Long Beach, WA

Over President's day weekend, my family and I went out to Long Beach for a little weekend get-away. Beverly and Neldon, my mom's aunt and uncle, reserved the weekend through their timeshare. The "adults" (Beverly, Neldon, my mom & dad) went out Friday while us "kids" (me, my cousin Zac, and my sister Ashley) came out Saturday. Us "kids" got to Long Beach at about 12:30 pm and had some lunch at one of the very few little restaurants in the tiny town. It was a very small restaurant that was a little pricey but the food was great! The "adults" were on their way back from the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment so they grabbed lunch on their own then headed back to the resort to wait for us to finish. Before we made it to the resort we decided to try a delicious looking ice cream shop. I had a sugar cone with a softball sized scoop of chocolate mousse ice cream. It was HUGE and very yummy!





Once we got to the resort I went and took a walk on the boardwalk with my mom and Beverly. I took some pictures of the ocean (as shown above). It was beautiful and decently warm for February!





While out on our walk I saw a bunch of seagulls and I was trying to get close enough to take a few pictures of them. As soon as I would get 15 feet away, all of them would unanimously start walking in the same direction away from me. I had just given up and was walking away when some guy randomly pulled up next to the seagulls, got out of his van, dumped a big bag of popcorn for them, then got back in his van and left. Now the seagulls were too distracted to notice me creeping up. I got some good shots but none topped this one of the guy leaving with a couple of seagulls trying to rip the bag out of his hand!


Sunday morning we went to attend the Sacrament meeting of the Long Beach Branch. It just so happened to be Branch Conference. I thought it was very peculiar that the chapel didn't have pews but just folding chairs. I there were only seven rows with another row lining the back wall. The total number of people (including those on the stand) were about 85. It was a very good meeting though! I found out afterward that the reason they don't have pews is because there is no gym and they use the chapel to have dinners and such. I'm very grateful for my WARD building!





Since it was Zac and Neldon's birthday the following week, we celebrated by eating steak and crab for dinner Sunday night. I did try some crab and just as I suspected, it was fishy and gross. I am definitely NOT a seafood person. Above is Ashley holding a nasty looking crab leg. We also had a very rich German Chocolate cake with Heath bar pieces on top. It was so good I wanted to eat the whole cake myself but one piece was enough to overfill me.





Monday was the most beautiful weather of the whole weekend. However, this was when all of us "kids" were leaving to get Zac to the train station in Longview and me and Ashley were heading home. Ashley had school the next morning and I had another babysitting job. I did my best to get Zac to the train station on time and we did make it with only a couple of minutes to spare. Unfortunately, right as he was about to walk on the train, the doors started closing. The attendant on the other side just shook his head as the doors closed completely and the train left without him. Are you kidding me?!! Come on!!! Zac needed to catch this train to get back to Ft Lewis where he is stationed and take care of some things before the end of the day. Since it was because I wanted to get the picture shown above that made us late, I drove him up to Ft Lewis. It was an extra hour up north then another two hours to get down to Vancouver instead of just one from Longview. It was a lot more driving than I planned but we all made it where we needed to go. The "adults" enjoyed the beautiful weather by renting mopeds and going to the delicious bakery in town. They came home on Tuesday and the little vacation was over. Back to normal life. I had a great time at the coast and can't wait to go back again!

Kid-sitting

For the last week and a half I have been gone watching other people's kids while they have been out of town. A couple that used to be in our ward (who moved when they built their beautiful palace home) went to Ecuador on a humanitarian service trip because he is a doctor and was providing care to the people there. They have 4 boys (twins age 10 and younger boys 7 and 5). The parents were gone for a little over a week and I stayed for most of the time. I was there from Saturday afternoon to the following Friday morning when another sitter came to relieve me for the rest of the time (until Sunday night). The mom planned it this way because the boys didn't have school on Friday and felt it was too much to have one person spend the whole week with them (even with them in school during the day) then spend another 3 days with them home ALL day. I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness.

I have done things like this before but never 4 boys at one time. It was quite the learning experience. I cleaned up the 7 yr old's puke my first night and everything involved with that, had all the boys stay home from church because of it (wasn't sure how sick he was), dealt with the office and his teacher on Monday because they thought he might have the flu (he didn't, he just made himself sick because his parents were gone), cleaned up the huge mess the boys made from decorating Valentine sugar cookies for FHE, took the youngest and 2 friends to an afternoon of "fun" (the jungle gym and ice cream), played chauffeur driving the boys to all of their extra-curricular activities or picking up the youngest and his friend from preschool, cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, did 9 loads of laundry, lots of dishes, and endless cleaning up. Wow! That wasn't everything! I had to remind the boys to practice the piano, take showers or give baths, help with homework, remind them to do homework, stop them from fighting too much, keep a close eye on the sneaky 5 yr old and deal with his serious tantrums, get them to bed on time and clean up their messes. How do you mom's do it? It's a good thing kids generally come one at a time. I used to think boys would be so much easier than girls but now I'm not so convinced of that. I did have fun and definitely learned some things about parenting.

