Rick and Janell's News

Happenings

2012-01-22T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hello blogging world!!
I'm here in a hotel room in Palmyra NY. Rick and I brought Kaitlyn and Alyssia on a trip for their graduations. We were supposed to do this last summer but because of conflicting schedules we weren't able to. Our first 3 nights we stayed in NYC and it was super cool! we did lots of touristy things like the Empire State Building (at night and my favorite), Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty, Little Italy, Chinatown, Hayden Planetarium, and saw "The Lion King". I'll post some pictures soon.

In the 2 months since I last blogged we have taken a trip to Paraguay and met some truly fantastic people. I hope to eventually post some pics of that trip as well. Our exciting news is that our Skyboy became engaged to his lovely girlfriend Sarah Rigby on December 16th. They are looking forward to their wedding which is scheduled for February 22nd. Just 4 short weeks away! We are way happy and excited for this occasion. I'm hoping to get the invitations out by next weekend. I know I have a lot of pictures to post on this blog but I'm not sure how soon they'll be up. I'm thinking that life will slow down a little in March:)

See you all later!!

EARLY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-24T06:49:00.000-08:00

This year since we are leaving Thanksgiving day for a trip to Paraguay the Phelps family (plus Sylar's girlfriend Sarah) had an early Thanksgiving celebration. We all (minus Alyssia) got together on Monday night and had a really nice time. We started out with dinner...ham, turkey and ALL the fixins' and ended with a family night and games. Rick took the day off and then Kendra and Kaitlyn came early and helped to get things ready. It was so great being with the family!! We all came with a little Thanksgiving thought to share and talked about the things that we are most grateful for. We also shared memories of Thanksgivings past. To end the evening we played a couple of games. We had fun vying for candy in the Thanksgiving Trivia game, and playing an autumn Pictionary. There was lots of competition and laughter. After the games........PIE!! Cream Cheese Pie is definitely my favorite:) I love having grown up kids! Our family is growing and it is a marvelous feeling. I am so very thankful for them and ALL of the MANY, MANY blessings that Heavenly Father bestows upon me:)

Shotgun Shooting

2011-11-24T06:34:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago Rick and I went shotgun shooting (well, I mostly watched) with Skylar & Sarah and Brach & Kendra. It was a cold, windy Saturday morning but we had fun being together:) We finished off the morning with some pancakes at Virg's.......mmmmmmmmmm!!

Halloween Party 2011

2011-11-02T12:57:00.001-07:00

Last Friday night Rick and I had our annual Halloween party. We had a marvelous time!! We started out with dinner and had Chicken Tortilla Soup and Aunt DeeAnn's famous Clam Chowder with some breadsticks on the side. We had shrimp cocktail, taquitos, and orange chicken for appetizers. Rick was in charge of the homemade rootbeer (which is always a big hit) and Karen served up a baked apple dessert while Kathy made a pumpkin dessert as well as a chocolate bundt cake. All of Rick's siblings and their spouses were able to make it. (and most of them actually came in costume....yay) One thing that I LOVE about the Phelps family is that they are not afraid to laugh:) After dinner we played a game of clue charades and laughed like crazy!! In the pictures below you will see Hal acting out John Wayne (actually he thought he was acting out Roy Rogers but I guessed John Wayne and that turned out to be right). Brad and Rick are swinging their hips trying to be Elvis. Janice is in the dentist chair. Darrell and Darla are pretending to be cold. Karen is the headless horseman and Ruth is building an igloo. We had a great night with food, family and fun!!

PICKING PUMPKINS

2011-10-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

October is Great!! Almost as good as September:) Kendra has been talking about going to the Pumpkin patch for 2 weeks now so we took some time last week to do it. We didn't get there until after dark so we searched the field by flashlight. It was sorta fun:) We bought a bunch. There were only 2 of the white ones left and they looked pretty sorry but we took them anyway. WE ended the night with a classic film....."Murder He Says". It's an old b&w with Fred MacMurray. A really silly film. It was good to laugh! We have some traditional films that we watch in October and this is one. Some of the others are...."The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", "Arsenic and Old Lace" (love this one), "Haunted Honeymoon", and "And Then There Were None". We won't get to them all but they are all fun to watch this time of the year!! We watched "Charade" (with Cary Grant) a few weeks ago and that's a great one too. Do you have any Halloween favorites to introduce to us?? Let me know. Halloween is almost over but we hopefully will get a few more in. FYI.....I love mysteries (especially b&w's) and I don't like 'em too intense.

Elder Phelps....Home at Last!!

2011-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was truly one of the BEST days of my life!! Skylar Alan Phelps walked off the plane and back into my arms!! He was supposed to arrive on Friday the 21st and we (The Phelpses and The Bakers) were waiting there at the airport with open arms but......no Skylar. After about an hour a flight attendant walked up to us and told us that there were no missionaries on the flight from Atlanta (their last leg). Another family was waiting there for there own missionary and apparently we both missed the memo of the changed flight plans:( I hadn't checked my e-mail that morning but had checked up on the flight from Atlanta knowing that it was on it's way. Anyway, long story short. The airplane from Asuncion to Buenos Aires had mechanical trouble and so they had to get off. The sad part of that is that none of the missionaries had visas to enter into Argentina so while the other passengers were put up their hotel rooms, six missionaries had to find a nice place on the hard tile floor to spend the next TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. Skylar said it wasn't all bad because after quite a few hours someone from the airport there in Buenos Aires took pity on them and invited them into the VIP lounge where they were treated to all the crackers and cheese they wanted:) AND they had a chair to sit in. The good part for Skylar is that he was able to give away SIX BOM's (3 Spanish and 3 English) and had some great talks with people coming through immigration. You can imagine our dissappointment after expecting our boy to be home on Friday and realizing that he wasn't coming until the next day. BUT.....THE NEXT DAY CAME!! When I saw the first missionaries coming down the escalator I knew my boy was up there somewhere and burst into tears. Sky must of been at the back of the plane because it took another good 10 minutes for him to come down. Gary had been waiting at the top of the escalator because he wanted to be the first one to see him. When I saw the boys coming down I couldn't stay in the waiting area. I jetted right over to the escalator and threw myself into his arms. Kendra was right behind me and what do you know....she was crying too. I really didn't think I would cry but hmm sometimes you just never know what's gonna happen when your a girl:) What a wonderful sight!! We all got to give him a welcome home hug and that began one of the sweetest and most enjoyable days of my life. After getting Sky's bags we headed home where a nice big brunch was waiting for us. We sat around for hours and just listened to our missionary talk and tell us of life in Paraguay and the many miracles that he had seen throughout the last two years. All weekend I was on cloud nine. I am soooooo happy!

RETURNING WITH HONOR

2011-10-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Thirty Eight more hours until our Sky-boy is back with us!! It's countdown time!!:) I know I haven't blogged about our missionary all too much so I thought I would post some pictures. They are all just random and in no particular order. I think this first picture is very telling.....let me tell you....he has been VERY hard on his shoes. I'm not sure how many times he has had to have both of his shoes repaired. He leaves tomorrow and will travel through the night to arrive in SL at 10:30 Friday morning. I'm sure it's going to be one of the BEST days of my life!!

Autumn Picnic

2011-10-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Recently, we enjoyed a family outing with the Phelpses, the Bakers, and the Allens. We had a cookout up at Settlement Canyon just outside of Tooele. Rick cooked up some yummy dutch oven potatoes to go along with the steak and chicken that was grilled up. The fall colors were in 'full bloom' and very beautiful. I love this time of year. It is sad though to think that summer is leaving us so soon. We enjoyed sitting around the campfire visiting while the kids (they really aren't kids anymore) played games. It got pretty chilly and I couldn't stop shivering by the time we were to leave. If we're lucky we'll get to do this at least one more time before the snow flies:)
Rick's new friend...

Rick cooking up some spuds.

Ready for dinner....

The kids playing UNO

My St. George Birthday Weekend

2011-09-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

I had a FABULOUS birthday weekend. The kids (minus Alyssia who couldn't miss school) joined Rick and I in St. George on Friday evening where we cooked a nice dinner and had a movie night. Saturday morning we got to go to Sand Hollow Resevoir with my sister Deanna and her husband Kelly who have a very nice boat. My nephew Jeremy was there as well and he brought along his three darling kids. We had a wonderful day on the lake. We skiied, wakeboarded, kneeboarded, tubed, and some even jumped off some VERY high cliffs. Hint: NOT me!! That night even though we were tired we hopped on over to Chili's for dinner where we watched the 3rd quarter of the BYU/U game. We left beftore we could get too worked up about it and hit the hay.
Sunday was nice and relaxing with an 11:00 church block and afternoon naps with dinner, games and a movie (17 Miracles). Nice day.
Monday (my special day:) we went to the Outlet Mall and did some shopping, had enough of that and went back to the house to swim and lounge by the pool with a book (my favorite thing to do)!! That evening I got to open my presents from the fam and then we went to our favorite restaurant, Samarai 21 and had our favorite chef (Leo) and had some yummy food. Afterward we headed over to the Tuacahn Theatre to see The Little Mermaid. Some of us liked it....some of us didn't. I won't say what my opinion was. Anyway, the next morning the kids all had to leave to get back home to their jobs and I have to admit after they left I felt a little lonesome for them. I really hated to see them go. (Rick and I stayed an extra night) I LOVED the weekend with my family. It was a wonderful!!

All of us had a chance to do some watersports:)

Pool Time......

The fam bought me some nice birthday gifts. My very own pair of Tom's from B&K, an osterizer from The Gare, Some goodies and wall art from Kait, and some perfume and a certificate for a massage from my sweetie:)

A Temple Wedding

2011-09-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

This wedding post is sectioned into three different parts. The Wedding, The Reception, and The Details. It has been fun for me to remember and reflect on the beauty of this day.......I hope you enjoy the pictures!!
June 29, 2011 will be a day that I will always remember. My sweet Kendra was married for time and all eternity to her sweetheart Brach Boman. It was a wonderful day and she was truly radiant. I usually cry at weddings (not sad tears by any means...happy tears) but this time all I felt in the temple was peace. As our former Stake President, Brooke Hales performed the ordinance I felt such joy to be there in that place and at that time. He taught true principles and yes, I did tear up a little as my heart felt true joy.
After the ceremony I helped Kendra get dressed into her wedding gown (she was married in her temple dress) and the couple came outside to be greeted by friends and family. We took a few pictures on the steps and then it started to rain. As we all scattered to find shelter someone handed Brach an umbrella. Then the wind came up and that's where the funny pictures come in. I only posted a few but it was pretty hilarious. Brach's such a goof.
We found refuge in the JS Memorial Building where we took a lot of pictures of the bridal party. It sure is beautiful in there.
After pictures we had a wonderful luncheon hosted by Doug and Leesa (Brach's parents) at the Lion House. We were served rolls and green salad, pork chops and veggies and potatoes. For dessert we had cheesecake. It was a nice break before the big party that was to come!!

The Reception

2011-09-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

Brach and Kendra's reception turned out great. Yes, there are a few things that I would do differently but all in all I was pleased with the way everything turned out. For 2 1/2 months straight we had been praying that the weather would cooperate for us on this day. While we were at the luncheon I got word from home that the wind was really bad and that we would have to change the plan as far as the backdrop went. It was supposed to be out in front of the trampoline to cover it and to discourage the kids from playing on it. Well, the backdrop kept blowing over and so it got moved onto the patio. Plan B. It turned out OK other than our guests now had to wait out on the driveway to get onto the patio to meet the bride and groom. I felt bad because the line was long the WHOLE night. (and the driveway is NOT the most comfortable place to stand) Some people waited in line for over an hour. We had a tremendous support from friends in the community and of course, family. We actually were very blessed and felt that Heavenly Father answered our prayers. Just before the reception was to start the wind died down and it was really pleasant the rest of the night. It was a HUGE tender mercy for us. I loved having the different patio sets out throughout the yard so that the guests didn't have to stay under the tent if they didn't want to. It definitly felt like a garden wedding. My niece Leslie was a HUGE help in ideas and the go to girl for troubleshooting. She basically held the fort down throughout the day. (Thanks Les for everything....I owe you.....still)
The food was wonderful (despite the millions of Grantsville flies...eeeww). Our caterer was out of Logan and she was great. She served chicken salad, turkey and ham sandwiches. Also, fresh fruit, a cheese and crackers tray, pasta salad, and desserts for the white and milk chocolate fountains. For dessert Kendra's cousin, Kara, made up cupcakes and had them decorated so darling. There were also three different cakes for the guests to slice into. Brach's Aunt LaRee made her wedding cake. It was really darling. The cake topper was made by the florist and she used the same flowers that were in Kenni's bouquet.
Kendra's bridesmaids were her twin sisters Kaitlyn and Alyssia, and her cousins, Jenni and Bonnie with Julie as her maid of honor. Brach's groomsmen were his brothers Sage, Bridger, and Burke as well as his friends Jared Flack and his best man Micah Watson.
It was an unforgettable night!! I hope that everyone that attended enjoyed themselves completely!

Reception Details

2011-09-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

I love the detailed pictures at a wedding reception. Our photographer was great at getting the "little" things. I'm glad that she did because when you stand in line all evening greeting people..... you miss the fun stuff.

Phelps Family Vacation 2011

2011-08-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

This years family vacation was a lot different than in years past. Since Skylars still on his mission, Kendra just got married, Kaitlyn had to work, Alyssia had classes, and Gary was working in Alaska, our family vacation consisted of just Rick and I. Even though we traveled (mostly) with 2 other families, it was different since we didn't have any kids with us......... I think we are in the beginnings of a new era.
We were gone for 15 days and all but 4 of those days required some lengthy driving. We covered right at 5,000 miles and it's not something I want to try again anytime soon. Some stops on our trip included Winter Quarters, Nauvoo, Hannibal, Nashville, Gatlinburg, Memphis, OK City, Albequerque, Flagstaff, The Grand Canyon, and St. George.

