Lagoon and Family Reunion All In the Same Day

The decision became final a few weeks ago. Everyone was excited. Things had gone well and something had to be done about it.

The decision made was having a work-sponsored Lagoon Day activity. The things that had gone well were the employees had worked hard all year to hit their numbers. And what had to be done about it was recognize them for their efforts with G&K treating the employees and their families to a day at Lagoon.

Our Lagoon Day began with breakfast at the campground next to Lagoon. The Provo branch invited us to join in the breakfast with them. Our pleasure!! The bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit breakfast was a delicious way to start the day!! 

Glen stood out front greeting the employees as they showed up to get their free tickets. 

Here comes one of those employees with his cute little family. 

Jeff and Sarah wanted in on the free Lagoon ticket action. So sorry their tickets weren't free--but they did get the reduced company rate. Wait a minute!! They DID get in on the free ticket action because Sarah had a very kind father who paid their way in.

What they DIDN'T get was the cute matching t-shirts we all were wearing. Oh well. They don't have to be wearing the same shirt as us for us to claim them as part of our family.

 Welcome to Lagoon. There are still many beautiful flower beds all around Lagoon.

We did our grandparent duty taking turns watching the grandkids so the big kids could go off on the big kid rides. First up--Dallas and Rebecca's kids.

  

Time to break for lunch. Included in the free park pass was a free lunch voucher. We chose this place where Glen ate gourmet chicken and I ate a gourmet burger. It was actually quite delicious.

And look who showed up for a little free ticket action himself (courtesy of a nice father once again)...bringing the girlfriend along with him.

Ben and Haley were very happy when they learned we were on our way to relieve Jeff and Sarah for a while. Glen ended up going off with these two and Sarah to ride some big rides.

Jeff wasn't feeling very well as he'd been sick all week and decided he didn't want to ride the big kid rides. He stuck around Eli while I skillfully succeeded in getting Carson to sleep while walking around watching Eli ride the rides.

We would have stayed longer and done more things, but a family reunion was calling out to us.

I had to be content riding just two rides--the merry-go-round and the train. That was two rides more than Glen and I rode last time we went to Lagoon 3 years ago at the last G&K-sponsored day at Lagoon.

On to the other exciting activity of the day--the Thomas family reunion where 7 of Glen's siblings were in attendance. Don was unable to attend. Betty passed away many years ago. I was sad none of Betty's children came this year.

Here we have Glen's sister Barbara and her husband Rich.

Barbara's daughter Jennifer (far end of table) and Barbara's son Richie with Jennifer's daughters Alexis and Makaylee.

 Glen's brother Nike and Ilene and Glen's sister JoAnn.

Glen's brother Chuck and Carol (standing).

Glen's sister Bonnie and Dave with their sons Brian and Adam and their families.

Glen's sister Maurine and Ray with Glen's brother Dave (standing).

Maurine's children Colleen and Kevin (on left) and RaNae (on right in purple) and their families.

Maurine's daughter RaNae, with her daughter Nicole, and Maurine's daughter Michelle and C.J.

Maurine and Ray did a great job hosting the reunion this year. We had lots of fun and really enjoyed our time there. It was definitely worth making the break away from Lagoon.

Our kids would surely have attended the reunion if it wasn't a free Lagoon day. But really--who would choose a reunion over Lagoon anyway? We can't blame them.

But, wait. WE chose the reunion over Lagoon didn't we?? I'll stand by that decision. It was a good one and we loved seeing everyone who was there. Can't wait for next year's reunion!

Speaking of Glen's relatives...

Every time we drive north past Honeyville, Glen says he wants to stop there and look for the monument of his great-great-grandfather someone told him about. This week he actually stopped to see for himself.

The historical monument was sitting right next to the Honeyville LDS Church building commemorating Abraham Hunsaker who was an early pioneer and served as the first bishop of Honeyville.

 Abraham's five wives are listed. Glen's family comes through the first wife, Eliza Collins.

The other side of the monument lists all his children.

Glen's family line comes through Abraham and Eliza Hunsaker's son Allen. (Note Ben now shares the same birthday.) Allen married Evelyn Dunn and had Aleen. Aleen Hunsaker married John Nyron Thomas. They gave birth to Glen's father Nyron and the rest is history.

This finally satisfied Glen's curiosity as he had a few moments to ponder his roots and see where he came from engraved in the granite monument.

Tending Grandkids, Going on a Work Trip, and BABY NEWS!

One day Rebecca had business in Provo and decided to take Brooke with her so she could play with her friend while Rebecca was busy. That meant Caroline and Spencer were staying behind with me. Caroline was not very happy about that. She loves playing with Brooke's friends and wanted to go, too.

I bribed her to be happy staying with me when I told her we would be making cookies. She loves making cookies and her face brightened with that idea. But first, I had to go to one visiting teaching appointment. Fortunately, Ben had consented to watch the kids for me. Spencer was asleep and this is what I saw when I came back home 45 minutes later...

