Ethan's Texas Trip

My oldest son went to Amarillo Texas last week and he has never been there before. I dropped Ethan off in Las Vegas Wednesday June 17 to meet my dad, who drove from Ramona CA and I said goodbye to him and they were on there way. They drove all the way to Albuquerque New Mexico to eat dinner and spend the night. Then they drove the rest of the way to Amarillo, which was only about 4 more hours or so. In case some of you who are wondering, why did he go to Amarillo TX, my sister Gayle and her husband and there 4kids live there. Ethan pretty much got straight to work, when he got there. My parents are building a house and shop there, right next door and so he was put to work to help out and yes my dad paid him. Thankgoodness, we opened a savings account for him before he left and now he has more money in there. I don't have any pictures of him in Texas, sorry, maybe my sister does. Will left for Vegas around 3:30 pm yesterday, so he left church early, so we had to take both cars to church, which was fine. Will and Ethan didn't get home, until 11:30 pm last night and so it was along day for them, but they managed. Ethan had lots of fun there and he hopes to go again sometime. I haven't been to Texas for a very long time, I lived there at the end of August 1973-June 1976, but we lived near Dallas and I don't remember that much about it. It is nice to have him home. He also started swimming lessons today.

Not Much

I haven't blogged in awhile, because I don't have to much to blog about. The kids got out of school on May 22 and its nice to have them home, but sometimes I wish I knew what to have them do around here. Then on Saturday May 23, we left for my sisters in Spanish Fork and it was nice to get away, even though it was only for a couple of days. Ethan had a blast playing with his cousins and Zach and Connor had fun playing with different toys and being in a different house for 2 days. We also went to Golden Corral for dinner on Saturday and I have never been there before and we all enjoyed it there, well 3 of us did. Connor only wanted milk and cookies and Zach tried the pizza there, but didn't like it, so he had milk and icecream for dinner. So, the next time we want to go there, we will get a babysitter for Zach and Connor. I also got to go to my favorite store, "The Quilted Bear" by myself, my boys don't really like that store, which is fine, cause I go up and down the isles and I look at everything. I got a few things. We came home Monday night and it was a fun weekend.

Here are some of the things we will be doing this Summer:

Summer School- Zach and Connor
Swimming Lessons - Ethan (Connor will do it next year, he isn't totally potty trained yet)
Volunteering for the Utah Summer Games-Malinda
Running and more running just for the fun of it-Will
Soccer-Ethan (this will be Ethan's 6th year doing it)
Diabetes Camp-Ethan (he is doing it the week before school starts in August)
Education Week at BYU Idaho-Malinda (that is still a maybe, anyone want to come with me)

Just before I forget, we changed around some furniture in the front room and the master bedroom and both rooms look so much better. When my dad was here on Friday and Saturday, he put a cable jack on the other wall in the front room and to do that he had to go in the attic and put the wire down that way and now the room looks so much better than it has ever looked before. As far as the master bedroom is concerned Will just flipped the room, so the bed is on the wall where the dressers used to be and the dressers are on the wall where the bed used to be. It is great how it looks now.

Zach's Poem About Me

I hope all the mom's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. My son's gave me some wonderful things. Ethan gave me some poems on mother's in a very nice binder that he made. Connor gave me a plant, that he did at school and Will gave me a dozen roses, that are beautiful by the way.(the flowers are some kind of orange) Then there is Zach's gift to me, that I wanted to share last, cause it is a poem about me and even though some of it is not true, it was that he wrote it about me. With him having Autism, he thinks of things a lot differently than kids his own age do and that is why it is so special to receive it from him.

Mom

By Zachary

Her hair is short and blond (short yes, blond no)

She loves to go to St. George (that is true)

She is going to get a cat. (that is not true, I would rather have a dog again)

Her kids are Zachary, Connor , and Ethan.

She loves cake. (it depends on the cake)

I wonder what she does after I go to bed. (I love it)

My mom is afraid of lizards. (Actually, I am afraid of bees, lizards aren't that bad)

I Love You.

I hope you enjoyed that, I sure did. He is the greatest, well all of my son's are.

Something Wonderful Happened 15 Years Ago Today

I was ENGAGED. It was a Sunday, Mother's Day May 8, 1994 and it was also my sister and her husband's 1 year anniversary, so Happy Anniversary Sandra & Victor. Anyway, I was going to school at SUU and I was living in Juniper Hall at the time. Will and I were going out for almost 8 months by then. He called me wanted me to come over to his apartment at 2 pm and I did. His apartment was across the street at that time. The next part for me to get it exactly right, I wanted to look in my Journal, so this part is what it says word for word .

