A Trip Down Memory Lane

My dear 100 year old grandma died a couple of weeks ago, just about 3 hours sooner than my grandpa died six years earlier, weird. So we took a trip to Sacramento for the funeral service. We used to go there every year to visit my grandparents and we know it will be the last time we will ever go back so we went to all the places we used to go one last time. I will let the many, many pictures tell the story.

Caryn, Carol Ann, R.J., Ashley, Grandma, cousin Barbara at the 100th birthday bash back in February

My parents, us, and the Jensens all shared the same flight out on Friday. It was pretty uneventful, thankfully Conner fell asleep halfway through so we didn't have to keep trying to entertain him in our tiny space.

The boys unknowingly lined up according to height to watch the airplanes at the airport

Carol Ann thought it was sooo funny that she gave Conner a messy, chocolate donut while he sat on my lap. Somehow, most of it ended up down my shirt.

Emma got to keep my parents company on the plane.

And Eli helped us to keep Conner occupied.

The first thing we did was go to FairyTale Town. The boys had a great time. Poor Emma said she thought it was going to be like Disneyland so she was pretty disappointed. This place doesn't have any rides, it just has things to run around on.

This kid loves slides, especially the Old Lady's Shoe slide.

What a funny looking chicken!

Conner also loved the Yellow Brick Road.

And who doesn't like posing in swiss cheese?

 King of the castle

This slide had a sign that said no lap riding. But after Conner went down on both Cade and Blake's laps we let him go down with Emma. Unfortunately his foot got caught between her and the slide and he was screaming by the time they got to the bottom. Now we understand the point of the sign.

Conner also loved this moving pipe thing.

The looks on Conner and Emma's faces describe pretty well how they each felt about the park.

After the park we went back to the hotel and then walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It was delicious and so nice since they gave up our own little section to eat in.

Saturday morning my mom woke up very sick so we had to leave my parents at the hotel while the rest of us went to Sutter's Fort. John Sutter (I think) came to the area after abandoning his wife and children in some European country and got the land from the Mexican government to build his little settlement. He somehow got the Indians to be his slave and had a very prosperous trading business until the California gold rush. Then many of his workers left and much of his goods were stolen and the fort was no more.

Conner, Tyson, and Tyler reading up on the history facts.

Tyson and Conner getting an up close look at the cannons.

A couple of oxen

Who can resist holding a gun?

Here we are playing a game that was reminiscent of the time and I was very good at it.

All of us at the wall of the fort.

After Sutter's Fort it was time to head back to the hotel, get ready, and go to the funeral. Well it wasn't actually a funeral, more of a few remarks and dedicatory prayer at the cemetary. It was a small service due to the fact that my grandma outlived most of her friends and family.

My grandparents bought spots at the top of the wall.

Eli is such a gentleman.

Here is my grandpa's name plaque, my grandma's name will be added soon.

The whole gang - Blake, Ashley, Carol Ann, Jared, Mom, Dad, Caryn, Conner, Cade, R.J, Jen, Emma, Tyler, Tyson, and Eli

There were a bunch of gravestones from 1918, including this family that included "brother", "brother", and "mother". Thanks to my mom, I can tell you that in 1918 there was a worldwide flu pandemic that killed 50,000,000-100,000,000 people. It was strange because it affected the young, healthy adults more than the kids and elderly like most flus. Very sad.

And here we are at Vic's Ice Cream Parlor, a favorite stop of ours. They have the best ice cream and I'm so sad that I'll never get to enjoy it again.

Just check out that fabulous Sundae!

And the wonderful milkshakes that even include all the extra in the mixing cup.

A rare photo of my parents :)

Poor Tyson was so tired he fell asleep while chewing, literally. Check out that piece of hot dog in his mouth!

After lunch we headed over to my grandparent's neighborhood to see the old sights. We began with Barlin. My grandpa's family owned the area and when they sold it to be developed they got to name one of the streets. Barlin is named after my mom and her twin sister, Barbara and Linda.

