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Category Archives: Dallas

January – March

At the end of January we drove up to Portland to visit our friend Kelly. We had a great time with him and ate at yummy restaurants.

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The doughnuts in that place were amazing!
We visited Multnomah Falls, it was raining pretty hard, so we walked long enough to take some pictures and we left, haha. Beautiful falls.

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At the end of February we drove back to Utah so Ben could interview at the University of Utah. Unfortunately he wasn’t accepted and we were pretty disappointed. But at least we spent some time with our families. That’s my younger brother and his wife posing with a silly Dallas.

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We had some fierce ping pong and foosball battles with the Alvords. Good times guys!!

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On St. Patrick’s Day the leprechaun visited Dallas’ breakfast. He got a kick out of that one.

 
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Posted by on May 4, 2012 in ben, Dallas, life, me

 

Playing catch up

Okay, Here are some photos to tell you what the Alvords have been up to.

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He was a Transformer for Halloween. His class had a little parade for the rest of the classes. He got a lot of compliments on his costume, which Ben made! We went to the mall and around the neighborhood later that night.

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We visited the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, they even had a treasure hunt for kids. Its a great place with tons of information on that great author. We had lunch nearby and then we headed to a Christmas tree farm to cut our tree. Sorry this picture is not good at all.

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This is Dallas’ first school picture. I can’t believe how grown he looks in it! They also gave him an ID card which he refers to as his ‘credit card’ :)

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This is at Dave and Holly’s holiday party that we went to last weekend. It was great to catch up with them, we met Dave when we first moved to California and we also attended their wedding this summer.

That’s about it for now, we’ve been working on our little Christmas traditions and having a nice time. Also, this coming Wednesday is a very special day for our family and I’ll blog about it as well. Merry Christmas everyone!

 
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Posted by on December 17, 2011 in Dallas, life, me

 

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And he’s off

I now am the mom of a kindergartner.

Kindergarten 2011

He has been asking when does school start all summer long. He’s seen the kids that live upstairs go to school and he wanted to go so bad, now it is his turn and he is so excited. Last Monday we had orientation, we met his teacher, Mrs. Prather and we like her, she’ll be a good teacher for him.

He rides the bus now, I was a bit nervous, he’s so little! But he loves it. He chats with the other kids and has no problem leaving me behind, haha! This picture is from this morning.

School bus!

In Argentina there are no school buses, so I have no clue what that experience must be, but he enjoys it, so that’s all it matters. And the last one in his classroom. They give them breakfast and lunch while he’s there. I heard it’s a really good school and in a few months they’ll be going to the new one they’re building a few blocks from where we live, he’ll be sad about not riding the bus anymore, poor D.

Time truly flies, it looks like just a few months ago I was feeding him on a high chair and now he’s a tall, independent and curious almost 5 year old!

I love those chunky cheeks!

We love you buddy and we’re so proud of you!

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2011 in Dallas, life

 

And they lived happily ever after (that’s my wish!)

Last week Dallas and I flew back home for my brother Nicolas’ wedding. I packed our nice, pretty summery clothes just to find out that rain was on the forecast. Every. Frickin’. Day.

But rain or no rain they got married anyway and they looked so beautiful (sorry, but I have to admit, I have a pretty handsome brother!). And Dallas, wearing a suit. Oh my goodness. I teared up when I finished dressing him, he grows up so fast! I didn’t take a lot of pictures, because I hate that camera of ours, but my dad was awesome and got us a new one. So here’s what I got:

Nicolas and Cristine Librandi

My handsome little man!

Mom and me

That hand is my dad’s. He was trying to get some shade for the picture, there was no sun that day, but it was bright enough that we were squinting so bad! Haha, poor guy, he tried.

On Saturday I met with my friend Anabel, which I hadn’t seen since I got married, back in 2004. The one sunny day we had! We went to the Gateway for some ice cream and some shopping and the kids ran around and held hands for a bit, they were so cute together.

Brielle, Dallas and Mathias

Then on Sunday  I had some breakfast with my girl Angi and then my parents and I visited Conner’s grave. We bought him pretty flowers and some toys. Lots of the graves had cute things on them, oh, how I miss to visit him.

Bubbas

It was a great trip, but unfortunately it made me so homesick. As in I want to move back right now. I miss my family, my friends, the mountains, Conner’s grave. So Ben is working extra hard to make sure he gets accepted into the U. I hope, I hope, I hope they accept him! I didn’t realize until now, but Utah is my home. I said this before, but is where I met and married my best friend, where my children were born and were my sweet angel is resting. How can it not be home?

