President's Day Weekend 2026

 We decided to head up to Utah for the long weekend. Mariska met us in Salt Lake City and we spent the whole weekend as a family. Boy do I miss her!

We had an incredibly nice hotel room. Mariska asked if we could have a laid back weekend. It was really nice just spending time together.

We met up with the Jennings and Johnathan Wareham at Huhot Mongolian Grill. It is one of our favorite places to eat when visiting in Utah. I love seeing my sister and her family. 

We didn't tell anyone else that we were going to be in Utah. We were there for such a short time, I wanted to spend as much time with Mariska as we could and not split our time between lots of people. John found a vinyl record store near where we were staying. I will be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had looking through all the records. I did not think that I would have a good time doing that. I really can't wait to go to the record stores here in Vegas! 

Aurie and Austin have a huge chair that they call "The Throne." We had a lot of fun getting all three Johnathans to fit into it. 🤣

           

We spent the evenings at Aurie's house playing games and enjoying each others company. 

Before heading home, we met everyone at Top Golf. It has been years since I have hit a golf ball! I sure enjoyed it today! I think everyone enjoyed the time. It was nice enough weather. It was a little chilly, but they had heaters at each of the stations so we stayed warm. 

I hate saying goodbye to Mariska. It always makes me so sad. I can't wait to see her again. Not sure when that will be and that makes it a little harder. I am just glad that we had the time with her this weekend. 

Look who's driving...

On Friday, Jack asked if we could go out shopping for Golf Clubs. John told him that we could go look but we would not promise to buy anything. I changed that and said we wouldn't even consider buying any golf stuff until Jack passed his learners permit test. He has been putting it off for awhile now. Dude got up on Saturday, spent the morning studying and then took the test. He passed!! 🙌 Now we get to go look seriously at golf clubs...So glad he is onto the next step of learning to drive. 

 

We were HEART ATTACKED!!!

The sweet Young Women in our ward heart attacked our house this evening. They decorated the door and left us some yummy treats! I love our ward and how loved we feel here. 

 

Seahawks for the WIN!!!

We had such a fun time watching the Superbowl with our friends the Foster's and their family! What made it even better!? THE SEAHAWKS WON!!! The Seahawks beat the Patriots 29-13. It was a great season for the Seahawks but the playoffs had some nail biter games. I really do enjoy watching football especially when it is with my favorite person. Until next season Seattle!

 

 

Mourning Tucker

It has taken me awhile to be ready to write this post. I miss Tucker. There are days that I think he is still here. I'll be doing something and then it hits me that he isn't. I laid on the floor to stretch out my back and realized that Tucker would not be there to rest his head on my belly. Or get in my face. We always joked, "If it's on the ground, it belongs to the hound." This included people. It is the routine things that we did with Tucker that makes us miss him. I miss having him run and jump around my legs whenever I come home. I miss him running to the fridge whenever someone is getting ice. Tucker loved his cold treats! So many little things our sweet puppy did that just brought joy into our home. 

A friend of mine introduced us to a service that would take care of Tuckers remains. Wildwood Pet Cremation. They did an amazing job! They gave us prints of Tuckers paws and nose along with a swath of his hair. They delivered them when they delivered Tuckers ashes.

The box is beautiful! We plan to bury it in the backyard but have not been able to bring ourselves to do it yet. One other thing that we ordered from the service was a glass orb that will have some of Tuckers ashes swirled with other colored sand. We are going to create a shelf dedicated to Tucker. It will have the picture Jack made, the two from the service, the orb, his collar, his baby and one of his toys. 

The day we got the stuff from the service we also got a card in the mail from our Vet. It was hard to not cry reading what they wrote to us. 

Once we get Tuckers shelf completed, I will do one last post for Tucker. There are things I want to write about but I can't bring myself to do it yet. I start crying. It has been hard doing this post. Again, it is amazing how so completely wrapped around our hearts Tucker is. I wish everyone could experience the joy that we had with him.   

 

Happy 23rd Anniversary!

This year for our anniversary we actually got each other gifts! John got me the Lego Millennium Falcon and I got John a turntable and several vinyl records. We have already been listening to the records but we are going to hold off on putting the Falcon together until we have more room for it in the Star Wars room. 

I am so grateful for John. He is my best friend and I would not be who I am without him. He is the most incredible person and I am incredibly fortunate that he asked me to marry him. 

To the next 23 years!! 

 

Alphabet Date Letter B

 On Friday we had our B Alphabet date. We had company on this date. Two of our favorite people, Matt and Stephanie BROWN! We started the night with dinner at BJ'S. We enjoyed BRILLIANT conversation and filled our BELLIES with BURGERS, BREADED chicken and tacos.

After dinner we went to the Red Rock Lanes for Cosmic BOWLING. We had such a fun time! None of us are good BOWLERS... However you don't have to be good to have fun!

Stephanie BOWLING                        Chantalle BOWLING

John BOWLING                             Matt BOWLING

John won both games but he only BEAT me by two points on the second! After BOWLING, John and I went home and listened to our BOOK. It was the BEST way to finish off the evening!