Grandma Shaw

Anna Olga Plepis Shaw, 86, passed away peacefully on March 10, 2013, surrounded by her family. She lived a long life full of love, service, teaching, learning, travel, adventure and so much more. She was the sweetest, strongest and most smiling woman we know. 

Anna was born December 6, 1926, in Hanover Township, PA, to Lithuanian immigrants George Plepis and Dorothy Dubra. She was raised in Pennsburg, PA, and then attended George Washington University in Washington, DC, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Physical Education and was a member of Delta Gamma. She later earned a master's degree in Guidance Counseling from the University of Delaware.

She married Alan Alfred Shaw on September 17, 1950, in Philadelphia, PA, and together raised their family of three children in Claymont, Delaware. Anna was a PE teacher and then later, a guidance counselor. She retired to St. George in 1984 after the passing of her husband.

Anna was very involved in many community organizations, including the first president of the Democratic Women of Washington County and president of the St. George Historical Society. She served on the committee for the restoration of the Pioneer Courthouse and was very involved in the Art Community in Southern Utah, encompassing Art in the Park, the St. George Art Museum, and various art shows held at the Pioneer Courthouse. In addition, she managed publicity for the Institute for Continued Learning and the Southwest Guild, was involved in organizing and promoting the World Senior Games, was an active member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and volunteered at the DOVE Center. 

Anna loved playing bridge and was very active in several bridge groups. She also loved to travel and literally traveled the world visiting every continent on various ElderHostel tours. She enjoyed swimming and competed in water ballet in college. She loved being around people and was a friend to all. Her greatest joys came from her children and grandchildren. She took great pride in their accomplishments and supported them in their goals and aspirations. 

She is survived by her daughters Cynthia Lam and Kathleen (Brent) Bluth; nine grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Alan Alfred Shaw; her son, Michael Alan Shaw; her sister Hilda P. Murphy; her brother Herbert Plepis; and her son-in-law, Robert Lam. 


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The boys and I and headed out to St. George Saturday afternoon. We were able to see my grandma in the hospital for a couple of days before she passed. She was no longer on the machines that were helping her to breathe, but the doctors had her on medication to keep her sedated and comfortable. Monday evening, along with my mom, aunt, cousin Danielle, and cousin Nate, I was able to sit next to my grandma, rubbing her arm, as she took her last few breaths. 

Like the obituary mentions, my grandma lost her husband almost 30 years ago and lost her only son, Michael, about 12 or so years before that. Thinking of their reunion the night she passed, gave me so much comfort. I had images in my mind, of the three of them hugging, kissing, laughing, and crying together. What a sweet reunion it must have been. 

It was great to spend the week with my family and my cousins, going through my grandma's things and remembering her and learning things we never knew about her. 

Even though I knew a few things from her obituary, I hadn't realized just how actively involved she was in her community, especially in her retired years. It's inspiring to me and makes me more motivated to be involved in my own community and to work harder at getting the nonprofit off the ground. 

I loved spending the week thinking about my grandma and all the things I've learned from her, the characteristics I've inherited from her, and her qualities that I want to try to have. 

We managed to fit in a little fun during the week when we took breaks from cleaning, sorting, and organizing my grandma's house. 

Cousin Amy and Lukie. She was awesome. We had the best babysitters all week!

Taft and his buddy Nate. Nate rocked this week. He helped out with my boys soooo much. 

Rock crushing contest.

Grandma Shaw's famous apricot tree. As long as I can remember, my grandma has made apricot jam, every single year. 

Buzz boy. This momma's boy let me hold him for 5 whole minutes!! Well...his mom wasn't around, but still!

The funeral was Friday and Taft's birthday was the next day. I really wanted to get home to celebrate his birthday with Seth, so right after the funeral, we as a family had a picnic in Snow Canyon before we left. We used to always have picnic's with my grandma, so we found it fitting to have one that day. 

I'll miss my grandma dearly, but I am so grateful for her legacy and the wonderful family she has created! 

