Memorial Day

Gracious me! Where has the time gone?! I have an ongoing swirl of blog posts swimming in my head and then I realize I haven't actually sat down and written any of them. So in an attempt to update here, I checked my camera to see what I have been up to lately and this is what I found:

That's me with my awesome daughter-in-law and the ever adorable

Bailey and Norah.

Picnicking on the back lawn over Memorial Day weekend.

It was a spontaneous get-together made possible by

our living close enough that they can jump in the car and be here

in about two hours. I am a lucky Mom--and Nana!

Spencer and Adrianna came with them and we all had a good time.

These pictures are courtesy of Scott--I usually avoid being in pictures by being the

one behind the camera but in another spontaneous gesture, he grabbed the

camera and started snapping away.

 So here we are for posterity...

Sitting in the grass in Connecticut warmed by the sunshine and  the love of family.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Here are some of the bits and scraps from the last few weeks--left on the camera forgotten and getting close
to their expiration date. Some are a little iffy but most are still fresh enough to enjoy...

Well, the week came and went...we had our

Thanksgiving feast

We invited the missionaries because we were

short on feasters this year.

That's not a missionary, by the way.

I didn't get pictures of them so I

thought this was a good place to insert a picture of the turkey.

Mmmmm rolls...

The dog enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday

lolling about in the California sun.

He doesn't love his bath-- he tolerates it.

Shane went on an overnight hike and caught a fish...

He was quite pleased with his feat as he was the only

one there to catch one.

Sam helped me build a trebuchet for a

school project: Weapons of Elizabethean Times

Shane experienced dinner from start to finish:

(I'm sparing you the pictures of the beheading)

His Key of Liberty class butchered, plucked and

cooked a chicken.

Cat meets dog

You can see why she got the name "Ninja"

Gunner was impressed with her bravado.

They get along like...well...

cats and dogs.

The Third of July

That's Shayla's famous fresh strawberry lemonade!

Since the 4th falls on a Sunday, we did our celebrating a day early...

No fireworks allowed here though due to the whole

one spark and the whole state goes up in flames thing.

It's pretty quiet around here because of that...so it's not all bad.

Here you see Dad relaxing for a minute under the big umbrella we

bought in Washington.

 Now we use it as shelter from the sun

instead of the rain.

HAPPY 3rd!!!

A Memorable Memorial

The day dawned bright and early with a delicious family breakfast at the Little America--we wanted to beat the crowds and get to our

destination:

Antelope Island

We started out in the Visitor's Center where we learned all about the history and wildlife of the island out in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. The wildlife could be summed up in the familiar song:

"Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play,

where seldom is heard, a discouraging word..."

Oh, except they left out the GNATS!

The truth is, we heard more than a few

DISCOURAGING WORDS

And a lot of slapping and itching!

We set out on our "easy" "family friendly" hike up Buffalo Point Trail,

doing our best to keep ourselves from being eaten alive.

Scott and Sam sprinted to the top and were on their way back just as we approached the summit:

"Head back to the car--there's nothing to see!"

they shouted as they continued to fight off the gnats. Scott took Bailey and they hurried down.

We followed as best we could with the loose gravel slowing our progress.

We all jumped into the car and slammed the doors as we slapped and scratched wildly trying to

eradicate any of the lingering plague.

Scott started the car and spun out as we sped out of the parking lot and back to civilization.

As we were leaving, we saw that hundreds of cars were lined up at the entrance waiting to enjoy their Memorial Day on Antelope Island.

We felt helpless to warn them:

Turn Back! Abandon Hope all Ye Who Enter Here!

PS: We came up with a PLAN B and went to Park City where we enjoyed the Alpine Slide and Bailey had fun on the merry-go-round. Then we had our BBQ in a random park where Baily and the uncles had fun playing on the playground.

These pictures are from the day before--we all had a good time playing in the park near

Austin and Shanna's

You are never too old--or too tall to swing!

Bailey got to swing to her heart's content

Uncle Shane and Uncle Sam walkin' Bailey back home.

That's Amore!

Twenty-five Years ago TODAY, Andy and I went to the Utah County Courthouse to get our Marriage License!

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." AA Milne

"Don't just pray to marry the one you love. Instead pray to love the one you marry."

Spencer W. Kimball

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happiness Is....

Back in the seventies there was this weird little craze that started with the Peanuts comics characters. Charles Schultz compiled a little book called, "Happiness is a Warm Puppy." Snoopy was on the cover hugging Lucy and it was just page after page of one-panel comics. Soon, the "Happiness is..." thing got out of control. There were cards and posters and stationery (kids: that was in the olden days when people wrote letters and put them in envelopes and mailed them through the Post Office-- an ancient ritual that has been rendered obsolete with the advent of e-mail-- back then stationery was a nice gift you gave your aunt or that your aunt gave you).

But, back to my ramblings: The most disturbing product that came out of it was odd-looking little statuettes of a cherubic-looking boy and girl hugging or holding hands, and then the little plaque said something sappy like: "Happiness is... YOU". They weren't naked in the literal sense but you could see their belly-buttons, so it was implied. You would see these creepy little knick-knacks in every dime store (kids: that was in the olden days when you could actually buy something for just a dime; the modern equivalent would be the dollar store. That's today's lesson on inflation!). These could also be found gathering dust in odd corners of people's homes. It was a sign that someone in their life was cheap and creepy.

The only reason I bring that up is because Valentine's Day is coming and it made me think: I should warn people not to buy a gift for their beloved that is cheap and creepy. Put some thought into it. Walmart has a nice selection of Simpsons boxers.