The Grierson Family

I just realized.

2012-01-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing there are holidays, or I would never take pictures, and never have reason to blog.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun Christmas this year. Spencer was home, and we decided to go cut down our tree from a farm in Alpine. They only had Blue spruce trees, at least that's all we saw. Have you ever tried to cut down/carry/put in a stand/decorate/water/undecorate/get rid of a Blue Spruce? I'm not sure how long it will take for the rash we all got from the prickly needles to go away, but even Spencer says it's the best tree we ever had. It was huge, and really beautiful!

We made gingerbread houses on Family Night right after Thanksgiving. Tara and Spencer each had a friend join us, and that was it. A pretty small group this year, but fun all the same. Tara later invited the Single's Ward to make houses, and that was a bit more rambunctious. No pictures, though.

Tara and Joe

Spencer and Sarah

Jeny's house and some lady holding it up.

I love all the pensive looks.

Christmas eve was spent here with the kids and the Galloway family. We did our usual cold cuts and french onion soup, and the Galloway's added some Cinnamon Rolls and Wassail. Yummy! We did not have our usual program. I guess Tara and Spencer have decided that only traditions that make Jeny work hard are worth keeping. Instead we sang Christmas carols with Mark, Joe and David playing guitars. That was really pretty fun, especially when we got to "Blue Christmas" and everyone's Elvis came out. We watched Spencer's Christmas program compilation, read the Christmas story and watched the Bishop's Wife. Good times! Of course, I got no pictures. Bummer.

Christmas Morning

This is the only picture I got of people on Christmas morning. I had to wake them all up - again. Maybe my grandkids will be excited enough to get up before me. Sigh.

The End of 2011

2012-01-05T20:50:00.001-08:00

New Years Day Right after our New Years celebrations.

Church starts at 9am now, so we decided to break up the houses right after the new year began, at about 1:30am.

Spencer's favorite is to drop the real gingerbread house. He's been doing this since he was about 3.

The mess - cleaned up by all these great smashers. I didn't have to do a thing!

From left to right, Kelsey (Grierson) Long, Joe Galloway, Tara, Sarah Ogden and Spencer.

New York City

2011-11-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

Mark had a client meeting this past Saturday in the Bronx, so we decided to go together and spend a quick weekend in New York. We stayed at a little (very little) hotel right off Herald Square, which is right by Macys, and this is the north side of the Macy's building.
The first night we went with Mark's co-worker and just walked around a bit. We went to Times Square and around the Rockefeller building. They had already decorated for Christmas, and I didn't even hear anyone complaining about it being too early. I loved it!
The thing inside this scaffold is the Christmas tree that stands outside the Rockefeller building. I asked the security guard at the tree for a little piece of the tree, and she broke off two decent sized branches for me! She was super friendly and chatted a lot.

We had to go into the Toys R Us store at Times Square. It was pretty amazing! They have a Wonkaland that looks a lot like the one in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and there is a Ferris Wheel inside the store. Here you can see the Mr. and Mrs. Potatoe Head car.

We also walked by Radio City and it was just pretty.

On Saturday, while Mark was working, I went Christmas shopping. I went into the Macy's, and they still have wooden escalators. So cool! Then I called Mark's niece, Karene, and she took me to all the right places for my shopping. Christmas shopping is done. Wahoo!!!

That night Karene took us all ove the place, and my favorite was this park that is made on a retired elevated subway line. There are parts of the park that you can still see the old tracks. And the views were great.

On Sunday we just did sight seeing. We went to Brooklyn and had lunch in a real italian restaurant, then we walked back to Manhatten across the Brooklyn bridge.

We took the Staton Island ferry to . . . you guessed it. Staton Island. It passed right by the Statue of Liberty and not too far from Ellis Island. Next time in NY, I will get to that island!

That night we walked around again, visiting Grand Central Station. What a huge building!

On Monday we went to the Christmas show at Radio City, featuring the Rockettes. This is the lobby of Radio City.

After the show, we went to the 911 Memorial Park. This was probably the best part of the trip. All I will say about it is, I really love this great guy I married!

These pictures show the waterfall pools and the Freedom Tower under construction.

The oldest surviving church in Manhatten is St. Pauls, right next to the World Trade Center site. It's really a miracle that the church wasn't seriously damaged.

Then we walked down 5th avenue, into Schwartz toy store and Tiffany's.
Here we are by some of the decorations along our way.
And of course, there is the food. Ah, the heartburn! But it was worth it!

Carving pumpkins without Mark :(

2011-10-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

But we still had fun! Here's what we got.

See if you can figure out who did which. Here's a hint. Joe made one, and he likes Jack.

Fall Fun

2011-10-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Collecting beautiful leaves - in the dark.

Tara doing her trademark faerie pose.

Tara and Joe on the cool log.

All of us on the cool log.

My favorite boys!

The results of our labors. I like it!

Hey! Lookee what I found!

2011-10-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that was two years?

Elder Grierson finally returned home yesterday.

Elder Grierson's Homecoming

2011-10-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

The required, big welcome home sign,

happy sister, and balloons.

Waiting at the airport. Holly is there, too, just behind the camera.

Lots of hugging.

After he was released, we didn't know what to do with the sign and balloons, so we tried to make it significant. He "released" the balloons and we chucked the sign.

It is SO good to have him home!

Grelland Family Reunion Part 1

2011-07-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Since I have to work backwards to get the post to post the way I want it, I have learned a few things making this post - or perhaps re-learned them.

1. My brain is no good at working backwards.

2. I am incredibly impatient. I do not like waiting for the pictures to upload.

3. Kelsey always makes funny faces/body poses for pictures.

Here is a short blurb about our family reunion that we just had in July.

We decided that we had better adopt a child, since we only had one available and it is always more fun with two. Therefore we brought Kelsey along, and she did definitly add to the fun! Of course, Tara is always fun in her whimsical way. With the two, we just had double the whimsy.

We rented a small condo in Sudden Valley, WA, and the deer were everywhere. Cute!

Of course the most important thing we had to do while near Vancouver was to visit Lynn Canyon, aka The Enchanted Forest. Here we are ready to walk into enchantment.

Rain was the prevalent weather condition, but in Vancouver it is the norm, so we just did as the natives do and went everywhere in the rain. Fortunatly, it was not raining (just soggy) when we crossed the bridge of death. If you look closely in the middle of the bride you can see my cute little family looking my way.

Tara in the middle of the bridge looking at the falls. Ah, beautiful!
Tara, Mark and Kelsey all ran up the rock. It's tradition. They all made it the first try which made them feel . . .

So joyful!

I asked them to give me a manly pose. Kelsey - wow, good job! Very manly. Must be Harrison's influence. Mark - Manly of course. He said he sucked in his belly. Tara - well, maybe we will work on that. I guess I'm glad to say manly pose is not in you.

Tara and Mark being enchanted.

The mossy trees. Ah, I do love them!

I believe they would call this trudging.

Enchanting and whimsical faerie-like ladies near the pool.

Mark is helping me see the falls. I didn't get any falls pictures. Sad.

Jeny and Mark at the pool. It's really very beautiful! (and enchanted)

Here is the Faerie Throne. Tara has always wanted to be a Faerie or an elf. And Kelsey, well she's just special.

If you are a Grierson, you understand this picture. It's blurry, but oh, so Grierson-esque.

On our trip to White Rock Beach we saw these two Bald Eagles in the treetops. (way to spot them, Kelsey!) If you look in the middle of the picture near the top of the tree, you can see them. They look like two brown smudges.

And this is the beauties at Fairhaven, WA. It's right near the water, so after lunch I got to go catch wee crabs. Very fun! Rowen is the cutie in the background.

Grelland Family Reunion 2011 part 2

2011-07-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

One day we took a ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Tara and Kelsy took a plethora of pictures on the ferry ride - almost like they were having picture taking contests. Kelsey won. Nobody can take as many pictures as Kelsey.

Tara took loads of pictures of boats. I think she might like sailboats.

Here are the beauties at the harbor. Tara, Kelsey, Marissa.

Mark wanted to go to the Whale museum. We went into the gift shop and saw the building that housed the whale museum and decided that it might not be all that much fun. So we didn't acutally go into the whale museum.

Here is part of our family waiting for our ferry to take us home. Lively group, eh? We did wear the shorter ones out trying to find geocaches on the island. There was only one that stumped us. Someday I will have to go back and find it.

On reunion day I was a little bit busy doing reunion type things, so I didn't get many pictures. This is geocache team 1. They took their time trying to find the cache and did a thorough job of finding it. They found all sorts of other things as well - mostly stinging nettle.

Team 2, the team I got to run with. We had the fastest time. We also found the stinging nettle. Team 1 chose not to tell us about it until we returned from the hunt. Nice. But we were super fast!

Team 3 includes Aiden. He started with team 1, but they were too slow for him, so he joined team 3. He's pretty cute! This team came in second place, and avoided the nasty plants.

We also played volleyball and soccer in the rain, had a great luncheon and some even braved the lake - swimming and/or canoeing.

And Raef found this super awesome slug.

Afterward we went into the lodge to get out of the rain and enjoy dinner together. Tara enjoyed hanging out with all the boys.

