Day 6 - Monday 4/2

Andrea, Jason, and their kids left on Monday. It was a bummer to see them go. I had to laugh at Jason packing up the car. They had bought a painting and it took up a lot of room, so it was tough to fit everything in.

Once again I tried to get a picture of all the kids together. Wasn't too successful. Maybe if I take all the pictures that I attempted and have George photoshop them, I may get one where everyone is actually smiling and looking at the camera.

Most of the pictures I took of Anna she has a goofy face. She is so funny! I love this picture of Emma. This right before they all loaded up in the car.

After Andrea and her family left we all went back inside Bekah's house and just hung out. We decided that we should go on a picnic for dinner and then go visit Grandmother and Granddaddy Gerstner. Of course I wanted to experience another childhood memory so we went to Tanner Park.

Unfortunately they had removed the wood bridge playground that was there when I was a child. So I was a little bummed about that.

The girls enjoyed playing. Nya loved the slide. Notice the huge bruise on her forehead. Earlier in the day she fell off the couch onto the hardwood floor. Poor thing. So all the pictures I have of her from now on she has that huge bruise.

It was great for Sarah to spend some time visiting with Grandmother and Granddaddy Gerstner.

My Aunt Lettie and Uncle Steve where there too. We had a great time visiting.

Day 4 & Day 5 (3/31 & 4/1)

On Saturday 3/31 we had a full day. I didn't really take any pictures though. Me, Andrea, Rebekah, Staci, Katya, and Emma all went to my cousin Jennifer's Bridal shower. It was good to see a lot of my extended family. Jethro took Lily, Jack, Nya, and Anna to go pick up Gideon at the airport. Then they all went to the park. Jason took Eli and Jonah skiing. That night Matt cooked up a great Mexican Barbeque. It was so good. He had all of his family over and there were a ton of kids around. It was great! They all had a lot of fun playing with each other. Sarah became good friends with Dayjanerah (I know I spelled her name wrong), who is Matt's sisters daughter.

On Sunday we went over to my cousin Kiristen's house. I can not believe I didn't take any pictures while I was there!!! That is so unlike me. We had a good time.

Hogle Zoo (Day 3 - 3/30)

A fond childhood memory of mine was going to the Hogle Zoo. Many times we went with my Aunt Dawn's family. It was a lot of fun. I figured since so many of my nieces and nephews were together I could create a fun memory for them. I suggested that we all go to the Hogle Zoo. It was pretty cold and I was freezing the entire time. Very unusual for me, but I guess since I have lost so much weight I didn't have my usual "blubber" to keep me warm.
There were quite a few things that had been updated since the last time I was there about 20 years ago. Although the place where they have a little tropical rain forest inside is just the same. It seemed so much smaller than I remembered it, but that is probably because I was a lot smaller myself. The biggest highlight at the zoo was Jack and the peacock. He kept yelling "Peacock" in this high shrill and each time he did the peacock spread its feathers. It was great.

Another big hit was this sculpture of an elephant. When you got close to its trunk it would blow air and make all kinds of sounds. The kids had so much fun getting it to make these crazy sounds and blow air. The first time it happened it scared Lily half to death. But, in no time at all everyone was laughing. I don't know if this picture will enlarge or not when you click on it. But if you can see Lily's face it is so funny. She looks so terrified because she wasn't expecting the elephant to make a noise.

One of my favorite pictures of Katya. This was inside the Giraffe house. She was as happy as could be.It was nearly impossible to get a picture of all the kids together. This is the best I could do!

Andrea loves this picture because she thinks she and Jason look like Brangelina. It is does kind of look like it could be them.

I have never seen a sign like this before. I didn't know that Tigers could SPRAY! I know to be aware of the Gorilla's, but who knew you had to watch out for Tigers too!

Staci, Katya, and Nya posing on Tigers.

Day 2 (3/29)

We all woke up early and got ready for the day. Sarah just couldn't keep her hands off of Daisy. Daisy is the most calm and patient dog I know.
We went outside and everything had a thin blanket of snow.
I had an appointment with a plastic surgeon and we had to drop Sarah and Nya off at Staci's before the apartment. Sarah was really excited to see Nya and hold her.

Nya loves to hold Katya too...

After my appointment with the plastic surgeon we went back to Staci's and hung out for a little while and then went back to Rebekah's. We got a phone call shortly thereafter from Andrea and they were only an hour away. We were so excited for Andrea's family to arrive.

I Love Salt Lake! (Day 1 - 3/28)

There are two cities that I absolutely love! Salt Lake and San Diego. Both are beautiful and both have great things to do and see. What makes me love Salt Lake even more is that I have a lot of family that lives there. Rebekah and Jethro both live there and then so do several of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandparents. It is always nice to see family, especially when that family involves my nieces and nephews! I was so lucky to have the "bonus" of Andrea and her family visiting Salt Lake the same time I was there. I seriously had the best time. I had full intentions of blogging each day there. That would have been the ideal situation. However I couldn't get my laptop to work on the wireless network. Yes, I could have still made posts and uploaded the pictures later. But I didn't do that. So instead I am going to try and recap each day from memory. thankfully I took pictures each day and that will help me to remember.

WEDNESDAY 3/28/07 DAY 1

I left Wednesday at about 4:00 p.m. to head to the airport. I took Sarah with me to Salt Lake.




