Family Reunion 2012 Part 2

This lady and her cookies are what this trip was all about.  This sweet-supplier is my Grandma, and she is one of the reasons my family is awesome.  :)  Her cookies are also one of the reasons my family is awesome.  :)  She raised 9 wonderful children, one of whom is my personal favorite, my mother.  Her family is full of fun, laughter, music, and good times.  There are a whole bunch of us - the youngest grandchild is 10, the oldest in her forties. I'm right in the middle of the cousin-goodness.  We've been spread out across the country (sometimes spread out across continents) my whole life, but I know who I belong to and where I come from.  That is pretty priceless.
We did this reunion a little different than past years - we stayed in a hotel in St. George and did day trips round and about.  Our trip to Zion's was the day before the reunion officially began.  We spent Friday at Pine Valley in Dixie National Forest, up in the mountains above St. George.  It was lovely!  My aunt Laura's family brought horses up for us to take turns riding -- the real cowboys helped us city folks with all the details and made sure we didn't get into trouble.  :)  The kids had a blast.

These two were about to get married!!!  Our Family Reunion was about a month before their wedding - this was the first time we got to meet Ashley.  And I must say that Ashley and Scott are perfect for each other - we're all excited to have Ashley in the family!

I never did get a copy of a big group picture, but here's something with some of us.  It is always amazing to me the way the kids just jump right in and make best friends with cousins they only see once a year or less.  I'm a little silly and sometimes let my introvert side get the better of me.  :)  But it's so good to catch up at least a bit with these people - they are all so good.  We tease Grandma for being responsible for 'all of this.'    :)

Friday we continued the day with sand volleyball, good food, a nature hike led by my dad, and an evening program my mom put together called "Reunion Greatest Hits."  We always do these evening programs, and over the years have seen some pretty fun stuff.  So we brought some of it back for old times' sake.  :)  Here's one of my favorites:

If I'd ever wondered if Ashley would fit in, the way she jumped into all our silly skits just sealed the deal - she's perfect!  And such a good sport, too.  That's kind of required.  :)

I somehow forgot to take pictures the next day, Saturday.  There was softball in the morning, we ate a big brunch together, then played crazy dodge ball with Grandma's signature homemade polyester soft balls.  We had some down time, so we went back to the hotel to swim and Joseph did a little dentistry on Kendra - should have gotten a picture of that!!!  A little broom hockey later it was time for an early dinner and another evening program - we were all assigned songs to re-write.  Family history anecdotes provided inspiration for new lyrics.  Some very funny stuff there!  And then back to the hotel for some night swimming and root beer floats.  It was good times for sure.  :) 

Joseph wasn't feeling too hot, so he went to bed early.  After I got the kids down I went down to the lobby to play card games with cousins - so worth loosing those extra couple hours of sleep.  :)  We stayed an extra day, so we went with my Aunt Laura to church and stayed at her house Sunday night before our flight home on Monday.  It was so lovely to see all those fabulous people - I wish we weren't missing so many (half my siblings didn't make it), but it was still lovely.  :)  Hurray for family!

Family Reunion 2012 Part 1

In June we flew to the Las Vegas NV airport and drove 2 hours up to an old familiar place - St. George, UT.  We lived there once upon a time when K-lady was just a baby - a lot has changed in the last 9 years!!!  We started out our stay with a trip to Zions - we met up with my cousin and her beautiful family, so the kids were pleased as punch to have playmates along for the trip.  

I was amazed at how busy it was on a weekday in June.  I don't remember the park being quite this crazy busy when we used to come here.  Now you park outside the park and ride a shuttle in, then take another shuttle from place to place within the park.  

 It is drop dead gorgeous there.  This is the view from the Weeping Rock trail.

 Here we are at the end of our tough .5 mile hike.  :)

 Right @ the trail head for weeping rock there is a little bridge that goes over this stream.  The kids couldn't resist the possibility of catching a tadpole or two.

 ALL the kids had to get in on the fun.

 I asked them to make a funny face for me.  :)

 My cousin and his beautiful little niece.

What an amazing place!

Roatan

Yesterday Joseph and I got home from an amazing trip to Roatan, Honduras.  My wonderful mom came and stayed with the kids - thank you, mom!!!! - so it was just the two of us.  We traveled with a group of LDS dentists to run a free clinic on the island, doing all kinds of dentistry from extractions to fillings to cleanings and root canals.  The video above was made 2 years ago, on the last trip this group organized.  It was an incredible week full of so many beautiful experiences - I'm not sure I have the words.  So I'm going to just type up my journal entry from Saturday morning, which I wrote @ day break, sitting on the beach looking out at the beautiful Caribbean Sea.  And of course insert lots and lots of pictures!!!

June 2, 2012

Our last morning on Roatan.  We have had an insanely busy week!  Up @ 5:30 for a run or yoga on the beach, breakfast @ 6, leave for the clinic by 6:30 to see patients by 7. 

