Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was interesting this year. It was so much easier when the kids were little, but you do what ya gotta do.

Heather and George were able to get a few days off so they went to California for Thanksgiving with his family.

Nathan and Jessica had Thanksgiving with her family this year, though Nathan did bring Macy and went bowling with us (a family Thanksgiving tradition). It was her first time and she had a great time. She loved carrying the ball over to the ball stand and pushing it off. What fun that was.

Matthew and Lavern did their own thing.

Bethany was with Steve and I for the day. It's been a rough year for her and this isn't how she thought she'd be spending her Thanksgiving at this time in her life but we had a good time.

After we went bowling, the 3 of us went to see the movie Unstoppable (another family tradition). It was really good. Then we went over to my parent's house. There were 10 of us, Mom and Dad, Grandma Hatch, my sister Sheryl, her 2 daughters and son-in-law. Kind of quiet and small. (Another sister and her husband had gone to Arizona and spent the day with our other sister and her husband down there) We started a game of Phase 10 after dinner. Bethany's friend, Jordan, came over for awhile and then they left to visit his family. We ended up not finishing the game because it was dragging on and we were all tired. It was a very good day.

Bethany and I were planning on going shopping all night like the last 2 years, but since neither of us really have much shopping to do we decided not to. She spent time with Jordan and his family and I went to bed. I did get up and went to the mall for a few things, hardly anyone was there, it was great. I live about a mile and a half from the mall but I had to go 3 miles out of my way to get there because of closed roads for the West Valley parade (I guess they started a new route this year). We went shopping later in the afternoon, so we did get some girl time in.

I'm hoping that we can all be together for Thanksgiving next year.

Macy is in every picture. Gee, do you think we all like her or somethin'

Candy turkeys Bethany and I made

Shooting Guns

Bethany has a friend who took us out to the mountains to shoot. I always thought that was kind of a dumb thing to do, but it was actually quite fun. I'm not real good at it, but Bethany and Steve have both done it before and had a great time. (I know, I look really mean!)

The Living Aquarium

Steve and I met up with Bethany at the Living Aquarium one day when we had the kids. It was great fun. Macy loved watching the penguins.

This and That

Macy doing her Dora Dance

Halloween

September and October have come and gone and now November is nearly over. Life flies by doing the same ole' same ole'. Our fun days wave running are over. We had such a fun summer with all of the kids at the lake. Can't wait till next summer. We were all able to get together for Steve's birthday on Halloween. What a great time we had.

Last night, Bethany, Heather, George, Steve, and I were able to go to the Temple Square Bell Ringer's concert. It was so good. I have always wanted to hear them. I would love to do that every year.

This week starts a lot of fun family times for the holidays. I am looking forward to being with our kids as much as possible.

A few wedding pics

Matthew's crazy hair

Matthew has always wondered what it would be like to have corn rows. He has been growing out his hair (although it doesn't look that long because it is curly and flips out) so he thought he would try this when his sister in law was in town.

THAT'S MY BOY!!!!!!

More pictures

August

Heather was reading to Macy and every time she stopped and looked up, Macy would take her chin and move it back down to read. It was so funny.

We had a very busy August. Steve, Bethany, and I drove to California for George and Heather's open house. It was a very quick trip. We left Thursday night after Heather got off work, arriving in Pomona at about 5 a.m. We got a few hours sleep and then were taken to breakfast by George's grandparents. We then drove to San Clemente Beach and spent a few hours. Bethany and Heather had a great time diving in the waves. We then had dinner in Laguna Beach with George's sister. Heather and George then went back to Pomona and Steve, Bethany, and I drove to where we were staying in Anaheim, the World Mark condos right across from Disneyland. We didn't get to Disneyland. Geez, who stays there and doesn't go. We just didn't have the time but want to go in a couple of years. We met my sister, Karen, there who had driven from Arizona to go to the open house. We watched the Disneyland fireworks from the top of the condos so that was nice. The next day we drove to Pomona for the open house. It was very nice. George's family really put a lot into it. The next day, Karen left to go back to Arizona and we left to go back to Utah after having lunch with George's family. We stopped to see our friend Marianne and her family in California on our way home. We drove straight through again, getting home at about 7 a.m. What a crazy trip.

We then took a real vacation 2 weeks later. Steve and I went to the Bear Lake condos on August 23rd. We just took it easy and relaxed for a couple of days. Bethany came up on Wednesday morning and the fun began. We took the waverunners out and had such a great time. Bethany is a water tube nut. She just goes on and on and on. We did the same the next day. We got our traditional Bear Lake pizza that night and then drove to Montpelier, Idaho, to go bowling, another tradition we have kept up. I did awful. Steve won both games.