Especially Elliot. I think she has a new boyfriend, n'est-ce pas?

Our 4th of July

2011-07-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July this year we partied with Kelsey most of the day. Tara, Kelsey and Mark did some awesome dancing for me, but Mark won't let me post him dancing. I'll have to put that on while he's not looking. Here are my dancing gals.

After dancing fun, we met Nickell and her family and Kristi for a little time at the lake. This is the only picture proof I have that Kristi is there, so here she is.

Mark took the kids out fishing. Kade loved it. I wonder what he will think of fishing if they ever actually catch a fish?

What a bunch of hotties! (Does that creep you out, Aaron?)

3 New Things Part 1

2011-06-06T19:06:00.001-07:00

SPRING! or maybe summer, but either way, the rain finally stopped, and I have felt some small amount of heat. It's beautiful!

I love the hosta/bleeding heart combination. It's my favorite!

Mark got a firepit, and I got a new patio set with non-ripped seats that people of larger stature do not fall out the bottom of.

It really did stop raining. I just sprayed down the patio, and the pictures were taken in the evening, since that's when I'm here.

3 New Things Part 2

2011-06-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

Here is what I found at Reams last Saturday.

Get ready to be super jealous!

And Yes, Amy, the Cream Soda is as good as I remember it! Mmmmmmm. Everyone, if you promise to come to my house for a visit, I will buy you some bottles of your favorite kind! Let me know when to expect you.

3 New Things Part 3

2011-06-06T18:52:00.001-07:00

And the best of all - My New Car!

OK, it's not all that new, but it's new for me.

Yep, I finally got rid of the Exploder. It more or less exploded. Really it just made Mark's temper explode, which is a worse thing than the car actually exploding. Anyhow, this is the result.

It's a 2007, or maybe 2008 Saturn Outlook with a DVD player that has wireless headphones, which is a cool thing. It also does not make anything ping on Mark's car computer testing gizmo, and that made him happy. It has easy to use cruise control, and when I turn the key it turns on. Those are the important things to me. It also can tow the boat. That's the important thing to Mark. We tested that this weekend, and ate the fruits of that test for dinner last night.

PS, I was the only one that caught anything. Again. :)

Last Day - Back in Nurnburg

2011-03-10T14:35:00.001-08:00

Shoot, I think this is still Rothenburg. I'm pretty sure it is, in fact. But we were able to go all the way to the top of this tower in Rothenburg.

Here is the tower from the back side.

And this is the view from the top of the tower. There was a guy up top that said something to me in german on our way down the stairs, but I didn't understand him, so I just nodded and smiled. I did a lot of nodding and smiling this past week. When we got to the bottom of the tower, there was a sign that said it cost 3 euro to go to the top. I think the guy was asking me to pay, and I just walked right away from him. Oops!

Stairs up a big tower at the back of the city.

The most picturesque street in Germany. That's what the guidebook says. Really.

Now we'll do Nurnberg. This is the hangman's bridge. The hangman lived here above the bridge for about 200 years from about 1500 to 1700.

And the bridges over the city are really neat. Here we are on the bridge facing the edge of the city, and the castle.

When we went back to Nurnberg we planned to go through the castle becasue it looked really neat. I didn't go while Mark was working because I knew he wanted to go. Darn it. The castle is closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years day and Shrove Tuesday. Guess what day Tuesday was. So since it was Shrove Tuesday we didn't get to see the castle on the inside. I guess I will have to go with Mark next year when he goes so we can see the castle.

Instead of seeing the castle, we went through the toy museum, which was super fun. They have all the toys we had as kids, but in German. And just about the most awesome train set-up I have ever seen. We also went to Albrecht Durer's house. He was an artist so long ago, and apparently someone that Nurnberg is very proud of. I don't know that I have ever heard of him, except that I believe one if his paintings is inthe game "Masterpiece".

And then we walked to the Parade grounds and Zeppelin Field.

These people would not move off the podium. After about 30 minutes all the other tourists that were waiting for them to move finally just scrunched up on the podium with them. They were still there when we walked away.

And on our way back to the hotel, we saw this sign. I can't read it, but it looks to me like you are not allowed to swim or kill people in this park.

This was a great trip!

Back to Rothenburg Day 7

2011-03-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

This is probably my favorite church that we saw. It is just stunning. This is the church of a monastery in Rottenbuch that was used from the early 1000s through about 1300. The church interior was renovated now and then throughout time, and the most recent renovation was in 1750 when it was changed to look like this. The artwork was spectacular, and I just love the colors!

I can't even express how beautiful it was. The choir just took my breath away.

And Rottenbuch is just a little town. Probably smaller than Springville.

After Rottenbuch, we made our way to the autobahn (scary!) and back to Rothenburg, because we liked that town best. We started by walking along the wall again, because that was pretty cool, and look what we found. Can you guess what this is? It just hangs out over the city wall. I would think this would leave one a little too exposed for comfort, but there it is.

Below and behind the city is a church, a few houses and a nice old bridge. Here is the church, built in 1500 sometime. And Mark, built in 1964.

And here is the bridge. Built in the 1300s, and featured in Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. The house next to the bridge is for sale, and part of the yard is under the arch of the bridge. Any takers?

And this is the castle in Rothenburg. We wanted to go in to see it, but it had already closed for the day.

After walking around a bit the church bells started. I love church bells. Enjoy.

Tegelbergbahn Day 7

2011-03-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

After Switzerland we just drove to the romantic road and went to the first hotel our GPS brought up. How did anyone ever travel without a GPS? Anyhow, this is the place we stayed.

It was very quaint, very comfortable, and the hotel owners did not speak any english. Thited s was an interesting experience. The lady was so cute, and I wanted to get a picture with her, but it would have been one more thing to try to explain. So you will just have to believe me on that one.

They gave us the same things for dinner and breakfast, which made ordering that much easier. We had bread and swiss cheese, cold cuts and hard boiled eggs.
We left the hotel and went back near Fussen so we could go up this tram. They call it the Tegelbergbahn. Tegelberg is the town it is in. If you know me at all, you know this was Mark's idea, and it was a good one. Here is the view from the top of the mountain.

The tram.

And King Ludwig's castles on the way down the mountain.

Liechtenstein and Switzerland Day 6

2011-03-10T12:32:00.001-08:00

I really went to Liechtenstein! It's smaller than Utah county, and it's really beautiful.

We wanted to go see the castle in Liechtenstein, but the monarch (The Furst with dots over the u) still lives there. Quite a house! And there are houses (real ones) next door to the castle.

We wanted to stop to look at the church but all the roads were closed and when we finally found a parking spot, we came upon this;

But we did get to the church after the parade passed by.

In Switzerland the clouds really came in. We couldn't see much, but we went through Walenstadt to Lake Walensee. This is all of the view we got while there, but we got to feed Swiss ducks and swans, and Mark made a friend with a cute little dog that wanted him to play fetch. There are a lot of people out walking their dogs all around this area they call Bavaria, and the dogs are super well trained! This dog's owner talked to us a bit while Mark continued to throw the stick for the dog. Very fun!

Austria Day 6

2011-03-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

After the castles in Southern Germany, we went for a drive through Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland. It was a very misty day, but within 15 minutes we saw the best sight of the day. Ehrnburg Catle was built in the early 1200s, and used through the 1700s. The outer wall was built in 1733, which is what we got to first on our hike.

The view inside the wall.

There were 2 of these round buildings. One said it had been used to store munitions, the other had no indication what it was used for, but looked like it may still be in use today.

There were castle ruins on almost every hilltop. This was such an amazing drive. Even with the mist the Alps were beautiful. And there were these little cabins everywhere. We never did ask what they were for. They were in every field we passed.

Fussen Day 5

2011-03-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

King Ludwig of bavaria was a bit crazy, I think. He was actually pronounced insane the day before he "mysteriously" died, but he left behind the beginnings of what could have been some fantastic castles. These are not real castles, to me, since they were built after the time of castles, and used until Ludwig's death in the early 1900s. But they are pretty neat.

This is the Hohenschwangau castle. Ludwig's parents lived here, and as a child he spent the summer here with them.

From the castle, the view is great. Look! We are in the Alpes!

Here I am on our way up to the castle.

After seeing Hohenschwangau, we walked up to the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is a really cool castle but most of it was not finished. Construuction on all of Ludwig's castles stopped when he died. But he parts that are finished are just amazing. We couldn't take pictures in the castle, so you will have to take my word for it.

View of Neuschwanstein from Hohenschwangau.

On our way to Neuschwanstein.

Front gate of Neuschwanstein.

This is a bridge that Mark wanted to go across. So we hiked over to it.

The views are just awesome from anywhere you may be.

Rothenburg Day 4

2011-03-05T11:38:00.001-08:00

We decided to travel to Rothenburg yesterday, and then down what is known as the Romantic Road. We got on the autobahn for about 5 minutes and I thought we were going to die. Mark was going about 180 k/h or 110 mph. And we were going slow. Then we realized we had to get off at the next exit and I was sure I was going to die. But I was wrong. It's just very scary to go that fast and then exit. Nuts!

After the death road we got on a highway that took us through a bunch of smaller towns. Each one was like a postcard. In fact, looking through my pictures of the past two days I don't think there was a bad one in the bunch.

