Halloween 2008

This is Shane as a shark and Jackson as a skeleton.

Jalyn is our purple and black witch.

This is Mariah and our neighbor Morgan. Mariah was a tree in the rainforest. She had a sign on her back that said, "Save the Rainforest!"

MC Hammer!

This is my cousin Kenyon dressed up as MC Hammer this year for Halloween. I was cracking up. He always comes up with some funny and creative costumes. A few years back, he shaved his head, painted it white, and went as Uncle Fester. I had to include the bike shot to show the contrast in color. I am sure he got some double takes as he was driving around town. Hilarious!

Lake Tahoe in June 2008

We were in Lake Tahoe for my youngest brother Dennis' wedding. We stayed some extra days and enjoyed the scenery. The kids had a great time. Dennis got married on a boat out on the lake at sunset. It was beautiful but cold! I forgot my camera on the boat but Dennis looked good and Karen looked hot. Her hair was awesome! Congrats to you two!

I think someone threw a rock and we thought it hit a boat down in the water. We didn't hear any screams so I guess we were safe.

It's all about Jalyn!

This is her little alien she made in the Legoland play center.

Her cool car. She tried to beat Shane in a race on the ramp.

Look, she can spell her name!

This is Jalyn on the driving ride. She ran a stop sign, ran a red light, drove on the wrong side of the street and basically showed me that she is so not getting her driver's license any time soon.

Cool sunset!

Jalyn is standing next to me as I go through the pictures and she is telling me which pictures I should post. So this is her addition. She wants to say..."I like the water reflections on the sand. I like the clouds in the sky. I had the best time at the beach."

I forgot Jalyn...

Oops...sorry Jalyn. I posted a different picture I thought was Jalyn but was actually a duplicate of Shane. Jalyn also wanted me to post this cute picture of her and the princess.

Happy Halloween!

These were cute pictures from Legoland. They had a trick or treat street so they all got candy which kept them entertained the rest of the day. We paid careful attention to whose bag was whose so that there were no disagreements or accusations of someone eating all the candy. We made it through pretty painlessly. Good times, good times.

My bro Darryl and his family

While I was in Texas 2 weeks ago to attend Craig Decker's baptism (Yeah, Craig!), Tammy Cook and I drove the long, long drive down to San Angelo to see my brother Darryl and his family. It was totally worth the drive. I haven't seen them since Darren's funeral in June and it was really fun to hang out. Tammy taught us a new card game and we stayed up late chatting. We also had some authentic Texas BBQ from the local dive pit and I got to see Rosa too who I haven't seen in a really long time. I didn't get a picture of her though. She is a beautiful girl and it was great to see her. It was a short visit but it was great to see y'all and I am really glad I drove the 4 1/2 hours.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Love, Love, Love the hair!!

Darren doing his yo-yo tricks!

I think Darren was nervous before the wedding. He hid his stress by entertaining the crowd! I am so glad we have this video of him doing what he loved. We miss you Darren and think of you all the time. We all wear our "Darren-shoes". We don't call them Cons, they are "Darren-shoes".

More Legoland and beach...

These are more fun pictures of the kids at Legoland and at the beach. We were at the beach most of the day and I never put sunscreen on the kids. I know, add it to my "Mother Of The Year" award wall. Sorry kids. They were hurting today. We also saw dolphins! That was probably my favorite part. They were out playing in the ocean while we watched from the beach. Growing up in Northern California, I saw lots of sea lions but no dolphins. That was cool.

Legoland!

We went to Legoland for UEA weekend and had a blast. Matt is working in the Carlsbad area so we loaded up the car and headed to California to see him. We stayed at his apartment, so I am sure we annoyed the neighbors. They are used to these quiet computer geeks and instead they got a weekend of kids!

This is the mom and dad at the entrance. They were completely made in Legos.

I thought this was a beautiful sunset shot of Jackson and Mariah playing in the waves.

