Those Flynn Boys

As I sat down and started looking at photos to write this post I was overwhelmed with a wave of emotion! I accept that my children are all grown into responsible, competent adults but now my grandchildren are going and doing the same darned thing (which is exactly what they are supposed to do... but... but)

GRAMMIE'S BOYS

CADEN - TADHG - BROCK

JUNE 6, 2017

It sent my mind back to these little boys that made me a Grammie. Prior to Tadhg's birth I'd planned on being Nana, but when I held that darling little red-head I said *Your Grammie loves you!* And I knew that is who I REALLY was!

And it seems like just yesterday that these little monkey-boys were these darling, mischievous little people!

BROCK -  CADEN - TADHG

FALL 2003

Now when I call for the Flynn boys after church for our obligatory photo op these are the big men that tower over their little Grammie!

BEKAH - TADHG - GRAMMIE - CADEN - BROCK - CURTIS

And here is the happiest part of this photo... when I called for the *Flynn boys* to step outside for a photo Curtis stepped right in. I'm so grateful that he knows he is also one of my boys!! (And Bekah and I didn't even coordinate our wardrobe choices!)

We had a wonderful, eventful, yet very busy, 6 days together. Wednesday was Caden's graduation from high school. The weather was delightfully cool for a change.

Thursday we went down to Fresno to the temple and to shop. Tadhg is the selfie-king!!

Friday we were busy. Saturday they got the house ready for Tadhg's open house and we shopped. Sunday, after Tadhg's missionary report in Sacrament meeting, they had friends over for a tasty lunch. I loved when I took a break in the kitchen and found this puppy pile of boys on the couch!

Now I'm trying to come to grips with the fact that likely the next time I visit there will only be one Flynn boy left at home.

Grammie's Boys

I realize that I have another blog post with this same exact title... but that is what these wonderful boys are! There is no other description.

These are the boys that taught me that I am no longer the Mommie-Enforcer... I am the Grammie-Spoiler-Lover. That is such a liberating concept.

I have more photos, at home in Springville, of this wonderful threesome but sitting here tonight in YLP this is the earliest photo I have access to (I think I will come back and add the others when I get home. If for no on else but me!)

This was the second cruise Grammie-duties trip. Look how small they are! Odd how fast children change in 6 years.

MARCH 27, 2009

Fast-forward 4 years and now 2 of the 3 are taller than their little Grammie. That was when I knew that I needed to start needing these pictures WITH my boys instead of just OF my boys.

APRIL 21, 2013

Not even a year later and look how they have all shot up! This photo has been the wallpaper on my phone for the last 15 months...

FEBRUARY 2, 2014

Until this one took over. OMSH!! Man-sized people who are their Grammie's boys! I am so pleased with the young men they are. Good, good people!

MAY 1, 2015

My next Grammie and boys photo will only be with two boys! Tadhg will serve the Lord for 2 years. He leaves on June 24th to serve in the Scotland/Ireland Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so grateful that he has made this righteous choice. I pray that he will be guided and protected as he shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love that he is returning the land of his forefathers to share his love of the Savior. I'm sure he will find cousins (whether they know it or not). I am so grateful that this love of Jesus goes back many generations... because that is what is all about.

Grammie & her Boys

Tadhg graduated from Minarets high school on June 5th so Grammie needed to make a trip down to CA for the occasion. I just can't believe that it's been 17 years and 8 months since that boy was born. Where has the time gone?

I was so pleased when it came to picture time and Tadhg just wrapped his arms around his little Grammie! I am so glad that my boys know how much I love them!

I needed another picture with them after church on Sunday. They are such good sports.

And even though I'd just gotten a pix in February I was surprised to see how much they've grown in that short amount of time. I purposely didn't zoom in on us so that I can remember the wonderful landscape around the Oakhurst Chapel. In the February pix we are in front of a ginormous rockadon; in June an equally ginormous oak.

Bek commented that she didn't have any recent pix of her boys or family so I decided that it was time for a Grammie remedy! This ones good enough for framing.

Seeing Rebekah with her *men* just made me want this classic bride and her brothers photo. When Bek married almost 22 years ago her brothers were all too small (Spencer was 8 and Stuart 5) to pull this off. I love the looks on the faces and the positioning of Curt's tie!

Next morning it was time for me to start making tracks back home. I came out to my car and it was covered with pine needles. It had only been parked there for a few days.

Funny story, Beatrix still had pine needles in her bonnet when I sold her... I suppose Elio will too.

My *Little* Boys

It seems like just lasterday these wonderful boys were all tiny boys! Now look at them! All so much taller than their little Grammie!

Oh, I do love these boys! I am so blessed to have them in my life! The fact that they are killer handsome is just a bonus! 

I love you Caden, Tadhg and Brock!

52 card pickup!

Coming and Going

I just got home from my wanderings in the West! This is the first road-trip Elio and I have made! It all started on April 11 when I headed south  down the I-15 to visit family in California.

