It totally worked. Chalk one up for the good guys!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The End of an Era
Peter can climb out of his crib. He is so very proud of himself! He thinks it's party time and that he can stay up as late as he wants and get up as early as he wants. We didn't let him have his usual nap today so that we could guarantee sleep tonight.
It totally worked. Chalk one up for the good guys!
It totally worked. Chalk one up for the good guys!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Trek
Last Thursday thru Saturday our Stake did a Pioneer Trek for all the Youth aged 14-18. It was a recreation of a Mormon Handcart Company crossing the plains. Both Ryan and I have ancestors who were involved in Handcart Companies. We found out that there was going to be a Trek about a year ago and I was immediately excited and I hoped that I could be involved somehow. My parents were very involved in their Chandler Stake's Trek last year so I knew a little bit about them, but mainly I wanted to GO. Since it is for youth aged 14-18 I wasn't going to get to go that way but they organize the youth in "families" and each family gets a "Ma and Pa", a married couple who are the kids "parents" on the trek. I really really wanted to be a Ma. Then about 6 months ago we were called in to meet with President Cathcart and Bishop Bennett and they asked us to be a Ma and Pa and we accepted, of course. They told us to keep it on the down low so that the youth wouldn't be speculating about which Ma and Pa they would get, as they were to be assigned and there would be no special requests. Ryan and I didn't even find out which youth we would have until a few minutes before our families were formed up at the trail head.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, we did a lot to prepare for the trek; there was a long list of equipment we had to gather, we also needed to get period clothing to wear, dress and bonnet for me, and sort of cowboy clothes for Ryan; a four mile "fun run" in under an hour to qualify to go (they had to make sure we could physically do it), and we did some research and planning of activities to do with our "family".
I don't have any pictures because my hands were full the whole time with my Ma duties, and there were "official" photographers there taking many many pictures of us all along the way. I think there were about 3,000 pictures taken and who knows how many hours of video tape. So it was well documented, we will be given pictures eventually and I'll post some of them.
This truly could be the longest post ever, I don't even know where to start writing about the experience. There were 6 families, each had their own hand cart. There were about 70 youth on the trek. Ryan and I had the best family, we got Becky and Andrew Maldonado to be our "Aunt and Uncle", they were wonderful to have along to help with our large family plus they are amazing dutch oven cookers. Our experience helped make me have a huge appreciation for food. And our youth. . . we had 7 boys and 4 girls. Three of them were from our ward so I knew them pretty well already, the others were fairly new to me.
*We walked 14 miles that first day, over very rough and hilly terrain. I remember we were stopped for a break at one point later in the day, we were way past the point where we sat and chatted happily with one another. The one orange we had to eat for the day was either already eaten and gone or it was being saved. Their faces were either expressionless or in pain. I sat next to Alex and I could tell that his mind was in a negative place. I didn't want to push him but I wanted to get him out of that thinking, so I said, "Alex, you are so lucky!" I could tell that he didn't really want to ask why he was so lucky but he did anyway and I said, "Because your Pa is by far the cutest Pa here." And he smiled.
*Our family was amazing at pushing the cart My Ryan had them turned into a finely tuned cart pulling machine, he had them switching positions often and we kept spraying them with the spray bottle when they were hot and tired and giving them drinks of water often during the day, even while we we were walking. We were actually very very good at pulling the cart which was great except that our Grace twisted her ankle on an especially rocky stretch of road when we probably should have been going a bit slower. She went on for several miles on a very painful ankle and kept saying she was fine but she just looked more and more miserable as we went. She finally couldn't go on anymore. We pulled off the trail and did some re packing to the hand cart and Pa and Uncle Andrew gave Sweet Grace a blessing. This was also late in the first day and the kids were exhausted, they just sat next to the trail. During the blessing the Cuthbert family went rolling by (hand carts are very noisy as the wheels are made of iron). It was quite an experience. I could easily imagine the real pioneers doing that, having to stop to help someone who was hurt or sick, worrying about the member of your family who was hurt (injuries were serious business), but feeling guiltily glad to get a break and be still for a minute but feeling that anxiety about not getting behind, knowing that every minute we weren't pulling we were just going to have to work that much harder to catch up. It was truly something. We lost Grace at that point, she was taken to the main camp, we got to camp with her that night but she had torn 4 ligaments in her ankle and she went home the next day.
