Monkey War!

Launa, our 4yr old granddaughter, and Glenn (Papa) have an ongoing tease of calling each other "monkey". "You're a monkey." "You're a monkey bum." etc etc You get the idea.

A few weeks ago Launa gave papa a monkey sticker and insisted he put it on his blackberry.
After that Papa found a monkey sticker on the bananas while helping with the groceries. He stuck it on the mirror in the bathroom Launa uses when she's here. When Launa saw it she put her hands on her hips, rolled her eyes, took it off and had me hold her up so that she could put it on Papa's mirror.
Next Papa printed a monkey off of the computer that filled the entire 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper and stuck it on Launa's mirror. Papa came home and didn't find anything on his mirror so thought Launa had given up. Until....that evening he removed the decorative pillow from the bed and there taped onto the pillow he sleeps on was the picture of the monkey. HA! Boy was he surprised.
Days went by and each morning when Launa arrived for me to babysit she'd ask, "Grandma, did Papa put a monkey on my mirror?" He hadn't. Finally she couldn't stand it any longer. She asked me if we could find a picture of a monkey on the computer to put on Papa's mirror. She found one that had 3 monkeys. She split them up and put them in 3 separate places. His mirror, dresser drawer and chest where he places his work bag each evening. (She's so smart to have known these places without any help from me. grin grin) Notice that the monkey Launa chose isn't even a real monkey. She said that the monkey Papa picked wasn't a 'nice' one.
After taping the 3 monkeys an idea developed. Launa will tell you it was HER idea. (again I'm grinning) Together Launa, Kourtnie and I printed out monkey faces and taped them onto Glenn's pictures. You should have heard all the laughter as we cut them and decided which monkey face went onto which picture.

As a side note you need to know that when we remodeled our bedroom 2 years ago I read in several places that a bedroom should be just for the couple. No pictures of kids/grandkids or any family. It is our sanctuary and we have only pictures of the 2 of us. A poster size sunset from Kauai with our silhouettes in the foreground, a wedding picture, Hawaii snapshots and 5 framed photos on the dresser from events we've attended. In other words, lots of faces of Glenn to tape monkey faces onto.

Glenn's reaction when he got home? "It's on! Launa, you'd better watch out!" He also mentioned to me how amazing it was that a 4yr old could do all of this on her own. I told him I agreed and how shocked I was when I walked into our bedroom. :)

The following is Launa's handiwork:
Didn't she do a great job? I can't wait to see what Papa's next move will be.

Memories With Me!

My friend, Kelli, started this today. (Happy 30th Birthday Kelli) It sounded like fun so here goes. A fun new blogging game:

1. Leave one memory that you and I had together as a comment on my blog. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Go Dodger Blue!

I grew up going to Dodger games. My family would go to a lot of them every season. As a teenager I had a t-shirt that said "Hey hey whatta ya Cey?" Remember Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Steve Yeager, Bill Russell....just to name a few? Now THAT was a team. Okay, I'm dating myself. I remember the time my girlfriends and I waited after a game near the locker room and I got to say "hi" to Ron Cey. I was in heaven.

Glenn is a football fan, not so much baseball. But he'll go with me. Now it's just once a season for us. We go with the family for fireworks night. Anyone who has ever gone with us will agree that the Dodger's have the best fireworks they've ever seen.
We went to a game on Saturday. The game went into overtime. Unfortunately we lost. Our friends, Chuck and Katherine went with us and we had a lot of fun!
Too bad I'm so close to the camera and you can hardly see Katherine. We should've stood up to take pictures. I did the same to mom and Judy in the next picture of the family. :)

Visit from Friends!

Tara and family came to California for a visit. Even though she deserted me by moving to Utah last year they still come back for visits because Tara's family lives in the area. I'm so happy!

Tara, Dan, Bryan, Cole & Cody came over on Monday. We hung out by the pool. While the kids (and Dan) had fun swimming Tara and I caught up on everything. It was so much fun. And, they even brought lunch. Walked in with hot dogs, buns and chips. Dan barbecued while I just sat back and relaxed. Glenn & Erika both got home from work in time to see them too.
Launa was happy to see her past babysitter.
The 3 boys:
Launa helped Dan pick up the toys from the pool. A couple of years ago when Tara started watching Launa she wouldn't have anything to do with Dan. Now they're buddies. She had fun in the pool and let Dan take her to the middle.

The Graduate!

Greg graduated from Cal Poly Pomona.

LtoR: Grandma Shirley, Grandma & Grandpa Utter (who came from Arkansas), Greg, Dad & Wenona, nieces Kourtnie & Launa, sister Erika and cousin Vicki.

We all traveled down the night before and stayed in a hotel so we could be there bright and early. The graduation was very nice and we're so proud of Greg.

The next day we had a combination Father's day/graduation brunch at our house.

The family had fun and Glenn & Greg both received some great gifts.

I've been working for months on an afghan for Greg. It was supposed to be a graduation gift but I knew I wouldn't finish it on time. I figured that was okay because I really wanted to give it to him when he moved into his first apartment. He surprised us by telling us that he was moving to Chicago a week after graduation. I showed him the afghan and told him it'll be in the mail.

Greg acting surprised!Glenn & I took Greg to the airport and he's now in Chicago. He and his friend, Chris, got an apartment. Greg has been interviewing for several jobs. We'll get to see Greg in August when we go to Oklahoma for our niece, Amber's, wedding. Amber & Jim live in Chicago too, not far from Greg.
Greg, we're proud of you and we miss you!

Summer Time!

Kourtnie has been in horse camp this past week while Launa has been taking swimming lessons. Anthony was in horse camp too but in Simi Valley with his dad so I didn't get any pictures.

Kourtnie loves the horses and hasn't even minded the over 100 degree weather in Ojai as long as she got to hang out with her new favorite animals. I tried to get to the camp in time to get pictures of her riding but they did it earlier. I think Kourtnie believes she's a new 'horse whisperer'. She would tell me every day about the special connection she had with different horses and how she and the horse could understand each other. I'm really happy she's having so much fun.

Launa took to swimming better than we thought she would. Last summer she wouldn't get off of the step in our pool. On Mother's Day this year she ventured out a little farther but still didn't want to try anything. The first day of swimming she went right in with the teacher and every day did exactly what the teacher told her to do. She even jumped in to the teacher. It was great!

Anthony!

Anthony turned 12 on June 6. He chose Applebees for the family dinner.

Anthony and Allen have been friends since preschool.

Anthony is always happiest if Uncle Greg is there.

The next day was his party at Lazerstar. I had just as much fun as the kids. (even if I was on the losing team for all 4 missions) It had been years since we'd been to Lazerstar. You're never too old to go and have fun!
A week after his birthday Anthony graduated from 6th grade. He'll be going into Middle school next year. His graduation was very nice. He received an academic award that none of us knew he'd be receiving. We're very proud of him!

Mom and Anthony

Grandma & Papa with the graduate

Greatma always supports Anthony

Greatgrandma (Mema) and Greatgrandpa Utter were visiting from Arkansas

Friends

The 'former' Alpha Beta girls went out to dinner for Virginia's birthday. Happy Birthday Virginia! It was also a happy celebration because Virginia had just become a new grandma. We got to see the pictures of her new grandson. SO CUTE!

When I first arrived at the restaurant I was a little nervous. The sign said it was a sushi place. Yucch! But, I knew Virgina wouldn't really pick a place with just sushi. Osabi restaurant is one side sushi and the other is a family restaurant where they cook the food at your table. I hadn't been to a place like this in years. It was so much fun and the food was delicious. They served enough that I was able to take some home for Glenn to eat dinner too. He liked that.