She was so excited to go, she could hardly stand it. We were so anxious to leave but George had gone on a bike ride so we had to wait for him to get back so we could say goodbye. As soon as he got home Sarah ran up to him. He didn't even have a chance to get off his bike. They posed for a quick picture.



We were also waiting for Amy to get home from work so she could say goodbye too. Again, another picture.

Before we left she suggested that we should have family prayer. Amy asked Sarah to give it. In her prayer she said "please bless Mom, Dad, Kate, and everyone else that they won't miss me too much". It was really sweet! We went out to get in my car and she gave Amy a hug goodbye. Then she came to get in the car and she said something to me and her voice cracked. I looked at her and her eyes were filled with tears. I asked her if she was going to be o.k.? She said she is going to miss her Mom, Dad, and Kate too much. I looked at Amy and we both gave each other the look of "How sad, but cute" Sarah got in the car and Amy stood and waved. That made Sarah cry even more, which of course made Auntie cry. Sarah cried the entire way to the airport. I kept trying to cheer her up and tell her exciting things we were going to do, but it didn't work. I did tell her that even to this day, every time I go visit my Mom and I leave her I still cry. I usually cry the entire way to the airport too, so if she wants to cry go right ahead. Thankfully I had my camera handy and I gave it to her so she could look at the pictures I took of her with George and Amy. By the time we pulled into long term parking she had stopped crying and her excitement was back. She was just fine and I couldn't keep her from squealing with joy.
We arrived in Salt Lake at about 9:30 p.m. and Rebekah, Nya, Jethro, Staci, and Katya. It was so good to see everyone. It started to snow on the way back to Rebekah's and Sarah was thrilled. When we got out of the car she immediately ran out to the lawn and started playing in the snow.

I finally got her to come inside and Nya showed us where we would be sleeping. Sarah just loves Nya.

I was pretty tired and by now it was almost 11:00 p.m. Sarah didn't want to stop playing with Nya and I didn't want to be without her either. So I offered to have Nya sleep with me and Sarah. Rebekah was thrilled with this idea! Lately, Nya had been ending up in Rebekah's bed with her, so Rebekah was more than willing to pass that "joy" onto someone else.

Let me just say, I didn't get much sleep that night. Several times I woke up with Nya's knee or foot in my back. It was great though! She is so cute.

It's About Time!

It's about time I write a post in my blog. I have been so busy it is crazy! Work has been hectic ever since I got back from vacation and it didn't help things that I had to fire someone yesterday. So my already long days, and going to be even longer until I get someone hired and up to speed.

The most exciting thing is that I recently moved into an apartment. Gideon and I moved into a 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath apartment. It is about 1060 square feet and has a washer and dryer in the unit. That is the best part. Getting moved in was just a long process. I started moving in the day I had to fly out to Salt Lake. Then I spent a week in Salt Lake and flew back on Wednesday 4/4. My flight got in at 12:30 p.m. and by 1:30 I was at work. I worked until a little after 7:00 p.m. and went home. That next day I was supposed to work from 7-2 and then finish moving everything from George and Amy's. Well, I ended up having to work from 7-7 and I was too tired by the time I got home to do any moving. Then on Friday Gideon and I had to leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. to catch our 6:30 flight to Ontario. We arrived there safely and then rented a car and drove out to Palm Desert to where my storage unit has been for the past four years! It is hard to imagine I have had stuff in storage for so long! We picked up the U-Haul and got it all loaded up in 40 minutes. I couldn't believe we did it so quickly. We were on the road back to Ontario by noon! It was great. Traffic was pretty light all the way back to Sacramento. We were home by 9:30 p.m. I thought for sure it was going to take us until 2:00 a.m. because I didn't think we would make it out of Palm Desert so quickly. I also thought there would be a lot more traffic than there was. We were truly blessed. On Saturday, we unloaded the U-haul with the help of George, Nathan, Sarah, and Kate. I spent all day Saturday unpacking everything. I told George and Amy and the girls to come over that night and they were shocked that I had unpacked everything. I even put some decorations up.
Sunday was Easter and will write about that on a separate post, but I was busy all day. Before I knew it, it was Monday. More work, work, work, and then when I got off I had the pressure of trying to decide how to paint my apartment. I will write more about that in another post too. The bottom line is, I have been slammed everyday with projects and work. I don't even have a lot of time to blog right now, but I am forcing myself to update everyone before I do anything else!

So Much To Blog & So Little Time

I am back from my week long trip to Salt Lake. It was a packed full vacation and I didn't want to leave! I just love spending time with my family. I wish I could have blogged each day I was there, but I was so busy and for some reason I couldn't get online. So I did experience some major blogging withdrawals and I wonder how I will ever catch up. I will have to do the best I can.

My flight got in today at 12:30 and I was at work by 1:30. I of course am swamped with work after being gone for one week. I have 49 e-mails I have to get through and that doesn't include all the messages. Fun for me :) Additionally, I moved into a new apartment the day I flew out to Salt Lake, so I have a lot of unpacking to do. Thankfully, I made my bed up before I went to
Salt Lake so at least that is done. I don't know how much unpacking I will get done tonight. I am so tired and I don't get off of work until 7:00 tonight. I am going to go walking with George, Amy, and Kate when I get off of work, so by the time I get home it will be late. I have to work from 7-5 tomorrow and then on Friday I have to catch a 6:15 a.m. flight to So Cal. I have to go and get all of my stuff out of storage! I am planing on driving the U-haul back that day too! I am taking Gideon with me, so maybe when he is driving I can get some blogging done.