Summer Vacation?

One week before we were to leave on our three week California/Utah excursion, I found out I was pregnant. Even though I was exhausted and throwing up daily, we still sojourned the 24 hrs. to California with only one trip to the Emergency Room after having a reaction to the anti-nausea medicine I was taking.

Ken and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves, but don’t let my smiles fool you…I was miserable.

We stayed with my Aunt Della who lives about 15 miles south of Disneyland. It was so nice to visit with her, be in a home atmosphere and not have to pay for a hotel. The boys especially loved helping Aunt Della water all her hundreds of plants outside.

My cousin is a storyboard artist for Disney and he was able to get our whole family in for free. We saved hundreds of dollars! Thanks Mark!

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, Cameron was running around the Donald Duck boat in Toon Town , tripped and fell and this is what happened (I hope this doesn’t make you queasy):

They whisked us off in the ambulance for yet another trip to the Emergency Room. Four hours later, a very brave Cameron was all stitched up.

The next day, we got another free day at Disneyland (I guess so we wouldn’t sue them).

We also went to the beach a few times and the boys loved to body surf, build sand castles, catch sand crabs, and boogie board (Wes especially loved the beach—he would definitely be a beach bum if we lived in California). I was surprised how freezing the water was and how cool the temperature was at the beach. I am such a Texan now; I can barely stand weather under 80 degrees.

Then we were off to Utah! After several throw ups and one flat tire, we finally made it to Ken’s sister’s house in Alpine, Utah in way over the 10 hours it was supposed to take. We had fun visiting with the Alpine crew and Grandpa Crow even took the boys out on his fishing boat a few times (but never came back with any fish…Oh well, I would have puked at the smell).

We had a great time at a Family Reunion for my mom’s side of the family. She has 9 brothers and sisters (including her) and with all their children and grandchildren, there were a lot of people. We stayed up at a camp in Heber that the church owns. It had nice cabins to sleep in (which is nice since I am not much of a camper) and great kitchen facilities.

We got to ride canoes and paddle boats on a lake and do a challenge course which included this zip line:

We even got to interact with wildlife. There were ground squirrels everywhere that would eat from our hands and we even saw several deer (but no bears...darn:)

Since the whole family was in Utah, my sister’s family decided to have Nikolas’ blessing while we were there. With all that Nikolas has been through in his life already ( he has a chromosome disorder), it was a very emotional blessing. Kim (Nikolas’ dad) did a beautiful job and Nikolas has really thrived since he received his blessing. Here is a picture of him on his blessing day:

The boys got to go and play with their cousins Troy and Conner at a “water park” (the water just comes out of holes in the ground) in downtown SLC. We can tell Troy definitely had fun:

Nanny (my mom) offered to drive the 20 hours home to Texas with Ken and the boys so that I could fly home in only 2 ½ hours (much less throwing up). It was just me and my dad for a few days (which was kind of fun) and then I met them down in Texas. Nanny ended up staying with us for about a week and cleaned our house and took care of the boys. Thanks Nanny!!

Ken and the boys enjoying a nice swim on a hot summer day (Wesley is waving from under the water).

Ken’s family went to Europe for a few weeks, so we got to babysit their dog Nicole. The boys loved it, especially Carter:

We had a small party for Carter’s 3^rd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. He loved it!

Wesley got very inspired by watching the Incredible Hulk previews. This happened in a brief two minutes when I went inside to check on the other kids. Yes…he’s tough, yes…he’s scary, and yes…he is green! We don’t like to make him angry!

Catching Up on a few things

Cameron finished his year at LCS (Lewisville Christian School) Preschool with a bang. He received an attendance award, the bible verse (memorizing a bible verse a month) award, and the “best friend” award for his class. His teacher said that he was always a friend to everyone. He is our little social guy! The school had a final performance and Cameron just sung his heart out!

Ella Mackillop (one of his best friends from church) and Cameron were in the same class this year (and the two years before when we did co-op preschools) . They will miss each other next year when they each go to separate Kindergartens.

Wesley was in a cub scout troop this year through his school. Ken was the cubmaster and so they had a lot of fun together. He is one requirement away from being a Tiger Scout—he will get it soon! We are going to take a break from Scouts for the fall and then start up when Wesley turns eight in January doing scouts through the church.

Both Wesley and Cameron(we just forgot to take the camera to Cameron’s end of the season party) finished another season of soccer. They are really improving and are huge contributors to their teams. Cameron is on the THUNDER and Wesley in on the ROCKETS.

Seminary was a huge responsibility this past school year. I had to get up every morning at 5:00 a.m. to be at the church and ready to teach by 6:00 a.m. It was extremely challenging, but very rewarding. I enjoyed getting to know each of the students, their talents and abilities, and to see them progress in the gospel.

Here is a picture of me and most of my class (a few had already left) on the last day of seminary (we had a breakfast/party). I finished teaching on Friday, May 23^rd and on Sunday, May 25^th I was in the Bishop’s office getting called to be the new Primary President. Well, no rest! I am grateful that I can serve and humbled that the Lord trusts me to teach and lead His children.

Seminary graduation was on June 2^nd and because of our latest Stake split, four of my students graduated in the Carrollton Stake and 11 in the Lewisville Stake. The Stake Centers are fairly close to each other, so I spent some time at both graduations.

