June 2011

For the summer, I signed up for free bowling for our kids. The alley in Fernley offered it and I thought that would be a great idea for us to do this summer. I also bought the adult family pass for $25. We went one time and paid an extra $8 for shoes. So, for our one trip to the alley we spent $33 plus gas. Pathetic, huh? Unless the Fallon bowling alley offers it, we won't do it again. Our summer was just too busy this time around to make a trip to Fernley more often.

These pictures were taken on my cell phone. Not the best, but they'll do.

Sarah bowling!!



We took a special anniversary trip to Salt Lake City. 10 Years!! Woo hoo!
I wanted to stop at the Lake. I'd never done that and thought it might be nice to actually go to Salt Lake when visiting Salt Lake City. Meh. It was just okay. There were dead birds all over the beach. So, we didn't stay long.


Our first stop in Utah was to the Shane Company - to have our rings cleaned and sized. We decided to go one better, and bought me a 10 year anniversary band. That's what we'd planned from the day we bought my engagement ring. I didn't think it would actually happen. We traded in my gold wedding band for a white gold one and bought the matching band for the other side of my set. I'm so in love with my ring now. And it fits. I kept saying I was going to lose weight and be able to wear it again. But, I love that I can wear it every day now. It makes me feel important.



We stayed our first night at the Anniversary Inn. In the same room we occupied the day we got married. It was fun to reminisce. We did have a funny little fiasco there. We wanted to use the jetted tub. We didn't use it the first time we stayed there. Well, Kannon, being the pipe man that he is, knew that the water in a jetted tub stays in the pipes. So, he wanted to clean out the pipes from the last use. What he didn't know was that if you didn't have water over the jets, the water would shoot out and all over the place! We had a bit of a mess since we also couldn't get it to shut off! We used most of the towels cleaning the floors and walls. Yeah. Embarrassing. But, shhhh, you're the only ones that know!

We were in that little corner window and the row of 5 windows at the top left. When we first stayed there, my family had been driving behind us and Kannon was really worried that they were going to come decorate our car in the night. He kept checking out of that little window. I think we might have both been a little disappointed when they didn't.

The next day we went did an endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple, where we were married 10 years ago. That was really special. I kind of wish we'd added in a sealing session, too. We walked around temple square a bit and stopped in at the new church Library. That was fun to find books, biographies and such, about our own ancestors.

We got to eat at Tucano's - a Brazilian grill. And, oh my, was it delicious. It made me wish I had a bigger stomach! (You know, not fatter, just able to hold more delicious food!)

We stayed in a king suite at some hotel. Honestly I wasn't very impressed. The pool was under renovation, so that was disappointing. I wanted to go play mini-golf, but the place had just closed. So, we watched some TV and went to bed. (I should mention that we were having a good time shopping - I think we'd been to two different malls and a handful of other stores by this point.)

We spent our next day traversing our old haunts. We stopped at my "Anne-of-Green-Gables" bridge, where Kannon proposed for the 3rd time. And where I finally said, "yes!" We walked the mall and stopped on University Avenue to buy our sno-cones. There's this little shop by the Scera Theater that makes the best ones. We don't have sno-cone places like that in this part of Nevada (Vegas might).

Then we went to my stay the night with my sister, Janet, and her hubby, Levi. We went to a mall, again. We got some incredible frozen yogurt and bought Kannon a hat. We stopped at the store for chips and s'more stuff and sat around a fire at their house. We enjoyed staying with them, without kids. I have to say that was one of my favorite parts about our vacation. We didn't have children with us!

When we dropped them off that first day at my sister-in-laws house, I felt a physical relief. I instantly felt lighter. And when we headed back to pick them up I felt the physical weight of responsibility. We were all excited to see each other, and I love my children dearly, but there was a kind of vacation withdrawal that happened for a while when we got back.

But, it was a good time. I kind of hope it's not a whole 10 years before we do that again.

Toward the end of the month, the kids got to go on a Grandma Vacation. Grandma Polish came down from Elko with 5 of the kids' cousins. She took them in groups. The 4 oldest kids went to Virginia City the first day. The second day she took the 3 younger kids. They had so much fun with her and the cousins. We ended the trip with a visit to Lake Lahontan. It was our first time out this summer. It was so FULL! I haven't seen it like that since I was a young girl.

We played in the windy water and ate some goodies.

This is Quade -5, Sarah -5, and Kate -10.

The boys! Stetson -7, Ben -8, Mikale -8

My mother-in-law had to head home through Fernley. There had been a big train accident on the other road to I-80. A semi didn't stop at the train crossing and plowed right into the passenger train. There were some deaths and they didn't know what had happened with the driver (he was one of the deaths.) Guess I should follow-up on that story and see if they've ever reported anything more about it.