Yay for Family!

My family came to visit for a week right after Grant's wedding. They flew into Oakland Monday morning  August 2nd, and got to the house early that afternoon. I was so excited to have them here.

Tuesday the 3rd was my little sister Sarah's 11th birthday! I can't believe she's in 6th grade this year. She was only 3 when I went off to BYU. Crazy how time flies...

The little kids all swam and played during during the day, and then we had her birthday party that night. She just loved all the attention she got and it was fun to spend her birthday with her.

Thursday the 5th we all went to the beach! My brother's and sister had never been to a west coast beach, so my dad wanted to take them. Unfortunately, this is how it looked:

It was pretty chilly for early August, but we made the most of it. It was fun to just be out of the house and spending time together. And, of course, all of the kids still got in the water. It was so fun to see them trying to jump into the waves, and then screaming their heads off (mostly Sarah) when the wave would hit them.

Justin, Darren and my uncle Bobby decided to pass the time by playing Bocci ball. Which I'm sure was a little bit of a challenge with balls sinking into the sand...

And, this is how things looked when we packed up all of our stuff to leave. Perfect timing I do think!

No matter what though, I'm glad we went. And my mom was quick to take Aaron, Dallin and Sarah to Virginia Beach when they got home so they could have the "proper" beach experience :)

The rest of the week my family was in town was filled with plenty of swimming, rounds of pool, teaching Justin "Ticket to Ride" and "Carcasonne", both of which he dominated on his first try, and plenty of laughing and hanging out.

I was extremely sad to see them go Monday morning, especially since Darren and I won't be able to make it home for Thanksgiving like we had hoped. We'll just start counting down the days until Mount Rushmore next summer.

Thanks for coming Mom & Dad!

Next up: Temple trip & more Chuck drama

Grant + Stephanie = Marriage

That's right folks. On July 31, 2010, my little brother married Stephanie Wright in the Rexburg, Idaho temple.

Darren and I met up with my family Friday night, as previously mentioned, and then spent the night in Pocatello at the same hotel as my family. We all got up bright and early Saturday, got ready and drove up to Rexburg for the sealing. I visited Rexburg for a few days last summer when Darren and I got engaged and never wanted to go back, but it was actually very pretty right around the temple grounds. The inside of the temple was just gorgeous, and it was a nice surprise to have two of my cousins meet us inside for Grant's sealing. Their ceremony was simple and sweet, and it was a great experience to be reminded of our sealing just 7 months before.

After they primped and exited the temple we took a slew of pictures:

And then piled back into the air-conditioned car (it was quite toasty) and tried to find something to occupy the next hour and a half before the luncheon. My dad decided he wanted to try and find the house where my grandfather grew up, in nearby Teton.

We were successful!

My grandfather's sister lives here now, but we didn't stop to say hi. Ha. I found out later that night that my grandfather was actually born in the room on the right. Crazy. My dad spent a summer here living with his grandparents, so it was fun to see.

The luncheon was at The Olive Garden, and was absolutely delicious! I could live off of their salad and breadsticks. There were probably about 40 people with our family and hers, so it was quite loud, but we had a lot of fun. The bride and groom decided to be fashionably late and showed up 30 minutes after their luncheon was supposed to start. Turns out they went home and changed! They showed up in jeans and t-shirts while we were all still in our clothes from the temple. Crazy kids :)

After the luncheon we had quite a bit of time before the reception so we all headed back to the hotel to take naps. Darren and I were only able to lay down for a bit. His grandparents live just 15 minutes south of where Grant's reception was going to be, and they were having their  50th anniversary party that day so we decided to stop by for a little bit. It was fun to see more of Darren's family and spend a little bit of  time with them.

Grant and Stephanie's reception was beautiful, and although it threatened to rain on us, I don't think it did more than sprinkle for a few minutes.

David and Jared with Justin

My absolute favorite part of the reception, besides celebrating Grant and Stephanie, was orchestrated by my cousins David and Jared. They rode up from Provo together and had some interesting conversations on the way up. At one point David asked Jared what he was going to say if someone asked him "Why aren't you married yet?". Jared told him what he'd say, so David, in an attempt to see if Jared would actually do it, put him on the spot. He had me ask Jared, and he in fact did just as he said he would. David figured Jared would give me his response, but he decided to take it one step farther. When Jared got up to go get more food David leaned over to Grandma and said, "Grandma, would you do me a favor?" Her response, "Depends on what it is." David said, "Ask Jared why he's not married yet." She wasn't quite sure what to do, or how to even bring it up in conversation, but she is a wizard and did just that. Here is how the conversation went:

Grandma: "So Jared, you know your mom is going to ask me how  you're doing when I talk to her in a few days. What should I tell her about why you're not married?"

