Walker Family Christmas Party (Walker Cup)

With my mom and dad's house in Wyoming still under construction, we weren't sure what the hosting situation would look like so we decided that we would do a family Christmas party early in the month, and then we would stagger our visits to mom and dad's house for Christmas. David and I were already planning our ward Christmas party and so we figured, hey, why don't we also just plan our family Christmas party and have it be later that same day. That makes sense, right? It turned out great. 

It's been a couple of years since we've done a Walker Cup tournament and this was the first year that the grandkids were involved. This year it was official with a scoreboard and everything. Everyone came prepared with a game to play. Here are some of the ones that I remember: 

-Find the hidden Christmas tree star (Shantel- after watching a Hallmark Christmas movie with this in it.) 

-Balloon pop (Melissa)

-Kitchen Item Bingo (Mom and Dad- my personal favorite)

-Candy Ball Roll (Jacob- but I just made up the title) 

-Rock Paper Scissors (Matt & Brooklyn) 

-Pictionary (Jenna) 

We took a picture like this several years ago with all the grandkids and my mom special requested a retake now that the kids have grown bigger. Also, my dad is SO fun and the kids love playing this racing game with him. 

Walker Cup Christmas Party was a success. After the party we came back to our house and had breakfast for dinner, which was easy and yummy. I love this family of ours and I'm grateful that we can have so much fun together.  Walker Cup Champions: Jenna and Kevin! (It was decided that next time the adults get a trophy and the kids get a trophy, too.) 

Walker Thanksgiving

Our favorite Thanksgiving Tradition is to host "Walker Thanksgiving" on the Saturday before Thanksgiving with the Walker side of the family. We love this so much because it allows us to spend time with both of our families at Thanksgiving without having to rotate or to choose between them. 

This year because mom and dad are renovating the house in Lyman and currently do not have countertops or a kitchen sink - my mom asked Melissa if she would host. Then the week of Thanksgiving my mom called and canceled Thanksgiving because they were working to prep everything for the flooring people to come and lay floor the following Monday. We asked if they needed us to come help, but I think it wasn't as much a dire need for help, it just felt like too much to prepare for that and make it all the way down here for Thanksgiving. After assuring them that, of course, that would be fine - we siblings started talking and we decided that we still wanted to do Thanksgiving together. 

It was absolutely beautiful! Melissa did a great job hosting and the tables were absolutely gorgeous. We ate delicious food (my family knows how to make amazing food and I love that each year is just a little bit different). We went around the table and talked about the things we were grateful for. We got to know Jacob's girlfriend, Alexia, a little better. We just had a lovely time. 

One of my favorite parts is that during our discussion about how Melissa finds so many beautiful goblets and china plates at the DI, plus a need for a new Walker Cup trophy, we spontaneously decided to run to the DI. The boys stayed back with the kids and the girls went on a quick trip to look for fancy dinnerware and a new trophy. We were successful and it was fun and funny. (Poor Alexia might not have known exactly what she was getting into, but we were glad to have her and Jacob there.) 

I am grateful for this family of ours. 

Wyoming (Nov+Dec) plus Grandma W's 60th Birthday Party!

We have been working hard to help my mom and dad with their house! They now have kitchen cabinets (and as of the time of writing this post they also have countertops, whoo!) but not a kitchen sink, a washer/dryer OR their new floors. All of that is coming soon though and there is a lot of work to do to get everything ready. Among other things, this trip we needed to repaint the whole living room area (plus the ceiling). The kids were great helpers and we got it done! These are probably the last pictures with this blue carpet in here - but I just have to say how happy this carpet makes me and how much I love it. I remember when my grandparents got this new carpet and how soft and amazing it was. The whole house is changing so much - which is a good thing, it's going to be such a good place for my parents to live - but also kind of crazy to see it look so completely different from what it was. 

Of course, no trip to Wyoming without a little bit of fun! My dad and I took the kids sledding on the back hill. These kids are so lucky that they have a grandpa who is willing (and excited about) letting them sled down the hill and then driving the ranger down to the bottom to pick them up again and again and again. 

This picture is the only picture I have from our visit in December. You can see the new floor (!) and the painted laundry room area. Austin is working to put the cover back on the dryers electrical outlet. (Funny story, we accidentally dropped one of the screws and it slid down next to the dryer exhaust pipe into the insulation. We tried SO hard to find it and get it out but to no avail. Austin did a great job helping replace all of the outlet covers in any room that needed replaced. Progress is being made! 

This also feels like the right place to add my mom's 60th Birthday Celebration.

