All Together Again

 Can you tell it's been a bit of a whirlwind since Ellie got home in June?   I keep trying to get back into a good routine with blogging, but now the new school year has begun and our heads are spinning again!  Before I just throw in the towel on the neglected summer happenings, though,  I'm committed to do a little catch-up  before diving into the new life happenings.  After all, the main purpose of this blog is to capture the family memories.  

We had a very brief  window shortly after Ellie got home from her mission that all of our kiddos were able to gather here in Utah.   It wasn't long, but  it was magical.   

We went to the temple together...only missing Spence and the littles.  💕

We also got professional family photos taken (in the studio because the air quality was very poor at the time and we had a very short window everyone was in town).

In my happy place....

The professional photographer actually canceled our originally scheduled shoot for a ton of smoke in the air, after which we panicked that we wouldn't be able to find time to reschedule her in the brief window we were all together, so we had Heather do a quick photo shoot of us at a park near our home.  I actually really love both shoots for different reasons.... 

The girls (including Tia--Adam's girlfriend 💗)...

   

The boys...

Another shot with the kiddos...

A shot with Adam and Tia, whom we really like...

During this time, I also had all my sisters in town.  AnnaLisa lives in Virginia and Kristina lives in California, so it's not super often we all get to be together!   I loved having them all here, along with all of our kiddos, but it meant life was on turbocharge crazy for a while! 

We are really really happy to have our sweet girl back home again...

And I'm already looking forward to the next time we can all be together again.  

Stay tuned for more summer adventures coming soon (hopefully).

Looking Back...

Alright, I interrupt the regularly scheduled updates of how intensely crazy life currently is (with a new stress about one of my kids thrown into the mix), to share these old photos we recently came across at my Mom's house.   My Mom has a new diagnosis that I'm not ready to talk about on here yet, but it's a doozy that requires a lot more testing and will severely affect her life in the future.  We are all still trying to process.    In the meantime, she's been trying to go through boxes and I thought it would be fun to share some of the treasures we came across.   

Here's a couple of me from when I was a baby...

I see glimpses of my kids in these....

And this one was with me and my Mom taken on the day before my younger brother was born. It was May 1974 in Germany and I was 13 months old....so basically still a baby myself!      

I love this sweet family photo from around 1977.  

This one was taken around 1979 or so in Oklahoma City, and includes my Uncle Mike (in back), Kristina, my cousin, Ashley, Pete, Nate, my cousin, Aaron, and me (in the front row).

This one is 1988 with me holding my brother, Tim.   My hair was clearly in fine form in the 1980's.  

These were taken around 1999...

Look at my sweet Littles, who are now almost 31 and 29!   

These pics are on display at my Mom's house...

Look at those cute little smiles...

I thought this old drawing of mine was cute and kind of funny.   I'm guessing that the teacher had written the writing prompt up on the chalkboard and I very obediently even added the blanks to show that I filled it in!   Haha!   And the fact that I was excited to "play around the house" for Spring Break is also kind of funny.   

Here is an old letter Cami had written to her Great- Grandma Hepworth.   She passed away in 2009, so it was sometime before then...

 My Mom has a very hard time parting with items like these, so taking pictures of them and sharing them here on the blog is a good way to preserve them for future posterity.   Perhaps I'll have to start posting these flashback posts more regularly again...


 

Surprising Nate

Well, it's been a few weeks and I guess it's time for a little catching up here on the blog.   I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles to see what excitement has been going on to keep me away. This time it was a little trek to Tennessee to surprise my brother for this 50th birthday.   His birthday was actually back at the end of May, but he was off trekking the world on his birthday (visiting his 100th country!!!), so we opted for the end of June to surprise him instead.   

All seven of us siblings gathered in from 4 different states (Utah, California, Virginia, Maryland) to surprise him at his home in rural Tennessee (about an hour and a half from Nashville).  

My mom and I arrived several hours earlier than anyone else, so we did a little exploring in Nashville, while staying close to the airport, so we could do runs to pick people up. 

Opry Mills Mall fit the bill perfectly.  It was only 10 minutes to the airport and had air conditioning, comfy places to sit, and whatever kind of entertainment we could think of.   Here we are in the Bass Pro Shop.

We found a good place to get some food...

And found some yummy cupcakes to try, one of which, was even gluten free! 

AT one point, we even sat in some massage chairs and took naps, since we'd been up since 3:00am!   😂

The Grand Ole Opry is right next door, so we also walked across the parking lot to check that out as well. 

Eventually we picked up Kristina and Matt.  Pete and Tim arrived later that night.   We all stayed in a hotel near Nashville that night, since we had to wait until Nate was done with work for the day before surprising him.  

On Friday, Tim, Matt, Kristina, Mom, and I visited the Hermitage--the home of Andrew Jackson.

  It was a beautiful home on gorgeous grounds, but we found the tour a little simplistic, focusing more on the home decor than anything to do with Andrew Jackson.  

After that we made our way up to Nate's house where Pete and Heather met us separately (but not AnnaLisa, since she couldn't take any time off of work and her flight was later that night).  I think he was quite surprised to see us all!

That night we just got his house set up for all of us to stay (we brought air mattresses, pillows, and blankets) and mostly just talked, ate, and watched funny youtube videos.   The next day, Nate took us to one of his favorite hikes. 

Later we did a little picture shoot at Fort Donelson National Battlefield...

The number of selfies I took on this trip was a bit obnoxious. 

Perhaps really obnoxious...

Later we actually dressed up in semi-coordinating clothes and did a real photo shoot with Nate's camera and a tripod  at a park in Clarksville. 

We didn't do too badly, if I do say so myself.  Definitely better than getting a closeup of my gray hairs and wrinkles! 

Of course we had to do a silly one too!  

After that, we went to a restaurant in Clarksville called the Mailroom.   I may or may not have partially chosen it because of the name, but it did have very good reviews as well.  

The food and service was good...and they gave us a free postcard!   My type of restaurant for sure! 

After that, we found a cute ice cream shop in town...

This cool fountain was nearby and was perfect for some photos! 

All in all, it was a great trip and I am grateful for a family that gets along  and enjoys spending time together.

Plus they tolerate my incessant selfie taking.  😂

Our time all together was less than 24-hours before some of the siblings had to start heading home, but it was a great long weekend celebrating Nate and I'm glad we were able to make it happen.   Here are a few more random pictures: 

Tim and Mom

Nate with his "hot potato" birthday gift that he is supposed to regift as soon as humanly possible.  It's been floating around the family for over a decade now!   The animals live on a cute farm right across the street from Nate.   He really does live in the boonies. 

Speaking of the boonies, check out his church building!    That's it right over next to the Subway...

It's essentially a refurbished warehouse that just his little branch meets in... (everyone else had left by the time church rolled around)

The inside was small, but quite nice...

Apparently we were all a bit tired! 

Here are the birthday goodies we got for Nate at a cute little bakery in Clarksville.

This Piggly Wiggly was the most backwoods grocery store I'd ever been in!  

Yet another selfie...

This was right before heading out...

The view from Nate's backyard...

We may have been a little obsessed with the view (and all the fireflies)!  

All in all...a great time together with family!   💗