Disneyland/Big Bear Vacation

Seth had his vacation week the first week of February. We decided to do a stay-cation of sorts again, and did a couple of days at Disneyland, followed by a couple of nights in Big Bear. 

We had talked about taking Taft to Disneyland for his birthday, but ended up buying annual passes to Disneyland instead. (Gulp. They were not the cheapest thing we ever purchased.) I think it will end up being a good thing. We've already spent a total of 3 days at Disneyland, and I'm sure we'll go enough to make it worth the price. 

The boys both had a blast. We did California Adventure the first day, and checked out the new Cars Land first thing. It is SO adorable. They've completely recreated the town from Radiator Springs and I just died at all the detail. The boys liked seeing the Cars characters, but didn't go nuts for them either. In fact, they didn't really care too much about any of the characters in all of Disneyland. The would point them out, but didn't want to have their picture taken with any of them. 

I must say, I think I have a love-hate relationship with Disneyland. I love that all the workers are over the top happy, that it's a magical place, but I super hate crowds and boy, does Disneyland have crowds. I just think it is completely unreasonable to expect a small child (or even parents for that matter) to wait 45 minutes for a silly Dumbo ride that last 2 minutes. I know, Bah Humbug right? What I'm saying is, if we didn't live so close, I don't know if I'd make a trip just for Disneyland for my kids. Unless they had a crazy Disney obsession and going there would make all their dreams come true. In that case, I'd go. Probably. 

However, I love that Disneyland lets one parent ride with two kids on a lot of the rides. This makes it so much better when I go by myself with the boys. Legoland is not like this, which makes it pointless to go without Seth. 

Anyway, enough about me. Here are some pictures of the day. 

Taft laughed hysterically on this ride. I wish I had it on video.

The Toy Story ride. A family favorite.

These crazy boys. Throwing their hands up on the ferris wheel.

Day 2: Disneyland side. The happiest place on Earth right? It is pretty happy there, I must admit.

Are they not twins?

Luke insisted on being with Seth on every ride. Taft was nice enough not to complain, even though we all know he would have had some turns with Dad. 

After two days in Disneyland, we headed to Big Bear Mountain outside of the L.A. area. We got in to town in the evening, settled in to our hotel, rented skis and such, and got some grub. Bright and early we headed to Bear Mountain Resort so Taft could start his snowboard camp. We had signed Taft up for an all-day group class from 8:30 to 3:30. I was hesitant to sign him up for such a long day, but we decided we'd just check on him at lunch and if he was over it we'd take him out. He ended up being the only kid in the class so he had a private lesson all day and had an absolute blast. He loved his instructor, Adam, and just had a great time. It was really cute watching Taft get pumped about snowboarding once he tried on all his gear at the rental shop. We would have rather had him take ski lessons since that's what we'll do as a family, but he had to be four. Yes, only a month shy and they still said no. 

Seth and I took turns going on runs. It was the firs time I had skied in 5 years! I was a little rusty but took it easy and stayed on greens and blues. The weather was PERFECT for my kind of skiing. Sunny and mid to high 40s. This was the first time I've been skiing that I haven't been miserable with painful fingers and toes. 

Against our better judgement, we took Luke up on a couple of runs in the hiking backpack. Eventually someone told us we weren't allowed to do that, so we stopped. We decided to get Luke some skis and Seth took him down the bunny hill a few times. Luke was content just to be pushed around on the flat snow wearing his skis and helmet. 

I have several videos from our ski day, but turns out that my camera is too new for our version of iMovie so I can't upload it. Normally I could just upgrade iMovie, but apparently our computer is too old for the new version of iMovie. Grrrrrrr. 

