July 4th 2009

Oh dear, it's October and I'm posting about the Fourth of July! I better start blogging a lot more or skip a lot of this summer.

My family goes crazy for the Fourth and this year was no exception. Marissa and her family were in town, and of course we couldn't miss watching the parade with my dad's side of the family!

Creed and Logan sat next to ach other for much of the parade, waving their tiny flags.

And this year, thanks to a new schedule, Larry even made it to the parade. I'm not sure what this picture was about, but sadly, it's the only one I have of him to prove he was there.

There was the usual Provo parade awesomeness that included camping out overnight for a spot (which thankfully did not include me), the race beforehand, loud cannons, lots of beauty queens waving, missionaries getting a huge cheer from the crowd, my family getting the whole crowd to chant for bands to play and balloons to twirl. This year Marissa even got her picture taken with Captain America ( I dared her to without thinking and I should have known that she would!)

And this year we also had some pretty fantastic glasses in the crowd, like these on Eli and his girlfriend, Brenna.

Me and Marissa
Whitney and Scott
and Tyler and Lisa even stopped by.
I meant to steal pictures of the rest of the days festivities from my mom. We had a big family BBQ and let the kids stay up late to watch the fireworks. We all thought Creed would be terrified (our neighbor's little street fireworks sent him into hysterics), but when the big show started, he was in awe and has been asking for fireworks every night since.

I went to bed that night with a heart full of gratitude for a wonderful family and a free country.

Things we inherited from Grandpa Ford (besides Larry's good looks)

I think the saddest part of going through Grandpa Ford's things was how many items probably meant a lot to him that we knew nothing about. He was very private about certain things. None of us was allowed near the cedar chest of his most sentimental items so it was sad to go through it and not know why some things were saved. He let us know that Keri got Grandma Ford's wedding ring, Scott got the piano, and other than that, he didn't want to talk about it.

That made me want to document what we inherited from him so someday Creed will know the story behind them. First, was Larry's dad's favorite childhood accessory, his 'coon skin cap. I'll have to share a picture of him wearing it, but I couldn't find it at the moment.

Next was a table that's been sitting in his storage room for ages. I know he inherited from one of his relatives (maybe an aunt?) but none of us can remember exactly. Isn't that sad? It's not in the best shape and the top half is currently still at my parents' house, but I love owning something that has a history in Larry's family. I don't ever remember telling him that I wanted this table, but Grandpa Ford told Keri and Scott that I really wanted it and so it became ours.

This compass is broken, but Creed discovered the compass and magnifying glass while we were cleaning out and he was smitten with them. He has already spent a lot of time exploring with them.

This ivory necklace was Grandma Ford's

Every time we visited Grandpa Ford, Creed went into a cupboard in the kitchen and got this English-German dictionary out and carried it around with him for the entire visit (no one in the family speaks German, by-the-way, so we have no idea why it was there). It made Grandpa Ford laugh for hours so we took it home for Creed, and he continues to carry it around and leaf through the pages pretending to read it.

We snagged this little apron last-minute from the garage sale pile. We're assuming it was Larry's dad's but we really have no clue. Creed loves wearing it in his play kitchen and I love the hand embroidered details.

When we found Larry's dad's old Robert the Robot toy we all knew it had to belong to Creed because of his extreme love for robots. Larry remembers playing with this when he was little. It doesn't work anymore, but it sure looks cool with Creed's little robot collection in his room.

This old Remington typewriter was the treasure that I was so excited to take home. I was seriously just saying that I wanted an old typewriter and then I had my choice to two. Now I just have to figure out how to find a ribbon for it. Isn't it perfect?

Larry took home a couple of games that he loved when he was young. He actually never played them at Grandpa's, his family had their own copies, but he was beyond thrilled to find his own copies.

He's been telling me about the game Masterpiece for years so now I'll have a chance to play it with him.

Some of Larry's dad's baby clothes were in the cedar chest, and how could we resist taking this home?

And this tiny letterman's sweater is in bad shape, but we couldn't possibly leave it in the donate pile. It found its way home with us too.

There are a few more things of Larry's that I missed because I have no idea where he stashed them away so hopefully I'll be posting about a few more odds and ends.

It's just nice to have a few things around the house to remind of Grandpa Ford every time we see them.

Life after

I never spent a lot of time thinking about it, but a LOT of work often follows the loss of a loved one, and that was definitely true after losing Grandpa Ford. Luckily for us, Scott lives in Utah and Keri and Matt flew in from Texas for two weeks so along with the cleaning, sorting, dumping, scrubbing, dividing, and painting; there was also a lot of laughing and wishing we all lived closer together. And, Keri and I finally got to attach the wallpaper Grandpa Ford has been wanting removed for years, but would never let us touch (let's just say it was vinyl and it was a beast and after that, we decided not to tackle the wallpaper in the rest of the house).

And it was pretty heavenly watching these three little great grandsons together.

Creed worshipped Jack and followed him EVERYWHERE and Jack was good to put up with it.

He even agreed to take a bath with Creed as long as he could keep his bathing suit on for modesty's sake.

Almost every time I turned around at Grandpa Ford's, Creed was sporting a new pair of glasses

A little like someone else who was wearing something crazy every time I turned around.

We especially owe Keri and Matt a lot because they were like machines and we never would have had the house ready to sell without all their hard work. The closing on the house was last week and it was bittersweet because we will miss the time we spent with Grandpa Ford there, but I like the idea of a new family being there and making it their own.

Oh, and as an added AWESOME bonus, I know now what Keri and I will look like we we become old ladies.

Like I said, Awesome!

New Family Portraits

My only request the last time Candice took pictures for us in Ohio was that I really wanted a family picture in front of our house. To me, it's more than just a family picture, it tells the story of where we were at that time. Oh, I knew I would miss that little house!

This time around, a portrait in front of our house wasn't an option, since we drove down to meet Candice in Provo while she was visiting and teaching some classes (plus, we don't own this house so I don't feel so attached to it). But since I don't know if we'll live in Utah next year, I really wanted a family picture that would bring back memories of living here. When Candice suggested taking a family picture on the ski lift at Sundance, I was immediately up for it (although a little terrified because Creed loose on a ski lift high in the air? As you can imagine, my hands did not leave his little waist).These pictures say "Utah" to me, and that makes me so happy.

I know Candice got some brilliant close ups of Creed too, and I can't wait to see them. He's getting way too big!

Candice caught a lot of fun moments

This kissing one is my favorite of course.

And yes, I know I'm lucky to have such a talented sister.

We're BAAAAAAAACK

Don't you hate it when you decide to blog after disappearing for months because you have new family portraits to share and Blogger won't let you upload them because you've run out of space? And after you purchase more space (which is totally worth it to me to have all these pictures backed up out there in the digital world somewhere) you get a message that it could take 24 hours before you will be able to upload new pictures! Ugh!

I've missed you friends. And I know my disappearance has worried some of you. Not to worry, we were just having a crazy summer, and I decided to take my first break in years from blogging to just focus on enjoying with our little family. But oh, how I've missed you! And now I have WAY too much to catch up on, and I keep putting it off because I'm not sure where to begin. If I pick up now, this blog will be missing too much, but if I backtrack, I may never catch up! I guess I'll try to go back to where we left off (since this is my only form of journal keeping), but I'll try to be brief.

So here's to hoping I can upload pictures soon. Stay with me people, they are worth it. They were taken by Candice after all!

And by-the-way, thank you so much to all those people who noticed I was missing from the blogging world and called me or sent me an email. It meant more to me than you will ever know.