An anniversary, a wedding, a baby blessing and a birthday!

Roy and I have been married for 37 years as of this past Tuesday.  We opted not to celebrate it because of celebrations we will participate in in the near future.  We've also been spending a lot of money on the yard, etc. so we bypassed gifts.  However, even though it was an uneventful Tuesday, there is no question that I am so grateful for each of those 37 years that we've had together.  We have been blessed tremendously with friendship and love, and of course, with eight children and now 5 extra children and 13 (+1) grandchildren. I cannot let the week pass by without expressing the great love that I have for Roy.  He's been extremely good to me through the years and has always treated me like his queen. 

Our sweet little Ruby turned 2 this week (the 28th).  We were able to spend Sunday evening in Logan celebrating her birthday and little Greta's baby blessing.  Matt gave Greta a beautiful blessing.  Ruby's other grandparents asked us how we keep up with all the grandkids--their birthdays and everything.  I told them that besides my phone calendar, Elise gifts us a family calendar each year with birth-dates and pictures to remind me. 

Roy, Reagan Vance (the other grandpa) and Greta

The cute Vance Family

Ruby with Crista, Jennie and AJ helping to get the candle lit

She loved being the center of attention

Greta

We had a nice dinner on Ruby's actual birthday, but it was not with Ruby.  It was a delicious dinner made by Christine in honor of Andrew and Sierra's upcoming wedding.  Steve talked animatedly about Andrew-- You could see how happy he was for his son and how much he loves him.

 

Saturday was also a day to celebrate.  Andrew and Sierra Christensen were married in the Salt Lake Temple just before 2:00.  It was a beautiful marriage ceremony.  The sealer was a man in the Christensen's ward (Brother Ned Mangleson) who has been in that ward for many years and was a great friend to my parents.  

The 29th was also Phil's birthday.  Happy birthday Phil.  We were able to have lunch at  Mi La Cai Noodle house in Salt Lake with him and Char, Nan and Bruce (who have been in Hawaii for several months, so it was great to see them), Dave, and  Tiffany and Troy.  It was a very pleasant afternoon.  We had to hurry to Costco following the lunch to get croissants for the impending baby blessing, and a few other food items as well.  We arrived home in time to change for the reception, practice the violin with Adrienne for a duet we were to play on Sunday morning in Roy's YSA Ward, and then hop in the car to go to the reception.  We took Gunnar along with us.  Apparently, after about 10 minutes Ollie noticed his brother was missing and asked where Gunnar was.  Adrienne, being funny, said, "Oh no, we left him."  She quickly repented and told him where Gunnar was, because Ollie started to cry.  He was so worried about his brother. 

The reception was nice and the food was excellent.  We ate, even though we were still pretty satisfied from our late lunch.  Christine held up well throughout the day, even though I know she was a little nervous and unsettled.  She's happy about her new daughter-in-law, though.  It was fun to catch up with some of our family, including my cousin Carl Clyde and his wife, Heather.

At the reception--Roy and the Green boys (and Sarah Christensen)

The reception was at Wheeler farm.  The boys actually wanted Adrienne
to take their picture.

 

Sunday morning I attended the whole 3 hours of church with Roy  at his YSA ward.  They recently got a new bishopbric and most of the block was dedicated to introducing themselves.  The bishop gave a powerful talk about the Savior and it was a very spiritually uplifting meeting.  Adrienne and I played the violin/piano number we had prepared, "Did you think to Pray?"  Since I was playing in Roy's ward, I couldn't go to my own ward's Stake Conference.  It was a treat to spend the time with him, since we usually do everything separately on Sundays.  At least both our meetings are currently in the same basic time frame because next year I'll probably see Roy even less on Sundays.  We had a short nap before we had to leave for Logan to the aforementioned baby blessing and dinner at the park.  We were all dressed up to begin the evening with the baby blessing, and then some of us changed to enjoy the park without freezing to death.

Ollie, Doyeon, Finn and Ori

Matt's brother Spencer supplied the party with a couple of hammocks
and a rope swing.  Finn and Gunnar

Ollie, Doyeon, Ori

Adrienne

Cait and Effie with her new glasses.  She loves
being able to see.

