As I mentioned in the previous post, we left for Utah on Christmas Day. This vacation was a whirlwind. We went everywhere, trying to catch as many people as possible while we were there. Yikes. What ended up happening was that we spread ourselves way to thin, but, had a great time doing it. We got to spend time with my dad, the boys played in the snow, got to be pulled behind the 4 wheeler on a sled, ride the horses, and in general just mess around.

After that we got to go to Heather's house and visit with them, Danielle and Jon came over too. We had fun just hanging out and eating and talking, it was really enjoyable.

Then next day we went down to Manti and did some temple work for my Grandpa McGarry and his ancestors. After this experience we decided that the baby's middle name would be Patrick after Patrick McGarry who immigrated from Ireland to the US. We think the baby's first name is going to be Kaelan. We shall see.

The day after that, everyone went snowboarding - and Levi got to go too. He was so excited. Calder, Ansel and I went to visit my friend Kathy and see her new baby. Her kids are growing up so fast, and are so adorable. It was really great just hanging out with her and talking.

Sunday we just hung around mom's house and played games and relaxed. The boys played with Lia constantly. Ansel is in love with her. Mom wasn't too happy with Lia though, she chewed up one of the wooden pieces to my new game I got for Christmas. Puppies. . . .oh well. We left monday and drove home. After that I needed a vacation from my vacation!!

For our ward Christmas Party this year we had "A Night in Bethlehem". All the families in the ward dressed up as shepherds or Bethlehem citizens and we ate on the floor on blankets.




We had to "buy" our food with jems from the money changers and we got to go from one food stand to the next.

As we sat eating what we purchased, a tax collector came by and taxed us. Then we had a program including the Nativity scene. The boys REALLY loved this activity, it really got to their imaginations. It was difficult for them to eat on the blanket however, and I quickly regretted having them wear white outfits!





Christmas morning it was pretty obvious Santa had come to town. The boys were so excited, waking us up WAY too early.



Santa brought them all slippers, set out neatly by their filled stockings.







Christmas day was filled with many hustlings and bustlings. We opened presents, had a Christmas breakfast, made a gingerbread choo choo train, had the missionaries over for Christmas dinner, gave them stockings that Santa had left for them, cleaned up, packed and left for Utah! PHEW!! What a day!

Levi had his birthday party today, on his birthday! It was a lego Star Wars theme. He wanted a lego cake, which his grandma Severson and I worked on for a while, and he wanted lego games. The kids all have fun in the lego relay race. We split the kids up into two teams and they raced against each other building a lego Star Wars ship. Each kid was responsible for 5 steps. Unfortunately, I didn't make the teams as even as I thought I did and Levi's team won by a long shot. Too bad. But the kids didn't seem to care, they just had fun. They also played musical chairs to star wars music and hit a Darth Vader pinata with light sabers. It was fun, even if a little crazy, to have 12 eight year old boys running through the house!!

For Calder's 5th birthday we went to the OMSI, which was featuring a REAL life Star Wars exhibit. It had all of the original costumes and props, plus Yoda's puppet, R2D2, C3P0, Luke's landspeeder etc. They also had interactive exhibits. One of them was an air propelled hover craft that the kids could ride. The boys could NOT get enough of this, they went back time and again.
Also there were legos to build their own speeders and make them go, using magnets.

The boys spent their time running between exhibits and pretending to interact with the characters. We were there for 2 hours.

Near the end, when we thought that we were done, all of a sudden the place was filled with real life Characters from the movie.


The boys went crazy going from one to the next shyly shaking hands and getting their picture taken with them.

All of the boys were going to be Star Wars characters for Halloween so this was a BIG treat for the birthday boy! Calder especially wanted to meet Jango Fett (who he was going to be for Halloween) Just about this time my camera started to malfunction so the pictures are less than they should be, but that is part of the story too so I can't leave it out!

We ended up staying a full other hour at the end for the boys to meet the characters. It had turned out to be sponsors night and so they had the characters their as special guests. What luck for us, and what a great present for the birthday boy!!

We went to the west side of the volcano where we could see all the devastation that the eruption caused.

