Dessert

Even though we do not eat with my family for Thanksgiving (we; Lewis, myself and our 4 children decided a few years ago to have our own tradition of eating out on Thanksgiving and going to the movies as a family instead of joining in with the big family meal. It is the one holiday that we have for ourselves.) we do join them for dessert Thanksgiving evening. Everyone brings pie, cake, or ice cream and all of the kids pig out and the grown ups that saved a little space may have a slice or two.

Here is the annual Balmanno kids Thanksgiving Dessert picture. Adam choose not to hold a pie this year but I still made him get into the picture. (Good Grief!! He is getting to old for our family pictures!!!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year we took the kids to the Grand America for our Thanksgiving meal. I get a lot of flack from people for the fact that I do not cook our meal each Thanksgiving. I used to cook. I did cook or help cook at my parents house for the first 10 years of our marriage. Unfortunately my kids do not appreciate the fact that it takes about 8-10 hours to make the big meal and they proceed to take 3 minutes to eat just the turkey and mashed potatoes. They do not like yams, or pie, or green beans or anything else that we make. So going out saves me from feeling like I have wasted a day on pies and a day on the main dishes. Also at the Grand the kids have so many choices to choose from that they eat a ton and we can pretty much be done for the rest of the day. Everyone had a great meal with many desserts and also many healthy options. They had the best turkey that I have ever had in my life. It was very moist and lots of white meat! Here are a few pictures of the kids at the Grand:

After the meal we went to the movies to see Tangled. It was very cute and fun for everyone. Even Adam said,"It wasn't that bad." And coming from him about a movie that is a definite two thumbs up!!

Snow

Not quite the blizzard that they called for, but we did get a enough to play with!!

The girls had a great time sledding and playing all morning long. I stayed inside and made hot chocolate for them when they were done. Even Mojito went out and played for a few minutes before he froze. After that he spent the rest of the day laying by the fireplace and trying to warm up enough to stop shaking.

Let it Snow!!

Look What We Found In Our Yard When We Came Home Last Week From School...

This was in our backyard. After there had been construction on the road behind our property (keeping me awake for 4 nights) for almost a week, all night long every night, we get to come home to this crap in our backyard. It must have rolled or been rolled down the hill from the road and it happened to land on our fire pit. Isn't that nice?

BTW: I did call the company and totally complain after the second night of not sleeping because of the noise and flood lights that kept me awake all night. They offered to put us up in a hotel until they were done. But we have a cat, a dog, 4 kids and both Lewis and I work full time so that was not really an option that we wanted to pursue. They also offered me a weekend in Park City to make up for the trouble. I said okay, and I am still waiting on that to come in the mail. I wonder if it ever will...

Nutcracker

Abigail will be performing a small part in this Nutcracker this next weekend. She is one of the Angels. She is very excited and very nervous at the same time. Come out and see her if you have time!

A Little Preview of Abigail...

Guess what part Abigail has in The Nutcracker?

Doesn't she look beautiful?

Veterans Day

Every year on Veterans Day we have an assembly at Channing Hall and invite all of the student's family members that are veterans. It is always a great time. The first graders sing "Proud to be an American" and it is amazing. They make everyone in the crowd tear up. The third graders sign the Pledge of Allegiance as well.

This year I was especially proud as Abigail sang with the first grade. She did amazing and she really enjoyed singing. The first grade teachers do such a great job with the kids. They explain why the song is important and it makes the kids understand why Veterans Day is an important day for all of us.

I personally have many family members that have served in the military; a brother, mother, father, a grandfather, two father-in-laws, and many cousins. I am proud to come from a family who helps out by serving the country, and protecting the freedoms that I enjoy .

This is what the Frampton's do on a boring Wednesday night at home:

Abigail had a great time doing my hair!!

My Front Porch Decorations

I loved the different color pumpkins that were out this year. I got blue, orange, green, white and yellow. I made this little arrangement on the front porch and I am leaving it through November. Abigail has moved some of my pumpkins around so it looks more like her arrangement in this picture. I am loving having this big fun house; being able to decorate it and enjoy the seasons and holidays in it!!

I Love Fall!!!

Don't you???

Aye Carumba!!

Poor dog!!

Halloween 2010

As you can see here we had many different ideas for pumpkins this year. Adam did the mummy, Jason had the guy drinking a coke, Haley's has a mustache, and Abi's is just happy.

Here is the mask that Lewis wore this year. It may not look it from the picture but I think that this is exactly what Lewis would look like if he was a real zombie. The mask was disgusting. The eyes and mouth moved very realistically. It was nasty!!

Here are all of the grandchildren (minus 1) from my side of the family. I love getting them together for a few minutes and taking a group shot with them all together.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere

We took them to the pumpkin patch back at the beginning of the month but waited until the 29th to carve our pumpkins. Each of the kids got to pick out their own pumpkin, and I was surprised at some of the choices that they made this year. One was green, one was white and one was very small. Of course we had a "normal" one as well. The kids had a great time carving and making their pumpkins their own. I will post a finished picture with the rest of the Halloween stuff.

Last But Not Least

On our last day in Cabo we got up fairly early and went out for a walk around the grounds and out on the beach. Here is the beautiful pool and swim up bar that we ordered food at everyday. They had a big stone pizza oven so that I could have fresh made pizza. And as we know, fresh pizza in the stone oven is the only kind that I like, so I was in heaven!!!!

These are the cabanas on the beach with chairs and table service. I only sat there for a minute because as we all know, I love the beach but not the sand, so I sat at the pool and looked out over the beach everyday instead.
Here is my sexy husband walking on the beach before breakfast on our last day.

