Ellis Family Pictures

For a Christmas present to Mark's parents all the four boys pitched in and gave the gift of a family memory.

It wouldn't take place till later that spring when the weather was better.

I don't know how we did it but we were able to get everyone up to Logan at the same time on a day that worked with the photographer.

Everyone looked great and the weather was beautiful.

Scott had a bit of nerves strike but we got some great shots of him thanks to the promise of a treat.

We took pictures at the U.S.U. outdoor theater and at Ellis Equipment.

While at Ellis Equipment Grandma Lucy came out and we got some great and memorable shots with her.

I think they turned out great!

We are so blessed to have an eternal family.

Now if we could get the same done with the McEvoy side.

Summer time or School time

Scott Had a hard time getting used to School at first.

But he eventually got used to it and learned to love it thanks to his amazing teachers.

Well school is over and he gets a bit of a break.

But because he has shown regression when he misses school he gets to go to summer school soon.

He is so excited.

He found his backpack today and asked me to put it on.

Then he told me it was time to go to school.

He is so gosh darn cute.

We believe he's a split image of my dad when he was this young.

Well this is 100% my dad with this toothy cheesy smile.

Scott's Amazing Strides

The hardest part of taking care of the cutest boy in the world is dealing with my own imperfections.

I really want to be the perfect mom for him but it's simply not realistic.

So Scott is forced to learn how to deal with his mom.

This stresses Scott out and being the toddler that he is he often doesn't know how to react with this stress.

There are times and situations that I know will set Scott off.

We try to avoid them but some are unavoidable.

I don't like the idea of the world working around Scott's quarks because he is not the center of the universe.

I want Scott to know how the world works and to know the proper ways to deal with it.

It's hard to teach a child who just came from a perfect place to deal with the imperfections of this place.

I struggle with this teaching process.

It is teaching him how to control himself when he feels out of control.

But lately he has been surprising me.

The picture below is of Scott getting dressed.

He hates when the shirt gets stuck on his head.

Seems simple right?

Most kids hate this and often fuss when they feel stuck.

Scott doesn't just fuss though, that's kinda the difference.

I try to not let it get stuck and to move fast but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

Well it got stuck again and I was sure a fit was about to happen (I feel his stress down in my center and it radiates through my body).

But he simply pulled the whole over his head and started growling at me.

He said, "I'm a scary monster!"

It was absolutely amazing (the stress just dissipated and turned into immense pride and excitement).

I screamed and ran away.

This monster came running after me.

 This little guy is eating corn.

He used to love corn.

He would gum off the corn kernels then suck all the juices off the cob.

But come around 18 months to 2 years old he just stopped eating almost everything.

We've heard it all before.

It take putting different foods in front of them sometimes 10 times and don't let them leave the table till they eat or don't feed them anything else till they eat what they refused to eat and don't make them anything special, they need to eat what you eat.

Scott isn't just a child that wont try food, he is a child that will literally not eat anything if not what he eats.

WONT EAT ANYTHING!

So we accommodate him.

We still try to give him new food but he just wont.

 But lately he has been asking for different things to eat.

Sometimes he will try it but most the times he wont.

Today he said he wanted corn and he ate it.

My son eating something healthy makes me such a proud mom.

He ate almost the whole thing.

HURRAY!

Kings Canyon National Park

 Kings Canyon shares a border with Sequoia so if you go to one then you should really go to the other also.

Kings Canyon was pretty much created for backpackers.

It has a few miles of road that goes into the canyon and follows the river but it ends with a circle to get you to go out.

You can pull off and do a couple of short hikes and there's a few camp sites also but what they really want is for you to hike into the rest of the park.

We didn't have time or energy or the means to do that so we just drove through.

Still had a great view.

We hoped to hike but we were heading home after done with the Canyon and we got a bit impatient to get started.

Remember how I said at the beginning of the posts about California that we pushed our camp trip up a week early so we could save money and driving.

Well the week we had planned would have had beautiful weather in all three parks.

Kinda sad about that.

But it was still a fabulous trip and I feel so blessed to have gone to all the places we did with the people we were with.

I love National Parks, California, road trips, and most of all family.

Sequoia National Park

 On Thursday we left Yosemite and went to Sequoia National Park.

It was cool seeing the trees in Yosmite but they were all over the place here and it was awesome.

