Our catch up week (with pictures)

We are all so very proud of Matthew. Below is a picture of the Bat mobile, Matthew's entry into the pinewood derby this year. He and Andy worked hard on it, with a bit of help from some member's of our Ward. This year Matthew made it to the second round and eventually ended up in 4th place. He did a fantastic job.



As promised from last week's post below are some pictures from our trip to Boise. The first is of all the cousins at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Below that you can see our pictures from the Old Post days we went to in Murphy, ID. You can see our budding cowboys: Nikolas; as he practices his roping skills and Matthew practicing his branding skills.

Nikolas and Matthew did a great job during the one room school house art lesson. I really liked the teacher's hat. Throughout the day there were different lessons, all done as if it was June 7, 1875. As we said last week, the whole event was really neat. Nikolas got a kick out of the tractor display, his Grandfather would have been proud of him.

This week went fairly smooth. The boys are enjoying playing outside. Friday, Matthew found a lizard around our apartment and had to keep it as a pet. We took some pictures and as Matthew went outside, the lizard jumped down and ran away, so no pet. Nikolas is enjoying all his birthday presents, specifically all his outside art supplies. Our sidewalks never looked better. Matthew will start summer school on Monday and he seems excited to begin.

Andy and Gail continue to be very busy. Andy had a particularly busy week and is looking forward to the next two as they are relatively quiet. He will be using this time to get systems in place for the beginning of his representing all juvenile cases. This begins on July 1, 2008. Monday, the 9th was a rough day as he saw a client sentenced to a long time in prison. The sentencing was very emotional and the hearing went on for nearly 1 hour as there were many witnesses testifying.


Gail had another Pampered Chef show Friday night and seems to be picking up business, which is good. This last weekend it has been absolutely gorgeous. The boys went to a Nevada Department of Wildlife Fishing Derby in Carlin on Saturday. Nikolas won a fishing pole and tackle set. While they didn't catch anything they had a great time.



Once back, it was off to the pool. Everyone, including Andy had gotten way to much sun. The boys finally got home about 4:30 and were exhausted. After dinner, it was movie night and early bed. The boys had a great day together. Gail went to a party in the morning and then enjoyed some peace and quiet.

This morning the boys surprised Andy with Breakfast in bed for Father's Day. He was pleasantly surprised with the toast, chocolate milk and grapes.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there and we hope you have a wonderful week.

We had one busy week last week. The boys enjoyed their first full week out of school, Gail and Andy survived the first full week of the boys being out of school. The week started out well. Unfortunately, Gail was not feeling all that well on Tuesday, so she was home from work. Andy had quite a busy week work wise and so he was not home much, even in the evenings.

The big excitement this past week was of course Nikolas celebrating his 7th birthday. On Thursday evening Andy and the boys drove out to Wendover to meet our cousin/nephew Gareth. He came back to Elko with us and the next morning we all piled into the van and headed for Boise. Friday was Matthew's turn to not be feeling well. He woke up that morning very nauseous, but really wanted to go. The fact he, his brother and Gareth stayed up very late didn't have anything to do with why he was not feeling well. We had a nice ride to Boise and about 4:30 that afternoon all the cousins met at Chuck-E-Cheeses. 8 kids and 5 adults, so do the math and you will find that it was a bit crazy. The kids had a great time and 3 hours later we had gone through about 360 tokens, not to mention the pizza. We arrived at Gail's parents' home about 8:30 and tried to put the kids to bed.

Saturday morning we all drove to Murphy, ID to go to the Old Outpost days. It was fun. There were covered wagon rides, a cattle drive, a branding demonstration, pioneer cooking demonstrations and a old school house where the kids had an 1875 art lesson. We had a great time and took a few pictures we will try and post. That evening we gathered in a park and had cake. Nikolas reports he had a great birthday.

Sunday we drove home, all exhausted and ready for some sleep.

Busy Week

We had one busy week in the Mierins Family. Monday afternoon, Memorial Day, we decided to go on a little family trip to see the Ruby Valley Wildlife Reserve. We had to travel through the mountains on a road call the Harrison Pass and saw neat things, including various rock formations, beautiful desert flowers and even some cacti. We have added a couple of pictures below.

