More Vacation - water play

All it takes is some grass, a hose and a warm day.

Fill up the tub...

They took turns spraying each other with the cold water.

Then mom suggested the slip 'n' slide.

They loved it! Water was flying everywhere!

Oh, yeah! a perfect slide.

I love this kid's amazing smile. His whole face just radiates! Can't you just hear him laughing?

The perfect landing.

 Fun afternoon - filled with sun, water, Popsicles and laughing children. What a great memory!

My Summer Vacation

  THESE faces are why I drive from Phonex to SLC by myself every summer!

Luka is fearless in the water.

Cannon loves to play.

Cooper and Savannah play for HOURS with each other in the pool.

Ava was very excited about her hiking equipment.

I got to attend Karate class with Cooper. I was so impress with his careful attention to form and to complying with every request made by his teacher.

 Seriously... how does he do this??

Katie and Julie ran a special 10K in for pregnancy and infant loss. I took Savannah, Cooper and Ava with me to greet them at the finish line.

 Here are my two courageous girls - now runners! Years ago, when I was in my late 20s and early to mid 30s I used to run in 10k races. I loved it. But not any more. I guess it has been passed on to the younger generation...

 They ran this race in memory of Hayden Nys. This sweet baby boy was born to  Ryan's cousin a couple of years ago. He only lived long enough for his parents to hold him and love him before he slipped away. Katie and Ryan were there with them for that precious experience.

It was a fun morning and the moms did a great job on their run!  The kids enjoyed running across the finish line with their moms/aunties. I was so happy to be there with them. Brought back fond memories.

In fact, going to the race inspired me to try jogging again. BIG MISTAKE! Even though I had Nike running shoes, they were not right for my foot and I blew a tendon - I ran several mornings and then hiked in Island Park thinking it would get better. Wrong. I finally ended up going to the Dr. when I had been home for about a week. She said to wear an ace bandage, prescribed an anti-inflammatory. Three weeks later the swelling and tenderness has gone down and I an considering orthodics. I want to run again!

Look what I did!

 My Friend had a baby shower for her daughter on Saturday. I told her several weeks ago that I would help her. She asked me if I would cut up the fruit. When I went to pick it up there were two HUGE watermelons, 4 cantaloupe, 4 honeydews, 5 giant pineapples. 3 - 4 lb boxes of strawberries, 2 cases of mangoes, 2 cases of kiwis and two huge containers of grapes.

 Oh. My. Goodness!

 I did not know where to begin. I decided I wanted to do something fancy, so I sent Rod to the store to get some skewers. While he was gone, I cleaned all the strawberries and carved up one of the watermelons.

My attempt at fruit kabobs.

 When Rod got back from the store, I had him help me big time. He peeled all of the mangoes and the kiwis. I chopped up the pineapples and had already washed the grapes. I don't know if you have ever peeled and cut mangoes, but they are real buggers! I cut up the mangoes and kiwis as he was peeling. I also used a melon ball cutter on some of the melons. That was kind of fun! Once the fruit was all cut up, we assembled some skewers and stuck the fruit-kabobs in a cabbage.

This is the baby carriage I made from the watermelon. It was so much fun!

 I wish I had more time to do some more fancy stuff, but it took me all morning to cut up all that fruit! I never could have done it without Rod's help! (He is always so willing to help me in the kitchen - or anywhere -  no matter what I ask him to do! Thanks, Honey!) I just put the rest of the cut up fruit in every huge bowl I own, and in big foil pans and took it for them to refill the carriage, and make more skewers. There were some very capable ladies in the kitchen that actually had planned on just putting cut fruit into big glass bowls as needed, and I think they were a little shocked and what came. They did make some pretty bowls of fruit, though. It was all very colorful!

 I am glad I could help my friend and she was delighted with what I did - but I am also glad I do not cater for a living. Been there, done that - - too much work!

A Trip to Dallas

My last day of work for the school year was June 9th. On the morning of the 10th we hopped on a plane and flew to Dallas for Rachell's wedding. We arrived late afternoon/early evening, got our little red rental car and found our hotel. Because we had no plans, we decided to make our own fun. We went to West End Dallas and found a Spaghetti Warehouse. We decided to have dinner there for my birthday. It was a huge platter of many kinds of pasta - a wonderful dinner for two that included salad and dessert. That was great fun.

Happy 56th to me.

Rod loves pasta as much as I do!

