Dear Ol' Davis High School...

It's hard to believe my friends and I graduated 20 years ago...seriously, I do not feel that old! I loved going to Davis High!! I loved the friends I had, the memories we made, and everything else about it. We had our 20 year reunion this past Friday: the Class of '88 on 08.08.08. Since we graduated they have completely re-done the entire school, so nothing is the same anymore, but since it was one of the oldest schools in the state I suppose it was time. Now tell me this, if you are one of the first schools in the state, why do you choose brown and gold for your colors and a dart for your mascot?!! Doesn't matter, I still love them all anyway!

These are some of my best friends I've had throughout the years--Michelle, Marcie, and Jalynn, and all we were missing was Teresa. The best part is that we have stayed in touch since leaving high school and still have a blast together. We all played sports together growing up, which is pretty much what brought us together in the first place. I have many stories about each one of these girls, but I don't have time to go into them now.
Our reunion was held at the high school, and it was fun to see how different the school is now that it is new--it's very nice. The best part was seeing so many old friends from the past and being able to chat with them for a bit. We were only going to stay for an hour, but you know how that goes...3 hours later when they were going to shut the lights down is when we finally made our exit. Our night didn't end there, though. We were headed north to Bear Lake, after we picked up a couple more friends, for our annual girls weekend out at Jalynn's condo there (and arrived somewhere between 1:30 and 2am!). We have been going to Jalynn's condo at Bear Lake since we were in 7th grade and we love it!! We have so many fun memories from going there for so many years.

We pretty much have our routine down there at the condo. It doesn't take us long to start making all the yummy treats to eat--like we don't have enough junk anyway. Our two main staples are Trish's salsa and the chex mix I make. They usually don't last too long, but there is plenty of other junk to go around too.

The rest of our time is spent either playing cards, Nerts to be exact, watching movies, going for power walks, or sleeping. And that's pretty much it. This is a trip we look forward to every year, and it's a fun way to stay in touch. Last night we found a website that had ring tones on it, and Jalynn wanted some new ones on her phone, so she told Marcie to get her some...and then she fell asleep. Ya, for the next two hours instead of watching the movie we looked up ringtones and had a blast completely resetting her phone. We were laughing so hard I'm surprised she didn't wake up!

Then today came with a power walk in the morning, playing a couple of games in the afternoon, and just like that it was over. It was shorter than usual, but still a great time! In this picture before we left there is me, Jalynn, Michelle, Megyn, Marcie, and Ricci (who just got the head volleyball coaching job at Layton High and is pregnant with her first child, who we are all pretty sure is going to be a girl!!). I love these guys so much! Now I'm getting ready to leave to girl's camp in the morning so BYE!

Mama Mia!

This is my best attempt at combining a couple of pictures--all the boys have had a great time "sleeping over" in Ben's room the last couple of weeks. Ben is sleeping in his bed on the left, Will is in the bed on the right, and Jake is on the floor, which he was pretty happy about.

The night I took this picture, Ben had set out his whole outfit for the next day. As you can see, when Ben gets into something, he dives into it all the way. He's almost there with the whole Indiana Jones outfit.

Thursday night was the first of many "girl's night's out" for me. This one was with all the girly girls on Daren's side of the family. We met in Sandy to go see the movie Mama Mia, and it was a blast. For one thing, I love being with all these "girl's" and I'm very fortunate to belong to such a great family, and two, I love ABBA, so I loved all the music in the movie. After the movie was over Susan (in the green jacket) and her two sisters, Janyce and Patty, performed their own rendition of ABBA in the halls of Jordan Commons--they were hilarious. Grandma Cox joined us too, and we figured that a "chick flick" was a good way for all of us to get together.

I had to take a few final swimming shots of the year. Photo 1: the twins wearing their goggles, at least for a short time, and photo 2: Leslie and Ben, peeking out during the rain storm.

It was quite rainy Friday morning, and we weren't even sure they would have swimming lessons, but eventually it was good enough to start. You can see that Will had a great time floating on his back while trying to catch some of the falling rain in his mouth.

We had to get this shot of all our swimming buddies at the end of the swim season: Will, Jake, Ben, Leslie, and Hunter Bennion.

