Vegas Vacation

We went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Kent had interviews there, and I needed to play. I got the good end of that one, didn't I? We have been wanting to go down to Vegas for awhile, so it was great. We stayed the first night in Cedar, and were able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Miles. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, so we really enjoyed being able to spend some time with them. The next day we headed to Vegas, but made a really fun pitstop in St George. We met Bruce, Mandi and their kids, and Scott at a park and had a picnic lunch. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a nice visit. The park had rock climbing walls, a tiny bit of water, and little desert hills to explore. The kids had a great time. They miss having cousins close by.

Mandi snapped a family picture. It sure is hard to get everyone looking the same direction!

Camille loved climbing on the rocks. Getting up was a breeze. It was the coming down that took awhile. Thankfully it wasn't very high, or we may have been there all day!

Reed liked climbing the pillars more than the rock wall. Maybe it was a little more his size.

Here are the cousins. I made them take one nice one, so that they could be silly in another.

Emma didn't make it into the cousin picture.

I was SOOO happy that Isaac smiled for me. He was being so cute and willing to smile. He wanted to show off his rock. He used to not want to smile for pictures when I would try and take them of him. I was sad I didn't get a good one of Ammon.

The kids were all a little car weary, so the break was perfect.

I am really sad that I didn't take any pictures in Las Vegas. What was I thinking? We stayed with Pauline and Kirt. They are always so nice to have us. The kids played non stop, and had a ball. I had a great time visiting with Pauline, and learning from her great example. She is so organized. Her home runs like a well oiled machine. I always go home with ideas of how to I want to do things. We were able to have dinner and hang out with our friends the Watkins one night, which was great. They are such fun friends, and we always have a great time visiting when we get together. On Saturday night, we had a real treat. We were able to attend the Saturday night adult session of stake conference. It was an amazing meeting, with messages that really touched me. On top of that, we were able to see many old friends, all in one place. It was a jackpot of friends! It is so hard when you go to visit, and have such limited time. There are always WAY more people that we want to see, but just don't have enough hours. SAD. After stake conference, I went over to my cousin Kerry's house and visited with her well into the night. We usually have to get together in the middle of the night so we can get enough interrupted visiting time. It was great to see her. We left on Sunday, went to church in our old building in St George (but missed our old ward ) and then headed up to Cedar where we had Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Miles, Aaron, Jessica, and their kids, and Scott. It is such a nice pit stop to have Cedar in the middle of Salt Lake and Las Vegas. After dinner, we headed on home. Oh, I sure do love vacations. It was really fun, but it is always nice to be home when you are done.

Kent had a few good interviews while we were there. He felt like they all went well. He still does not have any offers, but has companies that he is still in the hiring process with. No company seems to be in as big of a rush to hire, as we are to have a job. Patience. Not an easy thing when you want and need to work. But we are hanging in here, and know everything will work out. We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We have been blessed through this process, and are grateful for all the extra help we can get! :)

Dr Seuss' Birthday

We had a store close to us that was celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. They had all sorts of free activities for kids to do. I decided that I would take the kids (minus Morgan who was napping) and check it out. It was pretty fun, and the kids seemed to have a good time.

McCray and Camille really wanted to get their faces painted with whiskers. Reed was not having anything to do with that. That was fine.

After the face painting they got to make Cat in the Hat hats. They enjoyed that.

Don't they look like they were enjoying themselves? Ok, maybe not, but they did have fun. They had stories read to them, painted pictures, and were able to make little journals. Not bad for free. And what else would we be doing on a Saturday afternoon. Cleaning? Nah.

Dear Friends

A couple of weeks ago, our family had so much fun. We went to Clinton, UT to visit with my friends Sarah and Russ Follett, Wayne and Donna Madsen, and Audrey Hull. I hadn't seen Sarah, Russ, Wayne or Donna since our wedding. I hadn't seen Audrey since graduating from Ricks in 1992. That is a LONG time.

