thanksgiving ot'seven

so this year was the year to have everyone invade so cal and our house. the hunsakers and remaining heathfield laner's came down via the motor home and a 20 hour trip, being capped off by some rush our traffic. they got here Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning josh and i took the kids (makenzie, damon and ethan) to Disneyland. Rachel came along for the ride gratis and so did jean. we ended up getting on most of the rides that we wanted to.

part of the fun of taking the kids is to see how they react to the characters as well as the rides. one of the places that ethan loves is Mickeys toon town. there at goofy's house you can play in his backyard, there are slides, things to climb on, jump off and just let some energy out. one of the the funniest things that i have ever seen happened here. ethan loves the fact that there is a leaky hose that squirts up water, Ethan likes to fill his mouth up and spit it out. not only does he recycle the water but he guards that feature from all of the other kids in the area with his little lobster pinch. damon saw what was going on and got in on the action. well Damon does not believe in the "dispose of the water in your mouth before leaving the hose area." so damon would walk around with the water, cheeks to capacity. so i am over by the hose area and i loose track of where damon is at for a moment. i look over to the slide to see a man wiping something from his face and shirt. then i hear him say "that kid just spit on me." i am not sure, just then i see damon pop his head out and in that instance i put it together as damon goes down the slide, runs over to the hose and refills. i felt kinda bad not going over and apologizing but i was laughing too hard. don't get in damons way.
towards the end of the night we ended up over near space mountain waiting to see if the line would die down. after grabbing something to eat we were next this giant marble ball. it is 1000 pounds and floats on water. it spins around. josh and i kept slowing it down and spinning it in the opposite direction. our sons had a different idea of what would be fun to do with this giant rock that was constantly wet. ethan and damon would disappear to the opposite side of the ball that we were on and then lick the ball. they would stand there with their tongues extended and just lick it as it went around. by the end their shirts were soaked.
being down here around Hollywood, not that Perris is just over the hill from all of the studios but there is always the chance that you will see some stars. at Disneyland i have seen Ricky Schroder, and a few other not so famous people. but today was to be different we rode on the tea cups with Heidi Klum and her kids. her husband, Seal, was on the side taking photos. i wish that i would have been more attentive to snap up some paparazzi type pictures, but the only ones that i got were not too clear of them. in each of these pictures they are in them, or one of them is in them, just in case you were wondering. they had their faces painted up, so you could not recognize them right off. later that day i ran into some friends from BYUH who were visiting from Vegas.
on Thursday we did the turkey bowl at the park, only to relive the memories of that over the next few days, they were whisked away with the wintergreen smell and some icy hot, getting old stinks. cherisse and i, and we took the kids, went down to the storrs for thanksgiving down there while the rest of the dyers went out to long beach. it was fun to see the monsons and the rest of the gang.
Friday morning we decided that we were going to have thanksgiving with the dyers today. a few jetted out to see if they could find some black Friday deals. Adrian went and picked up luke who flew into Ontario. then the boys took the kids over to the march air museum, but before we stopped by the perris fair grounds to check out the kart racing. after looking at all of the displays inside we then went to look at all of the planes outside. the wind was blowing harder than my sister trying to save a buck on a sandwich in London. Claire and Emily were nice enough to take the kids back to the motor home. we then fought the dust storm to see all the planes. later that day we had the turkey with all of the fixings. i liked it because it seemed like there was the right amount of food, not overdone like the typical dyer thanksgiving. that may have been because my fridge was not bulging with leftovers until 2008.
so once the dishwasher was loaded the guys hopped in the white sienna and rode off west to the LA convention center to check out the auto show. the la auto show is one of the largest in the world. some of the highlights were the concept cars, the $1,000,000 lambo Reventón, the nissan g-tr, Aston Martin’s V-8 Vantage N400, the ferrari's, the $350.000 volvo (why), mercedes, and the Porsche display. old man dyer was amazed that there were no Studebaker's, spend most of his time checking out the Fords, Chevy's and the new Dodge mini-van, and left the show with the most free stuff. he also spent the most time schmoozing and asking questions like, "what is a scion? Dr. heder told me about that i think." afterwards we went in a long search of the Hollywood sign, only to find out that it was not lighted. the evening was capped off by driving by celebrity houses off of sunset. you know that you are not in turner anymore when someone does not have room in their garage, and has to park the Ferrari on the curb in front of their house.
7 am on Saturday morning some early risers kicked off the first ever dyer family fun run. i will have to post the results later. everyones favorite post run highlight was watching ashton burn up the asphalt.
later on we attempted to take family pictures which was mainly a battle of keeping the little boys out of the water and mud. good times trying to organize the brood to get some quality shots in the late afternoon. that night the condensed milk challenge was scratched but the 2007 ping-pong champion was crowned, Luke.
Sunday everyone was up early to make it to church, 8:30 am, and for tessa's baby blessing. cherisse's family sent the precedent by being there 45 minutes and they dyers rolled in to the chapel just in time. afterwards we headed back to our place for some food and to help pack up those who were driving back to OR and UT.