*On the second day we rested and played games and were silly, I remember Shane shaking his booty to get all 8 ping pong balls out of the kleenex box belted onto his hiney. He was amazing! He got all of them out in like 5 seconds! I have no idea how he did it, I tried it and only got one out! It was really funny to watch :)
*After we finally arrived at camp that first night we gathered the family around in a circle and asked them what they thought of the first day. Steve immediately said, "It sucked butt." We asked him to please not sugar coat it for us, just tell us what he really thought, he said he was sugar coating it! We had a great time with Steve, among all our wonderful youth, he was among the first ones ready to pull again after a break, he responded immediately to any assignments or tasks and he became our best cart packer. Such a good boy.
*At one point that first day the US Army came to take our men away to fight in the Mexican-American War (that happened to the pioneers, they were without their men for over a year). And us girls got to pull our cart up a difficult and rocky hill without the benefit of our men. At this point in the day we had lost Grace so we were down to three young women, Aunt Becky and Me. I wasn't allowed to touch the cart to help (Pa and I were prohibited from pulling at all, it was the kids experience) I just got to hold our little sand bag baby, Persephone and kick rocks out of the way of the wheels and shout encouragement to those dear girls. We said a prayer before we started and I had been crying since the army man started talking. Our boys were at the top of the hill watching and shouting to us. We actually did very well pulling that 600 pound cart, we got half way up the hill and Makela went down. She said she couldn't do it, but she had to do it, the cart had to go forward or it would go backwards and on that hill that would have been bad. Makela, our youngest and tenderest little girl. She was in pain (her feet were killing her), she was hungry, tired, and emotionally raw. Both of her brothers were at the top of the hill and she could hear them yelling to her. She got back up again and some girls from other carts came and helped us up the last bit of the hill. It was something amazing to see. I don't think I'll ever forget that image of Makela on the ground on that hill.
*Daniel didn't want his picture taken. He was funny. He had his bandana tied around his face to keep the dust out, rather smart actually, and his hat low on his head. And whenever he saw someone with a camera he covered his face with his hat. The photographers caught onto this quickly and I'm pretty sure they made a goal to get as many shots of Daniel they could. He may turn out to be the most photographed kid on the trek :)
*Miss Clarcy had a best friend in the Cuthberts family and she enjoyed spending time with her, and we got to spend time looking for her :) After tracking her down one time on the trail and finding her three carts behind us I told her as we were hurrying to catch up that her Pa was going to "tan her hide!". I don't think she was scared. But we caught up to our family and sure enough Pa Livingstone said, "Clarcy Ann Livingstone! Where have you been?" To which she replied, "How did you know my middle name?" He didn't, it just sounded nice, she was amazed and after that she always asked permission before scampering off :)
*By the second day of the trek we had eaten so far an orange, a cup of hot chicken broth and a roll (we got the chicken broth and roll that first night, it was the most delicious meal ever), some runny oatmeal for breakfast, for lunch the second day an apple, a roll, and some yummy beef jerky (best lunch ever!). Well by that evening we were ready for something more. We were given the ingredients for dutch oven bread and stew and corn on the cob! We promised the kids full tummies for dinner. We had no trouble at all gathering the kids for dinner, they were actually there quite a while before it was officially done and there was excitement in the air. Especially when Uncle Andrew would take the lid off the dutch oven to stir it and the smell would waft over to us. . . Devin offered the prayer for the meal and I lost count but I'm pretty sure he was "Thankful for the food" about four times, and ever so grateful for the hands that prepared it :) It was goooooooood!!
