Two and a half short days in the Emerald City

Which was really more gray than emerald! Chelsie said it started raining the day we came over and it was gray and a little rainy at times the rest of the weekend!
Oh well, it was fun to finally get to spend a little time with Dallin and Chelsie in their apartment.

We spent part of Saturday at the zoo. Even though it was pretty cold and a little drizzly at times, we felt like a lot of the animals obliged us, and we saw quite a few.

Here are a few pictures for you, Talmage!




I think my favorite part was all the bronze statues they had after many of the exhibits, and my obliging family who cheerfully posed for me each time I asked!

The future dentist among us, was enthralled with large incisors, molars, you name it.
Here is a shout out to our High School mascot!

The rainforest was very cool, (okay, really warm and humid, my camera lens kept fogging up, but you know what I mean!) anyway, the entrance was filled with beautiful orchids. I thought of you, Alli.This guy cracked us up! We thought of a few people he reminded us of, but they will remain nameless!

After we got back to the apartment, we were all ready to stay inside for a while. Or in other words, we wanted to stay warm and dry. We played boggle and bang. Then went to the cabana at the apartment building and made good use of the pool and ping pong tables. Scratch seemed to be the theme at the pool table, but a good time was had by all.




Saturday night rounded out with home made pizza, a movie and apple crisp (made by Amber. Yum!)

We got to meet a few people in their ward when we went to Sacrament Meeting, then after dropping off the kids at the apt, headed to Redmond for one of the farewell talk of one of Dallin's cousins. It was fun to see a few family members we met at the wedding and meet a few more new ones! I'm pretty sure we have just scratched the surface of his family.

The weekend went much too fast, and we were back home before we knew it. Riding in the new Traverse is pretty darn nice. Did it make the trip go faster though? Not sure about that!

Thanks for letting us crash your pad this weekend Chelsie and Dallin! It was great fun!

15 end of the summer party pictures

The frost is on the pumpkins, the clocks are set to standard time and the days are growing shorter. It seems a perfect time to revisit our end of the summer party with a post. It seems like forever ago that we had everyone home, not necessarily at the same time, but within a week of each other.

Having everyone home at the same time is really a mom/grandma's dream come true, and with everyone growing up, a few getting married, and another off to college, its getting harder and harder to accomplish.

So, here in no particular order are 15 pictures that relive the Peay/Dance/Alli/
Lewiston Rietz end of the summer, all be at home party.

Trev, Kristin, Amber and Ashley show their stuff on the wake board. Ashley is especially impressive.


Talmage and Tanner get jet ski driving lessons from Grandpa.


Tanner makes a fine "Winnie the Pooh" as he tried to get every last crumb of his treats.

Talmage had more fun keeping the slip and slide in good working order than actually slipping and sliding. We give high marks to Grandpa for finding a Toy Story slip and slide.
Brandon and Ashley took an opportunity to spend a few minutes alone while they were here. Along with a few bike rides, they took a jet ski ride or two.
The requisite bocce ball game was played, as was a touch football game in the park. Nothing beats boys v girls in bocce ball!


We really couldn't get enough pictures of Tanner and Talmage. Tanner seemed an especially popular subject. Actually, we couldn't get enough of them period. We really hated to see them go home.

And finally, a few random river pictures.





Well, if you've been keeping count, I exceeded my 15 picture statement, but really, can you blame me? How can I be expected to limit it when there was so much fun to record and talk about? :-)

Here are a few closing thoughts -
As the mama of the group, I loved this last part of summer. Here are a few more reasons why.
- Alli came home for just a few days as a surprise. She spent a lot of time in the car just to spend a little time with Ashley, Brandon and boys. It was wonderful to have her here.

-Dallin is the newest member of the family, and I was so happy he got to spend some time with the Peays so he could get to know them better. Brandon finally got a worthy bike riding partner when Dallin got here! Yay for that. And, both of them were so handy to have around when I needed just a few items from the store.

