Lucy Lu turns Two

Happy birthday Lulu!

My Lucy is two. She had such a fun birthday party with our family, even Aunt Leslie from New York and her cousins Jolyn, Julia, Carly and Caleb from Utah were there. Lucy loved her new shoes, bike, helmet, sunglasses, swimsuit and panties. She had to put them on and wear them all at once, including all 7 pairs of panties!

A Short Visit

We were so lucky to have our Short cousins visit. Jolyn, Julia, Carly and Caleb came from Utah to spend a week with us. We went swimming, played video games, made crafts out of duck tape, and played, played, played! We loved getting to know and spend time with our cousins.

Court of Honor

Here we are at one of the biggest nights of the year.

Patrick's court of honor!

Patrick is the oldest grandchild in our family and the first to receive an Eagle Scout. His final project was to clean up an ederly woman's home. The painted the house, took trailer loads to the dump, and fixed up her yard. Patrick showed great leadership and service with his project. He is a great example to his cousins.

Patrick wore a very special neck kerchief. The hand carved Indian head was made by Uncle Luke. Luke loved scouting and received his Eagle when he was only 13! He would have been so proud of Patrick.

Grampy sang a special song to honor Patrick. It was a song he sang when Luke received his Eagle. Patrick has worked hard and is very deserving of the honor of an Eagle Scout.

We love you Patrick!

Graduation Day

Yep, that's Harrison. Kindergarten graduation. He did it!

It was a challenging year, mostly for mom, but Harrison loved school and especially his teacher, Ms. Estes. He learned a lot, made some friends, and really grew.

Lucy loved the cake at the after graduation party.

Whiskey Row 10k

We did it! Rebecca, Mary Andrus and I ran the Whiskey Row 10k. It was a hard run with Prescott's higher altitude and hills, a little training would have helped, but we did it.

We had a super fun girls trip. The boys were on the father son campout so we took the oportunity to get out of town with just the girls. There's nothing better than staying up late talking, window shopping and talking, eating ice cream and talking, and sitting in a park talking, not to mention the entire drive home with nothing to do but talk.

Colorado

Damon and I took a turn around trip to Colorado this weekend. We left Phoenix Thursday night and came back from Colorado on Saturday night. It was a long drive but well worth it. "Why?" might you ask... for these guys:


My sister Stacy and her kids

Daryn (with her mouth full.) Hayden

Justin and Morgan

We came to see all of them but Stacy's graduation was what brought us up. Stacy graduated with her LPN on Saturday. We are so proud of her! She has worked so hard to get to this point in her life. She is such an example to me.

Stacy and my mom after her "pinning".

Stacy is amazing! She is one of my heroes.

We also got to see Hayden play hockey. What a stud!

Remembering

Two years ago today I was teaching preschool and could not get myself into gear. School was about to start and I still didn't have a lesson plan. I kept coming back to the idea of just baking cookies with my students but felt it would be a cop out. I couldn't pull myself together to put together a lesson plan so at the last minute I finally decided to just make the cookies. It was actually perfect, the kids loved it, we had a fun snack and I was able to present some good concepts and ideas. It was also fun to send the kids home with their own bag of cookies because I had to break the news to their parents that I had to end the school year early and it was my last day. The reason for the shortened school year was that Damon's brother, Geoff, was dying of cancer. At that point we were just waiting. I hated to end my school year early, I love teaching and I loved those kids. I knew that the next few weeks would be very emotional as well as busy and when things calmed down summer break would be here.
So I sent my preschoolers off on their last official day of school (I had a little party for them a few weeks later) full of sugar and with more cookies to take home. A couple hours later Damon called. He had been spending almost every minute at his mom's house to spend as much time with Geoff as he could. He told me I needed to come and to come now.
I had been praying for days, maybe weeks, to be able to show love and bring comfort to Damon and his family but I never seemed to get an answer. As I was making babysitting arrangements and loading up the kids I decided to bring the cookies I had made in preschool. I hesitated and almost left them at home because I thought it would be silly to show up to say good bye to my brother in law with a plate of cookies. For some reason I decided to bring them anyway.
Shortly after I arrived at my mother in laws house Geoff passed away. I was in the room with my family as we watched and waited for him to take his last breath. It was a sweet and tender moment that was also filled with heart ache. After everyone said their good byes and had their last minute with Geoff we all reconvened at the kitchen table. I don't know what it is about families getting together but no matter how comfortable the couches are we always seem to gather around the table. Sitting on the table were the cookies I made that day with my preschoolers. Soon everyone was eating a cookie with or without a glass of milk and we were sharing stories and remembering Geoff.
My prayer was answered...I was able to bring comfort and show my love to Damon's family.

I love and miss you Geoff. Thank you for all your kindness and laughter and thank you for letting me serve you.