Les Miserable

My cousins, Rachael and Raquel, Jacqui, and I went to St. George for a girls weekend and to enjoy a spectacular performance of Les Mis at the outdoor theater in Tuacahn. It was also the weekend of the St. George marathon. In the history of the marathon, it has rained twice...the second one being this last Saturday. We were so nervous that our performance would get canceled since it was rainy off and on all day. Well, the show went on. It was slightly drizzling off and on at the beginning but nothing too major. With about 30 minutes left in the show, the rain picked up and it started sprinkling harder. The last 15-20 minutes was performed in a downpour. We were SOAKED! The poor performers on the stage had to be miserable too. Regardless of the weather, we had a great time and the performance was truly brilliant!

Old fashioned rug beating

Anyone up for an ol' fashioned rug beating? It was that time of year to get our rug all aired out. The kids had a great time using the rackets to get all the dust out. Sometimes chores can be fun!

How sad is this? Poor little Shane has asthma and it has been really acting up lately. He has been needing to do his nebulizer treatments frequently and always just before bed. This is how exhausted my poor child is. He can't stay awake to finish his treatments. This night was funny because he was propped up and I had to pry his mouth open to get the nebulizer out. He is on new medication now and seeing the chiropractor to get this asthma under control. Poor kid!

I got an A!

Yeah, I got through my first exam. I was very nervous and wasn't sure my brain would remember all the stuff I had studied. But, it all worked out great and I am very pleased with myself. I am taking Humanities, Church History, and Intro to Geography. Geography is my major and I am just getting started. The intro class is a pass/fail class that we pass if we show up. It's my favorite class. It can't get any easier than showing up. Go BYU!

7 degrees of separation in blogging

On Friday night I decided to try a little experiment. The kids were all in bed and I was blogging. It has been fun to see other peoples blogs and what their interests are. I usually don't read the whole thing, just the profile and the side stuff. Some people post their friends and family's links on the side bar so I thought I would try to see how many clicks it would take to find someone I know through random peoples blogs. I don't remember who I started with, someone I already know. I would randomly click on a link and then go from there. Sometimes I would keep going back to one person's list and hit different people. I lost count but eventually it happened! I found someone I know in Texas. I found the Hopewell's from our old ward. Josh was our home teacher. How fun is that. It was a waste of time, I know, but fun to do. So all of you who post other peoples links on their blogs, Thanks! it was a fun game for me!

Bad Computer

So I have Matt's Mac since my computer keeps crashing and I don't know how to work it. I don't have access to my pics so I can't post them. I don't know how to download pics from the iphone to the computer. I am pretty much stuck. Just picture in your minds...it's a beautiful fall day in Utah, the Burton children are as crazy as ever, Shane finally got a birthday party with his classmates(hopefully, we will have pictures someday), Matt and the kids went to Bentley's third birthday party and had a good time, and the kids are making some really cute faces. You should see it. Oh wait, I don't know how to post with this computer. I know Macs are supposed to be super easy and better, but for someone like me...not so good. I can't even right click. How do you do that? It would be nice if my computer literate husband worked in the same state that his family lives so he could help out with this. Oh well... just get those imaginations working.

Go BYU!

Did you see that score? 59 to ZERO!!! What a blowout! Rise and Shout, the cougars are out!

One week down!

I did it! I finished my first week of college. It started last Tuesday...I needed to get there a little early because I needed to pick up one more book for a class. As I was paying for it, the cashier asked if I was faculty (Faculty gets a discount). I had to tell her no, I am undergrad trying to get a degree. So I head off to my first class. I sit down and recognize this kid that is sitting next to me. I ponder the whole hour while I try to figure out who he is. At the end of class, I talked to him and found out that he is the kid from our ward in Texas but he does not remember me. Not a surprise since he was probably a deacon and I was friends with his MOM! So I sit in class, not faculty and attending with my friend's kid! Did I mention that I am exactly TWICE as old as the new freshmen? I started college exactly half a lifetime ago for me. Just a perspective that makes me laugh. I am hoping to finally get a degree by the time I turn 40. Hopefully sooner. Go BYU!