Happy Anniversary!

Can you believe these two just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary? Where has the time gone? They took off and went to Salt Lake for a getaway to mark the occassion and we got to dog sit Cannon. I love these two crazies. They make our already disfunctional family complete and fun. Love you guys! Keep smiling and adding laughter to our lives! Congratulations on FIVE years and hope it's 80 more years together for you!

Crazy Family Time

We recently spent a weekend with these two crazies. What can we say about family? Mostly how much we truly enjoy spending time with them. We don't slow down from our overly busy lives enough to just enjoy laughing, story telling, jokes, experiences, and just good ol' BS sitting around and doing nothing time. We had a great time with Anthon and Becky. We enjoyed the late night ATV rides too! ;) Nature at its best, eh? Need to do more of those--minus the mud cuz Anthon is a WILD man when it comes to mud! And next time let's try to find the other boot or maybe a new location for the one left behind!! Thanks for a relaxing and fun weekend guys. Let's do it again EVERY summer! BTW, we were on the very top of a HUGE rock plateau and it was POURING rain. Becky and I were frrreeeezzzzzing--even in August! We're glad our family is crazy--gives us something to laugh and smile about and makes for more fun times. We've never been good at boring and "normal"!!

Bathroom Remodel

Forgot to post pictures of the new bathroom in the Ioka house. We decided to take out the bathtub and just do a big walk-in shower. We ordered the walls and trim and Terry did his magic in creating the "tub" or shower floor. We used a darker color on the walls and a lighter color for the trim, soap dish and shampoo shelf. It turned out really nice and I LOVE it! Glad we went this route. We liked the material so much that we are putting in a vanity top to match the lighter  color and then...........the Ioka house will FINALLY be done at last. Only took us 2 years of 1 or 2 weekends a month to get the inside of this place done!!!!! I LOVE this house now though. Sooooooo much better than when we bought it! I could sooooooo get used to only living in 800 square feet too--doesn't take but a quick blink and this place is spic and span! The first picture is what the old bathroom looked like before the remodel. Glad I'm married to a handy guy. There isn't much that he can't do! Please ignore the awful flash reflection in these pictures--couldn't remember how to turn the flash off. And PS Amber, I had to do the painting (3, yes I said three, paint colors in there!)  in the new bathroom--Dad wouldn't do it for me. So you just need to suck it up and get yours painted without him!!

A Ride of a Lifetime!

For Terry's Birthday Celebration this year, we went for a hot air balloon ride in Eden, Utah. It was soooo much work to get the balloon off the ground but once we were up in the air.........WOW! The scenery was breathtaking and the quiet--UNBELIEVEABLE! There were a total of 12 balloons that day. Each balloon was colorful and  were different sizes.  We were lucky enough to fly in a basket with only the two of us and our pilot, Mac. Other balloons held as many as 8 people. The ride lasted for a little over an hour and we were definetely not ready for it to end. We landed in a field and had to lift the basket over a farmer's gate and then fold the balloon back up and put it and the basket into the trailer that carried it on Mac's truck. We learned alot that day about hot air balloons and flying. We know that we would like to do it again someday. After the balloon gear was packed away in the trailer, we all headed back to the launch site for a brunch and an initiation. There were 4 of us first time flyers to be initiated that day. When you fly, you become a member of the "aeronaut" family of flyers. The initiation is fun, lengthy, and private--uh, secret to the point that they ban you from ever flying again if you reveal the details to a non-flying areonaut!!  Afterwards, we enjoyed a beautiful and relaxing brunch. These aeronauts really know how to put out a food spread! There was BBQ pork loin, hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs, brats, spicy mexican fajitas, chips galore, fresh fruit, cake, salads of every kind imagineable, and on and on and on.......it was good stuff. These people really enjoy spending the mornings together and enjoy whooping it up when they are done with their ballooning activities! They are like a ward family. We had to be to the launch site (a field owned by Wolf Creek Resort) at 6:30 AM and we didn't leave the brunch area until 11:30!  And we were some of the first to go......but I had to pee and there were no facilities so we went on.  They were a great bunch of people that were excited to have a few newbies join them.  It definetely was an experience of a lifetime. And we are already talking about doing it again in the wintertime when the scenery would be different and the balloon could stay in the air longer. All in all, a GREAT way to celebrate a birthday. It comes highly recommended -- by us -- 2 of the newest aeronauts around!

More of Grandpa Dale's Junk

Some recent (and forgotten about!) photos of the junk tractor on the Ioka property......more pics of other junky machinery and outbuildings to follow at a later date. Don't want to forget this stuff--truly!

My New Hideout

Check out my new covered patio that Dad made for me! Isn't it fabulous?  He is such a handy guy to have around.  It is a cool place to sit in the early mornings and in the evening.  I have wanted to cover the patio for several years now but we finally got around to it this summer. It seriously is 20 + degrees cooler under that thing!  I came up with the plan and Dad executed it!  Way to go, hon! You da man!!

Eating at Paula's

While I was in Georgia last month, Amber and I snuck away and went out on the town.  She made reservations at Lady & Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant.  It was sooooo yummy! It is definetely a must do place if you're ever in Savannah.  Thanks Amber for a really fun night.  I ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp with jasmine rice and asparagus.  YUMMO!! Don't show my Weight Watchers Consultant this picture--she would have my hide for my dinner choice!!