Visit to California

May 27-July 2

Visiting Nona & Papa

Modesto, California

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we headed home to California to spend some time with Nona and Papa.  We got to celebrate my Grammy's 80th birthday, attend my brother Nathan's 8th Grade Graduation, and see my brother Reed, recently returned home from his mission.  I broke this visit into several posts so it wouldn't be so long.  (Maybe I should stop taking so many pictures!!!)

We loved being out there for Grammy's special birthday and spending time with Mom and Dad and the "Uncles." (Reed, Jacob and Nathan.)   

Making Cookies with Nona

She even let Hayden try cracking an egg.

Just a random picture of Hayden.

Hayden loves pacifiers.  We took them away before several months before Sydney was born, and he was doing great without them.  But when she was born, he started stealing her pacifiers, or coming over and taking a few sucks of her pacifier that was looped on my finger while she was eating.  Anyway, I let him have his pacifiers to go to sleep with.  A couple of times while we were out in California, he just went into the room and put himself down for a nap with his pacifier.  In this picture he is sucking on his favorite pacifier, has one in each hand and another one there just in case.

Nathan's Graduation from 8th Grade:

I know 8th grade doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it was a big deal for me that I got to be there.  I left for college when Nathan was 2 and got married a year later, when Nathan was not quite 3 years old, and as a result I haven't been there for all those little things that family go to; sporting events, performances, his baptism, etc.  So when we found out that Nathan was graduating from 8th grade the day after we were planning on leaving, we just decided to stay another day so we could be there for it.

Getting his diploma. (or certificate?  I don't even know what you get when you graduate from 8th grade.)

Nathan with Mom and Dad.

He is officially taller than all the girls in the family.  

(Even Natalie, though she'll tell you otherwise.) 

Mom and Dad with their boys.

Just bein' silly.

Since the grandkids were there, Mom got a pinata for us to celebrate with.  We ended the night with delicious ice cream sundaes with yummy homemade chocolate sauce. mmm.

Hayden

Sean

Daphne

Dallin

We got some sweet videos of the uncles with the pinata, so enjoy that below.

Huddling together for warmth.  It was so cold out there!  

And I told my kids, "Oh, don't pack that long-sleeved shirt--you'll be so hot!"  Well, it was not hot--the only time we broke out the swim suits was at the hotel on the way home, and we were borrowing sweaters from everyone who had extras. But we had a great time anyway!  Thanks for putting up with our noise and our messes, Mom and Dad!  (And Reed, who gave up his room for us.) 

We love you guys!

VIDEO UPDATE:  I made a pretty sweet video montage of a "Surprise Gorilla Attack" (Uncle Reed scaring the pants off his nieces and nephews) and some funny clips of the pinata-breaking.  But I haven't been able to download videos directly via blogger for some reason, and now there is a problem with google-docs. So I'll try to post it later  if I can ever get past all these technical issues.  Can't waste any more time trying to figure it out!

California Train Museum

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
California Train Museum

Old Town Sacramento, CA

Old Town Sacramento & The California Train Museum

Arthur really wanted to take the kids to the train museum up in Sacramento.  He remembers going there on a field trip and loving it.  Uncle Reed didn't have to work that day, so he came with us, and Nona kept Sydney at home with her.  That ended up being great, because a stroller would have been a nuisance!  And Sydney wouldn't have been very impressed by the trains anyway.  Thanks again, Mom!

 We had to break a $20 to pay for the parking meter, and where better to do that than a candy shop?

There were barrels and barrels of soft, delicious, salt water taffy of all different flavors. 

Raspberry Cheesecake, Orange Creme, Huckleberry and Caramel were some of my favorites.  While I picked my taffy based on flavor, the kids picked theirs based on color.  I'm not sure what flavors they picked, but suffice it to say that not all flavors are created equal!  

We didn't have to coax these kids to smile for very long.  

They were in a CANDY SHOP for crying out loud!

