~HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAGE~

Today is Gage's birthday! He is 8 years old. How crazy is that. So grown up...In a not so grown up sort of way. Gage is my 1st grandchild so, with that came a little entitlement. That lasted about 18 months until AliAnah was born and then he learned to share the limelight and didn't seem to mind at all. Gage is easy like that. Very seldom upset and usually always happy and ready to do what you ask. I just love this kid. He LOVES to build things. It will be interesting to see what he grows up to be. I am thinking that architecture may be in his future somewhere.

He loves to come to see grandma and grandpa even though it is a LONG ride. We have such a great time when he is here. It is hard to see him have to go home because it is always too long before we get to see him again. I guess it could be worse, he could live in Boston or NYC or some place REALLY far away! This is his 8th birthday. He is so excited to be baptized. Because of General Conference he has to wait until May so he is a little disappointed about that but, it will go by fast and soon he will be the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ( for about 3 seconds...)! Happy Birthday Gage, you are my favorite 8 year old!

~MISSING MOM~

This picture is rather a poor one... It is a picture of a picture taken at the cabin just two days before mom died.


Okay, so here's the deal, I'm a very "big" girl. Married, children of my own...Married children of my own. GRANDCHILDREN!!! An Empty nester for heck sake...Having said all of that... I just REALLY miss my mom. There are days when I try to push that old lump in my throat down or keep the tears at bay but lately there seems to be no stopping the "missing mom" feeling for me. Now I am not trying to make anyone feel sorry for me because quite frankly I've got enough of that going on on my own. I would rather that you take a moment and think about how greatly blessed we are to have amazing women in our lives. My mom taught me to be tough yet tender, sweet but, with a little "sass". She was smart and ambitious and NEVER one to sit quietly and watch the world go by. There have been so many times that I have caught myself reaching for the phone, or longing for our weekend shopping trips or cabin getaways. Mom always liked the fall colors but, it was springtime that she loved the most. I think that is why I get all melancholy especially as Easter approaches...Nothing quite compares to being raised on Easter's spent with family and picnics with olives, eggs and sand dunes, or fried chicken and Margin Pass...

I miss that little redheaded firecracker. She was filled with charm and tenacity. I hope that as life continues to deal out it's blessings and also it's hard knocks I will remember the lessons taught ( I'm still trying to learn a lot of them) by her and the example that she was as she went through many peaks and valleys herself and did so with grace.

Yes mom, your influence wraps around me like the sun on a warm spring day. I will take time to reflect often on your wisdom and try to teach my children and grandchildren the way you have always taught me...which means that you sometimes get blamed when things go very wrong...I SO miss you, I miss you SO, SO, I miss you...Still.

"If we stop to think about what we do, really do, we are building for the centuries. We are building character, and tradition, the values, which meander like a river into the distance and out of our sight, but on and on and on" -Anna Guindlen

~PROJECTS~

It's THURSDAY and I am NOT going SKIING! WHAT! The wind is blowing and it has been quite warm here the past couple of days...No new snow. I went on Monday and it was one of those "edgy" days. Lots of icy tops and slushy bottoms. Add "two" warm days and wind to that and you have a very unwelcome combination for even the spring skier so, today I am going to tackle a couple of projects around this neglected abode. Yes, I might even consider sweeping out the garage! It pains me to have admit that I have let it go all winter. I used to be so diligent in keeping it...well cleaner than it is now. I might even take the shutters off the windows and give them a much needed coat of paint. Even Cambria noticed that they were rather yellow yesterday. My last project for today is to get my flower beds ready to plant FLOWERS. I can't wait for the flowers. I almost got a tulip this year. It almost made it to the blooming stage before the deer ATE it!

It's just so much easier to go skiing!

~BELLA BLUE EYES~

Okay, when they are cute, they are just too cute for words so a picture is, what do they say "worth a 1000". This is little Bella. She is growing up way too fast but we are loving every minute of it. She is crawling everywhere now in sort of an odd one leg tucked under her sort of way. But, it seems to get her where she needs to go and rather fast at that.

I brought this little head band back from Guatemala. It actually goes around a hat but, the hat was too small so it will have to wait for baby girl Robertson to model it! In the meantime I think that it looks pretty cute tied around Bella's head. I am not sure she thinks much of it and I'm darn sure that she is convinced that her grandmother is a freak! Constantly making strange noises and shoving this lens in front of her face. You can see by her expression how I capture her attention and bring out her "happy" to be around grandma AGAIN personality. One day, she may thank me for all of the pictures I have of her as she grew!

LOVE YOU BELLA blue eyes!

