My Baby is 17!

Alyssa celebrated her 17th birthday last week.

It was one of those birthdays that keep on giving.

It all started Saturday night with a birthday burger from Red Robin with Kevin, Kalie, Isaac and Tony.

There aren't many things better than a birthday burger from Red Robin.

Then Boyd and I thought it best to celebrate her birthday at home on Monday evening...two days early.

Boyd had to work late on Alyssa's birthday.

I kept asking Alyssa what she wanted for her birthday dinner, and got no response.

She couldn't decide.

It was up to me.

After stewing and fretting about it for a few hours, I decided to go with PW's Parmesan Chicken and round it out with Apple Crisp.

The birthday girl was thrilled!

After dinner we did our traditional blow out the candles pictures.

It's corny, I know. But I still love to do it.

My kids indulge my fetishes this one time of the year.

I was so excited to give Alyssa's birthday present to her.

Alyssa is really into zebra print right now.

I found some zebra printed sheets and my friend, Adele, found a hot pink, white and black zebra printed comforter set that she told me about.

Boyd and I ran and bought it.

Here's the sheets:

Here's the comforter set.

I love the look on her face:

Disbelief.

We ran upstairs immediately and put the sheets and comforter on her bed.

It looked AWESOME!!!

Now she wants to paint her room. She thought that it might be nice to do a zebra print on the wall.

I put the nix on that one.

It was so fun to wake her up the next morning. She was all comfy and cozy in her bed surrounded by zebra print.

She looked like a princess lying there.

Barrett Family Reunion

I come from a big family.

I have four sisters and 3 brothers.

I don't know how my mom survived all of us.

Last Saturday we had a family reunion up in Mendon.

My dad was born and raised in Mendon.

We had a lovely lunch with excellent desserts. My mom made her traditional trifle and my sister, Rose, made a carrot cake that I might hurt someone for.

After family business, we heard some stories about my grandparents (my father's parents) that I had never heard before.

It was very enlightening.

My dear mom put together lovely folders with pictures and life histories of my grandpa, Clarence, and my grandma, Martha.

By the way...did you know that my grandma is Martha Stuart?

She is! And I get such a kick out of it!

We played a couple of fun games and worked on a quilt for the humanitarian service and then did pictures.

Trying to round up my family for pictures is a little like rounding up wild mustangs. No one wants them done.

I feel fortunate that I have this picture.


This is most of the Barrett gang.

Me and my sibs.

My favorite part of this picture is my 6' sister standing on her tippy-toes next to my 6' 3" brother who is standing on his tippy-toes.

I think I need to get the scoop on that one.

Don't ask what I am doing. I am standing so weird.

Jon was pushing and shoving Mary and I together and I think I was planting my feet so I didn't fall over.

I belong to a wonderful family and I am so blessed.

Ogden Marathon

Kalie decided she wanted to run her first marathon.

She chose the Ogden Marathon to make her marathon debut.

She began training in January with a friend.

They would pop their children into their jogging strollers and away they would go.

Longer runs were usually reserved for Saturdays.

When she would tell me she was running 13 or 14 or 15 or 20 miles on Saturday, my mind would rebel. That is a LONG way to run.

It's a LONG way to walk. Have you ever walked 13 miles in a day?

She was also very good to do serious cross-training. She did a lot of other types of cardio and strength training.

She was very strong and prepared for this race.

Boyd, Kevin, Isaac and I wanted to be at the finish line. Kalie's goal was to run her marathon in 4 hours. That's a little over a 9 minute mile...

We figured she would be hitting the finish line at about 11:00.

We left in plenty of time but had a difficult time finding a parking spot that was close.

We found one along the road and set off at a very brisk pace to get there in time.

We had looked online for the finish line address. It said the address was 25th street and Washington. When we got there, there was no finish line.

The end of the race was actually 25th street and GRANT!!

Basically, we walked an extra block or two before we reached the end. We were so nervous that we would miss her running across the finish line.

We waited anxiously and then suddenly I saw her! We only waited 8 minutes before she finished. That's how close our timing was.

She was running and looking good!

She completed her marathon with a time of 4 hours and 3 minutes!

Can you believe it? I can't.

Kalie was in the space reserved for the runners. She got her medal for running and some snacks if desired.

Then she walked through the gates to her little family.

I know that this race was so difficult for her, but SHE DID IT!

Congratulations, sweetie.

So proud of you.

Mother's Day Treat

We got a note from Court last Monday telling us that we could Skype each other for our Mother's Day phone call.

I was a little nervous.

We had never used Skype.

We didn't have it downloaded on any of our computers.

I enlisted the help of our tech guru, Kalie, and asked her to download Skype on our laptop.

She did. Successfully.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get Skype working with the person whose home Court was skyping from.

So we did a dry run on Sunday morning.

He called me up and there he was. Clear and big as life.

Then we had to wait. Until 7:00 p.m.

It just about killed me.

I have to admit.

These sort of things tend to give me a little anxiety.

I get nervous and weepy.

Don't know why...I think it is in the genetics.

However, the minute I saw his face until we closed our conversation an hour later, I was thrilled.

It was far better than I ever hoped.

He showed us Mt. Ranier from the bedroom window.

He showed us the watch I sent him for his birthday.

He stuck his tongue out at Alyssa and she returned the favor...several times.

All in all, it made my Mother's Day complete.

Earlier, Isaac and Kalie sang a Mother's Day song to me, Brock and Amanda brought me a lovely necklace from Disneyland, and Tony and Alyssa gave me a gift card to Amazon.

What more can a mother want?

Just one thing:

 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."  
                                                                                          3 John 1:4

Cinco de Mayo

Kalie called one day and asked if I was planning on celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

I hadn't really thought about it.