Once I got back from kid-sitting the 4 boys, I spent a few days out at the Washington coast with my family (will post that soon). I drove straight back to kid-sit for another family with 3 boys. The oldest is 15 and then 11 year old twins. I was there Monday evening until this morning. Three was easier especially because they were older and didn't need as much attention. I guess I'm just not used to so many boys...especially because boys are just so rowdy and have selective hearing (very irritating at times). Selective hearing applies to husbands too :) I love you Jaren! I sure am glad there will be two of us when we have kids (the Lord willing).

I'm glad these couple got some time away where they didn't have to worry about their kids back at home. The kids were taken care of and hopefully one day we will be able to have someone we trust come and stay with our kids so we can have some get-away time!

The Countdown...

WAHOO!!! We are now at less than 4 months until Jaren comes home! (Hopefully) If all goes well. Counting down just seems to make the days go by slower so I will try not to keep track too much. Jaren is the sweetest husband and I'm so proud of him! I know I'm getting a little too excited but I'm already making plans for both his actual homecoming and everything after. :) What can I say...I just LOVE my soldier! Here are a couple of pictures of Jaren the day he graduated Basic Combat Training at the end of 2002. He was just 22 years old. He looks so young but what a handsome guy!

Jaren with his Drill Sergeant after receiving the "Soldier of the Cycle" award.

Elder Glover

Jaren's younger brother Tyson, got his mission call last September. He will spend two years serving in the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo East mission. I can hardly believe he's old enough! He was only 13 years old (almost 14) when Jaren and I got married! I went down to Utah on the 9th and stayed until we dropped Tyson off at the MTC on the 14th. It was a busy visit. To all my friends in Utah, sorry that I didn't get to visit anyone other than the Glover's. Ty is a fun brother-in-law. While Jaren has been gone he has been great at making sure I'm not bored and that I have someone to hang out with when I'm visiting the Glover's. He even took me up to The Canyons in Park City to go skiing that Saturday before he left. This was only my third time skiing and I knew it would be tough for Tyson who is so good at snowboarding. He loves to pack every minute of the day with amazingly fun stuff to the point where he won't even stop for food. That wouldn't fly with me...I made him eat with me at lunch time. I told Tyson that the first run down had to be an EASY run so I could get a feel for the snow. He took me on a blue or "more difficult" run. Within the first 20 feet I knew I was in trouble. I scolded him saying I wanted an EASY run and this was not it. He assured me it was...called me a baby...and persuaded me to keep going down the mountain (he wasn't as mean as this sounds). He didn't see me after that until I face planted in a foot of powder with one ski off and buried in it. He had to help me get back up. I only fell a few times throughout the day. I was scared to death mostly. He did take me down the bunny hill a couple of times after that first run. He was, of course, tortured the whole time saying it was too slow. He took me down a few more blue runs where I would end up at the bottom well before him. He couldn't understand how I got down there so fast but thought I must be doing well if I was in one piece. He decided to go ahead of me and watch me come down about the 5th run. It had gotten more icy by this point. I started off as usual trying to turn back and forth until I got going too fast to dare turn my skis for fear of losing all control. Tyson figured out why I always got down to the bottom so fast. That was the scariest run of them all. I watched him giving me the slow down sign as I flew by him nearly crashing into a tree and taking out another skier (while I was praying the whole time). When he caught up with me at the bottom he had a very frightened look on his face as he said, "I'm NEVER taking you down this run again! And next time you go skiing, you are wearing a helmet!" :) What can I say, I'm a beginner. I did tell him at the start of the day that I wanted something easy. It's a good thing I stayed on the bunny hill after that, it was too icy. It was quite the day. With car troubles on the way there, nearly killing myself several times on the slopes, forcing Tyson to eat with me at the Lodge, and even worse car trouble on the way home, it was still a great day and I had a blast! Sunday Ty gave a great talk and it was nice visiting with all of the family and friends that came. I spent Monday and Tuesday taking care of some business for Jaren at Utah State, labelling Tyson's stuff, packing his bags (3 times), getting the last few things he needed, doing family stuff, etc. Tyson is a great guy and I'm so proud he's out serving the Lord.

Me and Ty at his farewell "family gathering".

Blake, Kali, and I went to the temple with Tyson and his two friends who are leaving or already left for their missions too. This is outside the Ogden temple the day before he went into the MTC. (Tyson, Curtis, Spencer)

Outside the MTC before going in. We love you Tyson!

What a handsome missionary! Good luck Tyson!