Romeo Family Highlights

Eleanor's Finger

2010-01-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

A word of caution: if you get queezy at the sight of blood, do not look at the following pictures.

If you ask Eleanor what happened, you will probably hear, " Da door got Eleanor tinger" in a kind of remorseful wimper, which it indeed did. It all happened when we were at a fireside hosted by the bishop for the youth. When it was time to leave it was all a bustle with people going in and out of the door, which, by the way, Eleanor loves to open and close for people. Our time to venture out was upon us as we rallied the kids together and struggled to get coats on. When all of a sudden, a piercing scream broke through the chaos. Bishop released her from the jaws of the mighty oak and I sped her to the sink to rinse the blood that was leaving a trail from the door to the kichen. Calmly, I thought, I told Zach that we needed to leave now to go to emergency.

"Well, now calm down Sara."

"I am calm! I see bone. We need to go now!"

With her finger wrapped in a towel and an ice cube on it, we rushed to the hospital and left Ivan in the care of the Bishop and his wife. Poor Eleanor kept jerking her finger away from the ice and towel which made me nervous thinking she was going to rip the remainder of the attached fingertip off. Needless to say, we were put on the fast track of the ER. Three of us held her down with our body weight, so numbing shots could be administered. After some pain medication was also given, she fell asleep. Thankfully she stayed asleep while ten sticthes were sewn, putting her back together. X-rays showed that the tippy top of her bone also broke. So currently we are seeing an orthopedist to make sure it heals well. So far so good. The major concern now is whether her nail will grow back as the cut went right along her nail bed. She lost her fingernail about a month ago and I haven't seen anything yet. The accident happened Nov. 8th, our six year anniversary.

There was a brace on her finger which only lasted about the car trip home.

Day 2, a follow up visit to the ER and removal of the bandage. They said it looked really good. I took their word for it.

Day 10, removal of the stitches from the orthopedist. She was a champ, as they did not use the dissolving kind of thread, each piece had to be cut and yanked out.

The bone is starting to heal, but she tends to avoid using that finger to write or draw. So if it looks like she is flipping you off, she is more than likely just showing favor to the "tinger that got hurt in da door."

Day 60

Disneyland

2009-11-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

The twins were turning thirty this year. So the Romeo family decided to celebrate at Disneyland! It was such a fun vacation and it wasn't even that crazy having 15 people all together, playing for three days and staying at one of the Disney hotels helped. It was a prime age for Sydney. She was able to go on all of the rides except Indiana Jones, not that she was very happy with us after we had her ride Space Mountian and Splash Mountian. Eleanor was equally exctied to be at Disneyland and see Mickey and Minnie, but she didn't care for the scary parts of the Fantasy land rides, such as Snow White or Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Ivan was a trooper. He was never scared and probably was only as cranky as the rest of us when waiting in a long line. Okay, he voiced it a little more openly. We look forard to coming in another couple years or so.

Their first character sighting. You can see the excitement in Sydney's hair.

Sydney and her cousin Alexis about to Bippity Boppitied into princesses. Fairy Godmothers in Training giving Sydney the royal treatment, hair, makeup and nails.

Sydney chose the pop princess look. That is her special guard "where no one can see her make silly faces if she so chooses."

TaDa!

While Eleanor was too young for the Boutique, she still went through her own special transformation to become Tinkerbell. She didn't like wearing the wings.

Aspen, Alexis, Sydney and Eleanor complete with woodland creatures.

Giving the head cheese a squeeze.

Aargh-even boys get to play dress up.

A couple of our favorite princesses in person.

Aunt Allison hosting a teacup party.

Ivan having some male bondong time with cousin Caleb. (We retired the stroller at the park after both straps broke and Ivan lost his lunch, luckily on the last day.)

Happy Birthday to you... Zach and Andy (the one in red)!

Ivan loves his Mickey waffles,

Sydney and Daddy on a big kid ride-jumping jellyfish!

Eleanor expressing how mad she is for not be tall enough for the big kid ride, so sad.

Another ride on the carousel makes it all better.

Mom with Ivan and Eleanor chew-chewing our way through a Bug's Life.

The girls with Minnie. (Ivan was not too thrilled with any of the characters.) Aaah- sweet dreams. Goodnight Disneyland

(Our view from our room.)

Journal Jog

2009-09-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

So once again, I ran in the journal jog. It began back in 2005 when my friend Kris Burst said there a community run that had a stroller division. So we trained for it together with our first born children, Sydney and Kajaani. I have since ran with Eleanor and now it was Ivan's turn. I was definitely not as ready as I was with Sydney, but possibly better prepared than with Eleanor. I don't really know about that, but I did get a faster time. Ivan and I clocked in at 54:09, while Elle and I were 58 minutes. And I don't know about Syd's time. All in all it was pretty fun, even though my head was going to burst from being overheated and I blame that on having a small cold. Amy, my sister, came to support and offer encouragement while watching the girls. Well, really she dropped them off at the bounce houses at the kids corner. After the run we went to my mom's for her annual Air Race Party. Good times.