*The corn on the cob took a little longer to boil so it was sort of our dessert, but by that time the kids were all full. We had a lot of corn on the cob and when Po Joe (we had two Joes) threw his de-corned corncob into the woods we noticed that he didn't hit any trees with it. We teased Po Joe a bit, they were woods after all. Well, GI Joe threw his corn cob into the woods and hit an impressive three trees. It was on. All the boys went back for corn on the cob over their protests of full bellies and they were eating corn as fast as they could and throwing corn cobs. But nobody beat GI Joe's impressive three tree corn cob throw!
*We did some good old fashioned pioneer activities that second day like muskett shooting, hair washing (aaahhhh!), hatchet throwing, and candle making. Wonderful Wendy was a handy hatchet chucker! She looked really impressive standing there throwing hatchets and she stuck a couple of them too. Not too shabby! She was such a fun girl to have around, we enjoyed our Wendy a lot.
*Lots of Po Joe stories involve GI Joe too, I'm not sure why but for some reason those two who didn't know each other before the trek were tossed together a lot. They were a team most of the time on the handcart, there were Joes in the back pushing, or Joes on the bar, or Joes in the front. They were both really hard workers and very pleasant the whole time. Po Joe was just so sweet to help GI Joe along (GI Joe was just baptized the week before and this was all very new to him!). He was a great "big brother" to him and we are so grateful that Po Joe was in our family :)
So, this post has finally come to an end. I wanted to share a little about each of our Amazing Youth. I feel like I'm leaving so much out but Ryan will have already rolled his eyes about 10 times reading thru this so I know I've gone way overboard. The trek was wonderful. I loved it. I loved watching my darling husband lead us (he was by far the best looking Pa there!), I loved the spiritual experiences I had, I loved how hard it was. I hated saying goodbye to my kids, I miss them a lot.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, we did a lot to prepare for the trek; there was a long list of equipment we had to gather, we also needed to get period clothing to wear, dress and bonnet for me, and sort of cowboy clothes for Ryan; a four mile "fun run" in under an hour to qualify to go (they had to make sure we could physically do it), and we did some research and planning of activities to do with our "family".
I don't have any pictures because my hands were full the whole time with my Ma duties, and there were "official" photographers there taking many many pictures of us all along the way. I think there were about 3,000 pictures taken and who knows how many hours of video tape. So it was well documented, we will be given pictures eventually and I'll post some of them.
This truly could be the longest post ever, I don't even know where to start writing about the experience. There were 6 families, each had their own hand cart. There were about 70 youth on the trek. Ryan and I had the best family, we got Becky and Andrew Maldonado to be our "Aunt and Uncle", they were wonderful to have along to help with our large family plus they are amazing dutch oven cookers. Our experience helped make me have a huge appreciation for food. And our youth. . . we had 7 boys and 4 girls. Three of them were from our ward so I knew them pretty well already, the others were fairly new to me.
*We walked 14 miles that first day, over very rough and hilly terrain. I remember we were stopped for a break at one point later in the day, we were way past the point where we sat and chatted happily with one another. The one orange we had to eat for the day was either already eaten and gone or it was being saved. Their faces were either expressionless or in pain. I sat next to Alex and I could tell that his mind was in a negative place. I didn't want to push him but I wanted to get him out of that thinking, so I said, "Alex, you are so lucky!" I could tell that he didn't really want to ask why he was so lucky but he did anyway and I said, "Because your Pa is by far the cutest Pa here." And he smiled.
