Emery County Visit

So, after a fun Wed/Thurs slumber in Logan with Ry's family

we came home, refreshed, repacked, regrouped, and rethought

a second trip to Emery County to see my dada and his side of the family.

They were doing a special Saturday Thanksgiving so that EVERYONE could be there.  

Such a good idea.

We had a lot on our minds, a sick baby, and a sputtering truck.

Staying home, and relaxing for the rest of the weekend, was sooo tempting.

We went anyways.

I don't get down that way very often because they "come to the city" 

often enough that we get our fix.

Emery County is a special little place of mystery.

Maybe one day I will do a post on that little place.  

But, Ill need some pictures, believe me.  You want pictures. It is a precious, little place. 

So, 

away we went.

With a sick jackjack, a sicker truck, a sickest cold sore

and

another pan of sweet potatoes.

I'm so glad we did.  It was very worth it!

Mercy! Look at this cute little Grandma of mine!

My Grandma is cuter than yours huh?

I mean..I think so

She yells "Yoo Hoo" when you walk in her front door.

She paints beautiful landscapes

She cans, gardens, and makes jam.

She still uses a pressure cooker for roast?!

Cht cht cht cht cht cht cht cht.

Do any of you remember hearing that noise on Sunday afternoons? From the pressure cooker thingy?

She collects bells and cookie jars and California raisin and smurf figurines. 

Really.  Remember the California raisins?! Silly guys.

She would leave my grandpa for any member of Il Divo.  

And maybe sell her soul as well.  You have never met such a crazed fan!  

She is adorable.

Just look at her eyes all sparkly with pride and joy at having all (most) of her family together.

She was jubilant.

We watched old home videos, and ate an obscene amount of food.

It was so fun to catch up with everyone, and watch our kids play together.  

Cousins are the best right?

When we visit the EC we stay at my little sisser Kasey's house.

Above are my sweet little nephews Sage (7) and Maddox (5 mos)

We love staying there.  

Tate and Sage get a long great 

and despite the fact that all they did was slap and drool all over each other,  

Jackjack and Maddox love each other too.

I can tell.

Later on Saturday night we hit up the bull riding competition "downtown" 

Leave it to EC to skip the rest of the rodeo, and get right to the good stuff.

Isn't that why anybody goes to the rodeo anyways?

 Is for the 20 minutes of bull riding at the end?

I do. 

Even though the anxiety of it all gives me internal diarrhea  heartburn.

Please note the traveling bleachers behind Tatum.

I have never seen such a thing.

Curious.

Jack absolutely loved the horses and bulls.

To bad for Ryan that he had to stand with him right next to the shoots all night.

          Grandpa Kelly (my pa) and Jack Jack                                  Sisser Kasey, and Sage

I liked these family photos because of the matcher garbage can to Tatum's coat.

I didn't even plan that.

Speaking of coats, JackJack forgot his.

Ill bet he will learn his lesson next time.

(Really it was an indoor arena) (Again with the EC phenomenon's) 

Can you believe these pictures?  

This is such a crazy sport.  

If Jack ever wants to ride bulls he's going to have to find a new mommy.

He's going to be lucky if I ever let him ride one of those

 germy horse merry go rounds in front of the grocery stores.

One thing that was so cute about this night was the genuine family gathering of it all.

There are so many cute little families in the EC. 

High school sweet hearts. Old couples holding hands. 

Families enjoying a fun night out, spending time, and making memories.

It is such a slow paced, enjoy the small things, type of place.

You should have seen all of the little boys rolling around in the dirt, making mud pies, racing, roping each other, playing tag, and just being boys all around that place. 

It was so commonplace there, but more of a rarity up here in SLC.

It was cute. 

It was fun. 

And I'm so glad we went.

Even though we (Ryan) got a ticket on the way home.

State Tourney 2010

Two things about this post.

First - It is dated 4/7/2010 because that is the day that I uploaded these pictures and intended on doing this post.. one month later isn't bad. Right?

