What was I thinking......

....when I coerced these two fine young men to give up three days of their precious spring break when they could have been hanging out with friends, (rollerblading, skiing, gaming, etc.).....to hang out with this old grandma and these looks are probably giving the answer......

Yep, we're all in for a wild ride and these two had phones and I did not so this is one of many selfies and probably the only one I'll post here but just so you know......it wasn't like this the whole three days......sometimes it was worse.....

....but mostly they were gentlemen and made me proud to be their gramma. One thing I learned about these teenage boys is that when they acted their age, they were delightful which was most of the time but when they acted like 8 year olds......they were hilarious. I was thoroughly entertained for the whole three days....... We started out at Old Sacramento with lunch at Joe's Crab Shack and a walk around old town......

...then a stop at Folsom Prison. A lot of the comments on Instagram included...."....and who let them out????"

....then headed to Old Town Folsom for a little ice cream at Snook's and some antique shopping. Drew is trying out a tea set and George is tuning a Uke but the best is trying on of the hats....

These two were such good sports to do all of my favorite things......however, they couldn't get to the pool fast enough......

It was beautiful weather every day and the flora was in full bloom. The lake was next......

Wish I had more pictures on the lake but kayaking and canoeing all day, ending with a swim seemed fine for them and as I said, this trip was about "my" favorites both in activities and company. Loved being with these two boys. We took them up to Gold Country for a look around then back to the pool for swimming and Pizza.

I think they just love trying on hats for some reason.......and some of this is what happens when you let them take the camera.......

Sunday we went to Stake Conference and were instructed by Elder Bednar......

Randy was so good to make sure we all had good food and good times.....love him so much and I love these two boys.........They even endured my Temple Photo Shoot.....

Thanks George and Drew for "humoring" me......the meaning of which is..........
(hu·mor

ˈ(h)yo͞omər/

verb

gerund or present participle: humoring

1. comply with the wishes of (someone) in order to keep them content, however unreasonable such wishes might be.)  

...and also for "humoring" me meaning "to make me laugh a lot". Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Love you guys and thanks again Randy..

Just "had" to do a little TBT......

....or a little bit of then and now....whatever we call it, this is one place I love to visit and it holds some of the best memories from my childhood. Back in '58 we "had" to take a trip to Salt Lake because Bruce "had" to get his teeth fixed (where were all the dentists back then, huh???) and our car "had" to break down going up the hill just past Washington so we "had" to take Grandpa Sullivan's car then Bruce fell and hit his head on the corner of a table (at the dentists office) and "had" to have stitches but with all this drama, we "had" a great time as a family....one of our few trips out of town. Dad was a farmer and "had" to always get his cattle fed so our family vacays were pretty much "one dayers" to Zion or Kolob (but we did get to go to So Cal once in a while to visit the Isom relatives there and go to Disneyland).

Anyhoo, Randy and I visited here this past week-end and "had" a marvelous time. I don't know why I put "" on the word "had" but it is an interesting word to me. It is the simple past tense of have which means to possess, own or hold for use which leads us to believe it is very fleeting so because whenever it is used, something or someone is gone or force is being used....(I'm making this way too complicated) but my point being we were able to do all these things despite the difficulities encountered by this little family just trying to take a simple trip to Salt Lake and all the "hads" made for an interesting and very memorable experience so though the trip itself is gone I still "have" the memories and I especially love that my hair is in curlers (Top right. MOM, are you kidding me!!!!!) As usual, the mom took the pic (upper right) so she couldn't be in it and this gorgeous couple (bottom right) the one and only farmer and his wife (Hal and Leila) visiting the big city. Now to the reason I "had" to go to Salt Lake (makes it sound like I didn't want too, and I didn't at first (just seemed too far away or I'm getting old) but a certain sweet daughter helped me realize I was needed and whether I was or not, I needed to go.....to Traci's Baby Shower...hosted so graciously by cousins and Lauri. 

They put on a great party and we learned a lot about the females in our family and the lessons we can learn from them. Highlight of the party for sure, Meika's diaper cake. She hires out just in case you are interested and she does put together a mighty fine diaper cake....lots of fun, food and laughter and one can never get enough cousin time. This was a combination Birthday Party and Baby Shower as Traci turns 30 today and is having a baby girl....(in exactly 12 days) and it's Em's birthday too.....

