Summer Cabin trips

We spent our last 4th of July weekend at our cabin. Yes, it's true. We have sold the cabin and it was finalized the end of August. I am very sad that we had to sell it, but with these tough economic times, it was a necessity. Here are some of the pictures from our 4th of July weekend. I'll do a longer post on my farewell to the cabin a little later.

                        BJ and Tyler having dinner with their daughters.

                                                           Sam and Shannon

                                                              Kylie, Tiff, Lexi

                       The kids made a train, at Sam's suggestion, of course.

                                         Sadie and her magical stacking cups!

                                                         Nice bike, Ty!

                                                On one of our nightly walks.

                                                Hannah! Isn't she so cute?

The troll bridge

                                           Our favorite place - the front porch

 We went about half an hour north of the cabin and found thousands of these butterfiles. The kids had fun chasing them. They were amazing.

                 Sam did NOT want to go on a hike to see the butterflies!

                                   Another cute picture of baby Hannah.

 We also went to the fireworks in Payson on the 4th. It was raining when we first got there, but it stopped long enough for the fireworks. It was so nice having a cool place to watch fireworks. While it was over 105 degrees at home in Mesa, we enjoyed a pleasant and almost cold evening in Payson enjoying our family and the fireworks. Ty, Tiff and family had to go home on the 4th because Ty had to work, but we enjoyed fireworks with BJ, Shannon and family. Happy 4th of July!

We were also at the cabin on Memorial Day Weekend. Our cabin neighbor told us Mormon Lake was about half an hour away from our cabin, so we thought that would be a fun adventure. We started driving and driving and finally when we had driven for about 1 1/2 hours, we arrived! Since we thought it was only half an hour away, we were going to go home in time for lunch, but obviously that wasn't the case, so we ate at the Mormon Lake Lodge, which was delicious. We had the whole top floor to ourselves and it was very fun! I stole these pictures from Tiffany's blog - thanks, Tiff!

Unexpected trip to Iowa

I had an unexpected trip to Iowa in June to help Holly when she had emergency surgery. Jeff happened to be out of town on business and Holly called me from the hospital one night at about 8 p.m. telling me she was going into surgery for complications from a miscarriage. I tried to get on a plane as soon as possible, but didn't get there until the next day at noon. Her friend, along with Claire and Ethan, picked me up from the airport at the same time her other friend was picking Holly up from the hospital to bring her home and we all got to her house at about the same time. Jeff couldn't get a flight out and we decided that with my being there, he could stay for his conference - although he did come home a couple days early. The circumstances of my trip to Iowa weren't happy, but I was glad to be able to spend some time with all of them and help clean and take care of the kids. Their ward was fabulous and brought meals almost every night I was there. It allowed me time to play with the kids and help Holly.

While I was there, I was able to go to Claire's Safety Village. Holly enrolled her into a week-long safety kids class and Claire loved it. They had the cutest little village with stop lights, railroad crossings, houses and little bikes the kids could ride around and they had to obey the traffic signals. They also had other stations where the kids could dress in fire fighter uniforms, etc. I was very impressed and would love to have had something like that when I was a kid!

Ethan had just learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (he's only 4 1/2!) and he zoomed all over the place on his little bike.

The fireflies were just starting to come out at night, so we spent some time watching them and the kids loved catching them. Claire was REALLY good at catching them and Ethan was too by the time I left.

I caught this one lighting up as it flew away. That light is a firefly. They are so interesting to watch!

I was able to take the kids out to dinner and to a movie. We saw this:

We also went to Lowe's and built a flag holder, the Children's Museum and on the carousel at the mall.

Here is a picture of Holly on the day I left. And a picture of the kids before I left. It was so good to see these guys. I love spending time with them.



My 54th Birthday

Yes, I know, I'm getting old! I had a very fun birthday with my family. We all went to Joe's Farm Grill for dinner - here are a few pictures.

Bryan also got me the cool sunglasses and the awesome jewelry. It's more for the grandkids to play with, but he has fun getting it for me for my birthday every year!

Of course, I had to get my free Krispy Kreme donuts and all the other freebies.

Holly and Jeff sent me these beautiful flowers!

Such a fun birthday - I'm thankful we had so many of our family together, but we sure missed those who couldn't be with us.

We also had my Sunday birthday dinner. This is the delicious ice cream cake Shannon made for me. Ummm.

 I'm showing the grandkids my Grandma Grace's jewelry.

 And I couldn't resist this sweet picture of Kylie reading to Sam and Brodi. They sure love Kylie!

Grandchildren activities

 At the end of last school year (May), we were able to go to Kylie and Lexi's school open house and see their classrooms and their school. The girls were in a poetry contest where they had to memorize and recite a poem in front of judges. The winners (some from each age group) were announced at the open house and had the chance to recite their poem in front of all the parents and students that night. Lexi won first place in her age group and Kylie also got an award for her age group. Here is a picture of Lexi reciting her poem.

Here are the girls in their classrooms at their desks. We had never been to their school, so it was fun to finally see it.

We also went to Sadie's pre-school graduation from Tiffany's pre-school (we didn't get pictures of that one) and her graduation from Miss Kathy's and a performance by a singing group Sadie was in.

Sadie and Miss Kathy

 

So CUTE!

Kylie and Lexi were also in a performance that we were able to go to. They did great!

We were able to go to one of Kylie and Lexi's swim meets. It was one before the weather was too hot to be sitting outside in!

I'm glad we live close enough to attend these fun events of our grandkids.

Where has the summer gone?

Well, as you can see, I pretty much gave up on blogging for the summer. I really don't like it when I get so far behind because it's so overwhelming to catch up - and I want to catch up since my blog is for my personal history. So, get ready for some blogging overload.

Happy Birthday, BJ!

Happy Birthday to BJ, our firstborn son! We were so excited to become parents and were thrilled with our little boy. This year is kind of a repeat of how it was 34 years ago. He was actually born on Monday, June 13, 1977 and the next Sunday was Father's Day. We lived in Boise, ID at the time and didn't really know too many people in our ward, but we were excited to go to church anyway to show him off. So, we took him to church for the first time when he was 6 days old.

He has always been an obedient, kind and patient member of our family and we're so proud of all that he is accomplishing. He's a wonderful husband and father. He doesn't wait to be asked to do something - he just does what needs to be done without complaining. When he left on his mission, I realized that I lost my best kitchen cleaner! We're so happy that he now has 3 children of his own, thanks to two very wonderful mothers, who sacrificed and thought of their unborn babies before they thought of themselves - and a wife who had little Hannah in March.. We love you, BJ and hope you have a happy day. Thanks for being such a wonderful son.

Happy Birthday, Dad

I miss you......

God saw you were getting tired

And a cure was not to be.

So he put his arms around you

And whispered, “come with me.”

With tearful eyes we watched you suffer

And saw you fade away;

Although we loved you dearly,

We could not make you stay.

So when we saw you sleeping

So peacefully from your pain;

We could not wish you back,

To suffer that way again.

A golden heart stopped beating,

Your hard-working hands were at rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us

He only takes the Best.

Author Unknown