Earth Day 2010

Last week for Earth Day we decided to do a little cleaning up of our beautiful earth.  We walked along the road in our neighborhood and picked up trash.

It was rather surprising the amount of trash we found!  People are messy!

The day after we did this, Dallin had a little worksheet thing that he did at school.  On it he was asked the question – What kind of litter have you seen?  His answer – Poop Bags.

That’s right.  Poop Bags.  It was crazy but in the little half mile stretch of road that we cleaned up there were several.  Am I the only one that doesn’t make sense to?  Why would anyone take the time to pick up their dog’s poop and put it in a bag and then just throw it on the side of the road?  Isn’t that weird?

Family

Even though it was a sad reason for all of us to be together last weekend, that didn’t keep us from enjoying each others company and still having a good time together!  We haven’t ALL been together in a really long time.  Always it seems like for the last few years, whenever we had a gathering at least one or more people would be missing.  But not this time!  The kids of course had tons of fun playing and climbing in the tree.

   

And well, a gathering of ours just wouldn’t be complete without a challenge of some sort.  This time it involved hot sauce.

Nathan handled it no problem, but I think it was a little much for Emily!

And Melanie – it wasn’t too hot for her, but she couldn’t stop laughing :)

Sherri is hiding her face in shame right here after she so gracefully plopped down onto the swing and almost broke it.  Just kidding :)

We also walked around the Springs a little bit.

Bradlee supposedly caught a little alligator down there, but it broke the line on his fishing rod.

I’m not so sure though because I never saw it.  But that’s what they told me.  I told all the other kids to go put their feet in the water as bait so that maybe I would get to see it.

Sadly it didn’t work.   They all still have their toes and I didn’t get to see an alligator.  There’s always next time!

My Dad

I am the resurrection and the life:

he that believeth in me, though he were dead,

yet shall he live.

John 11:25

Death is not exactly a happy subject.  But sometimes it is something that you have to come to terms with even if you really don’t want to.  Considered from an eternal perspective, it is only a stepping stone on our path to returning to live with our Heavenly Father.  The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to live in darkness wondering what happens to us after we die.  Christ has already laid the path before us.  We know that like Him and through Him we too will be resurrected.

My dad called all of us together this past weekend to tell us that the cancer treatments that he underwent were not successful.  There is no way of knowing exactly when the cancer will finally overtake him.  It could be weeks.  It could be months.  But he is prepared.  He does not doubt what our Savior taught.  He knows that though he may die, yet shall he live again.  It is not the end.  Just another step along the path to eternal life.

This past weekend was hard.  Unlike anything I have ever experienced.  It was difficult to watch my dad cry as he expressed his love for us and what his wishes were.  I think even more difficult though was to witness the deterioration of his body.  To see what he has suffered.  I pray now not that he might be cured, but that he might not suffer even more.

My dad’s life is a very full one.  As you can see from the picture above, he definitely does not lack people that love him.  And what more could a person ask for?  But to live a life where at the end you know you have touched others and brought goodness to their lives.  He is especially loved by his grandchildren.  Mandy told me yesterday that she would like to die.  I of course almost panicked because why in the world would my beautiful 4 year old want to die?  I asked her and she answered - “Because I really want to be with Granddaddy when he dies.”   So I happily explained to her that she would not need to die now, but that she could wait a very long time and Granddaddy would still be waiting for her.  Just as so many others will be waiting for him when my dad finishes his days in mortality. 

Never have I been so grateful for my faith in Jesus Christ and in our Heavenly Father as I am now.

Last Day with Grandpa

This is actually from about a week and a half ago.  I’m just running a little behind these days.  Anyway, on the last day that we were able to spend with Nathan’s dad, we decided to head out to Hanna Park.  Nathan, Dad, and Curtis did a little mountain bike riding.

While they were hard at it, we took the kids for a some playtime on the beach.  As we walked out there, we saw a whole group of life guards doing some training.  We figured that was the safest spot to be with all of them around!

 

The water was FRIGID, but the kids didn’t seem to mind too much.

Well, all except for Layton.  He very timidly tip-toed to the water actually started crying when the coldness hit him.  Honestly I don’t blame him!

So instead he mostly just played in the sand.  After a bit the other kids joined in with the sand playing too.

  

Eventually though, Layton wanted to have the sand cleaned off of him, but he refused to go into the water.  So I compromised and just brought him a bucket of water.  He then very carefully cleaned himself off!

 

Afterwards we had a little picnic lunch.  Unfortunately on the side we were parked we couldn’t find an open picnic table so the kids decided to picnic inside the back of the van. 

As we were eating, we had a little visit from a raccoon.   Nathan and Curtis tried to chase it off and we thought we had gotten rid of him after he hid himself way up in a tree.

Just a little while later though, we found him scavenging in the trash can for the remnants of our lunch.  Raccoons are so smart!

All in all it was a wonderful day.  We did just hear some good news about Dad though.  It appears he may get to come home about a month sooner than originally planned because they are closing down the based he is stationed at.  So now he may get to come home in June rather than July!

Partying with the Old folks

Well, not really OLD, but just a little older than us.

Since Nathan is now in the High Priest group, we get to go to their activities.  This time is was a fish fry, so we were VERY happy to attend.

It really is kind of funny to be there and look around to realize that you are one of only two couples there that have small children.  Not that all the others don’t have small children in their lives too, they just happen to be GRAND children.

Luckily our friends Paul and Ilene were there too so we weren’t the ONLY ones with little kids with us :)  Isn’t their youngest adorable?

We had a great time.  With lots of talking, lots of food,

and even a little trampoline time!