Happy 50th Oma and Opa!!

My sweet Oma and Opa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. What a great experience to be here for! The whole family was able to get together for it. We had a family dinner at the Grand America. It was so fun. We had the "Anniversary Game" played throughout the night where each of the 6 son's got up and asked different questions about their life from when they met to where we are now with our family in life. It was so fun, some of the questions were down right hilarious and some of you know, when you're at a gathering with Vielstich's (especially ALL of the brothers) it is nothing but laughter! We had lots of singing and a great slide show that was put together that had pictures from when they were babies up until just a couple months ago. We also got a family portriat done which turned out great! Thanks again David... you did great, as usual!

Oma and Opa have raised 6 boys and now have 23 grand kids (including one that's up in Heaven) and 1 and a half great grand babies. And 3 grand son in laws.

This is a pretty cool break down that they are pretty proud of... All 6 boys are eagle scouts, all 6 boys served missions, all 6 boys graduated college, all 6 boys married in the temple and all 6 boys raising families of their own.

Both Oma and Opa came over from Germany when they were in their teens. They have the most amazing and scary stories from sneaking out of Germany with nothing and stories from the war's. They are still so happily in love. They are a great example to Preston and I on a loving, long, honest relationship. And man, do they have the craziest stories of when my dad and uncles were little... what do you expect? 6 boys?! Wow..

So Friday night was great and Saturday they had an open house for more friends and family who weren't at the dinner. It was so fun to see a lot of their friends that we hear about all the time. And as we were casually eating food and hanging out.. who walks in? President Uchtdorf and his wife. Oma knew President Uchtdorf when they were little in Germany. They were even in the same primary class. And they've kept in touch throught the years. It was such a cool experience to meet him. His accent is even cooler in real life haha. He was so down to earth and him and his wife hung out with everybody for about an hour. What a cool treat to have somebody like him show up at your house for your anniversary! He was so happy and so willing to meet everybody. His wife is such a classy and sweet lady! I of course didn't have my picture for Saturday.. didn't think to grab it cause I took so many pictures the previous night. But it was very fun!

Here are pictures of Friday!

cute girls! Me, Kenna, Aunt Annette, Kels, Heidi, Nichole and CadeSingingPlaying the "Anniversary Game" My dad was the Mc for the night. Grand kids singingOpa!Nichole and I singing a song from Oma to OpaLili gave us a performance from her Flute!The coolest Chandalier I've ever seen. I want one!


Well, there ya have it!

I'm so happy for Oma and Opa. They're just great people and they are such great examples of the gospel and great family. They are so fun and always so welcoming. They deserve this celebration! Can't wait until Preston and I get to our 50th!

Summer is here!!!

Remember when Summer was EVERYTHING when you were a kid? The day's of sleeping in, playing outside ALL day, and not having a care in the world? Well, even though Preston and I go to work mon-fri and Preston is in school most nights... It's stilll... Summer! I am excited. I love the summer holidays, the BBQ's all the camping we can get in. The warm summer nights. The late night ice cream or slurpee run, being porch monkeys, swimming. I guess for a full time worker and a husband who is in school and work full time, we have some pretty fun summers! We're planning lots of hiking and camping and bbq's and have a day planned for Raging Waters (thanks to mom for working for Jet Blue and getting us in for next to nothing with a free lunch included!). We're headed to Bear Lake in a couple weeks for a weekend of camping, swimming and the most awesome couple ever... Shawn and Katie. And you know what else is fantastic? It hasn't hit 90 degrees yet! Even though I hope it hits it by the time we go to Bear Lake! We have lots of fun things planned! To start it off... We had a party to send off my cousin Josh who is now at boot camp for the Marines!!! I can't believe it. I'll miss him like crazy. We have gotten really close the last couple of years. Before he was just the annoying little cousin who ran around with my brother bugging the heck out of us girls! But I love Joshy! And he'll do great. I can't wait to hear from him! I'm sure he's getting yelled at and had probably done hundreds of push up's by now! Here are a few pictures of his going away party! He'll be doing 13 weeks of boot camp. He's stationed in California.Here I am with Josh!!
The annoying boys who would drive us CRAZY! These two have been best little buds pretty much their whole life! I love these two SO much!
Me and my baby Cade!
Jessica and myself with a some weirdo in the background!
Nichole and I. Like Josh and Chris, we have been best buds pretty much our whole lives! But we never annoyed our brothers. Right?? haha

Well, as it's getting darker by the minute outside and the thunder is going crazy and the wind is going to blow out my windows. And it's starting to down pour.... another thing I love about summers. The summer rain storms! I'm off to my couch to either read a book or watch a show.

Cabin Time!

Looking down on Wall Street


Camp Fire Time!!






