My Grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary this June. They are such an amazing example to me of strength, pure love, endurance, humility, kindness, patience, and happiness. I have always had a very special place in my heart for both of my grandparents. Being the oldest grandchild I think I got to be a little extra spoiled. Having my Uncle only four years older than me, and my Aunt only 6, made me feel more part of the "kids" and not so much the "grandkid". I loved visiting Grandma and Grandpa growing up. Which we only got to do maybe twice a year since we were in Washington most of my childhood and they were in Idaho. I remember my little brother and I use to swing on our swing set as high as we could thinking and hoping it would lift us off the ground and we could fly all the way to their house and land on the neighbors trampoline.
My Grandpa has Alzheimers and has been dealing with it for about 3 years now. It is progressively getting worse and worse, but for the most part he still knows we are his family, he just can't quite figure out how. My grandma still takes care of him, the house, and all the rest of us, while faithfully serving in all of her church callings. She truly amazes me. We wanted to throw them a big party with all of their friends and family. But things are a bit more tricky now with Grandpa so we opted for a more intimate party with just us close family members. Every other year we get together for a family reunion. This year it was at Island Park, Id.
This was the first time most of the family was going to be meeting Ashton and I was so excited for him to meet his little cousins. Especially Jase who is just a few weeks younger than him. They will be best buds I'm sure of it!
We went for a hike to Mesa Falls, ate yummy food and spent lots of time together.
I will admit camping with a baby is much harder than I ever imagined it would be. I think I forgot about naps, and the fact that it is very loud with 40+ grandchildren running around all the time. Jason was such a good sport and spent the majority of the time trying to find quite places to let Ashton rest.
On June 15th, we distracted Grandma and Grandpa and setup the "mess hall" with all the decorations I could come up with.
I got put in charge of decorating, and I think it didn't turn out half bad for camping.
We managed to surprise them (or at least that's what they say). We had their wedding cake recreated and displayed pictures and a slide show of them and did some gifts and of course ate cake.
It wasn't much but, Grandma if you are reading this, I hope you know we wanted to make things so special and that we all love you and Grandpa so very much. I am in tears just writing this with how much I care about you both.
Congrats on 50 years. You have set the bar so high for all of us!
(pictures like this make my heart happy)
We spent our first day exploring the Hotel and all of its pools and restaurants. The next day we just hung out on the beach and played in the ocean. Nothing beats laying out on the beach all day with your hubby! :) That night we went to down town Cancun and ate at, my new favorite restaurant, Chocolate City.
Our third day their we got up early and took a tour bus out to the Mayan ruins. It was such a great experience and I'm so glad we decided to do it! On the way out we stopped at a cenote, which is a large underground river. It was about 75ft below the ground and so gorgeous. It had vines coming down and looked like something straight out of a movie. We went swimming and cliff jumping
. It took my about a 45 minutes and a lot of coercing from Jason but I finally jumped. All the while Jason was doing back flips and showing everyone else up. Our next stop was the Mayan Ruins. They are so amazing and so beautiful. I couldn't believe the knowledge and architectural expertise these ancient people had. I loved learning about their culture and lives back than. The next day we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres. We went snorkeling along the reefs and swam with sharks. I was so proud of Jason! He's not the biggest fan of ocean creatures but he know
s how much I love them. I even got him to touch a starfish. :) Back on the Island we rented a little scooter and went exploring. Their were so many fun little shops and restaurants. Not to mention the gorgeous views of the ocean. Our last day there we hung out at the beach, did some body surfing, and soaked in every last bit of sunshine I could before heading back to freezing cold Utah! 
We got back to Utah just in time for the Mc Hammer and Vanilla Ice concert. He knows how big of fan I am of the 80's and surprised me with tickets for Valentines Day. We went with a group of friends and it was an all night 80's dance party with the best performers around!! I fell in love with Jason all over again that night. Not only did he put up with Vanilla Ice and MC all night long, but he dressed up and danced crazy with me the entire night! 
at 11:40. We were so blessed to be able to look around and see so many of our family and friends in the temple with us. My Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles came all the way from Alaska, Idaho, and Colorado. I also had my best friends drive in from Vernal, UT and all the way from Seattle, Washington. We were sealed by Elder Rudd, a former General Authority. He now serves
in the Church Welfare Department with my Dad. I had the opportunity to hear him speak several times when I worked for the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. He did an amazing job and the ceremony was so special and perfect for us. I could not stop smiling the whole time! Coming out of the temple was so exciting. It was great to see so many more friends and family there waiting for us. I feel so blessed to have so many amazing and wonderful people be a part of my life! After group pictures everyone headed over to the reception center to help set up, while Jason and I took more pictures around the temple. We had an incredible photographer and videographer, both were so fun to work with and captured some incredible shots. We also had perfect weather! The sun was shining and even in my short sleeved wedding dress I still managed to keep warm.
ard members and family in setting everything up. We could not have done it with out all the people who lent us items, came and served, set up, and cleaned up. Thank you!!!
