Dominique's Birthday in Island Park

On the 4th of July, I flew with my four children to Utah to return to my "motherland." I usually fly one-way by myself on my annual trek, because Donovan can't take off for the three weeks that I think I need to spend there. Somebody has to work! I don't have any pictures of the Stadium of Fire, but I took my two boys and Jasmine. Dominique and Dreyton thought that the parachuters were fake little men coming down from the sky. It was their first time seeing parachuters that was really cool. When the jets flew over, Dreyton siad, "That was awesome!" However, when Miley Cyrus took the stage to perform, Dreyton booed to the dismay of many a little chick-a-dee (and future zoo-bee) in attendance. I had never seen so many young ladies and girls scowl and give the evil eye as they did to Dreyton. Hopefully, none of them cast any evil spell on him that will actually work.

Donovan flew in on July 16th, and we drove to Island Park on the 17th. Donovan, Jyllian, and I drove through the thriving, metropolitan state of Idaho (AKA the Gem state) to Island Park to meet my family. We were stuck in rush hour traffic just outside of Rexburg as Bro Smith was moving his cattle across the main stop in town along with Bro Jones. We went up there for the first family reunion for the Larry Peterson family (Can you say, "Oh my Larry?!"). There were a lot of people staying in the house/cabin we all rented (47 including my mom's dog, Buddy), and Donovan just loved the togetherness of it all (especially the sharing of bathrooms). Anne and I (mostly Anne), made a red velvet birthday cake for Dominique. Dominique celebrated his 12th birthday in Island Park, Idaho. When we cut the cake, we offered it to the family. Most of them hadn't heard of a red velvet cake. I didn't know what red velvet cake was until I met Donovan and his family enlightend me on this exquisite dessert. The first time I tasted it, I didn't like it. I do like red velvet cake now, but it's not my favorite. Donovan and Dominique love that stuff.
The kids were roasting marshmellows around the camp fire and acted like young pyromaniacs. It was really windy and cold that night. Of course our blood has thinned considerably since we last lived in Utah 12 years ago, and we are now used to Florida weather (AKA the Sunshine state). Dominique actually thought living in Idaho and Montana wouldn't be such a bad idea, but we are thinking less cold and snow is a good thing.

Answer!

He said, "I am goinf to jail for 6 weeks."

Answer!

He said, "I am goinf to jail for 6 weeks."

No hints on this one. And I am not telling the answer either! Think good and hard. .... Does your brain hurt yet?

Riddle III by Dominique

GRANDMA LOTT CAN'T ANSWER!!!
My mom doesn't know I'm doing this, so I will probably get in trouble later.

A man was sentenced by a judge, and the judge told him," You may make a statement. If it is true, I'll sentence you to 4 years of prison. If it is false, I'll sentence you to 6 years of prison." The man told the judge his statement. After that, she let him free. What did he say?

NO INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES ALLOWED, KRISTEN.

First Impressions/past memories of Janae...you gotta leave a comment for this one!

All right, so this is Donovan missing his wife and not working on the manuscript that is due for the meeting tomorrow. And I was thinking of Janae and thought I would try to get a smile on her face while she is away (not that getting a break from me isn't enough for her to get some happiness, mind you). I thought I would write a little about some of my memories of Janae (but still saving the "really juicy ones" for a future date in case I need to use them for blackmai...um, I mean to "brighten her day.")

PLEASE POST ANY OTHER MEMORIES/IMPRESSIONS YOU HAVE HAD OF THIS 4' 11.5" LADY AS YOU HAVE INTERACTED WITH HER (Remember, embarrassment is a demonstration of both love and affection).

So here are just a few...
- My first recollection of Janae is when she came and talked to my friend Todd Tellford in the hallway at Mountain View High School. I thought she was pretty cute, but I later found out she made out with Todd on their date. You go girl!

- Janae and I had Seminary class together our junior year (before we ever started dating). I again thought she was very cute, but I had a difficult time seeing her pretty face as she kept it down on her desk as she slept during class. I am sure it was all for the beauty sleep!

- Our first "date" was not with one another, but we were in the same group that went to prom for our junior year. I remember trying not to stare at her too much as we sat across from one another at the dinner table in the restaurant and also in the limo. I think my date may have sensed something as we never went out again.

- Just before we started dating, we were both at my friend's house (Doug Whimpey...yes, that is his real name, and don't laugh. He and his brothers are some of the toughest people I have met). So Janae's mischievous sister, Julie (some things never change), called and told Janae she had to come home right now as her father was upset she was away from the house. So Janae gets so upset she starts jumping up and down with a little tantrum. Little did I know that I would see that same kind of "spirit" in our future daughters.

- Our first "real date" was great. We were with our best friends (who happened to be dating one another at the time), and it was a ton of fun. The kissing at the end of the date was not bad either. ;) Ok, but don't tell Todd Tellford!

- We have an unspoken law in our family that one must slalom waterski in order to get "in." (By the way, Mike...we need to do some serious talking about how you "snuck"
into the Lott clan.) So Janae was able to go waterskiing quite a bit back in the day. However, she always had the cutest way of saying, "Drag me a little," when she wanted the slack taken out of the rope, and she somehow found a way to plug her nose before her face hit the water every time she fell (except once...and she has only skiied a couple of times since that day back in the mid-90's with a lot of prodding from her worse half).

So I will quit rambling, but I will say I love my wife so much and am extremely glad I am married to her. And I hope she is smiling with those lop-sided dimples as she reads this post.

We kept the dog.

Can you believe I caved? We told the kids that we would take the dog to the animal shelter and possibly adopt her. The chidren fell in love with Daisy, (that's what they are calling her). She came back with a clean bill of health and we told the children we would consider keeping her if she did. I (Janae) was the only one that didn't want a dog, but I have to admit, she is a good dog. The dog is house trained (almost better than Donovan) and is very cuddly (WAY better than Donovan), but she does bark a lot (but then again, this is a lot less noise than Donovan makes).