Happy (day after) St. Patrick's Day!!!! I know that for most people, this is just one of those holidays that comes and goes and it's no big deal. But for me, it's one of the ones you just wait for. We were out dancing from sunrise to sunset yesterday and it was great! But I'll have to tell about that in a separate post because I'm trying to keep things in order as much as possible, which means that first I need to tell about the awesome weekend we had in Jerome just last week.
I got to spend most of the day on Saturday hanging out in Twin and Jerome with some of my cousins. We went to a fun frozen yogurt shop called Orange Leaf and had some delish yogurt there.
After we ran to a few stores in Twin we made our way back to the Farm to get ready for a family dinner that night. Dad wanted to make Philly cheese steak sands for anyone who wanted to come over to Grandma's that night.
AND I got to meet our newest baby in the family! Baby Grady was born on Feb.16th and he is so stinkin' cute!! I've said it before, but I'm so grateful for all the people who let me try to get my fill of holding little babies (not that it could ever happen)! So that was fun to get plenty of chances to hold Grady over the weekend.
That's Grady's "big" sister, Brittney, who really isn't much bigger than him. She is such a spunky little thing and it's so much fun when she comes over and climbs in your lap and tells you all kinds of random stories. Her latest and greatest hit is to serenade everyone with the song from "Frozen" called, "Let It Go".
To go along with the sandwiches, Dad wanted to have cottage cheese and pears, as well as a nice crunchy pickle or two on everyone's plates. There's Kim, the lovely Pickle-Placer.
Dad frying up the steak and peppers. Yum-o!
Some hungry on-lookers! :)
After a tasty dinner with a bunch of the fam, we went down in Grandma's basement and had some hilarious rounds of "Catch Phrase". There were probably about 12-15 people trying to play and the noise level was at an all time high as the little kids kept coming down to see what we were all up to. It was a blast!! One of our favorite lines came from our cousin Brad. The person giving the clue yelled out to their team, "The biggest river in the U.S!" And is his hurry to answer, Brad yells back, "THE NILE!!" It was awesome!
Sunday morning rolled around bright and early and we all headed into church to hear Aunt Lisa speak in sacrament. She's leaving in the next few days to go on a mission!! She gets to serve in Nauvoo, Illinois and we're all so excited for her.
Her talk was amazing, just like her, and I know she's going to make a great missionary. She's always been a hero of mine and when I grow up I hope I can be like her. The past couple of years have turned out to be especially trying for her and her family, and this month is the one year mark of her husband Brian passing away.
But as she taught in her message on Sunday, we are all grateful for the blessings we enjoy, but part of the test of life is to learn to be grateful for the blessings we don't enjoy. It almost seems contradictory, but really, that is a profound truth. We're taught that all things will work together for our good, and that without trials we wouldn't be able to grow spiritually as much as Heavenly Father knows we need in order to return to live with Him and be the most that we're capable of.
That sacrament meeting was so neat because of the chance we had to be there with so many of our family members. As I sat there watching my 12 and 13 year old cousins, and Dad pass the sacrament, and my aunt speak, and another cousin and aunt perform, "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul", and even hear little Brittney singing, "Let It Go" periodically, and just be surrounded by cousins, aunts, uncles, my family, and Grandma Farns, I was reminded of what family really means to me.
Family is everything. It's no question to me that it is the center of God's plan and that if we don't love and take care of our family relationships and spend time growing closer, nothing else that we do in the world is really going to matter.
Anyway, after church we all went back to the Farm and, believe it or not, we had another huge family dinner! Lisa had asked Dad to make pulled pork for sandwiches, and then there were tons of salads, and a cake buffet.
One of Lisa's daughters made this cake:
Grandma's house, busting at the seams once again!
Luckily the weather was nice enough for people to fill a plate and then head out to the deck to eat. It was such a pretty day!
Uncle Dave requested that I get a picture of him with all his food. Here's to you, Dave!
After we ate, and thanks to Kim for remembering to do this, we got Lisa and her kids rounded up for a family picture.
Then, we pushed our luck even more and managed to bring in all of her grand kids from their current occupations of racing in wagons down the hill, catching frogs in the potato cellar, and running around the playground on the Farm.
So there they are, all 11 kids with their best "Mom-eye" as they call her.
And I think one of the biggest miracles of the day was getting all 11 grand kids AND their parents in one place at the same time. I think we were only missing one son-in-law in this picture!
This is actually one of my favorite shots. I was just taking a bunch as everyone started talking and goofing off and to me this is a perfect portrayal of their family.
I spent most of my childhood and beyond taking every chance I could to hang out with these cousins. We've all grown up together and some of my best memories involve Lisa and her family.
Later that afternoon we went back to the basement for some more funny games, and once again, we broke fire code and all sorts of regulations by how full we packed that room.
With that many people, you can only imagine the funny things that were said throughout the course of the afternoon.
Holding with a long-standing tradition, Dad and Lisa had a hot game of Scrabble that evening. When we were little we'd do everything we could to get them to play Scrabble because it lasted for hours - which meant we got extra time to play with the cousins before we had to come home to Boise.
They didn't fail us, and we had plenty of time to sit around and visit and listen to family stories as they had their last Scrabble match for about 18 months.
As we were getting ready to leave, a few of the cousins started playing Charades and it brought back memories of so many Sunday evenings spent at the Farm, which always felt like a little bit of heaven to a girl who's greatest joy was to be in the country surrounded by her big family.
The drive home has become a beautiful punctuation to meaningful days spent with the people we are blessed to be with forever.
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