Thomas turns twenty-five

Tom, you were so loved by all !  Each brother and Kathy welcomed you, played with you, babysat you, and were perfectly willing to bring you anywhere they went.   They included you in games they played, from make-believe to board games to sports.  Kathy made you dress up and be the father, boyfriend, and who knows what else.  Jacob was teaching you Nintendo and Monopoly and Risk and how to hang Tigger.  Bret took time out of his busy schedule to play cars and Lego and take you places.
You were dragged along to baseball, dance,trumpet recitals, dentist appointments- you name it.
You did not have any technology to keep you busy. You just made the best of it and played.
You were an easy baby, easy toddler, easy child.  If every mother had kids like you, they would easily choose to have more.  You loved learning and school. You even 'liked' the 'mean' teachers, because they kept better order in their classrooms.
I remember when we found out we were expecting you. We had had a very difficult time getting pregnant, and were even starting adoption processes when Kathy finally came along.
Dad graduated, and we bought our very first brand new car, which seated 5.  We had no idea we would be blessed so soon with another child.  We were all thrilled!
I thought it was great having children all different ages. It kept my busy, but young and active.  I loved how you helped each other.
You never wanted to be 'in trouble'.  (That's how I was as a child)
You listened, obeyed, cared, shared, and smiled all the time.  You were smart and athletic, cute, and hard-working.
You have brought me and Dad great joy!  I hope you find the same joy in your posterity that we have felt with our children.

Trip to Utah August 2014

Last week I woke up at 4 AM to drive to the Mesa airport to take a cheaper flight up to Provo.  The drive was uneventful and after just over an hour flight I was in Provo, UT.  I had planned this trip originally to meet up with my dad, Jake and Jacob Webb to do some fishing in the Flaming Gorge reservoir.  But that part got cancelled a few weeks earlier.  So now we were going to spend some time in the valley and get to see Tommy (Tom).

Tom picked me up at the airport and that morning we walked over to BYU to see the new changes on campus, buy some chocolate milk, and remember days gone by.  We then went to JDawg's for lunch, which was fantastic as usual.

Jacob and my dad got back later that afternoon after having spent the previous few days in the Uintas (like my trip last August).  It happened to be Jacob and Holly's birthday, so that evening we went to Happy Sumo for some sushi and stayed up late talking (and got some shakes from Iceberg).

Friday we went golfing at East Bay golf course.  It was the 4 Wall boys.  This course gave us the option to play 12 holes, something I hadn't seen before.  It was a lot of fun.  I didn't play too great, but ended up getting 2nd place behind my dad (who I think beat me by a stroke or two).  Tom played great considering he hadn't played in years.  We were all hot and thirsty and tired after that so we hit Sonic on the way back for happy hour and got some drinks.

That afternoon we were still thirsty so Tom mentioned a place down the street called Sodalicious.  It was literally a tiny shack on the side of the street, tucked behind/in a barber shop.  It was packed.  People were lined up in cars and on the street.  They have various types of drinks and flavors they will put together for you.  We ended up going back again we loved it so much.  The first time I got some Dr. Pepper with vanilla, coconut, and half and half.  The second time I got a drink called "Lucky" that had Mtn. Dew and passionfruit and pineapple.  Both were amazing.  I was happy to see such a little place be so successful.  It was fun.

That evening we headed to Tom's choice for dinner at Slab Pizza.  It was also very cool and you could choose various types of pizzas.  We tried one with spam and pineapple, another with thai red curry, and another with goat cheese and green chilis and BBQ sauce.  They were all good, the last one was amazing.  From there we went to the BYU football team scrimmage at the stadium and it was fun to see the players and watch some football.  Let's hope it is a great season.  We finished the night seeing Guardians of the Galaxy (which Jake and I had both seen, but nobody else).  I loved it even more the second time and I think everyone liked it as I heard them laughing the whole time.

Saturday we played tennis at a new place that Tommy knew about that seemed almost on top of the mountain.  We did three sets to 4 and switched teams each time.  These guys were nice and let my team win each time.  It was fun.  We then did a later lunch/early dinner at JCW's for some burgers.  From there Jake, my dad and I went up to Sundance to ride the ski lift and hike around a bit.  I loved it.  It was beautiful and fun.  Later that night we watched a movie and headed back to the hotel.  Sunday Jake and I were flying back to AZ.

...Or so we thought.  We got dropped off at the Provo airport and got on the plane.  But after a few minutes on the runway they said some indicator light was on and they had to de-plane us.  We then sat in the tiny gate room at the airport for the next few hours.  The airport had literally closed so there was no security for people to leave and come back or sit outside, etc.  We were forced to sit in this tiny room and get updates once in a while saying they had no idea what was going on.  And this is where the difficulty of flying on a tiny airline becomes evident.  With no other flights out of Provo, there were no flights to divert us on.  Needless to say, they eventually gave up and sent us to a hotel for the night with hope to try again the next day.  So we grabbed a quick dinner at IHOP (not much open on Sunday nights in Provo) and luckily made it out the next day.  But it was a frustrating time.  I have flown A LOT in my life, and this was my first time having to stay in a hotel.  I've been lucky.

The trip was still fun.  I enjoyed golfing and playing tennis and all the other stuff with my brothers and pops.  I always love to visit Provo as people seem so nice and happy.  Don't love the winters, though.

Beckham's Letters

Here are two videos of some of Beckham's favorite things.  As you may have heard, he loves his letters.  He can recognize and say all of them and he can also draw many of them.  Enjoy the videos!

Summertime Blues

Next week school starts.  It is crazy how quickly this summer went.  It was a great summer with an awesome Lake Powell trip, some camping up in Big Lake, a trip to NY, and next week a quick trip to UT to spend time with the Wall boys.

It has also been a crazy busy summer for work.  So much is going on.  These things combined made the summer go by way too fast and I am already sad that days are getting shorter and temperatures will soon be cooler.  It seems we didn't get to spend enough time at the water park, or swimming in our pool, or hiking in 100 degree weather.  Soon the house will be quiet as I work with the boys away at school and Tevia doing her regular busy stuff.

But there are great things in the fall, right?  BYU football, more hiking, cooler nights.  I love summer and every year I am sad to see it go, even here in Phoenix.

So not many posts with awesome pics (Tevia does a great job of that on her blog).  But I did want to document that it has been a wonderful summer.  I got to see lots of our family.  We had great health.  The summer wasn't all that hot this year.  And it was fun to have the boys at home, when they were here and not at camps or grandma's house.  So let's hope fall is just as great.  Most people would say Phoenix doesn't really have a fall.  But I know it is coming when I wake up at 5 to play basketball and it is dark.  That's what happened this morning.  And that's when I knew summertime was coming to an end.