Getting the band back together................goodbye Utah

So we got up Saturday to say goodbye to Brooke. She was leaving earlier than us and we wanted to make sure we got to say goodbye.
We got them some breakfast and said our goodbye's and waved them off after Grandpa washed all their windows.
It was sad to see them go but all things come to an end right?

We then headed inside and finished our packing and cleaning as well.
By around 10:30 we were ready to leave and said our goodbye's to Grandma and Grandpa then headed out onto the road.
I don't like driving if I don't have to, but am more than capable of doing it, if I must. And for this trip, I must.
I talked on the phone to Dru's brother for a while and then Dru, that always helps if I have someone to talk to.
Then I listened to music while the three kids entertained themselves in the back.
Then I hear the kids yelling and Emiko had lost her front tooth!!

 I forgot to add this picture in the blog so it's going right here cause I can't be bothered putting it back in the one it belongs in. I love this shot. Look at Yuki's feet off the ground. I love that the girl in the black and white isn't even reaching up either hahahaha

 I handed the kids the phone and told them to get a picture of Emiko's missing tooth.

 Now she has no front teeth.

She then promptly lost it.

 We made pretty good time and got into town with one stop. I'd say that was pretty good.
It was good to see Masaru and Dru and to hear what they'd been up to. That'll be the next post.
We had just enough time to unpack and get things sorted until we had to get ready for my mate Natalie's brother reception at her parents house.
It was nice to not have to prepare dinner, so we headed over there and hung out there all night.

We're even matchy matchy.
The food was good and it was nice to hang out and visit with people and celebrate their wedding.
The yard was amazing and they'd done a wonderful job.
It was a nice ending to the day. I'm glad we could relax and be with friends.

Friday in Utah.........the last day of fun with the cuzzies

So today was Cherry Hill day. We thought it opened at 9am but didn't get there till 10am and it turns out it didn't open till 10:30am so we're super glad we got there late.
It was good to be the first ones there though, as it filled up quick. We got a spot in the shade and kept all our stuff there while we played.
There was an awesome lazy river and a couple of lame slides then a couple of awesome slides and a pool.

Here are some of us getting a drink.
We split into groups and made sure we were all taken care of.
We only had one child come back to this spot and wait till we found them. We told them to do that if they couldn't find us.
So she did well.

We bounced around all day doing what we felt like.
It was great. No sunburns either. We applied sunscreen before we left and when we were eating lunch.
Grandma came later on because we forgot half of our lunch. So that was really nice of her to come out to the rescue.
Brooke and I participated in a mother's musical chairs game for a bright red blanket. I didn't like the colour so was only half committed, so was out pretty quick. Brooke lasted longer than me but then when I went to get the camera to record her playing, she got out. Always the way right?
Everyone played well together and it was a great time.
I'm glad we went.
We got home around 4pm and then had to think about doing some packing since we were both leaving the next day.
The kids worked at gathering their stuff together and we relaxed the rest of the day which was really nice.
The cuzzies played the rest of the night together and it was awesome.

Thursday in Utah

So today we broke off from the cuzzie band and did our own thing.
Brooke met a mate for lunch and I went out with my mate Laura and her kids to Pineview.
We met up at Laura's place so I could follow her out there.
I hadn't been to Pineview in years and I actually thought it was called Pinetop hahahahaha
It was a scorcher of a day and so I'm glad Brooke let me use her big IKEA umbrealla or I would've been burnt for sure with my white skin and they don't have any shade out there which is a little crazy AND they charge $18 to take your car in!!!
Who do they think they are?
Boise it cost $5 to get in to a couple of places but some are just free. Thanks Boise!! Plus it's not as if Pinetop had anything great out there apart from toilets!
At any rate, we were happy to be out there and happy to be with our mates.

 Here's Emiko chilling on their swan.

Takeshi having a turn on their little kayak.

So here's our set up we had. Just towels and picnic blankets and I had a camp-chair as well as Laura and we sat and talked and ate and watched the kids.
The kids swam and when we got too hot we swam as well. We did the baywatch run in, otherwise it's too cold and you never get in. Once you get in and soak for a while it's warm in there.
It was a great day.
We put sunscreen on them twice and the kids still got a little burned. I'm glad they have great skin that can be in the sun all day and not get badly burned. Takeshi was burned a little on his shoulders and their faces were slightly burned. I think for being out there all day, they did a great job.
Thank goodness for spray on sunscreen to make it easier.
I also need to be more aware and do a better job and putting sunscreen on the kids.

 How fun is that? We loved hanging out with Laura's kids and getting to know them a little better. It was her youngest birthday the next day and so he talked about his party a little.
It was a good time. I'm glad it worked out for us to be together.

Here are the kids on the way home. Totally beat and tired. Pretty cute.

