Canary Garden Balloon Launch

Tonight we went to the Canary Garden annual ballon launch. Canary Garden is a bereavement support group that we attended for a while after Samuel died. It is designed for children, but it helps the parents too. I wish we had kept attending. I need to see if we can possibly get back in because it would be good for the kids especially.

This is how Mount Timanogos looked tonight. It was a gorgeous evening.

We wrote notes to Samuel and tied them to the balloons. Bekah's said,

Dear Sammy,
I love you. When are you going to come back? I miss you. I want
you to come back.

:( Tugs at the heart strings big time!

Oops...Elisabeth let go too soon. :)

Then Bekah's wouldn't float, so we had to get another balloon. Hers went up all by itself but caught up to the others pretty quickly.

It's interesting how such a simple thing can mean so much to me sometimes. I sure do miss my sweet little guy.

Merry May 24th!

It's not really that unusual for Utah in the Spring, but we still complain about it every year like it's the first time it's ever happened. :)

Time to Water the Plants

I have this plant that we got when Samuel died, and it has this way of reminding me that I haven't watered my plants for a while...

Time to water the plants:



3 hours later:



I will be so mad at myself if I kill this plant or any of the plants from the funeral. They make me happy when I look at them (at least when they are watered and looking healthy). I probably need to start repotting some of them, but I am scared to.

Beautiful Elisabeth

Elisabeth went to a friend's "Oscar Night" birthday party last weekend, and I thought she looked beautiful!

Our new alarm clock...I mean neighbor

This is what I woke up to this morning. I've never actually seen a real live woodpecker, so it was sort of fun. I have heard him for the past few days, but today he was especially close (and annoying). I had to get up and close the window. (Sorry the video and photo quality are not that great. I was shaky for some reason.)

The SAM Project 2010

The first annual The SAM Project was a huge success!!! Thank you to everyone who participated.In memory of our sweet little Sam. (7 months old in the picture.) We love and miss you so much! We are thankful to be another year closer to together forever!

This is the label we sewed onto all of the blankets.122 blankets delivered to Primary Children's Medical Center on March 26, 2010.

About 20 more blankets will be delivered later (they are still in the works).The boxes we used to organize the blankets.Organized by type.

The cart used to take them from the car to the lobby.

Our family.

Primary Children's Medical Center motto.

The "thank you" card they gave us when we dropped off the blankets. I love this quote.
Rebekah and Elisabeth by Samuel's grave.
Samuel's grave.

We look forward to next year and expect it will be even better! :)

(One of these days I will get the official "thank you's" out to everyone.)

Grotto Trail Hike

We had a fun Family Home Evening tonight. We hiked the Grotto Trail in Payson Canyon. I've been wanting to go there for a long time. We hiked it once with the Maple Dell Ward back in 2004 when I was pregnant with Rebekah. It is awesome! We had a great time. Even our tuna sandwiches tasted good. If you want to go there, it is 6.4 miles up Payson Canyon. It only takes maybe 20 minutes to hike to the Grotto, and then you can play in the water and/or under the waterfall. There was more water there than the last time. It made me want to move back to Payson. I am definitely going to plan a hike day with my siblings and their children. We just have to figure out how to get Cassidy up there. :-)

Pirates on Parade

On June 13th, we had our annual family BBQ at Janice and Lorin's for the Orem SummerFest fireworks. Usually we skip the parade, but this year Pirate Island had a float in the parade, so we had to go and watch that part. Roy rode in Matt's truck, and Elisabeth was the beautiful pirate princess up on the top of the float. (She was very happy when she saw some of us in the crowd.) Roy's dad was also in the parade with the veterans. The weather was super rainy that day. It was horrible in the afternoon, cleared up for the BBQ and parade, poured like crazy again, and then cleared up for the fireworks. There was a beautiful rainbow during our BBQ. That's twice in 3 days. Good omen!

Torri Lyn Martin

This post is WAY past due, but I just wanted to put a little something about sweet Torri who passed away on June 4, 2009. We agonized with her family for 2 months while she was sick at Primary Children's Medical Center, and I was privileged to visit her just hours before she died. We are still so sad that she had to leave us, but we know that she is happy and carefree and busy with Samuel doing lots of important work for our Heavenly Father. I truly believe that she and Samuel and the others in our family who have passed on are our personal guardian angels. Her funeral was beautiful, and yet somehow I was still a total disaster that day. I guess I was reliving my own experience, but with the added pain that I felt for Brad and Cathy. We are so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. Here is a picture of Torri with her mom , Cathy, who is my (Laura's) first cousin.

Cathy and I are the same age, and we just can't believe that we have each had to say goodbye to a child. I am sure we will help each other as we press forward. And we will rejoice together when we are reunited with our babies. I love you, Cathy! The evening after the funeral, there was a beautiful, full double rainbow. It brought such warmth to my heart as I reflected on the significance of rainbows and how they are reminders of our Heavenly Father's love for us and that He always keeps His promises. (The pictures don't do the rainbows justice; they were really magnificent.)

Happy Independence Day!

July 4, 1776