Of Driving, Women's Conference, 90th birthdays, Denting Dad's Car, Sisters Reunions and Snow-time fun

April 29 - May 16

Well, in spite of my well made plans to stay home again this year and only have a "stay-cation", I was too excited to stay home and decided to take a trip driving my mom's van with her as passenger and my kiddos in the back.  Doing this in the middle of the school year could have posed a problem, but mweh, my kids homeschool so it was work, work, work in the car...and they did swell!  One day while driving they finished four lessons!  The next day was not as wonderful, but much was accomplished and after being on the road for so long they now have their multiplication facts nearly memorized (which our elementary school didn't believe was necessary), one of them has all of the state capitals memorized and the other only has about 5 that they get hung up on, and they both have their music terms up to scratch.  They now know about Mr. Bridger, how to make mice out of handkerchiefs, how to play one song on the ukelele, and that it's not a good idea to put your unwanted hamburger down the toilet because then you get to use the outhouse for the rest of the stay (yes, there are still outhouses operational at places we visit).


It was a fun trip but as always we are so excited to be home!  Usually when we come home we are greeted by Dad (Nate) and have a fun day enjoying each other.  This trip though, Nate was on a business trip so he was still gone when we got back.  So we took another impromptu trip to Bartlesville (because we're crazy like that) to visit Uncle Jon.  Happily the next day, Nate came home and so we are finally all back together again. 

Our drive out was pretty uneventful:

The day they finished four lessons - so dutiful!

Stopped here...just to take a picture.  It was cold!

Mom and I got to have some super fun Mother/Daughter time at Women's Conference at BYU.  It was our first time to be on that campus and we enjoyed ourselves.  It was nice to be able to chat with each other without the usual interruptions that life can give daily - phone calls, responsibilities that we both have, etc.  
Some of the classes we went to were on communication in marriage (but it could be applied across all relationships), prayer, enduring trials well and a few others.  While we were together, we stopped at a garage sale (which we both enjoy), at DI, Downeast Outfitters and stopped to look at the progress of the Provo Tabernacle (?) that the church is turning into a temple.
 I loved the time we got to spend together and was grateful to my mom for thinking of it (because with selling our house and homeschooling, I was kind of dragging my feet about going out to Utah for this...just a bit).   

Glamorous

This tree was gigantic!

Grandma Vickie, the kids and I all got to go to The Tabernacle and see Music and the Spoken Word.  They actually do record it as your watching!  It was so much fun to see and hear the orchestra and choir play so beautifully. 

We love to see the temple!

Siblings

Ukelele

90th Birthdays:  We are so blessed to have all four of my grandparents still living!  My Grandpa Eastman turned 94 this past Christmas day, my Grandma Eastman will be turning 89 on the first of August, Grandma Gillis will be 90 on August 24th, and Grandpa Gillis turned 90, May 3rd.

 Because the Women's Conference coincided with Grandpa Gillis's 90th birthday, we were able to be there for the fun family get-together.   I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy visiting with aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunt, great-uncle, and second cousins, etc.  He blew out his one candle on his cake, we watched a beautiful slide-show of his life, and he gave a wonderful speech.  During his speech he expressed his love for his "sweetheart, Dutch".  I've always loved my grandparents' expressions of love for each other and yet to see how vastly different they are from one another.

We were able to visit the Hogle Zoo.  My wonderful Aunt Annette got us in for free!  And it was the most perfect weather for a zoo trip.  The neatest thing at this zoo was their bird show.  They have a variety of different birds trained to come when called, etc.  It was threatening to rain the whole time and started sprinkling during the show, but what we saw was wonderful!

Rode an ostrich - check that off of my bucket list!

Relaxing on this elephant trunk.

Me and my Dad

I think I have a "vintage" picture of myself with this very same lion.

And he tried to eat my head when I got a drink too!

