Trip to Bemidji

Ready to go (and no, I didn't go First Class!!)
The REAL Paul and Babe

The house I grew up in (it wasn't that cute when we lived there - no shutters, boring white, not gray, different front door.) Everything else is the same.

Looking east to the lake

West - overlooking the field

Diane Zaske came from Pine River and spent the night Friday night

Good ole Tippy

The bald eagle and it's nest. I'd just mentioned how I hadn't seen it and I looked out towards the lake and saw a male and a female flying

She's doing really well

Taking out a missed staple. The knee was the whole reason for my trip.

Me and Mom the morning I left. She told me not to put it on my blog, but how could I not?

Lake Bemidji from the air, and the city named after it

Beth came and picked me up during my layover and we went to TGIFridays for lunch. It's become something of a tradition when I have a couple hour layover. Doesn't she look great - cancer-free and her own hair!

Mom had knee surgery January 27, and I had plans to stay with her February 11-18. She fell while in the hospital and ended up in intensive care for 3-4 days which set back her recovery. My sister Sherri was there while Mom was in the hospital, then my brother David came for a few days. He brought her home from the hospital Tuesday February 10 and left Wednesday before I got there as he had a doctor's appointment in Minneapolis he had to get to. I was really glad I went to help out. She actually did pretty good most of the time, although she had one night that was really bad. Other than that, she started to get her appetite back by the time I left and she was getting around (using her walker) quite well by the time I left.

This was fairly relaxing - she lives in a beautiful spot overlooking a lake to the east, fields and creek to the west, and woods on both the north and south sides. She didn't get up until 9:00, laid down to read or sleep from about 1-3, and often went up to her bed around 8:00 or so to watch TV or read. I made her meals, washed some clothes, and straightened up, but other than that (which wasn't much at all) I could do pretty much what I wanted to. I slept in, went through 15 scrapbook magazines, watched TV, did some blogging, and generally - had little stress. I didn't have to work or worry about work. That was really nice!! I slipped away for a little shopping trip to town and visited the store I always shop at when I go there. I even found a skirt on sale for about $8, normally $45 - hooray!!

It was hard to say good-bye to Mom - you never know anymore at her age if it will be the last time you'll see her alive or not. She's 77, although she's pretty fiesty so she'll probably last quite a long time!!

Our favorites!!

Um-um-good!!

Dave received a pound of chocolates from See's for Christmas, and we decided to splurge and use it now. I'm starting the 100-Day Heart Challenge soon, so that kind of stuff will be taboo! I picked out our favorites so we could have one last hurrah for awhile!! Dave likes the marzipan, I like the polar bear paws, raspberry creme, the cashew brittle or whatever it's called, and the brown sugar thingie (I can't remember their names offhand, but I sure recognize what they look like when I'm at the store!!!)

And he's off

Ty and his mom Kellye
Ty and Brie

As long as we've lived in Utah we've known the Flynns. They were our next door neighbors when we first moved to Provo. They now live in Orem, but we've stayed friends for over 20 years - even when they moved back to Texas for a time. Ty is going to Mexico on his mission and today was his farewell. He has a big family and they came from Texas and Vegas to support him. He will be a wonderful missionary - he's been preparing for this for quite a while, and is following in his brother Shane's footsteps. He enters the MTC Feb 11.

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley and a picture of Mitch with Flat Stanley near the bridge that goes to Prince Edward Island

I can remember when the kids were little (I think Brie was in 3rd grade) and they read the book Flat Stanley and then they were each given their own little Flat Stanley and asked to send it to someone and then have them take a picture of them with Flat Stanley and where he went and what he did. Brie sent hers to Dave's brother Steve in Minnesota and it just so happened that they were going to the Carribean. So, they took Flat Stanley with them and "let" him do all kinds of fun things. The kids get all their Flat Stanleys back and then mark on a map all the different places he visited. They have a lot of fun with it.

Imagine my surprise this year when we got in the mail Flat Stanley from Mitch. Kelbee's class did the very same thing and she sent hers to Mitch. How fun! I found out later that Branson's class also did the same thing (in Ohio). He sent his to Krysta and family. They took him to St. George (he got a "broken arm" and had to have a "cast") and even went rock climbing. It's so interesting to see the same thing that happened with your children now happen with your grandchildren.

