Goodbye to My Grandpa

My wonderful Grandpa Worley passed away Tuesday of last week. We spent last weekend in Utah for his funeral. He was a great person and one of the best huggers around! He will be missed by many people. I have thought about him a lot this last week and wish I could have said one last goodbye to him. He loved kids, he loved Skye, and I wish she could have gotten the opportunity to get to know him better. There will be plenty of memories and stories to share in the future, though.
He was buried with military honors for serving in World War II. The picture is crooked because I was holding a sleeping Skye while trying to take this!

There were beautiful flowers for the funeral.

Lance and my cousin, Kale, are in the front.

Skye slept the whole time we were at the cemetary--even through the gun salute the military gave him! It was a wonderful funeral (as funerals go), but I hope there aren't anymore anytime soon.

Splashing at the Splash Park

One Saturday, not too long ago, our friends, Mike and Tia, watched Skye so Lance and I could go on a date. They took her to a splash park near their house with their daughter, Annabelle, and took some fun photos of Skye for us!

I love these pictures with just the blue showing. Aren't they great?!

What fabulous friends! Thanks guys!

Birthday Parties are Fun

Skye got invited to her first birthday party! It was for our neighbor, Astrid, who turned 9 today. Astrid comes over after school almost every day to play with Skye. Here she is with Skye and her other friends. Skye seemed a bit nervous at first, but... as soon as we got to the pool, she was all smiles and had tons of fun playing with the other girls, especially Astrid's older sister, Anna.
Here are the other girls contemplating getting into the pool.
I thought Skye looked cute all bundled up in her towel sitting next to Anna.

There was chips and dip and drinks, then more pool fun. Eventually, we had to go so we missed the presents and cake, but it was fun having Skye invited to the birthday party!

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away, Please Stay Another Day

It's finally raining! It actually doesn't feel like I'm living in an oven right now! Yay for rain in Phoenix! We just went for a short walk to get our mail. As if the rain weren't good enough, Skye had to go get herself soaked in some sprinklers that were on. I took her wet jacket off just before we got in the door, but she refused to come inside. She wanted to stay in the rain--quite a novelty here in the desert. So Lance went back out with her despite my protests that she would get cold only wearing her tank top and shorts. Later, she came back even wetter, but wanting me to go out and play with her in it. We stayed out long enough to get a few pictures. Then it was time to come in and get dried off. The desert is a place you can really appreciate things like clouds and rain.

Pig Tails

Skye finally let me put pig tails in her hair and left them for more than five seconds. Eventually, she couldn't handle it anymore, and took them out just before we were about to go shopping so no one else got to see how cute she looked! I tried taking some pictures, but she didn't want to hold very still for them. I just did my best with the little rascal!

Hell, Anyone?

It's 105 degrees right now. If a giant wanted to eat me, all it would have to do is let me stand outside for a few minutes and I'd make a pretty tasty barbeque. But hey, it's supposed to cool down to 96 by Wednesday. Yes! I can't wait!

Paying My Respects

The last time I saw Lariann was about a year and a half ago. Skye was four months and Lucy was almost one. It was the same pale, skinny Lariann except a bit more extreme. The main difference was that her blond hair was gone--replaced by brown. She told me that it was common for hair to grow back darker after chemo. Then she started joking about how she and Lucy were bald at the same time. It was so like Lariann--even in the face of a tragedy, she was joking. It's the Lariann I remember. She was a happy, up-beat person. Of course, the Lariann I remember also didn't mind complaining. I can't even count how many times I heard her complain about the "leprechaun dance" the color guard had to do in the field show our junior year in high school. Even after Heather was gone and Darilyn had taken over and the color guard was kicking butt and taking their caption at every competition, she would still bitterly reminicse about it and I'd be thinking, "Okay, it's been a year, get over it!" (I hope everyone knows how much that memory makes me laugh now!) But when it came to her friends, it was a different story. At least I know anytime I had a problem or was having a hard time with something, Lariann would give me her happy, optomistic outlook on everything. Even though I didn't see her much after high school, I considered her a good friend. I am sad she is gone and I will miss her incredibly. Maybe it's because of the way she could always make me smile, or because she loved U2, Ireland, and dancing just like I do, or maybe just because I knew that she truly cared about me as a friend. Lariann was unforgettable. I know she'll always be in my memory. You're loved and will be missed, my friend.

Another Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there (especially my own wonderful, amazing mom and Skye's wonderful, amazing grandma). My day was a good one for several reasons. Yes, I loved the chocolate mint truffles and iTunes gift card from Lance and Skye. I loved that Lance made dinner for me, standing out in the blazing 100 degree weather to grill the delicious trout. I'm looking forward to the massage he has promised me before I go to bed. But the best part of this Mother's Day was being reminded of what an incredible husband I have. Mother's Day is supposed to be all about me, right? Nope, today I am paying tribute to that incredible husband. Skye has the flu so Lance stayed home from church with her. She's wanted to sleep a lot. She was napping with him just before I left for church and this is how I found them when I got home, too. Skye hasn't been sleeping good lately and Lance is the one who has been getting up at five or six in the morning to change her diaper and go back to sleep with her so I can keep sleeping. There are so many things he does to help me, to try and make my life easier. He takes good care of me and I love and respect him so much for that.
And I love what a wonderful, amazing, incredible father he is! Who else does such weird things with their kids?! Skye will never be bored with him as a dad! Thanks for all you do, Lance!

We Finally Did It!!!!

We finally went camping with Skye! After two failed attempts within the last year or so, we finally pulled it off. Skye had her moments, but for the most part, she did really well and we all had a lot of fun. Playing with the climbing gear kept her happy. She also liked trying to help Lance set up the tent.
Here's Lance at the other end!

We camped near Prescott which is up in the mountains north and a bit west of Phoenix. Yes, there are real mountains in Arizona! See the pine trees?! It made me so happy to be in the mountains. That is something I miss sooooo much about living in Utah, but I now know I can find them here, too!

Our campsite. (Skye and I standing outside of our Hobitat tent!)We ate s'mores for breakfast.

And Skye liked eating her marshmallow!

It was fun watching her try to figure out how the poles went after Lance took down the tent.

We did a little bouldering in the morning. Skye liked pretending like her toys were climbing, too, so Lance put these ones on a boulder and got this awesome picture!

Here's Skye having one of her "moments."

She got over it in time to help me up the rock!

She had lots of fun climbing over the rocks, too. We are glad Lance got a picture of her smiling!

Lance climbing.

In the afternoon, we took our raft to Watson Lake.

Skye refused to wear her shirt, so she went around topless. But hey, what a beautiful view, right?

Here's Lance testing out the raft. We all went in together and had a fun time floating around. There aren't any pictures, though, because I didn't want to risk getting the camera wet. Now that we know Skye can handle camping, I think we will go more often and escape this blasted Phoenix heat!