The end of December and beginning of January brought my 31st birthday and weddings. Two of Mike's nieces got married within a week of each other. Their mother must have been going crazy trying to plan and organize! We weren't able to attend Caryssa's wedding due to weather conditions, but we made it to Ashley's on January 7th.
Brock and Ashley were married in the Salt Lake temple. Mike and I were excited to attend the ceremony since we haven't been back to the SLC temple since our own wedding. Unfortunately, Mike's recommend was expired, and mine was left at home. We tried to make some quick phone calls to my bishop and stake president to verify my recommend so that at least I could attend, but the process took too long. Instead, we waited with the kids in the designated waiting room until the family came out for pictures.
We had a nice visit with Mike's family, including two of his brothers who live far enough away that we only see them every couple of years. Both newlywed couples looked happy and completely oblivious to the world outside their own--just the way newlyweds should look!
There was a beautiful reception that night in Wyoming. Everyone danced. I got video of nearly everyone, although a few people managed to dodge the camera. My kids had a blast dancing, particularly Hyrum. I have no idea where he learned to "dance" like that, but he had me laughing so hard that I didn't have time to worry about whether or not he was putting holes in his suit. Although I love the scenes of Hyrum dancing, I have to say that my favorite parts of this video are Mike and my brothers-in-law dancing with their daughters. Too sweet! <3
This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.
Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.
Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.
Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!
The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.
On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.
"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."
Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"
"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"
"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.
"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."
"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"
Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.
Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.
We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.
We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!
The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.
When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.
The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."
After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.
The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!
Here are some more pictures from our reunion. To read the blog about it (short read, just lots of pictures), you'll have to go back one more post.
Emily finally agreed to go in the water as long as she didn't have to leave her chair.
After her nap, she was much more playful, and enjoyed filling up her bucket and dumping it out on the dry sand.
After watching Piper play in the water, Hyrum started to get up some courage to go out himself. However, he was still afraid. Mike offered to go out with him, and he avidly refused. Mike decided to take a different approach and said, "I'll stay back here so I won't scare you," and Hyrum took to the water. Once he started playing in the water, we couldn't get him back out!
My elusive sister, Julie. She also shows up in another picture I have of Isaac, but I wasn't able to get many pictures of her. This is to prove that she was there too!
Isaac thought it would be fun to bury Mike in sand. Sherwin, eager to be rid of Mike, thought that it was going too slowly using our hands. He decided that using an oar as a shovel was much more efficient.
After helping bury his dad, Hyrum figured it was his turn to get buried.
Mom, Sherwin, and Jacob have a chance meeting on their floaty chairs. Although, knowing Sherwin, he was probably trying to knock Mom off into the water.
Joseph hanging out at the beach.
Jacob hanging out at the cabin.
One of the activities we did was to make glass marble magnets. Everyone, including the kids, picked pictures based on their interests. These are 5 of the 6 I made (Emily likes to play with them, and lost the other one). I think if I try this craft again, I'll try to use plastic "marbles" since the glass had too many imperfections, and didn't turn out very clear.
The weekend before school started again, my immediate family had a reunion. We rented a cabin large enough for all of us in McCall, Idaho. It was right across the street from the lake. We had beautiful weather, and tons of fun! We played board games, had a Wii Sports tournament, played at the lake, did crafts, and visited local art fairs and farmers markets.
Mike tried to coax Emily into the water. She didn't want to go.
Mike tried to coax Hyrum into the water. He didn't want to go.
Emily was unimpressed and spent half of the afternoon sulking in this chair.
She spent the other half the afternoon sleeping in this chair.
Hyrum and Piper built sand castles and dug holes together.
Isaac tried to outdo everyone by building the tallest sand castle.
Sherwin, Jacob, and Ethan rowed the raft out into the deeper parts of the lake.
Hyrum thought the boat looked like fun, and agreed to go on the water on the condition that he got to wear a life jacket. Once in the raft, however, he chickened out. This is Mike, Hyrum, and Isaac in the raft.
James and his youngest, Maecy.
Mom and Ethan.
Blogger was being a pain and wouldn't let me post more pictures, so the next post will be batch 2 of pictures from the reunion.
We had a great Christmas this year! Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Christmas Eve or Christmas day. But, not to worry! I still have plenty of pictures courtesy of my Mom and Sherwin. I even have a video to post!