At the Train Museum:

Had to get a picture of the family in front of the Santa Fe/Cochiti Car since we are from New Mexico, after all!

Hayden could have stayed in this section of the museum all day!

Hot Dogs and Pretzels with nacho cheese for lunch

And here we are sporting our fancy Cassette Optics Sunglasses, courtesy of Reed who is now an official Cassette Optics Sales Representative.  Haven't heard of Cassette Optics?  Well they are an up-and-coming sunglasses company founded by my future brother-in-law Jade.  You can check them out on facebook.  They're gonna be big, folks.

Visiting this museum made me think about how the railroad really changed everything.  It changed where people lived, (making some places much easier to live than before) changed farming and production since the farmers were able to ship their crops all over the nation, changed the way people travel, and in general made the country a much smaller place to live.  The railroad had a pretty significant part in the shaping of our nation.

Grammy's 80th Birthday

Monday, May 30, 2011

Grammy's 80th Birthday Celebration

Del Rio Country Club & Grammy's House

Grammy's 80th Birthday Celebration

Grammy and Grandpa arriving at the Country Club.

The great-grandkids greeting their Grammy.

(And I just realized what a GReat example this is of the poetic device alliteration.)

Grandpa, and his sons

Arthur and I got to sit at a table with all children.  I was going to say that was an adventure, but not really since we do that every day.  We just had a few extra little people than normal.  In fact, we were like magnets. Even the ones who were seated at other tables ended up at our table. They all knew that our table was the fun table!  

Grammy loves talent shows.  So of course, for her birthday celebration we had one.  Each family had offerings for the talent show.  Here are the married RJ Stone girls who came out for Grammy's Day (Natalie, Julianne and myself) with our husbands singing "Old Fashioned Wedding" from Annie Get Your Gun.  I can't decide if I am sad or happy that it wasn't recorded.  I think it was probably better live, but it's not often that we get the guys to sing with us, so I do wish it had been documented.  :)  Anyway, it was super fun for us to do this, and my kids (including the boys) still go around the house singing, "I wanna wedding in a big church with bridesmaids and flower girls! . . ."   

The RJS Men singing "Let the Lower Lights be Burning."  

They sound GREAT together.

And here is a video of the Great-Grandchildren singing to Grammy.

The RJS family's present to Grammy was a scrapbook entitled, "Patricia--Glimpses of Grammy from A to Z."  Mom and Dad provided the album for all the layouts and Natalie, Jenny, Julianne and I all split up the alphabet and did layouts for each of the letters of the alphabet.  Each layout takes anywhere from 2-4 hours, (depending on volume of creative juices -- the lower the volume, the longer it takes.)  And Julianne did all of her layouts with a gimpy hand!  (She had several stitches in her left hand due to an incident with a Cutco knife.)  Anyway, it was a labor of love, and we hope she will enjoy looking back and remembering glimpses of her life for many more years to come!

Looking through the scrapbook

Happy Birthday, Grammy!  You are still beautiful as ever.

Lavender Hollow Farm

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Lavender Hollow Farm

Escalon, CA

Saturday afternoon, Mom took Natalie, Julianne and I to pick up Grammy for a birthday outing to Lavender Hollow Farm.  Grammy thought it was just going to be her and Mom, so she was really surprised to see the rest of us on her doorstep.  We browsed around their cute gift shop, and got a few fragrant souvenirs.  Then we headed outside to walk around the lavender farm.  

These are the box dinners Mom treated us to.  Aren't they cute?

I didn't know this, but apparently, lavender is edible.  We had lavender-chicken salad on cresents, strawberries with lavender fruit dip, lavender seasoned almonds and cheese, and lavender lemon bars for dessert.  I was surprised at how delicious it was.  

Smelling the lavender

taking pictures of people taking pictures

Grammy lent me her jacket since it was much cooler than I thought it would be out there in CA.  

This time of year is usually pretty warm.

