Blissful Beaches and Mating Hippos

A few weeks ago we piled our four kids in the mini van and drove to San Diego. We stopped in Las Vegas on the way down and stayed overnight with Matt's best friend from high school. Paul and Cyndi were so nice to let us stay in their fabulous home. The kids had a ball playing Wii and swimming.

Here is Matt and Paul. They had a great time catching up and it was fun to get to know their family better.

We continued our drive the next day down to Temecula, California. Our friends, Jeff and Tiffany, had invited us to stay for the week and we had a great time exploring Southern California...

Our first day out was to the San Diego Zoo. I've decided that my kids aren't zoo people. Their favorite part of the zoo was the sky ride over the zoo...

We rode three times.

One of the interesting parts of the zoo were the hippos. When we showed up to their exhibit, we were amazed that there were two of them RIGHT NEXT TO THE TANK. Upon looking a little closer, we realized they were a little busy (if ya know what I mean!). I love this picture of Tyler with the hippos in the background. (You can't really see the hippos, but Ty's face says it all!)

The kids loved the petting zoo. We spent almost an hour watching the three younger ones run around to pet and feed each animal.

This made me laugh...

The kids were posing in these pictures. After I walked away, Matt said a hispanic couple came over and started snapping pictures. Matt went to move our kids away and realized they were taking pictures of Marcus "kissing" the donkey. They laughed and laughed and snapped photos of this little gringo being so goofy. (They should've been with us on the 11 hours of driving... it wouldn't have been so funny.)

The next day we went to the beach. Ah, the beach...

Tyler and Matt played in the waves...

The kids spent hours building sandcastles...

The boogie board was a hit!

No one wanted to leave...

Marcus applied his own sunscreen in the car one day. He definitely didn't get burned... in some areas.

Another day we headed to Legoland. The kids were so amazingly good and everyone was happy the whole day. It was blissful! If you need to know where the Test Track is, the man behind them can show you on his map. (??)

Caleb and Matt were shooting water at some passerbys.

The kids were shooting water at some boat-riders. It was a fabulous day!

The next day, Jeff, Matt and the boys had tickets to a Padres game. They had fun eating hot dogs and watching baseball. Tiff and I took the girls to a mall. Aubree had been saving her money for a Webkinz.

Then we dropped the kids off at a neighbor's and Tiff and I got a pedicure. This was my very first pedicure in my whole life. It was so relaxing and my toenails looked divine!

Since the boys forgot to take the camera to the Padres game, I captured their own playing-in-the-backyard-baseball game when they got home.

Story about Jeff and Tiff...

We've known them since Tyler was born. We lived in the same condo complex after Matt and I got married and our oldest boys are just a few months apart. We've kept in touch all these years and visited them once in Las Vegas, when they lived there, and twice in Southern California. It's so fun when we get together. We laugh a lot and our kids have a ball together. When Tyler was really little, he would call them, "Biff and Weff." (Instead of Tiff and Jeff.) The name has stuck.

Originally we had planned to stop in St. George on the way home to see Matt's sister and her family. When Grandma got sick they headed up to Salt Lake and encouraged us to hurry home to see Grandma, so we drove the whole way home in one day. It went pretty well. We stopped at In-N-Out Burger in Vegas and Marcus wore his hat home.

Thank you, Biff and Weff, for a fabulous week! We are so excited that you are moving back to Utah!!

Family and Farewells

On Saturday we had the funeral for Grandma Ruthie. All four of my kids came to the viewing, funeral and interment. At the Friday night viewing, just Matt and I attended. President Monson came to the viewing and I was bummed that the kids weren't there. Luckily my kids got to meet President Monson and President Hinckley at my Grandpa Ned's viewing three years ago. In fact, President Monson said to my boys, "Look at all these missionaries..." Then he turned to Aubree and said, "Are you the only girl in this family, with all these brothers?" It was a neat experience.

Matt was one of two speakers at the funeral. He did such a good job representing all his cousins by sharing memories of Grandma and talking about the Atonement.

This is Matt's cousin, Christy. They are the same age and grew up together. The good thing about funerals is getting to hang out with family members that we don't see as often as we would like.

Sarah, Jon and Lizzie have been up from St. George for the past week and a half. It's been fun to hang out with them.

My mom came to the funeral to support us.

Matt and the other pall bearers carried Grandma's casket.

Aubree held Grandma Julie's hand and gave her lots of hugs.


We will miss Grandma Ruthie!

Grandma Ruthie

This past Tuesday evening Matt's grandmother passed away. She was not doing well for the 10 days prior, so we all knew it was coming. We came home from our vacation a day early and hurried up to the hospice center to see her last Saturday. She wasn't responsive, but Matt and I had a chance to talk to her, hold her hand and say our goodbyes.

I don't know many things that made me love my husband more than watching him sweetly say goodbye to his grandma. He tearfully told her some of his favorite memories and how proud he was of her. She had been a widow for 30 years and was an amazing woman.

I think the hardest part of the whole thing has been watching Matt's mom go through this. Grandma lived with her for many years and she took such good care of Grandma. Having Grandma live there was a blessing for our family. We had the chance to see her on a regular basis -- after violin lessons, at family gatherings and any time we stopped by. When Marcus was 3, he would call her "Ma-maw Oofie." She was a talented musician. I have videotapes of her playing the piano by ear while we sang Christmas songs, even when she was in her nineties.