I am so proud of all of them for sticking with seminary for four whole years. When I was a teenager, I went to seminary during the school day across the street from my High School every day for one of my class periods. It was easy for me to graduate. These students really had to sacrifice! I only had to teach for one year; I can’t imagine attending for four at 6:00 a.m. Below is my sister-in-law Sara. She also graduated this year in the stake, although she wasn't in my class.

My sister Leslie’s baby Nikolas (who was 3 months old in this picture) has had several health issues since birth. They finally had to take him to a Children’s Hospital in Austin, Tx (a few hours away from home—College Station) to get some more testing done. They found out that he is in stage 4 (there are only 5 stages) kidney failure. So after lots of blood draws, a few surgeries, several medications, and two blood transfusions he is doing better and about ready to go home. I went down there and stayed with them at the Ronald McDonald House right next to the hospital for a few days. I brought Conner (my sister’s 2 ½ year old) home with me since he was going stir crazy in the hospital. The hospital is very child friendly with playgrounds, play rooms, libraries, etc. but still an active 2 ½ year old cannot last long in a hospital without going a little crazy. It has been fun to have the little guy. He is so happy, well-behaved and enthusiastic.

As you can see, our boys had so much fun together they played until they were exhausted.

We also watched a dog (Dutchess) for a friend of mine. She is actually a great friend and my visiting teaching companion. Dutchess (a mix between a poodle and a schaenzer) is still a puppy, so she was full of energy and loved to be around the boys. The boys really took good care of her and loved playing with her. But no, we (or at least “I”) are not ready for a dog yet.

San Antonio Fun

We met the Beam family (Wendy's sister) in San Antonio for a weekend. We did the two-day Sea World experience with 5 boys age 7 and younger. It was almost 100 degrees with some insane percentage of humidity, but we still had fun as long as we stayed wet.

Some of the highlights were feeding the dolphins, getting splashed by Shamu, going on the log flume ride, and playing at the Lost Lagoon (the water park inside Sea World).

On Sunday, we went to a ward meeting that was close to the San Antonio temple so that we could go and visit the grounds.

Unfortunately the grounds were locked, but...

this wasn't going to stop our boys from getting in! Luckily, we caught them before they made it over.

We stopped by the River Walk before heading home and barely managed to keep our boys...

out of the water!

We also stopped by the Alamo where the sun was obviously very bright!

Although it was hot in San Antonio, at least we didn't get rain...until we got home!

We're Baaack!

We finally did something that we could not help but make a blog post about it. Ken and I went to JAMAICA for a long weekend and stayed in an adult only all inclusive resort called Sandals Whitehouse for our anniversary. When we were planning what to do for our anniversary, we talked about going to stay in a Bed and Breakfast somewhere here in Texas. He told me he would start looking around at some good B&B’s in the area. About a month before our anniversary, Ken sent me an e-mail with a link of a place that he thought would be nice to stay. I clicked on the link (of course thinking some quaint little B&B was going to pop up) and immediately knew that this place was not in Texas!! It was a wonderful surprise.

The trip was absolutely amazing! We recommend every married couple to take some time away (find a great deal—like we did) and spend some time together nurturing your relationship at an adult only all inclusive resort somewhere in the Caribbean.

We were able to water ski, snorkel, sail a boat, canoe, swim in the ocean and the pool, play beach and pool volleyball, learn Jamaican dances, relax in a hammock on the beach, eat gourmet, delicious, and artistic food at the 7 restaurants on the resort, and enjoy live Jamaican entertainment every night (although we were sick of Bob Marley songs after the first couple of days). No, we are not getting paid to be an advertiser for this resort, it was just that great! Oh, I forgot to mention the nice rooms and the gorgeous scenery!

All drinks were free as well! The resort had wet bars attached to all the swimming pools, so you would just swim on up and ask for a drink. I think we were the only ones that did not drink alcohol, so unlike most people there we remember our whole vacation. However, we sure did take advantage of the virgin pina coladas and the fresh pineapple juice. We are still craving the pineapple juice—my mouth is watering as I am typing.

All the Jamaicans that worked at the resort were very gracious and kind with beautiful accents (kind of like an English accent with their own flair). I felt like a princess because they all addressed me as either “my lady” or “madame.” They are laid back and never seem to be in a hurry (no stress in Jamaica)! They really do say “Yah, Man” and “No Problem” all the time. Ken and I were even saying these phrases by the time we left.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was the bus ride from the airport to the resort. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there. Jamaicans drive on the wrong side of the road (in our USA opinion) and their steering wheels are on the wrong side too! This took some getting used to especially since 95% of the time we were speeding (literally going extremely fast) on a very narrow and curvy two-way mountain road with pot holes and bumps everywhere.

I wish we would have taken some pictures, but we were so tired and pre-occupied with the safety of our lives. The driver kept assuring us, “No problem my friends, I have driven this bus for 10 years without any accidents.” I was truly amazed that we got to the resort in one piece.

On this road, we were able to see the real Jamaica. It was neat to see all the different tropical trees, flowers, and plants . It was sad to see all the poverty! We saw hundreds of tin, cement, or wood shacks as homes. Goats and cows walk around freely and just about as many bars (really just one-room shacks) as homes. Most of what we saw was very poor and there were a few very wealthy areas, but not much in between. It made me feel a little guilty that we were going to an incredible resort when most of the people lived in such poor conditions. But I got over it! J

Click on the link to see more pictures of our tropical get-a-way! (included are a few pictures of our trip to Dallas World Aquarium, visiting College Station for spring break where my sister and her family live, and attending a musical, Beauty and the Beast). Enjoy!!

Spring 2008