Friday, October 31, 2014

Well.  Apparently I only blog like twice a year now.  Time seems to fly by and before I know it, it's October 31.  Sean took the kids out trick-or-treating, so maybe I can do a quick catch up on the summer.

Josh discovered this summer that he really likes to golf.  He took some lessons and Sean took them to driving range.



Splash pad.  It was later in the season, but still warm, and we had the whole place to ourselves.



Kaysville parade. Lexi rode the Flipside float.


Courtney's birthday:





Mueller park picnic.  This deer was hanging out just a few feet away from us.  And the only picture we took with people in it, I'm standing in the background looking fat and annoyed.  I really wasn't. Annoyed, that is.  Fat, yes.






Found this picture from Easter. 


Josh with a fish he caught on one of our various camping trips.


Grandpa Chamberlain's 95th birthday party.


Bear Lake over Labor Day.  It was so beautiful.










Blake Shelton concert.

We went to the Air Force museum and Lexi made me take a picture of her in front of like every airplane.


First day of school:





Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Catching Up

Lots of stuff going on. Not much time or motivation to write about it, so who knows what happened.  I have a terrible memory.  All I know is I made it out the other side and I'm feeling pretty good.  May is always hard for me every year.  I haven't had much energy for years now, and after the debate season ended it was terrible.  I was just bone-deep tired all of the time.  One of the other coaches told me that's normal and that it takes her about a month to recover.  Anyway, I came through the exhaustion and the depression of May and somehow came into June with more energy than I remember having in years.  So hopefully that will last a little while, at least.

So, a few of the goings-on of the last little while:

Kids on Easter morning:



Lexi's dinosaur program:  The first grade studies dinosaurs and then they put on a dinosaur program.  They make their own t-shirts for the program, and then they wear them when they go on a field trip to the dinosaur park. I took a day off and went with Lexi on the field trip.



Memorial Day weekend at Moon Lake:  We went camping up at Moon Lake over Memorial Day weekend.  The weather was crazy.  It was overall cold, but the clouds kept moving over the sun so that one minute it was warm and the next freezing.  The wind blows constantly up there.  There is a trail that goes all the way around the lake.  We've never even made it to the other side because it's a big lake, but we made it farther this time than last.  It rained on us when we were on the way back.  Crazy weather.






The sky was so pretty on Sunday that I had to take pictures of it.



The View From Under My Awning:



Brittney's graduation:  Brittney graduated from high school on May 29.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  She graduated in the top 10% of her class, and I am very proud of this girl.








Lexi's birthday:  Lexi turned 7 a few weeks ago.  She is a sweet little girl, prone to drama, still loves to sleep a lot, loves school and friends, likes to be a helper, loves tumbling, is often bossy, is smart, and alternately idolizes and is driven crazy by her big brother.  We love her.





Hiking on Antelope Island:  Last weekend we went hiking on Antelope Island with Katie and mom.  It was really fun!  We saw lots of wildlife, beautiful views, and had a great picnic.





Camping at Rockport:  This weekend we went camping up at Rockport.  The trip started out pretty rocky but turned out OK.  The highlight of the trip for me was the ranger show.  I love the ranger show.  We learned about owls and peregrine falcons and got to see both up close.  Too bad we left the camera back at the trailer.


Josh had fun climbing the trees around our campsite.





The View From Under My Awning:
For some reason, at Rockport we always have an undisrupted view of the bathroom.




Josh and Lexi alternately love to play together and fight like crazy.  They compete over everything.  So one thing that I think is super adorable is that they will often sit together in the office chair and watch Minecraft videos on Youtube.  This day they were both using the rainbow loom grandma Saundra gave Lexi for her birthday while they watched videos on the computer.  I'm sure that five minutes after the picture was taken they were arguing over whose bracelet was longer/better or who used the wrong color or whatever, but I take the good times where I can get them.



In a bit of Shannon randomness, I decided that I'm only buying and wearing mens t-shirts from thrift stores this summer.  Sometimes I amuse myself with weird ideas like this and then remember that the rest of the world will think I'm weird.  Oh well.  My favorite that I've bought so far is a t-shirt with cows wearing 4-H hats.  I love that shirt but it's a little too tight.  Gotta lose a few.  Working on that.

