Temple Prep

We're eagerly anticipating Saturday, Jan. 21! That's the day we're going to the temple to do Jamison's work. Although I've never gone through the temple with one of my children for the first time, I imagine it feels the same in all the important ways. I'm so excited for Jamie to take this next step: to receive the Melchizedek priesthood along with his initiatory, and for Sean to serve as proxy for him in the endowment session. I know that Jamison's eager for this next step too! So, we'll be at the 3:30 session that day. Anyone who would like to come, is more that welcome. It helps to have the 21st to look forward to, beyond the 1-year anniversary of the 18th. As someone said on my facebook wall, "I'm so grateful for eternity!"

Happy Birthday, Jamison!

October 7 was Jamison's 16th birthday. I don't think I can describe how hard it is to buy a few things to decorate his grave, rather than stuff he undoubtedly would have been bugging me to get for his birthday. What a hard day, in so many ways. The pain of "If he were here...." was much deeper than normal. That day was supposed to be a celebration of his arriving on this earth. It's hard to reconcile the emotions of having held him for the first time and also the last, in this life.

But it was a good day too. We celebrated in a way he would have loved: with all the family and friends who wanted to come!

We had hot dogs & hamburgers, salads, and of course, cake and ice cream.

As a tribute to him, I want to share the story of his birth. We were glad when Friday, October 6, 1995 dawned with nice weather. Sean & I had been planning all week that we'd meet Mom & Dad at Farmington Pond for some fishing that evening. It was still a week before my actual due date, and all the hoping and vacuuming I'd been doing since my sister Diane had had her baby two weeks previously, hadn't done the slightest good. So we were looking forward to catching some fish. The contractions woke me up about 2:30 that morning. They were just small twinges for awhile. By afternoon, I was still feeling them, and they were getting a little more insistent. I called Mom. "How are you feeling? Do you think we should cancel?" she asked. "No, let's still plan on it. I'm just waiting anyway, and I might as well be doing something!" I packed a bag for the hospital and we met Mom & Dad at the pond that evening. The contractions were gradually getting more painful and more regular, but I was determined to go have a good time. We cast our lines out...and I caught the first fish! I clearly remember pulling that first fish in. After that the contractions worsened. I would start reeling and have to double over and wait for the pain to subside before finishing bringing in a fish.

I don't remember how long we stayed at the pond, probably one to two hours. When the contractions were close and strong enough that we were pretty sure they'd continue, Sean & I left and drove to Salt Lake Regional Hospital in Salt Lake. The nurses checked to see how far along I was; I was completely relieved that they didn't have to send me home. (That had been a big fear of mine, after hearing stories in our prenatal classes of women heading to the hospital too early and being sent home to wait for the real labor to come. Of course, with Sean by my side, he'd had standing instructions to not let me do that!) Sean's parents stopped by an hour or so after we got there, to lend moral support and wish us well. Don't believe anyone if they tell you labor is fun. It isn't. And it doesn't help when the epidural they give you doesn't work. My doctor, Dr. Dave Theurer, wasn't on call that night, but he had the nurses call him so he could come in for me. I was so glad when he showed up about 3 am, because it meant it wouldn't be much longer! Dr. Theurer gave me a spinal block since the epidural wasn't working. What a relief. The baby's face was turned the wrong way, and he had to adjust things so they'd come out properly. I was grateful to have an experienced doctor! Jamison Sean Tuckett was born Saturday, October 7 at 3:48 am. He weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz, and was 21 inches long. He had blue eyes and just a fuzz of blond hair. We hadn't officially "found out" what we were having in the ultrasounds, and were delighted that we had a son!

Six months old

Here's birthday #15, a year ago. We miss & love you, Jamison!

