I Have a Secret.....

Alina: Papa I have a secret for you.

Papa: Okay

Alina whispers: I love Grandma.

And then she made a smirk like this....

Alina Mae our little teaser.

July 22, 2000

Yesterday was our 8 year anniversary. We had big plans this year of going to Park City and riding the bobsled, alpine slide, and zip line at the Olympic Park and staying overnight without any children, but we decided not to. We went to Park City and Idaho one weekend after the other, so we decided to do a boring date and go to dinner and a movie. We went to Chili's and ate without any children thanks to my neighbor Becki for watching them, and then headed off to see the new Batman movie. To our utter disappointment it was sold out. We drove to another theater to find the same disappointment. We were a little bummed but decided to go rent a movie and get some ice cream and go home. It was so nice just to be without kids for awhile.


Cam and I met at Utah State. My roommate Ashlee was actually in love with him. She met him at a dance and invited him over the next day for dinner. My other roommate Jenalee and I were not informed of him coming over. There was a fireside that night so we decided to get all beautiful for the night and I had a green face mask on with sponge curlers and walked into our kitchen to discover him sitting on our couch. It was love at first site for Cameron;). Luckily I wasn't embarrassed and told him that was how I always looked and he took it in good humor. He started hanging out with us and we were all good friends. My roommates (all of them) had little crushes on him and I just wouldn't allow myself to like him at first because I didn't want to cause problems. We didn't start dating until a month before school got out. It was really hard to say goodbye to him because he went to Idaho and I went to Riverton Utah.

Cameron did get to come and see me once in the summer. My parents had him stay upstairs and I was all the way in the basement. The next morning he came down to talk to me and my little brother walks in with a sign around his neck that said "chaperone." He said, "Dad says I have to stay down here and watch you and I don't know what this sign is for." He was only 11 years old, my dad's pretty clever.

I didn't get to see Cameron again until his farewell, he was called to serve in the Uruguay Montevideo mission. My old roomie Jen went with me and our bus ride there is another story. We awkwardly sat next to his highschool girlfriend at the farewell and I felt her staring at me the whole time. Cameron did a great job on his talk though, I can't say I remember it, I just remember being impressed.

The last time I saw Cameron for 2 years was at the airport and I brought my mom with me. It was good to see him, but also very hard. His family was there and I didn't want to get in the way, but I did want to say goodbye and I was glad I went.

We wrote each other faithfully every week for 2 years. I dated while he was gone and actually had a proposal, but I knew in my heart Cameron was the only one for me. I was worried about the distance when he got home though, being in different states doesn't make for an easy romance.

When he got home I was working at a place called Rockwell Automation and I was the only female. They took great pleasure in teasing me about Cameron coming home. I went shopping to pick out the perfect outfit and according to my boss I was useless the whole week because I was so excited and nervous. I took Liz Floyd with me to the airport because I didn't feel right about being by myself and I'm glad she came. Cam was the last one off the plane and he looked so good, I could hardly believe that those 2 years were over. His family was there and whisked him off to Idaho. It was hard to say goodbye again. When I got back to work my boss called me in his office and made me give him all the juicy details and then politely asked me if I would be able to get some work done now.

We immediately picked up where we left off, but it had to be over the phone. We called each other as much as possible and got to see each other at Christmas. Then March 10th Cameron came to see me. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. He was supposed to be there around 5pm and he wasn't, I started getting nervous and being the silly girl that I was I started thinking he didn't want to come after all. Around 7pm he finally made it and I found out he got lost and that was why he was so late, I worried for nothing! I felt silly because I was actually in my room crying when he got there.

Cameron had the night all planned and we immediately left. He took me the Fun Dome where we played laser tag, games, and rides. As we were leaving Cam went and cashed his tickets in for a prize and we walked back to the car. When we got in the car he turned to me with a pink plastic ring from his ticket winnings and proposed. I was not expecting it at all and was totally taken off guard, but I said yes, I didn't even have to think about it.

We went back and told my parents and they didn't believe us, it took awhile to convince them but they couldn't have been happier for us. We went to a party for my work the next night and told them and they didn't believe us either. I was so excited I could hardly stand it!!

We planned the wedding apart until Cameron moved into our first apartment in June. We were married on July 22, 2000. I did my endowment session the night before on my dad's birthday. It was an extremely hot day and the temple was under construction but I was so happy I didn't even care. Our reception was at a church in Riverton and we had fun dancing at the end.

On our way to the Grand America that night we got stuck waiting for a train for 45 min. Needless to say we were a little discourage. The next night we went to our apartment and then left for Christmas Meadows Utah to stay in a cabin. It was so fun to go 4-wheeling, cook together, swim and fish, it was the perfect honeymoon.

I feel so lucky to have Cameron in my life, he truly is my best friend. He steadies me, comforts me, and always lets me know how much he loves me. We call each other every day and miss each other every day. My favorite thing in the world is just simply being with him and our 3 children, that's all I need for true happiness. I love you Cameron.

My 6 year old Autin took the picture for us, he did a great job!

My niece Shelby stayed with us for 8 days and we all were sad to see her go. Here's my top 10 favorite things we did while she was here....
1. We made cookie dough at 10pm and ate all of it before it ever got made into a cookie.

2. We bought a HUGE birthday cake from Costco just because it looked yummy!

3. We cleaned my house together with the music blaring and she even let me listen to my music, sometimes:)

4. We watched Mean Girls a zillion times.

5. I got to watch her make friends that she will hopefully have penpal realtionships with.

6. We went shoe shopping.

7. We went to a reservoir and had so much fun dunking each other.

8. I couldn't believe she'd never seen Sleepless in Seattle so we watched half of it at midnight and fell asleep through the other half.

