2,010 miles

I don't think I want to get in my van for a few days! John and I left last Thursday for a huge road trip. We went and moved his mom from Idaho Falls to Mesa, AZ to his sister Cathi's house. We made sure we had lots of stops along the way to break things up. Here is our itinerary:

Thursday: Left Vegas around 10:30am arrived in Provo at 5:00pm. We took a long lunch break at Costa Vida in Cedar City. Our new favorite stopping place ever since they closed Iceburg. I miss their milkshakes! We got to Provo in time to have dinner with Ashley at Legends Grill. We ran into my cousin's daughter Emily Crandall. That was fun! haven't seen her in years. She looks great. We took Ashley to Walmart to stock up on a few things. And then we said goodbye. Stopped at my parents to visit for a little bit. Good to see them and my brother Mark there. We spent the night at my sister Cindy's house. It was fun to catch-up with them.

Friday: Left Lehi at 7:30am, stopped at Kneaders in Highland for breakfast with our dear friends the Blacks. They are friends from our Spokane days. So great to visit with them! Can you believe my camera was I my purse and I forgot to take pictures! ugh!

We left breakfast at 9:00 and drove up to Idaho Falls. We got there around noon and our niece Stephanie came to help pack things up and we had lunch at Red Robin. It was yummy. It was really good to visit with Steph and see how college life is treating her. She was a huge help with packing up Grandma. She sat grandma in a chair and then went through several boxes with her. John and I don't have the patience for that. It would have all gone in the DI pile.

Grandma is a bit of a collector. We did our best to put ourselves in her shoes and remember that all her stuff is all she has left. Cleaning it out and packing up her things to have in one bedroom is pretty hard. There were a lot of memories and emotions stirred up. We did laugh when we found a few things... like this soap collection. I will be cleaning out several of my cupboards this week! I feel inspired to de-junk.


Saturday: we packed up Grandma's car and my van. We drove Grandma to Salt Lake. We had a few minutes to stop and see Ashley. She was in Salt Lake to go to the Relief Society broadcast. I am so jealous that she got tickets and got to see the Prophet speak! So cool. It was an amazing conference!

We then took Grandma to the airport and she flew to Phoenix. Then we drove down to Brian Head and stayed at the Jarman's cabin for the night. I love that place! So peaceful!

Sunday: We slept in, got up and looked out the window to see this: a mommy dear with her 2 little ones! and the most beautiful color of yellow leaves! It was breathtaking!



We left around 11:00 and drove the 2 cars all the way to Mesa. That was the worst leg of our trip. Being the only driver in the car = yucky. The first hour was beautiful, driving through the mountains, the leaves were gorgeous. But from Kanab on, it was ugly desert! Lots of 2 lane highways and boring scenery. I had some good podcasts to listen to on my iPod, general conference and nice Sunday music. John and I used walkie talkies to keep each other awake and to talk without cell phones, the cell service wasn't great for most of the trip. It was about an 8 hour drive to Mesa.

We arrived at Cathi and Kris' that evening and we were exhausted. It was fun to visit with Cathi and Kris. We stayed up talking till about midnight. Candace and her husband swung by to visit and so did Kyle. It was nice to see them. It's been a while. I can't believe how tall Keaton is and cute little is Kade is all grown up! Again, I forgot to take pictures! Cathi painted a room all cute for her mom and I think she will really like living there. The winters in Idaho Falls are so long and hard on Grandma. She goes to a new cancer doctor on Wednesday.We are anxious to hear what they say. She is very frail and her tumor is very large. But she seemed to have a lot of energy last week. I think she was excited about moving.

Monday: We got up and headed home. We stopped at the Sunburst office there to say hello to Bret. John really misses him in the Vegas office! It was good to see him. Then we Drove home in time to watch the Bears play Monday night football! Some things are important!

We drove exactly 2010 miles! We are thankful we didn't have any car trouble or any other problems. It went very smooth!

safe and sound...

So a few months ago I noticed that my computer's back-up wasn't working??? strange... so did some digging to figure things out and I found out that my external hard drive was dead! i had no idea that they could die. They are supposed to save you if your computer dies! Not the other way around... I dug up my receipt from Costco and planned to take it back right away... oops, I totally forgot about it until yesterday. I am so thankful that I didn't have any computer problems in the last few months or I would have been up a creek! I didn't feel real good about taking back by hard drive knowing that it had my entire computer backed up on it... but I really wanted my money back to buy a new one. So I took the risk that no one will fix it and find all my stuff and took it back to Costco... have i mentioned how much I LOVE Costco?? they totally took it back! It was a 500 gig hard drive that I spent $129 on a few years ago... yesterday I bought a 2-Tera bite hard drive for $119! Good deal. And did I tell you that Donna (door checker at Costco) hugs me every time I walk in the door. She's awesome. Her husband died a few months ago... so sad. He had a long battle with cancer. Anyway... I feel so much better now that my computer is all backed up again!

I like seeing this little picture again!

Soccer and Photographer...