Valerie (left) was my Carson City training partner and Kris (right) was my stroller buddy.

Ready Set Go!!

We finally made it across the line. 4.8 miles is a long race.

Here's to next year.

The kids are sleeping so I have time to update...

2009-09-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is our bathroom remodel currently under repair. If you think this is gross, you should see the floor leading up to and including the vanity. I at least spared you that photo-Gross!

There was only a tiny leaky that had just started a few weeks ago that I thought should be taken care of. I had no idea what was lurking behind the shower surround, the floor trim and the sink.

A couple of firsts for Sydney, one being Pre-K and the other Ballet! She was excited to start school, but after we went to the open house, September ninth couldn't come fast enough. And of course when I go to pick her up and ask about her day, her reply was, " We had a snack." As I was walking out one of the teachers pulled me to the side and said, "Oh, just so you know when she was eating her pretzel she started choking and threw it up." I guess she was so excited about snack she forgot to chew! What is it about food at "other" places? I fed her lunch right before school and we have pretzels for a snack all the time and still that was her highlight.

Eleanor on the other hand wanted to stay too and cried the entire way home ( five minutes). Since it is a Preschool and not a day care they have to be fully potty trained. I am thinking that I can use that bit of info to my advantage as she is showing no interest to the point of resistance as of now for the toilet.

We have been asking Sydney for a while what she might be interested in doing- soccer, swimming, dancing. But for the most part it has been nothing. Until one day she comes up to me and tells me she wants to be a ballerina. She loves the outfits, which I think is why she became interested. And she is doing better and starting to remember her positions, as am I. Right there she is in first position doing a pliet ( ple-ay I have no idea how to spell it.)

This is Ivan at nine months. I know, skin and bones. He was 19 pounds ( 50th%) and 30 inches(95th%). I have figured out that Ivan's traits are a mosaic of features taken from great-gradpasrents. Tall and skinny-GGrandpa Davis, forhead-GGrandpa Goedde, bright blues-GGrandpa Romeo, cleft chin-GGrandpa Smith, wide smile/big mouth (he can stick his entire first in it)-GGrandma Knell (I am not sure she can fit her fist in, but she has a wide smile) That is what I can pintpoint for now. It has just been so fun comparing old photos and knowing where some these beautiful features popped up from. I love my little Romeo. This is Ivan around ten months. I have taken a super cheeser of both the girls when the four teeth have come in. His was a particularly difficult shot because while he does smile his top lip rarely curls back enough to see his pearly whites. In the end I had to take the photo from a lower vantage point. This is Eleanor July fourth, being 2 1/4 years old and having only one haircut. And that was nothing from the top just a couple snips to remove the mullet. I could take her whispies no more. So I got out the clippers! She now sports a pixie and as my sister and I were discussing just recently, you have to have a cute feminine face to pull it off. Now tell me can it get any cuter than this? What a doll. This is actually one of her best face photos as she usually gets all "focused" for the camera.

I love my roots and branches

2009-06-20T00:30:00.000-07:00

When Sydney first wakes up in the morning it is either, " I am hungry. I want breakfast." or "What are we going to do today?" And that is her coming to rouse me out of bed because, I am sorry, 6:30 is too early to wake up on ones own accord. Anyway, one of her ideas was that we needed to have a Fancy Nancy night out. I think it took about two weeks of hourly recommending, starting at 6:30 am, before we were actually able to pencil it in. So we put on our fancy clothes with as many accessories as manageable and went to Burger King to eat. Sydney was thrilled, but her night didn't end there. She and dad went to a children's production of Beauty and the Beast. She is now is determined to be Belle for Halloween. And when LeFue (sp?), a boy in our ward participating in the production, was at church on Sunday she couldn't get over why Gaston was not there too. It was really hard to keep her quiet as he was passing the sacrament. "But where is Gaston. Mom there is his friend. Look, look, look! Where is the beast?..." Eleanor is always game to dress up and play along. Lucky for Sydney. Unlucky for me when they are older. Ivan is six months and counting ( more like 7.5 now), but because I am a terrible mother and he is the third child this is the closest solo picture that I have of him at that milestone. This was taken Memorial weekend, almost two weeks after being six months. His stats as of June comparing them to Eleanor's two year measurements taken the same day are: Ivan (I) Eleanor (E) (I)weight 18 lbs 50% (E)25 lbs 25% (I)height 29 in 97% (E)34.5 in 50% (I)head circumference 45 cm 75%(E) 48 cm 50% Zach was saying that in about four months their measurements are going to be the same and we'll be asked if they're twins. He's so cute and crawling now too. On our way to Utah for Memorial weekend we took a scenic detour of Lehman caves. It was fun and while I worried how the kids would do in a dank dark cave, they championed through a sixty minute tour. We didn't want to press our luck with the ninety minute one. We did drill them that the number one rule is NO Touching. As you can see we went ahead and strapped Eleanor onto Zach to limit her mobility and ability as there is No Touching of the rock formations. Sydney was pretty upset when she was looking at an article in a magazine featuring Mammoths Caves and kids were climbing all over the place because she knew what the number one rule was (Mammoth caves is not hailed for its rock formations, so it is okay to touch.)

