April has come and gone (almost)

Parker is a little sports star! He played city basketball, and right now he is playing Babe Ruth baseball… And the coach is putting him on 2nd base and PITCHING! He has a lot of practices throughout the week, and he is doing really great! Pictures to come soon Because I work at the school district, I get to see Parker in action with friends and girls… One of my students is in his P.E. class, so I also get to see him be a superstar. His P.E. teacher tells me everyday that he is one of the most athletic kids in the class. He was PRO at volleyball, and wonderful at football. He is doing great at badminton too! In this photo Parker is posing with the 5th period football team champions. These girls want him on their team EVERYTIME they play! He is so cute and fun, how could the girls not love him? I love to snap pictures of him playing when he doesn’t know I’m watching…             

These are some photos of him playing badminton in class.

Not very good action shots… but I only had my phone camera

Parker’s dad bought him some cowboy books online, and they arrived yesterday! Parker was stoked! He loves these boots and is SO excited to wear them!

Okay, okay enough about the stinky cute boy! Yesterday we got a pretty crappy spring snow. I vowed not to complain after watching the tornadoes in Alabama… so I’m not complaining… I just really wish Spring would come!

Parker would NEVER wear shorts last year… This year he decides he likes them, and wears them on the one day it snows! Crazy kid!

I got in my car yesterday and noticed this lovely crack. Grr. I blame the weather!

Between work and internship and Parker’s practices, and running around, we don’t get a lot of time to cuddle these days. Parker is such a great kid, and is so understanding of my crazy schedule. He knows I love him and I know he loves me. We cherish the few moments of silly play time! But I caught one good picture where we aren’t sticking our tongues out!

I love my internship, and I love that I’m SO close to being DONE! Thank you to everyone who makes my life easier! I can’t believe tomorrow is the first day of May!

Happy Birthday to Travis, and Easter Sunday

Yesterday would have been Travis’ 35th birthday. It is crazy to me to think that he has been gone for almost 17 years. Time flies by so quickly. Days and weeks go by when I don’t think about Travis, but yesterday I was able to remember him and how much he is missed. Happy 35th Travis!

Last night Parker and I stayed at my mom’s house. Parker helped clean up sticks and garbage from the yard, so my mom took us to Ole’s (oh, lee’s), the new restaurant in Sugar City. We went home and played around for awhile, then Parker went to a friend’s house. My mom and I watched “For Colored Girls”. SADDEST movie EVER! Holy cow, it was awful! Then, we painted Easter eggs! It was a lot of fun! We went to bed so the Easter Bunny could come, and HE DID! He brought me and mom a Reese’s chocolate bunny and he brought Parker a LONG BOARD! Parker has been asking for one since the day he moved to Idaho. He also got 2 shirts. Parker’s mom got him a movie (Gulliver’s Travels, very cute!) and a belt, along with some candy. Parker found all 24 of the eggs the EB brought… he had a hard time though, that E. Bunny is tricky! Parker spent the day riding his long board. He LOVES IT! He is really good too! Then, mom made us a YUMMY roast and cooked carrots and mashed potatoes! It was SO MUCH FUN! Parker and I came home and started the laundry, vacuumed, and cleaned up a bit… Now Parker is watching Gulliver’s Travels again! He is hanging out with his cat, who we like to call California. FUN day!

Parker’s home!

This cute cowboy is back home in Idaho. Friday was a very stressful day for me! I had an appointment at 10, so I knew I wouldn’t be leaving Idaho Falls until 11. That gave me PLENTY of time to get to the SLC airport by 3:45.. But I’m a stress cadet and I always want to be super early to everything. So, as I’m speeding through Salt Lake, I don’t notice the speed limit change from 75 MPH to 65 MPH. I had my cruise set, and I was flying. Well, the next thing I know, there are flashing lights. I was being pulled over for the FIRST TIME IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! Holy smokes! I was so scared! The Utah Highway Patrol was SUPER nice though. He said the speed limit changed to 65 about a mile before he pulled me over… luckily my Idaho plates helped me play dumb… So, he didn’t give me a ticket. Just a stern warning to slow down. I drove 64 the rest of the way to the airport! I got in line at the airport to get my security pass to pick up Parker at the gate… only to realize I left my drivers license sitting on the passenger seat of my car. So, I had to walk ALL the way back to the parking lot, get my license, and walk back to the airport security line. Luckily the line through security wasn’t very long, and I didn’t get extra pat downs this time… so it was a quick process. Well, the lady at Delta told me Parker’s flight would be coming in to D5, so I get up there, and have 25 minutes to spare. I read my book and people watch, and realize a few minutes before the flight comes in that the sign on D5 says the flight is coming in from Nashville NOT Sacramento. So, I go to the nice people at D6 and they tell me his flight is coming into C4!! That meant I had about 2 minutes to book it… good think SLC airport isn’t as big as some of the others I’ve been in (Atlanta has train shuttles in their terminals!)…. I get there just in time for him to get off the plane. His dad had bought him a cowboy hat, so he was looking all cowboy cute when he got off the plane.

I promised Parker I would take him out to Sushi when he got back… So, I mapped out the directions to a sushi place in Salt Lake. After an hour of searching, we realized the place had closed down!!! So, we decided on a place called Simply Sushi. I am going to admit right now that I am NOT a huge fan of sushi… so I was a little worried that Parker would eat the sushi and I would have to stop off at Wendy’s or something for a burger But, Parker ordered some rolls that didn’t have raw fish in them, and they were actually pretty good! One of the veggie rolls had avocado, cucumber, mango, and cream cheese… Tasty stuff! It ended up being a FUN time! After sushi we headed home… 4 hours down and 4 hours back was NOT fun… but Parker and I giggled and laughed the WHOLE way home. We didn’t even really listen to music! We tried to have “straight face” contests, which was totally impossible!