Those sweet, beautiful people of the island were always waiting for us - anxious for the work we could do, but I'm sure dreading it as well -- dentistry is often uncomfortable!  :)  The young children sometimes come with a parent; sometimes come alone.  The middle aged usually show up early so they can still make it to work for the day.  The old people have a tired and care worn look to them, submissive as we extract teeth and they spit out the blood that fills their mouths.  We rush from one patient to the next, knowing there is no way we can see them all, that some will be turned away, hoping they can squeeze in to the next days' queue.

{The line outside the church when we arrived to work on Thursday}

 {Joseph doing triage the first day of clinic - we saw staff from our hotel and members of the branch on Monday, then Tues-Thurs was open to the public; Friday we saw a group of orphans and children from the 'Jungle School'}

 {Once they've been triaged and learned a little about our church and had a lesson in oral hygeine the patients sit in groups according to the work they need done}

{welcome to the clinic!  8 dentists and about 30 other people turned the sacrament meeting room into a mega dental operation with 9 operative chairs (some of those chairs were lounge chairs from the beach!), 5 hygeine chairs, and loads and loads of supplies bought by the drs or donated by supply companies}

{Here's each of the 8 dr.s with their assistants}

And the waiting - waiting for anesthetic to take effect.  I look into beautiful dark eyes fringed with thick long lashes - usually they hold questions.  How long will this take?  How painful will it be?  And also a trust that brings tears to my eyes.  These people with their trials and survival lives, their obvious striving to exist.  They lay down and open to my "abre" and wait patiently for whatever may come.  I wish I could speak to them, learn what gives them joy.  They must have joy to outweigh the hardness of life on the island.

{this is the 3rd time Joseph's twin, Jacob, has come to the clinic; their older brother Jared has come to assist twice - we were the newbies :)}

We leave the clinic between 1 and 2 -- that 12:00 stop time always comes and goes unheeded as Diana (one of our coordinators) announces, "We have 12 more patients!  Doctors!  Who can see another patient?"  By the time we leave our backs ache and our minds and emotions are numb.  Yesterday we closed the clinic to the public and served a group of orphans and Jungle School children who had taken a ferry over from the mainland.  Diana and the members of the church congregation here organized it -- the children visited a medical clinic, played on the beach, and were fed and housed by branch members Thursday, and we did their dental work Friday morning.  Some were cheerful and plucky, others were terrified, yet brave, tears silently making paths down their cheeks ("lo siento," as my own eyes fill with tears).  They were all beautiful.

{on Friday, after their dental work was done, the children went up to the basketball court to play soccer (cause that's what church basketball courts in Honduras are for), and wrote us thank you notes with the sidewalk chalk}

{the 8 drs and the children they treated on Friday}

{the whole clinic staff - 8 docs sure need a lot of help :) }

When clinic is done, we drive back along winding, pot-holed roads, passing islanders who ask for rides with their outstretched hands.  After a half hour of this we are back at West Bay, back to the paradise part of this tropical.

 {Jared & Jacob}

 {Our resort was smack in the middle of West Bay - SO beautiful!!!!!!}

 {hermanos muy guapos!}

{where is my super suit?!  Slightly nervous about my first 'open water' dive....}

Joseph and I are now certified scuba divers!  We dove every day of the last week - 2 dives Monday afternoon, 1 on Tuesday and 1 Wednesday afternoon finished our requirements for certification just in time for a night dive on Wednesday.  Then 2 more dives each on Thursday and Friday afternoons with Sloan and Amy (one of the other Drs and his wife who have a vacation home on the island, fully equipped with boat and enough scuba gear for about 10 divers).

 {Joseph, Jacob & Jared were super excited to bring home dinner thanks to Sloan's fishing spears... after our dives on Thursday Sloan took us through the Mangroves - we even caught sight of a baby crocodile!}

 {These pictures are from Amy's (Sloan's wife) and Marco's (dive instructor) cameras - I think we may need one of those cameras.....  I'm the diver in the top right w/ blue fins - Jake's wife Jenn is next to me.  Jenn and I decided we'd better be buddies because our husbands are too adventurous for us. :)  It worked out to the benefit of all!!!}

{We stopped here on this island - that's the whole island! - to rest between dives and wait the allotted time before heading down for our second dive on Thursday - this place was littered with conch shells.}

{Can you see all the broken up conch?  The storms hammer them up against this point.}

The Caribbean Sea is utterly amazing!  I wish I knew the names of all the creatures we saw - schools of bright blue fish that swim in formation, black fish with vibrant blue outlining fins, white with black stripes, yellow with black dots that looks like eyes at the back of their bodies.  Shirmp!  SOOO many varieties of shrimp!  The cleaner shrimp will climb on your hand and give you a manicure!  The white shrimp with red dots sit on the tip of coral and plants on the night dive.  The lobster and crab scuttle back into holes and crevices when you get too close.  We saw rays, eels, barracuda, flounder, grouper (Sloan got one spear fishing and we ate him up for dinner, along with lobster tail!), even a nurse shark - 4 or 5 feet long - making serpentine circles in a little grotto.  And I swam with a gorgeous turtle, maybe 2 feet in diameter, at about a 100 foot depth!  I was right behind him, could have touched the back of his shell if I'd just reached out.  But I didn't want to be too invasive. :)  This is, after all, his turf, and not mine!!!