i would just like to say thanks for the help, time, effort, and the memories of this family function. thanks.

a little bit of everything

okay -- i lost the link so i can just do this myself. but here's some updates.
1) you dont have to post it, there's some language issues, but have you seen this? http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74 will ferrell faces off with Pearl the 2 year old beer-loving, potty-mouth landlord.
2) a few pictures of emily's graduation
3) a few pictures of CHS's new face lift.
ta-ta!

Gems from the basement

Some classics unearthed from the basement.

I am not full of wit at the moment. But if anyone wants to add captions with some humor for these pictures, feel free.

Classic Dyer family photo.

2 words
lauren's glasses!
dad's stash!









The front door.
A) Mom and dad were hoping one of the kids would walk out the front door and disappear, one less mouth to feed.
B) This will show those crazy 7th Day Adventists from knocking on our door!

"thanks for showing us what the super vacuum does but we are not interested, let me show you out the door."
"we have all of this candy and no one comes to trick-or-treat"
notice the flowers to hide the fact that there is a huge pit just on the other side
"why don't you invite your friends over to play?"

Us Dyer kids sure do know how to have us some fun.

Claire is happy to be on this ride.
nobody told us that we needed snow to ride on the sled.
notice all of the rocks and other potential dangers that OSHA would have a hay day with.
another one of austin's games for everyone to participate.
pre thrill-ville
"don't worry Claire i have a good grip around your neck, you will be fine"

Styles for potential mocking

that is what i wore last night when i went down to Disneyland with makenzie and ethan.
this picture was probably taken right after the gates opened, did not want to miss a minute of "happiest place on earth"
8 kids @ Disneyland, what a bold adventure for mom and dad to take us on
i think Luke still has those shorts, ask Greta

As portrayed in this picture, mom does not only pick her own nose, her children's noses, pop pimples, but also extracts the boogies from all of nature.

another one for moms "being funny" portfolio
they don't have moose in england
with a little hollandaise sauce, brown sugar carrots, these things are a delicacy in eastern Africa and we can have them for thanksgiving
just another nostril that mom can check off her list
this was the 35th nose that mom violated in the animal museum that day

Ahh.. no words..

must not have been heathfield lane, i see grass
the first time that Lauren and April started fighting
largely unknow child #9 that lives in the basement with 4 legs, 2 butts, and 2 arms
i know for sure that this is not Luke and Austin, well maybe

teeny-bopper fan

This weekend I went and saw a band called Ratatat. AMAZING! I went with Libby Egan, and we were up in the front row the whole time. This is some good ole instrumental rock and roll -- 60 layers of guitar by 2 guys with 10 fingers each. Safe for all the kiddies to dance to. and yeah... 60 layers of guitar. They can't really play the songs on the album exactly like they are on the album live - Evan Mast (who was right in front of me playing the whole show) says they'd have to have 15 guitrists on stage to do that. They do play it all themselves on the album though. I shamefully acted like a teeny-bopper fan afterwards and they autographed my ticket and took pictures with me. (yeah, yeah, I know i look disgusting, but I just got sweaty with 200+ other people, so what do you expect?) They were really, really nice guys. The band before them was called 120 days from Norway. Hi, the bassist was a freaking foot from my face, it was incredible. Hi, good looking and hot accents.

