Babysitting Brooke

I tended Brooke last week and Sarah called while I was there and requested that I get another Brooke video because she liked the pole one so much. Let's start off with some photos first. Here's the little sleeping beauty just waking up from her nap.


This is her happy face--after her sad face--when she walked out into the living room and discovered her parents were gone, but then decided she would be okay alone with her Grandma (even though she always calls me "Grandpa").


Here's a video for you, Sarah. Brooke loved the box of shoes that was sitting on the couch. Rebecca had been telling me about their attempts to potty train Brooke and how it wasn't going all that well. Perhaps her lack of enthusiasm on the subject will become evident toward the end of the video. Maybe Rebecca can decipher for us what Brooke is saying when she's babbling. I haven't quite picked up on the Brooke dialect of the English language yet.



Sarah also requested a photo of her sister's enlarging tummy. Here's Rebecca at 7 months pregnant. Still as beautiful as ever!!


And I wanted to include her handsome husband in a photo as well. He is trying to hide the three band-aids on his forehead that are covering the yucky-looking spots where his moles used to be. Moles, band-aids or whatever--he's always very photogenic.


Okay, Sarah, I saved the best Brooke video for last. I was chasing her and got such a kick out of her when she would stop to catch her breath. Funny girl!!!



I guess this whole post was for Sarah's sake. Hope the rest of you enjoyed it also.

A Happy Mother's Day

I appreciated all the phone calls I got on Mother's Day. I loved visiting with the kids and talking to my mother and even my brother called to wish me a happy day.


This is an indication of how long I was on the phone and what happened while the men in my life were waiting for me to quit talking so we could do something together as a family...


They are quite the guys!

Glen and I are enjoying having Benjamin back under our roof--if only for a few more weeks. I would start a countdown to departure for the MTC on this blog if only I knew how. I'll just enjoy mothering our son while I can and try not to think about how fast the time is passing.

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!!!