virgil w. slade....

my grandpa slade passed away this last friday, and sadly i am unable to attend the funeral.  but i thought it would still be fun and nice to share some of my memories of him and things that i have learned of him
throughout my life.  i will admit i may have some facts terribly wrong... but this is how i remember things... so sorry if they are incorrect.

he was born in colorado... and his family was very poor.  so poor he didn't even have shoes.  he served in world war II in the army air corps and his plane was shot down over enemy territory and they managed to survive 2 weeks behind enemy lines.  he met my grandma soon after the war and they got married.  when i was getting married i asked grandma if i could have a copy of their wedding photo and she said they didn't have any.  they were too poor, but i did manage to find this cute pic of them from the first year of their marriage.  he loved her so much... they often kissed and held hands in public.  always supported each other.

grandpa was an incredibly hard worker... he did construction and other business ventures including kentucky fried chicken! and yes we did eat kfc at many family gatherings... speaking of food... grandpa made the best bean dip too.  he'd have it all heated up in the little green (or orange??) crockpot.  (random memory). 

mell, virgil, and my dad kelly

mell and kelly

family was always really important.  we had family reunions with grandpa and all his siblings every 2 years.  it was always fun and i actually got to know a few second cousins really well... and got to spend time with my first cousins.

grandpa built a cabin up in brian head, ut.  it was a beautiful log cabin with big windows and a giant black poof ( a giant love sac).  you could easily fit 10 little kids... this was another fun time to spend with the family!

we also had just virgil slade reunions every 4 years or so at lake powell.  we'd get 3 or 4 house boats and stay on the lake for a whole week.  my dad says growing up they spent a lot of time out on lake mead... water skiing and boating.... it was fun to carry on this tradition into the next generation.

when they built the LDS temple in las vegas, he was called to be in that first presidency.  we got to go through the temple open house as a whole family.... i remember putting these little booties over my shoes so we wouldn't get the perfectly clean carpet dirty. 

since he was in that first presidency he was also a sealer and could seal people (marry them) for time and all eternity.  he sealed many members of the family.  when he married my brother sam and his wife meesha, he teased them that their first kiss as husband and wife wasn't long enough... so when my sister emily and her husband greg got married... they practiced their first kiss so grandpa wouldn't tell them to try again... and they did pretty good... so when i got married 3 months later i told chris not to pull away from the kiss... i would pull away when i thought it was long enough.... i held it so long people started to giggle and so i pulled away and grandpa just smiled and said "that was good".  haha i love that he was able to marry chris and i.  i believe we may have been the last couple he got to marry.  

before i met chris and got married i would go with the singles ward once a month to do a sealing session at the temple... and since grandpa was the sealer for our stake... he was the one doing them.  the first time i showed up he smiled and told me to write my name on the paper... and then when everyone was there he was checking to make sure he could pronounce everyones last name.  he read "slade" and his head quickly shot up in surprise... and he was like "oh marilyn! didn't even recognize you!"  haha it was such a neat experience for me to go do the work with my grandpa.  he had the words down so well, and you could just hear the rhythm in his speech.  

grandpa and grandma were great at serving... they served 3 temple missions for the church.  the first to new zealand, the second to chicago, and the last to nauvoo, il.  

since they lived in vegas like we did they came to a lot of important events.  anytime a brother was advancing in the priesthood, when we got baptized, birthdays, baby blessings... anything.  it was really special to have both of my grandfathers in the circle when we blessed daniel back in may.  

my baptism

i have no idea what we are doing in the following pictures... nativity for something... maybe just our own little family party... not sure... but don;t we look good in our costumes.

we had a little bbq to celebrate chris' graduation from dental school and daniel's baby blessing... grandma and grandpa both came.. and i was walking around taking pics...and everyone else at the table had made silly faces and so grandma made this silly face, and grandpa just smiled.... too cute right?

he was a great man! hard working, faithful, serving, loving.  always greeted the grandkids with a smile and said "hello marilyn" (or whatever your name was)  always in the same tone.  we will miss him terribly, but he is off now to heaven with heavenly father... an awesome place to be.

krista, grandpa, me (marilyn)

my dad wrote his obituary.... here it is:

speaks perfectly to the kind of man he was.  i so sad i can't be at the funeral thursday.  love you grandpa! see you on the other side!

