Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Faces

Flashback: Myrle

Flashforward: Addy

This isn't the first time this has happened.  Comparing my daughters to a woman I have never met.  I downloaded this picture of Addy on my computer and as soon as I saw it, it was like a repeat of a time before when I took a picture of Aubrey.  I instantly recognized the look on this face.  I opened up a scrapbook and turned to this picture of Steve's mom.  Yep.  There it was.  My Addy in her face.  Her face in my Addy. 

To see the post of Aubrey and her Grandmother, click here.

Never A Dull Moment - Possible Dead Bodies, Superheroes, Google and Gas

As some of you know, I live in one of the strangest places.  My friend calls it the Bermuda Triangle.  She lives on the same street as me, just up a ways, and she never sees anything strange.  I see weird things on a daily basis. There truly never is a dull moment here.  This morning, a little after 7am, I received a text from a friend that asked if a dead body was found outside my door.  I asked why.  She replied 'look'.  So I did.  Just in time to see a TV news truck packing up and pulling away.  So I have been watching the news all morning and I have yet to see my house or anything around my house.  This isn't the first time the news has come to my front door, but last time it was to interview me (that interview was later shown on CNN).  I did hear something right outside my bedroom window early this morning that sounded like a car door slamming, but it was way too early for me to  pull myself out of bed to take a peek outside.  I would just really like to know what they were doing there.  Maybe they found out there was a band of Superheroes in the neighborhood?

Yesterday the Google Maps car drove past my house.  I really wanted to run out and stand in front of my house and strike a pose.  But I was too chicken.  Then I spent the rest of the day regretting it.  I mean, when do you ever get a chance like that?  And I just let it go to waste.

There has been this incredibly annoying high pitched whining sound outside.  All day.  For the last few days.  It is really driving me crazy.  I asked on my neighborhood facebook page if anyone else has heard it.  That way I would know if it was just me or not.  One of my neighbors put on there there that it sounds like a busted gas line.  Oh great.  No one light a match!

*UPDATE*

I just called the news station and they said they were doing a story on West Nile Virus and since there are so many mosquitoes here...This is true. There are quite a few. So no dead bodies.

There was this other time when I saw a guy drive a backhoe machine down the street and start digging at 2am. I thought there was for sure a dead body involved in that one, but it turns out he was just on drugs.

Reese's Pieces Day 6 - Friday, July 27, 2012

On Friday we took the kids to the dollar movie to see Chimpanzee.  Then we went to the craft store to buy shirts and paint so that we could make splatter paint shirts.  Kristy and I have fond memories of the '80s of splatter painting in our backyard with our mom.  We pretty much splatter painted everything back then.  The kids had a fabulous time doing it.  Just a few weeks before I had made some splatter paint art for Aubrey's room and I did it without making a mess or getting any on me.  So I didn't think to have anyone change clothes.  Especially myself.  I failed to realize what would happen when you give 6 kids a paint brush and have them start flinging paint around. I now have a brand new pair of splatter painted white shorts (I knew I shouldn't have bought those, what kind of mom can actually wear white shorts and have them stay white?)  Somehow the splatter paint is much cuter on the kids than it is on me.

Addy

Tia

Aubrey

Emily

Owen

Baron

The finished project

That night my mom and Lauren and Granny Snow came over for dinner.  

After dinner Addy was trying to prove to Baron that she was taller than him.

"See Baron, I'm this much taller!"

The girls had set up a spa on the deck.  I had the hand and foot massage and it was quite lovely. 

 In fact, maybe I should suggest setting up another spa today.

Emily asked Kristy how she wanted her makeup done and to her enjoyment Kristy answered, "Do whatever you want."  Emily's face lit up and she got a bit of and evil smirk on her face.  Kristy looked quite charming   with one blue eye and one purple eye.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Reese's Pieces Day 5 - Thursday, July 26, 2012

Kristy and I took the kids downtown to Discovery Gateway.  I don't know what I was thinking when I broke my no driving downtown rule.  It just reinforced the fact to me that I should not be driving downtown and I need to take the light rail next time.  At least this time I remembered that I had a luggage carrier atop my van and didn't drive into a parking garage and get stuck.  Yeah, you laugh, but it still isn't funny.  The kids had a blast and we stayed there for hours.

