Sunday Silliness

We Welch girls are on the same wavelength. Without even trying or talking to each other we somehow managed to all were the same blues and greens to Church this morning. We are so good on coordination! We just do it naturally!


While at Church I saw Kelly Prestwich, who I was in Young Women’s with when I joined the Church. She’s up at Utah State majoring in Psychology! That is a very difficult and ambitious field of study! (Dr. Williams, I love you, but your class was tougher than nails!) It’s really neat to see what some of the girls who I was in seventh grade with are doing now. It amazing how we have all just grown and progress into various stages of life.

During church, one of the sisters who was giving a talk made a little joke that whenever she gives a talk she buys a new Sunday dress. After she was finished the 2nd counselor, Brother Conway, stood up and before announcing the closing hymn said; “Well, Bishop asks me to speak in Church all the time, but I never get a new dress!” It was so humorous!

Today we having a bunch of family over again and we’ve prepared Cranberry Pork-Chops with mashed potatoes! Also one of Nana's neighbors gave her GIGANTIC squashes and zucchinis! I've never seen such large one before! Although because this isn’t Food Network I’m not going into all the details like I have on previous dishes that we’ve had. (I should write for their magazines, tee hee!)




Aunt Karen came in and had brought back some cute boxes from her collection that she no longer wants. She’s giving them to the lovely lady cousins who come to claim them! I’ve already made my choice, so you girls will just have to come see which one you want! They are very nice too! See! See!




Also Nana treated us to some of her fancy Italian candies today! Oh, why did ZCMI have to go out of business?! Why cruel, unloving economics and business!? Well, I’ll tell you why. Those fancy little candies cost anywhere from 12 to 18 dollars a pound! (And that’s before you add shipping and taxes!) But for all those who wish to know the name of the sweet candies it’s Puntini Jujubes or fruit chips. I just wish that there was some were nearby that carried them!


Oh! Now Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Mark have gotten back from their trip up to the Joseph Smith Center. Syndey, just announced to us that her Mom and Dad are silly. Earlier little Sydney gave her Popa a trophy for sleeping. As she says “It shines with brightness!”

A Very Busy Day!

The reunion was lots of fun! The little children had the most fun. There was a pool nearby so that the children could swim before and after the events. Bergen and Matayia played bubbles with Uncle David. It was so cute that the girls would run up and down the hills with Aunt Ronda.




Just after lunch Samuel fell asleep in a wagon. It was just darling! He ended up sleeping through the whole program for the day.




Speaking of which, we learned more my great grandma and great grandpa Welch! We got to see many things that Grandma Nora had made such as a dress and a quilt. Many of her children and grandchildren would retell stories about them. Uncle David told a story about how he had been shot by a bb gun and his grandpa had taken care of him. There were a lot of fond memories to be shared. In fact, one of the cousins, Patra Anne had put together a special book to commemorate of Grandma Nora for all of her grandchildren. When I have some free time I’ll read that so that I can learn more about my family history.










"Good brother!" Was what Sydney said in this adorable picture!

Once the reunion was over we packed up and headed home. Mom and I had a few errands to run up at Shopko. Rather than take a car, we walked the whole way up. It was nice in the shade, but the weather is so hot! At Shopko I had hoped to find a new pair of jeans. (I had ripped my favorite pair fence hopping to retrieve Taylor and Melissa’s ball.) All of their jeans, even the ones on sale, were no less than 25 dollars.
…
…
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What?!


No way! I’m not paying 25 dollars for jeans just to replace my old 15 dollars ones. Which look better even with the rip! Grrr! So I’m going to ask Aunt Donna later if she’ll help me patch them up with some colorful fabric. They’ll look fabulous all for the great price of not 25 dollars! On the bright side I found a cute hoodie that was reasonably priced that looked like the one I drew in that comic I made for when I got my driver's license! Yay!

Well, Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Mark went to DI and had a better time finding bargains than Nona and I. Aunt Sylvia found books for Sydney and Samuel for 50 cents apiece! They bought about a dozen or so of books.

I’ll try to get Mom to blog, but she’s a blog pooper! Nah!

Oh? What's this? It seems that Mom does have something to say: "That’s right Ashley, I love the way you blog, blog, blog. It’s so creativity!!!!!!!!"

(And she nags me on spell check. Tee Hee! Of course I was mean and wouldn't let her change it!)

Picnics

Salut mes amis! Now that we have been well fed I will tell you all about our magical day today! This morning was uneventful, but Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Mark, Sydney, and little Samuel when to Liberty Park for a picnic with some friends. After having a wonderful lunch they were on the way home. Aunt Sylvia had left something in the trunk so they stopped just before leaving the park. While in the back of the trunk a voice called out “You may not park in this area!” Poor Aunt Sylvia was so confused that is until she realized that it was just, my cousin Tanielle’s husband, Chris who is a SLC policeman was teasing her!

While they were out picnicking, I went with Nana, Aunt Donna and Mom to Costco to pick up food for the family reunion tomorrow. (At Murray park!) We got apples, bananas, grapes, blueberries, and all sorts of things. It was pretty amazing to me because everything was in jumbo boxes and jugs and bags and- and! Everything was over whelming BIG! They had a 72 ounce bag of chocolate chips! That’s four and a half POUNDS of chocolate! Can you believe that!? (We bought it so that we could make cookies. Yay!)

