Going to the Couv!

Holy Cow, I started this entry a long time ago and totally forgot to post it.  Man I'm losing it.  Anyway, it's late but it's here.

Happy Mother's day to me!!!! For Mother's day, Randy bought me tickets to Portland to hang with my sister Laurie over Memorial Day weekend.  My other sister's were going to try come down to visit for the weekend also, but 2 of them got sick the day they were suppose to leave.  But my sister Lindsay came down from Seattle to see us.  I flew out the last day of school early in the morning and got there at 9 AM.  We went to the Portland Temple and met up with a friend from college there.  We went out to lunch afterwards with her husband and kid and then went back to Lolly's and chilled the rest of the weekend.  I was able to see a few of my old neighbors, like Jennie.  She's got  5 kids, 4 of which are 9 months apart.  Craziness.   I don't know how she does it, but she has made it this far and now 4 of the five will be going to school next year, Hooray for her.  What a bunch of cuties.

We set up a time to meet at the park with some other friends and my cousin Sarah.  It was cold but didn't rain.  The Northwest was reminding me why I moved away. I don't miss this weather.  Here are some of the Schmidt girls.

My friend from High School, Sarah popped by and hung out with us for a while. 

Lindsay's friend, Annie, from high school also came with her kids.

My sis and her baby. I love his dimples.

Brad man and Tater enjoying the swing.

Grace and Tate showing me their piano skills

The kids giving loves to Auntie Lindz before she headed out.

Cole showing me his cool toys

Someone trying to be funny and taking my picture.

Getting my loves from the Collinator.

Bradley just being cute.

Classic Collin pose.  Getting ready to sing the "I love the Tiger" (really Eye of the Tiger).  I had a video clip of it, but for whatever reason I can't upload it, so it will have to wait.

Thanx Laur and Randy for setting this up.  It was really nice to get away and not have to parent and just be the fun aunt I never get to be.

Reunion; the rest of the Story

After Tahoe we headed back to P-ville for the rest of the reunion with our extended family. This is where we have had a majority of my dad's family reunions over the past years.  Now that my grandparents are both gone we aren't sure what's going to happen.  It was a great reunion though, lots of gabbing and dancing and laughing and of course eating.  Every time we get together we have amazing Bbque ribs and chicken.  It's heavenly.  Here is my dad and one of his cousins.  I love how these guys all look the same.

 Malia found "Grandpa pocket" and stuck with him like a fly on stink.

And of course posing for the camera.

Little Cole decided it would be fun to climb the tree.  He was up there before anyone saw him.  What a little Monkey. 

The infamous Sara shot.  I don't think she likes her picture being taken, too bad for her, lol.

Cousin Chris (or Jim or James, take your pick).  He looks so good right here I just had to post it.

The kids found a butterfly, not sure if it will survive after the excitement of all 20 kids, thanx little butterfly.

Tianna, Lenore and Meli right before one of their dances.

Uncle Larry and one of the cousins.

We were forced to do a skit, and so some of my sister's and me put this together really fast.  It's from SNL's Lawrence Welke show.  We made Bacon be Junice.  It is absolutely hysterical.

The little boys learned this number from Lenora.  Micah was trying so hard, it was cute.

My bros Andy and Billy used to do this skit at scout camp and then they brought it to our family reunions almost 20 years ago.  We were able to enjoy it again (substituting James for Andy) this year.  Watch as Billy gets off of his horse each time, it's awesome.

And my favorite. . ."Somewhere Over the Rainbow" preformed by my cousin Lenora with her 2 girls Meli and Tianna.  They are amazing Polynesian dancers.  Right before they danced this, Lenora dedicated it to my grandparents.  They were really the driving force behind our reunions.  Without them I don't know how much we all would have gotten together.  There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd.  Thanx Lenora for remembering my grandparents in such a beautiful way.  I wish they could have seen it.

I'm really glad we were able to go.  We had a memorial for my grandparents during the reunion and I was able to hear a lot of great stories and memories about them.  They were truly missed but it was nice that so many were able to show up and be together again.  I hope we keep it going.

Reunion; TAHOE FUN

For our vacation this year, my sister was able to secure a few rooms at a timeshare in Tahoe.  We had 3 rooms that slept 8 each.  It was so much for my sister's and brother's to hang out and have fun.  We drove a little bit around Lake Tahoe.  This is Emerald Bay.  It is gorgeous.

Alina, Kiki and Malia posing.  Malia wouldn't leave aunt Lina's "house."  I've never her seen her eat as fast as she did, so she could quickly head back over to their room.

Bacon and Tate.

Shauna acting like she doesn't like me taking her pic while eating ice cream.

We headed down to Round Hill Beach and spent a day chillin by the lake.  The water was pretty cold, but it was really warm out and we had fun anyways.  Here's Malia, Morgan and Preston hanging out on the beach.

Micah really liked to dig and dig.

Morgan and Preston kept asking us to bury them . . . so we did

Morgan really wanted to be buried.

The guys trying to be brave and get in the water.

Billy Alina and Kiki enjoying the water while Kiki let them.

McKenzie pretty much spent the whole time in the water.

