Family

After a visit to Utah this past week for BYU graduation, I have been pondering the importance of family. Then, in my travels through blogtopia, I read about the Nielson family from Mesa. You can check out their story at cjanerun.com. I included a link directly to paypal for anyone interested in donating...although prayers are entirely appropriate. Kind of made my "family issues" appear somewhat small and insignificant. I will say this, I am so glad I got to visit with my brother, George. I truly appreciate him. For the family I got to choose...I had so much fun hanging out at the State Capitol with you all. YOU'RE STUCK WITH ME AND MINE! One final thought...
b. it was so great to see you! Your daughter is beautiful and awesome and so much like you. The time with you was way too short, but well invested. Thanks for having us over. And just so you know, you are as beautiful as you were in junior high from the inside out. I'm looking forward to our renewed friendship!

Hidden Treasure

So the boys and I decided to go through all of our old videos and donate the ones we have duplicate DVD's of to the Pediatrics floor at our local hospital. I had forgotten what we had on our video cabinet...lots of cool things that tags had fallen off of so each one was a surprise. Just to give you a little taste...the first one we discovered was a video that Wendy and some of her friends created at their Grad Night celebration years ago. They were lip-syncing to the song "Tainted Love". I thought the boys were going to turn inside out when they realized who they were watching. I actually began to cry! It was a happy cry, though. It's just amazing to me how much she has grown in the last few years.

The next one was a video my step-dad took 10 years ago when we went for a visit for my niece's high school graduation. We took Adam's mother with us since she had never been up there. She'd have been in her late 70's then. The boys, especially Andrew, were enthralled. He has seen pictures of Grandma Eloisa, but was completely fascinated when he heard her talk. I was 7 months pregnant with Little Adam at the time, too. So, they got a kick out of that.

The last one is an old family favorite. Adam had taken Elli and Wendy to Universal in Florida (I hope the details are correct!) and went to the Star Trek part. They got to make about a 10 minute video where they were part of an episode. Elli plays the Captain, Adam is the Vulcan (ears and everything!), and Wendy is an academy graduate. Andrew was amazed. Little Adam loved it. Wendy would have been around his age right now.

We are going to send them up to Wendy and have them transferred from VHS to DVD. Then they will probably become regular family fare! I love it.

Road Traveled Too Long! Part 1

Well, we finally made it back! It kinda went a little like this over the past 17 days:

*Shocks went out in Vegas...must repair
*Rotator cuff injury for Suzanne was a nightmare...intense pain, could not lift babies!
*Okay, who ordered the winter weather? Nothing like watching a 4 year old catch snowflakes in his mouth for the first time.
*Note to self: must buy stock in the ibuprofen industry...love whoever invented it!
*9450 foot summit at Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado...AWESOME! Never saw so much snow in my life and more started falling as we were going through. Did anyone tell the weather god it's the end of MAY??
* Notice DH has golf-ball sized lump on his face...bad-tooth abscessed...no whining from him...REALLY! Refer to ibuprofen comment above!
*Meet my nieces girls and visit with her hubby, see a happy, healthy, beautiful Candice.
*Get to see Wendy, Adam, and meet little James (what a cute, cuddly grandson I have!) FINALLY! Introduce Makenna to her awesome, beautiful big sister.
*Load my kids and grandkid on Uncle Herb and take TONS of pictures. He BBQ'd us some yummy steak too!
*Visit with Aunt Judy, Uncle Mike and David...Andrew ran his first official 1/2 mile fun run and loved it!
*Drive down US 89 in UT and encounter more of the fluffy white stuff...what the heck???

More details will follow over the next few days. I really wanted to share some of my favorite pictures so far...so here they are!

Andrew admiring the Welcome to Colorado sign
My handsome 4 year old experiencing unabashed joy in the snow!
I love pictures like this! My DH shares his warmth with our babies!
Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado between Winter Park and Steamboat Springs
My beautiful niece, Candice, with my little Baby Mak!

I will share more in the days to follow, like watching James snuggle with Grandpa the first time, Wendy seeing Makenna and watching the two younger boys go NUTZ seeing she and Adam, witnessing hero-worship blossom in Andrew for his "cousin" David. Watching my children climb all over Uncle Herb and I think he really liked it!