Did I mention that our summer was hectic? It wasn’t bad, just BUSY. We didn’t get to the beach once. Within about 2 months we: drove to Fresno for Memorial Day weekend, explored King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park, got word Grandpa Finlayson passed away, went to his funeral in Cerritos, went to Rowan’s baby blessing in San Diego, made a day trip to Los Angeles to see Melanie go through the temple, drove to and camped in Yosemite for a week, flew to Alabama – then drove onto Atlanta for Jeff and Jamie’s wedding, drove to Utah for a week at Aspen Grove family camp, and then finally spent a long weekend in Alpine at my parents house and attended my niece’s wedding. We literally got back at 2 am on the first day of school – armed and ready with not much else for the boys besides a package of new socks and a package of new underwear. 🙂
Yeah, we do summer to the max around here.
Let’s just say by the time Aspen Grove was over – Brent and I were EXHAUSTED. We were traveled out, and me in my delicate state would’ve been happy to never make another road trip again. Or plane trip (I almost barfed there too.) Which is the only reason we turned down driving an extra 4 hours out to Rupert, Idaho with the rest of the Nef family to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nef’s farm for the weekend. We wanted to so badly…. But we just. couldn’t. do it.
Anyways. Here we go with just a bit of the blog worthy pictures and events…
Fresno and King’s Canyon
Brent grew up only about an hour or two away from some of the most beautiful places on earth: Yosemite, and King’s Canyon. He’s been telling me for the last 10 years that we need to go to King’s Canyon and see the giant sequoia’s. I was always like… meh. Well, over Memorial Day – we finally did. And I am SO GLAD. It was amazing! The kids thought it was one of the coolest places ever. Dennis and Susan packed us all a picnic, drove us up, and showed us the best time. There is a neat little hands on museum and of course CRAZY HUGE trees, gorgeous scenery, and fallen logs everywhere that about 50 people can climb through at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it. And while it was 85 degrees down in the valley, it was only 45 degrees up there. Which meant SNOW (cool!). Which also meant we were NOT prepared in our So. Cal. shorts and t-shirts. Thank goodness for Susan’s Halloween box where we found a few big old sweatshirts – hence the boys’ ill-fitting and awesome attire (note Danny’s decades old home-made skeleton sweater – ha). The kids were in heaven, and Lindsay rewarded Grandpa with her “My Most Favorite Person on Earth” award that day. Good times. More pictures here.
Grandpa Finlayson’s Funeral
After Grandpa’s sudden passing, the only thing to do was move on to the funeral and offer help wherever needed. It was a beautiful service. Grandpa was in the military at one time, so the highlight for me was hearing taps played as the soldiers folded up the American flag and presented it to Grandma at the cemetery. Such a nice tribute.
After the luncheon – all the immediate family went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house where we were happy to be together and remember the man we all loved so much. We re-watched the video I made for his 80th birthday last year and loved getting to see his smiling face again. All us girls raided the garage fridge and drank diet Coke’s in Grandpa’s honor. We knew he wouldn’t want them to go to waste. 🙂 The after party continued much later that night when a bunch of the sibs hit up In N’ Out – because it just didn’t seem right to let the day end without a visit there.
I hope our boys will keep some memories of their Great Grandpa. He was one in a million. Grandma was introducing Brent and I to her friends at the luncheon and told a story we had completely forgotten about. She said how Grandpa always remembered that when Brent called to tell them we were pregnant with our first baby (8 years ago!) which was their first great grandchild, Grandpa said to Brent “Well, I’m not ready to be a great grandpa.” And Brent said, “What do you mean Grandpa? You’ve been a great grandpa my whole life!!” So sweet. And so true! It warmed our hearts to know that he remembered and treasured that, and is now a story we will never forget.
Rowan’s (Greg and Ellen’s) baby blessing was the very next day. A little bitter sweet to celebrate a new life, as another has passed on. But a great opportunity for togetherness and for some much needed love and laughter.
So thankful to be a part of these forever families! Again, more pictures here.
Jeff and Jamie’s Wedding
Two days after we got home from Yosemite, Brent and I packed up and left all our kids with my parents for a RARE getaway. Which only happened because we couldn’t afford to fly all of us out for Jeff’s (Brent’s brother) wedding. So I went on my first airplane ride in about five years, where I had 5 hours of no whining, crying, tattling, or begging for food. And let me tell you, it was WEIRD! I felt a little lost, and honestly a little bored. Ha. Luckily I had a book that was SO GOOD (These Is My Words by Natalie Turner), which kept me entertained, and caught up on some much needed sleep. We flew to Birmingham, Alabama where we met up with one of my best friends from high school, Amanda Jergensen, and her husband for lunch. Then we rented a car and drove two hours to Atlanta, Georgia. Jeff married Jamie (who we LOVE and think is perfect for Jeff) on July 16th in the Atlanta temple. They made a good looking couple, had a beautiful reception, and are so much fun. It was a busy weekend that went much too quickly. Lots more pictures here. These were some of the highlights:
- free hotel breakfast
- getting a manicure and pedicure with all the girls the day before the wedding
- seeing Grandpa Nef do the sealing
- doing a flash mob to Jeff and Jamie’s “slow” dance. so fun! (see live video here)
- fitting about 15 Nefs and Finlaysons in the 2 man photo booth at the reception.
- decorating the getaway car with very limited resources and doing a really good job! think paper plates that spelled out Just Married. i swear, it was really cute!
- leaving an awesome gag gift on the seat of the car (which may or may not have involved giant superman undies…)
- ridiculous texts back and forth with Jeff and Jamie on their way to the hotel
- and the late night after party with all the Nef sibs. think Cheetos, popcorn, soda, M&M’s, oreos, and chocolate milk.
Oh and I almost forgot one of the best parts!! I visited the Vampire Diaries house while I was there. Yes home to Damon and Stefan, the two hottest vampires on the planet, and backdrop to my favorite show, is only 5 minutes from Jeff’s old house. He told us where it was and that if we were lucky the gates might be open… well, they were! SCORE. I went from 0 to giddy in approximately 1.2 seconds. As soon as you drive through the gates you feel like you are in another world, and IN the show. It is this huge gorgeous green estate and mansion. And sure enough – there were a bunch of crews there unloading sound equipment, cords, lights, scenery, etc. There were teams of guys walking around with ear pieces and walkie talkie’s. It was BEYOND COOL. The only thing that would’ve made it better was going inside the house or better yet, SEEING the people from the show. But honestly, I don’t think I could’ve handled that. I might have peed my pants from the absolute thrill…
Brent was the perfect loving/embarrassed husband who insisted I get out and take a picture, because if I didn’t, I would be sorry. So glad he did! Too bad we didn’t notice the No Trespassing sign until we were on our way OUT. Oops, my bad…. not.
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