Passing of My Beloved Grandfather

Last night the world said goodbye to a great man. He had not won any major awards or been in any major office, but he was great in the sight of many - especially his family.

George William Snow, my grandfather, passed away after suffering through years of his body losing functionality. His passing was peaceful and he led a full life. Death is never easy, but everyone seemed to have the chance to say goodbye, phone or in person. I thought in honor of his passing that I'd write up a few of my memories of him.

He was a hard worker. He bought a business when he moved his young family to Oregon and really made it his own and grew it.

Not only did he work in his business, but he had the best garden and spent nearly every evening caring for it and his yard. He enjoyed it.

He loved family and was devoted to them. My mom always talks of how they went water skiing every weekend in the summer as an entire family and he continued to do that even with grandkids. There were always family events and family outings.

He strived to go to each of his kids and grandkids events and be one of the loudest to cheer. He was one of my biggest fans. He and/or my grandma would travel to nearly all my away games with my parents for any sport and he even came to follow me for 18 holes during state championship for golf.

He made me feel special and I know he did to many others. He had nicknames for most of us and each time we saw him would encircle us with his long arms and have a warm smile.

When I worked at the cleaners during the slow summer afternoons, he'd stop by for a while just to chat and listen and tell me stories or growing up or war time. He'd do the same while I was painting his house one summer. He would just sit and chit and chat and of course tell me if I made a mistake, but in his teasing tone.

While in little league, he would take me out to the baseball fields by his home and spend hours hitting me grounders and fly balls. Or he would take me to the pitching wall and just stand in the background while I practiced, offering advice as needed.

He was a dear friend. Someone that I knew loved me no matter what happened. He will always hold a special place in my heart, not for necessarily extraordinary things, but for the little things that he continuously did to show his love. Besides, like they say in the movie "UP", it's the boring things we seem to enjoy the most.

I will be excited to see him when my time comes and know that he'll encircle me once again, calling me 'Bethy' with that soft smile.

Thanks for the memories, for spending time with me and each family member, for being an example of how to work hard and for truly loving and experiencing!

Swamp Coolers really do 'swamp'!

We spent a great 4th of July weekend camping at Zion National Park and watching fireworks in St. George. The boys went on a 3 mile hike and they honestly did not complain at all. They are still talking about the fun they had hiking and at the Emerald Pools where the hike led us. Kayden caught tadpoles there (only one of which survived and is not doing well), Boston was on a quest for the best hiking stick and lucked out in the middle of our long hike and McCoy got to hitch a ride on Chad everywhere and pull his hair and scratch his neck, all while laughing.

When we returned home on Sunday night, I luckily took our dirty clothes bag to the laundry room and discovered about 1/4 inch of water on the laundry room floor. At the same time, Chad had climbed on the roof because there was quite a lot of water coming out of the gutter and wanted to check the swamp cooler. At nearly the same time, we realized the issue and I started turning off the water as Chad came running to tell me to do just that.

Basically, the water line leading to our swamp cooler broke and water soaked through our roof, down through our bathroom and hallway walls, and down the ceiling of the laundry room. The next morning a man came to do a wet check of our house and told us what needed to be done.... part of the wallpaper in bathroom removed, part of the ceiling in the laundry room removed, molding in the hallway removed so holes could be drilled - all within the next 2-3 days, as the walls needed to be at least drying by 5-7 days.

Then he told us that we needed giant fans to run in our house for at least a week and even told us about one of his employees living in our neighborhood who he'd check out the fans to for free so we wouldn't have to pay. Really nice guy - both of them, actually.

So we did all those things and are currently living in a 90 degree house with 3 really loud fans trying to dry out our walls so mold doesn't grow. Luckily our swamp cooler and water lines were covered under home warranty still, but we have to work out all the details with the warranty company on that.

Anyway, as of now, if you're interested in what it's like walking through those air blasters they have at the end of car washes, or if you want to go way above and beyond the skirt flipping of Marilyn Monroe, come on over.

Kayden's First Year of Baseball

Kayden's first year of little league is over and he had such a fun time. It was coach pitch and all the players got to hit each inning and no one got out. It's good to learn when there's no competition involved.

He looked forward to every game and was always so positive and wanting to try harder . . . Except the very last game was extremely hot and one inning he went missing. We thought he took off to go to the bathroom somewhere, as there are no restrooms around, so we hunted for him while his team was on the field and nearly panicked. Then, when his team came back in he suddenly reappeared. Turns out he was hiding under the bench because it was too hot to play and he said he was just all sweaty. Fun times!

Enjoy the pictures. They were taken on a game when Chad was covering for the coach.

Summer Water Fun

Summer means lots of water, swimsuits and of course mud.

Thought we'd share a bit of our summer pics with you.

Towels line the deck after our daily swim lessons or after a romp through the sprinklers.

Boston in his swimming lessons. He especially loves when they get to throw torpedos and dive after them.

McCoy's favorite part of swim lessons in splashing. He drop to his knees and them throw his arms and chest in to splash whoever is around and then laughs. This happens over and over and over.

Kayden's front crawl.

Kayden's backstroke

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MUD!!!!!

I knew what was going on in the backyard and that nothing was being damaged, so I let them play in the mud for about an hour and then they got to hose off everything, including themselves.