Her favorite formation was, and you could probably ask her and without prompting and she'll answer, the popcorn. You can see the excitement on her face. I just love this picture.

We continued our journey on to Antimony, UT! Where the heck is that? ( I have a shirt asking that same question.) Antimony is in central UT about an hour north of Bryce Canyon and an hour east of Beaver. It is where my grandmother was born and raised and her father played many roles in community such as outside wireman, school bus driver, sheriff and other things that my dad is probably sad that I am not listing, but I just can't remember. Anyway, it is basically the meeting grounds for a Ricketts family reunion and it has been two years since I have been.

This is part of the school ground, which was a one room grade school when my grandmother went and she had to go to a larger neighboring town to go to high school. This particular playground set is newer by about ten years. My sisters and I are just hanging around.

The slide has been there as long as I can remember and it is dangerously tall and metallic. I was behind Eleanor every step of the way. It would not be a trip to Antimony if we did not play at the park. From top to bottom: Aunt Linda, Amy, me, cousin Elizabeth, cousin Sarah, Kristen, cousin Kaitlyn and Paige. The merry-go-round has also been there as long as I can remember. Eleanor loved it even though she looked sick after she got done spinning yet kept coming back for more. Sydney would not cooperate for this photo shoot. The boys needed a photo op too. By looking at the beat red strain on their faces, you can compare and tell the agony of this pose was worse with them then the more agile group of girls given the same circumstances. In this picture, from left to right: Dad, Travis, Stirling, Derek and Zach. One year we did a distance swinging jump competition and Paige was maybe five. She did a belly flop into the sand from quite a hefty height. It was hilarious. I can't remember if we stopped laughing to console the poor child after such a death defying feat. She eventually got over it.

And here is the traditional tractor picture that is a MUST for every year that we visit. I don't even know how long it has been around. I am sure it worked at one point, though all I have ever known it as a picture prop and something to play on when younger. Oh and the cows are the next door neighbors and they are worse then roosters in the morning with all of their mooing. The first year Zach came out a cow was actually giving birth. So you can only imagine the noise that inhibited any kind of sleep that night. My Grandma and my children's Great Grandma, if it isn't obvious, is the one standing to my left behind the big tire. Oh, I love my family.

Recently we were also able to celebrate in the much anticipated graduation of my father. He earned a BS in Environmental Studies. It has been great to see him achieve this long awaited accomplishment, especially knowing the hard work that must come with raising a family in the process. Congrats Dad.

Travis also received his High School diploma (and his eagle scout award) and we look forward to celebrating more accomplishments that come along the wayfrom him. Way to go Trav!

Ivan at Three Months

2009-02-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

He has been such a blessing to our family. He has been a great baby besides the fact that his digestive system is sensitive to the foods I eat including chocolate. I know, bummer, but he is worth it even when I forget and have to suffer through a days worth of excessive spit-up and gas. The videos are of his expanding milestones. Ivan's 2 1/2 month Stats weight 13.4 lb 70% height 25 inches 97% Head c. ? 70%

We are alive...

2009-02-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

But still not on top of things. We downloaded our pictures from the holidays and somehow we are missing all of January's (and while posting pics, I also discovered the ones taken from my sister's wedding are missing. Argh!) But here are a quick couple photos of all things Romeo, other than the most recent, obviously.

This is Eleanor practicing her "cheese"

Cutting down the family Christmas tree

The girls enjoying their hot chocolate

Ivan and Santa

Eleanor not wanting to see Santa

Sydney and Dad making/eating a ginger bread house

Ivan on his blessing day

Yes, he will have blue eyes too

I just thought these pictures were too cute not to share.

Introducing...

2008-11-09T18:23:00.001-08:00

Apgar 9

My first bath!! Father and Son

Romeo 5 and Grandpa Jerry (and Aunt Amy on the phone)

I would like to take the time to "shout out" a big THANK YOU to my mom (taking the pic) and Jerry for having the girls for the weekend. It was so nice being able to just focus on the little man and know that the girls were having just as an exciting time with their grandparents.