Winter Quarters

Nauvoo

Hannibal

Nashville (Andrew Jackson's home "The Hermitage)

Gatlinburg

Memphis (The Nat'l Civile Rights Museum, Beale Street, Memphis Temple and Mud Island)

Albequerque

Meteor Crater

Grand Canyon

"HERE COMES THE BRIDE"

2011-07-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hello blogging world!! It's been a while. Since this Friday marks 'the official one month after the wedding date' I thought it was about time I posted some pictures of the bride and groom. While I love all of these pictures (which are just a few in comparison to all that were taken) the first and the last are my personal favorites. I am still waiting on the "wedding day" photos. Can't wait! I'll post them later:)

ALYSSIA'S GRADUATION

2011-06-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

HOLY COW!! I have not posted since Easter and needless to say many things have happened in the Phelps household. So here I am back blogging trying to get caught up. I've gotten through the end of May and in the next couple of days hopefully I'll bring this blog up to the present so......here goes.

Alyssia graduated from North Sanpete High School on May 27th. Rick and I traveled to Mt. Pleasant for the ceremony. Wow, it was the BEST graduation we have ever been to. The speakers (five of them) were all students and they each spoke on an attribute that they had aquired through their years of high school. The talks were amazing and what was even more impressive was that they were ALL memorized. The choir sang a few numbers that were excellent and this graduating class seemed to be top notch kids. We really enjoyed being there. Congratulations Leesh, on your success. We love you!

Julie made this cake for Alyssia for her celebration. Isn't it sooo cute?

GARY'S GRADUATION

2011-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's official! Gary has graduated A WHOLE YEAR EARLY from Grantsville High School. With dedication, hard work, and good teachers he was able to realize this goal that he set for himself at the beginning of his sophomore year. Good Job Gary and a BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!
We love you!

Fly like an EAGLE

2011-06-09T19:23:00.001-07:00

On May 7th Gary recieved his Eagle Scout Award. He has worked very hard the past year to finish all of the requirements. He planned the Court of Honor and it turned out really nice. As the meeting was beginning Gary leaned over to me and said, "Is this a practice or is this real?" I laughed and said, "Yes, Gary this is real" He got this panicked look on his face and said, "I told everyone this was starting at 7 o'clock." I looked at the clock and saw that it was just a little after six. Well that explained why 2 of the people on the program weren't even there. Thankfully Gary's good scout leaders filled in for the missing speakers. Yes, the invitations DID say 6 PM. Anyway, that makes for a funny story. At least they got there in time for dinner:) Here's Gary giving his talk. with acursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VdfE4cSndD0/TfGA1gjvHsI/AAAAAAAABWY/3PuB_9zvjlc/s400/Ken%2Btemple%2BGary%2Bgrad%2B014.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616411867068964546" />

My mom and dad came from Las Vegas to be there for the Court of Honor. Grandpa Hafen presented Gary with a knife plaque that he made especially for Gary. Gary is the 13th grandson to recieve his Eagle.

We are very proud of Gary's great accomplishment. This was an important goal for him to reach and HE DID IT! Congratulations Gary!

THE TWINS' 19TH BIRTHDAY

2011-06-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

At the end of April (I have gotten sooo behind in my posting:( ) we celebrated with Kaitlyn and Alyssia their 19th birthday. We had a little family get together here at home. I think this is such a cute picture of the two of them. They were so happy to be back together.

I made Kaitlyn a gummy bear cake at her request while Alyssia wanted an asphalt pie cake. Hopefully this will be agood year for both of them:)

YANNI

2011-06-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

On April 29th Rick and I and Trent and Kathy were able to got to the Yanni concert in Salt Lake. I wasn't that thrilled to be going but to tell you the truth I had a great time. Not only was Yanni awesome, his whole band was truly amaing. Very talented artists! A fun evening!

EASTER FUN

2011-04-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

THE EASTER BUNNY CAME TO THE PHELPS HOUSE!! Last Saturday we had an easter egg hunt for the big kids:) It was a little different than in times past. Aunt Kathy had the great idea of hiding the eggs at night and having the kids use flashlights to go searching in the dark. It was great! We had quite the crew and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Here is a picture of everyone before the hunt began. (We're missing Gary because he was at work but he made it for the last of the hunt:)

Kendra's searching in the tree.....

The prize egg was the last to be found and the hint was given that it was somewhere in the gazebo.......

Yay for Hannah....,she found it!!

It's such a bummer that this picture came out blurry but this is everyone at the end of their hunt with their goodies! Afterwards everyone came in and played Mafia and then watched Megamind. It's funny how just that morning Rick and I were talking about how the kids were getting to old to do Easter egg hunts. Thanks Aunt Kathy for broadening our minds a little bit. Let's do this again next year!

GARY'S 18TH BIRTHDAY

2011-04-28T17:50:00.001-07:00

Gary turned 18 last Friday!! He wanted to celebrate at The Olive Garden and so a big group of us went for dinner. Afterwards we headed home to open presents and share memories. We had a really great time remembering the funny things that Gary has done through the years. His big presents this year were a guitar tuner and an electric guitar case. He was way excited!!

Now it is official....all of my children are over the 18 mark which makes me a mother of ALL adult children. Just Crazy!! Am I really that old??
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARE BEAR!!

boy + girl + ring = eNgaGemEnT

2011-04-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

I know this is old news since it has been on facebook for more than 24 hours but MY KENDRA IS ENGAGED TO BRACH BOMAN! Oh happy day! He is an EXCELLENT man and is a very good match for my Kendra. I felt that from the first day that I met him. He proposed on Friday night at the Salt Lake Temple. Here are some fun pictures after they got back home to tell us the news!

Gary is so excited to have Brach as his brother! He loooooves him like crazy!! (they like to wrestle:)........ AND ISN'T HER RING GORGEOUS!!

HOLY COW!!! Kendra and I have got a lot of stuff to do before June 28th (the projected wedding date) Am I up for it? Oh yeah!! Bring it on!

GARY'S JUNIOR PROM

2011-04-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Gary's Jr. Prom. He was asked by Julia Goodworth to be her promenade date and he in turn asked her out ot Prom. They left on their date about noon and drove to SL to a place called Classic Skating. They rollerbladed, played at the arcade and jumped on the tramp. Gary said that it was a GREAT time. They doubled with Wyatt and Sydney.

After Classic Skating they had an early dinner at Olive Garden and Gary loved it!! It's one of his most favorite places to eat. He was disappointed that Julia only got a bowl of soup. He thought that maybe she didn't want him to spend too much on dinner:)

After the big dinner they went home to get ready for the BIG night!

The Promenade....(sorry the picture is blurry, I was far away and had it on zoom)

I loved seeing all the beautiful dresses!!

Julia wore her crazy Pippi Longstocking socks:0

I love my handsome brown eyed Gary boy! (He really is soooo handsome)

New Found Independance

2011-04-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night we had a celebration for Kaitlyn's recent graduation from school and also for getting her CNA Certificate. Julie made a couple of cakes for her (since she is now working in the bakery and Macey's) and they turned out great! Brad, Ruth and Bonnie came as well as the Allens and the Bakers (of course....they live here:) She was able to share some of her accomplishments and some of what she learned while she was at school.

Last week Rick helped Kaitlyn get moved into her new apt. in So. Jordan. I went on Monday to help her with all of the details. (Like filling her cupboards:) She started her new job this past Thursday and is doing well. She works at Copper Ridge Assited Living in West Jordan. She is getting the hang of driving in the big city (with the help of my GPS) and is a very cautious driver. We are so very proud of what she has been able to do. Hip Hip Hooray for new found independance!! Go Kait!!

THE PHELPS HAPPENINGS

2011-03-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've been a slacker. It has been 4 weeks since my last post so here's an update on the happenings around here.....

Gary is doing great. He received his Duty To God award today in Sacrament Meeting. n He has been finished with all of his requirements except for one for about 6 months. The last one was to read the BOM. He has a tough time reading and so it has taken quite the effort to get through it. It was getting down to the wire (he had to finish it before he turned 18) so we decided that we would, as a family, help him finish. Since we have just recently finished the BOM in our family reading we thought we would start where Gary was in his personal (3rd Nephi) study and start reading each morning with him and then him read as much as he could that night. It worked out great and he is officially finished. I am truly a proud mom!

Skylar is an awesome missionary. He is now in a place (still in Asuncion) called Amumbay. He likes it because there is a big marketplace close by. He is making some great contacts and is seeing success as he teaches the gospel. In one of his last letters he said how he loves doing baptismal interviews. Hearing the people's testimonies and their wanting to be better is such a spiritual boost for him. He is an amazing son and I am so blessed to be his mom:)

Kaitlyn has graduated from JobCorps with her diploma and her CNA certificate. She has been interviewing for jobs the past 2 weeks and has received 3 job offers. She is not sure which one she will take yet but she is looking to rent an apt. in So. Jordan which is close to any of those jobs. Rick was able to help her get a car this past week. A Toyota Corolla. It is an '07 and is a pretty red color. We hope that this will help her get started in her new independant life. She has not seen it yet but is really excited.

Leesh is home for her Spring Break this weekend. She is always happy and cheerful and is glad to be here. She should graduate from North Asnpete this May. She's not quite sure what she wants to do after that. We'll see:)

Kendra just got back from a cruise that she went on with a couple of friends. She took a 4 day 3 night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, MX leaving from Long Beach. She had a good time! I was very relieved to hear her voice on Friday morning after she got back into port. I was praying that she would be safe...you know with all that Mexican drug stuff going on. I was very relieved to know that she wasn't lost/kidnapped in Mexico. She is dating Brach Boman (again:) and is very happy! One word that describes Kenni is SUNSHINE!

In the middle of the month Kathy, DeeAnn and I took our girls to St. George for a couple of days for a last hurrah before Destinee leaves on her mission. It was fun being together. Rick and I are going to go back to St. George for 2 nights at the end of this week as well. I have had Fern for this month and that has been good. Thankfully it is easier with Kathy living here to help when I have to be gone.

Well, this is a long post but it feels good to update on the happenings of our family:) BYE!

OUR WEEK IN PICTURES

2011-03-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

We got to SEE and DO a whole lot this past week in Costa Rica. I am very greatful for the opportunity to spend time with my favorite person in this amazing country. We are truly blessed!!

2011-03-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well here it is.....Wednesday day night and our last one in this beautiful country. I wanted to get caught up on the last few days that we've had. Monday we got up early and golfed nine holes. Did we keep score....ABSLUTELY NOT!! That would totally ruin our day so we didn't even worry about it. As usual we took quite a few mulligans......Rick WAY more than me. HA! After thAt we came back to the hotel and while Rick napped in the room I headed out to the pool. He joined me a little while later and we both enjoyed the sun and water. That night we drove over to Playa Flaming and watched the sun set again. flamingo beach is VERY nice. More of a family beach and just a beautiful setting! We had dinner and seriously I fell into bed by 8:00. Sun + water = exhaustion.
Yesterday was ROCKIN' AWESOME!! We went white water rafting!! We had been thinking about it for a few days and I was the one pushing to do it. as we got to the Tenorio River and were getting our rafting instruction, I was thinking what in the heck am I doing!! I'm not twenty! after our guide (who was sooooo excellent) suggested that we have a practice rescue, I was totally thinking, ".they don't make us do this in Jackson Hole! What have I gotten myself into?!?" This was another of those experiences you just say to yourself...." OK, I' m here. I'm doing this!" And I did! It was SOOOOOO Fun! We got into some class 3 and 4 rapids and it was great! we went through about 2 hours of rapids and then floated for about an hour. We got to see three Toucans. THREE! one was about 20 ft away from us and let me tell you...those are spectacular birds. We also saw some herons, egrets, hawks, kingfishers along with some long nose bats and some river spiders. These spiders were HUGE! About 4 inches in diameter. They kinda freaked me out to tell you the truth. Like I said our guides were excellent. We had Wider (pronounced Weeder) and his brother Daniel (who was the photographer). These guys were special. they had such a good spirit about them. (yes, Rick placed yet another BOM....a total of three for the trip). Very spiritual and family oriented brothers. When we made it back to the base camp we had a typical Costa Rican dinner and headed back into Tamarindo to see the sun set. We missed it by 5 minutes. Que Lastima!
Today was a pretty laid back day. We left early (again....this is not the sleep in late kind of trip, my husband has kept us on the go) and drove into Santa Cruz and Nicoya to sightsee. by mid afternoon we had made our way back to Playa Conchal. We enjoyed the surf and
Sand and DID catch the sunset again on Playa Flamingo one last time.
Tomorrow we will be leaving late morning with our bodies a little redder, our memories a lot fuller, and big smiles on our faces! This has been such great trip.......one of our absolute favorites! They treat us like royalty here at the Marriott and it really is a beautiful resort. We have been very blesses to be able to make this trip. Pictures will be posted soon!!

Costa Rican weekend

2011-02-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

We're still here in "rockin awesome" Costa Rica. I want to keep up on my posts so I don' t get home and get overwhelmed at all I need to write about. The last couple of days have been great! On Saturday Rick and I drove to Liberia (the town) about an hour away to meet up with our tour guide. We followed him up to the Miravalles volcano. We hopped on some horses and rode up to the rainforest. We hopped off and hiked into the jungle a ways. It was AMAZINGLY beautiful. We hiked to four different waterfalls. The first one we had to cross a suspension bridge that was about fifty feet above the river with the waterfall directly off the side. REALLY COOL! Interestingly enough the jungle was eerily silent. I was expecting to see animals but other than a couple of butterflies there wasn't really much.
After our hike we hopped back on our horses and rode to the volcanic mud baths. We ate some Costa Rican food for lunch (YUM) there at the restaurant and then changed into our swimming suits for the mud bath. Rick really wanted to do this and I wasn't quite sure because these thermal pools smell like sulfur which isn't too pretty. I figured I might as well enjoy life to the fullest so I did. First we got into a thermal sauna (which smelled like boiled eggs x's 50) to "open up our pores" and then we walked to the mud hole and slathered ourselves with volcanic mud. Crazy! Normally I would have felt pretty silly doing something like that but hey, other people were doing it. The mud is suppossed to be fabulous for the skin. that's funny......it's mud. Anyway after that we cleaned up and than got into three separate pools to 'close back our pores'. it was definitely something you don't do everyday. after our experience there we drove back to Tamarindo (a quaint town known for their great surfing) and watched the sun drown in the Pacific. Nice!