My brother Jacob came to visit from Arizona. He has been seeing a girl, Erica, from Idaho. In fact, they went to grade school together in Lincoln (a township in Idaho Falls) and her parents are my Grandma Sears's neighbors. She lives in Boise now, but she and Jacob have made a few trips to visit each other. She came to visit her family here in East Idaho for Christmas, so we finally got to meet her.
On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma Sears's house for dinner and presents with the extended family. The kids loved seeing my brother James's kids again. Piper and Hyrum have always been close friends, and lately, she has taken quite a liking to Emily. She insists that they're sisters, not cousins.
Grandma Sears got us some much needed towels, toys and clothes for the kids, and new silverware. It is so great to have good silverware. Ya know, the kind that match? The kind where the spoons don't bend when you dish up ice cream? Yeah, that's the stuff... Thanks Grandma Sears!
Some of the cousins at Grandma's house. Top Row: Piper, Monkey, Emily. Bottom Row: Isaac, Hyrum, Savannah, Mason. If you're confused about the monkey, read this entry for more info.
I helped mom make matching Christmas dresses for her granddaughters this year. You'll have to check out my brother's blog if you want to see his girls in theirs. His blog is linked on the side bar. Here are some of the Christmas pictures of Hyrum and Emily. If you want more Christmas pictures, you can find them on Facebook.
I wish I had pictures of opening presents on Christmas day, but my camera wasn't charged. I can assure you though, it was wonderful! The kids got talking Woody and Jessie dolls from us. They were a huge hit!
The kids also bought small presents for each other. Mike and I decided not to give each other presents this year so we could afford the dolls, but he cheated and got me a vegetable steamer anyhow. Mike's sister Jen and her family had our names for Christmas. I'm very excited to spend my Jo-Ann's Fabrics gift card! I'm just having a hard time deciding which project I want to make. Mike's Best Buy card is as good as spent, and it's going to take Hyrum and Emily years to finish all the activity books they got. Thank you, Golding family! Dan and Cristtin also sent us a package, although it wasn't for Christmas. We saved it for Christmas anyhow. I cannot tell you how much I love hand-me-downs! Thanks guys! A Secret Santa provided our kids with new coats, snow boots, snow pants, school clothes, and plenty of toys. In fact, there were 3 large boxes of presents and food. I guess he must have known how tough it is to be out of work for 5 months. Thank you, Santa!
After opening presents at our house, we headed over to my mom's house for breakfast and more presents. It was a full house with the four of us, Mom and Sherwin, Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Suzanne, and Jacob. Mom and Sherwin got me new pots and pans. Does it mean I'm getting old if I'm excited about that? The kids got more books and more toys. Hyrum was excited to get The Sound of Music from my mom. That is by far his favorite movie, but we've never owned it. Emily got an Aristocats DVD. Singing and dancing cats? Doesn't get much better than that! Even Jacob spoiled them with an enormous Lego set for Hyrum and a Playdough activity table for Emily. Jacob spoiled us too with a Nintendo DS game each. It was hard to resist the urge to hold The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks over my head and sing "Du-nu-nu-nu!" (If you haven't played any Zelda games, you won't understand. It's ok, we forgive you.) We spent the rest of Christmas playing with the kids' toys. Dang, Lego is still fun when you're 30!
The day after Christmas, we went with Jacob and Erica to visit my Grandma Page and Aunt Pat. It was nice to see them again. I really need to visit my grandma more often. It was good to hear how my cousins on my Dad's side are doing. That evening, we had dinner and game night at my mom's house. We taught Erica how to play Pinochle and had a great game of Balderdash.
Now, I promised you a video. If you're still reading after that long post, here's your reward. Last week, the kids got a belated Christmas present from Mike's friend Kit. We'll forgive the lateness since it was on backorder and shipped from Japan. Besides, it's just too dang cute!
My birthday was December 31st. We had my mom and Sherwin over for dinner. I made salmon, and Mom made a cherry chocolate cake. Mom and Sherwin gave me towel racks for the bathrooms and a step-stool so I can reach the cabinets in the kitchen. We watched an old movie called The Court Jester and played pinochle.
