Moab!!

We have had lots of fun vacationing in Moab!  We left Thursday afternoon and met my mom and her  boyfriend, John at the condo we rented.  We just went out to dinner and got settled in to the condo that first night.  Friday, Jason and John rode the Masaback (not sure on the spelling here) bike trail, and one of Jason's bike pedals broke, so it was not a very fun ride.  After lunch, we all went up to Arches National Park and did a bunch of hiking.

Grandma and Rachel hiking the Park Avenue trail.

Sarah on a rock, Lizzy and the 3 Gossips in the background.

Grandma and the girls at the Balanced Rock trail.

  

At Delicate Arch. You can see Rachel is still in the backpack, because this spot is quite dangerous, so we didn't want the girls to run around.

Cute girls in Arches!  We hiked a total of 6 miles; the girls hiked 2 of them all by themselves, and rode in the backpacks for the other 4.  Pretty impressive!  Lizzy's favorite part was balanced rock.  Rachel loved climbing under double arch.

Saturday, John and Mom rode the Gemini Bridges bike trail in the morning, and then Jason and I rode it in the afternoon, so we could take turns with the kids.  Mountain biking terrifies me... especially when there's lots of big hills with loose sand and rocks, and you slip all over the place.  So, Jason had a nice, leisurely ride thorugh the countryside, and I had a harrowing near-death-panick-attack experience.  We brought the camera, but I was too stressed out to remember it, and we didn't take any photos!  However, my T-shirt rode up on my back during the ride, and so, afterward, Jason commented that I sunburned my lower back, and I said, "Yeah, I was trying to burn off my love-handles."

Today, Sunday, is our last day here, we check out tomorrow morning.  The boys are riding the Porcupine bike trail, which will take them most of the day (the trail guidebook says it's a 6 hour ride!).  Grandma, the girls, and I will have a fun hanging out at the condo, and going to the pool and park.

Family History Mystery

For years and years my dad knew only his grandfather's name, John Tobin Wall, and that he died in New York in 1922.  He searched and searched and could never find anything else about him.  I searched for him too, and even had people help me look through microfilms and stuff to try and find him, with no success.  And then... I've been watching the TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" which is a show where celebrities work with experts to find out about their family history.  (It is an amazing show, I highly recommend it - channel 5 on Fridays at 7:00 pm.)  Anyway, the show is sponsored by this new website, ancestry.com, and they show the celebrities using it on the program.  It has worldwide records from censuses, military records, social security records... all kinds of stuff.  So, I went on there and typed in my great grandfather's name... and... I FOUND HIM!  He was born in Ireland in 1891, and his wife, Elizabeth Lange, was from Pennsylvania.  He immigrated to the US when he was 18 years old, and his parents, who stayed in Ireland, are William Wall and Ellen Tobin.  IN-CRED-IB-LE.  So... the cool thing of it all is, my dad and I now know that we are part Irish!  In fact, both of my dad's grandfathers, paternal and maternal immigrated... maternal from England.  So, my dad is only 2 generations away from immigrant heritage, and I am only 3.  On my mom's side, you have to go back 5 generations before reaching Switzerland on her father's side, and 5 generations to Germany and Scotland on her mother's side, where we are in the Wallace family line - remember William Wallace in Braveheart?  Cool, right!  Anyway, my mom and I were really excited because our ancestors lived in Scotland at the time of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" and the Culloden war against England... which is the topic of one of her and my favorite book series, "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon.  Furthermore, one of the characters in that book is named Ellen MacKenzie, and we have an Ellen May McKenzie in our family!!  Is that wild, or what.

Happy Easter!

We had a really fun Easter this year!  The girls woke up and found that the Easter Bunny had left them baskets full of CANDY!!  They were really excited, and decided to eat chocolate cadbury eggs in lieu of scrambled eggs for breakfast.  After watching conference together, we got in our minivan and started down to my mom's house.  We got to Farmington, and Jason noticed that the car felt like it was driving funny.  He pulled over and... the rear tire was flat!  We were near a gas station, so he filled the tire up with air and drove home on the back roads.  The tire stayed inflated all the way home, thankfully.  We switched the kids and all our stuff (I was bringing a homemade berry pie and some salad dressing to the Easter dinner), and headed back down to my mom's in Jason's car.  We made it to mom's and enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner, with grilled lamb, a vegetable gratin casserole, rolls, salad, and berry pie.  It was a good dinner, and everyone had a really fun time!  After dinner, we left my mom's and headed over to Jason's parents.  We had a fun time hanging out with them, and catching up on the family news.  We dressed the girls in their pajamas and headed home, where we went to bed.  Happy Easter everyone! 

Updates on the Family

With my zeroed-in focus on my diet and exercise, I have neglected to post the cute pictures I have taken recently!  So, here are some updates!

Here's poor Rachel, so tired, she just fell asleep right on the couch watching Sesame Street!

And here she is enjoying a beater from (pre-diet) brownie making!  Yum!

I put the dress on Rachel for church... and she put everything else on herself, including the polka-dot stretch pants, the green skirt underneath, the slipper socks, the shoes, and the hat!  Fashionista!

We went to Arctic Circle for lunch, and in the kids meals, they had these cute little Easter bunnies.  Well, the girls LOVE them.  They slept with them at night, and had them sit by them at the dinner table and at breakfast... they haven't let them go since we got them. 

My dad got Jason this home water carbonator and soda maker for Christmas... it just came in now, so it's a very late Christmas present, but anyway, now we can make our own soda.  It's really quite fun!  One of Jason's favorite drinks is plain soda water with lime.  He's thrilled to have this!  We made our first bottle of soda last night, and had soda water with lime at dinner.  I also made Jason a liter bottle of flavored soda (using the syrup pictured) for him to take to work.  How many other husbands can take homemade soda to work?

New Blog

I have decided to create a new blog, about my health and fitness journey.  3 Girls and a Guy is supposed to be my family blog, with stuff about my kids, that I can make into scrapbook stuff later.  And so, I have moved all my health and fitness related posts to my new blog: "Real Food, Real Fitness" http://realfoodfitness.blogspot.com/
So, if you want to continue to follow my weight loss journey, please bookmark that blog and check it often!

Thanks everyone!