Farewell...

Rick's sister, Marianne, left on an ASL mission to Portland, Oregon October 17th. Here she is with her sisters, from left to right: Lucy, Liz, Marianne, Peg and baby Noah. We'll miss you, M'Anne! Aren't they all so beautiful!

Wheeler Farm

Here is an amazing old Oak Tree that our family could easily live in! The kids climbed and played for a long, long time.
"The boys" looking at the cow. They mostly were having fun climbing the fence, I think.
Me and my sister, Anna. She's my homeschool sidekick as well and it was wonderful to have her and her little family here in Utah for a whole week.

A Day at Wheeler Historic Farm

Here is me, my sister Anna, all of my kids, and 4 of her 5 kids on a lovely tractor ride. It was actually really fun. Emerson met a kid dressed just like him, all clad in army clothes, and sat by him the whole time. They made quite good friends for only knowing each other 15 minutes.
This one is just for a good laugh!
Here Brahm makes conversation and pretty good friends with the turkeys. Then one of them nipped his finger and he sobbed. His finger was not hurt at all. He honestly looked like he felt so betrayed by them...his new, special friends. It was sad and cute.

Tour de Salt Lake City

We took the kids on an official tour of Salt Lake City, including the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the North & South visitors centers, the Conference Center, and the 26th floor of the Church Administration Building, which looks out to the entire city! Here we are in the North Visitors Center in the room with the Christus. It was so neat to have the chance to show the kids this beautiful statue and feel the spirit there.
The conference center was amazing! Incredible! So huge and accommodating. We were just flabbergasted (a word commonly used by my mother)! Really worth the tour if you're ever in the valley again. This is just the main conference room, but the entire building has different things to view.
The infamous Salt Lake Temple photo spot, where Rick and I stood 10 years ago (in February) after we were married. Special day!

Cotton Candy!!!

The whole reason McKay wanted to go to the Zoo was for the cotton candy. J/K We did get to see a white crocodile and some awesome huge gorillas and arangutan's! The new updated Hogle Zoo is pretty awesome! Brahm isn't much into the cotton candy, mostly due to it's stickiness and texture. You could tell he thought he was eating cotton balls. And every time I gave him a piece he tried to give it back and begged me to wash his hands. He's a little OCD about having dirty hands.

"Crappa" and the boys

Here's Grandpa Thompson with the boys watching "Holes". They were so excited, and except for Brahm they sat still through the whole thing. Fun times!

We've Arrived!

Yes, we finally arrived here in Utah. Actually it's been almost a month. We arrived September 1st after a long 48 hours of driving with a U-Haul trailer in tow. My wonderful MIL, Mary, flew out to help us the last couple days, and also drove home with us. She and I took turns driving through the first night, and day, then on the 2nd night Emerson kept crying because he couldn't get comfortable sleeping in the sitting position. I felt so bad that we were making the kids "suffer" so we pulled into a rest stop and slept for 5 hours.

Then we raced home, arriving shortly after noon the next day, smelling and looking just like we'd been camping out for a week, minus the campfire smell (just the "non-showered" smell). We're so glad to be here and are in heaven with so many family and friends around. We miss all our friends and the beautiful trees and green country of Michigan. THANKS to all those who helped us with packing, cleaning, babysitting and other helpful things. We could not have done it without you!

As for Rick, he just arrived in Michigan last night after finishing his month of rotations in San Diego. His experience was nothing short of just surviving---- lonliness, 7 day/14-hour work shifts, and eating Cup-O-Noodles from the hotel's coffee pot for dinner every night! He really is glad to be back in "familiar territory", but is quite lonely and without a place to live at the moment. Strange, but yes, my husband is temporarily homeless! However, he does have clothes to wear.....2 huge wardrobe boxes shoved into the back of his vehicle. We miss him and look forward to a brief 2 day visit this coming weekend for his sister Marianne's mission farewell. That's it for now and we'll blog again soon!

P.S. We're not able to get internet on our own computer in the basement, so I don't have an easy way to download pix to the blog. But, I'll try for the sake of not losing all my "blogger buddies" interest in our ever so eventful lives! :)

Er...Uh..

Nice title, I know. We've been going crazy with the ups and downs of our last weeks here. I'm just about done wanting to EVER move again. We're going to have to sell most of our furniture, and rent 2 separate trailers, and move at 2 different times (as in me, my MIL and the kids once, then Rick a month later) just to get everything to Utah without paying a ridiculous amount of money to have someone move us. So....when I get a chance, I will actually put some photos and updates on here. Until then...ciao!

McKay is really good on the balance beam. They always have to tell him to "slow down."

Emerson, in his favorite shorts that match Jake's shorts. He is the one who started all this gymnastics stuff. When he was 2 he up and started doing cartwheels one day. Then a couple months ago he did a back handspring on our bed. I about had a heart attack! But, that was nothing next to what I've seen the kids do on the trampoline. I won't even talk about it!

