Maryn's Birthday #5!!!

We got to celebrate Maryn's birthday on her actual birthday this year! Her birthday was on a Friday. Instead of doing a big party, we opted to spend the money on a nice small party at Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was very nearly a perfect day!

We had her party at 11am. Since it was a Friday, they let us have the upstairs level at Downtown Disney all to ourselves! Maryn invited 5 friends to celebrate with her. I set a budget for each bear before-hand and the party workers help the kids find whatever works with that. It was so simple!

All the kids showed up and looked so cute and fresh! I was so excited and I know Maryn was, too! She wanted all her friends to have a bear so badly! We walked upstairs chanting all the way that we were having a party!

All the kids picked their bears and then sat in a circle and played some games. Then they took turns stuffing their animals. When it got to the part where Maryn put in her heart, all of the kids got to pick a heart, make a special birthday wish for Maryn, and put the hearts into Maryn's bear. It was so special to watch.

Then the kids got to shop for an outfit for their bears. They were so cute with all the things they picked out. I was so happy that all the parents were there to help. Then they all sat and dressed their bears and took pictures. They got their bear box and it had some party favors in it, too. I think they were all very happy with what they got.

After the party, we went outside to eat pizza and cupcakes! The store has a deal with Papa John's Pizza, so the delivered for an awesome price! Then we had the super-special cupcakes!! My friend, Cory, has been taking classes and decorating cute cakes for her kids. So, I asked her if she would make bear-faced cupcakes for Maryn's party. She said 'yes' and I became her first paying customer! They turned out better than I'd imagined! She made all of their little faces with different expressions. It was hard to eat them because I wanted to take them home, but they were really delicious!

(Cory, leave me a comment and link it to your website.)

After that, we all said our 'good-bye's'. I walked Maryn down to Disneyland and got her free birthday ticket. Glenn took Charles to the "Harry Potter" movie. We stayed at Disneyland for a few hours, but Maryn was so wiped out! We went on a couple of rides, she took a nap in my lap, and then she wanted to go home. Originally she had stated that she wanted to see the fireworks and stay until it closed! Ha! We were home before dinner.

Thank you to all who came and made her birthday such a wonderful day for us!

Maryn's Logic...

This is an example of Maryn's negotiating logic:

Maryn: "Mom, can I have my dessert now?"

Me: "Maryn, you have to eat your peas if you want dessert."

Maryn: "But Mom! If I eat my peas, I'll be too full for dessert!"

Loveland Family Reunion!

After our visit with Mindy and my sister, Beth, I picked up Glenn from the airport and we headed to Preston, Idaho! (Napoleon Dynamite's hometown!) On the way, we stopped by Glenn's brother Gordon's house in Smithfield to check out their brand new home! It was beautiful and smelled sooo good!

When we got to Preston, we set up camp at Riverdale Resort. Glenn's cousin Lori and her husband own it. It is a natural hot spring, so there were three geothermal pools at different temperatures. It was so much fun! I loved all of them. They also had a huge four-story high tube water slide. They would keep the slide open until midnight just for us. Glenn and I would put the kids to bed in the tent and go ride the water slide together. The 72 step climb was painful, but worth it! On my second time down I was going so fast that the water lifted me up when I was on the turn and slammed me back down on my hand. I got a pretty painful sprain, but the next day I went right back up.

We also had a great time visiting family. We got to see all of Glenn's uncles, aunts, and cousins. We did all the normal stuff like the family auction and talent show. Glenn's mom asks me to sing every time and I always find a way to tell her 'no' gently. This year I couldn't do it. I tried to say 'no', but she's the nicest woman on the planet and I was sick of disappointing her. I said 'yes' at the last minute and sang acapella, cold. She wanted me to sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserable. Aside from my very nervous vibrato, it went well.

One morning, the Loveland uncles were putting together a caravan to go see the old Loveland Home. It has been preserved as a historical site in Chesterfield, Idaho. We packed a lunch and loaded up the kids. I am so glad that we went! It was a long drive, but the boys played their Nintendos. When we finally got there, there was so much to see! There was a whole pioneer town! I wished that we could have gone in all of the buildings, but alas, the kids weren't as interested as the adults.

We got to go inside the Tolman-Loveland home and take pictures. We got to see photos of Glenn's ancestors on the walls of the home and in the museum. We ate our lunch on the lawn outside of the church. It was wonderful to be there.

The next day after breakfast, the family wanted to see Gordon and Sandra's new home. Since we'd just seen it, Glenn and I decided to take the kids and do something on our own. I suggested a short hike or walk somewhere local. So, we started looking at maps to see if we could find a trail or something. That's when Glenn saw Minnetonka Cave on the map. It sounded fun, so we went not knowing what to expect.

