September 1913 - September 2012

Our family lost a sweet, sweet man this weekend.  Grandpa Ace passed away and my heart is sad this morning.  He is one of the greats--a quiet rock with a witty sense of humor.  He came into our family almost 23 years ago and has been every bit the perfect grandpa to us.

My favorite story about Grandpa Ace happened before he and my grandma were married.  I grabbed my grandma's autobiography this morning to read about their time together.  I was hoping the story was in there as I was pretty young when it happened and the details are unclear.  It's better in her words:

"Our family home evening group planned a vacation cruise to the Bahamas.  In the group (was)...Ace Hyer (a friend of Russell and Carols) from Ogden... I have hesitated to record this story, but Ashley, my granddaughter wants me to, so here goes.  ...We attended a special program, ate our fill of the delicious food and got to bed about 2 a.m.  Mary and I had decided we would not go to breakfast that morning.  I awoke about 6:30 a.m. to a telephone ring.

A male voice said, "This is your captain.  We have had some trouble during the night.  The ship hit an iceberg.  We want you on deck wearing your life jackets in ten minutes."

I said, "Is this serious?"

He said, "VERY SERIOUS!"

I hung up the phone, not realizing until that night that I didn't even get it back in place.  I told Mary what the captain had said.  She fell for it too.

She said, "My kids wanted me to come on this cruise.  They will be sorry now."

We both started to dress with thoughts going through our minds.  I thought, "I wouldn't think an iceberg could come this far, but then, maybe.  Should I take my money in my bra or leave it here?  We must not be too far from the Florida coast.  They should come to rescue us soon.  What should I wear to keep afloat - the best etc, etc."  I think I felt I was on the Titanic and in the water holding on to a plank or piece of wood.  We were almost dressed, but not in our life jackets yet, when a knock came at the door.  I answered it.  It was Marie Talbot.  I thought, she doesn't have her life jacket on!

She said, "Are you ready to go?"

I said, "Not quite, but aren't you afraid?"

"What of?"

 I told her and I can still her her say "Oh, Phooey!"

On our way to breakfast with the Talbots and the Williams we must have figured out who the "Captain" was.  He would rather remain anonymous.  He claims he never dreamed we would take it seriously.  He just wanted to wake us up for breakfast.  As we were eating breakfast I could see him at another table with others in our group.  His back was to me.  I picked up my large linen napkin, went behind him and put my napkin around his neck and pulled up on it.  The others at the table looked at me with surprised looks.  That's how Ace and I got better acquainted on that cruise.  The iceberg story gave us all many laughs then, and was the object of much kidding in the months to come...  I still haven't got even with Ace for that practical joke.  Maybe I did - I married him."

Of course, we all fell for him as well.  I can vividly see him leaning back in his chair, quietly chuckling to himself, as we would recount the story at dinner time and laugh and laugh at the idea of Grandma grabbing her valuables and life jacket and heading up on deck to check out the iceberg.  In the middle of the Bahamas.

I just adored this man.  I feel lucky we were able to share our lives with him.  My heart is with his children and grandchildren as well.  They were all so devoted and attentive to him.  Love you, Grandpa.  Ninety-nine years well spent!

Make a Good Impression!

 

 

Man, the camera loves that face!  Errr...I should keep the bragging to a minimum.  I imagine there are two people interested in hearing me go on and on about her.  Will try; this girl has been rockin' my socks lately!

 

So...first grade.  Her first day went well.  We pulled up and the sidewalk was lined with balloons and the kids walked up a red carpet with the paparazzi taking pictures as they went.  Her kindergarten teacher nominated her for a gifted & talented program and she and her best friend got in.  (Sidenote, I have issues with gifted and talented programs.  Especially in kindergarten.  You can tell at age 4 who's going to make it in life?!  A soapbox discussion for another day.)  But...the school is even further than the one I sent her to last year.  I hope we made the right choice for her.  We eventually found her classroom and she is sitting right next to her bestie--perfect! 

