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Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Boys and Girls, get ready!!


Okay, so yesterday was wonderful. Work flew by. I had to run to Best Buy after work, but we'll skip the story because that was the only not wonderful thing about yesterday. Met Trav and Kassi at Grandpa's, and Auntie Kristine was cooking tacos. De-lish. Megan was there, working on some homework from school. (somehow I find joy when the kids have to go back to school. It's pure jealousy. Summer vacations are overrated.) We ate with the doors and windows open, and the breeze felt wonderful. After we cleaned up, Auntie Kristine, Megan, and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby (weakness). Megan had a notebook for Biology that she needed to decorate for a grade, so we had fun picking out stuff to decorate. On the way home, we stopped for some Have It Your Way frozen yogurt. Auntie Kristine spotted a baseball on the side-ish of the road and said it would be a good idea to throw it back into the field. Jessica was nomitated, and humiliated. Apparently the "field" was a littler further than I'd anticipated. Got home and made the cutest Biology notebooke possible. Dropped Megan off, and went home to bed.

Just a simple day with the fam, but sometimes those are the absolute best.

Speaking of yesterday, and it's perfectness...the weather reminded me of someone, and his name is Fall, and I miss him dearly.

Is anyone else as excited as I am about this up and coming (almost here!!!) season?

If yesterday wasn't a very solid reminder that it's just around the corner, I'm not sure what else could have been.

In fact, it was yesterday that reminded me *all day long* that it was time to go and get the Fall stuff out of the storage and let the fun begin!

(I know it's still a *tad* early, but I'm totally the proud owner of the house that you walk into from the hot, hot summer sun...and feel like you're in the dead middle of fall. Don't judge.)

How can I wait though??? I feel like a little kid at Christmas time. I can't pass up the home-y feeling that fall brings. The leaves. The smells. The crisp air. Football. Sweaters. Wubbies. --Even better...Grandma-made Minnesota VIKINGS Wubbies! The Holiday season. The opportunity to take tons and tons of pictures and they all turn out wonderful because everything is so beautiful. Raking leaves. Rolling in the leaves. And the colors.

Nope. I will never be able to contain excitement for this fine time of the year.

And yesterday, come back!! More please!!



Thursday, August 26, 2010

Internet. How I love thee.

I've been in Price this week, at the Holiday Inn.

Last night I realized a few things:
1- I'm blonde. (Trav's right about that, as much as I try to deny it.)
2- I think I'm addicted to the Internet.

7:30- Get home (to the hotel) from work, finish eating my dinner.
7:32- Crawl under the blankets because I'm a little chilly. (See: Ilovetobecold and ThisiswhatIdowhenIcan. The air might have been turned down to 58, but I won't admit I'm that crazy.)
7:33- Contemplate turning the air off. Decide against doing so.
7:35- Pick up my iphone and try to go into a new GPS app that I downloaded a few days ago to check it out.

--Realize that I don't have an internet connection and set my phone back down.

7:38- Get bored again. Pick up my phone and click on the apps store. (Keeps me entertained for hours.)

--Realize yet again that I don't have an internet connection and set my phone down.

7:41- Pick up my phone, and click on Safari. I had a brilliant idea to look up and save a bunch of wallpapers for the future.

--You know what happens next.

7:41- Watch a little TV.

On the first commercial- Pick my phone up again, and click on Facebook. Remember that I've picked up my phone to do something Internet related 4 times in the last 10ish minutes, and giggle a little.

At which point I decide to just *try* to get the internet connection to work so I can post something on Facebook.

Bad news: It took 15 minutes to post 10 words.
Good news: I felt accomplished, and kept myself busy for 15 minutes.




Thursday, August 19, 2010

Family Time!

The last couple of weeks have been busy, busy.

If you are going off what I have blogged about, you would quite possibly think the opposite. I have been slacking. Big time.

These last few weeks have been hard though.

I haven't really had the words to compile a post.

I lost my Grandma on August 3rd, and ...

See, no words.

I'm still working on that.

..

Before I get extremely behind though, I have tons of pictures!

(Double click on the pictures to see them a little bit bigger)

We've had a bunch of family come down recently, and considering the circumstances, we had a great time!