Down the street is my grandparents old house, which looks exactly the same from the front yard.

From there we took the walk that we always went on with my grandma - down the street, over and around the freeway. Here we are at the entrance of the winding freeway overpass.

Still walking...

We always climbed up this part and snuck through the "woods" to beat my mom and grandma taking the boring sidewalk. It was really just a few trees now that I look at it. Apparently here I love you while everyone else rocks.

Who doesn't love a great big pile of leaves!

On Sunday morning R.J. and Jen had to head back home, but the rest of us drove out to see the Sacramento Temple. They keep a gate around it so this was as close as we could get.

After that Ashley and Blake had to head home and those of us who were left continued our sightseeing tour. Here we are in front of the house that my mom grew up in. We also drove by my dad's old house later but it was too dark for pictures.

We had to stop and feed the squirrels for old times sake as well.

The squirrels were a little bashful until our fast food arrived, then they started swarming around us.

Look at this crazy upside down tree. Emma is also upside down so she would fit in with the tree.

We also took a quick trip to visit with the Washburns. Kristen, Rick, Ryan, and Michelle came over with their families so we could all catch up. Here are the kids enjoying dessert.

And that was the end of our trip. We had a great time seeing everyone and everything and we will miss Sacramento and our grandparents. Cade even thought it looked like a nice place to live if we could afford it, except for the the fact that he thinks California is going to fall into the ocean :)

2011 Holidays

I know I'm a bit behind on posting this, but I'm a bit behind in everything in my life. That's what happens when you are rarely ever home and the few days you are home you are working. But here I am, trying to catch up on life. For Christmas we went down to Mesa for a few days. Cade, Conner, Emma, Ashley, Blake, and I took a trip to see the temple lights. Later that night Blake proposed to Ashley, but I don't have any pictures because I was fast asleep during the blessed event. Maybe she'll post pictures on her blog if she ever gets back from Africa.

Here we are, I'm sporting my African earrings in honor of Ashley

I just had to throw in this picture of Conner so squished by his large jacket. He doesn't mind though, anything to get a stroller ride.

At Thanksgiving I took Conner to Bass Pro Shop to get Cade's Christmas present and he loved it there. We could have wandered around looking at the dead animals and riding the elevator all day. They also had the cutest merry-go-round with bears and moose to ride but it wasn't open, so Cade decided to take Conner back to ride it.

I swear his pants aren't highwaters when he is standing up, but if they are any longer than he trips all over the place.

Then it was time for Christmas Eve dinner (fondue) and family presents. 

Emma, Eli, Conner

Grandma Rodgers gave him his first bike. On Christmas Eve he simply enjoyed the box, but Christmas morning it was all put together for him like a whole new present!

He also really enjoyed Eli's new Wii car from Grandpa

For the first time in years, Cade did not get up at 4:30 am Christmas morning. I enforced the rule of no one getting up until Conner does, which I think was about 7:15.

He loves his new bike.

 He is enjoying his first mini Snickers from Cade's stocking. He loved it and recognizes it whenever we're eating them now and wants some. One day he broke into a candy cane lying around and quickly started dripping candy cane saliva all over the carpet. So in order to avoid the outrageous tantrum from me taking away his candy cane, I quickly grabbed a bite of Snickers and he forgot all about his candy cane and we avoided the tantrum altogether. It was nice. 

