Day 2 of our trip up north

At 10am, I met with my mom and two of my sisters, Marni and Jen, at Kairlee's house. Matt met with the men, DeLane, Aaron, and Kendall, and kids and Jeanette's family at Jen's house. They went to Bridal Veil Falls. (Matt will write about that after I write about my time with my sisters and mom.) We went to the funeral home and dressed Kairlee in her temple dress and temple clothes. Marni tied the apron, I tied the robe, and Jen tied the sash. Then Jen plucked her eyebrows. It was a special and sacred experience.  Then we went to the music store and picked up the music, 'Each Life That Touches Ours For Good' That my Aunt Karen wrote that was arranged in a SATB format. Then we went back to Jen's house to get ready for lunch.

Cute Elody

Elody and Safia

Miki, Jileigh, and Daniel

Jileigh, Daniel, Miki, Lottie

Beau and Jaren

Bridal Veil Falls

The kids at the bottom, taken from the top of the falls

Clave and Talon

Funny Boy Talon

Clave, Daniel, and Talon

Talon, Jaren, Clave, and Jileigh

Bridal Veil Falls

Clave, Aaron's son 

Talon

the falls from a distance

Jileigh and DeLane, my oldest brother

My Little Beau

Sabra and Angelique

Sabra, Angelique, and Matt holding tired Elody

This is the back of Jen's van. I want to get one made too!

Matt the kids adventure written by Matt: Wednesday we got all of the cousins together and took them to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.  We had a nice little walk to the falls and had fun looking at the huge school of trout below the falls.  Then the more adventurous of us climbed up to the base of the falls.  It was fun standing under the falls and taking pictures.

Day 1 of our trip up north

Matt came home from work at 3pm and we made it out of the house at 4:30pm. As we were looking back, we saw a funnel cloud or small tornado. It was pretty cool!
We arrived at Kairlee and Mike's house at 8:30, visited with the family, and ate sandwiches and tacos. Then we headed off to Emmie's house, their daughter. They had a full basement with beds for all of us. It was very nice accommodations.

My sweet sister Kairlee passed away this morning

July 2008 My family

July 2008 Kairlee's family
Karilee Davidson Graham April 10, 1959 to July 7, 2012

This morning at about 7am (Utah Time) my sweet sister passed away peacefully with Mike, her husband, by her side as well as her daughter Cassie. She suffered from Cancer, a brain tumor, about 13 years ago. She had surgery on it which paralyzed half her body. She beat the cancer but then came down with diabetes. About 3 years ago, she nearly passed away, but after being given some blood, she came out of it and survived. She's been bedridden all these years. This past year she's been having some dementia symptoms. She hardly ate anything and she slept a lot. About a week ago, Mike finally took her off all meds except for the anxiety and calming meds that hospice gave him for her. Yesterday, she stopped talking and mostly just slept. She did say a couple of days ago that my dad was with her to take her home. Love you Sista!

My Brother posted this on facebook and I really liked it, so I copy/pasted it. Thanks D!
"Kairlee (Davidson) Graham post: To Family and Friends – On Sunday morning, July 8th, My Dear, Sweet, Beautiful sister, Kairlee, passed away…. Or better .... she was “Called Home”. She is only 1 year older than me. For many years she has been in bed due to the results of Brain Cancer and a Stroke. Her family has been extremely supportive of her, as they Loved her and Supported her to the very end. I will be forever grateful to them.

Her husband wrote: “Earlier in the week, Kairlee mentioned to me that she had seen her Dad. She said that he said nothing to her, but would just be standing inside the room. I felt a warm feeling, and was comforted with peace just after she told me that her Dad had come.”

My Mom wrote: “Kairlee did so much genealogy when she was well that she knows everyone up in the next world. I could give her a name, she could tell me where they lived, where they moved to, and who they married. We will all miss her. She will now be able to be with the family, at their reunions.”

Thank you all for visiting her at home over the years, and for your phone calls to her. Kairlee will be missed, and Forever Loved."


Her funeral is set for Thursday, July 12, 2012. She was 53 years old. She has 9 children and 17 grandchildren.

Here is the link to her obituary:  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=kairlee-davidson-graham&pid=158468839&fhid=7529

Cousin fun at the luncheon after Esther's baby's blessing

Back in May was Matt's sister's baby's blessing. I took the camera but I didn't end up taking any pictures. But.... The kids took lots. They had a fun time with their cousins!

Jileigh's trek experience

Back view of the skirt

This is the skirt that I sewed.
I can't help it that this is sideways

This is the apron that goes over the skirt

Sewing day

The stake Trek experience was July 3-7th. Jileigh is on her way home right now. Back in June I sewed her the brown skirt. It was too tight at the bottom so I made a slit and added a triangle so she would have more walking room. Then I made the apron to go over it. It was a learning experience in sewing for me. I can hardly wait for her to get home and tell me all about it!

Jileigh and Angelique's bedroom wall

My girls have really gotten into drawing lately. Here are a couple of picture they took of their wall.

Breeja Larson my niece going to the Olympics!

