One Busy Weekend

Larry and I try to be good parents.  I remember when I first adopted Caleb I was going to be the most perfect parent ever.  I had had 10 years of watching family members and friends raise their children and I thought I had all the right ideas and plans.  (chuckle!!)  Or course I found out that raising children is so much harder than what you think and nothing goes according to plan.  And to make things even harder, every child is different and has different needs and responds to different techniques.

As parents we have been really good about holding Family Home Evening every week.  That is a program that prophets in our church have been encouraging us to do for many years.  We are really good at it.  In fact when times come up that I am not prepared my kids don't even think that there is another alternative, they expect it every week and sometimes it is fun, sometimes not, sometimes we fight, and sometimes we love.  It is a great time and our kids really look forward to it.  We also read scriptures every morning as well as memorize scriptures or songs or sayings every month.  We pray morning and night every day and it has become such a habit that my kids do it when Larry and I aren't home, they don't go to bed until family prayers are said.  It is kinda neat that it is so ingrained in them.

During the summer I have the kids read every day, I give them a page or two of homework, and they work.  I find work for them to do every day and every week I try to arrange some type of service project for our family.  From weeding, to shoveling snow to making cookies for someone we try to do something as a family to serve someone else.  I love these small traditions we have established but sometimes if it is all work the troops begin to rebel....so we also try to have a lot of FUN every Week!!!!

This summer we bought Lagoon season passes and have been up there every week.  But last weekend I was surprised at how much we did.  I was exhausted.  Friday we spent the day at Lagoon.  During the day we were at the water park and even at 40+ years old I love going down the water slides and laying out by the pool.  So much fun!  Then we met Larry for dinner and he joined us for the night riding the rides.  Guess what?  I love riding roller coasters too!  We got home around 11:00 at night only to wake up the next day and do yard work at our home and a neighbor's home, then we ate lunch with Caleb and brought him a little visitor.  Snoop (his teddy bear hamster) came to visit him and he was soooo excited!  Then we came home and played in the FOAM at the Lehi Foam days, and then we headed up to Sundance to ride the lift and hike to Stewart Falls!  Wow!!  What a day.  But we had so much fun :)  I love keeping busy and I love doing things that build memories with my children.  Whether we are working, serving or playing we are doing it together and I am so grateful for my family.

Caleb & Snoop

Foam Days at Lehi

So much fun :)

Ski Lift at Sundance...look how pretty!

Hike to Stewart Falls

Stewart Falls

Look how green and beautiful...we live in a wonderful place!

About to get wet on the Rattlesnake Rapids!

I LOVE my sisters!

I am very blessed to have four wonderful women as my sisters.  I grew up in a family of FIVE girls and NO boys.  We are really close and I love my sisters.  We try to get together as much as possible and sometimes in our husbands views maybe too much :)  But we love being with each other and there is no one I would rather be with than with one of my sisters.

In the past we have taken some fun trips together.  We have go to Niagara Falls, Toronto, Hill Cumorah, Kirtland, OH, Savannah & Atlanta, GA, Laguna Beach to see the Pageant of the Arts.  This past month three of my sisters and I went on another trip.  We do this ever once in awhile and it is so much fun!  This year my sister Lynne turned 50 and we tried to get something planned for a couple of months but she was in the midst of a move and didn't want to commit to anything.  Then last minute, literally we planned it in 24 hours, we decided to go up north to Vancouver Island and Olympic National Forest.  Tammy wasn't able to go so last minute and we really missed her.  Next time we need a little more notice so everyone can go.  But we wanted to go and celebrate Lynne's birthday and she really wanted to visit Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC.  So off we went.

