Wyatt Family Reunion

Fourth of July weekend was spent camping just outside of Burley, Idaho with my mother's mother's siblings and their families.

My grandparents met and married in Burley, Idaho, and my mother was born there. Two of my grandmother's four brothers still live there (along with some of their children and grandchildren).

I have fond memories of visiting Burley during the summer, going to the Cassia County fair and rodeo, playing on my great uncle Grant's farm, lying in my great-grandmother Wyatt's hammock, picking her raspberries, playing with distant cousins in great uncle Neil's basement, hiking around in the City of Rocks, the yummy smell of coffee at my Great Grandma Miller's, playing on the teeter-totter in the school playground near her house, running through the sprinklers in her backyard . . . . the list goes on.

This year I can add another fond memory to the list: camping!

We had a blast. Paige tasted her first toasted marshmallow, slept in a sleeping bag in a tent for the first time, roasted hot dogs over the fire, gorged herself on watermelon, and played, played, played with her cousins. Upon waking up after our first night there, she announced, "Camping is the ever best!"

We'll have to do it again.

DiSnEyLaNd

We got an awesome deal through the military, so the day after Paige's party we headed to Disneyland for 3 whole days! Wooohoooo! Here's a photo summary:

Park entrance.
Paige loves pluto. He was the first thing we saw upon entering the park.

Paige loves Mickey too. She was pretty excited to visit him at his house.

On the second day we went to Minnie and Friends' character breakfast. Meeting Minnie was a very serious thing for Paige. She tried to talk to her about everything from 'where's Mickey?' to 'these chairs are soft'. Minnie was kind enough to respond with lots of nodding, hand gestures, and hugs.

Eeyore.

What's in your mouth, Chip?

At this point they were playing loud dancing music throughout the restaurant. Paige saw Pooh out there dancing and just had to join him. She did this for the entire song.

After the character breakfast we headed over to California Adventure. She must have gone down this slide a dozen times. And every single time she got into some weird position like this.

Paige and Daddy. Both were enraptured by the Pixar Parade.

'R' stands for Reed.

Near the end of the third day we waited FOREVER to visit the princesses at the Princess Fantasy Faire. It was well worth the wait as Paige's reactions were priceless.
Her cheesy grin just kept getting better and better.

Mulan especially loved her.

The last picture I took. And one of my favorites. Paige loves Disneyland!

And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

Party

We just got back to St. George after a week in California at my grandparents'/Disneyland. Grandma and Grandpa Miller, my parents, and my sister, Amber, and her family were all there, so we decided to have Paige's 2nd birthday party while we were there. We had a great time! Here are some pictures from that day. Disneyland pictures to come.

ready to go in her minnie party dress more minnie. she is so sweet.
a visit to the sea lion/seal hospital with the cousins.
cutie pies maggie and paige.
swimming in grandma and grandpa miller's pool with daddy.
the cake is ready! front side.
back side. it's like one of those hats with the names that you get at disneyland.
decorations, presents, and cake - the necessary ingredients for a birthday party.
paige at her party. "i think i'll just sample a little frosting off this ear..."
opening presents.
help from the cousins.
singing happy birthday.
mmmm. doesn't black icing look SO appetizing?
the naked chef. enjoying her new kitchen accessories.

Thanks for coming to P's party Grandma, Grandpa, Honey, Papa, Amber, Matt, Kate, Parker, Maggie, Gary, and Donna! And for the yummy dinner, Grandma!

Amber - Paige is thoroughly enjoying the instrument set you gave her. I am spending my free moments contemplating appropriate equivalent gifts to pay you back, um, I mean reciprocate.

And finally, I must give props to my friend Heidi. I took most of these ideas from the party she threw for her two year old back in October. Thanks, Heidi! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Skiing Day Five

Our final day.

A storm hit the night before leaving us with perfect powder as predicted. At 9am I left Ben with Honey and Papa and headed up to the top of Elk Camp with Matt, Jen, Jason, and Heidi in search of fresh powder on one of the longest ski run in Aspen/Snowmass - Long Shot. You have to hike a bit to get to it, but it's worth it if the snow is good. We got to the top of the lift only to find out that the trail was closed. Jason stopped in the ski patrol shack to see if they had any plans to open it up. The patrolwoman there said they were a little short-handed that morning and then she said these magic words, "I'll let you open it". You know what that means. . . first tracks!!! Jason got to flip the sign from closed to open and everything. We had a blast!

