Oct 11th Adam is 8 months

Our naked fireman is 8 months today.   He is starting to scoot across the floor and crawl a little bit.   He's a terrible sleeper!  He wants to only sleep if he is nursing or can touch Justin or I.  It's super annoying.... we're working on sleep training.   He'll go to sleep after 10 or so minutes of crying,  but wakes up after only half an hour or so.   It's annoying.  He's getting 4 new teeth.   He already has 2.  Despite his lack of sleep,  he's generally a really happy baby.   We sure love him. 

missionary sons

I made a beautiful missionary wall/ shrine if my 2 sons serving their missions.   I love it!  Joey is in Brazil and John is in Mexico.   It makes me happy every time I walk by their smiling faces!  I'm so grateful they wanted to serve and are growing and experiencing so many new things! 

ocean

Today I'm grateful to live in such a beautiful place where the ocean is just minutes away.   I went running with stroller warriors today around the Ginowan seaside.  It was beautiful.   It's really strange to live in such an amazing place,  but still live normal life.   Instead of enjoying the beauty around it's easy to get caught up in the day to day schedule of cleaning,  planning and laundry... we haven't seen nearly enough if this island!  But I'm grateful that even the day to day humdrum activities ( like exercise) can involve a beautiful view and gorgeous weather.   

gratitude

ok trying again.....I have a friend who writes something she is grateful for every day and posts it to facebook.  It's super cute.  I think it helps her really feel grateful for where she is.  I decided I'd like to do that too, but I'm hesitant to share on fb because I think I might come off as braggy, anyhow, here goes day 1!  I'm grateful that I live on a beautiful island in Japan with amazing sunrises.  I'm grateful to have a huge backyard that is somewhat level (compared to many of the hilly yards around us).  I'm grateful that I saved my hammock from Mexico so we could enjoy it here.  I'm grateful for Nathan who happily mows the huge yard after running 7 miles for cross country practice for his 2nd workout and to earn $20.  I'm grateful that Nathan loves cross country and that he is getting faster at each meet.  I'm grateful that even though he still dislikes school, he is getting all of his homework done with minimal complaints and doing well in his classes (minus geometry).  I'm grateful that his sister (math genius) is tutoring him in math and that when I have the odd chance to sit with him I actually remember some geometry.  Seriously I think it's one of my favorite math subjects. 

3 more years...minus 2 boys..plus one and on to Japan

ok.  I'm a horrible blogger....it's time to journal again.  I love blogging because it doesn't take up any room and I know I can always find it.  Sometimes the public nature makes me a little hesitant to share everything I'm thinking, but I'm pretty aware that no one really reads it so it's a fairly safe place.

Life is crazy....lots has happened since I last wrote, but I'm just gonna jump in.

SPRING BREAK 2019

We went to Switzerland and Italy with a short stop in Germany and a night in France.  It was pretty fast paced and a lot of driving, but it was great.  We went with the Johnson family as well.  This made the long hours in the car bearable, as did fablehaven.  It is a good book.

Rebirth

ok.  It has been a whole year since I wrote in here!!  Actually more.  I am wanting to jump back in to blogging.  I really feel like it is a great way to journal about my family and our experiences and to share all of our life with our family members who live far away.

So I guess I will just start with last week.  We went to Washington for a Jim Stoker family reunion.  It was wonderful!  We drove straight through 15 hours from Las Vegas to Washington and it actually wasn't too bad of a drive.  The summer is much better for driving up than the winter.  Our first real day there was Saturday.  After a few chores in the morning we went to goose lake to go cliff jumping.  Luckily Danny remembered the way there and we all had a great time.  The water was wonderful!  The older kids jumped from the 30 ft cliffs and the younger ones found smaller places to jump from.  We were all really glad we had water shoes.  

Sunday we went to church and after had some family and friends over for a visit.  It was really nice to reconnect with some of my cousins.  It had been a really long time since I had seen a lot of them.  Dad's garden was as beautiful and wild as I remembered.  The old grape arbor was taken down, (which was sad), but the garden was still as fun and mysterious as ever.  

