Spring Break 2012.....UTAH!

We had the best spring break ever!!  We all loved going because we got to spend so much time with family that we love.  We went with just a few things on the agenda and loved every minute.  Thank you again to both Barber's for their wonderful hospitality.  Seeing Trey in his element was priceless as well.  We got to see his conduct his ward prayer and Allie was lucky enough to be able to stay in the dorms with one of Trey's best (female) friends and loved getting a taste of the dorm life!  The triplets couldn't get over the fact that everyone was LDS.  Allie wanted to move into the BYU bookstore and enjoyed going to classes with Trey.

Skiing at Sundance:  Monday morning we woke up to an inch or two of snow with 37" in the mountains!  We all started out on the bunny hill with the tow rope to see how everyone would do.

 Trey and Allie eventually made one run down the mountain, but were so tired from all the snow plowing they did, they decided once was enough for them.

 Tanner and Sydney LOVED learning how to ski.  They got the hang of the tow rope quickly and never stopped the 3 hours we were there.  The bunny hill was just right for them.  Connor didn't love it so much.  He mainly hung out with David and I watching the others.

David had a list of places he wanted to eat while there and we made it to everything but Awful Waffle.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Chocolate House.....still thinking about those desserts!

We loved taking Trey a few of his friends out to eat one night!

One of the kids favorite things we did was eat in the Cannon Center for breakfast with Trey one morning.  Their eyes got sooo big when they realized they could eat as much as they wanted....donuts, sugar cereal, smoothies, scones, biscuits and gravy, crepes....

Sammy and" Synee"

Sammy loves everyone, but especially Sydney!  He is always up for making us feel welcome but Sydney stole his heart.  She was in heaven from all the attention he gave her.  It will be fun for these two to see each other again in May.

We spent a fun morning with Trey at Mr. MAC's getting all his missionary clothes! 

Can't wait to see everyone for the reunion!

Biking in Cades Cove

David and I have wanted to go biking in Cades Cove for a while now but never made it happen.  Now that we have bikes, we made it happen.  It did not disappoint!  It's an 11 mile loop with some pretty intense inclines.  It wasn't crowded at all, the weather was perfect, and the wildlife plentiful.  I hope to go back many times.

family fun birthday

Super Tuesday fell on my birthday, which made it extra special because the kids were home all day to spoil me with love.  After sleeping in, David and Allie and I did a weight workout video together, then Allie ran in the neighborhood with me.  Good thing we all worked out because then David and the kids made me an AMAZING brunch of crepes and omelet, Yum!!

I then got to digest that while enjoying a massage.  The weather was perfect for a family bike ride, which I enjoyed on my new bike David got me for my birthday!  --we thought this is something we could enjoy doing together given the fact that David is limited to what physical activities he can do (:  Then it was dinner at Lakeside and Tanner's basketball game.  We didn't get to have cake until 9:45, but it was worth the wait.  Thank you to my wonderful family for such a fun birthday!

The morning of my birthday I said to David "I wonder if Trey will remember my birthday?"  I don't know why I doubted him because not only did he remember, but there was a package on my doorstep from him, right on time!  I am now the proud owner of a BYU MOM sweatshirt (: Thanks Trey!

Australia!!!

Seeing your son open his mission call is more incredible than words can express.  I had no idea how of the spirit and special witness we would all receive as we watched Trey read the words written to him from the Prophet talking about how he has been found worthy to be a minister of the restored gospel and how the Lord will bless him to be able to seek out those ready to accept the gospel and that more blessings than he has ever received are in store for him as he humbly serves the Lord.

We were so grateful to have had all the Knoxville family gathered to experience this with us and that Brad, Susan and the boys were able to be with Trey as well.  Here are some of the thoughts the kids had that night:

Sydney:  "It made me realize how important it is to serve a mission.  And how much it strengthens your testimony.  I've never seen Trey cry before.  You could tell how much he felt the spirit."

Tanner:  "I felt the Holy Spirit so strong.  I just know that Trey is supposed to serve in the Australia mission and President Monson knew where to send him.  I know there are people there that he will convert to the gospel.  I wish I could go on my mission right now!!"

Connor:  "I felt so good.  I know Trey will be a good missionary.  It made me so proud of him"

Allie:  "I was so proud of Trey.  I felt really strongly that it was an inspired mission call.  I know he was meant to serve there.  I know that just like I want Trey here to take of me, the Lord wants Trey to take care of the people in Australia."

Getaway

Thank you David for taking me on a late anniversary trip to our favorite tropical getaway!  It is hard to leave the kids when things are busy, and I at first just thought we better not go, there was too much going on, but I am so grateful that David made this trip happen.  Every time we go away together and catch our breaths from the craziness that is our life, I am grateful.  I'm so grateful to be more in love today than I was 21 years ago when we got married.  I'm grateful to be married to a man who loves me more than I thought possible.  I'm grateful that we had a few days to spend on just us. ( Thanks grandparents and Allie for making that possible!)

