Picture Day!

I have been trying since Shea's birthday in JUNE to get her birthday pictures...only three months late...which means right on time for me right now. I was hoping to get family pictures this summer, since we are two children behind in that department, but that hasn't happened either. Soooo, once again it looks like we only have girls in our family...but they are dang cute ones!

Joan and Yogi's

I can't believe I left out the most important stop of our trip...lunch at Joan and Yogi's! When we were home rebuilding the flooded rentals, we frequently had lunch at Joan and Yogi's. Now it is tradition! (Not to mention we really feel at home because they have the same dining room set as us:)

After lunch, Brian and Michael went shopping in the store and found some little plastic guns they wanted to buy, but there was no price. They asked Joan and she said $5 each. I gave Brian his $5 bill and Michael his $10 bill. They went up to pay for the guns. Brian came back and gave me his $5 bill and Michael gave me four $1 bills. I told Brian he needed to go pay for his gun and he said he did. I was very puzzled because Brian should have been out of money and Michael with $5 left. He told me she made a mistake and the guns were only $3 each. I told Brian he owed Michael $3 then and he just gave me a puzzled look. He is only good at math when he really wants to be...or he was happy to let Michael buy him a gun! And how nice that Joan gave them a discount...I think she looks forward to seeing those cute boys every year because she can see how much they love to come there. That is another reason why I love small towns!

The Last Supper

I always hate to see vacation end, especially when we've had such a great visit with family. I told Matt someday I want to go on a vacation where I don't have any constraints...time, money, or distance. Probably never going to happen, so I guess we'll take what we can get! After we found Michael in the corn field, we headed back for our last relaxing meal at the cabin.

Brian and Michael had their last rides around the farm.

Rachel dumped her plate for the last time.

Rachel and Matt enjoyed the fire...and mosquitoes..for the last time.

Rachel and Shea rock on the porch of the cabin. Shea really does love to be held by her sister:)

We really loved our visit back to the farm. It was fun to share a little of my childhood with my children. It was fun to let them get to know their Wilson family. It was fun to renew friendships. But most importantly, it was fun to strengthen family bonds and create new memories. Being on the farm brings back so many happy memories and reminds me that so much of the hustle and bustle that we busy our lives with in Utah really doesn't matter. Family is all we get to take with us. That's why I've been taking great effort to simplify and focus more on the things that matter most--and not let the pressure of the Utah culture rob me of that.

Cousin Sheri and the Baby Buffalo Hunt

On our last day, Sheri wanted to come over and see the baby buffalo...so we went on a buffalo hunt. You see, if buffalo don't want to come see you, they don't. You have to go find them!

Before we could head out for the hunt, we had to take pictures. That's just what Sheri does. So, here are all our children in chronological order:

Caleb, Hannah, Lydia, Brian, Chloe, Michael, Rachel, Shea

And we found the baby buffalo.

After such an exhausting buffalo hunt through the swamp, we went to swim at Aunt Rita's again. Sheri thought it would be fun to teach Shea to spit and then torture her with her clown camera.

Cousins!

Indian Arrow Heads

My boys have gained a love of Indian artifacts from my dad. Dad's farm sits up on a knoll along a little creek, so it was a great place for Indians to camp. On our last day, Dad planned an expedition where we went back in the buffalo field to go on an artifact hunt. The kids had a great time finding ancient treasures!

Showing Grandpa Fred some of their cool finds.

Looking...

Checking in the tee pees...

Cowgirl Rachel checks out the other tee pee.

Grandpa picked up some cool arrow head collections for them at an auction. These arrow heads were found in the eastern mountains. Now they each have the start of their own collections--and are very excited about that.

Square Donuts on the Banks of the Wabash

When I was a kid, I looooved going to my Grandma Wilson's house in town. She lived in the apartment above my Grandpa's doctor's office. I thought it was really cool to sleep at Grandma's house because we could hear trains while we slept or I could listen to the radio while I talked on her phone. Sometimes it meant making yummy cookies or playing King Oil. Other times it meant a trip to the laundromat, a quarter to play Ms. Pac Man and a Square Donut! So as is tradition, I had to take my kids to get a square donut...which would beat a Krispie Kreme a million to one. We stopped by Fairbanks Park on the banks of the Wabash River to enjoy our breakfast...and let the little rascals play on the playground for a little while:)

That evening afternoon we met up with cousin Sheri over at Aunt Rita and Uncle Dan's house...for a swim just like the old days. Sheri was about six and a half years older than me...this is her daughter Lydia with Rachel...Sheri and Angie Jr.



And her daughter Hannah with Shea...

Return With Honor

We all have those events in our lives that we can remember where we were and what we were doing. One of those occurred for me last October. I was sitting in the Marriott Center with my kids for my cousin Chris' last BYU basketball blue and white scrimmage. My grandpa called my aunt and said that one of my childhood friends, Dale Griffin, had been KIA in Afghanistan. Dale was one of those bigger than life kind of guys and it was so hard to believe he was gone. The next morning, the world woke to the image above as the President of the United States greeted Dale's body at Dover, Delaware.

In April when Gene and Dona were out here visiting, we took them out for dinner. They help me remember that I too can do hard things. Their optimism and hope was so inspiring as they talked about the previous five months and how they had endured them. They talked about the thirty-five years of preparation they had for that moment when they learned Dale had been KIA. They talked about people from all over the world who had reached out to them. They talked about people from our close-knit 2nd ward family who had wrapped their arms around them. And they talked about how they had made it their mission to reach out to the other families who had lost sons in the explosion that had killed Dale.

On Memorial Day, we had taken our kids to visit the graves of Matt's grandparents. We have been trying to teach them the importance of honoring not only the soldiers who have fought and died for us, but also our ancestors who sacrificed for us. While we were in Terre Haute, I wanted them to also visit Dale's grave, which was marked by this griffin. As we saw all the little trinkets that had been left there, it was a reminder of all the people who were missing him. The freshly turned earth next to him reminded us that he is taking care of his little sister now. Thank you Dale for the sacrifice you have made for us.
We will never forget.