2 3 hits and a miss

Here are a few flicks I've seen recently. Have you seen these or any others lately? We've lined up a sitter for this weekend and have 1 more set of free passes. Any suggestions???

Family Fun: "UP" 4.5 stars

This was a fun film but not at all what I expected. I love that the previews didn't give the plot away! I admit I teared up a few times. There were some heavy topic touched on that really pulled at my heart strings. And of course it was silly and funny, too. Allie liked it, but I think I enjoyed it even more. We saw the 2D version, but I'd like to see it in 3D now.












Girls' Night Out: "17 Again" 4.5 stars

Now I really enjoyed this one! It surprised me since it was a cheesee chic flick. One problem: it made me feel OLD every time I looked at the young hero, Zac. I could see he was good looking, but I had a hard time relating since I'm nearly double his age. It was so weird, like a paradigm shift. I highly suggest it!











Date night: "Star Trek" 4.5 stars

I don't claim to be a hard core trek-e, but I did grow up watching the original TV series & movies so I really enjoyed this one. I laughed out loud when I quoted a few lines before they spoke them. Lots of laughs!











Disapointment: "MALL COP" 2.5 stars

Nate & I love Kevin James, especially in his TV show 'King of Queens', but this was not his best work and the plot was terrible. If you've seen the preview, you've seen the best parts. Mostly it was lame in between. We were fooled by how LONG it stayed in the expensive theater. Good think we only paid to see it at the $2 theater, and the afternoon show at that.









...and on the topic of movies: just 36 days till the next installment of Harry Potter comes out. If any one wants to join us at the midnight premierof 'Half Blood Prince' on Tuesday, July 14th let me know. Its almost time to buy tickets!

1 the morning AFTER the storm

Well I think I lost my tomato and pepper plants here at home. The strawberry plants are in shreds. I really hope that my annual bedding plants come back. Our poor trees were just getting leafed out. All these pictures were taken this morning. We still had an inch of hail on the grass at 9am!



UPDATE: My father-in-law just let us know that it looks like the hail missed Amalga and so the pumpkin farm and my garden out there are very, very wet, but not in shreds like here in town. Thanks goodness! It sounds like we got about 1.5 inches of rain in about 45 minutes. Reports are that two storms actually collided right above us. WOW! Several of our ward members didn't fair as dry as us and have flooded basements. What a wild night!

My mother-in-law has lived in the same house for 40 years (a few blocks away from here) and has NEVER had water in her window-wells...until last night. One of her neighbors went to wake her son downstairs just as the water from the overflowing canal ran from their backyard into their windows. Before they could make it up the stairs the glass burst and the water and mud quickly rose to the ceiling. I can't even begin to imagine the lost of personal belongings, let alone all the photos and scrapbooks that were completely destroyed. I am so greatful nobody was hurt and that we are all dry here.

4 Storm of the summer...year...my kids' life,..my life?

I can not begin to describe the sound of tonight's storm.

- Fury - Fierce - Deafening -

For nearly 45 min the thunder growled non-stop, the hail pounded our windows, and wind bore down on our home. It was the spookiest feeling as flashes of lightning rolled without end. We lost power for a few moments, but surprisingly that's all. Nate bailed out our window-wells just seconds before the water poured into the basement and then ran of to assist flooded neighbors. Its hard to tell in the video, but the street was a roaring river and the circle cul-de-sac a lake.

(by the time I got the camera the hail was done.)

Allie was amazed but not scared.
Poor Kylie, who's had a fever the past 48 hours, fell asleep in her crib during the worst.

BETTER PICS: click HERE to see photos from 2 houses down from us!
{Chanelle is a fab-o photographer}

UPDATE: I emailed the video clip to KSL (chan 5) and it made it into the weather forecast tonight!!!
{sorry about the commercial first}
There went my 5 seconds of fame ;)

UPDATE to the UPDATE: it looks like the video linked below has updated to a more current weather forecast, so you don't see my clip. Oh well, you'll just have to trust me on it.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

2 Chills and Shivers

I'm sure you've all seen the new New Moon trailer, but I'm posting it anyway.



Adi - I saw it when it first came out, but as you can tell I wasn't in a posting mood for awhile.

0 Pumpkin Farm 2009

This year Nate is renting a NEW piece of ground that is over TRIPLE the size of the one we've been farming.

He planted last week and the little pumpkins are already coming up.
Alas, so are the mice...or some large rodent!

1 Catch up time

WARNING: LOTS OF NEW POSTS

Kylie is sick today (fever 102) so I'm taking the day off - - love that I can use my sick days for when my kids are sick. Since all she wants to do is sleep, I've been busy posting. Sorry its all at once, but you know me. I post in streaks.

1 Amalga Garden planted

This year my BIG experiment is a HUGE garden.

Nate's Dad built this shop/shed last year and now the sprinkler wheel line can't get to this strip of land next to the gravel driveway. My sister-in-law Maho and I split it in half and are trying out our green thumbs.

I planted 3 rows of corn, 40 tomatoes, various squashes, potatoes, carrots, and onions. Everything is in now and looking green. We are still watching for the little zucchini, watermelon cantaloupe, cucumbers, and other squashes to show their little selves but the rest are thriving...except for the carrots. I think was only have a dozen carrots in the 10 feet I planted. Oh well.

0 Campsite Evening

An evening at the camp site.

Here's Nate & I taking our turns with our little neighbor Hayden.
She couldn't be any sweeter. Almost makes me want another baby...
ALMOST, but NOT really!!!!!

1 Memorial Day Weekend in Idaho

The girls & I headed up North for the holiday weekend.

They played and played with cousins!
We had cookouts and went to the IF zoo.
Relaxing!!!

0 Sugar & Spice

0 Kylie turns TWO

Kylie's birthday was much more relaxed than Allies.
We celebrated with family the Sunday before her actual day.
Kylie didn't seem to mind.
She did however perfectly blow our her candles...twice.
The first time the camera wasn't ready.



Uncle Layne, Aunt Maho, Uncle Paul, Gpa Eldon, Gma JoAnne

Koji, Keiko, Kai
Allie, Mika, Kylie


I found this little "scooter-bike" on ksl.com from a lady in the valley.
It was the best $10 I've spent on a gift.
We gave it to her first and she didn't get off of it the rest of the evening.
She ate on it and opened gifts on it.
In fact, it has been her favorite toy for the past few weeks.

0 Pool Party

Allie got this Dora slip-n-slide for her birthday and has been dying to try it.
For weeks she would ask me if it was warm enough...like evern 10 minutes!
Well it finally is warm enough!


We've spent many an afternoon like this already!

0 Kylie

I just wanted to post this cute pic of Kylie.

She loves being outside
and has surprised me
with how good she has been
at staying in-bounds.

Cutei-Pie!