I forgot to mention that the night before I headed over to my friend, Kelly's house, to visit with her and her sister Katie.
It happened to be Kelly's birthday as well so it was a bonus to get some cake at our visit.
Kelly has some huge renovations going on at her house, which is very exciting to see. I'm glad they can do it and am really happy to watch the progress and see the end results.
It was nice to hear how things are going with her and her little family and what they've been up to. I'm glad they let me visit.
Afterwards I went to Katie's house and saw all the renovations the've done at her parents old house that she brought and moved into. It's amazing and it was really nice to catch up with Katie as well. She seems happy and that makes me happy.
I'm grateful to have had the chance to see them and hang out with them.

Great day with friends.
We then came home, had dinner and the kids had a blast trying to bike on Grandpa's weird bike, in the backyard hahahaha

That provided a couple of hours entertainment over the week.
All the cuzzies get along so well that it makes things very easy. I like it.

Wednesday in Utah

So I got up SUPER EARLY this morning to go mtb with Dru's brother and his twin boys.
I wanted to take them to the trails that we'd gone to on Father's Day.
So we headed out there and Ryan dropped us off at one DH trail to do and he would be waiting for the boys and I down the bottom. So we went for it.
It was a little sketch but fun.
We then went to the ones we did Sunday and did those a couple of times. They had a blast and I was glad to show them a new fun DH trail to do.
I'm grateful that Ryan took us that whole way and I also feel a little bad about it. But it was a good time and turns out I can still get up at around 5:15am if it means I'm gonna have a good time.

I then got back and had all kinds of time to kill, so the kids that were up, I got them breakfast and wrote in the blog and did some reading. Its amazing how productive you can be if you wake up early right!!!

We then got in contact with Leslie and were allowed to go swimming at their new pool they got since moving into their new house.
So they had their oldest get married, there second is going on a mission to Japan end of August and they moved house, ALL THIS YEAR!!! Big changes for these guys that for sure.
Oh and on a side note: Dru's sister, Kristin and her family, are moving to Sacramento!!!! We'll miss them being in Utah SO MUCH. But it's an opportunity that they can't pass up for Chris and so hopefully it'll go well.

Their pool is pretty awesome.
So I brought up my speaker for music while we watched the kids swim. The twins joined us too, so it was nice to have them up there with us.
Brooke and I sat and talked under the shade. The twins brought a sweet seat that I sat in the whole time.
It was a fun afternoon.

These two almost looked like twins in their swim suits together. They got along really well this trip.

Takeshi showed me trick, after trick, after trick.
This is the only one I recorded cause enough is enough right!! These guys were getting along like a house on fire and decided to be ninja's in the pool. Super cute. They even have this sweet slide. Which turned out to be hours of fun.

We just hung out and swam until dinner time when we mozied on down the hill back to Grandma's house and got ourselves some dinner.

At nights Brooke would sew and I would knit my blanket I'm trying to finish before my neice/nephew is born in September. We'll see if I'll make it hahahaha
Brooke was super productive of course. I should be a sewer. I'm the slowest knitter on the planet man.
Here's some of what Brooke was making. She even let me keep these cause I begged her and she's really nice.

SHEEP!!!!
Soooo cute right? They're pot holders and now I'm the proud owner of a couple of them.
It was great to be able to sit and knit at nights and get more of my blanket made. Now to motivate myself to make it at nights on my own............ wish me luck.

Tuesday in Utah

So today was great from beginning to end.

We'd all decided to go to a movie called 'Zoo'

Grandma had found it in the newspaper and had heard good things about it and so Brooke and I started digging to find it. It'd came out last year and so we had to search to see which theaters were still playing it.

We totally found it down in Draper, which was close to Kristin so she met us there and we all went to see it together. The older twin boys came too which was really nice.

IT.WAS.AMAZING!!!

What a great family movie. All the kids, bar one, loved it and I cried about four times in it. It's a story of a boy and his 'mates' saving this elephant in the war. If you havn't seen it, I'd highly recommend it for you and your family to watch together.

We all had a great time.

Afterwards we headed out to Kristin's place to have some lunch and play. 

Kate showed us some of her artwork. She loves to draw and is good at it as well. Here's some of her stuff.

Here's Ponyo. Who doesn't love that show right? Isn't this the cutest?

Then I took some video of her work she's been doing.

Isn't it amazing? I mean how cool is that.
I asked her, if she wanted to, if she could draw a collage of some of the characters in the Japanese movies that we love, I'd totally pay her and frame it and put it up on my girls wall.
So we'll see what she does.

Here are the boys playing around in the house.