Y?yesterday was Sunday so we took it easy. We drove to Santa Cruz (about 40 minutes away on dirt roads........there are a lot of those and those that do have pavement are mostly patch work. It's all an adventure here!) for church. Church was WONDERFUL! the people are so kind. One little lady walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek. I thought that was sweet. Rick made sure I understood what was being said throughout the meetings. On our way home from church I wanted to stop and get a picture of a mango tree so we did and Rick gave away a copy of the BOM to the nice man that lived there:). We headed back to our room and made sandwiches for lunch and then took a nice long nap! In the late afternoon we took another drive into a town called 27 de Abril ( yes the town was named April 27th.) Funny, huh? this town was really cute. there were people out cooking, kids playing soccer with makeshift goals, people dancing in the bars, people walking and riding bikes. it was just really neat. it will be an excellent memory for me in years to come. Oh yeah, we spotted about 10 howler monkeys on our drive. They put on quite a show, those monkeys! Costa Rica is truly amazing!

PS I'm on Rick's iPad so my typing is not very good:)
PS. I'm on Rick's iPad so my typing is not very good:)

A FABULOUS DAY

2011-02-25T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hello world! Today I went snorkeling with my best friend! He held my hand as we navigated the waters of Playa Conchal. We saw two eels, three burrfish (my favorite) a huge rockfish (ugly), a trumpeter, and LOTS of other colorful fish. After that we relaxed on the beach for a while each enjoying our books. A little while later a small brown woman came over and asked if I would like a massage. OH YEAH! I was laying on the table out in the open with a black tarp tied to the trees above me for shade listening to the waves roll in and the exotic birds singing in the trees and some spanish music playing somewhere off in the distance all while this lady worked me over. (Did I just type a run on sentence)? It was a surreal experience! A little later we rented a wave runner and let me just say that I got my full intake of sodium for the day on THAT ride. A LOT of water In my face but OH MAN what a blast! After returning to our hotel we got cleaned up and headed to dinner and then took a nice walk along the beach under the stars. It was a FABULOUS day!

PS Yesterday I had wild monkeys eating bananas off the top of my head.........more on that plus pictures later. Goodnight!

Phelps Sisters 2011 Oregon Trip

2011-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

Last week was the Phelps sisters annual (well it's becoming annual) trip to Oregon. This is the third year that they have been doing it. (and only my second because I missed the first year) We flew into Portland on Monday and rented a van and made our way to the coast. We stayed in Lincoln City in the same cute little house that we were in last year. We had a marvelous time just being together and having fun (and of course, shopping)! Brad is in this picture because he flew into Seattle to pick up a worktruck and drive it back to UT so he stayed with us that night (Ruth really didn't mind that) and then bought us all lunch the next day! From left to right...Kathy, me, DeeAnn, Karen, Darla, Ruth, and Brad. We are missing Janice, Robbie, and Lar.

Here's Kathy and I out on the beach. There were 107 steps down to get to the sand and yes, it was worth it!! Kathy, and all of us really, liked combing the rocks to see what we could find. The starfish and anemones were cool. It was a little chilly but we were blessed with pretty fine weather considering it's still February.

Sea lions in Newport.

All of us out on our fun, HUGE deck.

Kath and DeeAnn sharing a toast with their rootbeer:) while Ruth looks on!

Game Night!! Kathy and Ruth won all three games of 5 straight! How did that happen?? We also played Imaginiff and had some good laughs!

Last but not least we got to sit around and watch a couple of chick flicks throughout the week. A great time with some great women. I love you all!!

JAZZ GAME

2011-01-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

Last night we were able to go to the Jazz game with Trent and Kathy. Last week after our anniversary date, Rick and I came home to a bottle of sparkling juice and chocolates on our bed with a nice card from Kathy. Inside the card were 2 tickets to the game. Holy Cow!! They were GREAT seats. Come to find out Trent had recieved 4 tickets from work and they were nice enough to share with us!! Last night we all went up to Energy Solutions to see the Jazz play the San Antonio Spurs.

For Christmas I purchased some Jazz tickets to put into Rick's stocking. It just so happened that they were for this same game (not as good of seats though) so we told Kendra to find a date and join us. She brought along her cousin Seth and we all had a good time:)

Even though the Jazz lost it was fun to be there and feel the excitement!! Oh yeah...Kendra has been wanting a Jazz jersey for a few months now so look what she bought herself while she was there. It's a good thing she makes her own money 'cause she likes to spend it:) Fun night!! Thanks Trent and Kath!!

AWESOME VIEW

2011-01-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

Last week Rick came running into the house and dragged me outside to see this......It totally looked like the mountains were on fire!! This was to the east over Settlement Canyon.....

.....and this was to the west over South Willow. Incredible!! I love Grantsville's beautiful sunsets!!

THE SNOWBIRDS

2011-01-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

This picture is totally out of order because I accidentally erased it further into the post. But I like it so I had to put it back in even if it is at the top:)

The weekend of the MLK holiday the Phelpses and the Bakers headed up to Brighton Ski Resort for a few days of fun. Theis is the snowdrift outside of the Brighton Chalets where we stayed. It was amazing!!

Most of us in the group got to go snowshoeing around Silver Lake. It was quite pretty and a pretty good workout too.

Rick stopping for a break!! He was thirsty!!

Me and Kenni. Fun Times!!

KALLIE'S SWEET SIXTEEN

2011-01-27T18:09:00.001-08:00

Kallie turned 16 earlier in the month and I haven't been able to post pics. Here she is with her awesome cake made by none other than big sis Julie!

I love this picture of all the cuzzins....aren't they a cute bunch!!

Happy Sweet Sixteen Kallie!

NUMBER TWENY-TWO

2011-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Today is mine and Rick's 22nd anniversary!! I wish I knew how to scan a picture to my blog so you would all be able to see how we looked 22 years ago. Let me help you visualize....I had permed hair and VERY tall bangs. I was wearing a mermaid style dress with huge puffy sleeves and a headband veil with a pearl drop right in the middle of my forehead. Rick was wearing a white tuxedo and looked VERY handsome. I recieved my endowments early in the morning and then after changing into my wedding dress we had a white wedding in the East Sealing room of the St. George temple. After having lunch with the family at Sizzler we headed back to Vegas to get ready for the reception that night. My colors were teal and seafoam with a little bit of peach. My bridesmaids wore seafoam dresses. I had 4 of them. At the reception there were sandwiches and goodies and of coarse the cake which we served. Lemon...my favorite! We had a small program where my brother sang the Mac Davis song "Fall in Love With Your Wife" and then Rick sang a song to me..."So Near the Angels." After our lovely evening we headed out to Imperial Palace for 2 nights. We got to stay in a room called 'The Love Tub' courtesy of one of my bridesmaids who worked there. (and yes, it did have a love tub:) We headed out Sunday morning to northern UT where we had a weeks stay at a condo in East Canyon. The rest, as they say, is history!!
I am very blessed to have married the kindest most selfless man I know (I'm sure some of you wives would have to disagree) but to me it's the truth!! Rick is truly my best friend and we have had these wonderful 22 years together. Life has been very good to us!! I'm ready for the next 30 to 40!!

OOPS!!

2011-01-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

Last night Kendra and I were watching a chick flick as Rick had taken Gary snowboarding. I had gotten a call from Rick while he was on the lift and we spoke for just a few minutes. A few minutes later he called back for something else. Well, a few minutes after that the phone rang again and I saw that the caller ID said Superior Asphalt and I assumed it was Rick again so I answered the phone in a sing song voice saying, "Yes, my darling!" The phone clicked like it was getting bad reception and so I said again, "Yes, my darling!!" Then I hear a man's voice say, "I don't think I'm your darling." To which I said, "You're not? Well who is this? To which I hear Brad say, "This is Brad." OH MAN!! I was laughing so hard and trying to explain myself. Brad was good natured though. After I hung up Kenni and I were rolling on the floor laughing. Maybe this is a 'had to be there situation' but it was SO funny! It's a good thing I can laugh at myself....believe me my family laughs at the dumb things I do all the time!!

GARY...ALWAYS GOOD FOR A LAUGH

2011-01-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Gary is needing to find a job so tonight I was helping him with some questions on the applications that he was filling out. One of the apps was for our neighborhood grocery store. One of the lines listed all of the areas that are found in a grocery store and asked of which ones he would be interested in. The first was the bakery and right off he says, "NO!" The second was the Deli and again an emphatic "NO!" The next one was floral and he said, "well, yeah."

To that I said, "You want to work in the floral department???"

He then said, "Yeah.........isn't that cleaning the floors?"

I am still laughing as I type this. He's Silly!! I Love Him=}

WINTER FUN

2011-01-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

New Years Day Rick and I went sledding in the West field. No one wanted to go with us so it was just him and I. It was VERY cold but we had a good time. We hooked the sled behind the Ranger and had at it.......

We got movin' pretty fast. Here's Rick after he biffed it. He came out unscathed but as for me I recieved a huge bruise on my leg after hitting either a rock or a frozen cow poopie....I really couldn't tell!!

Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T11:24:00.001-08:00

We had Christmas with the Baker family this year!! Christmas Eve was a great night. We started with dinner Chicken and Dumplings, (a Phelps tradition) and finger foods (a Baker tradition) and enjoyed being together. Afterward we had our Christmas Eve program reading from the scriptures, singing hymns and sharing our testimonies. That was very special. When the program was finished the kids all opened up their Christmas Eve jammies and then headed downstairs to watch Scrooge (another Baker tradition:) while Santa came to fill our stockings

Our tree waiting for the presents to be opened!!

Christmas morning after all the hubbub. Kendra fell asleep snuggled up in the blanket she made for me and wearing her new cowboy boots surrounded by everyone's presents! A picture is worth a thousand words!

RICK'S EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT

2010-12-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

This picture may be a little blurry but....LOOK AT THOSE TEETH! A few days before Christmas Mr. Rick was able to get his braces off. He/We have been waiting for this day for 2 years and 8 months. When he told me he wanted braces for real this time ( because he had been talking about it for years) I wasn't too thrilled with the idea. I loved him crooked teeth and all and frankly I didn't want his looks to change. Despite that, I could tell it was something that he really wanted to do so I said let's do it:) At first kissing was a little different but I got used to it:) His lisp was kind of annoying but I got used to that too. Now here we are with the worst behind us and all I can say is HOORAY!! btw...he says that too!!

CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAY

2010-12-20T08:39:00.000-08:00

Last week was a fun week for us. On Monday night we went to "The Forgotten Carols" with the Bakers. The show was so amazing. Michael Mclean did a great job playing John and we also got to hear Jordan Bluth sing some of the numbers. (he was awesome) The Forgotten Carols music has been such a great tradition for so many Christmases. In fact, Skylar asked for the CD for Christmas. I think he wants a little piece of home. Before the show we went to Olive Garden for dinner and you know how it is. "When your there....your with family."

A group shot

Waiting for the show to begin

Tuesday night we went up to Park City for dinner. This time we had the Allens with us. We ate at the Park City Pizza and Pasta restaurant. It was really fun with our big group. Superior had some gift certificates so we ordered a bunch of appetizers and ordered to our hearts content. Here we are posing by the PC moose:)

After dinner we took a trolley ride up and down main street. Woohoo!! Of course we had to stop at the Rocky Mtn. Chocolate factory for some goodies! Good Stuff!

"The lovebirds:)"

On Thursday night Rick and I had a night out. We first made a stop at the temple and then had dinner at "The Garden". It was a big night downtown what with the Tab Choir concert going on so we waited an hour to be seated. Actually it worked out well. After dinner we walked to Abravenel Hall and got seated for the Kurt Bestor concert. That was really nice....here we are at intermission. That night we stayed at Anniversary Inn and had the luxury of sleeping in. We left by 11 the next morning and spent the day Christmas shopping. It was a great week full of Christmas Celebrations!

MORP

2010-12-15T18:15:00.001-08:00

Gary went to MORP last Saturday night. His date was Ashlee May and they doubled with Gary's best friend Wyatt and Ashlee's best friend Jamee. He had a really fun time. They began their date at Jamee's house where they made homemade pizzas and then played the Wii. Afterward they went to the dance and took pictures.... then WITHOUT even dancing they left to go bowling. Don't they look cute in their superhero shirts. High School....ain't it great!!

housemates

2010-12-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

BIG NEWS!!! We now have 6 more people living at our house. Rick's sister and her family moved in with us at the beginning of the month. Trent and Kathy and 4 of their children (Jenni, Julie, Chris, and Kallie are now living in our basement. Well, actually Julie is upstairs in the guestroom with Kendra:) It is working out very well. They have been living in TN for the last 7 years and now they are back. Trent started his new job at Maxwell Products and we are delighted that they are here.....especially for the Christmas season. We have already been having lots of fun as you will see in later posts.

Florida

2010-12-15T17:47:00.001-08:00

Last month Rick and I took a trip to Florida. We stayed in Daytona Beach and had a great time. Here are some of the fun things we got to do......

Climb the Ponce De Leon lighthouse......

here's the proof........

eat alligator.........

walk on the beach.......

tour St. Augustine........

drink from the fountain of youth.....

eat out..........

take an airboat ride and see some 'gators.....

stand on a fire ant hole YIKES! (this is Rick btw.....my feet are certainly not that hairy:).......

Go to Epcot.......

....and ride a ferris wheel next to the ocean! Good times!!