We got there late in the day so we only got to set up the camp and get dinner going before we warmed up in our sleeping bags.

It was way cold.

The next day we saw a little bit of blue sky and insisted on getting out in it under the trees.

We got in the car and low and behold there are more bears.

There was another mama bear and her two yearling cubs.

It was another amazing experience.

After they left we headed up to the trail to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world.

It made the memory of the Grizzly Giant pale in comparison.

Now when I saw largest I mean by volume.

The red woods are taller, the bristle cones are older and the cypress and baobab are wider.

But with a height of 275 feet, a diameter of 25 feet, and an estimated bole volume of 52,513 cubic feet that makes it the largest.

It its also estimated at being between 2,300 to 2,500 years old.

Holy Cow!

It was awesome to see.

We learned some pretty cool things about bears and sequoia tress while visiting the visitor center too.

Did you know that if bears eat human food it messes up there way of life and makes them even more dangerous then they already are?

It's not just humans feeding them but it's also us leaving our food out and around that causes the longer term problems.

Pretty heavy stuff.

And did you know that Sequoia trees along with other trees require fire to help them grow?

The fire clears the brush and other plant life that starve it from the nutrients it needs and also take the much needed sun light.

The sequoia pine cones, which are incredibly small, also need the fire to make it bring the perfect tempiture so they open and drop the seeds in the perfect fire created soil.

For decades the Park Service was preventing any fire that threatened.

After years and years of the trees not seeming to do as well or spread they looked into the cause.

They found while looking into a cross section of a fallen tree that it shows fires touching the tree every 10 to 15 years.

Considering how old the trees are and all those fires touching it and not killing it they started the research that we now go by.

The Park Service now creates and controls fires to help these massive trees stay alive and helps them to continue to spread.

I find this fascinating.

These pictures from a hike that Mark went on by himself.

I was way tired from all the walking from earlier that day and I know we would have to hold Scott most of the time.

It was also incredibly cold and rainy.

Mark did get a bit of rain on his hike but this made the river/water fall even better so he didn't mind too much.

I love him taking pictures, He takes great ones and it feels like I was there, sorta.

It was a beautiful place to be.

I again suggest going in the late spring summer time though, it's really high up and pretty dang cold.

As you can tell from the top right picture there was still snow on the ground.

Yosemite National Park

On Sunday all the family split up.

Mark and Scott and I were the only ones that stayed in California and everyone else went back home.

We headed out to Yosemite National Park to start our camp trip.

Can I just say how much I hate driving in California.

The freeways are always so crazy crowded, no matter the hour.

If the other roads aren't busy then it can get to be boring.

I did most of the driving on this half of the trip and Mark did a lot of sleeping.

I just wanted to talk on the phone like I do when I'm bored but I couldn't because there is no phones while driving.

I guess I was a little tired from the night before and the lack of sleep.
Anyway, we got to Yosemite about midday and we were blown away.
It was absolutely amazing.
The granite peaks were incredible and the water falls were spectacular.
The trees were so tall.
We new that Yosemite had Sequioa trees and we thought all the tall trees were them.
There just aren't enough adjectives to describe it all.

 Here we are at our camp site.
We have really good luck with dear walking through where ever we go, it seems and these came the closest.
And, of course, our stamp picture in front of the Yosemite sign.
I really get excited to take the sign picture, Mark likes to tease me about how excited I get but I don't even care.
I treasure each one we get.
It's my own mini high of checking another one off our list.

 Once we got settled in our site we couldn't sit still for long.
We had to go explore.
Thanks to Mark who picked out our camp site at Upper Pines there was a nice easy walk right from it that went to Mirror Lake.
It only has water in the early spring and it was to nice and clear, a perfect mirror.
It gave us a great view of Half Dome.
This was the only clear day we got in Yosemite Valley.
It was very wet and over cast the rest of the time.
Oh well, we got to see the Valley in a way very few people get to since the vast majority of visitors come in the late spring and summer when it's nice and hot.
We decided that we will just have to come back during tourist season and try to go places where few go.

On Monday we went to Yosemite Falls.

Like I said it was very wet and going to a place that is always wet made it less annoying.

There is upper, middle and lower falls.

This is another reason to come back.

But we decided when we do come we wont be taking Scott.

We really wanted to hike the strenuous hike to the top of upper falls but knew we couldn't do it with Scott.

Scott has never seen so much water falling and I think it scared him at first.

