An Evans Kind of Summer

Since we now have 3 bums we have to pay for when flying (Collin turned two), it was just too pricy to fly home for the summer. Quite the disappointment! However, we were lucky enough to have some of Travis's family make the trek out to see us! We were really looking forward to it. His brother Marcus came out with his family and stayed with us Saturday through Monday. They have 5 kids, including a 3 month old, and were doing the whole {church history} tour on the east coast, starting with Palmyra and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Bravery! I don't think I could ever attempt such a trip with so many little ones, but Marcus and Megan are invinceable! Here are most of the crew coming back from a walk to the park. I was pulling in the driveway as they walked up and had to capture the parade. :)

Collin had A BALL with his cousins. And he referred to them not by name, but collectively as "the cousins". This is Sunday dinner of taco salad and Collin was just tickled pink to be surrounded by other kids.

 Weston and his cousin, Orson, are 10 weeks apart. Hopefully we'll get to live closer someday so they can be buds. I love Weston's hand clasp!

 All the ducks minus Ruthie. Adele and Collin are just a few weeks apart in age also.

 So the M&M's departed Monday and then Trevor flew in that Wednesday night. On Thursday we went to the zoo and swimming in a friend's backyard. Then Travis's parents arrived that night.

All was well until Collin woke up from his nap on Thursday with a fever. Rats! This happened about a month ago and only lasted 24 hrs. so I was hopeful this would turn out similarly. Not so. This kid was SO SICK for 5 straight days and then grumpy as all get out for another 2 days. Basically the entire time the family was here. So, instead of participating in all the things I had planned for the week, I spent most of it at home with a sick Collin. I hear some kids are mellow when they're sick, but this one is ornery! I can't really blame him though. Not sure what he had... maybe a virus... maybe Hand, Foot, Mouth (even though he didn't get sores, his gums were swollen). At one point his fever spiked to 105. That's when I had to take him to Urgent Care. It happened to be when everyone was in Palmyra watching the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I think I was the most disappointed to miss that. It would have been my last time being able to see it out here. If you had called me on Saturday, I could have invited you to my pity party.

Exhibit A of Ornery kid:

 On Friday they went to the dental school to see his operatory, then to Niagara Falls to do Maid of the Mist. Saturday was spent in Palmyra.

 Sunday night we went to see the fireworks over Niagara Falls. They do them on Fri. and Sun. nights during the tourist season at 10pm. It was really crowded! And it only lasted maybe 5 min.....so not super cool. But I've never seen the falls at nights, all lit up, so that was neat.

On Monday, they all went to Kirtland for the day then came and got us at night to go to Chee Burger, Chee Burger (or CheecheeBurger as we call it). Collin was doped up on medicine and still unpleasant.

On Tuesday, the fever had mostly broken, but Collin was still whiny and seeking the "sick treatment" he had been getting, including extra pacifier priviledges and blankie time. Not gonna happen. And I was bound and determined to participate in the days activities. We had heard doing a Lockport Cave tour was fun so we drove 40 min. to Lockport where the Eric Canal passes through and you can see some of the old fashioned "locks" that boats used. I thought the whole 70 min. tour was on a boat. It turned out to be mostly outside walking around. And it was a bloody hot, humid day. And I didn't bring the baby sling so I had to carry Weston the whole time. And Collin cried and whined the entire time and made Trav carry him. And it wasn't that cool of a tour. AND.... just kidding.

Here is our tour guide in front of the entrance to the "cave". Mental note: going on tours with kids means learning NOTHING from the tour.

 I think the only thing I'll remember are these millstones. Don't know what they were used for but now I have a mental image for the scripture "It would have been better if a millstone were hung about your neck and drowned in the depths of the sea!". Possibly a better fate than a 70 min. tour with Collin.

 Walking down the cave tunnel.

 Most of our time was spent walking along a "river" of water in an area that used to be filled with water.

