50 Years

Today is the 50th anniversary of my parents' wedding.  Mom and Dad were married young, although they were childhood sweethearts so they weren't as young as they might have been!  Mom was 20 and Dad was 22 and a recent convert to the church.  He had been baptized 11 months earlier and was the only member in his family.

Mom came from an LDS family, but most of her family were not able to go to the temple at that time.  They were married in the St. George temple with just a few family members there.  I could show you a professional photo of the temple, but it is fun to see the pictures they took.  

 

After their sealing, they drove back to Las Vegas for their wedding reception.

They stayed at LaConcha Inn that night.

Then they headed out for Salt Lake.  Dad had started feeling sick on their wedding day and by the next day he was really sick.  He laid in the back seat of the car while Mom drove the whole way.  Not a very romantic beginning for their honeymoon.  By the time they got to Salt Lake City, Dad was really sick and had strep throat.  He had to get penicillin to treat it.

The "fun" continued as they traveled to Yellowstone to camp.

They saw lots of bears and Mom loved rolling down the car window just a bit to feed marshmallows to the bears.  Her tune changed a little later.  Mom was at their campsite while Dad was somewhere else.  She had some pork chops she was going to cook for dinner.  A bear decided he wanted them, but Mom wasn't going to give them up without a fight.  She ran around trying to get away from the bear and finally climbed up on a table and started crying.  Some men had been sitting nearby and laughing at the scene, but they eventually came over and scared the bear away by banging on metal trash can lids.  The pork chops were saved and Mom and Dad survived their honeymoon, but Mom always told us, "Never go camping on your honeymoon!"

I love you Mom and Dad!  I am grateful for your eternal marriage and for your good examples of how to make a marriage work through thick and thin, five kids and 48 years!

The Angels Did It!

Although we are missing our wings and halos (and Brenda!) in this photo, we are still Annie's Angels and together we raised $12,255 to fight against breast cancer!  We are still accepting donations, so it's not too late to help out.

It was a tough 3 days with not enough sleep, too many porta-potties, lots of blisters and very sore muscles, but it was worth it!  We joined 3,600 walkers in San Diego and we raised a total of $9.2 million to defeat breast cancer.

I stuck with my plan to walk about 10 miles a day for a total of 30 miles.  At times it was hard to leave my team and take a shuttle to lunch, but I know it was the right thing to do.  My back hurt during the walk and I had Braxton-Hicks contractions (the first of my pregnancy) so I know I needed the rest during lunch.  I usually waited about 2 hours for my team, but it gave me a chance to meet so many great people and hear some wonderful stories.  Telling people that I was 6 months pregnant was a great ice-breaker.  There weren't too many pregnant moms on the walk!

One of the sweetest stories I heard was from a woman from Colorado.  She was walking in honor of a friend with breast cancer.  She had been training for 7 months and was so excited.  On the first day she fell off a huge curb (some of them were over a foot high!) and sprained her ankle.  She kept walking and ended up injuring her other leg in an effort to compensate.  That evening the medical staff told her she shouldn't walk any more.  She was crushed to have to give up her dream.  Her husband went out and rented a wheelchair so he could push her the rest of the way.  She started crying as she told me about it and I was really touched.

I met many other women who lost their mothers to breast cancer and walked in their memory.

Crowds of people cheered for us along the way.  They played music for us, sang, danced, offered gifts, candy, water and kleenex.  Some cute Girl Scouts even gave me a sleeve of thin mints which we enjoyed for our FHE snack tonight.  On Saturday John, Marianne, Evan, my Dad and Carolyn came to cheer us on.  They walked with us for a mile or so and it really lifted my spirits to see them.

The crew at camp was fantastic.  They fed us and took good care of us.  They even found the money and credit card I dropped!  However, I do not regret our decision to stay in a hotel.  It was worth every penny sleep in a real bed and have a real bathroom after a long day on our feet.

I am grateful for my experience on the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Walk. Hugs to my fabulous teammates and thanks to everyone who donated!  Most of all, I send my love to the three women I walked to honor:  my mom who was a 15 year breast cancer survivor, my grandma who at nearly 90 is still going strong after defeating breast cancer, and my daughter Marianne who I pray will someday live in a world without cancer!

Our Annie's Angels theme:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.               2 Timothy 1:7

Summer Highlights

What was the best part of our summer?
Well, that depends on who you ask!

One of the top contenders for "summer best" would be our trip to Utah for the 4th of July.  We spent some time with John's wonderful family, visited with my grandma and my Aunt Muff's family and headed to Wyoming for John's class reunion.  Several of John's classmates commented that he hasn't changed much since high school.  He took off his hat to show that he does have a little less on top these days, when one of his friends said, "Oh that doesn't make any difference.  John always wore a baseball cap back then too.  We couldn't see his hair anyway!"

Here is John in his baseball cap with his Aunt Ruth. Our niece Holly is in back.

Ruth is keeping a tight reign on the matches.

She actually called both the mayor and the police chief before letting the boys set off fireworks!

John with his sister Susan (left) and his cousin Connie (middle).

My kids favorite part of Wyoming can be summed up by this photo:

Fireworks and more fireworks!!

Here are a few more of our summer highlights.  These are from my point of view, so my kids may totally disagree.  (Kids, feel free to leave a comment with YOUR highlights.)

Aaron
Receiving his mission call
Taking lots of photos and creating amazing panoramic views
Going to the temple for the first time

Marianne
EFY at BYU Provo
Her 15th Birthday
Watching all of the Harry Potter movies
Spending time with the world's cutest and smartest baby

Brianne!

Evan
Scout Camp at Lake Arrowhead
A visit from his cousin Josh at the end of July
Watching lots of Doctor Who on Netflix
Making tons of amazing origami creations

Josh and Evan lighting smoke bombs

Whew!  That was a long post.  Aren't you glad I only shared the highlights?

