dun dun dun dun dun dun dun

That's the Olympic theme. Just in case you can't tell. Sing it to yourself.

Is anyone else addicted to these Olympics? Me. I definitely am. And since I am just sitting here, glued to the TV, I figured it would be a good idea to throw up some more pictures from last week. I know the Olympics and these pictures have nothing to do with each other, but that's okay. It's my blog and I can make the title whatever I want, right?

Moving on.

First, a few pictures from my visit with my BF's on Friday of last week. Haylee, Kylee, and Anneka all came over and we had a low key day playing at the park, having a picnic, and letting the kids play in the kiddie pool/sprinkler while we sat around and chatted. It was the best just to be around my friends. These are some of my dearest friends from high school and even though we live far from each other now and see each other once a year or so (if that), it always seems like no time has passed at all when we get together. It's great.

Anneka (on the left) is my cousin (dad's side of the family), so we did double duty as close friends in high school and relatives. There is nothing better than that. She is a really dedicated friend and always remembers and cares about little details in everyone's lives. When we were in high school, she would do ALL of our hair (like 7 of us) before each  formal dance and she did a great job. She was just too nice and did it all, even though it was surely very stressful for her. That's just the type of person that she is.

Kylee (in the middle) is my soul sister. She and I are so alike in many ways...maybe that's a bad thing? She got me through some difficult times in high school and was a support that no one else could be. She was the crazy one behind many of our adventures (floating/surfing the canal, dam sliding (I know-dangerous!), going out on the town in out-of-control outfits, etc. etc.) She is also the one who introduced me to Devin, which is obviously very important. :)

I have always said that Haylee (on the right) is my best friend. We grew up in the same ward and were friends from the time I moved in at age 10 or so. It was funny to talk about our relationship in high school while the girls were here as Haylee remembered writing in her journal the times I wasn't talking to her for whatever reason (oh the drama of high school). Really it was because I was always so jealous of her and her beauty, personality, and ability to make friends with everyone around her. I want to shake my high school self sometimes and tell me to not be so dumb, but I am glad I had Haylee and the others to help me through. Seriously, I have the best friends ever.

Apparently the Olympics make me want to talk (type?). I don't know why I felt the urge to give a full-blown explanation about each of them, but there it is.

picnic-ing in the park

kids in the pool...that has a hole...so it was clearly awesome

Jonah (Haylee's), Hyrum (Ann's), Jackson (Haylee's), Jayda (Kylee's), and Hals. Of course missing are my two others and  Anneka also has two others that were not there. 

Haylee and I have always joked that Jackson and Hallie are going to get married...so this picture will be cute in their wedding video, right? 

Second, some quality photos from my cousin Natassia's (mom's side of the family) wedding, though I don't have any pictures of Natassia or her husband Reno at all. Oops.

Baking in the sun. and I mean BAKING. It was hot.

Adorable Grandma and Doyle

Doyle was the photographer here, so don't mind the odd light streaks.  Some of the family at the wedding. 

And some more family added to this one.

Grandma and some of her granddaughters.

My cousin Tyler has my Uncle Charlie's 1963 Lincoln Continental and he drove it to the wedding so we insisted that he take us for a ride. We used to ride in this car when we were little girls when my Uncle Charlie would take us to see the Nutcracker in Boise. I have fond memories of sliding around in the backseat with my cousins. 

Cort felt bad that she wasn't in the backseat with us, so she had to take a self-portrait.

We tried sliding around again, but well, we are a bit bigger and our sliding distance was about 1 inch instead of the whole back seat. Oh, well. Good times anyway.

And that's the end of those pictures.

The rest of the week.....TO COME. :)

Neil Baby 2012

Last week was a big week for our family. I have about a billion things to post and I am going to go in backwards order due to the simple fact that I only have pictures from the end of the week. We started with the Strobel family reunion at Heber Valley Girls Camp Monday and Tuesday last week, then of course Flor's sealing on Thursday. I don't have pictures of either of these events, so those posts will come when I have the pictures. Friday was spent with some of my BFF's from high school who had come from distant lands (okay states) for Flor's sealing and Saturday was Natassia's wedding (my cousin) and then the big Neil Diamond concert.

So, let's start with Neil, shall we? I am starting to think I need a separate label for Neil Diamond due to the excessive amount of times that he is mentioned on the blog. It is a bit ridiculous, but what can we say?? We are die-hards. We first attended a Neil Diamond concert (we meaning the daughters/nieces-- our mothers have attended probably every concert in SLC since the beginning of time) in 2008 right after Hallie was born. This was our second time and anticipation was high. Neil did not disappoint.

So let's recap.

