Happy Birthday, Kylie!

Kylie is our oldest grandchild and she is 9 years old today! I can't believe how fast the years have flown by. I remember how excited I was 9 years ago when Tyler called and told me that I was a Grandma. We lived in California at the time, they lived in Arizona and I couldn't get to Arizona fast enough to hold that little baby. I remember one night when I did finally get to Arizona, I told Tyler and Tiffany that I would stay up and give Kylie one last bottle before I went to bed. It was just Kylie and I in the Family Room and I was thankful for that bonding moment and the time to reflect how thankful I was to have this little baby in our family. 

Kylie is very obedient and helps everybody else remember to follow the rules too. She is a great example to all of her younger cousins and they adore her, especially Sam. He follows her around everywhere and she is so patient and kind to him. I know her cousins will always look up to her and she'll be a good leader.

We celebrated her birthday yesterday and Shannon made her favorite cake - ice cream cake! Ummmm. You can see below the kids enjoyed it!

We love you Kylie. We're so thankful you're in our family and we hope you have a great birthday today!

Brodi is 3!

I remember when Brodi was born 3 years ago. I had been in touch with her birthmother's Grandma. I had discussed the possibility of BJ and Shannon adopting Brodi before she was born, but the birthmother wasn't ready to place Brodi for adoption at that time. It was very disappointing. I remember the Sunday they blessed Brodi in Sacrament Meeting - I kept feeling like Brodi should be in our family. Well, when Brodi was 1, circumstances changed and long story short, BJ and Shannon were able to adopt her. She has now been in our family for almost 2 years and we're so thankful to have her. 

Brodi is full of life, mischief and fun! If there is something lying around that she shouldn't get into, she will surely find it! She is very smart - almost too smart sometimes. She's very tough! If she falls down and it looks like she might be hurt, she just gets right back up and is on to the next thing. She can also be very sweet and she loves to sit and have stories read to her. I love this picture of her - she loves to dress up. 

Last night BJ and Shannon had a birthday party for her and this is the cute cake Shannon made for her. It's a doll and her skirt is the cake.

Brodi couldn't open her presents fast enough! She wouldn't even stop to look at what she got - she was quickly on to the next present - it was funny.

  

We sure love Brodi and we're thankful she's in our family. Happy Birthday, Brodi!

D-Backs

Look who got to go to the Diamondbacks game today and sit in a box seat!!! Lucky! Thanks to Jay for the free ticket.

Happy Birthday, Madie!

Okay, so I"m a month late wishing Madie Happy Birthday, but my blog was so far behind, I needed to catch up before I got to that post. And, we celebrated Madie's birthday on our camping trip with them Labor Day Weekend. Madie turned 2 on August 20 (our anniversary). She is such a little firecracker - she's full of personality and smiles. We love skyping with her and we're thankful we can do that because it helps her know who we are - since we don't get to see her often. 

For Madie's birthday, we gave her a sleeping bag and a camping chair that she could use on our camping trip and a water bottle that matches her sleeping bag. She did a good job of opening her presents! 

Madie moved to a 'big girl' bed recently and she is very good to stay in her bed. She's starting to talk more and her hair is now long enough to put in pigtails. One of the cute things I noticed about Madie is that when you play peek-a-boo with her, instead of saying 'boo', she says 'peek'. It is very cute! She loves puppies, cats and likes to pick rocks up on her walks. Happy Birthday, Miss Madeleine. Nana and Papa love and miss you and look forward to the next time we can see you in person.

9/11/11

Last Sunday was the 10th anniversary of what is known as 9/11. I want to reflect a little about 9/11 in this post and some of my feelings I had at the time. None of my grandchildren were born when this day happened and they will read about it in their history books at school, but I want to document my feelings about it for them.
Our family went to New York in 2000, right after Tyler got off his mission. When we were on our ferry ride, I took a picture similar to this one of the New York City skyline. It was a beautiful skyline. We were in New York City on a Sunday morning and it was very peaceful and actually very quiet for a big city.

A little over a year later, on September 11, 2001, Michael came home from early morning seminary and had just heard on the radio that a plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. We immediately turned on the tv so we could see what was going on. Soon after we turned the tv on, we saw this happening pretty much live on tv. We couldn't believe what was happening! Another plane had flown into the other tower. 

Within 2 hours, both towers had collapsed into ashes.

Soon after the report of the 2nd tower being hit, there was another report of a plane being flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. 

And yet another plane soon after - going down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

I copied the following from wikopedia:

"The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/11) were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area on September 11, 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to take control before it could reach the hijacker's intended target in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks."

My reflections of 9/11

After seeing the attacks, it was hard for me to get into motion on that Tuesday morning. I went to work, but couldn't work - and neither could anybody else, so we all went home. I sat in front of the tv most of the next few days, trying to take it all in. It was very shocking, sad, and simply unbelievable that something like this could happen. I was so sad for the families who had lost loved ones in the attacks. I remember needing a break from all the sadness on tv, so I took Spike for a walk. While we were walking a black dog came out of nowhere and attacked my Spike. In trying to fight off the other dog, I tore the knee of my pants, but I was finally able to get the other dog away from us. This just added to the turmoil I was feeling about the day.

