Our Graduation Trip - Friends Old and New

Due to lack of vacation time at work, our trip was quite short, which meant there wasn't a lot of time available for visiting family and friends.  However, we were able to combine some of the graduation festivities with making new friends and re-connecting with old ones.

First was Jeff's roommate, who graciously agreed to show us how his accordion worked!

We had a delightful lunch on campus before graduation where we met some of the girls that Michelle will room with next fall, along with their parents.  That was an absolute treat!  They're going to have a great time together when school starts again.

Brad's good friend from elementary school graduated too.

It was wonderful to have the chance to visit with his family for a bit.  His baby sister is all grown up!  (And my camera was malfunctioning and cut his dad out of the picture.  Sorry!)

I have no idea who the additional friends were, but Brad knew them, and that's what counts.

One of them (third from the right in back row) was Cody's brother, so her parents came down to Provo as well.  We love her family, and it was great to be able to visit with them again.

Our final visit was with a dear friend from the Tampa area.  She happens to own a restaurant.  We happened to be hungry.  It's a win-win situation!  And it turned out to be the perfect place to celebrate Brad's graduation.  We'll remember it for next year when it's Jeff's turn!

Our Graduation Trip - Playing with the Grandchildren

A little while ago we had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Utah visiting with family and friends.  Thank you, Brad, for inviting us out to your graduation.  We're so proud of you!  However, this first post (I figured doing a few of them would extend your viewing pleasure) is dedicated to one of my favorite memories of the trip, although I'm not sure if Sam will remember it with fond feelings.  (Hopefully, he's already forgotten it!)

As you can see, Samuel likes playing with his activity center.

Wayne decided he would help him spin the little toy.  

Unfortunately, he spun it so fast it terrified Sam! 

Poor Sam!!
Fortunately, once Grandpa stopped the spinning, everything was fine.

Sweet little Brooke offered some extra comfort to make things all better.

Grandpa had fun playing with Wyatt and Brooke as well.  They seemed to like the "I'm going to get you!" and tickling sessions.

We never did get a proper grandparents/grandchildren picture, but that's okay.  We were there for a graduation; playing with cute kids was just an extra bonus!

Happy Birthday to Weston!

In honor of your milestone birthday, here are 30 pictorial remembrances of your life year-to-date.  Get ready for some picture overload.  And even narrowing it down to 30 was difficult. You've had an eventful life, and we're looking forward to seeing what the next 30 years brings! 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

May 16, 1983

Your blessing day - July 3, 1983

Scenes from your first year

Your first BYU graduation - August 1984

An early start with the headphones - Thanks Aunt Julie!

Your first "first-day-of-school" photos

Another early start with the educational/electronic games - 1989

First Grade play - The One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

Baptism Day - June 1991

Pinewood Derby - 1992

Many, many years of camping and hiking

Poor Dad was sick on the Sunday after your 12th birthday, but Grandpa was in town, so the bishop allowed your priesthood ordination to take place at home.

Camp Wolfboro - 1996

You went fishing in San Francisco Bay and caught a shark that was actually quite tasty, and your little brother's school class loved the shark-head for Show & Tell!

High School Sports - soccer, track and football

2000 - a very handsome high school senior!

2001 - Eagle Scout!

2001 - High School Graduation

2002 - Orlando Temple and grandparents

2002 to 2004 - Utah Salt Lake City South Mission

Fun times at BYU

2007 - Your 2nd BYU Graduation!

2007 - time to fall in love :)

2008 - I think you can figure this one out.

2010 - Yet another BYU Graduation - this time a double master's

2010 - Time for another 4-generation picture

2011 - You're an awesome husband and father!

2012 - and an awesome host as well.

2012 - Samuel's blessing day

2013 - All grown up, with a wonderful little family.
Enjoy all the special moments of today and the next 30 years.  We love you!!

P.S.  Just in case these weren't enough pictures, you can find more here and here!

Mother's Day

Thank you everyone for the wonderful Mother's Day!  It actually started a couple of days early when my sweetheart came home from work with these beautiful flowers.

Then we got to spend Saturday honoring my dad's birthday with a trip to the temple.  On the drive there we decided to figure out the relationship between ourselves and the family member for whom we did the work that day.  Mine was pretty simple - my great-great-grandmother's niece, or my first cousin four times removed.  Wayne's was pretty convoluted - his wife's grandmother's sister's father-in-law's half-brother's brother-in-law.  Did you follow that?  Anyway, as I've mentioned before and I'll mention again, I love my in-laws of in-laws and I'm sure Charles doesn't mind who does his temple work.

Sunday morning I came downstairs to two beautiful young ladies busily preparing muffins.
They were delicious.  We're so glad Michelle paid attention in her cooking class last semester! We had an early breakfast so we could be ready just in case the traffic cooperated and Steven was able to get to the house with the computer before we left for church.  Traffic didn't cooperate; we left home at 9:17 and Steven logged onto Skype at 9:20.  However, Elder Chatwin was able to Skype with his family, and we were just fine with our phone call in the afternoon/evening after church.  Elder Whitaker is doing great.  We appreciate his dedication and testimony.

Once again Wayne was in charge of the ward's Mother's Day gift*, and they went with the tried-and-true little box of chocolates.  This year he had the brilliant idea of getting the Priest's Quorum to help!  So, for their Mutual activity last week they assembled the boxes and cut the ribbon, then filled them and tied them and set them aside in the bishop's office.

It was a wonderful day.  We got to talk with both of our own mothers, and all of our children.  Family is precious and we're so grateful for each member of ours.  And we hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

*Just in case you're wondering, the other option that had great success in the past was an individual rose placed in a mini-vial and tied with a ribbon.**  While plants are wonderful, to a lot of women - me included - they're a source of guilt because it's just another thing to take care of, and we feel badly when they die, not to mention it's difficult to carry a plant around during two more hours of church with no available hands.  I imagine he'll be doing this again in the future, so if you have any awesome ideas feel free to pass them along!

** Be sure to place the bucket of prepared roses out of reach of small children who might decide to throw up all over them as you walk out the door to church.  Speaking from experience here - one of my more memorable Mother's Days!  

Black and Gold Jubilee

Last year SunFest was on the calendar as our "cultural activities in Palm Beach County" experience.  This year it was the Black and Gold Jubilee.  There's a bit of a difference between West Palm Beach and Belle Glade, and it was nice to be able to compare the two.  They each had plenty of booths selling arts and crafts and food, along with a stage or two for performances.  However, the difference in size meant we didn't need to spend as much time at the Jubilee.  And that was a good thing because the calendar also had stake conference on it for that day, a couple of hours away in the opposite direction.  It would have been nice to have stayed for the evening fireworks, but listening to Elder Burns was a pretty good alternative.  Anyway, here are the pictures so you can imagine being there yourself.

Welcome to Torry Island - part of Okeechobee Lake.

There were plenty of choices for lunch, and we each chose a different booth!

Which car would you choose

Definitely in a farming town!

Black stands for dirt and gold stands for corn.  We bought a box and had to count the ears of corn once we got home to make sure we got our money's worth!  We did, and it was delicious!!