Gooseberry with Grandpa & Grandma B.

Three blog posts in one day, whew!!!

This is now such a treasured memory. Jon had been wanting to take our family fishing for a long while. A colleague of his told him about this place called Gooseberry, which was not too far away and where we would be able to wheel my Mom right up to the side of the lake to watch the fishing. So on October 21st, we tried it out, and it was perfect! We got there before dawn and everything was gray and covered with frost. That didn't seem to bother Enoch, who kept crawling off the picnic blanket:
Poor Jon's fingers were absolutely frozen as he tied flies on the fishing poles. (I don't think he minded, though; he was really having a great time!)
When the sun (finally) came up and began to melt the frost, we realized that this was not some dismal gray place, it was GORGEOUS!
Without light, we couldn't tell, but once it was lit by the sun, it was really beautiful.


Hyrum caught the first fish of the day (and the first fish in our family history!). He was so proud:What's great is that next, Caleb caught one:
...and then so did Andrew:
By the time Grandma and Grandma joined us at about 11:00 am, we had caught 5 fish already! And with Grandpa's help we caught 6 more. Even Sam helped Grandpa reel one in:
We all had such a great time, freezimg temperatures or not.
We'll definitely be doing this again!
It was a wonderful memory for us and the boys with their Grandma and Grandpa B. The boys love doing this kind of thing with their Grandpa, and just 20 short days later their Grandma was gone. I'm so glad they were able to come with us, despite how sick Mom was feeling. Thanks to her perpetual sense of adventure, and a great daddy who wanted to introduce his boys to fishing, we will remember this day forever.

Mom's Last Haircut

Mom would probably HATE that I'm putting these pictures on my blog, but as far as I know these were the last pictures that were taken of her while she lived. She would think she looked fat; really she was just retaining water from her cancer and the meds--NOT her fault, NOT in her control. Oh well, it's my blog and she's not here to stop me. And it's being posted with love because I want to remember her!

BEFORE:

It was October 22nd, and she had just been to the temple with Jamilyn and Nathan. They came straight from there to our house, where Mom asked if I would give her an ultra-short "do." She said her hair was just falling out all over the place, so she wanted it barely long enough for a funny little "faux-hawk."

AFTER:

Cheesy, happy Mom! Love and miss you, funny little faux-hawk. It sure did make her happy!

Halloween 2011

Sorry this post is sooooo late in coming! This was our Halloween. We didn't actually take any pictures the day of, I thought it would be too busy. So we did a photo shoot the week before Halloween:
Let's see, we have Andrew the Ninja Turtle, Samuel the Baby Jaguar, Hyrum the Captain America, Enoch the M'n'M, and Caleb the Spider Man.
The kids dressed up in their costumes (and each other's) for weeks before Halloween, and for days after. They love to dress up!
And this one was from our ward's "Trunk-or-Treat," the first we have ever done in the Briarwood Ward! It was a blast, the kids really enjoyed it. And they loved Daddy and Grandpa B. taking them all around Everettwood Drive and the neighborhood round about. It was a successful Halloween!

Farewell to my Mother

My sweet, wonderful mother, Gae Beckstrom, passed away peacefully in her sleep yesterday morning. While I think my feelings are still a bit too raw to discuss a whole lot, I wanted to let everyone know that we are doing okay. We were blessed to know that this was coming, so we had time to prepare our hearts and minds for this change and to say all that needed to be said. And we are so relieved she is no longer suffering from the cancer that has plagued her these last 3 1/2 years. But we will miss her terribly! I am sure that the grieving will come in waves and layers. For now, my brain seems to be a bit numb from absorbing the reality that she is gone. My mother-in-law says she thinks that the numbness is one of the blessings of the Comforter, taking the edge of the painfulness of it all so that we can deal with what needs to be done. I am grateful for eternal perspective, for the plan of salvation, and the knowledge that Mom will be well and whole the next time we see her.

The obituary will run in the paper on Sunday, but I thought I would post it here so that those who want to know about the viewing and funeral can plan in advance:

"Gae Terena Morrow Beckstrom (56) loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, teacher, and friend, born July 22, 1955 passed away November 10, 2011 after a courageous fight with cancer. She is now reunited with her parents, David Lendrum Morrow III and Yvonne Easthope Morrow and brother Roy Morrow.
"She is survived by her husband, Blake D. Beckstrom (Taylorsville, UT); her children, Erin (Jonathan) Thomas (West Valley City, UT), Emily (David) Smith (Kearns, UT), Adam (Andrea) Beckstrom (Alexandria, VA), and Jamilyn (Nathan) Morris (Taylorsville, UT); sisters Dawn (Mark) Yarbro (Ft. Worth, TX), Rachel Morrow (Kearns, UT) and brother Darren (Becky) Morrow (Riverton, UT); and 7 grandchildren. Her family is the love of her life and she lived to serve them.
"Gae and Blake met at Kearns High School and were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 24, 1977. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and an Early Childhood Development specialty. She loved teaching children. Gae taught kindergarten at David Gourley Elementary for 5 years before retiring to raise her growing family. After a few years, she opened a home preschool (Early Bird) which she taught for 17 years. She returned to public school in 2002, teaching kindergarten at Lone Peak Elementary and then Monte Vista Elementary schools. She touched the lives of hundreds of young children who brought immense joy into her life. During her last two years, while teaching full-time and fighting cancer she was driven to complete her Masters Degree in Elementary Education from SUU. She also had an undying love for animals of all kinds. She loved music, played the guitar and instilled a love of music in her children. She taught her children and grand children to read and to love books. She filled many ward and stake church callings in Primary, Young Womens’, and Relief Society as a teacher and leader and served in the Jordan River Temple as an ordinance worker. She performed humanitarian service helping orphans in Romania. She was loved and will be deeply missed by all her knew her.
"Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, November 16th at 11:00 AM at the Bennion 12th Wardhouse (6540 S. 2700 W., Taylorsville, UT). Friends may visit at a viewing beginning an hour before the funeral or at McDougal Funeral Home (4330 S. Redwood Road, Taylorsville, UT) on Tuesday, November 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM."