In the Wooten family, there's nothing more satisfying than a full house, 25 conversations going on at once, spending time together, reminiscing, and game playing. Oh, and watching the Nay Family Band play some music for us..we were able to enjoy that, too!













I was privileged enough to take on the annoying role of interrupting everyone and insisting they pose for pictures! I like the result though...it's totally worth the nasty looks and moans! (Just kidding, it wasn't that bad. But sort of like that.)





Harley, Auntie Boop, and Auntie Pam playing Parcheesi.




My bestest was able to come down for the weekend and meet all the family! She also brought some amazing enchiladas, and her little princess!

Speaking of her little princess, we all witnessed her throwing a tantrum fit.




I can only hope this is how my kids throw their fits. Quiet, and peaceful.



The last time I saw this much family at one time was way too long to even remember!! It was so cool to see all of my cousins, and how they've grown up!! We all enjoyed spending time together.



We played games...



Posed...(Grandpa and his girls)



Posed some more...(Grandpa and his boys)



Some more...



Take 1...



Perfected!



And BBQed in style.



...What, you don't cut hair at your BBQ's?

Weird.



And simply enjoyed each others company.

It was hard without Grandma.

She's always been the go-to person, the organizer, the glue, the shopper, the personality, the laughter, the complainer because we're not recycling, and well...the everything.

She was with us though, in a way that's going to be hard to get used to.

But still there.





Miss you all already, and hope the next trip is already in planning!



Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Sneak Peak--Family from California, Alabama, and Oregon!

...More pictures and stories coming *this week*!



Friday, August 13, 2010

5 years down, many more to go!

We met 12 years ago.
I thought he was a show-off at first.
He thought I only liked "Mexicans" (I remember the day I told him that. Seriously? I had to have been the coolest 13 year old ever..or so I thought.)
He moved to Idaho with his dad.
We hung out.
A lot.
I lied to friends to hang out with him.
I never told him I liked him.
After a couple of years, he moved away from Idaho.
We didn't talk for 3 years.
That sucked.
I went to a family reunion with his dad and he was there.
We picked up from there like we'd never stopped talking.
He moved to California for work.
He suprised me one day, and said he'd come back for me.
Five years ago today, he asked me to be with him.
Finally.
We love each other more than anything.
We love to fish together.
He loves Call of Duty.
I love Mario.
I love that he compromises, and plays Mario with me all of the time.
He probably loves that I compromise and let his dinner get cold while he finishes up his Call of Duty.
We love camping.
I love how he fits right in with my family.
I love how they love him.
We love our little doggie. (All 60 lbs of him)
We love our little home.
And our garden.
We love football, and can't wait for this season to begin.
We love music.
He loves my enchiladas.
I love making him laugh.
One of my favorite things about him is how he calls me every day, during his lunch break. We have the same conversation almost every time, but I look forward to those calls every single day.
He called me this morning while I was getting ready for work, and I was in a hurry (like usual) so I had to cut it short.
I feel bad.
At least he knows me by now, so I'm sure he didn't take it to heart.
Plus I'll talk to him at lunch :)
But still.

I love my Trav so very much.




Happy five years babe.



Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Travis and the biggest Albino we've ever seen!

While I was enjoying some quality girl/family time in Wendover, Travis was enjoying some quality family time with his mom, sister, and brother in Price! He drove down for the weekend and on Saturday they went fishing. As much as I don't want to admit that Travis caught a bigger fish than me...I must post pictures. (Thanks for the pictures/hourly updates Janet!! They totally made my day!)





He pulled this baby out of a little *stocked* pond for kids!!! One where him and I have fished before and caught little baby fishies!! He said a lady nearby measured it and it was 2.0 pounds! I think she's crazy though...it looks waaaay bigger than that! Trav and I agreed that her scale must have been broken ;)

(Insert jealousy here.)

(and here...)

(and once more here.)

I was so excited for him though, I could hardly contain myself! (He couldn't contain himself either, it was adorable.)

Here is where I insert my sweet, mushy, lovie dovie stuff...(the goods)
He called me to tell me how excited he was and I said "Man babe! I wish I was there, fishing too!" to which he replied "I know. The first thing I thought about when I pulled the fish in was how much I wished you were here!" (so I could rub it in your face)<-- I usually leave that part of the story out, because it's not relevant. The first sentence was the cutest thing ever.



