USMC - Marine Recruit Braden Quinn

Hi all. Well it finally came…Time for our Marine to leave home and go to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California. Yep, he is a “Hollywood Marine”. Our family had dinner together Sunday night and after dinner Stacey and I took Braden to the hotel that they put the recruits up at. I think they do this so they know where the recruits are at 4:45 a.m. on Monday morning. I doubt Braden slept at all on Sunday night because he had a cold. On Monday morning I called the MEPS office (Military Entrance Processing Station) they person that answered said that they would “probably” swear the Marine recruits in between 11:00 and 1400 hours. Yes it was like setting an appointment with Comcast. I was able to see him sworn into active duty and it was cool. He was ready to go. It was great to see him although I hated to say goodbye again. That was a week ago already, and last night we received a call from a member of the Bishopric who said he had seen and talked with Braden. I was so glad to hear that someone had seen him. Braden has a bad cold but is doing ok. He said that he was very impressed with Braden. He said that this group of recruits were the best he had ever seen, and he has been a Marine since 1947 (Yes, he is retired). He gave me Braden’s address and told us to write as often as we could. He said that Braden will graduate on May 13. They have a parent’s day on May 12 where I think the recruits can show their parents around and introduce them to their officers and other recruits. So I can’t wait for May to get here. I will try to keep up a little better with my blog so that everyone can see how he is doing. Thanks to all of our family who helped out with the parties for Braden before he left. You guys are awesome! Taylor and Scott, thanks for going shooting with us before he left, it meant a lot to Braden and me. Thank you also to Braden’s friends who came to see him. It was great to see and meet all of you. Semper Fi Braden. We LOVE you. ( P.S. I think I can do 10 or 8 or maybe 2 pushups)

Almost Time

Well just a few more days and Braden goes into the Marines. This is really strange. We have not had anyone in the military and now we have Jayme and Braden. Braden and I spent last Friday together just goofing around at Cabela's and to a range to shoot the guns. It was nice to spend some time with him. He leaves on the 7th of February, which used to be miles away, but now is almost here. I saw Jayme on the webcam the other day and I felt so bad for her because she was sick. It was still great to see her. I am trying to find out if the Marines will let Braden fix our cars from San Diego. Maybe he could just text me how to fix them and keep them going. I hope he does well. He did get his motorcycle running and it sounds great. You know I like to ride the motorcycles, but his is so fast it scares the crap out of me. Well the Marines are lucky to be getting Braden. Love you Braden.

New Year? Where did the old one go?

Hi everyone. Just before Thanksgiving, yep before Thanksgiving Andrew wanted to know where our Christmas tree was. Well we found it. Of course the grandma said now that we have it it needs to be up. Our tree was up before Thanksgiving. Andrew and Preston decorated it, so all of the ornaments are at a similar height and grouped together and that's where they stayed the whole Christmas season.

Now let's talk Black Friday... We were at Walmart from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. trying to get what we needed (or wanted). One item was on sale at midnight, and when midnight came they told us they did not have the item. What a kick in the ____ (insert body part here). We lucked out and they tried to make it right. It was a long night, but it was fun being with Stacey, Brooke and Whitney. Then as always we went to breakfast. I am surprised we did not all fall asleep in our food. Yahoo Black Friday!

Christmas was very fun. It was nice to get together with the extended family for our Christmas party. A couple of years ago Stacey started a tradition on Christmas eve at our house. She always has new pajamas for everyone. Christmas morning was very good. Everyone was over to our house to open gifts. It was nice to have little kids around. They were so excited for each gift. Preston opened up his first gift and it was a train. Big mistake. He was totally excited for the train and was OK not to open another gift. All he wanted to do was play with Thomas the Train. Andrew, on the other hand, was excited to open more and more presents. He helped grandpa pass out the gifts to everyone. I think he enjoyed it. He opened one gift and said "it's just what I've wanted my whole life." Lucky kid. Isabelle looked terrific as aways and is getting good at tearing wrapping off of presents. I hope Braden had a good Christmas. He received a gun from Santa. Christmas is always good when you get a gun. Hopefully he will not shoot his eye out! He did not get any new clothes. Just like he wanted. Brooke and Tim received new pots and pans, so could someone volunteer to teach them how to cook? It was nice to have Whitney, Jason, Courtney and Doug all here.

We did miss one person, and she is in Iraq. Jamie we all hope you had as good of a Christmas as could be. It will be nice to have you here this next year. Thanks for what you are doing in Iraq for all of us.

That reminds me... Doug had quite the trip getting here for Christmas. Doug's car broke down in Santaquin. Braden and I went to see if we could fix the car and it took us forever to get there because dad did not listen to Braden and took I-15 and they just happened to be fixing pot holes that night. We were stuck. When we finally made it to Doug, we popped the hood and could see that the idler pulley had almost come off of the car. Everything was closed so we towed the car home. I think we got home about 12:30 in the morning. The next morning, Braden took the car apart, while Doug and I ran for parts. With the help of Checker, Autozone, Pepboys, and Napa Auto we were able to get all of the parts. Pretty soon the Altima will be brand new. (At least under the hood)Stacey and I got some very cool gifts from the kids. Thanks kids. Courtney and the boys went to Mesquite for a few days and they picked just the right day to leave, because now we have a ton of snow. They had a lot of water at their house last week. I even saw their street on the news. I am glad it all worked out.

