Happy Anniversary to us!!

April 20, 1985. The day we were married in the Hawaii temple. Twenty-seven years ago. I won't go into any details about how happy Chris makes me. But he makes me very happy! He is the best husband ever. For me anyways! And that's all that matters!

This is what we look like now.....okay more wrinkles (me) and grey hair (him) but not too bad right?

This is the VERY first picture ever taken of us. Chris had come over to Hawaii 9 months after we had met. We were on our way to Bobby McGee's to go dancing. I still remember that night!

Our wedding day. I kind of wish we had a photographer or at least turned into the sun so you could see our eyes!  

I love this picture of us! We had been married for about a week. And I still have that beach towel by the way! 

This picture was taken about a month after we were married. Although I'm not sure exactly where we were but I think we were in Connecticut. We had driven down from Nova Scotia to pick up our stuff from David's house that we had sent there from Hawaii.


In between the "before" and "after" pictures there have been many moves, different jobs and 4 kids! So far.....so very good!!

Caleb's 20th Birthday

Caleb's birthday was on April 8 which happened to land on Easter Sunday this year. He chose to celebrate a few days later when he had time off from work. He wanted to got to Luigi's for dinner and then home for his cake so that's what we did! Lee Lee and Neal came for the celebration. I didn't get any pictures at Luigi's and the only pictures I got at home were these below. I missed him blowing out the candles on his cake! But these are pretty sweet because I was able to get a few of Caleb's famous smirks and a smile. One of my favorite things about my Caleb are his smiles. His whole face seems to light up. At least that's what I think! ;)

Happy Birthday Caleb. This year is going to be a great one for you....I just know it!
Love, mom

The Rest Of The Story ....

The fun continued after Lee Lee and I dropped Kelly off at her new life. We drove to St. George to see our father.

This is what awaited us there. He asked us what kind of pie we would like to have when we arrived so we chose German Chocolate. He is always so organized and loves to serve pie. If you visit him I guarantee he will have a slice of pie for you too!

The next morning Lee Lee and I went for a run and this is the view we had. The weather was perfect and the scenery was too! The St. George temple.

The next day we drove a short distance to Santa Clara and visited the Jacob Hamblin home. I just realized that in this picture you can't even see the home! Oh, well....that's where we were.

We then drove down the road to this monument for Fort Santa Clara. Jacob Hamblin along with my 3rd Great Uncle Ira Hatch were part of the 5 original missionaries who colonized the Santa Clara area. Kind of exciting isn't it?

This is a picture of Lee Lee and I when were about 3 years old. It was sitting on the book shelf face down in a pile of things so when I spotted it, I immediately put it on the mantel where is belongs. Right Daddy?

And here is a close up in case you wanted to see it. One of us has David's (our brother) raccoon hat on.

Now this is a great picture. Why you ask? Because daddy is holding the 2 original branding irons that he used to brand our cattle with back in the day. The brand is the letters MY (stands for Myron) with a bar (stands for Barbara) underneath the letters. We were able to bring those back up to Canada with us and we are very excited to have that bit of history with us.

This picture was taken on our way back to Provo where we stayed at Lee Lee's daughters place for 2 days before heading back to Salt Lake City. The scenery in southern Utah is so pretty. Just look at the colors!

While in Provo Lee Lee decided at the last minute to run a 5K. Her third one I might add. She rocks!

Here I am sitting in front of the new City Creek mall with the Salt Lake temple behind me.

While in Salt Lake we all met at the Blue Lemon for dinner. It's to the left of the picture above and right across from Desseret Books. In the picture you see Jordan (Michelle's fiance'), Michelle, Alyssa (Brad's gf), Brad, Clark, Kelly, me and Lee Lee. What a fun bunch.

Brad and Kelly. They are like bff's cousin style.

After dinner  4 of us walked around temple square. Kelly is so lucky to be living only 2 blocks away. She can enjoy it whenever she wants!

This is the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers museum. I have been wanting to go here for years so it was on my list of things to do this trip. This is also fairly close to Kelly's new place. Lucky girl.

Here is a picture of the Mormon Battalion Encampment. My 3rd Great Grandfather Orin Hatch is the middle standing gentleman on the right. You can see his name in the picture below. Kind of cool eh?

This is Porter Rockwell. You don't hear too much about this man in Mormon history but read the little story below. What a nice man!

Isn't that a neat little tid bit of information about who Porter Rockwell was?

This was taken on our last morning of fun in Great Falls, Montana on our way home. Look how messy her bed is! lol!

And look how neat and tidy my bed is! lol! We had such a good time on our trip. We did so many fun things, went to fun places and got to hang our with our father and our kids. Our trip lasted longer than planned which was super fine with Lee Lee and I. We ran into some storms on the way home so we had to stop and shop our way home. It was kind of fun ;).

Kelly's new adventure!

For quite awhile now Kelly has wanted to live on her own, in her own place and in a big city. She saved her money, found a place to live and even had a job interview all set up for the new Nordstrom store that was set to open the following week in downtown Salt Lake City (City Creek). That's what I call determined! On March 12  Lee Lee was kind enough to join us on our trip down and after we got Kelly all settled in we left for more adventures of our own!