Dressed for the ride home. Notice the soccer ball. Time to say goodbye to the hospital and the nursing staff, who were amazed that I did a VBAC. For those who don't know, that is the mascot for the Detroit Red Wings NHL hockey team.

A romantic candle lit dinner to celebrate five years

of a wonderful marriage and successful baby making.

Halloween Fun

2008-11-03T20:29:00.001-08:00

Since we are not yet brave enough to expose the children to knives in which to carve pumpkins, we continued our tradition of painting pumpkins. And while it too can get a little messy, we buy the washable paints and everything wipes down clean within minutes, children included.

I just like the sound effects Eleanor was making.

She was doing pretty good with a brush and then quickly found out how much more fun finger painting could be. Sydney's colorful masterpiece.

The final products. Sydney even painted a little pumpkin for baby brother to be, which we are very anxiously awaiting the arrival.

And then there was Halloween...Actually we had a few parties previous that I was too lame to capture on film. One was the Elder's Quorum church party where we were a family of Detroit Tiger's Fans and I was the baseball. And the other was the church trunk or treat where Zach was a farmer and I was the prize pumpkin. Sydney was Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Eleanor was a purple dragon and thought it fitting to call her Maleficent. I did at least get a couple photos of the aftermath of just going around a couple of blocks. (I was a basketball for Halloween, but we didn't get a good shot of that either.) I thought it was so cute though when we went to our first house and Sydney exclaimed, "This is the best Halloween ever!" Eleanor was done after about five houses. She just really wanted to see the jack-o-lanterns.

Sew Excited

2008-10-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that read the Michigan blog, you might be asking, "Well what did she do with herself for four days without the girls?" The first day I slept in and was a little awestruck with the fact that no one came to wake me and say they were hungry and there were no stinky diapers to be changed. So I lounged around for a bit and then got bored and remembered I had thought of a project that I was going to attempt for this special weekend. Here it is.

I made cradle bedding. The bedding I had was a little outdated. I had looked on the internet and there were some sets for about $50 that were pretty cute, but the ones that were selling for $300 were a lot cuter. I am not saying I would classify this one for as much, but I am just thrilled with how it turned out.

Just some silly random photos

2008-10-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

We had our first snow fall the second weekend of October. Sydney was thrilled at the prospect of catching snowflakes on her tongue and building a snowman. Eleanor was not as happy.

A couple of those run away squash that get left on the vine too long. Eleanor volunteered to cook dinner that night.

Uncle Andy was kind enough to style Eleanor's hair while in Michigan.

These next pictures were taken in the middle of September, and while it was not warm enough to play in the water, Sydney wanted to pretend swim.

Again, it was not really warm enough to swim, hence Eleanor is sporting pants under the swimsuit. It has been mentioned she looks like Steve from Multiplicity.

Michigan

2008-10-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

The reason I did not make the trip. Am I pregnant or is that a basketball under my shirt? The family eating at Bob Evan's, which they did at least once a day.

Even Aunt Megan, who is stationed in Alaska made it out for the wedding. Cute dress, by the way. Alexis and Sydney, the best of cousins. Eleanor with Uncle Steve and Aunt Vic, the parents of the groom- Jeff. Uncle Dale and Aunt Beth with daughters Jordan and newly married Jessica. A four generation shot of GG Craig, G Lee, Uncle Matt and Cousin Caleb. The girls with the " pretty lady", Jamie. Eleanor having a spot of tea with Great Grandma Romeo. Sydney with her favorite man for the weekend, Great Grandpa Romeo. Zach's family is from Michigan, the greater Detroit area to be exact. It is not too often that the long trek is made to see the Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins, but since there was a wedding his family made it a priority to go. The wedding was Oct 4 and that puts me right at the beginning of my ninth month of pregnancy. So Zach boldly went where few men are willing to go and that is on a transcontinental trip with the two girls SOLO. Well he did meet up with his parents and brother and sister-in-law in Las Vegas so he didn't have to do layovers, connections and six hours of fly time completely by himself. But even with that said he had one accident to deal with on the way there and one pukey kid to deal with on the way back. He vows he will never do that, travel with the girls being a single parent, again. Overall, they had a great time in Michigan, buying all sorts of Detroit Tiger paraphernalia, and also were able to spend some quality time with the family.

EleaNOr

2008-10-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well it has happened. As of yesterday, my very vocal, very head-strong child has learned the word NO. Enough said.

First Day of School!

