I'm originally from Missoula Montana and have a lot of family still in that area including my Dad. The reason for our trip was to celebrate his years of hard work with a retirement party planned by my Big Sister Tanya.
There were a lot of firsts going on at this event.
1. Steve got to meet everyone on my side of the family.
2. Gabe was baptized
3. Dad’s retirement party
4. We got to see Shawna bring home her newly adopted daughter and watch Maya meet her little sister for the first time.
So the first big event was Steve got to meet a lot of my side of the family for the first time. This is no small feat. On my dad’s side there are 8 children, most of which are married and have children of their own. All together we have 22 nieces and nephews from my side of the family.
The first to arrive was my sister Tanya, her husband Steve and her daughter Tessa. Tanya also has a son named Dillon who was attending school at BYU Hawaii and loving it. Steve has five children, so they have their hands full. They live in Oregon. Steve is a Stock Broker and Tanya is a school counselor/advisor.
The next to arrive was my sister Deidre. Deidre is married to Layne and has two sons, Boedy and Talon. The boys stayed home with their dad. Deidre is a very skilled dental hygienist and I think Layne works for Microsoft.
Next was my Aunt Evon and Grandma Marge. They flew in on Thursday night from California. My Aunt Evon is my dad’s sister and is married to Lamar. She has two grown sons, several grand kids and loves her horses. Lamar is an accountant and Evon recently retired. My grandma Marge loves to play tennis but recently stopped. She lives with my Uncle Jim and his daughter.
My little brother Joseph arrived on Friday night. He is going to school in Logan. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met and I love to talk video games with him. Hopefully soon he will come and hang out with us for a weekend.
Steve had already met my brother Brandon, his wife Mandy and their two sons Gabe and Ryan. They live in Missoula and recently just sold their home. They are building something larger in the same area and have even more exciting news. They are expecting their third in October! Brandon works for quest and Mandy is a stay at home mom which keeps her incredibly busy especially with two boys.
On Saturday morning my brother Damon, his wife Mary and their three children: Alexander, Eli and Isabelle came. We saw them at the baptism. They currently live in Idaho Falls and Mary is going to school to be a teacher. This was the first time I got to meet their children. They used to live in Alaska, until Damon retired from teaching History and English (I think).
The last to arrive was my sister Shawna. Her and her husband Mike arrived just before the start of the retirement party. They found out earlier in the week that they were going to be able to pick up their adopted daughter Alma from Guatamala. They have been trying to adopt her for two years. Shawna and Mike have four children: Thayne, Sydney, Maya, and Alma. Thayne recently came back from his mission and is attending school in Logan. Sydney is also attending school at BYU. Maya is sooo sweet! She is about 6 and was adopted from Russia. Alma is the newest edition to the family. She is sooo cute ! Shawna has a degree in genetics (I think) but is a stay at home mom. Mike is an orthopedic surgeon. They just moved to Spokane Washington and are currently building a home.
The only one unable to attend was my little brother Nate who was in St. George.
So Steve has now met all of my siblings and a few more nieces and nephews. I managed to share some embarrassing stories and pictures of Steve. Probably not the best thing to do for first impressions, but I wasn’t thinking and thought they were funny.
Gabe’s Baptism was really nice. Tessa sang a very beautiful song. She is very talented. Steve (Tanya’s Steve) gave a really good talk on the holy ghost and Mandy’s mom gave a talk on Baptism. It was funny to hear the pronunciation of ‘bag’ and ‘rag’. People used to ask my mom and sisters when we first moved here about their accents because they would say ‘beg’ and ‘reg’. Every once in a while you can still here one of us say something off. Mine is usually ‘warm’.
Brandon was joking about how to get Gabe to go completely under the water. They had mentioned tripping Gabe to get him all the way under to which Brandon responded, “ I can get him all the way under, the hard part is doing it in a way that won’t make him cry.” I thought that was pretty funny. Gabe did go all the way under, however and is now an official member of the church and very excited.
The retirement party was really fun. Tanya did a great job planning it and mad an amazing cake and decorations. We set up several round tables at the church and put tablecloths with Hawaii/tropical wraps on them, then there was a glass vase on the center with a floating flower in it.
Traci and Deidre put together some pictures that they had taken/found. Traci did a really cool set of six black and white images of his dental tools. They were amazing! She is such a talented photographer. Deidre found several old pictures of dad from when he graduated dental school. It was fun to see those. I don’t have a lot of pictures of my dad from when he was younger.
Tanya also created huge palm tree cutouts from felt that we hung on the walls along with strings of colored lights. They also put together a great playlist of Beach Boys and Elvis.
There were several great items to eat. Tanya put together a menu of cake, chips and mango salsa, vegetable trays, dried pineapple, bananas, pretzels, and marsh mellows to dip in a chocolate fountain. There was a regular sheet cake for people to eat and then the really pretty one that Tanya taught me to make. She took Jam and cream cheese frosting and mixed them to create the filling. Then used Cake mix and made two large square cakes, two medium cakes, and two small cakes to make a three tier cake with delicious filling. Then after she frosted it, she added pretty fake flowers.
There was a very large turn out with several friends and patients. The new dentist who bought the practice also was there. He is very nice but very young.
Before the retirement party Shawna and Mike arrived with Alma. It was very touching to see Maya hug her little sister for the first time. It was a very heartfelt introduction. Shortly after they left to head home to Washington.
The rest of the time we were there was spent bumming around the town. We went to dad’s office and took a few pictures. We had our last outing to Hoagieville. They have the best hoagies and cheese fries. We also went shopping a lot. I did forget to get a chocolate covered frozen banana and a carrot cake from Rosarres but that’s okay. I also forgot to give Steve the tour one more time of all the places we lived. That just means we will have to take one more trip up.
It was a very fun trip and we got a lot done in the short amount of time we were there.
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