I wasn't going to do birthday posts this year but these two chicks have a pretty important day today. Emily turns 12 and is going into Young Women's and Traci is 30 going into "middle age"....ouch, maybe that was too harsh but I think she looks pretty much like a teeny bopper with 4 little boys tagging her around. I'm sure people think she's the nanny when she's at Costco with all of them and I'm sure they'd still ask her for ID if she tried to buy some liquer...and I did mean to spell it that way so you would read it like "lic...yur""......Happy Birthday to the both of you. O.K....back to business.

Randy was so kind to travel (I don't think he likes it much) to be with me for a long week-end. We enjoyed some fun stuff. We took the "Funicular" to a hilltop hotel called St. Regis at Deer Valley. We just asked someone on the street if we could ride the chair lift and they guided us to this "freebie" and you know we just "had" (say it sarcastically here) to do it and it was beautiful.

I could do this, you know but I guess I'm just not supposed to but I can look in once in a while at those that live this way and they probably don't think it's all that cool.....but I do and it's fun to pretend once in a while. I guess that's why they say there are the "haves" and the "have nots" but I like to consider myself on the heavy side of "have" and count my blessings not my money.... (Wasn't that just poetic")...and one of my favorite blessings just happens to be my kiddos....which I get to see a lot of these days (if not in person, ya gotta love that FaceTime).

I got there in time for "snack time" with Lucy and Molly, a quick visit to the Staheli's and a beautiful day for trampoline tricks then breakfast with Molly.....she's eating like a kitty in case you couldn't tell and Lucy's cute hair do.....just missing the "bangs to heaven". I'm sure Lauri and Traci are marred for life with curling iron stories so their girls will never have to feel the heat and have that trauma (sorry, girls).

We enjoyed the little train ride at "This is the Place" monument and especially the tiny duplicate of our Pine Valley Chapel. It really was a cute little thing and is where I had my film debut....I was in "The Best Three Hours of the Week" (click on it to watch and see if you can find me). Now on to another adventure.....me and the boys (George, Drew and Randy)....Folsom, here we come. 

I can't be everywhere...

....and it's been difficult to figure out where I'm really supposed to be because there's so many choices but I'm here at my St. George home helping to take care of my mom and I'm most happy to be helping her (I do miss Randy) but being here has given me the opportunity to spend lots of time with my kiddos as yesterday I took Seth out for his birthday date and last Wednesday, I took a day trip to Pleasant Grove to join Lucy for her 4th birthday.

Traci and her boys came down and helped out and it was a total extreme birthday party with games, crafts, food, fun and lots and lots of pictures. It was a happy day for Lucy. So glad I chose to be there.

Any time I can spend with my kiddos totally puts a smile on my face as did this day a couple of months ago when I took my Wells kiddos extreme geocaching up to Silver Reef.

This all came about when Randy and I went here exploring earlier in the month......

...and found all these geocaches and  had such a wonderful day that I wanted to share it with my family. I knew the adults would just laugh at me if I suggested "geocaching" as a family activity so I just invited the wee ones and it was part of my Christmas present to them. We picked a date after Christmas and met at noon. Randy took the boys in his mom's SUV and I took the girls in the car and we started out at the Frostop (courtesy of Mason's freebies)......and said goodbye to James and Lauri and family there....

....then headed up the road to Silver Reef and let the kids wander around the museum for a bit then headed out on our adventure. It's sure to be a successful trip when you know where the caches are (wink, wink)....

We visited some old cemeteries and checked out the old silver mine that had been boarded up which didn't keep the kids away. They can find a way to put danger into most anything they do but discovered that it really was quite a long way down that boarded up mine shaft and appreciated the safety net....

We all enjoyed exploring the two old cemeteries, the Catholic one and the Protestant one as back in the day, the two could never be buried in the same place so there were two separate ones.

Ya can't visit a cemetery without playing "zombies" and I think you'll agree that these are some pretty cute ones. We headed to yet another cemetery, the Leeds one where we found some relatives....

