Day 2 of Spring Break: San Diego Zoo

Beautiful sunny day in San Diego on Thursday. Spring break couldn't get better than this.


We took Cami (5) with us to the zoo.


Alex and Carsen are ready to go on the skytram.

Rod and me on the sky tram.

Beautiful Cami

Let's pause for a minute for some Llama Love.

Alex, Cami and Carsen are fearless on the cement tiger.

Cami is hanging off the elephant's tusks.

Sniffing the elephant's butt

Oh look, Rod's on the cell phone.

Sniffing the real elephants this time.

Whack a Mole? Wish I could. Didn't bring my mallet with me. Darn it!

The sweet Panda bear. I think he/she was little disturbed because he was walking the same route over and over again.

Cami and in the background is a hippo's butt.

Horebra, or that's what Carsen called this animal. It had zebra legs and otherwise looked like a horse. Sign said "Okapi"

Cami and a yellow Python. Luckily they had a glass separating each other.

Why are the Pink Flamingos pink? Because they eat shrimp. Didn't know that, did you?

After walking the zoo grounds, we decided to hop on the 35-minute bus ride that went around the zoo. Rod is helping Cami to see what's on that side of the bus.

Thanks Cami for going with us. It was so much fun to have you.

Thursday night Kristian, Jenn and us went to dinner at Filippe's in Temecula. Pizza never tasted so good.

Jenn had to carbo load because she was going to run in the Ragnar race with her 12 person team. That's 200 miles from Huntington Beach to Coronado in about 36 hours. Good luck Jenn.

Day 1 of Spring Break: 20 minutes into the Vacation..

BAM! A pheasant hits our car grill. The death was instant, followed by flying of feathers. We pulled over and noticed that she had also destroyed our grill by jamming her plump body into the silver slats.

Luckily Rod always carries paper towels in his pockets so while he was gagging and trying to pull the body out of the grill, I took pictures and helped him separate the slats so he could pull her out.

We did not try to administer CPR. She was DOA.

Funny story about pheasants, though. When Alex was a wee-little child, Rod took him pheasant hunting to central Utah with our friend Jayson (yes, the same Jayson who slammed into Rod about a month ago on the ski slopes). Alex was so excited and announced to everyone that he was going peasant hunting (talonpoika suomeksi). We have laughed about that ever since. Even now when the pheasant hit us, we told Alex that a peasant hit us. We got a good laugh.

Our trip continued to Las Vegas.

First stop was at the Venetian Hotel and the Bouchon Bakery to buy French Macarons and chocolate croissants. Just a little appetizer before going to eat chicken wings a mile down the road.

84 chicken wings ordered between 3 people at Buffalo Wild Wings. I ate 4, Alex ate 34, Rod ate 25, Carsen ate 19, and the rest were left to the kitchen staff.

Carsen doing a good job with the wings.

Good thing Rod was covered in paper napkins because the sauce was flying everywhere.

19 carcasses are left with various spice/heat combinations.

Alex is the chicken wing eating champion.

Rod ate a few, too.

Next stop, Temecula and the Peterson's house.

Rodney Day

Was successful.

Bright Light

You know the bright orange light that comes on in your dashboard when the gas level is extremely low? When you see that light come on, what do you do? Do you head to the nearest gas station? Oh you do?

Not my husband.

Conference Sunday Brunch

Every General Conference Sunday we have a brunch with the Williams at their house. This last Conference Sunday was no different. I started baking on Saturday night and continued cooking on Sunday at 7:30am (while the men slept) to be done at 11:48...I know, I was shooting for 11:45 but I was 3 minutes late. I promise, next year I will be right on time.

We hauled the food to the Williams and ate and ate and ate and then watched (men slept) the afternoon session.

Rod and Alex are cozy on the floor, fully fed and ready to sleep.

The Sofa gang: Heather, Steve and Katie.

Rod is snoring up the storm.

Steve was fully snoring a few seconds before I took the picture. I don't think he usually smiles when he sleeps.

Jacoby also asleep on the couch while Heather is amused by it all.

Carsen and Alex wouldn't stop fighting so I had to go in between them and referee the situation.

Thanks Steve and Katie for hosting and cooking. It was a great party.

Physical Therapy

Rod started Physical Therapy last Friday. He went through a lot of pain when he got a massage, ultrasound, electric shock treatment, knee bending exercises and other necessary pain inducing exercises. Pain pills were needed on Friday night. Yeah, he got loopy.

Rod got to 85 degrees with the knee bender.

Spring is Here...Not Really

Friday and Saturday last week were beautiful and warm. I think it got to 73 on Saturday. We were cleaning out the garage and painted and did chores around the yard and house in flip flops and t-shirts.

On Sunday morning we woke up to this.

Alex vs. Rod

Alex is totally WINNING!

Riikka, the Birthday Girl

Last night was the girls' night out when we celebrated Riikka's birthday at Market Street Grill in Sandy. The food was yummy and the company was excellent. Happy birthday Riikka!
Riikka, Mari (the girls' mother visiting from Finland) and Terhi (Riikka's sister)


Me and Riikka

Stitches Come Off

Yesterday we drove up again to Salt Lake to the surgeon's office so the stitches could be taken off. I told Rod that the removal will hurt like hell and it will be such awful pain he has never experienced before. He believed me. Sucker! When the nurse came in, Rod lied down on the bed and didn't want to watch the stitch removal. He was bracing for the worst. When the first stitch was removed, he quickly sat up and asked:"That was it?" I started laughing because he had totally believed me.


Nice little row of stitches ready to be removed.


Nurse carefully snipping the "piano wires" off.


Rod looks on.


The nurse almost missed one stitch.


Stitches are all off and steri strips are now covering the scar for the next 5-10 days or whenever the strips come off in the shower.

Physical Therapy starts this Friday. Oh that is going to hurt like hell. I need to come up with a good story, though.


Rod was a good boy and didn't cry at all, therefore getting a treat.