 Cousin Amiya!  We love her fun personality and vivid imagination!  She went with us to the aquarium and is riding scooters with Elise.  Cousin McKenna! So beautiful and kind-hearted, who is always ready to listen and be a friend.  We got to see her dance competition.  Cousin Livia!  Looks just like her Giselle-Mom but is tall like her dad.  She is fun and loves Legos and playing all kinds of games.  We got to see not one, but two of her soccer games.

Denting Dad's Car:  My dad and step-mom, Vickie, were so kind as to let me borrow their car to drive it to Salmon (about 5 hours) and back (about 5 more hours).  Unfortunately, as I was picking up my sister-in-law, Abi, I started backing out of the driveway and hit a low trailer.  It was a very sad moment and even worse was having to call my dad and let him know that I hadn't even gotten 10 miles away from his house before I dinged up his car.  I did make sure that I reminded him that I'd been driving for 20 years and that many of those years were with his cars...and this was the first one I've ever "wrecked".  It doesn't look too bad, but they can't just take a hammer and pop the bumper back out like on those old 80s vehicles.  :-(

Sisters Reunions:  Nate has 6 sisters and 2 brothers so can you believe that all 9 of us "sisters" actually made it to a get together for two nights and one-two days?!  It was really fun and nice to just be together.

All 9 plus "mom"; LtoR: Mandy Beyeler, Teresa Tibbitts, Abi Beutler, Audrey Tibbitts, Brenda Beyeler, Jessica Acosta, Amy Beyeler, Krista Beyeler, Meg Chesley, Liz Luke.

Left around the table: me, Meg, Mandy, Brenda (MIL), Teresa, Jessica, Abi, Liz

 We had pedicures by Abi.  This is the second in my lifetime - it was fun with so many other fun sisters. 

Mine would be the leg with paint on the pants...

Kerry has finally been able to start working on making his own boat.  When Nate and I were first married and Kerry and Brenda lived in the farmhouse in Pittsburg, KS, he had a model of a boat or ship in his garage that he wanted to build "someday".  Though I don't think this is the same boat, I'm glad he's finally able to get to do it.

 We helped plant some flowers at Nate's sister house - that was a fun activity and was quickly accomplished with so many people.

 Salmon, Idaho is probably one of the most beautiful places!  It rained for most of the day that I was there and from Nate's parent's porch we saw this beautiful promise.  The next day it snowed and while I do LOVE snow, it would have been more gorgeous if I didn't have to drive in it for two hours.  ;-)

The next time I saw snow was with Max and Elise and my mom as we drove to my most favorite place to visit, "The Cabin" (my Grandparents Gillis'). 

Upstairs I found this amazing piece of carpet that was part of the carpet that use to be in our home growing up!  Can you believe this awesomeness?  We loved it in our "playroom"!  It also had Chinese checkers and Backgammon on there and the hop scotch went all the way to 10 as it should.  

 This is my uncle's awesome outhouse.  Cute, right?  I'm not sure how it is on the inside though ...probably smelly as outhouses are.  (Max couldn't locate my grandparents' outhouse because it's attached to a shed which was locked, so he kept traipsing down to this one.)

They got over a foot of snow here (I think) but it melted pretty quickly.  Max and Elise had a lot of fun in borrowed coats and new gloves that turned their hands red and fuzzy. 

 We all love these beds that hang from the ceiling!

 On our drive home -  I-80 was closed due to snow and such.  Even after we they re-opened it, we inched along for some time in a long line of traffic.

Eventually we came upon a portion of road that was full of construction and traffic so we decided to exit and visit a place or two. 

 We stopped at Ft. Bridger and at Ft. Cody (or the place that Buffalo Bill Cody lived at one time). 

  After our drive home, we rested a day and then drove down to B'ville because my brother, Jon, turned 30!  Actually his birthday was on Mother's Day, the 11th, but we were still fighting snow at that time, so Thursday we made our second trip.  Down to see him.  We visited the park, because the weather was so amazing!  Then ate at a new restaurant, called Running Horse or something like that, and of course went to Braum's.  Yum!

Happy Birthday Bro!