*Our family was amazing at pushing the cart My Ryan had them turned into a finely tuned cart pulling machine, he had them switching positions often and we kept spraying them with the spray bottle when they were hot and tired and giving them drinks of water often during the day, even while we we were walking. We were actually very very good at pulling the cart which was great except that our Grace twisted her ankle on an especially rocky stretch of road when we probably should have been going a bit slower. She went on for several miles on a very painful ankle and kept saying she was fine but she just looked more and more miserable as we went. She finally couldn't go on anymore. We pulled off the trail and did some re packing to the hand cart and Pa and Uncle Andrew gave Sweet Grace a blessing. This was also late in the first day and the kids were exhausted, they just sat next to the trail. During the blessing the Cuthbert family went rolling by (hand carts are very noisy as the wheels are made of iron). It was quite an experience. I could easily imagine the real pioneers doing that, having to stop to help someone who was hurt or sick, worrying about the member of your family who was hurt (injuries were serious business), but feeling guiltily glad to get a break and be still for a minute but feeling that anxiety about not getting behind, knowing that every minute we weren't pulling we were just going to have to work that much harder to catch up. It was truly something. We lost Grace at that point, she was taken to the main camp, we got to camp with her that night but she had torn 4 ligaments in her ankle and she went home the next day.
*On the second day we rested and played games and were silly, I remember Shane shaking his booty to get all 8 ping pong balls out of the kleenex box belted onto his hiney. He was amazing! He got all of them out in like 5 seconds! I have no idea how he did it, I tried it and only got one out! It was really funny to watch :)
*After we finally arrived at camp that first night we gathered the family around in a circle and asked them what they thought of the first day. Steve immediately said, "It sucked butt." We asked him to please not sugar coat it for us, just tell us what he really thought, he said he was sugar coating it! We had a great time with Steve, among all our wonderful youth, he was among the first ones ready to pull again after a break, he responded immediately to any assignments or tasks and he became our best cart packer. Such a good boy.
*At one point that first day the US Army came to take our men away to fight in the Mexican-American War (that happened to the pioneers, they were without their men for over a year). And us girls got to pull our cart up a difficult and rocky hill without the benefit of our men. At this point in the day we had lost Grace so we were down to three young women, Aunt Becky and Me. I wasn't allowed to touch the cart to help (Pa and I were prohibited from pulling at all, it was the kids experience) I just got to hold our little sand bag baby, Persephone and kick rocks out of the way of the wheels and shout encouragement to those dear girls. We said a prayer before we started and I had been crying since the army man started talking. Our boys were at the top of the hill watching and shouting to us. We actually did very well pulling that 600 pound cart, we got half way up the hill and Makela went down. She said she couldn't do it, but she had to do it, the cart had to go forward or it would go backwards and on that hill that would have been bad. Makela, our youngest and tenderest little girl. She was in pain (her feet were killing her), she was hungry, tired, and emotionally raw. Both of her brothers were at the top of the hill and she could hear them yelling to her. She got back up again and some girls from other carts came and helped us up the last bit of the hill. It was something amazing to see. I don't think I'll ever forget that image of Makela on the ground on that hill.
*Daniel didn't want his picture taken. He was funny. He had his bandana tied around his face to keep the dust out, rather smart actually, and his hat low on his head. And whenever he saw someone with a camera he covered his face with his hat. The photographers caught onto this quickly and I'm pretty sure they made a goal to get as many shots of Daniel they could. He may turn out to be the most photographed kid on the trek :)
*Miss Clarcy had a best friend in the Cuthberts family and she enjoyed spending time with her, and we got to spend time looking for her :) After tracking her down one time on the trail and finding her three carts behind us I told her as we were hurrying to catch up that her Pa was going to "tan her hide!". I don't think she was scared. But we caught up to our family and sure enough Pa Livingstone said, "Clarcy Ann Livingstone! Where have you been?" To which she replied, "How did you know my middle name?" He didn't, it just sounded nice, she was amazed and after that she always asked permission before scampering off :)
*By the second day of the trek we had eaten so far an orange, a cup of hot chicken broth and a roll (we got the chicken broth and roll that first night, it was the most delicious meal ever), some runny oatmeal for breakfast, for lunch the second day an apple, a roll, and some yummy beef jerky (best lunch ever!). Well by that evening we were ready for something more. We were given the ingredients for dutch oven bread and stew and corn on the cob! We promised the kids full tummies for dinner. We had no trouble at all gathering the kids for dinner, they were actually there quite a while before it was officially done and there was excitement in the air. Especially when Uncle Andrew would take the lid off the dutch oven to stir it and the smell would waft over to us. . . Devin offered the prayer for the meal and I lost count but I'm pretty sure he was "Thankful for the food" about four times, and ever so grateful for the hands that prepared it :) It was goooooooood!!
