River dancing under hypnosis

Chase and Austin participated in a hypnosis at a comedy club on Saturday night...here's just a little bit of what they did! Too Funny!!!

Mother's day weekend

We drove to Utah for Mother's day weekend, leaving Friday afternoon and getting to Provo late Friday night. The drive was beautiful through the mountains and we were surprised to see so much snow still up in the mountains. As we got closer to Glenwood Springs, everything was greener and spring like...it's about time. On Saturday Steve and I went for a walk/run in the morning and then we went to American Fork to see the mobile home my mom is buying and then Steve took the boys to Mike and Maddies to deliver the washer and dryer that came out of our house and I went with Grandma Merta to the Anderson Mother's Day Luncheon. It was great to see all of my female relatives at Brick Oven restaurant. We had a tribute to my grandma Madeline Anderson's hands because she was always busy with her hands...either serving her family, neighbors or others.
After the luncheon, Maddie and I went shopping for a while...it was fun to try on clothes together and of course I had to buy Lilly an outfit too.
We all then went to the hospital to visit Steve's mom Claudia. She wasn't doing too well so the kids made it a fairly quick visit and then Steve and I stayed to visit longer with his siblings and mom.
One of the highlights of the day was going up to Salt Lake to get a Belgium waffle and Frites...sounds funny but ooohhhh they were sooooo good. Just like we remembered in Belgium. Hot, moist and sweet with crunchy sugar bits. After filling up on waffles and frites we headed back down to Orem and went to a comedy hypnotist show. It was so funny...the hypnotist got to Chase and Austin and they were hilarious playing out whatever they were told to do...they were back up dancers to "Brittany Spears", belly dancers, river dancers, race car drivers and one of the funniest was that Austin was a fashion coordinator (complete with a lisp) and Chase was a dandruff inspector and they went out to the audience and inspected people...too funny when Austin came back to the stage and crossed his legs!
We completed the weekend with a Mother's day brunch at my mom's house and had fun talking to Amanda (our niece) in Germany on the Skype internet...her boys are so cute!
So, spending time with Maddie, Lilly and Grandma's was a great way to spend our Mother's day weekend. Now Steve and I are looking forward to our cruise in a couple of weeks to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary!!!

The Prince takes his Princess to Prom

Tonight is Prom at Liberty High School. Chase asked Jessica Porter to it and they doubled with Codi and his date. This afternoon the boys slaved in the kitchen making breadsticks, caesar salad, and lasagna. They set the table to look like an Italian restaurant and then picked up their dates around 7 pm. Apparently the dinner was fabulous and they all went away very full. The dance is at the Press Box on the Air Force Academy and the theme is "A Night in Paris"
Steve and I get to chaperone the "after prom" activities at the high school from midnight until 0400...sounds like fun, Huh!!! Don't they all look fabulous!!!

Spring break in Moab, Utah

Our spring break was back in March and if you want to enjoy some warm weather you have to leave Colorado during spring break because it almost always is cold and snowy at that time. We left on Friday morning and drove our trailer up over the Colorado mountains and arrive in the desert oasis of Moab, Utah in the early afternoon. Spencer, Chase and friend Codi drove the jeep following us. We set up the trailer and camp and then went for a bike ride on the Slippery Rock practice trail. It is always a difficult ride but gets easier each time. Lots of sandstone, hills and valleys and a few sand pits to trudge through. But it is way fun!
We camped at the Slickrock Campground and enjoyed the camp with Steve's little sisters Teri and Jody and their families. Our friends, The Packers joined us also...it was fun to see them again! We enjoyed the hot tubs at the campground, went biking and jeeping and on Sunday afternoon, after church, we went to Arches National Park and hiked to delicate arch. Maddie, Mike, Lilly and Grandma Merta came on Saturday night and spent 2 nights with us...it was Lilly's first camp trip and she loved the fire. It was also Grandma's 69th birthday so we celebrated with a dutch oven chocolate turtle cake and ice cream.
Lots of fun was had and we enjoyed 80 degree temps for the first few days and then it was in the 60's but very nice.
This was our 3rd annual trip to Moab for Spring break and we love it lots! Especially when we get to see family and friends!!!

