Month: March 2010

I posted last week that we’ve decided to move. And we will….at the end of June. =)

All poor Annika is going to remember of her childhood is that she was a life-size doll for Tasha who continually dressed her up in various cute and sometimes strange outfits! Luckily, Annika loves to dress up, so most of the time…she’s game.

Hmmm…homeless chic?

Maid Marion meets Betsy Wetsy????

No, we’re not having twins!! We watched our friends boys on Saturday and our gang had a great time playing together. They’re such good boys, it was a cinch, but I noted that the pure busyness of it all made me realize why you don’t have this many kids under age 6.

Chillin on the couch

Since we have very little snow left here, the kids have been able to ride the new bikes that Santa brought them. They hadn’t gone anywhere on them, except up and down our sidewalk. Friday afternoon/evening, we decided to take the kids where they could ride their bikes for real. They thought it was pretty cool to ride them on the bike path. When we came home, Annika sat with me while Daddy rode his bike with the kids.

Kevin working hard to get up the hill

Daddy n the kids racing

Tasha got her bike confiscated by the bike police!

Watch out Annika, here comes the clown!!!!

Everyone had a good laugh when Kevin got himself stuck in the gutter. He pedaled like mad and his wheels spun around, but he didn’t go anywhere. Of course, after that, he kept doing it over and over again to get laughs!

My little helper

Kevin just being himself

This is what I get when I ask him to smile!

For our entire time in Eagle, we’ve had the privilege of knowing and loving the Thygerson family. While we haven’t had the opportunity to get together in each other’s homes as much as we’d like, they have nonetheless been great friends, supporting and helping whenever we needed it and even sometimes when we didn’t know we needed help! They have been answers to prayers not only to us but to the rest of the ward and they are moving to Grand Junction on Saturday. Lucky for us, they’ll only be an hour from Ridgway, so they’re still within visiting distance for us when we move. However, we knew that we and many others would miss seeing them at church every week and visiting with them often. A friend suggested we should throw a going-away party for them and in the end the shin-dig was at our house. If I had thought about it, I would’ve taken pictures, but the only one we have is of SOME of the kids that were here.

This is only about half the kids that were here. At one point, I think we had at least 40 people in our house. For quite a while, the kids outnumbered the grown-ups! Thank goodness for a play room. Anyways, the party was a success and I know the Thygerson’s know how much they are loved!

The other night I took Annika to the store to pick up a few things. Ammon called me on my cell right after we walked into the store. I had Annika by the hand and though I was on the phone thought I was keeping a good eye on her. We stopped beside the more expensive cheeses while Ammon was asking me something. Next thing I know, Annika has a block of PepperJack cheese in hand and has taken a bite, plastic and all. She would’ve kept going if I hadn’t stopped her. It was totally one of those “you had to be there” moments because the surprise and spontaneity of the moment made me have one of those gut-busting laughs right in the store and for about 5 minutes I tried to tell Ammon why I was laughing so hard, but the words just didn’t seem to make their way out. Needless to say….I bought the cheese! =) Ammon has been raving about how good it is. I’m just glad it wasn’t the Gruyere or something that costs upward of $9/lb!!!!

Here it is:

Yes…I took a picture of the cheese!

Trying to figure out how to work the remote

Cool Dudette!

Have I mentioned how much Annika loves shoes? Tasha helped her find a crown to match.

Finding a good hiding place for later

Our little cheerleader!

In action!

Mini-Iron Man

Scaring the cheerleader

The best Young Women ever! I get to work and serve with them at church.

Annika spontaneously put the bib on her head and sat there till we noticed. Of course, by the time I got the camera, she was all done!

Being a goofball and making a face/blinking

March came quicker than I would’ve liked and so far, without any snow….which for most of you would be A-ok. When you live in the mountains though,  you kind of expect the snow in the winter and when your ski-loving husband almost cries when he looks at the bare patches of grass…you know it’s time for another big dump of the white stuff. =)

Not a lot of news to report, but those of you who didn’t know, we have decided to move. Eagle is a wonderful town, especially to raise children. It’s quiet, fairly small, pretty and has a great community feel. It’s also expensive….very, very expensive. While we knew this when we moved here, we’ve since re-vamped our idea of staying here at the thought of having a mortgage for the rest of our living days 0n earth.

So our decision was to move to Ridgway, Co. It’s an even smaller town (800 people) 30 min south of Montrose in the San Juan Mountains. It’s beautiful, even closer to the things we love (wildflowers, off-roading trails, camping, etc) and a WHOLE lot cheaper. We’ve found a few plots of land we’re currently in love with and surprise! They’re affordable! So, when our lease is up here at the end of June, we start a new adventure in Ridgway, renting for about a year till we save enough to build the Manning Dream House. Ridgway is also only about 10 min away from Ouray which has special meaning to Ammon and I since we spent a good part of our honeymoon there. Here are some pictures of Ridgway and Ouray for those of you who aren’t familiar with it:

Ridgway

(sorry it’s small) This is a different view of Ridgway

Town of Ouray

Famous Ice-Climbing at Box Canyon Falls in Ouray

Ouray from the road up above the town, heading to Silverton

So wish this was bigger. It’s a picture of Yankee Boy Basin about 20 min from where Ouray is. I’ve always wanted to see it!