 {On Friday we stopped at this gorgeous private beach & dock for our break between dives.  Jenn made friends with a little crab stow-a-way, and Joseph caught a bitty lobster}

 {we swam through 2 caves on our first dive Friday - that's the big photo up there of the school of fish.  The boys had a grand time spearing the lion fish - they aren't native to the Caribbean, and don't have any natural predators, so it's a kill-at-will kind of situation.  They rather enjoyed it, hunters and gatherers that they are.... :) }

{dinner at Sloan & Amy's!!  Grilled lobster tail and grouper caught an hour before - it doesn't get fresher than that!!!}

It has certainly been a vacation of extremes and opposites, from poverty to paradise, disease to pristine.  I am left in awe and gratitude for a God who is present in all of it.  With all their trials and tragedies, I see God in the eyes of these people.  In the beauty and wonder of an entire world underwater - a world I didn't know could be so enchanting - God is there.  In the sweet smiles of the children, the laughter of orphans, the comforting embraces from their caretakers who have loved and nurtured these children and others like them for 30+ years.  God is Here.  I am so grateful I could be, too, for even just a short while.  I hope it will change me forever.

Get Ready!

Today is a very big day.  We are closing on a house today!  It's going to need some TLC, and as we've been deciding what to do first and how to go about doing it, I thought I'd take a look at the last fixer-upper we took on.  I made this little video of some of the before-and-after pictures just after we sold the last place, in 2006.  It was super gross at first, so if you have a weak stomach, be forewarned.  :)  This house sat empty for 8 months after we finished fixing it up, so I taught my group piano lessons there (that's why there's tables and keyboards in the living room)  :)  I think my favorite memories of working on this house are of our crew - we couldn't have done it without Nathan, Enoch, Doug and Daryl!!!



So here's to house projects!!!  May they be completed in a timely manner with only 3 more Home Depot trips than anticipated!!  Wish us luck!!  :)

Best Day Ever.....Family

I don't know if you ever have those days where you just understand intrinsically what really matters most...like family.  These last two days have been like that for me.  Yesterday throughout the day I caught these glimpses of Tara as she'd be walking, or talking to someone, and she'd smile, or as she'd make some funny face - and time just seemed to stand still for just a moment and I was able to capture it and enjoy it...and yes of course I thought "she's hot".  Today I asked her out for lunch.  As I sat across from her, all I could think of was how lucky I am - she is amazing.  I also got some good time in with Baby "A" who joined us for lunch, she sat next to me and we chit chatted as we tried different foods - Baby A decided that a pile of salt was her favorite..she was very particular about us not putting any food on top of it and corrected us when we did.  Luckily she made it through more than just a pile of salt!  It was so pleasant to be with them and I really soaked in the moment and went back to work on cloud 9.  I came home as soon as I could from work and played soccer with J-boy - he loves to play and tonight I taught him a few new moves - he amazes me at how he learns them so quickly.  The best moment though was when he laughed so hard that he fell over and couldn't get up.  I love those moments with my son.  His laughter is pure joy.  Then we ate dinner together as a family.  It was nice to be all in one spot together.   On Monday nights we make an extra effort to hang out together as a family.  K-lady showed off a science experiment she'd seen at school and then we ate ice cream together and played a game.  The kids love to sing, so we sang some songs.  It was a blast.   These last two days reminded me of the things that bring me the greatest joy - my family.  I believe in the family, and that if centered on the principles taught by Jesus Christ, that it can be the greatest source of strength and joy in life. It is for me - From Joseph

A few more moments from July

 This guy celebrated a birthday - we decided a party was in order!

 Using my sister Heather's darling tags and party ideas from earlier in the month, we threw together an ice cream buffet.  I should have read the instructions on the ice-cream-cone-cupcakes more carefully - they were overflowing messes.  But still delish! :)  I hung about 100 B&W pictures of Joseph around the house.  I love pictures!  Sometimes I'm really bad about taking them (ie, @ a party when there are PEOPLE around, and all I remember to photograph is the grub), but I never regret it when I do.

 Heidi and her girls joined us for a little stay-cation for a few days.  We mostly tried to figure out fun things to do INSIDE because it was sweltering outside.  :)  The BBQ pizza was a fantastic.

Heidi brought these two matching PJ's.

 We spent some sweaty afternoons at the Farmers' Market - hurrah for local watermelon!

And a little crafting for my high school best friends new baby - I think this little lady is my favorite Black Apple Doll yet.  (the pattern is  somewhere on the Martha Stewart website if you want it)