Fun in Wyoming

One day when we were in Wyoming, we decided to all head up to Cody and to have pizza at the park and to go to the "Reflections of Christ Exhibit".  Of course we got Pizza on the Run pizza, my fav!

Later on in the week Kayla and Callie and Karren had the opportunity to go over to my sister in law Shayla's parents' house to make homemade jam.  Kayla loved it!  And we finished off a whole jar before the week was through.

Callie playing with her cousin outside while the ladies cooked.

Another thing that we got to do a few times was to play at the "whale pool" in Lovell.  Callie and Hailey loved swimming there.

We finally even talked Callie into going under the water fountain, once we told her she could breathe under it.

A few pictures of the family just relaxing and visiting.

Cousin Jay feeding Nana's chickens.

My Great Grandma Call

My great grandma Call passed away this last week.  I feel so blessed that I was able to be in the area when she passed so that I could go to her funeral.  They had her funeral in Logan, UT because that was where she was living at the time of her death, but most of her life she lived and raised her family in Afton, Wy.  She was an AMAZING woman and I am so thankful for the great example she has been to all.  She lived to be 94 years old and she had 14 children, 96 grandchildren, 271 great grandchildren and 40 great great granchildren.  In all she had 421 descendants at the time of her death.  It was such a special experience to attend her funeral.  It was all done in honor of her and remembering the great life that she lived.  I have never walked away from a funeral feeling so much love and happiness in side.  Don't get me wrong, I very much mourn the death of my great grandma, but she lived a wonderful FULL life.  And I couldn't help but feel happiness for her knowing that she will be reunited with her sweetheart once again.  It was so neat to sit and reflect on her and all of her great qualities.  I actually have inherited several qualities from her.  One of which is how clean and organized my great grandma always was.  That trait was passed on to my grandma and my mom and then on to me.  I also learned that my great grandma loved to write poetry and also co wrote a book.  I too, love to write and to write poetry. 

This is a picture of her with her family.  She is the one in the middle holding one of her babies. My Grandma Partridge is sitting just to the right of my great grandpa Call.
 

This is a copy of her obituary:

 LOGAN, UTAH: Bessie Warren Call, age 94, beloved daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great-great-grandmother, passed away July 17,2011, at her home in Logan, after a short illness. Bessie was born September 1, 1916, in Freedom, Wyoming, the fourth of 11 children, to Ivan Walter and Annie Stumpp Warren. She spent her first eighteen years of life in Freedom. On July 11,1935, she married her sweetheart, Evan Papworth Call, in the Logan Temple. They became the parents of 14 children and lived in Afton, Wyoming until 1972, when they moved to Logan, Utah. Bessie was a faithful member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, serving diligently in many callings throughout her life. She served as a visiting teacher until the time of her death. She was proud to be a member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and a member of the Mayflower Society. Bessie was a joy to be with. She was devoted to family and loved to spend time with them. She was an avid record keeper and has preserved many records and histories for her posterity. Her other interests included horseback riding, gardening, quilting, reading, family history and temple work. Her life was the finest example of honor, integrity, dedication, courage, determination and hard work. Her legacy is her faith and character, which she leaves as an example to her posterity, extended family and many friends. Bessie is survived by her 14 children: Kayland (Virjean) Call, Jennie (Alden) Partridge, Dee (Dianne) Call, Wynn (Barbara) Call, Louise (Kent) Goldsberry, Ralph (Nola) Call, Don (Linda) Call, Annie (Fred) Brog, Ben (Nedra) Call; Jill (Robert) Lichfield, Lenna (Gregg) Draney, Warren (Cheryl) Call, Grace (Steve) Baugh, and Ruth (Darrell) Simmons. She is also survived by her sister Rhea Higby, her 96 grandchildren, 271 great­grandchildren, and 40 great-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Friday, July 22,2011, at 11 :00 a.m., in the Logan 23rd Ward Chapel at 565 East 100 South, Logan. Viewings will be on Thursday, July 21, from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center, Logan, and on Friday, July 22, from 9:00 - 10:45 a.m., at the chapel prior to the funeral. The burial and graveside service will be held at 5:00 p.m. that evening at the Afton, Wyoming Cemetery.

Services: 11:00AM at Mt. Logan Stake Center on Friday, July 22nd, 2011

My cousin Cheri Call ( a LDS songwriter and gospel singer) wrote and sang this song called "Photographs" about my Grandpa and Grandma Call:

Photographs

The Parade

There was a parade this morning in a town right next to my parents town.  The girls were so excited to find out we were going to one when they woke up this morning.  They caught tons of candy and even caught some popsicles.  Those were their favorite!   (These are more pictures from a phone, so they are not the clearest)

Callie had her hands over her ears most of the time, because she thought it was to loud!

 

Papa relaxed in the shade with Brynlee.  He must really love his girls, because I don't think I've seen him go to a parade since I was a little girl ;)

Brynlee loves all the soft grass in Wyoming.  She's used to our pokey grass at home.

Callie covering her ears again :)

 

And one last one of Nana rocking her baby to sleep.  I sure am going to miss all these helping hands when I go back home!

Hailey having fun at Nanna's

Swimming at Nana's

Well we came to Wyoming hoping to escape the Arkansas heat, but it has been in the 90's here as well.  Oh well, nothing we are not used to, it does feel nicer without the humity though!  We have stayed cool swimming and playing in Nana's sprinklers. 

Hailey is crying in the pic because she thought the sprinkler was going to get us.  By the end of the afternoon, she was loving the sprinkler.

On our way to Wyoming...

