Vegas Vegas Vegas

SO....we took a trip!  A great trip.  To the quaint little town of Las Vegas.

Our great friends from Georgia, the Lindquists were blessing their newest addition, Beckam and invited us to come on down! So we started planning a mini family vacation.  Then a week before the trip, we got the news that Jess' Grandpa Winn, who was such an amazing man, had passed away.  

His funeral would be the following week, in Vegas.  What a blessing it was that Jess had already cleared himself and prepared to take off the time from school, and we had already budgeted money to get down there! A wonderful tender mercy. There's no way he would have missed it.  It just made everything so much simpler to leave behind.

Jess had the greatest idea to drive down through Ephraim and revisit our old courtship (and his childhood) stomp'n grounds.  We drove through Mt. Pleasant, and we all saw the house he lived in there and  his elementary school. 

Then off to Ephraim--ahhh, Ephraim, it's such a great great place.  And this time of year I didn't even smell the turkeys which was awesome!  Anyway, we made a stop at Roy's (ha! Doesn't it look like "Boy's" in this picture--how ironic)

This used to be Fat Jacks Pizza and mmmmm.  I love it.  Good memories of their pizza, and country dancing upstairs, plus, they have a cute little candy and ice cream shop.  The boys all got $2 to fill up their candy bags.  Then we drove around to show them dads old house, the school, an attempt to show them my old house "The Fishbowl"..but turns out it had been leveled to make room for another church which is awesome and a bummer.  Memories of ultimate Frisbee, intramural racquetball with Jess, warm homemade bread at the institute, and dating an adorably amazing guy.....and then dating Jess--HA HA! Just kidding--see what I did there.  I love that Jess and I'm soooo so blessed that he chose me and that he's the guy I fell madly in love with.

Still driving near Ephraim, we passed this adorable Mater on the side of the road.  I made us turn around so Rhett could get a picture on it. He loves love Mater.

Here's Melodie holding Max at the luncheon after the funeral. She is soooo good with my kids.  They love her.

Rhett and his cousin became best friends soooo fast!  They ran around the whole time together. Love.

 We saw some amazing video footage of Jess' dad and brothers dressed u and singing...it was so insanely special.

After awhile watching this slide show, I went to find all the kiddos. They were in the primary room organizing a news cast.  It was adorably cute. Seriously, don't you love how quickly kids meet someone and are best friends.

Playing basketball together.

Crazy night at the IHOP.  Favorite quote of the night was won by Melodie.  Kade kept eating sugar packets. He was talking kinda loud and I said to use his inside voice.

Melodie: "After 4 packets of sugar--that is his inside voice." HA HA HA. So true.  We also played a rad quarter game at the table.  Ihop is a wonderful place!

After all of Jess' family had driven back home we got to spend some time with our great friends the Lindquists!

YAY!  I love this girl.

playing at the park...i didn't really get any amazing shots since it got dark so soon..but it was great fun running around and playing tag--then playing hide and seek in the dark with the kids! Good times.

Sunday morning we were able to head over to Jessica's parents house and be there for Beckam's baby blessing.  Then afterwards we went to church with their ward.

One of the best parts about this whole stay was that we got to stay in a house with the Lindquists.  That equals maximum hanging-out-age.  So...that was super nice :)  Here's a picture taken during Movie night with Mac and Cheese.  So. Focused.

Breakfast. I love how sleepy and dazed they still look.

Doesn't Jessica and Beckam look so so so cute here?  Yes, yes they do.  We went to one of those bouncy places with all the kids. Best choice ever. They absolutely loved it!  Plus I love that they let parents get on and play with them.  But I also loved so much that we were practically the only people there.  SCORE!

Lucas was actually really mad in this picture. I can't remember why....so there you go.

They treated us to a WONDERFUL night out at the Cheesecake factory. And what's amazing with that?  Jessica's mom watched all the kids. How angelic is she?  So so so sweet. It was great to have some time to just talk without having to keep the peace with kids.

Most amazing Strawberry Shortcake (he's not a cheesecake fan). Right? It's huge? And even though we shared our meal there was no way he could finish that!

yup...he tried this.  It was special, and a dare, and all sorts of whipped creamy.

We did bring Max along cause we knew he'd be just fine and didn't want to put too much on Jessica's willing mom. (seriously, so so nice of her) and he was a stallion. They even gave him a special complimentary plate for babies. They had a bunch of cute little breads and banana slices.  That's sweet right? Plus, there was another little baby off the end of the table and he and Max had this smiley laughy communication the entire night.  It was awesome.

Jess, Bridger, Beckam, and Luke.  Sweet!  Beckam had a hard time out there. The first few months of his life were spent crying a lot.  He's much happier now, which is a HUGE blessing to poor Jessica.  But see here? In Jess' arms he WASN'T sad. So there's that.

Luke with Bridger. There was a pool table at the house (it was a seriously amazing house complete with a bazillion rooms and beds, a pool, a pool table and TV in the rooms. The kids were in heaven.

I love these two. They're super cute together.

 We had a great time with our friends and found out that they're MOVING to UTAH!! woo woo! So that was great news.  We'll get to see them tons more now :)  Thanks Lindquists for the invite.  We had a great great time!