But it sounded fun.

So she and I put plans together and decided to have a fun family celebration for Cinco de Mayo. We also celebrated Kevin getting a Master's degree from the U.

Boyd got so excited about our party.

He called me from the local craft store Saturday morning.

 I asked him what he was doing.

"Buying red, white and green balloons, a red tablecloth and a pinata."

I was quite surprised and looked forward to the decorations he had picked out.

I decided to make some chicken enchiladas in memory of the enchiladas we had in Mexico, refried beans from Jarachos, homemade pico de gallo, guacamole and sparkling cider.

Kalie made yummy queso and dessert popsicles.

A closeup of the chicken enchiladas.

We got a rotisserie chicken from Sam's and shredded it up. Then we browned corn tortillas in a little oil, spread some chicken on one half, added a little cheese and folded them in half.

We covered them in green enchilada sauce and a sprinkle of cheese and heated them in the microwave.

Once we added a dollop of sour cream we were ready to eat!

Pioneer Woman's Pico de Gallo.

It was delicious!

The table covered with our sumptious fare.

After we stuffed ourselves silly we had our pinata party.

We filled the pirate ship pinata with starburst and skittle fun packs.

Isaac got the first turn.

He just didn't understand that he was supposed to hit the ship...especially when he has been taught by his parents not to hit things.

Kalie went next.

She took this pinata business very serious.

She closed her eyes and turned in circles and proceeded to try to hit the pinata.

It was highly entertaining.

Boyd took a turn next.

He came out swinging like a major league batter.

He destroyed the TOP of the pirate ship but the candy remained in tact.

Can you see the top of the ship flying away?

It was my turn next.

I bragged, "I know exactly where I am after I turn in circles because I can feel the sun  hitting my face."

I turned in 3 circles, took a mighty swing and hit...the glider.

It was a little stunning.

I was smarter after that and felt for the ship before I started swinging away.

Then Kevin took a turn.

He was very methodical about the whole thing.

He felt for the ship with his bat and swung.

He hit that ship perfectly.

One more swing from Kevin and the results were amazing!

There was an explosion of color!

Candy went everywhere...in the garden, in the lawn, underneath the swing set.

I only wish I had snapped a picture at the right time.

Needless to say, our Cinco de Mayo celebration was a roaring success!

We finished off our day with a walk around the block with Isaac holding grandpa's hand.

So sweet and so fulfilling.

Brock's Graduation from the U

Brock finally did it!!

He graduated from the U!!!

He has a major in Chemistry and a minor in coaching, and could be a high school Chemistry teacher if he so desired.

His graduation was on May 4th at Kingsbury Hall.

It was CROWDED up there on the U's campus.

We felt lucky to find a park at the Rice Stadium and get a shuttle to Kingsbury Hall.

Once inside, we discovered that everyone was saving seats for family and friends. It was difficult to find 3 seats together.

As we were walking up the aisle to go upstairs to the balcony seats, we found 4 seats on the main level that NO ONE was saving.

A miracle, I'd say.

We texted Amanda to let her know that we had a seat for her.

She and Brock were not so lucky when it came to finding a park. They were parked clear up by Fort Douglas. It was at least a mile or more to Kingsbury Hall.

They got to the hall just a couple of minutes before the graduates began marching inside.

Here's Brock walking in. The photo quality is terrible but that's ok. At least we have a picture of him.

After sitting through two terrible graduation speeches we finally got to see the graduates get their diploma cover.

Because it was dark inside of Kingsbury Hall I decided to walk up close to the stage and record a video of Brock instead of a photo. I felt like it would turn out better. And it did!

It was such a beautiful day. We grabbed a picture of the graduate...

Another of him with his cute wife...

And of course one with the proud parents.

Boyd and I walked behind Brock and Amanda back to our car. We told them we would drive them up to their car.

I thought it was so cute watching them walk together.

After the Pomp and Circumstance, we needed some sustenance.

We drove to Rodizio Grill and filled up on exotic Brazilian salads and meat. It was a food fest!

This was such an exciting day. We had a great time and were glad that we could celebrate with Brock and Amanda.

Now, it's on to graduate school.

Brock has been accepted to the U's graduate program. He will go to school for 5 more years and in that time will earn his master's and doctorate degrees in Chemistry.

There are some serious brains in that head of his...

Prom Numero Dos

One sunny afternoon I heard the doorbell ring.

I answered it and no one was there.

But this was sitting on the porch:

A cake! Obviously inviting Alyssa to Layton's Prom.

We couldn't wait for Alyssa to get home from work so we could see who it was from.

It happened to be on our date night, so our friends were at our house. We all wanted a piece of cake.

We got plates and forks out and waited for Alyssa to cut the cake.

It wouldn't cut.

It was NOT cake. And we were disappointed.

Instead, it was a phone book that had been duck taped closed except for one page. This page had a phone number and a name written inside next to the family name...Tyler.

Once we got over the disappointment of not having any cake, we realized that this was a very creative way to ask someone to Prom.

Boyd and I were home from Cancun so we were able to be here while Alyssa got dressed. We also got to meet Tyler and see them off to the dance.

The next pictures are a sequential representation of Alyssa getting dressed and leaving for Prom with Tyler.

The back of Alyssa's dress.

Alyssa's friend, Tony, did her hair and makeup.

A closeup of the front of her dress and her shoes.

Peeking over the landing.

Coming down the stairs.

Pinning on Tyler's boutonniere.

He's such a cute kid.

Alyssa's wrist corsage.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Alyssa had a great time with Tyler and his group of friends. She got to meet some new people which will help her transition into Layton High next year.

And this is the end. No more prom pictures to suffer through!