Amazing homemade t-shirts- check
New signature dance moves (us) -check
Same old dance moves (Neil and his girls)- check
Sweet Caroline sang FOUR times (yes, four times) -check
the only ones standing in our section for nearly the whole concert- check
really annoying the crowd around us- check
excessive amounts of pictures- check
hoarse voices at the end- check
Fabulous time with family and Neil (practically family)- check, check, check

All in all, such an amazing night! Thank you to our favorite 71 year old, Neil, for putting on such a fabulous show! I'm telling you-- that man has stamina. I hope he hangs around another few years so that we can hit up  his concert again. Because you know we will.

Now, a thousand pictures. Hang on.

Dinner at McGrath's before hand. We were running late and some members of the family made it adamantly clear that we were NOT going to be late to the concert, so we literally ate our food in about 1 minute when it arrived and booked it out of there. 

Thank goodness for this trusty van. I knew Devin and I bought it for a good reason...and that reason is 9 ladies crammed in on the way to Neil Diamond. 

Apparently these two aren't loving it...

Not the greatest picture--except wait! Check out Mari Ann's face (far left). DEFINITELY the greatest picture. 

And this...so, so, so funny. We had a good laugh about these people "photo bombing" us. Them-1, Us-0

The so-awesome shirts. You gotta admit- they are something special.

Favorite picture of the night. hands down.

Midnight trip to Applebees for dessert and appetizers after the fact. We were all loopy. I  found everything to be hilarious. I definitely paid for that lapse of judgement the next day in church. So tired....

I think there were a few moments for each of us during the concert where we felt the loss of Linda once again, but Mari Ann made sure we all stood during "You Don't Bring me Flowers" just for her (that story is on the post linked above). Overall, it was a fantastic night. Neil never disappoints. Now just ensuring that he lives a few more years...

Oh, and some videos for those who care (the family, I'm sure):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-K9AOhQOds&list=UUdxwQtmRB7bDzmcANu3oRgQ&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW9RHb7otlU&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zobs5TS-FPM&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMsFmx43D8&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3OmMuOT-0&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rgu0WR1YwU&feature=youtu.be

Gratitude

Things I am grateful for this week:



1) The fun and laughs we had at the Strobel family reunion (hopefully I will be able to post pictures at some point. That point is not right now because I do not own any pictures seeing as I forgot my camera...oops.)
2) Devin's flu was short lived and none of the rest of us have caught it (yet)
3) Tender mercies of the Lord and feeling like He is watching over us
4) Devin's wonderful parents who came today and helped deep clean the house and get everything ready for tomorrow
5) Tomorrow Flor becomes a part of our family for eternity
6) Saturday is the Neil Diamond concert. Yes, I said Neil Diamond. If you need to know anything about my mom's side of the family, it is this: We are die-hard Neil Diamond fans and attend concerts wearing awesome homemade t-shirts. I know you are jealous.

Big week. Can't wait to get to the rest of it!

Too good not to share...

Dancing referred to before...it's excellent. I also like that Jace thinks he can join in at the end. Funny.

Relay for Life 2012- ( PICTURE OVERLOAD WARNING!)

One of my absolute favorite times of the year has now come and gone. This year's Relay for Life was extra special because my little crew missed last year's event due to sick children. I was bound and determined to make it this year and luckily WE DID! Wahoo!! It definitely did not disappoint. Since I have approximately a million pictures, let's get to it, shall we?

One of the highlights of our team's efforts this year was our awesome photo booth. Chris's sister Chei made the booth itself and the props were courtesy of Chei, Che', Carlie, and Tim. We definitely got a lot of entertainment out of this thing, as you will see. Here are Mikey and Lara showing us how it is done. 

This is what happens when you tell the girls to act like they are surfing. "What's surfing?" 

Clearly someone should have helped me arrange my afro better. 

Like that...Steve, that's the way to do it! By the way, I hate to point out how awesome Steve is all the time, but I must. Here is Steve fully supporting and participating in an event in which our specific purpose in participating is to remember and honor Jennifer's first husband, Chris. Yes, he is that awesome. 

Hals also has the right idea with the afro. Poor me, the only one who looks like a fool.

How about some attitude there?

Can't forget a photo with Spiderman! Glad she made it.

Flor sure adores her Uncle Mikey. Really, probably her favorite person ever.

Can't believe how cute he is.

Chei also brought this wagon, which was a HUGE hit. Little did we know that slapping a sign on it saying that rides around the track would be given for $1 would be our biggest money maker. Poor Steve and Devin (particularly Steve, who got to haul three rather large adults around the track in the wagon and came back sweating bullets) who got the rough task of pulling the wagon over and over again. 

I guess poor Dev, too. He hauled Carlie and I around as advertisement. Bad idea. We didn't need to advertise. We had kids lined up the whole night.