It was really fascinating. Levi found a GIANT overturned tree with its roots skyward and they really enjoyed playing on it. All the trees that have grown up since are the same size and you feel like a giant walking among this miniature forest.

We took a hike through the forest and could see the deep cut in the land from the ash tidal wave. What an amazing thing the forces of nature are!!

Caleb and Elizabeth came to visit over Labor Day Weekend. It was a lot of fun. We did so many things. The days were so beautiful and warm (a little too warm), but we got to have a really good view of Willamette Falls (back in the day - before it was destroyed by the papermill- they called it Little Niagra). It is kind of a depressing sight. There is hardly anything left of the natural falls. They have installed locks and a cement wall all around the top to control flow. Just to the right of it is the ulgiest sight you have ever seen. The VERY rundown looking paper mill (put into comission sometime in the late 18 or early 1900s. It drapes both sides of the river, just below the falls, and one can imagine that is were pollution begins. I really wish I could have seen it before. It is easy to see the beauty hidden beneath the destruction. Someday I hope that papermill goes away and it can, once again, be the little Niagra Falls.

Next to where we stopped to see the falls, there were history signs, filled with information on Oregon. Oregon City (which is where we were in the picture) was the first capitol of Oregon and the first settlements. It is where all of the pioneers came through, both American and English leaders ran the city. It is a very old city. Alot of history there.

And, of course, we can't stay away from the beach in the summer, so we took Caleb and Elizabeth there. First we made a pitstop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was really cool to see how they make cheese, and try all of their samples. It all tasted SO good, but of course we were starving.

There was a lot of fog on the beach that day, but it was still nice. We played soccer, made sandcastles with armies defending and destroying them. The boys LOVED this. We also jumped off sand cliffs. We were all so sandy when we were done, it took a couple of weeks before all the sand was out of Ansels hair.

This beach was really neat, out a few hundred yards from the shore sat the most amazing rock formation. They call it serpents rock, and for good reason. It looks just like and undulatiing serpent out in the ocean, quite beautiful! I can't get the blog to upload this picture so you will just have to imagine!

The surprise birthday party for Larry and Cheryl turned out great. We had some very special games planned and made. The one in this picture is concentration, all the cards are the 30 members of the Larry/Cheryl Severson clan, with one a baby picture and the match a current picture. It took forever for me to make it, but it was worth it. We had a lot of playing it. Heather and Danielle made a fantastic "fishing" trivia game that was so much fun! And we had some great dessert. But the best story about the birthday party, was the BEFORE the party story. It was so funny. They wanted to go to the beach that day, and dad was taking off work early because he wanted to come and build a bonfire and stay until dark (which obviously wouldn't work with the party). We decided to steer them away from the beach, saying it was such a busy weekend and we needed recoup time, etc. But we didn't want to much discussion or other ideas from them that would be harder to deter so we said we would really like to go to coyote hills and have a picnic for family home evening, but we needed to do it earlier so Aaron and Em could put Adele down for bed at the right time.

Well, dad poo-pooed the idea of Coyote Hills, instead opting for Sunol (both are close to home). We jumped on it. But, dad came home later than expected, and we had trouble with the picnic spots (so many were swarming with bees -yikes!!) That by the time we had eaten (and fended off about 30 wasps- the kids had a really hard time focusing on eating with so many wasps about!!) it was already time to go. But there was a big problem, just as we finished dinner dad said "well the park doesn't close until nine so we have plenty of time for a good long hike". We all looked at each other panicking. First, Danielle said "well, I didn't bring a carrying pack for Dawna". Dad swooped up Dawna and said he'd carry her and started walking!! We were all scrambling to come up with a way to circumvent this new development, because meanwhile Barbara and family, G and G severson, and G Wightman were all at the house waiting.