Second - It is titled State Tourney 2010. It is titled this because my babiest sister (and by babiest, I mean youngest, 17 and 6'1. Holy Cow), Taylors, state basketball tournament. She is a junior at Emery High. Her team entered the tournament as region champs. Taylor was (perhaps) and (in my opinion) on her way to being 3A MVP....

And then they lost their first game..

And then they lost the second game...

So we cried, had some moments of silence for Tay (and my semi obsessed dad's) loss, and then moved the freak on for a fun family weekend.

Boondocks - Laser Tag.

My team won.

Go red.

Bottom: Sage (nephew) and Tatum

Middle(ish): Kasey (bonus sissy)

Back(ish):Destiny (cousin) Taylor (sissy)Me (author) Delynn (Bonus Mom) Dad (dad)

Off to the side: Jace Mann (the baby brother)

Not Pictured: Jesse (Bonus Brother) Devyn (sissy)

Ryan (Husband extraordinaire, photographer)

We watched lots of 3-D movie ride thingiesGrandpa & Sage

Taylor & Tate

Jace

Getting kicked off for playing bumper cars

instead of nice slick track race.

Tate and Ry cashing in on the fruits of Ryan's arcade labors
Apples to Apples.

The girl in the black jacket looks like me huh?

It's not.

It's my STEP sister Kasey.

We are twiners.

I guess some things are just meant to be.

Yay!

This Brady Bunch sure loves each other.

We have been through a lot together.

Sometimes I have to draw a picture to accurately explain my family tree but guess what?

I like it. I like my big dysfunctional family(ies).

They are mine. And that's all anyone should ever need.

A family that is all theirs!

Things that make you go hmmmm..

Not like the song... Like hmmmmm... A happy, contented sound that you make when all is well in your world.. These are a few things that made me make that noise this month.. Or actually last month. Actually, it could have been anytime in between now, and November 2009. I kid, I kid.. Really all of this sweetness I enjoyed in the last 3 weeks..

Say this.. Hmmm....after you are done reading if you want.

First things first

Tatum made her very own dinner! Great huh!?

One plain Quesadilla, and one with melted cheese on it! 2 food groups right there!

On the night that "New Moon" came out on dvd, Steph heard from a very reputable source (Lacy Gadegaard Scherf!) that Edward and Jacob were going to be at a Wal Mart in SLC signing autographs! What the! I immediately cancelled my Friday night date with my handsome husband (good thing it was more like let him off the hook. It was the NCAA tourney)

and me and Steph put together a covert team.

Jennie, Me and Her

I headed to the store to buy some appropriate "team" t shirts.

For the record, I am a fan of both teams.

I wouldn't kick either one of them out.

Anyways, as we learned more information (by calling every Wal Mart around), we found out that they were going to be at the Riverton Wal Mart. We don't live in Riverton. No prob.

We know how to drive. So we did.

Inside of this Riverton Wal Mart, there were 2 billion teen aged girls. The line wrapped all throughout the whole store. It was something.

Normal people of our age and stature would be embarrassed to be there amongst the little girls, sporting t's with young boys on them.

Not us, we asked the news guy if he wanted a shot of us.

He would be an idiot to have declined, in my opinion. Of course! We were newsworthy gold.

He said yes. My pride got the best of me though, so just Steph was on the news.

Go Figure.

She told the news we had brought our kids. Liar.

Her mom saw.

Funny.

After that, we learned that it was just going to be 3 dorky kids from Forks High appearing...

Not Edward & Jacob.

Lame.

So we went to chilis and ate our weight in chips and queso instead...

Item number 3. And far more important than Twilight stalking..
My little sister Taylor Shay Mann made first team all state in basketball!
Go Taylor!!
She is such an awesome little girl! She is such a hard worker and as sweet as they come.
Really. I'm a little jaded about today's youth. But not Tay. She is one in one million, and I am so very proud of her.
All of the first team all staters were awarded trophy's during half time at the Jazz game. So cool! I also taught this little Taylor how to celebrity stalk, so she was able to cut D Will off at the pass on his way to the game, and get his autograph!
He is her absolute boyfriend. She loves him.