My mom turned 60 on November 23, which just happened to be the day that we were planning to host our  annual Walker Thanksgiving. The only thing that she wanted for her birthday was for the whole family to go to the new movie "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". We made plans to eat dinner at Melissas and then go to the movie, until we realized that it stopped showing in theaters on the 22nd. Long story short, we ended up meeting up a couple of weeks early so that we could go to the movie together instead of waiting for her birthday. That's probably more information than I needed to write here - but I just wanted to emphasize how much my mom wanted to do this and how fun it was to be at the movies with our whole family. 

My kids and I listened to the audiobook in the week leading up to the movie and finished it right as we were pulling into the parking lot. (I took an extra loop around the parking lot to get in the last minute, ha.) The storyline is so sweet and the movie was fun and funny. 



We love these people are are so happy to celebrate such a big birthday for my mom! 

I love this mother of mine and I am so incredibly grateful to have her in my life. She taught me how to be a good mother and is a wonderful grandmother. 

One thing I will always be grateful for are her kind words that echoed repeatedly through my teens and college years "You're the perfect size, you're beautiful, you are normal, you're just the way you should be." That sounds weird to write it out, but the end result from my moms consistent and loving reassurance was that I never felt like I was "fat", even if my friends wore smaller pant sizes. My confidence was steady and I felt comfortable in my body - always believing that your weight doesn't impact your worth. My mom gave me so much more than just that and I'm grateful for all of her love, all of her sacrifice, and for being my mother. 

Happy 60 years, Mom! 

Wyoming

We have been going to my parent's house 2x a month and it's been SO great. We go up on a Sunday afternoon/evening, stay the night, then come home after dinner on Monday. It's not a long trip, but it's enough to spend some quality time with my parents and help them with house projects. 

I'm actually shocked that we don't have more (i.e. any) pictures of the work that they are doing. There is SO much work to do! We are prepping the kitchen walls, floors, and electricity (everything!) for the kitchen remodel. We are working in the bathrooms and the house's main areas. I know that my kids wish we could play a little more, but we've been able to help with so many things and that's important. This is a busy time, but there will be less busy times where there will be more focus on exploring and helping on the ranch. 

A lot of the time, the kids just go out and play in the backyard. They love the cats so much. My dad loves his cats and he built them this protected hut to keep them safe from the elements. I think that part of the reason he loves the cats so much is because his mom, my Grandma Walker, loved the cats and I think it connects him to her when he cares for her cats. Obviously the cats are good for the ranch, they keep pests down and things, but it's sweet how much my dad loves them. 

He also has taken time to let us learn about and help with the cows on the ranch. This time when we came to help - we weren't just home remodelers - we were legit cowboys. I didn't take any pictures of this because we were working too hard - but we worked cows all day. My dad's cow's tags had faded completely in some manufacturing fluke and he had to re-tag all of his cows. At the same time, we needed to sort Marti's cows out of our herd. Once we had only the mama and baby cows we had to retag them all and then weigh the baby cows. Austin Lydia My Dad and I rode 4 wheelers out into the field and pushed the cows all the way down to the Alley, then we pushed them to the corral, sorted out Marti's cows, and got them prepped for pushing them through the chute. Kim came down to help a bit, but mostly it was just me, my kids, and my parents. I pushed the cows down the chute. Lydia and Austin used long thin logs to put behind their legs so they couldn't back out, then they would push them forward so my dad could tag them and weigh the baby cows. It was a TON of work (and by the end we were covered in cow poop, ha). I was so proud of my children for how hard they worked and so grateful for the life experience for them. 

My dad is so great. He lets us help on the ranch and teaches us about cows and hay. But he also takes time to do fun things with us. For Austin's birthday, he asked if my dad would buy new rocket motors and shoot off rockets. The kids loved this so much! They shot off several rockets and then chased them down in the fields. We realized afterward that it was hard to find the rockets, but miraculously we found all of the pieces - even though one of them my dad didn't find until a couple of days after we left. 

This time we have to spend here is a treasure and I will never not be grateful for it. 

Wyoming - Sept

My parents are officially moved out of their Morgan house and are living on the Walker Angus Ranch in Lyman, Wyoming. They have moved into my grandparents home, which they built when my dad was about 5 years old. It hasn't seen much remodeling since then (although I do remember when they got brand new blue carpet when I was young and we laid down on the carpet and wanted to sleep there because it was so soft!). It has needed a lot of work, and my parents are completely remodeling it. Not gutting it or anything, not even taking out any walls, but they are doing a full kitchen remdel, plus new flooring, new bathrooms, and updating basically everything (doors, windows, etc..). They've already painted all of the bedrooms and are prepping for new kitchen cabinets. We've been coming to help as much as possible and it's amazing how much I love this place and how my love for it has grown been more than before now that it it my parents home. I have been surprised at how quickly it went from being "my grandparents house" to just "home". 