A Special Wendover Trip

A few months back I was at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma had just brought in the mail and handed me a flyer. It was my very first coupon flyer from Wendover, where I had finally earned my free room Sunday through Thursday. (Exciting, I know) Grandma and Auntie Kristine also got one that day, so a trip was definitely in order.

At this point, we didn't know about Grandma's cancer. As far as we knew, she'd been saved by a miracle surgery where the cancer was taken completely out. We planned a trip to Wendover a few Thursdays away.

Fast forward a week, and our family was presented with the worst news a family could ever receive. Grandma's cancer had come back and now we had the Dr's estimate of Grandma's time left with us thrown at our face like a ton of bricks.

Plans were canceled, switched, moved, and remade to arrange for family to come and visit.

The Wendover trip was pushed to the 29th of August and as much as we all tried to make time go as slow as possible, and not wish for a fast tomorrow while trying hard to keep what was so heavy on our minds to the side so we could enjoy our time together, we were excited for this upcoming date.

Uncle Billy came down for a visit and we had a great time. (See previous post)

Auntie Kristine finally came home, with no return date. (Something we've all wanted for over 5 years)

Grandma just kept talking about how excited she was for our Wendover trip. I remember one day specifically where she'd mentioned it four times. She was so excited to get away, and forget about everything. Live in the moment.

So, Wendover came. Auntie Kristine brought down an electric scooter/chair type thing, and we brought that for Grandma. For the first time in almost months, she was able to do what she wanted, when she wanted. At first, it took some getting used to with all of the buttons and switches, and levers...but by the end of the first night, Grandma was a pro. You could see the joy glowing from every part of her body.

She started out slow, and by the end of the night sped up so fast that she was looking back (while driving!! :S) telling us to catch up!

She would stop and mess with about 6 buttons to get things just the way they needed to be when she stopped. (She was all about saving the battery)

She would even notify passerbys that she was "New to this" when they would join us in the elevator.

She absolutely loved the cart, and so did we.

Since we were there on a Thursday night, the casino was pretty bare, which was perfect. We had the run of the place, so we all stuck together. Grandma found her favorite slot machine, and we played around her.

We stayed up until 12:30 that morning, enjoying life...and the wonderful pleasure of each others company.

At one point, I was playing a nickel machine next to Grandma and some guy walked up next to me and sat down, starting a conversation. I answered with short answers, mostly minding my own business. After about 5 minutes, Grandma came zipping over and said "C'mon, let's go play these over here."

Thank God! Saved by the Grandma.

This is something she's famous for. Always watching out for everyone else.

The night ended, and Auntie Tammy took Grandma up to the room to go to sleep. Auntie Kristine and I decided then to play some poker. Grandma gave us each 50 dollars that night, and I saved mine for poker. It was special to me, and I wanted to see if I could stretch it. Well, stretch it is just what I did. That 50 dollars turned in to 1600. The most I've ever made playing poker. (We won't talk about the end result on this post...because it doesn't matter) What truly matters is how unbelievably grateful I am to have had this weekend with Grandma. I would have never guessed it in a million years, but this perfect weekend, would be the last weekend I'd ever spend with my Grandma. (I will be posting specifically about that later.)

Friday came and it was time to go home. Grandma didn't want to go home. We were having fun, and the worries had subsided. Auntie Kristine and I worked our magic at the poker tables (She came home with 800 dollars!!) and we were able to score a room for two more nights. If we wanted, we could have stayed the whole weekend. We stayed Friday night, and left early Saturday morning.

The drive home was quiet. Sleeping off and on, we were able to enjoy a sun rise (which I haven't seen in a very long time.) It was a beautiful way to end such a perfect weekend.

I will cherish this weekend for the rest of my life and I would give anything to have just one more, exactly like it.

Oh, how I wish that was a possibility.

Grandma was the first person to ever take me to Wendover, and I was there for her last trip to Wendover. Who would have ever known this place would hold such a special place in my heart. I am so thankful for that weekend in Wendover.

And gosh dang it. I miss my Grandma.










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