ELDER PHELPS

2010-11-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

So I know I have not blogged much about the Sky boy. I don't know why..... I just haven't. He is doing excellent!!
This picture was taken on his 20th birthday back in August. He was so excited about this cake. They ordered it from a bakery and it looked so delish....but unfortunately it looked better than it tasted:(

These are just some random photos from his time in Yuty where he spent about 4 mos. It is a small town in the middle of nowhere. Most of the people don't even speak Spanish but an indigenous Indian based language called Guarani. It was diffucult for Sky but during his time there he worked really hard and with the help of some of the kids in the ward he was able to progress in the language. He really loved the people here and loved the small village atmosphere. It was hard for him to leave.

His worn out shoes.......

got fixed at the zapateria. Much better!

Felipa's baptism. She was baptized in this little pond. This was toward the end of his time in Yuty and his companion is E McGee who was fresh out of the MTC.

My handsome boy in his whites!!

Skylar and Elder Skinner (who looks so much like his cousin Dalton)

The mission car! HA!

A wonderful investigator (Zuni) and her daughters. Sky left the area before her baptism.

Skylar got transferred back into the city (in an area called Ybate) which is where he is at present He is loving his new area and his companion E. Moreno. They were able to attend the temple (his second time since he's been in Paraguay) and they are having a lot of success with the people there. I can see that my boy is growing in leaps and bounds and I love it! I do have some more recent pics but they are still in my e-mail and I forgot how to put them in his mission file. Blast! One of these days I'll be first rate at the computer....not anytime soon I'm sure:(

He says they're apt is a real dump (his words exactly). Last week they caught 11 mice in one day! Yikes!! I'll post the picture next time. I love my red-headed missionary!!

Halloweeeeeeen

2010-11-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some pictures of the kids from Halloween night. Kait and Leesh were able to come home for the weekend so that was fun. We had a fun Halloween Dinner on Friday night. On the menu was...Dinner in a Pumpkin (the kids LOVED that), Mummy Dogs, Witch Broom breadsticks, veggies and dip and Rick's homemade rootbeer. Afterwards we watched Wait Until Dark (with Audrey Hepburn) and had apples with carmel dip for dessert!

Saturday was the ward Trunk or Treat. The twins had a fun time dressing up and helping to pass out candy to the the kids!

Wyatt and Gary didn't dress up but enjoyed the evening.

They ended up going to the Stake Dance later that night.
Kenni had to work that night and she was soooo excited about her hunters costume!
She sure looked cute!

Last but not least....a group shot of the Casa girls.

Halloween is such a fun holiday!

COUPLES RETREAT

2010-10-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a fun outing with Rick's brothers and sisters. For the last 21 years Rick and I have been hosting a Halloween Party in late October. This year we changed it up a bit. We spent 2 nights up at Brighton Ski Resort (if anyone is wondering why we have gone there so much it is because Superior did the parking lot of the Brighton Chalets and so we have some trade on their condos up there:) Thursday evening we took a stroll around Silver Lake. On our way to dinner we saw a cow moose and her baby. COOL STUFF! Later that night we sat around visiting, playing games, and telling funny stories. I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe! You know how it gets when it's late and your tired....that's how it was!

Larry, Darla, Kathy, Trent, Rick and I.

(DeeAnn was taking the picture:)

Here's a picture of Rick with a belated b-day gift from Kathy....

The movie "How to Train Your Dragon".

A group shot in the parking lot....Ruth, Brad, DeeDee, Darrell, Dennis, Karen, Larry, (Darla's taking the pic) Hal, Janis, Kathy, Trent, me, and Rick.

Missing in the picture is Robin and Ken, & Brent and Lar.

We took another walk around the lake.....Here are some of the girls.

And most of the guys!

That night we came into town and had dinner at the Braza Grill. Not a decent picture but there you have it. It was a memorable time and we sure love being with family. We are glad to be part of such a wonderful one!!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

2010-10-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

Last Monday night for family night we headed out to the

pumpkin patch!

Kendra has been waiting for this for a couple of weeks now. It's kinda becoming tradition for us. The patch was NOT very good this year but we still found some decent pumpkins. What cute kids!! It's so cute to see how much they love each other. They get along really well!

Yes, through all the weeds we did find some good ones!
Here's my winner!

Afterwards we came home to make caramel apples. Here's Kendra's beauty! She crushed up heath bar to top it with. The rest of us just dipped our slices and ate them that way! After that fun activity we sat down to watch the infamous "THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN". Don Knotts is soooo funny! It was a great night!

Rick's 46th Birthday

2010-10-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night we celebrated Rick's FORTY-SIXTH birthday!! It was on a Sunday so that kind of limits us on the festivities but I made a special dinner for him and then afterwards The Allens came over for some ice cream cake.

He opened up his presents to find....a new shirt from Kenni, an i-pad cover from the Gare Bear, the movie "The Karate Kid" from Leesh, and from me 2 two new sets of matching tie pins and cuff links (as per request). He also recieved some new skull candy earphones (one for me as well:) a picture for his office, and some new garments...WOOOHOOOO!!

Happy Birthday Hunney!!!

Click Your Heels

2010-10-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Dorothy did have it right.....There IS no place like home!!

MEXICO CITY PART 2

2010-10-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

TUESDAY

Alrighty then...here comes part two! Tuesday we enjoyed the morning at a mercado about 30 minutes away from our hotel.

Gary had fun shopping for a belt. Mi familia leaving the market with their shopping bags!

That evening we got to go to the Mexico City temple to do baptisms. So exciting! We almost weren't able to because the only way we could do it was in coming with a group. We timed it so that we would be there at 6 PM to meet the group that was scheduled. Well, they didn't show up which meant there were not enough priesthood holders to help officiate. Come to find out there were 6 groups scheduled for the day and not a one showed up. Can you even imagine? It just so happened that while we were waiting a few brethren showed up to go through a session and the temple counselor asked them if they would help us with the baptisms. They were very gracious and instead of going through a session as they had planned they worked in the baptistry with us. What a wonderful, unforgettable experience for us!

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday our driver took us to Chapultepec Park. It is a HUGE park located in the center of the city. Here is a pic of Rick and Kenni feeding the squirrels!

A family picture. Notice that Gary is missing. He was invited by the boys of the ward to play basketball for their YM's activity that morning. Wasn't that cute of them? You might ask why the boys weren't in school. Well there are so many children in the city that they have to have 2 different sessions of school. These boys go to school from about 2 in the afternoon to about 9 at night.

Interesting, huh?

Kendra and I in front of the Chapultepec castle. It was very magnificent! A lot of the rooms were decorated just like it was back in the 1860's when Maximillion (Mexico's last king) and his wife Carlota lived there. They lived high on the hog while the people lived in poverty.

There is also a zoo in the park. Here is Rick trying to make friends with a Japanese monkey! After our day at the zoo we enjoyed a relaxing evening back at our hotel. We all crammed in our bed and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark on Rick's i-pad. It was a tight fit:)

THURSDAY

Thursday morning we drove out to the edge of the city (about an 1 1/2 drive) to a place called Xochimilco. (pronounced so-shee-mill-ko) It is a neat place where you can take boat rides on canal built through the city....(kinda like Venice in Italy...except not really:) Here we are getting on our boat. In the back is Alvero. He was our driver for the week. I am soooo glad he was driving and not Rick. Way less stressful for all of us!

As we got into the main canal there were boats that would come up to us and try to sell us stuff. We listened to some guys play the xylophone. They were actually quite good. Rick and Kendra had to try the cooked corn like on Nacho Libre!

I bought some flowers from this lady.......

.....they're for Narciso's wife Ruth.

Gary being our captain.

On our way back in!

Before we left we stopped at the fruit market. You should see how they sell their chicken here....pretty gross! I do not know how these people do not get salmonella poisoning!

We took a bike taxi back to the car. Another memory:)

That night the Castenedas came to visit and say goodbye. Narciso brought some old mission pictures and it was fun to see them laugh and reminisce about the good ole' days.

FRIDAY

Friday was another day of leisure for us. We strolled around our hotel's neighborhood. Here the boys are eating Tres Leches. They love that!

The monument by our hotel.

A fun flower stand!

What a wonderful vacation this has been. After months of wondering if we should even come (because of the bad things happening here) I am very glad that we did. It has been a spectacular place to see and what made it especially great was spending time with Narciso and his family. Now it is time to gear up for the long traveling day tomorrow! I can't wait to get back home!

MEXICO CITY PART 1

2010-10-11T20:10:00.001-07:00

Holy Cow! We have been in Mexico City for 3 days now and have been going like crazy! I'm going to write about this trip in 2 posts since there is so much to tell. We traveled all day on Friday (with a long layover in LA) and were happy to arrive at the Marriott Reforma about 9 in the PM. We ate dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed our first mexican meal. The kids were going crazy over the pico de gallo and the green chili sauce! SATURDAY

On Saturday we met up with the Casteneda family for some sightseeing. (Narcisso Casteneda was Rick's first comp in the missionfield.) These good people are the reason we are in Mexico in the first place. Narciso has been to our home in Grantsville and a few years ago we told him we would try to get to Mexico to meet his family. Here we are in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral...Gary, Kendra, me, Ruth, Narciso, and Ricardo (one of their sons). An interesting side note. Ricardo turns 18 in a couple of weeks and he has recieved his mission call to the Merida, Mexico mission. He leaves next month. YM in mexico can serve missions when they're 18! I did not know that.

Here's a shot of Kenni in front of the National Palace.

Right in the middle of downtown they have unearthed an old Incan ruin.
It is called the Templo Mayor. An electric company found this artifact back in 1978 when they were digging and that was when they discovered this huge place underneath the ground.
Cool Stuff!

After visiting the ruins we went through the Cathedral. It was very ornate inside. We got to climb the bell tower.
Here we are up on the roof of the Cathedral.

On our way to find some lunch (I think we walked 5 miles) we came upon this street mime. Here is having some fun with me:)

After lunch we drove over to the Coyoacan area of town. I swear this town is so huge that it takes FORever to get anywhere. After stopping for an ice cream cone we headed over to the market. We all found some fun stuff. Hats, headbands, crocheted slippers etc... Here's Kendra buying Brach a new wallet. She had fun buying stuff for his family.

After shopping we stopped for dinner. It was a fun place but it felt like we had been eating all day. After dinner we thought we would take a taxi home so Narciso would not have to drive us all the way back to the hotel. After trying to flag down a taxi for 25 minutes (not kidding....plus we had been going all day and were sooo tired) this VW taxi drove up and what could you do? We needed to get back and this was our only option. The passenger seat was not there so Gare, Ken and I sat in the backseat and Rick sat on the floor where the seat was supposed to be. We had a good time and made a fun memory. Have you ever been IN the backseat of a VW bug. Here we are crammed like sardines! (Gary's taking the pic:)

SUNDAY

Sunday was a wonderful day as well. After getting home late Saturday night we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:30 to get ready to catch our ride at 7:30 to get to church that started at 8:00. I will say this that sitting through 3 hours of meeting where you can't understand anything is pretty challenging. It gave me a new appreciation for missionaries and what they have to go through as they learn a new language. I will say that the RS sisters were so sweet to Ken and I. They were trying hard to include us in the lesson and kept saying things to us which totally made me more uncomfortable. I could NOT understand what they were trying to say to me and they just kept trying. Finally at the end they asked me to say the prayer (cute, huh?) I tried to go slow so they would know that I was ending but after I said, "Amen" Kendra was the only one who lifted her head....so I said Ahmen (like they do) and they all got the message:)

We enjoyed the afternoon back at the hotel (napping) and then we got to go to Narciso and Ruth's home for dinner. Here is Gare with the Casteneda's dog, Casey. He took a liking to Gary:)

Ruth made us a feast! She had been listening to the kids the day before talk about the different foods they liked and she wanted to treat us well. We started out with Corn Chowder as an appetizer (with chips, pico, and red and green salsa's) then she brought out tacos, tostadas, Nopales (cactus), quesadillas, potatoes, and flan for dessert. Plus she made fresh limonada for all of us! WOW! That meal was amazing!

Here we are doing dishes!

Rick and Narciso

MONDAY

So Monday we headed out of the city to the famous Teotihacan ruins. We spent about 31/2 hours there seeing the sights. Here are Gary and Kendra ready to walk down the Avenue of the Dead. It is a 2 KM walk to get to the Pyramid of the Moon which you can barely see at the very back of this picture.

We stopped at the Pyramid of the Sun. It is the biggest pyramid in the world (that is unearthed anyway). Rick counted 243 steps to the top. It was hard but man, what a view!

At the top there were a LOT of butterflies. We got one in this picture.

On our way back down. Ruth was smart and brought her umbrella. It was a very hot day!

We stopped for lunch in San Juan and got back to the hotel about 5:00 where we swam and had a relaxing evening. What a wonderful 3 days! and we have 4 more full days to go. WooHoo!

GIRLS DAY....AND NIGHT

2010-10-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Kendra had Friday morning off of work so we went to Shear Pleasure and painted her room. She's wanted to do it for a while but we have never taken the time.

We chose a lovely green paint from Wal-world and got to work.

She was quite the artist and painted our names on the wall...... Isn't it cute? Between coats we had lunch at Costa Vida. We each had the pork salad. I have to say that I like Bajio better. She thinks I'm wierd. It was fun being with my Kenni girl! We gave her room a good cleaning too. It needed it!

Saturday night while the men were at Priesthood Meeting Alyssia and I took off to SL. We drove by this new place by the mall and thought we would give it a try. It's called NYPD pizza. As we got seated on the patio our waitress came and told us it was VIP night and that they were offering garlic bread, salads, pizza (an 18 incher) and dessert FOR FREE!
SCORE!

Here we are hangin' out on the patio chillin' to Frank Sinatra.

Nice!