While we were at the museum, the lady there told us about the old kiln just up the road but we tried to find it and missed it by just a few yards. Randy and I decided to go back up the next day to try and find it so we grabbed McKay.....(can't remember why but it sure was some fun one on one time with him).....

....and we found it.....and a fun little place to explore on the road to Oak Grove. This is where they would burn the trees to make charcoal for the silver mining. If you haven't explored this, I strongly suggest it on one of those boring afternoons when the kids have an "early out" day. I still hadn't had enough family time so I rented the Veyo Skating Rink for an afternoon.....invited everyone along and had a great time.

I certainly hope these will be some fun new traditions as I thoroughly enjoyed everything we did together during the holidays. These new fun times were added to the usual Christmas Traditions like JoEllen's Awesome Gingerbread House Party....

...always a success and much appreciated by all of us. Then there's the Christmas Eve Hike to kill time before the family gathering at my mom's.....

 Um....just for the record, I missed this but for a very good reason. Got a last minute chance for a free Colonoscopy  (best Christmas present ever)....and best 2 hour nap anyone could ask for.

It was good to capture a little taste of the fun for the record books. Christmas Eve is always the same and same is good in life. There's very few things we can count on being there every year but this is truly one of them and will surely be missed as we all move on.....

On Christmas afternoon we used to have a Home run Derby but find that Kick Ball let's us all participate; however this year the weather did not cooperate so we went to Mason's Church Rec Hall and played a little Hall Ball (no pics but it was fun for those who were able to come). We also slipped in an evening of Candy Bar Bingo.....

Normally we keep this an adult activity and we discovered exactly why. Some of our little ones could not handle the concept of the game (taking candy bars from each other as you score a bingo) and we had a few tears and a near knock down drag out between McKay and Matty. We'll have to up the age limit next year or find a kid version. It made for good memories though. It was a jam-packed December and a very quiet New Year's Eve for us then we headed back to Folsom and got in a bit of Winter kayaking down by the prison......

The ducks were really glad to see us. Very friendly that day. The bottom right picture is a guy showing off his catch of the day....ya, we were jealous. We must remember to put in our fishing poles next time. One last shot of Kolob from last Fall.....such a perfect picture. So many more but I must end and consider myself caught up. I'm sure I'll come across more and add them later but for now, I must sign off and pledge to stay caught up 'cause it's dang hard when ya get 3 months behind.

Before I go though, I've got to mention that we said goodbye to Randy's mom Josephine. She passed away peacefully on February 13 and she was honored in the Pine Valley Chapel and laid to rest in the Pine Valley Cemetery, reunited with her forever companion, Spence. A chapter closes in the Reber Family. She was a good woman and I am so glad I got to know her and Spence in this life and that they were successful in helping me re-unite with Randy. After a quick over-nighter to one of our favorite spots....

...we headed down to Bakersfield and had the privilege of transporting Jo's body back to St. George. I'm so grateful for the testimony I have of Eternal Life and know that we were only transporting her earthly body and that her spirit was not there. However, we had a calm, peaceful trip and felt her with us.

These past months have been all about "family" and it reminds me of one of my favorite songs entitled "Family" by Zach Gill and Jack Johnson.

She was feeling the ol' yuletide-burn
Cause her family was wearing on her nerves
She was tired of fighting and feeling frustrated
Finding it hard to relate to those of whom she was related
You know we all sometimes, say things we don't mean
But that don't mean that we're not still family

Generation to generation it gets passed on
And then one day, those who would passing well they passed on
Pulling back the covers, her heart will start to shudder when she realizes how deep it all went
Trying to forgive what was said, but was never really meant

Well you know we all sometimes, say things we don't mean.
But that don't mean we're not still family.
Pull out of the shadows and find out that eventually
It's all bad, it's all good baby can't you see
That we all, well we all, well we all are still family

I was there from the moment that you were born
And I've loved you since I heard your first cries
And I know we won't always be getting along
But I promise you that I will always try
You know we all sometimes, say things we don't mean
But that don't mean that we're not still family

You know we all sometimes, say things we don't mean
But that don't mean that we're not still family
********************************************************************************************
Just so ya know.....I sure do love my family.