Just cute

Landon might just be Hallie's favorite person. Or her boyfriend. One or the other.

And this is my handsome boyfriend.

The Survivor's Lap- the most touching and emotional part of the evening, along with the luminaria ceremony, which honors those who have lost their lives to cancer. 

Do you think we look a like? I am starting to think that we look less and less alike in our old age.

Working that track!

I know I look scary here, but this is reality, folks. Devin insisted that I walk around with him every time he pulled the wagon around...so we walked a fair few miles together doing this.   

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the ladies ran our booth and sold a TON of cotton candy, plus a large assortment of goods from our "bake shop." All in all, we made about $300 to add to our amount we raised for the Relay, which makes our grand total somewhere near $3000. I'd say that's a successful year!

"Strike a pose ladies!"

I really love the assortment of creative ways people come up with to raise money for their team. For a donation, you could sit on these pots and have your picture taken. That is awesomeness right there. 

But I still like our photo booth best. Definitely a winner.

The bags ready for the Luminaria ceremony. 

This HOPE sign lit up while we listened to a few people tell their stories about how cancer has affected their lives. One woman shared the story of her son, a boy I went to high school with, who lost his fight to a brain tumor (the same one as Chris's) a few years ago. The luminaria is always so touching. 

Then the middle of the night happens. What that means is lots of freezing people, lots of out of out of control laughter (everything is funny in the middle of the night), and LOTS of eating. I mean, LOTS. Eating everything in our camp site and every other, in fact. I believe about here we had just eaten scones, jumbalaya, brownies, chips, caramel apples, popcorn....must I go on?  Okay, cotton candy, diet coke...

Cute Hailie with her princess umbrella....because it started POURING. It was miserable. I mean, I know we need rain and all, but really? The one night of the entire summer that we are outside? Yes, apparently so. 

Probably my favorite picture of the entire event. I think this sums their relationship up well. 

The drowned rat look looks good on all of us, yes? We soon noticed that we were the  ONLY people sitting out in the rain while everyone else was covered in their tents and canopies (in our defense, we did have a canopy, but the wind blew it over and broke it before the event even started. Lovely.)  So, at this point, we decided to call it a night as it was apparent that the rain was not going to let up and we were all frozen solid. Good call, good call.

The Rest of the Weekend:

Wow, I feel like I almost need a separate post, but don't worry, we will plow forward.  Saturday night we went to Leo's Pizza for dinner. The girls, particularly Hals, had a great time on the maze of toys they have there. Just look at that pose. What a ham.

A rare picture of this girl and me! 

Grandpa Dave and Brookie girl. Isn't she just the cutest? She is adorable and basically the best baby ever. 

Sadie jumping on the toys with the help of her daddy.

Devin escaped and found himself some arcade games. Apparently Jacer liked them, too.

Getting stuck on the slide!

Sunday evening we had a BBQ at Sue and Judd's house after church. We had to choose between where to go to church because both Sue and Dave were speaking in different wards. We heard Dave speak and he did an incredible job, but we also heard that Suey was pretty amazing. Hopefully we will get to hear her another time since she is making the rounds in all the wards in the area (her talk is that awesome, apparently.)  We also debuted the Linda video at this event. We then watched it twice more at my mom's after. It's a relief to have it done and so special to have, though as we discussed, we now have quite the collection of these videos and hope to not add to it for quite some time.

I think I took this picture as we were having a conversation, thus the "what the heck?" look on Grandma's face. 

While we were eating, this crop duster was spraying the crops....and showing off. A lot. It was fun to watch our own little aerial show during dinner.

Flor found a new friend in my cousin Colby. He doesn't come around all that often, so  we definitely had to get their picture together.

Most of the crew

We noticed that we hadn't seen Hallie for a while, so we went searching...and there she was outside with Avery and Sadie on the deck, dancing their little hearts out. It was hilarious. Hallie has NO rhythm, which makes her dancing quite the entertainment. 

Just a random picture from our time at Grandma's (my mom's). Jace and Mikey were having a good time throwing the balls in and out of the pool. Jace is apparently not cut out for basketball as he cannot aim for the life of him...

And this sums up quite well how we all felt after the fun-filled weekend! TIRED.  Isn't it funny though that the other two kids are conked and Flor is just wide awake? Poor thing still can't sleep without rocking, so sleeping in the car is pretty difficult for her. But, that's another story for another day.

Phew. Done. I really think you are either A) my parent B) my parents-in-law or C) my sister or sister-in-law if you have made it this far. Everyone else surely dropped off long ago. What a great weekend though.

We have some more exciting things coming up this month in the form of the Strobel family reunion and then Flor's sealing. We are excited....