Mike gave me my "present" the next day. I knew he was up to something because he kept secretly taking calls. Sometime between 5:00 and 5:30, my friends Lezhai and Melissa came with their families. Shortly after, Dan and Carissa and their girls came. Finally, Sandi came with her husband Nathan and daughter Annalee. In all, we had 9 adults and 11 kids. The kids went off to destroy our play room while the adults ate and chatted. Lezhai and Darnell had to leave early because their daughter wasn't feeling well, and they had to pick up their two boys from the movies. The rest of us played a great game of Cranium. Mike and I used to entertain a lot, but we haven't had friends who were into parties and games since we moved to Boise. It was a lot of fun to do that again! The only down side is that we left our vacuum in Nampa by accident and can't clean the chips out of the carpet.
Mike's niece Caryssa will be attending BYU-I this coming semester. We went to Rexburg on Saturday to help her move in. I can't believe how much that city and campus have changed. We'll be glad to have her nearby, and plan to have her over for dinner sometime.
Saturday the 3rd, my brother and his wife had a baby girl. Congratulations, James and Tessie! She's beautiful!
On Sunday, I found my Aunt Zelma (She's really my grandma's cousin, not my aunt) is in my ward. She was so excited to see me there since she hasn't seen me since I was very young. Still, she knew who I was immediately. I guess my grandma tipped her off that we were moving out near her. She seems to be a very positive, bubbly person. I've been told she is a very talented person. It was nice to meet her.
Next Monday, I start work, and Mike and Hyrum start school. I'm a little apprehensive about how all our schedules will work out... or not work out. Wish us luck!
**Note** read this blog first followed by this blog second before reading the following entry.
After a partial week at home with Mike's birthday, we hit the road again. This time, we went to East Idaho to visit my family! Mike and I were reminded how much we love and miss that area. We got to my mom's house in Shelley Friday night and met up with my nephews Ethan and Isaac and niece Piper who were already there, and were shortly joined by my oldest brother James, his wife Tessie, and my sister Julie. Emily took to James like she did to Dave at Mike's reunion. The second Hyrum and Piper met up, they grabbed on to each other's hands and took off running. They're always so happy to see one another.
Saturday morning we had the Rock Family Reunion at Heise Hot Springs just out side of Ririe. It was attended by over 60 people. Not a bad turn out! My Grandma Sears is the last surviving of her generation, so the reunion was centered around her. She makes sock monkey dolls for each of her grandkids and great grandkids when they're born, so the reunion was monkey themed. One of my aunts made my grandma a monkey crown. We had games with monkey themed prizes. Our first game was catching water balloons sent flying from a balloon launcher. Hyrum and Emily helped load the balloons into the launcher. We got soaked and had a blast. After that we had lunch while my grandma spoke to us about her memories of my Great Grandma and Grandpa Rock and the old farm in Rockland ID (which, by the way, is not called Rockland because my family lived there). Lunch was followed by a variety of three legged and sack races and egg tosses for kids and adults alike. Hyrum played with Piper and my cousin Jason's daughter Savannah, and Emily latched on to my cousin Jamie.
Some of the family went swimming and golfing there at Heise while Mike and I went to Idaho Falls to visit some old friends and shop. I got to see my friend Sandi and her new beautiful baby Annalee. Both the kids loved the baby and wanted to give her kisses. They also loved their dog.
Saturday night, a lot of us reconvened at my mom's house in Shelley for another dinner. Aside from James's family and Julie, we also had my aunt Jane and my cousin Jason's family. The kids played out in the back yard while the adults took turns playing and visiting. I managed to smack Mike in the head with spinny disky thing and drew blood. I don't think he's going to let me live that down. Emily and Piper blew bubbles together, and Hyrum ran races with Ethan, Isaac, and Mason. Julie thought we needed s'mores, so she sent me and Mike to the store to get what we needed while the rest got the fire started in the fire pit. We had a great time just visiting and roasting marshmallows and most headed to bed tired and dirty while Mike and I stayed up to watch the Avatar series finale movie with Ethan.
Sunday, James and his family headed back to Boise. The rest of us spent the day visiting while the kids played. Emily must have been getting used to being around people, because after a weekend with Mike's family and a few days with mine, she finally started to open up a bit. She was being much more social and really started to bond with my mom and Sherwin. A little after 5:00, Mike and I left the kids with Mom and Sherwin and headed out to Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls where we had a reservation in the Vienna room. We had gotten the recommendation from Mike's sister and her husband. We came to the room to find sparkling cider in the ice bucket and cheesecake in the fridge. It was nice even though the movie we rented was pretty dumb. It was a little nostalgic for me since Destinations is right across the street from Chesbro Music Co. where I worked for about 2 years before and during college.