 
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Posted by on May 25, 2011 in Conner, Dallas, Utah

 

New wheels!

A few days before my birthday we started to talk about getting a new car. Our Trailblazer was nice in space but that was about all the pros we could come up with. A guy rear-ended me back in January and did quite a bit of damage, a couple of things needed to be fixed in the engine and it was going to cost a lot of money. Also, we got tired of spending $80 every time we had to fill the tank. And we want to do something for this poor planet.

So we started to look at hybrid cars online. I didn’t know the first thing about hybrids so after looking and looking I decided to go test drive one. That was that mistake I made on my birthday, those guys were awful, the whole experience felt so wrong, so we walked out on them and looked elsewhere. I honestly did not know if we were going to be able to find a car if every single car salesman out there was like those idiots.

But last week we went to a Toyota dealer and talked to the guy and this time was so much better. He was not pushy at all, treated us really nice and we got a great deal treading in our Trailblazer and on the monthly payments on the new car. They didn’t have the color we wanted so we had to come back the next day and finish all the papers. Wanna see?

We love it! It’s insanely quiet, and you don’t even need a key to turn it on. Tons of space and its just so sleek and modern! Isn’t it a great color?

We got season passes to California’s Great America and Gilroy Gardens. In 2009 we got season passes to Six Flags in Vallejo and we had a great time, so this year we wanted to try something else. GA is smaller than Six Flags but its a fun park. We went on a date night for Halloween and took D trick or treating before they closed down for the season. Yesterday was the first time we could visit this year, so we checked out Gilroy Gardens instead.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures as we didn’t have a lot of time, we got there after 3pm and they close at 6. It has mostly kid rides so Dallas is going to have a lot of fun exploring this summer. Ben and him did get to go on a bigger roller coaster, he was so excited. Me? Not so much, because when I looked at the map, it said that the ride was a high thrill ride and it had a freaking black diamond next to it! I was thinking: “Wait! My baby is in there!’ But they were already in line and I knew Ben would keep him safe. Turns out that he loved it!

He looks almost too big for this ride, but the sign said under 48″, haha!

Paddle boats

They also had a small lake and a bunch of paddle boats in the shape of swans and ducks. I went alone in one and Ben and D in another. I couldn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to get distracted and fall in the water! I made it to some waterfalls and back, but I noticed that Ben and Dallas didn’t make it as far as I did and they were already back on the dock. When I caught up with them Ben told me that the weight difference was too much and he couldn’t steer right. I felt bad for them, next time we go I’ll take D with me so Ben can have a nice boat ride.

Now I’m looking forward to Utah in 2 weeks! It’s Nico’s wedding and I get to take a few days off work and go have a great time visiting with friends and family. I really cannot wait.

 
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Posted by on May 3, 2011 in ben, Dallas, me, Memories...

 

Howdy

Hey… whoever is still clicking on a link to this blog… probably my friend Andrea (hi girl!) and my lovely sis in law (hi Amy!)

I was not planning on taking a long vacation from blogging, yet, I did. So what did I do all these months? Let’s see… sometimes, I did too much. You guys, I’ve been so stressed lately, which is probably why I got so sick this past weekend (along with husband and kiddo, we were a sight to see, I tell you what!)

We are settled in our little place. It’s nice to have free laundry, D has kids to play with, there’s a backyard, and other stuff I mentioned on my last post about this. The commute to work sucks, and part of the big stress was work, still is, since I haven’t changed jobs. I am changing shifts, I will be working during the day so I can spend nights with my guys, I hope things work out a little better. I had my hopes really high for a really good paying  job that didn’t pan out and I was very disappointed, but it wasn’t meant to be.

I finished taking a class for CNAs called Acute care, which prepares you to work in a hospital environment. That was another huge stress, we had to juggle my schedule with Ben’s schedule and thankfully the mom from upstairs has been awesome when I needed someone to watch D. Now that that’s over I can breathe a little more.

Ben started a class to help him prepare for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) it’s still surreal that he’s preparing to one day become a doctor, he’ll be a great one too, I know it. He’s really stressed about the amount of studying that test requires and I know that it’s probably nothing compared to the amount of stuff he’ll have to cram once he gets to Med school. Poor guy, I want to help him somehow, but I suppose doing  housework and contributing to our finances will have to do for now. Gosh, I hope I didn’t sound sarcastic, because I wasn’t being sarcastic at all, I know he appreciates what I do around the house.

I’m excited because 1. my younger brother is engaged! He’s been dating this really nice girl, and I couldn’t be happier for them! And 2. we’re heading back to Utah at the end of this month for a few days. Good food and good people! We need a little break before May, which is when Ben takes this beast of a test.

