Papa & Co. were in charge of the CFR 2k9 this year. (That basically meant my mom and us girls.) We had a great reunion. It was so fun. We were all put in charge of different things, but it all pulled together and ran smoothly. One of the best events was Rikki's 'The Price is Right' game. She did an awesome job, and everyone had a blast! I would say the biggest train wreck of the reunion was dinner... Literally! Papa decided we were going to have a smoked pig. With all of you in mind I left out the gruesome pics. Haha! If you really want to see them check out my Facebook page. Just imagine a dead cooked pig wearing a hula skirt, Hawaiian lia, a hat and sunglasses... All on a bright pink sled. Like I said... Gruesome! He was pretty proud of it though, so we all pretended to be impressed. :D Here are a few of my favorite pics from the 'Same time, Same Place!' If my computer wasn't so slow I would have included more.

Parker LOVED his good morning cookies so much that he needed one for each hand. :)

Grandma and Papa... Getting 'Sconed!'

Parker at the sawdust dig. I don't know where this tradition started, but we've held the dig every year for as long as I can remember. He wasn't so impressed with getting his hands dirty.

I know you have all been DYING to see a current picture of the twins, so here is Chief and Copper. And no, they were not tied up the entire time. Matt let the run free quite a bit.

I love my mom. :)

Leslie, Matt and Tucker.

These are my favorite two boys in the whole world!

Parker snuggling with Cheify.

Okay, so I know that Rikki hates this pic, but I had to post it. This was the first year of our annual Carpenter Half Marathon. (I wanted it to be named the Dam Half... It was up by Minks (Meeks? I dunno) Cabin Dam.) I was not planning on running this, so the most training I did was a six mile run... six weeks before the grand event. I was sucked into it due to peep pressure the night before. With no training I set out on the grand adventure... and I FINISHED!!! It was by no means an amazing time, but I told myself I would walk for one minute at each mile marker and that is what I did. We took this picture at the finish line on our way home from the reunion. I am proud to say that Rikki, my mom, myself and Leslie represented for the Jackson clan in the half, and Caitlyn dominated the 5k! Way to go team. (As a side note... Leslie won first place in the half. Beating my by ONLY 43 minutes. HAHA!)

Grandma Nora, Matt's grandma, turned 95 this summer. It was quite the Maughn Family Reunion. Grandma Nora had a great time watching all the kids play games both in and out of the water. Here's to you GN! :)

Grandma Nora observing all the festivities.

Parker helping Papa play baseball. (With a water ballon.) I'm pretty sure that someday he will kill me for putting him in this swim diaper so much. Haha! I loved it! :D

All the kids with their mom. What a great legacy she has raised. All of her kids have wonderful spouses with beautiful children and grandchildren. This family is truely amazing.

We had such a fun summer with Parker. In fact... Summer and Fall were so much fun that I neglected my blog. :) The thing is... I can't figure out Picasa or MW. Will someone please come coach me along? I would like to use MW because the fonts are fun, but I can't figure out how to compress the pictures in it. (Lame, I know.) Here are a few pics from our Summer Fun.

Parker discovered how much he LOVES water!

One of his favorite activities was to help Papa water the flowers. Grammie was sitting on the front steps and Parker decided to water her. Good thing she moves quickly!

One of our favorite things about summer was our new cousin, Tucker. :) Auntie loves this picture because Parker isn't screaming his eyes out at the sight of her. Haha! Only kidding. You know he loves you, Bug.

I had to add this one because it is impossible to not love this little man. I just want to give him kisses all the time.



I don't know what he was doing here... He kept bending over and waving to me through his legs. It was cracking me up!

I stole this background...

... from Krystal. She is the owner of Blushe Photography. She is so talented. Check her out @ blushephotography.blogspot.com. :) Thanks Krystal!

Just testing this…

So I am trying to learn how to blog better, and I noticed Microsoft has a blog option. The thing is, that I hate, HATE Microsoft word, so I am foreseeing this ending in a fight between me and my computer… we will just see how this goes. I dunno. The destructions mentioned something about me needing flickr or something like that. Yeah. I don't have a clue what that means. And actually I don't know how to post this either. Like I said. Just testing this. If it posts, than it will be by accident. (I think.)