Monday we drove up to Ensign Ranch.  It's a church owned camp near Cle Elum Washington.  There was lots to do there and we had a blast.  We rented a cabin which we shared.  My family got the loft.  Mom and dad and Danny slept on the main level, and Maia and Kendall and Matt and Colleen slept in tents.  It rained a few of the nights, so we definitely got the best deal.  During our stay we got to slide down a huge slip n slide, go horseback riding, go tubing down the river, go canoeing, take a breathtaking hike to Pete's Lake and eat lots of smores.  It was a lot of fun!  Everyone had a great time!

Goodbye Connecticut, Hello Vegas!!

I've been procrastinating this post.  Mainly because I can't find the cord that goes from my camera to my computer to download all the great pictures we took of our great friends in CT and our fun trip out here, but I'm also procrastinating because it's hard to say goodbye.  We miss our friends in CT.

Our trip out here was fun and kind of complicated.  I came out early with my sister in law Colleen in the honda.  We did it in 3 1/2 days so we could meet the moving truck so my stuff didn't have to go into storage.   We did great driving and making it here, but our stuff got here a day late.  That wouldn't have been a big deal, except that I was flying out to Minnesota that day to meet up with Justin.  Luckily my flight wasn't until the evening, so it worked out all right.

In Minnesota I met up with Justin and the kids over at Brandon and Kim's house and we had a great time celebrating the 4th with them.  We went to a parade and then swimmming and to fireworks and a concert that night.  It was a lot of fun.  The next day we went to Interstate park and went camping and hiking on the 5th.  Then on the 6th we went canoeing down the St. Croix river.  We all had a great time.  A few canoes tipped over and the boys had an adventure storming mosquito island.  After it all we went out to dinner at Denny's and went back to Brandon and Kim's for the night.  We had church with them and then headed out to Idaho that night.

In Idaho we stayed at our friend's the Peck's.  They very kindly let us stay at their house and we met up with Brandon and Kim and family for most of our meals over at Justin's cousin Kelly's house.  We had a couple of nice visits with grandma and grandpa and then also went out each day on an adventure.   One day we went out to the 17 mile cave which is 17 miles from Idaho falls.  It was really huge and a lot of fun.  We stayed in the big rooms since there were a lot of little kids and it started to get wet as the cave narrowed.  After the cave we went to the Anderson dairy where we all got ice cream cones.  It was delicious.  The next day we went out to the sand dunes in St. Anthony.  They were a lot of fun and the kids had a great time digging, sliding and jumping there.  Afterwards we went to the temple in Rexburg and ate pizza on the grass.  It was a nice afternoon.  After that we all had to go home and take baths.  After we were cleaned up we went to grandma's for another nice visit, had dinner at kellys and went to my cousin Melissa's house for dessert.  We had a really nice visit.  At each house we went to, I was really struck by the sweet kids.  All had just great teenagers and they got along really well with my kids.  It was fun.

On our way to Vegas from Idaho, we stopped in Salt Lake to visit with Ryan and Barb, Kristy and James and Kami and Brian.  It was fun to catch up and see everyone.  It was the first time we met little James, Ryan and Barb's little baby.

After we made it to Vegas, Colleen was still here and had cleaned and unpacked a few things for us.  She also had arranged for my cousin Jana to give us a dryer and got it all hooked up for us.  That was really nice.  Colleen and Matt stayed at our house for a few days while Colleen's family had a reunion in Vegas.  We unpacked as quickly as possible and were ready for company the next week.  Maia and Kendall came on the 18th and my mom and dad came the day after.  We had planned to go camping up at MT.  Charleston, but there was a forest fire so we were unable to camp there.  Instead we stayed at my house.  We went to the Springs Preserves on Saturday and had a birthday party for Michelle and Kate that night. We went out to hoover dam and lake mead on Monday.  That was fun, but unfortunately after that Colleen got some bad news about her sister.  She had died and they had to make arrangements to go back for her funeral.  It was pretty sad.  Matt and Colleen went to Boston the next night and the rest of us went to a spray park and came home and watched movie.  The next day we went to the old mormon fort, had a picnic and came home on time for Maia and Kendall to go on their way to the Greene reunion in Las Angeles.

It was really nice to see so many people in so short a time.  I'm so grateful for my family and for the knowledge we have about life after death.