Family Picture!

Hi All!! Merry Christmas. HaHaHa...I'm actually posting with a new picture (and we just took it tonight). This is our family photo for our Holiday get together this year. We had a big ol' feast today, then went and saw National Treasure. DeDe volunteered to watch Lukie because she saw it on Saturday. Bless that child; She cleaned the whole kitchen and dining room, too. We ended with a family photo shoot. Luke was getting a little tired of our experimenting with the lighting and position of everyone so we had to call it quits. Not bad for our first ever color coordinated, do it yourself jobber. Love You All, Family. Take Care. Wendy

I know, I know

So it's been a while since I posted...okay...it's been two months since I posted. I'm sorry. My life has been crazy. I also stuck my pictures on the shutterfly website and am in the process of getting them off. So, you'll have to do without pictures for a while. But I thought I should update everyone on the life...Things are good here in little ol' Nephi. We're feeling the usual warmth, cold, excitement, and pressure of the holiday season. We're looking forward to Christmas break because Lacy and her family are coming out to visit, Jade and Tim will be here to spend time with us, and we'll get to have the whole family together for a while...enjoying each other's company. It's going to be an enjoyable few days. We're all good here. Just trying to battle colds, flus, and the regular battles we face every day! Hope you all are doing well, and, I promise, I will get pictures up soon! Take care!

Alright, Alright...Gimme a Break...Tort

What I am doing is waking up at 3:00 in the morning because I can't sleep and then trying to take a nap whenever I can find my bed during the day because I haven't slept. Why can I sleep at noon but not at night? I don't know. I don't get it. Apparently it has something to do with turtles...or at least Tort. I went on a lovely two day trip for my anniversary and didn't have a bit of trouble sleeping. I guess because Tort stayed home. I got home on Monday and then woke up that night and worried about Tort being moved into the house. Where did Charlie put him? Is he on my carpet somewhere? Does he have a cage of some kind...I don't think so....I need to get him something. What about his food? None of that makes a bit of difference at noon but let me tell you at 3 AM, the troubles of Tort are paramount. Unfortunately I can't actually sleep at noon either because I have to work or go visiting teaching or homeschool Charlie or run north to help Jade...or something, something. So I find my bed again about 11 pm and 3 am hits again. Does Tort have any water? How do you water a Turtle in the house? What a mess it's going to make. How many days can a turtle go without water? I bet Missouri turtles need more water than our desert variety. All that water and humidity. Do we have a desert variety? I don't think so.

So I was Wondering...

How many times do you think I can get away with posting without actually putting pictures up on my blog? I've had a mishap with my new, dear friend.... otherwise known as "my digital Camera"... It's lost. I don't even think it's my fault this time. I always hate it when something is lost around my place. First I do a little cursory search and come up with a big fat zero, zip, nada, black hole...then I start slinging the accusations...Where did my "whatnot" go? I had it right here. Charlie, you were dancing on it yesterday...or JB I saw you smuggle it upstairs under your xbox...or you know..DeDe, Delila, Tweedle Dee, you surely...surely you were using the flat iron on it...Right? (I'd call Lacy and Jade too, but I don't think I could make as strong a case against them.) Then it happens...they've all figured me out..."No, mom. It wasn't me. Maybe YOU LEFT IT somewhere..."

Maybe. OH...I hate that. They can blame me because, you know, maybe I did leave it somewhere. I do have this uncanny knack. It has something to do with neurons not jumping the right synapses in my brain...or something. I just don't know for sure, but I'm still wondering....And then somehow I find the ol' whatnot....right where I left it. So I ask myself: Did I do that...or did someone just put it back a second ago?

Have you every seen Conspiracy Theory. That's a good movie....edited. I'm just sayin'...

NOT THIS TIME THOUGH, Big Guy. I know I didn't have my camera last.

I'm pretty sure...


UPDATE...I'm not joking...Joey just found my camera in my closet on one of his belt hooks...I have no Idea. Really. I don't. I'm thinking it was the kids...or Crowden.

