Memory Lane

I drove by my old house while I was in St. Charles. It was crazy to me how similar some things were and how much other things have changed. It was crazy driving around and all the memories that popped into my head. I had so much fun growing up here and I miss the space. I'm sure my kids would love having 3 1/2 acres of woods behind their house to run and play in.




The house looks so different now - all painted and fenced in and the trees are HUGE.

20 Years

I can't believe I had my high school 20 year reunion. Where did the time go? In the last year thanks to FaceBook I've gotten back in touch with so many people from high school so I really wanted to go. Then as it got closer it was a crazy weekend for me - 3 weekends in a row of travel is not easy for me. But then the week of I found out that 2 of my friends were going stag and I thought it would be fun to tag along. Todd loved this idea (apparently he didn't really want to go after all). So he jumped online and got me tickets a hotel and a car and 2 days later I was off to good old St. Charles, Missouri.

Friday night there was a pre-party at a bar that a guy I graduated with owns. Of course I was the only person not drinking - but it didn't bother me at all. No-one cared that I don't drink and it was so great to see everyone. 90% of the people at the bar were from my high school.


Saturday night was the reunion. It was at the Ameristar Hotel/Casino right on the Missouri River. I took tons of pictures and it was fun catching up with everyone. Almost every person I talked to said "when did you grow?" .... "were you always that tall?" ...... "what happened to little Kathy Schultz?". I did grow 3 inches after graduation (I was 5'6 and 106 pounds at graduation).

Me, Susan & Andrea

A bunch of friends from FHHS

DeNeshia was my best friend in the 5th grade.

The whole group

Our name tags had our senior picture on them -
it was great how much hair everyone had back in 1990

I'm glad I made the effort to go and that Todd was so supportive and took care of the kiddos. I'm also very glad that know who I am - it wasn't hard to stand for what I believe in since I've been this way my entire life. It's really not hard to be accepted when you know who you are.

Hi. I'm Kathy. I don't drink or swear. I live in Utah. I love to run and I have the most amazing husband and 4 kids. Yes 4 kids - it really isn't that big. I'm very happy and I'm a Mormon.

When I grow up

Conversation between Amy and Tayson last weekend:

A: What do you want to be when you grow up?
T: Either a professional wrestler or basketball player
A: I don't think you have the gene's for that
T: No, but I have the mask and I'm going to ask for an outfit for my birthday

Seriously.....so dang funny!!!

Flashbacks of Grandpa

I was just looking through a few old pictures and found a few of Grandpa Pearson. He never misses an event. He came to all 4 kids baby blessings, Todd's graduation and lots ofadditional trips down to Salt Lake for basketball games, doctors appointments, etc.

Jan, Todd, Grandpa and Sophie

This is my favorite picture of grandpa ever (Claire's blessing).

Great-Grandpa Pearson

Great-Grandpa with his 8 great-grand kids

Emma, Wyatt, Carson, Owen, Grandpa Pearson, Tayson, Luke, Claire & Sophie

Grandpa with his kids

Mark, Milo, Mel, Jan and Grandpa

Grandpa with his sister and brother

Milo (grandpa), Dorlene & Lyle

I sure do love this man. I've only been a part of his family for 10 years and I absolutely love him. My kids absolutely adore him and we have been so lucky to spend lots of time with him over the years. He really is a "great" grandpa!

We love you grandpa!!!

The Birthdays

Last weekend I packed the kids in the minivan and we headed up to Twin to see Great-Grandpa Pearson. Every year we celebrate his birthday (although he always says it's not a birthday party). It was sad that Todd couldn't be with us this year since he had a work training in California over the weekend. But the kids and I went up on our own anyway. The drive was longer than usual since there was traffic and the freeway was down to 1 lane for half the drive but the kids were really good both up and back. We stayed at the same hotel as Jan, Amy and her kids as well as Todd's Uncles & Aunts. You always knew where we were because of the 8 kids under 8 who were VERY excited to see each other. I love the chance to spend time with family (even if I am an in-law).

A few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

The kids in the hotel pool - it was a small, indoor pool which didn't provide much benefit to my tan but it was much easier for the kids and I didn't have to worry about sunscreen on Sophie.

At the party. Every year we have fried chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, watermelon, baked beans and birthday cake. I hurried and made all my kids plates and set them out for a picnic so I could relax, eat and enjoy talking with the adults.

Tayson loves drumsticks

Then the kids played with Emma's backpack and dressed Polly Pockets for a while

After lunch was done Uncle Mel got the kids to clean up and set up Croquet. Tayson lined up the chairs at the back and made all the kids sit in order of when it was their turn. He was very organized and bossy.

Sophie loved playing on grandpa's animals in the backyard. She was sitting on the deer until I snapped a picture (of course).

Nice shot Luke

The boys

Claire hit her ball all of 5 inches each time

The boys playing on the iPad.

These 2 girls are so dang cute together. They were inseparable and had so much fun together. Claire loves "her cousin" Emma

I tried adding Sophie to the mix...and it didn't go so well.