Kelly had been packing days in advance and just kept adding to her pile. I did not think for one minute that everything she wanted to take with her would fit in to our car but she made that happen too!

One thing I LOVE about Utah are thier wide streets. They rock! With all the wide open space in Canada I'm not sure why the streets are so narrow here. I guess Brigham Young should have settled Canada too because he knew what he was doing!

Here is Kelly right after she got her keys to her new studio apartment. Look at the expression on her face! (You will have to click on the photo to see her sweet smile!)

As she was walking to her new place, Lee Lee and I drove to the front of the building so we could begin to unload her things.

This is the front of her new place. It's called The Covey apartments and they were built in 1909 I believe. It's a very charming building!

This is the entrance inside. Is this not so cool? You can just imagine back in the day what it may have been like. The elevator is on the left of the hallway and it's the type where you open a door and then slide the elevator door open your self.

This is Kelly's place! (after she unpacked of course) Original hardwood floors and a Murphey bed to boot! I'm not sure what kind of wood is on the back wall of the bed but it's very nice and rich. Probably original too.

Here is her cute perfect little kitchen. She even has a window in it which is great for a small space. Oh, and an ironing board that comes out from the wall.

This is what you see when you walk out of her apartment building and look to the right. Kelly is 2 blocks from temple square.

She see's this everyday and.....

....she walks by this everyday. Can life be any better for her right now?

This is the employee's entrance to Nordstrom. Kelly has just walked in for her interview. Yes, that's Lee Lee pointing the way.

Lee Lee and I decided to wait for Kelly in  Desseret Books during her interview. Here she is after her interview telling us all about it.
They told her that they would phone the next day to let her know. They called her that evening at 5pm and offered her the Hostess job at Sixth and Pine! She started the very next day and has been working full time ever since!

Days before the store was set to open, Lee Lee and I were invited to eat at Sixth and Pine so the employees could do some training. The food was really good, they poured us fresh lemonade the whole time and the entire meal was on the house! Thank you Nordstrom!

Here is my Kelly doing her thing at Sixth and Pine on opening day. Her cousin Clark was there and took this cute picture of her. He too lives in SLC and lives mere blocks from Kelly. Isn't life sweet?

Our 2011 Christmas

Our Christmas begins with the greatest decoration suggestion of all time. At least for me that is. Look closely and you will see what I mean! Who knows what the garland will look like next year but it doesnt't matter. I will worry about that later!

Every year as far back as we can all remember, we have always had finger foods for our Christmas Eve dinner (although this year we had our dinner the day before Christmas Eve). It's always a favorite! Here is Chris making Jalapeno Poppers from PW's (Pioneer Woman) cookbook. They turned out spectacular!

Here is our spread. We also made stuffed mushroom caps, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, barbequed beef tenderloin and then had our usual crackers, meat, cheeses, shrimp, vegertables and a fun drink. The last few years we have had coca cola in ornament shaped bottles.

On Christmas Eve we drove to Lee lee's house for a Ham dinner and games. This round of the game "Pounce" was for mothers and sons.

Chris lounging......that's part of Christmas isn't it? It sure is! Actually if truth be told......he had just woken up from a little snooze.

For dessert Lee Lee had made chocolate haupia pie. It never disappoints! See that fork? That's a fork from waaayyyyyyy back. Like forever! I love a good memory!

This is Christmas morning. Every year we wake the kids up and they have to wait for everyone else to be ready before we let them downstairs to see what Santa brought. This is typical Caleb. Not quite ready for the festivities but always has his duvet with him.

This is the very first gift we opened this year. It was the gift from Sean and his girlfriend Andrea. They had made 3 types of seasoned nuts and they were delicious!

Caleb opening up the gift from the Cahoon's. They gave us jars of Lee Lee's homemade Utah peaches and salsa. Talk about more delicious!

Kelly gave me this infinity scarf!

Caleb gave me this book!

Chris gave me these boots!

And here are our cinnamon rolls! This goes back even further than that fork you saw in the above picture. This tradition goes back generations. The recipe may change from year to year but Cinnamon Rolls Christmas morning doesn't! I don't dare not make them.

Since moving here to Southern Alberta we have started another tradition.  We drive down to Great Falls, Montana on Boxing Day to go shopping. We give the kids a chunk of U.S. money and they get to spend it however they want! This year sadly it was only Seth who was able to come but we managed to have a great time anyway. The reason for this not so Christmasy  picture is to show that the Coutts border actually had 3 lines open for us Canadians crossing the border. They usually only have one line open and you have to wait for a long time!!

We went to Cafe Rio for the first time and it was pretty darn good!

Seth had bought himself a nice sweater at Ross. He looks very sharp with his new hat and new glasses don't ya think?

After a day shopping we ate at this Asian Noodle Bowl place down the road from our hotel.

The next day before heading home we stopped at Sonic for lunch which like Cafe Rio we had never eaten there before either. Thier milkshakes were unbelievable. The creamiest one I have ever had!

And.....well.....after all that yummy food we had in Great Falls and all the yummy chocolate I got for Christmas this is what I will be doing for awhile.

But how can you say "no" to this right? Santa brings this box of chocolates to our family every year.


We had a great Christmas and missed only one thing. Sean. Hopefully next year will be different because it's been 4 too many years without him!