Special People

One of the reasons we went to St. George this past weekend was to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday.  Linda is now 70 years old. I can't believe it. She does not seem 70 to me at all. Rinar and his siblings decided to throw a surprise party at the Golden Corral.  I was not really paying attention to the details of this shindig, so I was almost as surprised as she was.  

Rinar and I went over to their house. I fed Noelle and then we made our way to the restaurant. I thought that it was going to be just Rinar's immediate family.  When I went into the back room I was surprised by all of the people in there.  Linda's brother and many close friends came for the occasion. 

The tables were the farthest possible location from the front door.  Lynn did not want to walk all the way back there.  Luckily, because I can be kind of pushy and insisted they come to the back, they acquiesced. They didn't want to be disagreeable. I guess some times a strong personality pays off.  Linda did not suspect a thing and was really surprised.  It was a memorable moment. I am glad that I could be a part of it.

A couple of Linda's Hawaiian friends were there. One of them even brought a ukulele. When the lunch was wrapping up, the two of them sang a bunch of Hawaiian songs. It was quite nice.

Before we hit the road, we went to my grandmother's ward.  It was a blessing to be able to see her once again.  She is getting old. It must be hard. Grandma has a hard time talking and holding things because of her tremors. Her arthritis is really debilitating. It is hard to walk, stand, sit, and just move in general. She puts on a brave face and does her best, but I know it is exhausting for her.  But I really do cherish the little moments we get to have with her.

Like this one...

During sacrament, Grandma put Julia on her lap and admired the dolls Julia showed her.  What a lovely moment in time I never want to forget.

Grandma loves to be at everything and to be a part of our lives. I am so grateful that I have been able to have so much time with her.  We love Grandma!

And then it was a surprise to see Matt Holland and his family sitting in the back of the chapel. I caught his eye as I watched Julia go out to get some water.  Matt served with my dad in the bishopbric in Durham, North Carolina. He is the young one on the right.

I talked to them after church, Matt and his wife Paige. Matt is now the president of Utah Valley University.  Back in Durham, he was a PhD student at Duke. When my parents moved back west to Wyoming, we all went to lunch together at the Training Table in Salt Lake City. They are such a nice family and it was a highlight to reconnect with someone from long ago. I always love that. I really enjoy meeting people, making friends, and reconnecting with old ones. I think that people are what this life is all about.

The Grandma Rounds

We made the rounds this weekend in St. George. I will call them the grandma rounds. I think this many grandmas is making my kids' heads turn round!

Let's see, I have two grandmothers in St. George and now Rinar's grandmother, who has long been a fixture in Laie, Hawaii is currently residing in St. George. I never thought we would be able to see her before she passed on, but I was wrong. I mean, we can't just gas up the car and make a quick trip to Laie. At least, I don't know of any car that can do that yet. Maybe Steve Jobs is working on that as we speak.

Anyways, we went to St. George because Aislinn's daughter Jayde got baptized! Isn't that wonderful? She is now 8 and the room was packed with all of her extended family. Jayde's father has a lot of siblings with their spouses' and kids and there are five kids in Rinar's family. Everyone has young children, so let's just say it was a bit rowdy for her big day. But it was love-filled rowdiness. Isn't that the best kind?

Since we were all dressed up, we headed over to Kolob Rehab Center where Grandma Lillian is staying. She just went in, as she cannot live by herself anymore. She is practically blind and is suffering from Alzheimer's. I believe that a lot of the residents have this disease. We brought the kids to play a little concert for her with Rinar accompanying them on the piano.

They each played a couple of things they have been working on lately. When Zach was playing I heard Grandma tell her daughter Linda (Raef and Zach's grandma), "Does he know that he is really good?"

Grandma Linda confirmed that he knew he was really good. She said this a couple of times when he played.

Then Raef played the viola and again Grandma Lillian said to Linda, "Does he know that he is really good?"

Lillian asked many times who they were and everything and you knew that she wouldn't remember. However, she was thrilled that they came and played for her. She had a big smile on her face. She still seems pretty spry for her age.

When they were playing, there was also a lovely lady who parked herself in a wheelchair behind me and kept asking me the same questions repeatedly and by the way, she really likes Lillian! She told me that about 5 times.

When we finished at Kolob we headed to my Grandma Nell's assisted living facility to play for her. On the way, we picked up Grandma Wilma, my other grandmother. The kids played the same songs and Eli ran circles around them while they were playing, while Harry crawled everywhere. It was an entertaining show!

Of course we would put on an entertaining show, we are from Vegas you know.

Memorial Weekend

We had a lovely Memorial Day Weekend in St. George, Utah. I would first like to report that Eli is going strong with potty training. We were gone all weekend and he did great. I think he only had a couple little accidents.