Lili and I. The only girls on the trip!

The boys
We found some wild life... a John Deer!
Dad getting close to the wild life.

The baby John Deer!

The flock of Deer's

Can you see Queen Victoria?

Jacob and Chris

Ready to hike!
Beautiful Bryce

Lili was our Pyro for the trip!
Attempting to wash dishes leads into a towel fight!
Preston and I went to our family cabin with my Dad, Chris, Elisa and Jacob! Unfortunately Mom, Heidi, Chase and Cadence didn't make it down and we missed them but we still had a blast. We mostly relaxed but also went into Bryce Canyon and did some hiking!

Update!

Alright, I'm not going to type a whole lot because I have a bunch of pictures. But they will update everybody on the last couple of months. Enjoy!

Easter Time!
Egg stuck in the rain gutter!
Oma and Opa! I love this picture!

At the in-laws on Easter Sunday!
Jess has quite the style! What a hottie! =)
Horsies! My in laws have I think... 5 horses? This black one is Maggie.. she was just a baby last Easter. Jess is petting her horse Socks.
Preston over looking his old stompin grounds.
The newest addition to the Rhoades house hold... or should I say stalls. Baby Zip! He's a stud! (well, actually a colt... hardy har har! That was funny.. Laugh!) Check out his bright blue eyes.
Baby Zip and proud momma Smarty.

Easter egg hunt at my parents. The Easter Bunny goes ALL out and puts eggs in the fountain, puts baskets in a plastic bucket and buries it in the dirt and even IN the pond. And whose does he seem to hide the hardest... MINE! But all is well, I always find them! I have to get down and dirty and sometimes a little wet but... I find my easter eggs and candy!
My puppy. He's so old, but still my puppy!
STILL searching.

FOUND ONE!

We celebrated dad's birthday! The older in age he gets, the younger at heart and mind he gets... it's true! Here he is opening his gift from my mom. It was a smoker so he can smoke any thing he wants... that means JERKY!
The birthday boy himself. WE LOVE YOU DAD!
See what I mean about getting younger? He's attempting to ride my brothers long board. What man do you know that owns a disneyland pass and lives in UTAH.. that'd be my dad. And who can play outside with the kids like he's their age. He's one awesome dad if you ask me!
Long boarding it up... And I didn't break any bones!
I have some mad skills on my sisters bike.







A week after my dad's birthday, we celebrated my sweet mom's birthday! My dad took her to Vegas over night, they few over early Wednesday and returned Thursday night on her birthday. Preston and I stayed with Chris and Lili and got a mini birthday party together for my mom. And a special guest was there. Can you guess who it was?
If you guessed Fabio, you were correct!

Lili's dream man!

We love you SO MUCH MOM!!! Thank you for everything. We are the luckiest to have you! What wife could say her husband flies to Disneyland just for a day sometimes to see Mickey and ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Yup, mom sure is cool to get my dad flights pretty much whenever he wants to go wherever, whenever. You're a fantastic wife and mom!! WE LOVE YOU!

K, so these next pictures are pretty funny. A guy at work, Chris, he went to Mexico for about a week and a half to visit his in-laws. A week after the swine flu madness broke out. So what did we do? We quarantined his desk for when he came back to work. He thought it was hilarious and the whole company got a good kick out of it!

Jaime even made masks out of rubber bands and paper towels for the plastic pigs.

And then, I turned 23... And I still feel the same! I got spoiled on my birthday. I get to work with my desk all decorated with confetti and streamers everywhere and my good friend Shauna who is in my department brought in bagels for us. I then took half the day off work and got to my car and noticed somebody decorated my car. I think it was one of my co-workers but they're not spillin the beans, so whoever that was and if you happen to read this... Thanks! My parents then took me to lunch to Pat's BBQ. It was delish and I got my presents from them! Thanks again mom and dad! Then I got to relax at home and hang out with Preston and what did he get me? An Ipod Touch... That was the last thing I'd think of getting. I've been wanting one and I LOVE it! It is so cool and can do pretty much anything! I'm addicted to it! Preston also took me out to dinner the night of my Birthday. The next day, I got taken to dinner my my awesome cousins Nichole and Kelsey. Heidi was going to come but she had to work... bummer! Kels also gave me a pedicure haha. It was fantastic!! The Friday after my birthday my in-laws took me to dinner. Thank you to everybody for a great birthday. The calls, the cards, the gifts and meals and birthday wishes! You all are the BEST!
Enjoying my pedi from Kels!
Nichole!!

Alright, this is officially my longest post EVER! That's what happens when I'm a major slacker and don't update for a while. If you made it this far. Congratulations! I'm off now to watch some bball with the hubby! And I'm getting off of this dang computer and onto the comfy couch to probably fall asleep just like this..