www.micahandlindsey.com

This morning, we all got up and I asked if anyone had any nightmares.  (My dream was that we were all taken by bad guys to a cliff where a mammoth fire was going to engulf us.  Kind of a huge combination of all of last night’s events.)   Cade said no, but told me the following story.  He was sleeping with Chloe in the bed.  She said she was scared, so in an effort to make her feel better Cade said, “Chloe, picture yourself frolicking around in a huge field of beautiful flowers.  And you are eating a chocolate frosted cupcake with sprinkles.  You are skipping and playing.”  By this time she was feeling much better.  Then Cade said, “It is nice and sunny and you are jumping in the flowers….WHEN A DEAD GUY GETS OUT AND GRABS YOU!”  She screamed and started crying again.  Megan got so mad at him and sent him to sleep on the floor for the second night in a row!  Classic!

I know this post won’t do the story justice, but for record keeping’s sake….it must be written down.  So tristen and I pride ourselves on being really fun aunts.  Our nieces and nephews have so many stories about us that will be lifelong memories.   But I think tonight may have been the topper of them all.  And we definitely had a culprit….our other sister Megan!

We are staying in St. George, UT for a couple of days before we get to Provo/Salt Lake.  It is Monday now, but last Friday a really large forest fire started from lightning.  It is still burning, so after watching the musical Cinderella we came back to our hotel.  On our way, we saw flames on the ridge that didn’t seem really far from our hotel.  So because we are the cool aunts, we got all of the kids in the car to go fire hunting!  We were going to see how close the police would let us get to the fire. 

We headed south on the 15 FWY and got of on the now famous Black Rock Road.  It is the first road in Arizona from Utah.  We got off and turned East and headed for what we thought was the fire.  The road quickly turned into a winding dirt road that was completely desolate.  I guess I started the whole experience off with the following comment, “hey guys, this is exactly how every horror movie starts out. Here we are, driving, laughing and having fun….and then we turn a corner and find a bloody woman standing in the middle of the road trying to stop us.”

At first we were laughing, but between Tristen, Megan and my comments it was getting really creepy.  It was pitch black, and there was no light in sight.  Megan, the driver, kept swerving like she saw something scary to set the mood.  Every time she did, everyone would scream!  Tristen would put her hand out her window and bang on other people’s windows to scare them.  I just kept saying creepy things like if we see a hitchhiker, he is probably a murderer and we shouldn’t stop.  If I wasn’t in on the whole thing, I would have been really scared, but this was still just the beginning. 

We probably drove six miles until we finally hit an abandoned mine with two random semi trucks.  When we got there, Megan began to do a U Turn to turn back.  I told her to go back so we could find someone.  None of the kids were too keen on that idea, so when Megan started going towards the mine again they started screaming….and Trey was starting to cry.  We drove around but didn’t find anyone so we headed back to the freeway.  On our way back, I said that if there was suddenly a barricade with mummies and bloody people holding axes we should stop our car and just run as fast as we could.  At this point Chloe started crying - probably because she was the slowest.  Megan started doing the swerves and sudden braking again which produced mass hysteria every time.  Then I whispered to Megan to pretend like the car was breaking down.  She secretly put the car in neutral and pushed on the gas to make her brand new car was doing something funny.

As she was revving the car, but it was just slowing down, EVERYONE was getting scared.  She said, “Lindsey, what is wrong?”….”Lindsey, did you push a button or something…why is my car acting funny.”  I kept saying things like, “Are you cracking a joke, Megan?” and “why did this have to happen here of all places!?”  Beyond the screaming and yelling in the back, Trey was literally FREAKNG OUT!  He was balling and yelling at the top of his lungs over and over, “CALL THE POLICE!”  I finally picked up the phone and said I was going to call Micah (just so he could here what was going on).  When I said that, Trey yelled back, “DON’T CALL MICAH…CALL THE POLICE!”  By this time -a minute into the car going bad, Chloe and Trey were crying.  Skylar and Cade were freaked out and screaming.  And Megan decided to get a heart.  She started laughing and finally told them it was a joke.  We all started laughing so hard, we were crying -except Trey and Chloe. 

It wasn’t until we got back to the freeway that Trey toughened up.  He then started saying things like, “I was only scared because i thought we were running out of gas.”  and “If we went back, I wouldn’t be scared!”  It was a priceless night, with no sightings of the fires.  I ended it all in a perfect way at the hotel.  When everyone was getting out of the car, I was hiding under the car door and grabbed their foot as they stepped down from the Suburban.  Somehow I scared each one..but especially Trey!

Look how cute Skilly is when she bathes Scout.  Every morning this summer she has begged to bathe him,and I finally snapped a picture of how cute she is when she does it!  I have to admit…she is very good, and has it down to a science.  Skilly gets SO happy whenever she gets to help out, and I think Scout has literally turned into her real life doll.

Ryan came into town for the fourth of July and has not put the baby down!  He has the history of being the baby whisperer, which started when Skylar was the worst baby in history.  (The girl never stopped crying until Ryan or Trilby was holding her.)  Scout loves him, and looks at him and smiles and smiles…and even laughs!

I really think Scout is the most loved baby around!  Whenever anyone comes to my house, the first question is, “Where’s the baby?”  I especially love how every cousin of his is enamored by him.  You would think that because he is the 20th grandchild, the attitude would be, “been there, done that”, but it is the complete opposite.  I actually am to the point where I hand out Veto’s - which means you can’t hold him for the rest of the day.  Skylar got one the other day because I kept telling her to stop kissing him during his nap because she would wake him up.  About three minutes later, there he was with his bright eyes open!  She was SO mad about the veto…but she learned her little lesson!  Now she only does it when I am not looking.

