1 and 4 years...

Memorial day is always a little emotional for my family. Not only do we remember those who have served in the armed forces and are no longer living, we remember loved ones who are gone. My wonderful aunt, Lily, passed away the day after Memorial Day four years ago. It's sometimes hard to believe it was that long ago, but sometimes it seems like much longer. We miss Lily's fun personality and "delish" food so much.

This little hero

(Corbin before transplant #2, looking pretty good)

passed away one year ago on the 28th. On Friday his family held a little memorial for him at his grave. They are still really struggling with his death and we try to be as supportive as possible. Corbin's story has touched many people. He was a fighter and a good example to the rest of us.

(Corbin with his broken leg and Will Smith at the hospital)

His mother, my beautiful aunt Thyrena, is one of my heroes. She is so strong in her testimony of temples and the atonement. She is such a great example to me.

(Thyrena and Corbin shortly before his death)

Andrea, Corbin's twelve year old sister wrote this poem for Corbin and they placed it where his headstone will eventually go.

PHEW!!!

While watching the season finale of this I decided that the whole episode was setting it up to be a series finale. The whole cast was in it and all of the problems were getting resolved, which is totally not normal for a One Tree Hill season finale. I had heard that OTH may not be coming back next year, so it made sense for all of these resolutions, until the very last scene when two cast members get shot! So I had to get online and find out if it is coming back......AND IT IS!! Thanks Mindi for getting me hooked on it years ago.

Also coming back is this little gem. If you haven't watched Life Unexpected, you probably should. They play reruns of the first season just about every day. It is about a girl who grew up in the foster care system, but then finds her bio parents at 16 and they are normal and can take care of her. This is completely unrealistic in most cases, but it is a fun show and things like this have happened before. I think you will love it from the start and you'll be rooting for certain characters right away. Me, I like Baze. He's quite the hottie and I'm still hoping that eventually he will get the girl.

Someone Had A Birthday...

And her name is Koda! It's crazy to think that we have had this little pup for a whole year. We have also been in our house for a year. We are finally getting started on the yard. We did actually do a lot to the yard last year, but no one would notice unless they had seen it when we moved in. We hauled out a few loads of rocks, dirt and garbage last year. This week we had a back porch and sidewalk put in. Kit and I have also been working on a retaining wall in the front yard. We have our bid back on our sprinkler system. The next step is to rent a trencher and get the trenches dug, then we will get the sprinkler system put in, and we need to order the sod we are putting in.

Kit has started playing softball again in Vernal. He is having fun, but his team is horrible this year. He is trying to get a team put together for Men's league in Roosevelt. It starts in a few months, so if any of your hubbies would want to play just let me know. I'm not playing this year because I usually play with my sisters and they are both pregnant, like everyone else.

Other than that, we really haven't done anything exciting. I have been crazy busy at work and Kit is starting to work more hours. My grandparents finally made it home, which is really great for our whole family. It has been a stressful year so far. Now if we can just get the other grandma taken care of we will be doing good.

Easter Weekend

We went to St. George this year for Easter. We had a fun time, but I still really don't like to be away from my family on holidays. I'm sure someday I will get used to it. There were 17 people staying at Kit's aunt's house, and two dogs. There were also other people in and out all weekend, so it was a little bit crazy. Friday we hiked to some waterfalls. Then went home and had dinner.



After dinner it was time for the big draw.