I don't even know how to express in words how it felt on that day, but words like darkness, gloom, sadness, and fear come to mind. I was afraid that my boys might have to go off to war, especially Michael, since he was the right age. I was afraid that other attacks might occur. Tyler was just thinking about becoming a police officer and I worried about something like this happening to him as he responded to emergencies. I worried about my future grandchildren and what kind of a world they would have to live in.

This act of terrorism affected our country in so many ways. Before 9/11, the economy was flourishing. After 9/11, the economy tanked. I don't really think things have ever been or ever will be the same again. Many lives have been lost since 9/11 in the war against terrorism.

If I have to look for some positive things that came from 9/11, I remember how the country came together after the attacks. People were nicer to each other. People from all over the country and maybe the world went to NYC to help where they could. Our country came together for a short time and it didn't matter whether you were a republican or a democrat, we were united in the quest to find the people who did this. I remember using the word humbled. Our country was humbled. It's too bad more people can't remember those feelings today. I pray for our country and I honor and thank those who have given up their lives to protect our freedom. I truly mean this when I say "God Bless America" because we need His help more now than we ever have before. 9/11 was a changing day for our country, but hopefully, after 10 years, we've learned a lot, we're more watchful and alert to the things going on around us, and things will start changing for the better so that my grandchildren can live in a safer world.



Sadie, Sam and Soccer

It's great this year that Sadie and Sam are on the same soccer team. We love going to watch their games and it is very convenient that we can see two of our grandkids play at the same time.

Oh, and by the way, Kylie fractured her wrist and had to wear this brace for 6 weeks. At least it's pretty!  She just got it off this week and now needs to work on strengthening her wrist again.

Labor Day Weekend on the beach

We had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend in California. We met Michael, Mallory and Madie at a campground near Hearst Castle (San Simeon, Cambria) and camped near the beach for 3 nights. It was so much fun. See how close we were to the ocean? We could hear the waves crashing in the distance as we were falling asleep. And the waves were very large that weekend.

Here are Michael, Mallory and Madie at our campground. We're just boiling some water for hot chocolate. I love the cool, foggy mornings - I miss that so much about California.

Here's the real star of the show! 

Time for a new tent. This is our tent and our queen air mattress fit in there, but that's all. Now that we will be doing some more camping, we invested in a larger, taller tent that we can stand up in. I can't wait to use it! 

Lovin' my Madie! 

Saturday morning we went to Hearst Castle and went on a tour. I've been there 2 other times, but I took a different tour this time and it was very interesting to see the bedrooms.

My handsome hubby.

You can see the fog down in the valley. Hearst Castle is up on a hill, so it isn't usually foggy up there, but it's cool to look at it hovering below. 

The gardens at the castle were gorgeous. Great pictures, Bryan! 

Here's the Neptune Pool - so big and so beautiful. 

Madie and Papa riding the bus up to Hearst Castle

Madie and Michael inside one of the bedrooms at Hearst Castle 

You have to remember when you see this picture that I was camping. Just look at Madie, not me.

And here is the Roman Pool, which I think is absolutely amazing. 

Cute pose, Madie! I'm loving the pig tails.

We spent some time in Morro Bay. We actually went to church there on Sunday. We were able to find some showers at the campground, so we could get the campfire smell out of our hair before church! 

Madie loved playing in this pool of ocean water and water from a stream combined together.

I absolutely love these pictures of Madie!

I'm doing my favorite thing on the beach - sitting, watching the waves and doing Sudokus. 

Back at the campgroud.....enjoying our campfire and smores. 

And what's camping without a couple of games of yhatzee? 

In Cambria, they were having a little town festival on Labor Day. Michael and Mallory put Madie on this little car ride and you can see that she was doing okay the first couple times around..... 

.........but then....total meltdown! They had to stop the ride so they could get her off the ride!

We drove up the coast a little to see the elephant seals that were resting on the beach. On our way, we saw some zebras grazing with the cattle. Hearst let a lot of his animals go from his private zoo and they have increased in number and stayed around the hills by Hearst Castle.

 Papa, Madie and I right before they left for home and we left for Solvang.

And here we all are before we departed. It was such a fun weekend and we loved being with these guys! 

Here are the elephant seals. They flicked sand on themselves every now and then - otherwise, they looked like they were dead. 

After we left San Simeon, Bryan and I headed to Solvang to spend the night at Marriott. The shower felt so good and it was nice to be clean again. We actually went and walked around Solvang on Sunday with M,M & M because Mal had never been there. We knew we were going back on Monday night though. I love this city and if I'm ever anywhere close to it, have to stop in.

We left Tuesday at about noon for home, but we stopped at a few beaches along the way. Oh how I love the ocean and the beach. I got my ocean-fix and should be good for another few months until we go back to California. I need to see the ocean at least a couple times a year.