Another fun thing Daren and I did this week was to go to the Salt Lake City Firefighter's Annual Steak Fry. Daren works with some great people on that job, and it was fun to hang out with them and eat some good food--no picutres though.

I have spent a lot of time this week getting ready for the rest of my "girls out" times. I'm in Bear Lake right now with many of my friends I grew up with--we come here every year, but I'll write about that when I get home on Sunday. Then on Monday I will be leaving for 5 days to go to girl's camp, and Daren has willingly volunteered to be Mr. Mom all these times while I am gone. It's a true test for him, but he's the "fun dad," so it will be great. I won't have much time in between, so I had to do a lot to get ready before I came here. Now it's way too late tonight, and I'm the last one up, so I'd better go get some good zzzzzz's before it's not so easy to come by!

mid-summer: four-wheeling, guppies, and a graduate!

So I have to play a little bit, or a lot bit, of catch-up because Daren had my camera on his trip and then I had to get other pictures from Gpa Airplane from our extended family gathering last week. I seem to always be running a week behind on these posts lately...

FOUR-WHEELING FIRST-TIMER!
Will was so excited to go on his first four-wheeling trip with "Daddy." Just before they left a week ago Sunday afternoon, Will packed up his backpack with books and a couple of Chevron cars to keep him busy in the car, and then refused to take it off until he had to get buckled up in the truck. He was more than happy to smile for this picture with all their stuff packed and ready to go. They went with Daren's brothers, Brandon and Brett, and Brandon's son, Aydan. They were somewhere up by Sun Valley, Idaho.
Monday was full of four-wheeling, and yes, that is snow that Will is sitting on and eating. One of his favorite things in the world is to eat snow, clean or not--but it's the "not" that grosses me out sometimes, and yet he's still alive, so it can't be all that bad, can it?!!

This is a great picture of Brandon and Aydan on their trip. Daren and Brandon used to take Ben and Jack on four-wheeling trips all the time when they were younger, but the trips have become fewer and far-between because the boys are getting older and are in school more. Now it's time for the younger ones to have their turns.

On the second night of their trip they camped out in the mountains, and according to Daren it was quite chilly, but they survived and had a great time. When they got home late Tuesday night we heard the doorbell ringing over and over, so we knew it was Will. We opened the door and he stood there, dirty face and all, with his arms out and he said, matter-of-factly, "Well, I'm home!" We were all glad to have them back!

GUPPIES AND GRADUATION

In the meantime, while they were gone on their little jaunt, we were still enjoying time with Gma and Gpa Airplane. On Monday afternoon we took them to Salt Lake to stay at Little America (their choice--it wasn't because nobody else wanted them!). They had planned for all of us, including Brenda's and (brother) Darren's families to get together at the pool that afternoon/evening for swimming and dinner. Photo 1: hanging out by the pool. Photo 2: brother Darren's cute little Kate (she's one month younger than the twins).

The kids spent most of their time in the pool, though. Brenda and Jake were having fun in the shallow end, while Ben and the other cousins were having way too much fun in the deep end--that's Ben in mid-air.

Ciera, Chloe, and Ben--our guppies! There were almost some battles over these new goggles of Jake's that we got earlier in the day-everyone wanted to wear them.

They all had a blast lining up and jumping in together (l to r): Ciera, Chloe, Ben, Darren, Eli, Liam, Jake and Garrett.

After the jumping in together got old, they decided to put a "twist" on things. The boys went first, but the girls weren't about to be shown up! The cousins had so much fun together they couldn't wait to get together again...

...and fortunately for some of them it didn't take long. Ben and Liam hatched their plan Monday night at the pool for a sleepover, so on Wednesday evening when Daren and I were heading north to Kaysville for JD's graduation, we dropped Ben off at Liam's house for a sleepover. Ben packed his own bag, which included the stuff you see below in the first picture...

...including his two pillows, a clean shirt and pajamas, toothpaste and toothbrush, the monster book he made, and his clock, because he just might want to know what time it is :)

Anyway, our brother-in-law JD Frazier graduated from Weber State's nursing program last Wednesday night, and this is a picture of their cute little family. He was voted by all the teachers as the one they would most want to take care of them if they were in the hospital--congratulations JD (and Brenda, and kids), we are so proud of you! After the fun and festivities of graduation (including dinner at the Olive Garden), we brought Garrett home with us to sleepover and play with the twins the next day. He was asleep five minutes after we got in the car, and the twins were asleep when we got home, so they all slept in peace and played hard the next day. When we took him home Thursday afternoon, we all got our hair done by Brenda, and then took Gpa and Gma Airplane to the airport to fly home. It was a fun trip with them and we miss them already!