Our house get's an upgrade...or two...or three...

We've been doing a little upgrading to our house, since we've got an extension at the Academy and will be here till the Summer of 2010. We decided that we wanted to enjoy those upgrades for a while and not just do them to make selling the house easier. We needed to replace the carpet in the family room, because of the years of pets and traffic. We went with a darker, speckled color that'll hide dirt better. Its much softer than what we had before, and the boys enjoy sitting on the floor more. In fact, Spencer and Austin sat on the floor the whole session of Sunday morning conference coloring in coloring books.

We went down together and picked out the carpet. We've been talking about it for quite a while, but finally decided it was time. Steve was a carpet installer for 7 years with Grandpa Anderson, and could have installed it himself, but after two knee surgeries he decided it was worth it to him to pay to have someone else put it in. Eventually we'll be doing the stairs, the den, and at least the master bedroom. They are all in serious need of replacement soon.

Then a few days after we bought the carpet, but before we had it put in, the dishwasher started to make some really ugly noises. We couldn't find the problem and learned it would be too expensive to fix so we decided it was time for a new dishwasher. Last summer we antiqued the kitchen cabinets, and got new counter tops, which highlighted the fact that all our appliances were mismatched. We wanted to slowly make the move to replace the white and cream colored ones with stainless steel, so we determined there was no time like the present to start the transition with the dishwasher. When we started looking, we found a pretty good deal on an entire stainless kitchen set that included the dishwasher, range, refrigerator, and over the range microwave. We talked about it, and decided to go for the whole shebang! The day came for the big purchase, and unbeknownst to Steve the purchased turned into and entire stainless kitchen...AND a new front load washer and drier! The money was flying out that day...Steve was a little more than surprised because that part of the big buy hadn't been discussed. That's okay, Maddie is happy that she'll be getting the old ones, and we'll recoup some of the money from selling the old ones and by getting rebates and tax credits for energy savings!

Steve and the boys have had a couple of very busy nights moving all the furniture out of the Family room on Wednesday and Thursday night. The appliances were delivered on Thrusday, and the delivery guys only installed the Washer and Drier, and the Stove. Steve had to hook up the water to the Fridge and the Dishwasher on Thursday night. Then on Friday the carpet was installed. So Friday and Saturday everything was put back into the Family room. (Saturday between Conference Sessions, and other running around). Then today, he and the boys finished removing the old microwave and installing the new one.

The house is looking good, and we'll be able to enjoy our improvements before we put the house up for sale in about a year. ... By the way, anyone want to buy an electric range and over the range microwave???

Lilly's blessing day

On March 2nd our Granddaughter Lilly Anastasia Robertson was blessed by her father Michael Robertson in Lehi Utah...for those who aren't members of our church, it is a priesthood blessing given to a newborn that gives her her name and a blessing for her life. We had many family and friends there at the church and it was a beautiful blessing that Mike gave to Lilly. Having Lilly in our family is a great blessing and it is still wonderful being grandparents!!

Visit from friends

In the middle of March our friends from the great white north came to visit us. We had lunch with Mark and Tania Murphy, their daughter Malia (from Utah) and son Jack and grandson Benson. We went to a Thai restaurant and had a great time catching up. Then we invited them to our house for dinner on Saturday night...they pulled a joke on us and called to cancel at the time they were supposed to arrive...little did we know they were already in our driveway...those funny guys!!!! We had another great meal and then talked and laughed about the good times in Okinawa. Their family is growing up and Malia...wow..she is beautiful and very fun! In fact...she and another friend from Okinawa came to Lilly's blessing on March 2nd...it is so much fun to see old friends!!! It makes me very grateful for all our wonderful friends that we have met around the world!!! We are so blessed!