Happy Birthday Darbo!

Today I have Dustin chilling with me for the day. I so wish I didn't work on days like this.

See it would have been Darin's 47th birthday today.

Dustin and I are making Darin a birthday cake. Roo has an amazing cake planned. We just executed making the bottom tier of it.

Now I have to go to work.

I wish I could just be home and play and make cake with Roo. He NEEDS it today.

We sure do miss Darin.

P.S. I was able to make a great cake with Dustin after an hour of work. It turned out cute and tasted delicious!

Grandpa Great

We have had so much happen in our life lately, I don't know how to post about it all!  I do however need to post about our wonderful Grandpa Delton Robert Hawker.  Today, at age 86, he passed away.  Almost 12 years ago, my grandpa passed away.  Shortly after, we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Hawker.  Grandpa made me feel so loved.  He reminded me so much of my grandpa who had just died that I just completely let him feel the void of having lost my last grandparent. 

All of Ben's grandparents have been AMAZING grand and great grandparents.  I love them all so dearly, yet Grandpa always held this special place in my heart.

Today as we sat in Sacrament meeting, I felt Grandpa Hawker so strongly.  My mind suddenly flooded with all the times we went to visit him.  His sweet, loving hugs and his "we sure wish we could see you more.  We love you" said with his scratchy, deep voice.  A few moments later we received a text message we knew was coming soon...Grandpa had passed away.

It is a good thing.  He has been in pain for a long time.  He has been stuck to his chair in his home for far longer than he wanted.  He loved to be out doing.  I am so grateful that I got to have him as my grandpa for almost 12 years.  My children are so lucky to have had him as their Great Grandfather.

Grandpa shared stories of the war time with me.  He shared his love for his donkeys with me and my children.  Grandpa had a dog named Pup.  Until he died, Pup went everywhere with Grandpa (even on the 4 wheeler).

Grandpa loved airplanes and passed that love on down to all his sons, grandsons and really all his grandchildren.  All his sons have pilots licenses, many of his grandsons do and I have heard many of his great grandsons and grand daughters talk of the day they will get their licenses.

Grandpa LOVED John Deere.  He loved John Deere anything!  He collected pocket watches, and his favorite was the John Deere.  Grandpa had replicas of all the different John Deere tractors.  He could tell you what year each replica was made of and what was great about it.  He should have been a John Deere tracker salesman cause he had a pure love for them...and he shared that love.

Grandpa loved his grand children and his great grand children.  One of Ben's cousins was born with spina bifida.  Grandpa learned that it could be good for Ben's cousin, Cory, to ride horses.  Grandpa had lots of land.  He went out and got a Donkey named Shasta so Cory could ride her.  I am not sure how often Cory rode Shasta but I know that Grandpa sure loved that Donkey.  Each time we went to visit, Grandpa would take us out to see his donkeys (he later adopted another donkey, which was pregnant and so Grandpa ended up with 3 donkeys at one point). 

Sometimes Grandpa drove his little silver truck down to the pasture that held the donkeys, but most of the time you would find him on his 4 wheeler driving down.  He would put the great grandchildren on the 4 wheeler with him, Pup would jump on the front or run beside the 4-wheeler and off we would all go for the adventure of seeing the Donkeys.  My kids LOVED it!

I will never forget the time we went up and Grandpa climbed down on the floor (this was before his knee replacement surgery and when he could get up and down).  Katy was down playing with toys and Grandpa climbed right down there next to her and played along side her.  Oh Katy thought she had struck gold.  That memory is a treasure.  I tried for a long time to see if I could find a picture of it, but I don't know if I actually took a picture or if I just etched it into my brain so strongly I thought I had a picture of it!

On a visit a couple years ago, Grandpa sat talking to us for hours about his love and worry about his children and grandchildren.  I really started to understand how tender Grandpa's heart truly was.  It broke his heart to see his children and grandchildren suffering with life.  He shared his concern for his grandchildren with disabilities and his complete love for all of us.  He had to put on the gruff exterior to protect his loving, fragile and tender heart.