 

Some funny things about this week:

 

*We were snuggling in bed and chatting about the day.  She said, "You know, first grade is a lot more work.  *sigh*  It'll make my life better."

 

*Despite my hesitation, they persuaded me to place her in a more accelerated split 1st/2nd grade class.  I was chatting with her teacher about it and asked what we could be working on now, since she wasn't in the program last year.  Ms. D said the biggest thing she notices for kids coming in for the first time are issues with time and money.  I laughed and told her that it took me a LONG time to figure out the clock in elementary school.  Justin would say I still have issues.  She said, "For this week, just worry about the short hand.  So if it's pointing at the three..."  She paused and I said, "Oh, like 15 minutes...."  She said, "Ummm...no..., like 3 o'clock.  The short hand...is the hour hand." 

 

Oh.  My.  Word.  I laughed so hard right there; nice one, Mom.  Good luck, kid!  The odds may be stacked against you.

 

*I've been relinquishing control over her wardrobe big time this summer.  For her 3rd day of school, I casually asked if she wanted to wear this outfit (my favorite one!  the one she's wearing in the pics).  She said, "Yeah!  Mom, you pick the cutest clothes!"  Yesssss!!  I've found the secret weapon.  When she tried it on at the store, I could see her critically eyeing the detail around the neckline.  I interrupted her thoughts and said, "Oh...Abbey.  Aunt Allison would love that one."  Sold.

 

 

 

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Saturday night, as I was laying in bed I had that song, "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson stuck in my head.  It is Abbey's favorite song right now and I started laughing thinking about how bad she is at singing lyrics.  Justin said, "You know she gets that from you."  It's true.  I butcher songs.

He got excited and said, "I can't believe I forgot to show you this!" then went on to tell me about reading scriptures with the girls earlier that day.  They were talking about the Fourth Article of Faith (the 13 Articles of Faith are statements on our basic beliefs in the LDS church) that talks about our belief in baptism by immersion and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Justin showed me a picture:

 

He could not stop laughing and I had no clue where he was going with this.  But I always laugh anyway when he's laughing that hard!

 

Finally he explained that Abbey jumped up and said, "I can do that right now!  I can get the Holy Ghost right now!" 

 

She's laying on her pants.  For the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Back to the Beach - 2012

We made our third trip back to Lake Michigan a few weeks ago.  We have (obviously) really fallen in love with this little spot in the world.  And it worked out perfectly for Allison and Noah to fly out and join us (I'm always amazed when they are willing to use vacation time on us!!!)

The weather was cooler than it's been in the past so we took the chance to see more of the city and get in two trips to the blueberry patch.  Oh...those blueberries.  We actually stopped the last time on our way out of town, still sandy and wet from the beach, to pick another dozen pounds for the ride home.

(berry picking pics courtesy of allison's instagram--i need to get on board with that!)

(the rileys showing off noah's pie pick from the farmer's market)

 We had to reload on s'more supplies halfway through the week.  I don't think more than a night or two went by without a roast.

Once a week the town has street performers in the evening.  Two sweet teenagers were out on a side road with jump ropes, helping little ones learn to double dutch.  Abbey got some cheers when she figured it out and started doing twists when the jumping became too boring :)

Abbey jumped off the pier a few times (into frigid water!) Hayden would go into some zen state in the sand.  I got to run the half marathon route I'll be doing with some girlfriends in September.  Bennett got out of the funk he'd been in for a few weeks (I was eating my words when I told Al and Noah earlier in the week that he just wasn't that enjoyable right now :) )  And J is at his happiest whenever we avoid hanging around the house.

At the end of their stay, Al, Noah and I were able to go do a tour of the Big House (U of M's amazing football stadium).  Here is our team...minus Hayden...plus some random kid having a meltdown in the corner.  Where was my moody kid, you ask?

This is Hayden.  Yeah...go ahead.  Impress her.