After getting back Uncle David, Aunt Ronda, Brittny, Josh, and Tiffany arrived! Aunt Donna blew up a little pool for Sydney to swim in out in the backyard, but woe! Misfortune again! Those evil bees dug their way out and stung poor little Sydney in the back! Nana rubbed baking soda on the sting so it wouldn’t itch. We didn’t have any drinkable Benadryl for Sydney, but Nona had a trick that she used to use on me when I was little! She took the pill and crushed it between two spoons. Then she filled the spoon with medicine with sugar and water. It’s just like Mary Poppins said- er- sang “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!”

Shortly after, Anna, Nana’s Neighbor, came by and made spring rolls and fried rice for us! We set up a bunch of tables outside and had a dinner picnic!



I love her spring rolls! Anna makes them the way they do in South Asia. It was hard to resist the hot, fresh rolls once they came out of the oil! Anna also let me in on a cooking secret that the plain white rice she brought over was from Taiwan while the rice she had used in the fried rice was from China. She said that rice from China was better for fried rice while the rice from Taiwan was better for just being eaten plain or with soy sauce. I have to say she’s right because it was a fantastic flavor explosion in my mouth! Then as if we weren’t spoiled enough we had an enormous chocolate cake for dessert! Thanks for having a Birthday Aunt Karen! Tee Hee!







This is Anna and Nana sitting together. They're such good friends and Nana has adopted Anna as her daughter. So it's like I have another Aunt!: D

Oh man! I feel like since we got here that I’ve been in a gourmet race! (If you haven’t heard that song from the Kirby games you don’t know what you’re missing!)

More people also came for dinner. Tosha, Tyler, and her little boy Stetson came. Then Uncle Vedel, Aunt Jan, and Anna (My cousin) also came. Uncle Vedel and Uncle David were checking on the bees. They sprayed them down with some bug killer. The best part was the bee dance! I only got a video of Uncle Vedel doing it though. Yah! That will teach those mean old bees! But for reals, I think we’ll need to call an exterminator…

Tomorrow is the Family reunion, which I’ve mentioned earlier. So I’ll sign off here and update later tomorrow to tell you how it was! You could say ‘Lots of fun’ Yes?

Arrival from the Misty Cliffs

The excitement continues as yesterday we go into day two of our vacation in Utah! Day was more peaceful and by far less eventful. Well, unless you count the amazingment that is Swedish pancakes! Nana fixed up a whole bunch for us this morning. For toppings we had vanilla pudding, raspberry jam, syrup, and whip cream. (I was spoiled and added chocolate syrup to mine.) It was super yummy!


Melissa and Taylor spent the day playing games and such.



In other news, the evil bees have been buried in dirt. Serves them right and now no one will fall in their hole! I’m actually very happy because I can’t even feel where they stung me yesterday!

Aunt Donna and I went out to run a few errands and while we were out we bought the game Last Word. It’s a brain buster for sure! You have to think of words that apply to a category, BUT (here’s the big but) it has to start with a certain letter! Not to mention you’re being timed by a random buzzer. Tough stuff my friends!

While out running errands, Aunt Sylvia text-ed us and told that there were delays with their flight. However, they were only about a half hour off of schedule and arrived to Nana’s safely! We were so delighted that they could come! Especially Sydney and Samuel. They are just little pudding cups of preciousness! Sydney, Melissa, and Taylor played tea party together while little Samuel played ball.

Today is Pioneer day! Yay! We never celebrate back East. This morning while sleeping Nana dropped a notebook on my head to wake me up. It’s a pretty notebook though. Today there’s a huge parade and I think maybe later there are fireworks. I’ll have to check on that! Tonight we are having a Chinese! Spring rolls and fried rice! Yippy! Well, I might post back later after today’s events to let you know more about what we've done!

Utah: It truly is the Bee Hive State

We've finally made it to Utah and we've had quite the adventures. Upon arriving we lunched at Cafe Rio. Yummy! Yummy! Taylor and Melissa have also come over to the Nana's for the night. We played ball and all sorts of fun games! Unfortunately, we tumbled into a pile of bees that have made their home in a hole in the ground.

Melissa had this to write about the event: "I am Lis and when Ashley was spinning me we tumbled to the ground she fell on top of 3 bees and she got stung 3 times in the neck."

Yes, it's true. For the first time I was stung, not once but three times, by evil bees. I guess karma had to make up for a life time of never being stung. Now we're just watching movies.

We love you! For those that haven't come yet, We can't wait 'til you get here! For those who can't come, We miss you bunches!

And Melissa and Taylor say "Bye bye!"

In the Driver's Seat

Guess who just got a learners permit! No! Not the dog! Me!

That's right! I'll be able to drive now (as long as I'm with someone over 21 with a license.) The roads have just become very unsafe.... more so than usual. The day I got my permit it was raining. Perhaps foreshadowing? Yikes! I hope not! Well! In celebration I drew a commemorative piece!


Yah! Poor cop didn't realize what he got himself into...

I've been dying to try out the brushes I downloaded from deviant art! Thank to the guys who made them! I would have put down were exactly I got the background pictures, but I forgot. All I remember was that I found them through google. Thanks to them too!