Donating blood

Each time they ask for volunteers to donate blood I try to go (I even donated one time with other family members when we were in Denver visiting Dave's brother!) Dave can't give blood because of his rheumatoid arthritis and the medication he's on, so it's one way I feel like I can help and give to others. I'm a fast bleeder, or so they tell me, so it doesn't take long. All the paperwork and stuff leading up to the blood donation takes longer than the actual giving of blood. I once had a race with one of the elders - I donated my pint in 4 minutes 19 seconds!!

Who's that lurking behind those machines?

A few years ago Brie was hit just below the left eye with a chain from a swingset. She has to have her eyesight tested every year to make sure glaucoma doesn't show up and just to make sure everything is OK. The eye doctor considered it a major injury at the time. Some things - like glaucoma - can show up 15 years later and if not checked every year could cause permanent damage.

Sean's mission call

Sean letting us know where he's going
The Moms - l-r: Sally Gerun, Patty (Sean's mom), Sean, me, Lena Frampton, Sue Brady, Suzanne Keetch

Mitch's friend Sean received his mission call - finally!! The other boys have been gone over a year by the time he leaves, but that's OK (Mitch and Zach will be home about the time he leaves for the mission field.) However, he will be an EXCELLENT missionary - he's ready and raring to go and he'll do an awesome job. He's going to the Lisbon Portugal mission and goes into the MTC June 3. We're so excited and happy for him.

Super Bowl weekend in Colorado

This is what it was all about - family.
Watching the 3D ad at the end of the 2nd quarter. Beth picked up about 30 pair of the glasses when she was in Target in Denver.

Our turn to fix dinner - Michelle, Beth, and me

Amanda, Beth, Pete, Eric - our new elder!

Wood Butts

Branson referred to the elk as wood butts. I couldn't figure out why until he explained to me that their rear ends looked like a piece of wood that had been cut!! Out of the mouths of babes!

Snowshoeing: Brian, Dave, Paul (Pete took the picture)

What do you think - should I get it? I did end up buying it.

Lizzy and I on "Fun"

Shopping - L-R back: Michelle, Brie, Amanda, Beth, Missy. Front: Krysta, Tonya

The "cabin" in Estes Park (9 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms)

The View from the back door.

We'd planned since November or so to go to Denver (Dave's brother Dan and family live there) for the Super Bowl weekend. There's been a get-together for this weekend for years. For many of those years it was just the guys - Dave, Brian, and Mitch would drive over there. Then for some of the years Jeff and Todd joined them. Last year I went for the first time - my sister-in-law Beth (from the Minneapolis area) convinced me I should go too and we'd celebrate the end of her chemotherapy for breast cancer. One thing we did while there was get a pedicure at a local mall - that's a pretty good "girlie" way to celebrate a milestone like that. We flew last year rather than drive. An hour flight sounded so much better - and safer - than an 8 hour drive through Wyoming in the winter.
This year the flights were at $49 each way - we couldn't pass that up so Dave, me, Jeff, and Todd bought tickets on Southwest. Brian decided to go too after his cousin Juice (Justin) told him he was going to go. Dan called Krysta and told her he'd pay for her to rent a car and drive over if they wanted to come for the weekend. I told her to call him back and tell him that the flights were so cheap - it would cost as much to rent a car as it would to pay for she and her girls, Missy, and Brie to fly over. Plus, then I wouldn't have to worry about 3 women and 4 kids driving through Wyoming and maybe getting stuck in a snowstorm. So, unbeknownst to the guys, we made reservations for the girls to be on a flight to Denver 1 earlier than what we were taking. Then, we out and out lied to them and told them that they were going to Park City for the weekend since the guys were going to be gone!
We arrived between 7:30 and 8:00. Dave's nephew Eric picked us up at the airport and we were on our way (with a pitstop for gas and food for breakfast the next morning) to the house in Estes Park that Dan had rented for the weekend.
When we got to the "cabin" Dan wanted to show us the master suite first. We didn't know that that's where all the kids (including Tonya and her kids - minus Brad - that had flown in and surprised all of us) were hiding. It was so fun to watch the faces of the guys as the kids and grandkids came out of hiding and yelled "SURPRISE"!! Oh, it was only the beginning to a great weekend.
I'll try to recap briefly what we did over the next 4 days:
Friday - Dave, Dan, and Steve went goose hunting at 4:00 a.m. The girls - old and young - (and Eric) went shopping in town. We met some really rude people there - on the street and in the grocery store. I wonder if they realize that much of their income comes from us tourists! Some went hiking that afternoon, the older boys - including Brian, Jeff, Todd, Justin, and JR - went to a Denver Nuggets basketball game in Denver, and the adults went to the movie "Taken" in town. Saturday - 4 went skiing at Vail, Dave made his famous carmel rolls, about 20 of us went horseback riding for an hour in the mountains (Kelbee and Branson each had their own horse, although Branson's decided right at the beginning to take a different route than the rest of us! Lizzy rode with me), more shopping, 4 went snowshoing, visiting with family.
Sunday - church in Denver - Eric (Dave's brother Pete's oldest son) was ordained an elder afterwards, watched youngest kids put on a play - it was so well-received by everyone that they did a couple more, watched the Super Bowl, more visiting. Of course, each day we ate and ate and ate!!
We split up meal responsibilities which made it so nice - noone had to worry about fixing every meal, and we all helped clean up. There were at least 39 family members that came - 5 out of the 6 brothers came and the kids of the missing brother were there so every family was represented. It was a blast - it certainly reminded us all of what family is all about. We're already looking forward to next year!!