 The last 10 min. or so we finally got our boat ride! It was lame sauce. We got on a rickety, fishing type boat and coasted down the "river" for a few minutes, then coasted backwards to the starting point. And here I thought we'd actually be on a boat on the Erie Canal and get to go through a real "lock". Oh well. Live and learn..... then get Depends.

 That night we managed to finish up dinner and get the kids bed in time to make a reasonable showing (we are old and don't see movies that start later than 9:30pm) of........... HARRY POTTER!! Deathly Hallows part 2. This was monumental folks! Do YOU remember the time you saw the first Harry Potter in theaters? Well I don't! But I do remember seeing possibly the 2nd or 3rd one at midnight when I was at BYU and that was AGES ago! Seeing this movie was like closing a chapter of my life. (No pun intended, haha) Come to think of it, I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not dressing up or something. Regardless, it was AMAZING. Loved it loved it! Go JK Rowling. The only weird part was when a few people came in and sat right next to me, when there was an entire empty theater waiting to be filled. Who does that? Complete violation of personal space. Just because we both love Harry Potter, doesn't mean I want your Griffindor scarf touching my arm because you decided to forgo the "one seat of space" rule when sitting down.

 On Wednesday we went to Crystal Beach because Trevor wanted to see Canada and had gone through the trouble to have his passport overnighted when he realized he had forgotten it. Pretty much another miserable experience. It started the moment the sand hit Collin's flip flops and burned his feet. We were not forgiven for taking him to that sand burning hell hole until the moment he was returned to his carseat and on his way back to air conditioned paradise. I think we lasted maybe 2 hours and he truly cried and whined the entire time. Poor Rachel and Gavin had come too and it was the first time Collin had seen Gavin in a month and he still didn't give a hoot to play. It was so frusterating. Especially factoring in the time it takes to get everything packed and lunch made and driving out, just to have a miserable time and return home to put everything away.

THEN, that afternoon was when I found out that all my blog pictures were deleted, never to return, so I got to have a nice, mind numbing cry on my bed for a few hours. Not the best way to end an already crummy week. (The ONE week, by the way, that I was actually looking forward to!) Somehow I managed to pull myself together and go out to eat at Mississippi Mudds.

Exhibit B of Ornery kid:

(Not to say there weren't Exhibit  C-Z not pictured)

 We also got icecream and crossed the street to walk along the river. We were all posed to take this picture when Collin realized my icecream was conveniently close to his mouth and couldn't resist a taste.

Despite the setbacks, it was still good to see family and spend time together. When the kids were asleep, we got to play some games and visit and that was a lot of fun. Grandma also reminded Collin of the hours of fun they had together back in March by reliving the magic of playdough. Grandma is totally his playdough buddy.

They also came bearing gifts which included a belated "4th of July" package, a simply enormous bag of Cinnamon bears, a belated Father's day gift for Trav, a birthday present for me, a couple of toys for Collin aaaaaaaand....... uncooked tortillas!!!! You know, the kind that are doughy and you have to cook them on the skillet? They are no where to be found out here and since they have to be refrigerated, Paula stuffed a huge package in an insulated bag and took it on the airplane with her. I about dropped dead when she presented them to us. Oh the simple things!

Thank you for coming to see us! I am so lucky to have such wonderful in-laws. We are so grateful for the time we had with you!



WARNING WARNING WARNING

Maybe you've noticed that for the past week or so, my header picture, side pictures, and all pictures on posts prior to July 4 were missing.

Well, today I finally figured out why.

A couple weeks ago Travis caught the Google+ bug and set up an account. Then he thought he'd set one up for me as well. Apparently there was a question during set-up regarding Picassa albums and whether he'd like to delete them or share them with Google+. Since he didn't think I'd want to share all my photos, he chose to have them deleted.

In his defense, he had no idea that Picassa was connected to our blog. Or that I had thousands of pictures stored on Picassa.

Now gone.

3 years worth of blog pictures gone. GONE!!! And I can't figure out how to bring them back.

Anyone that has done considerable blogging might be able to comprehend how devastated I am.