Each town has their church, and they are all very impressive structures.

We got to Rothenburg not really knowing what to expect. My friend and former guide Robert told me this would be a good place to visit. He was right! I LOVE Rothenburg! We got to the city and went through a gate where no people were at all. On the other side of the gate was a huge stairway up to the city wall, so naturally we climbed it and walked along the city wall.

Here is the staircase up close. The steps were very worn.

This is where we came down.

And here is a city street with a church steeple at the end of it.

The city hall. We climbed to the top of the belltower, but Mark was too chicken to pull the rope. So was I, I guess, since I didn't do it.

The town square.

The view of the from the Castle grounds.

The Caslte gate. The little door was opened at night to let only one person in at a time. One very little person.

This is the caslte gate wall. Guess what the weird face thing on the front is for? Really, they did have these holes to pour boiling pitch on unwanted guests!

A more picturesque view of the Castle gate wall.

Jakobskirche.

The podium where the priest stands to sermonize.

The windows in the middle were made in the 1300s, and the ones on the right and left were made in the 1400s.

We only got to see a very small bit of the city, because we wanted to get to Fussen before nightfall. Our goal was to leave Rothenburg before 3. We finally drove out of the town at 4:15. The drive to Fussen was awesome, too, but now it's time to end this entry.

Nurnberg Day 3

2011-03-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

I like the castle (with flags) and church steeples in the background of this picture. We will go see the castle when we get back to Nurnberg next week.

This is the inside of Lorenzkirche. It is the tallest and most ornate of the churches in the old town. This window and most of this end of the church were left standing, damamged, but did not have to be completely rebuilt. The other half of the church was demolished.

This is the part of the church that had to be rebuilt. Mark is standing there so you have some idea of the size of this huge church.

Here we have some nice scenery. I keep thinking, "This would be a great place for Nickell to do bridals!".

A little coffee shop with a tower. Pretty cool. And that is Mark walking in front of me.

This is The Church of Our Lady, and is just about the most gaudy church I have ever seen. There are statues above the front door on the outside that I think are going to dance around like our cuckoo clock did. I just haven't seen it yet.

This is the entry area to the Church of Our Lady.

The streets in the old town are mostly cobblestone, and there are cool old buildings everywhere. Most of them had to be rebuilt after the war, so a lot of the buildings are newer with pieces of older buildings next to them.

This one is for Tara. She likes cute bathroom signs.

And, yes we went to McDonalds. We did it for Andrew who think McDs in Europe is the best in the world. It tasted exactly the same to me. By the way, KFC in Germany isn't much different, either. Somehow I have to get Mark to enjoy some local culture.

Nurnberg Day 2

2011-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

This first part is still day 1, but I didn't get it until late last night, so we'll put it on day 2. Last night Mark and I walked around the old city a bit and he wanted to show me the cool old restaurant he ate in last time he was here. The door reaches his belly button. That's about how tall it is. So we opened up the door to the restaurant, bent over and went down a very steep staircase to this restaurant. Mark wanted a picture of the suit of armor behind me. I was just in the way. Anyhow, the building was built in the early 1300s and was not damaged much in the bombings in 1945. It's original use was a tenement house for the nobility, and the basement was converted into a restaurant just over 100 years ago. The food was spectacular!
Today I went around with a guide. His name is Robert and he was a German instructor at BYU Idaho for many years. He recently retired, so he came to Nurnberg with his son who works with Mark. He is very knowledgeable and it was a real treat to be able to walk around with him. We took the bus to the Nazi Documentation Station (Dokumentationzentrum Reichsparteitagsgelande with the dots over the a). It was Hitlers intention to make Nurnberg the hub of the Reich, and in the 30s construction began on a huge amount of buildings, most of which were never finished. There was to be a parade ground, which you may have seen in footage of Hitler speaking. The podium and seating for officials was finished, and the grounds were cleared for the parades, but the plans included so much more. He also planned for a zeppelin field and numerous other buildings that were all started but construction halted when the war began.

The documentation center was supposed to be a covered stadium with seating for 50,000, I believe, and the outside structures were built, but the ceiling was never completed. The final section of the museum was a number of interviews with citizens of Nurnberg who were alive as Hitler was rising to power, through and after the war. They shared their feelings and ideas about Hitler, why they followed him and what that whole experience meant to them personally. One of these interviews was with a Jewish man, there were 2 women who were teenagers at the time, and another man who was part of the Hitler Youth organization. The teenage girls were very interesting to me. One thing that was said that really hit home with me was they kind of competed to see who could see Hitler more often. They counted the times in each year that they got to see him. Much like our youth today count the times they see their favorite movie, or favorite sports figure.

Hitler was mad. If he were alive today he would have been the kid who took out a gun and opened up in his high school. Or run for president. I cannot express enough how obvious it is to me that history is repeating itself again. And this little visit has increased my anxiety over what is going on in our world. The cycle does not seem to go away with time. All the little governmental changes that resulted in this lunatic being able to take total control of the government are happening again. I just hope that there are more people in the world now that understand and will stand up for our individual rights and each person's right to be an individual. That we will take responsibility to know and understand what is going on in our world and that we will be our brother's keeper. The teenage girls said their neighbors went away but they thought they were sent to Israel or something, and that they were all together in one community where they belonged. They had no idea (or didn't want to know) that these good, hard working people were being sent to their death. We talked to an older couple on the bus. The man was 17 when the war broke out, and spent 5 years in a Russian prison camp. He expressed that he had no idea why they all got so easily caught up in the madness, but everyone was caught up in it. Kinda sounds like everyone was so busy trying to make their side (aka the Nazi party) be right, and better than the other party (aka the rest of the world) that they didn't really pay attention to the basic ideals of either party. Hmmm.

Enough of that. On to the rest of my day.

Once we finished with the station, we went to downtown old town again and wandered a bit. We went to many different churches but I only got a picture of this one. It's the St. Giles' Church, and it is amazing on the outside, and the only baroque church in the old town, but has been sufficiently modernized on the inside, so it wasn't very impressive. But the outside is beautiful. When we were going in to these churches, Robert commented, "It's no wonder not very many people go to church anymore". It was super cold outside, and the temperature didn't change much when we went inside. I guess they don't even try to heat those old giant buildings!

Germany - Day 1

2011-03-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Really, all you have to do is see the pictures to know I had a great day yesterday.

These old buildings were mostly restored after WWII since the old part of Nurnberg was mostly flattened.

But some of the original structures still exist.

and are super cool.

I had a hard time even getting myself in a picture, so when I finally did, I didn't much care what I looked like. But here's proof that I'm in Germany.

FINALLY!

2011-03-01T23:28:00.001-08:00

Look what Tara finally got!

YAY!

Ice Castles! (Remember that movie? This has nothing to do with it.)

2011-02-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

Get ready for some awesome pictures!

These are the Ice Castles in Midway Utah.

For Family Night last Wednesday, Mark, Tara, her friend Jake and I went to Midway to see the Castles.

There is a guy there that builds them every winter with PVC pipe and sprinkler heads.

He just keeps growing them through the end of February,

And it's a pretty cool (and very cold) thing.

Icicles hanging everywhere, around lights, and forming big castle like structures.

Or just looking like skulls with knives sticking out of them.

Nickell, Holly or anyone Utah-ish, if you want to go, let me know and I'll go with you. I thought it was pretty neat.

And this (below) is my favorite picture of all!

Vancouver Temple

2011-02-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

We waited for a long time for this temple, and it was finally dedicated this past year. For Christmas I got Mark a trip to Canada so we could go visit the Vancouver, Canada temple.

It was a cold, cloudy day (just what I expected) and we really enjoyed it! Mark did work for Uncle Geroge Niven, and I for Mark's great grandmother, Anne Jessiman. The temple is very small and just beautiful, and it felt like going home. Many of the workers had been in our ward all those years ago when we lived in Burnaby and it was wonderful to see them all.

Mark's mom met us for a session after we had finished with the baptisms, and brought a lot of names with her to be sealed. I have never done work for anyone all the way through, and it was such a great experience! And we finally got Uncle George done! He was so good to Mark and Me always, and it felt great to be able to give this back to him.

I know I complain a lot about the time we spent in Vancouver. It was a very hard thing for me. But it also taught me so much, and I just love the people we knew. They helped me grow up and increased my testimony in so many ways, and I know Heavenly Father sent us up there for good reasons. Those seven years were the best learning experience I could possibly have had. I am so happy those great people now have a temple near by. In my opinion they are the most deserving of this blessing in all the world!

Mark's Skating Rink

2011-01-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well, despite all my teasing, it worked mostly. Mark says it's too small and the ice level drops a bit every day even with him adding water every day, but here is Mark skating on his rink. He likes it!

Christmas at our house.

2010-12-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

This year Christmas was kinda different. We made gingerbread houses like we always do, but had an extra twist of having the Singles ward come over and make houses as well. Then they left. And left their houses for us. So our village was pretty big! (for us anyway)

The required item this year was a peanut. Tara's friend Jake won. He carved it into a turtle shell which you can see in the pond here if you make the picture bigger.

