Happy Day after New Year's 01-02-2010 (a palindrome)

I love the winter scenery and the majestic mountains around us, but these days I prefer viewing them from inside my warm home. We didn't really have a good day for playing on Evergreen hill this year with the grandkids but I think Anson's family went over one day for a little while. Those kids are crazy about the snow.

We did start the New Year right with weather that was good enough to allow me to drive to Richfield and attend Kasidy's baptism on Jan 2, 2010. Did you know your baptism fell on a rather unique day, Kasidy? 01-02-2010 (That is called a palindrome-the same forward or backward).



Alex and Laura braved a bit of a snowstorm to drive to American Fork from Logan on New Year's day, and then on Saturday, January 2nd, they rode with Ammon's family to Richfield and I drove my car. After the baptism we went to the Reid's new home and enjoyed a meal together and visited for a while until all the Reids took off to go sledding and we headed home. Before we went, Katrina gave the kids an opportunity to see a few of their new pets and the kids fed carrots to Pepper, one of their horses. In spite of being out in the cold snow, improperly dressed for such, I enjoyed the feeling of being on the farm once again. Thanks for allowing us to share this special day with you, Kasidy.









P.S. I celebrated New Year's Eve and New Year's Day working on another baby quilt. I was able to finish Alex and Laura's new baby quilt to give it to them before they returned to Logan. Their little girl is due in two weeks so I am glad I was able to get it finished.

December 2009

December was certainly a fun month that went way too fast for me! As I mentioned, the first ten days were spent in Maryland with Heidi's family so I had one week left to prepare for the Hatch Family Party on the 19th. I am fortunate that the kids are willing and very capable of taking assignments to ease my load, and you all did a great job this year. The talent show was fun and the Nativity story was well done, Abby. Thank you all. And thanks to everyone for making the effort to come from long distances to be together again. For me, it is a special reminder of our last best Christmas together with Dad/Grandpa here with us in 2006. I think it is your love and respect for him that draws everyone back not only in July but also at Christmas time when hearts turn to family and the eternal nature of the greatest gift we ever received whose birth we celebrate at Christmastime. How grateful I am for the resurrection and atonement that Christ gave us which enables us to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

Here are some pictures from the two weeks that families were here for the holidays.
















Lora posted some wonderful group pictures from the evening that you can see on her Blog at: http://ansonandlorahatch.blogspot.com/2009/12/hatch-holiday-party-2009.html
I wish I had carried my camera around more when I went bowling with some of the kids and grandkids and visited with Andrew's family, Anson's family, Alex's family, Heidi's family, Sonia's family, Aaron's family and Teresa's family in the days following the party. Sorry that our fun was cut short by a bout of illness. (Glad that part is only a memory now!) What a great month!

November Flew by

Even though my Blog posts don't show it, I have had some fun in the last two months. I went to Logan Halloween weekend and visited with Alex and Sonia's families. I was able to do a little trick-or-treating with Sonia, Shane, Kaden and Taylor before I had to go home.

I spent one weekend in November helping Katrina and Kyle's family move to their new home in Annabella. I was also able to spend some time with Alvin and Adriana's family. I watched Jacob and Shelem perform in the play "Pirates of Penzance". They both did a great job. Sweet little Cody was very hesitant to be with Grandma and didn't even like to look at me. Little by little he warmed up to me and was able to hang out with me for a morning while Alvin and Adriana were busy. I returned the following weekend so that I could attend Church with them when the Primary performed their program. Shelem sang a solo in their Sacrament Meeting program, "My Life Has a Plan", and did a beautiful job. By the end of that visit Cody was a little less shy but he gave a hearty wave when it was time to say goodbye.

It was fun to have some of the kids visit for Thanksgiving. Alvin's family, Katrina's family and Alex's family joined Ammon, Abby Hyrum, Audrey and I for dinner and games.





We sang happy birthday to Alvin, Kasidy and Audrey who had birthdays that week.



It is great to have reminders of the important things in our lives.


The week after Thanksgiving I flew to Maryland to spend some time with Heidi's family before she and Isaiah fly to Utah on Dec. 11th. That way I can be with her as we see how Isaiah handles the plane flight. If he doesn't do well, I guess he will just have to stay in Utah, because Heidi will have to deal with him by herself on the return flight.

I have enjoyed my visit. We haven't done any sightseeing this trip. We have been more into the unexpected celebrity sightings. Heidi, Pamela and I went to the movie one evening--"The Fantastic Mr. Fox".


I haven't actually read the book, but the stop-motion animation makes one feel like they are reading a picture book. Maybe it was just because George Clooney was the voice for Mr. Fox, but I saw amusing similarities between "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Ocean's 11" which also starred George Clooney.