These two are strong personalities but are getting along great, which is wonderful. They're both adventurous, which is good as well. I also think they could get up to a ton of trouble together if we didn't watch them closely hahahaha

Grandma decided to take the twin boys home since they had piano practice, which the rest of us headed out to the park where Brooke saw an old school mate there. What are the chances man. So Kristin and I talked while they caught up and the kids played at the awesome park.
Then when Brooke was done, we all had a chance to sit and talk together.

We then went back and got some pizza and ate dinner together and hung out.
By the time we got home it was pretty late and the kids went straight to bed.
Ella came home with us and slept with the Nakaya kids the first night.

Monday in Utah

This week in Utah was wonderful. We all got up whenever we felt like it, and most days it was at LEAST 9am, if not later. It was wonderful and relaxed with little things to do each day.
This day we'd decided we were going to hike Elephant Rock with each other. Usually we mtb it!
So we packed a lunch and  headed out with Grandma, cuzzies and the dogs.



I brought my little speaker so we had music and off we went. It's a great hike.

We would hike up a ways and wait for Grandma to catch up, then we'd keep hiking and wait for Grandma. We'd always be on the look out for good places to stop for Grandma and for the dogs to get a drink. Here we are at a great resting spot.

 So we made it up this far but then some dark clouds came looming over and then there was lightning and thunder..........well we only heard the thunder.
After that we figured we'd better turn around. Then it started raining. So we found shelter under the trees for the heavy part of the rain then headed back down the trail.

By the time we got back to the bottom it'd stopped and we decided to have lunch by the river at the bottom which was really nice.

After dinner that night we headed to the Temple for a bike ride.
Yuki, Takeshi and I rode our bikes from Grandma's place and the rest went in the car to meet us up there to bike around.
It was tons of fun. It's beautiful up there.

 We thought we'd do some posing up there to prove that we made it.

Then we decided to do some bridges so Emiko could crawl through.



It was such a beautiful night and it was really nice to be able to be together up there.
Afterwards we raced each other back to Grandma's. Brooke gave us a 2 min headstart and took her time and we made it back at the same time. It was fun and I don't think I've biked with that much purpose in a while. Having Takeshi yelling at you to go faster is great motivation. That kid's a slave driver.

More Wedding pictures from the Photographer

 Tate and I.
This picture happened because the photographer told the rest of us that we were 'No longer needed and could leave' I was joking around with the twins that she just didn't know me and if she knew me she'd still want me around.
Love those boys.

 Sweet little Emikokopops

 We were all trying to get out of the sun so took some shade right here on the steps and the photographer decided to snap a picture. It's so good I wish I'd posed us a little better and use it for this year's family shot. Oh well.

Ethan and Luke. They were born a couple of months apart and have been friends their whole lives. Luke was one of the groomsmen, which seemed fitting. I can't believe how old these guys are. I'm really getting old man. Moving on.........

 Here we are at the luncheon. Beautiful right? Ethan and Taylor came around and talked with each table. Who knows what I was saying.

 I love this shot of all of us listening intently to Taylor.

 The cuzzie table....... and Grandpa.

Beautiful shot of the best tasting cake.

 Masaru and Zeke.

 Yuki after she'd caught the flowers that her Grandmother threw out.

 Puggs and Ryan being silly and Dru focused on what matters most. Masaru not knowing what's going on.

Takeshi with his cuzzie Luke. The two long haired boy cuzzies gotta stick together right!!

Dru getting in on some cake action with these guys. I love Pugg's face in this shot and then I love Masaru's face too. It's so funny. One is ecstatic and the other is 'What is going on here'
Leslie sent me these pictures and I'm super grateful for them. They're just beautiful and I wish this girl had taken my and Dru's wedding pictures. My biggest regret man........that damn photographer!!

USA father's day

So this is Dru's father's day gift. Dru hasn't sent me a proper picture of this up in the house but here's the story behind it. 

So around 3 or 4 years ago Dru had this painting done for him. It's a picture he loves and there's a company that has artists paint the picture you like. 

It's been rolled up for that long just waiting to be stretched over a frame. 

Dru figured he'd do it himself but didn't want to mess it up and so it stayed rolled up.

I tried to find a place that'd do it and was quoted over $100. Dru thought that was horrible and said he'd never support that.

I was thinking I'd surprise him by getting it done some place but after doing covert talks with Dru, quickly realised that if I paid anywhere near close to that, he'd have my guts for garters.

So it stayed rolled up.

Then here comes father's day so I do what I usually do, call his brother, then his brother told me to call his other 'brother' Puggs and he'd know a guy.

So I call Puggs and sure enough, he knows a guy. So I snuck the picture up to him during the cabin trip and he got it done for me and sent me this picture.

I'm happy to report that it was a success.

So Puggs and I surprised Dru and gave it to him and he loved it.

We have a place on the wall that's been bare on purpose, waiting for this picture to be done, so it can be put in it's rightful place in the front room.

