Oh, what a summer it's been...

I have to start this post with pictures from the awesome cruise my parents took us on. We went for 7 nights to the Mexican Riviera. It was 7 nights of pure fun, food, sun, and quality togetherness.
These next few pictures are dedicated to my sweet parents, without which this cruise would not have been possible (and thanks to the babysitters on the other end, we couldn't have done it without you guys either:))
Look at how cute my parents are. FYI, that's my dad's tux from his high school days. Still fit as a fiddle after all these years. We went on the cruise to celebrate cute Ruthie's b-day.
Here we are looking all fine and classy. We all made it except for Jed, Mandy and Troy. We sure missed them, but we ate a late night hamburger, fries, and pizza in their honor.
If you've ever been on a cruise you know it's about sun and food. These food pics don't begin to touch the awesomeness they call "your dinner".

Me and the B-rad. It was great fun to have him all to myself. One of our favorite things we did was snorkel. I accidently just deleted to photo of me riding a horse on the beach. Many of you know I have a list of 101 (plus some) things to do before I die and riding a horse on the beach was in the top 10. It was pretty awesome.

Here we are rock climbing, well, about to rock climb on the boat.

After we arrived back in L.A., with sun tans, memories, photos, and a couple extra pounds, one could only ask say one thing: When do we get to go again??

p.s. we drove back to Salt Lake and had a brief respite at Buffalo Bills. Love that coaster.

The Chambers family has a tradition to go to BearLake for the fourth of July. We vistit Brad's grandparents, play horses, swim and have a grand, grand fireworks show. (click on the picture to make it larger)

We had to teach Chloe how to really experience summer. Some highlights include: eating corn on the cob, swinging, playing with the dogs, the zoo, pounding on grandma Ruthie's piano, kicking the ball, stacking blocks, just chillin' on the porch, letting the grass tickle your toes, snowies, and of course...the hose. (click on the picture to make it larger)

sixteen hundred fifty miles later...

We decided to drive to Utah via dinosaur national park in Vernal. First of all, you get really excited that you are approaching Utah and you see signs for Dinosaur and you get excited and then you learn that Dinosaur is just a random little town in Colorado and you still have 45 miles to dinosaur national monument in Vernal. Anyway, I told Brad that Dinosaur national park was really cool so we stopped to see it. Not cool. The quarry place where you used to be able to see the bones is gone and there really isn't much there. So we just jumped back in the car and arrived in Salt Lake .


This is me with my cute niece Ellsie.Chloe and the seagulls at Sugar House park.
We let Chloe loose at this fun water area in Liberty Park. She didn't hesitate long before she just went for it. Nice that we forgot a change of clothes.
Just after this picture she layed on her tummy in the water.
Pure fun!

We made it to Utah after 4 days of sight seeing. Proudly, I only drove 6 of the 1650 miles. And during those short 6 miles, Brad managed to take a nap and totally demolish his own sunglasses by slamming them in the door and I almost received a ticket in a national park. True story.

5 weeks here we come!

10 days ago we drove to Utah. We visited some friends in Kansas City, stopped at this amazing art museum and were tempted to stop at one of the "tourist" stops along I-70.

We kept driving and saw the mountains. And we love the mountains. We stayed a couple of nights in this charming town called Estes Park, Colorado. The town had cute shops, fun restaurants and amazing views of Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.
We spent one afternoon hiking around Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park with my brother. Like most of the country, Colorado is still experiencing colder temps and that's why you can see the snow.

Here we are at the top of the world. We just kept driving up and up and up and arrived in the cold artic tundra. As we drove we eventually arrived on top of the mountain in the distance of the picture of Brad and me. It was taken at 12, 400 feet. and moments after the pic was taken we saw a huge herd of Elk cross the road.

Here we are hiking up to the falls.

Final week...look out!

Chambers Family Mother's Day 2008

This cake was really fun to make. It just takes me back to happy, sugary, sweet-shoppe memories.

Oh how I love my new camera.

My cute Brad surprised me with a super nice camera for Mother's Day. These are just a few pics of me playing around. I haven't memorized the camera guide, yet, but I'm getting there. There's just so much to learn. If any one has tips for using a Digital SLR Camera, or you have a good site to check out, let me know.
I couldn't pass by these poppies without taking a photo. Good thing Chloe is so good natured because she'll be smiling alot for me.

I think there is something so beautiful and deep and symbolic about how flowers get their start in the world.

My little Chloe.

The Mysterious Stink!!!

So, I have what some people might call a lot of diaper bags. I have 5 total if you count the 2 purses I use as diaper bags. One might figure that I don't see some of these diaper bags too often, what with the variety I have. This has proven to be the case with diaper bag number one. We'll call her "red". Okay, now for the story. One Sunday morning, I pulled "red" out from the far recesses of Chloe's room and I threw some things in her and got ready for church. I noticed "red" kind of smelled when I opened her up, but I new I didn't have time to deal with it because it was time to leave for church. So, I dug through "red" superficially and couldn't find anything that would produce that smell. So I grabbed "red" and off we went. During the meeting I couldn't do anything but smell the funky stench coming from our bag. I wondered what the stink was. I asked Brad what he thought the stink was. We picked the bag up and took in a deep sniff. Gagging, we didn't know what it was, we decided it must be some sour milk on the exterior of the bag. So we tried to igore the smell. But trying to igore that smell was like trying to be polite to someone you have to talk to that has breath that smells like hotdogs, or being forced to sit next to someone who has B.O, or stinky feet. It was bad! The meeting ended and Brad to "red" and Chloe and the smell. I didn't remember it again till Monday morning. I decided to clean all 5 of her diaper bags and start fresh. I cleaned the 4 bags and then went out to the car to retreive "red". And this is what I found tucked way back in a forgotten fold.
WARNING: These photos may cause gagging.

I am actually holding 3 items in my hand. #1, a wet wipe to act as a barried between me and the thing. #2 a sock which is stuck to the thing, and #3 the thing.

Any guesses? Yes, it's an orange. And my guess is the orange is from Christmas because that was the last time I used "red" because she matched my red Christmas clothes.

And here is "red" soaking in the tub. This happened last week and the poor bag is still sitting on the back porch. I'm pretty sure I don't have the heart to use this bag again. To my credit, the bag was zipped for storage in Chloe's room, so the smell was contained and growing for 3 months. When I removed the orange, I saw what appeared to be toxic gas exuding from the bag. So, my viewers, please reassure me I am not the only one who has done something this "stinky". I've shared my story and now share yours and we will try not to "remember" the stinks together.

Cinderella Chloe

Is it to early for this? She's really into pushing things right now, so I thought "why not". The swiffer did get the best of her when she tried to turn the corner. She loves to be doing whatever mom is doing and be wherever mom is. She's my little buddy!