Smoke, Rain and Snow

Snow at Shane and Sonia's
We used to say when sitting around the campfire and smoke would blow in our face--no matter where we moved around the circle--"well, smoke follows beauty". (This comment was usually followed by the remark --but Beauty is a horse".)

Well, bad weather seems to follow me like smoke follows beauty.

January 12th I flew to Irvine, California to spend time with Andrew and Melissa and watch their boys while Andrew and Melissa went on a one-week Mexican cruise. I was so excited about the lovely weather when I arrived, even though in reality American Fork did not really have that bad of weather when I left. Well, on Sunday evening when I dropped Andrew and Melissa off at the dock, it began to rain and it rained most of the week, sometimes dumping as much as 1/2 to 1-inch in an hour. Carter's school announced that there was a tornado warning, but fortunately it hit further north. I was fortunate that I only had to drive out a few times to take Parker to preschool and pick him up. It turned out to be an interesting but mostly enjoyable week with the boys. The weather was nice by the time Andrew and Melissa came home and they hardly knew what they missed--besides their cute boys that they were very glad to see!

Carter

Tristan

Parker

On Friday the 28th I drove to Logan to see my new granddaughter, Emma and of course Alex, Laura and Graham. I stayed Friday night with Shane, Sonia and Taylor. I brought my Sunday clothes just in case I decided to spend Saturday night with them also since their meetings are at 8:30 a.m. and mine aren't until 2:00 p.m. I kind of watched the weather Saturday so I could make a decision about traveling home that evening or if I could spend the night with Sonia and still make it back to American Fork safely in time for my meetings. The Saturday night 10:00 news said there would be a little snow, mostly in Northern Utah, probably about an inch. Well, we woke up to more like a foot of snow.

Do I really have to get up?!

TURN OFF THAT CAMERA NOW!!

It was a rough night for Taylor, too! We did wake her up a bit earlier than usual to get to their 8:30 meeting. I went ahead and went to church with Shane and Sonia and decided that I would just stay until Monday until the weather was better. I am grateful that I was able to visit some of my children and beautiful grandkids.

Emma

Graham

Taylor

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.