water boarding at silverhawk

The following two entries for our family blog is brought to you by Grams. She is one techno wizard and now can keep us up on the things she does, and from her point of view! You rock Grams!!!!!!!

Grams wanted to go on the boat, so Chandler and Jared could show her how to have fun in the water. WOW it scared me at first, but they love it. next year i will try it!!!!!!!

yellowstone

While Liz and Rob were visiting us in Idaho Falls,we took a drive to Yellowstone Park.

We saw some great animals and also old faithful. Here are a couple of the animals.

Green Man

I haven't been doing near as many things as I've wanted to. Sometimes you feel the magic and sometimes you don't. But I knew that with everything going on I needed to finish my Green Man. His face has been ready for the last few months, but I didn't know quite what to do about the leaves. Well today I just decided to dive into and he turned out fantastic!!! So I thought I would share my new little friend with you all :)

Tyia

Ashley's Wedding Part I

Ok, so I'm a bit of a thief, but if any of you are like me then you were dying to see these pictures too! So I took the liberty of stealing these off Ashley's Myspace page and I'm going to post them on here. I'm pretty certain she's busy this week hehe so I don't think she'll mind. We'll still have to wait to get all the great details of her special day, but in the meantime I'm sure everyone will love seeing these! Congrats again cuz!!!! I wish so badly I could have been there. Thought about you the entire day!!!

Tyia

Busy weekend

Ashley got married.... we are waiting for details and pictures... Devon, I am counting on you!

Jersey and Treyson were blessed by Uncle Varcel. In the circle he was joined by our son in law (my favorite one) Jeff Ritter and our Bishop Edward Maznio.

I participated in our neighborhood garage sale. I sold almost all of my junk! Truly, most of it should have gone in the garbage. I only ended up with a pickup load, bed high, to take to the DI. Vicki brought some things to sale and she did very well, too. And Vicki and I swapped some of our things. You know the saying, "One mans junk is another mans treasure", it is true! We had fun sitting out in the cooler weather and playing with Treyson and Jersey. Treyson sold "Ice cold water, for 1 buck". He sold 4 or 5 bottles!

Our girls were able to check out more sales in our neighborhood. Brittney and Tiff got some darling things to decorate their homes. And Tyia kept us all hydrated from Starbucks.

Enjoy some of the sights from the weekend in Arizona!

Heather's update

Hello Webb clan! I love reading this blog. It's great to hear from so many of you and see what you're up to. I wanted to thank Brittney for the previous post. It was so thoughtful and sweet to share that experience with all of us. I also wanted to thank you for sharing the blog adailyscoop with us. I have learned a lot from the author and found a new appreciation for my precious girls.

And now for the Sharp update.... Jared and I live in Rigby, Idaho. (It's about 20 minutes away from both my parents house in Sugar City and Grandpa and Grandma's house in Idaho Falls). Jared started his own construction business recently. He has been working for Blaser Construction but decided to go out on his own. He mostly does framing and finish work. He is amazing at what he does. I love to walk through the homes he's worked on and see his work. I can't wait for the day when we get to build our own home because Jared has some great ideas. He loves what he does. He is also the best daddy (and husband) in the world. He loves his girls like crazy! They get SO excited when he gets home from work. Savannah really likes to call him throughout the day to inform him of what's going on at home and to ask him questions like "what do lady bugs eat?" Sheridyn can't wait to go hunting with him. Last fall she would cry when he left to go hunting and she had to stay home. She honestly loves to sit and watch the hunting channel with him or read his hunting magazines. One of her favorite songs is "If you're happy and you know it....clap your hands" but she changed the words to "If you're happy and you know it...shoot a buck!" It's crazy. And Katelyn has this super special thing for her daddy. He can hold her and put her to sleep or calm her down like nobody else. I can try for an hour to get her to go to sleep then I'll hand her to daddy and she cuddles right up to him and falls asleep. He is so good with our kids.

I am very blessed to be a stay at home mom with them. Sheridyn is three (she turns four in December). She is so fun. She is very bright and has amazed everyone with her talking and thinking skills since she was very young. She loves animals and often pretends to be one. Savannah is two and is hilarious. She pulls the funniest faces all day and makes me laugh constantly. She loves to sing and play with her sisters. She is currently in the process of potty training and doing quite well. I'm looking forward to the day when I only have one child in diapers. Baby Katelyn is 5 months old. She is such a sweet baby. She's full of smiles and giggles. She loves to watch her hands move and eat her feet.

I love being a mom! My girls (and my husband) are my life. I love hearing the funny things they think about and watching them learn new things. The older two love having a baby sister. They want to hold, hug, and kiss her all day. It's so cute. We have a lot of fun together.

