grocery store to get the stuff for today I was like "wwwwHAT the?" (Not that he doesn't cook, 'cause he makes some mean German Pancakes that I, being the pregnant woman I am, crave on a daily basis :)  So I was very interested as to what he was going to make, and I pried it out of him that he had found a recipe.  SCUUUUUUUURRRRR!!!  Stop!!  MY husband?!  Found a recipe?  Greg found a recipe.  He normally calls his mom to get her awesome classics (cute, huh?)... but HE actually found one... which meant he thought enough to LOOK for one.  I'm sorry if this sounds corny... but that's CUTE!  So here I am, just minutes after downing my "umpteenth" serving of the wonderful dish...  

"And it's made with bits of real (chicken)... SO YOU KNOW IT'S GOOD"  

-Name the movie!

-10 cool points if you can answer that.

Here's some random photos I googled that give you the idea... :)

+

=

4 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed)

1 16 oz. jar of salsa

1 can of Black Beans (P.S. I hate beans... but LOVED this... go figure.)

1 can of Drained Corn

8 oz pkg. Cream Cheese

Directions:

Put chicken in crock pot and season with whatever you wish, Greg used Chalula seasoning and a little Chalula sauce.  (Which I'm normally out with... but the end result was... ooooh so amazing.) Then pour salsa, beans and corn in and let it sit on low for 3 & 1/2 hours before you add the cream cheese, let simmer for 1/2 hour mas, shred the chicken and then VIOLA!  Simple.  Easy.  DELISH!!!  This would be amazing over rice, though we ate it with our favorite tortillas from Costco that you cook yourself, and it would even make a great dip.  It's super versatile.  

All I know is this: my husband is THE MOST AMAZING MAN ALIVE to have known I would flip for this... he knows me so well, and I'm almost embarrassed to say that I had fourths.  What?  :)  It was that good.  It is a MUST try... c'mon you know you have all the stuff in your pantry... and no offense Greg, but it's next to impossible to mess up a crock pot dish, ya know?

If you try it, which you simply must, you have to let me know what you think!

BACK BLOGGING...

So in case you have a life and haven't noticed... I'm a little behind on how our Summer's been, so I've been "Back-blogging..." feel free to scroll down and you'll see that I'm not a posting slacker... I'm just trying to get caught up... ugh.  I'm thinking tomorrow I'll upload the pictures from Powell... I know you've been waiting for this Stace... "life jacket diapers"... and all.

The Dark Knight

I am not a super-hero-movie-watcher.  I'm just not a fan, sorry.  However, thanks to my husband I FEEL as though I've have seen every trailer & read every review made about this movie.  He's been excited about this since before the idea for this movie was even conceived, I swear :)  So, naturally, my expectations were UP, and after seeing it I wasn't let down.  I do think it was DARK... and a few scenes could have been shortened... particularly the one when two-face has the cops' son... yeah... that scene could have been shortened by about TEN MINUTES and that time could have been used to better explain how 2 face dude went from being a hero to a villain in 3 seconds flat... sorry to ruin the surprise but I didn't think there was enough explanation there.  It's probably because I'm not a big "comic book reader" so I'm just not "in the know" with Batman history or lingo, but whatev.  It was a great movie.  

The acting was like nothing I've ever seen.  Heath Ledger did a really good job at being such a psycho that while you're busy detesting his guts, he strangely draws you in with his comic relief at the same time as to make you want to understand what drives his character.  Not that his character was bipolar, (although he obviously had some serious issues) but the Joker, to me, was a bottle filled with combustible oil and water.  A combination that I had never before seen mixed; as his character was filled with satire & humor and yet an underlying evil seditiousness.  I bet a psychologist would have a HAY-DAY with him... even I tried to understand his motives throughout the movie... okay... I'm lame, but I bet if you haven't seen it you'll do the same.  I say see it... the reviews, for the first time in history, are dead-on.

WATER + MUTUAL = ?

So I was told 3 days before while on our little "Nascar" date that it was decided that I was going to be in charge of mutual... and it was the years' water activity.  YAY!  No pressure or anything... it's just the ONE time a YEAR they get to do this.  Thanks to all the ideas from the rest of the presidency, we weren't lacking any inspiration... just the tools necessary to complete the activities.  Lucky for me... EVERY Walmart, Target, & Kmart in Utah and Salt Lake Counties no longer had any kiddie pools... go figure... hmmm.  80 million kids in Utah... super hot weather...

(like anyone here would actually build a REAL pool...) and while we're being honest... I can't seem to think of a better time for all the stores who carry them to run out than in June... before the heat hits... way to think it through... but whatev, I'm over it if they are.  Thanks to resourceful little Tiercy and some Kmart in B.F.E. Utah that Greg was so kind to drive ALL the way to so we could have what turned out to be a home plate.  (Since it was too shoddy to actually be the "cool" water spraying pool it was supposed to be... but hey it

worked as a sweet slippin' slide of a home plate.) So we played a mean game of water-lovin' baseball. The balls were really the water soaked spheres we've all come to enjoy every summer.

Here's Marilla showing everyone how to "get 'er done."

They stopped their balloon fight just long

enough for me to take this picture.

Fun with Tiercy & Kelly

No - I'm not some college football coach...

Yes - I did have a huge freezing bucket of water

dumped over my head unexpectedly.  Thanks Kaylee.

This picture makes me smile... I LOVE IT!

The girls Limbo-ed...

While I sprayed the water for them to go under.

Lexi had no idea what was coming...

Some sweet slides into home:

Paige was all about it...

and Maddy got some sweet air.

Ashton was waiting at first base...

and for anyone who struck out.

I think the girls had fun because I brought

food... I should probably stop :)  I guess because

I'm always hungry, I assume everyone else is too.

We leaders had fun because we have the 

most fun group of girls... ever.  LOVE THEM!