Saturday, August 29, 2009

We're Going on a Bear Hunt!!

Kerry won a ticket of one car of 7 people to go to Bear World. So today I took the 4 "oldest" grandkids and two of the mommies to Bear World and we had LOTS of fun!It was Kyler's Birthday and it was fun to spend some special time with him! He was so cute and fun.
Kyler liked the ducks, too.
We got to ride the train. . . how fun!
This is the gang petting a deer. She was very good to sit still for a long time and the kids just loved petting her.

This is the entrance area. Trying to get these wiggly ones to pose was a trick :)!
Aden and his mommy Heidi wanted to chase the chicken!
We saw LOTS of bears. It was absolutely delightful to hear Kyla and Kyler say "This is SO MUCH FUN!" over and over again.

First Day of School

Every year we have a tradition of taking photos on the first day of school. This is Wednesday, August 26, 2009. Even though Kerry isn't going to "school" we wanted a photo of him too!Nathan had a bad attitude this morning because his hair wasn't done! This is the only photo we got. . . oh well!
My photo this year looks terrible. . . I am so tired that I have big bags under my eyes and my face looks really stressed so this is the best I could do :)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Extended Family

This past week I was able to take five days out of life and return to my extended family. I was born in Minnesota and raised in Illinois. My grandmother (middle) is 90 years old and still lives in the house where I visited her as a child. My mother has been ill and has not been able to see her mother and so this week my brother Brian and I decided that we wanted them to have an opportunity to be together. So. . . I flew to Minnesota on Monday morning, rented a car, and Brian flew in on Wednesday with my mom (right).
This is my beautiful mother, brother Brian and me. We were saying goodbye after visiting with my aunts and uncles for three days.
Brian has to add humor so that the tears don't roll :). It was so good to see him for a few days and now he is off to Arizona again.
This is a photo of my grandmother Ellouise Marie Parrish with all of her grown children. From left to right is Carol, Rodney, Faye, Marjorie, Crystal, Leonard. She also gave birth to Diane and Mitchell who died in their infancy. It was so fun to watch these brothers and sister interact with each other. As we sat around the dinner table one evening, I asked my grandma if it reminded her of the days when they were younger and she said yes. They were all expected to be home for dinner together. That is what Kerry and I have done with our children and I reflected on what it will be like when I am 90 and all of my kids come home to see each other. I cried that evening thinking about what life has brought me and where we will be in another 45-50 years.

Once a mother, always a mother! I love this photo because the first day was really hard on my mom. She has a new feeding tube and she was pretty distraught to visit her family. She tried to rest and couldn't. She tried to sit and visit and couldn't. She tried to walk around the house and couldn't seem to. It was very tender for me to watch my grandma try to "mother" my mom and take care of her. She decided to try to lay down with her to see if she would nap. They both ended up falling asleep for a few minutes. Another opportunity of this trip was to visit with my dad Chuck Markowitz and his sister, my Aunt Sue. My cousin Kathy also made the trip to come and see us. We had lunch together and visited but the batteries were dead in my camera and unfortunately I didn't get any photos.

This was a short, but special trip for me. I was taken care of so well by so many people. All of my aunts and uncles were concerned for us and brought food each day. Grandma doesn't cook by herself a lot these days and so each day, each of the family would bring some food and come to visit and eat with us. Most of them are farmers and have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of their own and it was a huge sacrifice for them to come to grandma's each day and visit. When they left in the evening they had to return home to bottle beans, bail hay, weed gardens, and tend to the responsibilities of their lives to return the next morning with a smile on their face and a tight hug to begin again. I am sure they were relieved when we left to get back to their normal lives. . . but they were WONDERFUL to me and to my mom and I am grateful!!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Lagoon

One of our days in Utah was spent at Lagoon. This is Kyrstina and her boyfriend Rizzo enjoying the rides.
Kerry and I had fun on the Bumper Cars.
On Wicked.

Park City, 2009

Grandma and Tayven enjoying our time together after the pool. We enjoyed having Hyrum, Amiee, Kyla and Tayven join us in Park City this year. We have lots of fun memories getting to know Amiee in this very resort.
We enjoyed spending time with all 5 of our grandchildren in Park City this year. I am so sad that I didn't get my camera out the first couple of days because I don't have a photo of Aden. He was just adorable in the pool and I had the wonderful privledge of putting him to sleep IN THE POOL two days in a row. He was needing a nap and Heidi and Eric went to play tennis so I took Aden with me to the pool and held him tight in the warm water while he laid his head on me and fell fast asleep. It was great fun. This photo is Friday after a full day of swimming. Courtney is holding Tayven. Kyla and Kyler are posing too.
It is my tradition each year on vacation to put a puzzle together. I love puzzles and I always enjoy brining one on vacation. It was so cute and amazing how Kyler loved my puzzle. He said "Grandma you puzzle is beautiful". "Grandma I like your puzzle". Grandma, you have a pretty puzzle". Here Kyla and Kyler are enjoying my puzzle while I try to keep them from touching it :).
Kerry and Kyler having snacks on the couch at the condo.
Kerry and I enjoying each other for a few minutes away from the kids.

Right of Passage. . .

BRACES!Nathan got his braces on this month. He isn't very excited about the whole thing but I guess that's just life. . . some things aren't fun but are good in the long run.