Part II.

I had to add this picture in of Claire and I. We are at Dave and Busters...she looks like she is going to busta move on me, ehh. I promise this is the last set of pictures...you must be so tired of looking at all of these...well to BAD!. I guess when I don't post for a long time this is what happends.

These pics were to cute not to only have one. I was sitting in Ronna's car waiting patiently for her to come back from returning something in the Mall. Well let me tell you, what a mistake that was, we should have went with her, all three kids and I. Instead we were stuck in the van for LIKE and HOUR! OR two OR THREE!!!! (maybe not 3-but it seemed like it.) Anyways, I took Kaitlynn out of her seat and sat her on my legs and she played and laughed while I was stretched out on the front seat of the van. She had yet to have have enough strength at holding herself up and you will see in one of the pics how she is falling toward the door...Don't worry, I didn't let her fall or anything, but it was funny. She was going after a toy I had stuck between the door and I.

The TEMPLE was such a highlight of my trip...I love going to visit the temples where I am on vacation. This temple was in Oakland, which was about a 45 minute drive for Ronna, but what a Beautiful place. It was amazing and so worth it for me. The tulips were in blossom and they were the size of some of the kids heads, it was such a wonderful, perfect day to go. Brooke and Luke had fallen asleep on our way there, and so we left them in the car to rest, Luke woke up and Brooke woke up a few minutes before we left. She was the last to get pictures with monstrous Tulips...I am not Joking wait until you see these. Overall, this is the on place that every time to visit, the spirit is so strong and overwhelming. Pay attention the the blue skies...this was a good day for us all.

Look at those Giants!

Ok, so if some of you are wondering why there is a picture of Ronna and this big orange thing.. its a Rainbow gumball...SHE LOVES CANDY!!! The funny thing is, is that she has candy everywhere, she loves anything gummy, sour, and tangy. So now you know what to get her for her birthday, Christmas or basically any time.

San Fran

For some of you who don't recognize anyone in some of the pictures its because they are JR's family. Half of his family came from Idaho and Oregon.

Oh what do you do when it is 4:00 in the morning and it is the third day this has happend, but you can't go to sleep? You read your scriptures, books, write in your journal OR you BLOG..if your answer was BLOG, ding-ding, let me know and I will give you a prize.

Actually, I really want to share all of my pictures from sharing my Spring Break at Ronnas house in San Francisco. For those of you who don't know Ronna, she is my sister, has three children-Luke, Brooke and Caitlynn. Over a year ago she lost a little baby caring it full term, and finding out that the cord was wrapped many times around her little body. One of the main reasons I went there was because it was the blessing for baby Caitlynn-who turned 6 months when I was there. It was so much fun to be around a little baby, I forgot how some babies can be nice to be around.

While I was in San Francisco, I got to see my parents for about 24 hours, Ronnas in-laws had come for the blessing as well and so she had to figure out what to do with all these extra people. She planned exceptionally well, dinners were taken care of by the time we got there, her friend Tonya housed most of the family at her fun-packed house, which included lots of play things for kids, a pool, hot tub, and big sand box at the top of her mountain in the back yard. We are so grateful for her and her hospitality, THANKS Tonya.

Activities included, San Fran Zoo, the new Science and Technology center, which included a rainforest and planetarium, along with a beautiful aquarium. This place was really amazing. Others went to the show Wicked-I sat home and babysat 5 children that I had either met that day or two days prior. Yeah-call me crazy...they were ok, once they were asleep. HAHAHAH.

Then it was my turn to hang out and figure out what to do, I enjoyed walking/running on a trail along the San Andreas Fault-what a breath-taking view. My sister has a running partner and we met up there in the wee hours of the morning, basically when it was still dark. (6:30 a.m.) but it was nice and refreshing for me. We went to Alcatraz-which is one of the coolest places, but we only toured the prison, not the island which I saw was gorgeous. Then we met for dinner to celebrate Ronnas birthday, at this NASTY of a resteraunt in Little Italy, I think it was call Guisseppe's. Actually I had a friend Holly who use to live here in New Jersey come with us, we had a lovely time.

The greatest and most beautiful places I talked my sister in taking me was the Oakland temple. Now let me explain, this sits on top of a hill, overlooking the bay, it has fantastic views of the west Bay, including S.F., the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, and Oakland, WOW, it was great. The view from the top of the temple is what allows you to see all that Heavenly Father has done, and the temple is amazingly beautiful. I took lots of pictures here because the flowers were huge and wonderful. We then continued to Seagal Book, where I purchased a lot of things, including the Down east outfitters clothing line, skirts and lots of shirts. I love them, I wear them almost every day.

But the highlight of my trip was my sister dropped me off at a great scrapbooking store, I was there for a little while and made out with a huge bag full of goodies.

