Stink! Stank! Stunk!

The bathroom project continues with some great progress this week. Now that it's framed and plumbed, it's ready to be prepped for tile. First and foremost is making sure everything is water tight. Nothing could be worse than having a leak underneath the gorgeous tile that was installed. The best way to go about this is to HOT MOP the basin with tar.

You've seen trucks like this before and know the potent fumes that surround it, usually for a roofing project. Just imagine confining said fumes in one little indoor space.

Stink!

Stank!

Stunk!

The fumes penetrate and permeate everything. The stink was in our hair. The stank was in our clothes. The house stunk for hours, and upstairs for days; so much so that John and I couldn't sleep in our room and had to sleep downstairs for two nights.

Travis was great, proficient, and frankly quite brave to be able to withstand the 500-degree tar and the malodorous air all day every day.
Fifteen gallons of hot tar, 160 square feet of tar paper, 200 pounds of mortar, and rolls of fiberglass tape were used to make this 100% leakproof.

These pictures may look a little blurry, but that is haze from the smoking tar.

Lastly, Travis fills the shower with water to ensure there are no leaks. This is also a great step to make sure the John's plumbing is holding up!

A glossy, reflective pool.

The bench looks so slick and shiny; if only it smelled as pretty as it looks.

Next Step: Insulation

We wanted more insulation to help with the noise since the kids' rooms are right across the hall from here so John insulated every nook and cranny possible. Hopefully that will help alleviate the blaring noise that turning on the water causes.

The shampoo boxes are sealed tight just in case a drop of moisture wanted to get in - not going to happen!

Up Next: Paper

On Wednesday, Randy and his helper Andrew lined the whole space with special paper

then covered it with superior moisture and mold protection backer board.

Then on Thursday, the next step is starting the tile!

Careful measuring, precise cutting, a lot of calculating is required.

Break for the weekend, but there is definitely some great progress being made!!!

Luckily we have other places to be to escape the stink and this is always a fun way to pass the time; little girls in tutus never go out of style. I will be very sad when I don't have any more little girls to dress up in tutus and take to dance class.

We Finally Made It

We actually made it to Knott's Berry Farm on Monday to enjoy a beautiful, warm spring day at the amusement park. Despite Madison's bronchitis, she was a great time but was totally worn out by the evening.

Ashlyn still can't go on many of the rides that the older kids like to go on so she wanted to go on this, but there's no way I was getting on this spinning thing. I was amazed that she went on it all by herself. Brave girl!

Happy Easter One and All

It's Easter!

He is risen!

A few minutes in the morning to enjoy spring treats

then it's off to enjoy 9am Church (John was speaking!).

Then it's home to get ready for Easter dinner, but first they need to goof off a bit...

This was a much quieter Easter dinner this year - could it be perhaps because we broke from the traditional ham and green bean casserole and opted for barbecue baby backs and angel hair with tomato and pesto that scared everyone off? Either way, if it weren't for Shaun coming over, it would have been only our little family with a feast (enough for 13) and one giant layered carrot cake for dessert.

In full disclosure, my parents were away for the weekend attending my uncle's funeral and John's mom was very ill recovering from surgery. We missed having them! Afterwards, we watched Tangled (for the billionth time) because Shaun has never seen it - and that's not OK . . . it's a must see - while enjoying multiple servings of pineapple carrot cake with orange-scented cream cheese frosting.

Oh Yeah.

Where's the picture of THAT? :-)

Here's to hoping we'll actually make it to Knott's tomorrow for our last day of vacation. Madison has bronchitis again and developed a fever tonight so the outlook is not good. I fear disappoint on the horizon.

On a happier note, yesterday we chaperoned the youth for a temple baptism trip (which is a 7-hour excursion here) and it was Madison's first time in the temple. She was very excited and it was a beautiful experience. Grandpa even had a family name for her to do.

