Wedding Extras.

In a previous post I mentioned the wedding we attended while Evan was receiving his awards at the fair. Our good friend Josh was married to the beautiful Rachel in the San Diego LDS temple. We have known him and his wonderful family for 19 years. It is always a joy to see a young couple starting their life together by being sealed for all eternity. It is also a great opportunity to reunite with friends you don't get to see very often!

I apologize for failing to get a photo of the bride, but here is a picture of the groom and his handsome groomsmen. Aaron has been friends with most of these guys since he was four years old.

Here are Michael, Meryl, John and Aaron. Four friends enjoying the wedding reception. These awesome young adults (and Josh the groom who was probably busy dancing, cutting cake, kissing the bride or something) were all homeschooling buddies and grew up together. Meryl was the first to get married early last year and she and her husband now live in our ward! John also recently returned from his LDS mission to Texas and he spoke at church on Sunday (which also happened to be Father's Day). What a weekend!

But it wasn't just the kids who had a reunion.  I loved getting to see some of my best friends. I didn't get any pictures at the wedding or reception, but here are a couple from the beach on Monday.

Jenny, Sheree, Angela and I homeschooled our kids together and worked to create a new commonwealth school where our teens met for weekly classes. These women are awesome mentors who helped me raise my kids. I love any excuse to get together with them!

I think you are officially middle aged when your social life revolves around weddings. How many years before funerals become the big events?!

A Prize Winning Trip to the Fair

So Evan took a textile screen printing class at the community college this semester. He made several cool shirts, some tote bags and even pillowcases. He entered a couple of them in the fair and he won! He also got an "A" in the class to boot!  

The award ceremony was scheduled for a Saturday morning in June. Evan received tickets for free admission to the fair, but John and I weren't able to go because we were attending a wedding. Evan decided to take his two favorite girls to the fair and they were probably more fun than mom and dad anyway.  

They all wore the awesome shirts that Evan made for our family. Don't they look great?

Here is another shirt that Evan made. He also made tote bags with this design for the girls in my Eternal Warriors class.  Evan is an Eternal Warriors graduate who loves the program.

 This shows the certificates and ribbons he received. He made the white shirt behind him.

He also made the black shirt above him. It is kind of hard to see, but it's a cool design.  He shined a bright light through a glass blown vase and photographed it. Then he edited the photo to create his design.

Wish we could have been there with him on his special day!

Lavender was excited to get to feed the cow . . .

 . . . and the goat!

She had a great time walking hand in hand with her big brother and sissy. They rode down a giant slide, ate corn dogs and fries and had a great time.

So much fun that she and Peter had to take a nap on the way home! A big thanks to Evan for a great trip to the fair!

Good News/Bad News

Last Friday was a busy day.  Here are just a few of the ups and downs.

Good News:  We got a big bag of hand-me-downs from Molly. Lavender was thrilled to wear her nieces' clothing and was especially excited about these kitty-cat shoes.

Bad News: The kitty shoes are just a tad too small.  Lavender learns the hard lesson that the cutest shoes are usually the most uncomfortable.

Good News:  She also inherited a pair of sparkly, gold sandals that were perfect with her red fur coat.  Obviously the right outfit for a morning walk in July!

Good News:  Evan was prepping for a trip to Palmyra, NY where he would attend EFY (a church youth conference) with his cousin Alec. 

More Good News: He got to go for a bike ride in the hills with his friend Jacob.

Bad News:  During the downhill portion of the bike ride, Evan crashed and flew over the handlebars.

Good News:  We were able to get a doctor's appointment within 45 minutes.

Bad News:  The doctor suspects that one (or two!!) of his arms is broken.  I tell her that his flight leaves Sunday morning. She informs us that in order to get a cast (or two) in time, we will need to head to Children's Hospital and camp out in the ER.

Good News:  The x-rays show that Evan's arms are not broken!

Bad News: Evan landed on his hands with his arms outstretched so the bones are compacted (not a medical term) and his elbows are very swollen and will take a week to 10 days to heal.

Good News: With Evan safely resting at home (playing on the computer while icing his arms and taking Advil) and no need for a trip to the ER, John and I head to the beach for a walk, a game of frisbee and a beautiful sunset.

Hope your weekend had more ups than downs!

Recently

We have had some extremely important events take place in the past week.  I thought you'd want to be the first to know!

1.  We cleaned out the closet under our stairs (AKA Harry Potter's room)!  This meant we could get to our puzzles and legos while the girls stayed with us.

2.  John worked hard to clean out the garage.   For the first time in several years, we can park my car there! (This may not sound like a big deal to those of you with 2 or 3 car garages, but we have a small garage that houses a refrigerator/freezer and doubles as our laundry room and storage area.)

