A Wonderful Vacation!

Above at the Happy Sumo

With the Bairds

In the Tabernacle

At Temple Square

We enjoyed a great trip to Utah over Thanksgiving week! Jared was a wonderful host!

Sunday we traveled stopping in Las Vegas to go to church and lunch with Aunt Clare.

On Monday we were joined by the families Wright and Lewis and did baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple. (This was the #1 thing on Chris and Tori's list) Jared performed the ordinance. All were family names. It was a great experience. One we will long remember. We had lunch with Brett's Aunt Jill and then spent several hours enjoying Temple Square. That evening we had a lovely family dinner gathering at Aunt Karen's house.

Tuesday we spent in Jared's world. He has a lovely condo. He has done a great job of making it feel homey and warm. It looks neither "student" nor "bachelor" He treated us to lunch at "the Happy Sumo" his favorite Sushi place. That was quite a treat for us and a lot of fun! We watched "Harry Potter" at the dollar theater and then had Frozen Yogurt. Back to his place for "Elf" . (Jared's favorite Christmas movie.)

Wednesday we went to campus. And then split the young and old. Jared took the kids and 7 cousins to "jump on It" . They had a marvelous time! Brett and I went shopping for Thanksgiving ingredients and then had a nice dinner visit with Ron and Lynda. We met later that night for bowling.

Thursday Tori and I cooked! And we enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving day. That evening we went to see "The Blind Side." We loved it! Very Inspirational.

Friday was back to SLC. The distribution Center and a meeting with the Bairds for lunch. (cafe Rio for the 2nd time....Yummy!) Then back to Temple Square to see it lit for Christmas. It was wonderful. A great way to start the Christmas Season. And then a visit with Chris and Claudia Pack. And a haircut for Tori from Julie.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had a wonderful balance between busy and not. (we slept in most every day) We were happy to see so many family members. We enjoyed the Spirit of Temple Square. But mostly it was nice to be in Jared's world, and share in some of his favorite things.

At this Thanksgiving season I am aware that many of my choicest blessings are in the form of my wonderful children and grandson and the good choices they make. My life is abundantly blessed. Truly there is no greater joy than seeing your children walk in righteousness!

A Poem about our Week

Katie inspired me! Here is a poem about our week!

Hanging out with sick Bears
Makes you Pig sick
Funny, but true.

Pig sick is no fun.
Sleep
Cough
Too hot, too cold
Sleep
Ache
Too hot, too cold
Sleep
Snot
Too hot, too cold
Sleep
Splitting head
Too hot, too cold
Pig sick is NO fun!

Watch out for sick Bears
They make you Pig sick
Funny, but NOT fun!

Katie and Jared come for a Visit!

The very best days are when my kids come home! I know that they have homes of their own, but I confess that I still think of it that way with no disrespect intended to their independent lives! Thank you to Thomas for sending Katie to us for a visit. We missed having you here, but appreciate your sacrifice, and totally loved having Katie here with us! And of course we missed the rest of our Hawaii family, Billy, Jess and Baby Ezra too! But you take what you get when you get it and are happy for it! Jared came home the same weekend so he could get a visit with Katie too! That made it extra special great! And he brought a friend with him for the visit. It was so much fun meeting Brooke! (She is entering the MTC this Wednesday. She is coming here to Cali! Spanish speaking Arcadia... The mission Brett's brother served in as a side note!)
We had a whirlwind of a few of our family's favorite things while Brooke was here. And dinner with Grandma and Grandpa so they could be part of the visit too! Brooke and Jared left on Monday and we had a couple of slower at home days after that. Eye exams and new glasses for Katie. And some of our favorite fall goodies a little early! Caramel Corn and Pumpkin Cookies! It was a great way to start off the Fall Holidays!

Thank you to my grown up kids for their efforts in coming to visit! I know there is much sacrifice involved in making it happen but we all appreciate it so much!

Family Camping

Wunce Upon a Time

I think that I am going to have to give up my all "W" titles! This is getting too hard, not to mention ridiculous! Once upon a time in a land not so far away.......

My sister and her children (Madeline and Ethan) came to visit for a couple of days. It is always fun to get the cousins together! Here are some pictures from our trip to Storybook Land at Roeding Park!

the WONDER of a new life

I got a new digital scrapbooking program. This is my first attempt at merging that with blogging! I am pretty new at both of them! But here are some family snapshots of meeting my new baby grandson Ezra!

(k)West for the (k)Wala

The happy meal toys right now are Teenie Beanie Babies, and are absolutely adorable. Since Chris was five, he has had a Koala Beanie BUDDIE, and when we saw that they had a Koala TEENIE Beanie, of course we knew that we had to have it!

