A Beautiful Day!

Jared and Shannon are married! August 11th was a beautiful day at the Mount Timpanogas Temple! I am so happy to have a new sister! We love you, Shannon!




Check out this link to a music slideshow of the wedding day.

The backyard wedding reception was so much fun! Towards the end there was dancing on the grass. The boys LOVED this part and Tyler cried when I stopped dancing with him! What a fun memory! We all had fun with the big send off! The cousins decorated Jared & Shannon's car with post-it notes and balloons! Justin was so happy to be a part of that. Congratulations to the newlyweds!

Kisses

What: The Famous Jolley Grocery Shower
When: Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Where: Jolley Reunion at Wallsburg, Utah (near Deer Creek Reservoir up Provo Canyon)
Who: The happy couples: Jared Davis & Shannon Hill; Andrew & Marianna Thiriot; Bart Burdette & Molia; and Paul & Nancy.
Why: A grocery shower has been held over the years for each newly married or soon-to-be married Jolley child or grandchild. I'm pretty sure it all began with my parents when they got married. This year, four Jolley cousins are getting married. We decided to hold the shower during the Jolley Family Reunion.
How does it work: The couples are contestants on the "Newlywed Game" with a bunch of get-to-know-you questions. Afterwards, when each couple opens their gifts, the ribbons and bows are tied in the girl's hair. For the groom to kiss out, of course! :)







It was a good reunion. Justin had a great time with Grandpa Davis' water-balloon launcher. Justin and Tyler had so much fun running around with their little cousins for three days and sleeping in a tent for one of the nights. He got to get up early one of the mornings and go fishing in a canoe with Grandpa Davis and Dad. He keeps asking us, "When will I be able to go 'fishing in the morning' again?"

Aloha

Hello, Sabbatical!

On July 26th, we took off on our first road trip to Utah with the boys. On the 30th, Travis and I left the boys with Grandma and Grandpa Davis in Provo while we flew to Hawaii for a week of bliss. We called it our "7th Anniversary/Happy Birthday Travis Getaway". We visited the island of Oahu and stayed at the Marriott KoOlina Timeshare Resort. What a dream!



We were able to attend a temple session on our first morning. The temple grounds are gorgeous!



The Polynesian Cultural Center was great! We enjoyed the different island presentations and especially the canoe pageant. The dancers from Tahiti were my favorite to watch.





Our luau dinner was a lot of fun and the big evening show was wonderful! We would have loved to have spent another day there.

On Wednesday morning, we visited Pearl Harbor. We went on a very interesting tour of the memorial with a boat tour out to the on-site memorial for the US ARIZONA. It was a very emotional visit as we learned about those who experienced the attack. As we waited for our tour to begin, Travis and I checked out the swap meet down the street at the Aloha Stadium. We bought a little surprise for the boys.



At the Dole Pineapple Plantation we took a little train tour. It was interesting to see how pineapples are grown. I didn't know this before, but they just chop off the head of the pineapple and plant it with the leaves poking out of black plastic that is spread out in the field. I enjoyed seeing mango trees, banana trees, papaya trees, macadamia nut trees, birds of paradise plants, bamboo, and many other tropical plants. We also had a tasty pineapple whip cone and fresh pineapple to snack on.



This was our suite at the resort. It was so nice, we didn't want to leave! I loved the beautiful kitchen with granite countertops and the his and hers bathrooms. We stopped at Costco on our first day and bought food for the week. I didn't mind going back to our room to eat because it was such a fun room...and the maid did the dishes every morning. We had a meeting with the timeshare agent for about an hour and a half on one of the mornings. He was great and the deal was so tempting....maybe someday. The resort was a lot of fun! We spent as much time as we could exploring each of the 4 private man-made sandy coves. It was so great to play in the warm water. There were these cute little tiny lizards that would dart around in the sand.



The resort held a fish feeding time each morning in one of the coves. The Hawaiian host gave a traditional blessing to draw the fish into the cove. Then we started tossing fish food pellets into the water and a ton of fish came up really close to feed. There are lots of fish in these people's shadows. The boys would have REALLY loved to feed these fish!



