Love abounds

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day weekend. We finished out the week very busy with attending more Special Olympics events. We were able to visit the figure skating finals however, it is very difficult to take pictures of figure skaters. :) Here are a few pictures of the competitors:

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This is Timothy .... He is a skater from Canada and my favorite. Here he is warming up:

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And here he is in his final routine where he had such great energy and was having so much fun. He skated excellent and his finish was enthusiastic! He took the gold medal for this routine! :)

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From 02142009

We were also blessed to attend the closing ceremonies. This event was a little strange, more of a party for the athletes with us as spectators. It was heartening to see though as the bands played, all the country colors mingling with each other in a great sea of different flags and colors. We could learn so much from this!
On Thursday evening Jordan had a Valentines day dance at her school. She looked so sweet and yet so grown up too. She is such a beautiful girl.
Getting ready:

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From 02142009

On Valentine's day we had a very nice family breakfast:

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Then spent the day watching movies and relaxing. In the evening, Jordan went to babysit and Cobi and I watched an old Audrey Hepburn movie and had a very nice dinner.

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The rest of our weekend has been spent relaxing as a family. Playing aggravation and we are heading to see the movie Coraline this afternoon! It is chilly here, snowing still and we are so ready for spring. Only 53 more days until we leave for Aruba! Yeah!

Winter Fun

Ok, so it has been just about a month since I blogged last and so much has happened. I found out two of my girlfriends are expecting, which is hard for me sometimes but I am so very excited for both of them and can't wait to play with new babies. One will be a second time Momma and the other is expecting her first! Yeah. We have spent as much time as we can find relaxing at home in the evenings and on the weekends but still seem to be pretty busy.
Cute kids at home: Oscar and CeeCee

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We went up to winter carnival in Donnelly last weekend and attended the parade as we try to every year. Cobi drove both ways as I had some dental work done on Friday and was on pain killers off and on all weekend, I slept the whole way up! The weather was better this year as it was sunny and a bit warmer but it is still a mountain winter carnival! We had fun looking at all the sculptures and the parade is always great. Then of course, there's carnival food. :D
Christie and I goofing off:

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This was the grand prize winner, you could walk inside of it and it was really greatly detailed!

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The king and queen inside~

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Looking back at the entrance, yes that's a slide for kids in the foreground! :)

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Here comes the parade:

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Emma and Shelby in the parade excited to be throwing us beads!

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This is a backhoe they dressed up in green tarps to make it look like a dragon. The theme this year was fantasy. :)

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This guy was just chillin in the parade.

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Tropical feelings abound even in these temps :)

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We found a Chargers fan in McCall! Can you believe that?

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The fish who grants the golden wish:

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And one of the coldest Margaritaville's I could imagine~

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Sculpture of Summer fantasy I guess. :)

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This is candyland in snow and ice!

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This one was probably my favorite. It was a giant tree with several trunks with character faces in them that had a very tall castle sculpture on top of it. It was huge!

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the top:

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Some of the faces:

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We've all shared a cold but are starting to mend from it, poor Jordan getting it just this weekend. About a week ago, we received a great gift and are headed to ARUBA in April, (62 days!). We are all super excited about going shopping for swimsuits in a couple of months.
Cobi and I each made pages on facebook and are finding people we haven't talked to in a decade. We're hoping to phase out our myspace page but still have a few friends who don't have a fb and don't want to lose track of them.
Jordan started babysitting this weekend. She watched two sweet kids - a 6 & 4yr old and is watching a 2 & 4yr old next weekend. She did great and is enjoying having some spending money as well as saving for her own pocket money in Aruba.
This weekend has been really fun so far. I connected with my old best friend in high school on Saturday and we went for a very long walk, then had lunch at the house with the family. It was so great to get to talk with her and to redevelop the special relationship we had when we were kids.

The 2009 Winter Special Olympics are in Boise right now. It truly is an amazing event. Friday the delegates from the Jamaican floor hockey team came into my office downtown and we all got to meet them. They are such sweet kids and said it is really cold here, hah! One of my coworkers and I took a walk downtown that afternoon at lunch and reveled in the international feeling our little city has adopted. There were people everywhere downtown. We even met a sweet German woman who is here to watch her daughter figure skate. We took some pictures of her in front of the egyptian theater and city hall for keepsakes.
Cobi, Jordan and I went downtown Sunday to meet up with Eric & Emily and Em's family to watch the figure skating. Outside the ice rink there is an olympic village set up with all sorts of booths with information, pictures and swag about Idaho and the US.
The Olympic flame in the center of the Grove downtown:

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Ice sculpture near the entrance to the ice rink:

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As you walk around there are people of all nationalities speaking all sorts of different languages. It is really awesome. The figure skating was so heartwarming to watch. These athletes give it their all and are concentrating so hard you can feel it. It really is amazing.

