have I told you about our exciting excursions lately?

it started with that eventful trip to the bay. we were lucky enough to have jenny come stay with us for a few days over her spring break and we decided to go visit erin while she was here. we arrived friday, late afternoon. during our visit, we walked the streets of china town, saw a fortune cookie factory that was incredibly interesting, toured HM, saw cannons being fired aboard a pirate ship, rode a trolley--jaden even got to hold on to a pole on the outside for one leg of the trip, ate at the rain forest cafe and had our first taste of ethiopian cuisine.
oh yeah and whilst awaiting the arrival of the check at said authentic eatery, a lady comes running to our table asking if we drive an acura suv to only then inform us that it had just been broken into and whatever was attached to our windshield stolen. that would be our portable gps. we always considered its portability a bonus, hum. so saturday, what was supposed to be 45 min. turned into most of the afternoon being spent at the glass shop. of course we had to leave saturday evening because a certain furry somethin' would be arriving in the morning to hide the easter eggs. and we left beckam's stroller at home. oh, and on our way back to erin's house on friday evening our car started making this strange knocking noise. and I'll just stop there.

after a good nights sleep and the morning festivities, including creamed eggs on toast, I got the courage back to pack up again for our road trip to arizona. "our" being me and the boys (just the little ones). we were a little curious about that knocking noise considering the hundreds of miles I'd be covering in the next couple of days so micah set out to access the situation. what he found--oh, two of our lug nuts loose enough to turn with his hand. coincidence? I say NO. had it not been for our lug nut locks, I think we may have been missing more than our gps (micah's not convinced).

I'm happy to report our trip to arizona was perfectly smooth and only eventful by way of visiting with old friends and family (including my 93? year old great, great aunt) and fun kid activities. I have to give a shout out to my incredible boys, who I'd wager are the best 2 and 5 year old road trippers ever. we were on the road for 13 hours each way (broken down to 4 hrs. one day and 9 the next) and there was never a complaint heard or a whine uttered--AMAZING! yes, I realize that will ALL change in 6 months but that's precisely why I did it now. I also have to admit that the only dvd watching was during beckam's one nap (each way), which was a welcome and much deserved reward.

so we've just been recovering lately and trying to get back into the groove. I was in bed by 9:30 the first few days, which really cut into my blogging time--I had no idea how exhausted I was. I think we're back now.

Miriam Lovell Photography

we just returned from a HELL-a-tious (is that a word?) trip to san fransisco. I can't post about it yet because it's all too fresh in my mind that I'm afraid you wouldn't hear any of the positive things about it and there were a few--all I want to do is whine about the series of unfortunate events.

so instead I would LOVE to tell you about the package we found upon our arrival home and how much it brightened my spirits.

our cousin miriam (or minna as she's more commonly known to us) has recently launched a line of photo cards. she is so creative and has cards for any occasion.
and she just sent me my very own box. I am so thrilled! they are beautiful!
I didn't realize that it was an actual photo attached to the card.

this is just one of many photos available at
miriamlovell.com
go there now and see for yourself.
I think my very favorites are Places.
but you must see them all.
right here (click.on.here).

April Fools Fun

Our family takes April Fool's Day pretty seriously. I'm glad they do, it is an important and distinguished holiday.

In a nutshell:

My dad and sister tried to trick me into believing that he was dating a 29 year old woman that was very appreciative of my dad's financial generosity. Amy did a GREAT job of being believably concerned about it. I actually didn't realize she was in on it - I thought my dad was just trying to trick us both.

As payback, I called my mom (serving a mission in South Africa) and then conference called my sister. I kept quite so my sister only thought she was talking to my mom. My sister didn't pick up the first call, so my mom left a message detailing how there was some risk of military action in South Africa and all the missionaries were being removed as a precaution. My mom and her companion were able to either come to a state-side temple or come home. My sister was pretty quick in calling the prank - but she was most surprised that I was in on it.

That was just the beginning.

Once Amy was a part of it, and now that we had my mom's message on the machine. We called all of our siblings and our dad to further perpetuate this April First Fun. We didn't get a hold of two brothers (probably wisely screening their calls) and our sister-in-law answered by saying: "whatever it is we don't believe it." Indeed she didn't buy it - although she did say it was a great attempt after hearing the message from my mom.

The brother I did get a hold of was quite convinced - although he brilliantly inserted his own little lie to quickly flush out whether it was a prank. After a few conversations about it (and without having heard the tape yet) he said that he had told his cousin who told his dad who was calling the Church office because he was so concerned. Nice job Myron. Way to flush out the prank.

My dad was equally suspicious at first, but upon hearing the tape he fell for it hook, line, and sinker. This was most rewarding considering my dad's history of pranks (see below). The best part was when he was looking for the news on the web and I told him I'd found some information on it at www.aprlfls.com - gradually adding more vowels until it was abundantly clear that he had been April FOOLED.

Notable Past Pranks:

My dad made a tape with a delayed start. On the tape was the sound of broken glass and the sounds of someone breaking into the house. When he and my mom went to bed he started the tape and turned the volume up. Not too long later my mom hears the sound of breaking glass and excitedly tries to get my dad to go downstairs because someone's breaking in. My dad cowered under the covers and refused to go down. My mom got so mad at this "chicken" behavior and finally went down on her own - after pounding on my dad as subtle coercion to take care of things - which was unsuccessful.
Lolly would kill me if I tried something like this.

While on her mission, my sister wrote a letter telling us that she was being transfered from New York Spanish speaking to the Salt Lake City Temple Visitor's Center. Before my mom even finished the letter (in which the April Fool's disclaimer was subtly expressed) she called the Bishop and others, very sad about the transfer. This is one of the reasons why this years Payback was so enjoyable.


While at Ricks College, some friends and I switched the living room and dining room furniture between two apartments (and much of their kitchenware) while they were sleeping. We also tied the doorhandles shut in a dorm hall (with facing doorhandles) and lined up all the vacuum cleaners from the entire building in their hall and turned them on.

While on my mission, I sent my zone on an early morning wild-goose hunt walking from chapel to chapel only to find another note saying the meeting got changed to another location. The end result was, of course, no meeting but what was hopefully a motivating activity/lesson (not the prank, the banana splits).

Once we called my mom on her way from California to Salt Lake for General Conference and told her that conference was canceled due to a terrorist threat.

Oh so many more . . . . Like my sister said: We're going to have to assign different days to celebrate this dignified holiday. Then we'd have to keep track of which days were allowable prank days from the different people. This would spice things up even more.