-Talmage was a good sport to go to the river so many times. He really didn't want to go after the first day, but didn't complain when we dragged him along. I really felt kind of bad for him when he would say, "I want to go home."

It is exciting to think our family will keep growing, as everyone gets married and has kids. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than spend a few days together playing, eating and just enjoying each other!

I love you guys!!!

The Most Boring Summer EVER!!!

According to someone in our house, we have just endured the most boring summer EVER!!! No fun out of town adventures, no day trips even, just hanging around home, doing chores and being hot, although not hot all the time because it took a while for the weather to catch up to the calendar. At any rate, we didn't sit and stare at each other the whole time and I have to pictures to prove it.


Exhibits 1 & 2 and 2A. Grandpa Sollenbarger's Surprise 70th Birthday Party. A quick trip to Denver to celebrate with family and Grandpa and Grandma's friends. It was a great success, marked by the fact that he survived two surprises - walking in the door of Jodi's house to many guests yelling SUPRISE! and Dawn and I walking down the stairs a few moments later. No rescue vehicles or responders were required. It was a great visit. I also got to spend a little time with Grandma Hughes which was on my list to do this summer, but didn't seem possible with schedule conflicts. Ya gotta love a two-fer.

Exhibits 3, 4, and 5. There is always the river for fun in the sun. Well, most years that is. This year was a little different. Really high and fast water combined with lots of debris in the river made for a late start. Combine that with a busy calendar (what kept us so busy?) and it made for not many trips to the Snake. We finally made it out the first week in July. You may recognize a familiar face in these pictures. Alli came home for a week from BYU. She got a well-deserved break and we enjoyed a mid-summer visit with her.


Exibits 6 & 7. Kristin and Amber channeled their creative side one afternoon and did a little cake decorating. Amber was making a birthday cake for a friend and Kristin just felt like making a tasty and colorful cake. (Can you tell what the paintbrush is made of?) You can't really see in the picture, but Amber used brown sugar to create sand in her beach scene. Nice work, girls.


Exhibits 8 & 9. Maybe the cool dude in the sunglasses reminds you of someone. Apparently, Trev decided to spend one of his summer afternoons as a model for a jean jacket company. I hope the sunglass manufacturer forwarded a good retainer. I'm pretty sure they have never had such a good looking young man sport a pair of their shades, ever! Exhibit 9 is Trev's last opportunity to wear his webelos uniform, as he is now an 11 yr old scout, wears a tan shirt instead of blue, and can actually go on a camp out or two this next year.

So, I rest my case. Clearly we didn't waste our summer away. Sure, no trips to Disneyland, no hiking, camping or any of that. We may have redefined the word "Stay-cation". Who knows.

Besides, our summer saved the best for last. Stay tuned for the up-coming post...

Turning 11 and other things

Trevor has had a busy week. Who knew that the week preceding your 11th birthday could be hold such a variety of experiences.

He has spent time at swimming lessons, tennis lessons, Cub Scout Day Camp, and at the dentist. I'm pretty sure the dentist is the thing he'll remember most from this week.
See those gaping holes in his mouth? That's what happens when a guy gets 8 teeth pulled in one day! He was a real trooper and didn't cry once. (I didn't either! :-)
Uncle Doug is a pro, and along with his staff, made sure Trev was as comfortable as possible. Whatever that means when you are getting 8 teeth pulled. Aside from not being able to chew very well the first few days, Trev has weathered this little disruption well, and is on to other things. Namely...
Turning eleven. He's modeling his new backpack for you, and his (one of many) goofy face. I'm happy he didn't grow up overnight!

And if you are wondering about the cake, it is the famous and very popular among our family, Better Than Almost Anything Cake. Maybe some of you have heard it called a different name... but I digress. We put the whipped cream on individual servings, hence the landscape of the moon appearance. Take our word for it, it was still plenty tasty.

Happy Birthday, Trev. We love you!!!

