St. Patrick's Day 1964

Steve's sister Michelle shared this memory of Steve with me:

When I was four years old I went to Preschool at my mom's friend's house. Her name was Nola Neeley. She lived by my Uncle Gary. It was St. Patrick's Day and instead of wearing something green, my mom had made a green shamrock for me to wear to preschool. When she drove me to school and dropped me off, we realized that she had forgotten to put the shamrock on me. My mom told me that she would go home and get it. As she was leaving, Steve came running towards us, red faced, and out of breath with the shamrock in his hand. He had seen the shamrock at our house, and was worried I would get pinched without it, so he ran several blocks to bring it to me. He was only 6 years old, but even at such a young age he was always looking out for me. He was such a good big brother, I sure miss him.

The Oryx

Steve loved the outdoors and especially loved hunting. He enjoyed spending time with his friends sharing stories and engaging in great conversation while pursuing the biggest and the best animal. Several years ago, Steve went Oryx hunting in New Mexico with his friend Justin Peterson. I have never heard of an Oryx before and was questioning the validity of an Oryx hunt altogether, but indulged him.


Steve had a successful hunt a brought back his prized Oryx. He had the taxidermist prepare it to hang proudly in his office at work. The employees at The Summit Group were amused with his possession, and found it humorous to decorate the Oryx. This is a picture of the Oryx graduating from the University of Utah. Steve enjoyed coming to work each holiday or on a special occasion to find his Oryx decorated to fit the occasion. The employees have fondly embraced Steve's love of his Oryx.

I am not quite sure what happened on the Oryx hunt with Justin. I have been told, that the Las Vegas adage "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", applies to hunting as well. I do know that whatever happened on the Oryx hunt, Steve was banned by law enforcement officers to ever hunt in New Mexico again.

Engagement, and Birthday Party

Heidi hosted an engagement party for Meagan. We also celebrated birthdays from the past few months. We are all so excited for Meagan and Quinn. We had a delcious dinner, celebration cake, and the kids had fun playing baseball with Grandpa.

Arizona Baseball Tournament

The Rebel's baseball team left Wednesday, March 4th to play in the Triple Crown Arizona Spring Championships baseball tournament. Mike went with Eric and Mikey. They stayed at the Arizona Grand Hotel that had a huge water park attached to the hotel.

The teams they played were quite advanced. It was the beginning of the Rebel's baseball season and the end of their contenders. The tournament went from Thursday March 5th to Saturday March 7th. Our team got progressively better each time they played.

Amy and I flew down Friday morning and were able to watch the Friday and Saturday games. The water park at the hotel had a huge water slide, a lazy river, basketball hoops, and a great hot tub. You may notice the water tubes floating down the lazy river with no one in them. The boys thought it was really funny to duck in their tubes when they saw us get out our cameras to take pictures, so we have some great pictures of tubes. Fourteen year old boys these days.



Our first stop after getting our rental car was to Last Chance. Last Chance is a store that sells what is returned to Nordstorm or what Nordstrom can't sell. To say the least, this was quite an adventure. It's best to get their when the doors open because the good name brand items go very quickly. Friday we got their a little late, so we had to go back Saturday morning. People line up to just get in the doors. A shopping gestapo comes and yells the rules at you, the doors open, people push and shove, you grab a shopping cart if you are lucky and off you go.

We piled our cart to the top as fast as we could and then would sort through it to see what we really wanted. They have Ugg boots, juicy shoes. Deals galore!

I ended up with $2 dresses for the girls, $2 shorts, $2 shirts, and 5 pairs of shoes for me (a little extravagant).

Mike's 14th birthday!

I was so happy I got to spend Michael's 14th birthday with him. Amy and Eric helped with posters, balloons, and candy to celebrate his birthday. We also went to the water park, and had a great lunch at Rosa's, before they played their final baseball game.

Some of my funniest memories were: Meeting Amy Friday morning to ride to the airport together only to find that her travel bag was 3 times the size of mine. She called mine "the lunch box", and I called her's "the princess bag". I guess I was the fool, when I didn't realize we would be shopping at Last Chance.

While we were waiting for the airplane to take off to Arizona, Amy told me to call her cell phone because she didn't know where it was. Just as I was ready to hit the call button, the person next to me nudged me and said, "the stewardess is holding her phone up and asking who lost their phone, you two should pay attention." If only I had hit send!

Riding in the Grand Prix rental car, or the granny car. Amy misjudged as we pulled into In -And -Out Burger and gave the car parked in front of us a little nudge. No worries, no damage done.

Loosing track of time at In-And-Out Burger, getting to the airport to go home at 8:30 when our flight was leaving at 8:45, only to find out I had booked Michael and I for the 5:10 flight. Oops!

