The Last 2 Months

I've been in a blog slump........overwhelmed with life, I guess. A few friends have commented that I need to update. I couldn't agree more. Our family has had many experiences over the past couple months that are quite note-worthy, in my opinion. So here goes.......

Father's Day

What a happy bunch. Ruby the dog, was sitting at the end of the bed all propped up in a funny pose. It made everyone laugh SO hard.

The traditional breakfast in bed. It was actually about 11:45. We had early church so crepes had to wait until after.
Kori, Kelee and me at Kelee's cabin in Pinetop.
3 women and 12 kids........what were we thinking? Kidding, it was such a blast! Everyone had the best time.
We ate, played, ate and played some more. The only thing that we didn't do a lot of was sleep. At night, kids were strewn all over the house. By the last night, everyone crashed hard!
Ethan lost his front tooth......

A few weeks later he lost his other one. No more "Snaggle-Tooth." He won't miss that nickname.

Ella did a summer theatre camp called "That's Entertainment." She loved it. Travis and I were so impressed with how well she did on stage. She loved being up there! She was so animated and cute. She knew all the words and choreography. I loved watching her practice the songs at home with the CD they gave her. Ella is the last one on the top right.

Ella with Miss Jenee. I have known Jenee since junior high. She is a very talented lady!

Ella's cheering section: Ryan, cousin Parris, cousin Miah and Ethan.

Proud parents:
Ella's co-star, Miah.
Olivia with her friend, Peighten at a swim meet. They get up very early 4 mornings a week and do swim team.

3rd Annual Memorial Day Campout

Grandpa Adams cooking breakfast in his "kitchen." He always makes a hearty breakfast with pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, hot chocolate. He is literally Grizzly Adams and makes the trip so nice.

Everyone sitting around the campfire. My favorite part is sipping hot chocolate in the cold morning in front of the campfire. OOH, and the smores.
Ella and Olivia found an unfinished fort. They added some "homey" touches that took them all day!
Grandma Adams plays with the kids so well. They love it. She played a clothespin game that didn't go over well though. Everyone gets 5 clothespins attached to their shirt. The object is to get as many clothespins from the others playing.....the one with the most wins. My kids are bad losers and cried more than anything else.

My gang at the top of our hike. Ruby got so dirty. She knew it and seemed embarrassed by how dirty she was.
Our hiking group on top of the mountain.
We brought rope to make a swing for the kids.

My dad and Travis took the kids fishing to Tonto Creek one day. Olivia loves to fish!

Every kid caught a fish. They all wanted to keep them so we had lots of fish to eat that day.
Travis helping the twins practice hitting a target with the BB gun.

Ethan and Ella at their school program. They sang patriotic songs and poems. My favorite was "50 Nifty United States." They know all 50 states and in alphabetical order!

Ethan and Ella with their teacher, Ms. Matthew.

Ethan was awarded top Spelling and Math student in his 1st grade class.

Ryan graduates from Preschool:

Ryan has the best year with his buddies: Lincoln, Ryan M. and Sam. Miss Christi called them the "Party Bus" because we carpooled them all together each day. They had so much fun together!

Ryan with Miss Christi

Grandpa and Grandma Adams

Summer is HERE!

Travis took a fly-fishing trip with a few friends down the Lower Sacramento River. The fishing was just okay but the trip was a great one for Travis.

Travis with Josh, Shaun and Dennis
No, this isn't Travis' new girlfriend.......it's River Guide Brooke.
Travis with his brothers, grandma and dad at a BBQ get-together in our front yard.
Travis graduated from ASU Law School 10 years ago. To celebrate this anniversary, we meet his buddies from school in Vegas and rented a house for a few days. It was fun to catch up, reminisce, joke around and find out about each others' families.

On the second day, the girls went shopping and left the guys at the house. After an hour, they called and said Greg needed Jen. We knew something bad happened. Apparently, Mark decided it would be fun to jump off the roof into the "play" pool. He did so successfully, so Greg followed after him. He wasn't so lucky.

After over 3 hours in the ER, he found out he had broken both heels, had soft tissue damage, couldn't walk for at least 6 weeks and might need surgery. Mark felt terrible so he bought a used wheelchair at a thrift store. Greg and Jen have 6 kids and 1 foster kid back at home. Everyone was freaked out. Greg and Jen have great attitudes about it and took it all in stride.

What happens in Vegas does NOT always stay in Vegas!!!!

An update on our "Little Piggy." (not so little anymore) We are seeing how fat we can get him.
Ethan playing his first season of coach pitch baseball. He loved it!
Mother's Day.....

Next to my birthday, this is my favorite day of the year. Breakfast in bed, long nap, gifts. Travis and the kids take such great care of me. I received homemade gifts, cards and presents from Anthropologie. Way to go, babe! This is not Travis' favorite day. It's hard work but I appreciate and love every second of it. Love you, honey!
Olivia entered a local Cinderella Pageant. She did so well! She was beautiful and poised on stage. She played a piano piece, "Clare de Lune" by Debussy. She won runner up to top talent.

She was so confident on stage. I was so proud of her!
Her best friends came to support her: Kylie, Emily, Megan and Hannah.

BYU Women's Conference

I was lucky enough to get to go to Utah for Women's Conference on BYU campus. I love being in Utah. I grew up there and it is a very nostalgic place for me. It was unseasonably cold and snowed on us. This is the last day and the only day I remember seeing blue skies. Isn't Mount Timpanogas amazing? I miss those mountains.