The sunsets were mesmerizing! This is a picture of one of the open-air hotel lobby. The sunset really looks like that! I thought it looked like a painting! Amazing!



These are the pictures that pop into my mind when I want to remember the feeling of pure bliss...perfect.



On Friday, we went on a dolphin/snorkeling tour. We sailed on a catamaran and watched for dolphins. We didn't see any though. When we arrived at the coral reef, we went snorkeling and saw a sea turtle, some puffer fish, tons of angel fish, and lots of other beautiful fish. Travis really enjoyed his first snorkeling trip! The trip back to the marina was great. We ate lunch and then relaxed on the netting over the water in the front section of the catamaran. The water was rushing right beneath us. Wow!



As we finished the tour, the captain offered us a second trip because we didn't end up seeing any dolphins that day. So, the next day we went on another fun snorkeling trip! It also happened to be Travis' birthday. This time we saw 10-15 dolphins right in front of the catamaran. I kept thinking we were going to bump into them, but the captain explained that the dolphins were familiar with this particular boat and would swim close by because they knew it was safe. It was amazing to see them so close. We stood right at the front edge of the boat to watch them. Amazing!



It was great to go snorkeling two days in a row. On the second day, we were more comfortable with our gear in the water and really enjoyed the experience. (Until a spear fisherman swam right in front of me with his spear and freaked me out!)

We had a great day! We had to check out of the resort, so we drove through Honolulu to Waikiki to spend our last night. We got settled at the Hawaiian Prince Hotel right on the marina and went to dinner downtown. There were so many people out on a Saturday night! It reminded me of Las Vegas - nuts! We finally found a parking spot and walked to the Cheesecake Factory for Travis' birthday dinner. What a fun birthday! We'll have to try to top it someday!

For our last day, we drove around the whole island to get our last taste of Hawaii. We thought the windward coast was amazing! Hanama Bay was so pretty. We really liked the area around BYU Hawaii and the temple grounds. We went beach hopping and just enjoyed the scenery.



Here is my handsome husband on the North Shore (without a surfer in sight). It was wrong time of year for pipeline waves. (We did see some surfers on the other side of the island off of Waikiki Beach, though.) The ocean was smooth and breathtaking. The sand was made up of teeny, tiny smooth pebbles. After a relaxing day, we reluctantly drove to the airport and headed back to the real world.



When we arrived back in Provo, Justin said he wasn't ready for us to come back yet. He had a great week with his cousins! Tyler gave Travis a 10 minute hug and let me pick him up for 1/2 a second. We are so thankful to everyone who helped care for the boys all week! We brought back ukuleles for the boys to play with. Now when I play my guitar, they can get out their little "guitars" too! We'll practice so we can play a little song for our next trip to Hawaii...someday!

We Love Trains!

Justin and Tyler could play with their trains for hours! Oh yeah...they do! Here are some pictures from our busy afternoon playing with trains:

Berries and Brynlee

Grandpa and Grandma Guptill drove to Oregon from Montana on the last weekend of June for the baby blessing of Brynlee Hammond, Nicki and Lance's new baby daughter. Here is a picture of her with Grandma.



Grandpa and Grandma stayed with us for the weekend while Lance's parents stayed with them in Vancouver. The boys were so excited to see Grandpa and Grandma!

We had a good weekend with the Guptill’s and Lance’s parents from St. George. They were all at our house on Sat. as they picked berries at the nearby farm and left the baby as they went to the temple. They took Justin along to help pick blackberries and raspberries. Justin was a good helper and taste tester. Justin and Grandpa wrestled all weekend and Tyler brought out all of his favorite books to read.





We love our new cousin Brynlee! Tyler loves to kiss her ankles. He loved reading all her little baby books while we were at their apartment Sunday afternoon. Justin was happy to play games on Lance's computer. It was a good weekend!

Cannon Balls

Justin had a fun two weeks of swimming lessons with his friend Ethan Beckstrand at the neighborhood outdoor private pool. They both took the class together last summer and neither one would put their head under the water on their own. This year was a different story. Justin was "Mr. Dunking Boy" jumping around in the water, blowing bubbles, kicking and having a fabulous time!