Jamie's Song

A wonderful friend in our ward, Josie Cox, 15 years old, wrote a song for Jamison, with the help of Mrs. Heath, Jamison's Spanish teacher, and his choir teacher, Mr. Furch. Josie and Haden, another good friend, performed it at the Legacy Jr. High closing assembly on the last day of school. And now it's on itunes! It's an absolutely beautiful song. It's called Jamie's Song, by Josie Cox and Haden Langston.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jamies-song-single/id447685476

Jamison

I took this picture at the Grand Canyon last year over spring break. As much as any picture of my boy, this one tears at my heart. He was so daring that day, as in life. He kept climbing and running to the edges. "Mom, take a picture!" Full of life and of living.





This is another one I love. Mouthful of seeds. Waiting for that ball so he can field it. He was a good baseball player.



Tonight we're having his Eagle Court of Honor. Our ward is having a regular court of honor (Tristan's going to receive a few merit badges, in fact), and then present us with Jamison's Eagle award.

This picture was taken the day he left for the National Scout Jamboree last summer.

I love you, Jamison!

Mannheim Steamroller

Last night Sean & I went to the Mannheim Steamroller concert. It was so fabulous! They played many of our favorites. They are pretty understated in their playing. Although they have six people plus 2 brass and about an 8-person string section, they don't spotlight the one instrument playing the melody. It was fascinating to watch them and try to figure out whether it was the systhesizer making that sound, or one of the many instruments they play. Jackson and Almeda Berkey both play the keyboard. We loved trying to figure out who was playing what part. Anyway, it was great! What an awesome start to the holiday season.

They're celebrating their 25th year of Christmas concerts. What a treat!

Go Yankees!

I know all of you Yankees fans out there are just as excited as we are for this game #6. GO, YANKEES! We just saw you in your brand new stadium about 4 months ago! Make us proud and win the world series!

Fall Fun

Sorry all these pictures have halos around everything. I just looked at my lens after downloading the pics to my computer and discovered some grimy fingerprints all over it.



Jamison turned 14 on October 7! That Wednesday was a very busy day, and we spent most of the evening at Tristan's football playoff game at Davis High School. Once Jamison returned from his practice and we returned from Tristan's game (they won!), we celebrated with a coconut cream pie from Marie Callender's. Happy birthday, Jamison!




We partied the following Friday in the back yard of some neighbors. Jamison invited a bunch of friends from school, and I counted 17 who showed up. It's the first time for about ten years that he didn't mind inviting both boys and girls! (He's growing up!) It was fun for Sean & I to meet some of the kids he's talked about from school. The yard has not only a great fire pit for roasting hot dogs & s'mores, but also a terrific tree swing which swings out over a hill, which drops down as they swing out. Almost everyone had a great time: about five minutes after arriving, one of the boys from the ward fell off the swing and broke his arm. (It's the same swing Raleigh broke her arm on two years ago.)

Football



See the long gray sleeves in the middle of the pile? That's Jamison. His team is doing awesome! They haven't lost a game all season. Playoffs are every Saturday now; they're out if they lose. Today's game was the first time a team has scored on them this year; the final score was 40-16. It's very fun watching these kids play!



This shot was from last week's game, when they played another Layton team. Our team had to wear the white jerseys. Jamison was #42.





Sean had to move the chains during that game. Father/son powwow.



Normally Jamison's # is 45.





Tristan was #93. I say "was" because his season ended last Saturday. His team won more than they lost, so they got to the playoffs, only to lose last week to West Haven. He had a good time.



There's nothing like watching your kids play a sport or perform. I love it.

Jenni's Birthday



Jenni's birthday was a week later on the 14th. She'd never seen my brother-in-law Pat's office, so we went there to celebrate. We had Bahio's for dinner, plus cake & ice cream and presents. Pat made this awesome sign for her birthday, which I hope she keeps up in her room all year. It's only one year out of your whole life that you're 34!





Our Anniversary Trip

Our wedding anniversary was Thursday, Oct. 15. For our anniversary "trip," we left early Friday morning to meet a work friend of Sean's who owns horses, for a horseback riding adventure in the Uintah mountains.



Sean rode the palomino, Belle, and I rode the dark brown horse, Lady. Kent rode a reddish-brown horse named Laddie.

