Red River, NM -- DAY 1

I'm reporting to you live in Red River, NM, from the confines of room 27 at the Cooper Creek Lodge along the banks of the Red River.  It's approximately 70 degrees outside, overcast with a cool breeze.  We've spent most of the day enjoying the small town sites and playing games. However, this morning was an exercise in patience and futility.  We rounded up all 63 participants in the Johnson Family Reunion -- that's right...63 people and about 25 of them are under the age of 8.  You can only imagine the chaos that ensued when we tried to get EVERYONE to sit/stand/kneel still for this monumental undertaking. Of course we not only had to take a GIANT family photo, but then we had to take photos of each and every family.  It took no less than 90 minutes.  But in the end it was worth it.

After the photo shoot my brothers Jeff and Ryan and my sisters-in-law Ellie and Jamie and I walked into "down town" and had lunch at Shotgun Willie's Cafe.

 Later, after a few games of Yahtzee and Skip-bo, we walked with all the kids back "down town" for some ice cream.  The evening was caped-off by a few old stories about Hawaiian myths from Grandma Johnson.  It's been a very full day and a great beginning for this family reunion.

Vacation to the wilds of New Mexico

I'm headed out the door in a matter of minutes for the Johnson Family Reunion 2008 in Red River, NM. That's right my mother's family converging on this poor unsuspecting town. I'll be making the 10 hour drive with Jeff and his wife Ellie. I've filled up my iPod and borrowed a few books from my friend (Fablehaven and The Goose Girl -- I'll let you know if they are any good.) If I happen to get access to the internet in Red River, I'll try to post pics from our fun family reunion. You know it's going to be interesting -- food, oodles of family (63 at last count), talent shows, ukeleles, white water rafting, more food, games and more food!

Just what you wanted to know about me...

So here are 5 of my favorite things (not including people, because that would require much more than 5 and not including gospel related things either, because that is just one ALL ENCOMPASSING thing; anyways....)


1. My mom's homemade rolls fresh out of the oven with a bit of butter (my mouth is watering just thinking of it).



2. BORN shoes. I love BORN shoes. They are always the most comfortable and the best made shoes. If I could afford it, I would buy nothing but BORN. Fortunately, places like Dillards, Ross, and TJ Max often have BORN shoes for ridiculously low prices (i.e.- $13). I actually had to retire my first pair of BORN sandles this year (I had them for 6+ years and they've been to 4 different countries.)


3. Flowers. I absolutely love flowers. I always tell myself that when I get rich someday, I'm going to have fresh flowers in my home every week. Till then I occasionally splurge on a bouquet for Costco.


4. Italian gelato. Note that it is ITALIAN gelato that I love. I have yet to find a single gelato shop here in the States that makes gelato anywhere near as good as it is in Italy. I loved it so much that I made it a point to have some every single day while I was in Italy. Yummmmm!!


5. Scrapbooking. If you know me at all, you know I love to scrapbook. If it's important to me, I've put it in a scrapbook somewhere. Besides that, It's a terrific artistic outlet. As I tell everyone, I can't paint or draw a straight line, but I can put stickers on a page with photos.


Enough about me...What do you love??

A little bit of everything & Happy Birthday, Jacob!

So it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, not that a whole lot has happened in the mean time. Rather than bore you with all the monotonous details here are the highlights.

My nephew, Jacob's birthday is today and he's turning 5. Happy birthday, Jacob. Yesterday my mom and I took Jacob and his brother Tyler out to lunch for his birthday. He chose Chick-fil-A as his restaurant (I think it was more for the play area than the cuisine) and we made a stop at Party Place (a party supply store with a pretty good unique candy isle) so that he and Tyler could pick out a candy. Feeling nostalgic, I picked out some Pop-Rock candy. Of course the boys wanted to try some, that is until I put some of the candy in my mouth and they heard all the snapping and popping. Nevertheless, Jacob decided he wanted to give it a try. It was all rather humorous.

This past Sunday night my parents and my brother Jeff with his wife Ellie came over to my apartment for dinner. We ended the evening with a pit of Wii. My dad has recently discovered the joys of Wii Sports, in particular Wii Golfing. He's really taken with, even more than Guitar Hero. So Sunday night we all did a few rounds of Golf and played a few Bowling games. Even my mom got into it. We're now considering getting Grandpa Schaub a Wii, once we figured out that you can play Golf while sitting down. My Grandpa has always loved to golf, but now that he's 89, he doesn't have the physical capacity to play, so we think this may be a great alternative.

I just heard some great news this week. My adorable cousin Jeana recently got engaged. Yahoo!! Congrats goes out to Jeana and her man (whom we've not met yet). He is one lucky dude.