Me, Audrey Hull, and Sarah Wright Follett

Audrey, Sarah and I all played on the Women's basketball team at Ricks college from 1990-1992. I lived with Sarah our freshman year, and then Sarah and Audrey lived together our Sophomore year, just downstairs from me. They were great friends. The summer between our freshman and sophomore years, Sarah and I went on a 6 week trip called Discovery. It was school in the outdoors, and it was so fun. We spent time along the Salmon river in Idaho, which in April, was miserably freezing. Then we traveled up the west coast, camping along the way at beaches. It was amazing. We finished up in Yellowstone. Sarah and I had a blast, and I was able to earn 10 science credits. Sarah got her credits, and also a future husband out of the trip. She met Russ on Discovery. It was fun to be there as they got to know each other. They continued to date during our Sophomore year. After we graduated, I went and lived with Sarah and her parents in SLC so that I could get Utah residency. It was so nice to be able to live there. Sarah and Russ got married in September, and I was her Maid of Honor. Fun!

Donna and I were roommates at SUU. When I went to Cedar City, I didn't know anyone, and had to find somewhere to live. I went to the student center, and I ran into a girl who was cleaning. She looked nice. So I went up to her and asked if she knew any "normal" people who needed a roommate. I had been to a couple of places that morning, and no one was even close to "normal". The girl said that she did know someone, and took me to meet Donna. I decided to live there, and was so relieved to find nice roommates. The girl I met, Trisa, actually ended coming and living there as well. Donna's husband Wayne was a friend too, and we all spent a lot of time together hanging out. Well, that proved to be great, because Donna and Wayne started dating, and are now married with 3 adorable kids.

Now, how did all of my friends end up knowing each other? Sarah and Wayne both teach at the same Middle school in West Point. Small world. So Sarah got things organized, and we all got together. I HAD SUCH A GREAT TIME!!!! So did the kids- they have been asking since we left when we could go back to visit. Hopefully it won't be as long as it was last time!

I have been blessed to have so many AMAZING friends in my life. How does a girl get so lucky? I don't know, but I am sure grateful.

Life

I am really picture challenged lately. I have taken some, but didn't get them uploaded before work tonight. So, once again, you will get words. I thought I would just share a bit of what is going on in our life. Hold on, this could get exciting... :)

- We had given our 30 days notice to our landlord to leave by the end of March. Logically, we just really can't pay rent when you don't have much money. We have been so up in the air, it is so hard to make a decision when you have no idea of what is to come. So finally we went on logic, and told everyone we were leaving. As soon as I had told my friends, we finally got the feeling that we should just stay put for another month. So we will be here at least until the end of April. We were grateful to have SOME kind of answer with all of this. We still have no idea of what is to come, but we're here, and that is something, right? Kent has a lot of coals in the fire, and we are grateful. He is in the interview process with 6 companies, and they are decent options. So we are grateful for that. Interviews have not been a problem for Kent. Thankfully he is in a field that is hiring right now.

-We went to Vegas for interviews a couple of weeks ago, and had SUCH a nice time. We didn't have tons of time to do much, but it was nice being warm, and spending time with family and friends. We got lucky. Our old stake was having stake conference, and we went to the Sat night adult session. We ran into a lot of old friends. It was so nice to see them! It is so hard to try and visit everyone when you are only there for a few days, but this made it great. I still would have loved to run into so many more people.

-This is sad- my friend Jerry ( the food man) passed away last week. I had just seen him a couple of days before. It is hard to believe he is really gone. He had cardiac arrest, and died in his sleep. I am glad for him to go that way. He was not sick really, so that is a blessing. He is an unlikely friend- 70 years old and very eccentric. But I enjoyed his friendship, and SO appreciated all that he did for our family. He would give us day old bread and food items, and I am so grateful. It is interesting how Heavenly Father blesses us sometimes. I would not have expected it to be through Jerry, but it was. He loved to talk, and would call and visit often. We would talk about cooking, canning, gardening, life, you name it. He would wake me up quite often, early in the morning. I didn't mind, I usually was supposed to be awake, and had ignored my alarm clock. He would always ask why I was still asleep. He was a good hearted man, and I will miss him. Here is a link to his obituary http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=125198612 for those of you that had met him. I talked to Pat today, and he said that the picture on the right hand side was taken in the late 60's or early 70's. He said that he started fixing his hair this way then, and he has ever since. Pat also said that he ALWAYS used to wear dark glasses. What a character. His funeral is on Friday, so I will go to that.

-It is Wednesday now, and I didn't get this finished last night. I will leave this here for now. I uploaded pictures today, so hopefully I will get a few posts done soon.

