WE ARE GETTING THERE...

Here are some quick weekly updates...

Kelsey will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam tomorrow. That is on the other side of the globe.
Dad gave her a father's blessing, which is such a wonderful gift. I am so grateful
for the priesthood  on the earth today that blesses families!

This is Jaime. He and Kim cut and installed all this tile, and it looks beautiful. They are both such great craftsmen!
This is in the craft room.

I needed to take a picture of this door to see where the hinges were, and Lenna was adamant that she be in it. And she was excited to display the piece of door casing, too. Very helpful, adorable little person!

The stucco men added the trim up by the roofline in the front, sides, and back. It looks great!
They also have put the finished layer of stucco on. It will be ready to paint this week. Hallelujah!!!

This is at youth conference. Their "Naphtali station" challenge was to look at all
 the random boxes jumbled on the ground, figure out the scripture they went to,
and put them all together in order. Tough, but they did it.
This is not an easy scripture to just know off the top of your head: D&C 110:11.
The theme for youth conference was on the gathering of Israel, and their part in that.

Here are all of us that participated in youth conference from our Alta Vista branch.
There's me and dad, three young women, and three young men, and the Delgado's
 that are leaving our branch this week. Sadness!! He's joining the Navy and will be in
training for the next couple of months. She's returning to her home ward.
I'll miss them immensely.
I really love and enjoy these youth. I love how living the gospel brings
such direction and happiness to people. Living the teachings of the gospel
 keeps people from having regrets; peace comes from having no regrets.
And repentance and the atonement are available to take care of things that we do regret,
hence bringing peace.
What a wonderful plan! I am forever grateful for it!!

NEW HOUSE PICS!

 I realize I just updated this last night, but here are some new pics that will keep you abreast
of the goings-on over at the new house. It's exciting!

Oh, cute kids!! We went over to the new house for a FHE activity and there was much
hiding, running, and squealing going on. Very fun. This is Sierra, Tyler, Raquel, and Adam
posing in the master bath with Aunt Laurie's amazing mosaic in the background. 

The garage is done being painted/primed. Tomorrow the floor will be sand-blasted to get
plaster stuff off of it. When the garage doors are on, we can start
moving things into here and it'll be secure!

The big, tall center garage door is going in, piece by piece. Interesting process.

WOWZAA!! The front garage doors are on! On the inside you can see that they don't
have motors attached to them yet, but those are coming, I'm sure! And you can kind of see
the framed out pop-outs around the windows, and the quoins at the corners
of the front section of house. The stucco will be on the front withing the next two days.

This stucco guy gets the cement from the mixer (the round drum-thing to the right
of his head in this photo), then uses a wheel barrow to transport it
 back to the stucco guys in the back. 

Here he is with his trusty wheel barrow. You can see a bunch of guys
under the patio cover troweling on the stucco. Hard, messy work.

They got the back all done! In one day! Thanks, stucco guys!! 

Here's the back garage with the "brown-coat" stucco. It now needs to "cure" for about 5 days,
being wet down at least once a day. Matt said he would do that while we run up
to Provo to get Kelsey's stuff. Thanks, Matt!!

We also set up the painter to start...TOMORROW!! The inside will be primed within the next two days.  And I think we have a finish guy lined up to do crown moulding, door casing, and baseboards, as well as the stair banister. Possibly even the tile in the craft room/laundry/storage closet. 

We also ordered 6 cabinet doors for the bonus-room storage space. Heritage Cabinets have been so amazing to work with! I've really enjoyed meeting and getting to know some of these craftsmen.

It's coming together.

And, that's all for now. I'll update again in just a few days.

FUN TIMES IN PROVO AND MARYLAND AND CHARLOTTESVILLE...and...THE HOUSE, IT IS A-CHANGIN'

WE BEGIN OUR ADVENTURES IN PROVO:

Dad was a very good sport at Tacanos when they sang to him for his birthday .
We were in Provo for Kelsey's performance and of course had to eat at Tacanos! He even danced around the table.
They said it was the best they'd seen! What a ham!!

She looked and sounded beautiful. Such a wonderful experience to be able to listen to her. 

Uncle Mark and Aunt Denise also came to hear the BYU Philharmonic perform Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."
 I love that they are so supportive and that they love my kids!

AND THEN, ON TO LAUREL, MARYLAND!!

We went to D.C. to see the gorgeous cherry blossoms. Jen is spraying sunblock on her very fair child...this happened ALOT while we were there on that beautiful, warm, sunny day. Jen is a great mom!

This is the fairly new monument in D.C. of Martin Luther King, Jr. Very impressive.

