Fathers Day

I would like to extend a thank you for all of the wonderful fathers and grandfathers out there that make my life so great. Our father’s day celebration started out at DeAnn and Doug's (Tommy’s parents) on Saturday night. Doug kids were up there (from a previous marriage) and we had a special gift to give Doug for father’s day. We wanted everyone together for that and they are always a blast to hang out with. We Barbequed, which was delicious, and had a good time. After dinner we were going to go down and watch ‘I am legend’ on the big screen. DeAnn had hidden his present in the washroom and waited for him to come back in the dining room. When he came back he looked puzzled at the garbage bag on the table. DeAnn said “ you want to come open your present?”. We all sat down and my heart was beating a little harder than it should have. OK it was beating like I had to give a talk in front of 5000 people. You see back in January, Doug’s mother had passed away, she died suddenly from a stroke and it was really hard on Doug and his family. In March, DeAnn had asked me to do a portrait of Sheryl (Doug’s Mother) for Father’s Day. I have been working on this pastel painting from that time on and praying that he would see the resemblance between his mother and this lady that I had drawn. As he opened the Black garbage sack and started to pull the 18x24 picture out he looked a little confused, this sped my heart rate up past where it is healthy. And then he started to get tears forming in the outer corners of his eyes, I had never seen Doug get remotely emotional (he is like my husband, a truck could fall on him and he still wouldn’t cry)
I was truly thankful that he recognized who it was supposed to be and touched that it touched him so much. He thanked us all and gave us hugs. The rest of the night was fun.
As the celebration continued the next day we spent time at all the many fathers and grandfathers. We finished up the night at my mom and dad’s eating apple pie and watching the boob tube. I love you dad

Camping in Fillmore Utah

So this last memorial weekend we went camping with Tommy’s mom's side of the family. It rained a lot but we had lots of fun. It was our first camping trip where we had our own tent. We played a lot of Mexican train dominoes and The Great Dalmuti. We also had a digital scavenger hunt where we were supposed to find all these different items all worth different points. The picture had to have the item and one of the team members face in it. One of the highest point items was a snake; Luckily Tommy had killed a rattlesnake earlier, while fishing with his cousin Jaysen and grandpa Bill. Our team hopped in the truck to hurry and get a picture of the dead snake, as we approached we find out that Jaysen had pitched it into the river. He's pretty competitive. We gave up on the snake and continued to find the other items. We stopped to get a picture of a culvert that was sticking out of the mountainside. Me and Doug (Tommy’s Step-father, who is also the photographer) jump out of the truck. We quickly take the picture of the culvert and run back up the mountain side, as I get to the top, ready to get back into the truck, Staci Jo (cousin) yells "Sierra, there is a snake right by your feet", I look down and can't see it until it starts slithering down the mountain, I thought to myself, what are the chance of this, so I start running down the mountainside after this 6 foot red and black stripped snake, yelling at Doug to get a picture. It was getting away and so I grabbed its tail and lifted it a bit. It scared me and I dropped it, all the time yelling at Doug to get the picture. It finally slithered into a hole and was lost forever. When we got back to the truck I was praying that Doug got the picture. Well.... he did and we won! Later that day we went on a hike. In the 70’s Tommy’s great uncle went coo coo and went up into the mountains to live. Last year we found his hide out and went back up there this hiking trip. He lived in a cave in the side of the mountain; we found a water basin, mattress, bedsprings, and lots of other cool stuff. It was pretty amazing! What a fun trip!