SWIMMING LESSONS

This swimming session Ben is in the same class with Leslie Bennion, a friend who he has been swimming with before they could even talk--they started swimming together in a "Mom and Me" class when they were just over a year old, and they have continued on together every summer since. I was too lazy to find any older pictures than this one, but it is from four years ago when they were just 3 years old! The funny thing is that Ben is just 2 weeks older than Leslie, but look at their size difference! The summer is really the only time we see these guys too, but it's always fun. Ben and Leslie are in the corner-to-corner class this session and are doing great.
Jake couldn't resist pulling a funny face when I was taking pictures this day!

Of course the favorite thing to do is at the end of swimming lessons when they get to jump off the diving board. Ben got to the end of the board, looked around and smiled, and then jumped off into the biggest cannonball he could, looking pretty proud of himself like he had gotten away with something!

Swimming lessons have been somewhat of a challenge this year for Will and Jake. They got to be real good swimmers over the winter because I took them swimming at our gym all the time, so I put them in the "step" class--this is six kids to one teacher for an hour, and most of the kids are older than them and some are quite afraid of the water. Will, especially, has been a challenge for the teachers he's had because he doesn't like to sit on the step when it's not his turn. He LOVES the water so much and just wants to play in it like he does at the gym, but having to sit and wait his turn is hard. He's had to sit on the side a few times and even miss out on the diving board once, but he's getting better at it. Jake, on the other hand, just likes to be crazy and he gets a talking to from time to time, but he is a great swimmer. They have learned a lot, though, and are getting to be even better swimmers. It's nice to finally have them all in class at the same time, so it's worth camping out at 5am for swimming sign-ups at the end of April!

One cute thing Ben said the other day to end on--Will was doing something that made Ben laugh, and he turned to me and said, "Oh Mom, I'm glad you made that kid come out cuz he's really funny!" Kid's sayings, you gotta love 'em!!

non-stop family fun...

Last Monday was a day of non-stop family fun...

The boys got to spend a good part of the day together--Daren took Ben, Will and Jake boating with his firefighter friend and "brother-from-another-mother," Chris Milne, and his three boys. They went to Utah Lake, and although the sky was overcast, they managed to have plenty of fun and get plenty of sun. Photo 1 is of Will, Jake and Ozzy (who obviously isn't too sure of the crazy boys he's sitting next to!). The older boys, in photo 2, were a bit more crazy than the first group! Daren already enlarged this picture of Zach, Ben, and Jake #2 (or is he #1 because he's older?!), framed it, and it is hanging in Ben's soon-to-be room downstairs! It sounds like they had a blast. Me? I went shopping the whole time they were gone and actually had a great time (I don't really love shopping, but that day it was fun).

The boys and I pulled into the driveway at the same time that afternoon, ready to head out on our next adventure...the Cox family get-together at a park in Farmington.

Will's first order of business when we got to the park was to find himself a "whip," which he seems to find wherever we go. Jake was pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, and he found a comfy place to rest on Grandpa Train's lap--he loved the tickles on his back!

Will was constantly trying to locate all of the Cheetos in the area, and when he found them he isolated himself at the end of a line of tables so he could not only be by himself and eat in peace, but I'm sure it was also so he could see anyone coming close who would perhaps try to take some away from him.