The Jefferson Memorial peeks through the cherry blossoms.

Oh, yeahhh. Ice-cream on a hot day. Fantastic!!

Grandpa Ripp was the stroller chauffeur often. Look at those trees! Wowzaaa!

ON TO CHARLOTTESVILLE TO EXPERIENCE THE WHIT!

These pink blossoms adorned the grounds at UVa. Stunning.

This happened alot here...Whitney and Nadine hanging out together.
Notice the abundant blossoms "snowing" the ground!

This tree was amazing.

This also happened a lot...us taking photos of these beautiful trees!

Priceless: one aunt taking time out of her busy life
for her adoring niece that has all the time in the world
and wants to spend it here.

Shopping in Charlottesville with the pixie.

Cute mom-daughter pic at our hotel in Charlottesville.

Dad spent some bonding time with Thomas Jefferson. Visionaries.

Flora...or fauna? You decide.
(This is up at Monticello.)

This was a common sight: Aunt Whitten with her most adoring fan.
They both had cute skirts, but Whitney's didn't twirl as much.

Nadine is being one with nature here. We think these are magnolia blossoms .
They carpeted the ground and smelled fantastic.

We stayed at the Garden Inn, which has a huge pond complete with swans! Beautiful.

Nani absolutely adores her Aunt Whitten. And vice-versa.  Nadine was having a very sad , tired moment
at this bbq place, and Whit was the perfect person to console her.

Todd took us on a tour of Walter Reed, and Nani zonked out.
 I loved that Jen just cuddled her and carried her around.
(I don't know why this is out of sequence...sometimes this blog -computer stuff makes me crazy!)

Here we are in front of Whit's room on the grounds at UVa. Such a  once-in-a-lifetime experience for her (and hence, us) to be able to be a part of such a historical place. Who knows why Nadine is holding my hand when Whit is so close.

IN MARYLAND...

During General Conference I hand-sewed some cute neckerchiefs together
to make a "twirly skirt" for Nadine.  Fun, and effective!

What are five fun things you can do with raspberries???

The wave of the future: parking garages with hookups for electric cars! This was in the garage at Walter Reed Medical Center where Todd works. Look at the size of the outlet (bottom right)!!

Jen fed us wonderful meals almost every single night. We were treated like celebrities!
She looks like the hostess on a TV food network!

We enjoyed playing the Dr. Seuss memory-find game. She won this round fair and square.
Come to think of it, she won all the rounds fair and square!

Man! She's so cute!! She's proudly displaying a seed pod from a local tree.
I call it the "Horton-Hears-A-Who" pod.

Chuck-e-Cheese is the second happiest place on earth, apparently!
She was in hog-heaven!!
(Where does that phrase come from??!!)

If you're happy and you know it dance with the creepy mouse!
Nani loved  this and was the best dancer there!

Dad was in his element with a pinball machine!

Blossom wars! You can see the white blossoms floating down on Nadine.
These petals were settling in "snow drifts," making even the gutters look elegant!

At the close of a long, busy, fun day I got to put her down for the night.
She just zonked and looked so precious and sweet... And quiet.

BACK AT THE RANCH (AKA BOULDER CITY)

Lenna is showing us her run-run-running skills that she excels at!

Shannon joined us for Sunday dinner at Lindsay and Aaron's.
She is so good with happy little Gwenyth!

Up in the tree fort Daniel, Raquel, me and Tyler put leaves on a protruding little branch.
 Great fun. It doesn't take much. Daniel, Lenna, and Tyler could climb up and down from this tree fort easily. 

NOW: (drum roll) HOUSE UPDATE!

While we were gone for a week, lots took place. This front door arrived just before we left. It was a sight for sore eyes!

This is what a front door looks like before it is attached to a house. A thing of beauty!

And this is what a front door looks like after its been installed and had praises sung to it!!
This is a HUGE step in the house process!

The drywall is up, and the seams are taped. This is looking up the staircase toward the bonus room. 

Here, in the bonus room, are the openings to the storage area under the eaves. There is a mirror image one of these on the other side of the room. I'll let the kids use one "bin" area for a play house. They'll love it! It's all about the grandkids!

So THIS is how strong drywall-guys do all this!

Ismael walked around on these stilts like it was the easiest thing in the world. I asked him how long it took him to become good at it. "About two years," was the answer. 

This is what the garage looks like after drywall and taping. Huge.

The high-up window finally came in and was installed above the entry way!  Garage doors go in tomorrow!

Here is the front room. All rooms are textured now and waiting to be painted. Notice the beautiful ceiling coffers!