We are in the best ward. Jared teaches a Sunday School class for the kids and both Jared and I are in the scout program. Jared works with the 13-14 year olds and I have the 8-9 year olds. Jared loves it and the scouts adore him. It took me a little while to figure out the boys (I'm used to dealing with girls) but it's fun. There are a lot of young couples with young kids in our ward and we have a lot of fun with them. Sheridyn loves her Primary class. She's a little shy and sensitive so sometimes it scares her, but she usually does quite well. Savannah has loved the nursery since the first time she went. She starts asking to go long before Sacrament meeting is over. We also love the new temple in Rexburg- especially since mom and dad got called to serve there. I love being in that sacred place and seeing my parents working there. I find a great deal of peace and direction from the church. I don't know what I would do without it in my life. Having kids has increased my testimony immensely. I know my girls are gifts from my Father in Heaven. I don't think anything gives you such a glimpse into Heaven as holding a newborn in your arms.

Well, that's basically what I'm doing in my life right now. I am very happy and I love my life. I would love any of you to check out my blog for more information about our daily adventures and to see tons of pictures of my family. The address is jandhsharp.blogspot.com

I hope everyone is well and happy! We should all figure out a time for a family reunion. It's been far too long since I've seen some of you. Keep in touch! Love ya, Heather (Webb) Sharp

The Greatest Gift.

Yesterday was my birthday and I received the greatest gift. I will touch on that later. The day started like a normal day in the Ortega household. Breakfast for the kids, changing clothes, naps, and so on. We bbq's ribs for dinner and had strawberry shortcake for our dessert ( a great weight watchers friendly idea!) We are in the middle of trying to find a new home and I told my folks and Joe I needed nothing for my birthday, just to know they were thinking of me was gift enough. Although Joe did treat me to a pedicure and getting my nails back on this weekend! As the night went on, Joe headed to bed and I spent my time with the kids before settling them in their beds as well. This is now when my "me" time begins. My friend Tiffany had blogged about another blog spot called A Daily Scoop, I have been looking at it for the past few day but tonight I started at the beginning and read the whole thing. I laughed and cried, and at some points sobbed while reading this blog. I recommend checking it out for sure. I drew so much inspirations from Stephanie's words. I only know her through her blog and she has already taught me so much. She suffered the ultimate loss, the loss of a child. I can not even imagine the feelings the has experienced in the past two months. I know her faith and close relationship with The Lord has gotten her through this. I have not been active in the church since I was 16, so 12 years now. I do have a relationship with my Heavenly Father and I pray every night, with my kids and alone. Recently my home teachers have begun to come over as well as my lovely missionaries who I adore! I feel I am getting closer to where I need to be but I still have a long way to go for sure. I do have a testimony and I hope it keeps growing with everyday. After reading Stephanie's words and realizing how strong she is, I have been inspired. Inspired to be a better Mom, sister, daughter, wife and friend. I cherish my life and everyday I have here, but she has reminded me to enjoy the small things even the annoying things in my hardest of days. Days when It is hard to smile and I have crying kids who wont obey. She has opened my eyes to things I thought I already knew. When I was done reading I went into Jersey's room and picked her up out of her crib and held her tightly in my arms as I rocked her. The nonstop flow of tears wet the top of her precious head and I had no control. A mothers love is like no other. I held her for an hour taking in each moment, each soft breath she took, each squeeze of her hand on my chest, each time she snuggled her head into my neck. I inhaled the sweet smell of my baby girl while having a broken heart for all those mothers who have lost their babies. I know it is all part of a master plan which we have no control over but I still wept for them. After I could finally pull myself together and lay her back to sleep in her bed, I moved on to Treyson's room. I watched him for a moment sleeping in his big boy bed the wrong direction and surrounded by pillows. I ran my fingers through his curly hair and told him how much I love him and how he has changed my life. How it makes me feel so good when he tells me he loves me, and how his humor brings me such joy in my life. I felt as though I couldn't leave the room again. I wanted to craw into bed with him and just snuggle him. I want my babies to always know how much I love them and how special they are to me. I then had to go to my room to my sleeping husband. He is my rock, my best friend, he is without a doubt my everything. I watched him sleep and the tears began to roll again. I am so blessed in my life. I am so in love and so happy. This my my great gift, a gift of thought. Time to recognize all I have in my kids and husband. This night was by far the most emotional one I have had in years. My heart swells today as I think about last night. The thought will stay in my heart and head for ever. I have learned so much about others and mostly myself lately. I am a work in progress but the final outcome will be awesome.

