Although it was with heavy hearts that many of us traveled to Etna this past summer, it was such a blessing to leave behind for a short time the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives and come together as a family to honor the life of Robert and share our love for him and his family and each other.
Our family is so excited for the Family Reunion Summer 2013! I think our children are the most excited to see all their cousins. This past year we actually did not do much traveling, and we even stayed in Arizona this time for our summer vacation. We took a trip to Canyon Lake near Phoenix. Canyon Lake is hands down one of the most beautiful lakes we have ever been to, but we made the mistake of going in June. Every day we camped there it hit about 110 degrees. I've never been camping before where you sleep on top of all your blankets and sleeping bags, and Laurie managed to burn her legs pretty badly. Aside from the heat we had a blast. We went with some friends and rented some jet skis and cruised all over the lake. CJ only got pulled over by the sheriff once! One night we used flashlights to fish for crawdads with the kids. We caught about 50 of them and had boiled crawdads dipped in butter for dinner. We are definitely going there again. (By the way Jimmy, Bob and Larry, CJ had a trophy bass on the line but lost it when some waves almost swamped the rowboat.
We lost CJ's coworker and friend Nick Ivie in October and CJ was sent by the Border Patrol to Utah to attend Nick's funeral. While he was there he got to spend lots of time with Camille and they also managed to surprise Jimmy and Stacy with a visit. While CJ was gone, Laurie and the kids went to Albuquerque and Santa Fe to get away from the sadness at the loss of Nick. They got to see the world famous Balloon Fiesta, the undisputed favorite balloon was Spider Pig. It was a quick trip but lots of fun, we definitely want to go back soon!
Before Thanksgiving we drove to Phoenix to see Jim and Lisa and their family who were in town for Jim's Ironman race (brave, brave man!). We had a blast going to a huge park/railroad museum where the kids all got to play with each other. Mercy and Allison hit it off the most, and Mercy actually cried when we had to leave. At night we went swimming and had a bbq. It was such a cool time with the cousins, getting all caught up since we don't get to Utah very often!
Our only other trip was to Nevada City, CA for Christmas. It had been six years since we last went there for Christmas. It snowed on Christmas Day so the kids all got to play in the snow, Quinn got to see it for the first time ever but CJ accidentally hit her with a snowball meant for Damien. Trevor and the adults went to see Les Miserables while Damien watched the kids. We also got to watch Trevor play basketball for the high school team at a tournament in Sacramento. He is getting pretty good. We're all excited to hopefully go back for another Christmas.
Now a little bit about what's going on with all our family.
CJ and Laurie - just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in August. We were able to leave the kids with Laurie's mom for a night and go to Phoenix. Nothing fancy but we went to a session at the Mesa Temple and went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I gave Laurie a new right since I was a broke college kid when I first asked her to marry me. I think I got her first ring in one of the quarter machines in Walmart...
CJ has been with the Border Patrol going on 7 years now. He tells everyone it is the best job in the world - there just needs to be a border in Star Valley so we can live there!
Laurie is still the treasurer at Jameson's preschool. She gets really stressed out but is really good at it. CJ and Laurie are co-Sunday School teachers at church for the 14-15 year olds. What a sweet calling we have!
Mercy - was baptized this year in August. She was so happy and beautiful in her new white dress, and Newell, Sally, Trevor and Damien all flew out for the occasion. Mercy also flew all by herself this summer to California to visit grandma and grandpa in Nevada City. She did all kinds of fun activities for two weeks like going to the lake and river and making lots of crafts. She's also going to Washington DC for spring break with Laurie's mom and is so excited to see the Lincoln Memorial as well as all the other historical sites and museums. Mercy is an honor roll student in school and had a great year in soccer. She plays a defensive back and her team made it to the playoffs. After taking the fall off from ballet, she's started again for the winter/spring classes. She has to work harder at ballet than at soccer, but she loves her classmates.
Porter - is 6. He also did really well in soccer, his team on the other hand was 1-11. Porter had goals in half their games, including the only game they won. He was disappointed in his season but he learned a lot about fighting through adversity. Porter also excelled in t-ball and this year he'll be in coach pitch. He's nervous but he's been practicing with CJ and he's pretty good! He's doing great in school just like Mercy and loves to race around playing tag with his friends at recess.
Jameson - is 5. He started Pre-Kindergarten at the preschool. All the kids want to play with him and he's doing great at schoolwork, but he sometimes gets in trouble for talking too much because, he says, "my friends are talking to me and I have to answer them." He's still the most stubborn of the children but he's also started reading already, so he really is his mother's child. Jameson doesn't have a whole lot of interest in sports yet but he can beat most of us at video games.
Quinn - is almost 2. She is always smiling and talking and laughing. Her favorite things are Cinderella and Princess Sophia, the new Disney princess TV show, but she can name every single Disney princess you put in front of her. She has a blanket she's attached to so we bought her a second back up blanket just in case, but now she won't go anywhere without BOTH the blankets. Kind of back fired on us, but she's so cute and we love her so much.
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