Kit has an uncle who is loaded and an alcoholic. Every year he goes to the hunting expo or sportsmans expo (I can't remember which) and buys these really expensive tags. The drunker he gets, the more he buys. So this year he bought like six different tags, one of which is the same tag he had last year. Once he sobered up a little bit, he realized there is no way he will be able to go on all of those hunts. He sold a moose tag to a friend and decided to give the Henry deer tag to one of his nephews. Kit has been putting in for this tag for 11 years. This is like his lifetime dream. Earlier that day, Kit's cousin who has never hunted and really has no desire to hunt told Kit and Chant that if he drew the tag, he would trade it to one of them for their baseball and football cards. They were all over that until their uncle told them that there was no trading. There were four people in the drawing, Kit, his two brothers, and their cousin. They drew numbers out of a hat to see who would get to go first. The cousin got to go first and Kit was the last to draw. There were four Aces on the table face down, each with a different buck and the hunter who had shot it. They were mossback cards because this is also a hunt guided by Doyle Moss. Whoever drew Kit's uncle and his buck was the winner. There was also a second place that went to whoever drew the card of another guy from Vernal. Second place gets the hunt if for some reason first place cannot go (i.e. not passing hunter's safety). Everyone picked which cards they wanted, and kept them face down on the table. They all turned them over at the same time. I couldn't tell who had one because no one got really excited. Kit yelled "Dangit", so I knew he didn't win. His mom (who had drawn for his brother who wasn't there) was just laughing, and Chant and Cole were just standing there. Cole, the cousin, ended up being the winner and Kit got the second place card. After the drawing Cole went to his room and cried. Kit and Chant were pretty upset, and still are. Colt is not upset because it was a relief to him not to have it. He is the brother who needs the kidney transplant and he doesn't handle stress very well. His wife is also pregnant and due around the time of the hunt. I think Kit is getting more okay with it because he knows that he will draw in the next five years, but he will have to do his own scouting.

Saturday we went four-wheeling/dirt biking. Kit, his brother and two cousins were on dirt bikes. I had to ride on a four-wheeler with Kit's uncle, which was a little bit uncomfortable for me... We rode to some pretty cool spots and went to a spot where we could over look a lake. Once we got there, we traded with Kit's mom and her husband (I don't like to call him Kit's step-dad, it's a touchy subject). They had been driving a razor. Let me just tell you how great that was! The ride back was so much smoother and we were able to go so much faster. I also felt more safe in it. Kit and I have been looking at them and will probably buy one someday (in the distant future). When we got back, we had dinner and then the kids dyed eggs.

Sunday morning we got up and hid the eggs for the kids. Kit helped his cousin find tons of eggs and then helped him eat all of the candy he got. After that, we loaded up and headed home. We were able to listen to the last session of conference in the car, so that was nice. Now I need a weekend to recover from all of the excitement.

New Hair Do...

Kit is a very impatient person, especially when it comes to getting his hair cut. He gets a little angry when he needs a hair cut and someone can not fit him in right then. He also thinks that the cutter of hair should come to him because his mom used to cut hair and she could do it whenever and wherever he needed it done. Well, for the last week or so he has been telling me that he really needs a hair cut. He made an appointment with Baily. She was staying late at work to do it, but then he had to stay even later at work, so he couldn't go. I was out of town working and he texted me to see if I cared if he shaved his head. At first I kinda thought he meant he was going to bic it, but he said that he was just going to buzz it. I told him this was fine since he had buzzed his hair last winter after the mohawk. Well when I got home that night, he had done his own hair. The clippers he used didn't have the guard he wanted, so he did it without a guard. It's pretty short. Here's a picture of the damage. Sorry it's the same as the one in the other post. I don't take many pictures. Oh, and here's a picture of him and his new glasses. Ha ha....

Valentine's

Since we were in California for Valentine 's Day, we didn't really do anything special for Valentine's day. We really didn't get each other gifts or anything. There is a motocross magazine that Kit loves. I got a subscription of it for him, partly because it will be cheaper that way and partly because I'm sick of him bugging me about it. He was kind of mad at me because we had decided against gifts.

On Tuesday, Kit texted me to see if I wanted to go to dinner or something for Valentine's day because we didn't really do anything. I had to go to Vernal for work in the afternoon and when I got home he had sent me roses. So cute! He had kind of read my mind. Earlier in the day I was thinking how cool it would be if he sent me flowers at work, and he did. That night he skipped class and I made dinner, then we went to the movie. We went to When In Rome. It was really cute and funny. It is the only movie on my list to see that I have been able to go to so far.