My dear sweet niece Breeja Larson qualified to be an olympian! Her race it the 100m breaststroke in swimming. She took 1st place in the olympic trials. I can't seem to copy/paste any pictures from online, so here are some great links to learning about her:

The following link is the qualifying trials race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ncdwkeog8&feature=plcp

This is the interview after she won:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0sA26iM6Cs&feature=plcp

This is a highlight of her with her coach after she won:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BmznfPmvU&feature=youtu.be

This is a great article of her from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/blog/olympics/post/_/id/2798/say-hello-to-breeja-larson

This is an interview of her and her dad by Ch. 12 after she won:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6siwFMzzxuM&feature=plcp

This is of her receiving the first place medal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTC6A2IDN1Y&feature=share

This is her being interviewed by Yahoo.com news:
http://news.yahoo.com/video/sports-15749645/who-is-breeja-larson-29821046.html

This is a great summary of Breeja and her family:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/olympics/articles/2012/07/03/20120703breeja-larson-family-headed-olympics.html

AND, this is the interview by ch 12 news of my sister's family and my mom is there too!
http://www.azcentral.com/video/1721240411001

Here is an excellent "Bio" on Breeja Larson on MormonOlympians.org. This gives a very excellent summary of Breeja Larson's road to the Olympics. ENJOY!!!
http://mormonolympians.org/2012-london-olympics/breeja-larson-mormon-olympian

On the London 2012 Olympic Website, It looks like the Women's 100 Meter Breaststroke will be July 29th and July 30th.http://www.london2012.com/swimming/event/women-100m-breaststroke/index.html

The Exciting Women's 100 Medley Relay race, which Breeja will also be swimming in, will be August 3rd and August 4th!http://www.london2012.com/swimming/event/women-4x100m-medley-relay/index.html

Talon is on the city swim team

Talon has been enjoying being on the swim team this summer. He's 13 in the 13 and 14 year old boys group. He's learning and has room to grow and improve; but for the most part, he is doing pretty good. He wakes up at about 6:45, rides his bike almost 1 3/4 miles to the pool with the last 1/2 mile being uphill, swims for 1 1/2 hours and then rides home. It's a great way for him to start his day!

Introducing: Elfie, our new baby guinea pig

Elody and Elfie

Safia and Elfie

Oreo and Elfie together

My new sister-in-law Julie told me last week the her sister's guinea pigs babies were old enough to leave their momma and asked if we would take one. We couldn't resist! Elfie and Oreo have hit it off very well. Elfie follows Oreo around when we take them outside into the grass and doesn't like to be separated from her. They are so cute together! The girls named her Elfie because of her Elf-like ears.

Summer grilling / Anniversary

Heaton family grilled hamburgers

1/3 lb. ground beef with minced onions, mushrooms, and cheese

Then added sauteed  mushrooms and onions and sliced cheese

Anniversary dinner: grilled steaks, shrimp, scallops, and zucchini and yellow squash

We've come up with a fabulous way of making hamburgers! We add diced/minced mushrooms, onions, and cheese along with the regular seasoning of salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder and grill them. Most of us like them that way, but we still make regular one for the little kids.

The hamburgers were one night and the steaks were another. Our 16th wedding anniversary was June 28th, but this dinner was on the 30th. Matt has been having issues with his vertigo again. We planned on going out on the 27th because Matt was leaving to Talon's scout camp on the 28th. Unfortunately, Matt came home from work feeling wiped out and dizzy. After a good rest, he felt well enough to go ahead and go to Scout camp. Saturday after he got home, he went shopping and came up with this dinner. It was fabulous!!!

My summer garden 2012

My summer garden 2012

Elody, Beau, Safia, and Jaren

Baskets of tomatoes

Onions and carrots

Zucchini and yellow squash

Elody holding our hugest tomato!
We sliced this onto hamburgers.

My garden is flourishing beautifully! Everyday we go out and pick produce. We already bottled 7 quarts of tomatoes. We've had more zucchini and yellow summer squash than we can handle, so we've been giving quite a bit away. This is the first year I have been able to grow onions, cucumbers, and carrots so well. I am so pleased with it all!!!

Summer swimming!

We set up the death trap aka backyard above ground pool. Candy's kids came over to play with my kids. We always spend some time with the little kids teaching them to swim. My two are soooooo cautious and really have a hard time letting go of the securities, but Candy's little Hannah was a fish! She wasn't one bit scared and practiced for about an hour until she was practically swimming. I had to catch it on video.  Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWibglNvvX8&feature=plcp
She's only 3 years old as of March. Go Hannah! Now if I can just get my two little kids to learn how to swim.

Trip to fossil springs and visit with my mom and sister

This is the first main pool.  Just 100 yards upstream there is only a dry, dusty, waterless stream bed.  Then suddenly all of this water comes gushing up out of the ground and you go from desert to oasis.  The water is a nice 74 deg. year-'round so you can even swim in the winter!  In the near end of the pool you can see a bunch of native fish swimming around.

This cave is very cool.  It is about 30 feet across and 30 feet  back.  The stream  runs into it  and is 8-10 feet deep.  That under-water log is nearly 2 feet in diameter to give you a perspective of the size.  The sun doesn't shine in since the overhang is fairly low, but the clear water conducts the light back inside so that it is lit with a beautiful turquiose light inside.

This is Jileigh in front of an 8-foot tall manzanita.  We call them bushes at home but this is more of a tree. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0wpxqeZIjQ  This is Talon Jumping down into what is called the Toilet Bowl at Fossil Springs.  There is a tunnel deep under water that you have to swim through to escape the violent whirlpool and enter the main pool.  A little scary but very cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76sM-xbP4ko&feature=plcp This link is Matt's turn into the Toilet Bowl.

This was the 2nd day. The kids played with the marble game.

Matt had the opportunity to go to a training for work on woodworking near where my mom lives. So we got to take a paid vacation to see my family. We went a day early so Matt could take our older kids down to fossil springs. I spent the day with my Mom helping her on her computer putting pictures in a document. The next two days Matt went to the training and I spent the days with the kids letting them swim and play with their cousins. The 3rd evening we were there, Matt was able to replace a couple of outlets and fans switches in my mom's house. We all had a great time!