Verne Winn

Verne Winn

November 14, 1918---January 18, 2013

Jess' grandpa Winn passed away in January.  I only met him a few times but each time he would sit quietly in the room smiling and listening to everyone.  When he did speak, you could tell it was from a life filled with learning, growth, and wisdom.  

At the funeral, Jess' cousin put together a slide show with pictures and some videos.  I LOVED the story they told of Verne Winn.  We saw so much video footage of he and Jess' grandma Ruth singing at family events. How adorable is that? I love it.  And I didn't realize how much of a serious cowboy he was. Here are a few of my favorites:

Ha ha ha! Just amazing!  I mean, what's the story behind this picture?  One of the stories Jess tells about his grandpa shows his eagerness and devotion to living life in every faucet.  Jess would often see him take random things out of the cupboards to eat together...like pickles and peanut butter-just because he hadn't tried them yet.  :)  I like him.

And have you ever seen a cuter family picture with such real smiles?  (Jess' dad is the one in the plaid suit coat)

He owned a few franchises of KFC's.  How cool is that to have a picture with the genuine Colonel Sanders!

These pictures were taken the weekend of his 90th birthday party in 2008

I love funerals. I love the way you can get to know those who have passed so well from how they've touched others lives.  Jess' dad gave a great talk that I learned such great things about Verne.  

Of the many things Jess' dad has learned from his dad, he shared with that his dad hated laziness. He remembers often being told, 'George, get up and go do something." it almost didn't even matter what it was.  If it was a mistake--he figured the kids would learn from that too. :) But did instruct them to remember who they were.

He also remembers being told "George, have fun." 

And my favorite pearl of wisdom; he taught him to 'Enjoy one moment of joy everyday.' That life can have crappy days, months, and years. But to look at each day, and notice 1 moment of joy in it. 

 I love the classic-ness of this family picture.  It's just perfect.  Love. It.

 Sweet sweet sweet sweethearts.

 Artwork done by Verne Winn.

2013 Rocks: Good Start with Good Friends

What's one of the greatest benefits to living in Utah?  

Friends from all over come here to visit their families during the holidays!!!!

YAY FOR US!!!!

So we totally spent an afternoon with our great friends the Galans in a classy McDonalds. We met the Galans in Georgia, had kids play together, were in the same ward, went on a cruise together...ahh....We love them to PIECES and were eagerly trying to get them to join us in the awesome poorness that is Law School.  

This picture courtesy of Kade :)

Next was the awesome opossum KUTZ's visiting from Texas!  This time we thought harder and met up at Kangaroo Zoo-- one of those jumpy places and THEN when for food.  

We've known and loved the Kutz's since our early years in Georgia--me and Tiff served in Young Womens together, our families just loved each other, she drove up to Utah to have a baby 2 years ago just so I could see her in the hospital when I was visiting (she's thoughtful like that) :).... it was so great to catch up.

Here's the extent of the boys "picture wanting". Apparently they don't LOVE pictures and felt that all was needed to say "hello, you're rad, I'll never forget you" was a high five. (this was after the fact)  You just wait though, one day, when Jess or I have lost our memories completely--we're (Jess) going to be soooo happy that I take so many pictures. It may not be until that day, and I fully understand that, that Jess will care--but one day, ONE DAY he'll be glad :)

We LOVE the school here.  For one of the Hawk Days everyone was invited to the Rec Center.  The kids LOVED running the track, playing basketball, using weights and jumping rope (that Luke totally won through a raffle there!)  Good times.

So I know this isn't a big deal, but I love watching kids progress. We just got Rhett a little book so he can practice his handwriting. He loves it and is doing so good. So...WAY TO GO RHETT.

New Years Eve 2012

For New Years Eve this year we:

Played games: This picture was taken while playing Sardines (reverse Hide and Seek. Only one person hides, and the others all count together. Then everyone goes out looking for them.  As you find them, you join with them in their hiding spot.  It is HILARIOUS when you get everyone together hiding in the shower, or in the laundry room under a blanket or closet....ha! Good times!!!)   

This particular time,  I'd just found mom and all the kids in the storage room in the basement.  While we were all hiding together, grandpa opened the door to the the room and we all hushed. Garrett covered his mouth and quietly said, "oh my gosh" in such a happy excited sneaky quiet voice. I wish I had it recorded it was so gosh darn cute. Anyway--Sardines is a favorite around here.

Made Pizza's and watched Monsters Inc.

Here are the boys all having root beer floats using their rad straws from Melodie and Justin.

This was right before we went outside to do fireworks the first time (at 10:00 so we could put Rhett to sleep)  Mom and I found out that Max is TOTALLY ticklish on this thigh. He was such a hoot.

We had AWESOME fireworks this year since we'd just been up in Wyoming for Christmas. And since it's legal now to do Aerials in PG (woo woo!) we took full advantage.

On of the fireworks had 16 blasts up right...well it tipped over and started shooting at the neighbors homes! AHH!  (who were eagerly watching as their home almost blew up from the front window...) BUT, Grandpa saved the day as he rushed out into the street to straighten the rogue firework accompanied by Grandma singing caution "Reed no Reed no!" 

Good times.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!