Till We Meet Again...

The reason for our Utah trip was to attend the funeral of our sister in law Heidi Black Wright.  Heidi peacefully passed away in the early morning hours of April 24, 2012 in her home at the age of 34.  She succumbed to the effects of breast cancer and a brain tumor after a 4 1/2 year battle.  She fought long and hard, living each minute to its fullest, clear to the end.  

I was fortunate to spend sometime with her in February.  She was still living life to the fullest while I was there and I would never have guess that she would leave her earthly body only two months later.  We were able to attend a sealing together, walk around the SLC Temple grounds, eat a yummy cookie together and shop together.  She was always so talkative and full of life! 

Heidi was an avid scrapbooker.  At the funeral luncheon all her scrapbooks were on display...there were almost 100 of them!  She has sure left a great legacy for her children.  

 

 Heidi leaves behind her husband Scott (my step-brother) who is an amazing man and four children: Kaylie (12), Cameron (11), Dallyn (8) and Kyler (6).  Scott and Heidi prepared their children so well for Heidi's passing. They truly are an example to Ryan and I!  Kaylie sang a solo at the funeral called "Beautiful Heartbreak".  She has a beautiful voice and while she was strong while singing the congregation was in tears.  

Trevor was in heaven with all the boy cousins!!  Unfortunately the only two boy cousins that live close by are 7 and 11 years older than him.  Needless to say he wished we could have stayed longer!  One of Heidi's last request for me was that I try and get our families together more so the kids can really get to know one another.  

I am sure Heidi's reunion with her Heavenly Father and her Grandmother (who passed away a few months before her) was a beautiful one!  Heidi will be missed by many....till we meet again my friend!

Utah!

Unfortunate circumstances brought us to Utah.  ..it truly was a road trip...drove 8 hours Saturday, 8 hours Sunday, funeral Monday and drove 12 hours on Tuesday.  We got to spend lots of car time bonding! However we tried to make the best of our Road trip.  Our first stop was at State Line...not because anyone had to use the bathroom (haha), but because we needed gas ;).  Meredith and Trevor had never been on the HUGE roller coaster at Wild Bills so we took this opportunity to initiate them!  They had a BLAST!!!

Our first night was spent in St. George where we of course feasted upon The Pizza Factories breadsticks and shakes at Icebergs!

Then we drove to Tooele, dropped our stuff off at the Fishers who were so generous to let us stay at their place for the night, then drove up to Centerville to spend time with Scott and the kids.  It was great eating and visiting with them.  Trevor was in "boy cousin" heaven!  I was so glad our kids hit it off so well!

After the luncheon on Monday we drove into Salt Lake City to stay for the evening.  We visited the new "City Centre".  It is an outdoor, Fashion Island, like mall across the street from Temple Square. 

While the girls shopped Trevor kept busy collecting $$ from the stream that ran through the center of the Centre.  I was so embarrassed!

Meredith just kept asking me to take her picture posed on the rocks!

 In the center of the Mall is a "fire and water" fountain.  It is synced up to music and puts on a show from 7p.m. to 9 p.m in the evening.  Pretty cool to watch.

  

We also took a tour of Temple Square.  There were Sister Missionaries who showed us a video and the statue of the Christus.  The kids were amazed at how big it was!  The fun part was less than a week later they also got to visit the Los Angeles Temples Vistor's Center and see the Christus there too.

Here is a beautiful picture of Madalyn with her obnoxious brother...he is such a ham!!!

Meredith was going to ride on her Dad's shoulders so everyone else decided they would try to catch a ride on Dad also!

The Reflection pool...

"Hey all you Single Ladies...here's your guy in about 12 years....."  This will be his LDS Singles profile picture...hahaha!!!

 On our way home we stopped at Icebergs again for a shake....only in Utah will you see the Fry Sauce sign...YUCK!!!!

We also stopped at the gas station and picked up these HUGE suckers!!!  We were trying to stick them on the side of our mouth, but it would hurt so bad!

The picture of Ryan from behind was classic!

Ragnar 2012

Finish Line from the 203 mile Ragnar Relay. It was great to run in memory of Tavi. Our slogan was "Endure to the End". With mid-90 degree temps on Friday, it took some serious endurance to not quit. Temps dropped by 30 degrees on Saturday. Great to way to spend nearly 48 hours with 12 of your smelliest friends!

Running "San Francisco" Hill!

Huntington Beach to Coronado!

The Great Park aka Rock Adventure

Over Spring Break Meredith's homework was to decorate a "pet rock" and take it on an adventure.  When she went back to school she would write about the adventure.  Well, we did lots of fun things over Spring break..beach, Los Angeles, Petersen Auto Museum, etc.  However each time we went somewhere we forgot "the rock".  So the Saturday before Spring Break was over we drove over to the Great Park in Irvine for our "adventure".  We had been there years ago when the big orange balloon first opened.

We had a great time!  Everything was free...the playground, a ride in the balloon, carousel, agricultural farm and art museum. For you teenagers out there this is a FABULOUS and FREE date night!!! 

The "rock"

Trevor loved spending time at the chicken coup.  This is him rubbing his tummy saying "yum, yum"!

A Quiet Easter

Easter Sunday was a nice quiet day with just our family.  The usual tradition is to get together with Danielle's side of the family for our annual egg hunt and dinner.  The kids look forward to the egg hunt every year!  However our church time this year was 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. so we were unable to attend since everyone was getting together at 2 p.m.  So we improvised and had our own egg hunt before church.  The kids loved the time together and we all loved being able to go to church that day and not rush out the door!  Mackenzie and Danielle sing in the choir which is always a highlight since we LOVE music in our house!

When the kiddos first got up they got their Easter baskets:

Meredith got an Angels t-shirt

Trevor got a baseball bag

Mackenzie got new slippers and tennis shoes

Madalyn got a book, slippers and shoes

Then we had our Easter egg hunt...thanks to Grandma for all her filled eggs!  The kids LOVE the ones with money!

Here are the kids all ready for church.

After church Rodney, Randy, Cathy, Rachel and Dallin came over for Easter dinner.  It was very low key and delicious! We were thankful to be able to get together with them for Easter!