Project 365

While Tonya was here at Christmas she asked me if I was going to do Project 365. She said she'd get me the album for Mother's Day/birthday combined. I told her I didn't know what Project 365 was; I'd never heard of it. She told me it's where you take a picture a day for a year and you document what the picture is and why you took it. (She had me check out Becky Higgins' blog - http://beckyhiggins.com/blog to get an idea of what she was talking about.) Hmmmm - sounded interesting, so I told her yes, I'd like to do that. She ordered the kit for me the day they went on sale but there were so many orders the website crashed. There have been lots of people upset that they didn't get the kit. I figure I can use something different as an album but I can't retake pictures from those days already past. Now, here it is almost a month later and I'm still taking a picture a day. Sometimes I've had to really look for something to photograph, and other days I have too many things to take pictures of. It'll be interesting at the end of the year to look back and see what happened, what was important and meaningful to me, and the memories it will stir up. This is a good year to do Project 365 - we're going to Colorado for Super Bowl weekend, I'm going to Minnesota to help my mom after knee surgery, Brad graduates from dental school, and Mitch completes his mission and will be coming home (we're going to pick him up). Those are just the things we know are coming - I'm sure there are many other things that will be happening too. I'm also looking forward to some of the simple ordinary things too that will document who I am and what makes me me! Think about doing this for yourself too. It takes effort, but I think in the long run it will definitely be worth it.

100 Day Heart Challenge

Shelly Weber (one of my football moms friends) won last year's 100 Day Heart Challenge sponsored by Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. She's healthier now, she lost weight, and looks GREAT! So, when she emailed me and mentioned they were doing it again this year and that they were accepting applications, I thought I'd at least apply. We had to write a 50 word or less statement as to why we wanted to do it and also had to commit to 12 weeks of nutrition classes at 7:30 every Wednesday morning and exercise 6 days a week. I applied and today was notified that I was one of the 15 women chosen to participate in this year's challenge. (There were 100 applicants.) I was suprised because I really didn't think I'd get picked, but I'm very excited. I've been wanting to get going again on losing weight, eating better, and exercising again. I think this will be the incentive I've needed to get me jumpstarted and keep me motivated. Anyone who knows me very well knows I can be very competitive! I'd like to be this year's winner, but even if I don't win the challenge, I still win. I'll be healthier and hopefully thinner. It's supposed to go till the end of May, so I'll keep you posted!

Nesting dolls

The girls wanted to "play" with my Russian nesting dolls, but I told them they weren't the play kind of doll. However, we took them apart and lay them all out so they could see how many dolls there were in the set. There's a total of 10 - the smallest is maybe an eighth of an inch big! You have to look pretty close to see that one.

72 Hour Kits

We had a ward activity where we put together 72 hour kits for emergency preparedness. We had a good turnout and people's minds were a little more at ease afterwards. The committee that chose and purchased the food did a great job in the variety of healthy foods to put in the kits.

Hawaiian princesses

Kelbee

Raimee

Brylee

Kelbee had Hawaiian day at school and wore the skirt, lei, etc. that Krysta had bought for her for it. Each one of the girls wanted a picture taken of them looking Hawaiian!

Football moms at Olive Garden

Jechelle, Suzanne, me, Sue, Shelly, Sally, Lena
Jechelle and Lena and Braden's blanket

Micki Sanner and her cookbook

Our monthly get-together was at the new Olive Garden in American Fork. Lena showed off the blanket she made for Braden and had embroidered - the blanket actually has 3 colors and is a replica of the German flag.