Will-had something for me in his room and I'm like okay. There were two monkeys on his desk and I'm like "Oh how cute". Will wanted me to open the card and I did, the ring was right there and it didn't dawn on me. Then the card says "You Are Engaged" and I almost started to cry and boy was I shocked. I looked at him, said yes and gave a big kiss to him. Then we talked some and came over here. I called Sandra, but left a message. Then called Gayle and told her and she was happy for me. We talked some and called Sandra and told her and she was so happy. I asked both of them to be my bridesmaids and they said yes. Then went to Will's place, but saw Karl(my cousin) and told him and he was so happy for us. Went to his place to have food and it was getting ready and I called my parents. Amy answered, but didn't tell her, wanted mom on the phone, told her "Happy Mother's Day" and then said mom guess what, I'm engaged and she's oh how wonderful and Amy couldn't believe I didn't even tell her first. Asked her to be one of my bridemaids and she said yes. Then told my dad and that was the fun part and I guess he understood. It will be Dec. 17, 1994(SAT) well hopefully and this summer it's going to be funny-very busy.(I have no idea why I put funny)

Right now we have been married for 14 years 4 months and 21 days and it has been a wonderful marriage and during that time we have added 3 awesome boys, ages 12, 7 and 4 1/4. I hope you enjoyed the pictures at the beginning, I just put all of the engagment pictures that we had taken in Sept. 1994 on the computer this morning and so I hope you enjoyed them. I couldn't find the picture that we had in our announcement, I don't know where that negative went. I hope it is somewhere in the house.

My weekend

This past weekend was a pretty enjoyable one. This is what we did. On Friday, Zach was the only one who went to school, cause the rest of us took Ethan to Diabetes Camp at Zion Ponderosa Ranch. It was a very beautiful Drive and the traffic wasn't that bad, well we left a little after 9 am. We got there about 11:30 am and we checked him in and put his stuff in his cabin. Then all the campers went to go eat and Will, Connor and I also ate and it was a pretty good meal. I was surprised of what Connor ate, he ate all of a chicken sandwich and that is the first time he actually tried something new. Yeah for Connor. Then we left Ethan there and came back to Cedar City. Just in time to drop Will off at the 20 year anniversary of Metal Craft and Will has been there for almost 13 years. Then Connor and I went home to wait for Zach's bus to come drop him off. While we were waiting for him a few things happened. I wrote a post last year about how much I hate bees, well I killed one Friday and let me tell you I was terrify. I saw a wasp(why did it have to be one of those) and it was on the window in the garage and I got the spray and started spraying it and the whole time I was scared to death, but I am so glad that it is dead now. Then my older sister Sandra left me a message about doing another sister weekend and going to see "Wicked" in Denver, where my sister Amy lives and I started screaming and Connor was looking at me weird and crying. I called Sandra back and she gave me the details and we are seeing it in October and we will figure out travel plans later. So, I am going to see "Wicked" in October and I am so exciting. Zach then came home and we went to Will's work party to eat a few things and to pick me up. Later, that evening I went to see "Hannah Montana" with my good friend Christina and it was fun, even though this was the second time I have seen it, but I didn't care. Then went to her house and talked for quite awhile, we haven't talked like that in a very long time.

Saturday, we went to ST. George and it was nice down there. We first went to Costco and right when we got there, I saw my cousin Tricia with her 2 girls and I haven't seen her in about 10 months, so it was so nice to see her. We went to a few more places, we were trying to find Connor some shoes and he doesn't like change, so getting him new shoes falls under that category. We would put the new shoes on him and he would throw a very big fit and so we had to take the shoes off and try again. Finally, we found some shoes for him at Payless Shoes that he didn't throw a fit, when we tried them on him and so we had a Winner. Yeah. Came home and later that night Will and I went to dinner at IHOP. We left Zach and Connor at my friend Christina's house. She has 2 boys, ages are Myler is almost 3 and Mayson is almost 1. Dinner was really good and then looked at Deseret Book for a little while and then picked the boys up. Christina said that Connor and Myler were so cute together and became the best of friends and that Zach was a sweetheart. Everyone says that about Zach. Now, Connor has a new friend and Myler has about the same personality as Connor and that is scary, but kind of weird.

Sunday, I woke up at 6 am and got ready to pick Ethan up from Camp. My best friend Talisha came with me and it was so nice having someone ride in the car with me, it made the ride to the camp much more enjoyable. On the way there, we had to stop in the road, for 2 deer to walk across and we saw 2 more deer in the bushes and that was cool to see that many deer in 1 place. Then a bird hit the car and I looked in the mirror and it looked like it was dead. Then got to the Camp and Ethan said he had lots of fun. He even got a welt on his back from playing paintball. Then we left for Cedar City and it was a nice ride home. We dropped Talisha off and Ethan and came home. Will, Zach and Connor were still at Church and so I cleaned up some and I put Ethan's camp clothes in the wash.