*The corn on the cob took a little longer to boil so it was sort of our dessert, but by that time the kids were all full. We had a lot of corn on the cob and when Po Joe (we had two Joes) threw his de-corned corncob into the woods we noticed that he didn't hit any trees with it. We teased Po Joe a bit, they were woods after all. Well, GI Joe threw his corn cob into the woods and hit an impressive three trees. It was on. All the boys went back for corn on the cob over their protests of full bellies and they were eating corn as fast as they could and throwing corn cobs. But nobody beat GI Joe's impressive three tree corn cob throw!
*We did some good old fashioned pioneer activities that second day like muskett shooting, hair washing (aaahhhh!), hatchet throwing, and candle making. Wonderful Wendy was a handy hatchet chucker! She looked really impressive standing there throwing hatchets and she stuck a couple of them too. Not too shabby! She was such a fun girl to have around, we enjoyed our Wendy a lot.
*Lots of Po Joe stories involve GI Joe too, I'm not sure why but for some reason those two who didn't know each other before the trek were tossed together a lot. They were a team most of the time on the handcart, there were Joes in the back pushing, or Joes on the bar, or Joes in the front. They were both really hard workers and very pleasant the whole time. Po Joe was just so sweet to help GI Joe along (GI Joe was just baptized the week before and this was all very new to him!). He was a great "big brother" to him and we are so grateful that Po Joe was in our family :)
So, this post has finally come to an end. I wanted to share a little about each of our Amazing Youth. I feel like I'm leaving so much out but Ryan will have already rolled his eyes about 10 times reading thru this so I know I've gone way overboard. The trek was wonderful. I loved it. I loved watching my darling husband lead us (he was by far the best looking Pa there!), I loved the spiritual experiences I had, I loved how hard it was. I hated saying goodbye to my kids, I miss them a lot.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Bragging
Yes, Father's Day was yesterday and I do have an amazing, funny, fantastic father who I adore; plus I get to have My Ryan, the father of my darling children who is by far the cutest and bestest husband ever; and I have a kind and generous father-in-law who is fully invested in his family and their happiness and success. So why am I posting a tale about my mother-in-law today of all days? Well, it is because she won't do it and the story must be told.
So for the past year or so my parents-in-law have been replacing the wood shakes on their roof with asphalt shingles, they've been going section by section. I believe I've proven beyond a doubt that roofing is by far the funnest home improvement project (can you sense my sarcasm?). Well, roofing their house is fantastic because ripping off the wood shakes is such a joy, for decades the wood shakes were shaded and dripped on by the huge pine trees that lived there up until a couple of years ago so they are covered thickly in pine needles and dust so when you pry one up with a shovel or your hand a little explosion and puff of dirt and pine needles flies all over and goes up your nose and into your mouth and eyes. It is good times. Then you get to toss the piece of wood bristling with long rusty nails off the roof into a pile of it's brother and sister shingles. Then you get to haul that pile of shingles around to the front of the house and pile them up for bulk trash to take them away. It is a joy and a highly sought after job. Well, Arnon took it upon herself to peel off the last two sections of shakes AND drag them around to the front AND get the roof prepped and ready for shingling (pulling out nails, ripping off old nasty dirty tar paper, sweeping dust and debris up, etc). And since she will never tell you of this accomplishment, I will. So here are pictures of the mountain of shakes that is in front of their house.
The weather around here has been a balmy 100+ the last couple of weeks.
She rocks. As you can plainly see from this picture, the pile is approximately the size of a motor home :)
Later today or maybe tomorrow I will post a story about what Ryan and I did last week. It was an amazing experience and I'm still trying to figure out how to write about it, but I will, and soon.