anyway, this is claire dyer from rexburg signing out.

claires trip to utah

Obviously, here are some of the sienna-na-na-na. Pretty bad-A mormon mommy mini van. You'll have to get an interview of April for these -- but this is the Smith's new ride.
seating for 8
266 HP
double overhead cam
42.9 in. front legroom
40.2 in. rear headroom

119.3 in. wheel base

claire's new crib

Quick blurb from the Rexburg cold front:

I moved between semesters, and I think it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. My roommates know how to do the dishes AND clean up after themselves! Sure, I have to share a room, and when it's really cold, our windows freeze over and we draw on them from the inside -- but it's close to campus, has a washer and dryer, and 3x as spacious. The house came with this pretty sweet hairdresser's chair -- one arm is broke, but we've taken to spinning in it, and then jumping on a bottle or something relatively small (see "see spinning chair" pictures 1-4) We have learned to not play this game after eating. I live with 2 RMs (one went to Milano, Italy, and the other went to Chile) a girl from some boone-dock town in Idaho (Imagine Jefferson, subtract about 500 people and the excessive crack/heroin problem), A girl from Star Valley, Wyoming, and another girl from.. a bunch of places.

Other news outside the house, I quit my telemarketing job because I couldn't keep up with a 12 hour workload there, and a full school load (condensed actually because of the shorter semester) and a weekend job. So yeah, bye bye surveys. But then the very next weekend the restaurant I waitressed at said they were closing, so now I'm an unemployed hobo. I am surprisingly not to bent over this, and have kept a strong facade of optimism.

Well.. that's it.

And there's a picture of Damon in there with a long board.

claires blurb

looks like I have to send you pictures via AOL, but for now here are my blurbs:

Other than Austin's infamous decor de ceiling un sparkling cider incident, I really don't have many stand out memories. Usually Thanksgiving is everyone saying "Hey Claire, do you want some Green beans, parsnip, or broccoli?" and I try to block out those taunts. There was one time when Dad was sleeping on the floor of the yellow room (suprise suprise) and austin took the silver candleabras, set them down and said "hey, little girls, kneel down at the stairs in fron of Dad." "why?" "because I said so, and it's fun" "okay" We really had no idea why we were doing this, but it was funny, and we were giggling, and Austin kept saying "shut up". The big picture was dad's mock funeral. Watch the home video, it's hilarious.
This year I spent down in SL,UT; or more accurately, NSL, UT -- but that way ruins the joke. Thanksgiving was Thanksgiving. Food was made and eaten. The eventful part of my break from Rexburg was hanging out with Libby Egan in the big city. We found an amazing record store, got After-Thanksgiving deals, I had a half hour conversation with someone who couldn't talk, and we were both invited to a polygamist church 20 miles from the Center St. Tracks hub.
First, the conversation with the mute. Libby and I were in a bookstore, separate, looking at different books, and some guy comes up to me. Obviously couldn't talk, because he's waving his hands around - I tell him the time, he shakes his head. I happened to have a notepad, so I gave it to him, and he motioned for me to sit down. Thinking that maybe he needed help, the poor bum, I sit down, and he writes "Hi, what's your name? My name is John." Well fabulous. So the next half hour he's writing down that I should get a loan from a bank, buy a four-plex and rent it out and make "profit $$." and how I shouldn't bank with Wells Fargo because they have a lot of indentity theft. He also asked me if Libby was "my lesbian". I think he was trying to be funny, but it wasn't. Half of the conversation is incoherant, and most of my responses are "oh nice, uh huh". and that was that. Completely weird.
The next morning Libby and I went to get on tracks, and some older, not quite a bum, but still creepy middle aged guy came up and asked if he could borrow a cell phone - Libby let him, he couldn't reach whoever, and then he started talking to us. He asked us how we liked the City, and if we had ever been to a poligamist church. "mm, no." "oh well, there's one about 20 minutes from here. It's incredible! I was there last week, and these people look just like you and me! This one guy sitting on the pew had THREE WIVES! His youngest wife was sitting next to him, and he was chatting with her like there was no tomorrow. and his older wife, was down at the end, taking care of the children, and then his other wife was down at the other end, and she WAS PREGNANT! You two should come. Are there a lot of polygamists where you're from?" "no, there's not really a lot of LDS people where we're from." "oh, you're LDS?" (at this point I think he found out he made a mistake talking to us, because we wern't at all interested in being in his preverted polygamist fantasy) "Yep" "oh well, I talked to a senator, and he said that the church didn't want polygamy because of the publicity, it'll be back in about 50 years." "Alright" and bu theis time we saw our train coming, and we ran away.