Watermelon and Memories

I'm sitting here eating nice big chunks of warm watermelon. Everything here is warm these days... but that's for another post. Anyway, you know how certain smells or flavors can bring things to your remembrance? Watermelon does that for me. I was telling my kids that you just can't beat a nice cold watermelon (but who can fit one in their fridge? LOL). So I told them about how Grandpa Webb would keep watermelon cool for us on hot summer days by leaving it out in the irrigation ditch on the side of their house. I used to love to wade in that cool water on hot Sunday evenings. I remember trying to walk over to Grandma Webb's house bare foot and about dying from all the stickers that were under the big pine trees between the two houses (I have heard that those trees were once so small the brothers and sisters could jump over them but I think that's just a rumor LOL). When I would finally make it over to grandma and grandpa Webb's house (with Oliver and Kattie in tow) we would be rewarded for our efforts with squirts of rose scented lotion from grandma and Oliver would get the top of his hair all messed up with grandpa's big hand as he explained "Oliver Twist" then, if we were really lucky we could suck on a piece of hard candy while watching Lawrence Welk with them. All that from a slice of watermelon. :-)

What are some of your memories of the old Ucon place? Here are some of my random favorites:

• Lilacs, rhubarb, and the raspberry bushes
• The blue room
• The "Blasting Area, wear gas masks" sign in the bathroom in the basement
• "Grandma Salads"
• Country music playing on the radio in the kitchen while I dusted for grams on a Saturday
• Watching Fraggle Rock downstairs
• Catching night crawlers with flashlights after Papa put bleach in the sprinkler system
• Laying out getting a tan with grams and the aunts
• The carpet in the kitchen
• The gold tree on the wall in grams and papa's bedroom
• Jeff or Kelly throwing me up into the air when I was little
• All the adults playing hours and hours of cards after Sunday dinners
• Listening to the Chipmunk Christmas album on that big old stereo

What do you remember? Thanks grams and papa for the wonderful childhood memories I have of coming to your house. :-) I love you!

~Nikki

4th of July in Rexburg, Idaho

I have spent the past couple of hours updating my personal blog. So if you want to see some darling photos, and get a feel of a small town parade and a big time family having fun..... then go to my blog.... on the http://www.tawnhunt.blogspot.com and enjoy! I love you all very much!

PS. Tyia is working on a novel to be posted soon about our trip to Alaska... hope the web doesn't crash, as it looks rather lengthy, but fun!! Look forward to seeing that!
Love, Tawn

Huntsman go "North To Alaska"!

So as most of you know I had the opportunity to cruise the Interior of Alaska with Dad (Varce), Mom (Tawny), and Nikki. I'm pretty sure I don't even have to mention how much fun we had. Seeing that country was unbelievable. Seeing it with my family was absolutely priceless. It's the first trip that just the 4 of us have ever taken and it was everything we hoped it could be (minus one incident when Nikki tried to push me off a cliff so I karate chopped her knee hahahahaha). Nikki and I took a cheaper flight and landed in Anchorage 13 hours before Mom and Dad so we got to know the airport really well. Eventually we camped out in the airport Chile's restaurant and got quite familiar with the waitress, Terri (proudly Nikki's first Eskimo hehehe). She was the best thing about Anchorage.

As soon as Mom and Dad got there we got our RV and hit the road. We took back roads and saw things many people don't see. We camped somewhere whenever we got tired. We laughed as much as humanly possible. We looked until our eyes plopped out of heads...ok, a little graphic, but you get the point.

A couple days into the trip we got to Delta Junction where Dallen's (Holly's husband) family lives. They were awesome to us!!!!! In fact they completely spoiled us rotten. I had no idea how incredible they were. We showed up and they had chicken frying in the front yard ready for us to eat. As we were hanging out around the kitchen table Dallen's grandmother, Shirlene, asked Dad about the Huntsman line and if we had an Elmer somewhere. Dad said that he was his grandfather. Turns out Elmer was Shirlene's great-uncle! I now refer to Shirlene, respectfully, as Aunt-Grandma. So in case this hasn't jumped out at anyone, let me spell it out for you. Dallen is my cousin. Holly is my cousin. Dallen and Holly are married. hahahahahahaha. Sorry. That still gets me :) No worries though - Dallen's related to me on Dad's side, Holly is from Mom's side. Still though....hahahahahahahahaha. Oh the webs we weave indeed!

So back to the royal treatment we got from the Wrigleys. Bryce and Jan (Dallen's folks) have a friend, Carl, who has a boat so we all went fishing! Well, Carl and Bryce took out us four Huntsmans and Mallory (Dallen's sister and one of my most favourite people in the world). We all reeled in a tasty rainbow trout that we cooked up on the fire on the beach and immediately devoured.

