Saturday, June 29, 2013

This week in review

This has been an interesting week at our house. It has been like going back in time and having the oldest child be 14.  Neil, Bethany and Julia left on Sunday afternoon to go to Denver.  Bethany and Julia flew to Paris on Monday morning and Neil began an exciting bike adventure.  He wanted to get 1000 miles in a week.  He planned out a route before they left, but the wind didn't cooperate on the first day. He ditched the plan and rode with the wind.  I just talked with him on the phone and he said he made his goal of 1000 miles.  He rode 2000 miles in June.  I don't think I could ever do that. 

I haven't heard much from Bethany and Julia.  Hope they are having a good time.  The younger children each took a turn being sick before the girls left. I have been hoping they haven't gotten sick in Paris.  That would be rotten to have time in France and be sick in your motel.  They are flying into Denver Monday afternoon and then driving home.  I can't wait to hear about their adventures.

The children here at home and I tried to do something fun each day so we wouldn't feel like we were just staying home and working while others were out having fun.  Monday we went to Monster University.  We don't very often take our children to the theater so they thought it was great.  Tuesday we went to the library and got ice cream cones. Wednesday we had an epic water fight at the park. It was so much fun!! Thursday we went to the Safari Sally program at the library. It was an adventure (never take a potty training child to the library without a change of clothes, you would think I would remember that by #10).  Friday I let each child make their own pizza and we watched Alice in Wonderland (missed having you here Rebecca). Saturday we played fairytale charades to earn a family reading ticket from the library.  We have had a good time at home.

I did something funny to my shoulder on Wednesday and can't move my right arm very much.  I need help doing lots of things that used to be easy. Unfortunately it begins to really hurt each night and I can't sleep very well. I hope it heals soon because I am getting very tired.

Well that is our week in review. Hopefully next week I'll have pictures of the France and bike adventures to share. Maybe I'll let them do the post for next week.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Road Trip 2013

We took a little road trip as a family from June 11th through the 16 th.  Neil actually started the trip  a day  earlier than the rest of us. He rode his bike from Powell to almost Thermopolis (100 miles) on Monday.  He kept riding on Tuesday until we caught up with him. He made it as far as Lander before he was tired of fighting the wind and turned around to find us.  We made it to Herriman about 10 pm Tuesday. We stopped and saw Rebecca on our way. It was so good to see her!! Does my mother heart good to see her.

Wednesday morning we were blessed to be at my parents house for my dad's birthday. I am always grateful to see them, but especially when we get to celebrate a birthday with them. It hasn't happened very many times in the last 20 years.  We left after breakfast (by the way, thanks for making breakfast on  your birthday dad) to head to Bryce National Park.  We did lots of hiking and loved seeing the beautiful canyon.  Matthew carried Lydia on his shoulders for the second half the the 3 mile Navajo Loop trail. She was so tired she fell asleep riding on his shoulders. Lots of people were taking pictures of this good big brother carrying his little sister. Unfortunately, even carrying Lydia, Matthew was well ahead of the rest of us and I didn't get any pictures.  We enjoyed our day in Bryce and then drove to Great Grandma Sharp's house in Hurricane.  We drove through Zion National park on our way.  The tunnels there are so amazing!!! They used to be my favorite part of going to Zion when I was younger.  Driving to Hurricane sparked the memory that my dad used to like Bumbleberry pie from a small town near Zion. I found the pie shop and bought him a pie.

Thursday we went to the Grand Canyon.  It is so amazing there!! We hadn't been there in about 20 years.  It brought back so many memories. When I was 15 I went with some of the girls from our ward and hiked from the South Rim to the North Rim. It was a wonderful, but hard adventure. It took us three days of hiking in the heat carrying everything we needed on our back. There were times I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I did.  Those are fun memories.  Neil and I took Rebecca to the Grand Canyon when she was about a year old (Karan, Candice and Molly went with us) . I have some really cute pictures of her sitting in a log rocking chair. I wanted to take a picture of Lydia in the same rocking chair, but we couldn't find it.  We didn't hike too much, we just enjoyed seeing the beautiful canyon.  It was really windy while we were there. I was glad I had attached a ribbon to Lydia's hat and pinned it to her shirt. I am sure we would have lost her hat if I hadn't.  Did there used to be buffalo on the way to the Grand Canyon? There was a herd there when we drove in. If they were there before I forget about them.  On our way home we stopped to see Pipe Spring National Monument. I remember going there when we lived in Kanab, but I didn't remember it being such a nice museum. It was almost closing time when we got there so we didn't walk out to see the spring we just enjoyed the museum for a few minutes. We got back to Grandma's house in time to enjoy dinner with her.