I hope all of you had a warm, safe, enjoyable Christmas and that everyone's heart grew three sizes that day. Just 360+ more days until the next one. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Another Christmas Season!

Fa la la la la, la la la la. Here we are again at another Christmas season. But wait it is different this year. We have little ones around. Awesome. Isabelle is laughing and trying to talk. What a hoot. She now tells everyone she sees "Hi." She is walking, climbing, and trying to run from grandpa when he tells her he is gonna get her. The little boys Andrew and Preston have both had birthdays. Andrew has turned five and is "much" older now, and Preston turned two and is doing everything he can to keep up and be like his brother. Jamie is back in Iraq, Braden is going to Marine "pool" activities, Brooke is working and playing. Whitney and Jason are trying to keep up with their daughter who's is giving them a run for the money. We had Preston's birthday party and Andrew was most definitely more excited than Preston. Don't get me wrong, Preston enjoyed it, but Drew absolutely could not wait. It was fun watching him be so excited for his brother.

Well I don't know if anyone else or if everyone else went to the Black Friday sales, but we did. It started Thursday night. ALL NIGHT. From 10:00 p.m. until Friday at who knows what time. It was crazy but it was fun being with Brooke, Whitney, and Stacey. I hope everyone else got what they needed to get. We did OK.

Courtney is finishing up another nursing semester and it seems like she is always taking another test. She seems to be doing OK.

Thanksgiving was nice. Almost everyone was at mom and dads for dinner and it was fun. The kids always have a blast. It seems that the house just gets louder and louder with laughter.

Well not too long until Christmas so mind your P's and Q's and no crying. You better watch out, he's watching. Have a great week. See ya.

Let it SNOW!!!

Can you believe it? It is snowing at our house. BIG HUGE Snowflakes. Way cool.

Well, I know it has been a long time since I have written. I have been busy with the boys and other things. Andrew had his last soccer game on Saturday and believe it or not his trophy said he is the "most outstanding player"... along with 400 other kids in the league. He is proud of his trophy and we are proud of him. Andrew had a lot of fun playing and it was great to go and watch. Preston wanted to be on the field so much that he would just wander onto the field with the team. He can't wait to play. Preston is starting to say quite a few words now and he loves to see his cousin Isabelle. Brooke and Braden had their 21st birthday last week. Yep 21. I don't know how they got to 21 since I am only 28. Weird. Brooke is doing well and going to football games with Tim. Braden had a big surprise on his birthday when Jayme showed up from Iraq. It was awesome. She looks great, and is doing well. She will leave again on November 3rd. It's nice to have her here. Whitney and I went to the temple grounds last Thursday and took pictures. It was fun to be with her and Isabelle. We also took a Photoshop class a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of fun. I am trying to figure out how I use Photoshop to make me look thinner.

My dad had a stint put in his heart last week. He is doing well and looks great. If I jump all over please forgive me. Braden and Jayme went to Vegas for a couple of days. Remember you two. What happens in Vegas stay in Vegas, except herpes that crap will come back with you!

ISABELLE is WALKING!!! She is awesome. She does patty cake, and roll it, and roll it, and toss it the oven. Stacey just got back in from a long trip but she does not go back out for a while now. She is reading a new book. I know, surprise! The surprise is that it is not a vampire book. She has been tending Isabelle quite often and they are very close. You can not pry Isabelle out of Stacey's hand most days and Isabelle feels the same. She likes to be with me as long as Stacey is not around. Otherwise, she wants Stacey. Courtney is going to school and working part time at Health South. Busy, Busy, Busy. She is doing well. I went with my dad fishing before he had surgery and we caught a couple fish at the new Sandy pond. The fish were jumping like crazy. I wonder if the state will ever finish the road work on seventh east, or the work on 13th east, or 11400 south, or, or, or... It has been a mess for too long. It really makes it hard to go anywhere when all of the major roads in Sandy are tied up with construction. Okay no more soapbox. We took the boys up to Snowbird last week to see the fall leaves. There was not a lot of color up there but we did see a coyote in the Snowbird parking lot. It was a good evening up there. Halloween is this week so don't get spooked. Andrew is going to be Bumble Bee the Transformer, Preston is going to be a dinosaur (I think) and Isabelle is going to be Tinkerbell. I hope you are all well. Have a good week and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Summer's end