It was a long drive to the cave. It was by the city of St. Charles by Bear Lake. When we got to the cave, it was quite the real deal! We had to pay for a tour and got assigned a time slot. The tour s were one and a half hours long with 896 total steps. Elevation was 7800ft. The tour guide said that it was fine for kids so we signed up! Then we discover that the cave is a constant 40 degrees! We went back to the car and dug out a hooded sweatshirt for Maryn, my Disneyland jacket for Charles, and a Scooby-Doo blanket for me! So funny! Glenn was manly enough not to need anything.

The cave was amazing! I could write so much about it, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. When we got to the end of where they let people tour, they shut off all of the lights and let us see complete darkness. It was something that I had never experienced before. We also saw a bat, which the tour guide told us was the first one they've seen in two weeks, so she was excited about that. The way out of the cave was a killer! Glenn and I were seriously ready to die on the steps! The kids did fantastic, though. They didn't even complain.

It was a wonderful reunion!

Glenn drove home with me. We stopped for a night at our timeshare in Cedar Breaks. It felt so good to shower! We ordered pizza from a local place and played games and rented a movie. The next morning we found a local bakery in Parowan that had homemade bread and donuts. The donuts were so delicious!

We made such great time on the rode, that we stopped in Las Vegas for lunch. We had wanted to take the kids on the roller coaster at New York New York, but when we got there, it was $14 a person! Crazy!! So, we went across the street to MGM and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Then we took the kids to the M+M store and made our way home. It was so awesome to be together and do something fun. I love our family so much!

Visiting Mindy and Beth!!

On July 3rd, I packed the kids up and went to Orem to stay with Mindy. Although she was still grieving for the loss of Sarah, she wanted to make sure that the kids had a fun summer.

I got to her house in the afternoon and we went shopping for 4th of July. We bought hamburgers and hot dogs for the grill and I got the ingredients for my now famous potato salad! (Mindy and the kids wouldn't touch it, but Dennis, his kids, and Mindy's mom loved it!)


Anyway, that first night we walked to Sarah's grave. It was set on a hill with lots of trees and a little bench nearby. It's very peaceful there.

That night I stayed up to make the potato salad and we just talked. The next morning was a neighborhood parade and breakfast! This was so much fun for the kids! They all looked so cute! After the breakfast, Mindy and I walked to Sarah's grave again so that she could put flowers and flags on it.

That night we had the BBQ and fireworks. Chris brought his friends over and Mindy invited the Fronk's. We had a great time watching the boys light up everything.

That Sunday was testimony meeting. It was the most wonderful meeting I had been to in a long time. It went over, but all of the testimonies were so strong. Mindy bore her testimony, too. I felt so lucky to be able to hear her.

While I was at Mindy's, we took the kids to the Scera pool and play area. I forgot my camera, but it was so much fun! They had water slides, splash pads, diving boards, a lazy river, and a wading pool! Then we got snow cones from a Snow Shack in the parking lot- so many memories!

One of the nights we went to a late movie. Horrible idea! The movie was awful, the whole audience was seriously sobbing, and Mindy couldn't even talk afterwards! I had asked her if she had wanted to walk out, but she thought it would get better. It didn't.

Since I was spending such a long time at Mindy's house, I decided to break up the trip and went to see my sister for a couple of days. We had a great time taking the kids to the Hogle Zoo. On the way back, she stopped at the "This is the Place" monument so that I could take a picture of the kids. We had fun staying up late playing games and talking.






I went back to Mindy's house after that. It had worked out perfectly because her kids had all sorts of things going during those couple of days. We went on a hike to a waterfall really close to Mindy's house. They had never been before, so it was fun for all of us! We got Subway on the way back and had a picnic in Mindy's front yard.

I was also invited to Dennis' family BBQ. The food was great and the best part was driving home! Dennis' son, Andrew has an orange Lotus and if you know me well, you know that I LOVE fast cars. He took me on the best ride of my life! It was so awesome! It was amazing! He drove so fast, took the turns so tight, and raced up the side of a mountain! It was more fun than any amusement park ride!

Dennis also took us out to dinner a couple of times. The best part of the visit was being with Mindy late at night, playing games, talking to her step-daughters, and walking to the cemetery. Mindy even made a Birthday Party for Maryn! Maryn was plagued with attitude and cried throughout the whole thing until she got her present. Very embarrassing!!

Sarah Marie Ige

I know that I have been gone a long time. I wanted to post about so many things that have been going on, but because of a tragedy that my best friend suffered, I have felt sadness and guilt over my fun times.

My best friend Mindy lost her precious girl, Sarah Marie. She was 22 weeks pregnant. Sarah lived for about 15 minutes before she passed away in her mother's loving arms. Anyone who knows Mindy, knows how passionately she loves everyone around her. After the pregnancy itself being a huge miracle, the loss of this baby was overwhelming. I love her so much and want her to know that I will always be here for her.