Wicked & Christmas Memories in July

On July 8, I flew down to Arizona to see Wicked with Camille. I thought this would be a great way to celebrate my dad's birthday. Even though I am not privileged to have him still on earth with me, he and Mom loved Camille and would want me to be with her and the grandchildren. Wicked is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. I love how it explained the beginnings of the Wicked Witches of the West and East, as well as how Glinda the good witch got started. The origins of the scarecrow and the tin man were also explained. It was an incredible production and I especially loved the music.

I loved being with all the grandsons and spent most of my time with them trying to put this 550 piece puzzle together. Chase is the one who started it, but by the next morning I couldn't resist trying to put a few pieces in. Pretty soon Tanner was helping and even Jordan put in some pieces, too. It took us 2 days to do it. I was convinced that we were missing at least 20 pieces, but as it turned out, there were only 2 pieces missing--one edge piece on the top right and the second piece is missing from the top of the head of the puppy on the right. If you look carefully, you will be able to see the 2 places where they are missing.
I took a lot of photos of the kids working on the puzzle, but not one of them downloaded to my computer. My batteries were low and I guess that I didn't have enough battery power to have them save to the camera's memory stick. However, on the day I left, I put in new batteries, so I took one more shot of the puzzle and one shot of Chase's room. Those are the only 2 shots that actually were saved. I wanted to put photos of the boys on this post, so I looked for photos of them that I hadn't posted. Eureka! I discovered that I had neglected to post all their photos of my 2008 Christmas visit with them.

When I was a high school student in Price and also when I was a student at BYU, I would always play Christmas carols every July which probably confirmed to my roommates that I was a tad unconventional. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year and I thought the music was too beautiful to only be heard once a year. So . . . in honor of that tradition of my younger years, I will now post some great photos of last Christmas in Arizona:

Here the boys are waiting at the top of the stairs for their parents to give them permission to go find out what Santa had brought, but they can't go down without their parents being there, too. Notice that Chase is having a hard time waking up.
Here is their living room before the family went downstairs. Isn't the tree beautiful?

Below is the Nativity set I gave Camille after she moved to Arizona. Trevor can hardly wait every year for Camille to put out her "Christmas action figures." This is displayed on the beautiful cedar chest that belonged to my mom.

Here are the wise men by their tent that are also part of the Nativity set that I gave to Camille. I love how they not all riding on camels. The one you can't see very well is actually on an elephant and another is on a horse. This Nativity set was made in Italy and I love all of the figures, houses, etc. Each figure has a name and a story written about him, too.

Finally, the kids are downstairs opening their presents.

Look how beautiful Camille looks even after she stayed up most of the night. Chase got more sleep and he is still having a tough time waking up.
Here Chase is examining the stilts that he got. Dana tells me that Randy had a pair of stilts that he actually could walk on. I am amazed at how Randy could do so many things. (Chase still doesn't look very awake, but at least he is standing.)

Here is Jordan showing off some new clothes.

Trevor is trying out his new crossbow in the photo below:

This is the last time I saw their dog Pepper alive. It is such a nice photo of him that I had to post it.
After Christmas, we were invited over to Allyson Anderson's house for dinner. Since her husband Vance served a mission in Italy, he cooked us a sumptuous Italian meal. Camille and Allyson were best friends up in Montana, and now they are both together again in the Phoenix area. I always called Allyson my other daughter, and her mom Carole has always been a dear friend of mine, too.

Notice that Chase actually looks wide awake in this photo. Look at his great smile with those gorgeous teeth. I think he woke up because of the delicious food. It couldn't possibly be because of Allyson's cute teenage daughter, could it?

Happy Birthday & Anniversary Beloved Randy

Randy at about 4 months. Isn't he just adorable?

(This photo reminds me of Aubrey's cute smile.)

Randy--age 18

July 2005, I made this cake for Randy, Angie, and Dana's

combined birthday party.

Engagement day March 17, 2000 when Randy officially gave me my ring that I am showing off in this photo.

Our kiss after we were married in the Jordan River Temple

July 15, 2000.

Randy, I miss you more each day.

Thanks for the joy and the "magic"

that you added to my life.

I will love you forever.

Remembering Randy By Learning To Do Cryptoquotes

My first impression of Randy is that he was a word genius. I couldn't believe he could decipher Cryptoquotes until I saw him solve one in 5 minutes right before my eyes. He subscribed to the Salt Lake Tribune because he did the crossword puzzles and Cryptoquotes that were published in it every day. As shown in the photo below, he even took some papers along when we went to the Uintahs for a picnic, so he could read all of us Asimov quizzes while the food was cooking.

