Busby Family Reunion 2013

We recently were able to go to a family reunion on my Mom's side that had all of her siblings there to honor my grandma, who is turning 85 this year, and life of my grandpa. It was a blast! Each family wore a different color to represent who they belonged to so we could tell which family was which out of the 100 people that were there. It was a brilliant idea!

Our family was assigned blue so of course we wore our BYU blue shirts :)  And because my grandma's last name is Busby we put bee stickers on for "buzz-bee"....get it? Some people were more resistant than others and didn't want to wear a Busby sticker, so they got what was coming to them for their bad attitude...

We played fun games in the morning like volleyball and softball. Then we headed to the nearby church for lunch and then each of the siblings introduced their family and said one thing they remembered about my Grandma and Grandpa. This was one of my favorite parts because I enjoyed learning more about two of my favorite people in the whole world. Because our family is so big, it took a couple hours and a few others weren't thrilled at the time it meant they had to hold still and listen...

After getting to know everyone better we played Bingo or Tornado/bump/knock em out/lightning. Next was dinner and then swimming that night. All in all, it was a fantastic day getting to see lots of family that I don't get to see very often with a lot of fun games to help us enjoy our time together.

The reason this family reunion meant so much to me was because of the honor we gave to my Grandma, Christa Lenore Busby .

Growing up she lived with us until I was sixteen and my family moved to Washington. Since then we still spend every Christmas holiday and lots of other time together traveling to Washington. We also love heading to her house for BYU sports games. She is my second Mom and source of strength, wisdom, kindness, and joy in my life. She has gone through so much and is so strong.

Growing up I remember her always being there for me. I would go over to her side of the house and sip lemonade, watch the news, do crossword puzzles, and eat apple slices. I loved looking at her bell collection and chime collection. My grandma's house was full of sweets and treats and I remember she always did the dishes by hand because that's how she grew up doing them. The number one thing I remember is always feeling welcome. I knew I was welcome to come over and welcome to stay and talk and love and be loved. And I have always treasured that. My grandma never did big grand things to show her love, but she was just there, and kind, and interested in us. She is my second mom and one of the greatest influences in my life.

My grandpa, George Busby, died when my mom was only 13 years old, so I never have been able to meet him. But I have heard stories about what kind of a man he was.

Most recently at the family reunion I learned a lot more about that man. I learned that my love of horses comes from him. I learned that he most wanted his family to know that he is a man of God and that he was sent an angel for a wife. I learned that many people loved him and respected him as a Bishop, Stake President, and leader in the church.

I already knew that my grandpa was a softball legend, but I didn't realize that it was true so late in his life (into his 50's) and what it truly meant for him to be such a fast-pitch legend. It renewed my interest in fast-pitch softball and in learning about how great of a pitcher that my Grandpa was.

If you notice, this is President Benson pictured with my grandpa. My grandpa traveled to Utah from California multiple times in church softball tournaments and he was such an amazing pitcher (top ten in US) that was often recognized for his success.

Even though I don't know my Grandpa Busby personally, I have felt his presence a lot in my life. I have felt him watching over and protecting me. I don't know if it's because of my close relationship to my Grandma, but I know that he's there helping and cheering me on. I can't wait to meet him some day and I loved learning more about him.

I also never was able to meet two of my aunts, Penny and Kari, because they died in a car accident as teenagers when my mom was only five.

I was actually named after Kari, only with the Swedish pronunciation. We talked a little bit about my aunts as well and it was nice to feel their presence with us that day too. I've always been excited to meet them in the here-after and get to develop a relationship with them.

Soon when I get the picture of everyone that was there, I will post it here so you can see our big great family. It was just a nice day to feel the eternal bonds of love that we have as a family for each other.  Hopefully we can make these reunions more of a regular thing because, really, family and the Gospel is what life is really about.