Mike woke up Monday morning with an enormous headache. He ate only a tiny bit of the breakfast they brought to our room, then had me drive back to Shelley. I had to pull over on the side of the road while Mike got out and lost his breakfast. Mike was supposed to go home that day and take my sister Julie with him. We were worried that he would be too sick to drive, but Julie had to be home to pick up her daughter at the bus station in the morning. Mike took some headache medicine and went to bed for the rest of the morning and afternoon when we got back to my mom's house. When he woke up, he still felt weak, but thought he was well enough to go home.
My mom had asked my brother James if she could have his kids for a week before the reunion and asked me if she could have mine for the week after. However, she was worried that Emily was still too young for her to watch her alone, so we decided that I should stay in Shelley as well. Mike would meet us part way in Twin Falls on Thursday. So Mike and I parted company once he got feeling better.
Tuesday, I called my Grandma Page to see if there was a time I could come visit her. However, our day was delayed when I came out of my mom's computer room to see a wall of water about a foot or so deep built up behind the glass in the window well of her basement family room. The water was rushing in through the corner on the left side, and the pressure wasn't going down because water kept running in to the well from a hose left on outside. My mom and step-dad had just had an insurance claim for a flooded basement due to a broken pipe only a few weeks ago and Mom was concerned about filing another claim. We quickly got the water turned off and started sopping up what we could with towels, but the water just kept coming. Mom called Sherwin who was out golfing, and he came home right away. We got what we could get out of the carpet with a shop vac while Sherwin went to a rental store and rented a carpet shampooer and floor fans. In the end, we got it all cleaned up, and they shouldn't need to make any claim. The only concern we had was that the baseboards were pulling away from the drywall, and we were afraid of warping. But everything seemed ok once it was all dry.
After an eventful morning, we went to the credit union where my mom is the manager so she could show off the grandkids. Hyrum withdrew $5 from his account and even got to sign the receipt for the transaction. He liked doing that. Afterwards, we headed out to Firth to pick up my Grandma Page for lunch. She treated us to lunch at a restaurant in Blackfoot, and we had a nice visit. We had to go back to my mom's house afterwards because Emily had completely caked her cute dress and her perfect little curls with macaroni and cheese.
After we got the kids cleaned up, we headed to my friend Sandi's house to drop off a present for her baby that I had forgotten to give her when Mike and I visited earlier. Then we visited my Grandma Sears. I took some of her rhubarb to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for Mom and Sherwin. Hyrum liked playing in her yard, and Emily loved playing with her basket of toys. Emily warmed up to Grandma Sears quite well and even let her hold her. Maybe the ice cream cone she gave her helped too.
That evening, after we went home, we chatted and ate the pies I made from grandma's rhubarb. Even Sherwin had to admit that they were tasty. Sherwin is a pretty good cook himself.
Wednesday, I woke up feeling a little sick, so I went back to bed at about 10:00 when Emily took a nap. When we woke up again at about noon, we decided to take the kids to the zoo. I knew Hyrum would love it because he's really in to wild animals, but I thought Emily would be too young to enjoy it and just get cranky and tired. I was totally wrong. Emily loved the zoo! Both kids had a ball looking for, and pointing out animals and mimicking the sounds they make. Emily refused to sit in her stroller or be carried unless you were just picking her up so she could see into the exhibit. Hyrum found his favorite animal early on. He thought the otters were so funny the way they swam and watched for quite a long time before we convinced him to move on. Emily surprised me with her favorite animal. As we neared the zebras, she suddenly called out, "Zebra!" I didn't even know she knew what one was. For a very long time after leaving that area, she was still happily chanting, "Zebra! Zebra! Zebra!" Both kids liked the monkeys and the big cats. they got to feed the ducks and the goats in the petting zoo. Hyrum really enjoyed that. Emily tried to eat the food pellets for the ducks, but decided they were yucky (thank goodness). We also came during the feeding time for the penguins. Both of them liked watching them swallow those fish whole and hop from rock to rock waiting their turn for the food. We went to gift shop when we were done and found a stuffed zebra for Emily. She snatched it from my mom's hands and hugged it tight. She glared at the lady behind the counter when she tried to take it from her to ring it up. I had to turn the tag around for her while Emily still clutched the zebra and gave her dirty looks. We gave Hyrum a few options on which toy he wanted. It was no surprise that he picked a stuffed otter. We took Hyrum to the playground nearby, but Emily had had enough by then and wanted to go home. So we put the reluctant Hyrum and the sleepy Emily in the car and headed back.