Grandpa always had an opinion and he would share it.  I remember one time about 8 or so years ago, Grandpa was talking to his neighbor and his neighbor mentioned something about loving his dogs as much as anyone could love their children.  Grandpa thought the guy was off his rocker and as the guy was talking about how expensive dogs were and kept comparing them to children, Grandpa finally had enough and he turned to the neighbor and said, "When you have sent your dogs through college, then we can start comparing."  LOL  That line still cracks me up (and I think of it often as people talk about being "pet parents"...that line always comes to my mind).

As a side note - the picture at the very top of this blog post was taken about a year earlier than the pictures below...however Grandpa was in his same shirt, in his same chair, with the same John Deere Tractor blanket on it...I just love it!

Grandpa loved and served everyone.  I always felt so much love and acceptance from him.  It took me years to feel loved and accepted by Ben's family yet with Grandpa...it was instant!  I am so grateful for that.  I am so grateful to have gotten to known such a wonderful, kind hearted man.  He had a gruff exterior...I think that was to protect his soft, kind heart inside!  Grandpa Great will be sorely missed!

Paradise Vacation

AMAZING!  That is what I need to say first and foremost.  It had been so long since we had a good long vacation.  On top of that, St. Thomas and St. John are such beautiful and amazing islands.  It was so relaxing.  I don't have enough good to say about it!

We left for St. Thomas on Wednesday January 09.  We originally planned to leave on the Thursday night, the 10th but the flight looked better on the 9th so we headed out.  We came back on Tuesday January 15th.  Ben, Katy, Lyse, Jana, Dave, Tayler, Brookie, Dustin, Mom, Dad and I were the ones that went.  It was sooooo fun!

This was a last minute planned vacation.  Jana got a vacation rental in St. Thomas and Jetblue flies there so I didn't have to pay a cent to get there.  We had so much fun.  We didn't get to our room until almost 6 pm on Thursday night, so we honestly did not do much that night.  Our big adventure was finding a baby rat in the POOL when we got there.  The kids all jumped in the large, beautiful pool.  They said, "There is something in the Pool.  It's a mouse.  It's a dead mouse."  I looked in and saw the baby rat swimming away and said, "Nope it's alive" as all the kids were screaming and running out of the water!  Ben got the pool skimmer and grabbed the rat.  He was kind (? I guess?) and released the little critter by the beach.

Now I was thinking, "cleanliness"?  But honestly that little rodent was the only unclean thing I saw in our resort.  It was VERY well kept and there were even some cute, kind and well cared for cats that ran around the premises (I am sure to keep those rodents under control).

Our rooms were amazing!  We had the most amazing views from our patio.  This is what we got to wake up to each morning!  Down a few stairs and we were at an amazing bay on the Caribbean Coast.

We had a great 3 room unit.  It had a fully stocked kitchen and we were able to really keep the price of this vacation down due to the kitchen and a few grocery store trips.

Friday we spent the day at the beach outside our room.  After a while, Jana and I went and picked up our parents from the airport. Ben, Dave and all the kids stayed at the resort to play.  Mom and Dad's luggage was lost so we ended up being at the airport longer than planned (about 2-3 hours).  We didn't get back to the room until later that evening.  Ben, Dustin and Lyse were all snorkeling down in the bay.  They were able to see many fun conche shells as well as a sting ray.  They loved it.

Saturday we spent the day at Coki beach.  For Christmas Ben and I got an amazing tree hammock.  That hammock was hung on many beaches and fully enjoyed!  At Coki Beach I was rather sick, so most of my day was spent wrapped in a blanket in the hammock on the beach enjoying watching Ben, the girls and my family play in the water.  It was rather relaxing for being sick! :)

I did go out and snorkel with Lyse, Ben, Katy and Dustin for a bit.  It was fun and the water was warm.  Lyse LOVED snorkeling. Wow that kid loved to snorkel and she really loved the snorkel power units my parents have to pull you around in the water.  At one point she took off on one and was clear out in the bay with the unit.  Scared me to death (and every other adult) and it was my fault cause I told her to take it and go out to her dad.  She just headed the wrong way and rather than heading to Ben on the side of the bay, she headed straight out into the bay.

