Opa's 100th Birthday Party

Well, this is it.  I ended my trip with a bang! My last day of the vacation was spent at my uncle Jim's house celebrating my Opa's 100th birthday.  What a fantastic way to end a wonderful trip.  Spending time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins thinking and talking about someone we all love and miss so much.   I actually planned my trip so that I could stay for this party and I was so glad I did.  I got to see family I haven't seen for years!

My dad's dad- Opa.  He was a painter- here is his self portrait.  Pretty good Opa!  

Since Opa loved chocolate, we made all chocolate desserts! He would have been proud!

Those are Dutch flags proudly waving in a plethora of chocolate cake balls.  Chocolate cake dipped in chocolate, drizzled with chocolate, and sprinkled with chocolate.  Life doesn't get any better than this.  .  Both Opa's parents were Dutch- they came to America and he was born here.

YUMM

People mingling and eating in Jim's back yard. 

A lot of the adults.  I'm not going to even attempt to list all the names.

Nana, with the grandkids

Nana with Christina and Anthony

Nana with me and Gabe

Nana and Paul

Nana and Ellie

Nana and Kyle, I love her in this fun hat!

This is me with my cousin, Circe.  You have probably heard me mention her blog http://dopppartyofseven.blogspot.com/  It is one of my favorite blogs!  She updates it pretty much everyday so there is always something fun and witty to read.  You don't need to know her to enjoy her posts. If you have kids (or not) you will love her clever way of writing about raising a family. I have loved to get to know her and her family better through her blog! Our 2 babies were born very close together- Tziporah and Gabe.

This is me and my cousin Karen.  We were the closest growing up. 

Me and my sister Laura

My mom, me and my sisters.  I'm going to cry looking at these pictures I love my mom and sister so much.

My aunt and uncles had a little program and talked about Opa. I'm sure I would have really enjoyed listening to it.  If I hadn't been taking care of a very loud baby I would have listened.

We were all asked to write something we remember about Opa- Here is what I wrote:

When I think of Opa I think of someone who had a zest for life.  He was a character! He stood at least 6 feet tall- a big man-  and he often wore plaid pants and white patent leather shoes.  He would always let me climb all over him.  He was fun, artistic, and full of love for his family.  Going anywhere with Opa was always fun, because anytime we would go down a hill he would take his hands off the steering wheel, put them in the air and yell, "No breaks!! No breaks!! I have no breaks!!!"  letting the car go faster and faster and just when we thought we could crash for sure he would slam on the breaks and save the day.  I think he would drive down steep hills on purpose. 
 Typically we would spend every Sunday evening traveling to Opa and Nana's and seeing all of the cousins.  Nana would fix a wonderful dinner for the adults and all the grandkids would eat sugar cereal. I remember Opa would always push on the tops of our heads to keep us from growing up.  Opa loved to tease us grandkids.  One thing he loved to tease us about was snakes.  He had a tall woven basket, that was about  3 feet around and 5 feet tall.  He would tell us he had a giant snake that lived in it.  He would also tell us there were snakes that lived in his back yard under the deck.  I never knew what to believe with him! The only time I saw him serious was when he would talk about the Gospel.  He would often share his testimony and love of the gospel with us.  Opa was an artist and loved to paint.  He would let us go into his art studio and paint.  We had to be very respectful and careful with his paints.  I always loved to see what he was working on. 
The night Opa died I cried and cried.  It felt as if my heart had been shattered and would never heal.  I am sad that my husband never got to meet him in this life, but am so excited for him and my children to meet him in the next life.  He was a great man.  Since his passing I have felt him come be with me once.  I was going through some very hard times and sitting in a chair when I felt him come to sit by me, just to be with me through my trials.  I am sure he watches over all of us and helps us more than we know.  Opa was a great man!

Party of the year

We had so much fun partying at Gordon and Laura's house the first time we had to do it again!  Once again we had pizza's and Italian Soda's and an array of appetizers.  Laura and Gordon know how to throw a party!  OK, and have you ever played wii dance???  If not you are missing out!!  I hadn't played it before and we had a blast!  We got all the adults to dance, even my mom!  We were all laughing so hard! 

Here is my mom, Mike (Erica's Fiance) Erica, Anthony, Gordon, and Paul dancing up a revolution!

Me, Anthony, Christina and Stephanie dancing as witches to the Halloween song.

After all the adults had a turn we sat back and watched the kids have a great time. Kyle, Jacob, Ellie, Bridie, Stephanie and Paul. 

Their house is so fun- it is a party house!  If you can see in the back ground there is a Foosball table, a basket ball game, dart game, pool table, huge bean bags, and a wood burning stove to cozy up the place in the winter.

Ellie and James's bird.  Laura and Gordon have 7 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 7 chickens, 2 beehives, 1 bird and some fish.  Way to go you guys!!

Gordon holding Gabe for me while I packed up the car.  Thanks for being such a great host and hostess Laura and Gordon, your house is so fun!

House Crashing

One of my good friends from Rigby, Karen, let us come see her "new" old farm house.  Karen used to be my next door neighbor.  While we lived there she was looking for houses for her sister to buy.  They came across a cute little run down white farmhouse.  She told her sister they should buy it. She told me we should buy it.  Well, neither of us did so she and her husband bought it! I think it was meant to be. For about a year now they have been redoing room after room and just making it beautiful!  She is so talented and artistic.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but my camera battery died. Lets take a look.

