Fiesta de Mayo

We held our annual Fiesta de Mayo party on Sunday the 3rd. I used to call it our Cinco de Mayo party but it rarely, if ever, lands on the 5th. It was fun to have my family come and participate. We love having them here and we're grateful that they'd make the trek and contribute to the eats. MMMmmm...I think it was the best food this year! Here are some of my favorite photos:

Fiesta Bingo

Pinata Smashing, etc...

Young Ones.

Path Between Trees

Drew and I went to the Logan Galley Walk last Friday. Here is a picture of the unexpected addition to our growing art collection. We saw this original oil painting in an auction and decided we loved it enough to place a bid in the last 30 seconds of the auction. I'm glad we did.

Update on Drew's Coke Fast: It's been 38 days since his last soda.

Petunia, Manure, Coke, BINGO!

On March 17th we attended the unveiling of a memorial at Utah State University. Meet Petunia, Curt's prize winning pig.

The artist did a really good job and Drew and some of the Madsens were able to put some texture on the ribbon and in the ear. I was so surprised to see Curt's boots on the right. They seemed so perfect.

Drew was able to get some manure for our garden from a farmer friend. He and Dave were able to till it into the dirt and our garden looks fantastic! I'm sorry we don't have any crappy pictures.

Drew has been Coca-Cola free for 26 days. I'm so proud!!! (This actually includes ALL carbonation.)

Lastly BINGO! We had some time before the memorial mentioned above so we played Bingo. The kids loved it and it was a big hit with the adults as well. We had so much fun that we took it to Salt Lake over conference weekend and played again.

Ken had a "defective" card. You gotta watch out for that one.

Thanks Brad and Tahnie for the great Christmas gift!

"Issac, you're not supposed to say "What the Hell." Mom, Issac said "What the Hell."

That quote came from Braden at Tyler's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. After Donna got on Braden for saying it, Uncle Dusty (seen here in his purple Jedi in training suit) blamed his wife for teaching them the phrase, she just happened to be in the other room. The Madsen's are huge fans of Star Wars which makes it really easy to buy the kids birthday presents. Tyler got this over sized storm trooper head that changes your voice so you sound like one. Here we have the lovely Sarah trying it on for us.
This is what I wanted to get Tyler for his birthday but Emily said it was a bad idea. This is a picture of all the snow we got the first day of Spring break. From what i understand nobody else really got any. I was so bored I cleaned the oven. Emily will have to take a picture of that and post it.
I have wanted to get a Jazz hat but I am not sure how you are suppose to wear them now, they are to big and I don't like the fact that the brim doesn't bend. And last but certainly not least it has been ten days since my last coke, I sniffed but I did not inhale! So nuts to you guys (Brad) who thought I couldn't do it!

MISSING

UPDATE: Thanks to all who read this and searched for my brother. He was found this morning walking in remote Wyoming. He has no signs of hypothermia and was not disoriented. His wife and children continue to take care of him and we hope to talk more often.

Name: Aaron

May answer to: Accounting Nerd or AJ Cool

Last seen/heard from: New Year's

Identifiable features: Scar on chest from "hole in heart"

May be found somewhere in Wyoming

Please call or e-mail Aunt Hama if you have seen this person.

Thank you.

**For anyone who is genuinely worried, Aaron is not missing. I just miss my brother.**

My name is Drew Roska and I am addicted to Coca-Cola

So after a long time of fooling myself thinking I could stop at anytime, sneaking out in the middle of the night to enjoy a 20 oz passing out after having too much sugar, I have realized that I have a problem and I should work on it now. It all started at such a young age, my mom always had a six pack of diet coke in the fridge, I would wait until she left and I would sneak one out and drink it as fast as I could, the bubbles running down my throat always gave me a little tickle.
In my early teenage years I would go to miniature market on the way home from school and I would buy a 20 oz. and drink it before I got home. I would then chew a piece of gum to hide the sweet smell of coke goodness from my parents. Later I discovered the SUPER BIG GULP from the 7-11 down the street and found myself in coke heaven. I tried to give up the addiction while on my mission but when I would get offered a cold one dripping with condensation I couldn't help myself. some of my companions would scoff at me but I didn't care, all I could think about was the cold syrup running down my throat. OK so all joking aside I absolutely love Coke and this is going to be harder than I can imagine. I am not just giving up coke I am trying, no going to give up all carbonation. Emily and I have come up with a plan to keep me motivated and I will keep everybody up to speed on my progress.