Later that morning I met up with Ben and we skiied the rest of the day together. He didn't like the powder so much - it can be pretty frustrating if you're new to skiing. But we still had a good time and were exhausted by the time it was time to head back to Utah and pick up Little P at my sister Noelle's house.

The drive back to Orem took us about 6 1/2 hours. We made it there a little after 9:30pm and Paige and Noelle were up waiting for us. When we walked in the door I called out,"where's my girl?!" and she yelled back,"me is here! Me is here! Me is HERE!" until we found eachother. Ben and I had missed her like crazy.

Thanks to Noelle, Steve, and Anna and Jill, Tim, and Quinn for taking care of our little girl so we could go on this trip!

Skiing Day Four

Beautiful, cloudless, blue sky day.

The 3 youngest great-grandkids in ski school had races today; they all did awesome!

Amber took some great pictures of everyone at the top of Elk Camp.

Eddie's knee was hurting during his very first run :( He didn't think it wise to keep going, so Chelsea and Eddie headed to Denver to visit friends.

Ben moved up to level 7, and if he were going to ski school tomorrow, he would ski his very first black diamond. But he's not going to ski school because it's our last day - he'll be skiing with me :)

A big storm is supposed to hit tonight! You know what that means? . . . tomorrow, POWDER!

Skiing Day Three

Yet another great day! Is there such a thing as a bad day skiing in Snowmass? I don't think so! Today was beautiful and sunny.

Before lunch Beth, John, Matt, Chelsea, Jen, and I headed up the Cirque for a little adventure. Someone put Beth in charge, and we ended up at the entrance to the Hanging Valley Wall. Beth, John, and Matt toughed it out while Jen, Chelsea, and I found an alternate way down and took a great run down The Edge.

Ben is rockin' ski school. He was able to meet up with us at Gwynn's for lunch where I met his instructor, who said I was pretty (I like him immediately), and another couple in his ski school class who are realtors from RPV (they sold my Aunt and Uncle's house in Torrance several years ago). Small world.

We're still having a blast and are looking forward to 2 more days.

I'll get pictures up soon.

Skiing Day Two

We had another great day of skiing today. It snowed most of the day and visibility wasn't great, but the runs were perfect - groomed with just a inch or two of fresh stuff on top. Sweet!

At the end of the day when Ben and I met up for a couple of final runs, he told me he thinks he could really get in to skiing. Yes!!! Ski school is working, folks! And he's doing great too. He skied some blues today and is moving up an ability level tomorrow. I'm so excited to be skiing again, AND to be skiing with Ben.

We've got 3 days of skiing left!

Skiing Day One

We had a lovely skiing day today. Ben went to ski school and I spent the day skiing with my parents, grandpa, sisters (Jen, Amber, and Chelsea), Amber's husband (Matt), cousins, Beth and Jason, and their spouses (John and Heidi) and Aunt Ann. Jen's kids are in ski school as well as Amber's daughter, Kate, and Jason's son, Nick.

At the end of the day, Ben and I took a last run together. I caught a couple minutes of it on video, and even though it's just Ben skiing on the catwalk, I'd thought I'd include it here, you know, for posterity's sake. Oh, and I have no idea who the lady in the blue coat is, but I was pretty annoyed that she got right in the way. About half-way through Ben almost wipes out.

Fun times.

Getaway

Lucky for us, the second week of living in our new, yucky apartment coincides with my family's annual week long ski trip to Snowmass, CO. This is the first time in 6 years that Ben and I have been able to attend and I AM SO EXCITED!!! Ben? Not so much. He's what you would call a beginner and therefore will be attending ski school all week. He's a little embarrassed about it (I may be forced to remove this post later), but honestly I think the thought of being shown up by all the expert skiing girls in my family has convinced him that ski school is in good order. I've promised him that the by the end of a week in ski school he'll be able to keep up on at least the moderate runs for the rest of his life. I hope I'm right.

I'll keep you updated throughout the week.

So,

Ben and I had a GREAT 3 1/2 days together in Seattle. Though we didn't really plan it this way (you can't really plan anything when you're dealing with the military), everything worked out as if we had. Ben's plane from Afghanistan arrived in Seattle (after unexpected long lay-overs in Kuwait, Germany, and Chicago (it took over an entire WEEK of travel)) just a couple of hours before my flight arrived from Las Vegas. Ben was able to meet me at my gate wearing his uniform. Well, more like sneak up on me, grab my butt, and scare me half to death at my gate :) I was expecting to meet him at baggage claim. But the way he choose to do things was much better, and much more surprising.