Fire Work Baby

Recently I got my first smartphone and subsequently was able to join many of the fun apps floating around. One of my new favorites is Instagram. On Instagram you get to pick a username to represent you and I always have the hardest time with this. I want something fun to represent me but not too crazy, or boring... like just my name (not saying there's anything wrong with that, I just wanted something more fun). So after playing around with a few ideas I finally settled on kari7fireworkbaby. My husband thinks it's silly, other family thinks it's way too long, and others think it's too teenager-y. But I like it. After all, it says my name so you can identify who I am, it has the month of my birthday to break things up, and then something fun to represent me.

Because I was born on the Fourth of July people. Coolest birthday ever.

This year my birthday was pretty fantastic. My sister came the night before and stayed over. First thing, we woke up and went to our ward's pancake breakfast. The weather was beautiful and it was great to sit and eat and talk We also found the most adorable kitten. I wanted to keep it for forever.

After we enjoyed breakfast, I skyped with my family and opened presents.

I got some pretty great stuff, including, and in no particular order: Stadium of Fire tickets, a foot thing that gets off all the dead skin, Utah chocolate truffles, flowers, a new Wii (ours broke), new Wii games, and lots of love. As you can tell I was completely, completely spoiled this year.

After our chat session we hopped off to lunch with Brigham's side at Pizza Pie Cafe. It was pretty fantastically delicious. Especially the dessert pizza. Can't get enough of that stuff.

Brigham and I were also pretty matchy-matchy that day. Adorable huh? We're so patriotic.

After lunch we crashed from so much good company and good food and napped at home. After our recovery period we left the babies at home with Grandma Sue and left for Provo and the Stadium of Fire. I didn't think I would mind leaving the kids since I spent all day with them, but I was tinged with sadness not to spend the night with them.

However, it wasn't enough to keep me back and we had a great night! First we killed some time with french-fries and ice cream at the BYU Creamery. Yes, that day we ate like obese people. Then we found our seats at the stadium.

I had asked for tickets to the Stadium of Fire for my birthday because it's hard for me to be away from my family and I didn't want to mope around all night with them in Seattle and me here. Usually I'm in Washington for the summer, but this year I knew I wouldn't be so I took preventative measures. My mom got us FANTASTIC tickets. We were even in the section that had backs on the chairs. And Kelly Clarkson was going to be there! Hello, I LOVE her. And i wanted to see Cirque Du Soleil as well. Carly Rae Jepsen- eh didn't care either way.

And the Stadium of Fire did not disappoint. We had fun dancers to watch.

Men skydiving with parachutes and flags.

A stadium full of people waving their cell phones like lighters to the music (It looked really cool).

Carly Rae Jepsen was much better than I expected. She was really cute and fun to listen to. I thought of Lydia the whole time because she would have loved it!

Cirque Du Soliel was amazing to watch - they do some crazy stuff. I didn't want it to end. I would definitely travel to Vegas to see one of their shows.

And of course Kelly Clarkson delivered quite the show. That women has a set of pipes. Such power song after song after song. And live she sounds just like her soundtracks (sometimes I think even better); they must not have to do much editing in the studio. She's so down to earth and fills her songs with emotion - I could have listened to her all night. I'm a huge fan if you couldn't tell.

After Kelly we had a fantastic, patriotic firework show.

It was just as great as I hoped it would be. My whole birthday was nice, spent with family, food, and fireworks. Perfect :)

Not only did I love July 4th for my birthday, but I love Independence Day as well. It's hard for me to not get emotional during the Star Spangled Banner, or fireworks, or anytime that I'm thinking about this country, all I have, and those that have paved the way and sacrificed so I can have all that I do. I love honoring it every year.

So Happy Birthday America, we're both firework babies and this year's celebration was a great way to honor all that.

Summer Has Started

And this is how the Tappana household knows:

Evenings at the park with cousins.

And more cousin fun at a summer wedding.

Late night family walks where we accidentally wear matching shirts.

Weekends spent at the pool with Aunt Sadie.

Not making it through lunch because we're so exhausted from having so much fun at the pool.

Frosties at Wendy's (the new waffle cone is DELICIOUS).

Shorter haircuts to keep cool.

Throwing balls and blowing dandelions outside.

And of course fireworks at Taylorsville Dayzz always lets us know that summer is in full swing!

Hooray for more fireworks and fun summer activities to come!