Time to Celebrate!

As a little girl, I thought I could do anything.
This was mainly due to my father.

I knew he really believed in me.
Over the past weeks, I have heard my Dad brag about me
and although I was slightly embarrassed, it was good to know
that he is still my biggest fan!

This weekend we got to celebrate Dad on his birthday.
We started off with balloons, one for every year of his life!

I made two of Dad's favorites for dinner, so we feasted on meatloaf and spaghetti!

My parents met when Dad was just 14 years old, so this
was his first birthday in many years without his sweetheart.
Of course we missed Mom terribly, but Dad was sure to include
her by telling some of our favorite stories about her.

My parents were married in the St. George temple in 1962
and had receptions in Las Vegas and Salt Lake.
Then they honeymooned by driving to their new home in Minnesota.
My Dad had wonderful memories of a Boy Scout camping trip to Yellowstone,
so he thought it would be fun (and cheap) to camp by Old Faithful.
My Mom was proud to be making dinner for her new husband
and had just gotten out their pork chops when she was rudely interrupted
by a couple of bears. The bears wanted the meat and Mom was scared,
but she wasn't sacrificing their dinner!
She ran away from the bears and finally climbed up
on the picnic table and yelled at them.
Worst of all, several men in a nearby campsite were enjoying the performance.
They sat laughing for several minutes before finally coming over to scare away the bears
by banging on some trash can lids.

The pork chops were safe and dinner was served,
but Mom never recommended camping on your honeymoon!

~~~~~~~~
After plenty of stories and gifts, it was time for birthday cake.
The boys made sure that Grandpa had a huge flame to blow out!

Evan was impressed (and a little disappointed) that Grandpa
blew out the candles so quickly!


Dad reminded us all that he is getting a little older.
He says he is celebrating his 54th birthday this year.
And I must apologize for my mistake.
I guess I need to work on my math skills.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad!

Come and C

I thought you might like to C what we've been up to lately.

Camping

We had a great time with Marianne's Girl Scout Troop.
There were a few drips that dampened the fun a bit.
Here is a picture of the more photogenic drips.
We decided not to take pictures of the drunk guys who kept us up till 1:00 AM.

Camera
Aaron has been enjoying his birthday present!
To be specific, he got half of a Nikon D60 for his birthday.
Fortunately, he had enough saved to pay for the other half!
Now he's trying to decide which macro lens to buy.

Cavity

Ryan had his pre-mission trip to the dentist
and got his first real filling.
He is blessed with really strong teeth.
Despite his childhood habits of candy eating and forgetting to brush,
he's only had one little cavity up till now.
He'd never had novocaine before and couldn't believe how weird it felt.

Car Crash
Fortunately John's wasn't quite as serious as this,
but he was rear-ended at a stoplight.
He's been to the chiropractor (a bonus "c"),
but his neck is still sore!
Cowboys
Here's cowboy Evan just before our performance of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
We set it in the old west and the costumes were a lot of fun.

The mechanicals were cowboys and the fairies were Indians.
Evan was really funny as Bottom
and he looked great in his donkey-head costume!
Marianne and Aaron helped out on the stage crew
and I got to direct.

Marianne has been using her camera to take pictures of:

CATS
(this is Lorriane, that cat that Marianne gave her cousin Emma for her 8th birthday.
The hardest part was convincing Emma's parents that she needed a cat!)

CLOUDS

and her Cousins' Chickens!

You can check out her blog for cute pictures of
Cupcakes and more!

My Mountain Men

John & Aaron had a great adventure in June. They went to Yosemite with the Young Men in our ward. The trip started out kind of rough when the group got off the trail and spent many hours struggling to get back on track. John lost his sleeping bag along the way and spent the night beside the fire trying to stay warm.

Fortunately things got better! Another hiker found the sleeping bag and the climb up half dome was amazing. I think that Aaron's favorite part was bringing home those "over the edge" pictures that make me sick to my stomach.






I

The Good, the Bad and Poison Ivy!

Last weekend was the perfect opportunity to get away from it all. We went camping with three other families from Marianne's Girl Scout Troop.

Here are just a few of the VERY GOOD things about our camping trip.

Marianne had a great time with her friends and cousins. Here she is in the woods with Emma and Cammi.

Evan didn't seem to mind the lack of boys. Here he is with some of the cute Girl Scouts. His cousin Alyssa is up front.

There were lots of trees just perfect for tree climbing.

We went on a great hike led by Ranger Fernando.


He took us to a historic spot with lots of mortar holes used by the Native Americans.

Everyone tried their hand at grinding acorns.

Then we hiked to a great little creek to cool off.

Clear water + dirt = Mud, wonderful mud!

John and I even had time to relax!

Evan built his first fire! Foil dinners and s'mores never tasted better!

Our camping trip was practically perfect, but it was a bittersweet time for me. I had a fabulous time with John, Marianne and Evan, but our two big boys stayed at home. They both had other commitments and couldn't get away for two days. I realized that this is how it is going to be most of the time from now on. Ryan will be leaving home soon for college and then a mission and Aaron isn't far behind. Of course this is exactly how it should be. I want my kids to grow up to be independent adults, but I can't help remembering the days when I had four little campers.

Here are my cuties about nine years ago. It was our first day of homeschooling and my boys were a little worried about what to do when all their friends went back to school. So on the first day of school, we took a family camping trip. We had a wonderful time discovering how much there is to learn outside of a classroom. It's been an amazing adventure ever since!

My homeschool journey with Ryan is at an end, but I hope that learning will be a lifelong quest for all of us!

And in the spirit of education, here's a close-up of some poison ivy. Study this photo carefully. You never know when you might need to identify (or at least avoid) it!