Grandpa's Carnival

My dad is awesome!
He decided to make a backyard carnival for the grandkids.
He made pretty much everything!

 I accidentally forgot to take a picture of the bean bag toss sign :(

 Everyone loved the prize for this game, you got to keep the bottle of soda!

At every other game they won tickets to spend at the prize store.

 Fun with prizes!
The glasses with the nose were a huge hit!

Grandpa was overwhelmed with the rush of thank yous from the kids!

Recreating a Photo

My Dad wanted me to take a picture for him, he was trying to recreate one of his favorite old pictures of himself.

Here's how we did. I think it's pretty good for not looking at the picture while we were trying to recreate it...just going from memory.

Day Trip to Evanston

When I was about 12 or 13 my sister Jan and I spent a summer in Evanston Wyoming.

We lived with our cousin Lonnie and her husband Roger Cazin,

and we worked at their hardware store.

Since my dad is the youngest of 8 children, and his next sibling

is about 8 years older than him, most of my cousins on my dad's side of the family

are quite a bit older...many of them are older than my dad :)

Anyway, on the 3rd of October while my sister Jan was out here visiting from Georgia,

my dad, Jan and I took a trip to Evanston.

The hardware store has change A LOT since we worked there.

It's very different. It's more of a Home Goods store now.

 We had fun looking around the store and visiting with Lonnie and Roger.

My Dad even bought me my birthday present while we were there.

We found a pretty purple glass cake stand :)
(I didn't get to have until my birthday though)

We also had a nice lunch with them.

The drive was fun too, just spending time with Jan and my Dad,

my Dad is not above being silly...he's a good sport too!

I also enjoyed looking out the window at the beautiful scenery :)

My Trip to Utah - Dad Turns 70!

I got to go out to Utah for my Dad's 70th birthday party. My parents didn't know that all of the kids were coming so it was fun to surprise them. It was the first time in 6 years that we had all been together...if you ask me (and nobody did) that is way too long!

Anyway, I had such a great time and loved every minute of my time there with my family. 

The day I got there we just spent some time visiting and my mom had arranged for some family pictures to be taken...she was so happy that the pictures would now include all of her kids! 
Here is one of the pics from dav.d photography

The morning of my Dad's birthday (after breakfast at IHOP) some of us went to a shooting range. This was a new experience for me. I shot a 9mm, a .22 and a .45...at least I'm pretty sure that's what we shot. One of the targets we shot at was Osombie...I think we killed him...well Shell and I scared him and Jonas probably killed him :)

After we got home we helped get things ready for the party. I got to fix my grandma's hair.

If only my daughters would sit as still as she did...

Then we went over to Joe and Melanie's for the party. 
It was nice to see a lot of my aunts and uncles some cousins and friends too.

I even won a prize for getting the most answers right on a quiz about my dad. This duck carved by my dad was my prize. 

The theme of my Dad's party was "I Wanna Be Like You" 
When we were little we used to lip sync a lot and one time we put together a lip sync for my parents of "I Wanna Be Like You" from the jungle book. My mom requested that we perform this for my Dad, so we decided that we would make fools of ourselves for his (and everyone else's) entertainment.
Here's a little part of our stellar performance :)


I also had made a slideshow of my Dad's life that we showed. I think everyone liked it. I measured the success of it by the fact that it made several people cry.

Anyway, I think Dad really enjoyed the afternoon.

I love this picture of my Dad, I just love his smile and his laugh!

He is such a great man.

I'm so thankful that I have the privilege of being his daughter!

I love you Dad! 

Fathers

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day.

Mike was gracious and allowed us to shower him with love and affection :)

I'm thankful to have married a man who is not only a wonderful husband, but a good father as well. He loves our kids, teaches them and plays with them. He does so much for us and I am eternally grateful for him!

Mike surrounded by the kids and all the cute little things they made for him.

Love you Honey!

I'm also thankful for my dad. I'm blessed to be his daughter. He has taught me so much, and continues to teach me. He is a wonderful example and he is a lot of fun too!

I'm glad we got to Skype him on Father's Day

Love you Dad!

And I can not do a post about Fathers and leave out my Father in Heaven. I am so very thankful for Him. I am thankful for the knowledge I have that I am His daughter. I am a child of God! I know that He knows me and loves me. These are very simple statements, but they bring so much comfort to me.

I want nothing more than to return to live with Him someday. I also know that He wants me to be there with Him and He will help me and guide me through  my life.

He provided a Savior for me so that returning to Him would be possible. I know that through His Son and my Brother, Jesus Christ, it is possible...the rest is up to me. I hope to make him proud to call me daughter.

I love all the Fathers in my life.

I hope that you all had a nice Father's Day!

The rest of our trip to Georgia

One of the great things about going to my high school reunion was getting to spend some time with family.

My brother Bob and his family are moving from Georgia to Utah while he does a tour in Iraq, so this was a good chance to see them before they left.

My brother Bob is a doctor,

he's also a lot of fun!

Which doctor would you trust?

#1 is auditioning for Grey's Anatomy

(in fact Dallin asked me why Uncle Bob

was looking like a male model)

and I hear that #3 takes all insurances

and has no wait, ha ha!

Well, Doctor #2 graciously agreed to give Noah a physical for scout camp.

Thank you, thank you!

My parents and my sister Jan

and her family also live there.

Grace and Anna adore their Aunt Jan!

Jan's son Titus played us a beautiful song that he wrote and performed at his senior assembly. He is so talented!

My mom wrote a book and my Dad illustrated it, they gave a copy to each child and grandchild...I got a picture of Grace with hers.

It was nice to get to spend Father's Day with my Dad...even though he doesn't believe in Father's Day :) I sure do love him!

Mike got his Father's Day gifts when we got home (I didn't get pictures of him with the gifts the kids made...oops!)

Mike has some relatives in Georgia also. We had planned on visiting with his Grandma "Nanny" but didn't plan on visiting her in the hospital. She had a huge kidney stone and 2 strokes while we were at my parents. (She has since had a couple more strokes and a heart attack, but is recovering.) On Sunday night we went to the hospital where she was.

She was responsive and aware of us while we were there. We are glad that we got to see her and some more of Mike's relatives. 

It was a very short trip, but we packed in as much as we could, and still made it home in time for Noah to attend a Boy Scout workshop and earn 2 merit badges before heading off to scout camp.