Their favorite thing to do is play on the uneven bars. They love to do little flips and swing as high as they can. It really is a super fun sport for them!

McKay was supposed to do a forward roll, but instead he did a complete forward flip from this position right onto his bum. Everyone gasped and Rick and I just laughed until tears were running down our cheeks. This kid is fearless and doing a flip on a mat was no scarey thing to him.

The last sale of the day

After McKay's success, Emerson found a little tiny snail shell, and hit our neighbor up to buy it for 50 cents, and she did! So, altogether the boys made 80 cents tonight. McKay informed me that it was because of their advertising. I love it!

Are we Entreprenuer's or what?

Tonight we talked about different things people collect. McKay decided to collect "little things he finds on the ground" and Emerson "newspapers he finds, so he can cut the coupons out and sell them to people." I thought these were both very cute and creative ideas. Then I went outside to find a little sale going on in my driveway. McKay made this cute sign taped to a tree branch (you can't see it, but the leaves are still on the top of the branch) that says "Collection items for sale". So, due to the fact that there are not a lot of pedestrians walking by our house, I am now the proud owner of an "intresting stone" (he almost spelled that right) and a pine cone. Emerson bought the "metal piece". It was absolutely the cutest thing ever! I am so proud of my boys for being so business savvy.

Just Jump!

Here the boys are showing their true colors....bounce, bounce, bounce! They love the trampoline, especially when we put the sprinkler under it. Sometimes when we can't find Brahm, we'll look out the back window and see him bouncing up on the trampoline all by himself.

Have you ever read a book that you knew could change your life? Rick's Mom, Mary, gave him this WONDERFUL book, and of course I read it first. My in-laws are financially doing just fine, but after reading this book they said it changed their lives and their views of finances. I've never thought "I really want to get rich" because I've always though negatively of money. But, that's because most people who I know have lots of it (mostly those in the public & media) spend it frivolously or are people I don't respect at all! However, I have learned while reading this book, and through some other more recent experiences, the tremendous benefits of wealth when used with wisdom and for the intent to do good, for ourselves AND others.

In a nutshell, this book teaches 5 steps to obtaining financial independence and wealth, as well as teaching some very basic principles of living a good life. It's also a very short read, under 100 pages, with financial recording sheets included at the end.

Not so coincindentally, I think, the Author, Richard Paul Evans, is apparently a member of the church. I only say that because I think in reading a book about money written by a Christian (one who you can tell really tries to emulate God by living true Christian principles) I can put my doubt of the writer's integrity behind me.

It's phenomenal and I really think it would save America in its state of "the credit plunge"! I hope you'll give it a try and pass it on to someone else who could use it! Thanks, Mary!

"Buzz", the squirrel, our baby pet for a day. We fed him nuts and water. He climbed all over the boys and scratched them up a bit, then layed down next to me when I was snoozing on the lawn, and fell right to sleep. I admit, I got rather attached to the little thing that day. I even gave him a bath and we made a little box house for him with a stick to climb out on. Too bad squirrels are wild and mean when they grow up, or we might have kept him!

Yes, we had a pet squirrel for a day or two. The kids named him "Buzz" and he was just a little baby that Brahm picked up in our back lawn one day. Serious! His mom got hit by a car and we heard him squealing in the tree for a few days before this. We took him to a place where they can help him/her survive until he's big enough to let out into the wild again. Bye, Buzz. The kids will miss you...

Silly, silly Emerson!

Emerson is such a silly boy and he always makes us laugh! Like this awesome outfit he chose for the day, with his shin guards and all.

And these wonderful glowing vampire teeth he picked for a prize at Zap Zone...choice!!

And he is really asleep with his "special blanky" on his head like a little shepherd. So sweet...I love it!

Rocket Launching!

Grandpa Thompson brought his home made bottle rocket launcher with him in a suitcase from Utah. The boys were in Rocket Heaven!! They launched for hours in the yard and at the park.

Here's a picture of the bottle launching from the ground. See that tiny black speck in the clounds...yep, that's the bottle. It went awesomely high!!

Grandpa showing the boys how to fill it with water before pumping it with air. It hit the neighbors roof 2 houses down with a loud thud, which made them a bit upset. So...to the park we went.

Rick Graduates!!!!

Here is our little family right before Rick's graduation ceremony at the Wharton Center at MSU.

Rick and Derek Weaver, Rick's best friend in Med School.

Rick with his parents right after Graduation.

Rick and I, Derek and Brittany Weaver. We love the Weavers so much and will miss them tremendously. They are moving back home to Ft. Collins, Colorado for residency. We wish them and their 3 boys the very best! God bless!