Luckily, I have all my pictures still stored on my computer. But there is no way that I'll be able to figure out which ones went in which place or which post. I'll still try. I have only printed one blogger book for 2008, which will help for that year, but for the rest, I'm screwed. For each picture I put on my blog, I usually have 3 or 4 ones just like it. It takes me forever to do just one post because I spend forever evaluating each picture then making a list of the ones I want to post. Then add in uploading and formating..... it makes me want to cry thinking about it.

I literally sobbed for hours this afternoon. So many hours gone. I still feel like I'm in shock. I don't think there is any other tangible thing in my life that I've spent more time on than my blog.

So I tell you this in warning. I've read online about this happening to other people too. Don't let it happen to you! If you start a Google+ account, make sure to not delete any albums. And spread the word.

5 Years

We celebrated 5 years married last Thursday and what better way to celebrate than going to the Buffalo Museum of Science! :) I'm afraid that anniversaries are falling to the wayside already, like birthdays. Even though we keep saying "Someday when we have money, we'll really celebrate." (But then I think we can't be doing too bad because I have memories growing up and being family camping and suddenly my mom will say, "Oh! It's our anniversary!" And my Dad would say, "Oh yeah, happy anniversary honey!" And they both would laugh) But honestly, I loved our day. Just spending it together made me happy. I had heard that you can get a free pass to the museum through the library and it was true! You have to go to the Central Library downtown (Trav stayed in the car while I ran in so we didn't have to find parking, which made it way easier) and you just go to the information desk where they give you a laminated "pass" that you check out like you would a book and take it to the museum. Of course you have to return the pass after a week, but my local library took it so I didn't have to go back downtown.

They have a hands-on room that we spent most of our time in that Collin loved.

 OK, funny story about this pump. Trav started pumping the handle, but nothing was coming out. So he half said to himself, "Maybe I need to prime it first". So he poured water down the top and sure enough, it started pumping water! He was cracking up but I totally didn't get it. I guess there was an old, cheesy seminary video about "Priming the pump". (How did I miss it?!) He told me all about it and it would take too long to explain, but maybe some of you remember it?! Well, know that it works! haha. Just prime the pump and you'll have everlasting water/eternal life. :)

 Our babysitter for the night fell through, but the Goode's saved the day and watched Collin so we could go out to dinner. Cheesecake Factory of course. We had a gift card (thanks Paula!) but I would have chosen there anyway.

 OK, pay close attention.... I have found the most AMAZING meal there! I was already in love with the Navajo Taco and dipping it in their ridiculously delicious ranch, but I had just gotten it a couple weeks ago on our girls night, so I decided to venture out. On their add on menu page, they had Caramel Chicken. It looked like what I had gotten at their sister restaurant, Grand Lux, in Scottsdale. I substituted out the rice (yuck) for mashed potatoes and I was in food heaven! Really, words don't do it justice. Remember, While You Were Sleeping, "These mashed potatoes are so creamy"?... well I was doing that times 10! Mmmming and ahhhhing through the whole meal. Trav's salmon was totally jealous of my devotion. And best part was, it was huge, so I got to relive the magnificence the next day too. So get the Caramel Chicken and thank me later. Or now. Whichever.

 For dessert I made a Red Velvet cake because that's what we fed each other at our reception. We didn't have cake (not a huge fan of wedding cake), but the top layer of our fake one was real so we could do the "feeding" thing. I tried saving it in the freezer so we could thaw it and eat it after 6 months or a year (I forget which one), but someone had thrown it out! Sad day. So after 5 years it was time to relive the magic :) I searched forever for a good recipe and it still turned out dry, HOWEVER, I did find the most mouth watering cream cheese frosting recipe. I will never use another one! So I have to share:

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 - 8 ounce (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

1 - 8 ounce (227 grams) tub of Mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (icing or powdered) sugar, sifted

1 1/2 (360 ml) cups cold heavy whipping cream (double cream) (35-40% butterfat)

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and beat until smooth. Using the whisk attachment, gradually add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is thick enough to spread. Add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency.

