THE WEDDING: So fun getting to see people you haven't seen in nearly twenty years. The boy who got married had been Tanner's friend when we lived in Douglas. His father had been our Bishop and his wife and I had been good friends. Christmas card giving is a beautiful thing, it really has kept me connected to my past, gives to me in my present, and promises the future. I try hard to do it every year. If I miss a year, I have hardly missed the next. I'm grateful for that. Pictures are great, but getting to really see them was fun. And to be quite honest, we adults hardly ever send pictures of ourselves, only our kids. Anyway it was fab to see Lisa and Dave, and their grown children. Michael, their son was 4 and Tanner 5 when they moved away. Michael had no idea who we were, or Tanner for that matter. But Me, Bryan, Lisa, and Dave sat and visited at the end of the reception, so fun to catch up. They are living quite the adventure, currently they are living in Russia. Dave works for our church handling the temporal affairs of the church in that region. Before that it was Africa. They maintain a home here, but are only here a couple of months out of the year. Their children have been schooled in Africa and Russia.
FAMILY VISITS: Need I say more!
CAMPS: Morgan from Casper came and stayed with us for a week and the boys went to EFY. Especially For Youth, a Church program for our youth. They had a blast! After that Conner went to a Football Kicking Camp, we are set to go again at the end of this week.
Conner goofing off at the Scottish Highland Festival at Thanksgiving Point---a stop on our way to take Morgan to his Aunts House in Lehi.
OUR YARD: Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have planted and planted and planted some more. It's been a lot of work. Our grass is slowly but surely making it's way. I honestly think that next year will be the treasure trove. I love flowers and flowers in containers, so I have a lot of those. My favorite find was at Wal-mart, they had begun to mark down. I got beautiful flower containers for $3.oo, yes I said $3.00, you cannot believe how pretty they are, I took them all!!!!!!!!!No Surprise.
I have to tell you about the rocks! I wanted just 2---one for each burm. So I went looking, I wanted fairly flat nice looking rocks---here you have to buy them. Crazy, anyway, you have your local excavating companies, but they think your nuts if you don't want a truck load. However, there are those people here that are always industrious, usually local contractors, who happen upon rocks in their work and then turn around and try and sell them. So it was that me and Bryan, driving around looking for 4-wheelin spots happened upon a pile of rocks in front of someone's house with the proverbial rocks for sale sign. You guessed it 2 beautiful flat rocks loomed before me. Only kids at home, so they gave us their fathers cell phone #. If you can lift them, you can have them for $20 a piece, a bargain for sure. I told Bryan we for sure have to lift them. It about killed him and the young boy the father sent out to help. The second one the boy decided he needed the fork-lifter cat. But, he still sold it to us for $20. However, when we got home, we still had to get those darn rocks into the flower beds. Bryan sustained a large scrap on his shin and Conner totally smashed his finger, (it turned black, not much blue going on), so there I was trying to help Bryan, we did it, but 3 days later I'm still feeling it in my hips and back. Poor Bryan and Conner, it was truly one of the scariest, probably not the brightest ideas I've had, but boy do my 2 rocks look great in my burms.
CHICAGO: My sister Pam pleaded, practically begged me to come to Chicago for a visit. SO I told her I would if I could find cheap airline tickets---guess what they were only $130.00 each. Unbelievable, we had to go! So we went, it was nice. She and her husband just built a new home complete with swimming pool. It really looks like a resort, so we just hung out and relaxed. I think Bryan really needed it to. Conner got to hang out with his cousins, one of which is driving, so they were off. They went shopping, you know its the driving, because Conner hates shopping.
A Hiccup in our trip---we get to the Denver airport---that's where we flew out from, and Bryan has no drivers license. He had this green sick look on his face and one of the airport people asked what was wrong, so Bryan told them. Oh just go over there and they'll take care of you. So here Bryan is in the holding area, waiting to see his and our fate. The funniest part was when the guy comes over , he snaps on gloves. Conner's eyes get really wide and he goes, oh no, I think they give you a full body cavity search Dad!!! Actually just a background check and a lot of waiting, but they let us fly. Bryan remembered that he had left his license at the impact gun place when him and Conner had gone shooting. They overnighted it to us in Chicago, so it was much easier getting back. Ever wonder what would happen if you lost your license while on vacation?
MY TWO BOYS___________________________________________
TANNER&DENVER: Got to see where Tanner works, quite a set-up. He really enjoys it. The people he works with and the variation of his duties. Got to see where his school is, Personal Training School, 3 months left. He's hoping to get hired by some sports club, he is loving that too! So all is good with him. He moved, so we checked that out. Made him go garage sale-ing with me, he thinks I have a problem! But we got a great shop-vac which he totally wanted and a barbecue grill, they were wonderful finds. As a family we went to Heritage Square, rode the Alpine Slide, go-carts, the boys got fake tatoos', Conner wanted it so bad, so Tanner did one with him. We had a really nice visit, saw Cynthia's new house. It was the year of new houses for everyone, got to see them all too, what's better than that?