Caroline had fallen asleep while playing. I love that her pillow is the little toy computer. She quickly woke up when I told her I was ready to make cookies.

She loved eating the cookie dough. Spencer ate his cookie cooked.

Caroline was happy with the lei Glen had brought home for her that he had gotten from a golf tournament.

Despite all the happiness she experienced, she was the most happy when her mother returned home to get her.

Glen and Jeff went golfing one Saturday afternoon. Sarah decided to take advantage of it by leaving the little boys with us while they went to the temple in the morning. Glen entertained Eli by getting him to help make breakfast.

Glen invited me to go on an overnight work trip to Boise last week. I love going with him if I can. He kept reminding me it was a work trip, so he would be working the whole time. That point was made evident to me when he made an appointment to go to dinner in Twin Falls with one of his employees. We were able to go to the Twin Falls Temple before his dinner appointment.

We got settled in our nice hotel room where I would hang out when he was busy working.

Here he is working. He kept reminding me it was a work trip for him.

Off he went to his work dinner appointment and fortunately for me, he arranged for the employee to pick him up and drop him off back at the hotel so I'd have the car. He went to Outback and it was Applebee's to go for my dinner that evening.

I went to the Magic Valley Mall to walk around. It is a very small mall, but by the time I walked around the inside of the mall and then all around the outside of the mall, I'd gotten some exercise for the day.

Next day we drove to Boise where he worked for a while at the G&K branch there. I went to get him some lunch and then left him there all afternoon and drove over to the Boise Mall. That one was huge and beautiful and I loved walking all through there for a while. I tried to be in the shopping mood, but I just couldn't bring myself to really get serious about finding something suitable to wear when everything I saw didn't appeal to me. I guess that's lucky for Glen that I didn't spend any money on clothes at either one of the malls.

Originally Glen thought we would be gone two nights, but he finished up in Boise early enough that he decided to drive all the way back home that night. Since hitting the cow and the deer while driving (excuse me--he says the deer ran into him), he has not been too fond of driving in the dark. But the last hour and a half we were on the freeway, not on two-lane country roads, and he decided to go the distance so we could be home for bed.

It was a nice relaxing trip for me. Too bad it was a work trip for him. I like to think his work was a little more pleasant those two days because he had company in the car.

Now here's the BIG NEWS in the family...

Abe and Klarissa had a baby boy on August 17th. His name is Newland Michael Thomas and he weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. I keep asking for a family photo of the little family that I could post on this blog, but since I have gotten nothing, I will take things into my own hands and have stolen this picture from them to post because I love it so much.

Here's the proud papa holding his new little son.

I love watching our children become parents. It is special to see. How blessed this little guy is to have such great parents. We love him already and are so happy Klarissa is recovering so well from the delivery.

Happy days are here for the Abraham Thomas family!!

Quotes of the Week

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."
-- John Steinbeck


"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
-- Harriet Tubman


"Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day."
-- Author Unknown

Ben Came and Went

This dear boy of ours had planned to spend the entire summer striking it rich installing security systems in Colorado Springs. Things were working out great for a while and then things happened and the crew was pulled out of Colorado and moved to Boise, Idaho. That lasted about three days. Not enough security systems were being sold to keep this installer busy enough, so he came home a month early.

Here he is...all ready to enjoy a summer month of rest and relaxation while living off his parents.

He made a purchase while in Colorado and this is what he bought. For some reason he was way more excited about his new set of wheels than his parents have been about it.

Eli and Spencer are always excited when they see the motorcycle parked in the garage. Eli will look over every inch of it and you can see him itching to take a ride on it. Not gonna happen!!!

He'll just have to be content watching Ben zoom off on the bike.

Ben did put the bike to good use last week when Glen and I were almost at the Rocky Mountain Raceways and realized we'd forgotten to bring the tickets and we couldn't get in.

Who we gonna call? Ben, of course! He and Haley jumped on the motorcycle and zoomed right on out to deliver the tickets. Thanks again for that good deed!

Ben has been making and eating lots of homemade ice cream in the past month. It's been his favorite food staple around here.

One night Ben was so kind when he had dinner ready for us when we got home from work. Chicken enchiladas are one of his specialties. Taco soup is his other specialty. Apparently he only has two specialties--unless we now count homemade ice cream as a third specialty.

We definitely have appreciated his help with the lawn the past month. Of course Sarah would say he doesn't do as good a job as she did when she was our lawn "boy" because he didn't mow in the crisscross pattern. We didn't really care what the pattern was just as long as the lawn got cut once a week.

A big pat on the back goes to this son for getting the bushes trimmed right before he left to go back to school. That was a huge help to Glen and having Ben's girlfriend help clean up the trimmings was a big help to me. We have such a nice-looking yard!!

He is now all moved out of here and has moved back to Provo to a new apartment and is gearing up to start BYU again on Monday. Let's hope we survive without his help and let's hope he survives without his daily dose(s) of homemade ice cream.