So for the past year or so my parents-in-law have been replacing the wood shakes on their roof with asphalt shingles, they've been going section by section. I believe I've proven beyond a doubt that roofing is by far the funnest home improvement project (can you sense my sarcasm?). Well, roofing their house is fantastic because ripping off the wood shakes is such a joy, for decades the wood shakes were shaded and dripped on by the huge pine trees that lived there up until a couple of years ago so they are covered thickly in pine needles and dust so when you pry one up with a shovel or your hand a little explosion and puff of dirt and pine needles flies all over and goes up your nose and into your mouth and eyes. It is good times. Then you get to toss the piece of wood bristling with long rusty nails off the roof into a pile of it's brother and sister shingles. Then you get to haul that pile of shingles around to the front of the house and pile them up for bulk trash to take them away. It is a joy and a highly sought after job. Well, Arnon took it upon herself to peel off the last two sections of shakes AND drag them around to the front AND get the roof prepped and ready for shingling (pulling out nails, ripping off old nasty dirty tar paper, sweeping dust and debris up, etc). And since she will never tell you of this accomplishment, I will. So here are pictures of the mountain of shakes that is in front of their house.
The weather around here has been a balmy 100+ the last couple of weeks.
She rocks. As you can plainly see from this picture, the pile is approximately the size of a motor home :)Later today or maybe tomorrow I will post a story about what Ryan and I did last week. It was an amazing experience and I'm still trying to figure out how to write about it, but I will, and soon.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Birthdays
Monday was Tessa's 8th birthday - I can't believe she is 8 already, yikes. We went out on a date to Baskin Robbins for her free birthday cone, she chose America's Birthday Cake flavor, it was actually pretty good :) Then we went to see GG. I'm posting a picture of GG and Tessa, yes, GG's poor beautiful face looks pretty terrible, it kind of kills me to look at her at first, but then I look at her more and I see that she is still beautiful and it looks kind of like a big colorful butterfly landed on her nose and spread her colorful wings out over her face. So now I just enjoy the colors. You can see a little red scratch on her nose, that's where it was broken. The swelling has gone down a lot and now all that's left is the discoloration which will slowly dissipate. Are you ready for the picture?
She is still beautiful, isn't she?
Next Tessa and I went shopping and she picked out a little present for herself with her birthday money.
Then we came home and got ready for the big birthday party at G&G Livingstone's. We had yummy food.
Fun times swimming.
Delicious birthday cakes. It was kind of ice cream themed. I was trying to recreate a birthday cake I made for Tessa years ago. I can't find a picture of it, but it turned out better before, I had melting issues this time. But it tasted really yummy and Tessa liked it so that's all we needed, eh? Amanda's birthday cake was made with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, peanut butter, toffee bits. . . Tessa asked me when I was making it why I thought Aunt Nunu would like it? I told her it was just a wild guess on my part :) Silly girl.
And last night Amanda's brilliant plan of getting all sisters to go to a Diamondbacks game and sit at the Friday's Grill place and eat lots of food was realized. The baseball players played baseball and we did not really pay attention at all. We did notice that when a home run was it it was hard for us to hear each other though. . .
We had SUCH a good time. I can't remember when I laughed so hard or ate so much. It hurt. Sisters are the best.
Who else understands that "Las Cruses" is really funny and that it needs to be said a certain way. Who else knows that Lindsey can't hear very far with that eye?
Or that this next picture is really funny for many reasons?
We had too much fun and I love them a lot. I hope my kids like each other when they grow up too :) Genius idea, Pookie.
She is still beautiful, isn't she?Next Tessa and I went shopping and she picked out a little present for herself with her birthday money.
Then we came home and got ready for the big birthday party at G&G Livingstone's. We had yummy food.
Fun times swimming.
Delicious birthday cakes. It was kind of ice cream themed. I was trying to recreate a birthday cake I made for Tessa years ago. I can't find a picture of it, but it turned out better before, I had melting issues this time. But it tasted really yummy and Tessa liked it so that's all we needed, eh? Amanda's birthday cake was made with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, peanut butter, toffee bits. . . Tessa asked me when I was making it why I thought Aunt Nunu would like it? I told her it was just a wild guess on my part :) Silly girl.