But it didn't last long, he really wanted to go past the blocked off area and go play.

 Here is Bridalveil Falls.
We made this short and extremely wet hike that evening.
It was beautiful.
I think it's my favorite water fall in the park.
You can get pretty close to the base which is why it's so wet.

 So on Tuesday, with it still being so wet we decided to get in the car and go see the Wawona end of the park.
If we had thought it through we would have done this on the last day since it is on the south end of the park and that's where we were leaving from but oh well, it was a good day to go.
We walked through the Mariposa Grove of sequoia trees.
HOLY COW!!!!!!
What we thought were sequoia trees before were less then half the size of what a real sequoia is.
We were blown away!
They are HUGE!
I'm telling you, think of a really tall tree and try to realize that what you're thinking of isn't even close.
It was amazingly humbling.
First off on our way there we past the most photographed spot in the world so we pulled over and added our pictures to the count.
What you are supposed to see is a panorama of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls along with other points of interest.
We got the falls but pretty much everything else was covered in clouds.
Oh well, it was still beautiful, just in a different way.
The next two pictures are of the Grizzly Giant which is the oldest tree in the park, which happens to be about 1,800 years old.
It is also the second largest tree in the park with measurements of 96 feet in circumference and 27.6 feet in dynamiter at the base.
You might be able to see Mark at the base with his arms open wind showing the magnificence of the tree.
One of the branches extending from the tree is wider the the trunks of many of the trees that I'm used to seeing.
The picture on the bottom left is of me under the tunnel tree.
The tree was carved out in 1895 for coaches to pass through it and is the only living tree with a tunnel still in it.
Presidents have taken pictures under this tunnel as well as countless others.
It was kinda a big deal for me to get this shot.
The middle bottom pic is of the Bachelor and the Three Graces.
They rarely grow so tall so close together, they were probably "planted" at about the same time.
The last picture is also an awesome historical spot.
It is Mark and Scott in front of the Fallen Monarch.
It is believed that it has been fallen for centuries.
Many amazing historic figures have taken pictures where they are standing.
I love standing in history.

 Well come Wednesday we were so sick of all the excuses we made why we couldn't do a good hike.
We also finally got a touch of blue skis and decided to just tough it up and take Scott on a hard hike.
So we did the hike up to Vernal Falls which was about three miles.
As you can see Scott did quite a bit of walking to begin with but eventually the pavement went away, there's was less gradual climb and a whole lot of steep tall stairs and it got really wet from the mist of the falls.
This was when we put him on our shoulders and treadged on up.
It was hard even without Scott but we were determined.
And as hard as it was it felt even better to be not just walking but hiking and breathing heavy and needing to drink water.
We loved having our nice newish hiking boots.
When we got to the top we had lunch and enjoyed the feeling of success.
We walked a bit of the John Muir Trail and that was pretty cool too.
While visiting with my California relatives I found out that my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Steve have made it there goal to hike the entire John Muir Trail and Mark and I couldn't help but think what an amazing feat that would be.
I don't know if it's an official goal to do it all like them but we both agree that we want to backpack some of it.
It was a great hike and a great day that we needed to lift our spirits.

Come Thursday it was time to head south to Sequoia National Park.
But I really wanted to see the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
It was pretty high north.
Remember what I said about going to Wawona?
We really should have visited Hetch Hetchy Valley on Tuesday and then done Wawona on our way out on Thursday day but oh well.
I'm really glad we came when we did because something amazing happened.
We went up and saw the beautiful valley that John Muir faught so hard to protect and lost.
The city of San Francisco damned the valley in 1923 for drinking water.
Being there was quite strange.
While putting a damn in a National Park went against what they stood for, I do believe that the country then after saw the problem with it and has stood as a monument on how we need to protect the National Parks from ourselves.
Can't help but think there could have been another way.
On our way out we got to see a bear cross the road.
Mark and I had been joking the whole stay at Yosemite that they made up all the bears to scare people into coming.
We took every precaution to keep the bears away but really just wanted to see them.
Well it happened on our way out.
Did you know that there are no longer any brown bears in the state of California?
And that black bears aren't just black.
This is a brown black bear.
It was so close to us that it was almost scary.
Mark was sitting out the window taking pictures when he noticed a movement above him.
Right above him on a tree were two cubs.
It was incredible seeing them like three feet away climbing down a tree.
They were so little and fluffy.
I so wanted Mark to snatch the black one out of the tree so I could take it home and cuddle with it.
It was an amazing ending to and amazing trip.