What a beautiful way to spend an afternoon.  Thanks to the husbands who held down the fort while we got to have some girl time.  (Don't worry--they had PLENTY of golf later to keep everything even.)

Way-Back Wednesday

I'm copying this idea from my sister-in-law.  I think it's so fun to look at old pictures and remember, so hopefully this is the first of many "Way-back Wednesdays" to come, though I have no aspirations of doing them every Wednesday.

This was taken in our first apartment.  I don't remember the name of the complex, but it was in Orem, UT.  There's Arthur surrounded by piles of books and homework and notes.  And behind Arthur is a couch.  You can't miss it--Probably from the 60's--who knows how many times it's been to D.I.?  We lucked out and didn't even have to go to D.I. to get it, because as we were moving in, someone else was moving out and asked us if we wanted that couch since they were just gonna take it back to D.I.  Well, we didn't own a couch, so we gratefully accepted.  It's a beauty, isn't it?  A few months later we moved to an apartment closer to campus and SIGNIFICANTLY smaller--so small that couch wouldn't even fit in the family room.  So we took that couch back to D.I. and picked up another vintage special half the size.  Ah, the joys of being poverty-stricken newly weds.  It's so good for you.

May Quotes

Little Red Hen (aka Me):  Hey boys, do you want to help me make some bread?

Sean & Hayden almost simultaneously:  "No." "Uh . . . no."

Daphne was the MC at a puppet show she and the boys put on and said, 

"And now for the introdooktion of Sean and Hayden!"

Sean:  I loved my birthday.

Me: (pleasantly surprised that he would remember his birthday since it was back in September)  Oh, good!  Did you have so much fun?

Sean:  Well, no.  I just liked getting so many presents.  That was awesome.

(and that's why we don't do parties very often.  I don't want my kids to be greedy little birthday brats.)

Last night while driving home from Pack Meeting, Sean stuck his "wand" (yes, my children all have wands that they've made, and carry around with them in case they need to stupify someone,) into a hole in the car where the seat belt is stored.  Tragically, it fell all the way in and all hope of restoring it was lost.  Until Daphne said, "I know!  Let's turn the car upside down!"  Hayden thought about that for awhile, and in the meantime the conversation turned to other things.  Then about five minutes later, horrified at his conclusion, Hayden tearfully exclaimed, "But the car is too big!"  This morning, after giving it some more thought, he decided that if we had a giant to help us, we could probably turn the car upside down.

At Pack Meeting--

Cubmaster (who happens to be Arthur) : Okay, now it's time for AWARDS!  

Hayden:  A War?!?  Awthome!

Dallin recently did a big report on Utah for his gifted class, which included among other things, reports on 3 famous people.  

Dallin chose Brigham Young, Butch Cassidy, and Jimmer, of course! -- technically not from Utah, but played for BYU, so Utah can partially claim him!

Here is a close-up of his state project.  

As a result of all his Utah research, he claimed the following title in this phone conversation:

Dallin: Hi-- is Cole there? 

Cole's Mom: Sure, let me get him.

Cole: Hello?

Dallin: Hi Cole.

Cole: Who is this?

(say this in a Mr. Jack-the-Canadian-Border-Patrol-Voice): Well, this is . . . shall I say, "the UTAH EXPERT."  

As we were loading the kids back into their car seats after the 3rd store we'd been to:
Me : Boy, all these errands are for the birds, huh guys?
Hayden:  Well, we are not birdth.  We are perthonth. (persons)

Waving good-bye to Natalie & Brian as they left Nona's house, Hayden said, 
"You're gonna mith uth!"

Sean:  Mom!  I want to go swimming!  I haven't been swimming in an AWESOMELY LONG TIME!

Last night Daphne explained to Aunt Julianne, "My mom made these brownies for a reason, not just for fun.  She made them for dessert!" 

Dallin:  I hate it when people explode for no reason. 
(??? I think this must have been in reference to a computer game, but out of context it made me laugh.)