I wish I could wake up to this every morning:

 I wish I could watch sunsets like these every night:

I wish I had more time to read and have this view while doing it (:

I wish my kids would fix us gourmet candlelight dinners every night, ha!

I wish I could have video taped the hilarity of one of our sailing adventures.  Everyday we set off sailing and exploring little uninhabited islands.  One day was particularly windy and I was afraid the boat was going to flip so I jumped out.  The water was only up to my knees but David, worried about leaving me, jumped out after me, as our little sail boat took off in the wind!  Thankfully it only went a short distance before slowing enough that David caught back up with it, because I really thought we were going to be stranded out in the middle of the ocean while our runaway sailboat landed on some island with all of our stuff.

David:  sailor

 

Trey's mission call predictions

When Trey came home for Thanksgiving he told us he wanted to turn in his paperwork for his mission right away and go right when school gets out in April instead of waiting until June (after the family reunion) as originally planned.  So when he came home for Christmas he had his doctor's visit/physical and dental appointment, filled out all the health history forms and other paperwork and thought that it was pretty easy and straight forward and not as daunting as I once thought.  And then the snags began......

First, his doctor couldn't run one of the tests, blood typing, so he had to go somewhere else to get that done.  No problem, we found a lab that said they could do it and have it back in a couple of days.  Well everyday we called the lab they said the results weren't back yet until finally the day Trey boarded the plane they called to say it had been delayed in shipping and therefore could not be tested. Ok, irritating but fixable.  I found a lab near Provo that Jenica so nicely took Trey to on the way back to campus to get his blood typing done. Ok, check.  Now he just needs his Bishop and Stake president interviews.

Bishop's interview:  check
Stake Presidents interview:  Trey shows up and is told that his paperwork is not all there from the Bishop, some of which they track down except for the dental form, which apparently his Bishop lost.  So, interview is postponed a few days but does not delay paperwork getting sent off to Salt Lake as they just do this once a week so "no time will be lost" as long as he can get his dentist to resubmit the form in time.

I get another form from the dentist, David scans it and emails it to Trey's bishop in time for him to have his interview Wednesday night and the Stake President to submit all the paperwork Thursday morning (the one day a week they submit mission papers)  to the Brethren to make the mission call, which happens on Fridays we are told.  EXCEPT, Trey's dentist filled out the form saying he didn't have his wisdom teeth removed! Ahhh!!!  SOOO, the stake president still lets him get his interview, and tells him if he can get a new form filled out, scanned and emailed directly to him the next morning it should still make it out in the mail, not delaying his call.  So we do just that, go back to the dentist Thursday morning, get a new form filled out, scan, email, etc....

But it was too late, he missed the deadline for this week.  He really wanted it to go in this week.  When he got back to school he thought he would have his call by now, but he will have to wait a few more weeks to find out where he will be serving for 2 years.  I wanted to write this all down so when my other kids serve missions and there is a snag with paperwork I'll remember that it's just the way it is sometimes.  Who knows, maybe the mission he is supposed to serve in is not filling any spots this week.

HERE ARE THE PREDICTIONS:


Trey:  Argentina or Jerusalem
David: Spain
Lisa:  California
Allie:  Argentina
Tanner:  Mexico
Connor:  London, England
Sydney: Arizona
Mom:  Seattle, Washington
Dad:  Argentina
Allen:  Germany
Julie:  Hong Kong
Carter:  Texas
Jared:  Venezuela
Claire:  Utah
Scott:  Africa
Lori:  France
Emma:  Australia
Ben:  Australia
Josh:  Australia  (They were not together when I asked the Cruze kids)
Lydia:  California
Troy:  San Francisco, CA
Dan:  France
Brad:  Curitiba, Brasil
Susan:  Rostov, Russia
Andrew:  South Africa
Joel:  Chile
Jenica:  Salt Lake City, UT
Jonah:  Paris, France
Silas:  Middle Earth (New Zealand)
Koen:  New York
Hale:  Utah

I haven't decided what the prize should be if anyone guesses it (besides bragging rights)......maybe a map or globe?  Hopefully we'll know the first week of February.

Connor

 Connor is the middle triplet.  He had a lot to say when he was fighting to survive in the womb and still always wants to give you his opinion.  He cracks us up a lot.  He is not hesitant to let us know what would make him happy.  This list of A "Connor" day especially made us laugh!

He decided we all needed to be reminded of some family rules and posted these up

 A while back he made this timeline that included the dates of all of our births, our marriage,  and the date Trey got his car and then the day Allie got the car when Trey went to college.  We're not sure why the car made it on the timeline (:

The other day he made up these posters for his door.  If you look closely he has quoted 2 family members.  Maybe if you say something really intelligent you can make it on his wall of quotes too!

Something else that cracked us up was last Monday Connor was in charge of the FHE lesson and he made up a great game of pictionary using gospel words like temple, Holy Ghost, etc.  The spin he put on it was that each clue was worth different points.  He told us there was one clue that was worth 6 points while all the others were between 1-3 points.  We cracked up when we got to the 6 pointer word:  eternal damnation!  When we started to crack up he said "what?! It's in the scriptures!"  We love you Connor!