Last night Micah caught the entertainment part of the news when people were walking out of the Transformer’s movie getting interviewed.  They all said it was one of their favorite movies of all time, and a must see!  Micah got so excited, he ran down to the computer to see if there were any more showings last night.  Mind you…it was 11:15pm.  It just so happened there was a midnight showing, and he was battling in his head if he should go or not.  He asked me if I wanted to go, and I tried to act excited, but he saw right through it.  And to be honest, nothing sounded worse to me at that moment.  He called Tacky, but he was too tired.  So his tried and true midnight movie buddy, Calin Clifford, was totally up for the fun.  She was SO excited, she was ready in about five seconds.  Micah said it wasn’t until they were in the car that she asked what movie they were going to see! 

I told Micah he had to take the camera to take pictures for Calin’s new blog and I asked this morning to see them.  Very interesting that Micah is not in even one of them!???  I told him if he went, I was going to blog about him and name it “Nerd Alert”.  When I asked him this morning why he wasn’t in any of the pictures, he said, “if I am not in any picture…than you can’t prove I was there.”  Well then, I guess Calin walked there!

We went to Pines Park for our Rock and Roll Dana Point Concert.  Micah, Skilly Scout and I went early to reserve our spot and set up.  Skylar was watching her best friend Scout and lifting him up in the air like Superman.  Too bad for her that his tummy wasn’t settled completely after eating and he did a number all over her face about four times in a row.  The picture doesn’t even do it justice as her face was completely covered, and she got a big chunk in her mouth. Poor girl, but afterward she did say, “It tasted like chocolate milk.”  How—I am not quite sure!??

The concert was really fun.  The weather was beautiful with a nice breeze.  We had great food.  The music was fun with familiar songs I actually knew some of the words to. (At least I knew how to spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T!) And we had a great spot right in the front.  We went with my family, and our friends Doug and Mary Jolley met us down there.  These concerts make summer so fun!

For Calin and Skylar’s end of year party, they wanted to have a movie night.  Micah and I set up the outdoor theater with a concession stand.  They both invited a group of people…and the big news is they both had boys on the list –Scary!  The funny part is that Trilby said they could both have about ten people, and Calin did just that.  On the other hand, Skylar’s friends just kept coming and coming.  I think she had about 25 people in total.  We had a great time, and the kids all loved it.

Summer is officially here!  Last summer, Micah and I discovered the Dana Point Summer Concert Series, and had a blast at them.  Each Sunday afternoon, Micah head down to the Dana Point Harbor to have a picnic and listen to some fun music.  There is a serious turn out with hundreds -maybe even thousand- of people there.  They have a different theme each week such as rock and roll, reggae, classic rock or cover songs. 

This year Micah found out that there are summer concerts in a lot of cities.  So he put together a calendar of where each was, and what genre the music was.  A little overboard -I Know!  But because of his calendar, we hit up the “Music Under the Stars” in San Juan Capistrano wednesday night.  My mom, Tristen, Calin, Skylar and most importantly…Scout joined in on the fun. (He hung out in Belly’s pirate holder -see picture)  Beyond the music, there were local vendors, and local restaurants like the Sundried Tomato, and Cedar Creek Inn had food available. 

All of the girls but my mom got up and danced most of the time.  And Micah went around and collected everything he could read from the vendors and hung out on the blanket.  My mom also hung out on the blanket and watched and laughed as Tristen would dance behind people who didn’t know she was there.  But the classic of the night was when we all got back to the blanket, and my mom saw a handfull of older people (50’s - 60’s) near us dancing in a group.  My mom leaned over like she had a secret, but instead she innocently and quietly asked, “Is that a mosh pit?”  Tristen and I cracked up!

Micah, Tristen, my Mom, Trilby and I went to a My Ocean charity event last night.  It was very fun, with fabulous food, a Chris Isaak Concert, freebies, a silent auction and a live auction.  As Micah and I walked around the silent auction, I saw about twenty things I wanted to bid on.  Most consisted of extravagant vacations in exotic places, but when they announced 30 seconds left, we were at the cheapest of the four tables.  This is where the local venues, (Orange County Philharmonic Society, Opera houses, Sports stadiums, etc.) put things up to auction on.  When they announced 5 seconds, I saw the paper with “Medievil Times” on it.  The next bid was for $75.00, and I have always wanted to go, so I slapped my pre-registered sticker on it, and they called TIME!  I was the lucky recipient of two tickets, to a place I get to eat with my hands and enjoy the show! Micah was just glad that at the five second mark I wasn’t near the three night stay at the Montage, or any of the first class trips!

After the silent auction and dinner, they had their live auction.  Two fun things transpired.  I bid on a seven night stay at a first class resort in Fiji -including airfare, butler service and about everything else- but was outbid by about $20,000 in the end.  Micah just laughed, but my mom was about to have a heart attack.  The other cool thing that transpired was Hadi, Trilby’s boss, made the largest bid on a single item in the history of Orange County.  He is now the proud owner of a Rolls Royce Phantom with every bell and whistle for a measly $310,000. 

We always have a great time at the charity events.  But nothing topped last year when Kenny Loggins put on the concert, and he publicly dedicated a song to “Lindsey Denison” and then leaned down and kissed me right on the lips!  I wasn’t all that thrilled, but every middle aged woman around me was so jealous, that I did take a little pride in the whole thing!