Mark's house. His peanut was eaten before his house was finished. He lost.

Tara's house and Geremy's house. Geremy's peanut was pretty creative. He made a hot tub, and the peanut, in his own words, was a "floaty". Boys!

Tara's house. Her peanut was siding on the root cellar.

This is the whole village, and my house is the one on the bottom left corner. This is the best picture we got of it. I used many peanuts in the walkway, along with pinto beans. A very good effect.

Christmas Eve was a little different spent in the ER with my good friend and neighbor while Mark went to the airport to pick up her son. Her husband fell off a ladder while getting off the roof and broke several bones, and was later flown to a SLC hospital. I was glad we were able to help!

Nickell and Aaron came over for Christmas Eve and spent most of it here alone. It was kind of a bummer for them, and once we got home I'm sure we were not super great company. They left early and we watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, read the Christmas Story from the New Testament and went to bed. Poor Tara. She is stuck at home with just us two boring parents!

On Christmas morning we awoke to find that Santa did visit our house. He left an extra lot of things for me. But the best part of Christmas was talking to Spencer on video Skype! He looks way too skinny, and he loves his mission.

Then we got to go to Kirstie's house for games and puzzles. Mark's mom and Dad were both there.

On Skype, Spencer showed us his permanent sunburn line, and sent us these pictures on the Monday after Christmas, even though none of us had written to him (his p-day is supposed to be on Tuesday, silly boy). On Christmas Eve, he got to open his present that I picked. Seriously it took these kids until they were about 10 and 11 years old to figure out that it was always and always will be pajamas. His match ours, except we have warm tops that are flannel and he has a t-shirt.

Mostly I wanted you all to see the "Christmas Corner" behind him. Do you recognize the ornaments?

And this is Spencer wearing his pajamas. He is very skinny. Please send him fattening foods.

The beginnings of a backyard ice rink - Again.

2010-12-30T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today, Mark decided, was a good day to try the ice rink in the backyard again. Sometime I just think of Mark and laugh. I sure like him! He is filling it even now. He hopes to be able to skate on it on new years day.

Building the frame.

Talking to Dave while it's filling.

The ice rink. Day 1.

The ice rink. Night 1.

My Greenhouse Today

2010-12-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here is my greenhouse today. Cool icicles, eh? There is ice in the track of hte door, so it's pretty hard to get into. I can only get it opened a few inches, then I have to squeeze my big old body into it.

And here is what is growing in my greenhouse. It's pretty cold so they are growing very slowly, but I have radishes, lettuces, spinach, chard, beets and peas. I decided today that I'm going tostart a small compost in the greenhouse to help keep it warm and have good soil as a bonus. :)

What? No greenhouse pictures?

2010-12-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

I just looked back an realised I have not put up any greenhouse pictures. Crazy me! This was a huge project that included moving our 5 ton shed (that may be an exaggeration, but we did need to get 8 young men in our neighborhood to help move it), putting in a concrete slab and pretty much making the shed all over again since most of it was rotten. Here is the process in photos:

The shed is moved. Yes, it did kill the grass. Mark had to go to India before we were able to finish this project so the shed sat here for just about a month.

Digging out the cement pad area. Whew, it makes me tired just thinking about it. On this day, Mark and I finally admitted we are getting old.

I can't find any pictures of the concrete party we had. I wonder if I took any? Anyhow, Marks brothers Lorne and Dave and his nephews Mike and Chev and his great-nephew Michael were here to help. They did a great job and all I had to do was feel them! KFC! I love it!

This is the first day of setting up the greenhouse. It was a Saturday and we got the entire frame up before dark, and I believe we got some panels on. Maybe we put the other panels on it on a Sunday, thereby breaking the sabbath. But it was so much fun, and we had bruised thumbs for about a week as a punishment for breaking the sabbath.

The frame all put together. I got really good at reading chinese american instructions.

And the finished product, although the project was barely half completed.

Part 3 of the project was to repair and reside the shed. Ugh!

We did not have to redo the roof. Yet. Thank goodness! It looks like it would have been easy enough, and it probably should have been easier than it was. But it took us several weekends to complete this chore.

And we still have to put the trim on the shed. That will be done in the spring, since now we are working on making an ice rink in the backyard and there is snow everywhere.

Here is the finished product. Aren't they pretty? (Try to imagine the shed with nice trim aroung the base, the door and anywhere else that is ugly)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot . . .

2010-11-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

Like Gingerbread Houses!

Holly pinged me at work today to tell me this was the last night of the gingerbread festival. It's usually at Thanksgiving Point, but they had it in Orem this year, and closer is always better, so we went. Here are my favorites for this year.

The Three Little Pigs (the pigs had friends in the backyard in a hot tub)

Notre Dame - Quasimodo is between the towers in the front

The UP House. Open this one big and look at the detail. It's incredible! The weather vane, the birds, and around the outside edge are a bunch of merit badges. The Boy Scouts put this festival on every year. And best of all, guess who made this house? Inmates at Utah State Pennitentiary! I guess they do have a lot of time on their hands.

"Sorry Santa, I peeked". I just thought this was cute.

Christmas at Falling Water. Katie Grierson once made this at our house. This one was incredible!!!

And my favorite of all - Candy Land! Yeah, this is what Gingerbread Houses are all about!!!

A Farewell to the Queen

2010-10-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today we had to put Dolly aka "Tiny Spicy Kitty" down. She was the queen of the backyard and the basement, and pretty nice for a cat. I will miss the neck rubs.

Just so you know, she was not the retarded one. We are pretty surprised that Molly outlasted her, but apparently age caught up to her a little faster.

This is a poem Tara wrote, I think about Dolly. I wil call it

Dolly's Pride

A majestic figure, so quiet, serene
Strutting about on soft silken toes,
Enter the kitten, nay, The Queen!
To grace us with her stately pose.

A simple cat, but to her eyes,
(Bright crystal gems of emerald hue)
A lioness of strength and size,
Ruling her castle, her domain, her due.

A rolling purr and swiftest glide,
The very sound her beauty gloats;
She lies with grace upon her side,
And mockingly preens her velvet coat.

Thus vanity will be her fate,
This tiny cat so proudly vain!
To which some mortals can relate,
Is wisdom's loss, but beauty's gain!

Mark's India Excursion

2010-10-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Mark decided to go to India without me. He got home last week, and got Giardia. I think it's payback for not taking me to India. That wasn't very nice!!

Here are some cool India pictures. He says it was a very scary place, and if you look up scary India drivers there are tons of videos to prove that it was pretty scary. But mostly it was India, so it was just cool.

India Friends.

Just about the coolest tree ever.

The topiary garden

And the scary monkey that tried to take Mark's camera.

No, this one is the coolest tree ever.

Mark at the Hindi temple. Notice he is barefoot. Funny!

A monkey statue. He might be one of their gods, Mark isn't sure.

Fall Fun

2010-10-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to Hobble Creek Canyon to look at and collect leaves. It's a tradition, and with Tara here now I am not allowed to break any traditions. It's a pretty fun one, anyway.

Well, there is a ranch in the canyon right near the campground. We have actually been camping there during a cattle drive and it's quite an experience to be right in the middle of it.

Tonight they were driving the cattle back to their ranch, and again we were right in the middle of it, although this time we were inside a car so it felt less threatening. Here is the video Tara took:

AND, here are a few leaf pictures. We love them!

We like to gather them and bunch them about the house. Mostly above the coat closet. Pretty!

Jeny's day to celebrate

2010-09-15T20:42:00.001-07:00

We won't say why she was celebrating, just that she did. On September 11 I was able to sleep in as long as I could because it was a Saturday. Beautiful! I slept in until 8! Then I did a whole bunch of laundry and did the grocery shopping so that could get out of the way. Mark was out doing a bit of shopping of his own, and look what he got me!!!

Yep, that really is a greenhouse. It's a little one, so the neighbors shouldn't be too upset (we do have some picky neighbors) and just right for my needs. Now we get to move the shed, put down a concrete pad big enough for the shed and the greenhouse, and assemble this. Such a great idea! I love it!

Tara and her friend Casey hung out with us for the rest of the day. We went boating on Utah Lake, Geocacheing until the mosquitos got so bad Mark was about to use a bad word (maybe darn, or something like that), then we went to dinner and came home for a rip-roaring game night of Rumoli. What a great bir . . . uh, day of celebration for me!

Jeny on the boat.

Tara gave me a great puzzle of fantasy like creatures. Maybe she likes it enough that she will help me with this one? And that's Casey in the background.

A Day at the Races

2010-09-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Mark had a guy from the Bonneville Speedway come to his work yesterday to help with some radios he had purchased for the Speed Races this week. He brought along several tickets and other goodies for the races. Since we are responsible adults with jobs that rely on us to get things done, we took today off and went to the salt flats. I have driven through there, but I have never gone to the state park (woohoo! flat salt land as far as the eye can see.) and certainly never to see the fastest cars in the world zip by.

We did not have much time (it tool 3 hours to get there, and Tara didn't get up until 11) so I didn't get the pictures of everything I wanted to, but here's what I got.

A really fast car. I think this one went about 180 MPH. It was not the fastest car we saw. We saw several that went over 200 MPH, but they were too fast for me and my camera.