I couldn't find Mascarpone in my rushed trip to the store so I doubled the cream cheese and it was still phenomenal, but next time I really want to use the real thing.

HaPpY 5 YeArS to my best friend.

We watched our wedding video after the kiddos went to bed and I fell in love all over again. (Although it made me feel a little old to hear our comments of "Man look how skinny we were.... or tan.... or what was it like to have French tip nails?! Maybe we've frumped out a bit sooner than our time. Well, I won't speak for him, but I certainly feel that way!"

A couple months ago at book club, Diana made the comment that of course you love your husband when you get married, but you can never tell for sure how he will be with you when you're at your worst or how he'll be with your kids, etc until those things happen and "sometimes don't you just feel like you got incredibly lucky?" I couldn't agree more. I really believe he is perfect for me and sometimes I wonder why it is that I got to be so happy when so many aren't. Maybe I'll never know, but I am supremely grateful!

4th of July

 The 4th turned out to be a really fun day with the fam. We had a red, white, and blue breakfast of crepes with pudding, strawberries and blueberries. Then whipped out our awesome pool that struggles to hold water and got our tan on. I love when he just wears the swim diaper. The speedo/European-esque look is endearing. :)

And this little dude put on his speedo for the first time this summer even though the water turned out too cold for him.

Then, for the first time we decided to go to the Cheektowaga Town Park Parade. And guess who forgot her camera?! Bug! And it was the boys' first parade! :( We weren't sure what to expect, so we took the back roads, parked, and ended up leaving the chairs so we could walk faster and not miss the beginning. Harlem Road was already packed, but we found a spot and parked it on the curb. Only then did we realize why this particular spot was left vacant... we were right on top of a sewer grate! Lovely smells wafting our way. Well that was just the beginning of our ghettotastic experience. To our left was a sunburned gentlemen... shirtless, scraggly hair, covered in tattoos and smoking away. Then we hear his raspy voice prepping his kids..."Ok, guys, now remember- be aggressive! When they start throwning the candy, you gotta be fast! Now any candy from the sewer over, is yours. That lady over there (referring to myself) will block the grate so none goes down the sewer. (I was glad to have received my instructions early on). Any from the sewer over, is that boys (referring to Collin... how nice)." And then, throughout the parade, whenever candy was being thrown, he'd hobble to his feet and started drunkenly waving his arms and shouting at the top of his hoarse lungs, "EW! EW! EW!" . I had no idea what sound was emanating from his mouth, but apparently it was meant to signal, "Throw the candy over here or I'll come smother you with my B.O." I'd say it was entertaining, but that might be pushing it. Then our left was poor, drug addict mom with her swarm of children. I'll just say it felt like Buffalo. :) But don't let me mislead you, we really did have a fun time. Collin loved the fire trucks (even though I was truly afraid our eardrums would burst from the noise) and had fun running to get the candy and watching the fancy "Fast and Furious" cars and marching band. Not a shabby parade, all things considered.

In the evening we went to our ward's BBQ in the stake center parking lot which is perfect since it's right next a school playground. You could definitely see the void that 15 families makes after all the moving though.

(Our patriotic family picture :)

 

 We came home to bathe Collin then went and watched the Cheektowaga Town Park fireworks from the cemetery. Yes, you read correctly.  Best place with wide open spaces. We weren't admist headstones though. I think it might be land that will be used for that eventually.

Don't be fooled by this picture. When we told Collin that the fireworks were starting, he plunked down contentedly for about point 2 seconds, then was back to the races.
Also, notice his shirt..... it's inside out. Cuz on the other side it says Espana in big, bold letters. I wasn't thinking when we threw it on him after his bath and rushed out the door! Then as he's running around before the fireworks it occurred to me how obnoxious it seemed to be flaunting an Espana shirt. Oops!

