Happy Birthday to Laurie

We love you and are glad you are part of our family and hope you have a wonderful day!!!

The Wedding Crashers

We just got back from a fun vacation that one of us enjoyed. The other one of us probably wouldn't rank this one up there on his list of Top 10, although it was definitely "memorable". He won't forget any time soon how sick he was on this vacation. Our much-anticipated wedding crashing trip to Jennifer (Klarissa's sister) Jackson's wedding was upon us and Glen woke up that day not feeling well and progressively got worse as time went on.

We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina and then drove 4 1/2 hours to get to the beach house that the Jackson family had rented. It was large and impressive and slept lots of people. That's Klarissa outside playing frisbee.

I loved the living room (shown here with Grandma Melba and Klarissa's mother Ingrid holding Danny) that had many large windows that allowed you to enjoy the outdoors without actually being out in the windy air.

The extremely kind-hearted Mike and Ingrid Jackson had moved out of the master bedroom and insisted that Glen and I have a turn sleeping in there the two nights that we were at the beach house. Not only had we barged in on their family vacation, but they so graciously put us up in the best bedroom in the house! The sick Glen had a really rough night, but put on a brave face and joined the group for breakfast.

Abe enjoyed playing Legos with Rachel while Glen was deciding if he wanted to go on any outings that day.

He decided to stay inside and do some G&K work on his computer.

Abe and Klarissa were happy to be headed out to the beach. They wanted to play frisbee. Going to the beach turned out to be one of the most entertaining activities of the whole trip.

Abe found a stingray. Good thing it was dead.

It was fun walking along the beach until we noticed that we weren't alone out there and if you looked real close, you could see the beach start to move.



Abe had found a dead fish with its tail missing and had scooped it up on a shell and put it near a crab hole to see if he could lure it out. The video showed the crab grabbing that fish.

Matt, Klarissa's brother, looked for a big hole to dig into to see if he could find a huge crab. He was successful!



Abe proudly held up the prized crab--which was clamped on tight to the shell that he was holding--so that Klarissa could get a good snapshop of the pair of them.

Here's some footage of Abe trying to keep track of the thing while Matt dug for another one to keep it company.



Following the fun adventures at the beach, the group decided to go see the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

After the lighthouse, the group enjoyed a Dippin' Dots treat. (Melba, Klarissa, Mariah, Erin and Lark)

When I saw a beautiful rainbow bench, I decided I wanted to try posing for a picture because I always love how our cute Natalie is always posing for pictures. I got all situated on the bench and then out of nowhere this huge dog appeared and headed straight for me. I think my expression shows how much I "love" dogs. UGH!!!

After our day of fun, we returned to the beach house and found Glen had spent the entire day asleep in bed. He was one sick guy.

The man had another rough night, but the next morning he was feeling better and I was so happy to see him out of bed and standing upright (well, almost) that I had to capture the moment with a snapshot.

We stopped on our way back to Raleigh at the Wright Brothers Visitor Center.

Glen and I attended the Raleigh North Carolina Temple that evening while the Jacksons and the Olsens had a pre-wedding family dinner. Here I am again trying to pull off a Natalie-type pose--and much more successful at it than my earlier post, if I don't say so myself.

The big highlight of the next day was the wedding of Jennifer Jackson and Jordan Olsen.

Our group was hungry and decided to stop for food and lemonade at Chick-Fil-A between the wedding and the reception.

We were able to get a picture with the bride and groom as they were arriving at the reception location.

There was a ring ceremony held on the beautiful grounds before the reception dinner.

There was a fiddling band playing during the reception and Abe got all excited when he heard one of Natalie's favorite songs being played by them. Be sure to watch the whole video to see Abe at the end talking to Natalie.



As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end", and it was so with this trip when we found ourselves packing up the next morning and heading back to the airport.

A big thanks goes out to the Jackson family for being so hospitable and not only letting us crash their wedding party, but giving us the royal treatment as well. And we loved being able to spend time with Abe and Klarissa!!!

Cheeto Cheeks

One thing I've learned during our many years of marriage is to never take my husband shopping with me. We end up spending far more money when he goes than if I were to go by myself. Also, I've learned that for some reason men always think bigger is better

For example, the other day we used a one-day pass to shop at Sam's Club. Glen couldn't control himself and kept throwing things into the shopping cart. His eyes lit up when he saw a HUGE barrel of Cheese Balls. A small bag of them would have been more than plenty, but having the "men mentality", he thought if some would be good, then more would be better.

He put the massive, 35-servings-worth of cheese balls container into the cart claiming he was buying them because Brooke would love them.


Sure enough, Brooke did love the cheese balls. She loved to carry around the container that is almost as big as she is. When it came down to the actual eating of the cheese balls...she wasn't quite the fan of them that Glen had hoped she would be.


Some people in the family got the brilliant idea to see who could stuff the most cheese balls into their mouths. And the winner is...???


Let's just say that after being introduced to the new cheese ball treat, Brooke decided she'd stick with the original Grandpa treat of popcorn--her favorite!!!

A Big Day For Ben

April 15th was a big day in the Thomas family and it wasn't because it was tax day. It was the day Benjamin Malan Thomas got his mission call.

Our mail carrier so kindly delivered it that morning--instead of the usual after 5 p.m. delivery--so that we could get down to Provo in good time to hand it over to our son. He got his first glimpse of it in the parking lot of Olive Garden where the family met up for dinner.


Sarah was on call that day to be ready to jump in her car and drive on up from Cedar City when she heard that the envelope had arrived.


Ben made arrangements with his college friends to meet up in the lobby of his dorm building at 6:45 p.m. for the official opening of the letter.


Glen got busy calling Jacob and Abe on both his cell phones so that they could be a part of their brother's mission call as well.


With both brothers and their families listening in on the phones in Glen's outstretched arms, and Dallas ready with the video camera, and family and friends all around, the time finally had come for Benjamin to open and read his mission call.


He has been called to the Singapore Mission. He will learn the Indonesian language and will report to the MTC on July 1st.


He spent some time talking to his brothers and their families about the call. He was pretty excited that his hope to serve in a faraway country and learn a different kind of language had just become a reality.


After his friends left, the family took a few minutes to soak in the news.


Then we decided to go to YoZone to celebrate!! YUM!!!




That's where our son took a few minutes to write his acceptance letter to The First Presidency.


He's very eager, willing and anxious to serve. He'll be a wonderful missionary and we are so proud of him and love him to pieces!!