There has been a LOT of work to do, but a lot of fun, too. I've been helping my parents, but my dad makes sure to take the kids out to do something fun at least once during our visit. I was working on a project inside the house while my dad was taking the kids out to ride the gocard.  I heard the back door open and my dad called for me. Lucy was screaming and my dad said "There's been an accident." My first thought was a broken bone or something terrible, but no, they had just ridden the gocart over a too-soft cowpie and cow poop had flipped up all over Lucy. It was everywhere. In her hair, on her face, on her clothes. This picture doesn't do it justice, not the cow-poop or how upset Lucy was. I got her cleaned up and now we all laugh about it often. 

One of our Wyoming days lined up with Austin's birthday, and we celebrated with my parents in Lyman. (Plus went out for Ice Cream at the local shop.) 

-I also have to share this funny story. Backstory: my parent's live outside of Lyman's city limits and so they don't have access to the city garbage services. Instead, they have a burn barrel in the backyard and when the garbage gets filled up they start it on fire and burn it down to ash. Austin, my fire-loving boy thinks this is the best thing ever and my dad has been waiting until the kids get there to start the burn barrel so that they can help start the fire. For whatever reason, the fire was a little hard to start on this particular time and so my dad put some fuel in a cup with the idea that they would start the fire with a small spark and as soon as it hit the cup it would start a big enough fire to burn. It was taking longer than expected and so all the kids and my dad leaned closer to see what was wrong when POOF a huge tower of flame exploded out. (I realize that this is really dangerous and could have ended really badly, but they weren't actually close enough to be hurt so so it's just a funny story.) They were all close enough that their eyebrows, eyelashes and hair were singed from the heat! They came in laughing and exhilarated, and even though I'm SO so grateful that no one got hurt, and even though we had some good lessons in fire safety, we love to laugh about this! 

I love my parents both very much. They are wonderful parents and amazing grandparents. They love me and they love my children and I couldn't be more grateful for their presence in our lives and for their example to us. My dad spoke in Stake Conference the weekend after they moved out of Morgan and I got most of the talk on film. I'm hoping to put it into a montage with some pictures of cows (ha), but it's such a treasure to have his words and testimony recorded for myself and my children.  

Also pictured above is an old wooden spinning top game that my dad found when cleaning out the house that he used when he was young. We ended up bringing it home to our house because they were going to throw it in the burn pile - but I guess my kids are as sentimental as I am and couldn't bear the thought. They loved when my dad pulled it out and taught them how to play. 

We are looking forward to lots more days (and lots and lots more work) here at the Red Brick Ranch House. 

Goodbye Morgan!

It's official! My parents are completely packed and moved out of their lovely home in Morgan, UT. This has been a wonderful place for them to live for the past 20 years and I am filled with gratitude for the safe and good space this was for them and for my family. We've always known that the plan was for them to retire to Wyoming and honestly - the last year or two has been really hard for them. First my dad was spending a lot of time in Wyoming with my Grandpa Walker while my mom was here in Morgan with my Grandma Knowles. Then after Grandpa Walker passed away, my dad was still spending about half of the week in Lyman caring for the ranch and all of the things that entails then coming home and caring for this home, too. It was a lot. They handled it and I'm so glad that they will be living in the same house full time again. There is a lot of work to do in Wyoming, but it's exciting to have this new phase of our family's life ahead of us. 


I have been spending a lot of time here over the past month or so, as soon as my parents decided that it was time to list the house on the market. We've been cleaning out rooms, packing up the storage room, taking down pictures, patching walls, etc.. It's SO much work to move! The kids have been a great help and it's been nice to spend so much time here. This weekend I came up by myself to help with the last of the packing and in preparation for the big move on Saturday.

I woke up early Saturday morning and hiked the M one last time. (I mean, we will probably come back sometime/someday, right? My kids love this hike. But my last hike with my family living here.) I started out about 5:30 am in the dark with a tiny flashlight and made it to the top for the sunrise. I had some good quality thinking time and really enjoyed the solo hike. 

Here are some things that I thought about: 1) How starting a night hike is kind of like having faith - one step in front of the other, depending on your tiny flashlight to guide your way. But with every step your confidence grows and the light around you steadily increases until you can barely remember when it was dark at all. The warmth and goodness that comes with the rising sun felt like a beautiful symbol of having faith while climbing the mountains and hills of my own life. 

2) I didn't love Morgan when I moved here. In fact, it may have taken me the full 20 years to truly appreciate Morgan City. However, looking back I am filled with gratitude for the blessings that came to me through the decision my family made to move here. It feels so good to be leaving this place with gratitude and love, even though my life here was not always easy. 

Goodbye, Morgan! Thank you for everything that you have given to my family - and especially for being such a wonderful place for my children to come and visit their grandparents. I love you in part because of how much they have loved you.