Once we got back to Shelley, Emily got a second wind and was just as energetic as ever. She and Hyrum played with play dough and sidewalk chalk on my mom's back patio until late in the day. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.
Thursday morning, I got up and folded laundry and repacked our bags. We were headed home! Mom and Sherwin were swapping one set of grandkids for another. Sherwin's daughter Carla's kids were coming to stay with them for a few weeks. Sherwin picked up the kids at the airport while Mom and I went to the store for some juice for the kids. I also took Hyrum to the dollar store to spend the $5 he had pulled out of his account on Tuesday. He got to pick out the toys he wanted himself. He also picked out toys for Emily. Seems he didn't think it was fair if he got toys and she didn't. What a sweet kid! We went back to the house one last time to pack my bags in the rental van and we were off!
It was a long drive to Twin Falls with 4 little kids, but I was excited to get there anyhow. Not just because we were meeting up with Mike again, but because we had planned to go to the Twin Falls temple's open house. As I mentioned in my post about Mike's family reunion, Hyrum loves temples. We drove him past the Idaho Falls temple while we were in East Idaho as well. But this would be different. He could actually go inside the temple! I know he's young. But I was 4 when I went to the Boise temple open house. And I still remember it. Hyrum really did enjoy the tour. He was quiet and reverent through the whole thing, just looking around and taking it all in. Emily, on the other hand, was hyper and noisy. The tour guides were telling us that they loved her happy little voice and not to shush her. We still shushed her, but not because we were embarrassed. But we did want her to understand what it means to be reverent. Still, for such a young child, she did very well. She even knows what a temple is and will exclaim, "Temple!" every time she sees one or sees a picture of one. What a cutie!
The kids and I didn't get the luxury of going home after our trip. Mike's boss Spencer invited us to a BBQ at their house, and we went straight there first. We had an enjoyable evening chatting and playing with their two new puppies. Hyrum had fun playing with their daughter Ellie, and Emily was showing off going from lap to lap and chasing the cats and dogs.
We're home now, and glad to be home. When Emily came in the house for the first time when we got back, she threw open her bedroom door and yelled, "Hi!" to all her toys and squealed as she ran off to play with everything she could in as little time as she could. She was thrilled to sleep in her own bed with her new zebra. Hyrum also seemed happy to be back in his bed, although he didn't miss his toys as much as Emily missed hers. Now all that's left is to unpack everything. Ugh..
**Note** Read previous blog first before continuing.
July 3rd, after Mike got off of work, we set out for Mike's sister Jen's house in Wyoming for the 4th of July. As soon as we got there, Hyrum took off to play with Jen's youngest, Jarom. He was excited when Jarom asked him to sleep in his room with him that night. Hyrum loves playing with his cousins.
The next day, Mike's other sister Angie came with her family. We had only seen their youngest daughter Hayley when she was about a month or two old. She sure was a cutie! And Tanner and Taylor were so much bigger. We had a nice BBQ together with wonderful food made by Jen and Angie. I wish I had known ahead of time so I could have contributed too.
We played games and messed around on the Wii for a while until it was time for fireworks. Jen had been bragging about Evanston's fireworks show. It promised to be a good display, and I was looking forward to it. Sadly, it was a very windy night. I think they must have canceled the big show for safety reasons. Actually, we did see some that were set off in rapid succession, so that might have been the city's show, but Jen didn't think so. She said it was usually bigger, with more shells than that. Still, it had some impressive ones. We also got to see some wonderful fireworks around the city. All those big fireworks that are illegal everywhere else are completely legal in Wyoming. Mike says that he think it's because they figure, "If anything in Wyoming gets burned, it would probably be an improvement." So we still got to see some very cool fireworks that we wouldn't have seen here in Idaho. The Golding's home sits up on a hill, so we had a terrific view of all the fireworks at the houses below. And the husbands went out and bought a bunch of fireworks that we set off as well. Hyrum and Emily both loved it! They were both saying "pop pop pop pop!" As they went off. Hyrum has been asking nearly ever day ever since if we can go see fireworks. We've told him over and over that there aren't any to see, but still, he asks. He really had fun!
