TWINS??

Whenever we go somewhere and Meghan and Marissa are standing close to each other, people always ask if they are twins!

We all laugh, and they say 'NO'.  They then are asked if they are close in age, and in fact they are 23 months apart, which seems like a good amount that people wouldn't get them confused.

So to set the record straight, here are some pics of them. You decide..

Do they look like twins?

 

Ok, so maybe they do look alike!  But to be fair, they are both wearing their glasses, both have the same look on their faces, and are wearing similar shirts. 

Skiing is a Weird Sport!

I imagine a long time ago, when people were inventing sports, the conversation must have went something like this:

Man 1: "It's cold outside! Let's go in and get out of this slippery cold white stuff falling from the sky!"

Man 2: "Yes. This stuff is no good!  It's cold and you fall everywhere you walk! Even our stone wheels we made yesterday don't roll on it! And the pterodactyl's  are not even chasing us!"

Man 1: (After being in the cave for a while) "It's boring in here and I am getting hungry. Maybe we should go out and try to find something to hunt and eat"

Man 2: "Booga Booga!"

Man 1: "I have an idea. Since the white frozen water is cold on our bare feet, let's get some of the willow branches and tie them to our feet. That way, our feet won't get so cold"

Man 2: "Ok. Great idea!"

So they went out and found some branches and tied them to the bottoms of their feet. Then they went hunting.... Up a hill... Both ways... In the snow... With the wind blowing in their faces...

Man 1: "Look! Over there! I see a bunny at the top of the hill. Let's go hunt him!"

They tried to catch the bunny, but as they got half way up the hill, they both slid down since they had long branches attached to their feet, it was extra slippery.

Man 2: "Wow! That was kind of fun! I'm going to do it again!"

Man 1: "Me too!"

And so, all afternoon, they did this over and over again. Soon, they showed the whole cave city and everyone was sliding down the hill on willow branches.

Boy 1: "What is this called anyhow? I would like to carve it in some rocks so I can remember it!"

Man 1: "I don't think it has a name. I think we invented it!"

Man 2: "Yeah. Let's call it....ummmm.....errrrrrrrrr.. how about ..."

Just then Girl 1 was sliding down the hill and she let out a big scream...of fun...

Girl 1: "SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Man 2: "That's it!  We will call it SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE since it's so fun and that's the noise you make when you do it!"

Over the next eons, the SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE lost some of the trailing E's and soon became known as SKE.  Eventually, the E became an I and that's how we now have SKI.

So, Meghan and Marissa have been asking for years for Dad to take them skiing because he once said that he used to go all the time and loved it.  He hasn't been since we moved to Cali (5 years now), but an opportunity was presenting itself.

We had some free passes, and free rentals, and Meghan was out of school Tuesday, and Marissa said she could miss school Tuesday, and it was going to be nice weather, so the three of them went skiing (skeeing). Meghan decided to snowboard since she is really good at skateboarding and longboarding. 

It was the perfect day. Sunny. No crowds at all.  The first three runs down the beginner hill took some time, but after that, the girls picked it up pretty good! Marissa could be heard all over hill screaming as she picked up speed and couldn't stop. She was acting like she was in a race each time!  They all did very good!  They loved it.   But were very very sore from falling for the first little while.

Here is Meghan (in front in a BYU jacket) and Marissa right behind her:

 

Here is Marissa posing after a good run:

 

Here is a video of both of them coming down the hill. Meghan is in the middle of the screen, and as she gets closer, you can see Marissa on the right:

HELP! I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP!

Here is Meghan taking a "rest" after falling and hurting all over!

Meghan is getting right back on again:

Here is a video of Doug skiing following Marissa:

All in all, we all had a really good time!  We would definitely do it again!  Thanks cavemen for inventing skiing!  Nothing like sliding down a steep mountain, with sometimes uncontrollable fast speeds, trees in front of you, nothing to stop you, on slippery ice crystals.

What will they think of next?

Bye Bye Monkey's!

It was time to put the Sea Monkey's out of their misery...Actually, we did them a favor...now they are in a better place where they can swim to their heart's content and feed off of so much yummier food than we had for them.. I'm sure they are very very happy now!

Is It Really The Middle Of Winter??

Is it really Jan 17?  The middle of winter?  You take a look at these photos and tell me??  It was 71 degrees today!  We couldn't let a day like that go to waste, so we spent a lot of time outdoors today...boarding, biking, and geo caching.

Meghan is learning really good how to ride her new longboard which she totally loves!  She has been spending the time when she is not riding her longboard, learning tricks with her yo-yo. She is getting good at that too!  I gotta get some photos of her soon with her yo-yo.

Sorry the video is so shaky.  I think we were having a slight earthquake. This is California you know!

Jacob was out riding his bike.

Then Jacob, Meghan and myself (Doug) went caching. We usually try to get ones that are semi close together along trails and paths and we take scooters to speed up the walking.  Yep..even I take a scooter!  Meghan took her longboard and we couldn't keep up with her! We found 10 caches along the trail today.

Here's one that the owner carved out the bottom of a rock to make room for the cache.

