Monday, April 28, 2008

Saturday Fun Day

Travis and I had the weekend off, so we took advantage of the one beautiful, rain-free day (Saturday) and went "hiking". If you are looking for trails to hike in a gorgeous setting, come to Western Washington. They are everywhere! We live right near the Soos Creek Trail. It is 7.62 miles long and is almost completely paved. This is where we go each year to watch (and smell) the skunk cabbage. They just completed a new section and so we went to explore. Of course we took some pictures. Connor wasn't feeling very well again, so his enthusiasm was less than usual, but it was still a lot of fun. After walking the trail we went to Travis's parents house and had a really nice dinner and played some more in their backyard. Travis and I spent half an hour trying to remember how to throw a Frisbee. He was much better at it than me, but it's been many years since I've thrown one, so he cut me a little slack. It was fun just having some time together. It was a good day!

Here is the skunk cabbage. It wasn't really very smelly yet. Give it another month and it will be nice and ripe. I think the ones over by the creek are a little more stinky, so we will have to go back and try out that section of the trail next time to test my theory.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Some Final Pictures from the Trip

Here are some final pictures from the trip. I'm going in reverse order because that's just the way the thing did the pictures. This first one is how Connor spent most of the ride home. We stayed the night in Twin Falls, ID and about half way home from Twin, Connor starting throwing up. We think he was actually homesick and also all the fast food and lack of moms great cooking contributed to his barfing episode. He looked pretty crappy for a few hours there.
This is at a rest stop not long before Connor got sick. We stopped a lot to let the boys look around, do a little exploring, and stretch their legs.
This picture is just to once again, prove that it was snowing on the day of the funeral! Plus I wanted to throw in a picture of Jeff (Travis's bro) and Olivia. Olivia says she reads all my blogs, so, HI OLIVIA!!!
Silly picture of Spencer!

Joseph has really started to give good happy faces for the camera.
We thought this was such a funny picture. Connor kept putting his foot onto Grandpa's leg, so Grandpa would pretend to unscrew Connor's foot and then put it back on. Big mistake, cause then Connor's foot was constantly there~it was just too cool what Grandpa could do!

This is at Grandma Margaret's house.

Again at Grandma's house. She served us strawberry shortcake! Yum!

This is Joseph and Fluffy (I swear he's in there) at the first hotel we stayed in. We think Fluffy enjoyed the trip.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Grandma Peterson's Funeral

Here are pictures from Travis's Grandma Peterson's funeral. It was a really wonderful service that I know she would have been proud of. (although she would have not really liked all the fuss)
This is Travis's oldest sister Tracey and his mom. (Deone)

This is Grandma Peterson's brother-in-law, Lew Cook. He spoke from the heart and used no notes. It was very sweet. (just a side note, Lew is Quentin L. Cooks uncle)
This is Deone's cousin, Mike Cook. He conducted the service.
Pictures of people taken looking up at them while they are singing with their mouths wide open isn't very nice!!! ( sang the Hymn by Gordon B. Hinckley, "My Redeemer Lives"
Travis read the poem "Gone From My Sight" and then said some really nice things about his grandma. I didn't cry until he got up there!
She was buried at the Logan Cemetery. Yes, that is snow on the ground and camera!
I told you it was snowing. It was so cold, but it was 70 degrees the day before. Travis's dad dedicated the grave. This is one of Travis's favorite pictures from the entire trip.
Some goofy cousins! This is Olivia and Amelia, Jeff's daughters, and the oldest cousin Ryan, who belongs to Tracey. (he served a mission in Italy!)

After everything was over, the family was treated to a nice luncheon at the church building in Newton. We really appreciate all that Lee and Kathy's ward did for the family. Travis liked the ham.
So did the other boys.
I have tons more pictures, but like I said, I want to keep it fairly short or I will lose my audience. This is a very good summary of the events.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

More from our Trip

We rented a white Chrysler Town & Country to hold all 7 of us on the trip. Connor thought he needed to drive it the entire time. Here we are at a rest stop by the tri-cities.