Once through the mountains we came to this beautiful valley where the reserve is located. We saw some amazing birds there, including this one below that has a blue beak. We still haven't figured out what it is called but there are many of them at the reserve. This place is worth the drive and well worth the sites. One the way home we saw golden eagles and about 8 vultures dining on a deer on the side of the road. The vultures were huge and had red heads. Very cool.

Tuesday morning Andy flew to St. Louis to attend a conference on drug courts. He learned a lot of things and came back with some ways he can improve his role on the local drug court. While in St. Louis, he did a bit of touring around, including taking in a baseball game at Busch Stadium. Now for those of you not familiar, Busch Stadium is the place where in 2004 the Red Sox won the 4th and final game of the 2004 World Series to win their first world series in 86 years. The stadium that exists today opened in 2006, but if you look to the right of the picture below there is a hole in the ground where the old stadium was. Andy removed his hat and bowed his head in reverence as he walked around the area of the old stadium. By the way the Cardinals did win that night. They played the Astros and Albert Pujols hit a shot of a home run. Not to be outdone, Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman of the Astros also hit a 4 bagger. It was a great game. If you look at the picture inside the park, Andy sat on the 2nd tier behind home plate.

Andy stayed at the Hyatt Riverside, which is literally next to the Arch on the Mississippi River and in front of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis. Below is a picture showing both things. Andy went on a tour of the Courthouse. The Court is significant for two very important things, it is where Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit in 1857 for their freedom as slaves. It is also where Virginia Minor sued in 1872 for the right to vote based upon the 14th Amendment. Well, as we know the ever sagely US Supreme Court ruled against both parties when their cases made their way to them. The Court ruled that slaves were property and not citizen's and therefore not entitled to the protections of the Constitution. Well not to be outdone and demonstrating their judicial fiat, Minor, who was white, but a woman, while a citizen, was not entitled to vote, because the Constitution did not guarantee the right to vote to all citizens. It is amazing to see how far we have come as a nation.

Before leaving St. Louis, Andy did have lunch at the restaurant of one of the creators of KC Masterpierce BBQ sauce. It was good. He flew home Saturday morning and was glad to get back to the desert. Friday was in the upper 80's and quite humid in St. Louis. Everyone was glad Dad made it home safely.

Everyone else had a great week. The boys are now done with school and seemed to survive. Both are excited about the summer. Nikolas honed his bike riding skills and we have included a picture of him being the daredevil he is. Gail had a very successful Pampered Chef party on Saturday. Saturday evening we all went to the Lion's Club Fair in town. Nikolas enjoyed riding the rides. Matthew decided he was going to use his money to play some games and he ended up winning a nice watch.



That about sums up our week. We hope you all are doing well.

Summer is about to begin

Well, despite this being Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer, the outside indicators would tell you otherwise. After some very warm weather, things cooled off this week. We shouldn't complain, it has been in the 60's during the day, but we were enjoying the warmer weather. We also have had some rain, which is sort of odd. Most "rain storms" last 2-3 minutes, but we actually have had some sustained showers. One morning there was even water running in the gutters.

As a family all continues to go well. We have added a photo from last weekend of Matthew and Nikolas holding Oscar. We all did have a great weekend and despite our scare with Nikolas were glad we got to get away.


On Saturday we took the boys to see the #12 Alltel race car which was here in Elko. Nikolas and Matthew had a chance to change a tire on the car. The company set up a display for the kids to try out and Nikolas did a great job, with a bit of help from Gail and one of the crew members. Matthew gave it a try and was very quick.

We were going to go visit Gail's family over this long weekend, but due to a bit of sickness, we were unable to go. Despite this we really enjoyed the weekend together as a family. There was supposed to be a country fair Saturday as well but we could never find it. We did discover a fruit and vegetable stand that had some great fresh fruit. We also bought a mini grill and have begun grilling again. The entire family really enjoys this, particularly Andy.

The boys are excited for their last week of school. Both will be out on Friday, which seems quite amazing, but the kids do not get off as much time in the winter as they had in NH. Matthew has had a bit of a stomach bug, which we cannot figure out what is wrong. Hopefully, it will resolve itself, but we may need a trip to the doctor.

