Happy Halloween!

Mack was a Hippie and Kayla was a Witch.

Kayla and Mackynzie both went out trick or treating with some friends. Everyone had a great time.  

Kayla's group started at 6:00 pm and didn't finish up until 9:00 pm.  Their bags were filled to the top with candy!

Mackynzie and her group started off in San Elijo Hills and traveled over to Discovery Hills to see if they would see more of their friends.  About 10 kids finished off the night by heading back to our home to visit around the fire pit in the backyard and watch a scary movie.  

Everyone has a great night!

Halloween 2008

Carving Pumpkins on Halloween!

  

Kayla, Mackynzie, Sean and Karyn were in the backyard carving pumpkins at 4:30 on Halloween night.  We left it to the last minute this year.  Halloween kind of snuck up on us.  The girls and Sean picked out pumpkins the weekend I was in Mesa for my 20 year reunion. But they waited for me to return home before they carved them.  Finding the time in the week was hard so we left it for Friday night!

     

   

       

 

Sean is a professional when it comes to carving pumpkins.  This year he bought two electric carving knives.  He was so excited about it!  He said, "What a deal I got!  All this for $56."  I have to say that it did make carving pumpkins easy though. I made my traditional scary pumpkin face in two minutes flat.  

The girls and Sean love to get fancy with their pumpkins.  They spend a little more time at it than I do.  I did end up asking a few kids that were trick or treating with us what their favorite pumpkins were and mine came in last.  I don't mind...because I love the simple traditional pumpkin face!

Visiting Amy's Gravesite

At times my parent's still miss their Amy.  Today they mentioned what a hard week they had with getting teary eyed about her.  They figured it was probably because they were considering selling the the house they raised her in. They were wonderful parents to her and she loved them.  Today they love seeing Luke and Sheri's kids.  Mom and Dad get such a kick out of playing with those four little ones.  How blessed we are that they are apart of our lives.  

I love to visit Amy's grave while I am in Mesa, Arizona.  Only once have I visited where I didn't make it over to the cemetery.   I try to make the time to pop in to visit her spot.  It is a special place for me to remember her.  The Lord blessed me on the day I visited here so many years ago with a few answers to my "why" question.  

I know my sweet little sister, Amy was meant to be back with her Heavenly Father.  Life is so good for Luke and his family.  They are darling and so happy.  It is good to see that.

Karyn's Twenty Year Reunion

Mountain View's 88 Reunion

I flew into Mesa, Arizona from Athens, Greece on Friday, October 24th.  I missed the Mountain View Football Party that was planned that night.  However, I did make it to the Casual Reunion Party that was planned for Saturday night.  It was so fun to see all my old friends.  I especially enjoyed visiting with so many friends from the 30th ward.  Everyone was very friendly and kind.  It was a great time and I was glad to see that most people were happy and doing great!

Kathy, Heidi, Karyn and Mysti

Stacie, Jenet, Karyn and Suzette

These are the ladies I went to the reunion with.  We stayed and talked with everyone until the place was closing down.  These are women that have aged beautifully inside and out!

Suzette, Julie, Jenet, Karyn, Stacie, Jen and Randy

Suzette, Heidi and Karyn

Heidi shared that she was going to have a baby girl in 7 weeks.  She said that she had found a surrogate that was willing to carry her baby.  What a remarkable story and I really found Heidi delightful to visit with.  It was so good to see her happy and settled.  It is always beautiful to hear stories about people being willing to help others.  What a gift she is receiving, best of luck Heidi! 

Bret, Karyn, Rebecca, Andrew, Julie and Troy

We had a great class of 88.  There was definitely something special about attending Mountain View High School.  Our years together were unique and wonderful.  We had some good times together.  Many of the people I visited with have remained in Mesa, some have ventured out into other parts of the country.  It was fun to find out everyone's story after all these years.  I look forward to next time!

Six Day Greece Trip

The Agora in Athens

The Island of Santorini

At the Acropolis in Athens

Athens, Greece

I was able to travel with Sean to Athens, Greece.  We were gone from October 18th to October 24th.  Sean was going on business and at the last minute he invited me to go with him.  I asked my good friend, Jillene Rios, if she was willing to watch the girls. Luckily, the plans just all fell into place and I found myself in Greece a week in a half later.