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This was my favorite skater, he had so much concentration and determination. He skated great and then was so full of grins when he was done. You can purchase felt flowers to throw on the rink so we threw one out for him, he did great!

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Another skater in the second category up, she was super cute, from Canada.

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As the venue is downtown I look forward to watching the figure skating on my lunch hours this week! We will head to the awards later in the week and also try to catch some of the floor hockey one evening at the fairgrounds.
We hope that everyone is doing wonderful and we'd love to hear news of what you are all up to!
Much love, the Idaho Grazianos.

Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone is having an awesome start to 2009, we have been. Our holiday was relaxing until the fireworks at midnight that really upset the girls and we had to convince them they didn't need to save us which took a bit and then we got some sleep.
Jordan and I went out shopping with her gift cards this weekend and she has some great new school clothes. They have this "vintage" section in juniors where they have patterns of all the shows we watched as teenagers. Vintage? WTF!

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Friday night we joined some friends at the Japanese steakhouse for dinner to celebrate our friend Joanne's birthday as well as ours. The food was delectable and we enjoyed the show, just like Benihana's in Socal, with good sake!
As a family we have been spending much time playing board games and watching movies as well as relaxing in our comfy new bathrobes.
Sunday we went driving up in the mountains and stopped at a hot spring which we luckily had all to ourselves.

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Must have been the 0 degree weather that kept the traffic down. It was so beautiful out and we saw many deer and elk.

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This Momma and baby didn't seem too bothered by our truck, more interested than anything so we took some pictures before steering around them.

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This is Idaho, so serene. Up near Garden Valley.

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This next week will be a long one. Back to the grind for us all. Jordan has school and we have work. We wish for everyone peace, love and magical dreams.
Happy 2009 from the Idaho Grazianos!

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Snow, No Snow, Gumbo, Christmas, Birthdays and More?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone!!!
We hope that you all had a grand Christmas holiday and will have a fantastic New Year! Here in Idaho we have enjoyed a quiet (?) long weekend at home this past weekend. Having been a long time since we blogged, much has transpired.
We have enjoyed getting together with friends and family. A few weeks ago we made gumbo, Louisiana style. Cobi and I learned how to schuck oysters!

From 12142008

From 12142008

The gumbo was fair, think I'll make my own caribbean style sometime soon, without oysters! The hurricanes were flowing and the company was awesome, Ashley & Lucas, Kirin & Zeke and Eric & Emily! We played the game Apples to Apples well into the wee morning.
Then, it snowed and snowed.

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From 12142008

We drove around with hot chocolate to look at lights and get into the holiday spirit on the 23rd. This house is down the street from us and there is not an inch that isn't covered with a light!

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This one is an awesome Christmas dragon! Up the hill behind our neighborhood:

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After a short work week, Kyme got off work early on Wednesday the 24th to bake pies and get the house ready. Paul (Kyme's Dad) came over and we enjoyed burritos before opening gifts and getting into the pie early.
Dad had a little help from Oscar to open his gifts:

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Jordan loved her gifts and especially the PS2 game, she hasn't stopped playing it much since xmas!

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Fire lit and stockings hung with care

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CeeCee opening her gift

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Aika opening hers

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Upon waking the next morning Cobi got to open his birthday gifts in bed to start a fun day! Christmas morning came with full stockings for all puppies, kitties and kids and we enjoyed opening them as well before watching movies.
Oscar opening his stocking

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The girls getting some help from Mom to open theirs

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In the afternoon Kyme made dinner: ham, potatoes and trimmings and afterwards we relaxed. Friday morning Jordan made pancakes for breakfast in bed for Kyme's Birthday, (they were super yummy!). After milling about during a mellow morning at home we went out to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and enjoyed the story immensely. Then home again to hang out for awhile playing Wow until our dinner plans that night. We met a big group of friends at Burger and Brew for big messy cheeseburgers and drinks. It was so great to see everyone turn out to celebrate both our birthdays. That night after bringing home some great homemade mint fudge and one last piece of cheesecake however, CeeCee ate them both while we weren't looking! We were pretty worried about her but the worst of it was a very bad tummy ache for her and some really bad doggie farts for us, Ew!!
Sick puppy!