Progress, Thwarted Plans and Beach

It's the end of the week and we were planning on going to Knott's Berry Farm since we have annual passes. John even planned to take a day off, which is a big deal. He only has about 9 years of saved up vacation days because he never takes vacation (or rather hasn't had the time) so we were really planning on this. We (mostly he) was a wee bit stressed on the timing as we decided to go forward on the bathroom project this week, which means he's doing the plumbing, which means the contractors will have to wait for him to do his part but he doesn't really have much time since most of Saturday is being taken up by a youth temple trip.

Wouldn't you know it that this spring break was pretty chilly and mostly cloudy. The kids really wanted to go to the beach at least once, but frankly it was just too dreary except for this morning.

The day we were going to Knott's.

It was bright and sunny when we awoke. Oh well - plans are made and we go forward with them. After going over the details with Randy (the contractor) as to what we want done, we hit the road. We made it all the way to the 405 freeway (about 20 minutes because there was no traffic) when John casually asks if I have our passes. WHAT???

Oh

My

Gosh!

Right as we were in the car and leaving the house, I said to John - I don't need my purse, right? I didn't need money since John had his wallet. I didn't want to leave it in the car, nor did I want to have to shlep it around the park, so I ran it back in the house. Of course the passes are in my wallet, which is in my purse. The irony is that we both, on three separate occasions, thought about having to remember to bring the passes which we knew were in my wallet and yet we both had this strange stupor and disregarded the purse!

He sadly had to announce to the kids that we weren't going to Knott's after all and turned the car around.

Can you imagine the disappointment?

Instead we stopped at the plumbing store on the way home and picked out the shower fixtures that we needed immediately and John ended up having the entire day to get highly important 'home' things done. Also, a big weight was lifted as he now had more than just a couple of hours on Saturday morning to try and do an extremely complicated plumbing project - one that needs a great deal of time and attention paid or else we could be facing disastrous leaking problems under the floor.

We don't want that.

Disappointed children problem averted as I announced we'll go to the beach instead. Our good friends the Johnsons were planning on being there, too and remember when I said it was sunny?

Well, it turned out to be a blissfully perfect day at the beach.

We even saw a WHALE! How cool is that? I really wish I had my telephoto lens, but the giant whale was super close, right near the jetty and it would come up and spout water. What a treat for us all. We've seen our share of sea lions and dolphins, but never a whale!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

The shower got framed with one pony wall, two benches and three shampoo boxes.

And tonight John is doing the plumbing project which is as difficult as I anticipated especially when he has to contort himself in awkward positions to weld.

He's a stud. There's nothing he can't do. He's even going to try and take Monday off since that's the official last day of spring break and we'll try to go to Knott's then. Let's hope the plumbing will let us!!

Spring Break Demolition and a Tea Party

TWENTY-TWO MONTHS in the making . . .

Say goodbye to the existing tub/shower combo.

The demo crew has arrived and we are once again seeing progress on the never-ending home improvement project that is

the master bath.

Once this is done, we just have the mirror and medicine cabinets and then the master bath can officially be D-O-N-E! Is it possible? The funny thing is that I don't even notice the mirror being hung with duct tape anymore (or maybe I try not to?), or the huge hole that is supposed to be the medicine cabinet.

Contractors always have their tunes and this one is industrial strength. Nothing can hurt his bad boy.

Little by little the walls and tub are disappearing and I couldn't be more thrilled!

Amid all the chaos and noise, we managed to have a play date with the Gredings. While Christian and Owen played Batman Wii, Madison and Brooke put on a lavish tea party for Ashlyn, Summer and CJ.

Even the waitresses dressed up in aprons and high heels. Fun girls!!!

Spring Break Fun in Santa Barbara

We've never had a bad day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. It's less than an hour away, it's small enough to easily maneuver, yet has such a wonderful variety of animals and other things to do that we've had annual passes for a while now and still love it.

Plus, who doesn't like seeing lions with an ocean view?

There is also an "Ant Hill" which is super fun if you have a piece of cardboard to slide down on. We were prepared this time and brought a piece. I should clarify: Christian brought a piece from home and carried it the whole time.

WooHoo! Go Christian! He's excited that he can now go down the hill standing up. That new haircut is giving him serious confidence!

