It's the last day of May and I'm up too late, as usual, writing things down in my planner. Yes, I have a planner - which I only discovered about 2 years ago, how much better life is when I am organized. Another thing I discovered recently is how much country music has changed. Reggie and I have loved country music for decades, but we haven't kept up with it because there hasn't been a country station in the Bay Area for a long time. Now there is and we've been surprised at how most of the songs cater to the young adult, single, looking for a good time crowd. So tonight, while in the middle of getting organized, I went to You-Tube and accessed some playlists from the early 2000's and 2010's, and I'm loving it. So here is a song for June - an early "Happy Father's Day" song for Reggie, Lester, Andrew and all the other dads out there.
And here is a fairly current country song, just because I do like it:
So there you have it - organization, country music, and father's day - have a great June everybody!
It's after 3 am - I know I'm going to pay for this! When there is a school holiday I always seem to stay up way too late! But a few hours ago, around 11 pm I was exhausted and laid on the couch to "take a nap". I left the kitchen light on, which woke me up around 1 am. I got up just to brush my teeth, turn the light off and go to bed. But then I felt a little refreshed and decided to blog. Here it is, over 2 hours later. I'm going to have such a "blogging hangover" in a few hours. Does anyone else ever do that? Oh well. Good night. Happy Monday, and happy last week of May!
One of the sweet things about our trip was being present for the blessing of Granddaughter #4 - Hannah. She's so darn cute!
Here's a confession - Surprise! - sometimes life is hard. I usually don't blog about the hard times because going back and looking at the blog is one thing that carries me through. It reminds me of how blessed we are and how worth it everything is. One thing that I think about often and feel so thankful for is the sons-in-law that have come into our lives. I am so happy to know my girls have married men that they love and who love them; each couple, from what we've seen, knows how to work together, play together, pray together, fight together (which I think is important - I wouldn't want either marriage partner to feel too stifled to speak their minds to each other), be patient with each other and take care of each other.
Life is hard, but it is wonderful, and moments and pictures like this are sweet reminders of that.
p.s. I also appreciate the sense of humor and male camaraderie these men have added to the family. The last thing I want to do is sit around and talk sports or superhero movies with Reggie. ( I love him to death, but there you have it.) At first Luke came along and started to fill that void. Now 3 sons in law have come in and made it even better. Add a few nephews-in-law like Natalie's husband Ray and Reggie is in testosterone heaven. While we were in Arizona Ray took Reggie, Luke, Andrew and Andrew's dad out to the hills to go shooting - not hunting, but shooting at targets. They had a blast! (That pun fits perfectly here!) They all had a great time. And I'll have to blog another day how it cracks me up that Lester and Reggie and Luke can have such a serious debate about the newest superhero movies that come out. Thats okay, they've been laughing for years on how me and my girls have the Jane Austen movies memorized. Although I admit, Julia is a better wife than me in the fact that she enjoys the superhero movies as well and joins right in on the debates. And Ross - the newest addition to the men in our family has fit in and joined in from day one. We are so glad to have had even a short amount of time with him and Mariah at the Grand Canyon and look forward to their up and coming visit in July.
Grandaughter #3, Isla, has become mobile in recent weeks. She gets around the house by crawling, pulling herself up and "cruising" the furniture - and even the walls. Often when I'm in the kitchen she peeks around the corner with this smiling face, holding on to the doorway. She isn't quite brave enough to let go and take some steps on her own, but she is very close. It's so adorable!
So we got home Saturday night and Reggie was off on another series of business trips Sunday morning - providing for the family and earning some more frequent flyer miles. I hope he knows how much we appreciate him! So please excuse this "public display of affection" but I want to send him a message/song over the blogging waves:
Reggie and I have been to Las Vegas twice without the kids. At first, I thought it was the one place that I would definitely not be wanting to take the kids. Even though Reggie and I don't drink, smoke, gamble or go to any of the "adult" shows, we found it an interesting and fun place - there is, of course, an inescapable adult atmosphere to it, but we've been able to take what we wanted and leave the rest alone. On the other hand, exposing children to it is a different thing. So when we decided to do our Grand Canyon trip we felt that flying into Las Vegas made the most sense. And we started thinking about the family-friendly things that were there that Samantha and Luke would enjoy. So, here is our experience in doing Las Vegas, family style:
Timing - the first time Reggie and I went was on a weekend and we were walking down Las Vegas Blvd (The Strip) on a Friday night. The second time was in the middle of the week. Wow what a difference! We realized it is a MUCH calmer place during the week. So we took Samantha and Luke there on a Tuesday night. We still saw some crazies, and more skin than I would have liked, but not too much worse than they've seen in San Francisco. We enjoyed walking through the Hershey's, M&M and Coca Cola stores, watching the Bellagio fountain and the Mirage volcano eruption.