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Saturday and Sunday we chilled out at home playing new games...
Oscar helping Cobi

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...and just enjoying our house while the snow fell and fell outside. We ended up with over a foot of snow on Saturday and then rain on Sunday so most of it melted away. :( Wish we would have gotten pictures of it but you'll have to use your imaginations, it was white if that helps. :P
Hope everyone is doing great and having a wonderful holiday season. We miss and love you all!!

Two Lies and a Truth

I was tagged by Amber to post 2 lies and a truth. Can you guess which one is true?

#1 At a retail job when I was younger, going to college and living in Washington, my friend and I were the assistant managers. One day one of our co-workers got arrested for cooking the books at our location. She called my friend and asked him to bail her out. We agreed and she gave us her debit card and pin # to remove enough money for the bail, about $500. After getting the money, we talked about it for a little bit and came to the realization that, since our co-worker was 17, we'd be responsible for her getting to court, etc, if we bailed her out. We did not trust or know her well enough to take that responsibility. We ended up picking up 2 other friends and driving to the casino on the nearby Indian reservation, getting a little tipsy on our supermarket purchases along the way. We blew all the bail money at the casino and called the co-worker to let her know that we had informed her parents as to what had been going on and that they could bail her out. Yes, we did end up paying her back for the bail money, but the fun we had was priceless.

#2 This one spring, about ten years ago, I was sitting in Mile Ten hot springs after a long (10 mile!) hike in with a good friend of mine. We had planned to spend the weekend camping near the hot spring for some much needed time away from civilization. We had finished setting up camp and had just settled into the springs when we heard some rustling from the nearby dogwood bushes. We figured it was probably an elk since there were tons in the area and just watched attentively as the rustling proved to be coming closer. We were already trying to be very still and quiet in the hopes to not scare the elk away when to our shock and utter terror, not an elk but a bear came out of said bushes. The friend I was with also happened to be an experienced outdoorsman so we trusted each other’s judgment to continue sitting as still and quiet as possible in hopes this furry terror would move on without incident. After some very excruciatingly long moments where we held our breath and this meandering ursus took forever to finish sniffing the bushes, the bear finally walked on leaving us what we hoped was quite alone. It took us almost an hour before we felt like we could relax and slip out of the springs but it was an awesome story to tell when we got back to work the next week.

#3 When I was 19 I moved to Northern Cali to be closer to my brother. I had trouble finding housing and eventually took a room in a 20 something’s house. He seemed normal, outdoorsy, had two wolf hybrid dogs and a garden, so I figured we’d get on well. A few days after I moved into the house we had a night of roommate getting to know each other drunkenness involving fresh crabs from the coast and way too much tequila. I don’t remember much past about 10pm (yes this was back when I was a lightweight!) When I awoke in the morning, well, when I was awoken at 5am, I was ordered to get in the car. In my still drunken haze I did just that not really knowing what was up and promptly passed back out again once in the passenger seat. When I awoke again of my own accord I found myself in the car of my new roommate about two hours from our home. I was pleasantly informed that I was in control of the situation, as long as I behaved, nothing bad would happen to me as he had guns with him and that we were on our way to a camping trip in the Trinidad forest area of Northern Cali. We arrived at a trailhead, donned packs (he had packed his clothing for me along with boots and extra socks so I could wear enough pairs to make the boots fit) and began to hike. After hiking all day we made camp. I asked how far I could roam and he agreed the nearby creek where he could see me would be fine. I did so, found a nice flat rock and at once began to cry which grew into a wail of epic proportion. Alarmed, my lovely roommate rushed to me and asked what I was doing. I explained I was mourning since he just took me out of my life and couldn’t I at least do that. Oddly enough, he was touched and agreed that it wasn’t fair of him to do so and if I wanted we could hike back out tomorrow. Tentatively I agreed that this was what I wanted to do. I didn’t sleep much, go figure, and was trepidatious the entire next day as we hiked out, got in the car, drove back to the house and went inside. As soon as I was alone for a moment in the house, I left and biked to my brother’s house 30miles up the coastal highway where I stayed until I could get my things and move back to Idaho! My residence in California lasting a whopping 2 weeks.


Post a comment to leave your guess. After a few guesses I'll post the answer. And I tag Nicki!