Bitter Sweet

Monday and Tuesday I watched my neighbors boy most of the day while she studied and had her class for her Nursing Degree. We worked on getting Adam’s truck cleaned Monday night and then on Tuesday Adam took an overnight trip to Winslow Arizona. The rest of the week was bitter sweet. Susie and I loaded our kids up on Tuesday afternoon in her car and traveled to Sondra’s house in Pleasant Grove where we stayed the night. Her and Spencer were so hospitable to us, feeding us dinner and a yummy crepe dessert and Sondra waking up at 4:45 to make us some sandwiches and a bunch of yummy snacks for our trip as we headed out early to Oregon. Thank you Sondra for those snacks, we didn’t have to stop for any the whole way as they were sufficient to tide us over. We arrived to Oregon only to find everyone gone to school and work and found Thursday to be the same. We celebrated Logan’s birthday with pizza and a cake. On Friday we attended the funeral of a very dear friend to the family, Ruth Oxford. This sweet lady has pretty much been a part of our family since I can remember. I was told from one of my sisters that when my mom was in her car accident and had to receive care at home which involved some enema’s and such that Ruth was there to provide that for her and that when Ruth’s health failed after a tumor caused her to collapse and she was now in that similar situation that my mom returned the care and that is just how the relationship between these two was. When I had some issues after giving birth to Tyson and Lincoln, Ruth would offer her bedroom for us to stay in when we came to visit so that I could have my own bathroom. She has always been a very giving and selfless person. I am glad to see her be able to leave this life from the condition she remained in after her tumor and happy to know that she is with her dear husband (Big George). She is much happier where she is at now and someday it will be a great reunion with both of them. My Mom and sisters MaryJane, Lillie, and Susie sang at the funeral (found out that morning that we were singing) and some close friends to Ruth gave the life sketch and spoke. It was a good service which I was glad to be home for. Originally the main reason for us traveling this past week to Oregon was so that we could listen to my sister Lillie’s farewell talk today. She is leaving on Tuesday with Susie for Provo and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Wednesday afternoon where she will begin her missionary training before going to the Olongapo Phillippines mission where she will labor in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the remaining of 18 months. She did a great job on her farewell talk and although we didn’t get to see much of her as she was the closest to Ruth and was very much involved in planning the funeral service, I am glad that we made the trip to support her in her decision to serve the people and the Lord. We left right after sacrament meeting as we had to hook on to a gooseneck trailer that we spent most of Saturday loading (as Adam arrived late Friday night with Daniel and the trailer to take home equipment he had purchased from an auction in Nampa the week before) and travel the soon to be long trip back to Southern Utah at a steady 65 mph. (not excited about that). On Saturday evening we did go out to eat in Nyssa at a small dining place to celebrate Susie’s birthday on Friday as we didn’t get to do much to celebrate it then and then Adam and I stopped by Alan and Tami Peterson’s place and had a relaxing, enjoyable visit with them (although we did interrupt their movie they were watching, sorry about that, however it was nice to visit and get a break from our kids).