A couple of funny conversations - Jechelle's son Tabor is serving in Argentina and was serving with his 2nd mini-missionary. We asked what a mini-missionary is and apparently it's a priest-age young man that serves and lives the life of a missionary with the full-time missionary. I think they're only together through one transfer (6 weeks) but to have 2 in a row doesn't seem fair. Anyways, one of the lovely ladies (won't mention which one) hadn't heard her explain what a mini-missionary is, so she got in on the last part of the conversation and asked "is he a midget?" We all burst out laughing at that one, but at the same time you can see why she'd ask that if she hadn't heard everything!

We were talking about food storage and I mentioned Krysta's ward's performance of the Ten Virgins and I said I wanted to be prepared, I don't want to have to look at the Lord and say - could you hold on for a couple of hours while I run out and get the things we need. I'll be right back. Nosiree, I want to be one of the 5 prepared virgins to which one of these dear ladies replied - I hate to tell you this but you're not a virgin!!

As we were talking about wheat and having to grind it, etc, another one of these dear friends asked if you could buy pre-ground wheat. 2 of us looked at her and said - it's called flour. Oh yeah, that's why we love to get together. We laugh alot, and can laugh at ourselves and each other.

While we were sitting waiting for everyone to arrive, a gal that was in our ward in Provo about 20 years ago was also there and she'd just published a cookbook. She was pretty excited about that - she'd been working on it for 6 years. It's a beautiful-looking book. (I'm telling you - she hasn't aged in 20 years!!)

Her 1st car

Brie had been looking for a car for awhile - around Utah Valley and up in Salt Lake. She was really excited about the black one until she took it to our friend Cole Giles and he told her the real truth about the car - it'd been in an accident and there were several things wrong with it. We are so grateful for his expert advice so she didn't end up with a lemon.
She and Krysta then found the white one (a Chevy Aveo) she fell in love with it. This one got a "clean bill of health" from Cole, so she is now the proud owner of her own car. She loves the car and loves the freedom owning it gives her.
Wish you all could have heard the excitement in her voice when she called to tell me "your youngest daughter is now a new car owner!!" Oh yeah, and the best thing of all according to her - "look at the key, isn't it so cute?!!" Oh good - that's the most important thing about the car!

All tuckered out

Brylee

She sat down on the stairs and when we looked over at her we found her like this. How often have we been this tired and wish we could do exactly what she's doing. It amazes me how kids can just fall asleep in the most uncomfortable-looking positions - they're bodies just give out on them!!

Sisters

Tonya, Krysta, Brie, Missy
L-R: Tonya, Krysta, Missy, Brie

The girls like to take sisters pictures of the 4 of them together. We've taken them over the years in many different places. Believe it or not, they didn't coordinate what they'd wear in this picture. I give them and the grandkids alot of credit for today - it was freakin' cold outside!!

Pictures with Papi, I mean Santa!

Setting up
Are we having fun yet?

Look at the difference in the 2 pictures of Lizzy's face

The girls wanted pictures of all the grandkids with their Papi, I mean Santa, so Krysta picked a spot in Lehi and arranged for someone to come and take pictures. No easy task trying to coordinate 7 children ages 1-6 on a cold January day where jackets weren't part of the picture attire.

As we stood out by State Street in Lehi taking pictures of Santa, we did get a few honks and waves. We were joking about how Dave should stop at a local gas station/convenience store dressed in his Santa suit and ask "Which way is North?" However, by the time we were done taking pictures and on our way home, we both forgot.

Playing Wii

Missy got Jeff a Wii for his birthday last May, and brought it to our house over the holidays so we could all play it. Even the little ones can play it - I hate to admit it but they can also beat Nammi in some of the games!! There's nothing that makes the ego feel better than being beaten by a 6 year-old!!

Kelbee's new hair color

Kelbee had been asking Krysta for a long time to change her hair color. Krysta finally said OK and they went to get a color that was barely light brown with maybe a touch of red. It wasn't the color the box said it would be - it turned out much redder than expected. However, Kelbee looked cute as ever.

The spaghetti story

Dave is so good with kids, and pretty creative sometimes too. Years and years ago (when we were still living in Minnesota) after a spaghetti dinner he told our kids a story and used a couple of the leftover spaghetti noodles as part of the story. He threw them against the cupboard and somehow incorporated them into the story. It made such an impression on our kids that they've talked about it off and on over the years and so the grandkids wanted Papi to tell them a spaghetti story. Not wanting to disappoint them, he made a special batch of spaghetti noodles and told them a story. I probably should have listened to the story so I could say what it was about, but I didn't think of it at the time.