I ordered a cheese pizza and at first they brought out this completely white pizza. (they call it the Blanco). It was NOT what I was expecting. You see I love pizza (especially the Margharita Pizza in Italy) and I have to have red sauce on my pizza. It's really not right to have it any other way....so yes, I had the nerve to ask for a new pizza even though I wasn't paying for this one. (I know I'm shameless) They were very kind and brought out the right kind. They even offered for us to take home the blanco....which I did. Hey, my kids might like it! Anyway, I loved the thin crust. It wasn't THE best pizza but hey, it was free.

After dinner we headed over to the mall and just hung out for a while. It was nice to be with my Leeshy just having some fun:)

Scarlett

2010-09-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Rick and I took another quick trip down south again. This time it was an overnighter in Vegas for my niece's blessing. We got there at 8 PM Saturday and left at 2 PM the next afternoon. I actually think that is the fastest trip we have ever made. Here is a picture of Boyd, Mare (my sis....short for Mary Ellen) their 16 year old daughter Gabby, and little Scarlett Lucia. She is squalling in this picture because she is hungry but ooohhh is she beautiful! Doesn't my sister look great! She is an awesome mom.

Scarlett is such a miracle all the way around!

Boyd gave her a beautiful blessing.As Rick and I pulled into the parking lot of the church I spotted my childhood friend Lynn Reynolds (Musso). I couldn't miss her because amongst all the mini vans and suburbans I spotted her Nissan 350 Z (a totally sweet ride)! I hopped out and sure enough it was her and her husband Bill. They are not members of the church so it was great to sit with them through the meeting. We have been friends for 38 Years! Almost to the day. She is a year older than me but she still looks like she is in her 20's. It was great to see her!
Needless to say I was anxious to get back home. I am about road tripped out. Thank goodness next weekend is General Conference. A good reason to stay home. We're leaving for Mexico City in a week and a half.
I am very happy we are not driving there:)

A Wedding, a Sealing, and a Birthday

2010-09-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

THE WEDDING

Last weekend our sweet niece Jenni Lyn got hitched! YEA! She married Brandon Orr and they are such a delightful couple. We are so happy for them!

They are on their honeymoon on a Carribean cruise. Saweet!Brad and Ruth are the happy parents.

Kenni and Gare foolin' around at the reception.

THE SEALING
The very next day we traveled down to St. George for the sealing of my nephew Andrew and his wife Mary Ann and their 1 month old son, Brody. Andrew and Mary have been married for exactly one year. She was baptized just prior to that so I am VERY happy for their little family and this special time in their lives.

THE BIRTHDAY

Yes, I had a birthday!!! It was great! Rick and Kathy (his sister)cooked and cleaned and made the day wonderful for me. We had some visitors that night and we had fun visiting and laughing. OK, so I was not going to post this picture but Kendra and Brach did a mighty fine job decorating my cake. Plus they are just sooo cute together:) I think they kinda like each other;-)

I have no idea why there are two S's by my J initial.

I think they got a little carried away with the pastry bag.
(Actually kendra was trying to put some swirly's on there)

It's the thought that counts.

Gary and Austin are just waiting to get a taste.

Thanks everyone for a fun night!!

The Weekend

2010-09-14T19:45:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was nice. Rick and I took Fern up to Brighton for an overnighter. We got left a little late but we made it to the lake (Silver) before it got to cold.

It sure was pretty.

After getting settled into our condo we drove back down the mtn a few miles to have dinner at the Silver Fork Lodge.

On the way back up we found this beauty along side of the road!

On Saturday afternoon we went skeet shooting with Kendra and her "new friend" Brach. You see that smile on her face. It's been there a whole week now.....since they met. He's in her ward in Tooele. Personally, I think she Wowed him with her shooting. I know I was impressed. After a little cajoling I gave it a try. I don't think I'll be doing that again. I didn't hit anything. I only shot 5 times because IT HURTS! I was happy loading the skeet thrower and watching everyone else. Kendra was a trooper. She kept shooting even though her shoulder was sore.

The only bad part about this outing was the 3 dead racoons that were just about 30 feet away. They smelled awful.

My parents showed up after midnight on Sunday/Monday. They traveled up from Vegas to go to the State Fair on Monday. We had a good time. It was sad for me though because Rick had to work and couldn't come:( My favorite was watching the team penning at the rodeo grounds.

A fun weekend!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-06T19:00:00.001-07:00

SWISS DAYS

Last Thursday night my mom and dad came to visit! It's tradition that they come up for Swiss Days held in Midway every Labor Day. We got there about noon on Friday and had a great time. We shopped for about an hour when Rick wanted to go get a bite. He wanted to eat early so that he could wait a bit and then go for his beloved pie and ice cream!!

Kendra took the day off work and came along for the ride. Ken found a hat.....the only thing she bought!

After about 3 1/2 hours of checking out all the fun booths (in the HOT sun) we sat down to watch the band Joshua Creek perform.
You can see Kendra loved 'em:)

I found a totally cool booth that had some vintage looking Halloween stuff. My fave purchase was the witches hat (soooo cute and matches my new family room) and some handmade fabric pumpkins. In the same booth a lady was selling witch boots (Wicked Soles was the name of her company) and I really wanted one but I couldn't bring myself to pay what she was asking:( They were all one of a kind and she named each boot personally.
Maybe next year.

FARMERS MARKET

I have been wanting to go to the farmer's market since last year when I first heard about it. We got up early and had a fun breakfast (I tried out some new recipes:) and headed over to the market in Pioneer Park. It was really fun! I brought home some fresh sourdough bread, some fresh flowers and some fresh peaches. Jackpot!

Mom and Dad waiting for the chaueffer.

SOUTH WILLOW

That night after a really fun BBQ dinner (enough food for an army) out on the patio we took the Ranger up South Willow Canyon. Of all the times my parents have been here we have never taken them up our treasure of a canyon. It was a delightful ride! Here we are up at the loop. It was just starting to get dark as we took the picture. We counted 10 deer. It got a little chilly on the way down.

Fall is definitely in the air!

Look what we found crossing the road! A real live tarantula!! About 13 years ago we saw one in this same canyon and have watched for another one all these years. Rick and I hopped out where (of course) Rick gets a stick and starts prodding it and I (of course) have to get a snapshot. It was really cool to see....and fast. As we were getting back into the Ranger, Rick acted like it was right behind me and made me scream!! Everyone had a good laugh about that. Why is it that husbands like to do that sort of thing? All in good fun!!

My parents up and left early Sunday morning. It was WONDERFUL having them here!

PLAYFUL APE

2010-09-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

OK, So here's the funny picture of Kendra being startled by an ape from the show TARZAN! He came from behind....I saw him coming but Kenni didn't:-0! Notice the guy on top of the rock. That's where this one came from!!! Rick thinks he looks like he belongs in the rock band KISS. Whattaya think? No matter......the show was AWESWOME!

If you get the chance hop on down to St. George to see it.

Now that the weather is cooling off this is a great time!

What? August is gone?

2010-08-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! It has truly been a whole month since I last posted. Our Internet has been down (whacked out router) for nearly the entire month and to be able to even read my e-mails I had to sit in the guest room closet hooked directly to the satellite. Before I remove the August page of my calendar and everything is completely erased from my memory I thought I would recap the month.

Kendra turned 19!!! On July 30th we headed down to St. George for the weekend (this is fast becoming tradition) to spend it with my sister. A highlight was being able to watch Tarzan at th Tuacahn theatre. The choreography was fantastic. These actors were doing amazing things up in the air. Loved the music. Funny thing: As we were leaving the theatre I saw a "monkey" perched up on a tall rock and I told Kendra that I wanted to get a picture of us with him in the background she resisted until I talked her into it. Well, the actor was watching this and so when Kendra came over he jumped off the rock and came behind her and right up to her face. Just as she saw him she screamed and Deanna took the picture. He really was pretty creepy looking. If any of you get down to St. George within the next month I highly recommend this show. Other highlights of our trip was swimming, (of course, 'cause it was so hot) watching Cranford II, and eating out at Samurai 21 (Kenni's fav).

That Sunday we drove to Vegas. Kendra flew out the next morning to Nashville where she spent the rest of the week with her cousins. I got to hang out with my mom and dad. It was great! I visited all of my sisters and just loved being there. The highlight of Vegas though was my new niece being born on August 5th. Scarlett Lucia (pronounced Loo Chee ah) is her name. Lucy is truly a miracle baby. My sister and her husband have wanted another baby for lots of years (Their daughter Gabby is 16) so to have this little one here safe and sound is such a miracle. And can I say she's about the prettiest thing I ever layed eyes on. (Of course I am a biased aunt:-)

While we were gone Rick and Gary (along with a group of guys) went on their annual Alaskan fishing trip. They fished, whale watched and ate to their hearts content. They LOVED it!

Skylar turned 2o on the 10th of this month. He and his companion celebrated by ordering a cake from the bakery. The cake looked wonderful but he said it wasn't that great. sad:(

Gary got his wisdom teeth out. What a trooper! His second surgery within a month. He swelled up like a chipmunk, of course, but is doing great now.

The day after Gary's surgery we loaded the trailer and headed up to the Uintahs for a three day camping trip. It rained cats and dogs the day after we got there. But we had fun in the trailer playing games (Boggle Champ Right Here), watching a movie, and napping. It cleared up in the evening and we had a nice dinner and some s'mores for dessert. Our second day there was perfect weather and we drove up to Mirror Lake where we hiked, played games, and the kids caught fish. TEN IN ALL! They brought them back to camp and cooked them up and ate them. (Whatever flips their lid....I refused to even touch them:) Anyway....Love the Mountains. Oh, and we saw 1 moose. We kept looking for more but........nothin'.

So school started the following Tuesday and now it's back to getting up early for scriptures at 6:30. Nope, I'm not a fan of early rising but what can you do?

Rick and I took an impromtu overnight trip to Phoenix last Tuesday to visit our nephew Robert who was in the hospital getting ready for surgery. We thouroughly enjoyed our visit with him. Such a fun, happy person even in the midst of all he was going through.

One last thing......Our ward choir sang in church this past Sunday. They were AWESOME! We sang "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" and we had 25 people singing. TWENTY-FIVE!! That is a far cry from the 4-5 people coming out for our practices 6 weeks ago. I hope we can keep up the momentum. (in case your wondering what the big deal is......it's because I am the choir director)

OK, I know this is a long post but now August will never be forgotten because it's actually written down. September? Bring it on!

TEMPLE(S) DAY

2010-07-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of summer Rick and I talked about taking a couple of days and going to some of the temples in UT that we had never been to. Well, let's just say that it got shortened to 1 day. Tuesday night I met Rick at his office later than intended. (he was running behind too) We were hoping to get to the SL temple that night but we were both tired and hungry so we didn't make it. We did, though, stop at PF Chang's for dinner.

Can you say lettuce wrap?That night we stayed at Ellerbeck Mansion (again.....thank goodness for trade) up in the avenues. After a yummy breakfast we headed toward the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. I have never served in this temple before.

WOW! It's beautiful.
Next we were hoping to get down to the Provo temple because I have never served there either. We knew we wouldn't have enough time so we had a quick bite at a darling Bistro and Boutique called Dear Lizzie. (really, really cute) So we drove back into the valley and went to the Draper temple.

After we finished there we were hoping to get to The Oquirrh Mtn. Temple but they were closed for cleaning so we headed over to our old standby (The Jordan River). This used to be our temple when we lived in West Valley so we have lots of fun memories there.

All in all it was a great (but tiring) day. It's amazing that we have FIVE temples within 45 minutes of our house. We are truly blessed!

Top This....

2010-07-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is totally a random blog today but here goes.

I was just upstairs doing laundry when I opened my sock drawer. It was so stuffed with socks that I could barely open it. After finding a few matches I decided to count what was left over. Can you believe that I had 43 socks that were missing their mates? FORTY-THREE! I hate the thought of having to throw away perfectly good socks because there's only one. I just KNOW that the sock's mate is SOMEWHERE in my house. Anyway, instead of searching for the lost mates ......I threw them in the trash.......yes I did. I will say that I could not bring myself to throw Rick's dress socks out........they are just too darned expensive. I'm just curious.......how full are your sock drawers? Can anyone top 43?

PS One of my boys.......I'll not mention any names (except that he has red hair and is on a mission:) used to love to wear mismatched socks. I thought it was a little strange but it didn't seem to bother him at all. In fact, I think he relished in the fact that he was carefree and didn't have to worry about 'the little things'. Crazy Kid!

Under the Knife.....Again

2010-07-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

Today was yet another surgery for Gary. For 12 years now (since his accident when he was 5) he has had trouble breathing through his nose. At the time, he had severe trauma to his face and believe me he's got the scars to prove it. I took him in last month for an evaluation to see what could be done and the doc said he was 85 % clogged.

The poor boy hasn't been able to smell for years.

Here he is in his hospital gown. He's ready to go!The surgery took about an hour and a half. After he started coming out of the anesthetic they let me back to see him. I don't know if any of you have experienced seeing your kids drugged up but it is kinda scary. I must be getting used to it 'cause I didn't feel too freaked out seeing his eyes glazed over. It was actually quite humerous.

Kids say the darndest things when they're out ot it.

I know Gary has felt bad about how he treated me (and the nurses I might add) in his last hospital experience. (He was a BEAR)! I know this because he apologized 5 months later in my Mother's Day card. I believe he set himself a goal this time to be as nice as possible. The minute I walked into his recovery room he opened his eyes. This was our conversation. (remember he is still very drugged and slurring)

Gary: "mom, come here. (except it sounded like commeer)

The nurse was talking to me so he thought I didn't hear him.

Gary: (a little louder) COMMEER.

I walked to the side of his bed.

Gary: "I wanna hug."

I hugged him.

Gary: "See I'm nicer this time. I don't want to be mean................. I feel sooo good"!

Me: "You are Gary. Your last surgery was a little harder so I can understand. I don't blame you. Your a good boy....I love you."

Gary: "I love you too.......... I feel sooo good.