We had a really great drive from Seattle to Boise. The boys were as angelic as could be. We did not have a little tv or dvd player or anything. They were just super good! We slept in Boise, but after dropping the folks off at the hotel, we went back to Eagle to visit Grandma Margaret. (Mog!) We visited for a couple of hours, had strawberry shortcake and the boys each got a big old bear. (which they all sleep with now) Doesn't she look great?! The next morning we headed on down to Logan, UT! There was snow everywhere still. The mountains looked breathtaking as always. We met up with Travis's aunts and had lunch, got our hotel and then took the boys to the Logan cemetery to take pictures of Travis's relatives headstones and show Joseph the headstone of his great-grandfather and namesake. While at the cemetery, we found a very large headstone that was actually like a small bed with a little boy sleeping in it. It had the picture of the child by his name. He was 3. It was such a sweet, yet sobering tribute to this little boy. It brought tears to my eyes, but it tore Spencer apart. He burst into tears and was inconsolable, saying, "I just can't believe that little children can die!" Here is a picture of me trying to explain to him something that even I don't understand. I was able to take the opportunity to express how grateful I was that all three of my boys are healthy and with me. Spencer is now even more diligent about asking me if every food I serve him is healthy or not. Aren't kids amazing. He is such a sensitive little boy. That night we went to the teeny tiny (smaller than Aberdeen ID folks) town of Newton to have pizza at Travis's Aunt Kathy's. Travis has some really fun relatives. I really enjoy talking to all of them. After a while, the boys got restless, so Travis took them to the park down the street and I stayed and chatted with the family. A good time was had by all. This is Lee and Kathy. Travis's mom's sister. She's my moms age and a real hoot. She reminds me a lot of my mom. This is Deone's other sister, Joyce. She and Kathy are two crazy fun people when they come up to visit. I like Joyce cause she and I have the same taste in books! (o: This is Deone's brother, Richard. (and his wife) He is such a nice guy and I really enjoyed talking to him. We haven't seen him nearly as often as Joyce and Kathy, so it's nice to visit when we can. Travis says this picture looks like I'm being coy cause I just passed gas. Nice, eh? Or...is he right? (o;
Here are the park pictures. There were a few little boys (all brothers) that were at the park as well. Joseph had a blast playing with the ones about his age. For those who fear that my kids are going to be socially retarded because they are homeschooled should rest at ease. Joseph has no problems going up to kids, introducing himself, and then asking them in-depth questions about themselves. (He isn't afraid to do the same with adults.) Lastly, Joseph wanted to make sure that I included a picture of Kathy's cat. His name is Archibald but they call him "Itchyballs". He was really friendly and the boys had a blast playing with him.
(This concludes this round of photos. We took over 300 pictures for heaven's sake! I'll do the rest of the trip tomorrow. I just don't want to make this post too long and boring.)

Monday, April 21, 2008

We Love Modern Technology!!!

Just a real quick post to say that I just installed our new dsl!!! Whoohoo!!! I can not believe how horribly slow dial up is and that we had that for so many years. We really missed our dsl. So, tomorrow I promise to blog all about our trip to Idaho and Utah (well, Idaho for one night), and how the funeral went, plus lots and lots of pictures. Here is a small sample of what's to come. This picture was taken right before we went to the funeral. Aren't they just the cutest!!!!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Goodbye Grandma Peterson

We still have dialup-but I wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know that Travis's Grandma passed away today. Elizabeth Hoskins Peterson was Travis's only living grandparent for his entire life. (maternal grandmother) She was 93 years old. She was quite sick in November and we were told that she could go at any time. This was 5 months ago. She rallied and held on until today. She was a sweet and very funny woman with a lot of love. She is going to be missed. Our prayers are now with Travis's mom and her siblings.

We will be going down to Utah this weekend to attend her funeral on Tuesday. I will fill you in on how everything went when we get back. (hopefully by then we will have our dsl!)

Friday, April 4, 2008

The Cave Man Years

Our DSL pooped out on us this week. We have gone prehistoric and are using dial up until we get our new DSL box. We will be getting new email addresses eventually as well. So, until I can get something that goes faster than snail pace, I will not be updating our blog. I called yesterday and they said we should be getting it mid-next week.

Everyone have a great and safe week and we'll catch up as soon as the dinosaurs leave our home.