Rest in Heavely Peace and Love

After more than ninety years on the earth, my Grandpa Harold Wardle died this morning. He followed his life-long sweet heart my Grandma Louise who died earlier this year in May.

He has been so lonely and restless since her death. I am delighted that they can be together again reunited and free from the entrapment that their feeble, old, mortal bodies provided in their later years.

Growing up I always knew Grandpa as a big tease and with one of the best senses of humor of anyone I know. Even after the age of ninety, with no short-term memory he was still cracking subtle jokes right and left. He had such a quick wit.

Grandpa lost his short term memory 15 or 20 years ago. It wasn’t much of a problem until Grandma also lost her short term memory about 5 years ago. Even with no short-term memory, they still had each other, and will the help of sticky notes and their white board they got along okay most the time. One thing you don’t need a short-term memory for is love.

My Grandparents loved each other very much and it was obvious. Married in 1947, they led a life time of love. Even to their very last days together on earth, you’d find them sitting right next to one another in their home holding hands. Sometimes you’d find them hand-in-hand in the dark, because they couldn’t remember if it was early morning or evening and didn’t dare turn on the lights. They were fine either way as long as they were there together holding hands.

When I was a child I remember going to their house each Sunday. It was so fun to go see them and get chased and teased by Grandpa. Times haven’t changed much in the last twenty five years, Grandpa is still the same. Just three weeks ago, he was teasing my Alyssa with his cane. Just the way he used to tease me when I was her age. He had her laughing so hard while trying to wrestle his cane out of his hand. He always loved the little children.

I remember when we would leave their house after our Sunday visit both he and Grandma would walk out with us, stand on their back porch and while holding his old-fashioned bottle of Diet Pepsi, he’d wave good-bye with one finger and say, “See you later alligator. After a while crocodile.”

As a child, I loved going through his garden sneaking raspberries off his bushes and eating them while swinging with cousins on their backyard swing set.

All my early memories of Grandpa include him in the garden or out in the pasture in his big rubber boots and a shovel. I guess he was irrigating and moving his water around.

After he had his knees replaced, he increasingly had to trade the wader boots and shovel for a cane. All the kids loved/hated Grandpa’s cane. It was hours of entertainment/tourcher when Grandpa would poke, prod, tickle and tease you with his cane.

We loved to play with Grandma and Grandpa inside their motor home. It was fascinating as a child to be in there with them. As I remember, everything in there was covered with some kind of yarn. Grandma had made a crochet cover for just about everything inside the motor home. As a result, it was very cozy and home-like in there. I remember hours of playing Rack-O and Rummingcub in there on our trips to Little Mill campground in American Fork Canyon.

I’m pretty sure American Fork Canyon was their personal Garden of Eden. We spent a lot of time there playing with our cousins drinking Shasta and eating hotdogs and marshmello’s beneath the awning of their motor home.

We loved to hear about Grandpa’s war-time experiences. He served in the Army as a cook in France and Germany and various other places. He often told us about how he would make sandwiches and coffee for all the hungry soldiers.

Grandpa and Grandma served a mission together in 1983 in Florida. I remember as a child how much I missed seeing them. I looked forward so much to their letters my mom would read me. I remember one time the sent us a baggie full of white sand from the beach. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. They were very proud of their missionary service and Florida always meant a lot to them.

Grandma and Grandpa were picture perfect grandparents who made each of their grandchildren and great grandchildren feel individually special to them. I think they were at every wedding, graduation, baby blessing, birthday party, and baptism. Their family was the most important part of their life.

We will greatly miss Grandpa’s teasing and Grandma’s cooking and both of their love. We appreciate the things they taught us by the way they lived. They leave behind a legacy of love for each other as well as their children and grandchildren.

Rest in peace Harold and Louise, until we meet on the other side, and Grandma, if you are reading this; please have a bag of your corn flake candy ready for me when I cross to the other side.

Beach and Baseball

Due to the overwhelming response I got from my last vacation post, I've decided to post again. You're welcome.


Beach day! After much debate and brainstorming we ended up at Huntington Beach for an ideal beach day.

The weather was perfect. We had temps of 95 or so degrees. Perfect for hanging in a bathing suit by the beach.

We did our usual and went straight to Zack’s beach rentals to get our beach gear. For those of you amateur beach-goers, here is a tip…The only thing you need to bring with you to the beach is sunscreen and a hat. The rest you can rent for cheap without hauling all the way from Utah.

Here is another tip. Don’t bring any food to the beach. The birds will come and eat it as soon as you take one step away from your towels. They are very aggressive and good at what they do. Just eat before you come or after you go. Totally not worth trying to eat, especially a whole meal at the beach, don’t do it.

