A Girl and her Grandpa

I have always felt that Grandparents are some of thee most special people on Gods green earth. I am pretty sure that LaRee feels the same. We have a few traditions when it comes to LaRee's "Bee-Paw" . I often wonder if she will still be calling him that in her teen years. Okay, back to traditions. One tradition is Friday Garage Sale-ing. My dad and I map out and prioritize the night before and then we wake at the crack of dawn and hit the road running, early bird gets the worm ya know!

We come back from Garage Sale-ing and it is fool proof, she always comes running to the door yelling one of two things, " What did you get me?" or " Is that for me Momma?" and then she usually follows up with wanting to know who paid for what. (weird but funny) On this particular day we found a sleeping beauty dress with tiara ($5) and an unopened box of magnetic letters AND numbers for the fridge ($1). I know! Deals of the century! These treasures that we find always put Grandpa in a good mood so he will usually stick around to fullfill some of LaRee's requests like filling a bucket with her new letters and then helping her make up lots of make believe words.

When we had 1:00 church we had the tradition of all gathering for pancakes in the morning. LaRee and Grandpa are in charge of cooking and I am in charge of clean up. This smile had developed from me shouting, " LOOK AT ME AND SMILE ALREADY"!!!

This picture makes me laugh out loud. Can you tell that it is early morning here? If we held a contest to see you had the crazier/scarier hair, I believe we would come up with a big fat tie.

These are the kind of sites that I come home to when I leave Grandpa to keep an eye on LaRee. Thank you Paula for the doctors kit with a pair of pretend scissors in it. We have gotten more mileage out of that pair of scissors. Lord help us all if she ever gets her little mitts on a real pair of scissors.

I have to give the girl credit, she is a professional. Look at that head tilt, checking out her work - perfectionist!

Buffalo, WY Trip

This was my first of three summer trips to visit my girlfriends. I so miss being by my girls. Nothing replaces good friends. Becca is my life friend because I have known her all of my life and more importantly, we have been friends all of our lives.

Sione had vacation time and he suggested we go as a family to Buffalo and who am I to say no!
We had such a fun filled week packed with a little of everything. So much fun!!!

Things we did while in Buffalo, WY

Attended the local fair. We pet chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, etc, etc. I will spare you the pictures.

LaRee received her first pedicure/Manicure. I was so crazy excited to do this that I just about burst out of my skin with joy. Seemed like a rite of passage. This is what Becca and I did as kids and now we are doing it with our children.

Becca did LaRee's hair every day which was a joy for me and LaRee. Took me back to the days that her girls were little and she would do theirs. Aahhh, I love the picture below, LaRee's face is priceless to me and an alligator in her hair?!?

We swam in Buffalo's HUGE and FREE swimming pool. Talk about your wide open spaces! Becca's girls are so good with LaRee. They were constantly making her laugh and were always making sure she was having a good time. I am so grateful that they have taken an interest in her.

We had lots of different flavors of shaved ice while at the pool.
What a beautiful summer thing.

It scares me how much she can be and look like her father - CHEESE! They are like two peas in a pod, ya know one of those pods were you bust it open and there is a really big and round pea sitting next to one of those baby looken peas... hee hee

That big ol' pool was enough to wear anyone out. Gosh, how I love the looks of a sleeping child.

Crazy Woman Canyon

Crazy Woman Canyon Wildlife


More Crazy Women Canyon's wildlife!!!

Ahhh, how refreshing.

We toured the Occidental Hotel which is legend to be haulted which makes every turn that much more exciting.... Boo!

They have a restaurant next the hotel and if you like, you can reserve a table and eat in the old bank vault, which is haunted as well, just ask the lady that was locked in after a ghost blew the door shut.

At some point on our trip it hailed and the whole town looked like it was under snow. It was wild to watch.

Smores!!! I am saving myself the embarrassment of posting the picture were I have chocolate in both corners of my mouth. Becca's joyful face is more enjoyable to see - promise!

YUMMLISH!!

LaRee got a little T.V. watching in and boy does she look relaxed! Home away from home.

This is one of those pictures that I look at and think, " Holy crap, my baby is no longer a baby!"

Jordon - Becca and Jeffs oldest. He reminds me of a Western Calvin as in "Calvin and Hobbes". He does not like having his picture taken, so this is as good as it gets.