Jared: Smiling, "Well, Grandma. There's no need. Nobody's gotten pregnant."

It was stinkin' hilarious! My grandma gasped and David and Jared took off running. It looked like she was going to clobber them with her umbrella and everyone else at the table was just rolling. David wasn't sure Jared would say that to Grandma (even though it was a joke), but he sure lived up to his word. It's times like this that make me wish our reunions were more frequent. When everyone's together crazy things happen :)

The rest of the reception was filled with funny stories about all of our parents, from the memory of Grandma and Grandpa, and just catching up. It was sad to say goodbye at the end of the night, but we have a Rackham reunion coming up next summer, so that is something to look forward to.

Sunday morning my family all got up and went to church in Inkom with Stephanie's family. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting, since Darren and I needed to get on the road back to California since he had to work Monday night. We said a quick goodbye to my family in the parking lot and then headed on our way. It wasn't sad though, since they'd be flying out to California the next day to spend a week with us!

We made pretty good time on our drive back and had minimal car problems. We learned that if we stopped for gas and let the car cool off for about a half-hour we could pour the coolant from the reservoir back into the radiator and everything would be fine and dandy until our next gas stop. Worked like a charm.

On our way out of Idaho we drove a good portion of the Oregon Trail, and I couldn't resist texting my family when we crossed the Snake River saying, "I just lost two oxen crossing the Snake River." Oh, to be back in elementary school in the computer lab. Good times.

We came across this lovely buisness when we stopped for gas in Lovelock, Nevada. Hey, at least they put a smile on my face. It was a loooonnng day.

We made it back to Hughson late Sunday night, and were so glad to be back in our comfy bed. And so excited to have my family flying in the next day!

Coming up next: Rackham family visits



Snowbird: July 27-30

Tuesday, July 27th

Every July Darren's mom's family has a reunion at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah. Last year Darren really wanted me to go, but things didn't work out, so we were really excited this year when it worked out that we could go!

Darren started his job at Walmart just a week and a half before we left, but he was able to get the days off anyway. We left early Tuesday morning, hoping to get up the valley and to Snowbird by dinner time. Well, that didn't really happen...

We took an accidental detour on our way out of California and got a beautiful scenic view of the lovely Lake Tahoe on our trip.

And, this is where our trip got even more interesting...As we were coming into the lake,Chuck (as we affectionately call our Civic) started getting a little warm. He obviously wanted to take a dip in the lake, but we didn't have the time. We put the heater on full blast and rolled down our windows as we drove around the lake, and that seemed to help keep the temperature in an okay range. As we got back up to freeway speeds the temperature gauge dropped back down to normal so we thought nothing of it. Just some weird thing we guessed.

Well, as we approached Reno and slowed down again the temperature again started to rise. It got so hot that we decided we needed to stop and have someone look at it before we drove the last 9 hours to Snowbird. We stopped at a Best Western off the freeway and they directed us here:



They took a look at everything and guessed it was our thermostat, but since we had just replaced it about two months they decided to look around a bit more. The fuse to our fan was so completely dirty that no electricity was getting to the fan. They guessed this was the problem, cleaned it for free and sent us on our way. We were so happy it hadn't cost us an arm and a leg.

We got a little farther down the freeway, pulled over for gas and it started to get warm AGAIN! I was beyond done at this point. We were way behind schedule, in the middle of nowhere and having car problems. Thank goodness Darren stayed calm, because I would've gone crazy. We decided that since it was only warming up when we were off the freeway we would be fine the rest of the way. That turned out to be pretty much correct. We finally made it into Utah about 7, when we should've been getting to Snowbird. We did make it up to the resort about 10 or 11 and just headed to bed. Too much stress and emotion for one day.

Wednesday, July 28th

We slept in Wednesday, thank you Westmoreland's for lending us your unit for the night! We transferred all of our stuff down to Darren's parents' unit and took a walk to the main building and took some pictures. We then headed down the canyon to have lunch with some of my cousins and my dad's parents. It was so fun to see everyone. I hadn't seen my cousins in a few years, so it was fun to catch up and have them all meet Darren! We ate at Magleby's Fresh (delish!) and my grandparents definitely spoiled us.