Gail had a busy week. She was able to do a Pampered Chef show and finally after a few months things are really picking up and Gail has quite a few shows coming up over the next few weeks. Gail has cut back a bit of her cleaning which has her home two more nights a week. This past week was the first week of the modified schedule and it was great.

That about sums up our week. We hope you are all well and hope you have a wonderful week.

We have had one busy and exciting week. School is coming to an end and the boys are quite excited by it all. Matthew and Nikolas only have two weeks to go and are quite excited for summer to arrive. Speaking of summer, we experienced some summer like weather the past few days. Since Friday it has been in the upper 80's to the lower 90's and quite pleasant. Everything has fully bloomed and we actually are seeing some green once again. The tops of the mountains still have snow but where the snow has melted, the hillside is green and quite pretty.

The biggest event of the week was of course Gail's birthday. We all think she had a great day, but was sad and had a "I wish we were back in NH day." She was quite overwhelmed with all the well wishers who remembered her birthday, particularly her friends from NH. We went out for dinner to celebrate and all had a nice evening.

We were in Utah again this last weekend, which explains the lateness in posting. We left Friday afternoon about 1 pm and made our first stop in Tooele so Gail could do a Pampered Chef show at her sister's, which seemed to go quite well. We then headed to Cedar Hills to our friend's from NH, where we spent the night. We all stayed up to late visiting, but it was a great visit. Gail and Paula put on a wonderful baby shower for yet another of our NH expatriate friend's Irene. The boys and Andy played outside and went to the local Cabela's to check out the fish tanks and animal displays. The boys really enjoyed the indoor trout pond. Saturday night we were off the Logan, to see Irene and her new baby, Oscar, who was being blessed Sunday morning. Logan was beautiful and we may consider living there some day. All went well and we were home by 7pm, quite tired and ready for bed. As I said, we had a great weekend.

We hope everyone is well and send our best until next week.

What a quick week we have had. We all continued with our normal routines. Matthew and Nikolas went to school, Gail and Andy went to work. We did have some neat things occur this week.

We all travelled to Salt Lake City on Thursday for Matthew's doctors appointment. The appointment went very well. Overall we are pleased with the medical care he is getting from his doctors in Utah. This appointment lasted 2 hours and the doctor took the time to talk with all of us. She has come up with a diagnosis we had never considered so between now and September we all have some work. While in SLC we had a nice dinner and did some shopping. Gail also did some Pampered Chef stuff.

On Friday evening Andy and the boys went to the Father and Sons camp out. All reports were that it was a great time. The boys really enjoyed building a fire.

We continue to experience some wonderful spring weather. That about sums up our week. We hope you are all well.

Welcome May

Another wonderful week has come and gone here in Elko. The trees are in blossom, we actually do have flowers blooming and it is refreshing and invigorating to see the beauty of Spring all around us. Much like New England though winter reminds us it is king. Tuesday it never got about 40 outside and we even had some snow flurries.

Everyone continues to do well. The boys are counting down the days until the end of school, while Gail and Andy hope these last few days stretch out a bit more. We all cannot believe that the school year is about to come to an end. The boys will be done on May 30th. Matthew has shown some great improvements over the last months and we are excited to see him settle in. Nikolas continues to be the adventurous 6year old that he is, anxiously awaiting his 7th birthday in a month. The boys enjoy playing outside and two nights a week get to the pool with Andy. Which, by the way, despite being still a bit chilly, the outdoor pool in Elko has opened and Andy now anticipates that once this is discovered will require its more regular use.

Gail had an exciting development. She has signed up a new consultant as part of her network for Pampered Chef. She is entering a new phase as she begins the building of her dynasty. Gail continues to work at the daycare and enjoys doing so.

Andy's week went well. He had a trial on Tuesday that went well. His client was found guilty of the least serious of the three offenses he was charged with. Next week will be quite busy as he has 3 trials and 2 preliminary hearings. All of which occur over a 2 day period.

We just returned from a nice weekend in Boise visiting Gail's family. We went up Friday afternoon to attend our nephew/cousin Torsten's baptism Saturday morning. After the baptismal service we had a nice family get together, did some shopping and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We mostly visited with family and it was nice to get away.

Overall we are all doing quite well and hope the same for you. Until next week.