Well as most everyone knows, we headed on our long journey to Wyoming this week to visit my family.  It is a 24 hour drive, so my sister volunteered to help me drive it (thank you Karren!).  Our plan of attack was to drive 12 hours to Colby, Kansas and stay the night and then drive another 12 to Wyoming the next day.  The first day was perfect, no problems, the kids were AWESOME, and it really only felt like a 3 or 4 hour trip.  Our hotel was brand new and had a pool and hot breakfast, so that was great as well.  I took some pictures of the girls in the swimming pool, but I won't be able to upload any of the pictures from my camera till I get home, so all I will be posting is pictures from a phone for now.  Here is a couple of the girls getting to the hotel.  They loved carrying around their matching princess bags!

The second day of travel did not go so smoothly.  So I will not be posting any pictures from that day (since I don't want to remember it, ha ha). 

 To start off with, Brynlee had a few meltdowns (which she does occasionally and is usually unconsolable when it happens).  So after we stopped a few times trying to calm her, we got back on the road and thought we were making pretty good time, until a couple drove up next to me and held up a sign that said "Your tire is low".  I pulled over thinking: Oh GREAT, I JUST got new tires two days ago! So after taking the tire pressure and talking to Brad we decide it would be better for me to drive on it slow for a few miles to a nearby Sams club, rather than me try to fix it on the side of the interstate.  So we got there to get it repaired and 3 HOURS later we were back on the road.  I'm just thankful the Lord blessed us to be able to get someplace safe.  The next few hours went pretty well other than passing a couple of really bad accidents.  Which just made us even more greatful we weren't on the road when they happened. 

Then we got all the way to Worland, Wy. when I was sandwiched between this guy that kept braking every few feet and another car and I was only going 18 miles an hour. I was wondering what on earth the guy in front of me was doing.  Then a cop flips on their lights and turns after us.  I was sure she was going to pull over the guy in front of me for driving to slow, but turns out she was pulling me over!  I was so curious as to what she was going to tell me she pulled me over.  She said I was following to close to the person in front of me (a.k.a she saw my plates were from Arkansas, LOL).  That is why I really think she pulled me over.  Anyway, when she came up to the car, she was super nice and said that she was just giving me a warning since I had a great driving record and since "I had my hands full" as she put it.  After that, things went pretty smoothly till we got home.  And we were so happy to see everyone waiting for us when we got there.

The girls loved seeing their uncles, grandpa and grandpa and all their cousins!

Kayla was excited that her uncle McKay had inherited about 200 or more "feathers" from my grandpa Partridge who is a fly fisherman.  She put some of them in her hair shortly after getting there. We even put one in Callies and Haileys hair just for fun.

This next picture is of Callie walking my parents dog, Buddy.  The kids just love all  my parents animals.  They have a horse, 1 dog, 2 kittens (that they got just for my girls), 2 ducks, a chicken, a bearded dragon, a bird, and a bigger cat.  Callie love it so much she said "Can we stay here forever?"

And as I suspected, Brynlee loves her Papa, just as all my babies have.  He is the best baby rocker/ walker ever.

Fun in the Sun

Grandma Shelton ordered the girls a new little water playmat (mostly for Hailey and Brynlee) but of course ALL the girls had fun playing with it!  Thanks Grandma.

Brynlee was just watching her crazy sisters at first, but then we decided to take her out and see if she might like it.

"Oohhh that's cold water!"

Brynlee didn't even flinch, she loved it!

Behold.... The Lightning!

This is Brad's most recent purchase.  I'm a girl, so I don't know exactly why this truck is so cool, but I'm told that it is, so we'll just go with it ;)  I'm sure it has something to do with the loudness of it and how fast it will be when he supercharges it.
All I know is that it makes him happy, so I'm happy.

For Papa Shelton

Before Craig and Jillian went home, Papa had just one request... a picture of all his granddaughters:

Kayla saying goodbye to little Olivia:

I love Family

My mom told me that once I got married and moved away, I would come to love my husbands family like my own. And like moms always are, she was right.  I just love my Shelton side of the family!  And am so happy that we at least get to live by SOME family since we are 24 HOURS away from mine.  Can you tell I'm getting homesick?
Anyway, we had a lot of the Shelton family in town this week.  Of course Ross is home now, and Craig and Jillian came from Florida with their two girls.  We got to meet their newest, Olivia, she is so sweet.   Darin, Kelly and Aiden also came from Texas.  And so it was just a big happy get together.
Olivia was blessed this morning at church and she was given a beautiful blessing from her dad.
After church we all headed over to my in laws and ate some yummy barbecue and some great desserts.  We had so many people there and so many little girls! Poor Aiden was the only little boy cousin there.  All the girl cousins that were there were: Kayla, Callie, Hailey, Brynlee, Charlotte, Olivia, Kennadi, and Raegan.

Callie loved playing with Charlotte:

Baby Olivia resting on her mama

Jillian's Mom, Gail

Aunt Mary, her son in law Daryn, son Keith, and her daughter Kelli.

Debbie and Misti fixing up plates

Uncle Cory, Brad and Kayla playing ball with the kids

Callie taking a break on her favorite Aunt Mary.

Hailey and cousin Charlotte

Raegan, Charlotte, Kennadi and Hailey

Uncle Craig helping out Aiden.  Aiden just adores his Craig.

Grandpa with his sweetie

These two are two peas in a pod :)

Ring around the rosie

 All of the Sheltons with me taking the picture.

All of the Sheltons with Grandma taking the picture, she wanted to make sure I got in there ;)

Kenneth and Mary's family:

Billy and Debbie's family (minus our two sleeping babies, we probably should have woke them for the picture but we didn't, oh well).

It was great seeing everyone!