QUICK trip to Rexburg...

Well, after getting home from Philadelphia on Monday, I vowed I wouldn't travel for a while. However, after seeing my hair in the mirror I became desperate, so I called my friend Janet Shirts and asked if she was willing to take a quick 7 hour drive to Rexburg to get our hair done by Lindsay. (I happen to know 2 important things about Janet: 1. She won't let anyone but Lindsay cut her hair - unless she gets really desperate, and then she does it herself, usually with disasterous results! and 2. She had already done her own hair twice since Lindsay had done it last, so she was in need of a 'fix'.) She was agreeable to the journey, so we left for Rexburg at 2:00 Wednesday afternoon - I'd talked to her about it at 12:45... - and we arrived at 10:00 PM Rexburg time. *Remember, we loose an hour going to Rexburg from here... This is a picture of Ava getting the request for services from Janet and me.
This is a picture of Ava checking Lindsay's schedule to see if she could fit us in on Thursday morning. Good luck! She had room for both of us! (she also let us use the couch and floor on Wednesday night!)
And this is the final result of Lindsay's work. I feel MUCH better about public appearances now! I don't have a 6" wide stripe of grey down the middle of my head! I'll have to see her again before I go to Tahoe! Janet looks good, too, we just didn't think about getting a picture of her before we parted ways this afternoon! (we arrived back in Hayden at about 7PM Thursday evening!)

And the finishing touch!

Here are the 'little princesses' or 'Fancy Nancies' dressed in their dad's duds! I think they look a little more like cute hoboes here! Cute hair, girlies!

more posts for Rob!

Water balloon toss at the ward picnic. Emma isn't so sure she likes to play catch with a water balloon! The sack race was fun, but a little strange using plastic bags that tended to blow out at the feet about half way around the tree!
And our team came in second in the egg-white whipping race! Go, team!
Does it look like Abby likes to swing? The higher the better!
Emma is all smiles here! Higher, Grandpa!

more pictures from Philly - just for you, Rob!

We all had a fun Friday with the Bishop and his family at the ginormous pool and later at the ginormous kid's castle playground - followed by a picnic dinner and a castle cake! What fun!



At the ward picnic on Saturday, Emma took aim at one of her 'little friends'. Must make the Italian side of the family so proud! Every princess needs a manicure and pedicure in the hospital, right?

What I did for my Summer Vacation

***OK, I don't have this blog thing down really well yet... that should be obvious due to the fact that my background, though cute, doesn't change each week with a new and totally creative theme. I'm doing good to get pictures posted at all - and these are NOT in the order I intended them to be...
If you want to know what I've done for the past 3 months, start at the bottom of this post and work your way up - sort of. Each 'all caps' heading is part of a new adventure. I started at the bottom in May, and worked my way all the way through today in Philly. Good luck...


AND HERE I AM AGAIN IN PHILLY PLAYING WITH THE GIRLS! This is how we entertain ourselves while we are at home all day while 'dad' is off at school and 'mom' is in the hospital taking care of herself. We play "Fancy Nancy" and dress up as Nancy and her pretend dog (who is actually her little sister). We tried to be authentic to the book, except instead of using black permanent marker for Abby's doggy nose, we used grandma's eyebrow pencil...
Don't you just love the 'sock' ears on this cute puppy? And did you notice the pink boa tail?
And how about the fancy duds on this version of Nancy? Actually, this is princess Emma of Andorra (the part of Philly where this extension of the Griffitts live). The other picture is of Princess Abby of Andorra pretending to be a cute puppy!
And here is the whole royal family - King Trevor, Queen Tamar and the Princesses Emma and Abby. So far, so good! (The Queen Mum took the picture...)

THEN I WENT TO ST. LOUIS FOR HEATHER'S 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!
Here she is blowing out the twisty candles on her very special fresh raspberry/lime cake! YUM-O Of course we had to take the kids - and a few friends and mommies - to Grant's farm to see the animals. These little creatures were a bit shy... But the llamas are pretty self-assured!
And the camels figured out that they could get treats, so they got friendly...
And Bud got a job, so we celebrated with some custard for the rest of us, and a gigantic banana split for Bud! (yes, that's a loaf pan!)

Ashlyn liked the ice cream pretty well...

And Payson thought it was "finger-lickin' good"!

NEXT, COEURIMBA PLAYED THE FOR THE FIRST KPBX KID'S CONCERT OF THE SEASON. We played at Riverpark Square right under the clock tower for a large crowd of kids and their parents. It was a hot, fun day in the park!

FIRST WE WENT TO PHILADELPHIA FOR TREVOR'S WHITE COAT CEREMONY MAY 9TH Here is Trevor with his new white coat with his name on the front! It's official - he survived the first two years of dental school! Notice the wide smiles on both Trevor and Tamar!
We were also there to celebrate Mother's day. Nice!
And Grandpa got a little reading time with Abby. Life doesn't get better than this!

1-2-3 NOT IT!

Well, good news/bad news! Gramma Jamma will NOT be appearing in the local community theatre production of Nunsense after all. The good news is that not only does this free up more of my summer schedule and allow me to visit with my sisters in Tahoe in September to plan our reunion, but I have also added at least one new skill to my ever-increasing repertoire of tricks: I can whistle with 4 AND 2 fingers in my mouth. I must confess, I'm still working on learning how to do more than just spit when I try the one-handed two-finger whistle... but it will come! I'm about 85% successful with the other two versions, however!
The bad news is that no one will ever have the opportunity to watch me sing "I just wanna be a star" on stage in a nun's habit. Oh well, I guess the world will just have to keep waiting for that one. But it would have been good.
I'll see you in the funny papers!
Gramma Jamma!

Whistler's Mother!

OK, biggest news ever! This old Gramma Jamma has just learned to whistle with fingers inserted into my mouth! How cool is this? I can make an ear drum-piercing whistle almost every time I try now, and I just learned how at about 4:30 this afternoon. Let me tell you the story...
Tomorrow (Monday) night I am auditioning for Nunsense, the musical. I would like to be Sister Robert Ann, the street-wise Nun with the New York accent. Well, I have thought for quite a while now that being able to perform one of those shrill whistles would be a great assett for that part, so today with so much family around, I thought I'd ask who knew how to do that so they could teach me. I thought, perhaps by September I would have it down pretty well.... Yeah! I got it already! Bobby tried to teach me the 2-finger whistle, and I almost got it a few times, but Kyle came in and showed me how to do the 4-finger whistle (two fingers from each hand) and I got it almost immediately! How fun is that? I've whistled for the whole family (they still think it's funny, but it could get old soon....) and even for the neighbors. They were actually impressed because neither of them could do it! I'm still working on the finger/thumb whistle as I think it could be impressive to be able to do a few versions of the finger-whistle trick. Either way, Dad is actually proud of me, and doesn't complain at all when he's watching golf and I suddenly come out with a loud, shrill whistle and shake him out of his happy place!
OK, everybody whistle now!