Tanzania days 1-3

Day one started with getting to the airport at 6:30.  We Didn't even make into the airport and Taryn is throwing up. Great! I didn't have my phone with me, something about being over seas and hundreds .  Taryn was going to have to suck it up!  She was fine and sipped on sprite for a while.

After out 27 hours of travel we made it to Arusha, Tanzania. We stayed in a lovely hotel with guards.  We arrived a day and a half before my dad and siblings.  It was to cold to swim in the pool, and the hotel grounds took about 15 min to see.  So we slept, and watched a Tanzanian soap opera. Fun times.

This was a pretty cool plant/tree by the pool.

My dad, Melissa and Jesse soon joined us after a successful climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  They don't look less for the wear.  Happy to be done I'm guessing.

First day of safari.  We passed a lot of Messi tribe villages.  They show their wealth by the amount of cattle they have and the number of wives too.  Each one of the huts belong to a different wife.  Some villages there were dozens of huts.

Our first park to explore was Tarangire National Park.  We saw our first animals which included, Wildebeests, Impala, Zebras, Elephants, Giraffes, warthogs, and many kinds of birds. 

This is a Baobab tree.  It can live for thousands of years. When the dry season comes, the trees drop the leaves to conserve water.  Elephants can get the middle of the tree and get the water stored there.  The tree then heals it's self. 

Zebras at the water hole.  the best time to go on safari is in the dry season.  All animals need water, but fewer locations to get it so you are guaranteed to see an abundance of animals.

Elephants were the most entertaining.  They played with each other, and are very aware of their surroundings.  When elephant populations get to high, they don't kill one elephant here and there, they kill whole families prides.  The reason for this is that elephants have a great memory and would remember that humans killed one of their own and would become aggressive to humans.

 

Dads 60th birthday

 



I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who participated in this gift for my dad. 

Every Christmas and birthday I have the same problem of what to get my dad.  He is a very practical man, but at the same time not...I got him what I thought was a great gift last year, a t-shirt with a John Wayne quote on it, and it said on the front "old guys rule".  Do you know how many times have seen him wear it? None. Getting things like that is just not my dad, but the shirt was in my price range.  The newest ipad is not.

So I have to dig down deep to think of what to get him.  He loves to reminisce about the old farm days in Utah, and people he has met, and the fun times he has with friends.  For Christmas, with the help of Melissa we made a photo book of some of his hiking trips he has taken. 

Back in Oct. I remembered dad was turning 60 this year and wouldn't be wonderful to get 60 years of memories.  After Christmas I put my plan in to action.  With the help of Kathy, my dads Secretary we got a list of emails of his friend, and with the names of his family members we had well over 60.  I received quite a few right away.  Closer to his birthday I may have needed to send a few threatening reminders.  The best thing was it was to be a secret, and it remained that way.  He never found out.  Dad was very surprised and touched that so many would go out of their way to write him a letter for his birthday.  His speech and debate coach from college made a scrapbook of all the newspaper articles, we really hope that some of the pants he wore in the picture are not hiding in the back of the closet waiting for the right time to make another appearance.  My cousin Wayne made a dvd of some old family videos he found at his parents.  Home movies from when he was younger and of his parents too.  That big stack of white envelopes in the second picture is all the letter I received.  Then we got tired of watching him read the letters, so I got the cake going. 

 

If you look close enough, and have been in my dads house before, you will remember that the wall were purple and green, and they had oak cabinets.  The walls are now orange, the cabinets are now black and new granite.  The house will be done shortly.

 

Laurens first temple trip

Lauren was able to go to the temple for the first time since turning twelve to do baptisms for the dead.  Her best friend also turned twelve the same month so they were able to go together.  I am lucky enough to be in YW so I get to go every 2 months with the youth and get to see both my girls do baptisms.  I didn't do a post about Taryn's first trip, so I made sure I got a picture of both of them.

