Scrap-A-Thon

Patty, Debbie, and myself met up at Patty's cabin again this year for our 4th annual Scrap-A-Thon IN APRIL MIND YOU, and this is how the weather was! Debbie and I thought it was the most beautiful thing ever, but Patty, who has been in snow country all winter, was not so enthralled. We spend most of our time inside scrapbooking, so that's why Debbie and I didn't mind.

It really was beautiful.

We tried to get a picture of all three of us together, but our arms weren't long enough!

I didn't take very many pictures this year, for some reason, but we ate a little chocolate (a lot!), scrapped, stayed up too late, ate at some yummy restaurants, and on the final night Patty made us the most delicious corned beef dinner! It was so yummy, and the whole weekend was a blast. We've got to figure out how we can make this a semi-annual event!

A Visit With the Grandkids

The end of February we went to visit Hill and Keith for the weekend. I brought the kids each a stuffed turtle and they loved them. I tried to get a picture of them with their turtles, but it's harder than you think. Isaac wouldn't quit doing silly things with his, and of course Finley had to do whatever Isaac did.

There was a cute little book that went with the turtles, so I read that to them a few times.

Since it was sort of close to Sareny's birthday, and since we wanted to see her open her presents, we had a little pre-birthday party.

Sareny loves jump roping at school during recess, so we got her two jump ropes. A big long one that has to be turned by two people, and another for just her by herself. It took her a couple of weeks to master that one, but she did it. All weekend though, we had to turn the big long one so she could jump 24/7. It got to where we tied one end to the door knob so only one person would have to stand and turn.

We also gave her some "Twinkle Toes" boots (that girl loves boots!) where the toes have little sparkly lights that light up when you walk. She would hardly take them off all weekend. You can see them in the above picutre. If she did take them off, then Fin would run and put them on. She loved them too.

Hillari was in charge of a Ward freezer meal extravaganza, so Saturday morning we had over 20 women at her house making freezer meals. It was kind of fun, but tons of work. Hillari worked hard for several days chopping and doing some of the prep work. I got to meet some of the ladies from her Ward, and I got to make freezer meals too!

It looks like total chaos, but it was actually very well organized. Hill did a great job.

 

I hope I can get down there for the next one! It has been great to have something in the freezer for when you just don't feel like cooking.

We did some fun things like the paddle boats on the lake near their home, and we went to the sports bar and grill to watch BYU play, but I don't have any pictures of those activities. On Sunday we went to Church with them and then had to head home.

It was a fun, busy weekend. It's always fun when we go there. And the bonus this time was bringing home 4 or 5 freezer meals for later!

President's Day Weekend

My sister and her husband came down for a visit President's Day weekend. We haven't gotten together for quite awhile, so it was a fun weekend. One of the things we did was take them to see the new bridge at Hoover Dam. It is an awesome sight. The pictures really don't do it justice.

You don't get the feel of how high the bridge is from pictures, but this will have to do. The wind was blowing pretty bad, so our hair was doing its own thing.

That white stripe behind us is the water mark of how far the lake has gone down in recent years. It may not look like that much, but in reality it is over 100 feet. It makes me sad.

This is a view of the dam from up on the bridge! We were able to walk across it, and this might give you more of an idea of just how high and majestic it is. We only walked half way across. That thing is LONG.

This seal marks the apex of the arch, or the half way point.

Since the bridge spans both Nevada and Arizona, it is named after a great person from Nevada and also one from Arizona. Our family really admires these two men, and since we have gone to Arizona and run in "Pat's Run" for the Pat Tillman Foundation, we have a special love for him.

We spent a fun day there and went out to dinner later. It was a nice weekend and I'm glad that Shell and Rand could come to visit us. I'm so grateful to have a sister. We often say we don't know what we would do without each other. We love our brothers, but sometimes you just need a sister!

Finally........