Thanks for putting up with me for 8 days, Ronna-J.R. Luke, Brooke, and Caitlynn.

p.s there are so many pics I am going to add that it will take you a day to get through them all, and my camera actually died two days before I came home, so I don't have any pictures of Alcatraz or Ronnas Birthday....she is suppose to send me those-HOPEFULLY

Valery West McDonald

For some of you this is new to you, Valery is my real mother who past away when I was 12, she was killed in a head on collision in Star Valley, Wyoming and a frigid day. The roads were slippery and the fog was extremely thick that morning. I remembered coming to school, and some of the 7th graders and teachers had come to me telling me they thought they had seen her car crashed and told me to immediately call home. My dad had been home that day because my younger brother Ryan was home sick, but when I called there was no answer, so I went to classes. Later on, a policeman and my uncle showed up at school and took me to my aunt Terry's home, where the rest of my siblings were at, we waited and waited with my aunt. It was wierd, we listened to music and danced, then my dad, and grandparents showed up and set us down on the bed and told us she had died. It was so emotional, can you imagine telling your 4 children your wife and thier mother had died.

She was a speech pathologist, she worked with children who were handicapped literally. She commuted from Star Valley to Cokeville, I think twice a week to work with these wonderful children and helped them through a lot in their life.

She was young and beautiful, intelligent, funny, she always said really funny things, and I am told that she was the "boss", if you know what I mean. She was always willing to help anyone and was a faithful Mormon, she taught us well, and lived rightously.

I do miss her and love her very much.

I took these pictures from my sisters web, some are old, but I get a laugh out of looking at them, I also know where I get my long, thick hair-you will see.

Love you mom.

BIG PARTY!!!

As most of you know the time has come for me to finally graduate, yes, I know seriously, this is NOT a joke, it is going to happen. So leave the date open for Friday, May 22. There will be a party somewhere...

(don't worry-I will be walking across the stage, I have paid the dues for graduation, and that has never happend.)

And I just added some pics from two years ago..of the kiddies and of my brother Ryan, actually the one of Claire is from our "fake cooking show", we love to bake and cook together.

"ROGER THAT"

The infamous "Top Secret location" notice how Travis is running to get in the van.

These two are the Bridge and tunnel, notice the pic to the right, you can tell when the bridge stops and the tunnel begins, I think this is for the all the ship coming departing and coming in.

Mike is still the same, remember Ninjas-MIKE?

Mike, Jenn, me, and Travis. (my hair is a little crazy)

With all the time on my hands, I decided to go and visit a friend who is in the army in Virginia Beach. He is in the music section of the army and is getting ready to graduate this coming up Friday. My friend Jenn went with me, we drove down on Friday night, got there late and camce back last night-Sunday. It was an adventure, to avoid traffic in the Baltimore and D.C. areas, we drove down the Delmarva Peninsula. Delmarva-Deleware, Maryland, and Virginia. It's on the eastern shores of the CHesepeake Bay. It was long-only because it was late and dark, we got to the southern tip which takes you to the Chesepeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Not let me tell you about this, it is what connects the peninsula to Virginia Beach, it is really long-I think 7 miles. At night it was extremely scarry for me, I started getting anxious and couldn't WAIT to get off. In the day a much different story. It was really cool, still really long.

One more thing, my camera's battery died and Jenn forgot hers, so we bought disposable ones, we used them on Sat. and mine on Sunday, so the pics of Sat, will go up when we get finished with the cameras and I get them developed, I hope they turn out.

We also had the oppurtunity to go to Williamsburg, which was only 46 miles from the base we were at, we got there late and missed all the action. The old Williamsburg is one of the first settlements, so they bring the town to life, its a reenactment of when they first settled.

Our friend Mike who use to live in Jersey is one of the main reasons we went and so it was fun to see him in his surroundings on base and off, he has changed for the most part, looks a little different, but also is more confident in himself. His changes are for the good. He also had a close friend who hung out with us-Travis, who has been in the army for four years longer than Mike. In the army you are not allowed to spend time with a solder who is younger than you otherwise it is fratinizing, so in order to hang out with him we had a "TOP SECRET" location to pick him up and drop him off. (THE LIBRARY, or the trash dumpsters behind the library). Talk about histerical. You will see the pics. Overall this was a great trip and we congratulate Travis and Mike for the work and service they do for our country and wish them the best of luck in Texas and Korea.

It was a weird feeling to be on base..completely different lifestyle, not sure if I could do it, so many rules and no way would I be getting up at 5 a.m. everyday to do physical training. I don't like being told what to do, but let me tell you that I would love most males to go through basic training, I cannot tell you how awesome it was to have them say yes, mam, no mam. I wanted to bring them home with me, they were so respectful and kind.