Car Shopping

I know how much everyone enjoys car shopping, in fact I bet everyone would put it top of the list right? We are doing two different kinds right now and WOW what an experience. Last year we bought a 83 ford ranger from my brother in law so Kolton our new driver would have something to drive. It has been the best truck and we have really enjoyed it. However we need something that he can drive the girls around in and pick up Kenz and all her friends from school. Over the last year we find him taking one of the other three vehicles to drive them around so we need to upgrade. We have also been trying to decide between trading in our sport trac or the Yukon. And the Yukon FINALLY won out. It is the auto that sits in the garage most but when we use it we put on the miles.



Because we are doing the two extreme type of shopping it has been very funny. When we are looking at older cars the salesmen have the funniest things to say.....First you have to go find one it is obvious you are not spending much money when you are looking in the CHEAP lot. Then they will tell you how reliable this piece of garbage car is, and the check engine light is no big deal, the shaking in the back goes away, and when you drive down the road the pulling to the right side is the first they have ever heard. So the search is still on to find the great kid car.



Now the Yukon....Kelly is such a "researcher" shall we say. Car salesmen have pinned him as the typical "engineer" site worker. He goes in with his spread sheet and all the facts. We have are considering 3 different types of vehicles so it make the process so much more painful. We stopped at Phil Meador and looked at an 07 sequoia, I finally had enough of the salesman who was helping us and trying to get us to take it off his lot TODAY......and I finally had to explain to the nice gentleman that he was just a spot on his graph and we would not be taking the car home today. And if he fit Kellys criteria we would be calling him , miles vs price. So the search is on. I love salesmen what fun they are! so I tell then my specs for a new vehicle; leather, heated seats, and DVD. We looked at a sequoia with cloth and the salesman tells me really you don't need the leather you can just buy seat covers, and another says well this has the leather you can just buy one of those covers that plugs in with the seat and it will be heated. And cover the leather I am paying extra for? What a fun experience! and then when we FINALLY find the vehicle Kelly will be on the phone with the dealership for a week negotiating price. I just hope this ends SOON!

Proud mom moment

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to raise my younger siblings. And over the last couple of years I have been lucky to watch them grow and go through life changes experiences. I have been a large part of their weddings, babies, and life in general. It means so much to me that I still get "mom" calls from them and I sometimes treat them like my children. Which they probably don't like. I love that when my sister Robbie got married she called me as she is stuck in Las Vegas traffic and they are late for the ceremony. I know at that moment she just needed to hear everything was going to be just fine and all the pieces would fall in place even though all the family was waiting for the bride and groom. Last mothers day I spent with Clifford as he blessed his new baby that was such a great experience for all of us. Heather practically lived with us when she was a teenager, my kids think of her a the big sister and still treat her as such. Over the last five years we have started this tradition that we take "trips" together. Last year was Yellowstone and even though they made fun of me for emailing them and agenda and great facts about Yellowstone I know they love it! If my "birth children" turn out anything like my siblings I have done a good job.

Yesterday my little sister Robbie graduated from ISU with a business degree, I am SOOO proud of her. We sat through 2 hours of ISU graduation and took some great video footage. I yelled loud when they called her name the entire Holt Area heard me! Congrats Robbie....What a great example.

and now to my great children....Brag moment! Kelsie is now training to run the mile in the 6th grade track meet. As her class was practicing she ran a 7:20 mile beating all the BOYS! GO KELSIE! Kolton at his track meet this week took 4 secs off his mile 5:31! and did a 12:10 2 mile! GO KOLTON! McKenzie at conference this weekend ran a 3:07 half mile cutting off 7 secs of her time! GO KENZ B! I love that my children have taken up running and enjoy it, what FUN!

BUSY....BUSY!

Usually by the time May gets here I am thankful school is almost out. This year is the same! We are SOOOOO busy from April to June I look forward to cutting things out of our lives. I have spent all of my extra time driving kids to activities. Between track, dance, competitions, piano, school projects, training for a marathon and all other small things we are at the end of our fuse. We have been to Utah twice for dance, all over the state of Idaho for track. We actually had one weekend Dance was in Idaho Falls and Koltons track meet was on a Saturday so we bounced back and forth between Hillcrest HS and Idaho Falls HS, and we had a small window during that day to get in a long run. I am not sure exactly how Kelly has found time to study for his finals because I wouldn't have had time to study.

