With Loving Memories

I miss you today. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

This is my tribute to my Dad on his birthday!

You'll never know how old he is, old enough to have a few gray hair, but still young enough to hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos and to relearn Japanese and to chase his 3 year old granddaughter. He'll never be to old to win a water fight....or to start one. He taught me that I bleed true Aggie blue and to strongly dislike the "zoo." (And that is something I will defend, USU may not have a great football team....but their basketball team rocks and the campus is beautiful and I LOVE LOGAN!) He taught me that some of the greatest moments in life are those that may never go noticed and that service never goes overlooked. That a little hard work never hurt anybody and that if you just go out a weed when it's still cool outside, it's not half as bad as in the middle of a July afternoon. And that it's a whole lot easier to do it right the first time, then to have to go do it again the right way. My dad taught me that family comes first and some of my favorite moments with my family come from long drives in the car. He also taught me the secret to a good roast....ha ha, you thought I was going to tell you, huh! I learned I can sit through anything, as long as Dad has treats in his pocket, and he always has treats in his pocket. Even Libbi has learned this, Grandpa always has a treat in his pocket and it's usually red licorice. I learned no matter how much you want to believe and how often you have tried it, you can't tip a cow, while they are sleeping (standing up) with just a few fingers. Tipping a cow is possible, but you are going to need a few people and it's not very nice. I love that my dad has taught Libbi to love pancake breakfasts, like he did with us girls and some times you just have to dance in the kitchen with your dad. Thanks for all the lessons learned, you are an amazing man!

Happy, Happy Birthday Dad! Here's to many more.

Yup....I get paid to do this!

We wanted Tami to know that we love her Porter belly....So from left to right: Tami, Pat, Leigh, Me, Jessica H, Andrea and Jamie. We had our 10 year anniversary today, so they decided we were having a "stay"cation and we went to Hawaii. Good food, snow cones and Music. It was great.

Below is our team (minus a few on vacation and a few we couldn't find; we'll photo shop them in!) , we are going to miss Tami and James.













Who else has a General Manager that would volunteer to dress up in a grass skirt and coconut bra and get on a dunk tank platform and let the associates he is over try to dunk him? I bet it's not you!

Change is....... inevitable

Disclaimer: This post has potential to be a rambling, incoherent thought.


First off, I'm having some with drawls as I watched everybody go back to school this week. Oddly, this is a favorite time of year for me. I think my school teacher mom bestowed that on me. I love school shopping for new pens and paper and pencils and things I think I might need. I have to tear myself out of that section of the stores, even now. I love the excitement of the new routine and the planning that goes into picking out the first day of school out fit and the smell of the first day of school. As much as I fought it, I think it was inevitable that I would choose a degree teaching...now I just have to go back to school and finish it and then I can begin to love the first day of school in a new way. And then there will be the tears when I send Libbi off on her first day of Kindergarten and the realization that my baby is growing up.

Second, my manager that I have enjoyed working under has accepted a position with the sales team here at Marriott. So he is on to bigger and better things. With that move comes a change of manager and a change of team leader. I know none of this means much to you (the reader), unless you know how I deal with change, I don't. I like everything to stay just so, however, I know change is inevitable and happens, so onward we go. I wish him the best of luck in his new position.

Libbi is still running around and is doing crazy things all the time. This morning she wanted to pick out EVERYTHING I was going to wear today. She lost, I dressed myself. I think it's time for a bigger bed for her, she keeps "falling out" of her crib converted toddler bed. Now all I need is room to put her in a bigger bed. This morning she was sleeping, wrapped like a burrito on the floor propped up against her pile of stuffed animals. I tried to wake her up and she started mumbling in her sleep and giggling. I would have thought she was pretending to be asleep, but it took her another 20 minutes to wake up and to get up. She is not a morning person, but that doesn't really surprise me given her parents sleep habits. I can't believe how big she is. Last night while we were washing stinky toes and stinky elbows, she was giggling. There is this giggle that she does that is pure enjoyment from her. I love that giggle, it's hard to describe, unless you have heard it. She will laugh and smile, but when she is really happy and really enjoying herself, there is a giggle that you can't help but smile and laugh yourself. I would highly recommend you hear it.