Friday we spent the day at Zion National Park.  We did lots of hiking and took lots of pictures. I loved going to Zion when we lived in the area. Hiking up to Emerald pools was about as hard as I thought it got. It was always so refreshing to swim in the upper pool before hiking back down the trail. I was sad to learn that you can't even get your feet wet in the pools now.  It was a hot day in Zion so a dip in the pool would have felt great!!  We only hiked Emerald pools, Weeping Rock and the Narrows.  Matthew really wanted to give Angel's Landing a try, but it wasn't possible with all of us. There is a reason they call it Angel's Landing. It will have to be an adventure for another time.  It wasn't easy doing all the hikes carrying Joshua and Lydia, but we made it.  Neil, Matthew, Emma and David really enjoyed hiking up the Narrows. Bethany, Julia, MaryAnne, Dallin, Joshua, Lydia and I stayed back and played in the river without hiking up it.  We all had a fun time. The squirrels in that area were so aggressive!! We watched one steal a can of nuts from someone's backpack. It was kind of funny until I realized another squirrel was trying to get in our backpack. We had to defend our oreos with rocks. Those squirrels didn't give up very easily.  When we got back to Hurricane we ate at Grandma's house and then took some of the children to the splash park. It was a good day!!  Thank you, Grandma, for letting us use your house as home base.  We loved spending time with you.  Thanks for sharing your family history stories and information.  We love you!! 

Saturday we went to Nephi to the Sharp reunion. It was great to see so many of my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and of course Grandma.  Aunt Kathleen did a fantastic job putting the fiesta together. She had mexican food, a pinata and games.  It was a fun day!! When we got back to Herriman we attempted to take family pictures. Everyone was a little tired and fussy. I haven't looked at the pictures yet to see how they turned out. Hopefully there is a good one in the bunch. Thanks, Dad for being the photographer and for having the perfect yard to take pictures in. It isn't easy to get 12 people to look at you at the same moment, at least the roses in the background will look good. 

Sunday, Father's Day, we had the privilege to listen mom and dad speak in Sacrament meeting before leaving on their mission to Scotland/Ireland. They each did a terrific job.  I am going to miss them so much, but I am glad they are serving a mission. I was so glad to see Uncle Bruce and Peggy and to get to be there to hear them speak.  We made sandwiches at their house after Sacrament meeting and then gave them tearful hugs before heading down the road to Powell. It isn't fair to have to say goodbye to my parents and Rebecca at the same time, but we did it anyway.  We got home about 10:00 Sunday night.  It was a great road trip!! Lots of time in the van together, memories and beautiful scenery. Thanks, Neil for doing so much of the driving and for making memories as a family.

Here is a slideshow of some of our pictures. Hope you enjoy the show!!
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Sunday, June 9, 2013

A few projects we've been working on

We have been busy around here.  A few months ago I really wanted to create a walk in closet area for all the younger children's clothes.  It really mattered to me so Neil helped me make it happen. Thank you so much, Sweetheart!! I love having all the clothes in the same room, now the challenge is make sure they get put away everyday. Here are a few pictures of what we created.

















Neil always has a list of projects he wants to work on over the summer.  This year I told him I had been dreaming of having a window seat by our dining room window for my birthday.  I found this picture on the internet and it was what we used to plan.
Here are some pictures from our project. I think it turned out nearly perfect!!  We did the whole project by ourselves. Neil built the shelves, and the cupboard doors himself. We worked together to make the padded cushion. It has been a great project and I have loved having the window seat.  There is almost always someone sitting there reading or just enjoying the soft seat in the sunshine.


I hope MaryAnne can get out again














The inside of one of the cupboard doors. Thanks Neil, I love you too!!

  
The finished product. I love this bench seat!!
One last project I worked on. I wanted to do a mat for the Living Christ for Neil for our anniversary in April.  Here is the finished project.  I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful pictures of the Savior and deciding where to put them. I like how this turned out.