Then he fell back asleep. After 2 minutes he woke up saying....

Gary: "I want my mom"

I smiled at that and I said, "What"

Gary: "I love you"

Me: " I love you too, bud.

Gary: (druggily) "I feel GREAT.

A little later I was sitting at the foot of his bed and he jolted awake and said,

Gary: "I don't want you to leave." Another smile. (Last time he said to the nurse...."I told you not to let her in here!" Yes, he really said that.)

Gary: I can't believe how good I feel.

The nurse walks in.

Gary: I wasn't nice to my mom last time.

Nurse: "What do you mean last time"

Gary: "My last surgery."

Me: "Yes, but he's doing much better this time."

(I did not realize that he was so worried about being nice this time around. I am glad of it for sure. This was definitely a better experience than last time. He slept the whole way home and a few hours after. Here he is playing on Kendra's computer.

He'll have some teflon splints in his nose until Monday and then it will take a couple of weeks to fully recuperate. I can't believe how wonderful he has been. Really kind AND patient. So different than the last time. Maybe he is really growing up:-)

He gets his wisdom teeth out next month so that'll be another adventure:)

Trip to the Black Hills

2010-07-11T18:17:00.001-07:00

Last week Rick, Kaitlyn and I took off on a road trip. Our destination was to see Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills. Although I was excited for the trip I certainly did not know what a great time was in store. We began our trip Monday evening after Rick got home from work. We drove as far as Rock Springs and overnighted there. The next morning we headed up the middle of Wyoming. Martin's Cove was right on our way so we stopped for a few hours and took the hike into the cove. (no handcarts) It was a long hot walk but it sure gave us an appreciation for all the handcart pioneers who suffered so greatly in this place. There were missionaries along the way to give us actual accounts of the pioneers' experiences.

There was a very peaceful feeling in the cove. That night we drove the rest of the way into South Dakota. We stayed in Custer that night and headed out the next morning. Our first stop was to the Crazy Horse Monument. It was very impressive. It has been in the works for 50 years. It is completely privately funded so it is taking quite a long time. With the invention of modern equipment the process has been speeded up through the last 10 years. There is still a long way to go.
This is the actual model of what the mt. will look like when it is completed. I love the comparison of the model to the real thing.

Our next stop just a few miles down the road was the reason for our trip in the first place. Neither Rick nor I have ever seen Mt. Rushmore (except in pictures of course) so we thought we would make the trek to see it. Long Drive. But totally worth it!

A close up. So MAGNIFICENT!

That night we made reservations for a chuck wagon dinner and show.

We ate at the Circle B Ranch.

Rick and Kaitlyn were brave and tried the buffalo that was on the menu. I played it safe with chicken and beef. Afterwards we were entertained by some cowboy singing.

The next morning we headed back to the Circle B for a trail ride. Rick looks quite dapper as a cowboy don't you think?

Later that day we traveled up to Deadwood city. We started our tour at Mt Moriah cemetary (otherwise known as Boot Hill) We saw many infamous graves including "Wild" Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Truly, throughout the whole trip we caught ourselves humming "Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota" (ya know, the song that Doris Day sings as she plays the part of Calamity Jane......a true classic) One thing I was not expecting on this trip was the sheer beauty of those Black Hills. So incredible!

Having fun on main street.

We left Deadwood at 1:00 and drove all the way to Jackson Hole. Nine Loooong hours. This is the part I did NOT like about the trip. I can't stand being in the car for that long. The good thing though was we counted over a hundred antelope, almost a hundred buffalo, about 50 elk, lots of deer and 1 moose. I'll tell you though, there is a lot of desolate country in WY!

This is our cute little cabin in Jackson.

Our first day in Jackson we went on a river rafting trip. Can I just say...........totally worth that 9 hour drive. Those rapids are soooo much fun!

Afterwards we did a little shopping and bought a few souvenirs.

Before we left Saturday morning we had to stop at the Snow King Resort and take a ride down the Alpine Slide. Here comes Ricky!

Overall we put over 1700 miles on our suburban! I'm not much of a get in the car and drive kinda girl (my husband is totally into this) but I must say this was truly an unforgettable trip. It will be looked upon in many years to come as a wonderful memory:-)

Lake Powell

2010-06-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic weekend! We drove down to Lake Powell (our first time ever) and met my sister Deanna and her husband Kelly on Friday. Their son Andrew and his wife Mary Ann were there as well as my parents.

We got to Wahweap about noon and loaded everyone onto the boat.

Here's Kenni ready to have some fun! My mom and dad are ready to go....hats and all!

Aren't they cute? (That's Kelly holding the boat)
We boated up to Face Canyon and stopped to have some lunch. This is Kelly and Deanna's boat. There were 10 of us with room to spare. A VERY nice boat!

Rick, Gary, and Kendra playing in the water!
A little cold when you first get in but great after that.

After lunch we drove up to Cathedral Canyon. So incredible! Beautiful cliffs and narrows that we took the boat through. Here's Deanna and I (and Gare's backside) as we're coming back through the narrows.

After that we went up another canyon and hiked to Rainbow Bridge.

Gary was barefoot so Kendra was kind enough to give him a piggyback ride.

Shoot I erased the picture...it was so cute!

After a good nights rest we were at it again the next morning. Jeremy (Kelly and Deanna's other son) and Mindy and their 3 kids joined us. The kids are so cute and loved the boat and water! We set up camp on a nice beach and then headed out for some water sports!

The kids relaxin'

We each took our turn being on the water. Here's Gary...his first time to ever try wakeboarding! He got up on his 6th try and had a huge grin on his face the rest of the time. He loved it and got to be quite good!

My turn on ski's! I am so not as young as I used to be!

Kendra kneeboarding.

She didn't like that so much but really had a good time on the tube!

Rick had a blast kneeboarding on the short rope! He said the wake feels about eye level and kinda scary! You can tell by the look on his face what fun he is having!

Even my mom (who's 70) and my nephew's wife (who's 7 mos pregnant) went tubing. Crazy ladies! All in all it was a most excellent weekend and we definitely want to go back to Powell again. Next time with more family!

Love, Love, Love summertime!

Copycat

2010-06-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Kendra had her hair cut and colored last week and I thought it turned out so cute. I decided that I was going to have mine cut exactly the same way. She didn't mind.

Imitation is the best form of flattery!Here's the back. Hers is shorter and I should have gone shorter too. Maybe I'll go back and have a little more taken off. Abby Vought (Loveless) was our stylist. She is in our ward.
Hopefully I can style it tomorrow. ....... I have to use a flat iron.
That'll be interesting:-)

Oh Yeah! Kendra has started her new business. She is working at Shear Pleasure in Tooele. She's done a couple of facials, face waxing, pedicure (on a guy who had never had it done) a back wax (very hairy guy) and she's doing an arm wax and another facial wax on Friday. I'll put some pics up of her room after we get a few more things up on the walls.....it turned out cute. Give her a call and make an appt. The back treatment is wonderful! You will not be dissapointed. Oh, and also she is offering a free parrafin wax with any service or if she really likes you maybe a free brow wax:) Come and see her!

Night Out

2010-06-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes life gets extremely hectic and you feel like any alone time as husband and wife just isn't there. Sometimes everything else takes over. From house remodel taking most of our thoughts and what needs to be done next.... to church work....to family stuff....to work....to whatever. I knew that I wanted to have a get away.

Last night Rick and I enjoyed a night out. We had dinner at The Garden and just enjoyed some alone time. It was WONDERFUL to sit and have a conversation without the phone ringing. (Yup, left it in the car) ..........finally.

This picture really tells me that I have GOT to do something with my hair. Yikes!

We stayed at the Ellerbeck Mansion B&B up in the avenues. A nice large room decorated in a mariner motiff. We awoke to freshly made blueberry pancakes, bacon, fresh fruit, and homemade hot chocolate.

It was wonderful because we spent THE WHOLE day together. First, we stopped at Wal-Mart and purchased some flowers for our back patio. Geraniums and petunias.

Next we stopped at Kohl's. Rick has been missing his pants for a while now. (Last week he couldn't find any only to find out that Gary had been wearing at least one pair. How could Gary not know those were not his pants? They are only THREE sizes bigger than his own. And he had his belt cinched up really tight to keep them up. I swear.......teenagers. Of course, I take all the blame since it is I who folds the laundry. I put them in the wrong pile. My bad. As for the other pair of pants.....still no sign of them) Anyhow, back to Kohls. Rick bought 3 new pair of pants plus some shorts and a couple of tees.

Doesn't he look happy?

Next it was off to the golf course. What a perfect day for golfing! We tried out a new course...I think it's called Stonebrige (just off Bangerter) This was our 1st game of the season and our loss of balls proves it. This course is LOADED with water and while I lost only 3 balls to it Rick lost AT LEAST eight.

After he lost 3 balls on Hole 1 in the first four hits I knew it was going to be a doozy. Rick is soooo cute when he gets frustrated. I know he wanted to swear a couple of times but my hunney kept it under control. LOL

You know what they say though....

"My worst day golfing is better than my best day at work"

What made it great though was that there was no one behind us the ENTIRE TIME. We took mulligan after mulligan and didn't worry about holding anyone else up.

After golfing we stopped at Chili's and each had a Quesadilla Explosion Salad (Sooo0 good) and got home in time to plant our flowers and some stuff in our garden too.

What a GREAT 24 hours!

PARAGUAYAN SKY

2010-05-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would post some pictures of Skylar. These are random and not in any particular order. Paraguay is just getting over their summer and it has been really hot and humid.

He looks a little heated. Skylar LOVES the little kids. This was taken about 4 months ago when he was still in a suburb of Asuncion. His companion there was Elder Villegas from Chile. They got along great!

A couple of months ago he got transferred to the other side of the country on the borders of Brazil and Argentina. It's a place called Presidente Franco. It is very tropical there. This is a pic of his district. Skylar had the only hispanic companion in the district. Elder Yanez from Mexico. Skylar really liked him. They had a great time working together. He said that Elder Y. was very funny. They had a lot of good times together. (His comp that he has now is from Argentina and his name is Elder Beremendi) This looks like a great group of men. They like to get together on P-day and play monopoly.
Skylar LOVES to cheat....and apparently does well at it.

This is a pic of some nice falls in his area. An investigater took a group in his district to see them.

Here he is looking off his balcony. In the distance you can see Ciudad Del Este. The big city that he's close to. He loves to go into the city. There are some fun shops there.

He says people come across the border to get the good deals.

Elder Yanez with a family. (I wish I knew their names) They were making homemade tortillas and salsa. (Which isn't all too common) Skylar loved it. It was a nice change.......he says the Paraguayan food is pretty bland.

I've got some more recent pictures but I'm not sure which file they're in. He is having some great experiences. We talked with him on Mother's day and he sounds good. (No accent yet:-)What a great Mother's Day gift!

DOUBLE DATE

2010-05-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Last night Rick and I went on a double date with Gary and his cute friend Jessi Christensen. Some teens may not like hangin' with their parents on a Saturday night but they really didn't mind. We started out with dinner. Funny story....we were trying to decide where to eat and we gave Gary 3 choices to present to Jessi. Virg's, Dimitri's, and Jamo's. Easy enough, huh? Well after we picked her up and were on our way Gary started to present the choices. The first thing he said was, "We could go to Virgin's." He stopped and realized what he said and we all just cracked up! Jessi giggled and said, "Do you mean Virg's?" I know it's a different day and age but had that word come up on a date when I was a teen....I would have been so embarrassed.

Anyway, we enjoyed dinner at Virg's.

We had planned to go bowling after dinner but we changed the plan and decided to go back to the house (since we now have carpet and our TV room is almost put back together) and play some pool. Here's Gary trying to teach Jessi a tune on the guitar. Isn't she cute? He is too.

We played a round of nine ball which doesn't usually take too long but being out of practice (I never have been that good anyway) it took a little longer. JESSI WON!

A fun night for us all!

Almost There

2010-05-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

We are nearly finished with our remodel. YEA! For the last 2 weekends we have been working our tails off. Last week was painting (I thought my arm would fall off by the Saturday night) and this week was cleaning everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) because we're under I don't know how many layers of sheet rock and paint dust. A few weeks ago I just stopped dusting completely because 2 hours after I did.... my work had been undone. I am happy to say that I no longer have that gritty feeling anymore because.....

We now have carpet!

Yesterday, Rick and I did more painting and were able to bring in our funiture out of the garage (and where ever else it's been crammed) and start setting up house. It feels good to almost have it back together. There are still plenty of things to hang and clean and set up but we're getting there.

One sad part of this whole deal is our kitchen cabinets. Five days before they were to be installed the company we were going with (who I will not mention) decided that they were to busy to do them. They kept putting us off, and with some investigating , Rick found out that they hadn't even started them. Did I mention we have been working with them since FEBRUARY? In fact, the estimater was in our home 2 weeks before this and said and I quote, "Yes, we will be ready to install in 2 weeks." This was going to be a trade deal with Rick's company (which we have been doing for years with lots of different companies) but at the last minute they pulled out. Frankly, I think it's terrible business because really they should have let us know loooong before now. Anyhow, it has knocked us back another 4 weeks to be able to have the kitchen finished. I must admit I had a good cry this week and both Rick and I feel a lot of stress... but all is well. We got a few bids the day after we found out and feel really good about this new company. We just have to wait a little extra time is all:-)

In the meantime we are putting everything back together and it feels great to have our little piece of heaven back! (almost)

Pictures will be posted soon....or you are all welcome to come on over and see it in person. It's lots better in real life!

Nothin' could be finer than to be in Caroliner.......

2010-05-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Last week Rick and I had the opportunity to go with my parents to the East Coast. We flew into Jacksonville then rented a car and drove to Amelia Island to stay for the night. The historic town was called Fernandino and was very nice. We had to take off our shoes and stick our toes in "the great Atlantic" because...how often do you get to do that? The weather was very warm and humid. Nice for the skin. I love the beach. I could have cuddled up with a book and stayed on the beach all day....but we had things to do. Right next to our hotel was Fort Clinch State Park. Inside was the longest pier on the Eastern seaboard. While my parents declined we (of course) walked to the end.

