Have you ever stopped and thought "Hey this is where I live!"

I went for a walk last night with Wayne and we walked on the new walking path around the lake. It's beautiful here in Mantua and I love living here but sometimes I forget to notice or appreciate all of the beauty. We had our dog Hank with us last night and we passed many neighbors and friends out doing the same thing - exercising and enjoing the beautiful scenery and weather. At one point during the walk I just kept repeating - "I live here." I LIVE here" "I live HERE". After 17 years of living in this beautiful valley, I think it finally set in that this is my home. This is where I live. It's small town with a country store and a little town hall. A cop that everyone knows no matter where you go! I never in my wildest dreams thought I would live in Mantua or Brigham or anywhere around here. It wasn't until I was an adult that I really stopped to think that this is where most of my family is originally from. I actually have Great Grandparents who came to Mantua in the late 1800's and are buried right here in the Mantua cemetary. Here are a few pictures I've taken these past few weeks of "where I live".

Weekend on the lake

This is my 4th attempt at a post, the site keeps crashing. So Saturday we went over to Mantua for some boating with the family. Kids are mastering the wake surfing and I continue to enjoy the sun. Syd and Savannah enjoy it all. I'll include some pictures.

Margaret and Emmett's 50th Anniversary

We celebrated with Waynes parent's yesterday for the 50th anniversary. We went to lunch at Maddox followed by an open house at the Roy 8th ward. Besides the many friends and neighbors that came to celebrate we had most of our family there too. My parents came, all of my kids except Zach but Hayan was sweet and came without him. Her sister (Sooah) along with her darling baby (Sohpie) came, her mother and her mothers friend also came along. It was especially kind since neither her mother or her mothers friend speak any English so we were back to the head nodding and smiling - funny how much our faces can communicate without actually saying a word. Happy Anniversary Margaret and Emmett, you are great examples to your family and we love you!

It's a Grand Mother's day weekend

Wayne and I had the girls this weekend while Tyler and Karie celebrated their 3rd anniversary. We started off with a steak and crab dinner at home - Sydnee's favorite! She shared her 4 chocolate covered pretzels with us (one for each of us) as our dessert. We watched a movie the Ant Bully and then had a sleep over. Syd slept in the "big bed" and Savannah chose to sleep in the little tent in the family room. For breakfast I made buttermilk pancakes with fresh strawberries. The girls helped with the Saturday chores so we could go on our big surprise - a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium. We had a fun day. We ate Japanese for lunch/dinner and then came home for strawberry smooties.... Yummy! I think this is what a mother waits for, her kids are raised and married and wonderful responsible adults and we get to enjoy the blessings - Grand kids! I'm pretty sure it doesn't get much better. Only thing better will be when we have more of them to spoil! Thanks Ty and Karie for sharing them with us this weekend.

Great Grandpa's Birthday

You know, not everyone is blessed to have great-grandparents alive to love and learn from and enjoy but my grandkids and my brothers have been very blessed to have great-grandparents alive on both sides. We enjoy our weekly visits to Waynes parents house where my grand-kids can play with Waynes brothers daughter Brinley. The cousins occasionally get thrown off their groove when they hear Wayne and I referred to as Grandma and Grandpa instead of Aunt Shel and Uncle Wayner but it's slowly coming along. I enjoy having our family close and creating these lasting memories and relationships that will go with my parents, me, my kids and my grand-kids throughout our lives and hopefully into the next. We each bring such uniqueness to the family circle. We enjoy each of our kids and their spouses as though they were our very own kids. In fact I feel like my family just doubled instead of losing kids. Here are a couple of pictures of my brothers son (Danny's) little girl Sophie and Sidney with my 2 grand-daughters, Savannah and Sydnee. I hope my kids will have more opportunites to get to know their cousins on my side of the family. Syd and Savannah love to go to grandmas to play with the "cousins". I think it's sweet!

New baby chicks

We bought 5 new chicks. 4 are black sexlinks. (gotta love the name) and one is a black polish white crested (looks like Phyllis Dillar!). The girls came up to see them and Karie took some cute pictures. Here are just a couple.

March Madness!

We measured the snow fall today because, well because it's supposed to be spring. 22" on the deck! It will be nice when it comes time for waterskiing this summer and I'd rather it fall in March than May but seriously! Is this what they call March Madness?? Probably not but I think it is deserving of the title!