we have been busy

And I have been a slacker!!! Sorry! Its really hard to have the desire to hop on the computer when you are on it all day long at work! And the weekends have been full of trips, family, and fun little projects. Usually, when I take a while to blog something, I cheat and just back date it. Well, I am just meshing all our recent adventures into one giant blog, so sorry if this is really long (and it is really long).... like I said, we have been busy!

Going back to May.....

As a quick update, Eldon's family names their cars. Not sure why exactly why, but they do, so we thought we would follow tradition. It took a little bit to come up with the name but then we found the perfect one! The Black Pearl!! :D

If you know me, then you know that Pirates of the Caribbean is like my all time favorite movie... All of them. And it just fit so nicely. It is black, its a treasure (pearl) and like Jack Sparrow, I have been after the pearl for a very long time!

Ok, now to the events

Our sweet little niece Olivia had her Honor Choir concert. She did an amazing job and even though I may be prejudice, she was by far the prettiest girl up there.


My Grandfather (my Dad's Dad) passed away.

It was very sad, but (and i know it sounds morbid) a little happy. My Grandpa had been sick for quite a while and was really suffering from Alzheimer's to the point where he learned his beloved wife had passed away several times a day as if it were the first time he had heard it. Can you imagine your heart breaking with the worst news ever multiple times a day. He also physically was to the point of being dependant on others for pretty much everything. My grandpa was too proud to ever want to live like that, and he missed my grandma dearly, so for that sake, it was time and i am glad he is reunited with the love of his life. We went to California for the funeral. It was really hard, but got even harder when I saw my uncles and my Dad and how hard it was on them. My Grandpa was a great man, and I love him very much. He will be greatly missed!


On a happier note, a week after the funeral, we made a trip up to Snowflake to see our 2 Nieces graduate from 8th grade.

In Snowflake, Jr. High graduation is almost as big of a deal as the high school, so we wanted to be there. The weather was kinda crazy that weekend. While we were driving up it was raining like crazy but the Black Pearl (my X-terra) made it through like champ.... Eldon's driving helped too. :P The graduation ceremony was awesome, my nieces looked beautiful and all was good....until we got a terrible phone call.... well i guess it could have been worse, but still not fun. Hollis (Eldon's brother) and his family were also on their way up to the graduation, but their vehicle lost control in the bad rain storm, hydroplaned and spun right into a guardrail, broke through it, and drove down the cliff into the ravine.


You can see from the pictures it was a scary drop!! Thankfully everyone was OK... A few bumps, bruises and frightened kids, but no permanent damage! The car was totalled completely, but everyone was OK!

Once everyone finally made it safely to Snowflake, the family fun began. Nothing special, just good times together. The kids always love jumping on the trampoline

and the newest form of entertainment is a dual bike that Eldon's dad built from 2 separate bikes.

He is pretty freakin talented! It was pretty fun to ride.

That same weekend (it was Memorial Day weekend so we had a 3 day weekend that we turned into 4 for the graduation) we went camping with my family.

We got to break in our new tent,(not pictured) and see how Zeus did in the wild. I definitely think he enjoyed it....He was very dirty and not my white clean little pup anymore.
The X-terra did great as well! I am still really loving it!

at the end of the May (yes all that above was in the month of May) was the Brett and Angela's twins (Payten and our angel baby Zoe) birthday. It is definitely a bitter sweet day! We had a blast celebrating with Payten. She was super cute, loved her cake and her gifts and she especially loved Zeus! She just wanted to hug and squeeze him all night. Then we went to the graveyard to remember and send our love to Zoe. It was really cute, we let Payten send the first balloon and told to her give it to Zoe and she walked right over to her grave and let the balloon go. She was trying to put it on the ground, and was a little sad when the balloon floated off, but she knew that when we spoke of Zoe, that is where she is. I think the picture of all the balloons looks really cool and really shows all the love we have for our angel baby and how much she is missed!



PS....doesnt Zeus look funny. He just chills and is content to be held.

bye bye blue racer

A bit to Eldon's dismay (not really), we said farewell to the blue racer. It was time. She had served us well and lived to see over 140,000 miles and was still running like a champ, but it was not to be. Eldon kissed her good bye and I said HELLO beautiful to my new X-Terra!!!!!!! I have been wanting an x-terra since high school basically and the chance came to trade in the altima and get a gently used 2007 x-terra with only 25,000 miles on it for basically the same monthly payment. We jumped at the chance and I couldn't be happier. It is beautiful black, has all the upgrades that i would want (especially the mirror with the compass....if you know me at all, you will know why :P) and it is my dream car! How many people can say that they have their dream car?!? Not many....but most people don't dream about an affordable family SUV. I am just so excited for all the benefits of having a big car again (not like the tracker was very big, but it felt like it.) And now we have room in the car for a baby seat.....all we need is the baby! that will be next step hopefully. I just love it! Thanks Eldon for letting me have it! I love you!

Today....we had a miracle!

Seriously! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father today, because today, he loved me enough to keep me alive....and even more than that....basically unharmed. As you can see from the wonderful pictures. My beautiful yellow car is no more. It was crashed today! I was driving on the 202 to work this morning and the passenger rear tire lost its tread (which basically makes it like driving on ice). well since it was the freeway, it wasnt like i was only going 5 miles an hour. i actually did pretty good keeping it in control for a second or two and then i lost complete control of the car, it crossed 2 lanes of traffic to hit almost head on the freeway median. It then bounced off the median did a complete 360 roll back to its tires and stopped. Thankfully, no other cars were involved and an amazingly nice truck driver (which i do not have his name, but am forever thankful for) pulled his giant truck diagonal to stop traffic from hitting me and then rushed to help me along with about 5 other guys. They were helping before i was finished processing what happened. Well amazingly enough, after a visit to the hospital with a very caring LDS doctor in the E.R. the damages (besides the death of my car) was bruising from the seatbelt, cuts from the glass of my broken window and most likely a very sore steffi tomorrow. The cop asked if he could enter me in the demolition derby and my brother joked that i was "unbreakable". I dont know about that, but the guardian angel that kept me safe is probably pretty beat up or something!

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for his guiding hand in my life. Today could have been and probably should have been a very bad day, and it definitely wasnt fun, but I will take it over the alternative....and now....i guess i get a new car.... unfortunately because of timing, it probably wont be the car i wish i was getting, but my plans never quite go according to plan. So make sure

you remember Heavenly Father and his hand in your life as well, and Buckle Up! Cause it probably saved my life!