Fun with the fam

Today we went with Seans mom, aunt, grandma & cousins for a little day trip. We of course, drove around on rough trails, hiked & explored, & shot some guns. It's a tradition for day trips whent they come to visit, so we couldn't pass it up, even though our last 2 months has consisted of day trips on the weekends! Sean loves to let the dogs run behind the truck as we drive around, so they get nice & all exercised up. We drove by this water puddle & they ran to it & decided to swim while they drank. It was actually quite humorous.
Here is Sean feeding Alex some A & W with Ben looking on. So Sean is quite actually just reversing the effects of making the dogs run & get tired, by feeding them sugar in a liquid form!
We ate a little picnic lunch while overlooking some awesome views. Sean is pretending he can't tell the difference between Justin & Samantha cause Justin's hair is so long.

Cute fella, huh?
Here is Hannah checking out some old abandoned mining houses
Justin & cutie Samantha hanging out
Here is Ben obliterating a bottle of applesauce. I'm glad that it didnt' hit me in the process of exploding.

Are you sick of looking at our "day trips" cause they are getting out of control!!!! I told Sean that we're gonna have to lay off for awhile. Not that they aren't fun, but some of the activities are running into each other from week to week. We drove home tonight & had some awesome Famous Daves for dinner... thats a little trip that I wouldnt' mind taking more :) It was fun being with Sean's family, & I could tell he really enjoyed being around his cousins. We're just sad we didn't have Tif with us to hang out :(

Lap of Luxury

Today Sean's boss took him to get a manicure & pedicure. He had never had one before & his boss told him that it isn't too girly, so he agreed. Yesterday he told me he was getting one, but I didn't know he was really going to do it. I tried to get ahold of him in the middle of the day & he answered & told me he couldn't talk cause he was getting a manicure. Here are the results....
I just had to laugh. I came home & made him show me his hands & he just got this smirk on his face & tried to hide his hands. This man generally has stained hands & dirty nails cause he is ALWAYS working on some kind of project outside... a car, a quad, some motor of some sort... whatever! So to see his nails all shiny just made me laugh.
He kept saying things like... she gave me an arm massage too with lotion, is that normal? He is so cute!

Project!

Today I had the day off, so of course I had to tackle a project. I've been quite embarassed of my kitchen chairs for awhile & wanted to do something about it! We dont' have any folding chairs (which will change very soon) so Sean has been using the kitchen chairs to stand on, or whatever for all his projects, including painting! I can't say I'm completely guiltless, although I try to put a towel over the chair before using them. Anyways! I've been wanting to recover them, & finally did it today!!! Here are all the chairs without their seats on them, all in a row :) There are a few knicks in them, so hopefully I can at least try & cover them up with some stain.
Now, as embarassing as it is, here are the old covers. They are totally gross & stained!!!!

I'd like to tell you that I bought these chairs at a yard sale & thats why I'm recovering them, but thats just not true!
Here is the new one next to the old one. I bought a thicker material so it would be more durable. The old material was thin & had too much white-not that I'm planning on being really dirty in the future & covering it up, but theres no harm in thinking ahead :)
Here is a pile of hard work! My fingers totally hurt from ripping out all the old staples!!!!!! I did the whole thing with my mom, who helped out sooo much, I wouldnt' have been able to do it in a day if she didnt' help! I'm so lucky to have a mom that is so crafty & awesome!!!
These chairs are just cheap... there, I said it! Some of them were starting to come apart so Sean went & fixed all of them while the seats were off, so we have to wait til tomorrow to screw the seats back on while the glue sets. I seriously have only had this table set for about 5 years. Now I must remind you that I have no children, so its not like this table gets alot of heavy use. It is just made out of really soft wood & scratches really easily as well. Ok, I do have one big kid who usese this table for projects that probably only a garage table should be used for, so I will give the the set a little slack.

One last mention... the material was 50% off!!! I didn't realize it til we were paying for it! So to refinish my 6 chairs I paid $12.50!!! Go me!!!! My mom was also very excited about the deal we got! Wahooo!!!!!

