Nickelback concert

On Friday, Jamie and I went to the Nickelback concert at the Izod Center in New Jersey. They had Saving Abel and Seether opening for them. It was awesome! It was my first rock concert and Jamie's millionth rock concert. We had general admission floor tickets so we were down on the floor by the stage. Chad Krueger, the lead singer of Nickelback had a great sense of humor and was very funny in between songs when he was talking. I also got to see the bass guitarist of Saving Abel up close because I took some guy's picture with him in it. It was a great concert! I want to go back to see them all again.

The troublesome threes

I am not very good at keeping up with this blog, but I try. I thought I would add a few pics I had of the kids. Oh and something funny that happened tonight was that Sam got a hold of some of his mom's wine and drunk it. So yeah he was pretty drunk!


Sammy and Lauren


Joey and Me


Sammy

I will miss you Grandpa!!!

(taken on my birthday May of 2008)


My grandpa (my mom's dad) returned home to heaven on Feb 6th 2009. I was not able to be there when he passed away but my grandma and mom were and they said it was a very special moment full of peace. They knew that grandpa was still close by. I was able to travel home to Utah for the funeral, which was held on February 14th, which was also grandpa's birthday and Valentine's day. It was so good to be able to see my family again and be there for grandma, but once I got there it really hit me that my grandpa was gone. It broke my heart. Grandpa had a beautiful funeral. So many people came to say their goodbyes and express their sympathy to the family. I got the opportunity to speak with my cousins, Chelsey and Tabatha, at the funeral and to share some of the grandkids memories. I also got to play the piano while the grandkids sang, "I am a Child of God", and "Families Can Be Together Forever". I was very nervous but it turned out not too bad. Mom gave the first talk during the funeral and did an amazing job. I was very proud of her. I am amazed at how strong my grandma is and how well she is holding on without her sweetheart. This is the first time she has been without him for almost 59 years. She is just amazing. And she is still thinking about everyone else before herself. I am very proud also at how well my mom is holding up. She takes after her mother and is strong just like grandma. I hope I can learn to be as strong as my mom and grandma one day. I hope that I one day have a relationship and marriage as strong and amazing as my grandparents marriage. They had the perfect marriage. They are both hard examples to live up too because they were as close to perfect as two people could get here on earth. My grandpa was the greatest guy. He was so unselfish, giving, kind, strong, very hardworker, and grew the best corn around. He used to love telling me stories about meeting my grandma and how important it is to not fight or be mad at one another in a marriage. He could never understand why people got married and then just fought all the time. He said you got married because you loved someone and you don't want to fight with someone you love. He also always told me to make sure I kept myself out of trouble and did what I was suppose to. He was just so great! It is so hard knowing he is gone and I won't be seeing him anytime soon. I am grateful for having had him in my life for 22 years though and learning as much as I did from him. I love you grandpa and miss you!!!


Jordan and I at Grandpa's viewing


Chayse and I at Grandpa's Viewing

Vermont

Jamie and I took a little trip for a few days up to Killington, Vermont. Vermont is known for the best skiing in the east coast and Jamie wanted to check it out. I was finally able to use my timeshare for the first time and we got to stay in a one bedroom suite that had a living room and kitchen and a gas fireplace. It took us 5 hours to get there from New Jersey. For most of the ride we were traveling in upstate New York. There was an outdoor heated swimming pool that felt so nice to relax in until you got out of it into the cold air. We arrived there on Sunday, the day of the superbowl. Jamie and I had to go to the store and get a bunch of food and goodies so we could have our own little superbowl party. The next day, Jamie went snowboarding. I choose not to go cuz it wasn't worth the money to me when I don't really care to snowboard. I had decided to just go do some exploring on my own. It was fun driving around Vermont. There are so many trees and mountains. Definitely not like the mountains in Utah though. Vermont mountains are more rounded and not as tall. But there are so many more trees out there than in Utah. While I was out exploring, I was very surprise to find out just how close New Hampshire was to where I was and then I was even more surprised to find out that my cousin Shaunie and her family lived just right there in NH where I was going. So I stopped by and saw them for awhile while Jamie snowboarded. At night time there wasn't too much to do in Killington. All the shops closed before 8 o clock. All that was open was a bunch of bars. Then that night both Jamie and I weren't feeling too good. We just stayed inside and chilled. Neither of us wanted to leave the next day, cuz it felt like we had just got there. We got up early and left though. After we had been on our way for like 15 mins I realized I forgot my bathing suit and so we had to drive back. And by the time I was able to get back inside the room the maid had already been in there and had taken my bathing suit to the lost and found. That wasted about 20 mins of our time because of my own stupidity lol. We did have lots of fun though, except neither of us felt very good because of the colds we had. Oh, and Jamie did say that the snowboarding is still better in Utah!

Home for the Holidays!

