She's Home!

My Mom is HOME!!! For the last couple of weeks we weren't sure if it was really going to happen and then we found out on Tuesday that she was coming home the next day! I couldn't be happier! It felt so good to give her that first hug! She's a small cute little thing weighing a whomping 123 lbs!

The airport was a little bit of an ordeal. Her flight orignally was supposed to come in at 1:30 from Paris, France. And being the bright and excited people we are, we didn't check to see if it was still on time until we got to the aiport and my brother pulled out his iphone and saw that it was delayed 2 hours. So we came back 2 hours later and saw that her plane had landed. Yay! So we sat there and sat there waiting for her to come down the escalator. Finally, Carrie figured out that we were in the wrong place and that we needed to be at the International Center since she was coming straight from Paris. So we all ran over there hoping she hadn't come out yet. After reading our sign and balloons and seeing the frantic looks on our faces 2 families guided us to her. They pointed me right to her, but I didn't recognize her because she wasn't facing me and she was so small and had long hair! She was at the phones trying to call us but realized she didn't have any American money. SAD! But once she turned around she saw us and a huge smile crossed her face and I grabbed her and just cried. The picture above is when she first saw us.

We're so excited to have Grandma Syl back! Thanks for the play gun grandma! I love it!

And I have to give a special thanks to my brother Brett. This is what he did the whole time we were waiting. Chased Cole. Cole is such a wanderer! At the airport we would take our eyes off him for 2 secs and he'd be way down the hall. And he's not afraid of being lost at all!!! He's fine if I'm not in his sight and is quite the independent little guy. Funny how all this changes on Sunday when it comes time for nursery.

WELCOME HOME MOM!!!

For all of you that weren't able to be there (Christy, Jorge, Matt, Matt, Alicia, and Neil) we have it on video and I'll upload the video shortly for you to see.

Family Photo

So I've been thinking for awhile that we need to have a family photo done. We haven't had a family picture since we had Cole, except for camping pictures, and I decided it was high time we did. So yesterday we spent a half hour trying to get a decent pose on our stairs. It was really a lot of fun setting the timer, steadying the camera, finding Cole and hurrying to get back on the stairs before the timer went off. In the end we had pictures of the ceiling, Cole crying, Cole looking up at Dad, and not to mention our tried too hard smiles. In the end we amazingly ended up with 2 decent ones. This one and the one above.

Going Green!

Neil and I broke down and bought a natural gas car last month. We like to do what we can for the environment. Actually, I wish I could say that's why we bought the car, but that was the last thing on our minds. We just really liked the aspect that it only costs us $4.00 to fill up our tank. Cool huh? We figured with the money we're saving in gas each month we'll have our home paid off 3 years faster! There are the drawbacks to the car though. It only has a 6 gallon tank and you have to have all your gas stops planned out and pray that they're working. Running out of gas in these things would not be fun. We've never been so stressed about running out of gas in our lives! And did I mention that the trunk is like half the size? So it's not all good, but we'll take it.

Young Artist

The other day I got the water paints out for Cole and let him have at it. He LOVED it! He painted his paper, his face, his chair, his belly, the counter, anything he could get his hands on.

Here's the little guy so proud of himself. I was proud of him too.

And here is his cute final product. Not bad for a first timer. What am I talking about? I don't think I could have done any better myself.

And seeing Cole have so much fun I couldn't help but get into the painting myself, so I finally broke down and painted this bird house I bought years ago that I vowed to paint the day I bought it. It used to be really busy with plaid stripes and stars and checkers all over it. I wanted to calm it down a bit so I just painted it brown and cream and then antiqued the edges. It's not nearly as exciting as what it was before, but I like it better.

Any Ideas??

With the weather being so hot I've been trying to find more things to do with Cole inside. So the other day I built a hut in Cole's room. You can see that it covers most of the room. It was a pretty cool hut and took me back to when I was a kid and did this all the time. I thought that Cole was going to LOVE this!!

Here's a view of the top of the hut.

