Last night I was scrapbooking 2006 (I'm a little behind, as usual). I came across these pictures of a day we spent in SLC for Regan's 15th birthday. We went to Temple Square and loved the gardens there, we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and watched "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration", which we all loved, and then after that we had dinner at the Garden Room on the top floor of the JSB. It was just a great day, great memory and besides, I love these pictures of the kids! 

No cute, fun or silly pictures this time, but something so important to us. About 5 or 6 years ago, the spring before we moved to Cache Valley, Nicki got very sick and had some pretty rough days, missing months of school at a time. Way back then, I thought she might have mono, which we tested for two or three times and the Dr.'s kept telling us she didn't have it. Well to make a very long story shorter, over the years and after thousands of dollars, we finally found someone who could help us manage whatever was wrong with her. For the longest time we thought she must have food allergies, because all the tests we ran (and believe me, they were extensive) always came back negative. We never did get to the bottom of what was making her sick, but we were at least managing it and she could function. Last weekend she called and was sick again. She had been home for the 4th of July and got strep throat, but she just never seemed to get over it and get her strength back - same old story for us. We finally found someone who could help us and after spending about an hour and a half at her appt. we found out she had three viruses, one of them being mono, that has just been low grade for all these years, and that is just the beginning of it.We are excited and very hopeful that finally, finally she may be getting rid of these viruses once and for all! She told me she is feeling better and seems to have her energy back! Just wanted to share our good news with everyone. 

Okay, this may seem kind of silly to some of you out there in bloggerland, but there is a sad tale in this bowl of cherries. The first spring we were here I planted a couple of cherry trees in our back yard. I patiently waited for the trees to mature enough to pick some cherries. Finally, after 5 years of waiting, I looked out my window and to my delight, saw that our two trees were loaded with these big, beautiful cherries. I was so excited that we were going to finally taste the sweet fruits of our labor. Sweet cherries, ripe and fresh from the trees. As the summer went on and those cherries got bigger and bigger, I noticed that we were getting more and more birds in our yard. They were also enjoying the cherries. Now, I don't mind sharing with my little feathered friends, but by the time the fruit was ripe enough (just barely) to eat, this was all we got - one little bowl of cherries! Next year, the picking won't be so easy, for the birds I mean. I have a plan!!!

For the 4th of July, Nicki came home from school and while she was here, we went to Bear Lake for a day. It was kind of overcast, but that was okay, as it keeps the temps down. Our biggest problem was finding any bit of sand that wasn't under water. We've never seen Bear Lake so full. Our usually extensive sandy beach was under water. We did manage to find just a spit of sand that we had to wad out to and we quickly claimed it. Kent and Trevor made the obligatory sand castle while the rest of us just sat around and watched them. We also buried Trevor in the sand, which he loved and he really loves all the attention he gets from the girls. After just a couple of hours we packed it all up and headed for home. Nicki wasn't feeling well, and we needed just a tad bit more sun.

Whoops! I forgot to orient this picture. But this is the cake Trevor decorate for my birthday. Isn't it cute!!!

A few days after celebrating Regan's birthday, we celebrated my birthday. Lots of birthday cake this month. Trevor made my cake and did the decorating by himself and he was pretty proud of his fine work. Kent and Trevor grilled dinner for us and the girls contributed with their dishes to finish out the meal. I love having my family around and having us all together was the best part of my birthday.

On June 26th Regan celebrated her 18th birthday. We actually celebrated a few days earlier because she went to Disneyland with her best friend, Whitney, on her birthday. She spent a week in Southern CA with her friend and had the time of her life. She and Whitney have become very good friends over the past couple of years. Kent and I took her out to dinner and then we came home for the cake and ice cream with Kenna and Trevor. We had a great day celebrating 18 years of having Regan in our family. She is fun to be around and always has a smile on her face.

Regan has graduated from Mountain Crest High School!!! She is so glad to be finished with school. Her plans are to go to Pennsylvania and be a nanny for awhile. She went out there in February to meet her nanny family and just loved them. So now we are in the countdown. She can hardly wait to get back out there. She knows she will miss us terribly, but is really looking forward to a new adventure. The Grows, her family, have a two-year-old boy and another one due any day now. This will be a good job for Regan. She loves kids and is so patient with them. She gets hired all the time by people in our ward and one sister even wants her to stick around and be her nanny. We will really miss her, she is so happy and fun to be around, but we know that this is her time to get out and experience life in a whole new dimension. She's going to do great!

Some time around the beginning of June, Trevor and Kent went to Hill Air Force Base to see the airshow. They both loved wandering around the base and seeing all the really cool aircraft. Trevor is especially interested in the aircraft and is always looking at pictures and telling us he wants to be a pilot. They don't get to many "guy" days together, but when they do, they always have a great time.

Mother's Week

We are a little behind on keeping this blog updated. So, the last weekend in May, I went up to Rexburg to spend some time with Nicki for Mother's week. We did absolutely nothing at the college, but had fun watching movies and talking. We did take a nice walk through the botanical gardens up there and had lots of fun doing that on Friday night. Then on Saturday, we went to Idaho Falls to do some shopping. Macy's was having some kind of open-house type event and they had a drawing for several perfume gift packages. Nicki and I hung around for several drawings, but finally decided we weren't going to win anything that day. We went to lunch and then she took me over to Maurice and Debbie's to meet up with her roommate and her mom so they could go back to Rexburg and I could head south for home. We were almost at my brother's house, when Regan called and asked if we had entered any drawings. Apparently my name was drawn right after we left, and they had called our house to let me know. So we raced back out to the mall to collect our prize because the event ended at 5:00 and it was about 4:45. We just made it and here we are with the "coveted" free perfume. I can't even remember what kind we got, I gave it to Nicki. That was a fun way to end a great weekend. One thing about hanging out with Nicki, there is never a dull moment!!!