Upon leaving the movie theater, we sighted the stars of the upcoming holiday movie, "Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeaquel". We couldn't resist getting our picture with them.



Saturday we went to Savage Mill (historic cotton mill transformed into a shopping center similar to Trolley Square) and wandered around the various shops. We happened upon another celebrity and Isaiah posed for pictures with the famous dog, Marmaduke. This is a must have stuffed animal that we regretfully had to bypass in exchange for a picture since it had a $450.00 price tag.

Happy Birthday, Graham!

Saturday was Graham's first birthday. I rode with Ammon and Abby's family to Logan to help Alex and Laura celebrate their little guy's funnest birthday yet! Laura's parents and two brothers and Shane and Sonia and Taylor also joined in the festivities. Graham enjoyed opening his presents when he was finally allowed to get into the packages and really seemed to like the gifts. He was also very excited to see his cousins and seemed to enjoy their company, except for maybe Taylor's aggressive hugs and kisses which made him a little nervous!

The Fun Continues

As you can tell from my previous post, I love visiting my kids and grandkids!! I was favored with an unexpected surprise this week when Sherri called and said that she and Morgan and Marshall would like to drive down and visit us even though Aaron couldn't come because they extended his work shift another whole week. I am so glad that she was willing to make the trip to see us.

Sherri and boys arrived early afternoon of Tuesday, the 6th. They spent Tuesday night with us and then Abby spearheaded a fun outing for us at Gardner Village in West Jordan. If you haven't been there in the Autumn time of year, you really need to go! The day dawned very crisp (unlike the "crisp Fall" I experienced in Tracy--not!), but we loaded strollers and jackets in Ammon and Abby's suburban and headed out. Sherri drove her van as well so that she could leave from there to run a quick errand and head home after we were through.

The traffic was good and the stores weren't too crowded so we had a very enjoyable time looking at shops and especially the fun witches that were present at every turn. I took the time to buy some fun quilt material at the Pine Needles fabric store (wait until you see it, Alex and Laura!). We ended the day with lunch at the Archibald's Restaurant in the historic Gardner Mill. The wait was long, but the food was pretty good. It was mainly a pleasant experience interrupted by multiple trips to the restroom for one kid or another and concluded with Audrey dumping salad dressing down her front which explains the P.J.s costume during the pony ride. After lunch, we concluded our activities by taking the kids to the little farm area where they have a petting zoo, pony rides and at this time of year a "hay maze" made of bales of hay, a much friendlier place than a corn maze for young kids. We paid for Morgan, Audrey and Hyrum to ride the ponies and play in the maze. I think they had a good time.


Most of the day when we would position them in front of a store or witch to get a picture, we would just have to say their names and they would start saying "CHEESE! CHEESE!" whether they were looking at us or not--usually not! But when they were on the ponies, they had genuine smiles on their faces!! Thanks Abby for the wonderful suggestion that turned out to be a fun day together for the cousins and the adults. Thanks for your willingness to drive down and share your boys with us Sherri!! It was good to see you.

Which is your favorite witch? I think mine is the trio playing baseball.

The Long Awaited Road Trip

Here we are almost in the middle of October and I have been having so much fun that I haven't had a chance to post anything on my Blog. That is only half true. I have done and seen much; it's just that I forgot to take my camera to document them---again! I do have a few pictures taken with my cellphone that I was able to access once I got back home.

To start my travels following my summer in Richfield, at the end of August I took a short trip to celebrate with Shane and Sonia for Taylor's first birthday, our first visit there since they moved into a more comfortable house. I am so excited for them!

I think Taylor was only 10 1/2 months old in this picture but that's close enough. Isn't she a cutie?!

September 10th I began my long awaited road trip to see Anson, Andrew and Teresa's families. I planned my travel so that my visiting wouldn't interfere with my work so Saturday was chosen as my travel day. So that I never had a long, long drive, I broke up the trip into three segments. I would spend a week with each of the three kids, and then move on to the next house. The hardest part was not logistical, just emotional. It became very difficult to pack up and leave at the end of the week. I so wanted to spend more time at each house, but I was afraid that I would be caught in an early snow storm upon my return home so I stuck to my plan as closely as possible.

On September 10th, I packed my bags, and gathered up the things I would need for the next three weeks...my laptop of course, my trusty GPS, my violin and music, tennis racquet, tennis balls, my scriptures and temple bag, some books on tape and some munchies and headed to Vegas that afternoon. I stayed two nights with Teresa and Brian before heading to California. Thanks to the Hardy family for their hospitality while Brian and Teresa were in between houses and were just moving into their new home this weekend.