This one was hidden in a bush along the bike trail.

We were logging one of our finds, and Meghan looked over the field and said, "Look!  This doesn't look like California!  It looks more like Utah! There no trees, stores, or roads!" 

And an update on our pets...  I don't think the sea monkeys are going to make it.  They might 'disappear' one day after Jacob comes home from school.

The ants however, are doing very well. They are digging all over the place. Maybe we should dump the sea monkeys in the ant farm? 

Sweet 16! (Finally)

Well, the time has finally come for Meghan to be 16! Wow! Can you believe it? Yeah, neither can we!  How is it that she is older, but we aren't? Weird how that works out.

Each birthday person gets to pick what they want for dinner, and no surprise, Meghan picked Chinese food, Orange Chicken to be exact..so it was off to yummy Panda Express (fast and cheap!).

We ate it fast! Finger lickin good!

As usual, when the birthday person is away at school or work, the birthday decorating fairy's come and decorate the room. Here is Meghan trying to get her homework done in her newly decorated room before opening her presents.

Then we all congregated upstairs in the hall for the presents.

She got a nice necklace from Gma and Gpa Bingham...

Some money from Gma and Gpa Gwilliam, and some money from Jacob and Marissa....

Hannah spent a lot of time wrapping a special present for Meghan, complete with a ribbon and special paper. She was so proud of it and it looks nice!

 

Inside was an assortment of Hannah's things that she thought Meghan would like Meghan loved all of them!

 

She also got a CTR ring from her mom...

And a Yo-Yo to learn tricks on from her dad....

Marissa is looking excited...

So is Jacob.....

Then we came downstairs..there is a present hidden here..can you see it? Yeah, I didn't think so..neither could Meghan.

It was a longboard!  She has been wanting one SO SO SO SO SO bad!

She couldn't wait and went outside to try it out......

Then we went to Meghan's favorite ice cream place (besides Leatherby's), Coldstone and we all enjoyed some ice cream.

 

Of course, the day ended with the spanking tunnel. Meghan breezed right by it very quickly and she wouldn't let dad take another video of it. In fact, he had to sneak this one on here, so don't tell her it's on here.

 

Later on this week, Meghan is going to have some friends over for a pizza/movie/game night which will include a trip to Leatherby's also.

 

Happy Birthday Meghan!   We love you!

Our Pets Are Growing So Big!!

We are so happy! Our pets are growing so big!  It's amazing how fast they grow up..just like our children.  Before you know it, they (the pets) will be just like part of the family....eating at the table with us.....going places with us....maybe camping..six flags....church.....

They are becoming very special to us and thought maybe I could take some photos of them in candid shots without them knowing so you could get a true feel of what their personalities are like..  Some of them were very shy, and you really can't get much out of their photos...so you will have to take our word for it..they really are special and can do lots of neat tricks!

Want to see them??? 

Ok.....

Here they are....

First up, we have.....

These little guys....who are not

so little

anymore...

They are eating so much!!

They are very active!!

 

We all look at the ants daily to see their progress. It really is quite interesting!  Don't laugh! It really is!

Yep! It's an Ant Farm! Meghan got it for Christmas. They are in a gel like substance and they love it!

Jacob got our next pets for Christmas too..but they are still very small and you really can't see them on camera:

 

Yep!  SpongBob Sea Monkies!!  You know......we all had sea monkies when we were kids... I remember when I had mine..they were so special to me.. I loved watching them squiggle around in the cage...the way their 16-48 legs all moved in unison together to propel them through the water. It was mesmerizing... Then one day, as I was coming home from school, I ran into my room to see the cloudy, murky green water, and see if my sea monkies needed to be fed......

What? Where were they? They were gone! They weren't on my dresser anymore.....

"Mom, have you seen my sea monkies?" I yelled as I was running through the house....

"Oh, son.." she said...  Like a warning something worse was going to come out of her mouth...

she continued..

"They all died. They were sick and they all died when you were at school."

I was crushed! How could all hundred of them die??  They were fine in my glass mayonnaise jar before I left for school. What, did they all get a sudden sea monkey disease that is lethal in 2-4 hours?  I might have went into my room and cried...or I might have went in to the living room to watch Speed Racer and Gilligan's Island...

Then I had to use the bathroom...so between commercials since we didn't have a DVR back then, I ran to the bathroom...and guess what I saw?  A few of my beloved sea monkies in the toilet..swimming around...  How did they get there? I thought that was a weird place for them to be since they were all sick and dying with a toxic sea monkey disease. I tried to scoop them out, but I couldn't get them fast enough in the swirling water...and then they were gone..

I asked my mom if she knew some of the sick sea monkies had escaped and somehow jumped into the toilet.... 

She didn't know... and to this day, it still remains a mystery how the sick sea monkies found their way into the toilet. 

My theory is that when my mom buried the sick sea monkies out in the back yard, some of them may not have been all the way dead, and clinged to my mom's clothes as she was burying them, and then when she came back into the house, they were looking for water..and the toilet was the closest watering hole they could find...