2 big cities, 4 short days, lots of pictures

Warning: This is a really loooooonnnnggg post. (My sincerest apologies in advance, but thanks for hanging in to the end.)

John and I spent 4 days in April with Ashley, Brandon and the boys. 2 days in Philadelphia, 2 days in New York City.

Can I just say 4 days was not long enough!!! We needed a few more days, mostly because we couldn't get enough of these two little cuties!!!



But I digress...easy to do with those two little tykes around.

Here is a whirlwind summary of the trip, the things we saw, and a little commentary along the way.


You can't go to Philly without seeing the Rocky statue and posing like said statue. Good imitation Grandpa and Talmage. Apparently another popular touristy thing to do is run up the stairs in front of the Art Museum just like Rocky. We chose to stick with posing. Although, we did watch some tourists running up the stairs. I say we can check it off our list.

This was a common sight during the trip. Talmage couldn't be with Grandpa enough. He was excited to show Grandpa everything about the Please Touch Museum. This picture is the two of them heading into the museum.


You also would be remiss if you skipped the Liberty Bell. There is so much American History in this town.



The trickiest thing to see in Philly is Independence Hall. I say tricky because you have to get tickets. We didn't get tickets as early as we wanted, so it was a little iffy with the boys because we had to wait a few hours until we could get in. But as luck would have it, the boys were troopers and we got in. The room in the picture above is the room where the Continental Congress met to write and sign the Declaration of Independence and form the United States of America . John and I both agree that you can feel the history surrounding you as you walk through the rooms.

Ashley and I agree that when you come to Philly, you have to go to Reading Terminal Market and buy the best pretzels in the world. Sadly, we didn't get a picture of the pretzels, the above picture is the produce section of the market. We just have the memory of the buttery, chewy, salty treat. Isn't there a recipe out there somewhere????

New York City was the destination for the other two days of our trip.

All I can say is wow! What a fantastic place!

#1 Favorite Place (in my opinion)
Central Park

The Plaza Hotel is right on the corner of Central Park. Even though I'm not a huge Eloise fan, I got a kick out of seeing a flag flying in her honor.

Talmage was just the right height to peek through the wall.

This is the fountain from the movie "Enchanted". I had hoped for a little production number to come through the park while we were there, but I had to settle for 2 drunk guys holding each other up as they walked through the park. :-) Maybe next time.

On many of the park benches there are metal plates with dedications to people or quotes like the one above. I have no idea who Jane and Terry Shea are but I love that they put this on the plate for this bench.

Talmage decided to have a little two-year old meltdown on the way through the park. Here he and Brandon are reconciling - just a little dad/son moment.

I put this picture in just because it says "Central Park West". Maybe some of you needed a little proof that we were actually in Central Park. :-)

This is the memorial to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields. I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure he lived just across the street from this part of the park. Ashley said there was a man who took care of Strawberry Fields, kind of its caretaker, I suppose, and quite often this is decorated with flowers. We clearly came on his day off. Even if you're not a huge Beatles fan, its a beautiful thing to see.

This is the view of Central Park from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. It doesn't even do the park justice. (And in case you are wondering, yes, I wish I had framed the picture a little better so that railing wasn't in it and from a different angle so the big, tall building wasn't the main focal point. Oh well...guess we'll have to go back so I can try again!)

Other things we saw in NYC.I took this picture of a hot dog stand just for Kristin. She was a little disappointed we didn't actually get a hot dog from it, but a picture was the perfect hot dog stand experience for me. Apparently, when many people see a corner in Manhatten they say "This is a great place for a hot dog stand." (That is the name of a book we adopted at our school library many years ago. :-)
There are so many old churches right in the middle of all the skyscrapers. This church is right across the street from Ground Zero and was used after the attack on the twin towers as a place for the rescue workers to rest, get food and take a break from the very difficult job they had to do. There was a tree that was uprooted from the attack, and the roots were huge. Not one of the gravestones was damaged when that happened. I thought that was amazing.
This is one of the doors of the Trinity Church (think National Treasure). The church has beautiful stained windows (no picture as they were having a service when we peeked through the doors). These doors were worth the trip though. Such detail is truly amazing.