halloween memories in turner

Lauren
I remember i was a pumpkin when i was 12 or 13...maybe 14. Who in their right mind is still a pumpkin when they're that old?! Apparently the nerdy, already round Lolly.

Mum

the best Halloween memory I have is when we spent the entire evening in the emergency room because Claire fell out of the white Buick headfirst onto concrete as she saw me coming back to the car with a shopping bag full of candy from Albertsons.

We ended the night at a steak house (the only customers in there) as your inane parents tried to console you with a "good steak dinner treat" rather than candy. The steak house closed not long after our visit. but after a few years of wackiness. Claire now seems to be just perfect!

Claire
I don't remember this, but I've been told that when I was young, maybe 3 years old, I was couped up in the powder blue VW bus with my brothers and sisters waiting for mom to come out of Albertson's with mounds of candy. Now I was either a candy addict at that young age, or I was hopeful to get away from my tormenting brothers and sisters, but I was right up against the door waiting for mom, and as she opened the door I was leaning against, I fell out onto my head. I was rushed to the hostpital (or at least I hope I was rushed to the hostpital, although a delay in preventing any serious head trauma might explain a thing or two) where instead of caring about their little sister's fragile brain, apparently my older brothers and sisters were more concerned about missing their candy expedition.
Things about halloween that I do remember are the days post October 31st when we'd gather in the front room in front of that old tv, and spread our collections on the floor, group candies by type/brand/likability, and trade. Molly always had a death grip on her double bubbles, the coveted candy.
oh! oh! In fifth grade I went trick or treating with the dreamy Tylar Loewen in the suburbs of Stayton. I was a cat, and he was Will Smith in Men In Black. We walked to this lady's house, and she asked him if he was in the mafia in her scary lung cancer/smoker/hoarsy voice, and Tylar said "no" and she said, "do you know what the mafia is?" and he said, "no" and the lady said "well maybe yo' daddy will tell yoo when yoo grow up!" and then she slammed the door on us. In fifth grade it was really funny.

Austin
Halloween was just what we all needed. all hopped up on nerds and mini snickers bars.
I think that i just remember the few times we went into the metro-opolis of Salem and went around taking candy from the city folks. it was definitely worth it going in there and hitting up a bunch of houses. i do remember that i must have been in that borderline age group because i got questioned a lot on my age. i probably got bored of being questioned and figured out some sort of older brother tax that was imposed to those born after March of 1977 and was payable in candy. i think two there was some trading of candy too.
there was also those ward Halloween parties and i looked forward to that because i could put on dads racing jump suit and walk around the 1/3 gym with a navy blue helmet on that was mega hot to wear and kinda heavy. plus those ward parties were always fun.
when makenzie was almost one she was a pixie and we took her out late to do some door knocking. last year at our ward Halloween party was right before Cherisse went into labor. the good ol trunk or treat and we there until like 9 or 10 and a couple hours later we were driving like an angry version of Adrian in a regular car and not in lotus making the rounds at brands hatch.
i remeber at ricks we got a kick out of chasing kids that would wander into our apartment complex and beg for candy. what they did get was chased off of our porch and then they got sweaty as we chased them down the block. poor college kids are eating candy for one of their two meals that they can afford. they were not little kids they were older kids. not like we were out there chasing toddlers down the street.