Cole was probably in the tent a total of 1 min. Just enough time for me to get this picture of him smiling as he played with his blocks. I tried so hard for him to like this hut! I brought in his blocks, radio, cars, and made a bed for him (you can see the pillow in the background, he got mad at me for leaving his blanket there so he immediately came in and got that) He basically just came in and got what he wanted to play with and took it back downstairs. I think he was a little perturbed with me that I messed his room up so bad. Who wants to play in a mess? I would think a little kid, but I'm beginning to think I got an odd one.

So if anyone has any ideas of what to do with a 1.5 yr. old I would love to hear your ideas. We go to the park after I exercise every morning so he gets a walk and play in there, we read, play with play-doh, swim, color, do collages, and sing. I'm sure all you mom's out there have lots of fun ideas. So help!!!

Betcha Can't Guess

So we went camping AGAIN this weekend. Surprised? Didn't think so. We had been planning this trip for months with my family and I was actually really excited to go. I wanted to hike, fish, and swim! But the weather wasn't always the best and by the end I was done. I think I'm all camped out for the rest of the year. I'm sure you're all so sick of camping pictures so I'm just going to post a few. Maple Lake where we camped at.

Cole watching his buddy (cousin) fish. Cole had a lot of fun with his cousins Rex and Savannah and it was fun to see them play so well together.


And of course it wouldn't be a complete trip without Neil catching some fish.

My Mom and Payson Fire!!

I found out Saturday morning that my mom's mission president has given her a medical release from her mission. So she's coming home! I'm so excited!! I can't wait to have her back! She did an amazing job and gave it her all and then some. Her companion wrote us a letter and I wanted to share a little bit of that here.

She was the only single proselyting senior sister among 175-180 missionaries.

Her assignment was unique in my “limited” experience because she was instructed to maintain the same schedule as the 21-year-old single sisters who were her trainers. She was expected to proselyte or go tracting for a minimum of 15 hours and many weeks it was many more hours than that.

Her young senior companions asked her to skip meals because of their enthusiasm to put in extra hours of tracting. One even asked her to walk up and down very steep hills for several days because the young missionary wanted to save miles on their vehicle in order to attend a far-away football game between the zones in the Mission on P-Day.

These sacrifices may not appear dramatic, but when you add up the energy she expended as a 55-year-old woman over a eight-month period, her extraordinary service took its toll on her physical body.

She was assigned as a Senior Companion to oversee two senior sisters – a challenge that would be very difficult for someone in very good health.

If a big male bruiser with a tattoo and tee shirt on came to the door, your Mother was not intimidated. When he said he did not believe in God, she would valiantly bear her testimony with all sincerity in her soft-spoken way. You could just see the man’s heart melt as he listened to her sweet words. He would look intently at her as if to say: “No one has spoken these words to me since I was a child!” She would offer him a leaflet on the Plan of Salvation and he would gladly accept it from her.

If a person made a statement at the door that was not part of our regular message, she was able to direct the question to just the right Gospel principle. She had no “prescribed” message. Her words came through listening to the Spirit and being guided to teach what that person needed to hear.

What you did was amazing Mom. I'm so proud of you Mom and can't wait to see you!!

WELCOME HOME!

Many of you may of heard about the Spring Lake fire this past weekend. It was actually really close to Neil and me. Part of our ward is in Spring Lake if that gives you an idea of how close it is to us. I took some pictures and video so you can see it as we did.

Neil called me at work and said that he heard there was a fire near us and asked if that was true. So I went outside and this is what I saw. This was taken a few hours after the fire started. I took this picture from our driveway. Really it doesn't look too bad. At this point a few homes in Spring Lake had been evacuated.

Here's another picture from further back that gives you a better idea of where the fire is.

Around dusk we were eating dinner with our neighbors in their backyard and the wind started picking up. We saw the fire jump a ridge and quickly start another part of the mountain on fire. The fire spread much quicker this time, and with it getting dark all the helicopters and planes were called off. Luckily the winds were heading north and not west otherwise our neighborhood might have been in a little bit of trouble. You can see how much bigger and scarier this fire got from what it was earlier.