We were starving by the time we left Discovery Gateway and we headed over to the food court for some nourishment.  There weren't very many open tables and the one we sat at (right over in front of the windows, you can see the 3 youngest kids) didn't have enough room for all of us.  So the girls sat at their own table (the one that is empty between us and them was occupied when we got there).  We kept a close eye on them.  At one point a homeless looking man and lady walked by and the lady stopped and I could hear her say, "Hey girls, where's your mommy?"  And then the man started talking to them and was calling them cuties.  I think the girls told them where we were and they walked on, but it was a little more than creepy, I'm just sayin'.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Reese's Pieces Day 4 - Wednesday, July 25, 2012

We just stayed around the house all day on Wednesday. 

 Addy, Emily and Baron spent several hours swimming.

 Kristy, who did not wish to be photographed, got all caught up on her show 

(I'm being nice by not saying what show it was) while supervising the swimming.

I cleaned all the chicken poo off the front porch and back patio.

Owen and Aubrey pretty much spent the entire day playing video games.

These two were so cute together all day long.

Zac went to work with Steve and Spencer.  

My Granny Snow was in town from and she and my mom and Lauren came to our house for dinner.

Tia spent the day at work with my mom and Lauren and they made these cute pictures.

Reese's Pieces Day 1

Reese's Pieces Day 2

Reese's Pieces Day 3

Reese's Pieces Day 3 - Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day is a state holiday in Utah.  It commemorates the arrival of the first pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley.  We decided to celebrate Pioneer Day this year by remembering and honoring our Pioneer heritage.  So we loaded up my van and my mom's van and headed for Tooele (pronounced too will uh).  On our way there we stopped at Saltair and walked out to the Great Salt Lake.  In the picture below, if you notice the dark ground close to the water, that darkness isn't actually ground.  It is bugs.  I don't know what kind of bugs.  But there were about ten hundred bajillion of them.  They kind of hover over the ground and swarm out of your way when you walk.  If you look where Zac and Em are standing you can see they have moved out from where they are and are hovering in a circle around them.  As disgusting as it was to watch, it was also highly fascinating and very hard to look away from.

The aroma in the air was just lovely.

Our first stop in Tooele was the park which is the first place that first settlers of Tooele camped.  Among those first settlers were my 4th great grandparents Cyrus and Alice Tolman.  We ate lunch at the park and let the kids play for a while.

Then we went to the Tooele library to see a monument to the first settlers

 There was also a 1/2 size replica of the mud wall the settlers built for protection

Then we went to the Pioneer Museum 

 We saw the layout of the town and were able to see where Cyrus and Alice lived.

There was a table by the front door and there were some items that someone had just brought in to donate to the museum.  Addy was fascinated by this telephone, although I'm pretty sure she had no idea what it was.

The kids loved seeing the arrowhead collection.  All of these arrowheads

 in this room are from one persons collection.

The kids got locked up in the first Tooele jail

We saw a log cabin

Hey!  It's Cyrus!

The first Tooele Cemetery where we have a distant Aunt buried.

Cyrus Tolman is my 4th Great Grandfather on my mother's father's side of the family.  After leaving Tooele we headed for Rush Valley (the next town over) which was settled by my mother's mother's side of the family, the Arthurs.  This picture was taken at the cemetery in Rush Valley at the Arthur family plots.

This is the cabin that my great grandfather was born in.

Last time I was here, there was no one here to show us around and we had to view the cabin from the other side of the fence.  But this time we got lucky and Lois, the lady who owns the cabin, was there and let us go in and look inside.  Lois' father and my great grandfather are brothers.  Lois said she lived in this cabin until she was 7 years old.  She is working on restoring it and was working on it when we were there.

The inside of the cabin

I am so glad that we were able to take the kids on this little adventure and let them explore their Pioneer Heritage.  I am so thankful to my pioneer ancestors who gave so much for what they believe.  It is because of them that I am who I am today.  It is because of their faithfulness that I have a testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ and his restored gospel.  I  hope that my children and I can carry on their great legacy of faith and make them proud.

"How can we pay our debt of gratitude for the heritage of faith demonstrated by pioneers in many lands across the earth who struggled and sacrificed so that the gospel might take root? How is thankfulness expressed for the intrepid handcart pioneers who, by their own brute strength, pulled their meager belongings in handcarts across the scorching plains and through the snows of the high mountain passes to escape persecution and find peaceful worship in these valleys? How can the debt of gratitude possibly be paid by the descendants of the Martin and the Willie and the other handcart companies for the faith of their forebears? . .  The descendants of these pioneers can partially settle the account by being true to the cause for which their ancestors suffered so much to be part of." -James E. Faust

It was a long fun day and we were all worn out when it was over.  One the way home Emily took about 50 pictures with the camera.  Below is just a sampling of them.

To see the post of my last visit to Tooele, click here

Reese's Pieces Day One

Reese's Pieces Day Two