On Thursday morning we headed to St. George for our annual get away! We stopped at the Cheese Factory and then straight to the Condo and to the swimming pool! Our kids ALL  L_O_V_E to swim so that is what we did most of the trip!

Thursday evening we grabbed Subway and went to the park and got whooped in the adults vs kids soccer game. Then I met up with Misty.(Late picture of the winning soccer team. It was too dark for a picture Thursday night by the time we were done playing.)

On Friday we went right to the pool! We swam until lunch time and then we all went down to the river for the afternoon. The water was shallow and perfect for the kids and perfect for our Wiffle ball game. It was close with lots of controversy but the adults did win that one.

We stopped for Nielsens Custard on the way home! And then had group dinner and hung out at Matt and Jamie’s condo. That’s where we stayed this year.

On Saturday we went to the Sand Dunes at Snow Canyon in the morning. It was hot! The kids played and the adults sat and hid in the little bits of shade. We left after about an hour.

Our family stopped at the Red Barn Ice Cream on the way home.

Then back to the swimming POOL! until it started raining!

We all met at Freddy’s for dinner that night. And then puzzles and pickle ball and REST.

On Sunday we went to church and packed up and came home. It was such a fun trip. It went way to fast. The weather was perfect. The Family was so fun. We will try to go a day earlier next year!

April Fools! Tiago was obsessed with the fake poop!

Up at 7:30 ish and searching for baskets…

Packers was the hardest to find this year and they were all in the basement:

General Conference was AMAZING! President Nelson was Amazing

Then we headed to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house!

And Searched for 50 little Chics all over the house:

And had another Epic Egg Hunt:

Udine hid some tough ones and had the whole crew following him around at the end. It was a great end to a great Easter Sunday. Definitely one for the books!

On Tuesday January 23rd, about 3:20 in the afternoon Gladys Becker passed away in the hospital with Kris and Rick by her side. She had been pretty sick off and on for a couple of months.

Lloyd and Colleen came down to help with arrangements.

Wednesday January 31st at 11am was the funeral at a chapel in Lindon across the street from The Osmond Senior Living Center. It was so sad to watch Grandpa say goodbye.

She was buried out at the Veterans Cemetery. It was super cold and windy and sweet and memorable:

Mom and Dad’s ward in Alpine provided a luncheon for all of us afterwards:

What I loved most about Grandma Becker was her big smile. She was always ready for a laugh and always gave me such great compliments. She made me feel like I was such a great mom. We enjoyed doing the nativity puppets with them every December and taking our new babies over to meet them. Ben liked to bring a few jokes prepared to get Grandma going.

This was the last time we saw and visited with Gladys. It was on her birthday before she got too sick and moved out of the Osmond. Ben did see her after this and was able to help give her a priesthood blessing. We miss you Grandma.

This was a pic of the Grandparents on our wedding day. Grandpa Johnson was alive but didn’t feel like he could make it to California.  In the last few years we have lost Arden and Elma and now Gladys. Grandpa Becker is still with us here in Lindon. He has a bum shoulder, he keeps falling and his mind is getting worse. Grandma Nettesheim has moved into a care center in Wisconsin and has stopped all of her travels. Her mind is still very keen but she is starting to slow down. I am grateful for the example and legacy of all 8 of our Grandparents.

We usually celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts with Rick and Kris the week before Christmas but this year Grandma Becker wasn’t feeling well and they were spending lots of time helping her and in and out of the hospital so… we celebrated after Christmas on Saturday January 6th!

we had so much fun opening gifts and trying them all out. Eating some treats. Chasing Quincy. And Everyone enjoyed Soggy Doggy!

Christmas Eve was A GREAT DAY. Well, church was actually really hard. Everyone kept saying that it was going to be short church so after being there for 15 minutes my little kids were asking to leave. It made it SOO long for them. BUT it was a great meeting and the music was awesome and it was really uplifting.

Millie helped Ben make the chicken noodle soup!

Packer ate 15 spicy starbursts at once!

And everyone was giddy to open sibling gifts!

They mostly got each other games: Benji got BB8 Bopit, Packer got Laser Bomb, Cali got a Beanie Boo and peg board, Rose got the LOL game, Ray got Simon Says, Rose got the Hatchimal Game, and Tiago got instruments!

Then we played all afternoon!

At 4:30 we headed over to Pete and Amanda’s for a Christmas Eve Party: We enjoyed delicious food all evening!

Then the kids acted out the story of Christs birth:

And then we came home and opened our new pajamas, and set out milk and cookies, and checked the Santa tracker and excitedly WENT TO BED!!

The Final Products:

And then we had our gift exchange and Millie finally got Hatchimals!

Sunday December 17, 2017