The Northwest is so beautiful!!!  We flew into Seattle, drove to Vancouver, took a ferry to Vancouver Island and toured the Butchart Gardens, then we ferried over to Port Angeles, WA and drove all around the Olympic Peninsula.  I don't think I have seen such beautiful scenery.  All of us are very alike in how we like to travel as well.  We want to see as much as possible so we go, go, go until midnight and wake up early and then we figure we will sleep later.  That is what we did on this trip too.  But it was worth it because we saw some pretty incredible places in such a short time.  We hiked many hikes but since we weren't really planning on hiking (remember, this was last minute and we didn't have any reservations anywhere, we just checked in to places and hoped they had room) JaNet and I ended up hiking in our sandals :)  We had a blast and it was just what the doctor ordered, for me at least.  Actually for all of us.  We all had a pretty stressful month of June:  Kim had surgery on her shoulder, her daughter got evacuated from the Sierra Vista fires, her son left for Tokyo on his mission, her other son was up for rank advancement in the guard, and her oldest has been unemployed for a few months and they just had their fourth child; JaNet had a son leave for his mission to Africa and her husband had a massive heart attack; Lynne moved from a huge mansion to a smaller home and to top it off it was completely ready with the remodel and didn't have everything ready.  Also her oldest just graduated from High School, and me, well I won't go into complete detail to protect the privacy of my children, but one of my children is living elsewhere to get some help and that decision was made in June.  So needless to say we all needed some fun in our lives.

Here are some fun places that we visited:



On the Ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, BC




Downtown Vancouver




La Push Beach #2, my favorite of the three beaches that we hiked into.




Lake Quinolt...absolutely beautiful!!




Farthest NW corner of the continental United Staes



Olympic Penisula - look at that water!!

FOURTH OF JULY



Entire Family on 4th of July



At the Balloon Site with the Stormtroopers



 Today we celebrated the fourth of July!  I was worried about what we would do today and how to make sure it was special for ALL of my children.  With so much going on I didn't have time to plan much but luckily in our area there are TONS of things to do.  We decided to start the day off by seeing the balloon race for the Freedom Festival.  It started at 6:00 so we knew we had to wake up early.  As many nights this past I didn't sleep well and when it time to get up I told Larry I would have to catch up with them a little later.  So Larry took Anastacia and Nathanael and they went to see the balloons.  It is really a neat sight to see so many hot air balloons take off but unfortunately today the weather was bad so they did not take off.  But they did blow them up and the kids had fun seeing them anyway.  They especially loved the Star Wars Darth Vadar balloon and Storm Troopers.



Waiting for the parade

 Maria and I met up with them at 9:00 for the Freedom Festival parade, that was fun, and then we all met up with Caleb to eat lunch and play games.  We played Guestures and BS, Caleb's favorites games.  It was fun to be with him.  I miss him so much!!  We also had a little FHE lesson on the meaning of the 4th of July.  I couldn't believe that none of  my children could tell me what important event happened on this day and why it was our independance day.  Silly kids!  Finally Caleb came up with the answer.  We read through the Declaration of Independance and that was fun to do.  Then our wonderful neighbors invited us to a BBQ tonight.  I am so grateful for them because I was just too tired to do anything and we went over there, ate great food, had great conversation, and then watched all the fireworks go off all around us.  It was quite the show!  Loved it!!

Today as I was thinking of past 4th of July I was thought of many fun ones we have enjoyed as a family.  I remember being in San Diego watching them from the back patio of my sister's home overlooking the ocean.  It was a beautiful view.  I thought of the many times we watched them up in North Salt Lake with Larry's family and the kids playing in the grass with glow sticks.  I thought of the time we watched them in a swimming pool in Arizona and then last year when we watched them in ShowLow with all our Ellsworth Cousins at our Family Reunion.  I even thought of the time when Larry and I watched them while on Tammy's boat in the San Francisco Bay.  Awesome!!  I remember one 4th of July parade in Utah where my niece had just broken up with her fiance and during the parade I invited her to live with us and just like that we had one more person riding back with us to Arizona.  I remember the last 4th of July I spent with my Dad sitting in front of his Insurance office ... the "White House" in Chandler.  I have a picture of my Dad holding my boys and it was Caleb's first 4th of July ever.  I have some really fond memories of some great celebrations.  It is an important celebration not just for our country but for our families.  This is truly a great family celebration.