2008-10-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

So we decided to enroll Sydney in a couple of hours of preschool just to give her some classroom experience. She has been wanting to go for a while now and every time we drive by her future elementary school she will proudly state, "That's my school." So her first day was very reminiscent of that in Finding Nemo. She wakes up before the alarm goes off and comes straight to mom's room to make sure that today is the day. We had packed all our necessary items the night before. So we were ready to go. She kept asking me, "Okay, when we get to school you are just going drop me off? And say good bye at the door?" Now these may seem like questions of apprehension, but really she expressing her complete independence of not needing me to stay...at all. And I didn't. Okay I did, but only just long enough to get a couple photos of the BIG day.

She just walked in and made herself comfortable at a learning table. She actually wanted to play in the kitchen, but it was closed for the week because the kids were not cleaning up properly.

This is her being ever so studious as the teacher goes over the letters on her name card to learn name recognition. And she was just as happy to see me back as she was to be dropped off in the beginning. So that made me feel loved. There's nothing better than getting the great loud "Mommy!" when you walk into the room. The response as to what she did at school that day, "We had popcorn for a snack." So it is all worth it.

There and back again

2008-09-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

We were able to take an extended trip to Vegas on this trip. Starting with the Labor Day weekend, we were able to stay in Vegas for a week, which was good because at my size (at 8 months) it takes a while to recover and want to back into a car for another seven hour car ride. The purpose of this trip was to support Paige, my youngest sister, as she was getting baptized. The bonus was that Amy, my older sister, came down from Missouri for the week as well. Double Yeah!

Eleanor and I are not in the picture because she decided to throw the BIGGEST FIT EVER and would not calm down at all. Most the week was spent just visiting and relaxing. I did support Amy as she chopped about eight inches of hair and transitioned to a more natural brown. (Amazingly, her hair was still long enough to hit just at the shoulders.) She looks fabulous and if she ever sends a picture, I'll attach it. I think we ate at Macayo's three times. I love the chips and salsa, but overall I think we decided we don't go there for the food, but to bask in fond family memories (while eating really good chips and salsa). We did spend a day with the Davis fam at Red Rock Canyon. Sydney was being a bit of tortured soul. "I can't walk someone...It's too hard...Someone needs to carry me..." Luckily she has two sturdy young uncles that are willing to do just that. She did have fun rock climbing when we got to a more shaded spot. (I have no pics because the camera battery was dead. This is happening a bit too frequently and I might have to deal with this soon.) Before / After-that is pic from a cell phone and really doesn't do the cut justice. Okay so the funny story with the picture on the right is that my dad had said it was not a very flattering picture of the three of us, Kristen,Myself and Amy, because of the angle that it was taken. Dad said, "It makes you all look heavy, except maybe you Sara." And then Travis joined in, "Yeah, and your the biggest one of them all," which is true because I was eight months pregnant. I did laugh at the comment, lucky for him, because it was just so funny how matter of fact he said it. And then everyone turned at Travis out of a look of astonishment and he turned beet red. He is still young, 17, and needs to learn there are some things you just don't mention in regards to a girl, and one them is weight, particularly how big she is. Better for him to learn with me then answering wrong when his first girlfriend asks if what she is wearing makes her look fat.

Zach enjoyed the peaches the most, besides being with the fams. Inez had received her truckload of peaches just the week before. So the peaches that had not been canned needed to be eaten. He was the man for the job and when those were gone, he was sampling the freshly canned jars. Really he was just doing a little quality control. They are really good peaches though from Inez's uncle's orchard in Utah. Also Matt, Cherie and Caleb came down. So most of the Romeo family was together for the following weekend, all except Megan. We were able to have a nice family birthday dinner with Matt. Happy Birthday Matt. It is always fun too have all the cousins together. Eleanor is more interested in following the older girls around, but soon enough there will be another boy cousin and Caleb won't be the only one playing cars. Lastly, Barb threw a baby shower for "Oscar". We haven't really settled on a name yet, but that is what we have been calling him and that is what Sydney now calls him and gets a little upset when we start talking of other possibilities. Both Great Grandma's were there as well as cousins and aunts from both the Romeo and Davis families. This was the first I was actually excited for a boy because my cousin had brought her month old son. It was just to so cute when Zach was holding Landon and they were wearing matching blues. And I thought, "Oh, he'll have his own little son." Cute, cute. Anyway, I feel well prepared thanks to everyone's generosity.

Here is the matching baby blues-ahhh.

These are Zach's cousin's Amy and Melissa and Aunt Peggy in the background.

My sister Amy, Great Granny and me.

My friend Shauna, who was actually due that day.

Baby Landon, sister Kristen, cousin Elizabeth, Amy, and me

Thank you again to all the family and friends there!

