Shower at the Inn

Today was really fun. We had a nice relaxing morning at the cabin. Mike was able to do a few things he wanted to do before winter. Maysen was able to zoom into work for her meeting and then finish up at the cabin. Preston was able to do his school online today. We grabbed four more sleds at the store. Mike worked on Grinch advertisement posters. Notice the space after December 3rd. We don't know the time yet. We are meeting with the ward council on Sunday. Probably will figure it out then.

Delicious time of year.... this picture was for my brothers

Stephanie

We packed up and headed to the lodge for the night. We got there about 5:30. Steve and Sharon let us stay in the moose cabin, where we were able to bring Bear. Super nice of them. I was able to attend Tamara's baby shower. Fun to see lots of cousins and family. Matt and Tamara have been trying for 12 years to have kids. They have been trying to have kids longer than Matt and Sam have been married. Matt and Sam have five kids. Wild. Tamara talked about all the different things they have tried. That would be so hard. IVF is what finally worked for them. They are going to have a boy in December and his name is going to be Tryfan. His name is pronounced 'Trevan', but kind of more complicated than that. Tamara said she let Matt pick the name. She wanted it to be a Welsh name, after Matt's ancestors and a Hebrew name after her ancestors. Matt picked Benjamin for the Hebrew name. Tamara wanted that for a middle name. Matt searched for a Welch name and settled on Tryfan. Tryfan is a mountain in Wales. I think his name means very high peak. Anyway, listening to Tamara talk about it was pretty cool.

Tamara & Sharon

While Maysen and I were at the baby shower, Mike was at the wood carving demonstration. There is a guy that is amazing that lives in the motorhome part of the lodge. He is Steve and Sharon's longest tenant. They let him use their workshop back there. Not sure if he rents it out or what. He carved a bear with a chainsaw. Mike loved it and told me he had so many ideas. Oh boy! Hahahaha 

Last Day

We headed home today. Mike took Jorja and Preston home after breakfast. They brought the jeep up without the top on and were quite cold when they got here. I bundled up the kids for the ride home. Jorja was in the back and I had her covered in blankets. She said she froze on the way home. They listened to conference the entire way, which was nice since we weren't able to go to church. I have been after Jorja all year to do her online class. She always gets annoyed with me and says she is fine and ahead of schedule. I asked her this morning if she was going to be able to get it done before she left to Taiwan. She was surprised and said no. I about died. It has to be done before she leaves. She was shocked and said she had no idea. That is sooooo frustrating because I have been telling her for weeks it needed to be finished before she leaves. How could she not process that information? Anyway, that is why Mike took Jorja and Preston home so early this morning. It kind of hurts because I would really like them to get to know my family. It has been hard without my mom to keep a connection, but I wish my kids would realize how important this is to me and try when they have the opportunity.

At least Maysen stayed with me. She played with Jeff for awhile while Matt and Sam were packing up. They went to church with Sam's sister who lives nearby.

Jeff & Maysen

I played another game of Canadian Salad with John & Renee, Heather & Josh, Derek & Kendra, and Devin. I won by a long shot. It was awesome. Soon, Maysen and I were on the road. We had an uneventful drive home, which was great. This weekend went by pretty fast, but I'm so thankful for Steve and Sharon for putting this together. I loved it.

The Lodge

We were in charge of breakfast this morning along with Matt and Sam's family. Sharen had bought all of the food, which was amazing. Maysen and Preston helped. They had egg wars when they made breakfast. They took two eggs and hit them together to see which one would crack. They had to crack 120 eggs. They looked like they were having a great time doing it. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate. It was delicious. After breakfast we went on a hike. Maysen was asleep when we left. Preston was annoyed that I caught him before he made it back to the duck cabin. Haha! It was a simple hike and was really nice.

Preston over looking the area where Grandma Parry grew up

 Paisley and Rennie ~ born on the same day

I went on a walk with a lot of my family to the feeding gate. Lots of irrigation pipes sent to different directions. It was a nice walk and I'm glad I didn't have any babies with me. Don't want to fall in the water there! Anyway, when I came back Maysen and Preston were in the paddleboat. Maysen had her laptop and Preston had his clipboard. He was drawing the lake. They were so cute! They were out there forever! Anne and Irie kept trying to get them to come to them. Maysen and Preston kept paddling away. Yikes! It was only later that Maysen told me that anytime they came near Anne and Irie they would try to hit them with sticks and throw mud at them. So....now I get it.