Madison shredding the hill.

The zoo has a new resident: this cute little baby giraffe. We still miss the giraffe with the crooked neck. This little guy was so fun - he was galloping all over the place then came over to us and posed. I want a giraffe for a pet!

On the way home from the zoo, we stopped in Carpinteria for a treat. I wish we could have walked along the beach to the tide pools, but there was no time, and it was a bit chilly out.

We went to a cute cupcake store called Crushcakes, but the kids (except for Ashlyn) wanted the traditional Fosters Freeze instead. So off to Fosters it was - and it was strange to be there in the daytime, not smelling like campfire smoke.

Christian was so hilarious with his giant Dipped Cone! And this is a medium size!!

When we got home we blew off track practice (since Madison was the only one who had it anyway). Christian and Ashlyn were invited to an outdoor screening of Tangled at our friends' house so I seized the opportunity and took Madison and Brooke to see Soul Surfer. SUCH a good movie! Go see it.

Easter Break . . . Spring Break

I'm glad that our school district still has Spring Break at Easter time so it can still be Easter Vacation instead of yet another attempt to make more distance from religion. However, Easter is quite late this year and I can tell because we were really ready for a break.

Vacation means no baseball practice or games . . .

. . . although he looks super cute as a catcher. It means no track meet this Saturday, although there is still practice this week, albeit somewhat abbreviated. But the best part of Spring Break, or Easter Vacation, is NO SCHOOL which means NO HOMEWORK which means NO CARPOOL which means NO PACKING LUNCHES! Yipee!! This is going to be fun!

We started out giving Christian a haircut. He was in desperate need of a trim, then we talked him into something like daddy has. Christian has a history of abhorring buzz cuts so this was a big deal. However I about cried when John took over with the shears and it started looking like this:

I tried to hide it, but it made John nervous as he has never cut anyone's hair before (besides his own). It was nerve wrecking! Luckily, it turned out cute and Christian actually loves it. He's super excited to use gel and spike his hair.

Monday morning was met with doctor visits for both Madison (12 yr physical) and Ashlyn (5 year physical - kindergarten!). They are super healthy and passed all their tests. Christian came along because I suspected he wasn't quite over his recent bought with tonsillitis. Righty-0 he has strep! Another round of antibiotics and he's good to go. I'm glad it's not slowing him (or us) down a bit.

We are looking forward to a fun-filled week!

Sac Sac Sacramento

We're heading to our state's capitol: Sacramento!

The fourth grade studies state history, so we get to go and see it . . .

We start by leaving the school at 4:00a.m. Saturday morning

and flying on good ol' Southwest Airlines where they generously announced that the back of the plane would be reserved for all the kids and invited only those passengers brave enough to find a seat amongst them-otherwise sit in the front!

The 4th Grade group at the Sacramento airport.

The State Capitol building - one of the prettiest in the nation and looks a lot like the one in DC.

Inside the Senate chambers.

At Sutter's Fort right before that canon went off (loud!).

Lunch at Round Table Pizza. We were well fed throughout the whole trip.

The train museum. Very Cool.

They had an hour lesson at the one-room school house taught by the school marm. They had to write on their slates, stand and curtsey before speaking and read from the Primer.

In Old Sac on the river.

The American River - we had a huge bbq lunch there.

Panning for gold in the American River

Did you know that members of the Mormon Battalion made their way up to San Francisco and helped develop the area, then built "Sutter's Mill" and this little cabin (which is right next to the mill) and were the first to discover gold there? Very interesting. They helped everyone in that area, then before they could really strike it rich, they returned to the East to find their families who were on their way to Salt Lake.

At the Gold Bug Mine listening to the audio tour.

Lori Weber, Mrs. Van Ommeren, Mrs. Briggs, me, Debbie Hagge, Wren Schwind

Me along with three cute little girls on the banks of the American River.

Allie, Brooke, and Hannah (who I chaperoned).

It was a super fun trip, jam-packed full of great educational activities and we returned home totally exhausted. I'm glad I had this chance to go with Brooke and equally grateful for her to have this experience.