40 Years of Cinco de Mayo

On May 5th, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!  This was an exciting year because not only is it 40 years, hot diggity dog.  But when my Grandma and Grandpa Roundy celebrated their 40th anniversary, all my dads siblings threw them a surprise party.  I remember being like 9 years old and traveling to Utah for this.  It was made into a video which we have watched through the years.  

Probably a year ago, my eldest bro and the main planner behind this shindig, told us all to clear our schedules for Saturday, May 5th.  Something was going to go down!

We ended up doing a luncheon with the siblings and their spouse (no kids) and a reception that night at Loren and Kelly's house.  We had catered desserts and invited all my parents siblings families and a few close friends.  It was a blast, but the best part was keeping it a secret for my parents.  They hate surprises, especially my dad!!  He tried for months to get it out of us what we were planning.  He told Loren that he would probably take my mom on a cruise that weekend.  Loren laughed and told him to have fun :)  

I went without my family which was sad.  Matt couldn't take any time off work, with him already taking 2 weeks off in June and July.  I was gone for 4 days but I think Reagan thought I was leaving her forever.  She had anxiety for weeks before I left, crying uncontrollably at times.  When Matt and the kids dropped me off at the BART station the morning my plane flew out, I just remember seeing them pull out and Reagan just staring at me out the window bawling her eyes out.  But no worries.  A trip to IHOP for pancakes and a phone call less than an hour later, she was feeling better. 

Right after flying in, we went (where else?) to Cafe Rio for lunch.  My dad knew I was flying in, but it was a surprise to my mom.  I hid in the corner of Cafe Rio and then snuck up behind her.  I felt special because it was the 2nd time that day someone cried over me! 

This is my sweet niece Jane playing in her field of dandelions.

My sister is this total Zumba pro and becoming an instructor next month.  She gave Loni and I a Zumba lesson on Friday morning.  It was fun to have Loni and Dallas there the whole weekend.  I was a little less scared sleeping by myself on that side of the house :)

Lindsey really helped me with one of the gifts, which was this family tree with the thumbprints of all our family.  Roland sketched it and we picked out the antique frame.  Each of my parents kids has a branch and then tiny branches coming off that for all their kids.  It turned out beautiful.

 Hard to read in this pic, but it says Alan and Julie Family Tree May 5, 2012

We had lunch at Corbins in Layton.  I would totally go back there for the fried brie, dang!  Something so disgusting sounding never tasted so good! 

We let them open their gifts and my dad gave my mom a ruby necklace.  A ruby is the 40 year symbol. 

Here is the family, posing at the entrance.

 

After that, we set up for the party, which was tricky trying to hide from the parental units again.  Loren and Kelly have a fabulous backyard.  Lindsey got a great cake. 

 

Loren and Kelly took care of the desserts.  They got cookies from Harmons Bakery, brownies from this fab place don't know where, and donut holes from MadBrooks. 

 

Landen and Caitlin took care of the decorations.  I loved them.  Each table had a picture of my parents on it, some old, some more recent.  This pic below is of my dad when he was in the army and engaged to my mom.  It is a pic of him with a pic of my mom sitting next to him.  Cute, huh?

 

Here is my mom below, does she look like me?  Everyone says yes, so I guess so! 

Another one of my dad.  This picture could easily be passed off as my brother Lance.

The highlight of the evening was easily when my dads fishing buddy Dave Brown (DB, as he is affectionately known in our family) showed up.  Long story, but basically, he is my dads best friend from childhood and closest friend outside of family.  Dave battled cancer a couple years ago and it really shook my dad up.  About a month ago, Dave got really sick and was in the hospital again with blood clots in his heart and lungs.  They didn't think he would make it.  We all fasted and prayed for him to recover and to the amazement of everyone, he made a miraculous recovery.  We weren't sure if he would feel up to making it that night, but when he walked out and we all saw him, it was such a moment.  Tears everywhere, it was so neat.  That moment alone made all this worth it!

Here is my mom and dad with Dave and his wife Robin.

 

 Cheesiness alert--my parents cut their cake and fed it to each other, all wedding like.

 

Here is my dad with 2 of his brothers, Dave and Shad.  Yes, Dave is a real cowboy and Shad is the one who supplies my family with tons of Oasis Plumbing shirts with the fun slogans on the back.  

 

My dad and mom with some of his siblings--he has 8!

 

It started getting chilly, so we built a fire and stuffed our faces with even more cookies and donut holes.  It was so great to see Lance and KT, they came all the way from New Mexico to be there.  They spent more time driving to and from than actually being in Utah, so it was a sacrifice.  KT made the invites to the reception and they were awesome!  And because we don't want to leave them out---Loni and Dallas made a great slideshow of my parents from when they were babies till now, set to music and everything.  It was so fun to bring home my own copy to show Matt and the kids.

Luck could not have been more on my side and the next day ended up being the Sunday the Melanie and Aaron were blessing their newest baby in church.   So Lyle and Bev picked me up and we headed to Spanish Fork for the afternoon.  I got to meet my newest nephew, Marcus, who was only 6 weeks old.  It was really neat to see Jeff and Selly as parents!
 

