Missing Elder Hunt on His Birthday!!

Today is Elder Hunt’s (Dallin’s) 20^th birthday.  Since he is a few thousand miles away, and we won’t be able to celebrate with him in our usual way,  I headed down “Memory Lane” by going through some of his baby books.  Some sweet, poignant pictures…I finally had to put them away.  But I took pictures of some of the pictures, so here they are:

Dallin was born on June 28^th, 1993, weighing 8 lbs 13 oz. The very next day he came home from the hospital,  and wanted a picture taken with his best friend, Harrison Schram.  Harrison had been born not-quite 6 weeks earlier.  They were wondering WHAT they had gotten themselves into!!

12 year old Denzel took good care of baby Dallin!

At two years old, Dallin was very into all kinds of adventures…running in the driveway, wrapped in a large Halloween bouquet,

"Look!  I can fit in Hershey's kennel!!"

How about surprising Mom by climbing on top of the computer monitor without her knowing it...





Or jumping off the 4-drawer filing cabinet…

. . . with encouragement from the siblings . . .

. . . while Dad and Mom were gone to choir practice!!

He only missed landing on the pillows once, and it wasn't a REALLY big gash on his head that we saw when we came home. . .


























And then there was the time he accidentally broke Mother Goose . . .  my FAVORITE cookie jar!!

But when he ran out of steam, he ran out of steam!!

(Erika, do you think he may have been dreaming that in 17 years he would receive the best birthday surprise of his life through that same pantry door??)  

Now let me see. . . 

. . . there was the time that Dallin managed to convince Natalee to cut off his BRAND NEW pair of pants when he wanted shorts like his sister!  I wasn't very happy, but he liked his shorts!!

And he has always loved his sister(s)!!

(Too bad I ran out of steam to look for more pictures!)

And Dallin LOVED football!!  Dallin and Harrison wore their gear to Denzel's and Brandon's high school football games.  #4 was THE number!!

He loved helping his mom when she had foot surgery.  


And I managed to be there for many of his mishaps!!

In 2000, our family horse pack trip to the Dolores Mountains in Colorado was VERY memorable, but the fishing expedition was NOT Dallin's favorite.   He was SOOOO bugged that he didn't catch anything when everyone else did, AND that Brandon caught SIX fish!  He tried to smile for the picture anyway!  (I think I threatened him with walking back to camp. . . a two hour horse ride!)

July 2001

His baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was very important to him, and he was always so proud of his brothers, (his sisters, too, but I didn’t see many pictures with them!)

Well, I could go on and on, but I’d just work myself into an emotional hole, so I’ll just share a few more pictures…

When Dallin was young, he could really throw the royal tantrum.  As he grew out of that stage, he entered the “pout like a lout” phase.  One day I had had my fill and gave him an “academic” punishment…he could practice his penmanship while driving home a point:  He got to write it 25 times:  “I will not pout when I don’t like the way things go.”   He really hated that at the time, but he is a VERY positive young man, now!! 

And last week, in his letter home, Elder Hunt mentioned that the girl at Houlton Dairy Farms knows Elder Hunt's “the usual, please” means a hot fudge sundae with nuts on top, I saw this picture and thought, “Some things NEVER change!!”

Elder Hunt, you have such a special place in our hearts.  We love you SOOOOO very much!!  Hope your day was memorable!!

Love you forever,
Mom

INVESTMENTS. . .

Last weekend, Rod and I made a whirlwind trip to Mapleton, SLC, South Weber, Clinton, and back by Saturday night.  We spent Thursday night in Mapleton, picked up some work from Dan and Janet while we were enjoying their hospitality.  Friday morning we headed to South Jordan for Linda Hunt's wedding brunch, then we went to Lehi for a short visit with Shaun Tucker (giving him some of the poster pictures of Denzel that will be hung at Camp Williams), then went to the Draper Temple for Linda's sealing to Christian James McCarty.  Afterwards we went to the Utah Arts Festival in SLC for a couple of hours, then met Kristy and Chris for dinner at a new flatbread pizza place in Sugarhouse.  We said our good-byes, then drove to West Jordan for the wedding reception, where we got to visit with a lot of relatives we don't get to see much.  THEN we drove up to Brandon's and Tannya's for the night.  LOVE being greeted with "GRANDMA!!" and a big squeeze from Nikki!!

Saturday morning, after getting cleaned up, and spending some time with Nikki, I headed to my parents in Clinton, while Rod, Brandon and Nikki went to a parade.  (Tannya and Kate went to a friend's baptism.)  I spent the next couple of hours getting my mom showered, dressed, combed and make-up applied.  My dad used the spare time to run some errands and fix a sprinkler.  Then everyone came over to their house for a few minutes before Rod and I drove Grandfather and Grandmother to the McKay Dee Hospital.