Lodgings - believe it or not, we've found that several of the hotels on The Strip are usually less expensive than Motel 6 prices you find anywhere else in the country. And they feel pretty safe too, whereas a Motel 6, etc. a block away from the strip can feel pretty scary. This trip we stayed at the Excalibur.
We've enjoyed walking through the lobbies of most of the big hotels on our prior trips, and even though they all have casinos, several of them have pretty decent, even classy and beautiful decor. The Luxor and Excalibur seemed the most family friendly to us.
During the day we split up - Samantha and I went to fill a dream come true for her: the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor. She loved it, and opted not to have the headphones for the tour because she wanted to tell me all the info. she knew - and boy she knows a lot! It was wonderful!
At the same time Reggie and Luke went to Coney Island at The New York and played a bunch of games and rode a roller coaster.
Another thing about the lodgings - the swimming pools are fantastic at these hotels, but again, some of the hotels have more kids swimming than at others. And one negative comment - we loved walking through the Venitian, Palazzo, Luxor and New York because of the decor, but I learned on mine and Reggie's first trip that there are some hotels I never want to walk through again, like the Monte Carlo. In my opinion it was full of big money, high priced trash. Again, that was a Friday night, but that was enough for me.
Billboards - this was the thing I worried about the most. But we realized that driving straight to our hotel (The Excalibur) and then walking to the others, or driving around to the parking lots behind the Hotels rather than driving up and down the strip helped to avoid getting stuck at a light next to an adult billboard. And even though I wasn't privy to the man to man talk that Reggie had with Luke before our trip (I'm so relieved about that!) I know that it helped.
So, I'm glad we took Samantha and Luke to experience mid-week, down town Las Vegas for one day/night. It is not something I want to do regularly, but with a little careful planning, I think it turned out fantastic. I'm sure that the people we have known who are happily raising their kids in Las Vegas have a thousand more tips and ideas on how and why it can be a wonderful place. When we got home we watched this Mormon Message, as a reminder that you can bloom anywhere that you are planted:
With Reggie's frequent flyer miles airplane trips have become a wonderful reality for our family. I always worried that we would never see our girls once they became adults and moved away. But Reggie's hard work in all his business trips is keeping us connected. I do, however, still love road trips. I think this is because my family took one every summer of my childhood. We always headed to Idaho and Utah, but my parents liked to take different routes every time so we could see things like the national parks, etc.
For this trip we flew into Las Vegas and then rented a car to drive across Arizona. Besides seeing the Grand Canyon we were happy to go to Mesa to see my niece and her family, who Hillary and Andrew will be living with this summer.
Natalie and Hillary - look alike cousins. At church Sunday morning several people mistook Hillary for Natalie.
The Arizona scenery is much more diverse and pretty than we had realized. There were beautiful green mountains full of trees. Then the terrain turned into cactus and sage brush. We found driving through a Joshua tree forest extremely interesting, and we saw so many rock hills that we expected them to unroll themselves into "rock people" like from the movie "Frozen".
At one point I opted to trade places with Samantha and let her have the front, next to Reggie, while I climbed in the back with Luke. She sure loved that. Hours on the road means having time to talk, listen to each other's music, etc. I remember loving it when our family members traded places in the car and I got to sit up front next to whichever of my parents was driving at the time. I know that Samantha loves me and we get lots of time together throughout the week. But I know she adores her Dad too, and you can see on her face how much she loves having time with him. Sitting next to him in the car, enjoying the wide open spaces and the chance to talk has made Samantha a fan of road trips too.
The Grand Canyon is something that Reggie has always wanted to see. And even though my family went when I was young I don't remember much. So we decided that this summer would be the perfect time to go since Hillary and Andrew are moving to Arizona for a several month internship. We were planning on going in July, after school and summer school is done, but we started thinking about how hot it would be. So we decided to go last week. To say that we beat the heat is an understatement. It rained on and off the day were were there, which was perfectly fine. We were still able to see it's beauty and didn't mind getting a little wet. Mariah and Ross joined us which made it even more fun.
Hillary and Andrew were going to meet us there too but had some car trouble, so we didn't see them until later.
In some ways one full day doesn't seem like enough time, and I wish we could go back. On the other hand, one full day was an amazing experience. I hope to never forget how in awe we were as we walked up to the first view point. And though there were always dozens of people around us the peace and quiet was a spiritual experience. I'm so glad we did this trip!
Some of the views had railings. But some of the views and trails had no railings and I couldn't handle it - I felt physically ill and couldn't continue. And of course I felt nervous about the rest of my family, but believe it or not, even Luke and Mariah were more careful than usual.
We traveled back to Flagstaff that night and the next morning woke up to snow! I had no idea that our early summer vacation was really going to be a late winter vacation! We watched the news reports and were amazed that where we had been the day before was now covered in snow.
