Glendo camping trip

Marcus's birthday was on the 27th of July. Work has been really tough on Marcus these last few months, so he took of Mon and Tues of the week of his birthday and we packed up and went to Glendo, Wyoming for 3 days. Luke and Crystal came. Luke plays on Marcus's football team. We have become good friends with them. We have wii night with them all the time. Also Ammon and Jonni came. Because we went up on a Sunday, there was hardly anyone there. It was so nice. We got a little cove on the beach all to ourselves. Made my life alot easier since our dogs came for the first time and they don't get along with other dogs! (except Luke brought his dog. But they ended up doing fine. They just had to keep testing each other.)
After we get set up we started dinner.( it was about 9pm). It was all going well till our little camp site got taken over for about 2 inche beetles. Not sure where they were coming from but they were huge and they hissed at you. The kids were scared. Lafai was freaked out big time. Finally I had to take them to the tent to put them to bed. That night I only got a few hours of sleep cause my kids kept waking up thinking there were bugs on them. It was so fun. lol
Monday morning which was Marcu's birthday, I made eggs, potatos and bacon. Then we played in the water all day. It was so fun. I can't count how many time I got dunked between Marcus and Luke, but it was a lot of fun. But of course the rain blew in early evening and the wind was terrible, it blew our tent over. As it was raining, lightning and thondering we were trying to hold our tent up but we were loosing, so I had to get the kids to the truck because of the lightning so we decided to wait it out then fix it. Well......... when we got back to our ten it was over and it had flooded. We had about 6 inches of water on the inside. Everything got wet except one pillow, the kids own special blankets and our bag of clothes that was protected by all the other sleeping bags. I thought this meant we would be going home, but no. Marcus always finds the good in something. Which is good. I think. He cleaned eveything out, hung stuff up. I went to the Maring for more paper towels and stuff. When I got back round two of the rain storm had just ended and where did I find my husband? Yes, thats right in the water trying to ride the waves. But my tent was standing and dry on the inside. One of our poles had split but it was still working to hold the tent. So then we moved on to Marcus's dinner. For Marcus's dinner we had London Broil, pasta salad, pinneapple and more. Since It was his birthday of course we had to sing. Instead of taking a cake up there, I took those grandma cookies. The ones with the colored icing. Put 2 candles in one and 8 in another and sang. After wards we made a fire put our sleeping bags around the fire to see if we could dry any of them. Which we ended up with 4 sleeping bags and only the one pillow. Marcus and I didn't sleep much, since we were on the hard ground. But the kids slept all night long. It sure was the most perfect trip, but we had a lot of fun and Marcus sure needed the time away for his birthday.

4th of July 09

Since Ginette had baby Tayvin on the 28th of June. They didn't go to Utah like they usually do for the 4th of July. We were glad to have them here with us this year. Every year we usually do something big for the 4th. We've gone camping a few years in a row and had a day full of fun last year with my in-laws. This year was a little different. We weren't sure what we wanted to do. In the end we decided to invite people over and to let the kids swim in the pool, jump on the tramp, and just to hang out. Ginette and her family came with the new baby, The Bennett's and their 4 kids, Eric and Shanon came, Michael and Sam showed up, Ammon and Jonni, Eddie's parents showed up and my mom came also. So there was only a few of us but we sure did have a lot of food. Marcus wanted to try something new this year, so we did bbq ribs,(which were sooo good), brats, and hotdogs. I was in the mood to make different desserts. So I made a cookie pizza with a cream cheese layer with mandrine oranges and strwberries on top with drizzled chocolate on top. I also made a three layer pound cake with Raseberry jello/jam filling, with cream cheese/whipped topping mix and topped it all of with fresh blueberries and raseberries. ( My friend Mindi posted pics on her page because Marcus had left with the camera and we were getting ready to eat it. So I took pics with her camera.) They both turned out good and both looked so nice.
Ginette's kid and mine are into the movie "The Sandlot" one and two. So Eddie had arranged a baseball game in the dark with fireworks going off in the sky while they played. We bought all the kids light sticks and they went a played a game on a field by my house. They had so much fun. After they were done they came back to watch Uncle Eric's fireworks that he bought in Wyoming. It was a great 4th of July.
Uncle Michael scaring all the kids.
Baby Ruby Bennett hanging out her cute 4th of July dress

Elitches with the Family

Naia and Bentley
Marcus and Eric with their basketballs they won
All the kids with their prizes
Marcus enjoying his brat


Naia, Jaedyn, Lilli, Lafai, Leilani and Kaiona
Lafai and Jaedyn Kainoa, Lilli and Leilani underwater