But this wasn't a regular hospital visit, as they soon came to find out.  We walked in the main doors, and Rod moved a couple of large chairs over by the 9' Yamaha grand piano that is prominent in the large lobby.  The lobby is open all the way up the four stories, and sound from the piano can be heard one each floor.

After the chairs were in place, close to the keyboard, Rod and I helped seat my parents in the comfortable chairs, then I pulled out some of the music I had brought, and began to play for them.  After each piece I turned to see if they liked it, or remembered when I had played a particular piece as a teenager.  I knew my mom would enjoy my playing, but I was extremely touched by the tears I often saw in my father's eyes.

After nearly an hour of playing, I finished and said, "I hope it was a good investment of your money..." referring to the thousands of dollars my parents paid for pianos, lessons, music books, gas money and their time.  My father quietly said, "Oh yes, it was worth it."

POT LUCK!!

I've been feeling "a bit" stressed the last few weeks. It seems like 2 steps forward and 9 steps back...more and more things needing to be done, and fewer and fewer actually getting checked off the list. (Needless to say, riding horses is not a high priority right now.  Drat!!)  So, I'm doing a BRIEF catch up on the blog.  Hold on tight!!

We went to Veyo Pool  on June 8th  with the Colmenero clan to celebrate Bailee's  6th birthday and Kennedy's 3rd.  Fun times, except for sliding off a rock while looking for crawdads and bashing my toe!!  It STILL hurts!

We've also enjoyed fun times with Dezmond...he's a great piano teacher's aid (provides the distraction factor and how to ignore it!), but he doesn't do so well in the clean-up-the-mess department!!

On Father's Day I forgot to take pictures of our morning...but I made eggs, bacon, toast, and oj for Dad.  He loved everyone's cards and gifts...and he liked the two new camping chairs I gave him, along with the new book about the St. George Temple, "All That Was Promised" by Blaine Yorgason.  We went to Sean and Rochelle's ward with them (their first time attending their ward!), and had them over for dinner, along with Nat and RJ.  (Nat made a birthday cake for Kennedy since it was her actual birthday!  It was a darling cake!!)

Sean looks SO natural holding a little BOY!!  Dezmond loves Sean!!

 The full-time missionaries now live in our basement.  It has been enjoyable, but also difficult, to have them here:  The hard part is that everytime I see them, which is pretty often, it reminds me of Dallin...I mean Elder Hunt...and I don't like thinking about him ALL DAY LONG!!!  It makes me sad!!  I'm getting over it now, but it sure wasn't fun at first!!
Elder Fiefia is from Tonga, and Elder Rawlins is from Virginia.  They have been here for six weeks, and now Elder Fiefia has been transferred to Cedar City, and Elder Gregg (from Colorado) is companions with Elder Rawlins.

AND our garden is producing some amazing Armenian cucumbers. . . for which Amelia is extremely grateful!!  SHE is definitely the Queen of Armenian Cukes!!

 

PINE VALLEY PLUNGE!!

Another great day  horseback in Pine Valley!!

Erika came to St. George just in time for a ride in Pine Valley!!

Dezmond got to come along too!!

Erika's roommates loved riding with us!

Dezmond is Grandma's FAVORITE cowboy!!

Amelia is a darling cowgirl MOM!!

 And, of course, Erika and I HAD to test the water at the pond!!

"Watch, Dezmond!  It's FUN!!!"

The horses waited patiently for us!

Time to head home. . . 

Pine Valley with Sean Colmenero & Co.!

Nat, Rod and I took three of the horses to Pine Valley, and met Sean, Bailee, Kennedy, and Sean's mom and sister (Lisa and Nikki) at Wittwer's cabin to go riding.  We had a blast!!


Nat had to tune up Red Star, who thought it was okay to act like a brat (bucking, rearing, kicking!) just because she was in heat.

After that things settled down, even though Sean had to deal with Zoro acting very strangely the whole ride...we found out AFTER the fact that a piece of wire was poking him in the mouth each time Sean pulled on the reins.
Turns out Zoro was being EXTREMELY GOOD, given the circumstances!!  Sean just treated his tiny rearing, and pranci-ness like his motorcycle.  He'd just say, "BRAP!" each time, or "Brap-Brap-Brap!" or "BRRAAAAPPPPPP!" when it was a really good hop!!

        We went to our favorite spot, and enjoyed cooling off by jumping in the pond!!  Nat and I went first, Sean came next, and then Bailee got brave and jumped in a couple of times!!  It felt SO good!

   

    

It was fun to get to know Lisa and Nikki a bit, and have the little girls along, too!

Boy, when Kennedy falls asleep, she SLEEPS!!  Carrying her back from the pond, over the fence, getting on the horse, and riding back most of the way, she never stirred.

When Kenneday finally woke up she smiled and said, "Grandma Trice!  We're on a horse!"  I guess that would be strange, falling asleep by the pond, and waking up on a horse!