Recitals, Parties, & Concerts

December 8, 2014

We got back from the funeral just in time for Ms. Lori's Dance Recital. Cam's jazz dance was Shake It Off by Taylor Swift and her tap dance was Having a Wonderful Christmas Time.  Her class did a really great job on their tap dance.

December 9, 2014

The next night was the Annual Activity Day Gingerbread House Decorating Party at Sister Greer's house. Sister Greer makes tons of houses and collects candy all year so there are so many to choose from.  The houses turned out really cute and the girl's had a good time.

December 15, 2014

Our family loves Sister Goon's piano recitals.  Cam did a great job on her songs. She played Jingle Bells, as a duet with Kim and Carol of the Bells on her own. The Goons make tons of refreshments and fill us up so much we don't even make dinner.  Kim s an awesome teacher and finds songs that Camryn loves to learn to play.

December 18, 2015

Cam's busy month ended with her school choir concert. The 6th grade girls sang The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Light the Menorah, and Rock 'n Roll Reindeer.

My Sweet Grandma

December 7-8, 2014

I have so many wonderful memories of my sweet grandma, Thelma Jenkins, helping us with craft projects, taking us on little field trips, feeding us, and always having peanut brittle in a little tin on her counter. She has had Alzheimer Disease and for several years she has progressively gotten worse. Grandma passed away on Thanksgiving Day.

On Sunday, we drove down from the Sokol's house to Paragoonah, where the services would be held.  We took Juliet with us, so the Sokols would be able to fit the flowers for the funeral in their car. JuJu can be a handful, but she did great. I found this pic Lex took on my phone.

Bo and Abigail had driven up from Vegas on Saturday and had brought Dave with them.  We spent the afternoon taking a walk to the cemetery and hanging out at the park. Bo and Abigail were spider swinging and when they tried to get down they started falling and Bo lost his shorts!

The kids swung on this huge tire swing in the neighbor's yard.

After dinner, the women folk worked on the funeral flowers. I was pretty useless. Lex was our DJ.

The flowers were nice, but very pink.  Jo and Abigail worked on a wreath from our family all night.  It was different and really cool. The next morning, Ryan picked up the stands to take the flowers across the street to the church, and the one Jo and Abigail had made fell and was totally destroyed.

The service was nice and it was good to see so many people I hadn't seen in up to 20 years.  It was sweet to hear everyone's memories of Grandma and how she influenced so many.  She was an amazing  woman and such an example to me of true kindness.

A Baptism and A Blessing

December 5-7, 2014

On Thursday, Aunt Jo and Jude headed up to Utah with us.  We spent the night in Paragoonah, with Grandma & Grandpa, before driving up to visit the Sokols in Sandy on Friday. When Anna got home from school, we went to Trafalga.  We started with climbing the rock wall.  I had never done tried climbing before. I did not make it up too high before I freaked out and had to go down.  Anna was a pro and put us all to shame.

The kids loved the Frog Hopper, except JuJu. We talked her into going and she screamed the whole time.

My favorite activity there, was the laser tag. It would have been more fun to have teams, but we basically just ran around the course shooting everyone.

The finished up with a round of glow in the dark mini golf. Grandpa played too, but got frustrated that the kids didn't really play. They just kept taking shots until it went in and didn't keep score.

Friday night, we headed into Salt Lake City. We started with dinner at Zaxby's, which Bo recomended.  Lex and I got the Kickin' Chicken. It had tons of hot sauce and was NOT good.

We went to the City Creek Mall to meet up with Lex's date. She met Jacob when we went to church in Kansas City this summer.  He moved to Utah shortly after they met and they had been texting each other.  They set up to go to Temple Square with our family and then go ice skating. The poor kid had to meet aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.

We walked across the street to the temple, listened to the Christmas story, and enjoyed all the lights. Lex and Jacob took off and the rest of us took lots of pictures.

The pictures just really didn't turn out well.

Across the street from the temple were store windows with little scenes made entirely of candy. It was pretty amazing. The rest of the family headed back to Jac's house while I waited for Lex. She had a good time on her date.They ended up just walking around and drinking hot cocoa and getting to know each other.

On Saturday, Jac's ward had a Christmas breakfast, with egg casseroles, pancakes, and hot cocoa. Cam got to hang out with a girl she had met when visiting that summer. They seemed like they just went together.

The breakfast even had a Santa visit. Seth was stressed out about what to ask for, but finally decided on a Powerwing Scooter,

After a very cold pizza picnic in the park, and my parents picking up Lee at the airport, it was time for Anna's baptism. It was cute.  They read a little profile of each of the kids getting baptized, Anna's was hilarious.  She had told them that she liked scripture study and doing homework. Jac said it was true, but it sounded so kiss uppy. After Anna's baptism and confirmation, they also blessed Matthew. It was a nice service and I was so glad we were able to be there.

Back at the Sokol's lots of family and friends gathered to eat Anna's favorite things for dinner. I noticed was Emily wearing shoes we had handed down. They were the 1st pair we had gotten Lex when she moved in with us.  I took a pic with her favorite shoes she wears now. It's hard to believe she was ever so little.

My sisters and I took a picture with our baby boys.

When the rest of the dinner guests left, we went to see the Tree of Life. It is a tree in a nearby park that is completely lit up with white Christmas lights. I liked the picture of Lex where it kinda looks like people are traveling in lines to get to the tree.

Sunday morning we traveled back to Southern Utah to prepare for and attend Grandma Jenkins' funeral.

Thanksgiving Weekend

November 27-29, 2014

The Sokol Family came to visit us for the Thanksgiving weekend, giving us the chance to meet our newest cousin, Matthew. The girls stayed with us. We spent Thanksgiving morning with Jac and the kids at Sunset Park, while Jeff went to find deals with the Tatums. We took bread to feed the ducks. Anna and Juliet found this terrifying.

We met up with Jeff and the Tatums and headed over to the faux wood playground. Everyone loved the giant swings.

Then we found a "tighrope" and most us us gave walking across a try.  Only Jeff made it all the way across.

While we played, Dave slaved over a hot turkey fryer, preparing our oddly timed, mid-afternoon dinner. Everyone brought tons of food.  We had been worried about having enough. Silly!

We had 25 people here!

After dinner, we went Black Friday shopping.  Lex hit Walmart with me, then Cam joined me for a Target run.

Lex wasn't feeling well and spent pretty much the rest of the weekend in my bed, making weird whimpering noises.  She was so sick, she didn't argue when I did all her laundry and cleaned out her drawers and closet. It made me so happy for that short time it was clean.

With Lex in bed, missing her tournament games, we were free to go to the adult only dinner at Komex.  It is a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant and we even tried a frankurito - a burrito filled with hot dogs. The rest of the food was delicious.

By Saturday, Lex was finally well enough to play.  They won their morning game, but lost the evening game.  

It was a long, busy weekend.  I loved spending it with family.