mostly caught up!

Although, I have only managed to catch my blog up to the end of July, I am mostly caught up..I need to get busy and finish the rest. I looked back over the years that I have been blogging and I realized a few things, nothing could have prepared me for what has happened in my life in the last few years...nothing! And I realize how blessed I am that I am able to spend my life with such a beautiful family. Life isn't easy, but sometimes we just have to work hard to push through the bad and the hard...then we can see the beauty that God has given and learn to love what we have and not what we expected!

Paityn Capri

I drove the 12 hours around the Grand Canyon and arrived at the Hospital about 30 minutes before Paityn was born. I felt so blessed to be there for Jon and Renee. Paityn Capri was born on July 21, 2011 in the wee hours of the morning. Renee's water broke 2 weeks early. She weighed 8 lbs and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Sleep over! July 20, 2011

Paige was so cute, that I couldn't resist posting these pictures of her! We had planned with Saundra for her to bring the kids down so that we could have a sleepover and the kids could all play, then the next day we were going to head over to wheeler Farms to take pictures of all the kids. We took pictures of the first morning...after breakfast we were going to head over to take pictures and allow the kids to see the farm animals. This is always a fun time for the kids!! However, our day got interrupted and I had to jet (drive fast) down to Phoenix Arizona for the birth of my 10th grandbaby. My youngest son and his wife were having a baby! So, we never made it to Wheeler Farms! We'll have to do that when we go back again!

This is a picture of all nine of my grandchildren at this point ages 10-6 months. They are all so sweet! Pure love I tell ya!

Garder Village July 19,, 2011

I had never been to Gardner Village even though I had lived in Utah for 13 years. So I told Laura this was one of the things I wanted to do this trip. The day we went it rained on us. But I realized this was NOT a place to bring kids and it was pricey! Therefore, I have decided it was one of those places you see once and thats enough.

July 18th Hogle Zoo

We went to Hogle Zoo the kids had a great time, but it was HOT, HOT, HOT that day. So we left before we had wanted to just because we were dying! We tried taking pictures at all the favorite places, but this day the pictures were not working and we took lots of shots! Oh well, the kids had fun!

July 14, 2011 Paiges Half Birthday

We got to Utah just in time for Paiges 6 month birthday party or half birthday as Laura calls it. I've never heard of anyone throwing half birthdays but Laura does. Laura loves a good party and what better time to do it then for her children. We had a great time, our best friends Rhonda and Ted were there, and Laura's in-laws, and some friends of Laura's and Waynes. I have a few pictures of after the party of Paige eating. She looks just like her daddy!

July 14th Utah here we come!

Unfortunately, the road to Utah was filled with a lot of nothing, I did these pictures in reverse on accident so the Nevada side is at the bottom and these at the top are Utah.

Ah the Salt Flats! We just crossed over into Utah!

Aubrey had control over the camera the whole trip, she was a back seat camera woman!

We could not wait to get out of Reno, it was just not our town! We were anxious to get to Utah the last leg of our trip before we went home. There is a whole lot of nothing between Nevada and Utah!

Reno July 13, 2011

This is where we stayed 18 years ago with our sweet dog Mandy!

I suppose I should say WHY "I" wanted to go to Circus Circus first and then I'll tell you about our trip there. Years ago, Loren and I took our children there when they were young. Matthew was only in 6th grade, Danielle 5th, Laura 3 and Jon was in the 2nd grade. We were on our way from Hawaii to Utah where we were moving. We stopped in Reno because thats as far as we could get at 9 pm. we could not stay in the hotel because we had our dog Mandy with us, so we ended up staying in a flee bag hotel behind Circus Circus. Our kids loved the fun games they could play it was a closed off room with booths that lined the perimeter of the room. Our kids had a blast, then we went to the hotel slept and left the next day. Fast forward 18 years and I wanted to say there with our grandkids because we had such a great time before. the minute we got to the hotel, I felt this dark presence and it never left me. The small game room for the kids was more like chuck E Cheese x3 so needless to say there were way too many things and the kids did not understand why we didn't have hundreds of dollars to throw at these games. Also the closed off room was now open with an escalador to the casino, which allowed all the smoke to fill the room. It was GROSS and I hated every minute of it. And there was a reason we only paid $35 for the night at the hotel, because the room was OLD and it was grungy feeling. As we drove out of town we saw a Fairfield Inn by Marriott, and I said you know had we stayed there paid the $150 for the room and just let the kids go swimming we would have had way more fun and there would not have been any tears. Reno was the worst stop on our trip. We won't be doing that again!