I Need A Hug!

My boy left yesterday and it will be two years before I’ll see him.

No, I wouldn’t choose winter for Tanton to leave. Think of all he’ll miss: Hockey games, building snow jumps and snowboarding down them, Christmas lights, late nights reading books under a cozy blanket, family dinners, doing doughnuts on a snowy night in the parking lot. No–I wouldn’t choose Winter.

No, I wouldn’t choose spring for Tanton to leave. Think of all he’ll miss: Easter Egg hunts, planting flowers, flying kites, watching our trees blossom, cleaning up the yard, birds hatching in the nest in our trees, Memorial Day, putting flowers on graves at the cemetery. No–I wouldn’t choose Spring.

No, I wouldn’t choose summer for Tanton to leave. Think of all he’ll miss: Our annual Lake Powell trip, riding his motorcycle, gazing at the stars, the 4th of July, No–I wouldn’t choose Summer.

No, I wouldn’t choose fall for Tanton to leave. Think of all he’ll miss: carving pumpkins, corn mazes, the beautiful colors of the trees, Thanksgiving, his birthday. No–I wouldn’t choose Fall.

Tanton did leave us on a cold, winter-like day–November 10, 2010.

I got to spend quite a bit of quality time with Tanton in the months before he left.  We even had a mother-son day 10 days ago and spent the day in Salt Lake together.  What a well prepared young man.  I am not worried about him not being able to take care of himself...he can cook for himself, he can do his laundry, he has been very independent for the last few years.  He has a great head on his shoulders, and most of all he is being watched over by his Heavenly Father. 

 

I thought I’d be an absolute wreck and would spend the next few weeks crying. I’m surprised at the peace and joy I feel. Yes–he’s missing out on all the fun winter activities we will be having. But–he’s spreading his wings and flying and there’s nowhere I’d rather him be.

 Be strong and brave and cheerful, my boy. 

God be with you ’til we meet again–in the Fall/Winter of 2012.

Family Pictures.... a very rare occasion!

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

The whole family

Tanton

AbbyJade

Tanton, Dylan, Tim holding Natalie, Melissa holding Sophie, Abby, Brad, Kelly, Trey, Krista, Doug holding Krew, Greg and Kristina

Tanton, Brad, Kelly and Abby

Melissa, Sophie, Dylan, Tim and Natalie

Krew, Doug, Trey and Krista

Greg and Kristina

Ready, Set....SMILE!

Wow! I know.

Kellee Smith took Greg and Kristina's wedding pictures. Later, she called me and said that she couldn't get Abby off her mind and wanted to photograph her and use her in some of her concept shoots that she has planned coming up.

Great!

We have some photos upstairs of Abby and Tanton that have not been changed out in 8 years, and I have really been wanting to get that done before Tanton leaves on his mission. So, we took about 45 minutes for a quick session and took some picture in a field just around the corner from our house. They turned out marvelous!

I love, love, love them!!

These are the ones that she put on her blog:

momentsbykellee.com

you can go there to see it. You can also go there and look at the whole session. Click on photo proof and the password is larson. I just ordered the pictures so she will be giving me a disc with the session on it.

Such talent...and beautiful models!

LaKe PoWelL JuNkiE!!

Oh Beautiful Lake Powell..... I am a total Lake Powell Junkie. Once the planning & packing are done and the food is bought it is Heaven for the rest of the week. This year we went quite late, The first week of September. Our summer was quite busy, one thing after another...and Tanton gave the ol' "you mean it will be 3 years that I will miss Lake Powell?" guilt trip (since he is leaving on his mission in November) -- so I got online and booked a houseboat for 5 days instead of our regular week. Then Tanton ended up only being able to come for 2 of the days!! Oh well, It all worked out in the end.

Brad, myself, Abby and her friend, Alexis, went down together. Tanton came down with his dad and Marnie for the first two days. It was great to have Sil and Marnie there. We are so blessed that we all get along as well as we do, Brad and I consider Sil and Marnie wonderful friends! Marnie brought her camera and took some ridiculously great pictures... which means that she is not in any of our pictures, bummer!