Saturday I headed for Irvine and arrived without incident--almost. I forgot to set my Garmin to avoid toll roads so at the end of the trip I ended up on two toll roads that delayed me a little bit as I tried to avoid them at first and Garmin would not let me so I finally gave in and followed directions. I thought once I got off the toll road it would "recalcuate" a different route, but it kept wanting me to get back on the toll road. Garmin must have some kind of arrangement with the California Dept. of Transportation.

I enjoyed the mild Irvine weather. I took my morning walks to the park that I discovered last fall when I was there and we went to the beach one afternoon






Parker and Carter showed me one of their favorite hangouts also--Yogurt Land (it probably takes second place to Disneyland). That was my first experience with a "build it yourself" yogurt parlor where you pay by the ounce. I quite enjoyed it.

Too soon my visit with Andrew and Melissa was over, but I was anxious to see Anson and Lora's family. The first couple hours the traffic was probably the worst I experienced the whole trip, but once I got passed L.A. it improved and I had a nice drive the rest of the way to Tracy. I received a warm welcome and Sydney and Camden seemed excited to see the other grandma that they don't get to see very often. Anson set me up with a route for my morning walks, and I soon learned my way around Tracy with a little help from the GPS. Anson and Lora are pretty busy parents but they included me in their activities and I was able to see where both Camden and Sydney go to school and helped pick up Camden from school a couple times. I also got to go see what Sydney did at her school and meet her teachers. They both enjoy school and are so happy to go every day. They both took time to read to me and we got to have a little one-on-one time during the week. I played tennis with Camden one morning so I spent some time taking Sydney to the store and helping her with a sewing project so we would have some together time also.



One evening we went out for frozen yogurt, also the build it yourself kind. Camden and Sydney were very creative. They kind of reminded me of the "suicide drinks" that my kids used to make at the soda fountain at Harts. Camden offered me a taste of his. Well, they looked like they enjoyed them and that's what counts.

They also treated me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, in spite of Sydney's protests that La Villa Mexican Restaurant would be better because Texas Roadhouse is so noisy and so messy. She especially expressed her dislike that there were peanuts all over the floor. I am glad that Lora has offered their family such a neat and orderly home environment for her family to enjoy. They really are neat kids.

We went bowling my last night there. It has been four or five years since I bowled, and it showed.




Anson was a good coach, because Camden gave me a run for the money, and Sydney out bowled me. I think she had high game for the evening.

Saturday before I left I was able to watch Camden play soccer. He waited anxiously for it all week long and was so excited about his new soccer clothes.




It reminded me of Alex's early soccer games, all the kids following the ball around the field. At this point the coach didn't even try to explain about positions on the field.

Once again, the week ended too soon, and I packed my bags with mixed emotions so I could make the trip to Vegas before it got too late. Originally I had planned to drive back down to Irvine and spend another week with Andrew since the distance from Tracy to Irvine is a couple hours shorter than from Tracy to Vegas, but I chose not to spend another week in Irvine and opted instead to see Andrew and Melissa's family for a couple days when they drove to Utah for General Conference weekend.

The drive to Vegas was pleasant though the temperatures in Tracy and Vegas were quite a bit warmer than in Irvine. Thankfully I drive an air conditioned car now!

It was fun to see Teresa and Brian and Brigham and their new home. It is fun to see that my children have home decorating skills in spite of the fact that they grew up in an essentially bare-walled home.

I still managed to get in a morning walk most days in Vegas but didn't get to play tennis again. I was able to go to the Newport Temple when I was in Irvine, which I had attended about three years ago with Verlin, Andrew and Melissa and Brian and Teresa, but I didn't go to the temple while I was in Tracy because I didn't find a time for the hour drive to Oakland. I was excited that Brian and Teresa wanted to go to the Las Vegas Temple while I was there because I had not seen that temple before. After we started driving there I realized why. It is quite a ways from Metropolitan Las Vegas and was actually almost as long a drive as it would have been to go to Oakland, but it wasn't so much the miles but the traffic that made it so. Anyway, it is a beautiful temple and I am glad that I got to go.





I enjoyed the time spent with Brigham. He is getting big and learning so much. I sure do have a bunch of smart grandkids!!




I regretfully left Brian and Teresa's on Friday afternoon, October 2, so that I could get home in time to listen to General Conference on Saturday. I put 2215 miles on my car in this most wonderful journey. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! This from someone who felt she had really overextended herself in driving the 220 miles from North Platte, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming during the trip when Verlin and I drove to Detroit, Michigan, down to Carthage and Nauvoo, Illinois and back to Utah by way of my great, great grandparents graves in Iowa.

I enjoyed having Andrew and Melissa stay with us for a few days Conference weekend. The time I spent with the kids that I don't get to see very often really made me think about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. Thank you all for your goodness and love! I wish we lived closer together, but now I know that I can make a long trip by myself and will hopefully be able to visit you more.