It wasn't a really exciting Valentine's Day, but I enjoyed it. We were able to spend a lot of time together. Thanks Kit for two good years together!

Disneyland Trip

So a few months ago my sister and I started talking about going to Disneyland and staying at the Disneyland Hotel. Kit and I didn't think we would be able to go, but it ended up working out. I spent countless hours trying to find a hotel that was close to Disneyland with a free breakfast. I even made spreadsheets. I wanted to stay at the Disneyland hotel, but didn't want to pay the price. My mom finally talked me into just staying there because that is where they were all staying.

My Rating: I probably would not stay there again. There really isn't anything "exclusive" about staying there. The rooms are just okay, actually a little dirty, and quite small. The beds aren't great. You can only see the fireworks from certain parts of the hotel and you have to walk quite a way to get to the park. Most of the stuff that is there, except the pools, you can use even if you aren't staying at the hotel. We decided it really wouldn't be that hard to use the pools there either. Food there is outrageous! I guess food anywhere in California is more than food here in Utah, but I think it is worse at Disneyland. We ate at Goofy's kitchen for breakfast. The food was good and you could get whatever you wanted, but it was so not worth the cost. The kids liked it because they got to see a lot of Disney characters. Next time, we will stay at one of the nearby hotels. They are cheaper and some are closer to the park entrance than the Disneyland hotel.

Okay, so now that you've heard my spill on that… We had a good time on our trip. At the airport, while waiting for our plane, a little guy was rolled up in a wheel chair. I looked at him several times and thought how sickly he looked. A while later, I was talking to my brother-in-law, and kind of jokingly asked, "Is that Gary Coleman?" He looked at him and said that he thought it was. I thought he was joking. Everyone else started looking and we decided that maybe it was. We started pulling up pictures of him on our phones and trying to compare. Some guys went over by him and were pretending to text, but they were totally taking pictures of him on their phones. Whoever he was boarded first and sat in first class. When we got off the plane, there was a man waiting there holding a sign that said "Coleman", so that pretty much confirmed that it was him.

We ended up getting to the hotel around midnight and just went to bed. The next morning we got up early and went to the park. We rode the monorail over there which drops you off right at Nemo, so we rode that first and then Space Mountain. Then we just made out way around Disneyland. We rode a lot of the rides that day because the park was not too busy. My dad was in a wheelchair because he just had knee surgery, so on a few rides we were able to go in the exit and get on really fast.

Friday we met up with my cousin and her family and my uncle and his family. We spent time in both parks that day. We had a lot of fun. Finally, on Saturday I was able to ride the tower of terror. Kit did not want to ride it, but we talked him in to it and he loved it! All of the little boys loved the California Screamin' roller coaster after they got over their fear of it.

Friday night we all went to Medieval Times. It was different than I remembered. The inside is kina ghetto, but the show was fun and the food was better than I remembered. All of the kids loved it. Saturday night, Kit and I took Porter to the motocross race. There were a lot of people there. Kit loved it so much. It was fun. Sunday we went to Legoland, which none of us liked. I think we were all tired and hot, and after being at Disneyland for three days it just didn't compare. We did see a guy who used to play for the Suns and now does broadcasting. That night we watched the fireworks from my parents room because we couldn't see them from ours. We also spent some time in Downtown Disney. It was packed! There were bands playing and all sorts of stuff going on for Valentine's.

Monday, we just got ready and headed for the airport. Our flight was full and I was worried Kit wouldn't get on because he didn't have a seat number, but he ended up being able to get on. At the airport in Salt Lake we saw Thurl Baily and his son just getting home from the All-Star game. We got stuck in Daniel's for two hours because of a wreck, but finally made it home.

We had a fun trip and a nice vacation from work, but it is always good to be home and sleep in your own bed!