Once we had our fishing picnic all cleaned up here comes a moose!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got ridiculously excited and took about a million pictures of her. It was awesome!! (The only sad part was the fact that along with the fish we also had foil fries......mine was moose meat.....:( )


The next day Bryce, Jan, Dad, Mom, Mallory, and me all went 4-wheeling up a mountain in the bush and had a delicious breakfast that Bryce and Jan cooked for us camp style. It was peaceful, beautiful, perfect. I was terrified, but thankful that Mallory made me drive the 4-wheeler back down the mountain. It was a blast!!!!!!

Eventually we had to leave our new friends and family, but we will never forget what a incredible time we had with them. Hopefully it won't be the last (in fact I'm secretly trying to figure out a way to get back up there and help with the harvest...)

On our way to Fairbanks we had to stop at the North Pole. I couldn't help myself.....

We got to see some of Santa's reindeer!!!!

The next day we finally made it to Fairbanks. We spent the day at Pioneer Park where we got a little taste of everything. We took a train ride around the park to see the "towne", "native village", and "mining camp". I think we could have spent 3 days there to see everything we wanted to see. Mostly it was just little shops to buy different arts and crafts and trinkets, historical displays, or little stages with performers. Toward the end of the day two elderly women stopped us. "Would you like pictures of real Eskimos? We're real Eskimos. I'm Janey and this is Sarah." They were so cute!!!! I ended up buying a yo-yo from them made out beaver skin and bowhead whale baleen.

Our next "big stop" was Denali. I can't even tell you how awesome that place is. You can only drive your private vehicle in about 15 miles. If you want to go farther than that then you book a spot on one of the buses. I think this is a great way to handle a national park. That way no one has to worry about driving so everyone gets a chance to just sit back and enjoy it. Also it stops the parks from being too over crowded and affecting the ecology. LOVE that idea. We drove the RV as far as we could the night before our tour. Once we got to end Dad and I hiked up a pretty cool rock. In that short hike we saw a marmot, ptarmigan (state bird), and a killer view!

The next day on our tour I was in paradise. After the first 20 minutes we could have turned around and gone home and I would have been completely satisfied. We first came across a Great-Horned Owl's nest. There is one adult on the left and 2 fledglings on the right. Turns out last year this nest belonged to some ravens, but the owls hi-jacked it.

At our first "pit stop" people spotted some caribou down the river bed. We all craned our necks and tried to see the little specs. Lucky for us we were headed that way anyway so as we later crossed the bridge we got a great look at them. There's something very mystical about the way run. It's not wonder that we believe they can fly.

Not long after the caribou we spotted some Dall's Sheep way up in the hills. I am so grateful for a good zoom on my camera. It definitely earned its keep on this trip!

Found this little Arctic Ground Squirrel at one of our "pit stops". I love him. He loved me.

I can't even tell you about the Grizzlies we saw. I think our final count of the trip was 11. Mostly mamas with a couple cubs, but still....11 grizzlies! It was incredible! This, by far, is the best pic I got.

On our way back we stopped at the Toklat Visitors Center so I could buy some books on the natural history of the area. (What can I say, I'm a total junky and a full blown nerd hehe). But as we stepped off the bus a very familiar scene was before me. Some of you may have seen similar pictures of Devon doing this exact same thing. It was a thrill knowing he had been there too! Thanks cuz' for the photographic inspiration!

After we left Denali National Park and were driving down the road we were discussing how even though we didn't get to actually see the Denali (or Mount McKinley...which I hate refering to it as so I won't :D ) we still weren't disappointed. We had seen so many other things that we didn't expect to see. We had felt things we didn't expect to feel. We were just so grateful for it all. Then Nikki spotted it. Far off in the distance the cloud broke for just a second. While we didn't get to see the actual top of the highest peak, the South Summitt (20,320 ft high) we're pretty sure we got to still see her. If you look at this picture you'll notice that it's not the big hill in the foreground. But it's not the mountain range beyond either. Look further. Above that range you'll see a horizontal stripe that's darker in color than the sky. That's her. I still can't comprehend the size and magnifigance of that mountain. It truly is "The Great One".

So there you have it folks. And those are only the highest of the highlights. I could go on and on. I can't explain how incredible that week was. There are just not words. Thank you Mom and Dad for such an incredible opportunity. You guys really are the best. Thank you thank you.

Now, just for kicks, I want to show you the other highlights....the story behind the story. And so, without further ado, I give you TRUE ALASKA.......*drum roll please*

THE END.........finally! :D