My Eric Church obsession rages on.  I love that man.  I tried to talk Sean into going to see him in Grand Junction CO with me, but the tickets are $100 ea, and Sean seems to think that's way too much. He obviously knows nothing about good music.  Maybe I should go by myself.  And dance with all the drunk cowboys.  I'm afraid that by the time I finally get to go see him in concert somewhere I'm going to be like that girl on American Idol 10 years ago that was crying in the audience.  That will be me.  Does anyone remember that except me?  Ha!  It was so awkward.

I'm ready to get some new tattoo work done.  I want to finish what I want on the ankle/foot with my butterfly.  Something scrolly starting below the butterfly and twisting around the ankle and to the foot with flowers.  I've also been wanting some cherry blossoms done on my other foot.  But now I have an idea for a whole back piece that I want.  Cherry blossoms going from my left side over to my right shoulder and across the shoulder with a few blossoms falling down to sleeve level, and then put the kanji symbol I've always wanted somewhere with it.  It's going to be a big one if I do it.  Happy birthday to me, I think.

I guess I better get cracking.  A giant pile of clean laundry is waiting with my name all over it.  And the kids want to go to the summer activity at the library.  We'll see what sort of chaotic disaster that is.  Maybe I can drop them off and sneak across the street to the Iceberg for a chocolate shake.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Chamberlain Spring In Pictures

Zion's/Bryce Canyon trip over President's Day:

Sean made us stand on this rock and pose for before and after pics.  Not sure why...
Before hike

After hike




Looking through the pictures, we got some really pretty scenery shots.  Makes me want to go back.  February was beautiful in Zion's.  Not so much for Bryce, though.  Still too snowy.

Camping at Palisade State Park over Spring Break, and more importantly, the much anticipated return of The View From Under My Awning:



It rained and snowed on us for most of the camping trip.  It was a pretty lake and in the summer would be a really nice place to camp, I think.  But not over Spring Break.  Too cold.

Brittney and Anthony going to prom:







Grizzlies game:




We went to one of the last Grizzlies home games of the season, and the kids thought it was lots of fun.  Until about 6 minutes left in the 2nd period, when a pipe burst and they had problems with the ice.  They tried and tried to fix it, and then when it became pretty apparent that they weren't going to be able to, the players started throwing shirts and pucks out to the spectators.  Then they brought out a bunch of sticks and signed them and were handing them out to fans.  Josh was able to get one, and he really thought that was awesome.

The Saturday before Easter we met Scott's family, Katie, and mom up at Mueller Park and had a little bbq.  It was beautiful weather and so nice to get outside again.  We'll have to do that again.  For Easter Sunday we had a yummy dinner and Easter egg hunt at Cami's house.

I bought Blake Shelton tickets.  Can't wait for summer outdoor concerts.  I want to buy Toby Keith tickets, but as of right now they look too expensive, so we'll see.  They're part of the Country Explosion concert where it goes for 4 days and you can camp there.  In theory that sounds fun... combine 2 things we like... camping and live music/concerts.  But then I thought about it for half a second, and I was like... I hate 75% of the people at concerts.  I really don't want to camp with all those drunk a-holes for 4 days.  Anyway, you can buy tickets for just one day, but right now it looks like they're charging $100/day, and that's not worth it.  I tried to get tickets to George Strait's farewell tour show in Arlington, TX, but of course they are all sold out.  My beloved Eric Church will be playing that one with him.  It's pretty cool... he's got all these different big stars opening for him in different cities.  Too bad he isn't coming to SLC.

Josh starts baseball next week, and he's decided he doesn't want to play.  Oy.  To make him or not to make him?  He wants to golf, which I think is a great idea.  He wants to try ice skating, which I'm OK with, to see if he might want to play hockey, which I'm less OK with.  He wants to get a BMX bike and learn to do tricks.  Not sure how I feel about that.  He's been reading books about it. No good comes from reading books.