He would save his favorite quotes and Asimov quizzes. Here is one that he solved a few years ago. He liked it because he thought it was so funny.
Last May I was missing him so much I decided to try to learn how to do Cryptoquotes as a way of feeling a little bit of Randy's light in my life. For some reason, I was able to solve the first one I tried. Its message was so much how I was feeling that I saved it.
Being with Randy filled my life with such joy. Even unpleasant tasks became fun when I was with him. The dark never bothered me until Randy left, but then I found that I had become afraid of being alone in it. Metaphorically speaking, it has been very hard to just learn to walk alone in the light . . . and it is even harder in the dark.

When Randy was alive, I would try to do Cryptoquotes, but he almost always would have to help me. However, in the past 2 months, I have been able to solve all of them unaided except for two. Part of the fun of solving Cryptoquotes is reading some provocative quotations, so I will include a few more in this post:

Randy & Vickie were married 40 years ago today.

Here they are by Randy's beloved '57 Ford when they were dating.

He's so handsome and she's so pretty that I just had to post this.

Four beautiful children were born as a result of their love.

Left to right: Steve, Dee, Tricia, and Nickie

Happy Father's Day to Dad, Randy & "Sons"

Randy said that the best thing anyone could call him was DAD

and he LOVED having fun with his kids!

Here he is with Dee and Steve

Randy's sons learned to be fun dads by his example.

Here Randy and Steve are playing with Karli on her birthday.

Here Steve is helping Sage eat her first birthday cake.

Below Dee is looking adoringly at his precious

new baby Avery . . .

. . . and here Dee is having fun with Nash.

Camille's husband, Jerel, has always been a devoted dad

who shows his boys how to work . . .

. . . and play.

I will never forget how he kept dancing with toddler-age Trevor

when Trevor discovered Randy's Hokey Pokey Elmo.

Nickie's husband, Cris, also adores his children.

Here he is holding Aubrey on her blessing day.

Last but not least, thanks to my heroes, my twin Daddies.

For those of you who don't know, my dad is Gerald, the one on the right.

They were both artistic, musical, intelligent, congenial, hard-working lovers of the outdoors and family. They both had an incredible sense of humor and loved playing tricks on people. They especially LOVED being identical twins and took full advantage of that by impersonating one another--just to see if they could get away with it . . . and they always could. They even ended up being co-presidents of BYU. No one could ever tell which one was which, so they just elected them both. (Besides, they knew if they elected one, the other one would just impersonate him.)

They were the fount of all knowledge who taught me to love learning and to NEVER hurt another person's feelings. (I have failed at that sometimes, but I don't think I have ever deliberately set out to hurt someone's feelings, but then I end up inadvertently doing it and I apologize to anyone if I have done so to you.) They were the best dads any girl could ever wish for. I thank God for you both.

I have been most fortunate to have such wonderful dads in my life: the dad who fathered me, Uncle Jim who was like another dad to me, my wonderful husband Randy, and to all of my wonderful sons (pictured in the blog--whom I was not fortunate enough to give birth to), but I am so proud of you and love you all very much.

Memorial Day Flowers & My Yard

This is what Randy and Vickie's grave looked like on Memorial Day. I brought the sunflower, carnation, lily bouquet, and I know that Steve, Jen, Tricia, and Bentley brought something, and I am guessing some of the mum plants were also brought by Alan Bray and Russ and Sherry because they brought mum plants last year. However, I don't know who brought what, so please write a comment and let me know what you brought.

The following pictures are of what the flowers look like in my yard.

The pictures above and below are by the front door.

Here are some Iris that I planted by the back fence.

Here is the new Aphrodite Rose of Sharon tree I planted in the front yard, so the front flower bed could get more light--plus add some more color to the front yard. I also planted 2 Forsythia bushes--one in the front yard and one in the back, so I could have more color and brighten up the yard in the spring.

Below is what the blossoms of the Rose of Sharon tree will look like in July and August. It is supposed to bloom this year. I sure hope it does. I can hardly wait until is gets bigger and has hundreds of blossoms.

Heavenly Blossoms

Here are some shots I took of the beautiful flowers

 at the Jordan River Temple.

Chase, puzzles, Mentos, & Coke

My oldest grandson, Chase, came up for BYU's Especially for Youth and spent all Sunday afternoon and night with me. It was so fun to have him here.  We put together a puzzle which took the length of two movies to accomplish because there were so many totally white pieces.  Chase did 75 per cent of it. He's been good at puzzles since he was 3.  Isn't he so grown up and handsome?

Then we went outside to experiment 

with putting Mentos in Diet Coke.

Watch the video below:

I wonder how they made it look so good on Myth Busters?

A Touching Lesson

Could these otters be holding hands?

Is there some lesson these otters can teach us?

Just click on the arrow in the bottom left corner

of the following picture to start the video clip below.

Just knowing that someone is there can give us such comfort.

Just being able to touch someone, 

hug someone,

hold someone's hand

makes us feel so much better.

Otters know this. 

Let us hope that all humans

can learn this too.  

P.S. Please show this to my grandkids, I think they will love this.