9. She was so good to my kids. Greta cried every time Shelby went to play with the "big girls" because it was her cousin and not theirs.

10. We made homemade egg rolls and they were goooood.

I love you Shelby Welby!

Last Minute Getaway

You know it's going to be fun when my husband looks like this, and fun is what we had this last weekend.

Our friends Chris and Angie Adams called us Friday afternoon and invited us up to their cabin for the weekend. We hurried and packed with excitement so we could get up there at a decent time. Shelby told me I was a little too excited, but I love cabins. Shelby and Greta went with Angie to do some shopping at Costco and I went to pick up Cameron and Chris in Salt Lake. We all met up at the cabin in Wanship Utah (just past Park City). We had tons of good food and stayed up until the early morning playing games.

We started off the night with jumping on the tramp, checking out the river for ducks and just having fun. Cameron ran with Shelby on his shoulders all around the yard, it was hilarious. Shelby was sure he was going to drop her.

The next day Greta and Alina couldn't wait to go to Wanship Reservoir. They took it upon themselves to put on adult size life jackets. Shelby and I had swimming races and I dunked her a few times. Then we got really brave and decided to swim a good distance to check out another part of the beach. On the way there a stick attacked my swim suit and I couldn't move, I started panicking, Shelby laughed. Then the water got really dark and we saw little black fish and we both started panicking and made a short cut to some rocks. It was quite the swim.

Austin and Cameron went out really far on the tube, Greta and Alina were to scared to go that far.

Austin, Greta, and Alina loved the water the minute they got in it.

They had two awesome tree swings that the kids asked me to push them on the entire time we were there.

Saturday night we went to the Park City Outlet Malls and did some major shopping. Halfway through the boys left all us girls to ourselves. We shopped forever, my feet were sore! It was worth it though. Shelby, Clarissa, and the boys went fishing while we were shopping.

It was a great weekend and we are glad to have new friends like Chris and Angie.

Alina and Brooklyn

Story told to me by Becki Lillie, Brooklyn's mom:

The other day the girls were at my house and they got quiet. I found them in the kitchen getting cookies. I told Brooklyn to freeze. She hid the cookies behind her back and took off running. I caught her and she held the cookies out in front of her and yelled, "Alina take the cookies and run." Alina did just that.

These girls although adorable are trouble makers. Just this week they have managed to paint Becki's carpet with finger nail polish and base along with Sara's (Brooklyn's sister) bed and bedspread. Not only did they also pull all the blossoms off Becki's flowers, but they dug up the plants out of the ground as well. We really don't know what to do with them, they are the best of friends, but cause such mayhem!

Party Time!!!

The Stumpf Family came to visit us yesterday. The second they got here we put up the vortex. They had a blast. Melanie got a kick out of Alina because she wouldn't get in the pool or go down the slide, but she loved squirting the kids with water as they came down the slide, she even had an evil grin while soaking them.

Cleaning and Sleeping

While Shelby, Talon, and Savanna where here they decided Cam's car needed a good cleaning. They didn't even get in a water fight, they were totally focused on getting his car very clean.




They were also brave and slept out on the tramp, all the adults were thankfully in the house.

Saturday Water Fight

Alina alternated between being on my side and fighting against me. When she wasn't doing that, she was dumping water on herself.

Austin and Carter were the main instigators of the water fight. Austin "tricked" me into coming outside when with a grin on his face he told me mom needed me quick. Mom just happened to be outside "watering the flowers".

By the end we each had two cups plus both hoses going. The kids were soaked, and while I was able to get Holly with a cup of water at the beginning, she came out pretty much unscathed because she was "taking pictures".

Earlier in the day Austin asked us if we could go to "Chicken Rama" (Chuck-a-Rama) so we gorged ourselves on rolls and ice cream. After the water fight we used up the last few remaining fireworks we had saved because Alina had fallen asleep when we did them on the 4th.

They Packed Their Angry Eyes

We had a waterfight last night and when Alina came at me with a hose, she had some awesome angry faces. Greta and Luke got in some shots too.

4th of July 2008

On Thursday, July 3rd we went to the Riverton Parade, and then to the Egan's for sparklers. At the parade we were standing right next to a policeman, and whenever he got candy thrown at him from the floats, he'd give it to Alina - and only Alina. Greta doesn't like the police and told Holly that the policeman was mean. Holly told her that he was nice because he was giving Alina so much candy. To which Greta said, "he's not giving any to me."

On the 4th we went to Riverton for their carnival and fireworks show. Last year the kids were terrified of the rides, but this time around they were all in. The girls did a couple of kiddie roller coasters, and Austin did an obstacle course that ends in a slide, and a flying saucer ride that went up and down in the air while spinning around. As I watched him on the ride I was worried he wouldn't like it, but he told me afterwards that it was his favorite.

I was able to keep my tradition alive when Uncle Matthew and I went on the Zipper. It's the first ride I ever went on, and if there's one ride I go on, it's that one. The key is having a good partner, and with Matthew this year we got it spinning pretty fast.

After the rides we headed to the blankets for the fireworks show. Riverton does a really good job and didn't disappoint this year. I taped a few parts of it in addition to the pictures we took.

"Home"

A favorite song in our family is "Home" by Michael Buble. We hadn't listened to it for awhile so I put the song on while we drove to the Riverton parade. After it got over Greta said, "I thought that song would make all of us sad, but it didn't so let's listen to it again." I put it on again and half way through the song I look through the rear view mirror and with tears filling up in her eyes she says, "ohhhh why won't they just let him go home?"

"Home"

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

May be surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky, I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home