Shortly after this gas stop, where I reset my trip/mpg averages, I realized that there's something seriously wrong with this particular reading!!! I just WISH I was getting 72mpg!

Since I've *worn out the I-15* over the years I have some favorite sights... Virgin River Gorge is one of them.  Just outside the gorge I saw the happiest thing, but it wasn't a safe photo-op.  I passed a livestock truck hauling pigs.  Out of one of the holes was a little pink piggy ear- flapping in the wind!

And, favorite stops! Vegas used to be the first available In 'n Out Burger! So glad we have it in Utah Valley now.

The kids always loved Monkey Mountain at the top of the Baker grade. (This is what gave me the idea of the coming and going title...)

My first visit was at Spencer's house! I was able to accompany him and Deborah to the LA Temple for their Stake Temple Night.

And the next day I got to see my good friends- Batman and Robin (aka Auntie P and Sonny). Apparently I didn't get the memo that Auntie P's grandson's 1st birthday party was themed. But that's ok... I'm always Wonder Woman!

Sunday was Stake Conference with Spencer and family... happy day.

Monday found me on the road again. I'd noticed that the Joshua trees were blooming when I was headed through Barstow but didn't stop to get a photo until I was headed west out Hwy 138. They say this doesn't happen very often.

Next stop was at Rebekah's. I told her that her job was to make sure I got a photo with my Flynn boys! I can't believe how grown up they all are. Where did my tiny babies go?

But somehow I didn't get photos of Rebekah and I. We had a delightful visit. We went to the Fresno Temple on Wednesday evening. Truly the words from 3 John 1:4 apply to me, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

Bek and I found this beautiful fountain at some random shopping center in Fresno.

In the original planning stages I hadn't planned to go to the Bay Area but as the time drew close for my trip I knew I just *needed* to include it. I stopped first thing at Roselawn to leave early birthday flowers for Tony. I felt great peace and love for my wonderful first-born and not too many tears.

I had a lovely visit with Sue and family. We all got together for dinner the first night and I was able to meet my newest little grand-niece, Audrey Ella. I was able to have a wonderful visit with all. I'm so grateful for family. Plus Sue and I made a productive shop at Blue Door Antiques where we found some wonderful orphaned quilt blocks. Sue already has hers in various stages of completion! I told her she was the Queen!

Saturday I took I-5 south back to Palmdale. It's been years since I've taken that route. I normally go via Hwy 99. I was interested to see that they've moved Harris Ranch's stock yards away from the freeway. We've driven past there when you can literally see the methane gas hanging in the cow-manure scented air.

This time around I stayed at Auntie P's house but we had Spencer and family over for dinner and delicious strawberry dream cake.

This may very well replace Pig-Pickin' Cake as our family favorite.

Monday we went to the garment district in LA with Deborah and Andrea.  Pauline was the winning shopper this day... all I got was some zippers.

And no trip to So Cal is complete without a trip to Cielito Lindo. It has pretty much replaced Disneyland.  Well, maybe not, but it's a lot cheaper!

And our trip back home from LA- I've always love this series of tunnels that transition to the I-5.

Tuesday was the day of reckoning and time to come home. And here is Monkey Mountain headed north.

So what of this trip? Here are my stats-

• 12 days
• 2287.3 miles that Elio drove (this doesn't count when other people drove us somewhere)
• A combined total of 40 hours driving time
• 27 family and family-by-choice members visited
• Elio- 9 months old
• Joanie- 60.5 years old
• Countless potty stops (oh, for crying out loud!)
• And quite possibly the easiest solo road-trip I've made in the last decade... I think that must be a result of Elio's comfortable ride and awesome family visits.
• One happy Pup and Pap when I returned home!

My Darling Boys

One of the greatest pleasures of a Grammie's life is... well, being a Grammie! I got to see the Flynn Boys while I was in California. And you would think with handsome grandsons like this I would have gotten more photos, or photos of Grammie and boys to show how they've grown or JUST ABOUT ANYTHING! I guess I just have to be satisfied that I remembered to get out my camera the morning I was leaving (and I'm not in the photos because I'm rockin' my Minnie Mouse pj's and have Super-Hero-Villian-Hair... that's what Brock tells me!)

Here's Tadhg... aka King Ginger! He breaks hearts were ever he goes! Tadhg's as tall as his mom.

Caden, still just a sweet and sensitive as ever.

Yeah... but as tall as me now!

And what's up with this? How did baby-Brock get to be 10 1/2? He is such a precious boy. He looks like he belongs on the front of that cereal box!

We gave the boys haircuts the night before I left; I did Tadhg and Caden and Mama did Brock's. This is Brock-Fauxhawk! Sans the fauxhawk he is up to my nose.



We had such a lovely visit... but I miss them already.

Life in the 'Park

Almost 11 years ago Rebekah and Curtis moved to Yosemite Lakes Park AKA YLP. Caden was just a baby who we put in baby jail his playpen so we could do all the fix-up, painting, etc that needed to be done on their little repo home. If Caden wasn't in baby jail he would eat anything that moved! Ick! YLP has a wonderful rural lifestyle that suits their family just fine.