I got to go with the greatest ladies: Tiffany, Kelee and Susan. We had such a blast shopping, eating, going to classes, movies, and talking.......boy! Did we talk. It was so much fun!

I met up with my mom near the end and went to a couple classes with her and her old BYU college roommate from over 40 years ago, Rose. They have kept in touch all these years!

Whew! There it is. A lot happens in our family over a couple months. I have learned my lesson.

I am so grateful for the experiences I get to have with my family and friends. I am so blessed.

I can't wait for the rest of the summer. We have lots more fun planned!

Much Ado About Nothing

Yes, that is me and Travis with Tom Hanks. This was one of the craziest, most surreal experiences I've ever had! Let me explain how we ended up here:

On Monday, Travis and I drove over to LA to attend the 20th anniversary of "Simply Shakespeare," a celebrity reading of a Shakespeare comedy that raises money for The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are the chairs of this event each year. We got tickets from Cameron and Peggi, Travis' brother and sister-in-law, because they couldn't make it. They got the tickets because they bid on them at an auction and fundraiser.

The reading was at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. We found a hotel on Priceline as we were driving into LA and stopped there to change and freshen up. The theatre was full of well-to-do, LA-based, upper-crust patrons. I felt a little out of place.......but was thrilled to be there.

We found our seats, we had great seats on the Orchestra level, and listened to the music of Jackson Browne while we waited for the show to begin. Then, Rita Wilson, Julia Roberts, Helen Hunt and Nikki Reed came out on the stage. They danced around then came down into the audience and then exited. They came back with the rest of the celebrity cast, including Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Keanu Reeves, Dana Carvey, Martin Sheen and other faces I recognized from TV and movies. They proceeded to do a script reading of "Much Ado About Nothing."

After a little while, some of the actors started making jokes and ad libbing a bit. Tom Hanks and Dana Carvey were the funniest. Dana Carvey did all his voice impressions of Pres. Bush and W. He did stuff from SNL and Forrest Gump. It was hilarious. One of the cast members pulled out a picture of Woody from Toy Story 3 and asked for an autograph. Tom Hanks did a small plug for the upcoming movie.

When the show was over, a dessert reception in the lobby followed. We hung out a while, hoping to see a few of the celebrity cast. I had just fixed a plate of treats, when Travis grabbed me and told me to put my food down. A group of kids and their leaders were being ushered back into the theatre. We joined them as if we were with them. They sat down on the second row and Tom Hanks came over to talk to them. We waited until he was done, then I said, "Mr. Hanks, my sister-in-law gave me her ticket and all she asked me was to get your autograph and a picture with you. Would you mind?" Tom Hanks was so kind and friendly, and invited us up on the stage. He talked to us for a couple minutes and was extremely engaging. It was amazing!

This is me with Rita Wilson and Jackson Browne (musician). Rita is such a sweet lady: (do I look a little giddy?)

Travis with Ewan McGregor (Travis wished he had a light saber for him to autograph):
Me with Keanu Reeves:

The whole cast on stage: (check out Julia Roberts on the far left)

Nikki Reed is in the center (in a dress) and Dana Carvey is far right:
Is that unbelievable, or what? Man, it's so much fun hobnobbing with the rich and famous.

Sign me up to do it again next year.......

a great update

It's that time again..........I know lots of people wonder and don't want to ask, but Travis had his semi-annual MRI and check-up this afternoon.

The past week both of us have felt a bit anxious. I didn't expect anything but good news, but the not knowing can get to me a little.

Thankfully, the news is FANTASTIC........the tumor looks to be about 40% of the original size!!! It's behaving very well.

Travis feels SO good. Life is great, work is busy, our family is happy and everyone is healthy and well. In fact, when concerned friends and family ask, "How do you feel?" honestly, that puts Travis off a bit. Only because he feels completely normal. That tumor doesn't affect how he "feels" at all. We just happen to know it's there.....that's all. Unfortunately, it's hard for others to not let a "brain tumor" define someone they know. "Oh, you know he has a brain tumor, right?"........that kind of definition.

Sorry, I just had to mention that. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all our friends and family. We are so grateful for the concern and love sent our way. We still appreciate your continued prayers and welcome lemon raspberry bundt cakes. But for the record, Travis is the same Travis and except for our knowledge of the tumor, life is business as usual.

We are truly full of gratitude for this blessed news! Thank you to our wonderful network of supporters......we love you all so much! Most of all, we are thankful to our Heavenly Father....He continues to bless us. We know he loves us and watches over our family.

when life gives you lemons.....

we have a lemon tree in our backyard.

it has been a good little lemon tree since we planted it 7 years ago.

the first season it gave us about 2 lemons. the next season it gave us a few more.

Then, a couple seasons later all the blossoms blew off during a terrible storm and we had no lemons that year.

but this year was different.

I wish i had a picture of all the lemons we picked......typical of me to think of these things after the fact.

we picked literally hundreds of lemons over the weekend.

it was amazing........aren't they beautiful?

travis bribed the kids to finish the job....2 dollars each. our youngest was the most motivated

so if you are one of the lucky ones to receive a bag of these lemons, enjoy!

if I haven't made it to your house.......i still have lots left! Just let me know how many you want!

by the way, I think my kids will be doing a lemonade stand later this week.

is it too cold for lemonade?