Welcome home Abby!!

I can't believe that it has been two years since I last went to Oregon!  Being there, I couldn't see how I was able to stay away for so long. It was a quick trip- we couldn't leave on Saturday until after music festival and Madeline's soccer game, and we left for home again on Monday morning. We can't wait until we get to return in August (hopefully for a longer visit) when my parents and brother Eli return from their missions!

This trip was to go listen to my niece Abby's missionary report!  We love her!  She has been such an amazing missionary and is a great example to all of us.

l-r: Ila, Abby and Kamille

While six of the ten parent-siblings and their spouses talked, their kids visited all the old stomping grounds. The "yellow shed" that is now ready to fall over:

l-r: Isaiah, Caleb, Emmie, David Farber, Ila, Kamille, Isaac, Madeline, Gracie, Micah, Abby, Nolan, Benjamin, Ammon and David Kerns:

I grew up in the most beautiful place on Earth.

The old barn, which it's a little scary that they were in the loft, because it looks like it is a hazard and everyone is talking about how it needs to be knocked down:

It will be a sad day when it is knocked down because there are many memories of working and playing in that barn. Dad used to store wheat in it, and we used to jump from the loft into the wheat, and play in the barn by the hour. I could most years find kittens in the loft, and we often followed my dad there to watch as he milked cows, and later to milk them ourselves.  We worked and branded cows in the chutes next to this barn. My brother Matt raised pigs that he kept in this barn. We would have the sheep shearer meet us here to shear my sheep. As with all the other farm work that we did, we worked in assembly lines; someone tying the fleeces into bundles...passing the bundles from person to person until the final person threw it over the side of the long, deep, sack...right on top of the person that was inside the sack stomping the wool to make more fleeces fit into the sack. I can still feel the stick and smell the stink of Lanolin.  It's amazing that it's an ingredient in so many lotions and that they can make it into something that people WANT to put onto their skin:)

Anyways, I digress...I just can't believe how the old barn has caved in in the last 20 years:(

Willow Creek:

The Mountain Place:

l-r: Abby, Emmie, Isaiah, Hyrum, Caden, Micah, Ila, Kamille, Isaac, Gracie, Madeline:

Leap frog:

Crack the whip:

Two of the six grand babies that my parents have never seen in anything but pictures - they left with 42 grandchildren, and now have 48!
Spencer and Thomas:

Gracie and Maddie walking up the hill.  To the left is the driveway to my parents; to the right is the driveway to my brother Adam's house, and my sister Katie lives at the top of the hill:

Thanks to Caden for taking all of these pictures!  I wish that I had taken a few moments to take pictures of all the smaller kids and their parents.  I can't wait to go back!!!

Conference excursion

I was mentioning to Kami that I hadn't seen so-and-so at church for quite some time.  Then I had to chuckle because I realized the reason is that I haven't been to our ward in so long!  For two weeks, I had sick kids and attended sacrament meeting in a different ward.  Then, we had conference, and then we went to Oregon this last week to hear Abby report on her mission!

I still need to dump some pictures on here from our excursion to Salt Lake City for General Conference.

The night we arrived, Temple Square was over-run by the Gee family!
l-r below: me, Kamille, Madeline, and Isabelle in the foreground; Abram, Shawn and Pace in the background:

Shawn and Pace waiting for a "train".  Pace loves all things that "go" so he enjoyed SLC immensely.  He had to wave hello and goodbye to every car that went by, and the train was a wonder:)

The next day we listened to the first session of conference as we drove the little boys to Orem to stay with my cousins while we went to the second session in the conference center.  Anyway, on the way to their house, we drove by the apartment we lived in when Caden was a new baby.  This was where he lived the first year of his life!  The kids were sufficiently impressed - "Wow!  That is a very ghetto apartment!!":

The next morning, Pace participated in his first Easter egg hunt in our hotel room:)

Some tears were shed; I don't recall why....:

Then we settled in to watch the third session:

Could this be another skirmish?:

After that session, we headed back to Temple Square.  It was beautiful:

And VERY crowded:

The kids liked the Visitor's centers, and I was happy to see some harmony displayed amongst my cranky younger travelers!:

We listened to the last session as we headed for home....well, those of us who were able to stay awake listened! I can't wait to listen to all of those inspired messages again!  Currently it has been working for me to listen to one or two as I clean my kitchen in the mornings.  Love it!

I can't resist buying these

cute pictures that came home yesterday of my middle kids! Soooo cute - I love their sweet faces and their teeth:)

Some events and things that were lost in the shuffle of life

1.We discovered that Pace was allergic to Penicillin:

He got looking even worse before it got better!  This was after treating him for Tonsillitis and then a really bad ear infection, so two rounds of the stuff.

2. Some really fun cousins came to visit!  I was rushing around like a chicken with it's head cut off (have you ever seen a chicken with it's head cut off? ....Well this is a very accurate description) and failed to get pictures of any of the others, including my wonderful sister Katie:(  But here is Maddie with Gracie:

3. Kami ran for student body office. Caden worked up some great photo shop posters for her:) Written on this one was, "Vote for Kami!  I promise to blow you away!"



Kami as a hood ornament:


Plus a few more that I will have to find and post later:)  It was an exciting day on Friday to find that she got voted in!!! She is going to have a great year next year!

4. Sweet kids in the car:)

I turn over another year

I got to celebrate my birthday in Utah this year at General Conference! ( More on the rest of the trip later, but the pictures I want to document the trip are still on my photographer's camera!:)

Luckily, Nolan documented conference well, with MANY pictures like this on my phone:

We got in for the Saturday afternoon session, and it was really great!  A first time for all of us seeing conference in the new conference center!  I can't wait to read all of the good talks from conference; they were all so motivating and inspirational!

My cousins, David and Kellie Knowles, deserve a medal of valor for watching Abram and Pace for almost half the day so that we could go with our older children.  I think that was the highlight of the whole trip to Abram, who has talked about it over and over again, and may have been the highlight to me, as well!  I don't know when the last time was that I was able to concentrate on what was being said for an entire session. Thanks so much, both of you!! It can be hard, and many times impossible to do things like this with little ones, and it was so great to have the opportunity.

And THEN, as if that wasn't enough, they took Shawn and I to dinner after the priesthood session!  And I was serenaded by an opera singer:) He really did have an amazing voice!