Doyeon (in her favorite outfit--pajamas)

Roy and Finn

Ruby, Finn and Shannon Vance

It'll probably be a couple of weeks before the next newsletter, so Happy Birthday to Sarah tomorrow!  Happy birthday to Adrienne (and Bruce Cook) on Thursday. Happy birthday to Roy on the 8th, and to Jennie on the 11th.  It's a busy couple of weeks for birthdays.  

We missed our Texas family, but we'll see most of them in about a month.  Below are a few pictures of Mav and Max (and Elise).  

This elephant was given to Elise for Christmas when she
was 7.  Soon after her heart surgery.  She opened it up
and said, "Oooh, a fur coat!"  Then she found that it was
an elephant and she was very happy.  She said that this picture
reminds her of Tom, because he rode this very same elephant in the
same way that Christmastime.  

Last but not least, a picture of our darling Dojin.  Now 4 months old.  

Dojin's baby blessing and lots of other good stuff.

Baby blessing day for Dojin--he cried during the blessing too.  Here he is
with Greta and Effie--his Kissin' cousins.

We had a pretty great week.  Roy had church stuff nearly every night.  Monday I tended Ori and Effie while Nick had his bi-annual colonoscopy.  Both girls were really sweet and I enjoyed them (but I told Nick when he picked them up that I was exhausted--it's a lot harder to take care of grandchildren for hours than it was to take care of my own children, because I was younger).  That evening we had FHE with the Young Single Adults at our home.  Roy's ward just got a new bishopbric, so we had them tell the ward about themselves, had a treat of brownies and ice cream, and then played a game to get to know each other a little better.  It was fun and we found our home was nice and roomy--easily able to accommodate a large group.  Caitlyn and Annika waited until most of the group had left to begin practicing a violin/cello duet that they played in Roy's ward this morning.  It was the only violin/cello duet I could find that was already arranged for that combination.  It was pretty, but it had 5 flats and was a little challenging for them to learn.  I heard they did well.  Caitlyn said it was kind of an unusual arrangement.  I would have gone to hear them, but I was teaching Relief Society.  I did manage to get to Jennie's ward at 9 am (same time as my sacrament meeting) to hear her speak.  She did an excellent job.

 Tending Effie and Ori.

Sara sent me this picture of Ori by a "Bleeding Heart" plant.  I put
several of these in our yard, but of course, they don't look like this yet.

Wednesday evening we met Phil and Charlotte at Twigs Bistro in Farmington Station for dinner.  Three of us had the Mahi mahi, and Char had chicken.  We then went and enjoyed Oliver at the Centerpoint Legacy Theater.  It was quite a good production, there were several excellent actors.  We really enjoyed the company as well!

Tuesday and Thursday evening, Roy had church assignments. I used the time to study for my R.S. lesson (and I'm sure I wasted some time, also).

Thursday I took Caitlyn to the doctor.  We told her that Caitlyn was really sick on Sunday because of the medicine.  From talking to the doctor, we also realized that some sores Caitlyn had had in her mouth while traveling with her orchestra group were from the medicine as well.  The doctor felt really bad that Caitlyn had experienced all possible side effects for the medicine.  She told her she could quit taking it.  We are going to try her on Emberol and see how she does with that.

Throughout the week we had workers in our yard and by the end of Saturday it was looking pretty decent.  Roy spent Saturday building boxes for our raised garden beds.  I didn't think it sounded like too many when we were planning, but it looks a little daunting now that they are all ready for dirt.  We have 5 fruit trees in the back yard as well.  Roy spent all day Saturday working on the boxes, fixing up the chicken coop, building a compost container, among other things.  I wasn't a very supportive wife.  I let him work (Jennie helped a little, and Dan helped for a bit, too.  Caitlyn was getting ready for prom.  Roy hired a boy from our old ward to help him).  I sewed all day on a baby quilt for Greta.  It's looking pretty cute.  I am doing the quilting with free motion, and I'm also using rulers--I took a class on using rulers to quilt, right before we went to Mexico.
Saturday evening we made it to the temple to do some sealings, then we relaxed for the rest of the evening.  Before we left, Caitlyn got picked up by her date for prom.