Carmel by the Sea

After the temple we had to book it down to Carmel.

My Aunt lives there and my Grandma lived there overt the summer.

It is so beautiful there.

It's pretty yuppy but that just makes for fun people watching.

The houses and the view are incredible.

I wish I would have had time to walk the streets like I'd done before on past visits.

Like I said the houses there are so cute and small and many of them look like Snow White Cottages.

But we had to hurry and meet up with my mom's family.

We all followed my Aunt down the San Simeon Coast for about two hours.

Oh my word, I love the ocean.

I find so much peace and strength from the ocean.

I wish I could take the Utah mountains and put them next to the ocean.

Scott loved seeing so much water too.

He's just like me that way.

We arrived at a beautiful pull off where my Grandma and Grandpa used to sit at and watch the sunset.

We had a beautiful little program honoring my Grandma.

I was sad that I didn't get to say a few things about my grandma so I will now.

She was a women who loved to smile and it was contagious to all who saw it.

She had the ability to find that special thing about everyone.

I have always been so jealous of my little sister and the attention that she naturally got because I have always been shy.

But Grandma always gave each of us seven kids attention and made us feel special.

When we visited she would give each f us time to be with her.

She didn't expect me to perform or dance or sing like my sisters did.

She would always ask me to tell her something new.

A new story or a new fact.

I didn't know it then but I see it now.

She knew that I loved to learn, that I loved to tell a story, that I just liked to talk.

I'm so grateful to her for wanting me to be me.

For loving me for me.

Few people have this ability.

 I hope to learn it and share my Grandma's gift with my family and friends.

Thank you Grandma, I love you.

 This isn't the exact spot we went to but I fell in love with it.

It doesn't need to be a sunny sandy beach to be a beautiful ocean day.

 Gosh these two are cute.

I will forever have this image in my head.

My mom and her sister spreading my grandma's ashes at her special spot.

 My mom and her sisters, Vickie and Mary Anne.

 I'm sad I didn't get the posed picture but this is my Aunt Vickie's family, Uncle Steve is next to her kind of hidden.

There is my Cousin Jared and his wife along with Jeddie.

Then my cousin Laurie and her family.

It's been so long since we saw them and it makes me sad but so happy that we were all able to come together for this occasion.

Uncle Mark, Ashley, Aunt Marry Ann, Morgan and her new husband, Erik.

Mark got to meet them when we came to visit my Grandma after we were married.

It's been more recent since we saw them but still too long.

And here is the McEvoy clan.

I will always remember this trip and all the fun we had.

I love my family so much and am so thankful for the Gospel that keeps us tied together.

In the fall my mom will do my Grandmothers work.

My mom told her she would before she past and my grandma gave her her blessing.

My mom's Patriarcle Blessing says that her family will accept the gospel.

This has been frustrating for my mom at times when she has tried to talk to them about the church.

Since my Grandma gave her blessing to have her work done my mom has found peace in knowing that some blessings come after we think it's too late.

After our modest services we headed back to Carmel and had a wonderful dinner on the beach.

We got to share more stories about Grandma and our childhood.

We got to catch up with family and made vows to get together again and not let it take so long.

Oakland Temple

Saturday morning we packed up and headed over to my childhood temple. 

My parents were married in this temple. 

As a child my parents would make that 30 minute drive to visit this temple. 

It is the most wonderful temple for children to visit.
You get to walk the steps to the roof where there are lots of trees and plants and grass and look out over the city and even see the ocean.
It's a wonderland there and I remember my testimony growing and the dream of getting married in the temple all started there.
Well we moved and we started visiting all the temples in Utah.
Coming back was incredible and getting to go in was a dream come true.
My family all met there and we hurried in.
Mark stayed behind to watch Scott and Anne and Natalie stayed and watched Ben's kids and Luke and April got a head start to Carmel.
It was bitter sweet being there with my family and still missing a few others but it's hard to feel too sad in the temple.
while in there we noticed one of our party missing, Ben.
He had to figure some last minute things with his kids and missed the session.
But as we finished up we entered the Celestial Room and Ben was there waiting for us and it was so comforting.
Not only was this my first session with my oldest brother Josh but also with Ben and Kim, they were living else where when I went through the temple.
Many of Josh's friends and support system there in California came through with us.
Some of those friends are friends from Josh and Ben's youth.
I remembered them from growing up there.
It was an amazing experience.
I just couldn't shake the feeling of Heaven on Earth.
Leaving one world and into another where my family will be and so many other familiar faces.
When we left I was greeted by my Scotty boy and Mark, the good feeling just kept growing.
It was amazing getting to see Scott run around and enjoy the temple the way I did when I was little.
Families are Forever!