What else…  we bought an iPad, which is such an awesome device. If you don’t have one and don’t know the awesomeness that it is, go to the Apple website and check it out.

On anniversaries and birthdays… December was the rough month, of course. I missed him a lot those days, more than usual, but it was so nice to have family and friends think of us on those days, some of our family members even went to visit his grave on the 21st and that really touched me. 4 years is too long, he would have been 6 years old now… I can’t picture him that old and yet, sometimes I want to, I would love to see what he would look like as an older little boy with that crazy hair and those beautiful big eyes and long eyelashes…

That’s about it for now, I don’t think I have any recent photos, if I upload some more to this computer I’ll come back and post.

 
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Posted by on February 2, 2011 in ben, Conner, Dallas, life, me, Memories...

 

SoG roundup

Well, it’s over. Our awesome summer out and about has come to an end. Ben started his Biology class last weekend. Our weekends are a little busier but we can still do things. After all, Halloween is coming! And Thanksgiving! And Christmas! And some other dates that are not so exciting but I’ll leave those for another post.

Pictures are 1oo times better than my lame writing so here you go:

We took D to Santa Cruz for his b-day. He LOVED the ocean. If I knew how to post a video I would, so you could hear him squeal with delight at the waves coming at him. :D

He got a set of real golf clubs for his birthday, among many other awesome gifts. We are so lucky to have lots of friends and family that love him :)

We had a small birthday party for him. We cooked waaay too much food. The next day we visited a friend in Clovis, who owns a Hunted House. Dallas got really scared of the props, and we visited in the middle of the day, with the lights on, but I’d be equally scared too if I were his age. Then we kept driving south.

Dallas had the time of his life at Disney’s California Adventure. Yes, we drove all the way down there and did not go to Disneyland. We had 2 free tickets and we had to see what DCA was all about. We liked it, but Disneyland is much better. He’s so tall these days that he was able to get on on most of the rides. He’ll be my roller coaster buddy.

And there you have it!

 
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Posted by on October 7, 2010 in Dallas, life, Memories..., The San Francisco Adventure

 

Yeah, it doesnt make much sense to me either, kiddo

D: Where are you going mom?
Me: I’m going to work, buddy.
D: But, why mom?
Me: Because we have to pay bills and buy food.
D: But, why mom?
Me: because that’s what adults do.
D: mmmm… I see.

 
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Posted by on August 18, 2010 in Dallas

 

My Life List: Sparklers with Ben and Dallas

We just got back from a little vacation in Utah. We spent a few days visiting friends and family, meeting a new niece, playing Rock Band, attending a demolition derby and me watching Eclipse with my good friend Angi. We had a great time.

In between those things, I was able to accomplish one of my things from my Life List. We lit some sparklers and we had some fun with them. Dallas enjoyed them, and we enjoyed watching him play with them. It’s the little things, right?

Life List - Sparklers

Happy 4th!

 
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Posted by on July 10, 2010 in ben, Dallas, life, me, Memories..., Utah

 

Camping

It’s been a while since we went camping. The last time I was pregnant with Conner, we went to Dinosaur National Park in Vernal, UT. I was only 5 months along, was feeling great. We had a good time.

The next time we went to Flaming Gorge in 2005 before my brother Lucas left. I wouldn’t call it “camping” since Conner, my mom and I slept in a motel nearby but we still had a great time. (I just read this after publishing it. I guess the Flaming Gorge trip would be the last time I went camping, duh)

Last week we spent 1 night in Yosemite. What a beautiful park! It didn’t go as planned because instead of the 3-4 hours Google maps told us it would take to get there, it took us 7 hours. So we got there at midnight, Ben set up the tent and went to sleep. I was worried that Dallas wouldn’t sleep well since he never spent a night in a tent, I was having visions of me chasing him all over the campsite, or telling him for the 100th time that it was time to sleep, but nope, he did great. I guess 7 hours strapped in a car seat do that to you…

The next morning we had some time to explore a little, so we drove some more and took some pictures.

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A trip is never complete unless he throws a fit!

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Quick! He’s smiling and not trying to grab the camera! Take a picture!

The baby at Yosemite

The baby at Yosemite

He calls his stuffed animals “babies”

El Capitan

El Capitan

After getting some snacks, a magnet (a staple souvenir in our trips) and a sticker for the car, we headed back home. But not without getting lost first! That day I went 2 hours late into work. Oops.

 
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Posted by on August 19, 2009 in ben, Dallas, life, me, Memories...

 
 
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