merdontrall

I'm always posting photos on instagram! You can follow me @merdontrall. Some of you probably wonder where merdontrall comes from. Michael used to work at Henderson pool and at the end of the year they gave an award to each employee and he was given an award (i don't remember what for), but it said "Michael Merdontrall". He kept the award and showed it to me once and I've never forgotten. I think it's the funniest thing. Is Mendenhall really that difficult of a last name? Anyways follow me @merdontrall on Instagram!

Sibling photo shoot

It was my Mom's birthday last month and we were trying to think of something to do for her birthday. We realized we have so many film photos of family that Michael has taken from gatherings, birthday parties, and mini photo shoots. We decided to get some of our favorites together and also get my siblings together for a photo shoot. We ended up giving my Mom a huge frame with probably 19 photos of us kids and grandkids. The photo shoot turned out awesome and we were all so excited to give the gift to our Mom and she loved it. Here are some photos from the shoot. Note: all film photos taken by Michael.

None of the single photos of myself turned out this day, but Michael still had lots of other photos of me for the collage.

 We like to be silly. Brad wasn't too gung ho about the jumping photo.

 I love these people!

 We framed this photo big for my Mom's wall.

two photos

Amy got married!! She looked beautiful and her and Joe (MacDonald) looked SO happy. Weddings are just the BEST! Here's a photo of her and I... sorry for cutting you Joe! You're kinda in it.

 A forecast of 33 degrees could only mean a day at the pool or beach. And luckily we have this huge SANDY beach, in Alberta (!), and so off to the beach Char-Lane and I went with our kids. I have never seen the water this low and the beach this huge (this is Wally's beach). Sand everywhere! Ty even got a nice mouthful. Poor boy.

grey is the new black

Michael has been bugging me lately to color his hair "grey" again. I refuse to. I don't think it looks good, and I felt like people second guessed my judgement for what looks good with hair when I did it the first time. He loves it so much but I just can't bring myself to doing it again. So I got an e-mail from him the other day with the subject being "grey is the new black" and opened it to find these photos.

Really? Gandalf? hahahahaha..... Oh Mikes, ya got me. I definitely want to do it now that I've seen a picture of Gandalf.... Not!! I don't think he realizes that the last 4 actually have NATURAL grey hair, which is impossible to replicate. Give it another 10 years Michael and you can have your dream hair color. hahaha


*I would like to clarify that I don't think grey hair is unattractive. I think fake grey is unattractive.

Ty-14 months old

Ty is now 14 months old! He is at such a fun age. I feel like every month that passes is more fun than the last.
-He is WALKING. Everywhere! And it's SO nice. It's way easier to take him places now and let him down on his own. He is so cute to watch walk all over the house. I especially love watching him walk all the way to the mailbox and back with me, which is across the street.
-On walks he loves to touch the bushes and trees.
-He loved to point to the ants on our front walk and follows them around and even tries to pick them up. He is such a boy!
-he says "amen" and "night night"... we're still working on words. If I ask him a question, he doesn't say "yes", he makes a noise more like "uah", but we know what he means. :)
-I found a pair of shoes to fit his short round feet! It's wonderful. They are sandals so hopefully his feet start to look more normal for when we get colder weather.
-He hates having poop in his diaper. His whole first year, he never cared about a dirty diaper but now he will cry and won't go to sleep if he is poopy.
-He loves to ride in the chariot while I go on a walk, and we go almost everyday!

That's all I can think of for now. That photo was taken on a Friday evening with my iPhone. We were across the street at the school field playing.

sun sun sun

I feel like every blog post recently is just random photos of what we have been up to this summer. We have had a lot of fun being outside in the gorgeous weather. We go to the pool and spray parks a lot, and Ty and I go on a lot of walks/runs.

 At Magrath Days. I love his little face here.

 Okay this face is so stinking cute too! This is at the Galt Gardens Fountains downtown.

 Ty with Dad at Henderson Pool

 Ty and I at Henderson Pool. He loves to do "squinty eyes" for us.

Ty sitting with Grandpa and almost ready for bed. This is at the Magrath Days Rodeo. 

 Super bright out before the Magrath Days parade. And Ty eating his first sucker. He loved it.

 Okay I am now realizing all these photos are with Ty. Here is Ty petting the goat at the petting zoo. He LOVED the animals. 

 5 minutes of that=hot sweaty exhaustion

 My adorable niece, Madison. How can you not just love that face.

 Ty and Dad swinging at my Mom and Bryans house.

 Ty and I have gone to Galt Gardens Fountains a lot recently, and so I called Michael before he was off work and told him where we were. It was so hot out so Michael went through the water with his work clothes on. 

 Pro speed Kayaker.

 My first time kayaking. This is in Waterton.

We camped one night at Crandell Campground with Michaels parents and his older sister Jody. This is Ty in the morning, eating his blueberries, wearing Aunt Jodys hat.

Just after lunch.

Here are some more kayaking photos. Ty loves being in boats.

He loved playing in the boat. 

Cardston Hail Storm 2012

This is mostly for my records, and for us to remember. July 26 we made the trip to Cardston for our monthly temple trip. Within the first 10 minutes of the session, we heard some loud bangs. Within moments we heard hundreds of them and it continued for about 15 minutes. We all knew it was very large hail and that there would most certainly be damages. For the next two hours I was hoping and praying nothing was damaged on our car. As we left the temple we saw lights smashed, trees shredded, flowers flattened, and as we moved to the street, windows smashed, cars dented, glass everywhere. I was devastated. I knew we had no insurance coverage for hail.

While Michael was in school I was able to save up $10,000 to pay for our 2007 Toyota Matrix. Previously we were driving an 89 Plymouth Acclaim and that car was starting to look old, so our new Matrix was my pride and joy! Since Michael was still in school, we just got basic coverage on our car, deciding we would get it covered better once he was working. Unfortunately, we forgot. Now we have our Matrix which is a great car, but will never look the same again. We have to replace the windshield, another window, and a rear light. NOW we have coverage on it, so if you don't have something you value covered, I encourage you to go get it insured! We definitely learned our lesson.

Here are some photos of the damage. The hail was the size of tennis balls.

 

This is the hail 2 hours after it had fallen.

This is the roof. We have chips and cracks ALL over our car now, as well as rusting