Here he is with a little friend he found to run around with. Only she didn't last nearly as long as he did and yet he acted surprised when he realized he was the only one running circles anymore. SO MUCH ENERGY.

 The show was pretty spectacular. Even worth the hour wait. We thought they would start at 9pm when the sun went down, but it was closer to 10pm. And we were Collin's jungle gym for every second. He finally conked out around 10:30pm on the drive home but was up bright and early at 7am the next morning. No sleeping in for this guy.

It was such a fun day, but a bit sad to realize that it was probably our last 4th in the Buff. On the way to the ward BBQ the song by Journey, Don't Stop Believing, started playing and we had to crank it up and sing along. That song seemed to be on the radio constantly our first summer out here and so quickly became our {theme song} for this experience in dental school. I can't believe I'm already getting nostalgic and we still have a year left! Yikes, time to reign in the hormones. :)

Happy Birthday America! We love our country!

Fix 'r Up!

With Trav on his summer break from school, he's been able to tackle a few home improvement projects he's been wanting to get done. One day was spent scraping away flaking paint off the trim under all the windows and repainting all the trim and the back door. Then a few days were spent tackling the mold downstairs (the crowd cheers... or was that just me?) As mentioned before, this water damage was my worst nightmare living out here. And don't google "mold", it will just enhance your nightmares....and ulcers. I should have taken a "before" picture, but it wouldn't have done the situation justice. You can't smell that grossness in a picture. Or truly capture the woolly, black fuzz in all it's glory. But trust me, it was a sight to behold. Trav pulled back the carpet to get a better idea of the damage and it seemed the mold mostly grew on the tack board, base boards and walls. So the carpet was spared, but man, why did they ever cover up that snazzy tile? I, for one, was sad to see what we had been missing out on. 

Trav doned gloves and mask (at least he told me he'd wear a mask, but I don't think he did. His lungs.) But as he scrubbed, he realized the wall was coming off with the mold. What, that's not real oak you say? Guess not. More like dry wall with a cheap, wood-esque wall paper over it. Hmmm.....

 Just cover that up with a higher base board molding! It doesn't match the rest of the room, but it looks much nicer. So after agonizing over possible thousands of $$$ being spent on mold removal, it was done for about $50 (with the help of some generous friend's tools and tack board). And hopefully not at the expense of Trav's lungs. Now we just have to pray that those ridiculous, record breaking rains don't ever come back.

 Amdist all this {man work}, Trav needed to make another trip to Home Depot and generously took Collin along with him. When I was able to get significanly farther down my to- do list than I had anticipated, I started worrying that they were all right. Not long after, I was greeted at the door by the cutest little Tool Man ever! I guess when they walked in a worker asked if Collin wanted to participate in a free, little kid workshop where they made a coaster holder. He was so proud to show me. (And apparently he made fast work of the complimentary popcorn.)

 Ah! Lovin' the apron. Seriously, I wanted to squeeze his guts he was so cute. Go Home Depot! :)

Weston 5 months

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Parties, BBQ's, and More

 So, as much fun as hosting can be, it's been pretty fantastic to have the past couple weeks filled up with fun, social activities that required little from me other than showing up! Last week, the Cardon's threw the party of the year for their little girl's birthday. The theme was centered around the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and they had hired out to have face painting, balloon animal making, a hot dog "stand", bounce house, cotton candy machine and Mickey himself come to visit. While we were driving over, Trav told Collin to get ready, because, "You are about to go to something that you will never get yourself." Ha. Right he was. There is no competing with Maddie Cardon or her Grandma... you'll just feel bad about yourself. :) But it really was a fun party. Although, since Collin has never seen Mickey Mouse and therefore has no idea who he is, he was more than terrified of the big, scary mouse thing that came out to dance with the kids. We aren't talking {cower behind the parent's legs} sort of scared. More like {scream hysterically like a little girl} kind of scared. It was embarrassing. Trav had to take him away and calm him down in the car. When they came back, Mickey was out of sight, taking pictures with the kids so all was well. However just a few minutes later, Collin caught a GLIMPSE of the black and red terror and had a MELT.DOWN. He may as well have seen Satan himself. That kid.