After lunch we headed back up to Snowbird. Everyone was still down at Seven Peaks, so we took advantage of the quiet and took a much needed nap. After everyone got back we just hung out for a few hours, which was great, and then all the girls headed off to a baby shower for Sheila! It was fun to meet more of Darren's cousins and get to know everyone better.

Thursday, July 29th

Thursday morning was crazy with seven people sleeping in Darren's parents room. We slept in as long as we could, had breakfast, and then Darren and I met up with Jeff, Sheila and their boys and went swimming. Darren's dad came down while we were swimming and asked us if we'd be willing to take Stephanie and Kenny (Darren's neice and nephew) up the tram. We said sure, so we got out and got dressed and  headed up the mountain.

I must admit, as I have gotten older I have developed a severe fear of heights and plummetting to my death from a high place. The ride up was fine, but once we got to the top I pretty much wanted to sit down so I wouldn't fall off. Crazy, I know. There was a gorgeous view though and we got some great pictures at the top of the tram.

That afternoon we hung out, played arcade games, and played ping pong Jeff and Sheila. I think they won, but we all had fun :)

We had dinner over at Jeff and Sheila's as well, and then took a soak in the hot tub with them and some of Darren's cousins before heading upstairs to play a round of Ticket to Ride. We were up way too late, but we had a grea time.

Friday, July 30th 

Darren's parents left Thursday afternoon to go to Idaho for a few days, so we had Thursday night and Friday morning to ourselves, which was so nice. With Darren's new job it had  been hard to find time for us to just hang out, so we enjoyed all of our time together at Snowbird.

Darren and I on the lift to the Alpine Slide

We decided to do one activity while we were at Snowbird, and we decided that we would do the Alpine Slide. I was so excited. I had never been on anything like this before, but I knew it would be fun. I was just bummed that we weren't allowed to race. I would've kicked Darren's trash.

 



We didn't get to stick around much longer after that, since we had to head up to Idaho for my brother's wedding the next day. We left a little after noon and got into Pocatello right about dinner time. We made a pit stop in Arimo to drop some things off at Darren's grandparents' and let Chuck cool down (yes, he had problems again), but over all our drive to Idaho was the best drive of the trip so far!

We met up with my parents, Trish and Charles, Justin, Aaron, Dallin, Sarah and Grant and Stephanie at IHOP for dinner that night. It was great to see everyone again and we had a great time getting to know Stephanie's family before their wedding!

Over all, our trip to Snowbird was great, we just wish it could've been longer. 'Til the next time!

Coming up next: Grant & Stephanie's Wedding!

9 Years

It's strange to think that it's been 9 years since I started my senior year of high school. The last 9 years seem to have flown by, even though the days after 9/11 felt so long at the time. I won't go much into detail about my experiences on that day, I did that last year, but if you really want to read it you can go here.

September 11 will always be a day of reflection for me. One where I can't help but be grateful for everyone in my life. I seem to be more emotional about it this year, and I'm attributing that to the fact that I am now married, and wouldn't want to experience that great loss that many Americans did that day. I can't explain enough what Darren means to me, and how hard it would be if I lost him in any way.

I am also so grateful for the young men and women that fight each day for our continued freedom. My younger brother served two tours in Iraq and I know how much he and his platoon members have sacrificed. I wish I could give them each a hug and tell them how grateful I am for them. I guess I'll just have to hug my brother extra tight next time I see him and count that as good.

That's it for me today, but I hope you take a little time today to remember all that you have, and to tell those you love just how much they mean to you.

July!

Our July seemed to fly right by. We got back from Virginia on the 5th, but then left for Utah a short three weeks later. In those three weeks Darren had a handful of interviews, we spent time together at home and he started working the swing shift at Walmart unloading trucks.

Before he started working we took a trip up to Sacramento for the day. Darren had an interview in Elk Grove that morning, and so we decided that I would go with him and we'd visit Eric & Jenny for a little bit and then do a session at the Sacramento temple.

The interview went fine, but we all know he didn't get the job. We hung out with Jenny for a while at their apartment. It was so fun to catch up :) And then we headed over to the temple. Unfortunately we didn't get there in time for the session we were aiming for, and didn't really want to wait another hour and a half for the next one, so we headed home.

But not before we snapped a few pictures outside.

It was fun to just spend the day together and be on temple grounds for at least a little bit.

Coming up next: Snowbird