I took this video around 11:30 that night on our neighbors roof. You can hear the wind in these two videos that just fed the fire. Sadly it was so pretty to watch!! The whole city was out watching the fire and it made it a fun night to hang out with neighbors and watch our mountain burn. In the end 70 homes were evacutated but none were harmed. The fire came within a few feet of some homes, but luckily that was as close as it came. They're still fighting this fire and should be for the next few days. Hopefully it doesn't do too much damage to our canyon. :(

Oh What Fun!

Neil took Thursday and Friday off this week to celebrate the 24th so we decided to make some fun out of it.
We started with biking Pipeline up Millcreek Canyon. It's a little scary at times as you're riding on a cliff, but the trail is so beautiful!! We wanted to do Dog Lake but figured it would be way too crowded. Pipeline was still tons of fun!

Luckily we had an awesome instructor my sister Carrie. She made it so fun and we're so happy she was there otherwise there were a few times we probably would have flown off the mountain. We'll have to go with you again Care. (What funny faces!)

Afterwards we had a dutch oven dinner with my family at Church Fork up the canyon. This picture was taken especially for you Mom. Here's all your grandkids. Carrie's kids Rex and Savannah and Cole. What a cute bunch!

On Friday we went to the new swimming pool that Payson opened up. It is so cool! They have a lazy river and big waterslides for the big kids (like us) and little slides for the little ones and a really cool play area that you can see behind Cole in this picture. Cole's favorite thing was the huge bucket on top of the play area that filled up with water and then dropped on you. We sat there and watched it drench us time and time again.

We even got Cole to go down the waterslides. They wouldn't let adults go down them so we had to help him from the sides. He eventually got to the point where he went down with no help at all.

Then on Saturday we took the short drive to Nephi and went to the Mormon Pioneer Handcart Pageant. They wouldn't let us use flash photography and my camera was being dumb and every picture I took without the flash was blurry. So I just took a short little video instead. This is at the very beginning right before we sang the national anthem so it's really quiet but you can see all the work that was put into the play. The scenery was really neat with little fires and tents everywhere and they even had a little pond that you can see in the video.

Neil and Cole getting ready for the pageant to start. I really enjoyed the pageant, Neil thought it was o.k., probably because he was trying to get Cole to sleep most of the pageant. The spirit was so strong there. It was so neat to dive deeper into these pioneers stories. One part that stuck out to me was when one pioneer recalled his experience where he felt as though he couldn't push the cart any further and then felt someone helping him push the cart. He looked back and no one was there. But he felt a presence. He knew he was not alone. He stated that the conditions and the task at hand were honestly humanly impossible. The only thing that got them through was their faith alone. They couldn't have done it without the Lord. He said their sufferings were unimaginable, but it was a small price to pay for the divine experiences and relationship they felt with the Lord.

Camping!

We went camping last weekend with a few of my best friends and their hubbies from high school. It was so much fun! And so cool to be with some of my chickas again. We missed all you girls that couldn't make it. We'll have to try again next year.

Memories

I saw this on one of my long lost friends blogs and thought it would be fun. Thanks Heidi!

1. Add a comment on my blog. Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Funny Neil

When it comes to sleeping Neil and I are completely opposite. He can fall asleep anytime anywhere, (probably because he works so hard) and I tend to have a harder time sleeping. There are many nights where I'm wide awake and he's sound asleep.

Last week I was awake and while Neil was sleeping he asked me "Did you let all the people out?" Not quite sure what he meant by that or what people he was talking about, and knowing he didn't know either, I simply said "yes I did." Apparently, that was the right answer as he calmed down and went back to sleep. Usually I'll play along a little bit, but Neil had a really hard week and I was too tired to joke with it.

So then last night I was up with Cole and when I got back into bed Neil sat straight up and frantically asked "Where's Cole?" I said "He's asleep in his crib." Neil then asked "What did you do with all the people?"

Here were those darn people again. What in the world was he talking about? Who were these people? So playing along I asked him....

"What people hun?" He's like. "The people from the neighborhood."

At this point I was trying so hard to keep my composure and not laugh. I couldn't resist playing with this so I said. "I let them in." Neil's like "YOU DID!?" "Yeah they're down in the living room."I said. Neil asked "Really?" "Yes!" I said.