We unloaded the horses at Christmas Meadows and saddled up. The drive & getting all of the equipment ready took the entire morning--we were on the trail by about 1:30, headed for Lake Amethyst.

Lady was a great horse. Nineteen years old, she was obedient and sure-footed on the sometimes steep and rocky trail. Several boggy spots had manmade log bridges across them. Our horses didn't love going on the bridges. Kent had spurs for Laddie, who he was training, and she cooperated most of the time. Lady, used to following other horses on trails while hunting, was fine going on bridges as long as she was right behind Laddie. However, the few times we weren't right on Laddie's tail, I had quite a time coercing Lady to get on that bridge.

Sean's horse, Belle, although a pretty docile animal, definitely had a mind of her own. She hated those bridges, and more often than not I'd look back to see Belle and Sean tromping through the deep muck, due to Belle's aversion to the bridges. She didn't want to follow very closely behind Lady, so Sean was often several yards behind us.







My view from Lady's back.

Well, we rode for about 3 hours, some of it extremely rocky and steep--a little scary at times from the back of a horse. I wish I'd been more brave to use the camera from horseback, but I didn't feel like it was exactly safe to have both hands off the reins and saddle horn to take pictures! I only did it once and got the one of Sean (I had to turn around in my saddle!) and my horse's head.

Both Sean & Kent had been to Amethyst before, and Sean kept saying that the terrain didn't look very familiar, the further we went. Eventually we decided we had missed the fork in the trail which we should have taken to the left to get to Amethyst, and instead had been heading in a general right-hand direction up the trail we were on. So we figured we were close to a different lake--I have no idea what it was called. Not Ryder, not McFetter's, but something I'd never heard of. We were at the top of the mountain, in about a foot of snow, and we knew the lake was close.

Here's the lake where we stopped and ate our sandwiches & chips:



You don't see it? Well, neither did we. I was getting pretty anxious to get back home to the kids by that point, and Sean was worrying that we'd not get off the mountain before dark. So we stopped and got off the horses for a quick potty break in the trees and some food. Ooh, the stiff muscles! And we still had to go back down!




We're wearing the latest style in hunter orange, of course!

Back down the trail. The horses knew we were headed back. Everywhere they could when the trail wasn't too rocky or steep, they walked or trotted faster than they had on the way up. Partly due to the downhill slope, I'm sure. It's interesting riding a horse downhill; you have to stand up in the stirrups with your heels down, and lean back--that is, if you don't want to fall off the front of the horse. It can also be scarier than uphill, I think. Ginormous rocks all crowded together so that you can't even figure out where you'd step with your two human feet--on top of a horse that has not just two, but FOUR feet to figure out--with you on top! One scary time in the middle of huge rocks, my horse went down. Yep, that's right, on all four knees. My feet came out of the stirrups, and I yelled in a panic, "We're down!" My feet were touching rock on both sides of Lady. Kent said, "It's OK, just stay there," and Lady stood right up and kept picking her way through the boulders.

Another time when we were going what Kent calls a foxtrot gait, which is kind of a trotting speed, downhill, poor Lady stumbled with both front feet. A little nerve wracking to feel the front end of the horse suddenly lurch down! Poor girl; I'm sure her old bones were getting tired by then. But she got up and kept going.

Sean had quite a day trying to convince Belle who was boss. She tried going her own way up the trail all day long, not to mention going the hard way through bogs & streams. She turned all the way around a couple of times while waiting for Laddie and Lady to cross the streams (in places we walked right through streams halfway up to the horses' knees). Belle needed to be in the rear because she had a tendency to kick other horses. One time, though, she came up too close to Laddie, who shied and kicked at Belle.

We made much better time downhill. We got back to the truck just after 6:00, and Sean & I picked up our own car in Kamas around 7:00.

What an adventure! Definitely a day we won't forget. Beautiful scenery, more time than I've ever spent on horseback in one sitting, and just an overall great day. My rear end won't forget that trip for awhile either--I wonder how many days till I stop hurting? But it was an awesome anniversary trip!