Brandon's Homecoming

Brandon returned home from his mission to Poland on Friday night. His mom, Jen, is Steve's sister. Today was Brandon's Homecoming. He gave a great talk. He has grown so much in the gospel. He has such a genuine love for the Polish people. He learned to love people unconditionally no matter what their circumstances were. He learned acceptance and tolerance. Church in Poland consisted of about 8 people. I can't imagine the things that we take for granted. Brandon got great experience speaking in church, teaching in church, and performing other duties. He told many stories of his love for the gospel, teaching the gospel, and of course the difficulties in seeking out those ready for the gospel. It seemed like the most memorable experiences he had and his greatest growth came when he was serving in the most difficult places. It's wonderful to see boys go on mission and come back as young men.

Its amazing howmuch life changes in two years. I remember Brandon's Farewell, Steve and I and all the kids went. No one would have thought that Steve wouldn't be attending Brandon's Homecoming.

It was difficult to sit in church with all my kids surrounded by Steve' s sibling's, parents, and extended family. You could feel something missing, you could sense the sadness. I wish Steve could have physically been there with us. I am sure he is watching and is so proud of Brandon. Brandon has such a fun sense of humor like Steve. I think that is one of the many reasons that Steve loved him so much. It has taught me not to take things for granted in life.

I loved President Monson's address in this past conference. He said the following, ..."Throughout our lives, we must deal with change. Some changes are welcome; some are not. There are changes in our lives which are sudden, such as the unexpected passing of a loved one, an unforeseen illness, the loss of a possession we treasure. But most of the changes take place subtly and slowly....

...."Day by day, minute by minute, second by second we went from where we were to where we are now. The lives of all of us, of course, go through similar alterations and changes. The difference between the changes in my life and the changes in yours is only in the details. Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching come the changes.
This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now..."
"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”1

It is difficult when life is altered and unwanted changes come. I guess I need to learn to sojourn through life finding the joy in the new path my life has taken. It's hard to want to journey down this sad, unfamiliar, uncomfortable path. A path that I am not familiar with, and not one I'd choose. I miss Steve every day. I love the remarkable memories we have of him. I need to learn to enjoy the simple things in life, and teach my children to remember what is important in life and to enjoy the new journey.

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

Bountiful Rebel Comp Team

Fans

The Bountiful Rebels' Comp Team won the championship this year. It was a very exciting game. They played against several of Michael's friends. This team had bleachers full of fans. Our fans consisted of me, my kids, our hometeacher, Eric, and Carl. We were a great fan section. The opposing team's fans got a technical foul called on them. I have never seen that happen before. Our team made the technical foul shots, and we won by two points. Pretty exciting!

Salt Lake Rebel Comp Team (Saturday and Weekday)

Our Salt Lake Rebels Team played on Wednesday nights and in a league on Saturday. The had lots of competition, but were able to do very well. They played in the championship and won in the Salt Lake League. In the Elite Legaue they took second place. They also participated in several AAU tournaments. They were able to get to the semi-finals of the AAU State Champtionship.

Mueller Park Jr. High Basketball

Michael played on the JV and Varsity Jr. High Team this year. Most of his playing time was in the JV games. Nineth grader dominated the Varsity games. The team struggled this year, but he had a great time playing basketball.

Basketball Ben

Ben had a great time playing basketball at the South Davis Recreation Center. He is actually too young to play, so he had to play up with 1st and 2nd graders. He was in the Instructional League, and had a great time.

He had been looking forward to this for months. He would count down how many days until basketball started. He made me buy him basketball shoes that he put in a shoe bag on his back that he would change into before each game. He wants to be just like his big brother.

Ben was the best hustler on the team. He has so much energy. He is a great dribbler and even made some baskets. Go Ben!

Presidents' Day Baseball Tournament

Michael
The best fans!
The Condo

The Presidents' Day baseball tournament started on Friday, February 13th. Mikey Jacobsen and Michael play on the Rebel's baseball comp team. Amy Jacobsen took her three boys Mikey, Franky, and Luke, and I took Katelyn, Lizzy, Ben, and Michael. We were able to stay at the Las Palmas St. George Condo. We all stayed together and had a ton of fun!

They played two games each day. On Friday they played the Riverton Wolves, and the Utah Bandits. They won one game and lost the other. It was quite chilly at night. We were grateful for lots of blankets, and a smart mom who brought a propane heater to keep us toasty. Saturday we played the Minnesota Blizzard Blacks, and the West Jordan Jaguars. We went 1-1 again. Michael played well. He had a double play, played great defense, and made some awesome hits.

We had a great time with the Jacobsen's. Amy and I loved the Home Show, and the kids loved playing baseball, having art contests, watching movies, playing games, hottubbing, and swimming.