How I met the love of my life... (sigh...)

It all began 3 or more years before this picture was taken...We were 15... well, Merrill was 16. Joe (my brother) and Jackie (Merrill's sister), were dating. His family invited my family up for a barbecue and to swim. Jackie had mentioned a couple of times that she had a brother my age who was pretty cute. We should date when I turned 16. The night of the barbecue was the first time I ever saw him. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about him! I could even tell you what he was wearing... and I took extra time getting ready that day too. I did have a "boyfriend" at the time, and I still had Merrill on the brain.
We both dated, had relationships, but still kept tabs on the other. He would come over to my house occasionally with Joe to mess around... I would find a reason to go to Joe's room... wow.. he (Merrill, not Joe!) was (is) hot...
September 1996, Joe and Jackie got married. Here was our first real conversation. We took Kaitlyn and MiKell to McDonald's in the ZCMI center to get some fries while the endless photo shoot was going on. He really didn't talk much. I thought it was because he wasn't interested in me. He says he was shy, he really liked me. I didn't believe him until we watched home video of the wedding after we began dating, only to find him checking out my butt...
We still would ask about each other, and Joe and Jackie (but I think more Joe) began hinting to Merrill that he should break up my engagement, apparently, no body seemed to care for my doofy fiancee (including me). So Merrill said he'd do it.
August 1998, I was supposed to be getting married, but didn't want to (too long a story...) and Jackie knew I needed a break. She invited me to go to Lake Powell with her family. My payment: help to cook and to care for Kaitlyn and MiKell, going into 1st grade and Kindergarten (and now they are Lakette and Cheer captain? Where has time gone?!) I was game, and I left my engagement ring at home, I didn't want it to get lost...;)
Many prayers later... there was Merrill. We talked A LOT.
We hit it off. He was so sweet!
He kissed me.
We fell in love.
He rescued me. I broke off my engagement the day I got home.
Lake Powell is a sacred place to us.

My Kiddos...

My sweet and sassy girls...I was a little afraid when we found out that Lynn was going to be a girl... a little excited too... but afraid... now I have 3 of them!!! Merrill is afraid of paying for the weddings.
It is so fun to see each of their different personalities...
Lynn is coming into her mothering phase... she's "Honey Bear"...
Ashley is our comedian, always pretty hyper, but she has a shy bone in her too... she is "Ashley Bear"... yeah, we got real creative...
And here is the best baby in the whole wide world... she can put up with the other two... but she doesn't quite have a "Bear" name yet... but recent days has gone by "Peyton Pissy Pants"... we think it's teeth... or her sisters bugging her...
I wonder why I was so afraid to have a girl in the first place. I was even more afraid of having two. I grew up an only girl, and my relationship with my mother is a sacred thing, I was so concerned about having that kind of relationship with each of my girls... so far it is working out splendidly...

Embarrass yourself...

Okay!Let me just say, I had 3 brothers, NO sisters... this was how they did it, why would I think to do it any other way?
Yes, I am much more modest now...
... I am also just about that flat-chested too... minus empty skin-bags where boobs once lived.

A Summertime Flashback...

July 1999...
Bear Lake...
*WARNING!!!*
The quality of these flashback pictures are Sucky with a capital "S"... they were taken back in 1999, with a 35mm camera, and scanned in today, July 17th, 2008... so don't knock 'em! They're all I have...
Now enjoy my memory, dangit!
Here's Merrill and Clint, when Clint was so little...
This was my first trip to Bear Lake with Merrill and his family. I had been many times with my own family and we would camp on the beach, the extent of our toys were beach balls, a raft, and scuba gear. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast... With Merrill's family, we stayed in a condo at a resort and brought many toys, jet skis, volleyball net, water trampoline... we had a lot of fun too.This is one of those toys... a "fungulator", aka, giant slingshot. In this pic, we were flinging water balloons quite a ways away at unknowing people who were playing miniature golf... tee-hee!Some fun had while playing volleyball occurred during a match, me and Mer, against Austin and Nathan. We were kicking butt the whole game, up until the very end (maybe they were hustling us...) and we were trying to keep our ground. It got down to game point, and we were going to win. We both went after the ball, both yelling: "MINE!!!" and we both got a piece of it, Merrill got a piece of my eye too. I got quite a shiner, Mer got teased relentlessly by his family about how he beats his girlfriend... he felt so bad! He babied me the rest of the trip. It was a few months after that, that he proposed. I guess I deserved it...(Not that great of a pic... refer to the warning at the beginning of the post...)

We also had a lot of fun on the jet skis. Anybody who has been to Bear Lake knows that the water isn't as warm as other places... in other words, cold... my comparison, Lake Powell (aaahhhh...) So it was quite an evening when Mer and I went out jet skiing in some of the biggest waves I've ever seen at Bear Lake. We were trying so hard to stay on, usually falling off and crashing, getting all wet is the funnest part of jet skiing... not that night. We were freezing and drenched by the time that ride was over. Thank heavens for warm Spaghetti O's Darlene had made for us!
We also had rented a wave runner while we were there. I asked Mer if it would dump people like on the jet skis. His answer, "It would be really hard." We went out for a ride, me, hanging on behind him while he drove. In the middle of the Lake, he stopped and we switched places. I dumped him :)...

Favorite Summertime treat...

Let's say that the way Grandma would:
fav-o-rite....
my most fav-o-rite:
A warm tomato fresh from the garden, sliced, complete with salt and pepper...
But since I am a sweet -toothed girl... and I can only pick one... I thought long and hard...
What can I really get only in the summer time, and tastes soooo good in the summertime...A cherry Icee... sure I can get them at Target any time of the year, but they taste better in the summer, and they taste even better in the exciting atmosphere of Lagoon...

Favorite thing about summertime...

'Tis a tie!!!
Fireworks AND thunderstorms...



















I love the smell of them both and the atmosphere that both create... I also love that both seem to gather my family to one common place... they also make awesome pics!
Peyton is 5 months old today...
Isn't she so stinkin' cute! I got this one on the FIRST shot! She is so fun... she loved the fireworks tonight and didn't cry, unlike Lynn's first time.
Church was okay today... it was "correlation Sunday..." that means lots of fun for the family no matter how prepared I am. Sharing time went especially well today, both Junior and Senior Primary were interested. It was about "obedience and faithfulness". I have many experiences in those departments...
Only a fraction of calls were extended based on my list, yes, a list. We'll just have to exercise more patience and that faithfulness! Poor Mer-Bear... in more ways than one... his arm, the cyst still hasn't drained, and he hurts. It's not a common thing for him to give up his Sunday's with Peyton in the nursery with him, but he just hurt too bad. Poor guy. We'll have to see about the "other thing"... later this week...
It was so funny thing tonight going to WSU for the concert and fireworks. No phone calls were made to meet, everyone just showed up. Well, Clint did call trying to find us, but everyone knows, where we are there. We have sat in the same spot on the soccer field since the first year we were married. Good times, fun memories.