April 2010: The Olers head to Disneyland

The past month has been so full and so exciting.

I remember clearly when Jerry was called as Bishop,
the counsel of our Stake President was
to be sure and spend time away as a family several times a year.


Wow...sounded great, but we have never been the 'vacationing' family.

We are always the ones helping others enjoy their
vacations by hosting them in our home as they enjoyed the
events or sights of Utah.



However, this year was to be different.
Thanks to Disney's "Give a day, get a day" program we were
able to receive a free day at Disneyland.

So at the beginning of April
we loaded up the suburban and headed to California - via Vegas of course.


We had a wonderful trip.
Jerry came back rested and renewed.

The kids and I really enjoyed having him to ourselves for a whole week!!!


The kids LOVED every minute of it, and so did I
(Insert huge grin here)

Well, after all that...I still didn't get more consistent. Here it is a month later and
I must now admit...
it wasn't only the lost camera or lack of fun photos holding me back.


If I am completely honest, I think the reason I hesitate
to write more often, is that the things I want most to write about may prove to
be embarrassingly personal to my family.

I remember reading an excerpt somewhere of Stephen Covey's writings'
on the habits of highly effective families.
It was good. It was true. It was hard to live up to...

One of the things I decided really applied to me was that I needed
to work hard on applying the habit of being loyal
to my children. Not loyal in the manner of loving them more than
all others - I mean, I've got that part down...believe me! I over-adore them.

No, that's not what challenged me.

It was to be loyal to them in keeping their confidences.
Yikes. Much harder!

When they go through struggles, so do I ... And the way I best
start to resolve struggles, is to share them with others and gather advice and
yes, even a little sympathy.

Hmmm....I now need to resolve within myself that whatever
I share via this blog is personal enough to remain interesting, yet private
enough to keep the trust of my children.

A delicate balance indeed.

...to be continued

I keep waiting for fabulous photos, or perhaps for milestone events,
in order to post something on this blog.
But I've decided that I can write a little here and there
even if there is nothing momentous going on...even if there are
no batteries in the camera.

This blog is about a year old now and I suppose it has been a little
disappointing thus far to readers. However,
I have had an epiphany, and shall no longer worry about all that.
I will simply write what I can when I can without any
guilt about doing less or more than I feel I can.
In this way, growing older is quite wonderful.
It is really a very freeing experience when you finally feel you
can dictate the whats and whens of your life.
Of course, I still have six kids living at home, so life is
not really all that free yet-ha.
But I can truly say: I love my life, and I love my age,
and life is generally very good!

Until next time....

Sorry the picture is so fuzzy...but we had a great Family Home Evening with the Logans' and the Su'aFilos'!

January 2010

Anna (Jarom's girlfriend), Jarom, Aunty Candida, Nate, Lauren
January 2010

Sequoia came out of his open heart surgery healthy, strong, and way ahead of schedule, so we got together to celebrate before the Logans' had to go back to Hawaii.

A few fall pictures...

Lauren and her friends from her old High School: Brooklyn and Jessica.
Brenz played for the 10th grade Westlake Thunder!
Ammon and Deighton and our preschool class on a Fall field trip.

In the Garden...

Checking out the map...as if!

So this has to be the worst photo ever...ha.

Deighton got soaked playing on Noah's Ark...Amona was a little more cautious.

Ah Nate...This was the day we were on our way to check him into the BYU dorms.

I love that I caught the little boys' feet in this photo. They were so thrilled with the way the fish would almost jump up at us to get the fish food pellets we were dropping into the water. There were bullfrogs on the lily pads too...just didn't get any on camera. Fun place to spend a summer afternoon. (Thanksgiving Point Gardens)

They're a crazy bunch, but we love them! We all love Anna, and are jealous of the time Jarom gets to spend with her - ha

Just hanging out on the porch on a warm summer evening...