If we can keep up for one more month Summer will be here and life will slow down! I feel displaced from everyone and have not been able to keep up with what is going on with people. I have really missed being able to read people blogs, I hope you are all doing well out there.

I have some sad news to pass on, and some of you will laugh over this! 2 chickens died!! When we went to Utah last weekend 2 of them did not survive. Kenz and Kelsie admitted later they put them in the garden and ate fertilizer!!! OOPS! well we knew it was short lived, so we have one lonely chicken we will see how long it can last in the Williams barnyard!

City VS Country Living

Alright we live in a subdivision....we chose this location based on several factors.

1. Strict covenants

2. Curb and gutter, sidewalks

3. QUIET

We have enjoyed living here, and LOVE the curb and gutter....we will not flood like other neighborhoods (hence the location)

Anyway back to the subject at hand, country farm house or Subdivision. They both offer great things. We choose the neighborhood, and should not cross over to country right? Last year Kenzie's Class hatched chickens for a science project. The offer was put out that the children could take home these fine birds......I say yes because I believe ALL the parents will say yes and they will not have enough for every child. GUESS what? only 3 said yes. Last spring we became the owners of a baby chick. She was very cute and it was fun but after almost dying several times the 3rd time she met her demise.

Kelsie's class is going to hatch DUCKS! NO WAY ARE WE TAKING ONE!!! So McKenzie convinces Kelly we need chickens because our dog Sydney loved the chicken and they were good friends. Friday we swing into Cal store to buy a single chicken and we walk out with 3. Many of you know they funny stories of the last chicken and how it was almost eaten by the neighbors cat. I can only imagine what fun things will happen to these chickens.

Kenzie has always been our animal girl. Wanting every variety of animal, she should have been sent to a farming family! We may need to move Kenzie and our garage that has turned into barnyard out to Ucon.

Quick Trip

I promised the kids that if they helped spring clean we would take a small trip. After talking about a few places...Vegas, Lava, Utah, Wyoming...We all wanted Vegas but we needed to be in Logan Saturday afternoon and I really was not up for a day trip to Vegas, don't think we haven't done it before!

So we all agreed on SLC. We went to Temple Square and the church Museum. It has been a very long time since our kids have been there, the museum has changed so much it was so cool. Shopping is always on the list my kids love the Gateway and they suggested the Mayan for dinner. It was great fun but the food is awful, and the price was higher than I would have liked, so we paid for entertainment.

We booked two rooms at the LaQinta airport INN. I get fab email offers from them so they are always my first choice. Much to our dismay the pool was being renovated our kids were bummed so we looked for a different hotel. We ended up at the Hilton. Have you ever stayed at a Hilton? Our sheets were at least 600 count. The towels you could wrap around yourself 2 times, and we actually used the hotel shampoo because it was good quality. The bed!!! was to die for I just wanted to stay another night. However we did need to get to Logan. We spent some time shopping where we ran into Steve, Jaime, and Lucas? Are we in Twin Falls? That was fun!

The Dance competition lasted a lot later than we thought it would, we expected to get home by 8pm and did not leave town until 10pm. It was such a fun weekend, but so draining!!! good thing I only work 2 days a week so I have time to recover.

Swimming with cousins

Spring break was REALLY long this year.....So what do you do with kids that are home for an entire 10 days? CLEAN and CLEAN I made the kids deep clean their rooms and most of the house. My kids were lucky we got invited to go swimming with our cousins.So we spent the afternoon hanging out with my family... YEAH a small break!

Morty

Today the girls took Morty to beginner obedience school. He just has a few small problems like jumping on strangers and silly stuff so we decided to tackle these. Class was funny today! It was silly to watch Morty sit obediently while all the other dogs were WILD and out of control. If you are looking for a good laugh you need to stop by petsmart on Wednesday night. The cashier told me it was one of the worst classes he has ever seen. The poor dog owners, or maybe we should feel bad for the dogs! Morty looks like an angel and very behaved next to the others. Only 7 more weeks of fun!!!