Life is too short

A week and a half ago, on Saturday, July 19, Ali VanGieson and her Dad, Craig Walther died in a rollover accident traveling to Utah for a family reunion. Craig left a sweet wife, four sons and several grandchildren. Ali left a young husband doing a surgical residency and three small children. My heart aches for such a loss, but at the same time, I know that they will live again and will be with their families again. This has been quite the year and summer. There have been soooo many babies born to families and friends in my area, several weddings a few divorces and unfortunately a few funerals. I lost 2 classmates and a friend, Ali. It really helps put life into persepective, makes me hold my babies a little closer and hold Ben a little longer. I know that life will continue to hold all of these and I just hope I get to be there for all of them, instead of being the occasion! We'll see. I guess we can just hold our breath, enjoy the ride and hope that Heavenly Father has a bit more work for us to do!!

Hawaii

Ashley and I went for a run one morning and this is where we ended - not much luck pushing a stroller on the beach - but it was fun!!
Amy got a room at the Marriott for us to stay one night and to get ready for the wedding - this is a small section of the pool - Ashley loved it! We played volleyball in the pool later in that net in the background - I didn't want to go home for sure!!
One of the beautiful view points.
Mom and me at the Grand Canyon of the Pacific! (I can't spell the real name - sorry!)
Hiking to a spectacular waterfall. We found mangos along the way - one had just fallen from the tree right before we got there. It was the most delicious thing I had tasted in a long time. They were selling smaller mangos at little stands for $5! No thank you - I'll hike in the mountains and get my own for free :-)

The Bride

Amy's Bachelorette Party - we had fun eating and playing games and meeting her Hawaii friends.
And here she is! She looked so beautiful! But that really wasn't a surprise because she is naturally a stunning girl :-) We had 9 ladies getting ready in this hotel room and with the dress steamer, curling irons, flat irons, curlers and hair drying going...we blew the circut! Luckily it was only 10 min or so before we were up and running again!

This is at Duke's - the restaurant/bar where Amy's John performs(that is him in the blue shirt) we all went there the Friday night before the big day. John's group sounded great and they were fun to watch.

Sea World

This will probably be one of my favorites - Natalie at this point had been screaming and pitching a fit because Baylie was in the back of the stroller. I had had it with her (and she wouldn't put her shoes on) so we were walking through Sea World with Nan screaming at the top of her lungs, bear foot. We just smiled at the people walking by as we continued on through Sea World. Oh, and Baylie was being bashful and Ashley was asleep - "We are a happy Family!"

Down Day & Convention Dinner

Naps are an amazing thing!
The girls loved swimming! We had a some great pools where we stayed. Ashley wasn't too sure about it all, but she was a trooper and just went with the flow every day.
We did Orlando - Wardle/Ashdown style. I brought food in one of our suitcases. Every morning we had oatmeal and fruit. Lunch time we had granola bars and crackers and then we snacked on other things throughout the day. It was great! The heat also helped curve the appetite so we weren't as hungry.

The was at the big dinner with Ben's work located in our hotel ballroom. We had delicious food. I had another agent's daughter babysit for me. I had to go back once to help Ashley go to sleep. As soon as I was done with my dinner I got another call and Ashley was screaming again, so I left early - but I had more fun watching a movie and hanging out with my girls anyway :-)

The Characters

Natalie was in heaven! Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty. I love Baylie's Bashful face with Cinderella.

It is really crazy to me to think we waited for 40 min in line to take pictures of these characters. I know it is part of the "experience" and the girls loved it, but, wow! I guess I'm not quite used to this type of family vacation. The next time we visit a world famous spot - we are going in January!

Ben and I saw Mickey at two different times and had to wait in the long lines each time. Natalie was having a melt down and I wasn't about to drag her through the line, so we waited outside. By the time she calmed down enough and decided to go it the house and wait in line, Ben and Baylie were just exiting! Bummer!

Disney World

Disney World is a magical place. We had a fun time. I wouldn't say it was the best timing with a 4, 2 & 7 mo. old, but we made it through the lines, tantrums and heat to make some fun memories.

And of course we had to do "Its a small world" and the girls loved it!

I wanted to get a good family shot in Disney World but once the heat hit us outside we couldn't get the girls to stop for a picture!

Traveling to Florida

Here we were - 4 suitcases, 3 carseats, 2 carryons, 1 family and a partridge in a pear tree. We managed to survive the redeye flight into Orlando, took a few naps at the hotel and then we all slept hard the following night.


We came to Orlando during hurricane season. We had to evacuate or delay something a few times during ou stay.

As you can see, Ashley was so excited she zonked out right as we entered Magic Kingdom. More pics to follow.

She Got Me!

I asked Natalie to lean her wet head forward for me to wrap her hair in a towel and her little energetic body jerked up right in time to catch my eye! I doubled over in pain as the lights were flashing in my head!! This is what it looked like that night. Then, the next morning I woke up to a swollen eye and some major purple eye shadow. Thanks Natalie!