And last night Amanda's brilliant plan of getting all sisters to go to a Diamondbacks game and sit at the Friday's Grill place and eat lots of food was realized. The baseball players played baseball and we did not really pay attention at all. We did notice that when a home run was it it was hard for us to hear each other though. . .
We had SUCH a good time. I can't remember when I laughed so hard or ate so much. It hurt. Sisters are the best.
Who else understands that "Las Cruses" is really funny and that it needs to be said a certain way. Who else knows that Lindsey can't hear very far with that eye?
Or that this next picture is really funny for many reasons?
We had too much fun and I love them a lot. I hope my kids like each other when they grow up too :) Genius idea, Pookie.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Utah Trip
We went to Utah this past weekend for Baby Stone's blessing. We left Wednesday afternoon, it always amazes me the sheer volume of stuff we need to take with us. Here's a picture of just our flip-flops.
But we somehow managed to get loaded up forgetting only a couple cruxial items. Here's the beasts in the car on the way out of town.
Here's a little video clip. This is Alana's fun name spelling game. She likes it because she gets to just say A for most of it :) It's because some of us are from cAnAdA eh!
We got there and I didn't take the camera out for any of the fun Utah stuff because I was having too much FUN! We played with Katie, Kent, Afton, and Stone the first day. We went to several parks and had a lovely time being OUTSIDE and not frying (although we did get some suntans). The kids loved frolicking about and rolling in the grass. It was lovely. Kent's family came from the Middle East (ha-ha, just kidding, from in the middle of the country and east of us, more specifically Iowa and NC) that night so we were dismissed from the Griffiths and sent away. Although, to her great credit and as a testimony to her patience and good will, Katie offered to continue putting us up even though she had five people arriving any second.
But we moved along even though it would have been super fun to have 9 adults and 7 kids under their lovely roof for the next three days :) We went over to the Ballards house (that's BallaRd not Ballad - a Ballad is a boy duck). The parent Ballards were on their way home from Girl's Camp but 9 year old Kennedy opened the door for us and immediately said, "Where have you BEEN!" It made us feel good :) We've missed the Mighty Mighties.
The next two days were just fun. The kids loved running wild and playing, it was very agreeable to all, Ryan and I hardly saw them except when it was time to eat and go to bed and we were all happy with that. Ryan and I played with Jared and Trish. We played tennis two mornings and, as promised, I was TERRIBLE. Sometimes I hit the ball but it mostly didn't go to the right place. It was sad sad sad. But Trish, Ryan and Jared were really good. Ryan and I won maybe 2 sets out of like 20 or something terrible like that. We also went swimming and that was lots of fun too. Peter and 3 year old Gannon had so much fun fighting with each other, they were adorable. They missed each other when they weren't together but as soon as they were within a foot of each other they were shouting and kicking. Good times. They will be best friends. They kind of remind me of Jared and Ryan. . .
Here's Gannon, Afton, and Peter in the tub after an especially gritty park trip. I am telling you these are three of the sauciest two and three year olds you will ever come across! They are awfully cute though.
We had a picnic at a park (the weather was just too nice, we spent most of our time at parks) with all Kent's family and ours, Ryan's parents and Jess and Mitch came up too so there were enough "Livingstones" around to make it a real party :) Tiffy Fletcher even came down from Salt Lake to join us for the picnic. Grandma Griffith taught us a card game called "Farmers Rummy" which I was really good at except I lost both games due to poor dealing on Terry Livingstone's part. He's gonna have to practice. It was fun even though I didn't win. Kent's sister Michelle and her family were there and she's got five kids and thankfully the older two, Luke and Josh, are boys who are close to Jeffey's age so he could run around with them for a while and get in some Boy Time. He is very patient with the girls but he needs some Boy Time occasionally.