Malia (with her suit falling off) and Ella filling up the basket full of holes.

Lindsay, cousin Chris and Shauna soaking up some rays.

Bacon and I hamming it up for the camera.

Tater trying not to fry.

And in the end, the kids were a bit pooped.  They slept pretty good that night.

And a quick pic for good measure of me and Randy above Emerald Bay.

My Grandma

This may be a little disorganized and may sound rambled.  I'm still a little in a state of shock and mourning.  But I feel I need to get this out now, so that I don't forget my thoughts and feelings.  I just found out my grandma passed away yesterday afternoon (July 15 2010).  We all knew it was coming, just not sure how soon it would happen.  She became sick about 1 1/2 years ago and we thought she was going to go then.  But then she pulled through and has kept kicking until about a week ago. When she went back in the hospital, my dad flew out and was able to be with her for almost a week.  One of my cousins even dropped everything she was doing to drive over 600 miles to help take care of her.  She made it just in time (even after having car problems) to spend 2 hours with her before she passed. 

Things I love about my Grandma

*She would drop everything when one of her kids needed her and so her kids.  Every time my mom had another kid (which was nine times), grandma was always there, ready to take care of her and us. 

* I remember having so much fun with her.  She was a very happy person to be around.  She would rarely get mad at us, but when she did, you knew that you had disappointed her and never wanted to feel that way again. 

*She brought the best out in us.  She made you feel like you were her favorite.  I have talked to my family and they all say the same. "I just always felt that she loved me most.," because she did, she really loved everyone. 

*She remembered everything, she always had hilarious stories to tell us about when we were kids, and even when she was a kid.  

*We always had family reunions at her house, and even though I'm sure it was a pain for her, she never complained or made you feel like it was so inconvenient for her to host.  She loved us getting together and we loved being with her. 

I've had 2 other grandparents die over the past few years, but this has been the hardest.  All I can do is cry, and when I think I am done crying, the waterworks start again.  I have faith there is something else than this time we have on earth and I know that I will get to see her again, but it is still hard to say goodbye, especially since I haven't seen her in over a year and it was so close to seeing her again.  I'm grateful she is not suffering anymore and that she died the way she wanted and that so many were able to be with her during her last hours.  Today has been hard, I don't want to leave my bed, I don' want to take a shower, my poor kids have been neglected all day and all Randy wants me to do is to smile.  But it hurts to smile.  It hurts to do anything remotely human.  I've been watching TV pretty much all day, except when I've talked to my sister on the phone, because as long as there's noise and something else for me to focus on, I'm ok, but when I'm by myself, I just can't help it.  The flood of emotions just come right back.  I know this to shall pass, I just need a day of feeling sorry for myself before I move on, and move on I will.

Grandma, I love you, and I miss you so much.  May you rest in peace.

Proud to be an American

The Fourth of July landed on a Sunday this year, and living in Utah we've had a whole new experience with celebrating our nations Independence Day.  Everything happened on Saturday and Monday (since Mon. was the Federal Holiday) which was really weird for me.  We did a lot of stuff on Saturday but the rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful.  We totally forgot to watch the fireworks on TV for Boston and DC, which I'm bummed about since we were actually home.  Oh well.  We still had a fun filled day. 

We woke up before 8 and went to our ward's annual Scout Breakfast.  The food was amazing, the kids had fun and even though it was very early, it was worth it. We went shopping for a few things and then came home and did this to Micah. . .

Not really but he did get completely buzzed.  Randy seriously considered leaving the tuft up front, but I put mommy law into effect.   The rest of the day we were getting ready for the big shindig we were invited to at Randy's cousin's house in PG.  Their neighborhood pretty much blocks off their street for a water fight, bbque and fireworks.

Malia really got into it. . . that was until she realized that people will get her wet.

I even got in on the action. . . sort of

Micah didn't like getting wet either, which doesn't make sense since he's a fish.

A cute shot of the girls.

Eeah gave up on the big guns and went for a cup instead. . . that we filled with the big guns.

Morgie with our cousin Jess, she's gonna be a heartbreaker in a few years.

Our hostest, Andrea, took a few shots of us, I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Andrea wanted to have proof that she was at this party so she had people take pictures of her with different people.  I was one of them, gotta love it. (oh BTW some of these shots are hers, thanx so much Andrea).

After the bbque, eating blue cake and waiting for it to get dark enough for fireworks.

Malia really loved the red, white and blue cake.  I honestly don't know how many pieces she snagged.

Morgan showing off her new toothless smile.

Pooped Mac waiting for more fun.

More waiing, can you see the excitement in his face?

Randy was there I have proof.

There was an amazing sunset that we couldn't resist taking shots of.

It looked like fire on the horizon.

Then the fireworks came.  Andrea's house was in a perfect shot of PG's fireworks.

I am soo proud to be living in this country and am grateful to those man and women who fought for our freedoms.  The week before the 4th, my little brother Andy was deployed to Iraq for a year.  It's been hard on all of us, especially his family.  We pray for his safe return as well as all of the servicemen and women over there.  Thanx for all you.  You are amazing, courageous people.  We love you!!!