We're still here, believe it or not!

Hello all, and especially Barlow family members! I realize we have been conspicuously absent from the email and blog scene. My many apologies. I wish I had a good excuse, but all I can come up with is: Mike is working ten hours a day. I'm teaching fifteen piano students a week. Both the kids have been puking their guts out for two weeks now. oh, and our Internet is snail slow, which makes the blogging process a little more difficult.
Okay. Out with all the excuses! The point is, we are still here, and we still love you all! So, here's the latest update on us.
We got a pet spider. Her name is Shelob and she is a Mexican Red knee tarantula. So far Mike and Joshua are having a fabulous time feeding her crickets and scaring my piano students with her.
We had a great weekend in Park city with Mom, Daniel, and Becky. It was so nice to spend some time together and enjoy such a pretty place. Joshua loved watching the ski jumpers practice at the Olympic park, and everyone loved the swimming pool at the hotel. It was the only thing that has made Drewby happy for a week. (The kids are finally both feeling better, count our blessings!)
We have been working on our yard a little more too. We planted three very large maples in the back yard, and got some nice shrubs for the back bed against the fence. It is nice to be married to a landscaper, not to mention a perfectionist. The trees Mike brought home were literally twenty feet high! They are beautiful.
Next week we are taking a trip with my family to Yellowstone. I'm really looking forward to it. Jaussi adventures are never dull. We will be leaving on Wednesday and returning Saturday. So I will definitely blog pictures from that trip.

To all the kids starting a new school year ( and adults): good luck! work hard and have your best year ever!

We love you all and thanks for all your comments. Forgive us for being techno-slackers!!

Deck the house with planks of redwood, fa la la la la!

We've lived in this house for almost three full years now, and this weekend I was finally able to use my sliding glass door! I can't tell you how silly yet exciting that sentance sounds to me! I had all the framing done by Friday, so when my brothers came up on Saturday we were able to pound out the decking, stairs and benches. All that remains to be done now is railings and sealant. It is so nice to have a deck! We need to figure out something for shade though. The benches act as railings along two sides of the deck, which saves alot of space. We are loving it! The other little boy in the first picutre is Joshua's best friend Zachary, who lives next door.

I have been hounded lately about my lack of posting on this blog. I have to admit, I've mostly been lazy about putting my pictures onto the computer, and this is where the hold up has been. But anyway, I'm kicking it into gear! Here are the descriptions for the pictures: 1-Andrew taking a little nap on daddy's knee. 2-Andrew's first birthday (boy was he a happy baby!) and 3- Joshua petting baby pigs at baby animal days out at the historic farm.

Joshua's adventure

Today Joshua and I were making ramen noodles for lunch when he decided to test the "don't touch it, it's still hot" rule. Well, His hand now has blisters in the patern of our stove blister. It has been quite traumatic for him. I didn't take him to the doctor because the blisters weren't popping, but it did require some first aid attention. He is protecting his hand with his life, and getting very good at doing things one-handed. These pictures are of Joshua calling Grandma Barlow to tell her the news

Here are some more pictures....

Disney Land part 1

Okay everyone! Here is the report from our California adventure!

Day one: We left our house at 8:00AM and drove all day long with our friends Andrea and Jason, and their daughters Emma and Alli. (all in the same vehicle). We got to our KOA campsite in pamona at about 10:00PM that night, set up our tents and sacked out! By this time, Andrew was already sick and throwing up every solid meal. Yuck.

Day two: California Adventure park all day long! We saw lightning McQueen and Mater, explored a whole world of Bugs Life rides, Monsters inc rides, and lots of other fun stuff.

Day three: Sunday we woke up to a lake in our tent. It had rained all night, and when we woke up we realized that the rain flap was not doing it's job. we were all soaked, and freezing! It did nothing for poor andrew's illness. He spent the entire trip cuddled on my shoulder. We made an emergency trip to Target for a tarp to put on the tent, and then went to the pier to see the Aquarium of the Pacific. What a mad house! It was soooo busy. But it was really fun because we could pet sting rays and sharks, and they had all kinds of cool displays and tanks. We had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, because you can't go to the coast without getting some great sea food! That night after we got the kids to bed, Jason stayed and played video games while Andrea, Mike, and I went back to disneyland to get on all the adult rides. We rode every adult ride in both parks within 4 hours! That was great!

Day four: Actual Disney Land! We did it all! Mouse ear hats, breakfast with the characters ( that cost a pretty penny but it was so worth it ) all the fun rides. Josh loved the toon town where you could go through Mickey and Minny's houses and then meet them. We just had so much fun! We stayed until the fireworks at 10:00, and then went back to camp.

Day five: Mike, Andrea, and I got up very early to drive down to Hollywood. Mike drove Andrea and I to the Paramount studios, where we went to a taping of Dr. Phil. It was really fun! It ended up being kind of a smutty episode, but the experience was still really fun. So if you like that sort of thing, I think the two episodes were called "caught in the act" and a little bit of "exebitionists". I guess I need to watch them to see if Andrea or I get any face time on national TV! That afternoon, Mike and Jason (who had broken camp and packed the car) picked us up and we started home. We go home at 4:00AM Wednesday morning.

So there you have it! That's the story, and I will keep uploading pictures as fast as my internet connection will allow! Love you all!

Dinosaur Museum

We just realized we totally forgot to post our dino museum pictures. We're what you call "sporadic bloggers". Last month we took Josh and Andrew down to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, where we met with others of the Barlow kind. Joshua absolutely loved it! Especially the T-rex's. In fact, we couldn't keep up with him and Aunt Becky as they raced to the next "cool thing" in the next room, until we got to the T-rex's. At times we forgot we were part of his group. If you haven't gone we would higly recommend it!