7 months...

yep!! he's 7 months!!! little man has gotten so big!!

height: 27 3/4 inches (78th percentile)
weight: 15.8 pounds (6th percentile)

still super tall and skinny.  our new doctor seemed concerned for a minute till i explained he's been this way the whole time and actually has improved as his weight last time was 4th percentile. haha

he is learning new things all the time!

- everything is still going straight to the mouth.
- we have teeth!!! the 2 bottom ones popped up together this month!  they are so cute but sharp and hurt if he clamps down hard enough!!

- since he has teeth we have also started brushing them every night before bed.  he loves it and lets us do it all we want.  he's a good boy :)

- he is getting better all the time at sitting up by himself especially if we put the boppy around him.

- he still can't quite roll from front to back to he gets mad when he gets stuck but we are working on it.

- he loves to play in the excersaucer and spins around like crazy playing with all the little toys.

- he is totally sleeping through the night!!! a whole 12 hours!!! 

- he also started taking really long naps in the day so we are down to 2 naps!!! i have to admit i like the schedule change!!

- he is such a good baby we can still easily take him anywhere with us. we are thinking of going to DC in november since he's at such a good age to still travel easily... otherwise it may be a lough tougher! 

- he laughs like crazy!!! sometimes at the funniest things... like sneezing.... or anytime you swing things... like golf clubs and fly swatters.... haha 

- he did so good playing at the beach...he would just sit and look at his book forever... isn't it cute?!

-we switched him into the bigger convertible car seat as it was getting to hard to get him in and out of the infant seat.  he has since discovered himself in the mirror on his seat that i use to see him in the back seat while driving.  he now loves to sit and just talk to the other baby in the mirror (himself)

we are so thrilled with this little guy... he's happy and content to just go where we go and happy while doing it!  plus his hair is just too cute!!! and crazy!  it keeps getting longer and sticking straight up... it is always the first thing everyone comments on.... or says "oh your kid is the one with the spikey hair" haha its awesome.  

- we did have to move up to the next size because he's just so long!!! but the new size is so baggy on him... poor kid is never going to fit in his clothes...  but he's happy and healthy so who cares if his clothes dont fit right???

our first 96 weekend...

this weekend was labor day and we get liberty on all federal/national holidays.  the marines do something even cooler than just giving you monday off... they have what we call a "96" weekend.. instead of having marines rush off friday night and rush home monday afternoon they extend the holiday.  so they have half day on friday and then don't have to check in till 3 pm on tuesday.  pretty good eh??

we decided for this first 96 we wanted to just stay in town and enjoy some of the surrounding area.  friday when chris got home from his half day of work... (or non work since they just had safety training for being careful over the weekend.. haha) we packed up and headed out to the beach on base.  this time we were met by my friend kristen and her family of 3 boys!  chris enjoyed boogie boarding and digging in the sand and burying the boys.  i kept daniel occupied and we even went swiming in the water a couple times!! the water really is so warm!!!! 

on saturday we headed out to another beach and once we realized it was going to be way too busy and crowded we headed back over to the beach on base... the weather was perfect all day.  we swam a ton and slept and read books and had an awesome relaxing fun day at the beach!! daniel is also getting so big and so much better at sitting by himself... how cute is this??!!

he was very cute sitting there reading his book and flipping through the pages...

that night we went home and he slept for a good while... but was struggling since we had switched out car seats to the bigger one and we didn't have it at quite the right angle so his poor little head was drooped forward really bad... woops! sorry bud!

sunday we enjoyed going to church and then having a really lazy sunday afternoon.  monday morning we packed up a few things and headed out to emerald isle which is an hour away from us...its this awesome skinny strip of land right out on the ocean. we took this cool tall bridge to get over there

 we first went to the neat pine knoll shores aquarium... they had all sorts of fish and animals including a few penguins.  our favorite was the river otters.  they would jump in and out of the water so fast it was crazy!! daniel did really well the whole time just looking at everything.

after the aquarium we found a hotel to stay at... a nice hampton inn right by the beach.  we had a nice ocean view room.  we put daniel down for a nap (2 hours!!) and then we headed out to go miniature golfing and to dinner.  golfing was fun.. as it always is for us... we took this cute little train up to the top of the course and worked our way down...

chris played with daniel strapped to the front of him... pretty funny to watch.

the next day we headed to the beach... this time just here on emerald isle.  it was a little cloudy and the waves were scary big!!!! chris still played a i them a little but had to be careful or they would just beat him up!!  the look of these beaches is so east coast... pretty flat with grass along the edges... beautiful scenery.