We stayed at Jen's house again that night, although this time, Hyrum had been booted from Jarom's room to make room for Angie's son Tanner. I was glad to see more of my son that day even though it was because he was excluded when Tanner came. We're worried about Hyrum. He loves playing with other kids, but sometimes he's bullied because of his slow speech and because he can't fight back, and is too meek to fight back anyhow. Emily was always playing around me and Mike since she refused to go to anyone else, and wouldn't even let us put her down.
The next morning, Emily finally gained some courage and let Karolin take care of her a bit and feed her breakfast. She played more independently that day and didn't need to keep us in her sight at all times. Angie's family went home early in the morning, but we stayed late into the afternoon playing Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and DDR Hottest Party with Jen's family. Jen has a great family with wonderful kids. I'm always so impressed with the way they're all growing up to be smart, social, active, and involved while keeping to the gospel guidelines. Both Ken and Jen are great examples to their children and also to us in how we would like to raise our family. We always enjoy visiting with their family.
We left Jen's house to head out to Mike's Mom's house in Utah. Mike's brother Dave had come in from Texas for a visit. We haven't seen their family in years. They had a new daughter Marlaina (Maggie) who we had only seen pictures of. She was the happiest baby! We visited a little while before going to bed.
Hyrum has had this thing lately with temples. He loves seeing pictures of them, and even more, loves driving past them. We thought he would flip over the chance to walk around Temple Square, so Sunday morning, we took him. We got there as the Tabernacle Choir was doing their weekly Music and the Spoke Word broadcast. Hyrum also loves the choir, so we tried to get in to see the broadcast. However, the ushers wouldn't let us in because our kids were too young. We went to the Conference Center Theatre and watched the broadcast from in there. Then afterwards, we thought Hyrum would like to see the actual Conference Center where they sang. They choir was still inside rehearsing and rerecording. They let us in, and Hyrum sat transfixed as he listened to them sing. After we left, he kept trying to pull us back into the room each time the sounds of the choir escaped through an open door.
We crossed the street to the temple and walked around the grounds for a while, but my feet were hurting badly from my lousy shoes, so we found a spot where we could sit and look up at the temple. Some visitors passed by and asked to take a picture of Hyrum because they thought he looked so cute in his suit jacket as he sat looking at the temple so reverently. Hyrum has always pulled a lot of this kind of attention from strangers ever since he was born... People asking permission to photograph him, going out of their way to tell us he's the cutest they've seen, or even just being stared at. He's just a good looking kid. But we really should teach him to be careful of people he doesn't know. It was great to see the temple again. We haven't been to Temple Square for 3 or 4 years. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we needed to head back to Mike's Mom's house for church.
After church, we had a family dinner. Angie's family came again. Tanner and Taylor had so much fun playing with Savannah and Maya, but what really stole the show was the way Maggie and Hayley played together! They were so adorable! Emily developed a little crush on Dave and wouldn't go to anyone else. She even preferred Dave to us.
Mike's brother Dan called from Afghanistan. We all got a chance to talk to him. It was really good to hear from him, but made us realize we need to be better about keeping in contact with him. I've always liked Dan and Cristtin and their kids a lot. It was a harsh reminder that they were the only family missing from our little reunion.
After it got too dark for the kids to play outside, we packed up dinner and went inside to watch some old slides of Mike's family. I had never seen any pictures of Mike's childhood, so this was a special treat for me. There actually weren't many pictures of Mike, just a few of him as a baby. I'm guessing this is because he is the youngest and they probably just stopped making slides. Nearly all the slides were of South Carolina, and they moved from SC when Mike was still just a baby. It was so funny to see all of his brothers and sisters as kids and how much their own kids look like they did. Jen, in particular, looked just like Sarah.
Monday, Mike had a training to go to in SLC for work. I stayed in Kearns with his family. Mike's mom, Karen, and I left the kids with the boys and went out to a movie together. We saw Made of Honor at the dollar theatre then met up with the boys and the kids at Arctic Circle for lunch. Emily was just as attached to Dave as ever. I don't think she even missed me!
I tried to set up a visit with my friend Juliet, but we just couldn't work out a time before Mike got back from training and we headed back to Idaho.
I would have loved to post pictures of this trip (not ones with Hyrum picking his nose). I brought our camera on the trip, but left the batteries at home! Boy, I'm stupid sometimes!! So I'm going to use this space here to beg Mike's family to email us any pictures you have of the weekend we were there. Of course we want pictures of our own family, but please make sure you give us pictures of yours as well. We had a wonderful time visiting with you all!
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