I didn't bring the Z with me. She stayed in St. George with Honey and Papa and did way better than I expected. She never whined or cried for me. My mom and Ruben said she was really good. In fact you wouldn't have thought she missed me at all though occasionally she would run off announcing, "I go find mama!". And twice on our daily phone talks she said, "Mama, you in Wash-ing-ton?! . . . I miss you." It about broke my heart.

Ben and I stayed just south of Seattle to be a little closer to Ft. Lewis in case he received short notice that he was needed on base. He was only really needed once while I was there, so we had the rest of our time free to ourselves. We ate a lot (Ben REALLY missed America and American food), shopped, saw a movie, shopped some more, slept . . . . On my last morning there we went to Pike's Place Market and had another out of the blue chance encounter with an old friend. This time the friend was Ben's; Bob Caswell - one of Ben's companions from his mission. If we ever make it back there again, who knows who else we might run in to!

Anyway, Ben just has to spend a couple of weeks at Ft. Lewis training the new group of soldiers headed to Afghanistan before he comes home for good! We are so excited.

Right now . . .

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Seattle looking on the internet for places to go eat dinner, while my fresh from Afghanistan hubby is taking a shower. There is only one wall between us. Life is good!

Quick Trip "Home"

Over the weekend, Paige, Papa, my sister Chelsea, and her son Andrew and I took a quick 2 1/2 day trip to Palos Verdes. I went for a cheerleading reunion (wow! it's been 10 years since I last cheered during a football season); Ruben went to pick up a chopper (new project!) from his brother; and Chelsea went just for fun and to be my date at the cheer reunion/cocktail party.

On Friday afternoon we went to Peninsula High School's homecoming game against Leuzinger. The Panthers lost (I guess we were the Leuzers this time, hee hee), but it was so fun to catch up with friends, watch the current pep squad do the same cheers I did 10 years ago, and visit with one of my favorite ladies - my high school cheer coach.

That night my co-captain, Priscilla, threw a cocktail party at her apartment in Santa Monica. Only about 9 girls out of the ~30 members of our cheer/song squad were able to make it, but oh what fun we had! It was really great to see those girls, uh. . . I guess they're women now. Many memories game flooding back when Darcy showed up in her varsity uniform!

On Saturday, Chelsea and I took the babies to RAT beach. Paige and Andrew had a great time playing in and eating the sand. Paige like to smear sand all over both of us mommies, even insisting on painting my face with it. Surprisingly neither baby was scared of the water, and since the tide was low we took a little walk collecting shells. Here's a short video of the cuties playing: (WARNING! Turn down the volume, otherwise my voice is shrill - it will hurt your ears!)



Saturday afternoon we swam at my grandparents' and then had a nice long nap. That night we went to Crestridge Ward's trunk or treat. Paige and Andrew quickly caught on that people were just GIVING away candy; I don't think we are going to have any problems trick or treating this Friday.

Sunday morning we started back for St. George, stopping in Las Vegas to watch my sister Amber's kids' primary program in church. Amber and her husband even had a part when they sang a song with their kids. They did such a great job. We had dinner that night at Amber's - YUM.

It was a pretty short trip, and we had a great time. I always love going home, even though it's not "home" anymore.

where to begin?

I guess I'll start where I left off . . . with Disneyland!

I wanted to take a picture of Paige walking through the turnstile by herself on her first trip to Disneyland. She looked up, was afraid she'd hit her head on the bar, and decided to crawl.

Not the clearest picture (there is a scratch on the camera lens; right in the middle, dang it!) But you have to include the traditional entrance picture, right?


Paige's first encounter with a real princess. As you can tell, she took this very seriously.


The end of our first day at Disneyland. Paige actually enjoyed wearing her "ears", and if she had them on, then we better all be wearing them!

Unfortunately, she recently developed an aversion to smiling when taking a picture. Even though you may not be able to tell, she really did have a good time.


On our second day, Paige got a special outfit to wear at the big Disney store in Downtown Disney.


She wasn't so sure about the princesses we met the second day at the Princess Fantasy Faire. But Ben didn't seem to mind :)


Riding the teacups.


Riding Dumbo. The Dumbo line was the longest line we had to wait in and that was only 15 minutes! Talk about a perfect 2 days to be at Disneyland.


Yay! Finally a smile! Trying to pull the sword out of the stone. I actually accomplished this feat as a little girl and became queen of Disneyland for the day. No joke.