San Francisco and Lake Tahoe

Matt, his dad and brother (George and Nathan) all had union meetings in San Francisco this summer. So of course, the wives had to go along for the trip! :) I will start with a word to the wise though. 6 adults + very crowded minivan + extremely long ride = not the best time. However, we all survived, and we have some quite memorable experiences and stories. ("Is Nathan Driving?")
We were able to do something fun every night we were there. We arrived in SanFran on the 4th of July. That meant that we got to watch the fireworks over the bay. What a fun experience! Before the show we ate at a yummy seafood restaurant. I have to say that FRESH seafood is the best! We had a little time to explore before the fireworks. It was fun to go into all the shops on the wharf.
The fireworks were amazing. They actually had two of the same show going off at the same time at different spots so everyone would have a great view. They were so beautiful. It sure does put 'The Biggest Show In Idaho' to shame.
The next day Matthew and Nathan had some hazmat classes and George had a golf tournament so me, Paige and LaRae went on a city tour. I've gotta say that it was a little boring just driving around town in a bus, but we somehow got on the bus for free and it was something to do. AND lunch was provided. It was YUMMY!!! We had salad, a seafood enchilada, and homemade ice cream. Oh, and this will make you super jealous... we got to see the house were 'Full House' was filmed. I know, you are hating... :)

The Golden Gate Bridge was cool to see again. It hadn't really changed much since Matt and I saw it in 2007. It kind of feels like if you go to SanFran you HAVE to see the bridge though. There is so much history involved in it.
On Monday the boys all had meetings and once again, we somehow got on a tour for free. This one went to Muir Woods. We crossed the GGB into Salsalito and after a short drive we were suddenly in a red wood forest! It was amazing. It was such a beautiful day. Once we entered the forest it was so peaceful. It is crazy to think that as close to the city as we were that a place like that could exist. I loved it. If we ever make it back to SanFran, I hope we can make time for the woods.
That night we got invited to go on a dinner cruise. Now, I know this sounds like dinner on a cruise ship, but it is not. It was a medium sized boat and dinner was self serve buffet style. It was pretty good, but we were a little disappointed because we had such high expectations. We did get to cruise past Alcatraz and under the GGB, so that was fun. Paige even thought that it would be a good idea to walk out on the deck. Um, it was super windy, and her dress was knee lenght... Yeah, you get the picture...

The last day before we left we slept in! YAY! (Except the boys... they had meetings.) We did a little shopping around our hotel. I must say I was too scared to even walk into most of the stores because I didn't even want to see the price tags.
That night we went to a Giant's baseball game. Their stadium ROCKS! Two sides of AT&T park are surrounded by the bay. That means that the view was awesome. The union hosted a tailgate party before the game for us. It was a little windy outside, but it was still fun. Once inside the stadium we enjoyed some YUMMY garlic fries. (One of my clients told me this was a must.) The game was great. The Giants won.

Matt and me at the game

We were here while the sun was setting, so the view was always changing. No matter what time you looked out over the stadium it was such a pretty view.

The last day we were there Nathan INSISTED that we ride a cable car. I gotta tell you... It wasn't worth the $5.oo per person ONE WAY! After our wonderful ride we had to pay to ride the bus back to our hotel. Oh well. The boys were in meetings, so they didn't really get to see very much of the city, so I guess Nathan was allowed to pick one thing to do. :)

After SanFran we drove to Lake Tahoe. Matt's older brother Michael and his family live about 20 minutes outside of Tahoe, so we rented a condo and stayed to visit and play for a few days. Tahoe was so beautiful! The water was a little chilly, but it was so fun to play on a beach and lay in the sun.

Paige, Nathan, Matt and me

My cute nephews, Benjamin and Abram
A view of the lake.

We had a great vacation, but 10 days is WAY too long to be away from our little man. My mom kept him for us. I probably drove her crazy calling 5 times a day to talk to him and check on him. Her and Caitlyn made sure to send plenty of picture messages and videos so that I wouldn't have a complete meltdown. I don't want to be away from him for awhile though, that is for sure!