 

Troutman grankids (and great grand son)

All the grand kids were here for the holidays, so we took advantage and got pictures of all the kids together, and a few spouses too.  One little great grandson was in the mix too.  Grandma is sitting with the kids in this picture.

Jacob loved to be in this picture.  He's one of the boys.

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year seemed a little different than usual.  There were people gone that are usually there.  I think that lots of people have a lot of stress in their lives right now and it's showing.  We did the usual and had dinner Christmas eve at my dads house. The kids opened PJ's that night.  Taryn was the first to get up like usual, and Bree had a bad attitude when I woke her up.  Jacob was so excited for Christmas this year.  After we went back to my dads to open gifts and have breakfast.  Up to the Mt. we went after that.  My father in law had been calling since 8 to see when we would get to his house.  We of course were the first ones up there and had to wait for everyone else to get there to see what the surprise was.  A go-cart Toms dad built.  The kids are having a blast riding it every chance they get.

Jacob with his airplane.

Lauren and her 20 rolls of duct tape. 

All the older girls got a pair of jeans from the Buckle. They had to show off the pocket designs.

What a great looking bunch of girls!

The kids in front of the go-cart.  The note from "Santa" in short read, it can be ridden anytime, but if Jacob wants a ride, he goes to the front of the line.  He is not spoiled at all!

hairless

My poor kids.  All of them have been mane challenged.  A couple of the kids have out grown it, one has not yet, one is still to be determined.  Jacob was a bald baby, but at 3 was getting a hair cut every 2 months.  Every time we get his hair cut I make a deal with the devil that he keeps his curls.  So far so good.  Lauren too was a bald baby with some wisps of hair at about 3, but poor Taryn.  She longs for hair so bad.  She would put on tights, leggings, shirts, shorts on her head and pretend it was hair.  Every Halloween she would be some sort of princess that had long thick hair. What was a mom to do.  I got her wigs.  She would always have something on her head.  she would whip her head back, sweep her hand over her shoulder like she had long locks.  Taryn's hair is still painfully thin, and I am working with her hairdresser on anything that might work to thicken it up.  So far no luck on that.  The only ray of hope is that I had the same kind of hair when I was young, but when I got pregnant the first time my hair thickened right up.

(Taryn with shorts on her head)

Poor Bree is in the same predicament.  She loves the thought of long hair.  She loves all the princesses.  They may have an African American Princess, an Asian Princess, an Indian Princess, but no princess with thin hair.  Every Sunday she loves to play with Laurens or my hair, not so much Taryn's.

Bree has taken to putting things on her head for pretend hair.  This is funny because both Taryn and Bree did it.  One day Bree was in the kitchen with me and she took the dish towel off the fridge and put it on her head.  From there its been her blanket, towels, and her favorite, sweaters.  No pants or tights yet.  One day girls, one day.

At least she is color coordinated.

fall sports

This September and October were some busy months!  I only had one weekday a week that I didn't have something to do.  Jacob played his first season of soccer and loved every minute of it.  Even getting knocked down time and time again didn't stop him.  I can't find the pictures of him where you see his face, but he has a huge smile on his face all the time.  Jacob even scored a goal.  One for his team and one for the opposing team.  The one for our team, Jacob took the ball down the field all by himself.  The goal he scored for the other team, there was a lot of confusion by the goal, and it happened to be Jacobs foot that kicked the ball in.  Oh well.  Jacob can't wait till spring soccer.

Lauren played her first year of volleyball.  I was asked to help coach like this: (picking pears at the church pear farm) Damian: Hey Cherie, I saw Lauren at volleyball tryouts so I signed you up to coach with me.  Me:Okay.  We had a great time coaching these girls.  Practices were on the worst nights of the week, Mondays, which we would have family home evening, and Wed. when we had church activities, and Thursday were the game days.  Tuesday I play city league volleyball.  Last night was my last night of playing ball for 2 months so things will slow down now.  I always say that, but something else takes it's place.