Love and miss you so much, Mom!

Andrew's Birthday

Okay, I'm really getting behind here! We've had sick kids and what with Halloween and all, I just have not kept up on the ol' blog. Soooooo..... Andrew had a birthday last month, making him a whopping SIX years old! Andrew is very particular in his expectations about toys, cake design, celebration plans, etc. He drew a picture of exactly what he wanted the cake to look like:
After consulting with him on the practicality of some of the details, this is how it came out:
He loved it, and the whole celebration met with his approval (whew!!!). Earlier this week, his teacher sent home this picture he had drawn during creative art time in class:
It's him with his cake, featuring some of his favorite Marvel Heroes characters on top. The squares in the background are his presents. We love our darling, happy, wonderfully creative, vivacious Andrew. Happy birthday, sweet boy!

(Coming Soon: Fishing with Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrom at Gooseberry, and Halloween!!!)

Dapper Kiddos

We took these pictures a week ago Sunday. The boys were just too handsome with their freshly combed Sunday morning hair and their fancy clothes to not do a photo shoot:

We had ALMOST everyone looking at the camera...

...but not all at the same time. And then Andrew got too silly:

... so we had to give up. But they're cute pics anyway!

(I love Hyrum here trying to re-direct Andrew's focus, and Sam trying to help Enoch stand up! Precious!)

Pyogenic Granuloma

Back in July, I got a blood blister from pinching my thumb while loading the baby car seat into it's base. I picked idly at it with a safety pin one day, and it bled horribly. After a week or so, it looked like it was healing, but then it swelled and re-opened and bled horribly again. It has gone through this irritating cycle every few weeks for the past few months. Well, last week I decided I was sick of it and set an appointment with a dermatologist for today. Turns out it is a pyogenic granuloma, which had to be surgically removed and sent off to be biopsied! Now I have four stitches in my thumb and an enormous pink bandage to boot. I've never had stitches before that I can remember, let alone on my right hand-- this will be an interesting couple of weeks as I learn to do things left-handed for a spell!

Great Hair

Although I don't think he'd own to it, my husband has GREAT HAIR. It is thick and healthy and springy, and he has passed it on to most of our 5 boys (we're still waiting to see what Enoch's hair will do as it matures--right now it sticks up at a point right on the crown of his head, reminiscent of baby Jack-Jack in The Incredibles). Hyrum's hair is an exact duplicate of his dad's, while Andrew's has a darling cowlick right in front (I had to look up how to spell that, but it is "cowlick," a tuft of hair turned up or awry, as if licked by a cow). Samuel's has stuck straight up all over his whole head since the day he was born. With water, hairspray and a comb, I can get it to do this for about five minutes, but then it springs right back to it's original upright position:

Notice how it is still not completely flat? Hopeless! But nonetheless, I think it is great hair. Caleb is old enough now that he is starting to form an opinion about how he wants his hair to look. He keeps asking me to comb it so it stands up like Sam's:

We've never left the house with it looking like that, but he sure feels "cool" this way, and when you are a 4-year-old boy stuck in the middle of a family of 5 little boys, feeling cool is very important. And I just had to put this one in, the face was too cute!

Sunday Morning Bath

Each Sunday morning after breakfast but before church, our kids have bath time. As I was scrubbing them down this morning, I was reminded of a Shel Silverstein poem I committed to memory sometime during my elementary school days:

There's too many kids in this tub
There's too many elbows to scrub
I just washed a behind that I'm sure wasn't mine
There's too many kids in this tub.

Hmmm, I think Shel has nailed it!


The kid in the middle knows he's the star of the show. Check out that smile!
Happy Sunday, everyone!

Goblin Valley and Arches Trip

I wrote a while back that I would post about our trip to Goblin Valley State Park and Arches National Park. It's been about 2 months now, and if I don't get these pictures on here now, I probably never will. Better late than never...

We stayed in Green River, Utah, which is about an hour drive one direction to Goblin Valley, and an hour drive the other direction to Arches. It was the perfect mid-point for vacationing to both places, and our KOA Kabin was so cute and even had a swimming pool!


First on our agenda (after setting in at the KOA) was to visit Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon, which is about 5 miles past the entrance to Goblin Valley. Our poor kids were so pooped, we didn't get very far down the slot canyon (and it was July heat and mosquito season).


So we turned around and went to their favorite all-natural amusement park, Goblin Valley!!! The kids look so forward to going there each year.





On day two, we headed to Arches where we braved the strenuous Delicate Arch Hike.

With frequent stops and LOTS of water, we made it!!! The boys were such troopers, our three oldest boys made it the whole way all by themselves. And seeing that arch in person is absolutely amazing. This is me with Samuel and Enoch under the arch:

The only one we got of the whole family was taken with our old camera (Jon is holding our nice, new camera) so the picture is super-pixely:

...but at least it's proof we were there! Way to go, Thomas Family!

That afternoon was swimming, napping, and relaxing. Then on day three, we headed back to Goblin Valley for our final hoorah.


Here's Caleb climbing into a little nook:


And Hyrum peeking out of his cubby:


And Andrew getting stuck:


Caleb took a ride with Daddy in Samuel's pack:


Here's Andrew "out checking the grass:"


Goodbye, Goblin Valley, till next year!