For the Longest Time...

It has been such a busy month that time has just flown by. I haven't had access to a computer for a while now either and I'm just getting back into the swing of things. I have had almost 3 weeks of vacation now. It's been wonderful. My first week was in Calgary with my mom. My sister was in from Seattle with her 3 boys and it is so much fun to have our kids play together. My girls and her boys all have a corresponding cousin that is no more than 3 months different in age. So they all have a blast. The first week we were at Gran's house (My mom) and we were getting things ready for my Grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary party in Lethbridge. My sister, Brittany also came up from Utah, so it was all six of us girls here in Calgary for a few days. It was so great to all be together. On Thursday night, Jarett came to Calgary and joined us and the next morning we headed down to Lethbridge. It was awesome.

Growing up, I was very close to my cousins. They were closer to what most peoples relationship with their siblings is. So to see all of my cousins again was so much fun. We were so sad that the cousins from Utah weren't able to make it, but we had 12/17 of the Grandchildren there and 19/21 of the Great Grandkids. We had a luncheon at my Aunt and Uncles house followed by a little program for my grandparents. The Great Grandkids sang to the tune of Book of Mormon stories. My mom had re-written the lyrics to tell the story of Gran and Grampa dating and getting married etc. Then the Grandkids sang about all the things Gran and Grampa do for us and in general that makes them so awesome to the tune of Beautiful Dreamer. This is an old song that Grampa played on the piano all the time. It's a song that I've been determined to learn so I could always hear it, so I had the opportunity for this. When my Grandparents heard these songs, they both started to cry and it was such an amazing experience. My Grampa turned to us and told us all "today I am the richest man in the world". It was so profound to me. It was a great reminder that the most important thing in the world is family. Nothing gives us more happiness or more joy than being around those that we love. My goal is to be like my grandparents one day and be able to look at my grandchildren and see them all happy and making the most of their lives. See them all married in the temple or working towards that and all doing good things. Can there be anything better in this life? Anyway, after this, Jarett closed the little program by singing "Always" by Irving Berlin. This was a song that was sung at my Grandparents wedding , but it was completely impromptu. The congregation stood up and sang it without any planning. It seems right out of the movies in my mind. This has become a special song in our family (obviously) and it was sung at my mom's wedding and at both my sister's and my wedding too.

Anyway, after going to church in their ward in Lethbridge, we took off to go camping for a week. We went down to Montana and tented (just a reminder that I'm in my last trimester) next to Flathead Lake. It was as relaxing as could be with 12 kids under 12. One day all the kids were watching a show and the moms (except me) were all gone shopping and I just layed down in a dingy on the beach and read a book for about an hour. It was heavenly. Anyway we had a whole lot of fun and it's always great to let the cousins play while the adults talk, right? The only problem was just how quickly the week went by. Anyway, now I'm back in Calgary and we're actually in the process of deciding when exactly I'm going to be back in Edmonton. It could be another week with the Mullen cousins or they might take off back to Seattle and then we'd come right home. Anyway, we shall see....

I'll post pictures later. I took over 500 and my computer is being retarded and so I haven't been able to take them off of the memory card yet. Thank heaven for sisters computers.....