my dad rocks..

can you believe he's almost fifty?!

he's awesome..

can you tell our family lives at the lake during the summer.

i miss that most when i'm away.

5 generations

my sweet sweet grandma clark (we grew up calling her grandma duck) isn't doing so well.

her 91 year old fragile body is just so weak and tired.

i'm so grateful that we have been able to visit her the past 4 years that we've came home.

my children may not know it now, but they are some very lucky kids to have met her.

yall may have heard me talk about altonah before...

well,  her and my great grandfather are the special people that built it for our family.

it's our family gathering place.

i'll forever be grateful for what they have done for us.

more lake fun

layla has had so much fun with her cousins here in utah.
you can just see it in her face in these pictures.

visiting grandma and grandpa clement

aren't my grandparents adorable?
this is my grandmother, Sally, and her husband Donald.
Layla and Marx's great-grandparents.

Layla and Grandma hit it off real quick.
All grandma had to do was give her some chocolate ;)

Girls Night Out

Last week my mom, sisters, aunt (and sister-in-law), grandma, and I had a girls night out.

I wish it was something that we could do regularly.

It consisted of going to the temple together then eating out at the delicious Cafe Rio.

While eating we listened to my grandma's stories, laughed, cried, and just had a grand ole time.

I love these girls!

i left my kids in the hands of my father and they all survived.
i came home to this...

my dad was bathing layla so he made a little pallet for marx to lay on.
he loved it.

i felt so honored to watch vernal's finest return back to his home

USMC Daniel Gurr passed away August 5th, 2011.

He was only 21 years old, and he was fighting for our freedom.

I didn't know him personally, but I grew up with his older sister, and from

what I have read, he was an amazing young man.

The feeling I felt watching him return home can not be described.

It was chilling.

Seeing our community come together and welcome him home was awesome.

It brought tears to everyone's eyes.

Thank you Daniel for your sacrifice.

You will never be forgotten.

you can see the marine that was his escort all the way home.
he's sitting in the passenger seat.
what an honor that must have been.

there were nearly 1400 flags put out on the roads that would lead to the church where his funeral was held.

it was beautiful.

To read more on Sgt. Daniel Gurr click here.

we're in utah!!

we haven't been here a week, but we've already had so much fun!

first day we arrived in hometown marx and layla met their cousin drea.

isn't she a doll?

the next day, layla met my dear friend, whitney's little girl, myla.

they had so much fun together.

wish we lived closer so they could play regularly.

me.marx.layla.whitney.myla.michelle

we were room mates for a year.

had some good times.

already made a trip to the lake.

there will definitely be more of that!

our nephew, trevan, was baptized last saturday.

after the baptism we headed over to his home to have a luncheon.

here's just a few that were taken...

my sis and derrick

aren't they cute?!

 layla in aunt catlin's shoes...