We had a GREAT! time at Disneyland. And Paige smiled A LOT more than is evidenced by the pictures. We also went to California Adventure but somehow ended up with ZERO pictures of our time there. Probably because Paige fell asleep in her stroller for most of the time we were there and I got really ill riding the roller coaster and had to sit in one place for like a half hour while I recovered. I must be getting old because I never used to get sick on rides. And no, I am not pregnant.

Leave

Ben got home for his ~2 week leave from Afghanistan on Wednesday, Sept. 17th. We had a wonderful 15 days together before he had to fly back this morning to finish his deployment. We expect to see each other again in about 5 months.

We spent the first 5 days of our "vacation" at a ski resort condo in Park City where we mostly just enjoyed being together as a family again. One of those evenings we went to the Alpine Slides/Coaster with some family and friends (we highly recommend the coaster!) and we went to the BYU vs UCLA football game on my birthday. GO COUGS! For those who may not know we beat them 59-0. It was awesome. Paige spent that day with Jill and Quinn and had a blast while Ben and I went to the game and then out to birthday dinner at Bombay House in Provo and birthday dessert at Red Mango. I had never left Paige with someone else for that long before (8 hours) and was so relieved that it went well. Thanks, Jill!

After that we headed down to St. George for a couple of days where we stayed at my parents' house. Paige got an ear infection so we spent some time at the doctor on Tuesday and that night we saw Les Miserables at Tuacahn. It was so great. If you get the chance, go see it before it's too late!

The next day we went to Vegas and stayed at the MGM Grand. We took Paige to dinner at Rainforest Cafe the first night (over priced, yucky food, but kind of fun - Paige liked the animals) . The next day we shopped at the outlets and that night Paige stayed overnight at my sister's while Ben and I ate at Emeril's, saw Ka (a cirque du soleil show) and walked down the strip to the Bellagio to see the water show and the blown glass ceiling in the lobby. Paige didn't even notice we weren't around; she had so much fun playing with her cousins and their dog. Thanks, Amber!
We had a really good time - Vegas is enjoyable in small doses like that.

After that it was off to my Grandparents' in Palos Verdes. They were out of town, but we stayed at their house anyway (thanks grandma and grandpa!). We went to the beach, the Crestridge Ward (my ward growing up), swimming, shopping, and ate (in no particular order) at Cheescake Factory, Ruby's, Lisa's Bon Appetit, Mayer's Bakery, Lox of Bagels, Red Onion, and Yummy Yogurt. We didn't make it to the Appetizer (AGAIN!), but that just means I'll have something else to look forward to next time.

Then we spent two full days at Disneyland and Californa Adventure! Yay!!! It was a blast. Even Paige enjoyed it more than I had expected. While there we met up with old Wymount friends that now live in the vicinity of Disneyland for either dinner at the House of Blues or fun at the park. Thanks for coming to see us! I'll post more about d-land later; it deserves it's own post.

After our second day at Disneyland ended (~9pm) we hopped in the car and drove the 6 1/2 hours to St. George where we stopped for less than 12 hours before we drove the rest of the way to Heber yesterday afternoon. It was kind of a downer way to finish up a great 2 weeks, but we had to hurry because Ben's plane left from SLC this morning at 6 am :( At least he got to eat lunch at Cafe Rio (for the third time in 2 weeks) on our way through St. George yesterday.

Well, that was just the brief low down on our time together. Though I'd be surprised if any of you are still reading this. I don't have the camera with me in Heber, so I won't be able to post pictures for a while, but I should be able to get some video from my flip up soon.

Paige (and honestly, I did too) basked in the all of the attention she got while daddy was home; she's asked for him today at least 3 times and it breaks my heart to see the disappointment on her face when I tell her he's not here. We'll look forward to seeing him on Skype again soon when he's made it back. Until then we probably won't hear from him for a couple of days.

Thanks for reading! And for my friends/family who are around (I'll be in the Utah County area for at least the next 10 days); I look forward to seeing you ladies soon - I could use the company!

Sister's Weekend in California

I've been back from our trip to California for a week and am finally sitting down to blog about it. I haven't been very motivated because I hardly have any pictures! Ben took our camera to Afghanistan with him. I was supposed to get a new one, but have delayed the purchase because more often than not I am with my mom, so I just use hers. But I didn't have control of the camera in California which is why we ended up with 83 pictures of quilts and only one picture of any people (a picture of the ladies from sisters weekend holding our purchases from the quilt show in Long Beach - the quilt show where my mom took 83 quilt pictures).