~ WINTER - SPRING ~

Making changes can be rejuvenating for the mind, body and soul. It can make you feel good again in a different sort of way. Give you a new perspective. I think this is one reason I love living in Utah. I absolutely look forward with great anticipation to the change in seasons. I have my favorites like everyone else but each change brings just that...Change! A chance to break away from the boredom of the same old, same old and actually count down to the change in wardrobe and home decor. The flowers are what I look forward to the most. Although I love the winter snow I am ALWAYS thrilled to see my little spring bulbs make their entrance as the weather turns warm enough to soften the soil just enough to let them push up and out. What little fighters they are. Give them three warmer days in a row and there they are. I should be more like the Crocus, even the deer leave them alone! Little splashes of color making even the drab browns left by winter look more inviting. It makes me want to get out in the yard and work while it is not too hot and dry. While things are so willing to grow and happy to be alive again...Then I notice all the deer droppings and decide that maybe I will wait a while longer.

My mom used to quote this cute little poem every spring. I still think of it and her as the grass starts to turn green and the flowers start to bloom...

Spring has sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is

I heard the bird was on the wing
How absurd,
I thought the wing was on the bird!

~Tikal~

I have had several people ask me to post pictures of our trip to Guatemala on my blog so that they could see some of the places that we visited. Tikal is an amazing Mesoamerican city built somewhere around 700 BC and 900 AD. It is built around the Mayan calendar which is still used today in the Mayan communities of Guatemala which are way up in the mountains. (They even speak their own language there. It is a strange sounding dialect that I am sure I could NEVER learn)! The calendar system dates back to 6th century BC...that's a LONG time! It makes NO sense to me at all. I have tried to figure out what they are talking about several times but, all those odd numbers and configurations just tend to confuse me. I think that I will gladly keep the calendar that I am used to. Thirty days has September, April, May and November...

The first picture is of Temple #1. It is referred to as the Temple of the Great Jaguar. Yes, there are Jaguar in the jungle there. Fortunately for us we did not encounter one. We did get to see my favorite monkeys...The Howler's. Man do they make noise! Honestly this place is just incredible.

P.S.


Just in case you were wondering...YES, I did climb up all those stairs, and yes, they do go straight UP. Hundreds of them...AND, straight DOWN :/

~Lake Atitlan~

I already want to go back!

~GUATEMALA~

Pure and unexpected delights. An adventure around every corner. For me, eye candy every where. I just couldn't stop taking pictures! I think my grand total was 645! Holy cow! I promise not to bore you with all of them :) What a beautiful place to spend a few weeks. (I'm not sure that more than that would be advisable without your own personal helicopter to take you where you need to go completely forgoing the ride on a road anywhere...). The Guatemalan idea of regulating traffic speed is to place a very large speed bump here and there on an already very rough road. Four of them if you are approaching a school zone which could be at any place flat enough to build a building big enough to pass as a school. I almost hesitate to write about this beautiful country because I might give away all of it's secrets and then everyone will go there and it will be over-run with tourists and to crowded to enjoy anymore...It's been three years since I was there and really nothing has changed that much so, I am not too worried about it becoming the next vacation mecca but, if you like an adventure, a little culture shock and a lot of genuine and beautiful people, you really need to go!

We did a little bit of everything this trip. Tried to get in as much as we could in the time that we had and I think that we were able to achieve our goal. I am exhausted! Here are a few of the pictures of the different places that we went. The first family are converts to the church that Garett baptized while on his mission. Carla the cute young lady next to me is now getting ready to serve a mission herself in Ecuador! We were able to take her shopping to help her get the things that she needed for her mission. It was so FUN for us to be able to do that for HER! She is the same girl that we were able to help three years ago obtain her birth certificate so that she could go to school. Her little sister Carolina LOVES Garett! It had been three years since they had seen him. He just walked right in and they threw their arms around him like he had never left! Jonny the little guy still calls him Elder Caldwell...well, they all do. They reminded him that when he left them after his mission he told them that he would be back in three years. It has been almost exactly three years!

Sunday we went to church with the Garcia family. It was so fun. We walked in and EVERYONE knew Elder Caldwell. I of coarse didn't understand a word of the service but, the spirit was the same and I felt very much at home.

From Mazate we traveled to one of my favorite places in the world! Lake Atitlan. To many this is also known as the "Waters of Mormon". It is a breath taking vista of active volcano's and beautiful water that goes on as far as the eye can see. The hotel that we stay at is amazing. The gardens go on forever. It is a refuge for many tropical birds and animals so it sounds like you are in the middle of the jungle at times. Truly one of the most beautiful spots I have ever found. The pictures can't even begin to capture it's essence. YOU HAVE TO GO! I will take you just let me know when...

From there we half heartidly traveled to Antigua where we stayed in a beautiful spot again. If you are Central American history buffs this is the Royal Santo Domingo Convent. The hotel has been built around it. It covers a whole city block. Yes, those are real bones in those coffins...

I loved the colors and the "feel" of the streets and the markets. The smells got to poor Lisa a bit but, she managed to hang in there.

Tikal was our final adventure. What can you say that could possibly express the sheer awesomeness of this place. It was built completely around the Mayan Calender so every building and every stone inside this city revolves around the sun, moon and stars. It is truly amazing and they say that only 30% of the ruins are actually visible...