UPDATE

Wow! It has been forever since I've posted. I haven't forgotten about it just not being in the right mindset to sit and type. The Reese family has had an eventful few months. I will post some pictures later, but I thought I would tell you about in my own words. First off all of the snow is gone from our yard! YEAH! I thought it would be here until June but the last little bit melted from our yard last week.

In February we met our dear and wonderful friends, The Paynes in St. George and had a FABULOUS weekend playing and catching up. I miss you guys dearly and Sean is still insisting we come up and see you so I guess we're going to have too!

On March 8 Fred's mother, Nancy, passed away unexpectedly. It has been a very trying time for our family as we deal with her loss, but Sean told me after I told him Grandma Nancy went to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus that- It's OK mom don't be sad, she will live again. My testimony has grown so strong from this statement that yes she will live again and our family will be with her again. I LOVE Fred and he gave such a moving tribute to his mom at her funeral. He needs all of your extra prayers right now.

I got my letter from NAU for this next fall and I'm on the alternate list for the Dental Hygiene program. So remember me in prayers that someone will decide to not go to NAU and decide to go somewhere else so I can get in. I think I've been down on myself lately for not getting into the program, but my wonderful, supportive husband told me I did everything that I could. He's right I busted my bum for 2 years getting A's and B's and I feel like the letter said, Your good but not good enough! Oh well! I hope to hear in July whether I get in...

Sarah turned 13 on May 1st, that's right people, Fred and I are the parents of a teenager! SCARY! Good thing she's a good kid and we love her and I'm pretty sure she loves us too!

Sophie is still playing soccer, but we're taking the summer off. I'm proud of all she has accomplished playing soccer.

Sydney is starting to get the "reading thing" she has struggled with it, but we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sean is 5 and is excited for Kindergarten next year. All of my kids will be in school! How sweet is that!

I'll update more, Fred is yelling for me to come and help change out ceiling fan lights.

Lake Powell 2009

At the beginning of the month we were invited by the Controller of the Little America Hotel's to join his family on a house boat at Lake Powell. The answer was a no brainer except would my family be able to behave themselves so that Fred would still have a job and how was I going to contain Mr. Sean? We had a great time left on Thursday and came back Sunday. Lake Powell is 2 1/2 hours away from our house and it is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth. I think I've become spoiled because I don't know if I can ever go back now without being on a houseboat. Here are just some of the pictures...

Sean and Maxwell (Maxwell just turned 5 in August, yeah he was twice the size of Sean)

Sarah jumping off of the side.

The full moon coming up as the sun went down.

LOVE the hair!

Celebrated Sydney's 7th Birthday!

Sean's favorite place to be the HotTub (Doesn't it look inviting!)

The Family at Rainbow Bridge, very big and very beautiful!

Do you see the ranger? She is going to tell our group your to close to the bridge, some of the local tribes consider Rainbow Bridge sacred and you're NOT supposed to walk under it.

Meg, Cassie, and the guy we rescued! Sunday coming going back to the marina took us about 5 hours. The wind was awful and the lake had white peak waves (VERY choppy!) The guy was in a kayak and going nowhere, so we had him on aboard, he's from Montreal, I think he was amazed with all of the kids we had!

Sophie on the tube!


White men CAN jump!

L-R: Eric, Cassie, Porter, Bowen, Fred, Sean, Sarah, Meg, Mark, Maxwell, Sophie, Sydney, Elisa


We had a GREAT time and Fred still has a job so I guess we behaved!

The 4th of July

This year was pretty laid back. We watched the parade, saw a lot of interesting characters, but our favorite part was when the veterans and the active duty military men and women went by. What a blessing it is to live in a free country! Here are some of the highlights from the parade:

Hopi Dancers

Only YOU can prevent forest fires!

More Hopi People

Sophie's Club Soccer team

Darth Maul giving Sean a High Five

Darth Vader lives in Flagstaff and he has a gut!! (looks like he needs to get out and hike a little more)

We had a great day, BBQ with family, a very low key day, but ended it with a yummy patriotic dessert-raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream topped with blueberries.


PS- some you may be wondering why I have this song playing for 4th of July...funny story during the parade we heard this song and realized it was the Gay pride float, but the best part of it was the Christian church floats that were behind them. The old man driving the tractor didn't look to enthused about it. It made Fred and I laugh!!

Catching Up

I have to apologize to everyone, life has been pretty hectic around here. I finished the semester last week and hopefully I will end up with an A and two B's. (Rough Semester) December has been pretty busy for us and today it is snowing and I can't drive anywhere so I thought I would sit and blog.