A couple of our other friends, Ken & Janae Lester came down with their boat and their 2 boys and 2 friends on Saturday and stayed until Monday evening. It was so much fun to have them there. It has been way too long since we have gotten together with Ken and Janae, they are wonderful friends, and we laughed a lot. We are so glad they came down.

Here is Abby, Alexis and the 4 boys that came with the Lesters. They are hiking up through Hole in the Rock.

Brad surfing, he did awesome! He dropped the rope and kept on surfing for quite a while!

Brad water skiing... of course, this is Marnie's photography!

Abby and her sunglasses, with Sil and Tanton in the reflection.

Abby water skiing, she just keeps getting better every year... little studette!

Abby even started catching some air when she crossed the wake while wake boarding. Looking good Bugs, soon you will be a professional. ;)

But tubing still remains the FAVORITE thing to do! At least these girls are young and flexible. I don't think my old body could take it for very long at all, but these kids can do it all day long!

Now here we go... I have become quite the woosy and I basically only like to water ski at Lake Powell now, where the water is super warm. Ohhhh, I used to ski anywhere on anything and those were the days!

Cousin "it" on Abby's head.

Tanton waterskiing, he only does this a couple times a year.

Tanton surfing, he could surf literally minutes at a time without holding on to the rope, it is super fun to watch. Too bad I can't figure out how to get myself up on the surf board!

And....Tanton wake boarding. Basically, he rocks at it. He landed a back flip a few times, then just played around a lot. He makes it look sooo easy it is sickening. But as I said, watch out Tanton, your little sis is gonna have 2 years on ya, eh.

All in all it was a great time. For a Lake Powell Junkie it really couldn't be bad... I just don't think we will go that late in the year again. The nights and mornings got a bit chilly (something we are not used to at Lake Powell for sure). We were bummed that more of our family could not be there, but the planning was not the best and it was thrown in last minute. But I tell you what ~ we will be there again next year for sure, once if not twice.

Better late than never?!? - Hilton Head

Finally! A family vacation, with ALL of us.... since Tanton is leaving to go on his mission soon, we thought it would be the perfect time to get everyone together, spend some quality family time, and get the much needed family picture taken.

Brad and I searched the internet and found this fabulous 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom home to rent on Hilton Head Island ~ which is just off the coast of South Carolina. The house was so nice and so perfect. One of the biggest "hits" of the house was the swimming pool out back.

The island was so beautiful and amazing. It was lush green with biking paths everywhere, we rented some bikes and took several bike rides. I do think, however, that we were there during the hottest week of the the summer. The heat and humidity were nothing like I have ever felt. I do admit that I loved it...but after a few weeks it would get old. That is how hot and humid it was.

We drove close to an hour away back to Savannah, Georgia to check out the city. It is an old city with much history. We foolishly decided to take the "Trolley Tour", which was interesting and we learned and saw quite a bit. But the heat about killed off everyone, especially the young kids.
Savannah's pebble street, down by the the river and near some quaint little shops.

The STEEP stairs, now those could be dangerous and break a hip or two!
Fun on the beach..

Abby and Sophie doing some tumbling moves
Tanton, Abby, Greg and Kristina
Tim and Melissa's familyAunt Abby and her shadow ~ little Miss Sophie
Doug and Krista's family
Greg & Tanton throwing, twisting and twirling Abby into the pool Abby, Trey and Sophie
Krista, Krew, Melissa and Dylan

The pool, so much fun and such a great time for the kids. It was great to be able to get everyone together for a week of hanging out. Sadly, the time goes by so fast and we are always busy doing so many things that we didn't even spend much time just sitting around catching up with one another. We did get our family photographs taken out on the beach by the ocean. A local photographer took them. We are still waiting for them to arrive... I will post them when they arrive. They turned out fantastic!!