Our feet on the salt. All that white all around us is just a big field of salt.

Tara's favorite car.

Jeny's favorite car. We didn't have time to get Mark with his favorite. It looked like a giant red bullet.

Now, don't laugh too hard. I was trying to get a still photo but apparently the camera was in movie mode. But it was the best movie of fastness that I got.

I love going back to work. :(

2010-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

When I got in to work today my desk was all nice and clean. The basket on my desk contained only 2 requests - please get some dusting stuff and packing tape. There were a lot of time cards to enter and that is all. I was so excited! I thought, "Wow, maybe they really don't need me here."

About 15 minutes after I got settled reality hit. Clare (my boss) put a rubbermaid bin on the floor next to my desk filled to overflowing with paperwork, mail, more time sheets, bills, etc. Seriously, it overflowed. I think it's gonna take me a week to get through the bin. Then I can start on the real work.

I just thought I would tell my family that this is how much I love you. I still felt like singing even after 10 straight hours of working my way through the top 3 inches of my bin. Seperate Ways kept me going all day long, and our many many strange family songs. Even Kites are Fun. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a short break to eat something for lunch!

Thanks for all the fun! I love you all!

Family Reunion - Princess Night!

2010-07-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

This is a super fun blog posting. The Lauritzen Family Reunion was this past week, July 22-25. It was my parent's and their children and so on, so there were a lot of people, but not too many. The second night of the reunion we had a girls night in my hotel room for everyone ages 7-? whoever wanted to come watch princess movies. We had 9 girls, Amy, me, Tara and Mark. Mark loves princess movies. We watched the barbie version of "Princess and the Pauper". Great movie! Lots of action! Here was my favorite part. Most of the girls made it through the movie, but once the lights and TV were off they were out fast. Then the snore fest began.

Megan ended up sleeping on the bed with me since Kate wouldn't stop trying to use her for a matress.

Lydia (under the blanket) Melissa, Tara and Amy.

Ashley and Ella.

Trina's arm and Emma.

Rachel and Trina (with her football; we never saw her without it!).

Lydia. Most of the night she was smashed into the side of my bed by Melissa. So cute!

Melissa.

Megan, Kate, Ashley, Ella, Trina and Emma - Front row.

Mark's feet, Amy, Lydia, Melissa, Tara - Back row.

The girls all knew the movie pretty well. They sang along with all the songs. I tried to get better video but my camera doesn't like me.

I had a great time! Mark did, too. And he had lots to talk to the girls about for the rest of the reunion. I think he finally gets the plot of the movie now. Thanks, girls, for explaining it to him about a million times and for answering all his questions!

Art City Days

2010-06-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

This week was Art City Days. Woohoo. That's what you're thinking, right. Actually it's pretty fun, so despite the rain and the freezing cold temperatures we went out tonight and watched the fireworks. Springville puts on a pretty decent fireworks show! I have been impressed by it every year. Here is a small sampling of the show. Just in case you have a need to see fireworks right now.

Provo River and Jordanelle Reservoir

2010-06-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

Mark and I had a fun weekend. Kinda weird, but fun. We went camping without any kids. Haven't done that in over 20 years! So we sat around the camp fire and twiddled our thumbs. Just kidding! We went to Jordanelle Reservoir because Mark heard the fishing was great there. I guess we don't know what we are doing, because we caught nothing. I didn't see anyone else catching anything either, so I don't feel so bad.
Here is Mark's little boat. We keep it stored in the garage. When he drives it he sits on top of the seat back. That's how little it is. According to our handy dandy geocaching GPS, top speed is 36.1 MPH. Perfect!

It's been snowing here up until last Tuesday. Saturday's high was about 90, and today it got up to 85. This is not so great for flooding. Many places near Salt Lake have flooding issues right in town. The Provo River is more full than I have ever seen it, and there are a lot of logs and other debris in the reservoir. Here are some pictures and a video of that fun.
There are 2 pelicans in this photo. As soon as they heard the beep of the camera turning on, they decided to fly away.

The flooded Provo River - just above the reservoir.

Backwards posts.

2010-05-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

There are a bunch of new posts. They begin at the "sheesh" post. Go there first.

And the most greatest thing!

2010-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Tara's Graduation! Wahoo!

She graduated from Utah State University on Saturday, May 8.

This is taken with my camera from the back of the arena. Nickell took better pictures, and I think Tara is posting those. It really did happen though!

I'm so old!!

On Mother's Day . . .

2010-05-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

. . . we got to talk to Spencer! He sounds like he loves Brazil and all the missionary-ish things. He really likes his companion, and he says the language is coming along just great. He told us of some food items that we have to perfect before he gets home so last night we tried our first. Coxinha. There should be some squiggly lines over some of the letters, and I'm sure when you say it, it sounds something like "bubble". Here are the pics of Tara and me giving this one a try.

They are tear drop (or drumstick) shaped deep fried dumpling like things with chicken and cream cheese in them. I think, though, that we need to work on this a little more. I did not find them as tasty as Spencer made them out to be.

But they looked great!

And Last Thursday . . .

2010-05-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Mark decided to go and have a birthday. This was his inferno . . . uh, I mean cake, that we had with the Blairs while watching the worst Lost episode ever. There was so much smoke after he blew out the candles that we had to leave the room. The cake was still good, though.

For his Birthday (and Father's day, and Christmas, and possibly his next 20 birthdays), Mark bought himself a boat, so I bought him a sailors cap. Maybe someday he will graduate to captain. He has to get me to the right location to catch a big fish first, though.

I like Mark!

And while we were selling them . . .

2010-05-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

. . . four more hatched! For real! There are only 3 new ones in this picture, since we moved the newest new one into the tank just this morning. This is getting to be pretty fun! What a great idea for these boys to leave their lizards for me while they are gone. It keeps me very busy!

Sheesh! Where do I start?

2010-05-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

What a crazy life! Tons of things have been going on, so I'll just blog one at a time. First, the easy one. We sold these three little guys to Jay's Jungle and it was so sad! We liked all of them, but had a special love for the littlest. He was so cute! Actually we went to Jay's last night to "buy crickets" (really it was to see how they were doing. They are doing great!)

TULIPS AND FUN STUFF

2010-05-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

Holly, Shannon, Leah and I went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Pointe today. It was snowing when I woke up, which didn't make me want to go so much, but I am glad we went! So pretty and so much fun! Here is Shannon posing for a faery-like picture in a very Taraesque manner. She is so much fun - she just loves everything!

And this is some of the scenery. It was a cool day and it did sprinkle on us a bit, but mostly it was just great to be outside in a beautiful place.

There was a very fun Children's Discovery Park with a Xylophone made of wooden blocks, a sandbox, pieces of stumps cut up to be building blocks, little ships to float down the river and a tunnel to crawl through. This picture was taken especially to send to Spencer.

We also saw a nesting goose and . . . this! Can you tell what it is? I'll tell you at the end.

But the last picture is my new favorite picture. So pretty.

ps. it's a Great Horned Owl.

What we've been up to

2010-04-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Really I had this vision of tons of free time once the kids moved out. Haha! What a joke! We have been busy but honestly I can't remember what all we have been doing. It's been fun, whatever it is. Here is a little glimpse of some of our busy:

1. The Garden - Jeny has been taking a little gardening course and it has caused her to be very anxious for Spring to arrive. The snow today did nothing to dampen her Spring Fever. She needs Spring, and needs it now. Mark would also very much like to sit at the dinner table without strange plant matter surrounding him.

2. The Puzzle - Tara gave Jeny this puzzle for Christmas and it really is the hardest puzzle Jeny has ever done. Seriously. It's harder than the huge one of last year. Every piece looks the same!

3. The New Arrivals - This is the best part!! These 6 little guys hatched within the last week and a bit and are so cute. You are all so sad that you don't have 6 of your own, right?

She's OLD now!

2010-02-14T14:30:00.001-08:00

Tara came home Friday night and we started celebrating her 21st then. We had dinner at Tucanos, a Brazilian barbecue place that serve lots and lots of meat. It's her favorite place. She likes it even more than Tepanyaki. Nickell, Aaron and Kade joined us and it really was delicious. One of our servers served his mission in Brasilia 5 years ago, so we talked to him a little bit and he told Mark how to spell the stuff we were eating so he could email that crucial information to Spencer. After dinner they sang to Tara and made her stand up and dance. Kade thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Saturday morning Mark and Tara woke early and left for Sundance ski resort. Tara thinks she likes to snowboard more than ski, so she and cousin Mike did that, and Mark and Uncle Dave skied. I think the Olympics in Vancouver have inspired Mark to take up skiing again. This is the second time this year for him! They came home extra worn out, snow burned and happy.

Tara Snowboarding

Mark and Cousin Mike

Then all sorts of friends and family came over for a little party for her last night. There was lots of food, the Olympics for those who cared, lots of fun and games. She requested cheesecake since we all agree that cake isn't that good, and since the candles were forgotten yet again (have we ever had candles?) we improvised by using the number 2 candle from her 2nd birthday and the number 7 candle from Spencer's 7th birthday with part of the top cut off so it looked more like a 1. Now she's officially 21.