We met Hillary and Andrew on the road and made our way away from the snow, but through the rain, to Mesa. (I worried about Mariah & Ross driving back to Utah but thankfully they made it just fine).
Trips like this - pausing from regular life and seeing these natural wonders - just makes you feel good about everything.
It's funny how people's birth order does affect their lives and experiences and the way they see the world. I don't know if others who are the youngest in their families feel the same as I do, but being the youngest of 6 in my family, I think I have the feeling of "phew, I got here in the nick of time . . .
thanks for letting me in!" Because you know that for whatever reason your parents stopped having children after you. For my parents, after having their 5th child they were advised by the doctor to not have anymore, for my Mom's health reasons. But three years later they had me. Then they followed doctor's orders. I'm so grateful and lucky to be here! Thanks Mom! I love you!
I think the saying usually goes "behind every great man there is a great woman". I like that saying - but I think "beside" works as well. It certainly reminds me of my Mom. She never went to college for herself but she was very instrumental in helping my Dad with his education and other ambitions in life. For example, when he was working on his thesis she was his editor. With only what she learned in high school she was always able to find employment with her excellent office skills. Back in the day one of the major necessary skills was shorthand. My mom was a master at shorthand. She could write down word for word what someone was saying because she knew shorthand - then she would go to the typewriter and type it up. I even remember her writing in shorthand on the front of our Christmas presents what they were/what was inside; that way she didn't lose track of what she had bought and wrapped, but none of the rest of us could read what it said. That used to drive me crazy!
For example, this is an actual letter written in shorthand. My mom could totally read this!
One thing that I got a kick out of, which shows their "side by side" marriage, is that after my dad retired, and while my Mom was working in the school district, my dad took on a lot more household duties. We weren't terribly fond of the dinners he made, but I really liked seeing him do it. In fact, and forgive me if I am re-blogging about this, but he was the one to teach Hillary how to peel a carrot - we have a picture of her with the most proud look on her face for learning how to do this.
After my Mom retired as well they certainly kept the love alive by going on adventures together. They went on a cruise with most of my Mom's siblings. They also went on an 18 month mission to work in the temple in Argentina, living in a little apartment in Buenos Aires. Then after they got home they braved the Bay Area traffic every weekend to work in the Oakland Temple together. They took a trip to Dallas Texas to visit my sister several years ago and my Dad got very sick with pneumonia. We all thought, including him, that his time had come. But Kaiser hospital decided to fly him home by helicopter, with my Mom by his side, and was able to get him well again. They had a lot more years together after that. And in 2012 my mom had super human strength in taking care of him as his time had indeed come. How lucky and true-to-form that she was by his side when he took his last breath.
Well, I am blogging about all of this right now because of a project that my mom has been working long and hard on since my dad passed away. Writing your personal history is a tradition in my family. My Dad worked on his after he retired. He didn't necessarily want to share it while he was alive but he told my Mom that she could edit it, print it up, pass it out, or whatever she wanted to do with it after he was gone. So she has been doing just that - the editing and organizing part anyway. A lot of family members have helped out. But most recently my sister Lynette and brother-in-law Roger have helped her gather together pictures for it, do some last re-arranging, and get it published and available for anyone who wants it. And of course, my dad has a lot of descendants and nieces and nephews who want it. They also planned it out that the first day it was available was last week, on my Mom's birthday.
I hope she feels very proud and very accomplished for having it done. I know she has cherished the walk down memory lane it has given her. And now maybe she can take the time to work on her own life history! We all certainly want that just as much as we want our Dad's!
So beside every great man there is a great woman, and beside every great woman there is a great man. And one more of my favorite quotes, which I think was illuminated in my parent's marriage: “woman was taken out of man, … not out of his feet to be trampled underfoot, but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.”
I've always been fascinated with how big whales must be. I thought that our March whale watching trip in Monterey would be the closest I'd ever get to one. Then in April a 50 foot sperm whale washed up on a beach in Pacifica. I thought of going to see it, but by the time I heard about it they were already dissecting it for scientific purposes. From what I understand the waves have not washed it's carcass back to sea, like they thought it would, and it is still there. But then today, amazingly enough, another dead whale was found on the same beach. We decided to go see it. I can't believe how big it is and to hear that it is smaller than the first - only 35 ft as compared to 50 ft, just boggles my mind!
Tonight was my first time going to see a Giants game at
AT&T Park. It was fun and very crowded - definitely
an atmosphere that makes you feel patriotic and
a sense of community. I enjoyed the game, but I
especially enjoyed when they had the crowd sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
and the song "Lights". I also liked how they moved the camera
around the crowd, especially because Julia and family got on the
big screen for a couple of seconds.
And the above picture is the reason we went - Reggie's brother and wife gave all of the nieces and nephews a Christmas present of tickets to this Giants game. Unfortunately Hillary & Mariah & families were not able to go, so me and my niece Becky tagged along instead.