This one made me go hmmm.. more than any of the rest.

Tate had woken up before me one day, and when I went into her room, this is what she was doing.. reading.

Not watching TV or playing on the computer.
This makes me so happy!

Look at how cute and sweet her little tired eyes are.

She loves to read, and that makes me love her even a little more.

I'm always surprised that that can happen.

One of these days, I'm going to absolutely bust from Tatum love!

Item number 5

using our fridge water was making our little water spigot? spikkot? sp on spigot or spikkot.

Anyways that little spout thing next to our big faucet.. It makes that leak. It leaks so bad that it literally floods our kitchen... I'll bet there are tiny mushrooms and plants growing behind my stove. I don't want to look..

I don't even know when she did this, but Tatum posted this little sign on the fridge.

It is the very definition of cuteness..

See? Toldya.

And last, but certainly not least.. One of Ryan's good friends from college came from Canada and stayed with us for a few days. She is a super cool girl. There are not many of "Ryans good friends from college" that I would let come stay at our house. Mostly because they were not really good friends.

They were "good college GIRLfriends." Hot cheerleaders, or girls with really shiny hair.

They can't stay at my house.

Nancy can. Nancy is in like Flynn. She is always welcome.

Bonus: She works for Sephora. And she bought me a Kitchen Aid for our wedding.

And she always come bearing gifts. And she didn't disappoint this trip either.

Yay! Thanks Nance!! Come back again soon!
P.S. Nancy has shiny hair too. That's okay though.

So See? Good title for this blog huh? I had a stellar week this week.

Bye.

For a well deserving family... Mine!

Soooo, in about September my brilliant sissy pants, Kasey, came up with the greatest Christmas present for our parents that has ever been had! A make over for their kitchen & living room! Let me tell you a little bit about our sweet parents.. My dad, and Kasey's mom got married eons ago.. Between the two of them they had 5 young kids to raise. Six, if you add raising me from a remote location. They committed to each other, and to each others children on the day the said I do.. This was a Brady Bunch in the making... When I say eons ago, I mean about 13 years ago.. Maybe 14.. Anyhow, they bought a home together and went about raising their crazy kids.. Have you ever seen what a house looks like after raising 5 kids? It's a little weathered. Let me just tell ya.

With Jace, (the baby) now being 15 we figured it would be a safe time for a little face lift. When you are raising a family, things like cheer leading, sports, trucks, dance, basketball, divorced daughters( x 2), Christmas, travels, entertainment, food (vulture children), and everyday living, comes way before home improvements.

Although, I dont know why, because my dad has prolly done some home renovation on 85% of emery countians.

Anyways, that is neither here nor there.. HeHe.. I like saying that. I think it makes me sound educated. Dont burst my bubble if you dont think so. Ignorance is bliss and that's the way I like it.

The renovation went as follows:

Kasey: paint, rugs, curtains, odds & ends

Jesse: counter tops

G & G Jewkes: carpet

Ap & Ry: slipcovers & decor

Devyn, Taylor, & Jace: grunt work

We did all of this in just about 2 days. Wall paper came down, walls, ceilings, baseboards were scrubbed. New beautiful paint in kitchen, living room, and hallway. Old blue counter tops out, New faux granite in. Old sick carpet out. New carpet in. Old decor out, new decor in. Switched upstairs couches with downstairs couches. Slip covered the he%* out of them. Slip covers are a pain in the pants. For sure.

I wish so bad we had before and after pictures. It was such a huge difference! It was a cool experience to all work together for our parents who have done so much for all of us. They were totally blown away by the change, and more than grateful to us. It was a fun weekend with lots of time spent together, and a memory to keep forever. I might have a lot of splits on my family tree, but I love every single crazy branch. I love love love my family! Thanks for the great idea Kas!