Of all the religious buildings, this was our favorite. Right across from Julliard Music School and the Lincoln Center is our very own LDS Temple. To see all the huge buildings surrounding it, you wonder how those who enter are able to leave the world behind, but I imagine they do just fine with that.
They think of everything in NY. Notice the marquees (sp) in the steps of the Lincoln Center. We country mice thought that was pretty cool and efficient of the designers, architects - well whoever thought the concept up.

Brandon was so excited to take us to Empanada Mama. A hole in the wall (literally) that served authentic Columbian Empanadas. We were happy to indulge him and eat lunch there. Yum! John had a little trip back into time when he ate a dish he had often on his mission.

Here is a shot of the financial district from the Empire State Building. In case you are wondering, I wouldn't have done one thing different when I took this picture. I really love it because it gives you a feel of the vastness of New York City.My Mother's Day present from my family was a ticket for the musical "WICKED" Oh my word, it was fantastic!!! Ashley and I had ourselves a little girl's night out, and saw it together. Should I sing a few songs from it for you? I could...Seeing a show on Broadway is a once in a lifetime experience. Although, I wouldn't mind making it a twice in a lifetime thing...:-)

When we got into the subway system, a security person asked me not to take any pictures "inside the system". So, this is not a picture of us riding the subway to the financial district!

Here are my traveling companions at the very tip of the island. You can see Lady Liberty in the background. We chose to admire her from afar.

Times Square was the biggest sensory overload!!! Apparently, my senses were so overloaded that I didn't get a good picture of it. Take my word, it is an amazing place. There is a huge Toys r Us that had a ferris wheel in it. Talmage and Brandon gave it a whirl and gave it their stamp of approval.

We walked across this (the Brooklyn Bridge 1.3 miles)....

...so we could eat this!

We ate the yummiest pizza and meatballs in Brooklyn. Not at the famous pizza place (the name escapes me) but at a different one. John and I didn't know what the other place was like, but we really liked the food here. Tanner really loved it too. So much that he gave his mom and big slobbery kiss for taking him there!
Walking across the bridge was great. The view looking back to Manhatten was amazing, and the bridge itself is pretty amazing too. It is a suspension bridge, really old, and has a lot of character. We decided to skip the walk back and took the subway instead.

I thought I should take a picture of the NY Stock Exchange. I like to know where our money hangs out when it is not with us.

This is one of the things they have in the Pre-Memorial for the victims of 9/11. It is covered with patches and other stuff from the rescue workers. It is very sobering to see the whole area. We couldn't see the actual building foot prints with the construction going on all around, none the less, a person feels the significance of what happened that tragic day in September, almost ten years ago.

The Apple Store is right by Central Park. We watched an employee count off a certain number of people and when there was the right amount, they would stop letting people in and wait to let the next group in. I hope they all like their new iPads.

Of course, I had to get a picture of the New York Public Library. I can't be too jealous because we are finally getting a new library here! Yay! Maybe I'll suggest they fashion it after this one. I'd happily make a copy for them.

Here we are in Grand Central Station. It wasn't as bustling as I expected. We were probably not there at peak time. I was still in awe of its beauty and size.

The very last thing we saw before getting on the bus was Madison Square Garden. We didn't actually get to go inside the coliseum, but there were some pretty interesting things to look at outside it.

Well, we are still country mice. I have checked. After a not very scientific poll, not one person said I look more sophisticated after our trip. So, we are still country mice. I can tell you, these country mice were pretty happy to see our valley at the top of the Lewiston hill, but we wouldn't trade our trip back East for anything. Especially when we get to hang out with these two compadres and their parents.

Thanks, Ashley and Brandon, for showing us a heck of a good time!