3.  All three girls sat still at the same time for at least 30 seconds.  Actually, they did better than that. Once we optimized the sleeping arrangements, they took a nap (at the same time!) for 2+ hours every day.

4.  Evan got his braces off!

Impromptu Family Reunion

My brother Jason and his family came to California for a wedding in July.  They came to visit for a couple of days on their way back to Texas.  Of course my dad and Carolyn wanted to see them while they were here.  My other brother Scott and his family came down from LA country as well.  Before we knew it, we had a family reunion on our hands!  We did miss David, Elder Aaron and John who was at work most of the time.

We went to the beach, out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, to the Mormon Battalion and back to the beach!  Here is a picture of the whole gang!

Utah Part 3 - Fun Stuff

Yes, there is still more to post about our trip to Utah!

I told you about John's wonderful sister Susan, but I didn't tell you about his other sister Jean.  She is wonderful in her own right.  Jean and her husband Mark homeschooled their three oldest children and then when their baby was 13, they had a bonus baby.  So John and I really aren't weird, we're just following in the footsteps of his big sister.  Gotta love a good family tradition!

Jean, John and Susan

Jean is also special because that little bonus baby became the only cousin on John's side of the family that isn't older than all of my kids. Kevin is just a year older than Marianne.  Evan and Josh have a great time with him when they get together.

Kevin, Evan and Marianne goofing off at Stadium of Fire

We also made the most of our time in Utah by hitting up the BYU Creamery.  Marianne insists we make it part of any trip to Utah.  The rest of us go along to keep her happy whether we like it or not. Do you  notice the sun shining down on this ice cream?  This is clearly a sign from the heavens.

Another highlight of the trip was our apricot picking adventure.  John's parents lived around the corner from Susan in a house built on a cherry orchard.  John's dad made sure the builder kept as many cherry trees as possible when their home was constructed.  Consequently, the family spent many hours picking cherries together.  Now the home belongs to someone else and we don't go cherry picking.  Fortunately, Susan's neighbor came over asking for a bit of help and offering to let us pick apricots from her tree.  Several years ago the tree fell over and the trunk is now parallel to the ground, but the huge tree still produces an abundance of apricots!

We also had dinner with John's good friend Marty who was the best man at our wedding.  Yes, Marty is holding a baby toy.  No, I don't know why.  And for some reason, although they live in the Las Vegas area, we could only manage to see them in Utah!

Here we are with Marty's wife Charlaan and their own little bonus baby Anna who is 10 years younger than her big brother.  Can you tell that she and Lavender connected?

The most fun we had in Utah may have been at Stadium of Fire.  We all had a great time rockin' out to the Beach Boys, despite the fact that Elder Aaron declared, "I didn't know they were still alive!" The crowded bleacher benches were not the most comfortable, especially when nursing a baby in a sling.  Fortunately, there was plenty of room below us and we were able to sit with our backs against the wall and our feet out on the benches.  Much more comfy and it gave us a great view of the concert and the fireworks!

Finally, I have to document that Lavender was an absolute angel throughout our trip.  She slept well despite being out long past her bedtime most nights.  She even slept through the fireworks.  I kept her in the sling and I covered her years, which I think helped!

She was a champ in the car and cried very little.  In fact, she cried more on our drive to SLC than she did on the rest of the trip.  I think she loved being seated between Marianne and Evan and having their undivided attention!

Part 4 of our trip will be coming in a few days!

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!

Utah Part 2 - Aunt Susan and Cousins!

John's wonderful mom passed away 22 years ago.  She was a devoted grandmother, but my kids never got know her.  Thankfully, they did have a close relationship with their grandpa, until he passed away in 2006.  John's oldest sister Susan has always been kind and thoughtful, but since the death of her parents, she really took the reins to keep the family together.  She has kind of taken on the role of grandma to my kids. We travel to Utah once or twice a year and we almost always stay with Susan.  It hasn't been easy to have all (sometimes six!) of us there, but she is always a gracious hostess and we feel at home.  I shouldn't fail to mention her husband Dave.  He is lots of fun and keeps all of us laughing.

 Here are a few pictures so you can see what I mean.  Every time we see Dave, we have pictures like this!

 My kids love our trips to Utah because they get to see their cousins.  On John's side of the family, all of their cousins except one are older than them.  But they have a great time with their cousin's kids.

It was fun to introduce Lavender to her cousins, especially to Holly.  There is a 40 year age difference between them and they are first cousins!  Holly is Susan's daughter and she usually does the cooking while we are there.  Holly plans and prepares delicious, healthy dinners at lightning speed!

Marianne and Evan have a great time with Holly's son Josh.  He and Evan are pretty much inseparable.

