Parent’s 50th

A few weekends ago we went to Utah to celebrate my parent’s 50th anniversary.  It was a lot of fun.  We all stayed at Carol’s house and participated in a variety of activities.

On Friday night everyone arrived and we had a BBQ.  We did hamburgers on the grill and I brought Joe Morley’s baked beans.  Um Um!!! 

The whole family was there.  Annie and McKayla dressed in matching clothes the entire weekend.

We never got enough of Tennyson!!!

We all made family flags.

After our big 5K run on Saturday we played games based off the TV show Minute to Win It.

We had to carry M&M’s across the yard using straws.

Had to get Oreos in our foreheads from our mouths with no hands.

We had to see who could bobble their heads the fastest.

This was the most challenging one.  They had to trade 3 empty cans in one hand with the 3 full cans in the other without putting them down.

We had to dress like an elephant and knock water bottles down.

And stack Ding Dongs.

We even had a magician come.

That night we went to Goodwood BBQ.  “Mommy” and “Daddy” got to ride in style.  Of course all the grandkids had to go along for the ride.

Karen hand stitched a gorgeous present for them. 

On Sunday we all went to church and had a roast dinner.  In all of our spare time we went swimming, played Killer Bunnies, watched old Little Rascal Movies, and had a wonderful time together.

5K

My siblings and I set a goal this year to get in shape and lose weight.  We want to go 2010 miles plus do 2010 minutes of exercise plus lose 210 pounds.  (I know that I still have a long way to go in the losing weight category. 

As part of the goal we did a 5K at my parents 50 anniversary celebration.  It was a lot of fun.  The rain stayed away and we had a great time. 

Here we are getting ready.  Notice all of the serious stretching.

No 5K is complete without matching shirts for the sibs.

The anniversary couple watched.  They thought for sure we would do one lap and then call it quit…but oh no not us!!!

Carol had a little struggle, but it gave Amanda a good laugh.

Tree looks like he is having fun, but this is before the effects of the altitude kicked in.

Some of us had no problem!!!

For some it was all about the looks.

Some need a rest.

Even the twins made it.

But the trophy goes to Trey who made it the whole way, running at least 2/3 of it!!! 

Rain, Knee and Bubbles

On Memorial Day we trekked to downtown Naperville to watch the annual parade.  It started out great.  We stood for the flag and clapped for the Veterans.  When all of a sudden the rain came in.  Not just a little a downpour!!  Not only that but lots of thunder and lightening.  Shaylin is very afraid of lightening so she had a little panic attack.  We finally were able to run for cover under the bridge on the Riverwalk.  As we stood there with the other people trying to stay dry the old man next to me started to collapse.  I yelled for Eddie to come grab him.  They got him to the ground gently and we called 911.  Eddie held his head until help arrived.  It turned out he had a mini stroke.

I have been trying to get out riding bikes with Shaylin.  The other night Eddie, Shaylin and I went for a ride.  As we passed a couple I went off the grass a little.  When I tried to get back on the sidewalk I was thrown to the ground by a lip between the grass and sidewalk.  I went down hard.  It was embarrassing so I got up quickly and continued riding without even looking at my knee.  It was a little bruised up.

I also took the kids to a SciTech Museum.  They had a few cool things there.  I am glad the kids seemed to really enjoy it because I would only give it a C.  Some of their favorite things were shooting a rocket in the air, having their shadows freeze on the wall and blowing really big bubbles while standing in them.

Thought from the scriptures

As I read the scriptures today they seemed to really apply to my life.  I always thought this was a rather boring few versus until I read it after a day of rough TEENAGERS!!!!

1 Nephi 17

…again take your journey…(yes I had to wake up and start over today)

….wade through much affliction…..

…bear (my) journeying without murmurings…(wish me luck)

…keep the commandments of God…( I guess I need to trust that)…he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the things which he has commanded them….

…even eight years in the wilderness…(yep I’ve got a ways to go)

….and (Finally) we did come to the land which we called Bountiful…(or should we call it all grown up and moved out of the house day?)

See even simple scriptures do apply everyday!!!

Another Day in Lori’s Loony Life

It all started as a calm wonderful Saturday morning.  Eddie arrived the night before and we started the morning out with a great hike in the mountains.  It was a beautiful day.

We then went to introduce Eddie to Tennyson. 

We even read him his first story.

From there we went to Mimi’s for a bite to eat.  While we were eating a police officer walked in and arrested a guy sitting at a table near us.  From there we took Tennyson to see his first movie, Ironman 2.  Before the show started the police had to come take a man out for fighting over seats. After we decided we needed a chocolate fix so we went and bought really yummy cupcakes.  Of course you can not have chocolate without milk so we drank Mike and Nichelle’s all while playing Killer Bunnies.  It had been a long day so we decided to run to the Smith’s down the block to get our supplies for Mother’s Day Breakfast and to replace the milk we just drank.

Eddie was really getting into filling the cart with all kinds of goodies to cook us the next morning.  About half way through the store he told me he would be right back as he had to go use the restroom.  At this point I was trying to pick out just the right brand of syrup.  I pulled my phone out of my pocket for some reason and heard Shaylin laughing, I guess I pocket dialed her.  As I hung up Eddie was returning up the aisle.  I began asking him what type of syrup we should get when we heard a loud “POP,POP,POP” we thought is was the balloons at the front of the store popping.  But as we looked up towards the front we saw everyone diving to the floor.  At that point we decided it was a gun and we better start moving.  as we were running down the aisle towards the back we heard “POP, POP, Pop…..Pop,Pop,Pop,Pop!”  We were yelling gun to the people in the back trying to figure out what was going on.  The loud speaker at this point came on telling us it was a gun and to get down.  We decided our best beat was to keep running towards the back door through the meat locker.  As we ran out the back and across the street another guy came running at us with a gun.  (He turned out to be a good guy trying to protect us.)  At this point there were sirens going off all around us.  We had no idea what was going on.  After a few minutes we decided it would be best to walk back to Nichelle’s and get our car in the front of the store later. It was sad as we walked to think that we had no idea if and how many people were hurt or killed.  It was a very sobering moment.

It turned out to be a man stealing a beer, running from security, beating security, being tasered by the police, pulling a gun out and being shot dead numerous times.  It was an experience that is hard to explain….the thoughts an emotions that go through your mind are hard to describe.

Needless to say we decided we should leave Provo and come back to Chicago were we could be safe.

For more info see http://heraldextra.com/news/local/article_b5b5f98b-f286-5928-9cad-c96e34eb4f81.html

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=10707188&nid=148

Tennyson