Tyler was a such a good sport to watch each day and cheer on his big brother! Travis came to watch several times since Justin's class was right during Travis' lunch break. Justin was so excited to have an audience and to wear his new Lightening McQueen swimming suit!

On the last day of class, Justin told me his plan on our way to the pool: "I don't want to just walk down the steps into the pool, Mom, I want to do a cannon ball...what's a cannon ball?" I told him and when he ready to get into the pool, he told his teacher and she let him try. We'll have to have good old dad show him how its done next time we all go swimming!



Justin passed the swimming level with flying colors and here is what his teacher had to say about him: "Justin is a joy to have in class! He likes to learn new things. Keep kicking with straight legs and blow bubbles!"

4th of July

Fun with Dad!



Monster Trucks, Army Tanks and Fire Trucks...Oh, I mean fireworks!

SPLASH!!!

We went swimming at the new Aquatic Center on Saturday. Justin has been taking swimming lessons this past week and was happy to have a chance to show off his moves. Travis and I were looking forward to plenty of dunking so Justin would be happy to put his head under the water on his own during his lessons. Tyler started crying as soon as he saw we were walking towards the pool. (We hadn't been swimming since last summer.) Soon he was relaxing in the water and floating around with me.

Justin and Travis went over to go down the big indoor spiral waterslide. Justin put on a life jacket and we watched them both go down several times. Tyler decided he wanted to try it too. So, I put a life jacket on him and down we went. I held him up as we splashed and his head stayed out of the water. I thought he might start crying again, but he immediately signed for "more." So, down we went again. This time I slipped as we splashed and down I went and away he went. I regained my footing as fast as I could and reached out to find him and set him upright. I thought that would be it. But he wanted more. The next time down I slipped again and he LOVED it! Silly boy!

We went back into the kiddie pool to warm up and Travis started throwing Justin with his life jacket on and he would bob back up laughing. Tyler wanted to try and thought it was fun too! I just thought Tyler's transition was so funny. He went from crying about getting into the pool to sad that he couldn't go down the slide again. It was a fun night!

We love you, Justin!

"Does a cricket go beep-beep or crick-crick?"

To Mom who was on the computer:
Justin: “Mom, you’re so borus!”
Mom: "What does that mean?"
Justin: “It means you’re so slow, hurry up, Borus!"
Mom: "You can call me Mom."
Justin: "Oh, right. I was just being crazy."

"Mom, I just broke a rib!" (He says this as he is holding an ice pack to his ankle.) I asked him if he knew what a rib was? "I guess I don’t really know…where IS my rib?"

A couple of days after we went on a preschool fieldtrip to the firestation and the firemen kept reminding the kids to stay away from matches:
"You know I'll never play with a mattress unless it's a toy one." (matches)


Justin (4 yrs old) and Tyler (21 months old) January 2007

One day, I was in the kitchen fixing lunch and Justin says in an annoyed voice, "Mom, you are SO dignified!" I said, "Wow, thanks Justin!" He gave me a really confused look and went on playing...

One night before his birthday, I was tucking Justin in bed and he says, "I'd be so happy if there was a big earthquake on my birthday party day because it would break open my pinata and all the candy would come falling out!"

Then a minute later he says, "When I wake up in the resurrection, I'll open my eyes and go 'Ohhh, Yeah!'" (think of the song from "Ferris Buhler's Day Off")

"Mom, did you know I wanted to eat an insect for lunch?...Oh, Mom, I'm just kidding!"

Sand in our toes

When I told Justin and Tyler that Grandma and Grandpa Davis were getting them a sandbox for their birthdays, Justin said, “Yeah! Now our backyard will be fun like Grandma & Grandpa’s backyard!” We just got the sandbox and sand two weekends ago. But, it was raining all day on Saturday, so, we put it all together that following Monday. We did a little digging treasure hunt for Family Home Evening and the boys absolutely LOVE that sand! We bought some beautiful brown Oregon beach dune sand that will be great for making sand castles. Tyler immediately buried his feet and Justin started carving out roads for his off-road plastic jeep. They have been spending hours playing out back and having a wonderful time!



Tyler loves to knock down the sandcastles!



Check out Justin's two new teeth coming in!