daniel of course enjoyed reading his own book while dad and i read... so cute! and yes his hair is crazy out of control long and spikey.  looked really neat all greased up with sunscreen.

we then packed up and went home.  daniel slept the whole way home and chris went and checked in at 3.  it was an awesome fun, relaxing 96! nice to have a little vacation as we missed doing anything as a family while chris was gone and then we moved.... 

first time to the beach...

we finally were able to make it to the beach!!! we took off one saturday and headed to the beach on base... they have a section for officers... its a really nice beach and only takes us about 40 min to get to it.  and wow is it pretty!!! that day we went was completely overcast and the water (which is way warmer than pacific ocean!) was still a little too cold for me so we didn't get in too much.  but daniel got to touch the water a bit. then we mostly sat around read books and played with the baby who laid in his little blow up pool/ bed covered in a blanket...

he even kept his shades on really well since the overcast clouds were too bright for him to look at while laying down.. we thought it was cool how well we could see our reflections in his sunglasses so we had to get a pic of that...

we were then joined by our friend shelley whose husband is a resident with chris.  her husband was out of town so she came down and met us with her little baby davis.  we just sat and chatted and enjoyed the scenery.  it was an awesome day!

the rain in spain...

it has rained here almost everyday since we moved here... and i mean rained.  it pours and sprinkles and pours again... with crazy thunder and lightening.  the worst it when it happens in the middle of the night... thunder scares me half to death and then the lightening is like a strobe light outside my window... no fun!  which is fun are all the little creatures that seek shelter on our front porch. this little frog joined us the other day....

once the rain stops you can hear the frogs singing away out in the backyard... there are hundreds of them... so crazy!

open wide!!!

little man loves to eat!!! the second you put the bib on him he is fussy and whining if you don't feed him soon!!! he's also really great at opening wide... and i mean wide....

i currently make a huge bowl of oatmeal and add one jar of food either fruit or vegetable to it... he eats that twice a day... he's hungry and loves to eat! haha its a work out just shoveling it in his mouth fast enough.

dental battalion 100 birthday ball...

military life so far isn't so bad... we have parties and other activities that come around often.  sometimes chris goes to work in in regular civilian clothes, sometimes in his pt clothes (physical training), and sometimes in his marpat.... as seen here... 

he's very scary.  haha  but in august we got all dressed up and fancy for the dental battalion 100 birthday celebration ball.  i frantically bought a dress when we first got here knowing we had this coming up.  i got lucky and found this one for $45 bucks! not bad eh?? chris put on his summer dress whites... along with his mini medals they wear for fancy occasions... aren't they cute. haha we dropped little man off at the cdc (child development center) where they were providing free child care. it was our first time leaving him with a stranger or anyone other then my mom.  it was scary and exciting but we all walked away with no tears.  daniel was un phased.  

we arrived to the ball in time for cocktail hour and i got a diet coke :)  then we headed into one of the ball rooms for a presentation... it included a brief history of dental battalion and the coolest part they shared the story of the bombing that took place in beirut 30 years ago which killed 270 us marines.  when the bomb went off, immediately 2 dentists ran over from the building next door and immediately  began triage on everyone they saw.  it was pretty amazing what these two dentists did in taking charge of the situation.  they had both dentists here at our ball and honored them with some awards and other things. they were touched and honored... they hadn't seen each other in a long time and never really talk about what happened. the bombing was a huge blow to the city of jacksonville as this is a huge marine base and most of the marines killed were from here.  way sad.  

after the presentation we headed over into the other room where we had dinner and toasts and cake.  we sat at a table with 2 of the other residents, the dransfield family, and the reed family.  we know ebony from dental school in las vegas and her husband is always a hoot.  and the dransfield family has been really fun to get to know and we get to see them at church all the time too.  we also saw my new friend kristen and her husband and had some good laughs... including the picture with the older dentist below... he's apparently always the life of the party.. haha

the navy has all these traditions and ceremonial things they do the whole night... they have a prayer said by the chaplan and toasts are said to everything... navy, army, airforce, marines, etc... and "their wives and sweethearts... may they never meet"  haha... and then the cake cutting ceremony... they even had people on cake duty... that had to ceremoniously walk the cake to the front.  then the oldest dentist and the youngest dentist cut the cake together... the old dentist tells the younger one how to cut it... haha our friend sam was the young dentist so we had a good laugh watching the whole thing. and yes... they cut the cake with a sword.  

the whole night was interesting and fun and we had a good time... picked up little man who was sleeping when we got there and slept the whole way home...