We stayed with Lyf and his family in Hurricane. The kids had loads of fun playing with their cousins. I am so grateful that they get to play with lots of different cousins. I never got to know any of my cousins growing up because we lived so far away. It always made me sad. Now, they are strangers, in essence. I don't want that for my kids. It is a wonderful thing to be able to live closer to family. My kids definitely know all of their cousins well and they are some of their best friends. Here is Bryn and Mary Jane greeting us on our arrival. They were statues!


Julia got to experience a wonderful new creation...watermelon! She loving caressed the watermelon, admired the watermelon and ate the watermelon. Julia was on happy little girl.


We worked hard on Saturday and Monday cleaning up the condo and moving stuff in. I did a big yard sale expedition with Angie and I found some great treasures, including a $5 kitchen table. It was a little broken, but Rinar fixed it up. We also purchased new beds and I have tested them out. They work great.

On Sunday we went to church with Rinar's parents. It was awesome because Rinar's Grandmother C. was there! She has lived in Hawaii for a long time, but has recently moved here so that she can go to a long-term care facility. I gave here a hug and introduced her to some of my kids. She was very nice, but she didn't have a clue who we were. I didn't think she would. I missed out on getting a picture of her, but I will get one soon.

Since it was Memorial Day, I decided it would be a good idea to go visit Grandpa N. at the St. George Cemetery. I called Grandma N. and she came along. I am embarrassed to report that I have never seen Grandpa's headstone. That's right people. I have not gone back to visit his grave since the funeral. I always mean to go and I think about him all the time. I just never went and I never took my kids. At least now, I have proof that we have been. I just never worried about it because I know that he is busy up there doing important stuff, so he wouldn't be offended if I didn't visit his grave.

Then I realized I had never told my boys about Grandpa and how he died and everything. That was an interesting conversation as we were driving to the cemetery. You see, he was killed in a car accident about 5 blocks down the road and we drove right past it on the way to his grave. It was quite a show and tell moment.

Grandma is doing really well, see?


Before we left, Rinar and I went to the grocery store to get some flowers for Grandpa's grave. We took Eli with us. It was the cutest thing. He walked into the store and immediately grabbed a bag of Frito's corn chips. He hugged them like a teddy bear and carried them around. He was doing some serious shopping. It wouldn't have been my pick for chips but he seemed confident in his decision. He just looked up at us with that cute grin of his and we were hooked. Now I remember why I don't take my kids grocery shopping.

St. George Arts Festival Trip

We had a fun weekend in St. George for Easter. Rinar didn't work on Friday so we headed up to spend time with the family and to go to the arts festival. St. George has a wonderful arts festival. I really enjoyed perusing the booths and I even indulged in a few prints for our house. We drove over there with Grandma. We were hungry and headed to the food court and she just cruised the exhibits. The only problem was that we couldn't find her later on. We looked and looked. Finally my cell phone rang and it was Grandma calling from home. That's right, people. She walked home. My arthritic-ridden Grandma couldn't find it and hobbled home. I know I will be getting the granddaughter of the year for that, huh? She also lent me her cute blue sweater and I forgot to give it back to her. I hope it doesn't get too cold up there. I am just racking up the brownie points with her these days, I tell you.

At least I have cute kids that she can squeeze.


Eli had fun at the festival also. He has a cute little habit of holding beverages in the crux of his arm. He will walk around for hours holding it just like that. What a sweet little thing he is...most of the time.


Here is Zach in a silly picture.

We can't forget Raef.


Then we had dinner with Rinar's parents and the whole family. They have a pecan tree in their backyard and Raef went to town collecting pecans. He gathered an entire grocery bag full of them. Then he was cracking them and eating them.


So the only logical thing to do would be to make a pie...pecan of course.

I have to tell you what happened on our way home. We left unusually early on Sunday, around noon. I was anxious to get home and it is a pain to load and unload five kids all the time, so we pulled into Vegas around 2pm. I happened to look at the caller id and I noticed that there was a Hawaiian phone number that called two times in three minutes. I wasn't sure who it was, but I figured it could be a family member passing through at the airport. It happens all the time. If they have a big layover, we will go get them so they can hang out with us since the airport is very close to our house.

I call the number, which I usually don't do, and it was Beth, Rinar's cousin. Yes, she was really stuck at the airport... 16 hour layover due to a little miscalculation on her part. Just remember that Hawaiian Airlines uses military time! Anyways, we rescued her and she was soooooo happy. It was fun hanging out with her. She even got to take a three hour nap on our couch. I took her back to the airport at 12am.

There you go, Beth. Now you have made my blog as well! Make sure to tell your mom.