Yea for another round of mobile uploads!

Here are a bunch of random pictures I have taken with my phone over the last several months:
Emily and I went for a drive last week and we spotted a ton of deer in Smithfield and this one wanted to investigate. This is probably the cutest pirate ever!
Emily and I went to lunch and the fries were not the best so I made a fry sculpture.

We went to sizzler the first night of our trip to San Diego and all the food was gross so I made a face out of the mashed potatoes, butter and sour cream, a lemon wedge and some garnish. I thought he was pretty awesome and Gromo couldn't stop laughing.

This is Tyler and he has to be the funniest kid ever. I put my hat on him and he gave me the look of "Really?"


These fish were caught out of Bear Lake by a friend of mine. He was going to take me up there to ice fish but it didn't ever freeze over:(

A Shout for Posts!

Some people are shouting for new posts. Well here you go. I have now made it to the top of your lists. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha









But for reals-eees: Drew received a 98 on one test and an 85 on the other this week. I am so proud of him. He's put up a good fight this semester and I am so happy for him. Well done sir!

Five Years Strong and One Fun Week in San Diego

Drew and I went to San Diego way back in December but it was kind of our BIG celebration for our 5th wedding anniversary.

WHOA 5 years, you say?! Yep, that's right, it has been the best five years ever! I apologize for taking so long to post about San Diego but considering our anniversary was only last week, I feel like I'm on top of posting. Thanks for patiently waiting for my favorite pictures.

This is the view from our penthouse 2 room suite in Las Vegas NV. We arrived in Vegas after an awful snow storm in Southern Utah and 9 hours driving total. Argh. The lady at the front counter told us it would be a 45 minute wait for our 2 reserved rooms. Double ARGH. But after watching people gamble their life earnings away we were bumped to a mini suite (normal room) and the grand 2 room suite. 1 dining/living area, 2 bedrooms, , 3 tv's and 4 bathrooms later we were thrilled to have a balcony view of Fremont Ave for only $10. Thank you Expedia!

The next day we headed to sunny San Diego. It was nice to be in California but the part of town we stayed in had a flare of Vegas. ;) A little joke for mom and Drew. Mom got a little friendly with the locals but really Big Boy offers yummy treats and a good place to stretch the legs.

Sea World is one of my favorite attractions, it may have something to do with the motion sickness of roller coasters. This year we fed the dolphins and touched sting rays. Very cool.

Drew enjoyed showing his fierce inner polar bear. Kids, don't try this at home.

Ethan inspired us to take an interest in the local history of firemen and fire fighting memorabilia. I'm really glad we took his advice, this was a fun look at the city's history.

Look: Drew and Hama wearing fire fighter helmets.

Another attraction we missed out on last time we went to Cali was the USS Midway. It was one of our favorites last year for the food and conversation but this year it was the ship and the planes carried on board. Drew says one of the tour guides was hitting on my mom but I don't know if that's true. I loved all the touristy photos we took including the below. Drew made sure we each had a turn sitting in the plane and making machine gun noises. He keeps me young.

Because of the Christmas season we were able to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" put on by the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. The performance was amazing and really put me in the mood for Christmas. This was a real highlight.

All week the weather was perfect. It was so much warmer than Utah and the sun was out most days. We went to Coronado Island on an overcast day to check out the beach and the hotel. I love being together.

When San Diego heard we were coming they said,"Hey we've got Swensens coming. We better get a parade in here and make it a good one." Really though, our last night there we were sent off with delicious food, fireworks, and a parade of lights on the water.