Over the years they've done all sorts of improvements including adding an in-ground pool (watch out for all the ginormous granite rocks when digging!), a garage conversion, pulling up carpeting and replacing it with laminate or bamboo flooring, removing the popcorn ceilings and replacing it with pine planks. I love visiting here.

When the *little* boys; Caden, almost 12, and Brock, 9.5, got home they were *hot* (yes, it was all of 75°) and they wanted to go swimming. Bek told them that if they wanted to clean all the pine needle debris out of the pool they could swim. "You want to swim... you do the work!" I like that kind of mothering!



Tadhg is in high school now and gets home an hour and a half after his brothers. He's all about skateboards right now and wasn't interested in pool maintenance.



Since we were outside on this *too hot* day (notice she has on a sweater?) Bek pulled out her rake and started cleaning up the flowerbeds inside the pool area... can you say PINE NEEDLES?



This is Super-Girl the bestest cat around! She's only four years old; which is old for a hill-billy cat. Sadly, cats don't have a very long life span here. There are too many predators/dangers here. But they fulfill a very useful purpose... just what kitties do best: keeping the rodent/snake/bird population in check!



"Come here, Sup!" says Brock.



OK- so here is the saddest part about this happy post. I took my whole camera outside to take these pix... I didn't know which lens I would want to use. When did I remember when I'd left it out there? Yep, that would be this morning after it had started raining. Fortunately I was able to dry things off and they are still working properly!

BTW-- THIS IS MY 900th BLOG POST!

A Boy and His Cat

Can I just start by saying that I am very partial to BIG ORANGE CATS?  Literally for half of my life I have owned one!  So it makes me very happy to see a new generation who loves BIG ORANGE CATS!

I think this is Muffin, but it may be Twitch, aka Kevin, with my sweetie Brock.  What a wonderful blessing to be able to visit with my CA grandsons!  Yeah, and this cutie boy is nine and a half!  What's up with that??



This will give you an idea why I have trouble telling these identical kitty-twins apart.



The boys tell me that Muffin is darker and Kevin is lighter... this photo makes it look easy.

259- Brock's #8

I was browsing through my photos and saw that I had some awesome photos of Brock on his birthday. I just love the continuous shoot feature! I just hold down the shutter and away it goes. I have the cutest *penny-arcade* of Brock blowing out his candles. It only took him... guess how many? Yep, 8 blows to get them all. That last one was a torch and wouldn't go out. Sweet little boy!

256- Brock's Special Day

Today was a doubly special day for Brock! Not only was it his birthday, but it was his baptism day! What a special treat! Not too many people can say that they were baptized ON their birthday!

After the regular church meetings today many of his friends stayed to witness his baptism. Brock even invited some of his friends who don't belong to our church and they came. I was so proud of him that he would want his friends to be there and realize how important he feels this day is to him.

We had a beautiful meeting and the Spirit was strong in testifying that Brock was making the right choice. During the closing song I could feel Tony, Amanda, Grammy and Grampy there with us for this wonderful family experience. I am so grateful to know that they are still so close loving and supporting us from the other side of the veil.

086- My Boys

It is amazing how fast a week will go (even getting up at 6:15 every morning). I have enjoyed my time with the boys so much! This is an old tradition...

My first solo visit was with little almost-2 Tadhgy so his mommy and daddy could go away for their 6th anniversary. [Amazing fact... Caden was born 9 months later ;) ] It has continued on an almost yearly basis since then. Once I even went on the get-a-way weekend with them because Brock was still nursing.

But I must admit that I love these solo visits with my little boys. I revel in the one-ness that we have when their parents are gone. They are always so well behaved! [demonstrating their good home-training]


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerFrames, JB's Red Moss overlay (one more sad note... I only had my little Lumix camera in my marsupial pocket this day!! :o( )

I know that my days are numbered now that the boys are getting older and that these Grammie-duty visits will one day stop... but until then I will bask in the love of my grandsons!

(Red Moss is just one of the texture layers that I've captured on this visit and uploaded to flickr to share. You can get them here.)

078- New Companion

So the day I arrived in CA (you know, the same day I intercepted my camera...) I was like the little kid with new shoes, "Can I wear them home?" I took it into Costco and an elderly gentleman came up and asked, "Are you from around here?" I told him no, just visiting. He replied, "I thought that might be. We just got back from vacation and I took my camera ever where too!"

It was another beautiful spring day here today. We spent way too much of it inside with me doing a four color weave on Bek! But when I was all finished (3 hours later!!) We took a walk down to the mailbox and then stayed outside to enjoy the sunshine and warmth. I got some awesome photos of the kids (minus Caden, he got home from school sick and went straight to bed with an cold compress on his little head), Bek, Meow-Meow & Super Girl (the cats), flowers, trees, jumping on the tramp, swinging... well, you understand... I was burning up the pixels! (I LOVE DIGITAL) Do you suppose it could post all 365 photos in one day? Almost...


Rebekah & Tadhg


Brock