Reunion and ball fun

2008-09-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

Okay so it has been forever and I apologize. Two trips to Vegas and a hubby who has been working 10+ hours and two hours commute time to Tahoe without weekends off has left me tired with no time.

So the first trip to Vegas was Zach's ten year reunion. We weren't really planning on coming since we had planned early on in the year to cut back on our Vegas trips. Ha, I am sure this was trip 5 or 6. Anyway, Andy had decided to go and a friends response was that you can't have just one of twins there. So we came down and it was fun despite them planning a outdoor picnic in VEGAS in AUGUST. It was just 113 that day- no biggy. Oh wait, I was eight months pregnant and a sweat mark had developed between the breast and belly line. Gross! But in the evening, it was an adult night out and the benefit of coming to Vegas is having a plethora of Grandparents to watch the girls. Thanks Romeos.

So here are the twins and their wifees.

This is Zach's pal Lisa and a couple others from his class.

The next big exciting happening was Zach's workday party at wild island with access to everything! Actually this year it was actually a really nice weekend so we spent most of our time at the water park. I didn't get any of the cute pics of Sydney going down the BIG toddler slide by herself in a tube or Eleanor going down a frog slide because the camera battery was dead. But I did get some shots of the go carts and the ball house. We had a super time and if anyone is interested coming next year to help us wrangle three kiddos through a water park, just let us know.

Surprise! Zach and Sydney found mom and and are armed and ready (to throw balls at me).Eleanor is only slightly behind as she tries to stay with big sis Syd,but she has learned that it is a necessary defense move to have a ball in hand at all times.

Zach and Sydney never lost their first place start and Sydney is ready to be the next Danika Patrick. (I am sorry to all race car fans I have know idea how to spell her name.) I find it pretty impressive that I can even name one professional race car driver.

10 Years Ago!!

2008-08-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Since life takes us on many adventures and roads, as we say sometimes, I have lost contact with many of those people who influenced me. With this blog I would like to extend my love and appreciation for all those who have influenced me to make the decisions I have made. My parents woulde be the first. Throughout my life they have supported me in every aspect of my life whether they agreed or not. I am only the man I am today because that's who they raised me to be. In high school I had many friends who were LDS, and more importantly, one even brave enough to invite me to church. Thank you. I dated a girl who helped on the raod to baptism, which I never really thanked. Along that path, friends helped me grow in the gospel through their example. When it came time to serve a mission, a counselor and patriarch sent me home to pray about it. Six months later I was on a mission.

Then I met my first companion in the MTC. He has been an example to me since the day we met and I don't think my mission would have been the same.without him. His family showed nothing but love. Two years in Australia brought 20 something companions, 11 areas and a greater appreciation for Jesus Chrtist and His priesthood.

With a bumpy road and a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father, I met my beautiful wife. Through that experience, I know that it is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we are sealed. We grow each day and year with our little family.

Now as I enter this new chapter in life, I am grateful to all those that have crossed and been on this path with me. I love each of you and keep you in my heart each time I reflect on the past. Don't ever forget the scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants 18:16 "And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me." I am that one soul that all of you have brought unto Him.

I am greatful for the friends who have come into my life through each ward that I have been in.

Thank you, to all those I have lost contact. If you have been around throughout these past ten years, thank you, and please send those who I no longer see here, so I can share my gratitude.

With Love and Thanks,

Zach Romeo

How does your garden grow?

2008-08-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sydney and her sunflower.

In March, my dad and brothers, Trav and Stirl, helped till the soil and turn in some organic material that was piled up on a small slope in our back yard. That was the start of our very first attempts to have our own garden. Zach guffawed at the whole of the experiment, but he did help with hoeing the rows. But to our delight and his surprise, we have been pretty successful. Early in the season we had a huge success with spinach. It was fun to say at dinner, "Hey honey can you go and pick some spinach? I feel like having a salad tonight." But then I let it go to seed. So I don't know if I could have made it last through the summer. Right now I am harvesting about four summer squash a week and using fresh herbs with meals. What a difference that makes! Zach got all masterpiece chef one night and battered and fried the squash, which was pretty dang tasty. I have yet to make bread, but that may happen this weekend. So I will let you know how it turns out. But my favorite right now, which just started ripening, is the tomatoes. Nothing beats a home grown tomato. Delicious. I just eat them all on their own. ( Maybe that will be my substitute for the cookies and dough that helped me add ten pounds to this months weight gain.)