Maysen & Preston

I played a game of Canadian Salad with John, Renee, Jackie, Mark and Paul. I was winning the entire game until the last hand. I came in second to last. Luckily Mark had more points than me. Later, I was playing croquet with Matt, Paul and Devin when Mike and Jorja arrived. I heard Mike singsonging 'Stephanie!' I turned around, jumped and yelled, "Mike's here!" Renee laughed and said, "Now that is a nice reaction." It was nice to have them both up with us. Mike was pretty upset when he told me about finding Nala, the neighbor's dog, in our duck pen again. She was sitting right where Quackletta sat on her nest. He said, "Maybe it's a tender mercy Quackletta died like she did. I would have been furious if the dog killed her."

After dinner we had a program/talent show. Steve had people tell stories of Grandma/Grandpa, Sue, my mom or Kris. It was nice to hear about them. Steve told about my mom making my dad lunch every day when they were first married. She would always ask my dad what kind of sandwich he wanted. He would always say he didn't care. She got annoyed with that. So, one day my dad was at lunch. The other teacher didn't like his sandwich and asked if my dad would switch him. He did. Turns out my mom made my dad a popcorn sandwich that day. Haha. My mom is awesome. I miss her. Jorja got up for the talent show. She did her fake sneeze, her elephant noise and then had Maysen and I come up and sing the ABCs backwards with her. My grandma would always say the ABCs backwards and then end with "And what's so hard about that?" Really nothing, my kids all do it without even thinking about it. Except Preston. Looks like I failed to teach him. Whoops.

Uncle Steve

Stephanie, Jorja, Maysen ~ ABCs backwards

The three remaining kids ~ John, Jackie, Steve

Mike and the kids went back to the duck cabin. I stayed and talked with my family. It was me, Courtney, Steve & Sharon, John & Renee, Kendra & Derek, Heather & Josh, Paul & Amanda. After awhile I said, "So, Josh..." and everyone laughed. Josh is Heather's boyfriend. I asked them lots of questions. Courtney whispered that I needed to ask Amanda questions. Paul and Amanda have been dating for five years or so. Paul is my brother Matt's age. I knew they were really serious. Paul had asked her twin daughters if he could marry her, so I knew that. Anyway, Amanda is really shy, so there was no way I was going to interrogate her. After I couldn't think of any more questions to ask Josh I turned my head and said, "So, Paul..." I started asking him questions. Then I said something like, "So...is there a day that I need to clear my schedule for?" He said he didn't know. I said, "Well, I live in Utah. Is there a day I should make sure I can make it up here." He said, "I don't know... you could always come up July 13th." I asked if there was any reason I should come up that date. He said if I wanted to come up that seemed like as good of a date to do it. Finally I said, "Okay, so what I want to know is, are you getting married that day?" Paul said yes and my Aunt Renee about died. Her jaw just dropped. I raised my hands in victory, then gave Courtney a high five. It was awesome.

Hats

I went to Idaho today with Maysen and Preston. We got there just in time for dinner. We are staying at the Duck Cabin. We are here for my family reunion. In the first time in YEARS we aren't doing it at Lagoon. We are having the reunion at Steve and Sharon's lodge. They closed the entire thing down (minus the RV part) for us. They are amazing. Anyway, we got there in time for a delicious dinner. I got to hang out with Heather and Courtney which was really fun. We were really cold during the night though because I could not find the heater. It was super obvious in the morning though. Whoops!

Mike stayed behind with Jorja. She had student government all day long today and tomorrow. She is missing camp, so she didn't want to miss this. Yesterday I saw a text exchange between Jorja and Madison. She said she thought she would be home alone. I showed her the messages and laughed and laughed and laughed. No way would we let Jorja stay by herself. She is cute for thinking that though. Anyway, I got a few pictures from Jorja. She had the best time. They got their new student government shirts and their hats. She likes the shirts a lot better than last year. She hated those! Well, the long sleeve one wasn't bad, but the other one looked awful on the girls. The black shirt they have this year has a '21 embroidered on the shirt. Well, the juniors have that. Pretty fancy. Their hats are super cute. Jorja loves hers. She got a hat her freshman year too, that one was a cap.

