A new temple to visit

 

The Sacramento Temple is only about 15 minutes from my grandparents house so we drove over to walk around it.  I think it is a beautiful temple and while I like the Oakland Temple fine I wish Mark and I could have gotten married here but it was built in 2006 so too late.  Jared enjoyed walking around the grounds and playing in the fountain, of course.

 





1053 Entrada Road Sacramento, CA

This address has so many special memories for me. It is the address of my Grandparents' house in California. Sadly both of my Grandparents have now passed away.  My Grandad passed away in August of 2008 (luckily we got home from Egypt in time to visit one more time) and my Grammie passed away last week just a few days before her 80th birthday. (Also luckily we went out to California to visit in March so we got to visit once more and she got to meet Lydia)

 

My siblings and I spent hours playing in this yard. I always felt that my grandad made the best BBQ chicken.

We flew home last week to attend the funeral and then help my Mom start cleaning out the house.  I don't think I will make it to their house again.  It was a very nice simple service.  My Grammie was witty, proper and loving.  My grandparents were a great example of a happy, thriving marriage where they respected and loved each other. They were just classy people.  I feel I was really fortunate to have the chance to spend a lot of time with my grandparents. For my whole life they lived just 45 minutes away. We got together for all the major holidays and many of the smaller ones and many birthdays.  If we weren't at their house in Sacramento they came to ours in Yuba City.  It was like this with both sets of Grandparents as my dad's parents also lived less then an hour away.  Once I was in high school we often rotated Sunday Dinners one week at my Mom's parents house the next at my Dad's.  While I was at their house I took a trip down memory lane by going through their photo albums.  I raided them or all the pictures I could find of myself as a little girl and found some special ones with just me and my grandparents.  I wish Jared and Lydia could have the opportunity to see their grandparents as much. Hopefully we will get to live overseas and then come home for summers and then they will be stuck with us for weeks at at time!

I am so blessed to have had such personal relationships with my Grandparents. They will be missed.

7 months

Lydia is so happy and so ADORABLE! We flew out to California on the 23rd (thus the suitcase behind her) which was Lydia's 7 month mark.  She is super fun and cute. She loves to be tickled and loves it when we "eat" (say grr while nuzzling) her tummy. We love to do it to her because her laugh is so infectious.And cute. And happy.  She loves bananas and pears and eats really well. Lately she has been less satisfied sitting and likes to stand up. She is sleeping great and rolling all over the place. No crawling which is fine by me. It's nice when they are stationary.

She is happy to be in the big bathtub where she can splash, sit up or lay down.

She is one loved little girl.

2012 Olympics

We had a lot of fun learning about/watching the Olympics. We made lots of Olympic crafts and played some fun games.  Toward the end we made medals and after watching the United States Women's soccer teams' medal ceremony we decided to have our own medal ceremony.  It was fun. Jared loved watching the videos we could find. 

 Listening to the National Anthem.

Olympic ring cookies.

I added a whole small container of black icing and couldn't get it any darker then this. Oh well you get the idea.

Today we watched THIS best moments video and I am sure he will ask to see it again tomorrow.  I am not a real emotional person but often when I see medal ceremonies (for any country really) I get sort of teared up. I can't imagine being a parent of an Olympic athlete or competing at that level. Mark and I were talking about that and when we wondered when it was decided or determined your child would compete at that level and how much determination/committment it would take. Pretty intense stuff.  We sure had fun celebrating them though!
 And here is cute Lydia. Jared was jumping (safely, we only let him jump from the second one up) off our stairs and she thought it was hillarious.  I loved hearing her just laugh and laugh. Now Jared always wants her to sit over there so he can make her laugh as he jumps by.  I am savoring this time of them being such good friends.

A light at the end of the tunnel

The other night it got down to 59 degrees here.  Normally that would be pretty typical for a summer here but this summer it hasn't happened as much.  Since we sleep with fans on and Windows open we put the kids in a little bit warmer "jammas" (as Jared would say). It gives me hope, the cooler temperatures are coming and my horrendous allergies shoukld be gone in a month.  Hooray! You would think that living above 6,000 feet would yield more cool nights in the summer but this year has really been off for Colorado. Jared was really excited to have his picture taken with his crazy hair. He always asks Mark to give him crazy hair but has never asked me.  Good for them to have a special guy thing!



I love these cute kids so much, as Jared would say " I love you the moon and back!"

♥ ♥ ♥