50th Birthday Party

Last weekend I had a reunion with the people I grew up with in Whittier. We all turned 50 this year so we decided to get together and have a birthday party. Here are some now and then picture of all of us. The black and white was when we were 12 years old as Beehives (were we called that back then? I can't remember). Amazing that we were all there (except Rosita) plus a few that came later. It was a fun day visiting and reminiscing with old friends. One of the feelings that I had at first was that we were visiting with everyone's parents because there were so many that I hadn't seen since high school graduation. We had an amazing group in the Whittier Stake. I feel so blessed to have been able to associate with all of them.

(1970) Renae, Martha, Laurie, Rochelle, Michelle, Kim, Linda, Rosita, Janet. With our mothers and the bishopric and I think the YW leaders.

(Now) Laurie, Renae, Martha, Laurie, Rochelle, Michelle, Kim, Linda, Turdy, Janet

My Girls

When I went to Utah for a little family reunion I got a good surprise. I wasn't expecting to see Ashley until Christmas but she surprised us in Utah and Mindy was the only one who knew that she was coming. My family was all together at my brothers house in Spingville and they showed up. I really was surprised. So we got to spend the week together just hanging out. We spent a day at Jordanelle reservoir.

It is hard to see but Jami is pointing to a small island out in the middle of the lake. When we got there Jami was obsessed with swimming out to that island. I told her that she could only go if she used the raft so when she got her turn with the raft Ashley and Allyson decided to go with her. They walked over to the dock and when Jami jumped in she panicked.... probably because it was deep and BIG. So she came back told me that she "freaked out." When Allyson, Ashley, Rylee, Mindy, Befee, Yanzhen and I all decided to go, Jami thought that she should give it another try because she was obsessed and determined to swim to that island. She did it..... and we have not heard the end of it. She keeps talking about it and is so proud of herself for doing it. All week she kept asking if we could go there again so that she can swim out to that island. It was quite an accomplishment for her. We took Ally with us and we put her floaties on and had her ride over on the raft. She didn't like it much and all the way over she screamed....."daddy, daddy, gramma, gramma, mommy, mommy, Tanny, Tanny, binky, binky." She is a funny girl.

My Family

This is my family. We get a little crazy when we get together.

Mom resisted this but we are bad and did it anyway.

Craig, Mark, Debbie, Mom, Me, Todd and Derek.

Hmm!!!

I took this picture of Ally helping her mom make cookies.
This is a painting that I did for Mindy when she was pregnant with Ally.

Ally

I love being a grandma and I love this little girl. This is what I got when I first got to her house..... Lots of smiles and gramma, gramma, gramma.
She loves to jump off the bed to you and then she says "again", "again", "again", until I had to say "gramma's tired".
By the end of the week I got a lot of her back. Every time I wanted to take a picture she would turn right before the shutter would click.
I saw a lot of this......
and this face. And by the time I left I think she was happy to have her house back to normal. I hope by the time she sees me again she will be happy and I will get more of the gramma, gramma, gramma!!!!! All I have to say is...........Ally is two..... and that explains it all.