 Bode & Jorja

 Jorja

The juniors started the prom planning. I got a text from Jorja when I was at a gas station in Pocatello. She said, "They liked my prom thing! I don't know if they will end up choosing it, but they so far that is everyone's favorite!" Her idea for the theme was the song When You Say Nothing at All. I sung that song to everyone of my babies when I put them to bed. Every night. I love that song. I hope they keep that.

I laughed and laughed when Jorja showed me Annie's picture. The school is tearing down the commons. The kids will have to eat lunch in the gym all year. That will be annoying. The dances will also be in the gym. Jorja is not happy about that. I wonder what it is going to look like. The commons looks just like I remember when I went to Alta. Anyway, this 'Last Supper' picture is so funny. Especially with Gage as Jesus. I sent this picture to Stockton and he laughed and laughed.

Marie's Baptism

I thought I heard my name early this morning so I bolted out of bed.  I looked out of our motorhome and saw Cassie and Brandon!  What a great surprise!  I went on a walk with them around the lake.  Steve and Sharon's new place sure is beautiful!  I was excited to see things that looked familiar.  It was so cool to see Grandma's bench sitting by the lake.  Perfect place for it!  I also loved seeing the tiny kids table in the kitchen.  So many memories of that!  They also found a perfect spot for Grandma's front room cabinet.  So great!

 Anne & Brandon

Marie was baptized this morning.  We pulled up to the church right at 10:00.  I couldn't believe how full the room was.  My eyes started to water as I saw so many of my Idaho Falls family there.  It was great! Rachel's dad and my dad both gave talks.  My dad used something he learned from Larkin's baptism.  He had Brett look in two different bags and had Marie pick a bag to get a prize out of....with her dad's help. One bag had a chocolate bar.  Her dad helped her know that was the right decision.  The other bag had a loaded rat trap!  Yikes!  My dad set it off with a pencil and boy that would have been disastrous if she insisted on picking that bag!  I also liked how my dad dropped a $20 bill and Marie gave it back to him.  He then dropped the $20 bill next to Eve.  She did not give it back.  He dropped it next to Grace, again she did not give it back.  He dropped it next to Mina.  She thought about it for awhile before she decided to give it back.  Was Eve and Grace sinning because they kept the money?  My dad talked about how you are born of the water and of the spirit.  He had Cassie stand up and pointed out how pregnant she is.  He talked about how the baby has been protected with water for almost nine months.  When Marie was baptized, she was born again of the water.  Then he said that for eight years your spirit is protected from evil.  When the eight years are up, you are given the holy ghost to help you.  I liked that.  Anyways, the baptism went great.  Marie sang a song called The Miracle.  I recorded it and wanted to put it here, but apparently it was too big of a file to do that.

Anne & Grace

Let's see if I can remember who was there.  My family, Bubs' family, Brett's family (of course), Matt's family and John's family.  My dad, Cathy and Max.  Terry & Debie, Savannah, Addi and Jacoby were there. Terry officiated and filled up the font.  That was so nice of him.  Terry has helped us out with selfless service many times.  John & Renee, Chad and Jeff were there.  Wow!  Brett and Chad were super close growing up!  Jackie and Courtney were there.  Steve and Sharon were there.  I know Tammi was there and I think Rozie was.  Lots of Rachel's family.  I know I missed people, this is what happens when you get a week behind on the blog, have no short term memory and mostly paid attention to watching babies.  Needless to say, the baptism was amazing and I love all of my family.

Brett & Chad

After the baptism we went to Big Jud's with some of my family.  Brett, my dad, Matt, and John's family.  The waitress was pretty scary.  The food was good.  Next was back to Steve and Sharon's lodge.  Ella had a craft that she helped the kids make.  It was a temple and turned out cute.

Mina

 Brett & Mina

I wanted to get a video of Eve crawling because it is hilarious.  I can't believe how fast she can crawl using this technique!

We played frisbee golf, paddle boats, horseshoe balls (not sure what that game is called), played with frogs and ate Rachel's delicious dinner.

Jorja, Beth

Max, Brandon, Grace

Mina, Marie (holding frog), Mallory

 Marie

 Mina with the frog!

Jorja sure played well with the little kids.  She brought out Horizon and let them watch her eat crickets.  That was a hit!  I stayed up really late playing Dominion with Brett, Matt and John.  I can't remember who won, so let's just assume I did.