That was my weekend and it was a productive weekend, which doesn't happen that much. On top of all this, I have a cold and this is like the third one that I have had this year and it is only May. Thank goodness that it is only a cold and not the flu.

Going to the Farm

All 5 of us. You can barely see Will.

Zach on the tractor

Connor on the tractor

John about ready to leave with Ethan and Connor

Will taking a turn on the 4 wheeler

John showing me how it works. I have only been on a ATV and that was when I was 14 years old.

John and Connor on the 4 wheeler

Ethan and Zach trying out the 4 wheeler and I love this picture of them

A bunch of sheep

Yesterday, our friends John and Sarah invited us to their farm. Well, actually it is John's dad's farm, but he has been helping out on the farm. We got to their house at 2:30 pm and we got rides with them. We saw lots of sheep and their babies, which was cool. Zach loved the sheep and lambs and well so did Ethan and Connor. Zach even got to pet one, but Connor didn't want too. Oh, well maybe someday he will want to pet one. We also saw a dog. But, what Ethan loved the most was the 4 wheeler he saw at the farm. Ethan asked John, if he could ride the 4 wheeler and John brought it out. Ethan went on it first with John sitting behind him and Ethan did very well driving it. He has been on one before and he has asked us many times that he wants one, but we have no place to put it and 4 wheelers cost to much for us to afford. Anyway, Ethan wasn't the only one who went on it. John took Zach on it and he loved it. I wasn't sure how Connor would do, so he went with John and Ethan. Connor didn't cry or try to get off of the 4 wheeler. Meaning, Connor loved it. Will went on it and then I even had a turn on it. Then Ethan had another turn before the 4 wheeler was put away. Sarah also took some pictures of the 5 of us and it was a fun day at the farm. We hope we can go again.

GUESS WHAT I DID THIS MORNING?

My Autograph

Phil Keoghan and me

Talking to Phil

Getting Phil's Autograph

Phil getting interviewed

I will never forget the moment that I had this morning and I am glad that I got to share it with my husband Will and he is very proud of me for doing it. Let me start from the beginning, I was reading, "Iron County Today" yesterday, which is Cedar City's Paper and I came across this article, "Ride Across America to stop in Cedar City." I was reading the article and this is what it some of it said. "Beginning Saturday, Phil Keoghan, host of CBS's The Amazing Race, embarked on a "race" of his own- he is cycling across America to raise awareness about the benefits of cycling for health, wellness and a greener America. The "Ride Across America Presented by GNC" will also raise awareness and funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society." This bike ride began in LA and the bike ride willl end in New York. I guess they are going to be"averaging 100 miles per day for a total of over 3,500 miles, spanning 40 days with stops in more than 30 different cities and towns." Cedar City is one of those stops and I did get excited that Phil Keoghan was going to be here and he is traveling with a camera crew, so the crew can document the entire ride. He is also asking people at every stop he goes to, to come out and join him for a few miles or more. Phil got in Cedar City last night and was leaving today at 9:30 am at the Vistor Center. The tourism bureau said in the article, "invites community members to come give Keoghan and his crew a warm Cedar City welcome and dramatic send off." Then the article said "From Main Street they will head east up Cedar mountain to Scenic Byway Highway 14 to Highway 89 to Kanab."

After the kids were gone, I told Will about this and that was close to 9 am and he said well why didn't you tell me and well for some reason I just forgot about it. Then we left for the Visitor Center and when we got there, the band from SUU was there playing and it was great. Then went inside and didn't see as many people as I thought would be there, so that was good. Then I saw him and I was getting really excited, cause well it is not everyday you get to meet someone like this. He was sitting on the couch being interviewed and so I was taking pictures of him and it was the greatest feeling in the world to be doing that. I guess the choir from one of the High Schools was also there and they were singing and it was great hearing them, cause they were really good. Then he went outside and talking to people and signing autographs and I was taking a few more pictures. Then I finally got up the courage to talk to him. I shook his hand and asked if I could get his autograph. While he was doing that, I was telling him how I loved the Amazing Race, I have seen the show from the beginning. Then Will took a picture of Phil and me and it turned out really good and well I was exciting. Will and I waited around, to see Phil off and a few other people were doing the same. One of the people that worked at the Visitor Center, ask a few of us to hold a banner that had National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Will and I were a few of those people holding the banner. So, we got to wait around and listen to the choir sing and boy they are good. The choir sang 2 songs to Phil and he really loved it and he said he almost cried through one of them. Phil said there they are blogging his journey and I am not sure what the name of the blog is, but I guess you can find it on the cbs.com website and click on the Amazing Race and who knows maybe you will see my husband or me on the blog. It was a great morning and like I said I will never forget the moment I had this morning.