As Neil sat there and thought about this I couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing. Neil, realizing his mean wife was playing with him again, yelled "MICHELLE!!!" And turned over and went back to sleep.

This morning I asked Neil about this conversation and he had no recollection of any of it, or who these people are that he keeps talking about. He did remember getting mad at me about something. I used to do the same thing with him shortly after Cole was born. I'd get back from putting Cole to bed and Neil would sit straight up in bed and frantically look for Cole. He was so afraid of rolling over him or him falling off the bed. So one time as he was searching the bed frantically and asking Where's Cole, Where's Cole? I told him Cole fell off the bed. Neil gasped and yelled "HE DID!!!!!" And leaped across the entire bed and landed on the floor on the otherside of the bed. What a good dad! I'm sorry babe. I love you!!!!!

Grotto Trail

Last weekend part of Neil's family came down to go on a little hike and eat lunch at East Lake up Payson Canyon. The hike was short and fun. Cole was pretty happy that dad let him walk over all the logs instead of being carried over. It's a really short hike, (perfect for kids) and it's really green and shady. You follow this stream up almost the whole way.

How many people can we fit on a log? 1-2-3-4-5-6-7! (Cole's hiding) That's one strong log! This is everyone that came. Starting up front with Austin, Cole, Neil, Clint, Rachel, Grandma Emery, and Grandpa Emery. I should have had them turn around for this picture, but this is the Emery family we're talking about. I was lucky to get any pictures!

And here is the cute little waterfall at the end of the hike. It seems that everyone is wanting to stay close because of high gas prices, so it was pretty crowded once we got up there. We were hoping everyone would enjoy it more once we were there, but there were so many people it made it hard to move anywhere without getting wet. I guess we'll have to do it again next year.

After the hike the plan was to eat lunch at the lake. And right as we were getting situated, good ol me remembered that I forgot the lunch meat! Anyone for a mayo, mustard, and lettuce sandwhich? Yum! So we headed back down and ate lunch at our house instead. Sorry everyone!! And Happy Birthday Grandma Emery! And we missed you Rick, Monica, Carlie, Davis, Joe, Travis, Suzanne, Brinlee, and Aynslee!

July 4th!

We got up early to make it to the Murray Parade with Grandma and Grandpa Emery and Uncle Austin.

Cole didn't care too much for the parade. He was in charge of picking up all the candy and he took his job pretty seriously. Usually he's all smiles but we struggled to get one out of him at the parade. I think he was pretty confused as to why people driving by kept throwing stuff at us. He had it all cleaned up in a hurry. And at least he did enjoy the candy.

This was the coolest part of the parade. What's even cooler is that Neil's family knows one of the guys doing this. He's in the yellow jeep.

Later that day we all went to Grandma and Grandpa Emery's house for a BBQ. Cole's aunt Monica brought her fun swimming pool so Cole was able to swim with his cousins and learn what you actually do in one of these things. He was scared at first, but in the end had a lot of fun.

And of course we ended off the day with fireworks at Murray Park. Cole slept through them last year so this was his first time seeing them.

Needless to say he was a bit scared at first. You can see his eyes are a little wide and he looks a little hesitant. He grew used to them after a few minutes. You can see Grandma and Grandpa Emery and Neil's sister Suzanne to the right and I have to point out Brinlee (Cole's cousin) at the bottom left of this picture. Look at that face!! I can't tell if she's scared or just loving it! Hehehe.... cute Brinlee!

Hike To Red Lake

Neil heard about a hike to a lake off of Maple Lake in Payson Canyon. So on Saturday we decided to try and find this hike since we couldn't find any information about it. So after making our own trail head and searching through the woods a little bit we finally found the trail. Luckily, it turned out to be the right trail.

The trail was beautiful. It followed this stream for a bit and Cole loved to see and hear the water. He has this little fettish with throwing rocks into water right now so we had to stop for a minute and let him throw the rocks in the stream.

