Another Year Older & Hopefully Wiser too

Well the time came again to have another birthday.  I have to admit the 30's are still pretty great and since I can still claim early 30's we are doing good!

This year it was meant to be a small quiet birthday but I did get a fun surprise!  My Primary Presidency and I have a tradition of doing a potluck lunch for each other's birthdays.  Due to timing and a crazy week, we decided to eat out at a wonderful local cafe and keep it simple.  Well when I showed up for lunch, a lot of other women did too!  It was a great surprise and we even got a private room.  I love the Hickory Street Cafe and it such a treat to be there with so many of the amazing women I have met here.

My birthday was on a Saturday this year, and so Caleb was so excited to treat me to breakfast in bed.  He had planned out the menu the night before and snuck into our room early to wake up Dad.  It was super super sweet.

No better way to wake up!

The Bradshaw's made me a yummy birthday dinner.  It was a dinner in a Japanese nebemono called Shabu Shabu!  So much fun! 

And Brydon made my Grandmother's "Strawberry Goop Cake" (as he likes to call it).  I do love Strawberries and this is one of my favorite cakes!

Here's to another new year!

Wonder what this year will bring?

No More Glasses for Daddy

Out With the Old

 &

In With the New

It's official!  No more glasses!

Did you know that it is actually cheaper for the Military to fix your eyesight then to try to provide glasses and the multitude of inserts for gas masks?  Well we were surprised (pleasantly surprised) to learn this.  And it just so happens that there is a great eye surgeon stationed at Lackland in San Antonio. So we decided this would be a great time to get Brydon's eyes corrected.  He ended up getting PRK and not lasik done but it was still a simple procedure.  We made 3 trips down to San Antonio in a week and two of the trips began at 2 am, so it was a long week, but well worth it.  Brydon and I really enjoyed the time together and on the last trip down even made a stop in Fredericksburg!  What a cute town!  I didn't take any pictures but we most definitely have plans to go again sometime.  

Fortunately Brydon's Mom was able to fly down to help us out for the week so Caleb didn't have to miss school.  She got to hang out with the kiddo and be on school duty.  It was so nice to have her here.    I think she even discovered a new talent!  Caleb was quick to introduce her to the new Kinect and Skylanders.  She jumped right in and got into the video game world.  Brydon was a bit jealous because she never played video games with him.  

Always fun with Grandma!  Thank you for coming to visit us and help us out!

With Love From Your One and Only Sweetheart Darling

January didn't turn out how we expected.  One evening late at night we received a phone call from one of my cousins informing us that my grandpa was going to be undergoing a very risky surgery to try to repair a thoracic aneurysm that he had suffered from earlier that day.  The chances of surviving the surgery were slim.

Amazingly he did make it through the surgery and started to make a miraculous recovery.  Much of the family was able to go visit him in the hospital and we began to think we would have him for a bit longer.  However, we only got to keep him for a few more days.  His body just wasn't able to recover and he had no desire to be on life support.

Fortunately, in spite of Brydon being in the middle of a very important inspection, we were able to attend the funeral as a whole family.  It was a beautiful funeral and it is always wonderful to see all the family together. 

 

I feel very lucky to have been extremely close with my grandparents.  I have been able to live next to them or with them for 13 years of my life.  They had a big influence on me and were always my biggest cheerleaders.

Grandpa loved to exercise (particularly cycling) and was able to convince grandma to ride with him after her accident.  They were always so cute on the tandem.

I would never had made it through college without their support and love.  I even worked for my grandpa for a 1 1/2 at BYU.  Some of my best memories of them are doing those 5 years.  Lots of late nights talking and Sunday dinners doing laundry.

It was a proud day for all of us when I earned my degree!

You do really cherish those moments when you can share your best moments in life with your grandparents.

My Grandparents were the first to visit us in the hospital after Caleb was born.  We loved living close to them in Utah and frequently had Sunday dinners together or fun shopping trips.  They were good sports to join us on some fun random adventures. 

They sure loved their grandchildren!

They came out to visit us in Philadelphia.  Caleb loved playing with Grandpa.

Many great memories at the beach and the zoo.

After my Grandmother passed away, Grandpa was able to find and old high school sweetheart and they were married shortly after.  He spent the last 2 1/2 years very happy.

Leonard & Joyce on their wedding day

I love technology that allows us to have these beautiful old pictures and share them with everyone.  They are true treasures. 

My mother is the only daughter in the family.

Priceless!

I am so grateful for all the lessons my Grandpa taught me and he will be greatly missed.

I love you Grandpa!

Feelin' a Bit Texan

 One of Brydon's hobbies is shooting.  It is something he loves to do with his Dad and they enjoy going out rifle and shotgun shooting.  Well in Texas rifles and shotguns are not as popular as handguns.  Handgun ranges are readily available but there are not very many places to shoot rifles.  So Brydon decided to try out some handguns to see if that was something we would be interesting in purchasing.  We have some dear friends that own a few handguns and property that we can shoot on.  We got a great lesson on handguns and found a couple guns we were interested in.  Handguns make us both a bit nervous so we were glad to find someone who could show us how they work safely.  Brydon and I both came from families that took gun safety very seriously and we very particular about the shooting situations we will be in. 

 

Caleb was a bit nervous around all the guns (not that I minded a bit) but did decide that he may like to try shooting a gun at the end of the day.  Brydon and I hadn't really discussed when we wanted to Caleb to handle a gun.  Again in our homes, you had to earn the privilege to shoot, be able to handle the gun on your own, and hunter safety courses were required before any hunting outings.  But we trusted our friend and he had a small 410 shotgun that Caleb could actually handle on his own.  So we let him try it out.  He loved it and was even able to shoot the can right off!

Can you see the dust cloud?

His trophy can!

I won't lie, it still makes me nervous to see him with a gun but I do want him to learn how to be safe around them. He is a good looking kid and did a very good job following all the rules!

He ended up cutting the can in half!

Another day we went out shooting, he got to aim at the targets.

 

A fun video of his shooting experience. 

And of course a day in the country wouldn't be complete without being able to drive the tractor on your own.

Fortunately he didn't crash and sure had a ball!  It reminded me of all the times I got to help my grandpa feed the cows in the morning at the family farm.

Winter Break

This Winter Break we just relaxed and didn't do anything too exciting.  It was wonderful!  A much needed rest from the busy school year, busy callings, and the Holiday hustle and bustle.  Everyone needs some jammie days!

 

Some good friends had their parents come visit Abilene for the first time over Christmas.  Brydon took them on the grand Air Force Base Tour and we got to hang out with them a few times.  It was a lot of fun!

Caleb did make a cute wish list of items to do over the break.  He had it hung in his room so we could remember to do everything.  I wish we could have done them all but we did pretty good.

Swimming, Dallas, Buffalo Wild Wings, Friends

 

We learned that the Base Pool was no longer available for family swim, so no swimming.  We did go to Buffalo Wild Wings (Caleb's personal favorite for some random reason), and we planned on a trip to Dallas after Winter Break when some friends would be there as well.  We of course spent lots of time with friends.  With an only child, close friends are a life saver!  The base bowling alley ran a fun special on cheap bowling for the kids so instead of swimming, we went bowling.

The kids had a blast and I bowled my best score (which isn't saying much)! 

 

Here's too relaxing breaks with friends and family!