Family Pictures

Yay, family picture time! My amazingly talented and beautiful friend Julie took some pictures for us a few weeks back. It turns out the twins were totally sick (which we found out the next day) so they were a tad grumpy. And Andrew was grumpy and insisted on holding a stick the whole time, but since they were outdoor pictures, we decided to embrace it.

I'm starting to miss it.....

I'm been trying so hard lately to learn new things and to really stretch myself. Canning, sewing (lol......it ain't pretty, I need a lot more practice) making magnets, you know...all that crafty stuff that I've never been interested in very much 'cause I wasn't good at it. I'm kind of tired of making so many mistakes and starting over, or just sort of pretending I know what I'm doing. It makes me miss stuff I know I can do, like catering. We've taken a couple of years off, but I think I may be ready to jump in again. I miss the fast pace, the craziness and then everything coming together in the end. So intense, so stressful, so tiring and so incredibly fun!

Sigh..... I miss tablecloths.....

A Life Worth Remembering....

On Sunday night Jesse and I attended a memorial for my friend Dave. He would have been 30 on July 4th of this year. It was so wonderful to see Robin and Janene, it's been too long. We had dinner in a Pavillion behind a church house and then went inside and watched a video. It was so surreal to see Dave in the videos, so full of life. It was so great. Robin then got up and talked about how they wanted to have this memorial because all of his grandchildren didn't know a lot about Dave. He said everytime they asked about him, he just cried, and he wanted them to know more about him than that.He said, Dave's life was a life worth remembering. So we then took turns standing and sharing memories about Dave, with the children gathered in front, while they videotaped it. It was really fun to hear some of the fun memories people had of him and the touching ones as well. Afterward, we all walked across the street to gather at his grave. It was crazy, I hadn't been there in soooo long, but I had spent so much time there. Hours and hours and hours. Luckily Sarah had brought some pennies with her and so we were able to leave some. Just like we used to do for YEARS. Good memories. It was an event that shaped the rest of my life and taught me a lot about life, love and living your life to the fullest. And it helped me form some of the most important friendships of my life.

Some of the most precious people in my life, Sarah, Robin and Janene.
( and yes Janene is holding firecrackers. That's just how she rolls!)

More info on Dave (this was more for my benefit so I have everything electronically)
:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494248/UTAH-BOY-DIES-ON-REMOTE-HIKE.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494487/BOYS-RUSHED-FOR-WATER-IN-TRY-TO-SAVE-SCOUT.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/494703/DEATH--DAVID-BLAINE-PHILLIPS.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898555/