Happy Anniversary Drew and Hama!

Merry Christmas!!! (Only a few days late...)

This year Drew and I got snowed into Logan for Christmas. It was a very leisurely Christmas morning since we don’t have any children. We slept in and watched previously recorded Christmas concerts on the BYU channel, had hot chocolate, and then emptied our stockings. I’m so glad that we have The Bob’s as such good friends. After dinner they let us come over to their house and play a game while their family was visiting. Thanks for being our friends!


The other Christmas miracle this year was our tree. Because we went to sunny San Diego for about 10 days (Post Pending) we didn’t want to buy a tree, just to have it dry up, and fuel a fire in the apartment. This wasn’t a big deal until we found out we would be in Logan for Christmas. But, thanks to a very kind co-worker, we had a tree. She had decorated a live tree and given it to a very good friend of hers who was leaving Christmas Eve and won’t be back until after the New Year. Because it was going to be garbage in the street, we adopted the tree and were thrilled to put a few of our own ornaments on it.

What a weekend...well 5 day weekend

So most of you were a big part of our weekend so all of this isn't new but I want to go over some highlights. First off I want to mention how great my fishing trip was and that I was grateful for Dave Burgess and his willingness to come with me. He made a fine net boy and it was nice to have someone to talk to. Here are some pictures of the catches and from what Gromo and Dave Roska had to say it was good eats! This one was the smallest one.

This one was the medium.

And this one is bigger than Alden or Logan!!!

After fishing we went back and we ate dinner with Papa Clark at Cafe Rio it had been a while since we had eaten there and it was pretty good. Afterwards we went bowling and I sucked it up but Andrew and Kristi did pretty well. Ethan was funny to watch and we all had a good time.

Next day was Thanksgiving and we went to Ren and Susan's house (that is Tahnie's mom). Dinner was great and we went back to Brad's had pie and watched Hancock...it was okay but not what I had expected. We split and then went and hung out with the Clark Clan where we watched "A Christmas Story" and played games. It was really nice to see everyone.

Friday we did the shopping in the early morning and we got some great deals! I am very excited for all the presents we got. The rest of the morning Emily and I slept. We got up went and hung out with James and got him some birthday presents. It was really nice to be with him and see how much he has grown up. We then had a Chinese themed dinner were Aaron almost burnt down the kitchen! (Sorry no pictures) That was really awesome. We watched Kung Fu Panda which was really fun and we all hung out on Gromo's bed.

Saturday we went to Brynner's birthday party which wasn't as good as it could have been because the little guy had an ear infection and was pretty upset the whole time. After we left they took him to the doctor and they found the problem, he was a lot better after that. We gave him a little boat and from what Brad says he likes to try and sink it. I am just glad he plays with it. We went and did some more shopping and found more presents and we headed home. It was great to be around so much family and get to enjoy a little piece of everyone.

Drew is A Wesome

'Nough Said.

Most quoted Roska ever!!!

So the reason why I am doing this is because over the years we have gotten some pretty memorable quotes out of Elliott. And I don't want to lose any to forgetfulness. Now this disclaimer is for Elliott or the American badness! Look dude you know as well as everybody who reads this that you have some great quotes and they should not be forgotten, so be proud of who you are and I love ya! If you have any quotes you can blog them yourself or send me an email and I will post them. Here are some of my most favorite.

All of these were said while playing catch phrase:

Word: Tunnel.
Elliott: rhymes with funnel with a T

Word: Bath tub gin
Elliott: You do it on your honeymoon it's romantic... (All of these are said while he is motioning his hand this is supposed to help you get it.)

Word: French-Indian War:
Elliott: Brad! Where did you serve your mission
Brad: France
Elliott: All right.

Word: Scotch
Elliott Buttersco.... come on guys butterscot...

These are just random memories I have of the kid:

Elliott and Kent came over to spend the night and Curt had come over to hang out. Everybody was razzing everybody and there was a lull in the razzing and Elliott out of no where and said; "fine why don't I go outside and freeze myself!"