Conner only got two presents from Santa this year (a water table and an umbrella stroller, ha ha) since he just got plenty for his birthday and doesn't like toys anyway. But since he was dealing with his second cold in three weeks he was too tired to even open his second present and I had to do it for him. I don't blame him, I was getting tired myself watching Ashley and Blake open present after present after present from each other. (I have to give Ashley a hard time on here because she just informed me she doesn't read my blog so I have free reign to say what I want :)

After our trip to Mesa we went to Hurricane for New Years. We had to drive at night so Conner slept most of the way. Except when Cade decided to stop at Sonic for a drink which woke him up and then he really wanted out, but 10 minutes later we were back to our peaceful drive. On Friday Katie, Tina, and I took a shopping trip to St. George. Katie and I were both successful at Tai Pan Trading and got really cute miniature casserole dishes and other things. That night Cade and I enjoyed catching up with Whit and Tiffany, staying up way too late. The next morning Cade took Conner to see the horses, cows, and chickens, but I was feeling really crappy so I stayed in bed and missed out. (I had that same cold as Conner at Christmas only my stuck around for awhile and staying up late every night wasn't helping.) 

Even though I've been to Hurricane many times now somehow I have never noticed the street next to Grandma Johnson's. Its exactly the street I've dreamed about living on. Of course all of the houses were beautiful with different kinds of brick, all of the houses being unique (not a stucco subdivision), but the kicker is that next to the street was green grass with evenly spaced trees, then sidewalk, then the yards. I'm dying to live on a street that has grass on both sides of the sidewalk, but I've only actually seen it in movies until now. Grandma Johnson later told me that the subdivision was built around those trees that led up to some house and the street is not wide enough so no one is allowed to park in the street. But I don't care, I would be in heaven to live on that block that I'll never be able to afford. (Sadly, I didn't get a picture.)

Cade, Conner, and Russ on the pond at the boys' home.

Conner and I getting into cowgirl/cowboy form.

This kid can't get enough of boxes and other fun things that can be climbed into.

We spent New Years Eve with some of Cade's cousins and Kameron and Katie at the future boy's home. (Cade's parents are going to help run a home for troubled boys and the house was just bought but is about to be renovated, but in the meantime it was a nice big place for us to hang out with an awesome theater room.) Amazingly all the little kids, except for Ryan, made it to midnight and weren't even too annoying. It was fun to catch up with everyone.

On Sunday we hung out, played a few games. Grandma Ewell and Russ came down with the flu, but stayed on the other side of the house. On Monday we took a small hike to see a rock arch. Thankfully, even though Kameron and Jeter's horse slipped and fell no one was injured and we all made it safely to the arch.

It took a little time, but eventually Conner warmed up to the horses.

He just loves playing outside in the dirt.

If you look really close you can see Tanner in a white shirt near the top of the rocks in the center of the picture. It made me sick just looking at him.

There was a really fun sand hill that the boys tried sledding down.

Conner found it more enjoyable to just slide down on his butt.

We made it to the arch.

It would have been nice if we had gone home after that, but we planned to leave in the morning. That night Tanner came home throwing up. I kept Conner and I as far away as I could but a few hours later Conner woke up throwing up (so sad.) It was making me sick listening to Tanner throwing up downstairs (still) and watching Conner and cleaning up after him so Cade was very nice and volunteered to watch Conner while I slept. I didn't actually sleep AT ALL, but it was better than watching everyone puking. Pretty soon Cade joined the bunch and was throwing up too. I now had to get into the contamination area to take care of Conner and just waited for my moment to come. Miraculously, it never came. Somehow I didn't get sick. Poor Conner threw up about 15 times in 24 hours, he couldn't keep anything down. But he basically stayed his normal, happy self. We had no idea when he was going to throw up because he would just be sitting there fine and then I'd need to change my clothes, again. Thankfully he didn't get the awful stomach pains that Tanner and Cade were writhing around on the floor with. Finally, about 30 hours late we were on our way home. About an hour outside of Flagstaff Conner started getting really upset so we stopped at Cade's Flagstaff office and right away Conner got diarrhea, which explained why he was upset. But then he slept the rest of the way home. It wasn't very fun to arrive with colds and leave with the flu, but thankfully we're all healthy again. And we agreed that no matter how far we travel to visit people, if they are sick we aren't hanging around. Happy New Year!!