Amanda's Sleepover with Grandma & Grandpa

While I was in LA slaving away in conference meetings, Amanda got to have a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa Bennett's house. I actually should co-write this post with Grandma, but she's in Preston right now and I'm in Ogden. So you get my recollection of Amanda's trip. They came down to our house the day before I left to pick Amanda up. That was VERY helpful and saved me a bunch of time. THANKS!

So trips to Grandma & Grandpa's are so much fun because there is a seemingly endless list of things to do. First and foremost is the chance to play with/ride on Sampson.
They were working on getting 1st crop hay up, so she got to ride in the hay truck and also in the tractor with Grandma. This was pretty fun until the fields got rough. She got bounced around a little too much and hit her head. :(

Hay hauling has definitely evolved since I was a kid and they can clear a field in a few hours. This left time to make a new wardrobe for Water baby. Grandma sewed a nightgown, shirt, pants, and a baby carrier all out of "fabric" (not cloth) that Amanda chose. Needless to say, Water baby is pretty stylish now and her outfits coordinate with the teepee!

She also took a trip to Willow Park. She had a great time looking at all of the animals, but I believe her favorite was the Boa Constrictor. Of course Grandma planned the trip well so it included a fabulous picnic lunch, and then playtime at the park. Fortunately they weren't in a hurry to get anywhere else because once Amanda got a swing she stayed on it for a solid hour! Good thing she was with Grandma because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the patience to wait for her to swing that long.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the neighbor's house for pony rides. The Bradfords have a wonderful older pony names Sugar, and they have made an arena behind their house. According to Grandma, Amanda listened very intently as Lena gave her instructions on how to get the pony to do what she wants her to do, and then off she went!

If riding a pony wasn't great enough, she also got to ride in a pony cart.
With all of this fun stuff to do, I don't think she had time to even notice I was gone, let alone miss me. However, when I got to their house on Thursday night, Amanda ran to the driveway, gave me an ENORMOUS hug, and proceeded to tell me that she was so happy that I had "arrived".

Thanks again for a fabulous sleepover Grandma & Grandpa!

Los Angeles Trip

When I got home from Memorial Day festivities, I had a message from my district's Special Ed Director. She told me there was a conference in Los Angeles for a software program I have been using with my students for the past few months. She wondered if I wanted to attend. Considering the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for it, that I have never been to California, and that I really love the software, of course my answer was YES!

So I flew out on June 21st and was greeted at the airport with a person holding a clipboard with my name on it. I will admit that I thought that was pretty cool, even if it makes me appear like a hick. Although I resisted the urge to take a picture of her holding the clipboard if that does anything to redeem me.

Over the next 2 days, I spent my days meeting with the President of the software company, other company representatives and 7 other educators from across the country to discuss our experience with the software so far. We also got to see the vision for future versions of the software and provide our input on what would make it more effective for the students we work with.

In the evenings, we got to do some fun things in LA. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal City Walk (which just happened to be within walking distance from our hotel). On the second evening, we took a driving tour around parts of LA.

After the driving tour, we went to a restaurant called The Musso & Frank Grill. It's an old restaurant where apparently a lot of Hollywood stars meet. A few of the ladies that I was with were really hoping to see a big star, and it turns out that Scott Caan was sitting at the table behind us. He's not a big star, but the other ladies were pretty excited. I was actually more excited when they brought the cheesecake to the table for desert. This turned out to be a highlight for the entire trip and I actually regret not taking a picture of it before I devoured it. It is THE BEST cheesecake I have ever eaten! After dinner we took a walk down Hollywood Blvd.
The next evening, we took another short tour and ended up at Paramount Ranch. It's a pretty cool old western movie set. Obviously this is just one of the buildings.
The President of the company has a house on Malibu Lake, and we went there for a dinner party. Here's the view from his front yard. Not bad eh?
On the way back to the hotel, we took a short detour to Malibu Pier so we could see the ocean. The moon was pretty full so it was actually quite nice. I didn't bother taking a picture because I had my doubts that it would turn out.

The whole experience was pretty neat. It's always fun traveling on someone else's dime. Hopefully the information I was able to share about my own experience with the software can help others who choose to adopt it in the future. At any rate, if my District Director calls again and wants to send me to another conference, my answer will most definitely be YES!

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Ask yourself, "If I were Amanda, how would I kick off my 6th birthday?" By waking up your mother (who is most definitely NOT A MORNING PERSON) at 6:17 am. Those of you who know me realize that this is a full hour before I would drag myself out of bed to get to work. However, it was a really good thing that she did because we just barely got everything done in time. We didn't get plans coordinated until late Sunday evening so we had to start the day with a trip to the grocery store. Not exactly the most celebratory or festive way to start a birthday, but necessary nonetheless. Can't have a birthday without cake and ice cream, right?

Next came the presents! She made out pretty well. I can't decide if she's just hit that stage that all kids go though when they know they're getting their picture taken and pull a face that in their mind is just a perfect smile, or if she's channeling her inner Grandma Bennett. Check out the pictures and you decide.





My mom used to always let us choose a cut-out cake for our birthdays, and I thought this was a great tradition to carry on. However, I'm not as good of a cake decorator as my mother so I rope Amanda into helping decorate. Amanda chose a cat cake this year. I thought it turned out pretty cute.


However, this is a lot of cake so we had to get some reinforcements in to help us eat it. My friends Melanie and Mark were happy to come over with 2 of their kids, Mathew & Malinda to help us out. Granted, we still have birthday cake left.

Amanda then spent the next hour playing with Mathew and the walkie-talkies that I found when I cleaned the house. If I would have only known, I wouldn't have needed to go through the bother and expense of buying gifts. That was all we had time for because she got to go over to her dad's house to have Happy Birthday Part 2.

Regardless, it was a fun day and I'm sure she had a great time! I'm still trying to figure out where 6 years have gone... Can't remember what life was like before she came along and that's really good thing!

Let's give this a shot

So I have to admit that I may be suffering from the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome. I really enjoy reading blogs written by friends and family, however, I have long thought that my existence is not exciting enough to write about. Be that as it may, I'm going to give this a shot anyway. Worst case scenario: this effort falls by the wayside just like every journal writing attempt I have ever made. Best case scenario: my blog amasses millions of followers, and a movie adaptation is made with Amy Adams staring as me. Oh, wait! That already happened to someone else. Oh well. Here goes...