Nana's House, Alpine Utah 2014

When I was at BYU I lived in Alpine for probably a total of one year in the seven years that I lived in Utah. Alpine is also a magical place for my family now to visit. It is thirty minutes north of Provo and 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City. It sits right up against the mountains and it has been said by many that it looks like the Alps. Not as tall of course, but still so amazing. My mom always always always puts the food out for the week we are there. We usually eat and eat and talk and play and just have a ball. Here are some pictures that the girls took on my phone.

 Julia loves doing her little cousins hair. This is Gina and the girls doing hair. 

 Utah is the mecca for kids entertainment. This place is called Thanksgiving point. It has a brand new

curiosity center that they went crazy in. Kind of like a kids science museum meets disney.

 First trip to Cabella's. Saw my old Sunday School teacher there from about 30 years ago. Russell Gray. What a treat that was. He was the teacher that taught me respect. Celeste and I were talking. He told us to stop or he'd take us down to the Bishop's office and get us in trouble. I remember distinctly the feeling I had in my stomach when he marched us dow to Steve Petrie's office and Bishop Petrie gave Celeste and I a talk about respect. I remember crying and Celeste just stayed calm. I was a major people pleaser. What can I say…but from that day forward I listened in Sunday School.

 My mission companion Muriel Macintosh came down to Alpine to visit. We had a wonderful time. I was also able to see Amy Greeer. My other amazing comp. Such a great time reminiscing of the good ol' Nashville, Tennessee mission days. Seriously some of the best years of my life. Loved my mission.

 Pioneer Day is a huge holiday in Utah. We celebrate July 24th every year to commemorate the day that Brigham Young came down into the Salt Lake Valley and said, "This is the place." A day full of pioneer memories, fireworks and fun. What a blast!

Muriel's kids and mine. Our kids white eyes from the flash makes them look like zombies. Oh well, I don't have time to put it into Photo shop. 

San Carlos, Mexico 2014

                          

The Pearl Farm, field trip.

When I was a 5 year old girl in 1977 my mom and my Aunt Maren pulled us out of school for 2 weeks. We headed down to a beautiful, desert beach off of the Gulf of California. They loaded 11 kids in a suburban and it was the beginning of a tradition that has lasted now for almost 40 years. 

Our family got to go this year. We now live so far away, that we don't make it every single year, but my cousins decided they wanted to try one more time in July to make a one last memory for all of us.

Some of my favorite highlights of the trip were:

1.) The "Sea of Cortez Pearl Farm"-amazing…the scientists that own and run it actually anesthetize the oyster for 30 seconds, put the pearl starter inside and close them up. Four years later, they take the oyster out and there is a beautiful "sea of cortez" pearl…it was an amazing process to learn about. The sad part is…they are closing the University in Guymas where these men teach and so…the future of the Pearl farm is unknown, unless they get some serious marketing. My brother Dave surprised me and bought me a pair of earrings. They were beautiful…I wear them every day. Thank you Dave!

2.) All 50 cousins and aunts and uncles walked down to the estuary one morning and got in the ocean and rode the current to get to the other side. I have to admit, got a little bit nervous when I had Olivia on my back and had to fight the current to get to the other side. I thought for sure I was going to be swept away into the crab/shrimp/fishy territory of the estuary with Olivia on my back. But, I kept my thoughts positive and conquered. It helped having my brother Dave yelling c'mon, c'mon…let's chute the chutes! He's got more energy than 3 of of me combined. So, once we got to the other side, there is this unfinished straw roofed ramada thing. We played a great round of mafia with all of the cousins and just had a ball. Eliza and Tom wandered off to find some of their own nautical shells. 

3.) Night games-when I was little we used to play hide-and-go-see, and kick the can. What I loved this year was watching my children starting their own traditions with their second cousins. They played kick the can, mafia and capture the flag. Love seeing them make memories of their own. It was wonderful.

4.) Two words-La Ley…I think by far my most favorite thing to do when I go to San Carlos is shop at the market La Ley. Every single day, we drive to Guymas and walk into a huge memory of my past. I LOVE the Mexican culture and to shop in the grocery store, talk to the people, taste the baked goods, see the open meat market and the salsa and the MUSIC! They play their brightly colorful music loudly. It's like walking into a party every time you go to the store. Such a fun thing to do…some of my favorite new items that I bought were: coconut yogurt. A coconut flavored drinkable yogurt that is to die for…Sangria…the best tastiest carbonated grape flavored drink…wafer cookies…they had these delicious meat burritos that I discovered at the front of the store in their restaurant area. One day I was craving a shredded carne asada taco, that's ALL I wanted. I walked up to the lady at the front and she handed me the most delicious beff burrito thing and a side of beans for one dollar. It was a deal. Can you tell I love food.