Here we are in the front room.  Me, Karen and my good friend Any Dungan-Both women I admire and miss so much.  Karen is a very talented artist and author, to see more of her artwork check out her website at http://www.kisaacson.com/index.html  Amy has awesome 4 boys and teaches Zumba- her husband has invented a really cool ice fishing tool that you can check out here http://www.jawjackerfishing.com/  And if you can believe it- Karen recovered that awesome couch!

Side view of the front room.  She recovered that couch, 2 armchairs, and that footstool.  Talk about a good eye!

One of her themes in the house is peacocks and I love it!  She has beautiful colors everywhere. It was very inspiring to walk through her house and see her "no fear" attitude that flows beautifully!

Some really cool old piece, that of coarse, she got and refinished.  Love those dishes!

Little touches like the knobs and tassels add so much color and flair.

A fun piece in the kitchen.  Not sure the story on this piece, but I'm sure she got a steal on it and it probably looked like a piece of garbage before she worked her magic.

Her son, Sam's very cool  Midieval room.

Yes, she painted that tapestry on the wall.  He saved up for the suit of armor.

Every detail is so cool!

Down in the basement they have this really cool Theater room. LOVE IT!

Her daughters room- The Garden of Eden,  or maybe I just made that up.  But it fits.

And then my camera died.  It's ok Karen- I'm coming back in a year and a half and can't wait to see all the other things you have done! So far it is FANTASTIC!

Rigby!!

On my way home from the cabin, I stopped in Rigby, Idaho.  Darren and I lived in Rigby almost 7 years.  We loved it there.  The people there were just awesome.  I had a great time visiting.  I hadn't been back there for 2 1/2 years.  It felt just like home.  I spent 3 days going to BYUIdaho Education week with my friends.    You get to take nursing babies to classes there so it was just perfect.  My other kids got to play with their friends they have been missing for years.  It was so great to see everyone!

Jodi, Lisa and me!  I love these ladies!

Me and my dear friend Natalie.

Ellie and Kali- she has been talking about seeing Kali since we left.

Becca And Gabe

Chrissy, Me and Becca.  My favorite babysitters and friends! I love these girls!!

Ellie saying goodbye to her best friend Kali.

Ellie and her good friend Matthew

Isaac

Well, Hurricane Issac passed.  I must say it was about as disappointing as "The joy of owning your own business."  I've seen worse storms in Utah! For good or bad the storm moved out to the Gulf instead of up the coast like they thought.    Will there be more?  Will I get to experience a hurricane while we live here? Only time will tell.

Hurricane Isaac

I interrupt the current summer blogs to bring you updates about Hurricane Isaac.  So far, for us, it really just been like a typical rain storm.  Not really as much as I expected, but I think the worst is supposed to hit us in the middle of the night.  Isaac did get us out of church, we only had sacrament meeting today.  And schools are cancelled tomorrow.  But we are just hanging out at home- listening to the rain, making bread, and taking long naps.  It's really been a fun day:)

My cabin art

I thought I would show some of my art at the cabin for fun.  I forgot about a lot of my other paintings up there- this is about 1/2 my stuff.  I'll do it next year- or actually probably in 2 years. Anyways, here's a couple of pieces I did in High School.

This is actually one of my favorite paintings I have done.  It is me as a little girl in Cooke City holding a frog!  It is acrylic.  The assignment was to paint something in 1 hour without a paint brush.  So I did this with a  palette knife (kinda like a mini spatula) in about an hour and a half.  (it took me longer, what's new).  Anyways, I think it turned out great.  I think sometimes, doing things faster, and being less fearful makes for better art.    

It's kinda hard to see with the glass's reflection.

This is on paper called Scratch board.  Basically it is white paper they cover in black.  Then you take a sharp tool and scratch off the black to reveal the white underneath.  It's hard to see the details, but this piece took me FOREVER!!  It doesn't have a name, how about Pocahontas?

This is one of my pots, that was actually in the Springville Museum of Art.  This piece was hand built- not thrown on a wheel.  It's a long process.  I'll  let another website explain how it is done- "The artist generally rolls the clay into long thin rolls, then begins to "build" the piece by layering these rolls one on top of the other. This hand coiled method includes smoothing the coils by hand to the pottery's final shape. The artist then begins the arduous task of polishing the piece. This is accomplished by rubbing a smooth "polishing" stone over the piece over and over until the red clay shines. Finally, the piece is fired in an "oxygen reduction" firing process. During the firing, the artist smothers the fire with horse manure. The manure traps a thick, carbon rich smoke all around the piece. The carbon contained in the smoke fuses itself into the clay, turning it black. This black color can never be removed or washed off. The entire process is fraught with problems as about 3 of every 5 pieces actually emerge from the fire without damage."  In other words, this piece took me weeks- and I think it turned out beautiful. It actually won a Best of Show at my High School art show.

 

Another one of my pieces, also in the Springville Art Musuem. Built the same way- only instead of "burnishing" (rubbing it with a rock for 10 years) I painted it white and then painted over the white.    

This piece is a Batik.  Which means it is a piece of fabric that I dipped in different colors of dye.  It is really a fun thing to do, in fact maybe I should do one of these with my kids.

A close up

A little guy I also hand built and painted.