Cutest pic ever of all the newest Rasmussen grandkids-Marcus, Brinlee and Ashley, the star of the day!

Great trip to Utah, but I missed my 3 loves terribly.  More than I thought I would.  I am glad that we will be headed back to Utah all together in July.  So is Reagan.  I have already promised her a dozen times that I will never fly to Utah again without her. 

Love to you all!

Countdown to Summer

Well, we are on the final home stretch of our structured daily life: school is almost out and we survived our first year of elementary school!  We are ready to party hardy this summer and make it totally bomb (thinking of Loni as I write that). 

Blogger must have done something to change their uploading process because it was a heck of a lot different this time and took me a while to figure out.  We have been missing from our blog for nearly a month and please accept my sincerest apologies!  Our computer went through an incredibly slow period and getting on the internet was an impossible task.  Then of course, just taking the time to blog and make it sound worthwhile to read...sometimes that can be hard!

The last couple of months have been full of fun things.  In April our ward had their father/sons campout.  Only in our ward, a couple of the younger daughters got to go.  So Matt took Reagan and Nolan and you guessed it...momma got to stay home and PLAY!  How sad that playing consisted of me cleaning the house for 3 hours, then watching Downton Abbey till I fell asleep.  They were back from camping the next morning.  

They had a great time!  They got to do smores around the fire at night and then sleep in a tent (big stuff for Reagan and Nolan)!  They went on a hike and then explored Rock City the next morning.  Camping is so dirty.  Seriously, 10 minutes after the camping party arrived home, my 3 hours of cleaning was a waste :) 

Our weather has been pretty much perfect (minus the horrid allergy season upon us) so we have had some warm days, some medium days, and a fair share of slightly cooler days.  The hot days called for a run through the sprinklers and slip and slide. 

Nolan is my little buddy these days.  He still cries a bit when mom gets out of his sight and part of me secretly likes that.  He talks a ton and sometimes has a hard time shutting up :).  He has the cutest little "man" voice.  Anyone who has been with him in recent months knows what I am talking about.  He has a low raspy voice and I still have yet to figure out if it is his real voice or if he is playing around.  He loves Wall-E, Lightning McQueen and of course, THOMAS his bff forever.  He asks me almost every other day when we can go trick or treating.  He loves yogurt, veggie flavored crackers and cherries.  He has been potty trained for a week now and is doing FABULOUS....as long as mom doesn't forget to ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom.  We've had a few accidents, but he picked it up pretty quickly.  Putting a pull-up on him at night has become a must and he HATES it!  We fight him at bedtime over this every night.  I sure love Nolan and he has brought such a fun atmosphere into our home!

Reagan is my little princess.  Seriously.  She really is into this princess thing and we are rounding the corner to 6 years old.  I thought it would have been gone by now :)  Besides that, she is growing up right before my eyes and it is such a sight to behold.  She has so much compassion for others around her and is always concerned.  The day before Easter, a little girl from her elementary school was killed along with her father when they were hit by an SUV while riding their bikes.  It was such a sad situation and we had many long talks about this with her.  She didn't know this girl at all, but just knowing what had happened and driving by and seeing where she died really stuck with her.  She made pictures and took them to the scene where she was killed.  Then a few days later, her ladybug she had caught and made a home for, died.  We had quite the emotional week.  I don't think Reagan has been the same since.  She has become much more vulnerable and realized how difficult things can come to good people.  I am grateful for her sensitivity and compassion towards others.  She will make a great mom someday.

Other fun things about Reagan: she LOVES Phantom of the Opera.  Random, I know.  What almost 6 year old likes this musical?  Oh, she TOTALLY does.  We have the 25th Anniversary on our DVR and we watch it all the time.  She knows most of the songs and likes to listen to it at night when she falls asleep.  She had me curl her hair this morning for school so that she could look like Christine.  We also watch youtube videos of all the performances.  She is really into singing and it will be interesting to see if she pursues that because heaven knows I had NO interest in that stuff when young.  Another fun fact about her is she LOVES that she is a redhead.  She is very proud.  She points out others who have red hair when we are out in public.  Lots of strangers comment on her haircolor and I can always tell when she overhears.  She gets this look on her face like, "yeah I pretty much freakin rock."  I love it.

Reagan recently lost one of her front teeth and it is one of the cutest things I have seen.  Pic to come later, it is still on my camera.

We took a trip to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum one Saturday.  My kids loves owls lately (they love the book Owl Moon).  So we got to see all the owls and their injuries.  We saw the bald eagle presentation and the kids petted a gopher snake.  Funny story: my allergies SUCK this year and I didn't buy Allegra at first because it is expensive.  So I was taking Benadryl.  I took 2 capsules before heading to Lindsay Museum and yeah, right in the middle of the bald eagle show it hit me....like a ton of bricks.  I could have laid down on that hard linoleum and slept.  Matt was a kind sir and let me go sleep it off in the car.  90 minutes later, they were done and we drove home.  I slept 2 more hours after arriving home.  I decided investing in Allegra was worth the price after that. 

Thanks for reading, friends!  More to come.  Life is good :)  Love to you all!