JandA4

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Fiesta Days 2013

We all met at Grandma Higginson's again for our annual Fiesta Days parade party.  Fiesta Days is always on July 24th which is also Pioneer Day for Utah.  The whole family always sits together in the same exact spot every single year.  It's one of my favorite traditions!


We saw Katelyn cheering in the parade for Spanish Fork High

This scene was so spectacular!!!
2060 men to be exact from Salem / Woodland Hills/ Elk Ridge / Spanish Fork & / Payson wards got together to represent the Army of Heleman.  It was truly a spiritual experience watching the multitude of boys / men marching down the road.




They were playing the song Armies of Heleman as they marched.  It was so awesome!



Grandma Julie and Grandpa Duane were in the parade for their high school reunion


And then we saw the Miss Salem float come by that we decorated for Jens' Eagle project.


Then we walked back to Grandma's after the parade.  I love this sight.
Tons and tons of cars parked all over her yard.



We always have the most delicious pot luck lunch! 



Jeff - Grandma - Brad Kitchen

My kids with Grandma

Grandma - Duane - Carma - Jill - Diane

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Moscow, Russia

Jeff had an Agelworld in Moscow so I tagged along with him.  Brooke Christensen had to speak as the fitness coach and she was launching a new product so she brought her mom, Janie along too.  And as luck would have it, Janie is one of my best friends so it was a great trip!  We flew out on July 15, 2013 and flew home on the 21st.  We saw all the famous sites in Moscow.  Red Square was awesome!






We were able to tour inside the famous landmark Pokrovsay Cathedral.




Jeff  and me with our friends Koby & Varda Kantor from Israel.  Varda is the general manager of the Agel office in Israel.


National Historic Museum

We went inside the Kremlin!  
We saw lots of cathedrals that the royalty used to live in within the walls of the Kremlin.  We went inside some of them.


We toured inside the neatest museum that I have ever seen.  Photography was not allowed inside so I don't have any pictures but it was a museum of all the royals belongings.  Their gowns, crowns, the knight's armor, goblets, chalices, their carriages.  It was AMAZING! 








I was totally expecting the communist country that I had grown up knowing, but it was completely different.  It was so modern and rich.  There are more millionaires in Moscow than there are in all the rest of the world combined.  Don't get me wrong, there are still some of those 80 year old ladies with scarfs tied around their faces and they look hard and ornery and could definitely beat me up but for the most part it was not scary and all the women were beautiful.


We went to WW2 museum and saw some really interesting things there too.  This tower statue was soooo tall.  Each centimeter represented one day spent in the war.  It was quite a representation of time spent.


This monument represented a Russian, a soldier from Great Britain, an American and a Frenchman (I think) from WW2.


There was some celebration going on -  The flowers that they brought in were so pretty!


Janie Christensen and Brooke Christensen Bazil

Me and Janie
It started to rain on us and the sky was so pretty!
If you look behind us and to the right you will see tables and chairs.  We were dining right there - in Red Square!

There was one night where I totally experienced the Russia that I imagined.  We were coming home  and we drove past Red Square.  There were HUNDREDS of police with riot helmets and shields and HUNDREDS of army men lined up and down the street.  They had 10, 000 people there protesting because some guy wanted to run for president because he thought that Putin was doing a bad job and I guess in order is even "say" that you're going to run for office, you have to fill out all the proper forms and he didn't so they threw him in jail.  So all the people were there protesting his arrest.  Or something like that.  The next day Janie and I went walking clear down to Red Square again and ran into the same thing.  It was a little nerve racking and yet neat at the same time because I got to experience that part of Russia.  It was a great trip.  Good food, good friends, good sites to see, great trip!

Toothless Molly


Molly lost her two top teeth within a week of each other.  She now has a little lisp when she talks.  I'm not ready for my baby to have that grown up mouth and look.  I want her to stay little!


San Diego Padres Game

Jeff, Jens, Cade, Danny, Chase, Joel, Gunner H., Jon, Gunner G., Porter, and Sam Callister rented a 15 passenger van and drove down to San Diego for a Padres game.  They had a blast together!  They met up with Randy Gage and he went to the game with them too.  One day they went and toured the facility.  They were able to go down on the field and tour the suites and see where the players hung out and the next day they went to the game.

Jens and Sam are the best of friends

Jeff and my boys!