Last year when our good friends Steve and Marla Lundgren were asked to serve a mission working at BYU-Hawaii, the four of us starting planning our visit to see them. My spring break from tutoring happened to coincide with BYU-H’s spring break and the result was a wonderful week filled with fabulous weather, good food, BYU Men’s Volleyball game, sightseeing, hiking, snorkeling, whale watching, and of course game playing every night!
Alan and I got to spend this past weekend with Tess and Trevor! We were excited to go check out their “newly” wed life in Arizona. Of course we waited until it cooled down a bit. 😉 We had fun visiting the Midwestern University campus where Trevor is attending medical school and seeing Tess at work at the optometrist office. Friday night we watched the BYU football game late into the wee hours of the morning. Saturday we participated in a sealing session at the beautiful new Phoenix Temple and then hit a few golf balls (some of us better than others) at a cool driving range. Sunday was their regional conference which was excellent and we finished the day with dinner and games. It was great to see their life so that we can picture them living it when we talk with them. Definitely something my “mommy heart” was needing!
Because I have a husband who really loves me, I left him on his own for 5 days and went to New Hampshire to play with my college friend, Melora. Coincidentally her husband was out of town and so we played! We drove down to Rockport MA, which is on Cape Ann. It was a gorgeous day and we had such a good time browsing the shops, sharing fish and chips and taking pictures of the famous fishing shack named Motif #1 that apparently is one of the top 10 photographed spots in New England.
If you have seen the movie “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock then you might remember that it was supposed to be taking place in Alaska. Well, the cute town that you see in the movie (including the amazingly cool house where the weekend / wedding takes place) is really Rockport MA. The red fishing shack behind us is where she awkwardly climbs down the ladder in her suit and heels to the waiting motorboat.
Melora also took me kayaking for my first time around Lake Massabesic. That’s right, we loaded and unloaded those babies all by ourselves! Sunday night we enjoyed the super blood red moon in her backyard — we had a great view!
After a crazy busy summer, Alan and I were able to get away for a few days to Monterey, California. We rented the greatest studio apartment complete with private patio, Jacuzzi, bikes, and passes to the aquarium. It was so great to relax, walk on the beach, sit in the Jacuzzi, take the 17 Mile Drive along Pebble Beach, enjoy the jellyfish exhibit, eat seafood, ride bikes and tour the Point Pino lighthouse. You should try it…you’ll like it!
Lucky us, during spring break, we met our New Hampshire friends in Florida and spent a fun week right on a beautiful beach near St. Petersburg. Our condo was spacious with an ocean view and every day except for one was sunny. We took lots of walks on the beach, sat by the pool, soaked in the hot tub, ate too much and too often, and played a few rounds of Canasta. One of the days we decided to take a day trip into Orlando to check out Universal Studios and the new Harry Potter World. Expensive…but fun! We even tried butter beer 🙂
Madeleine spent a week with Loren, Anne and Kenyon in South Bend, Indiana, where Loren is doing an internship at Notre Dame. She also spent a couple of days visiting with a friend in Chicago on her way home. Of course, she took a few photos…well okay, she actually made a movie….
Here are some of the photos she took that are my favorites!
Very spontaneously, we decided to drive up to Jackson Hole for the 4th of July weekend with four of my siblings and their families. We all got rooms close to each other and had a great time running the river, watching the parade, enjoying (BBQ program), and watching fireworks! In the picture below, I’m in the corner wearing the brown hat and Alan is in directly in front of me. Our family filled up 2 boats! My dad would be so proud of all of us…he loved river running!
A family vacation in Oregon has become somewhat of a tradition for our family. However, this last time wasn’t just a regular ‘ol beach trip. First stop, Corvallis Oregon, where Phillip earned his master’s degree in creative writing from Oregon State University. You should probably start calling him Master Brown. Siblings, parents and grandparents made the trip to Corvallis to support him. We attended graduation at Reser Stadium (sans soon-to-be-mentioned super cute toddler), where Phillip, now especially distinguished (see presidential wave photo), was hooded and received his diploma. We took photos together and then the entire family went out to an Italian dinner afterwards to celebrate.
After church on Sunday, our big Mormon family piled into a wee pub to listen to Phillip and his cohort’s reading of poetry and stories they had worked on as part of their theses. Phillip read a few poems with his lovely NPR voice and finished with “Sunset Alert” — a nod to his childhood memory of Mom always alerting the household whenever there was a nice sunset. We’re all so proud of Phillip — er, um, Master Phillip.
Besides the pomp and circumstance, our trip was also different than previous ones because we had with Alan’s parents with us and oh, a toddler cuter than anything you can imagine. That’s four generations by the way! So, ten adults + almost-two-year-old Kenyon headed out to the coast Sunday evening to spend the week at a beach house in Waldport, Oregon.
We filled our days with long walks on the beach (as cliche as it is, we actually did), braving the tides of the cold ocean, watching World Cup soccer games, visiting Heceta Head lighthouse, flying kites in the gorgeous weather, playing Nertz and Quirkle, enjoying a game of Loopers on the sand, having a crossword competition between the boys and the girls, writing Haiku, working on family history, completing a jigsaw puzzle and practicing mindfulness.
Monday evening we celebrated all sorts of things — Phillip’s graduation, birthdays for Loren and Phillip and Tess, as well as Father’s Day for Wally and Alan and Loren. For one of Phillip’s graduation gifts, Loren collected art from family members to go with Phillip’s thesis poetry collection. It turned out great!
Some of the high points of the trip besides Phillip’s commencing, of course: Kenyon being cute, Kenyon smiling, Kenyon rocking Madeleine’s sunglasses, Kenyon showing off how ridiculously intelligent he is, Kenyon doing anything, Kenyon asking to be read “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” an average 12.7 times a day, etc.
Other highlights: Mom found a glass bottle with a message in it, someone accidentally loaded the dishwasher with liquid hand soap, four generations built a sandcastle together, Mom enjoyed having meal teams (so she didn’t have to be in charge of all the meals) and a “professional” photographer* and one day Tess won almost every game we played.
We were absolutely sad to leave the ocean, but we enjoyed the family time together and can’t wait to go back.
*I took about 1,600 photos over the course of the trip (about a fourth of which actually turned out, and about 75 percent of which were of Kenyon), and put together a slideshow for those who wish they could’ve been there and want to live the experience for themselves.
P.S. I also wrote this blog…and yes, I am currently my mom’s favorite child.
A little Easter get-a-way just for me to go down and spend a few days with my sister and her family in AZ. Almost a bit on the too hot side (90’s) we had good time getting our toes done, shopping, lunch out, playing with the kids, bike riding, session at the brand new gorgeous Gilbert Temple and the Easter pageant at the Mesa Temple.
Thanks to Pat & Wally, we got to spend a delightful week at the Marriott Resort in Newport Beach. We invited our good friends, the Lundgrens to go with us and we had a wonderful time, relaxing, sight-seeing, eating good food, attending the temple, playing games, and oh, getting sunburned doing water aerobics. Don’t ever, ever, ever think that you don’t need sunscreen! 😉