Spoiler Alert

A long time ago, Kelly wrote on her blog about how her mom would randomly throw the kids in the car and let the car 'drive' wherever it wanted--which ended up taking them to get a treat.  I loved that idea and always wanted to make it a little tradition for my kids.

Last week, it crossed my mind while we ate dinner, and I thought it was a perfect night to do it.  I should have waited to tell them the plan until we were in the car...Abbey had too much time to think through it.

"You and Dad have to sit in the back with us, or I won't believe you!"  I told her we had to keep up appearances, otherwise other drivers would be worried.  "Fine!  Then you can't put your hands on the wheel!"  She perched on the edge of her seat to monitor Justin's hands.  I told her to relax, this was supposed to be fun, but she was getting progressively more agitated and sassy.  I could not stop laughing--but it was that exasperated laugh where I couldn't believe this was making her so mad.

Justin finally said, "Abbey!  It's not true, we just wanted to do something fun.  The car doesn't drive itself."

She was quiet for a second, then declared,  "It's a lie.  Hayden, do not believe them, this is all a lie."


There will be some serious backlash when she finds out about Santa...


Oh, this family of mine.  We tried to get an updated family picture a few weeks ago, and we did actually get a good one.  But these two are my favorite!!  Hayden cracks me up: 

The Lake, part three (july.2011)

Guess I should finish 'er up.  I'll just say it, catching up on posts a year late is lame.  But it is getting me excited for next week!  Which is hard to do these days--vacations are WORK now.

J read about a castle south of town so we set off one morning to find it.  We wandered into a national park for a few hours, then finally found what we were looking for.  Except it wasn't in a park, like we thought.  It was in a private {awesome} neighborhood.  The housing association turned it into a library and I was rather smitten with the whole area.  And who wouldn't be--as well as the castle library, the common grounds in the middle of the houses had clay tennis courts, beautiful lawns, an ice cream parlor and a private beach with this view:

The girls and I spent quite a while in here.  We weren't invited, but we never ran into anyone who told us to leave (or anyone at all for that matter), so...

Abbey just started getting interested in great literature. I would love a special place like this for her to escape to and read the afternoon away.  What a cool little find.

The Lake, part two (july.2011)

One thing we love about this vacation town is that you can bike almost anywhere you would want to go.  J would typically load up the bike trailer first thing in the morning with girls and toy necessities and I could meet up later with the baby and actual necessities.  But we hit a glitch.

  J was just getting home from a long shift the morning he wanted to leave.  I didn't think he would be up for hitting the road, but he was a man determined.  So I was packing inside and he set to figuring out the new bike rack.  Looking back, he said he glanced up at it and thought, 'That is pretty tall, I'll have to remember that if we go through any drive-thru's."  His next thought was, "Man, it is hot out here, I'm going to pull into the garage to load the luggage."  Wham!  It's hard to tell from the picture, but that bike rack is mangled!  Oh man, he spent so much time figuring that thing out with the sketchy instructions.  I climbed up to see the damage and was momentarily concerned about what appeared to be a lot of paint damage.  He laughed and laughed that I would think it was the rack that did it and not the fact that our van is SO old.  We sadly left the bikes behind but were glad to find our rental was equipped with an awesome girly, pre-teen ten speed.  It did the job!

We were pleasantly surprised to find everything we needed to build a fire and roast marshmallows.  Our own yard is pretty much useless, so I was sure to take advantage as much as we could this week.  Ahhh...the sticky goodness.

I forgot how red Bennett's hair was last year!  I totally thought I was going to get a little red headed boy. 

The new thing we discovered this year was the blueberry picking available. Berry picking and dining outside are in my top five of greatest pleasures in life.

love this face...

 

J didn't think there was any way we were going to get through the pounds and pounds of blueberries we picked.  But he was happy for Jen and I to return a few days later when we had finished off every last one of them.  So glad we did.  Picking along side her and chatting the time away is a very sweet memory of that trip.