Amy organized a water balloon toss and fight. Here they are getting the balloons ready.

Water balloon toss

Amy is explaining the rules of the water balloon fight to the kids

I love that the boys are going strong and Claire and Emma are still on the porch.

Amy got hit more than anyone else - she was soaked.

It was a fast weekend of food, fun and family. I am so lucky to have married into such a great family. I love heading up to Idaho for the "birthdays" every year (we've only missed a few since we got married). This year I was a bit stressed about driving and being alone with the kids but they were so great. Tayson is such a great helper and he was fantastic this weekend.

Flashback - Washington DC

When I was going into the 8th grade my dad took me, Danny and Heidi on a business trip with him to Washington DC. That is the first time (that I can remember at least) that I went to DC. We drove the van to DC and one of my dad's co-workers drove with us instead of flying (I guess he got to pocket the extra cash....otherwise I don't know why you would ride in a non air-conditioned vanogen with 3 kids).

Most of the days I remember my dad spent in meetings so Danny, Heidi and I were on our own with subway passes, packed lunches and $20 (which I was in charge of since I was the oldest). I'm sure we went to see some of the sites but the things I remember the most are:

• The bum at the mall (you know the big grass park one) who pulled a half eaten hot dog with mustard on it out of the trash can and ate it. I'm pretty sure that is the first thing we told my mom about our trip to DC.
• Sitting outside of the museums as still as we could to see if bird poop would land on us. The game was whoever didn't get hit with bird poop won. For the life of me I can't remember the outcome but I remember sitting there forever with poop all around us.
• Eating pizza with my dad at some underground shopping mall.
  

These pictures prove we actually did sight see.

Me & Heidi at the Air & Space Museum
(that was my favorite outfit - I even bought it with my own babysitting money)

Heidi posing on a light post outside the capital

I have so many fond memories of that trip. I hope Tayson remembers his trip when he's old like me.

Washington DC - the end

We went swimming at the hotel pool on our last day. Steve, Christine and the boys came and swam with us. Todd even taught the boys how to play "marco polo". Then we packed up and left for the airport.


The subways don't run as often on Sundays and the lady in front of us at security had all sorts of crazy stuff in her carry on which took forever so we were running a little late. We were starving so I hurried and got McDonald's to take on the plane. We were pretty much the last 2 people on the plane and my heart was racing by the time we got seated but other than that it was uneventful. The flight was a non-stop and Tayson was perfect on the flight.

It was such a great trip. I hope it's a trip he will remember forever. I loved spending so much time with him one on one. He said his favorite part of the trip was riding the subway and swimming at the hotel pool. Typical Tayson.

Washington DC - Day 5

This was our big tourist day. We walked and walked and walked. We did as many monuments in one day as we could. We started our day at the White House. Tayson was more interested in the squirrels than in the actual White House.

Then we hiked it all the way up to the Lincoln Monument.

In this picture I'm at the top of the Lincoln Monument and Tayson and Todd are at the bottom holding up their hands...you have to look close.




It was super hot and we were very sweaty so Tayson decided to take off his shirt.

While I was in line buying some ice cold water the girls in front of me were talking about how deceiving it is to call this place "The Mall". I mean there aren't any shops and it's all outside. HA!
Tayson took this picture and I absolutely LOVE it. I think Todd looks so hot in this picture. Both in looks and actual temperature.

The Korean War Monument

The WWII Monument

Tayson told Todd and I we aren't from Utah so we had to get our pictures with California and "St. Louis" as Tayson called it.

I was facebooking what we were doing when Todd snapped this picture then made fun of me.

The Washington Monument

The guys next to us did a way cooler pose than we did...next time maybe Tayson and I can pull out our best break-dancing pose.

This is as close to the Capital as we got. We were so hot and hungry by this point.

We went to lunch at the American History Museum. It was close and air conditioned. It was expensive and I didn't love my lunch very much. But it was air conditioned and close...did I already mention that?


After lunch Steve picked us up in his air conditioned mini van...have I mentioned how hot it was? He drove us to the Jefferson Memorial or "Jeff's Memorial" as Tayson calls it.

Allen took this picture of us - the only one I have of all 3 of us together on this trip.

Ryan, Allen and Tayson

There were so many pictures of my rear on the camera and several times Tayson said "dad just took a picture of your bum mom." Nice.

This picture makes me laugh. The kid is HILARIOUS to me.

Steve was so awesome to pick us up and drive us around

We went to another Air & Space Museum out by the Dulles Airport. It had lots of planes, helicopters, missiles and a space shuttle. It was awesome.

Tayson with his Blackbird
The souvenir he bought was a blackbird model plane from the A&S museum. He was so mad at me that I didn't pack it in the backpack so he would have it with him in this picture.

This is something fancy Steve worked on while he worked at Ratheyon

And I was really hoping to see a real harpoon and tomahawk since my dad worked on these when I was growing up....but these will do.


That night we met a friend of mine from BYU. It was so much fun to catch up. I haven't seen him for over 10 years. Man how time flies.