Life's Tender Mercies

WOW! What a summer. I have had some great opportunities to renew old relationships with family and friends this summer! I am convinced everyone is put in our life to bless us! I have truly been blessed! It seems like this has been the summer to renew relationships. It seems like only yesterday that all these people were in my life! One of these friends I haven't seen for 16 years, but I felt like it had only been a day.
It was really fun to take my children to Alaska and let them feel of the love we felt from the people there! I think we were all interconnected before we came to earth!









This past weekend we participated in the celebration of our little Grandson Matthew's blessing. It was a great day and we felt very supported by our family. One of the special parts of the day was renewing a relationship with my cousin Suzanne and her little family. It was pretty fun to see how well her children fit into our family even though they had never seen each other before. The bonds of family and genes are pretty strong.






All in all it was a wonderful weekend! But I think we totally wore the guys out!

Paradise on Earth?? ALASKA

Okay, I am sitting here highly jet-lagged thinking about the week I just spent with my husband and three kids. Actually, most of my time was spent renewing old acquaintances. Randy's favorite place to be is Alaska, we had special friends, the Kennedy's, in Fairbanks who invited us on a fishing trip. I knew I would never hear the end of it until Randy was able to go. NOW...I will never hear the end of it from Randy, Nathan, Alisa and Jordan, wondering when we can go back! The whole crew had a great time, yes even ME! And...Toni Kennedy felt like she really accomplished great things when I told her the moose was very tasty! My only regret was I couldn't take the married kids and their families. Maybe someday!
I have to agree with Randy about Valdez, it was absolutely the most breathtaking beautiful sight I have ever seen. I can't believe we never went there when we lived in Alaska. The water, the mountains, the trees, the animals, yes even the rain was remarkable. Maybe just a little bit of Paradise on Earth! We were only there a week, we needed to stay longer, but... that's how life goes. It was so nice to see old friends. It felt just like yesterday. I am so convinced the Lord puts people in our life's journey for reasons. He has totally blessed me in my journey. It was so fun to see old piano students and their little families, old friends and their grandkids, we just didn't have enough time to see all the folks I would have loved to see.
I did, however, get to go to the temple with two very special friends, Toni Kennedy and Cori Heath and Cori Heath's daughter, Becky! What a great day! I love the temple!

So.. with our memories and our fish, we journeyed back to Utah to face real life!

Okay, Rachel, this one's for you!

I love blogging. Especially browsing around and seeing other's posts. But I especially love being able to log on and see my daughter's families and what they are up to. It makes it so they don't seem so far away! Last weekend, as is tradition in Randy's family, we all gathered in Preston for the Famous Preston Night Rodeo. Grandma treats us every year. Knowing how much Rachel and Brad like rodeos it made me miss them!! Other than that we had everyone there, including Randy! (Randy has managed to miss the last few years due to work obligations). Nathan has always got into the spirit of things, but as we were making the rounds at the street sales, I realized Jordan wanted to follow suit. The favorite stop was the DI, where they had sold 160 pairs of used cowboy boots the day before and were headed to another successful day of sales. We found a pair for Nate. I wanted to give them to him for his birthday because I never know what to buy him, but Jordan thought he needed them for the rodeo. (Due to his broken foot, he couldn't wear them yet) Anyway, they made pretty cute cowboys! Grandma helped Jordan find a pair of boots and a shirt so he could join in the fun.

Well, Alisa couldn't miss out on the fun, so she donned Nate's new cowboy boots and searched grandma's house for something to dress up in, she reminded me of Annie from Annie get your Gun

Well, at the parade, Aunt Rozy told the kids you have to wave if you want candy, so Conner waved his little hand the whole parade, it was pretty funny! It worked though!

Anyway, another year, another memory!
We missed you Rachel!