9400 heathfield lane

so from everyone participation here is what we got on this one.

claire wrote:

I'm going to do my best to be as good with words as austin, but no promises.
The house on heathfield is the only house i've ever known until recently. I was the first baby on heathfield, so it was probably me who produced the first crayon marks all over the walls that had to be painted over -- and i know it was me who stained mom and dad's bathroom carpet with make up - well me with the help of michaela hawks.
I would go on to brag about the crib i have in eastern idaho, but it's not really mine. I'm still under the college freshman clause that states: "father will pay for apartment for sad pathetic poor child".
(okay. so you dont have to post it because it's really lame.. i can send you pictures of my apartment if you want though)

mom wrote:

ah yes.. some of my fondest memories.. the house! (the unfinished house that is!! -many the time Ive bemoaned that fact) I remember living in the trailer while it was being built,,, and one day I sent Austin down to tell Dad dinner was ready and Austin came back with big puffy eyes like he'd been crying..or beaten up. Turns out it wasnt either --he had walked through the tall grass and was obviously allergic to it!. One scorching hot August day Dad oured the footings.. didnt matter that he was the only man there to do it... so we all pitched in.. shoveling concrete that was going hard almost as soon as it came down the chute of the truck.. moving it in wheelbarrows as fast as our puny arms could lift it.. even the concrete truck guy took pity on us and decided to help out! My fondest memory though is.. no.. not the holes/excavations.. that moved form the front to the back and to the front again but the igloo building out of wood blocks in the basement.. you all know what i'm talking about! typical Dyer family stuff.. creative use of mundane objects that we've already moved 3 times and have no real use for anyway! need i say more?! but.. you gotta love it..( and as any of you who have a mortgage know...its home!!!

lolly wrote

Well, now that i have high-speed internet, i can send pics, email, etc no problem... the house. No one ever seemed to be able to walk up or down a flight of stairs to tell someone they had a phone call. It was always yelling...and how many phones were there. Let'd see. one in mom & dad's room, one by the computer, one in the kitchen, one in dad's office... And the little girls can't hardly appreciate the striped, unpadded, industrial carpet. It hid the dirt, the cat whiz, the dog throw up and the droppings from the kitchen that ended up outside the kitchen... and they especially can't remember the car port, and the gray deck that accompanied it until we had to cover the gigantic concrete hole outside the kitchen doors. Alas, there is now a real garage. Now if we could only see about some door openers. or not. That's about it.

rachel said...

I'm glad that "Heathfield Lane" was created. I love seeing the pictures of little Ethan and Makenzie.

claire's pictures from home

well we are all glad to see that emily has finally found someone to hang out with. i can't tell if emily is just taking in the outdoors or just waiting for a dish of food.

claire is dating that guy ryan from the office. as we see from this picture rexburg is getting their own temple. funny how claire sends us a picture of her and ryan hugging, sporting a new dew and a collared shirt. so that tells us either that she is going on a mission when she comes of age or that we can all circle our wagons in rexburg for claires wedding to this new guy.

claires drawing of rachel's boyfriend. indian jones.

dad doing his acting bit. it could be one of a couple of things that he is trying to portray.

• what he looks like after drinking a dr. pepper
• after listening to some fity cent
• the face he will portray for a week after rachel is finally outta the house
• after looking at moms credit card bill
• what do you mean we can't fix the suburban for the 13th time
  
• "another democrat in office."
• what his body will morph into when he finishes the house