Well here we are near the end of another summer. Man that went by fast. We have spent a lot of this summer building rockets and losing them. It has been a lot of fun. I guess we are not very good at judging the wind, because several trees now own our rockets. Andrew and Preston love to launch them. Jason and Whitney have joined us and so has Brooke and Tim. We have been going to Andrew's soccer games on Saturdays and it has been fun. Dejavu...it's like watching Whitney and Brooke when they were little. "Bunchball." We are working to get Andrew to be a little more aggressive. He seems to be having fun and that's what counts. No vacations this summer just staying around home. My dad and Dave C. and I went fishing yesterday and we had a great time. We left around 6:30, should have been 6:00, and we went to Currant Creek. By the way, the 7-11 on 12300 south and 700 east has no hot dogs on the grill at that time. So we did not get a Bahama Mamma before fishing. We caught somewhere around 30 fish total. The weather was great and the water was beautiful. Current creek has some Tiger Trout in it and they look cool. They are not very big yet, but they are cool. Stacey has been playing softball every Wednesday with her work and they are doing OK. Best of all she has not taken another line drive to her shin. I think her shin is finally not black, blue or green. Braden is going on the deer bow hunt with some friends and Brooke has just moved into a new apartment. Now for really BIG news...Isabelle is not only crawling she is going up the stairs! She is sooo smart. She loves her grandpa, but she loves grandma more. She can't take her eyes of Stacey (probably because she knows Stacey usually has candy or a Popsicle. Ok on to other news. Brooke's Congo hat business did not take off so she is now making contacts for near sighted homeless dogs and cats. She ha such a big heart. Now all of those animals can see where they are going and do not have to sniff everything to see what it is. We will see how this story ends. Braden has installed a stereo system in his truck that is awesome. He did a great job. The system can get loud. He is helping Brooke in her new contacts adventure by putting stereo systems in the Cat and Dog houses for the near sighted animals. They can have barking or meowing in HD Stereo. Well we can't leave out our soldier Jayme, who just gad a birthday. She is in Kuwait and will be going to Iraq in a while. I was able to talk to her the other day. It was great! She sounded good she said it is very hot 120+ over there. Jayme we love you. Be safe. Well thing are OK here, I hope everything is good for you out there. Have a good and safe Labor Day. Summer's end.

Its been a while...

Well lets see. The last time I wrote was ... too long ago. What has happened so far this summer? Jamie is in Washington right now getting ready to go to Iraq. We were able to go to the airport and see her off. Don't let anyone fool you, that is tough. These people that are serving our Country are amazing. They all just pack up and go because that is what they need to do. It was tough for everyone, but also amazing to watch. I hope she is well and doing what she needs to do. It will be nice when she is back home. (Jamie we miss you and love you. Be safe) Braden has quit working for Checker and is now working with Jamie's uncle doing lawn care. No, not at my house. I still have to mow my own lawn. (What little lawn still remains) He passed the test for joining the Marines. Now he needs to decide on what he wants to do while he is in the Marines. Head cook sounds OK to me. Brooke has purchased a new car. A bright blue Mazda 6. So far she loves it. It is very quick. Everyone has been spending time throwing bean bags and trying to beat Brooke and Tim in C_r_h_l_. (See if you know what that is) They are gooood at this game. She is working again for Cold Stone so go see her. Whitney has been little miss sewing machine girl. She is learning very quick and doing a great job making things for Isabelle and everyone else. Jason is working, working, flying. he made dinner for us on Sunday. It was great. He is "Ready for a Throwdown." Isabelle is getting so big and she now has her ears pierced (against her grandpa's wishes) but they do look cute. She is absolutely gorgeous and so much fun. She will be crawling very soon. The girls all went to see the Vampire movie together. It was a late late late showing, but I think they had fun. Courtney, Andrew, and Preston are her for the next year and a half. She is finishing her nursing degree here in Draper. Yahoo! Andrew and Preston are going to Preschool for a couple of days each week. (Thank you Jenny and Paul for making this happen) It is great for the boys and Courtney gets a break too. Stacey had a lot of fun watching the World Soccer games and is still playing softball. Last weekend we went to "Draper days" at the park. It was so hot that I am sure I lost weight. Not by sweating it off,or exercising, I think I lost weight from my skin melting off and sticking to everything you bumped up against. Now that's hot. We went over to the park later and watched the fireworks until Preston tossed up his lunch onto Courtney. Oh man did that stink! Preston is learning to say more words everyday, although he has not learned to say "I don't feel well. Andrew is learning to ride his bike and getting better at it. The boys and I went to see the dinosaur museum at the U of U. It was fun. Preston would love to ride all of them. Andrew wanted to keep digging for bones. We rode Trax to the Gateway Mall and played in the fountain. Preston can not ever get wet enough and Andrew is not sure he ever wants to get wet. When we finally went back to the truck we were all ready for a nap. It was a fun day. as you can see, things have been a little crazy, and hectic, but fun. I like it when the kids get together and just talk and laugh together. That's nice. Well I have got to get to bed. Yep, I still have the sickness where I have to go to work. I am hoping they find a cure for it. Thanks to all of you who help us out each week. Especially to Don and Judy who have Courtney and the boys living in their basement. See ya later