Gordan works for Continental Airlines and they had a family day at Elitches. Gordan was able to get enough tickets for all of us to go. We took the kids to the water park first. We only went on one ride and then rode the lazy river. Other than that we played in the wave pool, (which is where I was able to take pictures of the kids underwater.) Marcus and I had to get a new camera, we found a water proof camera at Costso. It has been a lot of fun to play with. After the waterpark we got the kids ready and went to the dinner that they were serving to all the Continental workers and their families. Marcus, Eric, Shanon and Bentley showed up at this time. (Of course, just in time to eat, like always).lol Since my in-laws don't like to ride roller coasters and Ginette was due any day with baby, they stayed and watched the little ones in kiddi land and Marcus, me and Eddie took Lilliana, Leilani and Kainoa on the REAL roller coasters. I must say that I felt bad for Kainoa. He is a little unsure of things at first. He's not a risk taker. So as we were walking up to the Minderaser, he stated crying. I thought he was going to throw up and we hadn't even got the front yet. Marcus took him under his wing and said "you can go with me". Not sure that helped, but he did it. I was so proud of him. But It did scare the crap out of him and Lilli. Now Leilani on the other hand, was ready to run back in line again. We decided to make Lilli and Kainoa go again. Poor kids. Leilani wanted to ride in the front, so Marcus went with her, she loved it!! After that we decided to let Lilli and Kainoa choose the ride. They wanted the Twister. (Yea, the big old white one that sways back and forth when the roller coaster is going). I guess that seems better that going upside down. Well they like this roller coaster so much they rode it 7 times in a row. Eddie was next in line with 6 times, I made 5 and Marcus only went 3 times. I guess we are getting old. The room was spinning the rest of the night. It was kinda funny. But we did have a lot of fun. All the kids including Eric, Marcus and Eddie played games to win stuff. Basketball was the popular one. But everyone got something and everyone went home happy.This day was the start to Ginette's labor, Tayvin Michael Tamatoa came 3 days later.

Girls first track meet

Well Eddie finally convinced us to put the kids in track this year. I figured why not add one more thing to do on Saturday's. Between gymnastics, football and now track I have about an hour in the day that I am not sitting on bleachers. It's wonderful. No really, I do enjoy it and think it is all worth it. Practice for track is Tuesday through Friday from 7:30-9:00am. We are still trying to get use to that early morning. The girls have loved it so far. They were so excited for their first track meet. It was at Hinkley High School. Leilani did the baseball throw so we did have to be there around 8. And of course Lilli last race was the last race of the meet. Leilani took 4th in the baseball throw, 50 yard relay and the 50 yard dash. Second in the 100m dash. She was so excited about 2nd place. I was so proud of her. Lilli took 3rd in the 100m dash and 200m dash. Her relay team took 1st. They had her run the 3rd leg. When her team mate got to her they were in 3rd/4th place, as Lilli got that baton, she was off. She ran that corner so fast. She passed all the other girls and got her team into first place. It was so fun to watch. Kainoa and Jaedyn also ran. Kainoa is so good at long distance. I think he took 3rd in the 800m. He just loves to run. Jaedyn likes short distances like my girls. He took 1st in the 100m dash. It will be fun to watch their progress as the summer goes on.

The Damage

My flower bed in the front yard
My garden. Well what's left of it

This is what my tomato plants now look like



After being gone at the Sandoval's for about 4 hours, I was surprised to be driving home and noticing all of the hail that was still laying around. Turning onto my street, there was hail, branches, and leaves everywhere. Our front yard still have about two inches of hail in places and my flowers were completely covered in hail. I knew if it looked this bad in the front, my backyard had to be worse. I was right. When I saw my garden I wanted to cry. My tomato plants were broken and shredded. My garden is a mess. Will it come back? Not sure, only time will tell. My flowers aren't flowers anymore. I started to pick things up and then decided I would deal with all of it later. Just wasn't ready for all of that yet. But at least we are all safe and sound, that is what matters the most.

Hail Storm

As we started to leave today for the Sandoval's house for lunch, I was noticing a huge cloud over my house that just didn't look right. I told Marcus, those are clouds that can produce Tornado's. As I started to drive away from my house, (literally 3 houses down) it started to hail. We pulled over under a tree to protect the truck. Now hail storms around here usually last around 5 min or less. I started calling Vycci after 15 min, telling her we were right in the middle of the storm and couldn't see enough to drive, so we would have to wait it out. Marcus noticed the clouds moving, so we were trying to see if we could see any funnels. But the weather was so bad we could see anything. It was then the radio was announcing Tornado's, and to take cover. The only cover we had was the truck under a tree. Not so good and not so safe. It was Vycci who kept calling telling us to start driving and head towards them. Both Marcus and I got out of the truck to try to push the hail off of the truck and to switch sides so Marcus could drive. When I stepped out my whole foot was covered in the hail. It looked like it had snowed. We finally was able to start driving. Cars were stuck all over the place. The streets were flooding. It was crazy. By the time we passed Tennyson, it was barely raining. You would have thought we were in a different state. But we did make it safely to the Sandoval's.

8 Years of Marriage

I know that I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. But since yesterday was my anniversary, I thought I would post that first.
It's so crazy that it has already been 8 years. Marcus's boss asked him, How long have you been married? And how old are you? People are always amazed how young we got married and that we are still married. I guess that is the worldly way to think. Last night as Marcus and I were looking back and reminiscing about the years. I was realizing how much growing we have done together. I'm so blessed to have Marcus in my life. He is everything to me. I often think about where I would be today if I hadn't found him, or should I say if he didn't find me. When I meet Marcus I was at a crossroads and wasn't sure which way to go. I Know the Lord blessed me and Lilliana by giving me the chance to have a wonderful man in my life who would take Lilli as his own, carry the Priesthood and who would to take me to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. My faith has been able to grow through Marcus. He is so strong and has always known the church to be true. I want him to know how much I love him and are so greatful for all things he does for me. I can't wait for the future and all the many more memories we will share together.