These pictures were taken the beginning of July and the tomato plants in the back have about doubled in size. The little wire supports are doing a pretty poor job right now. And there was one squash that was almost as big as Eleanor. But did I get a picture? No, the camera battery was dead. So we've had success with spinach, red and butter leaf lettuce (but not as much as the spinach), summer squash, tomatoes, oregano, parsley, basil and chives. We have harvested a couple zucchini and there are some green peppers growing, though I thought I only bought red. Do they start out like tomatoes and ripen to a red later? There is a cantaloupe plant growing, but I think it is too late for it to start growing fruit now. It only has blossoms. That is the only plant from seed that transplanted successfully, though. We failed at growing cucumbers, carrots, radishes and peas. We hope to be more experienced farmers next season. So that is how our garden grows. (This blog is dedicated to the boys who started it all.)

Pictures of Camping at Donner

2008-08-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

We tried to keep Eleanor kind of clean, but if you look in between her fingers and at our pants, I am sure you can imagine how dirty she was for the majority of the time camping.

Sydney roasting her very own schmarshmallows for the first time.

The satisfaction that comes from a toasty warm mallow.

Seeing what can be dug up at Donner.

The only time Eleanor was clean.

Snoozing after swimming for three hours. Only to wake up and want to go again.

Camping at Donner

2008-08-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

While Zach was working in Tahoe, we took the opportunity to go camping in his neck of the woods. We stayed at the Donner Memorial State Park camping grounds. The girls loved it. Really we should be taking full advantage of this beautiful area we live in, but life gets busy. Eleanor had only been walking a week or so and she got absolutely filthy. She is fairly stable, but add a little bump and came a little tumble. Then she would come straight to mom. So I was probably just as dirty as she, though I guess it is still better than if she were crawling. Sydney could not wait to roast her first marshmallow. Really, she would repeat over and over how she wanted cook "schmarshmallows." So after a bite or two of hot dog, she put her mallow in the fire. And it maybe stayed in there for about ten seconds. I don't think she cared that her schmarshmallow was in the exact same condition as before it went into the fire. I'm not even sure how many she ate that night, but she wasn't complaining of an upset stomach or of being hungry still so I didn't care. ( I know great parenting- everyone should take notes.) Interestingly enough though, she didn't want to make s'mores. She just ate the barely cooked mallows. Eleanor didn't care for dinner ( she ate avocado instead) or dessert, which was fine with me because that was one less sticky situation I would have to clean up. Zach and I, of course, roasted our marshmallows to perfection and while I had the Reese's variation, Zach enjoyed the classic. Going to bed wasn't too bad. Eleanor just loved that we were all together. So it was hardest just getting her to lie down in one spot. I would say we were all asleep by ten, which was good because Zach still had to go to work in the morning. He was able to get ready without a peep from the girls. So we slept in until it started getting warm. And while Zach was working, the girls and I went swimming in Donner. (It is actually not as cold as you might think. I wasn't tempted at all to eat either of the girls.) So we swam most of the morning. Then I pushed them in the stroller to go on a little hike. They fell asleep pretty fast. So I turned around and went back to camp. After their nap, we had lunch and went swimming again. It was great because Eleanor would be at camp just long enough to be covered in dirt and then we would go wash off in the lake. Zach was able to join us for our afternoon swim and when were done it was schmarshmallow time again! Well almost, we had to have our hot dogs first. I converted Zach to eating hot dogs my way, while camping anyway, by just roasting and then piling a bunch of BBQ chips in the bun with the dog and viola, a masterpiece. Sydney and Eleanor liked the chip idea. And then, of course, dessert. It was great fun. And Sydney keeps asking when we get to go camping again. So we hope to try again before the season ends. Maybe by then Eleanor will be a little more stable and little less dirty. ( I'll try to get the pictures up later. We are experiencing technical difficulties.)

Independence weekend continued...

2008-07-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning with my family, Zach and I drove the girls to Simi Valley to spend time with the Romeo family. Uncle Matt and Aunt Cherie were hosting this weekend because we were all there to celebrate Caleb's first birthday. Yeah Caleb! But for the evening of the Fourth, we ate plenty of frozen lemonade, shaved ice and funnel cake while we waited for the fireworks that were actually pretty well coordinated with the music. Sydney, who normally likes fireworks, decided to empathize with Eleanor's distaste of the booming explosives. So Zach had both girls crying in his lap until they fell asleep. Which really, if it's that loud and scary how do you fall asleep?

The following day, Barb, Allison and myself left all the kiddies with the boys while we went to see Wicked. Yes, it was fabulous. I had heard that it was excellent, but after reading the book I had my doubts. The costumes were fun, the music was great and I found Miss Galinda the most entertaining. They had only included the good parts of the book and even gave it a happy ending, so what was there not to like? Seeing a show like that makes me a little more awe struck of the talents that some people possess. Let's see what am I good at? Dancing, singing? No, but I can sometimes pull together a pretty good tasting dinner. But let's not compare, shall we. So we came home and found the boys had functioned fine, entertaining themselves with the Wii and the kids with a quick trip to the park.