Parker brings so much joy into my life. I don’t realize how attached I’ve become until he leaves for a week. I missed him so much! It is fun having him home. Princess went CRAZY when she saw him too.

Being cheesy

Colorado Roll (I think)

Park City Roll… this had cooked salmon, jalapeno cream cheese and avocado. YUM YUM.  Who knew I would like sushi?

Not so Spring… Break…

Last month Parker’s dad bought him a plane ticket to California for Spring Break. Parker decided he wanted to keep it a secret surprise from his mom and sisters. It was REALLY hard for him to keep this secret! He was SO excited to see his family! He hadn’t seen his mom and dad since summer, so it was a LONG time waiting! His flight was scheduled for Friday at 4:45, so we decided to leave to Utah Thursday after school so we could have a mini-vacation in Utah. We got a hotel room in Salt Lake and went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It is a little aquarium, but it was a lot of fun! The pictures are pretty blurry because it’s hard taking pictures of moving animals in the dark . After the aquarium it was raining like CRAZY, so we decided to walk around the mall for awhile since we weren’t hungry for dinner yet. We had fun looking in all the stores since the Idaho Falls mall is so lame! After the mall we went to Chili’s for dinner. When we had checked in at the hotel we found out the hotel had an indoor heated pool. We didn’t know that, so we didn’t bring swimsuits. Parker LOVES the water, so I decided to go to Target to buy him some swim trunks. After dinner we went down to the pool. It was completely empty, so Parker got to swim the whole pool! I soaked my feet in the hot tub and read my book while he swam. It was SO relaxing! After swimming we went to the soda machine and bought a pop. We tried to buy a Kit Kat, but it ate our money . We watched TV and fell asleep! Parker had a HARD time sleeping because he was SO excited! When we woke up Parker went down to get us some bagels from the complimentary breakfast. He saw the pool was open, and since we had time he went swimming again. We went to Denny’s for breakfast and realized we had a lot of time to spare before going to the airport. Parker had been really fascinated with the state capitol building and the Salt Lake Temple. We decided to take a little tour. It was raining and snowing like crazy, but it was still a lot of fun! Parker loved driving around downtown. We didn’t even get lost! We headed to the airport, got our security passes, and headed up to the gate. We got the airport REALLY early, even though we blew a lot of time downtown. We got a soda and found our gate. Parker had his little netbook, so he watched some movies on Netflix. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses and put him on the plane!

After Parker’s plane took off I headed down to Pleasant Grove to spend the weekend with Lori. I LOVE hanging out at Lori’s house. Lori’s older kids are all moved out and on their own, but her little boys are still around. Hunter is 8 and just got baptized. Morgan is 6 and is a total hoot. Last time I visited, Morgan was still a little shy with me… but this time he wasn’t shy at all. It was SO fun! On Saturday Lori had a couple errands to run, so I stayed home and played with Hunter and Morgan. We played Mini-golf, bowling, tennis, and Pokemon on the Wii! When Lori got home we took the boys to a birthday party. Lori and I had several hours to ourselves to just TALK. We had so much to catch up on! Lori showed me how to make Taco Soup and I watched her make her famous homemade bread. MMM… Warm bread out of the oven is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!!!!! When the boys got home they wanted me to play hide-n-seek with them. Morgan was the BEST and made me laugh for hours! I told him I would count to 100 then come find him… he would go hide, and then yell “I’m ready” from wherever he was hiding! I didn’t have the heart to explain to him that he was giving himself away…. so I would look everywhere, then find him. It was SO fun. After hide-n-seek we played tag and chase and tickle wars. I was worn out! On Sunday Lori and her family went to church while I slept in When they came home I helped Lori get dinner ready. Her older kids were coming for Sunday dinner, so Lori made a roast. Treavor’s girlfriend was bringing the potatoes, so we focused on making the salad and cutting up all the fruit. Who knew watermelon would taste so good in April! Morgan helped cut up the cantaloupe and watermelon and did such a good job!

After everyone left Lori and I played Qwirkle with Morgan. What a fun game! Hunter made me his famous dessert (SO FUNNY!) It was cut up banana in the bottom of the bowl and then cut up strawberries around the banana. He said, "it’s healthy and delicious!” I told him I needed the recipe! He was SO cute and pestered his mom for hours about writing down his recipe. I’ve decided to call it “Hunter’s healthy banana-strawberry extravaganza”! It was very tasty. Hunter and Morgan were so sad that I had to leave Monday morning. They are on Spring Break all week as well, and wished I could stay and play all week. I wished I could too! I had SO much fun. I could go on and on about this trip. I was able to talk and talk and talk to Lori. I was able to talk with David, which was so nice. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to David much since his illness. Although David is very different mentally, he is still such a great friend to me. I just love these guys and I didn’t take ANY PICTURES I’m so sad about that! I have to head back to Salt Lake on Friday to pick Parker back up from the airport. I have missed Parker so much since he’s been gone! He would have had so much fun at Lori’s! I have to get back to internship on Wednesday, with new clients I am super busy and I LOVE it!!!

Here are some pictures… sorry for the long post

 

He’s so handsome