A few old blogs. :)

So I deleted my myspace account... FINALLY! (call me dumb, but i couldn't figure out how to do it.) These were a few of the blogs that I had posted on my page. I didn't want to loose them because I think they were funny. I might be the only one who thought they were, but I did. So here you are... a few OLD blogs from last fall. :) Enjoy.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Project: Backyard... Current mood: amused
So it occurred to me today, that maybe, just maybe, our neighbors hate us not because we are bad people, but because our backyard sucks...
Here is a quick update. Last summer I accidentally left Matt in charge of the house for a week while I was out of town... BAD IDEA!!!! Two horrible things happened... 1) He decided the dishes needed to be SUPER clean, so he used liquid dish soap in the dishwasher. Go ahead! Try it! If you happen to have a linoleum floor it will probably bubble up as a result of the overwhelming amount of suds running out of the dishwasher. To fix this, put something heavy on the floor to glue it back down. 2) He rented a back-hoe and did some 'yard work.'
By 'yard work' I mean rip out three rock retaining walls and create a 25 foot cliff. Just in case you are wondering, we have 8 neighbor kids next door so that was a scarey thing to have! I was pretty sure one of them would die prematurely by falling off the cliff. Also resulting from this yard work was a broken sprinkler pipe which in turn flooded our neighbor's basement. This lead to their insurance company filing a lawsuit against us. FUN!
Well, this weekend he rented a back-hoe yet again. I decided it would be best if I stayed indoors and didn't look out the window. This proved to be a good idea as he dropped a boulder down the hill into our other neighbors backyard. Luckily it did not bounce through their sliding doors...
We made it through the weekend without any major damage! This includes the phone line running across the yard, oh, and also relocating a utility box that we are actually not supposed to touch...
So maybe someday when we have a pretty backyard and a fence people in the neighborhood will think we are cool.

Monday, September 29, 2008
STUPID DOG!!! Current mood: aggravated
I know I'm not a doctor, but I am pretty sure that one of the twins (Copper) is bulimic.
Well the other day I mentioned to Matt that Copper was getting fat and showed that I could hardly feel his ribs. I said "It's like he's put on some winter weight, but it is summer..."
Well, every morning I feed him, and unless it is human food he usually ignores it. Then if we leave of awhile and come back, he waits until we are both busy. Last night I was washing my face and Matt was getting Parker ready for bed. And that is when it happened. He ran into the kitchen, gobbled half the bowl of dog food, and drank about 10 gallons of water. He is a binge eater!
20 minutes later... two giant piles of throw up. Don't worry that he had just been outside. He waits till he's been let back inside. I think he wants us to know about his problem so he can get help. It was back outside for him and we cleaned up the mess.
20 minutes later... we are saying our 'goodnight prayer' and he sneaks over behind the bed and another giant pile....
Well, at this point, I've had it. We move the bed to clean up the mess, and Matt notices that the pistol is now on my side. I take it out, hand it to him, and tell him to take care of Copper.... HAHAHAHA! Of course he said no, and I was kidding...
...But then I thought about it... He has violated the carpet in EVERY room of our entire house. He has caused THOUSANDS of dollars worth of damage...
Anyone want a new dog? He's potty trained!!! :)

Sunday, November 02, 2008
Spoiled Halloween Brat!!! Current mood: surprised
Let me tell you about a spoiled little Halloween brat.... I mean.... Adorable little girl....
So Matt and I were planning on going to his parent's house for Halloween, so we didn't bother with buying any candy. (Let's face it... I would have been the one eating it anyway.) But then I realized at about 4:30 on Halloween that we wouldn't be leaving our house till around 6 or 7. What if a few Trick-or-Treaters stopped by before then? What would be give them?
We discovered two packages of fruit snacks and a variety pack of individually wrapped chips (you know Doritos, Cheetos, Lays...) in our cupboards. That would work! Heck! It will even fill up their bags faster! :)
Well, some friends stopped by with their two kids and both kids were happy as clams with their bags of Cheetos. I felt pretty confident about this whole chip situation we were in... And then she came to the door...
A precious little girl and three other friends knocked and said the famous phrase. I smiled and went to deliver the goods when the following takes place.
Little girl: "I DON'T LIKE CHIPS!!!"
Me: "Oh! I'm sorry. That is all I have. Don't you like Cheetos?" And I try to give her a bag.
Little girl: "WELL, I DO, BUT I GUESS I JUST WANT CANDY!"
And with that she turned around and walked away... Maybe the fruit snacks would have gone over better. HAHA! Kids are so funny (and blunt). You have to love them! I hope she got all the candy she could ever wish for and more! :)