The day at Coki was amazing but cut short when a storm blew in, we decided to pack up and head out.  We stopped at fruit stands and purchased some yummy mangos, bananas and papaya to make fruit smoothies and then headed back to the room.  The kids went down to the pool for some more swimming and I took a nap then helped with dinner.

The Sunday I REALLY REALLY wanted to go to St. John Island.  I finally convinced everyone it would be amazing and worth it so we took the 5 minute drive to Red Hook to catch the barge to take the minivan (that technically seats 7 but had 11 in it) over to St. John.  I said I would pay for it to go across so I stressed BIG time it would be like $100 or more but it ended up being $45 total and we didn't have to pay for the people so it was just over $4 per person to go across to St. John.  My dad and Jana also helped pay and so it was only $20. 

St. John was so worth it!  It was GORGEOUS!!!!!!  We went to Trunk's Bay Beach and it was the most beautiful beach I have EVER been on.  I had been really sick all day Saturday but I could NOT resist the water on Trunk's!  It was absolutely AMAZING!  It was warm water, beautiful sand.  It had pretty good snorkeling.  I guess the waves were bigger than normal but the big waves were fun!  We spent hours out in the water playing.  As we were playing, a man with a paddle board came by.  Dustin asked if he could ride and the guy actually handed over his paddle board for the kids and Ben to play on!  They were in Heaven!!  Ben had always wanted to paddle board so I was so grateful he go to do it for a bit!

Trunk's Bay was my favorite little piece of paradise!  I could spend days and days and DAYS there!!!

That night as we got the car back on the barge, I looked out over the sun setting sky and I saw a HUGE sting ray jump out of the water and flap it's wings.  I was amazing and yelled for everyone to look as the beautiful creature jumped out a second time.  A funny islander man said, "Stupid Eagle Ray thinks he can fly like a bird".  LOL  made me laugh and I was in awe at the beautiful, amazing creature I was able to see.  I seriously at first thought it was a dolphin because it was so large.  I am so grateful I got to see that moment.  It just made my day!!

Monday once again I was really sick after spending the day in the water.  We went to Meghan's Bay (another beautiful beach).  The family all loved spending time in the water jumping the large waves.  I avoided the water because I just was not feeling well.  Lyse and Katy earlier in the day told me they would not be putting on swimming suits because they "hated the beach and did not want to swim".  It took them being at the beach about 2 minutes to come up and ask where the swimsuits were at and how they could get in the water!  Silly girls!  I loved watching everyone play and wished I could be out there.  As the group was getting ready to go I thought, "that's it.  This is once in a lifetime, I am going out to enjoy for a bit".  I was not going to get my hair wet or ride the waves like they were.  Lyse was actually riding Ben's back while riding the waves.  He was her "surf board" and she loved it!  What an amazing Daddy he is!!!!  As I climbed in the warm water I wished I didn't feel so cruddy and could have enjoyed this all day.  I managed to play in the water for a long time.  As I turned my back to watch Ben, Lyse and Dustin ride a wave, a large, LARGE wave broke over me and Katy.  I was fully wet and lying sprawled drowned eagle on the sand.  Lovely! :)  I was rather embarrassed that it seemed like EVERYONE on the beach saw my knock out!

After leaving, we went back to our Resort beach and played on the kayak.  As we were down in the water, a lady told us of a turtle.  We searched for him for a bit but never saw him.  As we headed back many snorkelers told us of the sting ray.  That was it, I HAD to snorkel.  Afterall, I couldn't get more sick right?!?!  So I quickly borrowed my mom's snorkel gear (she was out there snorkeling with my dad).  I got to see the sting ray.  It was amazing!!  We got our snorkel gear and Ben and I snorkeled out in the bay until it was too dark to snorkel any longer.  We saw all sorts of beautiful coral and fish.  It was gorgeous!  We also saw a crab in a conch shell and fish that looked exactly like sand.  It was truly amazing.