After breakfast we decided to go back to the room and pack up most of our stuff and we were just hanging out trying to decide what to do for the day. We had a good five hours before we had to catch the bus to the airport. We decided that we would go and hang out at the pool. So we got all dressed and ready and headed out to the pool where we ran into a guy from his work and his wife and they were going to take the city bus into town and get a water taxi out to the Lovers/Divorced Beach area, so we decided to go with them. We got into town and found a taxi and headed out. It was a glass bottom boat so we could see all of these guys on the ride:

Here is a picture of a famous cave where 2 people go in and 3 people come out... I will let all of you figure out exactly what I am talking about. Oh, you want to know if we went in, well that is my secret now isn't it!!

We had the driver go out by the arch so that we could get some nice close up pictures of it since when we were on the snorkeling trip we did not get many good shots.

We also had him take a picture of all four of us. By the way this couple that we were with has a 4 month old baby at home!! Crazy!!! I know she was dying to get home and see her baby by the last day.

So we landed on the shore and all of these guys wanted to help us off of the boat. They take your bags and they help you off onto shore... and then they expect some money for helping you and they do not want to give you back your stuff until you give them some money. So Lewis digs into his pocket and grabs the change and gives it to the guy and the guy gets mad that in the mix there is a penny. He wants to know what the heck he is supposed to do with that. So I just grab my bag and trot up the sand. The boat driver later told me that those guys make more money in a day then I do!

So here are the boys on the Divorce Beach side:

After about an hour we took the taxi back to shore, had some ice cream and then took a bus back to the hotel. We showered, packed the last little bits and caught the bus to the airport to come home. We had an amazing time. We never felt in danger or in trouble. We had a great group of people that went with us so it was very fun.

Now do you want to know where the trip is next year? Well, too bad! I will tell you if we make it!!! (Which is a story all to itself)

By the way here are some pictures of the gifts that we received the last night in Cabo. They gave us a silver picture frame with a picture of us in it that was taken on the second night at the "Club Infor", and a photo book all about Cabo.

I took a side view of the frame so that you could see the curvature to it and so that you would not have to see that picture, it is really not that great. I will have to put a different picture in the frame that I took while we were there. Or maybe when we get the pictures back from the last night at the Gala.

Well... until next year Adios my friends!!!

White on White Gala

So Wednesday night was the final event. It was a White on White Gala where everything was white and everyone was supposed to wear white. When people complained about the white Infor changed it to Light on Light but I already had our outfits so we just wore white (as did most of the other attendees). As they were setting up we sat on the balcony and watched. The people at the Hilton in Cabo are like a well oiled machine. It was like clockwork. The tables and chairs outside in the reception area were all set up and it looked great. The people working the event were all in black suits and they had a meeting right before.

Here I am all ready and waiting to go down to the party:


As we walked down to the tent on the beach there was a spot where they had photographers taking couple photos that will be sent to us in a few weeks. There was also the opportunity to take a photo with the outgoing CEO, but since we did that last year we just went right on by this year. We got down to the "reception" area met up with the people from Lewis' office. Here we are all looking wonderful in white (except for me, I look strange):


Here is the inside of the tent:


Here is Lewis' recognition from Infor:

My nasty dinner that looked like the lobster was bleeding, the steak was really good though:

Fireworks to end the night:

Picture of some of the Utah crew:

Our feet; my shoes are the lovely blue ones:

Here we are on the beach for "after" photos:

This is the whole Crew, minus four (I think):

After we left and went back to our room the party raged on for two more hours as you can see from our balcony.

WednesDay

Wednesday was a free day for us to do whatever we wanted to on our own. We slept in a little (until 8am) had a yummy breakfast over looking the pool and then took the shuttle into town to go shopping. Shopping in Mexico is funny. At first they say that they won't bargain with you but then when you go to leave the store they are suddenly willing to bargain. We went into the actual mall where they do not bargain at all but then we also went out onto the streets and bargained with the people in the little shacks. We ended up getting everything that I wanted and now I wish that I had bought more. After shopping we took the shuttle back to the hotel and went out to the pool where Lewis took a nap and I swam with the peeps and took pictures of the crew setting up for the White Gala that night, which I will tell you all about in the next post.

TuesDay and Night

On Tuesday we went snorkeling with a bunch of the Infor people. We went out by Lands End to see the arch and then out to swim with the fish!

The boat was going in circles so I missed getting myself with the arch but this wasn't the last time out there...

Sexy!

After snorkeling and lunch we went back to the hotel and went down to the pool. Lewis took a nap and I took in some sun and then went into the water for a while when he woke up. Here we are at the infinity edge:

That night was a free night for dinner so we went into town at 6 with a couple of couples for a little shopping and dinner. We saw this nice place:

HA!!!! No freaking way we ate there. I just took a picture. We ate on the pier at Alexanders. It was nice and air conditioned. Plus the guys could watch the games that were on. After dinner we went to look for a party. We went to Cabo Wabo and The Giggling Marlin. Here we are at Cabo Wabo:

And outside the Marlin. I love how the sign says:

If our food, drinks, and service aren't up to your standards, please lower your standards.

With it being Tuesday most of the places were dead so we headed home to the hotel and hung out by the pool until 1:30. When we got back to our room we had a Talvera tray with a gift card for a Mercado (Artisan Market) that they were setting up in the ballroom the next day. We had $250 to buy whatever we wanted out of jewelry, linens, artwork, and much more. Again most of the stuff was for the ladies. I bought these:

and this:

along with necklaces for my girls. I did not get a picture of my tray, and it is already put away, sorry :(