We had a fun time with the rest of Susan and Dave's grandkids too.  They are my kids' first cousins once removed.

Malia, Anya, Kate, Natalie, Reagan, Maddie, Hudson and Max

Marianne especially had fun with Max, who appreciates a good self portrait as much as she does!

Here is Kate holding Sophie who apparently missed the big cousin photo shoot above.

      Finally, here is Lavender with the newest cousin Landon who was too young to join the party.

Gardening - Virtuous and Tasty!

Thomas Jefferson said, "cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens.  They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds." 

This year with our homeschool commonwealth, Evan studied the principle of georgics as described by Jefferson above.  For a school project he made boxes, planned and planted a garden.  We have been enjoying delicious, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis.  I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite zucchini recipes. 

The first one is a main course dish.  I got the recipe from my friend Maren and it is yummy!  I doubled the original recipe (everything except the meat) because we always need that much.

Thai Chicken Pasta

2 cups Picante sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 Tbs honey
2 Tbs frozen orange juice concentrate (or 4 Tbs oj)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp ginger
1/2 cup peanuts
2 large chicken breasts cut into pieces
12 oz fettuccine pasta
1 large or 2 small zucchini cut into pieces

Directions:

1.  Begin cooking fettuccine in boiling water.


2. Combine picante sauce, peanut butter, honey, orange juice, soy sauce and ginger in a sauce pan over low heat.  Stir until mixed well and keep warm.

3. Cook chicken and zucchini in frying pan with 3 Tbs oil until done.

Add fettuccine and sauce to frying pan.  Top with peanuts.  Serves 4-6.

Next up is my zucchini bread recipe.  The secret is to add LOTS of zucchini.  It makes the bread moist and delicious!

Zucchini Bread

1 cup oil
2 scant cups sugar
3 eggs
1 TBS vanilla
4 heaping cups shredded raw zucchini
3 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 TBS cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Combine oil, sugar and eggs in large mixer bowl.  Beat well.  Blend in vanilla and zucchini.  In separate bowl mix dry ingredients.  Add to oil mixture and blend well.  Add nuts.

Pour batter into 2 loaf pans sprayed well with PAM.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour until loaves are done.  Cool on rack.

Utah Part I - We love Muff!

June was a busy month.  Marianne went to Girls' Camp at Lake Arrowhead with our ward.  She was brave and tried the ziplines down the mountain.  And she loved it!  Evan headed off for high adventure camp with the scouts and rafted on the lower Kern river.  We finished off the month by leaving on a trip for Utah.  We packed in quite a bit in just a few days, so I am going to divide the trip into several posts.

Part I is about my Aunt Muff and family.

We headed to Spanish Fork to visit my mom's only sister who we call Aunt Muff.  The way my mom tells it, her sister was such a tiny, little thing that they said she was just a bit of fluff or puff, which rhymed with muff.  One of my uncles still calls her "Puff." Some people call her Muffie or Ginnie Lynn, but she has always been Muff to me.  She has also always been a wonderful aunt although she is still under five feet tall.  I remember a cameo necklace she sent to me for Christmas when I was a little girl.  I was so excited that I sneaked a peek inside the little wrapped box under the tree.  I felt so guilty and knew she would be disappointed in me, so I never peeked at a gift again.

As a teenager I often visited her during the summer. Sometimes our family made the trip and sometimes I went by myself.  It was always fun to be in the country and ride their horses.  Best of all, Muff made me feel special and grown up.  As a college student at BYU, she often invited me, my cousins and my roommates for a big Sunday dinner.  They all called her "Aunt Muff" too.  Later she hosted a bridal shower for me and welcomed John into the family.

It was fun to visit with her and introduce her to Lavender, who she says was sent by my Mom who is up in heaven laughing.  I neglected to get a picture with her, but here is a picture with her daughter (my cousin Angie) and her granddaughter (Angie's baby Sienna).

 It is always beautiful out at their house.

Here is a view of the back of their home.  My Uncle Paul is a brick mason and built the house.

The kids love to climb on the roof of the barn and then jump onto the trampoline.

My Uncle Paul used to farm and raise horses.  Now he has an wonderful garden in their yard and greenhouse.  He always keeps their yard looking beautiful.

Last year my grandma moved in with my aunt and uncle. The whole family helps to care for Grandma, especially my cousin Heather.  We are grateful they give her so much love and attention.

It was good to see Grandma who celebrated her 90th birthday earlier this year.

She was thrilled to meet Lavender.

Lavender was equally thrilled to meet her great-grandma.  

In fact, she is her only living grandma, so she is an extra special treasure.

Thanks to Aunt Muff and family for having us over for dinner on a very busy summer evening!