The next morning we went to the Dallas Holocaust Museum - a very sobering experience. I think one must be there to experience the full impact of what is there, but I will post a few pics.

The most disturbing things to me were the photos of the children. So many innocent people died under horrendous circumstances at the concentration camps. This place is a very well done memorial. I am glad we got to see it and experience it. It is difficult to express how it made me feel, but I am so thankful for our freedom of religion. It is sad to me that persecution of any kind still exists in our world.

We also saw the Texas School Book Depository where Oswald shot Kennedy. A very interesting scenario there. I don't think we will every have the full story on that one.

X marks the spot

6th floor window on the right is where Oswald was located.

Seems impossible that he could have hit Kennedy from the front from this angle. Surely there was someone across the street on the grassy knoll that was involved. After seeing this, that is my opinion.

The wedding was in the afternoon, so we made our way to the Dallas Temple. The reception was later in the evening in Allen.

Happy Bride and Groom

Dad with his beautiful bride-daughter

Groom's cake was unusual, and very cute. Look at the tuxedo strawberries.

Swing dancin' couple on the Groom's Cake

The bride and groom have their first dance as husband and wife. I loved Rachell's red sash.

Cutting the cake.

Father's Day With My Dad

My dear Dad - 85 years old.

 Father's day was very special this year. My sister, Janet, invited all of us to her home for a wonderful dinner with our dad. We enjoyed spending time together as siblings, as this does not happen often. I live far away from everyone, so I miss the family get-togethers. It was so nice to spend time with LaRue and Fred (her new husband!), Janet and Lenny, and Dave and Kelly. I love them all so much! We were able to sit at Dad's feet while he shared stories about his boyhood that we all loved hearing as children. He is as great story teller. I am so glad that some of my grandchildren were able to hear their "Great Harris" talk about his life as a boy. They were very attentive and quite fascinated with the stories. Katie was able to videotape this story time for us. I know we will all treasure this time with our Dad.

Dave, me, LaRue, Dad and Janet.

 Janet was kind enough to make it an open invitation to my kids and grandkids as well. She knows I don't always get to spend time with the ones that live in Utah. Thanks, Janet. It really was a wonderful day!

Cooper peeking out from under the bench.

 The neighbors behind Janet's home have a beautiful pasture with horses. Often there are deer as well. The deer sneak over the fence and eat her garden!

The kids loved the horses in the pasture behind Janet's house.

 My grandkids used to have have horses across from where they lived, and so they were not afraid to feed carrots to the horses. They loved it!

Savannah gives the horse a baby carrot.

 It was really fun to see Becca encourage the little ones around the horses. As a little girl, she loved being with them and was never afraid of these gentle giants.

I haven't seen Becca around horses for a long time. She always loved them.

So fun to see my nephews, KC and Jordan - both returned home from their missions.

 Luka had fun jumping off the boulders in Janet's yard. He is such a fun little boy!

Luka is so exuberant. I just love his smile!

The drive to and from Logan was so beautiful! We did get rained on and I was somewhat distressed as the temperature was only in the 50s. I am so used to the Phoenix temperatures! But there are no more beautiful skies than in Cache Valley, especially when it has been raining.

I was quite emotional today. My Dad is quite feeble - he can hardly walk. He cannot hear well, so it is hard to communicate with him, but he warmed right up when we asked him to tell his stories. I hadn't seen him that animated for quite some time. He talked on for more than half an hour. We were amazed! When it was all done, he said he was tired and wanted me to take him home. We acutally had a wonderful conversation on the way back to Bountiful where he lives. I have always been very close to my dad. He is my hero. I love him so much and appreciate the wonderful childhood that he and my mom gave me. They always believed in me, and they taught me correct principals by their tremendous examples. Truly, I was born of goodly parents. For that blessing I will always be most grateful.

Something special

 My sister, LaRue, lost her husband last year to cancer. We attended his funeral when we went out for our summer vacation in June. She was blessed to find new love in her life when she met her new husband, Fred. I wish them every happiness. They are a wonderful couple!

LaRue and Fred Campbell

They were married April 28th and celebrated with family and friends on May 28th. We were so glad we had a long weekend so we could be there for this special occasion. They had a reception/dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. It was so much fun to see her kids and grandkids, especially the ones that live in Alaska. I did not take pictures (boooo!), but Rod got a beautiful shot of the Salt Lake temple out the window.