Precious

Adorable! Cooper fishing....

Enough Already!

A week to the day of my mom passing we had to put down one of our 13 year old Jack Russel's - Bonnie. She hadn't been well for about a year -what started as vertigo, the vet believes she had a brain tumor and was living in pain. Poor little 'Bonnie girl'...she was a sweet dog. I'll never forget how motherly she was to Cameron & Cooper when they were born. It always made me feel sad we never let her have a litter - she would have been a great mom. But, the tumor was causing pain and pain can make you angry...

...see. This is how she walked around most often the past several months. She looked like a predator out stalking it's prey. Her prey being Clyde - her brother. They would get into some serious brawls. I'm just very thankful none of the kids (or us for that matter) ever got in the middle of this. It was this behavior that made us realize how miserable she was. Like grandma Patti - she is no longer in pain. So,

Rest in Peace Bonnie - I'm sure Grandma is hanging out with her up in heaven!
Bonnie 8/3/1997 - 8/11/2010

The Memorial

My mom's memorial was held at her house on Sunday. She had an amazing turnout and would have been shocked and touched by the amount of people who came to honor her.

She was an amazing artist. She could draw, paint & create just about anything. She could also bake and decorate cakes beautifully. She has countless ribbons for things entered in the fair. Her talent was unbelievable. The above "phone booth" is a door in her house leading to her phone room (these pictures got a bit out of order - more on the phone room in a minute). The door is so detail oriented, complete with actual phone listings. Just a sample of her creativity.

My sister Becky and I standing in part of my mom's beautiful back yard. She worked her butt off out here for years turning this once bare area into what she called a "park-like setting"


The boys taking a break from the water slide Grandma Patti bought for them to enjoy at the 4th of July picnic. She loved watching them play on it that day and would have loved that they were having so much fun on it at her memorial.

My mom had an amazing phone collection. I'm not sure of the exact count and if I found out I will let you know, but it is ALOT of phones. She has probably anything and everything you could imagine. She has so many that an entire room in her house is dedicated to them. (hence the door) For part of her memorial she wanted her phone room opened up for people to view. It got a bunch of ohh's & ahh's from all that attended. No one could believe all the different phones she has. She would have been SO proud to show them off!

everyone of these are a phone
more phones - and that is just a sample of them!

The guest book
A nice display my aunts set-up for viewing. Some great photos were on display. The black&white book had her childhood pictures. This table also displayed many of her ribbons. It was heart breaking looking through all of these pictures. She was such a beautiful woman. Tomorrow will be one week. It has been a hard week to get through. I am happy my mom was honored with this memorial. xoxo
Patrice Clairlee - Patti - Grandma Patti 4/13/1946 - 8/4/2010

In Memory

My mom - Grandma Patti - passed away on the 4th. She was a strong, brave, beautiful woman. She will be so missed by all of us. We have so many awesome memories with her. Following are a few of the recent ones.

The perfect day! She got to watch her grandkids play and hang out with her kids, sisters, brother, husband & nephew. It couldn't have been better.


A "pleasant" day in Pleasant Grove 2/10

Easter 4/10

Christmas @ Becky's 12/09

A fun family dinner 8/09

The gang 8/09

Circus Fun 8/09

The Cowgirl 7/09

The cowgirl & the cowboys

I love this of us

She LOVED horses

A fun fish&chips lunch @ Bodega Bay

Face Painting & Paper Balloons 4/08


Offshore Boat Races in Mississippi 3/07

We will miss you Grandma Patti. We love you!

Random Summer Fun

Mastering the skateboarding skills

The boys & I on a bike ride - some of these trails were brutal. We walked and pushed our bikes alot that day-poor Cooper can't change gears!

A stop at the Jelly Belly Factory. We took a tour to see how they are made (boring) and bought a bag of "Belly Flops" - the misshaped one's they sale for about 1/2 the price. Yum, they still taste the same.
Clean-up fun
We went on a hike at the beach and ate some fish & chips. We ended up playing on this beach for a few hours. It was unplanned and we didn't have a thing with us - sometimes those days work out the best - we had so much fun!

More Shasta Fun

Eddie with his 2nd story dive. (I have his bridge jump on video..that will have to be the next post)
A little night fishing. We didn't get a single nibble..luckily we weren't depending on that for dinner.
Beautiful. 102 out and a snow covered mountain in the distance.

Cooper surfing with dad.
Cameron mastering his wakeboarding skills. Notice he is on the rope this time. Last time he was on the poll - next time we'll try the back of the boat.

Have to stay clean. The boys getting a "shower" - me sporting both of their sunglasses.

WooHoo...the slide was a huge hit. Shasta is awesome!

Cool Hike

We went to Lake Shasta for a few days after the 4th. Years ago Eddie & Cameron had hiked up to a waterfall and they couldn't wait to show Cooper & I (actually Cameron didn't remember it, he was a little guy & Eddie had carried him up the hike)- somehow on that enormous lake we were able to pull right into the cove the waterfall was in. We anchored the boat and started our adventure.
The start of the hike. Some of the rocks we climbed were huge.

I love these clay colored rocks. The water was FREEZING! It was quite a climb for all of us. I think we all got a little banged up. I took it the worse as I lost my footing on a rock and fell about 4 feet onto my a**. Eddie said I looked like a cat trying to claw onto something...no luck. I hit hard but that cold water took care of the pain.

This pool of water is basically the top of the climb. I suppose you could go farther if you were a real rock climber. The waterfall has made this natural rock slide. If you are brave & crazy enough to cross the cold pool of water you can pull yourself up the rope and go for a slide. We were excited when these kids showed up to give a show because we sure as hell weren't gonna do it.

On the way down. It took us 45 minutes to get back - I'm not sure how long it took to get there I had no idea what a hike we were in for when we started out.

This place was gorgeous! It was so cool that we were all able to check it out this time.