Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Fathers Day!!

I want to start out my weekly post with a tribute to all the great men in my life.

To Drew:

  I don't think I can fully express just how much I love him.  He is my friend, my partner.  He is my person who I love the most in the world.  He is such a great father.  I love to see how the kids run up to him when he gets home, and how they smile when they see him.  He is such a fun Dad, and is always playing with my kids and thinking of fun things to do.  He is the greatest.  

To my Dad:

 My Dad is such a great example to me of hard work and perseverance.  He never had a lot, but he worked really hard to give his children all he could, and he is still doing that.  He told me once that he knows he didn't always do everything right, but that he did the best he could.  I really admire how much he has accomplished over his life.  I love how much he loves my children and how much he does for them.  How he takes them for quad rides and wants to spend time with them.  

To my Father-in-law:

 Tom is such an example of quiet strength.  I have loved all the games we've played together and how he will always be the champion at power Scrabble, the hikes we have done, the movies we have watched, and all the fun things that we have done together.  Plus, he raised a pretty amazing son, so that speaks volumes of what a great guy he is..  

To my Grandfathers:

I didn't really know either of my Grandfathers that well.  My Grandpa Campbell got sick when I was really young, and my Grandpa Jensen passed away when I was 3.

I remember that Grandpa used to love for us to "do his hair".  We will fill up one of the old metal cups that they had with water, and find Grammy's curlers and a comb, and we would proceed to comb his hair and put curlers in it.  He would have water streaming down his face, and I'm sure we were not gentle, but he would sit very quietly while we did his hair for him.  He had a certain way of combing the front, that we could never replicate.  I also remember him playing checkers with us, and playing his harmonica for us.  
 
Grandpa Jensen was an avid fisherman.  My Mom said that he would always bring me dolls and licorice, and I have a very fuzzy memory of him giving us money.  He would give my sisters quarters and change, but I think he gave me paper money. 


 Grandpa Doug:

 Even though Doug is Drew's Grandpa. I felt like he was mine as well.  He had a special relationship with Drew, and I felt like that relationship carried over to me and the boys.  I loved going into Doug's Sports early to do the bookwork, and he'd be sitting at my desk eating an egg McMuffin, or a Boston Creme doughnut. With his ever present can of coke, and quite often wearing his red sweater.  I loved the time we spent together before anyone else was there.  I loved how he would bring my kids chocolate milk, and how he was so kind and generous to our family.  Often his greeting to any of us would be "Hey Brat", but that was code for "I love you."



To finish off, here are a few pictures from our week. We had some pretty nice weather this past week, so we had lots of fun. On Monday, our friends, the Straight's invited us to Laurier Park for a hotdog roast.  The kids had so much fun playing kick-ball, roasting hot dogs, making smores, playing at the park, and getting good and dirty.  Taylor loves to wear her hat.  She never complains when we put in on, because I think she knows that when she wears it, she gets to go somewhere fun. 





We also went to another Birthday Barbeque, and had a Ward Picnic.  It was a good week.  


Thursday, June 14, 2012

A Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of the the family pictures that we had done that I mentioned in the last post. Mandy found this super cute idea on Pintrest, and it worked out perfectly.  Great job Mandy!!


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Our Trip to Lethbridge And...

We headed down to Lethbridge last weekend, so we could get a huge family picture done before Tom went to Calgary for more treatments.  We were all worried that it would be a complete gong show with 12 adults and 18 (I think that's the right number) kids.  But, it actually went quite well.  We had a super talented photographer, Tammy Thomsen, who actually did our family pictures from a couple years ago, and I think she did a great job at keeping everyone organized.  I am excited to see them.


When we travel, I load up on snacks and treats for the long drive.  This picture doesn't do it justice for just how messy her face was.  


Playing outside at Grandma Jane's house.  


After our short stay in Lethbridge, we went to Cardston and stayed overnight with my parents.  The kids had a really fun time riding quads, making a bottle rocket with Grandpa, painting rocks, and having a Pajama party.  Grandpa wanted to take Taylor for her first quad ride.  She was unsure at first, but she seemed to like it.  Even if it doesn't look like it in the pictures.



Taylor loves Ketchup, and yes, she is licking it off of her plate.



Phoenix likes to ride his bike, so on rainy and cold days, he does it in the garage. 




We went for a hike down by the river at Mackenzie Ravine yesterday.  It was so beautiful.  Drew is getting his back in shape for his pack trip with the YM in July.







 
Drew and I have been thinking of traditions that we want to have with our kids.  One of the ones we decided on was to do a charity walk.  We picked the walk for the Kids With Cancer Society.  It rained the whole time, but I think we still had fun walking, playing games, getting tattoos, jumping on the bouncy houses, and getting a pizza lunch, which is still on Phoenix's face. Taylor didn't last the whole walk, so Drew took her back to the van, while we finished.  Then after we waited in the van, and had our pizza lunch in there where it was warm and dry.