Nifty Nifty Look Who's Sixty!

Happy 60th Birthday to the coolest Dad, Grandpa, "Opa", and "Pa" around!

We had a WONDERFUL weekend with everyone in town and were able to celebrate dad's big 60 for 3 whole days!

The Aunts and Uncles and guys at the shop made this huge card with the ballon arch that people could drive by and sign.  It was such a cute idea and the picture of dad they used was priceless!  (There were more balloons but because of the awesome warm weather they didn't last too long!)

 

 All the kiddos helping to blow out his candles!

Playing Ball with Emmit! 

Watching the sweet Art City Days Parade!

Good thing that we have Grandpa to entertain the kids!  They were playing red light/green light, What time is is Mr. Fox, then got a game of kickball going!

Happy Birthday!  We sure love you!

(More pictures to come soon of this rockin' weekend!)
(And if you noticed I made the font bigger so this would be easier to read for older eyes!  bwahahahaha)

Balcony Flowers and Friends

Jeremy and I look forward to one day living on ground level (hopefully in a house, with a yard) so that we can have our own garden. Until then we will continue to dream and grow our flowers and peppers in planter boxes. (Last year we tried to grow tomatoes, but didn't have too much success as our balcony only gets a few hours of sunshine every morning, dang north facing apartments!)

We love our balcony! Our flowers and peppers seem to be loving it too!

My beautiful anniversary gift hanging basket
(You will notice it isn't hanging but sitting on a sturdy table. Last year I had a hanging basket, which was in fact hanging from our third floor balcony. One day the hanging basket ended up on our door step after it fell down three stories and landed on the grass below. Our neighbors so graciously gave it back to us. I wonder if it would have hit one of them if they would have just thrown it in the dumpster! We haven't tried to hang another one since!)

I love hummingbirds! We have been hanging feeders every year to get them to come around. But this year we have also had interest from other creatures.....

10 points if you can tell us what kind of birds these are. The hummingbirds do come around quite a bit and yesterday performed a "shuttle" maneuver right on our balcony (we read that in a book). It was pretty cool. They will also land on the feeders and spend a little more time as well. They are fun to watch and are pretty quick (hence no pictures of actual hummingbirds yet)!

Grandma Rose

ROSE RANQUIST

Rose Jolley Sweat Ranquist Beloved Mother 1927 ~ 2011

Rose Jolley Sweat Ranquist passed away peacefully May 27, 2011 in Draper, Utah due to pneumonia. Rose was born July 28, 1927 in Tropic, Utah, the ninth and last child of Jesse Levi Jolley and Mary Leona Johnson Jolley. Rose loved her childhood in Tropic, growing up surrounded by her grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many friends. Her parents moved to Salt Lake City before Rose's senior year of high school. After graduating from South High, Rose worked at Hill Field Air Force Base, where she met Leo Sweat in July and married him in the Salt Lake Temple October 12, 1945, for time and eternity. Three children were born to Rose and Leo: Ross, Dennis, and Karla. Leo passed away due to heart problems in 1954. Rose worked to support her little family and was always grateful for the help she received from both sides of her family during that difficult time. Through her cousin Arlene, Rose met Harold Ranquist and they were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on November 9,1955. Harold's job as an attorney took Rose from Salt Lake to live in Blackfoot, and later Boise, Idaho, where Rose and Harold were blessed with a son, Alex. Their other moves were back to Salt Lake; Upper Marlboro, Maryland; Reno, Nevada; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rose and Harold finally returned to Salt Lake in 1987. Rose enjoyed the places they lived and the wonderful friends she made along the way. No matter where Rose lived, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was always part of her life. She held many callings in the church and always fulfilled them to the best of her ability. She had a quiet but strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Rose loved being a homemaker and most of all a mother, and she was a great one. She also loved being with her family - her parents, brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren - and we loved being with her. She was happiest when she had a house full of people she could cook for and then sit back to watch them enjoy being together. We loved our family trips back to Tropic and learning about her early life and the lives of our ancestors. The love of family past and present is her legacy that she leaves with us. We will miss having her here with us, but know that she is having a great family reunion with loved ones in heaven. Rose was preceded in death by her parents; husbands Leo L. Sweat and Harold A. Ranquist; siblings Rex Jolley, Arben Jolley, Joel Jolley, Maggie LeFever, Jessie Terry, and Bertha Heaton. She is survived by her brothers, Bill and Aaron Jolley; her four children, Ross Ranquist (Dolores) of North Salt Lake; Dennis Sweat (Barbara) of South Jordan; Karla Hjorth (Richard) of Mapleton; and Alex Ranquist (Stephanie) of Louisville, Kentucky. She is also survived by 12 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. The family would like to express their gratitude to the Atria Assisted Living Center for their years of care and friendship for our mother. Funeral services will be held Friday June 3, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. at Larkin Sunset Gardens, 1950 East 10600 South, Sandy, Utah. Viewing for friends and family will be Thursday, June 2 from 6-9 p.m. at Larkin Sunset Gardens, and Friday one hour prior to services. Interment at Valley View Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to the Perpetual Education Fund.

The funeral was wonderful. We heard great stories from grandma's life and met a lot of people who loved her and will miss her. We are so grateful for our knowledge of the gospel and that we will be able to be with her again someday!

Tessa loved all the flags she saw

Mom with her siblings, Dennis, Ross and Alex

The siblings with spouses

Jeremy looking oh so handsome in his suit

Three cute kids

Ma and Pa Hjorth

These girls make me happy!

One hot Mamma with her three cute kids

"And we are a happy family"
(Jeremy was filling in for Abby!)

We will miss Grandma and will treasure the memories we have. We were able to visit her a few times during the last week of her life and know that she is doing better now and is free from pain and the cares of this world. We look forward to seeing her again someday!

Mothers Day/2nd Anniversary

The Saturday night before Mothers Day/Our Anniversary, we met my family at Teppanyaki for a delicious dinner and great entertainment! Jeremy and I were the only ones who caught shrimp in our mouths (we are pretty talented, what can I say!).

Maren pretending to cook us some fried rice!

Maren took a picture of us so we could remember years down the road what we did for our two year anniversary date!

We went back to Mom and Dads and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Tessa was showing us her cat Gus. Gus is a BIG cat (almost as big as Tessa). We were all laughing when we saw her pick the cat up and walk with him so she could show us!

Temple Square

We headed down to Temple Square one "date night." The weather was perfect and it was so fun seeing all the pretty flowers. We had a great time and got some good pictures!

We went to Temple Square in 2008 when we were dating so took another picture like the one we had taken before (below).

Ahh . . precious

This flower was ginormous

Yeah for nice weather and for being able to do things outside! (Now if it would only stop raining and stay nice weather we could really be happy!)

Crazy Hair

Sunday night entertainment = Torturing friends one year old child by rubbing a beach ball on her head and watching her hair stick straight up.

(It was all Jeremy's idea)

Primary Thank You's

Our Primary Presidency was reorganized a few weeks ago. I was called from being the Secretary (which was the most wonderful calling ever) to being the 2nd Counselor (which I am sure will be just as equally wonderful!) We made little thank you cookie bouquets to give to Melanie and Hollie who are leaving us for bigger and better things. (and by things I mean new houses . . . . jealous). I had the kids write thank you notes for the grass. I thought it turned out cute and the project was so easy. I did walk through a couple grocery stores looking for cookies with holes in the middle. I could only ever find 2 different kinds! Now every time I am in a different grocery store I find myself looking for cookies with holes. Call me crazy.