 He had no idea that fluffy, sugar goodness was being made by the garage, but I did. So like a good Mother, I led him by the hand to stand in line for his own helping. Three licks later and it was mine. :)

 Oh yeah, there was also an adorable, homemade pinata. And they had personalized "Mousekeeter" loot baskets to gather their candy in.

 Speaking of amazing birthday parties...just in February we went to Reagan's party, held in the church cultural hall. The theme was CandyLand. Notice the individually, celophane wrapped balloons crossing the ceiling?

And how about the literal "Candy Land" room? I was in hog heaven.
They also had a bounce house. Now you can see why it's dangerous to have friends that set standards like this. We love it.... until it's our kid's birthday. :)

Our first summer out here we went to so many BBQ's I was sweating hot dogs.... we seem to be repeating history. Again, I love it! I know I'm gross, but I do love me a grilled hot dog. And even if I didn't... knowing all day that I don't have to cook dinner?! Yes, please! So thanks to the Dobbins, Carters, Shaws and many others that have hosted BBQ's this summer! 

This is one of the Cardon's BBQ's they had a couple weeks ago, to say goodbye. They officially left this past week and it was sad to say goodbye to Tiffany! She came over the night before they were to head out and talking to her reminded me again of how lucky I am to have met these friends out here. I will miss her! We both teared up. I hate saying goodbye. Then two days later I took Collin to their empty house to get a couple things she left for us and we walked in the back door and immediately Collin bolted to the hallway, yelling, "Naddy?! Naddy?!" (For Maddy). It about broke my heart! He was so confused that there was nothing there and she was no where to be found. He'll always associate that house with her and he's too little to understand that he doesn't get to go on walks to see her anymore. SADNESS!

Well, speaking of moving, that's the other main thing going on around here. Travis's Moving Company is officially open for the season! No, it's really not that big a deal, but he has been gone quite a bit moving people out and now it's switched to moving people in. Since he's been out of school for the past week and a half, he's had the time to help, so that's been nice. Otherwise I might be a bit more cranky about it. Also, most people are pretty grateful and don't just act like the church owes it to them (that's what gets my feather's ruffled). And of course, in a year, we'll be the ones needing the help, so what goes around comes around!

We played our first Kan Jam game of the year last week with the Elders. We've been promising them a game for a while, so we finally got to it after dinner last week. They are a fun group of missionaries, so I look forward to having them over. Plus, now with my brother, David, out on his mission, I always think of him when they are over and hope that someone over in Honduras is feeding him! He's been in Honduras for 2 weeks now and his letters are crazy. I think he experienced quite a bit of culture shock and it's no wonder! He said he has a companion who understands NO English, and since his Spanish is very limited, he has to look everything up in a dictionary to tell him things. They have no sink and if they want to shower, they heat up some water on a portable stove and pour it over their heads. Apparently, the missionary's places have toilets, but no where else does. Just holes. That, among many, many other things makes me worry about him! But missionaries are amazing and he will survive.

Here are Elder Hallum and LaChuga. 

 And this is Elder Bryson and Ingrahm.

After our game, I not-so-subtly introduced them to my neighbor, Celeste, who was out with her family playing basketball. I think Trav was embarrassed for me. Oh well. I'm not a very good missionary. 

 How 'bout this random post! I guess it was supposed to be all the things we've been doing lately. And that would include Collin's first sunburn! We were out mid-day for a couple hours and I spaced it on the sunscreen. Luckily, he didn't complain about it hurting. And even more luckily, the kids I was watching didn't sunburn. What was I thinking?!

  Occupational hazard in eating a blizzard...

We also go on lots of walks. Sometimes to the school park, sometimes just around the block, and sometimes (if I'm lucky) to Dairy Queen. We got home last Saturday night and Trav looked at Weston and started cracking up. Poor fellow. He didn't even seem to mind.