Together Again for the First Time

My Grandma Fullmer lived here when I was younger but moved to Utah quite a few years ago. When she lived here in Idaho I can remember going to her house every other year for Christmas and seeing her often. When I was about 10 she took me to an organ concert at Ricks College, just the two of us.
After she moved to Boulder, Utah visits were few and far between given the long 8-10 drive. During one visit she and I sat down and played a piano duet together. Someone videotaped us and when we were done my Dad told me that I would always treasure that experience. He was right.
While I was on my mission I e-mailed my family from Taiwan every week and every week I wrote my Grandma a handwritten letter. And every week I received one from her in return, throughout my whole mission. I had always felt like I had a good relationship with my Grandma but throughout the course of my mission she became one of my dearest friends.
At the end of my mission my parents and two of my three brothers came to pick me up. When we flew into SLC a few of my Dad's family members where there to surprise me... including my Grandma. I only vaguely remember some of the other relatives that were there because the one that zeroed in on was my Grandma. I remember breaking down in tears the minute I saw her then giving her the biggest hug ever!
A few months later I spent a few days and nights camping with her at a family reunion in the Teton Canyon, an incredibly wonderful and memorable experience with her.
Less than a year later she was here in Idaho for my wedding.

It would be over a year until I had the chance to see her again when en route to a meeting in Arizona my father-in-law dropped Trent, Ethan, and I off in Escalante, Utah where my aunt Laura picked us up and drove us to my Grandma's house for a surprise visit. It was the first time that Grandma met our son Ethan.



There have been a small handful of opportunities to see her since our little surprise visit all of which were too brief. She turned 91 earlier this month and when I found out that she would be coming to Idaho for a family reunion I was thrilled. The day before she came she called to make sure I would be here because she wanted to stop and see me and the kids. This would be the first time she would meet Kiari. Kiari is nearly 8 months old and I feel like the worst grand-daughter EVER because I keep meaning to print off pictures and send them to Grandma but haven't!!!! I'm awful.
She and my aunt Laura arrived early evening on Wednesday. The day before I had told Ethan, "guess who we get to see tomorrow? Great Grandma!" I showed him a picture of her and he wanted to take it to bed with him that night. When she came over he pulled out the picture and said, "that's you, Great-Grandma!"


Meeting Kiari Bel for the very first time (Bel is also my Grandma's middle name).




This is a water color that my mom painted a couple semesters back and used it in her BFA application portfolio. She then gave it to my Grandma as a belated birthday gift.




My Grandma means the world to me, I love her so much. Once again our visit on Wednesday was much too short. Thursday morning she and my aunt made their way to Teton Canyon for the reunion. I'm hoping to be able to take the kids up for part of the day today to spend some more time with her. I want to take advantage of every opportunity to be with her. She's such an amazing person and I absolutely LOVE the stories that end up being told when I'm with her. I'm so grateful that she was able to meet and spend a bit of time with Kiari, and that much more time with Ethan.
WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!!

My Kids

Ethan is amazing. He'll be 3 in September.... which absolutely blows my mind... he's extremely talkey and very good at communicating... most of the time. He loves to play outside, wear his white shoes as opposed to his sandals, loooooves to read and play at Nana's house, he loves to color, and play in the water when he's washing his hands. A few weeks ago my mom made him a couple super hero capes and lately those are the accessory of choice. He loves popcorn and orange juice, is pretty good about letting me know he's hungry if I've managed a delay between meals, and will eat just about anything we put in front of him. He loves to exercise with me, play at the park, and in his little swimming pool. He loves nursery. He loves his baby sister. He loves running and when going down any steps must always jump off of the last one. He loves to snuggle, sing songs, and play games with his daddy. My little man is amazing and I absolutely positively adore him.
Kiari Bel has so much personality. She started rolling around at 4 months and crawling at six. She loves to stand and pulls herself up to her feet with the aid of just about anything she can reach up to. Yesterday she walked across the front of the recliner for the first time. There's no stopping her now... it's only a matter of time before she starts walking solo. She's can't wait to be able to keep up with her brother. She loves to be held and gets really excited when she's about to be picked up. She has a bit of a mop top and lately all I can manage to do with it is pull it up into a ponytail on the top of her head. She doesn't like to sit still so church Sundays has been interesting ever since she joined our little family. She loves the water and the grass. Yesterday she was crawling all over the backyard. She also loves food. If we're eating it she wants some and a little is never enough. Kiari is extremely gabby and a lot of times if I'm talking she feels it's her turn to be talking as well. She loves music and lately gets excited when we show her pictures of the Savior. She's a bit of a momma's girl. She loves to play and lately her favorite room in the house is the bathroom especially if Ethan's in there. Needless to say we've started closing that door a lot more as of late.
We love our Kiari Bel so much, she's an absolute joy and the 3 of us can't imagine life without her!