I guess I should explain that the Cox side of the family is Daren's mom's side. Daren's mom is Susan, and she has two sisters, Patty and Janyce, and their parents are Ed and Jane Cox. Grandpa Cox recently passed away a couple of months ago in April, and he was a great guy. Daren wrote about him in our family newsletter just after he passed away and so I thought I'd let his words tell a little bit about Gpa Cox: "My favorite story from Grandpa's life (and he had many stories) was from WWII. He was trained as a dive bomber pilot in the Marine Corps and he was deployed to the Pacific theatre to stage for the ground invasion of Japan late in the war. He said by that time (1945) there had been so many battles with the Japanese and so many atrocities committed that the American soldiers who were headed for Japan were virtually sure they would all be killed by the Japanese, who would take no prisoners on their own soil. Grandpa said his ship was in port in the South Pacific waiting for their assignment to be among the first waves to attack Japan and the mood was very somber among the men. He remembered being at work on the docks when an announcement came over the speaker that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over. He said every single man in sight was overcome with gratitude and emotion and that it was the happiest day of his life. I heard him tell the story many times and he never could tell it without his voice cracking." Gpa was married to Gma for over 60 years, and although I'm not sure of the exact number of years, it's still very impressive. They raised three amazing girls in Bountiful, Utah, and Grandma still lives in the same house. After WWII Grandpa went on to work for the BLM for many years, and I have to say, he had some of the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen. Gma took care of Gpa right up until the end, and she has been a great example of love and devotion. It is so fun to get together with the Cox family because they are so close and have so much fun together. In the photos above, Daren is showing Grandma some of the pictures from our Route 66 trip, and the other is Patty visiting with her mom.

While the adults were visiting, the kids were playing all over the park. They found some trail maps in a box, and they pretended they were maps to buried treasure--it kept them entertained for quite a while. As you can see, there are lots of boys in this family, and they sure have a fun time when they get together. Even Sydney will join in with the boys for a good time. In the picture of Sydney and Jake, you can see how burned his face got from boating earlier that day. It blistered up pretty good, but he's ok now.

These are the smallest boys in the group right now--our nephew Isaac "Ike" and Daren's cousins little boy, Connor--you can tell he has a great smile, even through his binki!!

The rest of the week was filled with playing with friends, swimming lessons, swimming at the "big gym," and getting ready for Gpa and Gma Airplane's visit starting on Saturday morning. And we did get to see Janae, aka their favorite babysitter, on TV Thursday morning--she was the first attendant to Miss Riverton and their float was in the Days of '47 Parade. When she was waving and blowing kisses at the TV the boys kept saying, "Look! She's waving at me!!"

It's always a treat for us to go to the airport to pick up Gpa and Gma Airplane--the boys love to see the airplanes and long for the day when they will get to ride one again (it may be a while!!). We were quite late picking them up because Jake spilled a small cup of orange juice in my car just before we left, and that's not something you can leave to dry up! After we finally made it to the airport to pick them up, I thought it would be fun to go to the Farmer's Market in Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City...hmmm, what was I thinking?! The boys loved playing in the park, but not so much the wandering around, looking at all the booths. Will kinda freaked Gma out by climbing to the top of this ladder, but he's good at climbing things, and has been for a long time! Ben, Jake and Gpa got into playing a little bocce, and had fun. I loved looking around at all the booths and wish we had more time and patience, but that will have to wait for another day.

While I was taking this picture, Will was behind me, laying on the grass next to a light post when a man walked by him and handed him a gas station refill cup (my mom saw him do this). It wasn't until a minute later we realized that it had a dead baby bird in it--how weird is that to give that to a little boy????

Our day was a complete whirlwind after that. We made it home to rest for a short time before splitting up. I took the twins to their cousin's, Sydney's, 4th birthday party while Gpa and Gma took Ben bowling and out to eat. We all met up after that to go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was a great movie, for the second time, and it got the boys going once again on their play-acting of Indy.

My mom found this fedora (hat) and side bag, and I don't think I've ever seen Ben wear a hat so much! I have to say, though, that he did take note that the hat is black and not brown, so we are still on the hunt for a brown fedora! He has hardly taken it off, but as you can imagine, there have been battles over it!

Part of their day on Sunday was spent in the front room with the building blocks (these are blocks my mom gave us, and they are ones we used to play with when we were young'uns.). In keeping with the Indy theme, these are the 13 "crystal skulls" from the movie. When our boys get into something, they dive in and don't let it go too easily!!

From this point on I don't have any more pictures right now from their visit because Daren and Will left Sunday afternoon to go four wheeling in Sun Valley, Idaho with a couple of Daren's brothers. I sent my camera with them so they could take many pictures, and my parent's have pictures on their camera from our outing at their hotel, so I'll get them all sometime this week and post them later. Later!