Indio Resort and Knot's Water Park

I still haven't figured out that I should start at the end of my trip and work forward... Well I guess I do know that now...Let's see if I can remember next time. Indio is where we spent the last two days of our trip to California. We arrived on a Sunday, spent Monday at a waterpark and drove home on Tuesday. So we didn't stay long. You can see that these first pictures are all dusty gray. Well that is because at about 6:00 Sunday night the wind picked up and before long it was so dusty that you couldn't even see the mountains behind the resort. We wondered at first if it could be ocean fog this far inland, until Joey and I went on a walk to take these pictures. Although I don't love the area this is the fanciest resort we have been to. It was quite spectacular. I would have been happy to stay at the resort all day but we had promised the kids a Knot's... so Knot's it was.

You may notice that JB is conspicuously absent from our shots. He did not get to go on our trip because of a football camp he didn't think he could miss. He said that he never wanted to stay home again. I'm glad, because it wasn't the same without him. I had tried to talk him into coming but he was quite adamant. On our drive home we went way out of our way to see Hoover Dam. It was quite spectacular but we had been on the road far too long already. The kids were not impressed with the traffic at all. Still I find it incredible what man can accomplish. I wrote it down as one of the museums we would like to visit at a future date. As it was, there was no way we were stopping when we still had 6 hours till we would be home. . . So there you have it... That's our trip...from end to beginning somewhat. Crazy to only have 4 people on a family trip. Times are a changin'.

This is it...Hearst Castle

I googled "Hearst Castle" and this is what I found. I thought it was quite interesting. "Hearst Castle was the palatial estate of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It was built on a 40,000 acre (160 km²) ranch that William Randolph Hearst's father, George Hearst, originally purchased in 1865. The younger Hearst grew fond of this site over many childhood family camping trips. He inherited the ranch, which had grown to 250,000 acres (1000 km²), from his mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, upon her death in 1919. The estate is a pastiche of historic architectural styles that Hearst admired in his travels around Europe. For example, the main house is modeled after a 16th century Spanish cathedral, while the outdoor pool features an ancient Roman temple front transported wholesale from Europe and reconstructed at the site.Invitations to Hearst Castle were highly coveted during its heyday in the 1920s and '30s. The Hollywood and political elite often visited, usually flying into the estate's airfield or taking a private Hearst-owned train car from Los Angeles. Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Joan Crawford, Calvin Coolidge, and Winston Churchill were among Hearst's A-list guests."

He only began construction after his mother died because she refused to let him build at the ranch. She told him that she knew him too well. If he ever started to build, he would never stop. She knew him very well indeed because that is exactly what happened. There are parts of the estate today that never were finished because his dream never ended. I love the line in Newsies...His Newspaper was called The World so he says, "When I created the World..." I think that explains William Randolph Hearst very well.

Inside Hearst Castle & Indoor Pool

Ancient tapestries in Living room depict a French revolution and a particularly beloved leader who is still sung about today in their National Anthem. The long narrow dining room at Hearst Castle is of Gothic design with the high ceilings and narrow walls of dark wood. Apparently everyone who visited the Hearst "ranch" was expected to attend dinner, after dinner drinks, and movies that could go on to all hours of the night. If you fell asleep in the theater that was fine, but you had to show up. Other than that, guests were free to entertain themselves. When guests came into the dining room they would look for their name card at the table to find their seat. If after a few days it started inching its way down to the end of the table by the fireplace where Joey is standing, then you knew your stay was drawing to a close. Carey Grant was a frequent guest. If he saw his name moving down he would simply switch it with someone elses to prolong his visit just a bit. I think my very favorite piece of artwork is the teak carving of Mary and Jesus in the center picture. I think it is simple elegance, and quite touching.


The indoor pool is breathtaking with all the beautiful blue and gold mosaic throughout. At the bottom right picture you can see the shallow pool set back into another room. It was only three feet deep and was called the sissy pool. It was mostly for the Easterners who did not have swimming pools and had therefore never learned to swim well. Hearst allowed his staff to swim and participate in most of the events of the day. He expected his guests to treat his staff well. While back East they were called servants at Hearst Ranch they were staff and a guest would be asked to leave if they didn't treat staff as "almost" equal.