The next day, our friend, Mark, came up with his boat and the 4 of us went out. Mark does all he can to whip Bethany off the tube. It is so fun to watch. Nathan, Jessica, and the kids got there late afternoon and Nathan went out on the boat for his tube match with Bethany. They love to see who can bump the other off. Jessica and I stayed on the beach with the kids. Macy loved it.

George and Heather got there late that night. The next morning we all got up and headed to the lake. It wasn't going to be the greatest weather so we wanted to get there and get going. After setting up our stuff on the beach, I told everyone to go out on the boat and have some fun while I stayed with the kids. I wasn't sure how long the weather was going to last at that point. Off they went. I got Colt to sleep and started playing with Macy. I'm not sure how much time went by, maybe an hour, when a huge windstorm started. Our canopy started blowing over and 2 nice young men helped me get it down. The chairs to falling over and the sand was blowing hard. Macy was so cute. She had tried to hold one of the poles when the canopy had started to blow over. She was saying, oh, oh, and crying, bless her heart. When the guys were helping me, she went over to the tube and stood there crying until I could get to her. It all frightened her. When I got everything down to where it wouldn't blow away I picked her up and consoled her. I got out the walkie talkie and after 5-10 minutes, probably 5 but seemed like 10, I was able to contact the family on the boat and tell them to get back to shore because everything was blowing away. They had just decided to do that as it was getting bad on the lake too. When they got back to the shore, we quickly put the kids in Jessica's car and she headed back to the condo with them while the rest of us put the rest of the stuff in the suburban. It was crazy, everything was full of sand. After getting the boat and the waverunners back to the dock through very rough waters and a long waiting line docking, we went back to the condo and just enjoyed each other's company, played games, did some swimming, and just had a nice time. Macy kept us all laughing. She is so much fun to be around. Colt is also to the point where he laughs and laughs. It was such a great weekend. We missed having Matthew there as he had to work on Saturday, bummer. We lounged around on Sunday and everybody left in the late afternoon. Steve and I stayed until Monday, leaving at about 8 a.m.

What a great time!!!

Heather and George

I just got informed that the event code I put for Heather and George's picture is wrong. I plead temporary insanity. The correct code is Soelberg 072310. There are some wonderful pictures on there.

Heather and George's Wedding Day

Hi all,

I've been sitting here for a half hour trying to download pictures and my computer is not cooperating. Heather and George's wedding WAS WONDERFUL!!! It was so nice to meet George's mom and brother and sisters. We'll be off to California for an open house the first weekend of August.

You can find pictures of the day taken by others, i.e. Bethany and friends Amy and Susie, on my facebook page--Terri Smith Soelberg. Also, her pics from the photographer should be up soon. Go to www.mikesphoto.lifepics.com event code Soelberg 072510. There is also a video on YouTube, type in George & Heather. It is a montage shown at the reception. There is a beautiful video taken at the Salt Lake Temple but I'm not sure if that is there or not. I'll try to get a link to that.

I'll try to get some stuff downloaded to here soon.

Love, Terri

This and that

More of Easter

Macy didn't care for the egg.
She sure had fun looking for them, though.

Heather and Bethany's attempt at getting Colt to hold an egg.

Not much to add to this blog. Steve and I lead a pretty boring life. We look forward to the times we are able to spend with Macy and Colt. I get to see them every Thursday when Jessica goes to work, but it doesn't always work out that Steve gets to see them. He did make a trip to Lehi a couple of weekends ago when I took a little trip to Arizona to visit my sister. Bethany was actually babysitting the kids while Nathan and Jessica had gone out for their anniversary. They both had a good time with the kids. I had a nice visit with my sister.

Some of the fun things I do with Macy: We have a long bubble wand that makes multiple bubbles that she just loves chasing around the yard. She loves to be read to. She loves to push her baby in her baby stroller around the block as I push Colt in his stroller. She just has a big grin on her face like she's such a big girl. So much fun. The other day Bethany and I had her out with the dogs and she took the leash and walked down the sidewalk with Maddie, then Bethany gave her both leashes as they got back to the house. She was so proud of herself. The other day when I picked Macy up, she started doing the funniest thing. I asked Jessica what she was doing and she told me that Macy was talking to the whale, like in the movie Finding Nemo when Dori talks to the whale. I was laughing so hard. She sounded just like Dori. She also was rolling her head and eyes back. It was hilarious.