Quickly and discreetly it was decided to have the kids do the persuading. We asked them all to say they wanted to go home, and to whine, reminding them about the party waiting for them at home. They were GREAT!!! The Reeves girls whined "we want to go home" and jumped into their car. Aaron and Em fell back on Adele's bedtime excuse, but couldn't go because Danielle and jon were in their car. Mom and dad didn't know what was going on because they were already so far ahead, with Dawna. So, Jon, Danielle, Aaron and Em,the boys and I were stuck with the task of bringing them home without suspicion. (mom and dad were in my car) The boys performed beautifully! The whinings were so perfect that you'd think they practiced. . . . .wait, they do practice, on me! :) "We want to go home, mom!" "MO-OM we want to go HOME" "I'm tired" "Let's go home mom" all said as they were skipping down the road smiling. (good thing mom and dad were so far ahead they didn't see, only heard!) All the while, mom and dad were getting increasingly frustrated. They asked were heather and family were, and were really disappointed they had left.

When we caught up with mom and dad, Aaron and Em said they needed to get Adele back so Dawna was handed over to Jon and they all left. That left it to me. I was really worried they'd see through the boys because they know they love hiking and throwing rocks in water. But, I was nearly laughing out loud as rocks were hurled into the water to the tune of "WE want to go home". They didn't LOOK like they wanted to go home! But mom and dad were falling for it. So I finally sighed and said "OK 5 more minutes and we can go home." MOM and DAD were frowning, but didn't say anything (that's when you can tell they are really upset!!!) As we walked back to the car, mom said "when we get home, you boys need to go straight to bed. Going to bed early will be good for you!" Boy, they were too good, she must have thought that they must be tired, if they were asking to go home over rock throwing!! The boys eyes went wide and I could see the words forming "what about the surprise?!" So I jumped over and whispered "You don't have to go to bed when we get home, just play along" So Levi said, " thats okay, I want to go to bed anyway." When we got in the car grandpa asked them if they'd had any fun and at all. . . . silence, then grandpa said again "No fun at all?!?" I could see on their face the dilemma of contradicting their complaints with the truth that they really did have fun. Levi finally said "A little bit, but not so much" I had to look out the window to hide the smile. There was silence on the way back home. As we walked in the door Emily said from the living room "Dad could you come here for a minute?" He stomps in and they all yell "SURPRISE!!" and he grumpily says "what surprise." He was so perplexed, trying to get over the bad mood to enjoy the surprise. Boy, it really was funny. They had a really good laugh when they figured out the boys were playing along. The rest of the party was really great, they enjoyed all the games and the desserts, and everything went great. So definitely a success, even more so because of the disappoinment turned happiness

Paul and Becca got married on August 12th. It was standing room only. She is the youngest of eight and Paul is the second youngest of eight. So, the picture with all the people in it? . . . Just Paul and Becca's: Granparents, parents, and siblings(with their families)! Quite a brood!!






This is just us sisters-in-law, minus Elizabeth, who was in Hawaii at the time!! I am the only one standing on the bottom step, which makes me look the shortest, when actually I am the second TALLEST. These girls are all so tiny. JoAnn and I, at 5'8" and 5"7" often feel like we are giants among the little people. Becca, Sarah, Danielle and Emily are all around 5'2", and Heather and Elizabeth are both 5'4".




After the wedding at the Oakland Temple, we headed down to Merced for the reception. It is two hours away, but took us three because of an accident on the highway. It was really neat to get to see where Becca grew up and to get to know her family better. After the reception, we all went out (in the dark) to watch them get into their newly decorated car. I had been having problems with my shoe heels sticking in the grass all night, and right then as we were all out there, let me repeat ALL out there, I had another major problem. My heel got stuck I tried to shift my balance, lost my balance, stepped forward to gain my balance and found air, no grass! There was a ditch with a hole filled with water where my foot was heading to! I tried to grab onto a guy next to me, and he, not knowing I was falling moved away. I stepped strait down into the muddy hole, where my shoe got stuck again. I tried desparately to gain my balance again, but the momentum was to much and I did a lovely summersault, skirt and all, down next to where Becca and Paul were getting into the car! Ugh, the humiliation! Good thing it was dark! My shoe stayed in the mud (you can see it in the water) and ow it hurt ripping off my foot. I had a few bruises, but my clothes came away completely clean! Not a speck on them. Crazy. Everyone asked if I was okay, except my husband, who so gallantly said "I don't know her!" Dork! Of course, everyone still had a camera so Rob snapped a picture of me in my moment of honor!