So for your viewing pleasure, here is one of many quilt pictures and us with all of our loot:















From left to right back row: Honey, Marci (cousin), Amber (sister), Lily (first cousin once removed?), Ann (aunt), Beth (cousin, mother of Lily).
Front row: Jen (sister), Me, Grandma, Loreen (Grandma's friend and walking buddy).

Noelle (sister) came to sister's weekend but showed up after the quilt show (brat), and Emily (cousin) and Chelsea (sister) couldn't make it. We missed them.

So this sister's weekend thing has become kind of an annual tradition. My grandparents, Marvin and Margaret Miller, have two daughters who combined have 8 daughters (there are also some boys, but this isn't about them). We all grew up within in a few miles of each other in Southern California but have since scattered, so it is fun to get together for one weekend a year just to do fun things, like eat at our favorite restaurants, shop, see a show, talk, etc.

This year we met up at Grandma & Grandpa's in California and did the following:
1) Attended the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA
2) Ate lunch at PF Chang's
3) Ate dinner at Red Onion
4) Shopped at Fashion Island in Newport Beach
5) Ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory
6) Attended a Dodger Game! (Dodger's won 6-0)
7) Ate Dodger dogs, peanuts, cinnamon sugar pretzels, chocolate malt ice cream . . .
8) Attended Malaga Cove Ward (Grandparents ward)
9) Ate at Admiral Risty :)
10) Went in the hot tub ~3 times
11) Ate donuts from Mayer's Bakery OR bagels from Lox of Bagels every morning
12) Walked down PV Drive E with Grandma & Grandpa at 7 am for exercise
13) Ate apples off Grandma's trees, homemade applesauce from those apples, and apple cobbler made from those apples; all lovingly made by grandma. Yum!!!
14) Tried not to cry when we left

Notice how half of the list has something to do with eating :)

Drink Stealers and Scared of Mice

Both phrases describe Paige and my niece Maggie at the river. Watch the video below of what happens when Papa catches a mouse at the beach.

Tousin Fwends at the River

Well, we are home from the River a week earlier than originally planned and in just a couple of days we will be heading off to Grandma & Grandpa Miller's in California, so I better get these river pictures uploaded now (before the end of the month when there will be too many to sort through).

'Tousin Fwends' is my cousin Marci's son Porter's term for 'cousin friends' and it has now become a regular part of our vocabulary as we often look forward to getting the kids together. Out of the 5 girls in my family, 4 of us had babies between August '06 and April '07. And my mother's sister's daughters are having them even faster than we are, in fact the 20th Great Grandchild is on his/her way. So yes, there are a lot of babies around.

Here are a few pictures of Andrew and Maggie and Paige at the river this month. Sadly, Anna, the fourth Tousin Fwend was unable to make it.

The babies loved riding in the boat; doing so often led to a nap, as you can see Andrew is snoozing in his dad's arms. They all enjoyed toddling around in the mini splash park. And Paige enjoyed doing anything Maggie was doing; here's the both of them with a morning Capri Sun.

Paradise

Here's a short video (2 min 20 sec) of our recent trip to the Colorado River. Man, did we have a lot of fun?! We've been going to the River for as long as I can remember and specifically to the Water Wheel Resort ever since my mom and Ruben married 20 years ago. We were there for 10 days this trip and plan on going back for 3 whole weeks in July! Paige is a true river baby in every sense; she liked the water, the boat, riding in the tube, and playing on the beach. Sun, water, sand, and skiing . . . What's not to love? Big, big, HUGE thanks to Honey & Papa!

Seattle

Paige and Ben reuniting at the airport in Seattle after a two month separation. This picture just makes my heart break; she loves him (and vice versa) so much!

We had a great 4 1/2 day visit with Ben in Washington this past weekend. We just got back this morning. Ben's National Guard unit had a 4 day "pass" before they leave sometime soon for the middle east (specific travel information is "classified"). We had a really wonderful time being together again. I'll post more pictures of our trip soon.

Life's a Beach!

My oldest sister, Jennifer, had the phrase above in bumper sticker form on the back window of her red blazer when she was in high school. And if you live on the coast in southern California, it's true! I went to the beach often growing up, every day I could the summer before high school (with Jill MacAllister), and regularly over the following four years. So, I was excited to take Paige for her first trip to the beach last week while we were in California. Papa helped her feed the seagulls, she was intrigued by the sand but wasn't really sure if she liked it or not, and she didn't touch the water - it was still too cold. In the third picture you can see the Palos Verdes Peninsula (in the background) where I grew up, and in the last picture you can see to the north - Redondo, Marina del Rey, Santa Monica and all they way out to Malibu.