The main event was the blessing of Baby Kent, he is an adorable little pleasant baby - by the way. Their ward was packed because they blessed 5 baby boys that morning. Yes, 5. All Boys. Yikes. That nursery is in for it in 18 months :) Kent did a wonderful job giving sweet Stoney a lovely blessing. They are a darling family. Kate was a gracious and fun hostess and we all loved it.
We were sad to come home to 111 degree weather but we came home anyway.
Today is Tessa's birthday so we are ramping up for hers and my Amanda sister's birthday party this afternoon. There will be pictures of all that fun tomorrow, so stay tuned :)
But we somehow managed to get loaded up forgetting only a couple cruxial items. Here's the beasts in the car on the way out of town.
Here's a little video clip. This is Alana's fun name spelling game. She likes it because she gets to just say A for most of it :) It's because some of us are from cAnAdA eh!We got there and I didn't take the camera out for any of the fun Utah stuff because I was having too much FUN! We played with Katie, Kent, Afton, and Stone the first day. We went to several parks and had a lovely time being OUTSIDE and not frying (although we did get some suntans). The kids loved frolicking about and rolling in the grass. It was lovely. Kent's family came from the Middle East (ha-ha, just kidding, from in the middle of the country and east of us, more specifically Iowa and NC) that night so we were dismissed from the Griffiths and sent away. Although, to her great credit and as a testimony to her patience and good will, Katie offered to continue putting us up even though she had five people arriving any second.
But we moved along even though it would have been super fun to have 9 adults and 7 kids under their lovely roof for the next three days :) We went over to the Ballards house (that's BallaRd not Ballad - a Ballad is a boy duck). The parent Ballards were on their way home from Girl's Camp but 9 year old Kennedy opened the door for us and immediately said, "Where have you BEEN!" It made us feel good :) We've missed the Mighty Mighties.
The next two days were just fun. The kids loved running wild and playing, it was very agreeable to all, Ryan and I hardly saw them except when it was time to eat and go to bed and we were all happy with that. Ryan and I played with Jared and Trish. We played tennis two mornings and, as promised, I was TERRIBLE. Sometimes I hit the ball but it mostly didn't go to the right place. It was sad sad sad. But Trish, Ryan and Jared were really good. Ryan and I won maybe 2 sets out of like 20 or something terrible like that. We also went swimming and that was lots of fun too. Peter and 3 year old Gannon had so much fun fighting with each other, they were adorable. They missed each other when they weren't together but as soon as they were within a foot of each other they were shouting and kicking. Good times. They will be best friends. They kind of remind me of Jared and Ryan. . .
Here's Gannon, Afton, and Peter in the tub after an especially gritty park trip. I am telling you these are three of the sauciest two and three year olds you will ever come across! They are awfully cute though.
We had a picnic at a park (the weather was just too nice, we spent most of our time at parks) with all Kent's family and ours, Ryan's parents and Jess and Mitch came up too so there were enough "Livingstones" around to make it a real party :) Tiffy Fletcher even came down from Salt Lake to join us for the picnic. Grandma Griffith taught us a card game called "Farmers Rummy" which I was really good at except I lost both games due to poor dealing on Terry Livingstone's part. He's gonna have to practice. It was fun even though I didn't win. Kent's sister Michelle and her family were there and she's got five kids and thankfully the older two, Luke and Josh, are boys who are close to Jeffey's age so he could run around with them for a while and get in some Boy Time. He is very patient with the girls but he needs some Boy Time occasionally.The main event was the blessing of Baby Kent, he is an adorable little pleasant baby - by the way. Their ward was packed because they blessed 5 baby boys that morning. Yes, 5. All Boys. Yikes. That nursery is in for it in 18 months :) Kent did a wonderful job giving sweet Stoney a lovely blessing. They are a darling family. Kate was a gracious and fun hostess and we all loved it.
We were sad to come home to 111 degree weather but we came home anyway. Today is Tessa's birthday so we are ramping up for hers and my Amanda sister's birthday party this afternoon. There will be pictures of all that fun tomorrow, so stay tuned :)
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