Nature! And temps below 100...

Camping at Duck Creek Utah 2010

Bret forgot which way the tent went...haha

Oh now he got it. Whew!

The ultimate tent decorator...Lizzy Lou Hoo

We stopped by the Ice Caves...George, Emily, and Bret loved it!

At the top...these weenies didn't wanna go down. Except for this guy Hooray! Bret is the only non-weenie in the bunch.

Until George stepped up his game and joined him.

The next day we went to the Mammoth Caves. Significantly scarier than the ice cave...very dark and lots of spots where you have to army crawl. No thank you! Emily tried and tried to convince Bella to go with her. Lizzy refused. I refused. Bret and George went with her into a dark, bat infested cave but she wanted to explore ALL the caves. :)

Back at camp: July 6th was Bret's birthday and I made him an AWESOME

dutch oven birthday cake....

It tasted WAY better than it looked...

We ate it community style.

Georgie chillin in his chair by the fire.

Bella in a s'mores coma. HAHA!

Another successful family camping trip!

The Lees Love You.

Trapped!

Sunday mornings are not my favorite.

They are hectic and rushed.

No amount of planning the day before makes it easier.

The opposition really works on me....

Which brings me to last Sunday morning the 11th:

Bret had just hopped out of the shower and I came in to grab something, closing the door behind me. When I went to leave--the handle turned but nothing happened.

Not locked.

Not opening.

Broken.

To sum it up: Bret and I, at 8am (before 9am church)

were TRAPPED in our bathroom!

Luckily my mother was there to help get the 4 children ready for church (might have been my plan all along, hehe)...as Bret took the handle

to the door off and still couldn't get it open,

then pried the pins out of the hinges and still couldn't get it.

1 hour and 45 sweaty minutes later (did I mention Bret takes 1000 degree showers and our bathroom was a sauna??) we were FREE! And very late for church.

Actually I was quite productive, organizing our closet and cleaning the fan which was, by the way, super disgusting.

At one point my mother said, "stand back from the door and sit over by the tub" and we obliged thinking she was going to kick in the door but instead we saw the lens of her camera and she got this shot:

Was definitely not "Easy Like Sunday Morning"

Where's my camera?

The cord to the camera has been found,

and pictures have been uploaded to the computer!

Yay!

So I was sorting through these little picture gems

and came across a bunch like these:

This girl loves to photograph herself!

I guess because she can immediately look at the picture...

Remember when we used to take pictures and had to wait to see them until they were developed? And you would have like 10 rolls of film to be developed and some were a total mystery? These kids will never know what that was like.

Have a fabulous day!

Summah!

My tan is well under way.

Bella completed kindergarten.

My step daughters are here.

Summer is officially ON!

And so is the blog. Many random entries to come...

Rule Number One as Stated by Bella Lee

Bella is watching you!

In case you were wondering...

Bella pointed out a VERY important rule in life.

She says: (and I quote)

"If you lay down in the street, and get run over by a car:

(pause) (point finger) BAD CHOICE!!"

Stay tuned for more Bella revelations....

Okay I Get The Hint...

Will and Bella on the Kindergarten playground.

This weekend we watched Will Scott while his parents went to Arizona.

The Scotts are good friends of ours and Will is in Kindergarten with Bella.

Friday night we were at our fave place...Costco.

We had a fabulous time, as always. At one point we stopped at an example station and as we furiously grabbed at the burrito/nugget/sausage Will told the lady:

"This is not my family. I'm a Scott."

Then at the checkout Will told the gal behind the cash register:

"I'm not a Lee. This isn't my family."

And again when we were getting our receipt checked at the exit Will said:

"I'm not in this family. It's not mine."

I guess we won't be adopting Will anytime soon. :)

Happy Valentines Day!!

I hope everyone is doing well this fine February.

(Ack! February!)

Here we are: Kids are getting sooooo big!

We're a pretty cute bunch, don't ya think?

Bella on Kings of Leon

The song "Use Somebody" came on the radio in the car the other day. Bella: Oh this is the guy with the sad voice. He must be really sad. Me: Yeah, he does sound kinda sad. Bella: Why does he need to use somebody? Is he lonely? It was really funny and a little bit sweet... ************ One more Bella-ism. Our ward went to 9:00. I'm not going to pretend like it's easy...it definitely takes some getting used to!! 15 minutes into church last Sunday Bella announced, (loud enough for the few pews in front of us to hear) Mom I wanna go home and take a nap!! And our friend Darlene turned around and said, "me too Bella!" Again probably funnier when you are there... Hope everyone's 2010 has started off with fabulous-ness!

Angie's Top 5 Of 2009

Don't be expecting a top 10 okay? Be thankful I have 5.

All these top picks make me sooooooo happy!!

Coming in at #5: CANADA!

From it's lush green landscape to it's crazy metric system, America Jr. (aka America's Hat) is the best place to road trip with your BFF. Like me and Vivian, who almost got us stopped by Boarder Patrol and banned from Canada for life.

Remember Viv?

Thanks Stephanie and Sven for getting married in Whistler!!!

I'm a Fanada... (look for Canada in this winter's Olympics; Vancouver 2010) At #4 comes my fave weekly dose of humor...located at PassiveAgressiveNotes.com, I subscribe to their usually thrice weekly posts. People are so funny when they don't attach their name! A fave example:

#3 Funniest Guy of 2009...

I love him because he is hysterical and if you have never seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog you better Google it RIGHT NOW!! Seriously...

#2 I'm On a Boat (clean version, bcuz I'm "Cougar Clean")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUjx4_X1qA

I have yet to figure how to put the video right here for your enjoyment...just click on the link and watch then come right back. I'll wait..

My NUMERO UNO of 2009

GLEEEEEEE!!

Best. New. Show.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll change your life.

'nuff said.

Seahawks

So Jan 3rd is the last game and people in Sea Town are rallying for everyone to wear brown paper bags on their heads to hide the shame of another crap season.

And we were so bad that we weren't bad enough to get a first round draft pick.

Thanks Rams.

The Hawks at this point are like a teenage son to me...I deeply love them, but they are doing crazy, irresponsible things and I just can't look at them right now.

They are grounded and I am taking away their CAR!!!

Deion Branch says to all the fans, "If you're not with us, stay at home!"

Uncool.

We have been fans since before Deion was even born.

Fortunately Houshmandzadah stepped up to say, "I'm a fan like everybody else. When I watch sports, I'm a Lakers fan, when they lose I'm (ticked) off. You should be upset because you're invested in it like we are."

Let's pull it together, Upper Mgt!!

And at the end of the day I still love my teenage son Seahawks!