I started a facebook page this weekend after listening to my cousins talk about it at the family party this last weekend. First of all, I can't believe how many of my cousins have facebook pages. (I have lots of cousins.) And it amazes me how many people I went to high school with that are on there with families and all that fun. It's been a fun blast to the past and playing catch up with people I know and knew.

To Kyle and Dustyn, congrats on building a dead explorer. When we got rid of the brown one, they decided to see if they could build an explorer that would go only from point a to point b and then die. Using only parts off old ones they had already stripped, they were able to build a dead explorer. I think it's kind of impressive, granted, there were already major things wrong with the brown one to begin with, engine problems, a dead transmission, the loud clunk we heard on the free way coming home from Current Creek was the rear end blowing.

I warned you I could ramble, and I did. As soon as I can figure out why I can't up load photos, I will post photos of the adventures this last week.

The Time Has Come to Say Good-bye!

After our grand adventure this weekend to the mountains of Current Creek and the constant little problems we have had with our truck, it is time to say good-bye to it. Well, at least to most of it. There will be a few parts here and a few parts there that will find a new home on another of our Explorer's. Kyle and Dustyn searched high and low to find a new one that could run right off and didn't need major mechanical work and that was a manual transmission. Kyle said after doing 3 automatic transmissions, the next automatic transmission he did wasn't going to be his. So we opted for a manual transmission. Here is the problem, they are extremely limited and hard to find for a decent price. We have looked at a few, we test drove a few, we called on some more and nothing seemed just right for what we needed or what we were willing to pay. After a 3 day frantic search, (Remember that we don't have a running vehicle at this point) they found one that was in our price range and a manual transmission and ran. So off Kyle and Dusty went and when they returned home at 10:30 tonight, we have a new truck. Hooray! It's not very pretty, and it needs some cosmetic work, but it runs and the transmission is a manual. Travis says, now it's time to find a pretty one to put the pretty transmission in. A big huge thanks to our Samuelson friends and all their help this last week. We never could have done this without you!