I was able to go home to Utah for the holidays from December 23rd to January 4th. I was so excited to come home and see everyone. I am glad I made it when I was suppose to. I almost missed my connecting flight in Phoenix because my plane was an hour late leaving Newark, New Jersey. But I did make it there after a very long flight. I couldn't believe my eyes on how tall Jordan had grown in just 4 months. I was in awe. Though I was upset to see so much snow in Utah. Seems like everywhere I go there is snow, snow, and more snow. I made sure we stopped at grandma and grandpa's house after the airport.





I had a great Christmas with my family. We went sledding on Christmas Eve with the whole family and it was so much fun to see Alexa and Chayse opening up their presents on Christmas morning. I stayed very busy while back there. I had lots of stuff to do before I left again for New Jersey. I got all of mom's pictures and music updated and organized on her computer. That only took a few days to accomplish lol!






My boyfriend Jamie flew into Utah a few days after Christmas to come meet my family and to see what Utah was all about. I was so excited for him to come. Jordan went down with me to the airport to pick him up. Jamie and I stayed very busy all week with my family. Just Jamie and I went snowmobiling. We went up in Logan canyon and up into Idaho. It was both our first time. It was a blast. I did manage to get the snowmobile stuck though because I drove it off the trails and the snow was very deep. Luckily there were a couple of guys that saw me get stuck and helped Jamie to free it. It took quite the effort to free it though. The snow only went up to like my knees. Sorry about that Jamie lol!




On New Years Eve, Jamie and I went to lunch with my family and then headed to Wendover, Nevada to spend the night. We had lots of fun hanging out and doing a little bit of gambling here and there. We had a really nice hotel room at the Montego Bay.




New Years Day we spent at Justin and Jenny's house (my brother). We had fun visiting and playing guitar hero and board games and eating. Later that evening, we went to a movie together.




On January 2nd, my brother Travis, Jamie, and I went up to Beaver Mountain to go snowboarding. None of us had been snowboarding in years. I was just a tad nervous. I have never been too good with the whole snowboarding thing. I went down the mountain three times and decided I was finished. I couldn't get the hang of it and I felt bad because Travis and Jamie were waiting so patiently for me and I felt like I was holding them up. Being not too smart, I decided to give skiing a try. I used to ski a long long time ago and I remember it as being a piece of cake. Lets just say it turned out to be a complete nightmare. It was awful. I couldn't stay up and every time I fell it killed. Travis and Jamie were so good with me. They stayed by my side the entire time. Finally I ended up walking down the mountain while Travis and Jamie each held one of my skies while they boarded down the mountain. It was very humilating for me. I chose to spend the rest of the afternoon in the lodge reading while the boys went up the mountain. Thanks Travis and Jamie for taking such good care of me. (Oh, and by the next morning I was so sore I could barely move!)

On Saturday, the family went to Hardware Ranch to show Jamie around before he left Utah. It was fun but cold. My toes went numb. Chayse loved it!!!



For the rest of the day, Jamie, my parents, and I went to Salt Lake to spend the evening with my grandparents. Then we had to get ready to wake up the next morning to go to the airport and fly back to New Jersey. It was very very hard to say bye to my family again. Definitely harder this last time than it was the first time I left.

Sunday, Jan 4th, the day Jamie and I went to the airport to fly back was the beginning of a very long, bad day. Our plane was an hour and a half late leaving the runaway so we ended up missing our connecting flight in Phoenix. Too make a long story short, we waited in USAirway's customer service line for over an hour and then we found out that we couldn't get a flight out till the next afternoon. They gave us a hotel room and one $10 meal voucher for each of us. They had already sent our luggage on without us and then wouldn't compensate us for having to buy new toiletries or any other meals that didn't get covered by the vouchers. What really made this day bad was I felt crappy all day and was starting to get sick. The good part of this story is that neither of us had ever been to Phoenix, Arizona before and now we got to check it out plus extend our vacation by one more day. That night we were able to go out a little on the town. Though I sure wish I would have felt better. The picture below was taken in front of our hotel room in Phoenix. The next day, Monday, we ended up making it back to New Jersey before midnight.



I had a very happy holiday with my family and Jamie. Lots of good memories were made. I was so glad to be able to go home for the holidays and that Jamie was able to come out to meet my family and let me show him around my home town. I miss you all very much!!! Can't wait to see you guys again.

Birthday Bash and Hanukkah Party

On Saturday December 13th, there was a big party at the house for the kids birthday and also to celebrate Hanukkah which starts this year on Dec 21st at sundown. It was crazy. There were so many people and presents. Sammy and I were very overwhelmed by it all. I don't believe I have seen a kid get so many presents as I saw these kids get. I guess it helps to know lots of wealthy people. Sammy refused to have anything to do with the party and spent half of the party outside and the other part hiding. Something interesting that happened during the party was when they lite a candle on the menorah. After they lite the candle they then sang a Jewish song. It was all so very overwhelming for me. And I sure had a mess to clean up after the kids at the party got done playing down in the play area!

PJ Party

Last Friday, the kids and I had a little PJ party. The kids put on their matching pj's and had their new fleece blankets with them that my mom and me had given them for their birthday (mom made them of course! They are adorable). I got lots of cute pics of the kids.