We have been John and Brenda since April of 1975. In our adventures we have lived in three states and in 18 dwellings. We feel blessed beyond measure. Life is good! The gospel is true!
I Blinked and it is aleady Feb. 10th 2012...Jaxson''s 6th birthday!
Here are some of the events of the past 6 weeks.
Mindy gave Ashlyn a Care Bear birthday party at the end of December, (her 4th birthday was December, 17th, but Mindy had to have wisdom teeth removed on the 16th!) complete with pin the 'belly-badge' on Grumpy (Ashyln's favorite Care Bear), pinata, lunch and...a grumpy cake! It was a great time!
The most adorable cheerleaders ever are Charlee and Oaklee and the best
coach is their very own mother, Scottee! I got to go to a basketball
game where they showed their talents!
For seven, precious days we got to have my mom and dad here. FAMILY is the way we spent our days together and sometimes we even climbed into the bed and watched a movie or two! ("Courageous" and "The Help") The first thing we did was to park mom in the warm sun! She couldn't get
over how perfect the weather was! In the house she was always bundled
up with sweaters and blankets! Outside she almost warmed up!
Cousin times are happy times! (Nina and Charlee being 'old fashioned.')
Greg, Ande, Bastian
Bastian's eyes popped wide open when he saw that Grandpa's little finger was REALLY a chopped off one! Next thing we know, he's painting a fingernail on it with a red sharpee! What a good sport Grandpa is!
Happy 36 to GREG! (Feb. 7th)
Devin, bless his heart, scrubbed and sealed our grout...a humungous job and done beautifully too!! I am so glad he did!
In December I got a surprise email from John with an itinerary for a trip to San Antonio, Texas for December 27-29, 2011! San Antonio? What in the world is in San Antonio! SOOO MUCH! We stayed on the 'River Walk' which felt like Time Square! So many things to do and hordes of people to watch with every kind of food and all kinds of shopping, people playing music and selling their wares, plus a river "cruise" that took us all through the area with a guide giving us all kinds of trivia. We liked the cruise so much that we took it twice, once in the day and then at night when all the Christmas lights impressed and delighted us! The video is a smidgen of the boat ride. I have many more videos of it!
This is the Mexican restaurant that is right across from our hotel and overlooking the River Walk.
A little taste of the River Walk.
There are so many cool, old buildings and churches in San Antonio. This is the church of St Mary that was directly across from our hotel.
Remember the Alamo? Well, it's in San Antonio-the most visited spot in the city! The Alamo is famous because of a battle that took place there way back when (1700's) between the Mexican big wigs and the Texans who were just trying to have independence from them.
This is a poor visual of the beauty of the Christmas lights on the River Walk. I just loved the lights!
We spent hours in Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. World's 'largest' man! (see more below)
I would have liked to be friends with this 2 ft. lady! How tall would I have felt!
World's tallest man was 8 feet 11. There was a sign here telling that he was 6 ft by the time he was six!
Size 29&1/2 in foot!!!
Ten bowling balls stacked without glue or anything! (I thought Johnny would like this!)
World's biggest man is 14oo pounds and took 13 people just to turn him over in bed. I don't feel so bad!
We also went on the Ripley's Haunted adventure which was a walk-through spook alley with weirdos jumping out at us at every turn! The Tomb Rider ride we went on let me out shoot John with a laser gun!
This place had it all including this lighted carriage.
The Russian ballet performed the Nutcracker just around the corner from us, but we didn't attend. Like my hat? It is a Dixie hat--Devin and Allison's old husky dog!
We went to four old missions established in the 1600 and 1700's to teach the Native Americans skills and to convert them to Catholicism. The people were shorter in those days. I must have been born in the wrong century...thankfully! I don't think I would have survived the living conditions!
Mission Concepcion-one of the oldest original stone churches in the country. It is 250 years old.
San Jose Mission was established in 1720. These churches are still used today!
Cool entry way, hand carved, at San Jose mission. This mission is surrounded by high walls. It has small living areas just inside and backed by the outer walls which consisted of 10X10 rooms with a fireplace. These were for the Native Americans while the friers lived in the churches.
Mission Espada (1690) was the only mission that made and taught brick-making. Another mission, The San Juan looked very much like Mission Espada.
We drove by cemeteries that blew us away! I had to get out and take pictures. The graves were decorated to the hilt and roped off according to the size of the casket. This is just one grave!
Market Square is a fun shopping district, kind of like Nogalas, Mexico with many little shops and all kinds of do-dads and non-essential stuff! I bought two fake driver's licenses, one of Taylor Swift and one of Justin Bieber. They had complete personal info as well as addresses of these guys! Also I got a Nacho Libre cape with the mask attached! It was such a fun little trip! Thanks John!
Forest Gump was just sitting on a bench in the wax museum! What are the odds of running into him?!?
On December 23rd, our festivities began with Mexican food from MaKayos! DELICIOUS! Then we played white elephant BINGO with John calling numbers out so fast and furious that we had time only to check out our three cards each! No dilly-dallying! (That was after the kids played their games of Bingo in the normal way.) The sweet Nativity was then read and played by Oaklee as Mary, Jaxson as Joseph, John, Nina, Charlee, Elle and Ashlyn as angels and Ella was our only wiseman. Baby Wesley was dear baby Jesus. Oh, and Millie was a darling little lamb! After the 'play' Grandpa Santa came. Each of us sat on his knee so we could get our present. It is always the highlight of the holidays! On Christmas day after Church, which in my opinion is the best time to go to church, we all gathered again to exchange gifts and what else....eat! I can't imagine being more blessed...being able to be with the entire family, with no major bugs to hamper our health and to feel the joy of the Christmas Spirit! I love my family, Christmas and Christ our Savior!
Oaklee and Charlee were showing their appreciation to 'Santa"!
YUM!
Bastian and Jaxson jumping ont he package wrap-you know the kind that makes popping noises when you push on it!
Millie in the highchair, Carter at the head and Mollie on the side.The cutest little ones ever!
Ella, John and Jaxson-that bouncy house is one of the best investments we have made! All the kids from little to big love it!
Even though five of the kids were angels...we think ALL 17 of the grandkids are angels! Oh and GREAT NEWS...one of the white elephant gifts contained a paper that said, "Someone is this room is pregnant." Before we guessed who, Allison raised her hand and promptly turned bright red! Happy day! Number 18 is coming in July!
Our newest grandchild, Wesley is so good- natured! He is 5 months old and belongs to Rich and Treslee.
Devin climbs right up there and proceeds to pat Santa's cheek! We can always depend on Devin for wild and goofy stuff! Thanks Dev!
Scottee painted us this beautiful Provo temple!
Adam and Anya
Sam and Mollie enjoying the beautiful weather! Thank you Arizona!