Today Brett worked in Lindsay, so Chris and I went up to have lunch with him and have Chris' eyes examined. The nice restaurant that we wanted to go to was closed, and so we went to McDonalds instead! :) At the counter we asked if they had any Koalas available but they didn't, so we got a cute Polar Bear instead.

After the eye exam, when we were driving home, we were talking about it, and decided that the days of Teenie Beanies must be coming to a close and that we HAD to have a Koala!!! So we stopped at another McDonalds on the way home. When the cashier asked us what we wanted, I said "We're on a quest, call me Don Quixote. Do you have a Koala?" They didn't have a Koala or a sense of humor.

We stopped at another. This time I said "We're on a quest. Do you have the Holy Grail or a Koala?" They didn't laugh this time either. Are McDonalds employees just not that bright or am I just not that funny?!?

I stopped making jokes, but we were still unlucky at the third McDonalds. At the fourth, they had a Panda Bear which was Chris' second favorite, so we decided that we would get a happy meal with a Panda.

After that, it was getting late, and so we agreed to stop at two more before we arrived home. Fifth time, unlucky again. At the sixth and final one, there were no Koala's but there was a Flamingo that I had been eyeing. Another happy meal later we headed home Koala-less, but satisfied with our new friends.

Fate however, was not satisfied. We passed one McDonalds on the road home, and as you could guess, we thought we should at least take a look. And HURRAH!!!!! We found the oh-so coveted koala. Now our quest was complete. I guess seven is just a lucky number. Hmmm.... Was it really seven??? Oh, dear.

We Wish you Were here!

Chris tried his hand at gardening this year. He did it mostly all by himself. He picked what to plant, planted it, and has tended it faithfully. We have had some buggy problems but the tomatoes are doing especially WONDERFUL! We have been enjoying them in many ways!

Tonight we went from this:

To this:

And served it like this!

We wish you were here to share it with us!

Wild for Harry!

Katie started the craze way back when she was in 2nd grade. She came home with this book,"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". I had heard that the books were banned in some Utah schools (true or not I don't know) and told her I wanted to read it before she did to make sure it was appropriate. The rest is history.

Most of the family is addicted!


So we did go to the midnight opening of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." Christopher made us the cute little house pins (you can't see Tori's and mine, but we are Ravenclaw) and put together our student outfits. We made ourselves wands. (Olivander was NOT available) Tori's friend Evan Cucuk came with us and he did it up big time!

Brett and I were the OLDEST people dressed up that we saw at the theater. What can we say?

There is something magical (pun intended) about a midnight showing. I guess it is the other geeks doing the same thing you are! The energy and excitement is unsurpassed.

Our review? The best one yet. (Being HUGE fans of the books, we are kinda critical of the movies. You other fans know how that goes. Not that we don't own every movie mind you!) Dumbledore actually made us love him in this movie and we haven't been a big fan of Michael Gambon's portrayal. We have lots of other opinions, but do you really want to read my novel?

I'll just say. We had so much fun! It was great! I love that my family is willing to be weird! They are wonderful! Harry Potter is something that we love sharing together!

What's For Dinner?

ASIAN BEEF

This was so yummy I just had to blog it! I modified a recipe that originated from "Cooking Light" and then went to " A Year of Slow Cooking" (excellent site. crockpot365.blogspot.com) and then came to me. Here's my version!

4 lb Boneless Beef Roast (mine was a little smaller)

1/2 cup Soy Sauce (I used reduced sodium)

1/2 7oz bottle Hoisin Sauce

6 tb Ketchup

4 tb Honey

3t minced dry Garlic

1 tb Ginger (I used the already in the jar stuff)

1 Serano Pepper (I seeded 1/2 of it, and left in half the seeds.)

Plop it all in your crockpot!

Mine was done in 5 hours on High. Then I shredded it and put it on warm with the lid off to thicken the sauce. Ate it about an hour later. That step may not be necessary as the sauce really was so good and thinner would probably have been OK. But I would want to have it shredded and sitting in the sauce for a bit anyway.

I served it over shredded cabbage which gave it a nice light summery feel! Our only side was cantaloupe chunks. It turned out to be a great summer time meal. No starchy carb. Egg rolls? Rice obviously. But we really enjoyed it just this way because it is H-O-T here right now!

Wicked Wendy

So here I am practicing again! This is a picture of me and my friend Mary Lynn. We went to see "Wicked" in San Francisco this past April! We had a wonderful week together. And I actually have a photo to practice posting pictures with!

Wandering In

So.....Kaite talked me into starting a blog! The problem is that right now I don't have any pictures or anything to say! Stay tuned..... It's SURE to get better!