Fear

Friday evening I experienced fear as I have never experienced it before.
Ethan was missing.
He was only gone for a few minutes, maybe 5, but if this has ever
happened to you then you know that those few minutes seem like
forever.
I had been at the Rexburg Farmer's Market helping my mom at her
booth, later I went home and returned to the market with Ethan.
The evening was winding down, I ran into an old friend, Ethan was right in front of me on a bench. A moment later I look up and don't see Ethan.
"Dad, did Mom take Ethan?"
"I'm not sure."
Ran over to my mom. No Ethan.
Back to my dad. No Ethan.
The market area's not that big but close to main street and a couple of parking lots.
I start searching the area calling out his name. Thankfully my mom had just painted his face like a pirate so when people asked what he looked like I was able to tell them that.
Its been maybe 2 minutes but I'm feeling borderline hysterical.
3 boys are playing at the front of the Tabernacle.
"Have you seen a little boy painted like a pirate?"
the smallest of the 3, "I saw him go in there."
the oldest of the 3, "you have to go in on the side."
As I run up to the front doors, all of which are locked, what the second boy had said wasn't making sense.... if you have to go in on the side and the three of you are playing here at the front, how on earth did the first little boy see my son go inside?!?!?! If I had only been thinking... had I paused to stop and ask the little boy where and when he saw Ethan I could have been spared the agony of the minutes that followed. But due to the fact that I had been up since 4:30 that morning I wasn't thinking about thinking, I simply wanted to find Ethan.
By this point I'm literally running around the market area frantically calling out Ethan's name, nearly in tears, and praying. I'm making my way to the shaved ice shack by main street when one of the men who had been helping me look said, "they've found him!"
I ran back to see my mom carrying Ethan just outside the Tabernacle. I practically tore him from my mom, found the nearest chair and clung to my little boy. I can't believe I didn't break down. I just sat there holding him. When I asked him where he had gone he said, "I went inside the castle." and did he hear me calling his name? "yeah. I said, here I am!"
Needless to say we had a good long chat about the importance of asking mommy if he wants to go somewhere before running off.
I didn't see who found him initially but based off of what my mom told me I believe what happened was this:
after checking the front of the Tabernacle the older of the three boys asked the younger one who said he had seen Ethan where he had seen him. He then went inside the Tabernacle, found him and led him outside where my mom was making her way into the Tabernacle. If that's what happened then I'm so grateful he took the time to actually think about what the younger boy said and take action.
There are no words to describe the pain I felt inside when Ethan couldn't be found. And definitely no adequate words to describe how grateful I am that he was found.

PAG

Trent started his own glass business a few years back (Platinum Auto Glass) and usually set up to do repairs on Saturdays. But the past few weeks he's been setting up nearly everyday down in Idaho Falls, doing homework in between repairs, and has been getting an amazing response. He loves doing it and I'm so proud of him for how hard he's been working with all that he working to get done with school. Every now and again the kids and I will ride down with him and do our own thing while he works. This was a sweet pic of Ethan sitting with daddy in between repairs. I sure love my boys.

This is Phil. He's a horned toad. But really he's a lizard.
Phil hitched a ride from Utah with my father-in-law and made
his way to our house for a short period of time. Phil was fun
and all but a little high maintenance. He didn't really care
for the food we attempted to feed him nor did he like the
outdoor habit that Trent put together for him. So after
only a week or two Phil hitched a ride back down to Utah
with my dad. A part of me will always wonder what happened
to Phil... so long little buddy. He really was pretty cool.

Photo Op

June was a rainy RAINY month here in the Burg. One night after Bishopric meeting Trent took some great pictures of the temple during a storm.
Pretty cool, eh?
Nice job honey!!

Ward Campout

Toward the end of June our married student ward had a campout and it was so much fun! I wasn't able to go with Trent and Ethan last year so I had been really looking forward to this one. My in-laws have a great little lodge just north of where we are and behind it there's a large grassy area that extends down to a river and they gave us permission to camp up there. Quite a few couples made it. The food was great and the company was even better.



This is my friend Paige. Her husband is a total outdoorsman. While he and a couple other husbands were off fishing he found these HUGE mushrooms. I mean seriously, have you ever seen a mushroom that big?!


So.... the original plan was that Trent and Ethan would sleep in the tent and Kiari and I would sleep in the lodge. But as Trent started putting up the tent I couldn't help but reaaaaally want to really campout. So Kiari and I shared a sleeping bag and roughed it with our boys making it our very first family overnight campout. YEA!!!
I took this picture of Kiari right after she woke up. She's so cute it kills me!!