Ok, one more last mention... as we were about to get to the last chair, I was beginning to really whine cause I was super hungry. My mom just smiled, went out to lunch with me, & didnt' get (or act) too annoyed at my whining, & then helped me finish the last one on a full stomach. I'm sure if it was me I probably would have got really annoyed at me. I'm so lucky to have a great mom :)

Easter time

Well... happy Easter to all! I obviously have no children, so there are no Easter Egg hunts or pictures of cute dresses on this blog. Instead, I will just post my peeps, cause they are yummy. Those of you who don't agree( including Sean) I'm sorry, but your wrong! Please note the roll of toilet paper next to the basket. I carry it with me all over the house because my nose has been running like a faucet. Along with the blooms come the allergies. I've lived in AZ my entire life & never had allergies til last year. They were evil last year, & I see a pattern starting. I had to stop in the middle of a few patients today to stop my drippy nose.. those of you who have similar problems... I sympathize!
Yesterday we had Easter dinner with my family. Everyone contributed some food & we had a wonderful feast. Andy's ham was freaking awesome!! I would have asked for leftovers, but I thought it was too good for me to ask. Not that everything else didn't rock... I contributed the famous broccoli salad, some deviled eggs & a great citrus cake. I got to use the cake plate that I got for Christmas for the first time. Man I love that cake plate!!!
I just had to put this picture on. Some people may not understand how Sean goes through clothes so quickly & how I could have made him a jean blanket for Christmas out of all of his jeans since we've been married. How could he have that many ruined jeans in 3 years? you may wonder. Well, this picture is proof. Any time Sean works on pretty much anything, he uses this position....
Lying on the floor. It used to bother me, but I actually find it endearing, even though I still razz him about it. Looking at this picture actually makes me laugh. It's not like he is looking under a car or anything, he is just trying to get this little pump working. Gotta love it!

Saturday fun

Today I went with JoDee & Andy & their kids to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I took the dogs with me & Max helped me walk them. I always laugh when I take them with me in my car. Usually we put them in the back of Sean's truck, but I was alone today, so I drove my car. Alex loves to put her little head out of the window. I have child protected windows in the back, so they only go down so far, so she has to prop her little head out. It always brings a smile to my face.
Here are some of the cutest kids in the world! Grant & Kate are psyched up before we went...
We did a little hike around looking at plants along the Queen Creek. Here is Rock "walking" Red. He really wanted to hold onto the leash, so when Red would lay down we would let him hold the leash. Of course, when Red got up we had to grab the leash so Rock wouldn't get dragged through the dirt & he did not like having the leash take away!!
Here is Andy with Rock on his shoulders. It was cute :) They are looking up at a really really tall red gum tree.
Here is a cheesy Grant pose next to a statue partly of marble I think. The surface felt really cool... I think it got to 85 degrees today! Warm when we were walking around already at 10 am.

They had a little exhibit of birds & some people giving us information about the different animals. This is a vulture. I guess they go to Mexico in the winter & are now starting to return.

This owl looked fake to me until it started to move its head around. Very cool!
Even cooler though... Snowy owl!! Also looked fake until it started to move its head around when Andy make hooo noises.
Here is Aniston & Kate eating a picnic lunch

And here are my dogs begging for food underneath the table. Rock kept making yuck noises as they ate food off the dirt.
Cutey Max...
Grant & Aniston kept wanting to take turns walking the dogs. There were alot of other people with dogs there though, & I needed to hold them when other dogs walked by, so it didnt' work out having someone who probably weighs the same amount as the dogs to walk them in those situations. Kate also wanted to walk them. When nobody was around I handed over the leash. Notice that Grant is being dragged through the parking lot.
Here are those deluctable Dillards. When we got back they were sitting there all in a row & I just had to take a picture. They all enjoyed watching the dogs lap up some water.