Soccer is in full swing! I love it! I enjoy everything about it except the heat! It was like 101 today... ugh. The poor boys. The coaches are still a little unsure on where they want Mitchell... he played varsity yesterday in their first conference game (we won 7-0 against Sierra Vista) and then today he played jv (we won 6-0! against Spring Valley). We will see how it all plays out. The good news is that he scored today!! It was awesome! (I like him playing JV, they aren't so rough! Our varsity guys took out 2 of their players... ouch! )

The only way I get Tanner to come along is to tell him I am bringing the camera and he can take pictures! He definitely has a creative brain. He gets some great shots. Some are a little silly, but some are awesome. There were a whole bunch of blurry ones in a row and I asked him what went wrong and he said he was spinning in circles! crazy kid.

Here are a few good ones of Mitchell... These first 6 are all in a sequence, Tanner did great getting the whole play. Too bad it didn't end in a score... it was close! He and the goalie ended up on the ground and the ball just missed the goal! Bummer.

Corner kick... (nice view of the strip!)

Here are a few good shots Tanner got of the rest of the team, and whatever else he sees through the lense! He was so excited about the dragon fly! Did I tell you that he took 408 pictures at the game!!!

I will keep you updated on how the season goes! Go Bonanza!

$4 date

We are trying to live on a budget a little better... so John invited me on a cheap date (cheap, as in inexpensive :)

He did a little research and found something new to do... the new City Center has a Fine Art Collection. You go to the concierge desk at the new Aria Hotel and ask for this brochure.



The brochure has a map and description of each art piece around City Center. I think we found 8 of the 17... so we have another date planned to go back... We hadn't been down to City Center yet. It is truly amazing. It's huge!! You can't see the strip and it feels like you are downtown in a huge city. We had so much fun finding the art pieces and checking out the new hotels at the same time. There are 3 free art galleries down there too. We loved it. There is a tram that takes you around the different hotels and it ends at the Bellagio. So of course we had to go watch the fountains.

This is at one of the art galleries... the guy who made the glass exhibit in the Bellagio lobby.
(I forgot my camera... so these are from my phone... not the best quality)

Bellagio gardens...

The fountains! Love them. I got to see them 2 weekends in a row!

I love that my husband still asks me on dates and plans fun things to do. We spent a total of $4.

$2 for two water bottles... we bought them from little street guys on the walkway by the fountains... I was glad we didn't get sick...
$2 to the magician who stopped us and showed us some magic tricks...we felt obligated to tip him... even though it wasn't in the budget for the date... haha. Thanks Honey!! Love you!!

School & Soccer

School has started! That's always a happy day for me... I love my kids... but usually about 2 or 3 weeks before school starts, I am ready for routine again.

I thought I took a picture of the boys the first day... but I can't find them... I will take some today when they get home.

School starting means soccer season too! We had a pre-season game yesterday. They beat Cimmaron 3-0. Mitchell played great... Go Bonanza!! We aren't sure if Mitchell is on Varsity or JV... coach is being a little strange. He told him JV, but he had him go to the 2 Varsity pre-season games and played him... I think he is planning on starting him on JV and moving him up in a few games... why?? who knows. All I know is that it's still a little too hot for soccer season. I hope it cools down soon! I was hot and I was on the sideline! I can't imagine how the boys played!

I had my little camera... so, you can't really see him. He as on the other side of the field and they wouldn't let spectators over there... whatever... stupid rule.

Anderson Angels

John went up to Wyoming on August 26th for the sealing of Edie & Luke's 3 youngest kids that they adopted. I am sad that we all couldn't go, but was so happy John made it up there.

They were sealed for Time and All Eternity in the Billings Montana Temple. Don't they look beautiful! (Carter was sealed to them a few years ago)

So cute!! Edie has her hands full!!
Carter, Cloe, Cienna and Caden

Edie and Cloe...

The kids were all given a name and a blessing the night before. They had a nice big family dinner afterward. Most of Luke's family lives up there.

John and his baby sister!

Congratulations Edie and Luke! You can learn more about "Eternal Families" here.

Baby Jack

John Joseph Westra was born on Sunday August 29th. He is SO cute! He was 6lbs. 6oz. His Great Grandfather's name is John Westra and his nickname was Jack. So that is what we will call baby Jack. Jenn had a quick and easy delivery. We decided she deserved that after 12 weeks of bed-rest!

I never take my phone to church... but for some reason I did that Sunday. I looked at my phone during Sunday School and Scott had called me 3 times... I rushed to the hospital and picked up Afton and took her home for the night.

Here are a few pictures of Jack from the last week.

Tanner adores babies! We fight over who gets to hold him next.

Mitchell thinks the baby is cute, but he is much more comfortable with this age... he is so good with Afton. They were cuddled up watching Finding Nemo.

His look shows how unsure he is about holding babies... cute.

Yes this is Ashley... She surprised us and came home for Labor Day weekend! She was claims she was dieing to see Jack... But I think there is someone else in the picture she wanted to see more... It was so nice to have her home!! We miss her lots when she is away!

Technology

Yesterday was an "I Love Technology day." I am teaching Relief Society on Sunday and I am using a talk Sister Beck gave at Women's Conference in 2009. I was able to find it online, then download the video and burn it on a DVD. Now I can show part of it in class... and I watched it while I did dishes today. Then I downloaded the audio and put it on my ipod to listen to in the car... and I printed it to take notes! all I am is missing is having her here in person!

I love computers and the internet!! I know there is a lot of bad, but there is also so much good too! Here is a link to the talk if you want to watch it...