VISITING OUR FAVORITE AUNT JEANNE!

 My most favorite aunt was diagnosed with ALS Feb 2022 and sadly it is progressing quickly. Jennifer told me that I needed to come in January so I could talk with Aunt Jeanne while she could still talk. So I booked a trip and Randi and Richelle joined in on the fun! 

Jennifer told me that the Sacramento airport was the airport I needed to fly into and I told her that I didn't care what we did at all while we were there I just wanted to go to my grandparents old stomping grounds since I hadn't been back since we buried Grandma Mason in January 2012. Nothing had changed!! It was unbelievable! It still smelled like grandma's house on the outside (yes, there is a smell - maybe the fig tree smell?), the house looked the exact same minus the red truck parked in front of it, I would have given anything to have been able to walk in that front door and see my grandparents sitting in their recliners waiting to greet me. Then we took a picture infront of the Barlin street signed (named after my mom and her twin sister). Then we went on the walk which included walking past 2 houses that my great grandpa built, going on the freeway overpass and then running up the freeway underpass and racing Jennifer even though back in the day it would have included racing my siblings. Then we headed up the road to Vic's icecream, ate lunch and ate ice cream cones. 

Randi and Richelle wanted to find Grandma and Grandpa Willyerd's old Sacramento house. After calling Uncle Richard and my parents, they all gave us little pieces to the puzzle, but not quite an exact address. Randi did some map searching and came up with a street. My mom emailed me a picture from 40 years ago and thought that might help - we laughed at her. Then she got the last laugh - that picture 100% helped us identify the house. We even confirmed it with the stranger in the garage after we talked with her and she confirmed that a mormon family had previously owned it and that the dad was a doctor. She gave us a tour of the backyard and it was exactly as Richelle remembered it. She then even pulled her car in the garage so we could get a picture in front of her house. She was a very kind and helpful lady and we loved going down memory lane! Then my mom called us again and begged us to go back to her old house that she lived in for 18 years...so we indulged her and did! 

Willyerd house: 4139 Los Coches Way, Sacramento, CA  

grandma's house she grew up in: 3720 Lily St, Sacramento, CA 95838

Mason's house: 1108 26th Ave, Sacramento, CA 

Finally we headed back to Jennifer's house! We spent the rest of the weekend, hanging out, talking, organizing the pantry, making sea glass art till 1am, going to church, taking Titan on walks, chatting with Jon and Sondra for a little bit, Kristen for a little bit, but mostly just making sure we were catching up with Aunt Jeanne. I even got to give her a foot massage, blow dry her hair, sit next to her at church and of course take home some wooden bowls from "Armando" aka Uncle Eric. 

It was a sad goodbye - I hate goodbyes!! I need to go back!! But so grateful for my family for letting me escape and running out there! I am so blessed with a big family and mostly with all these cousins who are my best friends! Aunt Jeanne told me how good I was for Jennifer but it goes both ways! So grateful for parents who drove us 12 hours every year - sometimes twice to Sacramento to visit my grandparents and then always stopping at Uncle Eric and Aunt Jeanne's house too! Memories I hope to last a lifetime! 

LITTLE COUSIN HELPING BIG COUSIN!

 We went over to Jenn's house for another hair cut and Eli wants the ends of his hair to flip out at the bottom - it happens to be how Masen's hair is now. So we called Masen in and he started giving Eli some helpful hair tricks! It was the cutest!

EMMAS NEW YEARS EVE GET TOGETHER!

 Emma's high school friends are mostly all back from their missions now and with it being Christmas break everyone is hope for Christmas so she decided to invite them over for pickleball, snacks, corn hole, etc. during the day! Then that night her and Anni went out to some New Year's Eve parties! 

SNOW TRIP!

 We headed up to Nathan's cabin for a couple of days to play in the snow during Christmas break! I nailed Eli in the balls with a snowball dropped him to the ground, somehow we avoided many trips to the hospital despite all of our close calls with kids sledding right into trees, rocks, etc. Me, Emma and Jenn built a snow couple.  It was a great relaxing little trip! 

CHRISTMAS 2022!

 Oh it was a good Christmas season this year for sure! First Christmas in our forever home and it felt like we had been here forever - just like it should feel. We spent many nights over the month of December staying up late and watching Christmas movies together, Jared took off of work for 2 weeks over Christmas and he has been playing pickleball with the boys, him and Tyler have been working on the red bike and replacing chains, brakes and we even did family workout sessions together in the garage gym!  

This year for our service project we went to downtown Phoenix and volunteered at St Mary's Foodbank. Eli and Jared worked outside unloading the carts of food into the people's cars. Me, Emma and the twins got stuck on the milk station. We had to put 15 little milks into a bag and put 2 bags into a cart and push it to the next station. It sounds easy, and it was...but it was the longest station and our backs were killing us! Next time - we ain't doin' no milk station - we will take the easy salad station - ha ha! 

We drove around and looked at lights in Agritopia this year, went to the Mesa Temple to look at those lights, picked up dinner and dessert and came back for another movie. 

The Sunday before Christmas we did Jensen Christmas at Nate's house. Everyone had to do a little Christmas thing for the family show so our family did a tik-tok dance and then Kara's family did the bells and then that was it. No one else did anything. Then we all played a couple of songs with the bells and then Brandon played his guitar and we sang a couple of Christmas songs. 

On Christmas morning we opened our gifts from Santa, had breakfast, rode Tyler's new bike and then went to church. Then that night both sets of grandparents came over and we all had dinner together with Rj, Dalton and Alyza. After dinner we played Left Right Center and Grandma Rodgers won the whole thing and the grand kids took some of her winnings! Then we all relaxed to another Christmas movie and then to all a goodnight! 

We soaked up a lot of Christmas memories together!! This was one for the books!