I consider Grandma Ruthie not just Matt's grandma, but mine as well. There were times I stopped by to see her at her retirement center when I was by myself. My last interaction with her was several weeks ago and I had a very special experience with Grandma. We will miss her very much!

I would've paid good money to see the reunion of Grandma and Grandpa in heaven. I bet it was a sweet one after 30 years of being apart.

One special experience was that President Monson stopped in last week and gave Grandma a blessing. He was good friends with Matt's grandparents -- President Monson and Grandpa Rudy served as bishops together. He didn't know the condition that Grandma was in, but had his secretary call the retirement center because he wanted to come by. What a wonderful, inspired man!

I know that there is life after this one and that family members can be together again. I know we will see Grandma and Grandpa again someday. Experiences like this make me appreciate that we will all be resurrected and have our bodies back in a perfect state. What an amazing blessing the Savior gives to all of us!

Junior High and Dead Turtles

I just took my son to junior high registration today. It is totally freaking me out that I have a kid this old!

It was fun because Tyler is going to the same junior high school that I went to. When we got his class schedule, he has the same science teacher that I had, so we walked to Mr. Spring's classroom to say, "Hi."

Mr. Spring remembered me... not because I was a fabulous student... not because I would bring him his favorite brand of Eggnog at Christmas time. He remembered me because I killed his turtle.

One day in science he got out his turtles for us to play with while he left the room. The one I had suddenly took off running. (Yes, he was "running" -- for a turtle.) He fell off the desk and I panicked. Because I couldn't get him to come back out of his shell, I decided to drop him back in his aquarium to see if the water would "wake him up."

Well, apparently the water didn't wake him up, but rather made him drown. Ooops!

Mr. Spring wasn't too happy with me for a couple of days.

So, hopefully Mr. Spring will still let Tyler play with the turtles. And hopefully Tyler will learn an important lesson from his mom -- don't drop a traumatized turtle into an aquarium of water.

The Kohl's Dressing Room

The other night Matt and I were on a date. We went to dinner and on the way home I told him I needed to exchange some things at Kohl's, my favorite department store. Matt rolled his eyes and said, "Really? On our date??" Alas, he could not foresee that HE would be the one enjoying the date at Kohl's more than anyone else (or would he??? Bwaaaahaaaahaaa!)...

Once we got there he started browsing. Matt does not generally enjoy shopping, but once he starts browsing, look out! He ended up buying a couple of new suits and several outfits. He really needed them, so it was a productive date. (And who doesn't LOVE a productive date?)

At Kohl's the dressing rooms are not marked. They do not say, "Women's Dressing Room," or "Men's Dressing Room," or anything like that. I figure that if they don't spell it out, then it's a free-for-all for anyone who wants to try on items. We were in the Men's clothing section, but I went in the dressing room with him.

I sat on the bench while he tried on his clothes. No one else was in the dressing room, so we were talking freely and having some great conversations.

Matt left to get a different shirt size and I opted to stay in the dressing room to watch all our stuff. While Matt was gone another gentleman came in to try on something. He was in the stall next to us.

As Matt came back in the dressing room, this man came out and his buddy whistled at him. Matt turned and said, "Thank you," as if the guy had whistled at him. Funny.

Matt came in the dressing room stall and I decide to play a little joke on him. I put my feet up on the bench and didn't say a word. The other man went back in the stall right next to us and Matt proceeds to speak once he latched the door. "Yeah, they don't have my size in that color." "Man, I hate having such weird sizes." "I don't know, do I really like this enough to keep it?" Etc. Etc.

It took him a few minutes to realize why I wasn't ever answering him. I wanted the dude next to us to think he was crazy-talk-to-himself-man. I motioned to the feet next door and Matt rolled his eyes, "Funny," he said. A few seconds later... "C'mon, why do you do this to me?" I silently snickered as I listened to everything Matt said and pictured the guy hearing it as a one-sided conversation.

My poor husband puts up with so much from me, so I just wanted to tell him how much I love him. You are so fun, Matt! There is no one I would rather be on a date with -- especially in a Kohl's dressing room!!

Summer Fieldtrips

This summer has been filled with fun fieldtrips. Here are a few that we've had fun experiencing..

We took a tour of the newly-renovated State Capitol. It was so beautiful and the boys enjoyed themselves. Tyler and Aubree stayed home since they had already had tours with school and scouts.

Our Primary took a fieldtrip to the Church History Museum. They had activities to teach the kids about the Tabernacle.

The children were divided into groups and went to different stations. At this station they learned about music and how to try out for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

They made several craft projects and had a great time!

At the end, we took the kids to Temple Square and they sang, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."

We went to the Gateway Fountain. The boys had a great time playing in the water.

Our fieldtrip this past week was at the WV Family Fitness Center. Aubree was almost willing to miss her Millhollow camp, just to come to this fieldtrip.

They have a Edu-tainment Center with tunnels, slides, stores, etc. for the kids to play in.

Then we went over to the pool to swim. At first Marcus did not want to go down the waterslide. I told him that I would give him 5 bucks if he did not LOVE it once he tried it. He was motivated enough by that to try it and I couldn't keep him off it the rest of the time.

Caleb and Rhett are two of the biggest goof-balls on the planet!

Tyler and Hunter had a great time playing in the water.

The kids even tried the Rock Climbing Wall and thought it was great!