We got to see some dolphins on our jaunt.

Rick with the local wildlife.

Dad and Mom and the fort.

Our next stop was Savannah, GA. We got there at lunchtime so we stopped at The Pirate House restaurant. It is a very old building (cir. 1700's) where the Pirates used to wine. Legend has it that civilians were shanghied here. One such man went into the place for a drink and woke up the next morning on a ship to India. It took him 2 years to get home. In this picture is the remains of an old tunnel that was found in fixing up the place. Kinda Creepy! Oh yeah, they say this place is haunted too. Weird!

Savannah was in bloom and very beautiful. There were even a few magnolias left on the trees.

Next was the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

We climed all 185 steps which afforded us a very nice view.

On Thursday we got into Charleston, SC. The air was so fragrant with the 'Carolina Jasmine' in bloom. We took a horse and buggy ride (we did that in Savannah too) to see the sights and learn about the area. Historic Charleston is an amazing place. One of the funnest things we did was just drive around and look at the pretty homes and gardens.

The historic homes are incredibly beautiful.

We stopped to take a look out at Fort Sumpter (where the Civil War began). You can't see it in this picture but it's out in Charleston's Bay.

Overall it was a great trip. We sure enjoyed being with my parents. I hope we didn't run them too ragged. I know it's getting harder for them to get around as they get older but we sure make some great memories when we're with them. We'll have those FOREVER! I think maybe they're actually thinking about going to Hawaii on our next outing. That totally came from them.....so with a little planning we'll see what we can do.

Kaitlyn and Alyssia turn 18

2010-05-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday we celebrated the twins' 18th birthday! Kaitlyn has been planning this for a couple of weeks. I'm so thankful to those who took time out to be with the girls on their special day. Even though our house is in a shambles right now....no carpet and rooms half finished and plenty of dust we made it work. Luckily our little kitchenette is up and running down in our TV room so I was able to prepare a mexican meal for all to enjoy. Here are a few of us mingling. The girls requested ice cream cakes. They turned out yummy!

Kait, Aly, and Mariah with baby Jaime hiding in the back.

We played boys against girls in the candy kiss game and the boys so won. WE can't catch a break on this game. Ever.

It's really not easy.

Happy Birthday girls!

Just a quick note. Alyssia was just accepted into the cosmetology program through her school. She will start classes in June.

She is hoping to get her high school diploma within a year and a half.

Kaitlyn has been accepted into the JobCorps. She will be working on her high school diploma and within 3 weeks will decide on a trade that she would like to work in and start classes. She is at the Clearfield Campus and we are very hopeful that she will set her mind to succeeding.

TICKLING THE IVORIES

2010-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we had an AMAZING night. We had a family get-together next door in honor of my nephew Mark and his fiance Taryn who are getting married on Friday. Kathy made us a nice big Mexican Fiesta dinner and we all enjoyed visiting.

Here is a picture of the happy couple. Mark blinked at the wrong time:) While we were visiting there was a knock at the door and unbeknownst to us Trent and Kath (& Dare and Deed) had arranged a special surprise for Mark and Taryn. Jon Schmidt (the famous piano player....well famous in UT) was there to give us a personal concert. All I can say is WOW! What a performer! I sat just 5 feet from him during the performance and I had a birdseye veiw of his fingers flying. SO COOL! I've got to get me his CD.

At one point he layed down and played a song BACKWARDS. I don't know if any of you play the piano but....HOLY COW! That's what you call tickling the ivories!

During the program Mark got up and showed a little bit of his stuff. We got to hear a song he wrote called "Taryn's Song". Just downright sweet.

I thought this was a sweet picture of the happy couple.

Sorry it's dark but they were on the other side of the room

Tomorrow is the BIG day. Good Luck to the newlyweds!

Happy 17th Birthday Gary

2010-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last week our Gary turned 17! I remember the first time I ever saw him. We were at the Museum of Natural History in SL to meet all 3 of the kids. We had seen pictures of them just the week before and had known they were up for adoption. We met the case worker at the museum and she let us spend the day with the kids. Gary was just absolutely adorable with his big brown eyes and delightful smile. He was very shy but warmed up after not to long. We fell in love with him from the very beginning. He has always been such a FUN boy and we have enjoyed laughing WITH him these past 12 1/2 years. We had a little family party on Thursday night (his actual birthday) after Rick's meetings.

The kitchen was filled with smoke from his candles:)
Kendra went shopping with me to choose some new clothes for him. We are also going to get him a new suit (if I can ever get a chance to get him to SL....'cause he's super busy). He's growing out of his old one....imagine that.

His first ever pair of Vans. Yeh, Kennie chose those too.

Saturday night we had a big tadoo at The Spaghetti Factory with a bunch of family. 25 people in all. We had a great time and I know it was special for Gare. Right now Gary has a full plate. He is trying to graduate a year early form HS and is on track for that. With his heavy work load he got a 3.7 GPA for last term. YEA! He works a few hours after school at the Titmus farms and his new adventure is raising sheep. It's kinda like the Perpetual Education Fund only with sheep. Just yesterday he got 5 pregnant ewes. He gets to keep them for 5 years and raises and sells as many as he can then at the end of the 5 years he gives 5 pregnant ewes back to the farmer who gave them to him in the first place. This is his plan for earning money for his mission. Granted he leaves in 2 years for that. Rick will have to care for them while he's away. It's a good plan though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARE!

2010-04-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on the remodel. The brick is on and now we are waiting for the stucco.

It's nice to see some progress on the outside. This is what our house looks like from the inside. When we came back from Spring Break this lovely partition was hanging up supposedly to keep all the sheet rock dust out.

mmhhmm. Right. I feel like I am living and breathing a big dust cloud everyday. EVERYTHING is covered in a thin sheet of dust. I clean in the morning and by 2:00 it's back. The good part is that the sheet rocking is finished and that the painters are SLOWLY making ground. The bad part is it starts all over next week when Charlee rips out the kitchen. It sounds like I'm complaining huh? I WILL SURVIVE!

This is the new family room portion looking into the music room. I love how the archway turned out. I am sooo excited to get the color up on the walls to see how everything works together. Everything has been primed and the painters got started on the ceilings and some trim. I am hoping that the whole project will be finished in about 6 weeks. Maybe wishful thinking but one can hope, right?

Spring Break in Sedona

2010-04-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break this year we made the long drive down to Sedona, AZ. It took us a long 11 hours to get there but we enjoyed the whole week. We went with The Allens, The Becketts, The Phelpses and The Hones. Sedona is beautiful red rock country.

It looks very much like our beloved Capitol Reef but with more trees.

One of the first days there we took a hike up the Sugarloaf Trail.

This is our group as we begin the hikeDeed and Dare take a break halfway up.
Julie and Kendra

Here we are at the top overlooking the Sedona area.

It's snack time!

Kaitlyn takes the photo op.

Our family (without Gary who wanted to stay behind and swim at the pool) overlooking Sedona.

Kaitlyn eating Chimney Rock. HEHE!

I love this picture of Julie and Kendra holding hands back down the trail.

I know this pic is blurry but I wanted to get a shot of all the teenagers as we begin our shopping day in uptown Sedona.

Austin, Dalton, Jenni, Destinee, Kendra, Gary, Kaitlyn, and Mindy

The girls dressing up at Gypsy Jenny's! Aren't they so cute!

After shopping we stopped for a cultural experience at a Korean restaurant. Not too bad:)

Did I mention we dragged our ATV's for those 11 hours of traveling?

We had a wonderful time riding in the hills surrounding Sedona.

The kids took turns driving the 4-wheelers and the Ranger.

As you can see it was a mighty dusty trail! Austin even had red sand in his teeth!

Another day we took a drive up to the old mining town Jerome. We had a good time looking in the shops and wandering around.

Here are Kendra, Julie, and Jenni trying hats on in the leather shop.

On our way home we stopped at the Grand Canyon. And YES! It was definately GRAND!

Here are John and Tracy and kids waiting for the I-MAX show to start.

This was my first time to see the Grand Canyon. If it wasn't so cold and we didn't have to travel so far I would have loved to stay longer. It was so magnificent!

One last shot.

I have a lot more pics but couldn't post them all. I realized after I got home that I don't even have any pictures of Brad & Ruth and Dennis & Karen. We spent a little time with them but I think they enjoyed being with each other as couples since there were no kids staying with them. Making good memories is the BEST!

Zach's going to Zimbabwe

2010-04-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

During our Spring Break we made a quick (5 hour) drive to Vegas to attend Sacrament Meeting where my nephew Zach was speaking before he takes off for the Zimbabwe Harare Mission. Zach sang a "I Heard him Come" for part of his talk and did a great job. He spoke of how he gained his testimony and referenced the quote " That others may live". He will be a great missionary. We love you Zach!

A few of my nephews....(from left) Garrett, Ian, Sam, Zach, Cody, Andrew, of course, Gary. I wish I had a pic of Zach in his new suit he looked great!We met at Pete and Terri's home for a luncheon afterwards.

Terri had prepared roast beef sandwiches, salads and dessert.

Jeremy, Elizabeth and Scott.

I wanted to get a sisters photo. From left...Mare (who surprised us on Christmas that she was expecting a new baby. Her daughter Gabby who is 15 will be getting a sister in August), Me, My mom, Kathy, Deanna, and Terri.
We are missing Vickie who was in SL with her YW for the YW broadcast.
I love my family. I'm so glad we were able to make this trip!

reMoDeliNg

2010-03-24T18:25:00.001-07:00

We have started a remodeling project that we have been thinking about for a couple of years. A few years ago I wanted to update our kitchen by getting some new countertops. Well........new countertops are just the beginning for this MAJOR project. On February 16th a hole was dug on the north end of our house. It will tie into our existing TV room where we will add a kitchenette and a bedroom and bath. On the main floor we are extending out our family room and to the west we are adding a music room. I will say that this is end of the house is Rick's dream........mine was the kitchen.

(Although I am certainly going to enjoy it too!) Our good friend Charlee is the contractor for the job. He has helped us through the years with other projects we've done. He built a false wall in our family room so this is where we lounge. A little dusty and uncomfortable but we're surviving.

The walls are up............

basement access will be nice

The roof and windows are in. The plumbers and electrician have been here for 3 days so things are coming along there. Charlee will be ripping out our kitchen within a couple of weeks and that's when the real fun starts. Hopefully he will have the kitchenette put together within a few days of tearing out the kitchen so that we don't have to go too long without one. I am really excited about this kitchen! We are extending into our 3rd garage for a little more space. We put the finishing touches on the design and chose the cabinetry just today. So many desicions!

It will be finished around the end of May!

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

2010-03-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Kendra and I drove down to St. George for a get-together with my growing up friends. I have known each of these ladies (except Karen) since age 5 when we started kindergarten together. Isn't that amazing.....that's 38 years! Jody (on right) lives in Hawaii so when she comes to visit her family on the mainland our group tries to get together too. We met at Deanna's house and had a BBQ. Some of us brought a few kids along and Jackie even brought along her husband (who is as funny as he was way back when) and had a good time mingling.

From left to right....Deanna (D'Alessio) Mckeighan, Me, Karen(Eckman) Rounds, Gretchen (Garner) Maxwell, Jackie (Chamberlain) Thomas, and Jody (Strickland) McCune. Toward the end of the evening Kathy, another friend from Jr. High stopped by also. We had a great time.... even pulling out the yearbooks so we could remember people. It's strange how you forget so much through the years. I was so glad to get together to remember the good old days and to catch up on what's happening now. It was good to see you all!

Gary's Band in the Sociable

2010-03-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

Thursday night Gary performed with his band at the Children's Sociable here in Grantsville. The Sociable is such a big deal here (a tradition that's been going 100 years plus) and I read in the newspaper that for a long time "they" did away with the Childrens Program. I'm glad they decided to bring it back. Ever since I've lived here they have had the kids perform a few nights before the adult shindig. I'm sure glad that the kids have a chance to shine.

There were some really cute acts. Gary's group has been practicing for a couple of months now.

They performed " Don't Wake Me" (by Skillet) and did a great job.

Gary was on acoustic, Keith Leavitt was on Bass, and Ashton ? was the singer.

Great Job Boys!

Brian Regan Night

2010-03-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was a super fun night! Rick and I, Brad and Ruth, and Darrell and Matt got to see one of our favorite comedians in person! Rick purchased tickets back in November and we have been waiting for this day to come. I personally have never been to a live comic show before and it was great! He is so funny and we all laughed until we couldn't laugh any more! We started out the night at a restaurant named Cuchina Toscana. It is in downtown SL and Brad and Ruth had been there before and recommended it. The food was great and we enjoyed the experience. DeeAnn had been planning to come with Darrell but at the last minute decided to stay with her son Austin who was having his 17th birthday.

Matt didn't mind a bit filling in for his mom.

Here's Brad and Ruth waiting for the show to start!

...and here's Brian doing his stuff. It was all new material and I am still amazed how he could go on so long without forgetting his routine. That's a LOT of memorization. For his encore he asked the crowd what they wanted from his old stuff. He performed "Pluto" and "Poptarts". As you can see we were clear in the back. Rick bought the tickets right as they came on sale and this is the closest we could get. Little did he know "they" added 3 more nights of shows after the fact. Anyhow it was a wonderful performance and it sure felt good to laugh!