Sean and I had two full days to travel together.  The other days I was on my own.  My first day with Sean we walked from about 8:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night.  We saw all of the sites we could that day in Athens.  Sean only had that one day and he wanted to see it all.  
Some of our tour consisted of:

1.  The Parliament to see the changing of the guards.

2. The Panathinakikon Stadium

3. The Temple of Olympian Zeus

4. Hadrian's Arch

5. The Theatre of Dionysos

6. The Acropolis

7. Filopappos Hill (during the daytime and for the sunset)

8. Ancient Agora

9.  Tower of Winds

10. The Roman Market

11.  Of course the list continued...

Later in the week, I went back and saw the parts of our touring that I felt was rushed and that I wanted to spend more time at.  I went back to the Acropolis and just loved sitting up there and looking over the city of Athens.  It was wild to imagine the way it was over 2000 years earlier.   I also was able to see the Acropolis museum, the Benaki Museum and my favorite the National Archaeological Museum while in Athens.

The second day with Sean we flew to the island of Santorini.  We woke up at 3:30 am to get to the airport for a 6:20 am flight.  We were flying to the island for the day.  The island of Santorini was spectacular.  It was what I always imaged Greece to look like, with the white cement houses built on the side of the hill.  It was fun to walk along the mountain ridge and see the views.  It was such a blessing to be able to go with Sean and experience the beauty of this place. This was definitely a highlight of the trip.  It was so peaceful on the island.  By the end of that day at dinner Sean and I were so tired.  We both fell asleep at the dinner table for a few minutes.  I am sure the waiter got a kick out of us.  We must have looked like the most boring couple ever - sleeping in such a beautiful place!

I did also really enjoy the time I spent exploring Athens on my own.  I was nervous at first, but I did it and I was proud of myself.  There is something wonderful about accomplishing something you have never done before.  For me, it was a new concept to travel alone in a foreign country.  I had tried to get Lisa Holt to travel with me when I learned I was going, but it was not meant to be.  I was meant to travel alone for those three days!  I really did some soul searching.  It was a wonderful time.

Santorini, Greece

Sean and I spent hours staring and walking this site in Santorini.  Every path you took on the hillside led you down to such a unique view.  Every view point was breathtaking.  We both loved it!

We only wished the girls could have come with us.  They would have enjoyed it.  

On the day we were here in Santorini.  We met a couple who asked us to take their picture.  We started a nice conversation with them.  They were an older couple who had traveled all over the world for different training conventions.  They were really nice and mentioned a few must sees to us. The next day in Athens, Sean and I were having dinner and the same couple we met in Santorini sat down right next to us.  We all got a kick out of it. What a small world!  We decided to have dinner together and really enjoyed getting to know them.   

Palm Springs Getaway

Girl's Weekend Getaway!

Some of us from the LSM Ward decided to go to Palm Springs for the weekend.  We got a massage and just visited with each other.  They are a bunch of wild and crazy gals!  

I love them all.....

Michele Clifford

Allison Weenig

Shayla McLauglin

Rachel Hazen

Jillene Rios

Erin Uda 

and Karyn Parry

Reunion with the College Crew

St. George, Utah

Our weekend was filled with talking and laughing like always.  We planned to attend a play at the Toucan theater.  It was the play Les Miserables and it made us cry.  Liz was thinking about the little girl her family is trying to adopt.  It has been a big waiting game for everyone involved.  The play pulled on some heart strings.  We all are praying that her little girl will find her way into their home soon.  The actors had great voices and the theater was a great setting for the play.  The Toucan is an outdoor theater with the red rock mountains as the background.

We attended the St. George Temple and also had sometime to hike the canyons.  We hiked for several hours and really enjoyed ourselves.  It was a quick trip, but it was filled with laughter!   

I picked Liz up and we drove to the Las Vegas airport to pick up Monica.  Then we headed to meet Stacie in St. George.  We were staying at her mother-in-law's vacant home.  It was so fun.

These pictures were 19 years ago!

The big question was why are you going to St. George this year for your yearly get together, that doesn't seem like a very exciting of a place?  The answer was simple.  We had a FREE place to stay and it was the most convenient spot for everyone to meet at.  It also held the charm of being a place we had traveled through 19 years earlier.  

Back in our college days, we decided to travel to California for our first trip together.  We were on our way to Liz's home from completing our first year at Brigham Young University.  

We passed through St. George and snapped a few pictures in front of the St. George Temple.  That was a great trip together.     

While we have aged a bit.  We still have a blast together.  We are blessed to be in each others lives.  It is amazing to think back to all the wonderful times we have had together.