Why can't it be sunny?

I have figured it out. It can't be sunny right now because Mother Earth is saving all of the sun shine for the end of May. If you don't know by now, John and I will be leaving on VACATION on May 15th. We will be camping for a whole week. Don't worry we love it and will take a shower at least once while we are gone. We are looking at doing "Mom's Tacos" on May 23rd. We may have to change the date depending on Dad's singing schedule. If you find that you are in the Cache Valley area anytime before May 25th we would love to have you stop by. Our address: Up Blacksmith Fork canyon, in Left hand, on Hyrum city property. If you need something closer you will just have to start asking folks when you get close. We will be participateing in "School Days" or DAZE once its over, on the Tuesday and Wednesday. We have a lot of fourth graders come and learn lots of skills and facts about the Mountain Men. It is a lot of fun and we love to see kids really get into learning because they are a part of it. Most of them think that we live there all of the time. No real job, house, car, or modern things.
Hope to see you all there. Enjoy your month of May. I know we will:)

Great Weekends must all come to an end

Last weekend was a pretty good start to what we hope will be a great summer season. We have now had the tipi up twice this year and can't wait for May to start so we can put it up again. Last weekend we had a BLAST shooting guns. What was going to be a black powder shoot soon evolved into lots of boys and girls playing (shooting very safely) all kinds of guns. Some large, some small all noisey enough to scare the neighbors off of their dirt bikes and make them want to find some other canyon to play in. Nash and Bailey win the prized for most rounds fires. It was so cute to watch "Uncle Nash" and Bailey go up and shoot 22's. She was excited to show him how good she was with a gun. He hooked her up with his kgun and a few more rounds of ammo. She was worried about paying him back right away. I think that happened when she got done shooting and cleaned her gun adn Nash's. That beats the heck out of having to haul it home and clean it later. :) We had a very relaxing time and didn't do anything if we didn't want to. The weather was perfect. It was cool enough in the night to want a little fire in the tipi but it wasn't so cold you couldn't stand to start one. There was a lot of run off running in the left hand river. Andrew did manage to catch a few fish. That means Grandpa Gene better get his fishing stuff ready so that he can feed us all in May. If he catches his limit for a week he may be able to feed us all. Brinley had a fun time digging holes with Rex. It was even more fun to fill the hole with water and make a "mud pie". Saturday night the campfire was very entertaining. We had music from about every gnere you could imagine. Every one enjoyed listening and singing and having a good time. We saw guitars played by folks we didn't k now played. That means you better have your set lists ready by May. I'll be waiting to hear from you all:) Now we are back home and maddly working on projects to get them done in time to get up the canyon and enjoy being out of touch with society. Til next time.

We will MISS Elliot

My nephew Elliot has been living with us while he is attending Weber State. He moved down in August of last year so he could attend Weber State with out having to ride the bus each day. It has been a lot of fun having him here with us.

*Dinner is always a great conversation time
*I have learned a lot of information
*I always have help with the dishes
* He always helps put "repeats" in the fridge

* The garbage is never full and in need of emptying
* He is the best grocery runner ever, it saves me a few trips
* We love hearing about his weekends :)

* He is a great sport at going to family night with us

* He & Uncle John like to tease me about the prayer angel
* He shovels walks well and even enjoys throwing snowballs for Bella
* He can carry more groceries in from the car than I can

* He will split a box of mac and cheese with me and like it
* He should join my "no TV for the summer" because he wins hands down
* He is a very independent roommate
* I can "experiment" on dinner and he will always at least try it:)
* I don't have to pick up the mail or bring in the paper
* I now Facebook because of him
* He was a good sport about my holiday decorations
* Snowflake may follow him to Brigham because she will miss him being in the basement
* He can solve any problem I have or at least will give it a good thought
* He will be a great Missionary in a few months!!!
* Maybe he will serve in Ogden so he can stop in:)
* Some day I will get to tell his wife stories about him
* Some day he will be able to tell his kids a bout having to live with his crazy aunt and uncle during his Weber State career.


Elliot, Thanks for helping out and being the best roommate. We loved having you here. When you are out in the Mission Field we hope to have at least one letter and we will write to you often. I will even send photos and let you now about the baby. You make children look EASY!!! Good luck with the job hunt. You are always welcome here if your siblings have taken over your room:) Love Aunt Mandy & Uncle John

Supper Slumber Sleepover

Skyler came to stay at Grandpa's and M's house on Thursday night. We picked him up with plans to make it back out to the Fort in time for bed but we didn't get back until late so we decided to just stay at the house and go to the Tipi in the morning. We had a picnic on the bed and enjoyed flipping throught he cannels on the t.v. That totaly annoyed Gramps because someone else had the remote. Sky even went so far as to bring up the remote from the basement so they could each have one. Friday we went the the Rendezvous at Fort Beunaventura. It was a great day. Once Skyler warmed up to all of the other little kids in camp he was off and enjoyeing running around with the big kids. He spent Friday night in the tipi and was so excited to wake up in the morning and find a doll to play with. I started a fire and he put the doll to bed. He made sure to wrap her up very tightly and put her head on the pillow. That was entertaining enough to keep him occupied for a few more minutes of shut eye for me. Then Sky and I had breakfast and started the day playing with Brinley and Bailey. Gramps finally woke up around noon just in time for company to show up. Greg, Jill, Dad G, Dad I, Carol, Nick, Alice, Josh, Jen, and Jake came to visit. We had breakfast and enjoyed a day out on the town shopping. Now the count down starts until Cache Valley Rendezvous. We will set up on May 9th and then head up on the 15th to stay until May 25th. Hopefully you will find your way to Left Hand Fork in Hyrum to stop by and visit.

