A 4 Day Whirlwind Trip to Utah

Thursday, March 24th, Cadie, my mom and I went up to Utah together to see Gavin's performance with the BYU Men's Chorus. The long drive was lots of fun with all the fun talk and Broadway music.

When we got to Provo mom took Gavin's car and headed off to the William's for the night. Cadie and I went to the Bytheway's.

We arrived just in time to see the Cougars' final basketball game, so sad. Then we went out to Zuppa's for delicious soup and salad with Kim. We spent the rest of the evening visiting and stayed up too late, of course.

These two adorable monkeys kept Cadie and I entertained, especially Cadie. She has a way with little ones. The big kids were at school so we didn't see much of them this time.

The day surprised us with snow. It was gorgeous and luckily did not cause us any difficulties with driving.

We went to lunch at Mimi's with some of Kim's family to celebrate some birthdays. I love this family. They are easy to be with and lots of fun.

It is always hard to leave. Kim is a kindred spirit. I could talk with her forever. Thanks for having us over for the night. It was a delight!

Provo was beautiful with fresh snow and fog on the mountains. Cadie and I agreed that it was great to visit, but we like warm and sunny AZ.

We met up with Mom and the 3 of us stayed with Richard's Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Randy. I am sad that I didn't get a picture of them this trip. They are two of the most hospitable and enjoyable people I know. They are always smiling and fun to be around. Uncle Randy loves to tease and fooled me at least a couple of times.

Friday night, Mom went to Gavin's concert. She is an awesome mom, attending both of his concerts. If only we had known how good it was going to be, we would have seen it twice too. It was that good. Then we met up at Gav's apartment for some silliness and yummy chicken quesadillas.... mmmmm. We got back to Marilyn and Randy's by midnight, my mom went to bed and Cadie and I tried to sleep, but mostly had fun talking until 3am. CRAZY!

We slept in a bit and got over to Gavin's about 10:30, we were suppose to be there at 9... oops, sorry. He was waiting for us to make us biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We had eaten already, so he graciously made them later for lunch.

We went over to the apartment club house and did our thing, singing around the piano. I never get tire of it. Mom relaxed on the sofa while we belted away.

Gav made lunch and we watched "What's Up Doc?" one of my favorite movies ever. So funny!

We went to the matinée concert. It was FABULOUS!!! They sounded amazing and had such personality. They sang everything, Latin, love songs, hymns, crazy animal songs (SO FUNNY!), and songs from China, New Zealand (Maori), Scotland and Hungary. We loved it.

Gavin looked handsome in his choir suit and Mom looked so pretty with her hair all curled. Seriously, she is pretty much the cutest mom ever! I love all these shots of the two of them.

We went back to Gavin's and ate Cafe Rio until we were literally all a bit sick; not Cafe Rio's fault except that it tasted so good and we ate too much. We spent the evening playing cards (some with his very nice roommate Dave) laughing and watching goofy video clips. The evening went too fast. It was a wonderful day.

Cadie and I had no problems falling right to sleep. We were all exhausted and our tummies were still not feeling well.

Sunday, we said goodbye to Marilyn and Randy. Thank you so much for letting us stay with you both. Then we got on the road. We stopped for Sacrament meeting in Nephi and then drove on home listening to conference talks and beautiful music. It was great to talk about spiritual things together and enjoy the company. I love my Mom and Cadie! I hope we get to go on another trip together. It was nice to get away for a few days, but great to get back home to all my cuties and my own bed. I really LOVE my bed.

I am grateful to my darling, sweet, wonderful husband for making this trip possible. He took over all the home operations beautifully, even a surprise/forgotten camp out for the big boys. He is the best.

Who Looks Like Grammy Ely?

Little Laney Harden

aka Franki Ely

Turning 2

Japan about 5 years old

Still Japan

I can see a lot of family resemblances, mostly with the grandkids. What do you see?

We have another eagle in the family!

Tim is now our resident eagle. He tried out and now gets to be the school mascot! He is great at it. He plays around with the crowd, does great with the cheer team at half time and even teases the ref. We are so proud of him!

It was great to have some of the Youngs and Gram and Papa come to see him do his stuff. The kids had fun being silly with the eagle.

GO EAGLES!!!!

Killer Dog Attack

Sam was over at a friends house the other night and they got creative. They made this hilarious movie about Missy, the killer dog!

Check it out!

MISSY

Buried Alive

I would never do this. Maybe I am no fun, but I just don't like the idea of being buried in sand. The kids and Richard, however, think it is amazing fun. I did thoroughly enjoy watching.

Susanna tried to help bury Josh, but the only thing left unburied was his face. She put a hand shovel full of sand right in his eyes. Poor guy!

I think the scary part was that none of them could get out with out help. They were all buried to deep and sand is heavy. Several of them have been buried again since then, but not Josh. He said he would never be buried again.

Knitting Queen

Sara and I learned how to knit this weekend. We had some great mom and daughter bonding being "Grannies" as Sara proudly called us. I was surprised at how fast she caught on to it. This is her first masterpiece, a small blanket for the girls dollies. It is very lacy looking because she was learning with large knitting needles and had very thin yarn. She is so proud and so am I!

Zanna's First French Braids

It was a Saturday night, I was braiding Sara and Laney's hair so it would be pretty and wavy for church the next morning. Susanna wanted to have her's braided too. Her hair is still pretty short and still the fine baby hair so I wasn't sure if it would work out. She sat super still and was very patient and VOILA it turned out really cute!

Of course the next morning when we unbraided the big girls hair theirs turned out beautiful. Zanna's had fallen out partially and the other part was crazy and kinky. Needless to say, we wet it down and started over. She had pretty curls instead.