In Loving Memory

It was a year ago today that I received the devastating news that a dear friend of mine had died.

We'd been friends for over a decade, and over the course of a dozen years we saw each other through many ups and downs, good times and bad, laughter and tears.

We met while working together during high school and each watched as the other graduated (him first, me a year later), transitioned into adulthood, made good and bad choices, worked various jobs, got married, and embarked on parenthood.

I saw him - for what would be the last time - two days prior to his death, which was a cherished blessing (though in some ways a curse). I assumed he'd always be around.

I miss him.

In Loving Memory
Jeremiah Rey Black
1978 - 2007

Getting to know you...

Got this in an email and thought I'd post my answers here instead of forwarding it.

1. What time did you get up this morning? about 8:30
2. Diamonds or pearls? diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Dark Knight
4. What is your favorite TV show? currently it is The Next Food Network Star
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? instant oatmeal or chocolate malt-o-meal (it's really good!) with toast, or yogurt
6. What is your middle name? Ann
7. What food do you dislike? That's hard because I love food! Ummm..... beets, I guess.
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Wicked and Daughtry
9. What kind of car do you drive? Honda Odyssey
10. What is your favorite sandwich? Ham and Swiss
11. What characteristic do you despise? being two-faced and insincere
12. Favorite item of clothing? Shades shirts
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Italy
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Gap. I'm a longtime fan of their jeans, especially. Plus, I love the fact that they have tall sizes, including shirts, pants, swimsuits, jackets - everything!
15. Where would you retire to? the dream home we are building
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Jeremiah sees to it that they are all great (and involve lots of good food)!
17. Favorite sport to watch? Jazz Basketball
18. When is your birthday? October 12th
19. Are you a morning person or a night person? more night than morning
20. What is your shoe size? 10
21. Do you have any pets? Yes, our snake, Houdini. Also, Carolyn currently has some caterpillars that will be metamorphosing into butterflies in a week or so. And we will be inheriting two bunny rabbits when my sister leaves for college next month. Oh, and Carolyn is begging us to let her get some baby chicks to raise (she plans for them to live in her grandma's hen house once they are big enough).
22. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Um... the new house is getting it's exterior put on!
23. What did you want to be when you were little? a model or a lawyer
24. How are you today? great so far
25. What is your favorite candy? Almond Joy. Jeremiah has also converted me to Score.
26. What is your favorite flower? Calla Lily
27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? August 14th because it's my 10th wedding anniversary!
28. What is your full name? Kathryn Ann Hansen
29. What are you listening to right now? my three children playing
30. What was the last thing you ate? homemade mac and cheese
31. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? navy blue
32. How is the weather right now? 90 degrees, blue sky
33. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Jeremiah
34. Favorite soft drink? I guess it's Sprite, but water is my favorite drink (though I am a water snob and don't drink it from the tap - it's gotta be filtered).
35. Favorite restaurant? Lately it's Texas Roadhouse, but I also love CPK, Chili's, Red Robin, and many others! I love good food!
36. Real hair color? dark brown
37. What was your favorite toy as a child? roller skates
38. Summer or winter? summer
39. Hugs or kisses? hugs
40. Chocolate or Vanilla? both - together, if possible
41. Coffee or tea? LOVE coffee, but don't drink it.
42. When was the last time you cried? yesterday
43. What is under your bed? Not sure. Monsters?
44. What did you do last night? took the kids to a fun spray park near our home
45. What are you afraid of? dying young
46. Salty or sweet? Depends on what specifically we're talking about. There's plenty of both I like!
47. How many keys on your key ring? six - Odyssey, 4Runner, mailbox, house, other house, other house.
48. How many years at your current job? 6 years as a domestic goddess/SAHM
49. Favorite day of the week? Friday
50. How many towns have you lived in? seven
51. Do you make friends easily? no
52. Dream place to live if you had plenty of money? I'd definitely love a vacation home in Kauai.

2008 Beach Bash Reunion

After Disneyland, we continued on to the real reason for the trip - my family reunion. We began these reunions with my dad's side of the family back in 1990, and they've been held every two years ever since! We see most of the family members many times between reunions, but with the family scattered throughout Utah, Idaho, and California, it is nice to have a dedicated block of time for the entire clan to congregate and enjoy being all together.

We stayed at an awesome group campsite located on a bluff
overlooking the ocean. The views from our camp were amazing! There was a paved (but very steep - quite a workout, especially coming back up) trail that led to a great beach, and it was only
about a five minute walk from our camp site to the beach. There was a huge crane directly in front of us out on the water. Each day several tug boats would haul out barges holding INSANE amounts of rock to be used in building the man-made reef they are putting in. It was so interesting to watch. Also, we were excited to see dolphins in the water each day!

We ate great food, played lots of games, relaxed, and visited. We had an auction, a talent show, and beach olympics, plus crafts for the kids. After the kids were in bed each night, the adults congregated around the campfire to converse, debate, and discuss a wide variety of topics at length. One night we told ghost stories and we all got really freaked out. I was afraid to walk to the bathroom alone, so my cousin and his wife had to escort me (Jeremiah had already gone to bed). The next morning several people said they had hardly slept because they were so scared, and one cousin even left her flashlight on inside her tent the whole night! I haven't gotten that spooked in quite a while.


We spent a good chunk of each
day at the beach. Jeremiah spent most of that time boogie boarding, which is a favorite activity of his. He rode in wave after wave for hours at a time.





