friday, june 29th...

We spent most of the afternoon out on the lake with Mitch Barney, Kim's father-in-law. Of course, Kim came too...and my sister Erica.



It was a hot day (100 degrees), so the lake felt nice and refreshing. I once again attempted to wake board, and had so much fun. I'm starting to get more and more comfortable going in and out of the wake, and the whole thing is beginning to feel more natural to me.


Here's John, just after wake boarding...

We had a family birthday party for Ruby this evening. We thought it would be fun to celebrate her first birthday again, only this time with her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents that live here in Utah. John had an idea (when we were out picking everything up for the Mesa party), to have a red theme, you know, because her name is Ruby. He wanted to decorate everything in red, and have all the guests wear red.
I really liked the idea, but there was just one slight problem...the party would be starting in about two hours, and I didn't feel that would be sufficient time to let everyone know what we were doing (especially because we had invited like 65 people). Needless to say, John felt pretty bad. So, I had this grand idea, for the Utah party. I decided to surprise him by having the red theme party here, for her (2nd) first birthday. Erica and I went to the party store and picked up tons of red decorations - plates, cups, tablecloths, balloons, party hats, blowers...and then we called everyone and told them to wear red. It was so funny, because John was out picking up the pizzas when most the guests arrived, and when he walked in the door, he didn't even say a thing! I thought it was pretty obvious, I mean the place was screaming red...but apparently, it didn't even dawn on him! After a few minutes, I finally said, "didn't you notice?", and he said "notice what?" I finally pointed it out to him, and he was really excited. He hadn't packed anything red, so I had Kim run to Target beforehand, to grab him a red tee. It ended up being a lot of fun, and definitely something we'll have to do again...especially as Ruby gets a little older, and can really understand the significance of her name.

After Ruby's party, those who could, joined us up at the Salt Lake Cemetery, to celebrate Isaac's Birthday. John and I decided that we'd like to make it our little tradition to go up to his grave every June 29th. We realize that it may not be possible some years, especially since we live in Arizona now, but we'll do our best to keep with the tradition. This year, we gathered around his grave, listened to the song (Angel lent to us - Isaac's Lullaby) that Leigh wrote and sang at his funeral, and then each person released a balloon...we all watched in silence as they drifted to the Heavens. My dad offered a beautiful family prayer, we took a few pictures, and then went home. I imagine that in future years, we probably won't veer much from what we did tonight. We'll probably always keep it as simple. I look forward to future years when we can take our children to this beautiful resting place, and tell them all about their big brother Isaac...



Mom and Ruby (with her red balloon), last year, and then this year...