Thanksgiving, 5K Turkey Trot & Family Reunion

We started off the long weekend with our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Not all of the family were there, as Josh and Courtney spent the day with Courtney's family and Megan was enroute from New Mexico - leaving her family behind (sad face). We had great food, and great company.



We kicked off the Family Reunion with a "No Chickens Allowed" 5K Turkey Trot on Friday morning, after Thanksgiving. It was a good way to burn off the additional calories from the Thanksgiving over-indulgences. It was a beautiful morning to run, after a much needed rain. The kids did a 1.4 mile run, while the adults did a 5K. We all ended up at Emily Lyon's home for juice and bagels. Aaron Lyon came in first, and I came in last - woohoo - at least I was there, and I finished.




Yes, we had the Family Reunion to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday. There were 72 in attendance. We had wonderful time. It was so great to see my parents enjoy greeting their children, many grandchildren (15 of 24) and numerous great-grandchildren
(38 of 60?). We played a Jeopardy game with questions about Grandma & Grandpa, we had many photo ops with each family, then each family put together a scrapbook page. We presented the album at the end of the evening. We ate dinner, had a variety show, and then had cake and Hot Fudge Sundaes, per Isabelle's request. It was a perfect evening. Thanks to all who made the trek to Cali. The grandchildren came from as far as Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Nevada and Utah. I know it was a sacrifice for many, but Grandma and Grandpa are still floating on clouds over the magnitude of the event.

Sister Act + One Grandma

Here is our contribution to the Family Reunion Variety Show. We celebrated my mom's 90th Birthday with a gathering of about 70 family members. It was a wonderful time to see everyone and renew family ties.
Emily roped us girls into doing this parody from Saturday Night live that my granddaughter, Sara, had shown us. I made the snazzy aprons and Emily chose to be the "odd" sister. We are in order from left, Emily, Andrea, Laurie and Megan. And that is a pillow filling out my apron front! Anything for a laugh!
I will be posting more photos of our fun filled Thanksgiving, 5K, and Family Reunion soon.
Enjoy!

Isabelle turns 90!

First, I think it is fitting to show a photo of Thistles taken at Apple Hill a few weeks ago. Thistles are the flower of Scotland - a fitting tribute to my mother.
She turned 90 years old today. We will have a bigger celebration in a few weeks, but for today we took her and my dad to Chili's for lunch. We had a great time and she got to laugh a lot.
 

Me and my mom. She is pretty spry for a 90 yr old.
 













Me, my mom and Hannah & Ben (Jared's kids)
 













Great Grandma, Grandma, Mommy - Emily and Brielle. Great Grandma Isabelle was very pleased to have 4 generations there. Grandpa looked on with a tear in his eye.
 

It is such a blessing to have my parents live close-by and be able to share these times together. They are both blessed to have one another, even after 68 years together.
We are anxiously looking forward to our family reunion in a few weeks to celebrate my mom's 90 years. It will be wonderful to renew family ties with siblings and nieces and nephews.
A reminder to all ya'll to work on your VARIETY SHOW entry. We will also be making scrapbook pages, so if you are not attending, you can send me a 12" X 12" page with family photos(thanks Jenni for getting yours in). You may also send a 5 min or less DVD with your birthday greeting (thanks Mike H. for getting yours in).
She and grandpa still get around fairly well with their walkers. They seem to like their living conditions at The Courtyard Assisted Living. They go to Church with me every Sunday, unless one or the other is sick, which is not very often. They tire easily and are not as sharp as they used to be, but everyone who visits them from the ward comments on how fun they are to talk to, and what a great sense of humor they both have. Yesterday, the kind ladies from our Relief Society Day-Time Stitchers Group brought them both lovely lap quilts. Both quilts are works of art, made by loving hands. Thank you, dear friends.
If you'd like to leave a birthday greeting here, I will print them up and show them to Isabelle/Grandma/Great-Grandma.

Annual Bishop's Pumpkin Patch Trip

What a great place to spend the afternoon with grandkids. This place used to be one shack and a patch of pumpkins, when our kids were little. Now it has grown to several buildings, petting zoo, train ride, hay trampoline, railcar, 3 story treehouse, lots of things to explore, corn maze and yummy food. The Walnut Pumpkin Pie was amazing. We had a great time - albeit some puking in the car on the way there :( (poor Carter) Fortunately, we had a bag in the car, and some of the chocolate milk barf made it into the bag. The rest landed on me and Carter.
Enjoy the photos.

Labor Day Fun!

Micah, Sarah and the kids visited for Labor Day weekend, and we had a fun filled few days with them and the local kids and their fams. Here are some of the highlights.
Woo Hoo - bowling shoes!


Lacey was not about to let the big boys have all the fun!



Thomas the Train is a favorite with the under 4 guys


The sand table is a new favorite.


And, of course, Schwimmin is always a hit - with Weezer on duty as Lifeguard. Jackson and Lacey have some awesome swimming skills.


Thanks for coming, Micah & Sarah. We loved it!

Happy Birthday, Shmicah!

My birthday wish to Micah - keeper of all the family videos! Since he has custody of the videos, I couldn't get one of him for embarrassment. But I did find this gem of a photo. Too cool for words. Leave Micah a birthday wish. I hope he still has the knit pants!  
















And I did find this little snippet of Micah with Big Bertha out at Southridge.

Fun at Grandma's

The Lyon kids were teaching Ben and Hannah the fine art of "Timmmmbbbberrrr" on grandma's bed. It worked well when there were just 4 abreast. 5 was too many. Watch Brechin on the far left. He fell a little deeper in the forest. Do you think this is AFHV worthy?