Then I remembered that it was on a 4th of July weekend that altered the course of my family.  It was in 1997 and I was working at the time and traveling a lot.  I happened to be in Boston for a meeting with a vender just before the big weekend.  After I had wrapped up my meetings I was heading to the airport and I thought, "I am in Boston for the 4th of July weekend...I should go hear the Boston Pops play in the park."  I also had a store that I wanted to visit so on a very rare impulse I called my assistant and asked him to change my flight to the following day and help me find a room for the night.  I was going to stay in Boston.  As I drove past the airport exit I had a small feeling and voice inside me tell me that I should get on that plane and go home.  But I quickly dismissed it thinking I am always the responsible one, just this once I am going to be impulsive and do what I want.  So I did.  Guess what happened??  The store I wanted to shop at was closed, that was kinda irritating.  But even more than that, my assistant could not find me a room to stay in that night.  Every hotel room was BOOKED!!  I didn't even think that this was 4th of July in Boston.   I started calling around, I called Larry and he started calling around, my assistant stayed two hours late that night calling.  I would call one place and they would tell me they only had suites left and it would be $350 a night.  Then after getting several "no's" I would call back and decide to take the high priced suite only to find out now all they had left was their presidential suite at $800 a night.  Frustrating!!

I started to panic.  I started seeing myself sleeping in my car, getting attacked by a homeless person and never seeing my husband again.  About 8:00 at night my husband finally found me a room.  As I got settled in the room I thought to myself, "I was prompted to get on that plane."  Although I didn't know the situation the Lord did and he tried to get me to go home but I wouldn't listen.  I had missed the concert, didn't get to shop at the store I wanted and spent the last 6 hours stressed out!  As I spoke with Larry that night he said to me that perhaps the Lord let me experience this thing to teach me a lesson when the consequences were not so horrible.  Sometimes he is preparing us for something bigger.  Sure I lost out on a little, but it was not life changing.  I pondered that all night and thought to myself, I know what the still small voice is like now and if I ever get that feeling again I will know what it is and I will follow it. 

The next day I flew home.  On the flight home I had that same feeling and voice that I had when I drove by the airport exit.  But this time it told me something even harder than to go home.  Actually it was kinda the same message.  The voice told me to quit my job and stay at home.  Larry and I had been married for 8 years at this time and there was absolutely NO prospect of any children in our future.  But I knew the feeling and I knew the Lord had set this up for me to listen.  I came home and the next day went into my boss and told him that it was time to quit.  Now just know that I LOVED my job.  I was a Vice President, in charge of pretty much everything, doing everything, traveling, planning events, creating teams, writing, doing everything I loved to do.  This was a dream job and I was being paid very well for it.  My bosses loved me and this came out of the blue.  It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.  But I couldn't deny the feeling I felt and the experience I had had.  It is hard to relate in writing how much they hit my heart to the core.  But I knew it was time for me to come home.  Luckily my bosses shared the same belief in God as I do and after the initial shock they understood. 

 So it was a 4th of July weekend that brought me home and started my journey to becoming a mom.  It would still be 18 months before Caleb came to live with me but at the same time Caleb was starting his journey.  It was in July of that same year that he was taken from his biological parents and placed into CPS custody.  Coincidence...I don't think so.  It was all part of the plan.







HERE I GO AGAIN

I blogged about our adoption of our girls almost five years ago so that our friends and family would know what was going on :)  I have always thought I should keep it up but never did...but guess what?  I'm back!  After a Relief  Society activity on blogging I thought I should keep writing.  We do have some pretty amazing stories in relation to our adoptions and many people keep telling me I should write a book of all the miraculous stories surrounding our family.  So instead of a book, I'll start blogging about it.

I'll jump around a lot, as I feel so inclined.  Eventually I'll get to all our adoption stories and even how Larry and I met.  It will be a piece by piece life history of our family.  Hope it all comes together.