April 2013

Ahh, April.  You were full of family events on the Paxton side.  First off, Uncle Ron and Aunt Karen Paxton got sealed in the Brigham City Temple.  It was a cold and windy day, but the inside of the temple was breathtaking and warm with its pale blues and gentle greens adorning the fixtures.  Ron and Karen have been married awhile, and decided that it's time to get sealed after all these years.  There was a gathering after at their home in Perry where I met some of Scott's cousins for the first time. Thanks to my mom for watching our kids.



Ron and Karen



The men and Grandma Paxton

The ladies

 Next up, we headed down to Cedar City to celebrate my father-in-law, Marv's birthday.  Marv is a wonderful guy and so much fun to be around.  He is always good at making people smile and has a great personality.  The adults went to a fancy restaraunt up the canyon called Milt's.  Afterall, it was his 65th birthday! Then we ate cake and ice cream with everyone at Scott's brother Bryan & Candi's home after.

 

Scott's Grandpa Hayes (his mom's dad) passed away on April 22, 2013.  He was 82 years old and living in Swan Lake, Idaho.  Sad to say, we were not very close to him because Scott's grandparents were divorced when Scott was a teenager.  We were much closer to his grandma, who died in 2007, when Makayla was 8 months old.  We went up to Idaho for the funeral and visited Grandma Hayes' grave in Logan on the way.  Grandma Hayes was upbeat and loved to go camping and boating with our family. She was a joy to be around.

We saw Grandpa Hayes probably 3 or 4 times ever in the 10 years we have been married.  He came to our wedding, we saw him in Cedar City passing through once, another time at the airport, and Scott visited him with his parents 2 weeks ago when we found out he was dying.

Grandpa Robert Hayes



I just love the carefree lifestyle this picture portrays!

 Swan Lake, population 84, is where the funeral took place.  Basically you drive 50 minutes northeast from Logan, to the sticks, a tiny town where if you blink on the highway, you would miss it.  And no, there is not a lake in that part of the country. The church was so miniature! It was probably 1/4 the size of a normal gym, 1/4 the size of a chapel, and a couple of classrooms and a mini-kitchen.  But the yard was very impressive! They had a swingset and a playground and horses sharing a fence. My kids were in absolute heaven there. And the funeral was good besides Lincoln, who is very hard to manage in church these days.

Some of Grandpa's friends loaded him up in a horse and buggy and gave him a ride to the cemetary in style where he received a special military gun salute for his service in the Navy.

We took several photos that afternoon, because with people living several states away, we won't see them again anytime soon.  Not the most formal pictures since our kids had already changed into playclothes.


Scott's mom Vickie and her brothers Bobby, Larry, and Mike.

I came across some old photos on the display table at the funeral that I was excited about because there are not that many photos of Scott in his younger years. Here are Brian, Christie, and Scott on their grandpa's horse.  Scott is the youngest child in his family.

Scott is the littlest kid on the right.

Everyone from Scott's family stayed at our house the next night on their way back to Cedar City. That is 13 extra people!

Some other events from this month were:

 Going to the library for some more story and art time,

 Getting the kids a random balloon one day,

Having lunch at Grandma Diane's house,

Looking at the baby chickens at Cal Ranch,

And popping a tire on the freeway!

I wouldn't care to repeat getting a flat tire on the freeway ever again. It was pretty scary! We were close to home and we heard a loud POP! We asked Makayla what that was and of course, she didn't know. Then we started going on the off-ramp to our exit, 2000 East, when our car started uncontrollably shaking. We knew we had to pull off the side of the freeway right  then. Sure enough, the tire was completely f-l-a-t-. If you look towards the left there is a huge gash in the bottom.  Pulled off the side of the road is also where we discovered that we didn't have a spare tire, nor is there a place for a spare tire, since it's a hybrid car and the battery takes up the entire undercarriage of it..  Yeah, so we had to call a tow truck, to tow the Tahoe about 1 mile to Big-O-Tires. And the kids and I started walking home up the exit ramp.  Well, wouldn't you know it, a very sweet old man picked us up and gave us a ride home.  Yup, parent of the year right here, no kids in car seats, and Lincoln on my lap in the front seat, since the man had some other things in the backseat of his car.  I was so grateful for him and his willingness to be our angel that night. We could have walked the 1.5 miles, but it was cold and we didn't have jackets, and there are some crazy intersections that I would have been nervous to cross with little kids, and it was all uphill.  Nice old man, I hope he gets a lot of blessings.  I did google the spare tire thing with the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, and I guess they just throw in a can of fix-it-flat and call it good.  That makes no sense to me and I am surprised we had not thought about that in the year and a half of owning that car. Wow, I am so glad that we didn't pop our tire in the middle of nowhere!

At least we ended the month doing something fun.  We met my sister Wendy and her family at Hollywood Connections and went miniature golfing, rode on some rides, and went to dinner after.  And Scott and I also got a babysitter and went on a date the next night to end the month right.