We usually rent a big beach umbrella and buy some beach toys for around $5. My brothers rented some body boards. Next time we’ll rent beach towels too. We were suckers and hauled them all the way from Utah, never again though, ever again. Too much bulk and weight in the suitcase.


As we knew they would, the kids LOVED the beach. Especially Alyssa, but especially Sunny!

The frolicked and built castles and searched the shore for sea shells.

Sunny didn’t seem to mind the cold water, in fact, I think she welcomed it.


We love Huntington Beach. We love to watch the Surfers we love the shops close by and there is good cheap parking and plenty of sand for everyone.

Steve and I also have good memories from when we were dating. We spent many days during our courtship at Huntington Beach.


After the beach we headed out to the ball game. We planned to go to see the Angels play. Since our group was so large, we were able get group seating. We got 25 seats for super cheap. Since we were a group we were able to purchase a hat, hotdog and soda for only $5.

The kids loved having a hat and a hotdog at the ball park. It really made it feel special. The seats were lousy and we were pretty disconnected from the game, but it was fun to be in the stadium. Unfortunately we went straight from the beach to the ballpark, so we felt kinda gross. Both Steve and I are sort of clean freaks and find it hard to enjoy anything if our bodies are not perfectly clean. We would have made lousy pioneers.

Sunny and Brad bonded while at the game. She was very wiggly and screamy when Steve or I held her, but she spent about 45 minutes with Brad and sat very calmly for him. I guess Brad historically has a calming effect on children.

We saw the World Series Trophy. I guess they won it sometime recently, or not recently, I don’t know baseball.


Here we are outside the stadium.


Here are the Davies, doesn’t this picture look like a post card? I took it. I should do this for a living.
After the game we headed back to the hotel. Birds-eye it should have taken us about 30 seconds to get from the parking lot of the stadium to the parking lot of the hotel, but since this is Southern California and traffic is CRAZY, it took us about 45 minutes. Frustrating.

Once we got the hotel we cleaned ourselves (whew!) and headed back out to meet Skyler and Elise for an encore evening with them.

Again it should have taken us about 5 minutes to get to their house, but no, due to traffic and some navigation problems it took us nearly an hour. SO FRUSTRATING!

We packed them into our Sokol-sized mini-mini Van, the Mazda 5 and went to In-and-Out Burger. We enjoyed it. Alyssa and Skyler had quite a dialogue going. It was really fun to watch and hear all the things she was telling him and the food was delicious as always.

We went back to S and E’s house after and attempted to watch the Office with them. Alyssa and Sunny enjoyed exploring their house and chasing each other around their center island, playing fetch with a tennis ball and drawing pictures. We determined that we would never watch the Office again so long as the children were still awake. Too distracting. You need to really watch in order to catch all the nuances that make the Office worth watching.

Not so Sunny

Sunny is eighteen months now. Although she is adorable a lot of the time…she also spends much of her day hanging on my pant leg looking up at me like this. She especially does this when I am preparing food. There is usually nothing I can do to satisfy her when she is like this. It’s exhausting.

Just thought I’d mention it.

Anyone Need Fall Family Pictures?

Have you ever come over to my house and seen my darling family and kiddie photos on the wall? Don't you just love them? Me too. Well....here's your big chance to get some of your own while you save a $$bundle!!

My friend Heather who is a professional photographer with her own business Aya Photography is offering a fall family portrait special this Saturday. I think Fall is the best time to get beautiful pictures.

Here's the deal...for $35 you book your shoot and get a free 8X10. Normally she charges $75 and it doesn't come with the 8X10.

Appointments are availble in the Morning and in the afternoon/early evening.

If you want pictures for less than half the price, let me know and i'll get you an appointment.

Look at some of the fun-cute-beautiful-unique family portraits she's done by clicking the link above then clicking to "Galleries" and then "Families". You'll love them.

California Screaming: day one and two

We’re recently returned from another trip to glorious Southern California. I know it’s trite to love Southern California, but we love it, so I guess we’re trite.

We took this trip with three of my brothers and their families along with our trite friends the Davies who also joined last year.

The excitement started when we arrived at the park-n-jet lot and rode the shuttle bus to the airport. We met up with the Davies there.

Then to the airport. The kids had a blast running from window to window look at all the “Jet-Blues” taking off and landing.

The real thrills, however began as we boarded the plane. It was the first flight for most of my brother’s kids. Not mine though, they are totally jet-set kids. 


Alyssa loved looking out the window and seeing the clouds go by. It really rocked her world to see clouds just beyond the window.

Sunny loved getting away with all she could. Her favorite shenanigan was standing on the tray table. We thought she was a bit rowdy on the way over but if we had known what she would be like on the flight back we would have enjoyed her temperament a bit more on the first flight...