I planted some flowers yesterday. Hopefully they'll survive. I'm not great at keeping flowers alive, but the good news is that after a couple of days of sun it is supposed to rain again, so really all I have to do is sit back and let nature take care of them, oh, and keep the dogs away from them.

Matthew started a new job as a letter carrier in Orem last week. He'll finally be working days. Nathan's business, Utah Speed Academy, is doing well. He sure loves what he does. Heather is moving along with her wedding plans, should get her dress in about 3 weeks. Bethany is still working as a dental assistant for an orthodontist and is finishing up a math class at SLCC in preparation to take dental hygiene classes. Life moves on.

Easter

We colored eggs with Macy this week (we spilled the green dye, funny stuff). On Saturday, we went to Lehi (Steve, Heather, George, Bethany, and I) and we did a little Easter egg hunt in the Nathan and Jessica's back yard. She caught on really quick. After the guys went to priesthood meeting, Macy wanted an egg. Jessica pealed her one and she took a little bite. She didn't like it, but she wanted one that was another color. Jessica pealed another one and Macy took a bite. She gagged and dry heaved. It was so funny. I'm trying to download the video but I'm not sure it is going to work. If it's not here, look on my facebook page. After this, we had dinner, and then decorated some sugar cookies. Macy loved shaking colored sugar on the cookies. I think she more got on the plate than on the cookie. We all had a great time.

Cruise to Mexico Riviera

Our latest adventure was a cruise with Steve's brother, Danny, and his wife, Ann-Marie.

We left on February 28th, flying to Long Beach, Ca. We boarded the ship around 3:00 p.m. and right away went to the deck with all the food. Hey, we had to eat. By chance, good luck or bad luck, our rooms were on the same level. Very convenient. We just walked around the ship, getting oriented with everything, although that didn't really help, ya still get lost all the time. We had the first of our very nice dinners later that night.
Monday and Tuesday were just sea days, traveling to our first destination. We laid around getting some sun. I went running. Steve and Danny played in a ping-pong tournament, Steve took second, and then played in a free throw contest. Ann-Marie and I took the chance to get some reading done. We played a couple games of Phase 10, relaxed in our cabins, watched a couple of movies. Pretty lazy days. Love not having to clean up or cook dinner. We watched a couple of the shows after dinner.

On Wednesday, we docked in Puerto Vallarta. We went into the jungle where Arnold Schwartzenegers movie "Predator" was filmed. We took 12 zip lines in and out, up and down. Had a great time. We then went to the beach and were bombarded with people selling things. I really hate that. You can't even just look around and enjoy yourself.

I got a little far into the water and a wave came up to my knees. I lost a flip-flop and thought it was lost at sea, but it was washed up to shore where a guy grabbed it and saved it for me. It was so hilarious.

We then took a very scary taxi ride from the beach to the ship. This guy was crazy.

On Thursday, in Mazatlan, we took a bus tour of the city, stopping to see a cliff diver (wasn't much of a cliff) and getting bombarded with merchants again, and then went to a Mexican dancing show. It was pretty good. We then went to a shopping area which was the best place of shopping, not so much haggling. Back to the ship and dinner!!!

Friday brought us to Cabo San Lucas and not so great weather. We took a small boat ride to the end of the peninsula where there is an arch sort of like the arch in southern Utah. There was also a passage (hopefully I'll get the picture on here) where the waters from the Pacific Ocean meet the waters of the California Peninsula. Very cool. We then spent some time on a small but very beautiful beach. It was just a little too chilly and too many bugs so we didn't stay too long. We walked around the shops again for a bit and then back to the ship.

We took off early from the port and spent the rest of that day and all day Saturday at sea. We didn't dock again until Sunday morning in Long Beach. We had to spend a few hour in the Long Beach Airport as our flight didn't leave until 4:30. We got back home at about 8:00 p.m. Home sweet home.

Heather is Engaged.

The Ring

Heather got engaged to George Hickler last night. They will be married on July 23rd in Utah with an open house in the L.A. area 2 weeks later. We can't be more excited. YIPPEE!!!!

They were at Boondoggles and were redeeming some game points. She said she wanted a candy ring pop as a joke for the ring she didn't have yet. Little did she know he had arranged for the ring to be there with the candy. We have it on video. It's hilarious.

A very happy and excited sister!