Spencer's new address

2010-02-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

Spencer is in Brazil now, and his address is the mission home. I believe this will be his address for the rest of his mission. I'll let you know if that is not true. Please write him at:

Élder Spencer Grierson
Missão Brasil Brasìlia
SHIN CA 05 Salas 304/307
Lote B1
Brasìlia-DF-71503-505
BRASIL

He Made It!!!

2010-02-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Spencer made it to Brazil! Wahoo! Now, check out this picture of him and his mission president and wife. I LOVE it!

Remember that Tradition . . . ?

2010-01-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

Remember how we make grahm cracker houses and then smash them on New Years Day and eat the candy and get sick? Well, here in Griersonland we have been keeping that tradition alive - until this year. We went to Holly's house on New Year's Day and I fully intended to take the houses and have Tara smash them with Shannon and Leah, but I forgot the houses. So we broke with tradition a little bit and did it on New Years Day plus 2, and Kade got to smash with us also. He had a GREAT time with the smashing, Leah and Shannon had a great time with the candy, and Tara said she felt silly because she's too old for this sort of thing.

Fun in the Snow

2010-01-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

Tara is home for the holidays and will be heading back to school soon. It has snowed a bit since she came, and she made the most of it. She and Melanie decided that since the man who used to make the sculptures is not doing it anymore, they would make their own. Here is some of her snowy fun!

This is what they called their Dragon.

And this is their igloo. When the young, unmarried, somewhat excentric man next door saw them playing in the snow he came right over and helped them build up the mound of snow for the igloo. They "forgot" to get him when they started digging the igloo out a few days later.

Inside their cozy igloo.

Melanie is half way out the door. It's kinda hard to see with the white coat.

Tara handing Melanie her hot chocolate. They spent quite a bit of time in there playing cards and giggling. They giggle a lot.

I WON! A MAJOR AWARD!

2010-01-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

Here's my major award story. Several weeks ago when I was Christmas shopping at the Art City Pharmacy (doesn't everyone do their Christmas shopping at a pharmacy?) I was told that I had spent enough to be eligible for some drawing. I didn't really listen because I was in a hurry, so I just filled out the form and went on my way. I never win anything but gym memberships. Well, yesterday afternoon I got a call from Dad while I was shopping saying the pharmacy just called and I won the nativity set! (Dad and Mom are here this week since Mike Albright just got married. They had to come out to make sure he wasn't faking the wedding.) So Mom and I just went right to the pharmacy and look what I won! It's a Willow Tree Nativity set about 15" tall and just beautiful! Way better than a leg lamp! And I didn't even have to sign up for a gym membership! Wahoo!

Guess What?!?

2009-12-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

We have 14 new eggs! This time we know a little more and perhaps we will get more than 1 to hatch. They should be coming around the middle of February. YAY!

Christmas Lights

2009-12-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

We all went to temple square to see the lights on the day after Thanksgiving. Tara had a date there so we had to go spy on her, but there were so many people there that we never did see her.

And we turned on our house lights that same night. FUN!

grahm cracker houses

2009-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Here we are the Saturday after Thanksgiving making our grahm cracker houses. The only reason I can come up with for all the sad faces would be that Spencer isn't there. But we really did have fun making them!

Here we have Matthew, Tara, Brock and Holly working hard to make a masterpiece.

Mom/Grandma making her house. Notice the frosting on the chin. Still the same mom!

Kristi decorating and solving the problems of the world.

Happy, lovely Becca. This is going to be her favorite picture ever!

Matthew didn't want to watch the BYU game. This seemed the lesser of the evils. And we made him do it.

Tara just looking confused.

Mark loves these girls and they love him!

Here is how the manly men make their houses. They DON'T! Bumms! (Mark did make a house. He spread frosting on the top, unwrapped a lollipop and stuck it in the frosting. He calls it "Ode to riding in the backseat of the van". Dad/Grandpa drove us up to Holly's house.)

And our houses - so much fun! We really did have a good time, I just caught everyone in a grumpy moment.

Halloween - kinda

2009-11-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

We didn't do a whole lot for Halloween this year since it was just Mark and me, and I don't like Hallloween. We did go to Logan one weekend to visit Tara and go to the temple there, and while there we all picked out pumpkins. So on pumpkin carving night we had Melanie, Jackie and John carving with us. Ben was supposed to do one, too, but he bummed out, so I have his pumpkin in my garage waiting until Ihave time to roast more pumpkin seeds. Here are our pumpkins.

Marks

Tara's

Spencer's Brazil Flag. It looks much better in dyalight, so you get to see 2 pictures of it.

The fun group (what a mess!)

Well, he's gone.

2009-10-21T19:49:00.001-07:00

So Spencer went into the MTC in Provo today. I'm gong to do this blog in an order that makes sense to me. I'm an emotional woman, so I can do what I want. Mark says I'm a "basket case". Nice. I guess I really am. I am so glad he is going on a mission, but my baby is gone. There are no kids coming home tonight. Sadness.

Anyhow, Here Spencer, Tara and John are packing. Yes, Tara's John. He's back. They aren't very good at packing, are they?

After "packing", we went to the stake center and Spencer was set apart as a missionary. I'm so glad Nickell and Aaron live close! It was very nice to have them there! Spencer thinks they are about the best people ever. Great, more tears!

Nickell brought her house bug over for us to look at after he was set apart. It is a cool bug. I think it's dead now, and I'm not sure what I should do with it. I guess it's gonna get flushed because I sure don't want it crawling back into my house.

We all went to bed pretty early last night, and Spencer slept in for the last time in 2 years. Here he is pretending to sleep for the picture. Cute, isn't he?

We had a fine breakfast and did the last minute packing things. He was very anxious to go!

But we weren't finished with him yet. Mark made him try on his Japan mission tag just to see what a tag will look like. Looks pretty good, I'd say!

Tara did all sorts of gymnastics in her dress to get creative pictures. Nickell has influenced both children in this way.

Then we took some pictures out by the locust tree, since it's so pretty right now.

The kids did one last quick trampoline moment (cute) and Spencer did not even break his arm!

This is Spencer's "We're finally leaving the house" dance. He looks very missionary-ish to me!

Packing the car.

And our last glimps of him before he took off with some elder that is going to Russia in 2 weeks. You just drop them off at the curb now, and they make you drive away out the back side of the MTC. Then, when you discover your son's camera and immunization record on the back seat afterwards, you have to go all the way around to the front again.

And now, whenever she is with us for the next two years, Tara gets the seat behind me. The one with legroom! Wahoo!

No Brazil - yet

2009-10-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

So! Pretty weird thing just happened...I got a letter today from the Church Travel Services saying that Brazil just recently changed their visa application process, so I have to do a bunch more stuff to get the visa, and the Provo MTC is forming some sort of special missionaries-who-can't-quite-go-yet group that I'll be joining...so...I guess I'm not flying to Brazil on Tuesday, I'm going to the Provo MTC on Wednesday...hopefully. Weird.

The other side of the puzzle . . .

2009-10-11T20:41:00.001-07:00

So, do you remember the gigantic puzzle that took me months to finish? This one?

We decided to mount it on a sheet of wood because its kinda pretty and I'm quite proud of it, and display it above the coat closet where nobody will notice it anyway. Actually I decided. Mark just went along. The we (again, that means I) decided that Tara will paint a Christmas snowy scene on the back of the sheet of wood so I can just turn it around for Christmas time. She finally started. Here's what she's done so far.

Isn't the lonely penguin cute? Now you all should comment about how great it looks and what a fantastic painter she is so she will finish it and I can get it out of my family room. Oh, the candy cane man is the north pole. Comment about how you could tell that right away, too.

And another important matter, I have received Mindy's and Heidi's. They are really good. Everyone else get on the ball. Time is running out!

Josh's Baptism

2009-09-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, aren't they cute? These two brave boys let us sleep in the beds while they took the couch and floor. Alex, Josh and Emma even slept on the floor the night before their first day of school. What nice people! Thanks, guys! Your beds were great! We had a really great baptism on Sunday, August 22. This was the scene just before we went to the church. Actually, this is what my house looks like a lot of the time, only replace Grandpa with Spencer. What would we ever do without our computers?

Spencer baptised and confirmed Josh, and I am so glad he got to do that. He really was worried about doing this but did a great job, and look! Josh is all official now! They are two great looking lads, aren't they?

We all had lots of fun taking pictures. It was fun to take pictures and not be in them. Look at all these people who come for Josh!

I have to say this was probably my favorite thing. Joshua and Nico became fast friends very quickly. They are so much alike! It was so entertaining to listen to the conversations they had, and a little bit hard not to bust out laughing! I love these guys!

Lori and Zach also became very good friends. Zach pretty much went to Lori whenever he wanted anything. It didn't take him very long to find that she couldn't tell him no. All he had to do was smile at her with those huge puppydog eyes, and she gave in. And he knew where to find the treats! Super cute!

Zach's Ice Cream Dance

2009-09-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

This is just pretty funny, and he was dancing like this the whole time he ate the ice cream.

San Antonio

2009-09-05T16:55:00.001-07:00

On August 22, Mark, Spencer and I went down to San Antonio, TX. I have never been in Texas for any real amount of time. This was a very fun trip . . . mostly. Everything but the accident. I'm going to leave that one for Amy to tell.

