Weddings

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

Updates

° School is in for Mike. School is a lot more work than Mike thought it would be and is thankful that he doesn't have a part-time job. However, the lack of income has made things quite tight. It will work out, however, because of that tithe law. Mike is taking Java, Trig, Astronomy, and Business Statistics. An interesting variety of classes, but until he gets on course for his Major, it will have to be that way.
Do you remember me complaining about how much I made at my last job? Well, that raise was well worth it. It shot us into another tax bracket (for the first time in my life) as I made $35k last year. Nothing exactly to brag about, but we've never really been that successful. Too bad about the lay off!!! Now we'll have to settle for a stint at school in hopes of landing a $250k one. Grrr.

° Work started for Jay, and she just got out of training with an unjustly, horrible schedule. She scored 100% on her training exam and was given quite possibly the worst shift they have, while others in her class did quite bad and was given early shifts, including 4-10's. This is going to make the daycare quite expensive. I've urged jay to try and find someone to talk to to find the method of their madness and perhaps petition for a better schedule. They never did give any options to select your preferred shifts, so it's as if they just assigned schedules randomly. We hope all goes well, and I'm sure it will, as long as we continue to be obedient and enjoy the temple. However, there has been talk about looking for other open positions in the region as well.

° Speaking of, we've finally gotten back to the temple. It had been so long... we estimate about 6 years or more. We just took the close proximity to the Idaho Falls and Boise temples that we never attended. And you wonder why things weren't working out for us in the past?...

° Myson LOVES school, of course. We spoke with his teacher and they didn't seem too excited to be getting another kid, as their actions spoke louder than words and left him out of 2 weeks of school to do "paperwork." When we met, we helped him learn his teachers' name (Mrs. Hayes & Ms. Welker). She just said, "Oh, don't worry about it. The other kids just call me teacher." In the interest of respect, we wouldn't have that -- but we didn't have to try anyway. We met her on the Friday before he would start Monday. He had already memorized her name and let us know the whole weekend before.

° Em has started what we call "preschool," which is really daycare but she doesn't want to go to daycare (even though she calls it that when she leaves). She is the most adorable thing that we know of on this Earth (but she's also 2 right now, so she's also very difficult). One example: Myson brought a teddy bear to school as an assignment for bear week and Em would not go to daycare without one as well. So we let her. As we were leaving when I went to pick her up, we were interacting with her and the attendants and they asked, "What's the bears name?" To which she replied, "Bear Haddox" quite matter-of-factly. Very cute. There are a million more examples which need cataloging, but I'm horrible at memory, so we'll let Jaypea do that.
She's also potty-training, which I was just reminded to talk about as she said "Ooooh. Big poop" as she currently sits on the toilet. She was doing so well her first week, but then got in a pattern of not caring and just letting it all go onto the floor. I tried to make the thing positive, but after 3 days of non-stop cleaning of the carpet, I let her know the law. After that I didn't need to discipline anymore. She's knows what right and wrong now and she gets Hello Kitty! stickers for doing a good job.

° For Deedee, the move to Eastern Idaho was just another move. Since she's been through so much she doesn't make a big deal with them anymore. However, she does get motion sickness, so we had to buy some powdery stuff you mix in her food to calm her down. It worked quite well. So far we love Shelley. The people are all very friendly and the city is shut down on Sunday's which helps us observe the Sabbath a bit better. They only have 2 decent fast food places which means it's easier to get sick of them and not go to them.
Although I am switching to BYU-Idaho next semester (upon approval), we will still live in Shelley do to the proximity to the kids' grandparents and the cheapest daycare prices I have ever seen ($2/hr/kid).

° Dan came home from Afghan- and I can't wait until he's free to take phone calls. I'm excited to talk to him again but I really want him to spend as much time with his immediate family before we get to converse again.

° Great Britain has abolished the use of the apostrophe on all their street signs do to it making things too confusing. I wish the English language would the same as a whole because I suck at it. I signed up for an English class for the very reason to improve upon this, but then I did just one assignment and felt myself sick to the stomach the moment I got involved. Hence, that was dropped and Statistics was added (because it was the only interesting online class). Anyway, I brought that up because instead of making corrections on this blog, I'm just letting it go. For instance, I began the blog in third person, now I'm in first. How fun!

° I have a test at 2pm which I have not studied for... That gives me 1½ hours to do so. Enjoy the blog and please comment. We'd love to hear from you!

Rock Family Reunion

**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..

Wyomtah!

**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!