SISTERS TRIP TO THE OREGON COAST

2010-03-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

This past week I took a trip with Rick's sisters. We left Monday morning and returned Friday evening. We flew into Portland and rented a van so we could all fit. Before heading off to the coast we stopped at the tram and took a ride. It offered a beautiful view of the Portland skyline. While some wanted to stay in the car and rest..... Karen, Darla, and I enjoyed the ride:) Before going back down we stopped at the lookout point gardens. In this picture if you look real close right between our heads is snow-capped Mt. Hood. (It's very hard to see in the picture) We also had a great view of Mt. St. Helens from here.
Next we headed off to Lincoln City where we stayed in a cute house right on the cliffs of the ocean. It had a great view, and that first night the waves were very ferocious no doubt from the earthquake just a few days before in Chile. After we got settled and freshened up we headed out to Kyllos Restaurant. Here we all are enjoying our dinner! Fom left...Kathy, DeeAnn, Ruth, Janell, Karen, and Darla.

This is our view off of our wonderfully huge balcony! WOW!

On Tuesday after enjoying the morning we headed out to Newport. Lincoln City to Newport is just a short 30 miles but we stopped along the way many times to get out and enjoy the fantastic views . Here we are in Depoe Bay where we stopped at a little shop for a bowl of homemade clam chowder and some fresh cut fries.

Once we got to Newport we went looking through the little souvenir shops. We had to stop and watch the sea lions sunning themselves at the wharf.

They are very interesting creatures. And loud!

The girls found the leather shop and had a heydey. They each bought a new piece of luggage. Dee Dee bought way more than that. I know it doesn't look like much but add that to the 12 OTHER pieces of luggage we already had it was crazy! We had a whale of a time fitting everything in our van when it was time to leave on Friday. We were stuffed in that minivan like sardines but we truly got everything home in one piece. What a MIRACLE!

On Wednesday we didn't do much. We lazed around and got ready by Noon. Did a little shopping and then came back to watch a movie. We watched a show called "Bells on Their Toes". I had never seen it before but what a cute show. It is the sequel to the old "Cheaper By the Dozen". I want to watch it with my fam! That night after lounging the day away got dressed up and went to dinner at Tidal Raves. Good Food and Great Company!

Thursday morning low tide was at 9:00 so we went exploring on the rocks. The tidal pools are amazing and we saw some neat stuff. This is a picture of our little house from the beach. It's the smaller house right in the middle of the pic. To the left are the 101 (by my count) steps that we came down to get to the water. It was nice to have the steps just off of our deck. We climbed those steps many times during our stay!

DeeAnn, Karen, and Ruth exploring the tidal pools! The rocks are covered with mussels and barnacles!

Lots and lots of Sea Anemones!

And HUGE Starfish! Hundreds of them!

That night for our last hurrah after dinner we climbed the steps one last time for a bonfire.
Personally I was dreading it because I just wanted to stay warm and not go out in the cold again but actually it wasn't too bad. Kathy and Darla after an few attempts got the fire started and we had a nice time. Some made s'mores and then we ended the night by singing campfire songs. What a great way to end a good week!

Friday morning we packed up and headed back to Portland. We had originally planned to stay in Portland on Thursday night so we could get to the temple Friday morning but we loved the coast so much we adjusted our schedule and stayed in Lincoln City an extra night. I am so glad we decided to do that. We actually had enough time on Friday to get to the temple befor our plane left so it worked out great! Thank You sisters for a wonderful time together. I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH! You are such a strength and help to me. The one advantage to being married to the youngest one in the family is that I get to learn from your experiences.

Let's do this again next year!

Happy Valentine's

2010-02-18T09:27:00.001-08:00

For our Valentine's date this year Rick and I celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant

"The Five Alls"

It is located off of Foothill Drive and has been our favorite since we started dating. It is an Old English atmosphere complete with pewter dinnerware. The food there is wonderful and we like to go there for special occasions. Because the economy is down they are only open on the weekends now. Give it a try.....you will NOT be dissappointed.

Rick sent me flowers earlier in the day. What a sweetie!

Sunday evening I prepared a special Valentine's dinner for the family. We had tossed salad, stuffed cornish game hens, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, raspberry jello, foccocia herb bread and for dessert the kids helped me dip chocolate strawberries,marshmallows and pretzels.

YUM!
Rick bought the kids' gifts. Flowers and stuffed animals for the girls and "treats" for Gary!

What a fun night!

Gold Coast, Australia (part2)

2010-02-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

We made it home safe and sound from "the land down under" last Wednesday night. What a trip to remember! I wanted to post a few more pics of our trip....

This is another view over our balcony.....the inner river.

I loved this flower arrngement in the lobby of our hotel. Those honeycomb flowers are so cool.....I have never seen those before. We also saw them at the farmer' market on Saturday.

I would have loved to bring them home with me!

Sunday afternoon we took a drive up to Lamington Nat'l forest. The road was harrowing (picture the road to Hana only raining and on a cliff)! No, it wasn't quite that bad but I did get a little testy with Rick. He was loving it and I was NOT!

Once we got there though, it was incredibly beautiful.

Here is the cool picture of Rick feeding the wild birds. He LOVES this kind of stuff!

On Monday we went wave running! It was SO MUCH FUN! Rick drove for the first hour and followed our guide through the mangroves. So fun 'cause the water was so glassy. Out in the open water though was VERY rough. I had to keep telling him to slow down......I'm not as young as I used to be:) We stopped at an island resort for a drink and a rest. Here's a little critter we found eating some veggie scraps thrown out by the restaurant. Notice the "joey" in her pouch.

Here are a few pics of the wildlife we encountered at the Currumbin Sanctuary.

Baby Croc

Koala.......she's a cutie!

feeding Kangaroos

Tasmanian Devil

We also saw a flying squirrel, , a 25 ft croc (that guy was a monster), huge bats (with a 2- 3 foot wing span.....Kinda creepy, frogs, and many other creatures of the night! After the walk through the park we got to see some aboriginal dances from these guys. The guy on the right played the didgereedoo......Awesome!

Our last day there we rented some beach bikes and headed out to the 'spit' ( a piece of land that juts out into the ocean). Getting there wasn't so bad.....just a leisurely ride. Getting back however was a different story. We rode into the wind the whole way. Miserable!

Our last night there we ate at Benihana's right there at our hotel. A fun way to end our trip! Notice my hair.....upon arrival I found that my curling iron had broken completely in half. Ok, I thought, I'll manage. Then on Sunday my hairspray nozzle stopped working. Dang! I was to cheap to buy any more because everything there was so expensive. So for the whole trip I either pulled it back or looked like a dork.

Goodbye Australia.......thanks for the memories!

Gold Coast, Australia (part 1)

2010-01-31T02:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true! Rick and I are vacationing on the sunny coast of Australia! After a 30 plus hour trip on 4 different flights (one of them being over 14 hrs long) we walked into our hotel room ready for a shower and some relaxation. We are staying in a city called Surfer's Paradise in the Mariott hotel. Yes, there are LOTS of surfers. Here is the view from our balcony. (the 17th floor) It is very warm and humid here.....just what we were hoping for. This is two of the pools as seen from our balcony. They are both saltwater pools and the one in the forefront is made like a sandy beach. It is stocked with all kinds of tropical fish so you can snorkel in the pool. How cool is that? I love looking down onto the pool. It is soooo gorgeous!

We took a drive down to Byron Bay yesterday. Just beyond this lighthouse is the easternmost point of Australia. We hiked up and down a total of 660 steps to get to the end of the path. Crazy...but we got to see a couple schools of dolphins playing in the water. Rick is doing great at driving! The wheel is on the right-hand side of the car and we drive on the left side of the road. I don't know but he sure seems to pick that kind of stuff up pretty easy. He has mentioned a couple of times how much he enjoys it.

(Must be all the practice he got last spring in the UK)

Yesterday morning we stopped at the Farmer's Market and had a great time picking up some treats for the kids. This was a licorice booth:)

About an hour away from Surfer's Paradise is a place called Tamborine Mtn. It is a tropical rainforest and we loved hiking through looking for wild things.

Oops! I meant to post a picture with Rick feeding a bunch of colorful parrots right out of his hand...... I'll get it next post:) Other things we have done so far.....snorkeled in the pool.....took a cruise to see the breaker islands......went to church.........did some souvenir shopping............drove to Lamington Nat'l Park and saw 3 wallabies and 10 kangaroos...........ordered room service.........noticed dozens of new birds and the COOL sounds they make.......missed the kids.........looked for a Koala bear (no luck yet).........swam in the pool........walk on the beach......

and last but not least just enjoying being together and finding adventure wherever we go!!!!

Brighton in the Winter

2010-01-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

The kids had Monday and Tuesday off for MLK day and a teacher work day so we took the opportunity to go up to Brighton for a couple of nights. We drove up Sunday evening after dinner and got setteled into our room at the Brighton Chalet. Gary, Wyatt, and I played games while the others went to bed. We got up the next morning and had breakfast at Silver Fork Lodge. After breakfast we dropped the kids off to go sledding (G&W took snowboards while Kaitlyn had a sled) for a couple hours while Rick and I tried something new.

SNOWSHOEING!

This was a first for us and it was not as cumbersome as you would think. We walked around Silver Lake (yes, the same lake we rode our bikes around just 5 months ago). The trail was about 1 1/2 miles and took us a little over an hour. It was so beautiful with a light snow falling and was very peaceful up in the trees. We could see people nordic skiing (xcountry) over the lake. I might have to try that next time. That looks fun too.

Taking a break and enjoying the view of the mountains!

That night Wyatt and Gary went nightboarding at the resort. Rick was going to go but decided to hang out with me and Kait. The boys came back totally drenched (because it was snowing the whole time) just grinning from ear to ear! They had a blast! This was Wyatt's first time boarding and he picked it up really quick and stayed right there with Gary the whole time!

I love these little trips! It's fun making memories with the fam!

Leesh Graduates from ARTEC

2010-01-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a big day for Alyssia. She graduatied from Artec day treatment and is moving on to public High School. She is excited but nervous to be going back to "real" HS. She will start out in a controlled classroom with about 10 other students. (This is a good thing....we're babysteppin here) Here is a picture of Leesh with both sets of parents.

Rick and I and Penny and Eric (her foster parents).

Leesh with her tracker Leslie. (she didn't want to take a pic:)
This is Leesh with her Artec therapist Debbie.

Way to go Leesh!

Saturday Evening in Park City

2010-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday came and I wanted to get out of the house with the kids so we headed up to Park City for some recreation. We decided to go bowling and stopped at Kimball Junction where they have a brand new bowling alley.

This place is pretty nice with more big screen TV's then I could count!

Here we are ready to play! You can see that Gary is truly on the mend. He tried every size ball in the place (which by the way did not help his game any:) He even tried that heavy 12 LB ball. I wasn't even thinking that it might hurt him. He's doing great though.

Rick's turn!

We only bowled one game 'cause it was kind of expensive. (I guess they've got to pay for those TV's somehow) and then we went to play in the arcade. I had such a fun time playing the pinball machine. I haven't played one in YEARS! I thought that with the invention of all these video type games that pinballs were obsolete. Not so I guess. At one point it gave me TWO balls to play with at a time and that was a hoot!

Rick and I enjoyed a game of air hockey. One of mny fav's!

Afterwards we headed further into Park City. I came to a realization that as many times that I have been to PC I have NEVER been there in the winter. Is that crazy? It was so cool! I got to see people skiing down the mountain. They looked like little ants way up there at the top:) It was quite thrilling for me! We got to have dinner at the PC pizza and pasta place. First of all, we walked down main street and it was quite magical. There are still lights in the trees and it was fun seeing people buzz around the shops. Rick had some gift cards for this restaurant and let me tell you we had a blast ordering from the menu. He said for us to order whatever we wanted and truly we had so much food we had to bring home 3/4ths! We ordered 2 large pizzas.....

eplus a couple of salads... plus Rick's calzone (huge)... plus fresh cut fries (I couldn't resist trying those...plus Gary's baked mac n cheese and minestrone... plus 3 shakes!!! We couldn't eat very much of it but we got to sample everything! It was Fun!

Skylar under the weather

2010-01-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

I've got a couple more pictures of Sky. He is doing fairly well although he has been sick. It sounds like it is fairly common that the food doesn't agree with him but sometimes it is worse than others. His words exactly, "My body hates me". That's of course a little worrisome and I have a tendency to worry about even small things. On a better note though, he is teaching quite a few people and has a baptism scheduled next week. Here is a pic of Sky and Elder Villegas in their apartment. Funny story... Skylar put a fake tarantula on his comps pillow and instead of freaking out he was so excited. He ran downstairs telling Sky to get his camera! They have grown a little attached to that spider and they actually use it when teaching English to people. The kids LOVE it! Here they are eating out at a restaurant. Skylar said he loves paraguayan soup and a drink called Guarana. In his last letter he said that he let a girl try to take a picture of herself with his camera and she accidentally erased ALL of his pictures. Bummer! He has been trying to send us more pics via e-mail but the computers are terrible! I'll post more if I get any!
We got to talk with him on Christmas Eve and he sounded good! He loves his companion. They get along great. Skylar is learning a lot. The language is gonna take some time but Sky's a quick learner. My hope is that he can communicate pretty soon.
It's terrible for me to think he's ill. Get better soon Scoob!

Sledding

2010-01-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ever since Christmas I have been wanting to go sledding. We bought some new sleds for the fam about 2 months ago and totally forgot to bring them out on Christmas . When we were in TN I really wanted to do something winterish like sledding but.....no snow:( Then DeeAnn called to see if they could borrow our sleds and that's when I remembered that we forgot about them. The Allen's broke in our sleds while we were gone. Saturday afternoon after putting all of Christmas away Rick, Leesh, and I hooked up the sleds to the Ranger and in our west field gave them a whirl. Doesn't Leesh look cute in her colorful hat:) It was made a few years ago by Melanie McNeil. It is a hat and scarf in one! Wheeeeeeeeee........

My turn!

I liked sitting better than kneeling!

Rick went last......here he lost the sled on a quick corner!

SLEDDING
One of the GREAT things about living in UT where there are 4 real seasons! After our outing we came in and made homemeade pizzas and watched a movie with the fire blazing. So Cozy!