It really is a beautiful city, and it was very warm so it was just right for me.

In this picture we are all sitting on a little boat that goes along the river walk. This is an amazing part of the city with great restaurants (I'm told) and beautiful landscaping, and since there is a bit of water here, it's not too hot.

Once we got off the boat, Mark and Spencer and I walked around downtown and visited some of the old buildings. This is . . . ummm . . . art? I think? Maybe it has some meaning, but we never got close enough to read what the artist intended, and I sure am not artistic enough to figure it out on my own. It's kinda neat, though.
You can't go to San Antonio and not visit the Alamo. Honestly,my first impression was, "They all died for this?" It's a pretty small building with a pretty short wall around it. Even when I saw the diarama I was a bit underwhelmed. But they did not fight for the buildings, they fought to make Texas a part of the country even when they knew there was no help coming and they would all die. Pretty impressive. Phil Collins is apparently a fan of the Alamo, and has donated certain items to the museum. But the best part of all was Davy Crockett's hair. They really have it! We could clone him, if we wanted to! How cool would that be? (Maybe not) Zach wasn't so sure of Mark at first, but they became pretty good buddies.

Home at last

2009-08-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

We got home on Sunday, August 9. That is a long drive! But we did get to stop and see some beautiful sights on the way, and we listened to "The Invisible Man", "Small Steps", "The Screwtape Letters", "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and "The Jungle Books". To be honest, we slept through most of the jungle books. Some of them are very dull. Mark didn't sleep through them. THat's why we're still alive.

When we got home, we did what we all wanted to do. We picked stuff that was ready in our yard. Mostly blackberries. YUM!

Twin Falls, Idaho

2009-08-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

On our way home we stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho. Now stop laughing. Even Idaho has some pretty great scenery! This is the Shoshone River and it is really beautiful. Not too far up river from Twin Falls are the Shoshone Falls.

This is the Shoshone Falls. Really quite spectacular. The best time to view is in early spring, when ther eis a lot more water coming down the river, but it was really very impressive even in August.

The Enchanted Forest

2009-08-18T21:07:00.001-07:00

Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver is really our favorite place to visit. We have always called it our "Enchanted Forest" because of all the ferns, moss and beauty. It really is an incredible place.

Tara has always wanted to be a fairie. Here she is giving it another try. Still didn't work.

The pool and big rocks. Usually we might attempt to swim, but this day was way too cold. Sad.

Spencer keeps asking me if I looked at the pictures before I posted them (I think he's suggesting that he doesn't look fantastic in all of them.) But he wouldn't let me take his picture EVER, so this is what I have of him from this trip. Sorry Spence. Smile next time.

Ambulance - on strike?

2009-08-16T08:20:00.001-07:00

There were signs all over BC about the EMT strike. As we were driving down what the canadians call the freeway, this went by.

Kinda funny.

Stanley Park Beach, Vancouver, BC

2009-08-16T07:44:00.001-07:00

Stanley Park is a 1000 acre park in downtown vancouver. It is on a peninsual that was heavily logged in the early 1800s, then replanted and turned into a park. It has a 5.5 mile trail that goes along the ocean called the seawall, and several very nice beaches near that trail. The kids and I used to take the skytrain to Stanley Park at least once a month in good weather to go to the free zoo, look at the aquarium or go to the beach and play. These pictures are taken on Third Beach. After QE park, we got some KFC (the KFC there gives you a McCains deep and delicious cake with your meal - that's really why we went there. YUMMY!) and had a picnic in the park. We fed most of our fries to the birds so they wouldn't attack us, and because the fries were pretty yucky, then we went crab hunting. Really we could spend all day doing this. SO MUCH FUN!!

Here are a few of the crabs we found. . .

And rocky areas like this are the best for crab hunting.

Queen Elizabeth Park

2009-08-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. It's really very beautiful, and the boy who could fly flew here. When his neighbor (whom we believe was somewhat mentally lacking) tried to reach a flower that was too far away and fell off the bridge, that bridge is here in this park, and the boy flew and saved her. I know. We were puzzled, too. Still can't figure out why he saved her. I guess he wanted the movie to go on a little longer. Anyway, here's the park.

And here is the bridge she "fell" from.

And for all you "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" fans out there, this is a Monkey Puzzle tree. If you are ever stumped for a gift either for me or Spencer, here is the perfect idea. Either this or a black bat flower plant. SUPER COOL!

I love the beach AND Monkey Puzzle trees!

Birch Bay Beach

2009-08-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is the beach that Mark went to as a kid. His uncle had a little house near the beach . They called it a cabin, but it really was just a shack. We did go looking for it, but it is gone now and another shack has been built in its place. The beach tradition is to build a sand castle at low tide, and a castle wall and mote around it, and stand inside the castle wall until the tide storms your castle wall, and cause a breech. It's really a lot more fun than you would think. Spencer and Tara really got into it. There was even a road up the castle hill to the top.

CASTLE #1

THE END OF CASTLE #1

CASTLE #2

White Rock Beach

2009-08-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach on Monday and had fish and chips for lunch. With white vinegar! Very nice!

White Rock beach is just across the border in Canada, and is a pretty nice beach. It is usually quite crowded, but maybe not on a day that ihe temperature only gets up to 68.It was cold, and sprinkled a little bit, so we made a memory. There were all kinds of creatures about, and Spencer collected them. He likes the live creatures, Tara collected the shells they left behind.

Then these crazy people got in the water and swam. So cold! Mark likes to dig at the beach. I'm not sure what he was digging for, but he had fun doing it.

Boating on Lake Whatcom

2009-08-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

For most of our trip, we stayed in Sudden Valley, Washington. Mark's brother has a little condominium there right on the lake. He just got this boat, and let us use it, although Spencer had to sneak around the gate to the dock because we didn't have the key to let us in. Yay for Spencer being super tall and skinny! It isn't a very large lake, but it is beautiful!

As we went around a bend, we saw this really cool tree house. The camera wasn't held crooked, the house really is tipped like this. I love it! Tara likes to sit in the front of the boat and let the wind blow her hair around. This is pretty much what she looked like the whole time we were on the boat. We only went out on the boat once because the weather turned pretty cold for most of the week. You'll notice in many of the beach pictures we have on long sleeves and jackets, but we were at the beach and that's what really matters.

International Fireworks Competition

2009-08-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 1, we drove from Mindy's house to Vancouver, BC. The international fieworks competition was underway, and that night was the Chinese display. We checked in to our hotel and took the Sky Train downtown. We noticed that there were more gay couples in the city than we remembered being there. We found out later that night that Vancouver was hosting a gay pride parade that was very well attended. We did not attend. We were there for fireworks.

The fireworks were set off of a barge in English bay, so we went to a nearby beach and watched the sun set. It was just beautiful! And the fireworks show was really amazing. I don't remember ever seeing fireworks that were as impressive. I didn't take any pictures, because I was busy watching the show, so I guess you'll just have to imagine. They were way better than Springville's Art City Days fireworks, which are really very impressive, too.

I love the beach!

Mindy and Jason's house

2009-08-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Washington and Vancouver at the beginning of this month. On our way we stopped in Moscow and dropped Tiger off. We got his tank all set up, and tried to find food for him. Kate finally went outside and caught some grasshoppers that were very small and I believe he ate those. Mindy went later to the pet store and found him some meal worms that he really likes. He's cute. I hope Jonah has fun with him for a long time.

We stayed for only one day in Moscow, and went geocacheing for part of that day. Apparently our GPS was off a bit. Jonah, Dylan and I went one way into a very steep, very bushy creek bed and Mark and Megan went another way. When we were about to give up, Jonah found the cache right by the edge of the brush. We didn't even need to go down the creek bed. Yay Jonah! Everyone wanted to see what was in the box, and crowded around.Look carefully at Mindy (white t-shirt) in this picture. She is crooked! Really! Her back is in pretty bad shape and her torso is a bit off center to her hips and legs. She looked miserable! Well, really she looked beautiful as ever, but she looked like she felt miserable. I hope you're feeling better now, Mindy!
They have a pizza place in Moscow that sells huge pizzas. Here is Spencer withi one of his slices. It is so huge that they had to tip the box up to get it through the door when Jason and Mark brought it home! Yum!
Mark, Dylan and I wanted to find one more cache, and this was it. This is a marker placed by the Worthwhile Club in 1938 at the junction of 2 indian trails - the Nez Pierce Trail and the Stevens Trail. Who knew?

Our Paintings

2009-07-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

Last week Mark had to go to Dallas to help a client, and you know the saying . . . "when the cats away . . . " So we played a bit. Tara helped me pick out colors for the kitchen and the kids bathroom, and a new doorknob. I know how much everyone loved the old one, but it's gone. You and your kids will now be able to open my front door without help. We also repainted the front door and it looks pretty good! There are a few spots with small paint lines, but it looks so much better than it did that I don't notice them very much. Here are some pictures. Tara and Spencer took most of them, and Spencer likes to be artistic. That's why.

Kids bathroom. Tara wanted it to be pretty green. She got what she wanted.