There was a story that happened in Riverside that made national news while we were in Big Bear. Some of you probably heard about it. A disgruntled former LAPD officer shot and killed three people over the course of a couple of days, one of them being a police officer. The shooter, Christopher Dorner, was trying to "clear his name" for the reasons why he was let go from the LAPD force. He wrote a super long manifesto and said he was planning to kill multiple officers from the LAPD. The morning we were leaving we saw this "breaking news" in our room on the news and that there was a multi-county manhunt for this guy. As we were driving down the mountain heading home, we saw multiple police cars, armored vehicles, etc. heading up the mountain. We wondered if they thought the shooter was hiding in Big Bear. When we got to the bottom of the hill we saw police cars parked, with officers out of their car holding rifles!! It was crazy! Later we found out he was in fact up there. Police were unable to locate him exactly for a few days, but did eventually find him in Big Bear. CRAZY. 

We finished off the week with a half-marathon that I had been training for. The training paid off and I beat last years time by 8 minutes. Woop woop! That night we got a sitter and had an early Valentine's dinner and movie. So basically, we had a really great week.

Luke is Two!!

Lukie turned two on Dec. 31. We were in Utah at the time so we had a mini celebration. We went out for pizza with my family and opened gifts and had cake. Lukie got one of those big basketball hoop stands from Nana and Grandpa. It's being shipped to us, but I think Taft and Luke will have a blast with it.

We had Lukie's Birthday Celebration Part II when we were back home with Seth. We took him for games at Chuck E Cheese and then to In 'n Out for a healthy dinner of cheeseburgers and fries. We gave Lukie a scooter, which he isn't quite ready for. Taft has gladly taken over the job as "scooter-rider" until Lukie is ready.

Not looking like a baby anymore! 

Ready whack a shark

We love, love, love our little Lukie. He is funny, cuddly, crazy, silly, dramatic, and sweet. His vocabulary is really coming along, although most people need an interpreter. My favorite thing he says right now is "Low-lit" for "blow it" when his food is hot. It's just the cutest the way he says it. He still loves trains (choochoos), loves fire engines, and helicopters and airplanes (both known as "hellos"). He will settle for cars if need be.  He is a decent eater, but is slowly becoming pickier like his big bro. Lukie loves to play with Taft. He is becoming Taft's little shadow and will do exactly what he does and is constantly mimicking what he says.

Lukie no longer uses a binky. He was getting a rash around his mouth and though the binky might be the culprit. Not so, he still has the rash.  Regardless, Luke is now binky-free. I thought I'd slowly cut the binky down, but even after the first little snip Luke no longer wanted it. Sometimes I really wish we still had it. He can still have a pretty impressive meltdown.

He finally likes nursery and doesn't cry when I drop him off at the gym day care. It helps if Taft is with him, but he does really well on his own now too.

Luke loves to sing songs and knows a lot of tunes to different songs we sing. A friend of mine is a speech therapist and said Luke is learning to talk "whole to part" which means he learns phrases before individual words. This might explain why one of the first things he clearly said was, "I don't want to". Most kids perfect single words and then put them together in phrases. Luke puts hard to understand phrases together and will eventually say the individual words more clearly. It's kind of a game figuring out what he's trying to say, but I kind of like it. He clearest word is definitely, "Yeah".

Luke can still be shy around some people and gets very embarrassed when told not to do something or is scolded. He'll hide his face, bury his face with blankets, or will just face plant on to the floor. Overall, he is much less fussy than he has been in the last two years.

We love, love, love Lukie. LOVE.

Winter Weddings

 The little boys and I headed to Utah on Christmas Eve. Like I said in my other post, Seth wasn't able to come with us at all. We celebrated our Christmas Eve and Christmas a day ahead of everyone else. Lucky for the boys, they got two Christmases.

The boys were unbelievably good on the first flight. Like, I read a magazine. It was the in-flight magazine, but still. They just happily played with their trains on the tray table. The second flight was  a different story. They weren't bad, but I was feeling more and more sick as the flight went on. I seem to always get a cold right as I'm heading to Utah or get one within the first couple of days of being there. As I felt progressively crappier, the boys got progressively more hyper. It wasn't the best combo. But, we made it.