 Scott loves visiting the temple and it may have something to do with a fountain in front of each one.

The view from the top with my family below.

 My eternal family.
Where it all started.

I am so incredibly blessed.

San Francisco

We arrived Thursday night in San Ramon, my home town.

Wow it was amazing to see it again, 15 years is way too long.

I really wanted to go see our old house but it was late and our time there was so busy.

On Friday we played tourists and went to San Francisco.

Mark had never been and I loved it there.

There is one problem with traveling with so much family.

It's all agreeing on what to do.

Everyone didn't want this to happen but I think it's hard to avoid.

We wasted the morning trying to figure out what boat to take.

We all wanted to go to Alcatraz but it was sold out.

Then kicked around a few different options.

we settled on a boat ride out to Golden Gate Bridge that also went around Alcatraz.

 It was a lot of fun.

From there we all decided to split up and do our own thing.

I really wanted to show Mark China Town so we thought we would take the trolly there.

Bad idea, we got lost, by the time we finally found the trolly there was a huge line and we knew it would take hours.

So we walked.

By the time we go to China town it was time for pretty much everyone to leave for the baseball game.

Everyone but my mom, three of Ben's kids and us.

We just didn't care enough about the game to spend all that money.

We took all that weren't going to the game back to the hotel.

By then it was 9:00 pm and I was dead.

I was so looking forward to taking Mark to see San Fran but it didn't turn out like I wanted it to.

It's just so crowded there and it's hard to do anything.

Mark didn't enjoy San Fran Like I had hoped and we probably wont be returning anytime soon.

But when we do return we will stay away from the big crowds of pier 39 and stick with architectural and historical sites that we both enjoy and hope that the crowds will flood else where.

California

As some of you know I used to live in California.

My whole childhood was there.

We moved the summer I turned 12 to Utah.

I know that I am a complete Utah girl 100% but there is a part of me that feels like I am home the moment I cross that boarder.

Mark and I have been to California once together which was three months after we were married.

We visited my brother, Ben and his family in San Diago and got to go to Disney Land.

We also headed up north to Sacramento to visit my beloved Grandma Horn, my mom's mom.

My grandma is one of the best people I know.

Well I wrote earlier that my sweet Grandma past away in October of 2012.

She told the family that she didn't want a funeral if she died before my cousins wedding.

She past about a week before.

So we decided as a family to have a memorial for her in the spring.

All my siblings made arrangements to be there.

Another reason we wanted to all get over there was for my brother Josh.

Josh has for many years now been inactive in church.

We have all prayed for him and even fasted for him.

For some reason I was never too worried about him.

I think somehow I knew deep down all would work out, in this life or the next.

I knew my Father in Heaven was watching out for him.

Well Josh moved to California about a year ago and I know my mom worried that he would never find his way back to the church.

But I still didn't worry.

Well somehow the Lord found Josh and was able to soften his heart.

Josh told us in February that he was getting ready to go to the temple again.

When my mom told me I wept like a baby.

I had been praying for my brother and although I knew it would work out I wasn't prepared for this to happen.

I didn't care when it was but I would be going out there to go with him.

We arranged his going through the temple to be the same weekend as my grandmothers memorial.

Not just these two things drew the Ellis family to California.

We had been planning a National Park trip out to California for about a year.

We had scheduled the trip 6 months earlier.

The memorial was planned to be a week earlier then we planned our trip but we were able to move it up a week luckily so we could save a bit of money to make one great big trip instead of two.

It was an amazing trip with way too many highlights to put in one post so the next few posts are about our amazing trip.

Mark loves to get pictures of the road while driving and Nevada has some of the best roads to drive on.

Wait, no they don't, they suck!

Mark fell asleep and was even snoring, then Scott fell asleep.

Since the road is so long and completely strait I took some pictures while driving.

I know I'm horrible but really it was fine.