The Yucks- X5

Kent wasn't feeling well yesterday. His stomach was a little upset all day. It didn't stop him from doing the normal Saturday stuff, but it just didn't feel right. We were sitting around last night, and all of the sudden, from out of nowhere, McCray threw up all over everywhere. He is our boy who NEVER complains. If he does, you know it is for real. I asked him if his stomach had been hurting, and why he didn't tell me he wasn't feeling well. He said, " I just said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to make it go away." What faith. Good boy. So, after a very LENGTHY clean up process, and many more visits to the spit up bucket for McCray, things calmed down again. We got the kids to bed, and I ran to Wal-mart to get milk before Sunday. When I got home, I started to not feel so great. Then I started. Then a few minutes later, Kent started. That is bad. When both parents are sick. And I mean SICK. Then Reed started. Nightmare. This was all within the space of about 4 hours. I was laying in bed, praying that somehow Camille would not get sick too so she could take care of us all. Then awhile later, up comes Camille, not feeling well. She never threw up, but her stomach was hurting. I had heard about people with this around here this past week. Wow, all I can say is that it was BAD. It is now Sunday night at 6:30 pm. Kent was finally able to get up about 4 this afternoon. I got up a little later. Kent, Camille, McCray, and Reed are all taking sick naps now.

The champion through all of this is my little Morgie. This probably is going to sound funny, but she has been taking care of the house today. I laid in bed awake at different times today, thinking about how blessed we are to have our little Morgie. She is quite the girl. I was thinking of a word to describe her. I think it would be Loyal. She seriously has not left me today. I brought her up into our room last night in the middle of the night, because I thought she was getting sick, and I KNEW there was no way I could go down there and help her, or clean up a mess. So I made her a bed on the floor by me. She stayed there all day today. She got some books and read, she would ask if I was ok, try and talk to me, play tunnel in my legs. She even took a nap by me when it was her nap time. I didn't know she was there, until I woke up squished between she and Kent. Poor girl, we couldn't even feed her, it was that bad. Camille got her some cereal this morning, and then I got her some Lucky Charms this afternoon. It was all I could find that I could make in about 2 seconds. She is such a good girl. There aren't many 2 year olds that can take care of themselves, and her parents for a day. And be content to boringly lay by her Mom, waiting until things get better. ALL DAY. She is a good girl. The queen bee around here. Determined. Stubborn sometimes. Bossy. Always right in the middle of everything, wanting to know what is going on. I am so grateful to have Morgan. She is such a light in my life. As well as the rest of my family. But for today, I am grateful for my sweet, loyal girl, who patiently cares for her Mom.

The Golden Trophy

We had a nice day yesterday. We went to our last 3 basketball games of the season. It was fun. Our little Reed was the star of the day. Somewhere inside himself, he decided that he would play. And that he did. He made 4 baskets, got some rebounds, and get this... he even fought for the ball a few times. I can't tell you how excited I was. I may have been a little bit giddy if you were an onlooker. It just does a Mom's heart good to know that he can turn it on when he needs to. He was proud of himself too. Hopefully that will be how he remembers the season, so he will be excited to try it again. Camille and Cray had good games too. The highlight for all of them, was getting their trophy after their games. That excitement I saw in the kids took me back about 25 years. I remember my first season playing basketball in the 5th grade. Erin and I were on the same team- the Trojans. Our coach was Stan Snooks. After our season, we got trophies. This was at a time that I remember being old enough to know that our family did not have much money. Dad hadn't been out of law school very long, and I know it was a struggle making ends meet. We had a party after the season was over, where we were presented with trophies. They were on a wooden base that had a little plaque on it that said Trojans 1982, I think. Then, sitting on top of the base, was a GOLDEN basktball player. I truly thought that the trophy was made of gold. And in the thinking of a fifth grader, I remember thinking that our parents must love Erin and I so much, because they somehow found a way to buy us golden trophies. It was a big deal to me. I couldn't believe that they would do that for us. We were so loved. Seeing the kids with their trophies yesterday, made me smile. They were in awe, just as I was some 25 years ago. Of course, I now know that my trophy from years ago was not golden, and I am sure could not have cost too much. But I still have the memories of how I felt. My parents loved us. I am sure even though it wasn't golden, it probably still cost more money than they had. But they made it happen. I am so grateful for my parents. They have made many sacrifices for all of us. And most importantly, I KNEW they loved me, and recognized their sacrifices. And 25 years later, I still know this. It didnt end with that little trophy from so many years ago. They still love all of us just as much, and make sacrifices for us still. Thanks Mom and Dad.