The boys opened their second set of Christmas jammies from Nana and Grandpa. We tried to get a cute picture but it wasn't happening.

We opened gifts the next morning, had a delicious brunch, and some of us took off for sledding. Taft had a good time, but Lukie fell off on his first run and WOULD NOT have any of it for the rest of the time. 

Jayda is such a good big cousin. She played with the boys non-stop. I feel so lucky that my boys have such great older cousins on both sides who actually seem to like playing with them. 

Isn't she the cutest?

Pretty soon after the spill. Doesn't he look so sad?

The REAL reason we were even in Utah in the first place was because Lanx got married!! I am so glad we could be there. Lanx looked so beautiful, the sealing was peaceful, the reception was gorgeous and fun, and Travis and her make a great couple. My boys love, love, love Travis. We all think he's great. 

I did shoot a couple of shots when they came out of the the temple but they are blurry. It was absolutely freezing and since I figured they had a professional photog they didn't need me to snap any. I'll post some when she gets them back. I'm sure they'll be stunning. 

Sadly, the best photo of the night. I wish I had shots of the inside of the reception. It was so beautifully done.

Cute Jay, Butter (aka Alex), and Taft. Luke refused. 

I also had another wedding to attend to while in Utah. Jamie and I have been friends since 1st grade. She had a small wedding with just family and a few friends. I was honored that she wanted me there. The wedding day was a nice break for me from the kids. My parents was so nice and watched them ALL day long. I got to hang out all day with my other dear friend, Amber, who Jamie and I have known since 7th grade.

It was so great to be with my family for an extended period of time, but we (the boys and I) really, really missed Seth. We were gone for 2 weeks which is just too long to be apart. 

Highlights of the trip not photographed:

1. Playing with the Herway cousins

2. Meeting up with a few friends 

3. My friend, turned personal trainer, who kicked my butt one day

4. Staying up late with my family

5. Visiting my grandma in St. George

6. Celebrating Lukie's 2nd birthday! (more on that in another post)

Christmas Season 2012

Our Christmas season was kicked off the same as last year. Santa arrived in Coronado via the ferry. There were lots of activities for kids at the Ferry Landing, visiting Santa, painting ornaments, playing on a snow hill (real snow), and hot chocolate and cookies.

Dane and Taft. Dane's family used to live on our street but moved a little north a couple of months ago. We've missed having them on our street so it was fun to run into them here. 

I don't know what it is with Taft and Santa, but he is always SO serious when he talks to him. 

Following the activities at the Ferry Landing, there's a parade along Orange Avenue. 

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House making

We visited the Temple on a Sunday night to see the lights. The night we went they had performers singing Christmas carols. The boys went in their pajamas to this because we're classy like that.

Speaking of classy, check out our neighbors.

Taft was a sheep in our ward's Christmas Nativity program. Seth had to work this night so he had to miss it. It was adorable!

Instagram quality, sorry. Seth's work threw a very nice Christmas party at a hotel downtown. While everyone very much enjoyed the cocktail hour, we enjoyed a Cranberry Spritzer. People got really nice, friendly, and quite happy as the night went on...if you know what I mean. 

This picture makes me laugh. This was our Christmas Eve dinner. Seth and I are overly smiley because we were trying to get the boys to smile.

Since the boys and I were headed to Utah for my sister's wedding, we had our Christmas Eve on the 23rd and our Christmas morning on the 24th. We had a nice dinner Christmas Eve, the boys opened their jammies and a Christmas story from The Elves, and we headed out for a walk to see Christmas lights. The boys fell asleep on the walk, but we made sure to leave cookies and milk out for Santa.

Santa brought a gift for the boys to share this year. They got a fully loaded train table and it has been the best thing Santa ever spent his money on...er...made.

I went to load some video, but turns out our version of iMovie is too old for our new camera. Grrrr. So, until I upgrade iMovie we'll just have to keep our movies to ourselves.