Aside from Scott and Tammy’s family, we all stayed in the same Hotel. Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort which I would give three and a half stars. We were on a different floor than everyone else, but it was fun (and stressful) to be close. The kids had a blast being in a foreign place together.

We arrived late Tuesday evening, settled in for the night, woke up and went to Disneyland. We parked at the Disneyland lot and rode the tram to the park. Excitement was in the air as we rode over, it was my brother Randy and his family’s first time in the park.

Right away we ran into a few characters, first Cruella DeVille. Alyssa really liked her sass.
Next was Snow White’s vane queen. Alyssa was practically hypnotized by the queen. The queen asked Alyssa if she knew where Snow White was. Alyssa replied that she didn’t. The queen then told her to find her and tell her she was looking for her. Alyssa told her she would. We set up our picture and Alyssa said “Cheese” as she always does. The queen said…”Don’t say cheese, say Apples.” Alyssa then spent the next hour trying to find Snow White and talking about how she had to find her for the queen.


We went and took care of the most important things first, meeting the princesses. We have looked forward to this for a year. We met up with Jason’s family and waited and waited and waited. Then we waited some more. I mean, we seriously waited forever. But….it was worth it.


These little girls just ate this stuff up. They do love their princesses. It was Alayna’s first time meeting them. It was just mesmerizing for them.

Sunny likes the princesses okay too, but what she really liked was the backdrops they were standing in front of. They, for some reason were fascinating for her. The bars the kept the lines were also very fascinating to my one-year-old.


Then, we found Snow White. Alyssa hesitantly, but on her own, walked up to Snow White and delivered the message. Snow White played right along and asked her if the queen was making apples today. YES, Alyssa said! She told Alyssa not to tell the queen where she was.



Although we waited forever to see the princesses it was worth it, and we were glad we had it over with right away.


We made it to the Small World ride right away. It was closed last year when we were there. The girls both loved it. It was in their top two favorite rides.


As much as we were looking forward to the Princesses for Alyssa, we were looking forward to Pooh Corner for Sunny. She somehow had a pretty good infatuation for Tigger and Pooh. Unfortunately, Sunny fell asleep on the short walk over to Pooh Corner. We let her sleep while we waited in a short line to see her furry friends. We woke her up when it was our turn.

She was pretty sleepy, so we actually went through the line twice in a row, she enjoyed it much more then second time.

Notice how well I match my good friend Pooh in the picture. I can’t believe he wore that. If I had known, I would have worn a different color.


We met up with our group for the Pixar Play Parade at California Adventure. As we waited for the parade to begin at 5:15pm we decided to take a few pics of our cute girls. Unfortunately, it was more than Sunny could handle. She was pretty tired at this point. We took them anyway. What a treasure.

WE had a blast. The kids LOVED the parade. It is such a fun parade. Even Randy who is not impressed by anything was impressed.

The iconic Tea Cups was the other ride Alyssa couldn’t get enough of. We rode it at least half a dozen times. When I was a girl, I had a fantasy about riding in the Tea Cups, so I was delighted that she loved it so much.

Somehow we didn’t take any pictures with our friends Skyler and Elise. They came a met us Wednesday evening at Disneyland and we spent the evening with them. We always have a blast being with them. I’m so disappointed we didn’t get any pics with them this time.

By the end of the day. This is what our crew looked like. We ran them hard all day.
Grandpa Charlie would have been so proud. Time for bed.

Second Place in a Beauty Contest

Last night at the Herriman City Pumpkin Festival they held a children’s costume contest. They awarded prizes in age groups.

Sunny was a bee, my little Sunny Bee. Alyssa was what she called a pom-pom girl.




They were lined up in age groups and judged by Miss Herriman, Mayor Crane and Council Member Baugley.


Sunny won second place in her age group. I got her costume for $2 at a garage sale. While I was walking up to put her in the contest, I put my yellow sunglasses on her face. I think that’s what put her over the edge of cuteness, and won her the title. Or perhaps it was Mayor Crane who is currently involved in a very tight race to be re-elected and he wants my vote.

Just after she won her medal the mayor asked if we could get together to talk. Is he trying to buy my vote? If he is, he is doing a great job! We were super excited that darling Sunny Bee won.

We had a great time there. We love the bounce houses and all the fun pumpkins.


We loosely celebrated Alyssa’s birthday with all her cousins there, meaning we brought cupcakes and ate them with cousins. We got a really cute pic of the cousins.

Nite Time

I have long thought that the word Night looks much cuter spelled Nite. Am I crazy, or is it truly cuter spelled this way?

If I am not the only one who feels this way, lets band together and do what it takes to officially or unofficially (I don't care) change the way it is spelled.

Night or Nite. You decide.

My only worry is that people will want to shorten or change the spellings of other words such as Through to Thru. I just don't feel the same way about Thru. It just seems lazy.