altogether

we all met over at mom's house last week. it's been years it seems since we've all been together...especially without spouses. it wasn't exactly for a fun reason, but one that we all needed to be there for. we were there to talk about mom and how safe she is in her home and what were the options for her in the very near future. she's forgetting things and i'm worried about her being alone all winter in her home not to mention her driving. we started with prayer and assured her we wanted the best, but maybe staying alone anymore wasn't the best. we've seemed to circle around her desire to stay as long as she possibly can for so long that she doesn't really get that if we wait too long she won't get to decide or have options.

getting old is hard. and making decisions for your parent that they don't want is even harder.

we went through all the options we could think of and after an hour or so she finally realized or at least consented to the idea that she couldn't stay by herself much longer. 

so she'll stay with jen for a while and maybe jeff's and then by january move to the harrison regent. i know it scares her. i know we've all worried about it and have possibly worried more about our decision. 

dad...could you just come and get her?  

My week of painting

after three full days of painting it's done and i love the color (which is usually not the case for me!) chris was a ray of sunshine as she came one night around 9 and stayed until midnight. she taught me the right way to stay entertained while painting. i was listening to some serious book on tape.... no, no, no she said. get your laptop and play a funny DVD that you already know. so we 'watched' Hitch as we painted - stopping of course to watch the dance scenes. it was soooo much more fun! i'm glad to know i've raised such wise children.
 

summer concert

we spent the evening rocking out to train at the free summer concert. the weather was perfect, the kids loved it all, the music was loud and it was fun just people watching. another magical summer moment again.

abi's birthday

 this evening we all got together to celebrate abi's 2nd birthday. she loved her gifts but the highlight was going downstairs, turning off the lights, turning on the little disco ball that had gotten and dancing! abi was in the middle of it all just loving it!

summer blessings

friday night mc spent the night with me since jon and celeste had a night in the city thanks to her work. we had such a fun time together...dinner at mcdonald's, playing out in the backyard and stories. he is such a pleasant little boy to have around that it was just a joy. 

sunday morning bekah and i went to the conference center and enjoyed the spoken word live. i knew we'd have some 'wait time' so i taught her how to do sudokus which she loved. we both sucked on a werther piece of candy to see who could make it last the longest....and i won.

monday i weeded this mess and then jen and i bought some bushes, tarp and mulch to make this area nice for mom. then we went to lunch at rainbow gardens. there's nothing that feels as good as service. mom was so happy.

wednesday tanya, colleen and i hiked up to elephant rock...i love that hike. it's green, the views are amazing, and as always we had a great discussion. i'm always inspired when i'm with these two amazing women. we had breakfast at ruth's diner so the morning was perfect. the afternoon was spent in carol's pool. i can't believe this summer!! everyday is just kind of magical.

San Francisco

i had such a fabulous weekend with mary and shawn in san francisco...i got to bike ride across the golden gate which was such a dream. just being with marry was such a treat. we sat on a bench by a little dock in salsalito and talked and ate snacks and talked about what a perfect moment it was.

we rode back on the ferry, rode through all the piers, had a fresh crab salad sandwich while listening to a sidewalk singer, then ate ice cream at giradelli's, walked the gardens around a golden dome, drove down lombardi street, got to see the oakland bridge sparkle and finished the day by getting charros on treasure island at charlie's. 

perfect day.....all of it!

 saturday shawn joined us and we drove down to capitol in their fun little mini cooper..top down of course! my favorite part was singing old songs together....beach boys, huey lewis, michael jackson, yes, we were definitely in the mood by the time we got to the beach.

 lunch was right on the beach and d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!!! onion rings to die for....i definitely didn't want to share them. (but i did)

then after playing on the beach, watching surfers and getting ice cream cones we cruised home to watch....

'what's up doc'.....or course! 

sunday was so good. shawn sang in a quartet in sacrament meeting, then i got to hear shawn teach the 15-18 year olds, (he's a fabulous teacher) and then mary's lesson in young womens (equally as fabulous). we watched the last game of the world cup and had a wonderful discussion in the evening. pure bliss.

monday was sadness...
i had to leave. 

can't wait to go back.   

i hope it's soon!

BELIZE - part 2

 belize is the only central american country that has english as it's offical language although they speak spanish everywhere. it's a very poor country that's major industry is tourism and growing sugar cane. i loved the bus trips we had so i could see the countryside and how people live.

our weekend excursion was off to go zip lining through the rain forest. we got to go on 8 different zip lines and rapell down at the end. it was incredible!

then we hiked through the rainforest to go cave tubing where we had to wear headlamps since the caves were pitch black.

the next day we took a boat trip down a winding river (where we saw a crocodile in the river) to lumania, some ancient mayan ruins.

                        the view from the top of the ruin

these stairs were soooo steep!

making good progress

the students were all so sweet and loved playing soccer with the hefy kids. i loved hearing their clapping songs and handing out candy to them.

 

my favorite part of the ride

 

last reflections on the dock before we go

view from the top of our hotel....good bye humidity, good bye bottled water and bug spray but most of all good bye to a fabulous experience - one that i will never forget!

BELIZE!

time to finally catch up!! it's probably been over a month since i've written. 

so... i went of this fabulous trip with H.E.F.Y. which stands for Humanitarian Experience for Youth. mary was the trip leader and we had 20 kids, 2 team leaders and 3 adult coaches.

this is part of the group in the salt lake airport

on the first day we went snorkeling which was my first time. i was amazed at the beautiful fish and especially the sea turtles

we got to sail on this big catamaran and were serve the best pico de giyo i've ever had...plus grilled bbq chicken, potatoes and coconut tarts....sooooo good!

we came from all over the country to help build a school, which would be a one room cinder block room. we started with shovels and pick axes to dig trenches

the first day we all wore our hefy shirts....mainly for pictures!

we dug buckets full of rocks and sand and then mixed them all in a cement maker. we dumped wheelbarrows full of cement into the trenches, cut and wrapped rebar and mixed mortar with shovels.

my first graders had donated books that i gave to the students there

i spent time each day helping kids to read

snack time was spent here where we could fill our water bottles and have our beans, rice, chicken and cole slaw lunch.

 after we had the bricks three high we filled in the area with dirt, watered and pounded it down and then covered it all with more cement to establish a foundation.  

i loved spending time with mary. she was a great team leader.

 

camille crawley was our other team leader...who was a lot of fun to be with.