More catching up Jan, Feb 2018

I'm still trying to get caught up on my blog, such as it is. Here are a few more of the happenings from waaaay last winter.

Calvin J. Sweat turned 7 at the end of January. He told Cindy he wanted his cake to say "Not 6" and she complied!

Jane's Springville Jr. High basketball team took region. I even have the score in this photo!

Although Jane looks pumped in this picture, in reality she was out of it from a concussion she received during the game (we could hear her head hit the floor from the top of the bleachers when she fell) and she was suffering the after-affects for weeks.

Eli lookin' good on the b-ball court!

My mom would just beam whenever we took her to her favorite person Loreen who did her hair every week and this was before her fall and before anti-depressants, Unfortunately the salon at Sagewood is in constant turmoil and Loreen is no longer there. I told the lady who replaced her to interact with my mom by pretending to be "over the top" with joy when mom came in for her appointment because it seemed to work with Loreen. But when I took mom down for the first time to this new lady the new lady beamed and said "Helllooooo Shirley" enthusiastically and my mom looked at her like "have you lost your marbles?"

We took a wonderful road trip to Colorado to visit Amy and her family and were there when Jack received the Priesthood. These graceful windmills outside of Springville always mean we're on our way and Dennis takes off his shoes and settles in for the drive.

Cuties slept in the basement so grandpa and I could have their bedrooms.

So fun to hear how well they're doing on the piano.

Jack is getting so big. And Macy still pretty much does gymnastics as part of regular walking around the house.

Everyone, including both sets of grandparents, took a fabulous walking tour of downtown Denver. It's funny to look at these pictures while I'm broiling in 100 degree heat in the middle of a Salt Lake City meltdown summer. It was really cold that day when we took the walking tour, as you can tell from what everyone's wearing!

I have no idea what this represents but it's awesome. I love playing games with grandkids.

One of my two standard road trip games I have the kids play is folding a paper into thirds and one person draws the head, the second person draws the body without knowing what the head is, and the third person draws the feet without knowing the body and head. We were playing this game but that doesn't look like a drawing we did. I have no idea......

We went to an awesome hat shop. Dave looked dapper in this hat. He really liked it and we even took note of what it was called and Dave's hat size for future reference.

Jack sporting the hat!

Dennis always looks so good in a cowboy hat, but this one I don't know, I think it's too little for him?

Amy and Dave got these fabulous couches that are recliners. It's fun to recline, watch the kits play, and eat a bowl of ice cream every evening.

What a cute family of Huish's on the day Jack received the Aaronic Priesthood. I'm so glad we were able to make the trip over the river and through the woods!

Grandparentparatzi!

Darling

AND it was his 12 birthday too.

The bad thing about doing this six months after it happened is I can't remember what the picture is of!

Ah, I do remember this one - Amy made Jack a personalized book all about him. Do you think he loved it and was super surprised?

Winter Olympics medal counts by Macy? I have no idea, but I'm certain this was created by Macy. She love, love, loves to make lists!

And Carly's big eyes make her look like the cutest stuffed animal in the group! So grateful for each of our children and grandchildren! XOXO Mom

June, 2018

The Conference Center is in full swing because it's summer! We get hordes of tourists from all over the world plus youth conference kids and leaders. The kids have been great, but often seem more exhausted than their leaders! I admire their leaders so much because as we know, they're foregoing family time, and using hard-earned vacation days to go to youth conference. God bless them! 

Speaking of the conference center, I got to take this family through who were from Michigan. "Michigan!" I exclaimed. "I have a granddaughter serving a mission in Michigan! Where are you from?
"Lansing!" they answered."Oh My GOSH!" I said,"That's where she's serving! Her name is Sister Hallstrom."
"Sister Hallstrom? She's in our ward!" (side note: I don't know how to punctuate or write conversations correctly. That is the ONLY thing that has kept me from becoming a world famous writer).

That encounter was just such a sweet testimony to me of how the Lord is aware of each of us:

Matthew 10: 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Also, last Friday I took a couple through who were from Paris and didn't speak a word of English other than "Hello" and "Magnifique" which they said with a flourish and a smile. Because my dad served his mission in Paris and Geneva, and my sister Aunt Julie served her mission in French-speaking Quebec, I had this vague notion that I'd be able to understand them. Fortunately I had guidebooks in French.  I also relied on "Google translate" which worked like a charm. The man's name was loosely translated as "Lemuel" and he got a laugh when looking at the painting of Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon gallery, I told him they were "naughty boys" just like him. They tried to slip me some money after the tour was finished, so now I get to join the club of guides who have had people try to tip them.

We started my mom on a mild anti-anxiety/anti-depressant and despite our trepidation it seems to be working beyond our wildest expectations. The difference has been astounding. She spends all of her days now out in the commons area watching The Sound of Music, Lawrence Welk and Andy Griffith, listening to the non-stop-hard-working activities director try to teach "school" to them (it's comical actually - for instance, here sit 10 or 15 frail, dementia-ridden students, and she is teaching them about never giving up. And asking them questions just like you would in school. And probably getting the same blank looks that a lot of middle school teachers get come to think of it! They take them outside for walks and on field trips. Last Friday they took them to the International Peace Gardens and I came "this close" to calling them to tell them NOT to take my mom because it was too hot. But when I googled the weather the high was 89 degrees, which was 7 degrees cooler than the blast furnace it was on Thursday, so I didn't call. I wish I had, because my mom tripped on her field TRIP, stepped on the edge of the sidewalk as it gives way to the grass, which made her fall. She pulled someone down with her too. She has a scraped up knee and elbow but seems to be okay. The other person is okay too.

