Harold is Home

We have a really good family friend, just family really, that came home from Iraq yesterday. Tracy has known Harold for like 22 years. Tracy and Harold are really close. My kids call him Uncle Harold and everything. It's funny because Tracy's brother married Harold's sister, so they are "real" family! We are all kind of connected. Anyway, he came home yesterday and it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. We got to the National Guard place at like noon. By the time we found our way to the terminal, we only had to wait for about 20 minutes. Tracy's brother bought American flags for us to wave and we were surrounded by other families waiting for their loved ones. We got to see the plane land, it landed right next to where we were waiting. It was so cool. Then it taxied back towards us. The first thing we hear after it landed were police sirens just wailing. Then we looked over and saw all these police cars giving this airplane an escort. When the airplane turned into where we were waiting, 2 fire engines sprayed water over it. It was so cool. The whole crowd started to just cheer. The plane stopped and they took the stairs over and then some vets and officers lined up. The doors opened and all these guys with humongous grins came walking off the plane. It was so cool, Tracy had a really hard time not crying. I felt very proud. These guys were in Iraq for about a year. They served in like a police capacity at Camp Bucca, which is like a detention center. Anyway, when we saw him, we just started yelling his name. His mom and sisters were crying, and the kids were sooo excited. He made his way over to us and started to just give everyone hugs. I know Tracy was just ecstatic. Channel 2 News actually chose Harold's family to mic and watch as Harold got off the plane. You can see my nephew really good on the newscast and if you look closely you can see my kids in the background, and Tracy with Bree on his shoulder. Then they interviewed Harold and his mom. They didn't put that on the news though. It was such a neat experience. We haven't seen him anymore since the airport, he spent the day with his family. Tracy met him for lunch with some of their other friends and I know he was anxious for lunch time today. He's been acting like a kid on Christmas Eve. So dang excited. I think I've lost my husband for the summer!! LOL Anyway, here is a link to the video online at channel 2: http://www.kutv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx

You might have to click on "More than 100 Utah soldiers arrive home". They also refer to his family as the Hendricks family for some dumb reason. But you'll know it's Harold family when they say they are waiting for specialist Harold Hessler. You can also see our little family walk behind the camera on the "Utah troops arrive home" video! hahaha

Anyway, after the airport, we went to the mountains to do some geocaching. If you don't know what geocaching is, it's when you use a GPS device to find little "treasures" hidden all over the place. Harold hid one before he left and we never got to it last summer, so we decided to find it yesterday to commemorate his homecoming. It was a lot of fun and so beautiful. He hid it by a smaller stream and waterfall. Me and the kids made is most of the way, but Tracy ended up going the last little bit by himself. We would have had to cross the stream and it was running a little too fast for my liking! After we found it we headed up the rest of the way in the canyon to Brighton. There is still a ton of snow up there. It's kind of crazy. 4-5 feet maybe, and you hit a line in the canyon where the trees haven't bloomed yet or anything. It looks all dead still. It was kind of weird, but still cool. There is a lake up there that we've walked around on Memorial Day before and it was still frozen over and covered with snow. We got a flyer for a cabin for sale up there, just for kicks. They want $1,650,000 for it. Yikes! Crazy! Anyway, we had a really, really good day. We are so excited for Harold to be home, and that he came home safe and sound. I'm grateful for all the troops who are serving our country. We owe them our freedom and I just want to say Thank You!

Promised Pictures

So I know I promised some pictures of Tiaree's baptism and Boise so here are some:



At the Discovery Center



Playing on the playground at Katie's school



Chillin: Bree, Jarik, Tiaree, Kyli, Keighlee



"Best Friends Since We Were Babies"




Tiaree and her Daddy



Our little family

I have to still find pictures from Tiaree's Birthday. They must be on the other camera somewhere. I'll find 'em and post 'em laters!!

Such a fun Saturday

So on Saturday I got to go hang out with some of my favorite people all day! I went and spent the day at Highland High surrounded by other Stephenie Meyer fans. We were there for a book signing for Stephenie's new book The Host. It's such an awesome book! I got to have her sign a couple of my books and I got to say hi for like 2 seconds. It was great. I loved meeting her but I also loved hanging with my TM's. They are some awesome ladies and I've made such good friendships through TwilightMoms.com. I've never had such an easy time making friends. I think it's because the springboard is there. We all love everything Twilight and so we already have things in common. After we get all things vampire out of our systems, we can talk for hours of everything else under the sun. I've never felt really at ease in a big group, I've always felt kind of shy and backwards, but Saturday I felt so comfortable. I was able to talk to anyone and have a good conversation. It was so fun! I guess it's the sense of belonging that I love. I've never had girl friends. Ever. When I make really, really good friendships they tend to move out of state! LOL Maybe I scare people! Anyway.... to have girl friends that I can call and hang out with is awesome. I can't tell you how excited I am to do more hanging out!!! So to all the TM's out there: I love you guys!! Oh and I love Stephenie Meyer for being the catalyst for our obsession! Here are some pics:



The TM's at the begining of the event, we probably doubled in size at the next picture but I didn't get one!



Pam, Me, Amy, Heidi,(Heidi's sister)
Tami, Summer, Amie and Laura



The Beautiful Stephenie Meyer

So Much To Catch Up On!

We have had a busy April and begining of May. It's been a bit crazy. Tiaree turned 8 on the 18th. I can't believe she is that old! We had a sleepover party for her. She had cousins and friends come over and have pizza for dinner. Then they got to make their own dessert. That was fun, they made little cupcake cookie things. Then they had treats and watched a movie. I had a chocolate fountain and they thought that was so cool. We made flavored popcorn and little s'more bags that had Golden Grahams, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows in it. Then for breakfast they had pancakes with strawberries and cool whip. I think she had a fun time. She is such a helper now and is so dang big! She is so smart and she just amazes me every day, when she's not driving me crazy!! LOL

The weekend after her birthday, the kids and I packed up and went to Boise for the weekend. I was really scared about driving all that way by myself. It actually turned out to be really nice. We stopped once to go potty on the way there, we'd been in the car for like 4 hours and it was the first stop. The kids did great. It was fast and easy. Then Keighlee threw up. I was on the phone with Tracy about an hour from Boise and all the sudden she just went at it. YUCK!! I had to wait for the next exit and then clean her up. I was by myself, pulled off at some middle-of-nowhere exit trying to clean a screaming, yucky 2 year old. But I did it! We had a good weekend and the drive home was a lot easier. We stopped for lunch and to go potty once going home too. And Keighlee kept her food in her tummy! I got home and realized that I can do the single mom thing. I'm strong enough and I can handle it, but I am SOOOOOO glad I don't have to. I'm glad I have someone to rely on, and count on. Someone who helps so, so, so much! Love you Tracy! I had a blast with Katie! I miss her so much and I was so glad we had 3 days of just hanging out and talking, with no where we had to rush off to. The best part was just talking! She is awesome and I can't wait until we can visit again!

Last weekend Tiaree got baptized. That was a very emotional experience. She is such a smart girl and knows so much about the gospel. Her little testimony is so strong. She decided for herself that she wanted to be baptized. She prayed and read her scriptures and learned all she could. It was such a nice experience. I bawled like a baby!! I just sat there and remembered the last time she was all in white. She was so tiny! She relied on us and was so helpless. Now she is strong and knowledgeable and she worked hard to do the right thing. I am so proud of her and her decision. I love you Tiaree!!

Well my next step is to get pictures of birthday, baptism and Boise up! I need to find them and get them off the camera's and then I'll post them here. Look for them later!