After we got away from the stream we ran into a bunch of cattle. (Look closely and you can see them in this picture) This was really cool at first because there were so many, but there were also a lot of little calves with protective mothers around. Needless to say the cows were not happy that we were there and we weren't too excited to be with the angry cows. Apparently, this trail isn't used all that often.
But we did eventually make it to the lake (top picture). We figured it was about 1.5 miles each way. (Perfect for hauling a 25 lb kid up) We hiked back down and ended the day with a BBQ and of course some fishing down at Maple Lake.

The Handsome Trio

We went fishing AGAIN on Friday (we fish a lot, but we love it!) with Neil's brother Austin and my brother Brett. Aren't the 3 so handsome? We fished till dark, came home ate the fish, some snacks, and played the WII till 1:30 a.m. It was a blast. I guess some of us will never grow up.

This is my brother Brett. It's funny.... growing up we about killed eachother. Literally. But now Brett is one of my best friends. We do stuff with eachother all the time now. He even comes to Payson to see me!!! He has a heart of gold, just like my dad, and is just tons of fun to be with.

"This is so easy I could fish with my eyes closed!" Austin was the winner this weekend. He found the hot spot and caught 5 fish! Way to go Austi!

Butt Head??

This is for my long lost friend Jorgina (AKA Jorge.) This isn't a Japanese video, but I'm sure you'll find this just as funny. Thanks Tiff for the video. This one is HIGH-larious! (You can mute the blog music at the bottom of the page)

Jumping Jacks

Our ward rented out Jumping Jacks and Cole wasn't a big fan of it at first. It was hard for him with all the kids going crazy everywhere and the slides were really big.But as time went on, and with a little coaxing from dad, he started to get more and more comfortable with it.


Until he got to the point where he was really excited to go down the slides and was pulling Neil with him everywhere he went. (Mom was kind of a social bug and missed a lot of it)




Until he eventually even got the courage to go down all by himself! Cole had a blast! Now he even wants to go down the big slides at the playground all by himself. My little boy is growing up!

Fishing at East Lake

We went fishing the past 2 weekends at East Lake. The first weekend was just Neil, Cole, and me, and this past weekend my sister Carrie and her family came fishing. We're going again this weekend with Cole's Uncle Brett and Uncle Austin.

Although, Cole thought the fish were interesting he definitely wasn't going to touch one. That was a job he was going to leave for dad.

Yay! I caught a fish! The stroller in the background really adds to the scene don't ya think?

Fishing this weekend with Matt, Cole, Savannah, Rex, Carrie, and Neil.

Rex (my nephew) even caught his first fish all by himself! No one helped him reel it in or anything! He's only 4! He can ride a 2-wheeler by himself too. Quite the talented little guy.

All in all we had a pretty good day. We brought home 6 and threw back at least that. Everyone caught at least 2 fish and most caught more than that!

I don't think we would have caught anything without Neil though. Love ya hun!

Little Logan

This past week has been a hard one. We lost our little nephew. He was only 21 days old, but wow he sure made an impact while he was here. Clint, Rachel, Conner, and Brayden you're in our prayers. It's at times like these where the knowledge of eternal families really becomes real. We've been taught it our whole lives, but it's not until you experience something like this that it all of the sudden becomes real...... and not just something you've believed in. We love you guys! What a neat family you have!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today would have been my dad's 61st birthday. Many of you never got the chance to meet my dad as he died shortly after I graduated from high school, so I wanted to share a little bit about him. My dad wasn't the serious type. He had a great sense of humor, loved to joke, and wasn't really one for rules. He put his family before anything else, and made growing up a blast. He taught me how to play softball, ski, run, hike, and just live life!! I love you Dad and Happy Birthday. You're getting old!!

My dad loved to spice up the work day and play pranks on his co-workers. He had a side kick named Richie and they were always thinking of funny stuff to do. One time they broke into one of their co-workers cars and switched the break signal with the horn signal. So everytime the guy put his brakes on it honked the horn! Hahaha.... love it! Luckily nothing too bad happend, and I'm sure it didn't take the guy long to figure out who did it.

My dad just loved to get a laugh out of people. He would crawl on the floor at work and sneak up on people in their chairs and scare them half to death. Just to get a reaction and to make each day a little more fun. It wasn't until his funeral that I realized how many people he really touched. He had a heart of gold. I love you and miss you daddy.