Disneyland Photos

Well, the drive was long, but the lines were short! :) We had such a great time (of course!) We had great weather a couple of days and thunderstorms a couple of days- good thing we're from Washington and rain doesn't slow us down. We even learned a few lessons: be sure to ask a hotel before you book it if there is a train that goes by every 20 minutes and blows it's horn all night. Believe it or not, this happened to us as 2 different locations! Lesson learned! Despite all the wonderful fun- it always feels good to get home safely to your own bed! When I get more time I'll post some more fun pics and videos!

Working Woman!

Last week and this week I've been helping out on one of the construction sites running the compactor. Every summer I try to get a little time on it and this last week they needed someone, so Parri, Lauren and I took shifts and had a great time. The extra money doesn't hurt either! Here's a picture of how truly "cool" (not) I look on the machine! In case you can't quite read it, my hard hat reads "Superpaije". :)I also got a picture of Brett running the humongous scraper!

Bree's Tolo

Bree had her Tolo dance last weekend. She asked if I would prepare a special meal for her and her friends before the dance. It was a lot of fun. I borrowed some nice dishes, goblets, silverware and tablecloths from my Mom and made a really pretty table for them. Their menu included: Chicken Cordon Bleu, my famous mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and strawberry cheesecake. It was delicious! Anyhow, Bree and one friend did not have dates (obviously) but 2 of her other friends did, so there were 4 girls and 2 boys here. They were all so cute. Tom and I had a good time serving their dinner and listening to them laugh and talk and really enjoy themselves. Here are some pictures:

Bridget's Free Throw!

So, most of you know that I coached Bridget's basketball team this year. They did such a great job, I had a lot of fun! However, it's really tricky to get pics and video when you are coaching. So, this particular game I made sure to get some good shots of Bridget. Here's one of the free throws she made this game!

Motorcycles at Aunt Hilary's

Last weekend, Tom's parents were here to visit. We got a chance to go over to Hilary's (Tom's sisters) house-- well their house is a haven of quads and motorcycles and I thought we might never get our kids to come home after that! They LOVED it- and we realized that Baylee is a real maniac! I can't tell you how many times in the last week that we've been asked "Can I get a quad/motorcycle?" Thanks alot Hilary! No really, thanks Hilary- we had a great time!

Glorious Greenhouse!

Yes, my husband loves me! For Valentine's Day he said (out of the blue, I might add) he was going to build me a greenhouse to replace the cheap-y kit one that collapsed under the snow load last winter! I was so excited and thought I might be dreaming -- there hadn't been any begging, weeping or any other such behavior to precede this declaration! I hadn't even left pictures of greenhouses lying around the house. It's truly better than I could've imagined! He even painted it to match the house--- he HATES to paint! Check out what a stud builder Tom is!

The front of the greenhouse has a little potting shed to hold all of my supplies.side viewSweet organized heaven! LOVE the pegboard!Awesome benches to hold all of my little seedlings!On another funny note, each time Parri has called me this last week, Brynley comes and finds me in the greenhouse and when I answer, Parri says: "Were you in your greenhouse again??"
"Yes, I was -- oh yeah"

Glorious Greenhouse!

Baylee's Basketball Clip

HaPpY BiRtHdAY bAyLeE!!

Ok, so these are really late, but here are some pics from Baylee's bday party! She had some friends over and they stayed the night at Gma and Gpa Palmer's theater room-- best slumber party I've ever done! ;) It's so hard to believe that she's 12 already! She's really enjoying being in the Young Womens' Program and we are so proud to be her lucky parents!

Fundamental Premises of Our Faith - Talk Given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks at Harvard Law School - LDS Newsroom

Fundamental Premises of Our Faith - Talk Given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks at Harvard Law School - LDS Newsroom

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Slideshows

I know I'm a little slow at getting these up...

Childhood Memories with Laura

One of my oldest and dearest friends recently moved to Italy. She came home during the Christmas holiday and I was so excited to spend some time with her. As kids we spent so much time at each other's homes that my parents used to jokingly call her Laura "Palmer". Laura grew up in a home on a beautiful saltwater beach in Silverdale and we spent hours upon hours in the woods making forts, swinging on rope swings her brothers made, and scouring the beach for geoducks and spider crabs. The latter of which we were both afraid of. We obtained countless cuts on our feet from the oyster bed that separated us from the adventures in the water beyond. We used to dance to her dad's record player upstairs and were both afraid (after dark) of the giant real moose head that hung there. We even used to run around the house in our "Under-roos" (some of you may remember them) Laura had Wonder Woman and I had Bat Girl. I was also never afraid of spiders or bees until Laura convinced me how utterly frightening they truly are. I am still to this day VERY afraid of spiders. My 5 yr old has to take care of them for me. We used to sing with a fake microphone to the 80's songs by the band Heart and make prank phone calls.(Sorry Mom) Once we even tried to use her dad's telescope to spy on some of our guy friends who were just down the beach at Ben's house. (Didn't work) Anyhow, over the break, I convinced Laura that we should go by her old home and get some pictures to go along with all my fun stories. She agreed and off we went. When we got there, I decided that we should probably ask permission from the homeowner so they didn't call the cops on us. (You know, 2 women in a minivan can really ramp up suspicions) Laura was too chicken to do it, so I said "I'll do it- I'm not afraid". (my heart was beating a little harder than ususal when I approached the door though.) We obtained permission and despite the terribly COLD and drizzly weather we took lots of pics from the outside. We MAY have actually put our camera up to some windows to shoot some of the inside as well, this is still under investigation. It was hard to believe that I hadn't been there for over 20 yrs., especially when I saw that it looked almost identical as it had then. Even the carpeting was still the same! So here a few of the pics we took...

Tom's Namesake

You may not have realized this, but there are 2 Tom Abplanalp's in this world... Tom is named after his Grandpa Tom. Over the Christmas break, we took an unexpected trip to Vernal, UT for Tracy's (Tom's half sister) husband's funeral. The circumstances were very sad and difficult and we continue to pray for her and the rest of the family. We were able to see lots of Tom's family members that we haven't seen for far too long while there. One of them was Grandpa Tom, here are some pics of the family with Grandpa Tom.

Dean (Tom's Dad) and Gpa Tom

Dean, Abbe, Tom, Tom, Paije, Amos, Hillary and Blakely.