We finished up the night by warming up in the hot tub then going to the room to pack.  I had promised Katy we would try to go shopping and later that night we headed to Red Hook to see if anything was open to shop.  It wasn't but we did get an ice cream cone and saw a fight go down between to Isalnders at the restaurant "Taco Hell".  We headed back to the room to go to bed.  It was so sad to know we had to get up early in the morning to leave.

Tuesday morning we got up super early and loaded 16 bags and 11 people in a Dodge Caravan.  I will post the video of this on my blog.  It was hilarious to see us all get out!  We left at 6 am and got home after midnight (it was soooo cold our starter motor on our car was actually FROZEN and many prayers finally helped us get it started so we have a working car).  We went from 75 degrees to 5 degrees in 1 day.  Oh I miss that 70 degree difference.

Our vacation was a TRUE paradise vacation.  I loved it.  It was so relaxing and enjoyable.  Everyone left looking forward and making plans to do this again next year!  It was GREAT!!!  I will post more pictures as I get more uploaded!  For now, I am going to bed.  See I came home and was REALLY sick when I got up.  Went to the doctor and I have bronchial pneumonia and a sinus infection.  I did decide I much preferred being sick in Paradise of St. Thomas and St. John than being sick in the cold of Utah!

Bittersweet Pictures

Our Terrabyte External Hard drive is Full!  Yes FULL of 8 years of photos and other important docs.  A lot of the photos got saves in 2 locations on the hard drive so we have been going through and deleted dupes and unimportant stuff.  WOW it has been a walk down memory lane and man alive my kids have grown up :(

Here are a few of my favorites I have found so far (there are soooo many I have only went through a couple folders...these pictures range from May 2007 to July 2010):

And the Sun came out!

Monday was hard.  DANG hard.  After a morning of really struggling and I finally was able to pick myself up, say "oh well" to the gas money that would be spent and I headed up to the zoo with the kids.  I have a free season pass to the zoo so I figured I would use it.

We headed out the door and although we didn't have long at the zoo, it was fun!  I loved the new Rocky Pointe with all the bears as well as seals and sea lions.  It was fun to see the new area.

The weather was PERFECT for the zoo.  Seriously, PERFECT!  It was warm but not hot and it was sunny.  We laughed and giggled as we watched the grizzly bears play with each other and the kids of course loved watching baby Zuri (the elephant).  Lyse was DYING to get to the reptile house to see the snakes (where did I get this kid from?) and well we were just happy to be out and enjoying it all!

 Lyse with Zuri the elephant behind her!

 Katy and Lyse - there is a bear in the corner behind them!

Katy and Dustin - the grizzly bears are playing behind them.

Dustin, Katy, Lyse and Millie with the Giraffe!

Monday night I told Dustin that I needed help digging a hole in the backyard for a fire pit.  While we were at the zoo, Blue Stakes had come so I was able to legally dig my hole.  I went out and started it with him and showed him how.  After a few minutes, I went back in the house.  Jana came and got him and he was like, "tomorrow we will finish that".  I laughed a little to myself cause I was thinking, "That is a big hole we have to dig still dude!"

Tuesday was a hodge podge day but when I finally got back home around 5:45 in the evening, Dustin was with me and ready to dig that hole.  Dig he did!  I went out and helped along the edges but man alive that kids is strong and a good solid worker!  He got the hole dug and we put the rocks around the edge.  We had a fire pit (I honestly thought it would take a few more days!!).

My goal in this pit was to do it without Ben.  Ben and I went to the home depot and used a gift card we had there and bought a $4 bag of gravel for the bottom of the pit.  Ben carried that out to the car.  That was the extent of lifting Ben was required to do in this project!  I even carried the 60 lb bag from the car to the back yard and put it in the pit!

It was soooo peaceful last night sitting out there enjoying the fire pit.  It isn't a fancy pit but it is awesome!  It provides exactly what I wanted back there.  We had several neighbors stop by for a few minutes and come talk to us.  It was GREAT!

Now for the pictures...cause I am sure that is what you are wanting to really see!

Roasting the first Marshmallows!

Ben working on getting the fire bigger.

First Fire!

I got it all ready to start the fire :)

Dustin placing the rocks in place!

Ben playing with fire

My sweet Dustin digging the hole!