THE POLAR EXPRESS

On Dec. 8 we had a group of 67 people take a ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express, it was great fun and we had a great time seeing our friends that came up from Tucson. I highly recommend this to everyone who has this program nearby. They read the book, serve hot chocolate and cookies, and Santa comes and gives all the little children bells to hear the Spirit of Christmas!! Enjoy the pictures!!!


Ford, Sydney, Sean, Fred and Sophie


The Cannon Family, Cory and Taylor Harding

The Bean Family and Richards Family


Elisa and the White's(Tim, Rebecca, and Jenna)

CRAZY kids and the Haymore Family

Santa passing out bells!!


Sean DID NOT want to go home!!!

Family Pictures

What a day! Tuesday was Fred's 40th b-day and I haven't blogged about it yet, but I'm getting there. I'm still trying to make a list, 40 thing is a lot to write about someone! I knew Fred was going to be getting off of work early so I went ahead and scheduled our family pictures for that evening. It was so cold--I mean really cold--the kids were complaining, Fred was complaining, can anything go right! Will these pictures even turn out! Wendy just dropped them off to me so take a look and see what you think! (I think the only one who enjoyed himself was our dog, Max!)


Wendy had to give Sean a sucker so that he would look at the camera!



Thank you Wendy for doing such a Beautiful Job--As Fred put it thanks for making us look good on such a crappy day!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

This is Helen Lucille Olsen Wright and today she turns 91 years young. She is an amazing women, she still goes to water aerobics, volunteers at the hospital and plays with her Bridge group weekly. I can only hope that I can still be going like that when I'm her age. I love that my children have been able to meet most of their great-grandparents, it's amazing having all four generations together.

Yesterday, we drove down to Mesa and had a big BBQ with my extended family of Aunts, Uncles and cousins and their kids. We had a great time and I love seeing and catching up with them. The kids had a great time swimming, we are almost out of swim season here in Flagstaff, but I don't know if one even started! The food was great and my Grandma was so excited to have so many people there to celebrate HER!

I love you Grams!

WhaT HaPPens in VeGas. . .

What does happen in Las Vegas? Apparently a lot when the Reese's are in town for 5 days. Fred had a conference in Vegas so we decided to take the kids on one last romp before school starts. We headed out last Friday, on I-40 and stopped at our favorite Route 66 dive The Snow Cap- they have great food and a fun atmosphere and of course, Sheriff from the Cars movie has retired there.



SATURDAY- We played with our friends, the Beans, apparently I didn't take any pictures at their house so you'll have to check out the Bean's blog! We had a great time catching up and enjoying each other's company. It was like we just moved away from each other yesterday! We also ran into our other Tucson friends, the Spalding's, they were lucky because they didn't have their kids. I kept telling Fred I wanted to go and watch Mamma Mia and kept singing the song-Sean picked it up and here is his rendidtion!!!



SUNDAY- YES-we were good and went to church with the Beans, with all of the sinning going on around us how could I not go to church! Fred and I had a dinner that night so I got to get all dressed up and we went to some "fancy" Wolfgang Puck restaurant and ate with some of the people that work at the Grand Hotel in SLC.



MONDAY-the Bean's came over and swam with us at our hotel, Mandalay Bay, we had a great time hanging out at the wave pool, the kiddie pool and the lazy river, OK to rent a tube there cost $20, now Sarah was the one who checked on the prices, so I can't verify the accuracy of what she was telling me, so we floated along the lazy river, actually it felt like a workout doing squat walks going around that thing a million times! (tiny exaggeration)



TUESDAY-We met the Beans and went shopping-let me just give you the equation and you can guess how it went- Two moms and EIGHT kids! Yeah that's what I thought! That night we went to the Shark Reef aquarium with Fred, it was fun, but jeez EXPENSIVE!! (am I sounding like a cheap skate-because I meant too!)



Video of the Shark Showcase, enjoy it so you don't have to spend thousands of dollars when you take your family there, just say we already saw it on Elisa's blog!


Then we took the kids to the M&M factory, more EXPENSIVE crap, so I let my kids get the $2 tube of mini M&M's. They were just excited to get their own M&M bag!



After the M&M factory, Fred had to go back to his closing reception, the Styx played and he caught a drumstick! So I decided to take the kids to see the Bellagio fountains play, I love them and I could sit and watch them forever! The kids loved them and had a great time watching them. Now I loved the Mandalay Bay, but Holy Crap that hotel is the last one on the Strip, so as were walking back to the hotel, I just kept telling the kids, just keep looking forward, don't look down, don't look around, just keep looking forward! I swear the next time I go back I'm not taking Kids! The NKOTB are playing Oct 11, anyone want to go! Loved them in HS!



The Bellagio Fountains!


So I didn't get to go to France for my Anniversary, but I did get to see the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, I bet it's even more grand in Paris and that's something I'm willing to BET on!