My kitchen. I love it. Mark didn't even notice for about an hour after he got home.

My front door. It's beautiful!

Here's the new dragon!

2009-07-17T21:40:00.001-07:00

Here he is. This is the one lizard we got of the 12 eggs that were laid. It took him until 10pm tonight to finish getting himself out of the egg - and really Mark pulled it off of the tip of his tail. He is so cute! Jonah, we need to know his name so we can call him by name instead of just calling him "Him". We really won't know for sure the he's a he for a few weeks at least. It's OK to change his name later if you need to. Take a look, and let me know.

He's so tiny and cute! He hugs my finger and won't let go on his own. So far I haven't seen his eyes, but that should come pretty soon. He did take a drink while he was on Spencer's finger, so it looks like he's doing just fine.

We Have a Baby!!!!!

2009-07-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

This morning, Spencer's birthday morning, there was finally a head popping out of an egg! Here are the pictures so far. As of right now, he is still halfway in the egg. We can see his arms and most of his chest, and he shakes every once in awhile trying to get himself out more.

That's his little arm poking down right next to the egg. His head is about the size of a large pea. Cute!

Christmas in Summer for Spencer

2009-06-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

He finally got it! Spencer received his mission call today. I got off work at noon, came home to find that and his associates degree of science in the mailbox (and a Discover card offer - woohoo!). I called him to let him know, texted Tara, then worried that maybe she didn't carry her phone around (silly me) so I emailed and put a note on facebook. I called Mark to see if we could meet at his office and once all the scheduling was finished I went and picked up Spencer. I figured we needed him for this event. We drove to Mark's office while Spencer talked to Tara. He opened his package (it was a fat one) where we learned he will be going to the Brazil Brasilia Mission, reporting to the Brazil MTC on October 21. FUN! I am so glad it wasn't Mozambique!

This is the area of his mission. Click on it and you should be able to see it bigger.

Votes?

2009-06-03T16:53:00.001-07:00

Anyone who wants to vote on where I shall be going for that mission thing should do so quickly, it is very probable that the call will come tomorrow.

My Kids are Leaving Me!

2009-05-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Whew! Lots has been happening lately so we haven't put on a good post for awhile. Maybe this one will be OK. Spencer isn't here to hold my hand through the process this time, so we'll see. Last week I spent every moment not at work sewing for Tara's big trip to France. We tried to go shopping with her and did finally find a raincoat, but the clothing thing was not as easy. (That's a joke, and you know what I mean if you have ever gone shopping with Tara.) So we decided to go look at patterns and fabric and that is way easier than shopping with Tara. In less than 45 minutes she had picked out 2 dresses and the fabrics! I'd way rather sew than shop any day!

I guess I'm not as young as I used to be, because it really took me 4 nights to get these dresses made. It was super slow (but again, it wasn't shopping so no complaints!). We got those finished and I thought, "Well, while I'm in sewing mode, why don't I just make a quick quilt square and make it into a pillow for Tara's host family". I was thinking I would just whip it up real quick on Saturday morning. It took the whole day. I finished it on Saturday night at about 11. I kinda hate this getting old thing!

Saturday night I helped Tara pack - almost as much fun as shopping with her! Sunday morning we dropped her off at the airport and quickly got home so Spencer could go meet with the Stake President for his mission call. I wonder why I feel old? Both kids trying to leave me on the same day. I'm a lot sadder than I thought I would be. Nickell asked us to go over and watch a movie called "Taken" last week. I'm glad I didn't go. I hear it's about a girl who gets abducted in Paris, and Tara doesn't communicate very well with us right now. She says it's that her internet isn't very good, but I think she just isn't thinking about me 28 hours every day, the way I think (worry) about her.

So that's my frame of mind right now. Here's a pretty cool picture of her in front of Notre Dame, where she attended Mass on Tuesday morning. Pretty neat!

France, dangit!

2009-05-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

Tara left for France today, curse her. It was kind of bittersweet, because although my sister is leaving the country for a month and is probably going to die in some fiery french explosion, seeing her off at the airport gave me the perfect excuse to slough off my primary-teaching duties onto some other poor soul. Thanks, Tara!

FINALLY!

2009-05-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

So I had the interview with the Stake President today. Papers are on their way to Salt Lake!!! I should be getting the call in a week or two.

So Much Fun!!

2009-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today we had 12 babies - well, we had 12 starts of babies. Lou is going to be a father and Angela is feeling super tired and has her dragon-ish figure back. She laid 12 eggs which we now have in our new incubator with hope that maybe some of them will hatch. Here are the little beauties. They are each about as big as the top third of my finger.

2009-04-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

By the way, I submitted the mission papers.

Eyes

2009-04-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

When Nickell saw the flower collage, she showed me a much simpler way to do it. After playing around with it for a while, this was one result, and I felt compelled to post it in order to make Tara feel uncomfortable. :)

Spring!!!

2009-04-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

We have flowers. They're covered in snow now, but this is what they looked like on Wednesday. They are really all in our yard! We love it when there's no snow.

you can see them bigger here

Typewriter

2009-04-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to write my biology final on my brand spankin' new, dang freakin' old typewriter, but I'm finding that typing without a backspace button is pretty difficult.

Is Summer Over?

2009-04-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Tara put a little piece on her blog about it snowing in Logan, and I just wanted to prove that the snow was way worse here than in the beautiful mountains of northern Utah. Here is what we have right now, and at about noon today the blizzard was so bad that the pictures just looked like a white square.
Kristi, you are not allowed to read this. You still want to move to Utah. You have a super cute grandson that you need to be near.

I am so ready for no more snow.

Tara's blog

2009-04-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

So Tara has a blog now. We're not really sure why. But it should be pretty interesting. It's tarayabeth.blogspot.com. ...Enjoy?

2009-04-12T00:03:00.001-07:00

Tara made us change the format.

Spencer's Pirate Training

2009-04-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

Spencer has been taking a fencing class at UVU to fill a PE credit needed to get his associates degree next month. He loves it a lot. He has learned the basics of both Foil and Sabre. There was a tournament today where all the members of his class competed against each other and Spencer took first place in both techniques. He beat all 3 of the other class members. He is also at least 12 inches taller than any of the other three, and his arms look about as long as they are tall. I have included here a picture of him resting between bouts, and the video of him winning the last set of the Foil match. This is his winning parry riposte. He's so cute. :)

Grandma Memory Quilt

2009-04-11T23:41:00.000-07:00

This is my grandma quilt. I just finished "quilting" it right now. I used yarn, so it is kinda cheating. Right now it is 12:42 am easter morning and I didn't want this in my family room when people come over for dinner tomorrow - I mean today. When Grandma died, I went to her house after everyone had gone through all her stuff and picked out things that reminded me of her to make this fabulously ugly quilt with. She did have some interesting tastes! Included in this quilt are her bathroom towels, sheets, dish towels, the pink chair arm covers, the chicken tea cozy that was on her microwave (top right) and my favorites: the gold and green velvet chairs and the blue and pink housecoat she always wore. It is very, very ugly, but it holds a lot of memories! I can smell the bacon now!

Holi Festival of Colors

2009-03-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Every spring, the Sri Sri Radha Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, and probably most Hindu temples around the world, holds the Holika festival of colors. I went to said festival with a date, some friends, a sister, and a sister's friend. The festival begins with performers singing and dancing and such, then they set fire to the effigy of a woman, seen here.

Now, I know this sound creepy and demonic, but she's evil, so it's okay. You can read her story here if you'd like. So when this fire is lit, several thousand people about my age begin throwing handfulls brightly colored chalk-like substance into eachothers faces. Within seconds, the entire crowd is enveloped in an enormous cloud of multi-colored fun.

...and when the dust settles, the true extent of the damage becomes apparent.

Here's my date, by the way. :)

Angela

2009-03-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

So I have a buddy named Derek whose room, for as long as I knew him, was filled with terreriums, in which resided all manner of creatures. He is in Spain now doing a mission er somthing... and he needed to find people to take care of said creatures whilst he was away. My mother volunteered to take his bearded dragon, named Angela, so now I have two.Lewis is quite happy at this turn of events. However, I'm beginning to think that his intentions with her may not be honorable. He lunges at her when we bring her near his cage, and when we take her away he keeps doing his mating dance, of which I only managed to record this little clip:

Cactus

2009-03-15T13:15:00.001-07:00

Our cactus is finally blooming after nine years of flowerlessness, and it's way neat.

It's Finally, Finally Done!!!

2009-03-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

We finished the five-thousand piece death puzzle after about three months of almost constant work by the mother and very little work by the others.We had a little mishap when turning it over to glue the back and had to redo quite a bit upside-down...This is about halfway through the reparation process.

Tara's Twenty!!!

2009-03-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

Mostly the reason that it's taken me so long to write anything is severe computer troubles...Just in case you were wondering. So it was Tara's birthday about a month ago. We persuaded her to come celebrate it in the cool people city (Springville...?) and we had a big party-thing with a bunch of family and some friends/parents of friends , seen here.

We had cheesecake AND chocolate cake!!!

Here's the wishing shot...

Her favorite present was probably the sweater from John, (her lovey on a mission in Texas, in case you somehow don't know.)