I told Dru to send me a picture of it up in it's place. He's been so busy though it's not even out of it's plastic. So I'll get it up and get a picture of it and show you guys.

So I figured I did well this year.

 The morning of father's day we got up early and went mtb at new trails we've never tried. It was super fun and we had a blast. Takeshi was a little hot and opted out a round but was back for the final round.
Great way to start father's day.

 Then we gave Dad his card. I saw this and new I had to get it. The kids loved it and Dru thought it was fun.

Then we got home and had something to eat and then he had to start packing up and heading back to Boise.

We had a father's day dinner the night before with his family and it was really nice.

It was a good dinner and we sat around and talked the night away, just like I like it.

It sucked that Dru had to leave but it is what it is right?

Him, his father and Masaru all left back to Boise. Mas came back to help Dru start on his workshop in the yard and Masaru went back to go to scout camp for the week.

So I stayed with the other three kids to be with family.

It wasn't the perfect father's day but it was perfect enough.

Father's day sucks for me, but not going to church always helps so I'm glad we didn't go and went mtb instead.

I'm glad Dru's the father to our children. He's a hard worker and he loves them and is a great example to them. He's good to them and he cares for them and is a supportive husband which gives them security in our marriage.

There's no one else I'd rather have as my partner in crime and to try to raise other humans with.

Happy Father's Day to the best!

Ethan and Taylor's wedding

 So we went down to Utah for our nephew's wedding. Ethan is the first grandchild out of all of the cuzzies to get married. He is Dru's brother, Ryan's, eldest child. He married a girl named Taylor in the new Provo Temple here in Utah.
The Temple ceremony was at 10am and we had to be there by 9:30am. The kids all waited for us outside. The Temple was beautiful and the outside was beautiful too. I was really grateful that I got to see it. I'm not sure when I'd have an opportunity to see it since I'm never in Provo city.
Here are the kids at a fountain outside of the Temple.

The ceremony it'self was cute and the room was beautiful. It was nice to be in there and to see them get married. Taylor looked just perfect and made a beautiful bride.



We then headed outside and met the kids and other family outside and waited for them to come out.
Here they are coming out.
Once they were out and said hi we did family pictures around the other side of the Temple. It was a pretty hot day so we were all scrambling for the shade.

Here's a picture of some of us trying to get some shade. Starting from the back we have Emiko, Dru, Chris, Kate, Seth, Ryan, Kristin, Tate, Graham,Takeshi, Masaru and Luke. All looking wonderful and ready to party.
Ethan had 8 groomsmen and so he had all three of his brothers as well as Luke his cuzzie. They all looked very handsome.

 Here's Ethan and his family, immediate and grandparents.

 Here's Dru and I waiting in some shade and catching up with family.
We had a good time hanging around with each other and catching up in the shade. I enjoy being with Dru's family, most of them are really good friends to me.

Glassess off.
We then headed to the luncheon and it was a beautiful place.


When you walk in you see this decor of lemon trees. I really liked it. It had a great feel to it.
We sat around a table with Dru's sisters and Ryan's mates and talked and ate really good food. They had a salad choice, then a main choice then a dessert. It was wonderful and really good food. Ryan and Leslie chose it and it was awesome.
Ethan and Taylor were able to come over to our table and talk for a while which was really nice.
After sitting around and eating great food and having a great talk with everyone we had some time to kill.
So Brooke, Grandma and us decided to go see the movie 'Incredibles 2' together. It was perfect to pass some time by as the reception wasn't until 7pm.

Here we are waiting to go in. It felt pretty nice to be out of the hot heat that's for sure. See that front tooth in Emiko's mouth? That is going to come out any second now.

While the movie was cute, I didn't like it as much as the first one. But it was entertaining and I like the incredibles, so it was a win for all of us.

Then it was time to head to the reception.
We got there and took our clothes in and got changed again and walked in. Here's what it looked like:


It was wonderful.

 Here was their wedding cake. It was a lemon curd cake and it was so, so delicious.

Here we are at the reception. There was Italian soda's and sugar cookies with pink icing.

It was a good chance to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while and meet some new people that Dru wanted me to meet.
It was a fun night and I was glad we went.
I think Ethan and Taylor were exhausted though. What a long, busy day. But your wedding always is you know. It is what it is. I think they loved it though.



Check this out man. Yuki totally caught the flowers that Taylor threw. How cool is that? I was going to dry them and let Yuki keep them but her grandma threw them out!! Super sad.

 They had cans coming out of the bottom.

Funny!

We stayed and talked to mates then helped tidied up the reception then headed home for the night.
It was a long day but a great day and we're really happy that we came down for it and were a part of it.
It was wonderful to celebrate these two getting married and being with family as well.
I loved it.
I hope Ethan and Taylor are very happy with each other and have a wonderful marriage together.