Seneca fun :)

Yesterday Sean & I went with our good friends Matt & Kaaryn to the Seneca Lake area & explored around & shot up some bean cans & spoons. Ok, that sounds really wierd, but we had alot of fun. We drove up in the morning & met them there. We've had so much rain this year that the desert is really green this year & there is alot of blooming flowers we don't always get to see. This first picture was on our way there. We are around Gold Canyon here, but there was so many blooming flowers! I couldn't believe how much yellow & purple we saw!
We bought boxed lunches from Jasons Deli ( awesome!) & headed up there. Sean brought a few of his guns so we all had some target shooting. And by target shooting I mean shooting old bottles & cans, not to mention an old boot & some silverware, off of a piece of wood. This next picture is Matt shooting an SKS.
Here is Sean loading the weapons & sitting on the porch of an old abandoned mining house.
Ok, here is where the pictures get good.... me! Ok, just kidding . Sean said that he was getting an action picture when he took this because I was in the middle of shooting it. I'm shooting his Rueger 9mm... pretty bad-a , huh? Not really, I actually had to have him remind me how to shoot it cause its been awhile. I actually prefer shooting his 22 rifle cause it isn't as loud & dosn't have as much kick. I did, however shoot a few spoons & cans- one spoon I shot when aiming for the can, but whose counting?
Here is Kaaryn giving the bean can hell. I think she was actually shooting the objects she was aiming for. If I remember right, this was only the second time she's shot a gun, & was showing me up with her aiming abilities!

and then there was Sean... He is also shooting the SKS.
here is Kaaryn working the 22
Luckily, Kaaryn brought an extra coat cause it was chilly!! It probably wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't so windy! Here is a nice pic of me & Sean
I love this next picture for several reasons. Sean shot this spoon & was very proud of how it not only blew off the top, but bent it as well. I love how Sean found it necessary to put the gun in the picture so the viewer would have a better idea of what exactly could cause such an awesome thing to happen, but I love the look on Matts face even more. Kaaryn & I talked a little bit about how men are really just big boys & I think this picture embodies that statement.
We brought Alex & Red with us on our little excursion. Sean says its like Disneyland for them when we take them out into nature & let them run around. When we started shooting they reacted very differently. We kept having to tell Alex to stay out of the way. Red, however, ran away at the first shot. I took this picture cause I thought it was funny. I'm not sure if you can really see him, but he ran to the very end of the path & sat there. He is the little black dot at the end of the path, if you zoom in you can see him.

The area around Seneca Lake was mined alot around the 50's, so one of Sean's favorite things to do is to explore around old mine shafts... sounds really safe, right? After shooting we hiked (or walked) down a path that had several mine shafts. This was the first we came to. There were two openings into the mountain where they had been mining. Sean is still unhappy that I forbade him to enter into the boarded up old mining areas. Somehow he just dosn't understand how much I want an alive husband.
So nice to know that mining men have good hygine in mind! We found these toothbrushes in the area where they dump their mining findings & sift it. Cool, huh?!
This is the view from where we stopped. There was another shaft right behind me in this picture that we stopped at. This is the best part of my story. I'm mad now that Ididn't take a picture of it, but there was a huge structure made of wood that led up to a mine in the mountain, about 30 feet up. Sean decided that it was safe to scale it, with the help of some cable hanging from it. The dogs also though that climbing the mountain was a good idea. Luckily, nobody was harmed in the shooting of these photots.


Matt & Sean

Here is Sean attempting to test the depth of the canyon using Matt.

Now it wasn't enough to play on 50 year old abondoned wood structrures for Sean. I unfortunatlely pointed out a hole up on the mountain further up, not supported by any structures. Sean was determined to look in it, so these next pictures are him scaling up & hanging out in the hole.

He really wanted to make sure I took a picture of him up there.
I took this picture as Sean was breaking into song... "Climb Every Mountain!!!"
Here is the four of us
and Matt & Kaaryn at the top of the waterfall near Seneca Lake.

Great fun! We are very lucky to have friends who hand out with us, despite how crazy we can be at times... like swinging from old wood! We are so sad that they will be moving soon :( Thanx guys!