Happy Birthday, Daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Today is your birthday, & us kids gathered to celebrate what would have been your 84th birthday. Since the North-westerners came to Utah in March, B & I went to Portland to be with our brothers. We made it a quick trip, less that 24 hours, but we had a great time! I love my siblings with all my heart & I am so glad that - as Jon put it - we are all good friends!

B & I waiting for our flight.

Jon & Josh drove down that morning from Seattle & met B & I at the airport. We ditched Jon's truck & all jumped in our rental car to hang around Portland until dinner reservations that night. David, Cindy, & Tom couldn't meet up with us until dinner - they had to work.

The four of us spent the afternoon in the famous Powell's Books. That store is HUGE & amazing & quite overwhelming. It encompasses a whole city block and has multiple levels totalling 68,000 square feet. What a fun place to spend the afternoon.

Jon. I don't think he got very far. This is where I found him about an hour after we got there. You can see the front door in the background. I don't think he even went into the other rooms to see the other 67,000 square feet.

B & Josh in the coffee shop of Powell's Books.

Mani's & Pedi's! Kanoe met up with us when she got out of school. The boys got mani's & the girls got pedi's.

One most irritating family trait is yucky cuticles - did we get that from you or mom? Even the boys inherited that trait. Therefore, the boys got Man Mani's.

Kanoe: she's so stinkin' darling! You'd love her, Daddy! We had a blast with her, she is so much fun and absolutely gorgeous!

B is trying to control her massage chair. I guess it was massaging her buttocks! (Glad my chair wasn't turned on!)

The finished results. Girlzies got red toes with white flowers & boyzies got sexy hands!

After the mani - pedi's, we headed to Rock Bottom Brewery & met up with the rest of the Portland fam. Dinner was delish, but the best part of the night was telling stories about YOU! We laughed & laughed, and I even cried a bit. I am kind of envious that I wasn't able to experience the many, many things David, B, & Jon experienced with you. But on the other hand, I am so very grateful that I had you pretty much to myself! Thank you for wrapping yourself around my little finger! I sure do miss you!

Josh, B, Kanoe, Tom, me, Cindy, David, Jon

After dinner, Tom & Kanoe had to head home. Kanoe had finals the next day - yowza! Jon & Josh drove back to Seattle - YOWZA! And B & I spent the night at David & Cindy's beautiful home. From the pix below, you can see that their doggies were happy to see us. B got quite mauled by Connor & Bode!

B with Bode (the Rotweiler) on her lap.

Oh Daddy, David's doggies (Bode, Sammy, Maya, & Connor) are crazy, but we loved 'em & they loved us. And their kitties are so adorable. I was in love with the Puffs, their darling fluffy, black kittens named Puff & Kink. Kink even fell asleep in my arms. - You know how I am with cats. Remember how I cried & cried & cried & cried until you let me get Muffin?

I had a great day today. I had so much fun with my siblings celebrating your birthday. We have an amazing family, Daddy, thank you for that, and Happy Birthday!

(P.S. I'm glad you got me instead of a camper!)

Bring on the Presents!!!

K - We're officially ready for presents!!!

And I'm not considering the black thing under the tree a present!

Some of my favorite ornaments are the homemade ones: Karlee in Nursery & Garet in Kindergarten.

Mom made each of us stockings & we love hanging them each year. I picked my design out while I was still a teenager. My stocking has white rabbits on it. (Me the animal lover.) Then Jeff joined the family. It didn't take very long until he had a stocking. The trend then follows with Karlee & Garet. Mom chose Karlee's design - an angel. Hers is very unique because Mom made most stockings with the red & green theme, but Karlee's is pink. A few years later Garet got a green stocking with Santa Claus on it.

As I look around my home I see so much of Mom, not just at Christmas time, but all year long. I have things mom made for us, things she helped me pick out, things she gave us, and things we got when she passed away. She was a very talented & generous lady, and her love & charity is in my home. It is amazing the profound influence my mom had (& still has) on my life. I am who I am because of her. Thank you, Mom & Merry Christmas. I miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had yet another wonderful Thanksgiving!!! We had way nummy fixins at Gway's again this year. LOVE her divine homemade rolls, stuffing, pies, the melt-in-your-mouth turkey, mashed taters, corn...and the list goes on. Thank you, Gway, for feeding us till we were over-the-top stuffed!

Pete & Stacie - Love 'em for always helping with the kitchen clean-up.

Paul & Annie

Horman kids once again showing off their altitude challenged Grandma.

Aiden & Karlee "cooking"

Julia & Garet

B-Ball. The great thing is that the Dads won the game. By a long shot.

Garet's ball started falling apart. Garet & Julia finished it off.

After dinner we help Gway put up her Christmas tree. K - Now we're ready for the fat man to bring on the presents!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

BYU Cougars

Well, I went to my 1st BYU B-Ball game tonight. Jeff & the kids have been to the games before, but not me. Anyways, the Cougars played Chicago State & STOMPED em at 109-60! It was one of those no-stress games, cause we knew we were gonna win. But it was still fun being there, especially with Paul, Annie, & Aiden.

The Stokes Folks

This pic was taken at BYU Father's & Son's this Spring. Jimmer Fredette & Garet. Jimmer is a Senior this year and WAY AWESOME! He scored 27 points in tonight's game. The Cougars are sure going to miss him when he heads to the NBA next year!

When we left the game, the weather was a crazy combination of hailing/snowing/raining, or something of the sort...

We Won AGAIN!

We played the Thunder last night & WON - YAY! You can't really tell from these horrible pix, but we were a bit nervous going into last night's game because the Thunder was full of big kids.

I didn't have my photographer with me last night (Karlee) so I was trying to video with my right hand and take still photos with my left. It didn't work too well. And I think my camera is not working too well anyways. I used to be able to get action shots & now they all turn out like this:

Garet - passing the ball.

From L to R: Coaches Mitch & Jeff. Tristan #23, Garet #3, Coach Parker, Devin #12, Jake, Bridger #8, Noah #25 (You can see the tuft of Jacob's hair behind Tristan #23).

It was fun to have Gway & Pa at the game too. They didn't actually sit by me because I film the game, and they can't help but cheer & coach rather passionately. They ended up sitting by Gary (Jacob's Grandpa), which is Gway's cousin. We found out last night that not only are we related to Jacob, but also to Devin. Garet & Devin's Great Grandmothers were sisters. Tis a small world!

Happy Birthday, Aiden!

We celebrated Aiden's 3rd Birthday today. What a cutie-patootie who's growing up so dang fast! He LOVED opening his presents. He could hardly get one present open before he was on to the next present.

Aiden loved his Blue Angels & Thunderbirds jets.

Aiden sat still just long enough to read a few pages of a story.

This little toot wouldn't look at the camera, but he would happily fly his Thunderbird jet for me (the blurry white area on the left).

Busy watching Toy Story - a birthday present.