I know everyone is wondering why I didn't keep my New Year's resolution to blog more often..........well, ask yourselves how many of you kept your's to exercise more or lose weight? I rest my case. I haven't kept those ones either. But about the blogging, we got a new camera for Christmas and JUST NOW got around to setting it up so I can download my pictures. I know, we stink.

So anyway........right after the holidays we took a quick trip up to see our parents. We had time to take my parents to Provo for dinner one night and took them to see Jake and Liz and their boys, and their sort of new house that my parents had never seen. Lexi came over too, and we all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yum! And thus began the first breaking of theNew Year's Resolution to lose weight..........
Here are a few pictures from that weekend:

Jeff and his Mom. We barely made it in time to visit with Mom and Frank for a day and a half. They were heading back to Oregon soon, so I'm glad we got to see them before they left.

We met Jake and Liz and the boys at Kangaroo Zoo, which is a fun place where the kids jump and run and play to their heart's content. Josh and Charlie were getting cabin fever, so they decided to take them someplace NOT cold and covered with snow to run and get the wiggles out. Here's Charlie trying to decide if he likes it or not. (He did!)

Me with my handsome son.

Josh totally loved it and had a blast.

Charlie got a little scared, but once he took the plunge, he loved it!

We got Josh to sit still long enough for a quick picture.

Me, Liz and Charlie

 Me and my cute Mom. I'm so glad we got to spend a little time with them. I hate that we live far away from them and I don't get to visit them as much as I would like to (every day) but I am happy for the times that we do get to be together!

The Way We Were

I haven't done one of my "The Way We Were" posts in ages, so tonight I decided to delight you with a couple that showcase Jeff's awesome plaid pants:

Admittedly these aren't too outrageous. In fact I remember buying them for him our first Christmas. This is us at the Manti Temple for my sister's wedding.

But these maroon beauties are my fav! The thing is, he only has socks on in the picture, but he had these "far out" and "totally groovy" (thought I'd throw that in since it fits with the nostalgia of these pictures....) platform shoes that were black and maroon that completed this ensemble. They were awesome, and made him a good three inches taller. As if he needed to be taller.......

A Christmas Story

I guess it's time to do the Christmas post and get all caught up. Yay! I know it's February, and no one cares about Christmas anymore, but I need to document it. And this will most likely be a quick one because I kept forgetting to take pictures, and our camera flash wouldn't work, so no night time pictures..................
This year all the kids and grandkids were here, so we had lots of peeps, and lots of fun. Lexi got here first from BYU, then came Cass, James and Truman from Hawaii; the next day Holli, John and Rhys came from Georgia; the next day after that Hillari, Keith, Sareny, Isaac and Finley came from Arizona, and last came Jake, Liz, Josh and Charlie from Utah.

One of our Christmas traditions is a hike on Christmas Eve day. This year we went out to Valley of Fire for the hike. This is the Hawaiians, Cass, James and Tru.

Hillari, Me and Lexi.

Our hike was slightly less fun that it would have been, because part of it was under water after the rains we had been having. But it was still fun.

Bampa and Rhys.

Keith got in trouble with Grammy for hiking way too high and dangerous with the kiddos. But he claimed he knew what he was doing, and admittedly, no one got hurt. Guess I am just used to Jeff, who would never let our kids hike higher than 6 ft. (that may be a slight exaggeration, but not much!)

Aren't these two so darn cute! (Rhys and Finley)

 

The annual sugar cookie decorating extravaganza.

Three cute girls.

There were lots of Ranger Rides.

And lots of trips to the park for some fun.

Liz and Charles.

Josh loved the slides.

A rare picture of Rhys smiling! It's not that he doesn't ever smile, just not for the camera.

Even some of the big kids had fun at the park!

Of course there was lots of good food.

Happy kids

Sad kids

Snuggly kids

Lazy kids - just kidding, nobody was really lazy but you gotta kick back once in awhile.

And the best reinactment of the Christmas story ever! Originally there were not this many adults in the production, but the kids started dropping like flies, so the adults had to fill in. As you can see, we had a busy, fun filled holiday. We love our family and friends so much and were so happy they could all be here with us.