I looked out the window and what did I see....

Popcorn popping on the plum tree. Spring is here. This weekend was beautiful weather. When we got home from our weekend we had trees in our yard in full bloom. They look so nice. They smell wonderful and hopefully in a few months they will taste delicious. Ok, maybe the trees won't taste so good but the fruit on them will. The early spring flowers have made a great showing and the re planing we did last year paid off. We actually have flowers blooming next to each other:)

Our Easter Lilly that our friends brought us last year didn't make it out for Easter but it is growing and it has had an off spring. Hopefully it will like growing in a lot of shade. Today is a rainy day but the trees and flowers give me hope that in a few days it will be nice again. Maybe tomorrow the flowers will have to push through snow to give me hope but I am sure they can. They are strong little flowers. I love spring.

SURPRIZE!!!

It's a BABY!! It's a BABY!! It's a BABY!! It's a BABY!! It's a BABY!!

Come December we will be toteing the new little Garcia around with us. We are very excited. Just when you think life is settleing down...SURPRIZE!!! This is the hard stage to shop although it is very fun to spend time in the baby stuff. NOTHING is gender neutral. Since baby Jelly Bean has not yet let us know if it is a he or a she...WE have to guess and hope.
What's your guess? We would love to hear from all of you what you think the baby will be.

More to come after the next appointment.

Melba Lunch

Yesterday the girl cousins on my mom's side of the family went to lunch. It was a ton of fun. There are six girl cousins and we all managed to clear a lunch hour on the same day and meet at the same resturant all at the same time. That is a near miracal in my eyes.
We laughed and visited and had a nice time. It is nice to get together even if it is only a few times a year and spend a few hours re connecting. On the way home Paige and I were talking about how sometimes we loose sight of the fact that FAMILY is all you have when you come right down to it.
It is easy to get wrapped up in all of the things that you have to do, things you want, places to go, jobs to do, vacations to take, but then when you come right down to it FAMILY is it.
Grandpa was a great sport and took Savanah and Lena to lunch while the mom's were out to a party. They had so much fun and when the girls wanted to walk to the dam, Grandpa followed behind to keep tabs with the spotting scope. I wonder how many times he followed behind me with out me knowing just so I would be safe? :)
Sometimes you don't see eye to eye or even share the same desires in life. Deep down inside of you there is something that connects you maybe a "gene". Even if we only see each other once a year when we all get together there is something special about it.
I have the greatest FAMILY in the world!!! I got extra lucky and married into a FAMILY that is just like my own so I have double great FAMILY!!
Thanks Robyn, Karen, LuAnn, Paige and Lori for a great time at lunch. See you all in October if not sooner.

What didn't we do this weekend???

WOW!! Who would have thought you could do so much in a weekend? My weekend got off to a great start on Thursday night. My sister Paige came to Utah from California. Lena and I met her at Thanksgiving point to pick up Savanah. Lena, Savanah and I stopped for dinner...you guessed it there was a cheese burger on the menu.

After that we went home and found Uncle John. Friday started like a regular work day. Then, when it hit 5 o'clock somewhere and we hit the dollar store. We were kids on a mission looking for things for the Easter Bunny to hide at grandpas.

We hurried home so that two of Matt's girls could come down and join the party.

We played everything you could think of. Sidewalk chalk, store, bakery, hotel, design world, football, frizbe, papper mache eggs, dry cleaners, house...You name it we did it.



When it got time for dinner I mixed up pizza dough and let the girls play reasturant. We made the best clazones you have ever eaten. Everyone LOVED picking out what they wanted in their pizza. The girls were very happy to have three adults to make a calzone for. We threw in an extra order just for good measure.


Then the girls took over the basement and the grownups visited upstairs. Soon it was bewitching hour so off to bed.
Saturday started out with marking camp sites for next weekend. Then breakfast and off to the RACES again. At noon we started out to return the children to their rightful owners and came home to a quiet house. It's wierd to not hear anything going on after such a great time.

Before long Zack came to play. We did our best at fidning an iteresting craft. I made an apron:) Zack made confetti eggs, Easter decorations and lots of cool crafts, and Uncle Gene made new leggings.

Sunday morning Nash came over for breakfast, Zack and I made cupcakes for the party, and played "Sid the sience kid" with ever thing in the kitchen. We had the episode titled "will it sink or will it float" It still amazes me how long a sink full of water and the top drawer full of "stuff" will be great entertainment not only for a 5 & 3/4 year old boy.