Caitlyn and her prom date--Kykoa

 Sunday was not a day of rest this week.  I started off in Jennie's ward to hear her speak, then I hurried back to my ward where I taught Relief Society.  We got home and had a quick bite of lunch, then went to Dan's ward for Dojin's baby blessing.  We came home and visited with Crista and Matt until the rest of the family showed up for dinner--which Dan and Jieun had made for everyone.  It was delicious.  A Korean favorite--bulgolgi, served on bread (very American :))

 The rest of the pictures are from Sunday night.

Finn eating ice cream (Hyeji and me in the background)

Cait eating Cake 

Rubykins

Yuna Tuna

Dancing with Ruby! 

Cousins (Finn, Doyeon, Ori)

I'm pretty sure this is Dan under all that hair.

Note the plants in the background!  Ori on the tramp, Me, Cait and Ruby.
Finn picking up rocks to throw in the creek.

Part of one of the 8 garden boxes, with the compost box behind the kids.
(Ori, Hyeji, Ollie in the cage, Doyeon, and Gunnar.

Hyeji on the bridge--again, note the plants, and some of the garden boxes
Next step is mulch--everywhere--
It's supposed to rain all week so this step might have to wait a week or so.

Happy Birthday to Ruby on Friday and Philip on Saturday.

Happy Easter (another two week letter)

We had a wonderful week in Mexico with Jennie and Caitlyn.  It was slightly overcast a lot of the time, so it was never unbearably hot, and of course, we were never cold.  We received a couple of texts over the course of our trip that showed that those in Utah weren't enjoying such nice weather, in fact, they even had snow while we were gone.  We weren't too unhappy to miss that.  This trip we spent most of our time in the water--the ocean and the underground rivers.  We didn't visit any ruins, other than the ones in Occidental (our resort), and Xcaret, the park that was adjacent to our resort.
We enjoyed Jennie and Caitlyn, but made the mistake of allowing them to use the internet (we didn't know it would be included).  The issue being that only one person (per room) could be signed in at a time.  That caused a few arguments throughout the week.
Since pictures speak louder than words;

Water Aerobics in the ocean

The shuttle driver asked us if they were twins.

In the mangrove

 Fish therapy.  My skin didn't feel a lot different after the fish tickled my feet for 15 minutes.

My idea of a relaxing vacation

Learning how to make chocolate from the beans 

Monkeys.  It was kind of hard to capture them in a picture

A conch shell--with something inside

We got back to reality pretty quickly.  It's kind of a shock to sleep in almost every morning for a week, then get home early Monday morning (12:30 am), then have to get up and get to work and school, etc.  It's probably easiest for me, since I don't have anywhere I absolutely have to be--except fun stuff like a skating lesson and Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

We saw a few of our grandchildren this week, and received a few pictures of those we didn't see:

Greta is 2 months old

Ruby and Ori went to the baby animal exhibit in Logan

Max and Mav had a fun Easter week

Tai Kwan Do lessons (spelling?)

The zoo, I think.

We gave Finn golf clubs for his birthday.

Effie needs glasses.  They will be pink, these are the sample pair.

a double yoker from our chickens.  It was a huge egg.

We're looking forward to our next vacation--the Galapagos Islands.  We had most everyone who is going over for a last question and answer session with the travel agents.  Bruce and Glenn and Rosilene joined us on-line.
 

Caitlyn was pretty sick from her arthritis medicine this morning.  I ended up taking her to Instacare during Sunday School and Relief Society. Her Doctor and I are going to have a talk this week.  Becky says to get her off of Methyltrexate, that it's a terrible drug.  She felt better after an IV of anti-nausea medicine.

We ended the week with a big Easter dinner with most of the Family.  Crista and Elise and their families didn't make it today. We missed them.

Anxiously awaiting the Easter Egg Hunt