Trip for George's Farewell

I finished the binding on Vaughn’s quilt on Monday night over at Heidi’s house so that it would be ready to take to Oregon. On Wednesday I took the boys to Tyson’s follow up Dr’s appoint to see how he was doing. I had them check Lincoln as well to which he was all cleared up and Tyson just had some lingering breathing noises probably from the virus. She said that the contagiousness of the virus lasts about a week and then coughing and such will continue for another 2-3 weeks, so we were glad to hear that our trip to Salt Lake and Oregon shouldn’t be too much trouble. Adam didn’t get home from getting his work stuff done until late and so we decided that he would go to bed while I packed the truck up and that we would leave at 2 a.m. Thursday morning so that he could make it to his roofing training class in Tooele at 8:00 that morning. It just so happened that his brother Sheldon was going to that all day class as well, so they ended up driving together while Lincoln, Tyson, and I hung out all day with Sara Ann, Marshall, and Luke. We took the boys to the Aquarium where they had a good time seeing frogs, fish, octopus, anaconda, and for me a few other disturbing critters/creatures. We stayed the night at their house and then Friday morning Adam went and put in study time for his Arizona license which had tests scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of this next week. He finished in the afternoon and we packed up to head on to Oregon for the rest of the weekend for George’s farewell. We enjoyed seeing Clara Jane and Grant as they came into town for the same occasion. Saturday we drove over to Ontario and ate breakfast at Denny’s with George, Hugh, Clara, and Grant. George had requested it and when I asked him why he wanted to do that he said, “So we can just eat breakfast and talk.” I think he has a different idea of what that is like when little kids are around J We went back home and after Adam helped Vaughn with some stuff on his 4-wheeler a bunch of them went shooting in the hills back behind my house and then played basketball until late. George did well on his farewell talk and had many friends from the town and nearby family that came to support him at the potluck that my mom and dad had for him at the school cafeteria after church. He is going to the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission in West Africa and will be greatly missed. We enjoyed spending the rest of Sunday at home and then once again I packed our bags while Adam went to sleep so he could drive when we would leave tomorrow morning at 2 a.m. The disappointing factor during this whole trip was that Lincoln started feeling sick again on Friday morning and hasn’t been himself. He just wants me to hold him, so I didn’t get to do much except sit and watch the Olympics (not too much complaining there though). It’s just too bad that his fun personality was non-existent. We are going to miss George for the next two years whenever we come home for the holidays/trips, however I’m sure we will push to play basketball in his absence.

Family Pictures

Plans were made before Christmas to try and take a big family picture as everyone would be together at least before George left on a mission. We were originally going to take it outside in the snow, however a snow storm started sometime in the night and wasn't about to let up when we had planned for the pictures to be taken, so we improvised and went to the high school gym. We didn't have any great cameras there, but I brought mine and had a few snapped with it. At least the picture was taken right? I had someone get one of just us as that isn't always easy to coordinate with Adam's schedule and then of course the boys wanted us to hurry as a gym should be used for basketball and not pictures :) They played for quite some time and had a great time of it as well. My cousin Aaron ventured over from Middleton through the storm to play as well so it was a party.

Oregon Trip

This last Thursday we headed to Oregon late in the day. As Adam and I would like to go twice a year at least if possible, we figured that going for George's last home football game was a good reason since we haven't seen very many of his games throughout his high school years. It was senior night and was pretty emotional for him after they ended up losing, however I do have to say that George was giving it his all on every pass that went his way, diving and laying out for anything. He did make a great catch and ran it in for a touchdown towards the end of the game, only to see the other team turn around and run the ball a long ways into the endzone and that was how the game would end. Tyson was asking after the game where Georgie was and so after he finished talking with his friends we snatched a shot of him in his uniform before he changed. It was a bummer that Vaughn left that night on a long trip to Texas for the guard and then George Saturday morning for a leadership training at Seaside. We did take the kids to the trunk or treating at the church, so for everyone that thinks I'm horrible for not getting into the Halloween groove then you'll be happy to know that I put some dog costume on Lincoln and did ask Tyson if he wanted to get dressed up in some giraffe costume, but he must be like me when it comes to dressing up because he did not want to and of course I did not make him. I snuck back inside to help clean up at the church from the chili feed they had and somebody took Tyson around to get candy. And, no I do not have any pictures of the little animals. While at home Tyson took a great liking to Auntie Clara. We caught him climbing on her back and shoulders, playing with her hair, and sitting next to her so quietly. The trip home was long as we left late in the day, but we did make sure to stop and visit Sondra and Spencer (one of Adam's sisters). She lives far from family so we were glad to see them and she fed us some yummy Asian food (don't know how to even begin to pronounce let alone spell it). Tyson took a liking to Daniel's headset and music and kept wanting a turn. The kids did very well considering the long trip that it was. We got back Monday morning at 2:30 and experienced the nightly interruptions from Tyson waking up screaming to Lincoln waking up starving. The boys did take long naps yesterday morning into the afternoon, so that was nice as I tried to catch up on some organizing. We are glad to be home, but do wish that we could have stayed a little while longer in Oregon. Don't forget to vote!