Camping at Current Creek

Well, it was an event filled weekend. We got ready to leave on Saturday morning.....after a fabulous breakfast at Denny's, we got on the road. Up Provo canyon to Strawberry resevoir and then down a dirt road to a camp spot somewhere near Current Creek. Sounds simple enough.... We got to Provo canyon, where we got stopped for the Tour of Utah bicyle race. Those guys were going very fast down the canyon. So that delayed us a while, then as we got closer to Strawberry Resevoir, we got stopped in a one lane closure on a two lane road construction. After one wrong turn, we found the right road to Current Creek. Every thing was good and then.....the explorer transmission slipped and we couldn't get a gear. It's like being in neutral. So Travis hooked us up to his truck and decided no matter what, we'll just tow it to a flat spot and figure it out. So that's what they did. Remember that this is the new transmission that went in less than 3 weeks ago. So we got to a flat spot and opened the hood to see what was wrong. Nothing....so we let it sit for a while and then started it up and we had a gear... So we decided as long as we had a gear, let's go. So we went down a road and went through a mud puddle and as soon as we got all four tires in the mud puddle, the transmission slipped and we lost the only gear we could get. So Travis again came to the rescue and pulled us out. At this point, we found that the secondary transmission filter was in backwards and the transmission fluid was brown and burnt not red like it should be. I think the bouncing around pushed all the stuff it was supposed to keeped in the filter out and into the transimssion. So we fixed that, dumped a few new bottles of transmission fluid in it and low and behold, we had gear again. So we turned around, went back through the mud puddle, past the two older guys camped just on the other side of the river, who didn't think we would actually make it out of there and laughed when we got stuck, and down the road. Once we got back to the main dirt road, we were in the lead and from under the hood comes a sound that nobody should ever have to hear and smoke pouring out from under the hood. Now we have no power and the engine won't turn over. So Dustyn hooks his truck up to us and pulls us down the road to hopefully a camping spot. We finally found a camping spot, but we had to be towed to it. Thanks to Dusty for towing us up a 4-wheeler trail. However, we had a perfect camping spot. It was back in the trees, with lots of space and a creek running between our camp spot and the road, including what Libbi called a "swimming pool." In fact that's what she said when we walked up to it, "Look Mommy, it's a swimming pool!" After we got camp set up, (thanks Mom and Dad for your tent!) They started into figuring out why the truck stopped running. As Amanda and Sheri and I started dinner, Kyle pulled the alternater out and took it apart. He found the problem, the ball bearing in the alternator had seized, causing the pulley moving the serpintine belt to stop moving. That was the problem. Too bad we couldn't fix it at the camp site, we needed a new alternator. Since it was already 7, there wasn't much we could do. We had dinner and hung out around the camp fire. Libbi even had her little potty in the jungle. That's what she called it. On a side note, we had a conversation in the truck about the fact that monkeys live in the jungle trees. She was so funny about her little potty in the woods. But that, in it's self, is a story. We went to bed on an air matteress and woke up on the ground. That didn't go well for sleeping. Besides, it was freezing in the mountains! After we had breakfast, the boys loaded up in Dusty's explorer and headed to Heber city to get a new alternator. While they were gone, we put Libbi's swim suit on her and let her play in the "swimming pool." Despite my best efforts to keep her slathered in sunscreen, she got a little swim suit burn, I have a new farmer tan line, it's red. Libbi started a water fight with me and with Manda, she lost, like always, but we had fun playing in the creek. It took the boys (Dusty, Travis, Cody and Kyle) 3 hours to get down and back. But we are greatful for the help from our Samuelson friends. Because the new alternator did the trick. We had power and then we had gear. They even fixed it in enough time that Kyle could still play in the mud hole next to camp. We broke down camp and cleaned up everything we brought in, including the bag of dirt that we had saturated with transmission fluid. As we were getting ready to put the tent down, we noticed we had a butterfly in our tent. He was calm enough to let Libbi hold him on her hand. That was super neat to watch. She loved it and after everybody had looked at it and seen how still it would sit on Libbi's hand, he flew away. She is still talking about the butterfly on her hand. We literally were getting ready to pull out and Libbi was on the drivers side of the explorer and tried to open the door and it closed on her fingers. It took us a few seconds to figure out what was going on. We got her fingers out and looked at them. They are fine, we got her some ice and some medicine and before we had pulled onto the road, she was asleep. We mad it to the paved road and to the construction where we had to sit for 20 minutes. All I wanted to do was make it home without being towed. That we did, it was a scary drive home, that's for sure. But here we are safe and sound and home from our grand adventure of camping. Even with all the problems, we had a fabulous time and Libbi keeps asking us if we can go camping again in the mountains!

A Camping We Will Go!

Well, we are off on a grand adventure and as Grandma Hjorth would say, whatever happens we are out for a good time. I just want to know who thought it would be a good idea to take a potty training 3 year old out to the middle of the mountains and expect her to sit quietly in her carseat while the boys play trucks? I'm sure it wasn't me, because as the Mommy, I am sure to be the voice of reason. I just hope I can convince her to nature pee or it will be a long 2 days in the woods. She's been camping, but not since she was potty trained. Wish me luck! I'm not all that thrilled to go anyway.


Does anybody have any ideas on how to get the 3 year old to pick up her toys?!?!?! She doesn't seem to care if we throw them away or put her in time out, she thinks it's funny and her sticker chart isn't doing much either. At the end of the day she would rather play daycare and be the teacher than care where her toys are. She picks up so well at Grandma Cynthia's....she even did her doll laundry in the play washing machine and told Kjersti that "her big hands were to little to get the snuggly's out!" By the way Grandma Cynthia, Miss Libbi is not allowed to have peas anymore.....thanks for that!

Here's to a New Adventure

Let's give this a shot. I love to read blogs, so I thought I would start my own. I will do my best to keep it updated and to post pictures of adventures and funny things. Life with a 3 year old is always an adventure and Miss Libbi says some of the funniest things. Watch for random thoughts and random moments in my life. Comment if you want, be mad if you want, but at the end of the day, it just a place for me to put my random thoughts out there so I quit thinking about them. Enjoy!