Carolyn dug for sand crabs, which she found in abundance. At one point she and the other kids had a whole bucket full (which were later released)! She also had a lot of fun all week with my cousin's son, who is her age.



Kylie enjoyed playing at the
water's edge and running from the waves. She also gave boogie boarding a try. One day she took a nice little nap on the beach. That's the life!





Isaiah ventured into the water a bit, but mostly he played in the sand or snacked while he watched everything going on around him.




It was a very fun trip! I was sad to see it end and am already looking forward to the next one.

Me and my cousin, Scotty

Disneyland

We are back from our SoCal vacation and had a fabulous time!

First, we played for two wonderful, exhausting days at Disneyland and California Adventure. My sisters, brother, and nephews were also there, so it was truly a family affair.

Our motel was just down the street from the park entrance, so we walked there and back each day. I loved not having to hassle with parking or shuttles, which is what we have generally done in the past.

Kylie had specifically mentioned wanting to meet Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland this year (she's met many characters during past visits, but never Buzz), so he was one of the characters I had hoped to run across. Almost immediately on the first morning we saw him, but Kylie was very nervous and ran away from him when I tried to get a picture of the three kids with Buzz. I tried one with just Carolyn and Isaiah, but as soon as I got near Buzz Isaiah leaned as far away from Buzz as possible and burst into tears! So in the end Carolyn was the only one who actually enjoyed meeting Buzz. In fact, from then on Kylie wanted nothing to do with ANY characters (except princesses, of course).

Carolyn loves the "thrill" rides, and Hollywood Tower of Terror has been one of her very favorites ever since she was tall enough to go on it. Here she is proudly pointing to her "I Survived the Tower of Terror" t-shirt outside of the ride. Kylie really wanted to try it this year. I had been pleasantly surprised at how much she liked Space Mountain, so I thought we would give it a try. She didn't cry, but I looked over at her during the ride, and her expression was one of sheer terror. Just as the ride was dropping for the last time, she looked over at Jeremiah and whimpered, "Daddy, I'm scared!" Thankfully, the ride was coming to a stop at that point, so the problem was solved. As we left that ride she told us she did not want to go back on it any more. Carolyn, however, went several more times.

We really enjoyed the Pixar Play parade in California Adventure. Disney always does an awesome job on their parades. Here are Carolyn, her cousin Ammon, and Kylie enjoying the parade together.



Toy Story is a new ride in California Adventure. The line for it was about a half hour, and as we waited my sister and I questioned whether the ride could possibly be worth the wait. (This is the first time we have gone during the summer in many, many years - we always go in the off season - but we were spoiled by generally short lines this trip despite the peak season.) We both agreed the ride would surely not be worth standing in this long line for, but we all LOVED it and went several more times, sometimes willingly waiting even longer than we had the first time. It is SO fun for all ages.


Jeremiah and Isaiah are such good buds! Here they are playing around together as we waited in line for Toy Story.



Kylie has always loved the rides like King Arthur's Carousel, Dumbo, Tea Cups, etc. Pretty much the things you would find in Fantasy Land. This was the first year she was big enough to do the mountains - Matterhorn, Splash, Big Thunder, and Space. Knowing the mild types of rides she has always loved, I was hesitant to take her on these wilder rides. It turns out there is a thrill-seeker somewhere deep down in her. As I mentioned, she hated Tower of Terror, but she LOVED all the others. The worst thing about any of them was the characters in Splash Mountain. They freaked her out, and she kept asking if they were real, if they could walk, etc. But the actual rides were a blast for her!

At the conclusion of two long and fun-filled days, this is what the kids did as we drove away!

It was so much fun! Sometimes I think I have had enough Disney for a while and won't go back for several years. But even as we were leaving this time, we were all talking about things we hadn't done or what we wished we could have done more of.

Vacation

We left yesterday afternoon for an 8-night trip. We went as far as St. George, then stopped at our condo there for the night. We had tons of fun playing in the pool, got a good night's rest, then headed for Anaheim, which is where we are now.

We will play at Disneyland and C.A. for a few days, then head to the beach for my family reunion. When that ends this weekend, we will stay a night in Vegas or St. George on the way home, then get back Sunday evening.

Hot tip: Never (and I mean NEVER) drive the stretch from Las Vegas into California at the end of a holiday weekend....

Oquirrh Park Pool

My cousin Paige invited me and my kids, as well as my sister-in-law and niece, to join her for an afternoon of fun at an amazing outdoor pool complex in Kearns.

I thought I had seen it all - I have taken my kids to some pretty great pools and rec centers. But this one was the best yet! And it didn't take long to get there, either, as I had feared it would when I heard it was in Kearns (it's in the same complex as the olympic oval). I picked up my sister-in-law on the way AND got lost getting there (missed my exit off Bangerter), but I still made it in under 30 minutes from when I left my house.

The kids had a blast. There
were several pools for kids, with various play structures and slides in them. The girls are such good little swimmers and spent a lot of time in the "deep end" (4 1/2 feet) of one of the children's pools.

Isaiah thinks he can swim unassisted, and he tries in vain to get me to release my hold on him. It's exhausting for me to have him constantly squirming and trying to wriggle out of my arms, but he has so much fun it is worth it!

Kylie and Carolyn were good little helpers to Isaiah. They really take great care of him and love to make him happy.

When Carolyn took Isaiah on the slide, first he was stunned by the water in his face, but then he could not stop laughing! It was hilarious! He was eager to go again.

Do you remember when....

Here is a fun little game I saw on a friends blog.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.