Brad and I took Elliott to priesthood for his first session, before we left he asked two questions first was if he could bring his digi-draw and the second was if we could stop at Reams and buy some candy before we went. After the 2 hour session we were walking out and only in Elliott fashion he says at the top of his lungs, "Man how long were we in there?" Brad and I vowed never to take him again.

Brad took Elliott and Kent to an amuesment park that had bumper cars and slick track racing. Brad Kent and Elliott were racing along with some other kids when Elliott slammed his car into another kids car. The guy running the ride gave him a warning. Elliott proceeded to hit the kid again and the guy gave him another warning and once again Elliott slammed the kid and the guy told Elliott to pull over Brad was coming around and saw Elliott throw his helmet into the drivers seat and ask the guy, "WHAT KIND OF BUMPER CARS ARE THESE???" The guy then pointed out where the bumper cars were and hopped into that line.

Brad and Tahnie I know you guys have a lot of these and I don't want to claim all of them so send them to me so I can put them on or put them on your blog!!!

Emily's story: When I met Drew's family for the first time Kathy offered me a drink. I chose grape juice. Someone mentioned it probably wasn't cold enough and the little helper he is, Elliott went to the freezer grabbed a handful of ice and dropped it in my glass. The rest of the family went nuts but I didn't think anything of it.

Now I realize how unsanitary that was. He was young and...well...Elliott. I love him.

Confessions...

First off: A buna buna is a motorcycle according to our nephew Ethan. But Drew still needs to get on it before someone else does. Hint hint.

Now for the confessions. Confessions are mostly personal and I don't mind that you read this. I hope you do and that makes me more accountable for my actions.

The other night I was trying to sleep and started to think of my family and friends, as I often do. Then I realized that I don't do much more than that. I think of you often, wonder how your life is going, if there's anything new and exciting, or something that troubles you that I don't know. I am so sorry.

I have let distance between us grow in my life. I realize for some it's a physical distance that I let myself justify the lack of contact, for others that live in my own neighborhood it's simply mental. I make excuses or put it off until another day. This year I want that to change. I want to say more thank you's and I'm sorry's and be more honest.

Now I've confessed. Now everyone knows. If you ask me how it's going I promise an honest response, so be prepared for more than a monosyllable answer.

Buna Buna or Bust

If you'd like to know what this is about leave comments. I think Drew needs a kind nudge to get this blog up and running.

P.S. We're alive and well. Thanks for reading.

No Alcohol Needed

These look like some fun pumpkins but we don't need alcohol to be fun people.

This is a stab at Drew saying we are a boring married couple. Let me name a few of the wildly fun things we have done in the last week or so.

We walked to a local restraunt and had doughnuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. Then we made our way to the gardener's market and mingled with the local growers. We made people at church laugh. We have tried two new delicious recipes and shared them with our friends. We upset the baseball fans at Iggy's and this weekend we get to meet our brand new niece.

How awesome are we?!

Note to our readers: I didn't plan on Drew posting again before I placed my rebuttal so I'd appreciate it if you'd comment on his pictures. I am impressed with his camera phone. It's way better than mine.

It's time for another exciting round of Drew took that with his cellphone camera

So I must admit that with these first few pictures I have never been a big stop and smell the roses kind of guy, I have never even really paid much attention to any flowers. With this landscaping job I have had my eyes opened to a wide variety of plants and flowers and there are a few I would like to incorporate into my landscape. These first set of picture are called obedient flowers. You can bend them in the middle so it looks like they are broken but then you can stand it back up and it is like nothing happened. I took these because we found some bumble bees that had spent the night on them.

I also liked these different flowers the first one is called a flax, most people let this grow and about half way through the summer it dies but if you cut it back to the ground you can get a late blooming and it is just as good as the first one.
The next ones are called asters they come in a variety of colors and if done right they will take over a large area.

Here are some pictures I have taken of wild life. The picture of the fox I took while golfing with Brad, the others I have taken while at work.