Sunday was the big party for the little man. We all had fun on the farm. It was this great little family establishment with a working orchard where there were pony and tractor rides, a petting zoo and when it came to birthday time, the most delicious chocolate cupcakes with a fudge filling and smooth chocolate icing. And while the food might have been my favorite, the girls loved the pony rides. Eleanor opted out on the first ride, but after seeing Alexis, Sydney and even Caleb have a great time, she didn't pass it up again. Daddy had to go back to work. So he flew out that night. The girls and I concluded our trip on Monday with a ten hour trip back up to Carson. It doesn't really take that long, but when you stop at the park to have lunch at then stop at June Lake to wet your tired tootsies, the time adds up quickly. The girls and I logged about 35 hours of driving time altogether from the start of it all, but it was fun spending so much many special moments with all of te family.

2008-07-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Beginning of Summer

2008-07-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a busy one. Zach was called to work in Tahoe for a month, and the girls and I couldn't just sit at the house alone all day. So we drove down south.

We picked up Aunt Paige from Las Vegas and continued down to San Diego for about five days, where Zach's parents had rented a condo a block from Imperial Beach. We were able to play with Grandma Barbie and Grandpa, Aunt Allison and Uncle Andy and Alexis. Yes, most of our time was spent at the beach either playing in the sand, the ocean or meandering the coast in search of sand dollars. It was hard work, but the girls were glad to do it.

We returned to Vegas to stay for a week. We didn't do too much outside considering it was 113 outside. Eleanor was finally able to get a hold on walking. We stayed with Grandma Nezzie and Grandpa, so she also was really able to practice her stair climb and descent. Aunt Paige was a saint during the day, being very patient playing with her younger nieces. And Uncle Travis was the hero who braved the burning temperatures after coming home from working all day to playing with them on the trampoline and swing set in the evenings. I really did a whole lot of nothing which was fabulous. And we would hear from Zach in the evenings about how much fun he was having trying to dig eight foot holes through granite. But it wouldn't be long until he joined us on the third of July.

I wanted to relive our Independence Day tradition of sleeping on the trampoline the night before. And Aunt Kristen suggested we do the parade in the morning as well. So those who were around- G&G Davis, Kristen, Paige, Travis, Zach, myself and Sydney slept in one big lump through the night on the tramp. Eleanor slept inside (lucky dog). It wasn't too bad, though I did get a little concerned when in the very early morning I literally had to dig Sydney out from under me and some blankets. She was breathing still so all was well. We all started creeping inside around 5am. That put us behind in our other festivities, but once I started making some real racket in the kitchen getting breakfast started we were on a roll again. Derik and Zach raised the flag while Travis played the national anthem with his trumpet. Then Travis and Derik lit thirteen fire crackers commemorating the thirteen colonies, which was a down-sized replacement of what my dad used to do with homemade bombs. After saying the pledge, led by Paige, we decorated or modes of transportation for the parade. Great-grandma Knell was our Grand Marshall, riding in style on the back of Derik's truck. The rest of us rode bike's, wagons or walked the block around the neighborhood. We had three strangers on bikes join our little parade, most onlookers would honk or wave. I think Sydeny would have fallen asleep had it lasted much longer. She was still recovering from a late night. But when all was said and done, it was a great way to start the day.

Disney World

2008-07-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

We had to pull to the side of the road for the picture of the Mickey transmission line. But that was the one picture Zach brought in to work to show the boys.

Sydney played hard all day until we took her to Small World. And can you really blame her for taking a snooze then?

We almost didn't get this picture because Zach was taking too long laughing at how frightened Eleanor was of Minnie.

A late update of Disney World. Sydney loved it all- the rides, the characters, the ice cream stands every fifty feet. Eleanor was a trooper. It only took her a day to adjust to the idea she wasn't going to be laid in a comfortable bed for nap and that the stroller would have to suffice. She like Sydney had fun on the rides and loved the frozen lemonade, but the characters she did not like at all. We all had a great time. Zach was even able to ride the coasters while the girls and I caught a paprade or two. Overall, the entire FL vacation was a huge success.

Playing with the alligators

2008-06-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time in Florida despite everyone being sick at some point. Our first stop was to Ft. Lauderdale where we were able to see and touch the american alligator.

Dad's kiss must have proved to the girls that the alligator wasn't going to bite (that and the tape). So they weren't too shy about giving his hand a little shake. Besides seeing these alligators, we also counted six others in waterways along the road where some people were comfortably fishing -with their babies.

We also all had the opportunity to play in the Atlantic Ocean. Sydney enjoyed romping in and out of the waves with Zach while Eleanor and I were pretty content to play in the sand.