5.)Parry Cafe-this is a tradition that has been going on for a few years, but our family was the first to partake. My brother David Parry and his cute wife Hilary and their 6 kids started opening up their condo for lunch to cook sincronizadas for whomever. Picture a condo blaring some good ole' 80's Police and about 30 kids in swimming suits standing in line waiting for their lunch. Oh and by the way a sincronizada is a flour tortilla with cheese and ham folded in half, butter on each side and lightly fried in a frying pan. Delicious and so much fun!

6.) So, this year I decided we needed drinks out on the beach. I loaded my igloo with ice and Pepsi and limes and other yummy tasting sodas and served drinks to everyone while we yakked and yakked about memories, life and lessons that we've learned. I LOVE to sit around and just talk and talk. I think it runs in the family, because I just met a 2nd cousin of mine who stayed at my house, and we were up till 2 am talking non-stop. Love the memories of hearing stories my aunt Maren and my mom living all around the world as kids while Grandaddy was an undercover espionage spy for the CIA. They pretty much lived a "royal" life. My mom was a serial dater and my aunt Maren kept telling story after story after story of the hearts that my mom broke. Guess that runs in the family too. The weather was breezy, my feet were in the sand and my cup was full of ice cold lime and Pepsi and I just sat and listened and asked questions and laughed and laughed. Pretty much, that is heaven for me.

7.) Adult night games. We gathered every night in Maria Elena's condo with all the cousins and played Mafia , smurf, celebrity. What a blast that was. I just laughed until I cried playing some of these games. My cousin Maren was the best at the smurf game. Her answers to her questions were so great.

8.) Babies-this is the most babies I have ever seen at one time with my McRae cousins. They are all beautiful and darling and it was a treat to hold a cuddle all of these little babies and then be able to give them back to the parents. Tom and I are in a wonderful phase of child rearing right now where we can really enjoy traveling with the kids and they can feed themselves and don't need diapers. It's just SO MUCH FUN to be at the beach and not have babies! But I LOVED that I got to enjoy the babies AND enjoy my own kids. I commend all of you McRaes for coming down with your babies. It's A LOT of work to go to the beach with the babies, and I'm glad you did so I could hold them! There were 5 in all.

9.) Sunsets-San Carlos has the most amazing sunsets. Loved sitting on the sea wall and watching the sun go down with the most amazing brilliant colors behind the mountain. 

10.)Family dinners. As much of a pain as it was to have to have a cooking night (we did lasagna and breadsticks and salad-I know easy right) it was a blast to all 50 of us be together and visit while we ate. One night my cousin Wyatt got his stereo out and we had a family dance. What fun. Although I was the only one dancing from my generation. I guess if you "got it" you "got it" and if you don't you don't. I LOVE to dance and will go to my grave dancing. Thank you very much.

Those were the top 10 memories that I had of Mexico this year. Viva Mexico!

Phoenix-Haboob

The days after Sedona and after Mexico we spent a few short quick days in Tucson and in Phoenix. I grew up in Tempe which is actually metro PHX. When I say PHX, I really mean, Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert and Tempe. Things that we saw and did…

1.) A dust storm. At least that's what we called them when I was a kid. Now the new term is "haboob." I don't know about you, but the term "dust storm" is more descriptive to what is really happening than "haboob." There are just too many jokes that go along with "haboob." For instance, on our way driving down back from Tucson up to Phoenix we drove through two different dust storms. We were running late, because traffic was bad. I texted my cousin and said, "Todd, we are going to be a bit late for dinner. We've hit two different haboobs driving up here." To which he replied, "Every man's dream."

When I was a little girl growing up in Chandler, AZ we used to see the sky get a dark brown color. When the dust storm would hit, we'd be out on the trampoline or in the street facing it head on. There was always a bit of rain following the storm and that is when we'd hit the pool. I grew up in a very free, careless family. We swam in the rain all of the time. I wasn't aware  of the lighting risk until I was older and married a Hapgood. He introduced me to the risk of lightning and water. But I still to this day love swimming in the rain. Also note…there is no better smell in this world than a rainstorm in the desert.

So, with that being said…we were late but had a great time seeing friends, family and cousins galore during those few quick days in Phoenix and Tucson.



2.) Took the girls to see the Mesa, Arizona Temple where Tom and I got married. That was a special sweet day, full of memories.

David's Backyard

Mesa, Arizona Temple

Auto Zone, New Cargo Carrier

Sun shirts for the beach

Dust storm in Mesa

Me, in the middle of the dust storm