We went up in the mountains and had supper. For those of you that are not from the Midwest, that is the last meal of the day. We roasted hot dogs, Jeff warmed up his dutch oven bakes bean, Becca brought her yummy potato salad and of course we ended the meal with hot chocolate and more smores, please!

McKenzie, Becca's second oldest. She is in her senior year of high school. Crazy to think that the little girl I would visit while I was in college is soon to attend that same college.

I love seeing Becca's kids all grown up. She is such an amazing mom and it shows in how solid and fun her children are. I am so happy to have continued memories with them.

The Edstrom Bed and Breakfast was the bomb. We would totally stay there again. The only thing missing was a chocolate on our pillow at night. *hint hint*

Local Fire Department

We had a block meeting and the local police and fire departments were invited to come and give a presentation to the adults while the children were invited to take a tour of the fire truck and ambulance. LaRee was ecstatic and tried to play shy, but she soon had to show her
true excitement...

Thank you to all of those that serve and keep us safe here in Euless.

A Star in the making...

Trip to the Santos Home

LaRee a.k.a. Lury ( isn't that just the cutest thing you have ever seen) and I took a quick and last minute trip to SLC to the Christening of Jaxson and Jakeb Santos and the farewell party for Jesse Santos, he is in the Army and heading to Iraq soon. Yvette Santos was my co-worker in San Diego and she has treated me like family since day one of coming into her life. I love her first boy Jarad, he is such a shining star and he loves LaRee which thrills me to death. Yvette and Jesse have adopted Jaxson and Jakeb and they are two of the sweetest boys I have ever come across. This trip was like going to see family.

On our Houston to Salt Lake, Salt Lake to Houston portions of the flight, I kid you not, we got the last two seats on both flights. What a relief and a blessing.

LaRee was DYING to see out the window and after many attempts this super nice stranger let LaRee sit on her lap while she slept. How nice is that?! I love thoughtful people! I wish I was more like them.

This is part of the family and guests working on the gift bags.

At one point all of the children sat down to watch a movie.

The night before the Christening Nana put the girls hair up in rollers and LaRee decided she needed a few too. Crazy kid - more curls on her head is the last thing she needed but Nana graciously obliged .

I didn't get many pictures of the Christening since I was put in charge of another persons camera but this is one of my favorites because it has most of my favorite people in it (minus Robert :) ) and of course Nana, who was home watching the little crazies.


My Friend Melissa, whom I also met in San Diego, was in Utah visiting her in-laws and Yvette had her come take pictures at the Christening. Afterward Melissa invited LaRee and me to have lunch with her and Brooklyn at one of the restaurants on top of the Joseph Smith Building. It was a lot of fun having "just girls time" and I always enjoy my time with Melissa. She is so talented and full of good ideas. I picked her brain a lot on our outing.

Brooklyn and LaRee on Temple Square

OMGosh - the food is always amazing, ALWAYS!!

What a patient dog. Thor let LaRee love on him all she wanted.

Jarad had a constant shadow

While I was in Salt Lake I didn't have a car so I really thought I would only see the Santos Family but after I posted on Facebook that I was there and I was totally blown away by many of my friends that wanted to see me and were willing to come to me - LOVE THAT!

Gwen, she and I attended travel school together in Orem, she drove up from Payson. LaRee got really sick right before the party started so due to all of that craziness, we did not get a picture taken (sad).

My friend and neighbor from college same over Sunday evening. We just re-found each other on Facebook. I think the last time I saw her was, oh - about 15 years ago. It was so good to see her again after all of these years and the best part (well, best parts) were that she brought her family so I could drill them and ask them a million questions about her and we were just able to pick up as if we hadn't even missed a beat. She brought her college scrapbook which was a riot to go through. Oh, to be young again...

Andrea and her family

LaRee got super sick after the Christening which was a huge bummer. I was very touched because everyone was so helpful and concerned. How sad is this picture?

Soon after Andrea and her family left Jen and Dan showed up (yea!) They are part of the Provo "Loop", a group of us from the Connecticut Mission that got together on a regular basis while living in Provo/Salt Lake. Back then, we felt we were special enough to call ourselves "The Loop"once again, oh, to be young again...