I've started getting the Fairy Garden area ready for the family reunion in July! (picture me rubbing my hands together gleefully). Those are my "Wyatt" pumpkins in the back.

And I swear this is my personal "Wyatt" robin. He's big and noble and fearless and has a large breast and he always comes to see me when I step outside, or look out the kitchen window or occasionally lie down in the hammock. (I should do more of that!).

We took a fantastic get-away up to our old Sweat Family stomping grounds, Ledgemere picnic grounds up Big Cottonwood canyon. Truman threw 500 rocks into the stream.

Lauren just rocks.

And Calvin is a big boy all of a sudden.

They can try throwing gang signs, but they're all just "12-year-old-gangsta-boys!"

Jane can't pull it off, even with a backwards hat :-) I think it's so sweet that Jane still wears her Wyatt bracelet.

Eli biding his time waiting for puberty to hit.

Cal and Vivi built a raft and watched it float downstream.

and of course we had to play the "Knock over the Coke cans with rocks" game! I DIDN'T KNOCK OVER ONE CAN!!!

Two-year-olds are the best.

10-year-olds too.

And 17-year-olds.

All seven kids were able to make it which was unprecedented! Cindy said she likes to play a game where she tries to get a candid shot of all seven kids together, and even though this picture only looks like there are six of them, Eli is DIRECTLY behind Reagan. You can barely see his back poking out behind her.

They gave me a heart attack hoisting Truman up into this crevice but he loved it.

He did NOT love the "cave" though! When Tony and Cindy told him it was a "bear cave" he clung to them in mortal fear! I can't believe he would know that a real bear would be scary. We spent the rest of the time reassuring him that the bear was gone, no bear, no bear, no bear. At one point he finally got enough courage to stand about 50 feet away from the cave and growled in its general direction!

Here's Tony growling into the cave while the other six were inside.

And finally, a zen moment with my mom doing Tai Chi at Sagewood. We should all be on anti-depressants. Note to my chidlren - when I'm at Grandma Hiatt's stage in life, I want XANEX!!

Dennis is a Genius

For the past three months I've had technical difficulties when I try to download photos. There were over 800 photos on my phone and the computer would say "no photos found on this phone." I googled it and there were all sorts of complicated fixes, some of which I even tried. When I mentioned it to Dennis he had the genius fix. Turn off the phone, turn off the computer, reboot both of them - and voila 800 photos safely downloaded.

800 photos is overwhelming. I went through them a couple weeks ago and deleted all the blurry ones (i.e. 500 of them) which gave me carpal tunnel for the rest of the evening.

Here's a picture of Dennis with a BB gun and perfect form. He was so fed up with the magpies building another nest in the pine tree in our back yard (for the third year in a row) that he resorted to the BB gun. Seriously, trying to outfox the magpies became his part-time job for the past two years, and he spent hours knocking down what they built. He HATES magpies with a passion. He tells me about all of their wicked ways so I don't think he's mean.

So he decided to scare them with a BB gun blast, not aiming directly at them he promised - just a whiz bang in their general direction....................And once again, Dennis is a genius!
They gave up for good! After three years of frustration, two fake owls and voodoo chants, all it took was a BB blast in their general direction.

Our house was full of fun over spring break when Hugo Hallstrom brought Angie, Forrest, Jonas and Elise on his road trip from Minnesota! Oh my gosh he's adorable. A cock-a-doodle-doo-poo who looks so much like Chewbacca it's hysterical! He stole all our hearts!

And tried to steal Reggie's sweater!

The teenagers are really into ping pong right now which makes my heart happy!

While the Hallstroms were here we got to celebrate four birthdays - Jonas turned 17, Eli turned 13, Forrest turned 47 and Elise turned 20!

I

Elise Julia Hallstrom has chosen to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary in the Lansing, Michigan mission. She is such a treasure and I'm so grateful for her decision to serve. She is doing a marvelous job! I got to go with Angie one morning on a photo shoot for Elise's official missionary portraits. Angie stopped along the way at a random place with just the right light, and the right colors and the right flora and fauna and that was the beautiful photo she used for the portrait. But I wanted to try some smack dab in the middle of the round-abouts and Elise was such a good sport about it! She will never forget scurrying across the busy road on River Front Parkway and dodging traffic so we could nestle her into the landscaping in the middle of the round-abouts!

We got to go to Springville and listen to Vivi perform in the extra-curricular choir for her school. They were AWESOME! They worked all year toward this program and the choral leader was very professional and the music was beautiful. I'll never forget the conductor announcing before the program "Crying children and good intentions are the same - they both should be carried out!"
LOL

I'm glad I have this photo of mom and dad and Denny in an unfiltered moment at their place at Sagewood. And we know it's March 29th too. Dad still looks pretty good in this photo even though just a few weeks later he began declining rapidly because of his pulmonary fibrosis.

Easter is such a beautiful time of year. Pastels are part of the memories.

Easter Egg Hunt 2018 - read, set, go!

Calvin "planted" jelly bean "seeds" that "grew" into big packs of celephane carrots with Reece's pieces in them. I felt bad for tricking him. He was so curious and careful as he planted them. I guess that's why I always told my kids "no, Santa isn't real" when they finally asked.

 We always fly a kite and this year the conditions were perfect!

Usually grandpa Hiatt would be in this picture too, but he was too weak to come out for the day.
There are lots more life and photos that are waiting in the archives but it's giving me a headache. I think I'm going to do my next post in real time and then try to pick up bits and pieces of the previous stuff when I'm in the mood!
Love,
Mom