Kenny Turns Five!

We had a fun day in Las Vegas on November 2nd to celebrate Kenny's fifth birthday.

We drove down (two hour drive) in the morning to be at Jaron and Sonora's soccer game.  They are the two looking at us.

Coaches, our nephew, Jared and Brian

A fun tradition at the end is that the parents form a congratulations tunnel for the kids to go through.

First cousins once removed: Sonora and Jaron

The team.  They had a great season.  I think 1 loss, 1 tie, and the rest were wins.

The birthday boy

Heavy, heavy hang over thy poor head.

Party attenders: Jared and Anepo and their girls came, too.

He was excited about our gift.

This precious little guy is one of a kind.

Brian got the hot wheels track set up.

When Kenny gets excited he waves his arms and jumps up and down.  I took a bunch of pictures trying to catch him in the air.

Jaron and Gabbi made party favor bags for everyone.

Jared and Ken

Here's a little video of the jumping.

We love you, Kenny!

Sisters Weekend

October 24th- 27th we had a sisters' retreat at Patty's in Elk Ridge.  It was wonderful to be together.

My Three Beautiful Sisters:  Joan, Patty, and Pam

We all arrived on Thursday and had a nice dinner together that evening.  Cindy, Pam, Patty, Hal, Joan, Me, and John.  Whitney (Joan's daughter) was taking the picture.  

John is so proud of the steaks he barbecued.  And they were delicious.  Everything was!  That cheeseball!

We loved sitting around and chatting in Patty's beautiful home.

Friday morning, Hal and John left for St. George for a golf retreat with Roger and Ken.  We went to the Provo temple and did endowments for five of our ancestors (three of them were sisters)

We then went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant.  It was so delicious.  We then went shopping at three stores in the Provo/ Orem area including my favorite, Trader Joes

Friday morning, we went to Salt Lake and went to mecca aka Stein Mart.  Love Stein Mart.  I got five shirts and a dress for about $80.  Everybody found something, I think.

We then visited our Aunt Gary and cousin Randee who are in an assisted living center in South Jordan.  Gary is a family historian and returned a lot of our family photos.  This one is one I had never seen.  I should do a post of the old family pictures we recovered from her.

Joan, Me, Pam, Gary, Randee, and Patty

Then I took the picture and Cindy got in it.  We had such a nice visit in their apartment.

Hal and John got back Saturday night.
We woke up to snow on Sunday morning.  Oh my.  And it snowed and snowed and snowed.  We went to Patty and Hal's ward, then had a delicious ham dinner.  Then the Idaho family left, and I left alone to head the other way. I had to sweep over a foot of snow off of my car.  I don't even own a car scraper!1  It was still snowing when I left.   But when I got down to the freeway it was pretty clear, and beyond Nephi, no snow at all.  Pam stayed because Roger came up on Monday and they went on to visit Roger's mom and their daughter.

It was a delightful weekend spent with family!

The Other Side of Heaven 2

"Well done,BYUtv"  Ken said as we left the movie theater.  And he was right.  This movie was remarkably well done.  And it is a powerful story. The movie is based on Elder Groeberg and his wife's experience serving in the islands as mission president. This was a good family movie. I am hoping that some of the scenes were dramatized a bit, and that some of the decisions made were not REALLY made in real life (like the decision to take his whole family on that open boat and then to let his daughter ride on the barge that was being towed.)  Ahhh!

To see other movies and shows we liked, click here.

A Concert by William

We came home from Salt Lake after attending church in a local ward.  We prepared dinner for the Princes who stopped on their way home from SLC a few hours later.  

On Saturday I had asked William to sing a song for me.  He didn't at the time ( and this often happens with William) but he didn't forget the request.  After dinner, he stood up on his chair and put on a full concert for us.  Here are some of the songs:

How we love our little William.

A Very Special Gift

We went to church in SLC on Sunday

 and then hurried home for a rehearsal that was to be held at my house at 5:00pm.  Michelle and Brian came a little later and stopped for dinner.  After dinner, Gabbi presented me with a very special gift.  She had been working for months, making me a quilt.

Isn't it beautiful?

How I love this precious girl.  She is such a thoughtful gift-giver.