Brassell House: July 2024

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Nickelmania and other Partridge Favorites

There are a few things my parents are known for with my kids when we come visit:

1- My parents held on to all our toys when we were younger, so the boys disappear into the basement and play with all the retro toys.

2- my mom has a special pillowcase for each child with their name sewn on them and everything. (Cate and Johnny love having their own room.)

3- my dad’s book recommendations. He always has great selections and ideas of what the kids would want to read, and Cate and Johnny will stay up late in their rooms reading every night (I think this trip Cate will have finished an entire 7 book series!) He also watches a movie or two with us.

4- my mom’s cooking. She creates these multi dish meals that that taste amazing. She sets the table beautifully, with treats matching the theme at everyone’s place.

5- nickelamania. As soon as there is a break in my Dad’s schedule we rush over and each of the kids get 5.00 to play arcade games.

6- Macey’s king cones- they are humongous soft serve cones (think 8 inches tall.) The are amazed by this.

7- we go to the saltwater taffy factory and everyone chooses 15 taffy’s in all the odd flavors available.

8- we love all the fun parks close by to my parents and try to hit them up in the mornings and evenings to burn energy.

9- my mom will take us thrifting, and the kids love it. She has incredible taste and a good eye for quality brands and valuable purchases. It is so much fun.

One of favorite tradition when we visit my parents is going to the local nickel arcade. We have so much fun playing the games and earning tickets. I love playing all the old pinball games particularly. Matthew and my dad often are found in the car style games shooting pirates or zombies. William and Johnny competed on every arcade game they played and that was fun. Cate loves the king fu panda game and playing Deal or No Deal with my mom. Emma was absolutely obsessed with the merry- go-round and it was really delightful for me to play with her the whole time.

Pioneer Day in Utah

Every Summer I prioritize a trip to visit family in Utah. This year, we were there for Pioneer Day! Utah hosts many Days of ‘47 celebrations throughout July including rodeos and parades to honor when pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. Back in the late 1970’s, my mom was chosen to be the Days of ‘47 Queen! There is an entire scrapbook of newspaper clippings and pictures of her speaking at firesides and attending all the different events. I think it is such a fun piece of her life story. Have had pioneer ancestry, not to mention belonging to a church that was built upon the sacrifices of pioneers, I really value this holiday. On the 21st, my mom took us to an expo center that had all the floats on display for the big parade. They were truly incredible and my kids were in awe at the workmanship each showed. There were some spiritually themed floats that filled really touched me. There was an entire replica of the Jordan River Temple (where I received my endowment.) Just very massive floats.

Last night on thr 24th, we all went to bed at a decent time, but the fireworks were incredibly loud and unrelenting. I snuck to Johnny’s room and asked if he wanted to watch them out my window. He had a better idea. From his window we could lay across the bed and stick our heads outside and see fireworks on both sides. We excitedly pointed out the beautiful fireworks on boths sides. Suddenly the back yard reflected bright light from fireworks being lit from the front of the house. Johnny and I rushed to my bed room and we flew open the blinds and William joined us, as my parents’ neighbors set off huge Ariel displays. Emma sat up and also watched with us, pointing in excitement toward the sky. It was such a sweet and meaningful memory to me and one I really will cherish to have shared with Johnny and later William and Emma.

Other pictures from the day:

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Destination: Destin

Oh, Florida! You were so good to our family. This summer it was such a treat to meet up with John’s family in Destin for a week.

John and I left Friday to drive three hours to the Sacramento airport. It was the middle of a heat wave and 115 degrees. As luck would have it, our air conditioning stopped working 20 minutes into our drive. Miserable doesn’t even come close to capturing the mood. Emma was sick and wailing majority of the drive as well. We would pull over as much as possible to get cold drinks or ice cream. We were so happy to pull into our hotel room for the night so we could shower and rest. I got our departure time incorrect, thinking our plane left at 6:50 am, when in reality it left at 6:05 am. We were frantically trying to get checked in and bags checked and through TSA. There were limited staff and it was a madhouse. We were in the TSA line and hearing over the intercom “Brassell, party of 7, this is your last call, the gate closes in two minutes.” My heart sunk. There was no way we would get there in time. As kids finished through security, they each took off running toward our gate. Cate put those running legs to use and was the first one to pull up and plead our case to the gate attendants and they told her “if your parents are running we’ll wait.” Sure enough, there I was: holding two bags a baby and pulling a ten year old seeing Cate at the gate and William and Johnny running in from behind. John was held up at security and he had all the boarding passes. By the time I make it to the gate, Cate is sprinting back to security to see if she can help John. Soon enough, he comes barreling down the terminal with the stroller and his carry on. I had mine and Emma’s boarding passes, so the attendant said, “hurry you get on, we’ll make sure your kids are behind you.” I couldn’t help but think “Have you not seen Home Alone!?” It was such a mad rush I just did what I was told and luckily there were many empty seats in the back of the plane so we were able to all sit together. We boarded at 6:04 am, and the plane took off at 6:08am. John and I looked at each other in complete disbelief. We made it. Somehow, after the most stressful hour in the history of my life, we were all safely buckled and headed for our destination. The flight crew was incredibly kind to our family, letting the boys make announcements and pass out snacks to passengers. We really appreciated it.

As soon as we settled into our condo, we hit the lazy river and enjoyed the warm Florida evening.

Sunday

On Sunday we went to the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was testimony meeting and delightful to listen to the testimonies of such devoted disciples. After I deposited my crew to all their Sunday school classes, it was so special to attend gospel doctrine with family.

After church, we drove around and saw the different family history sights and got to hear stories about John III’s upbringing and childhood. This is always a highlight for me. We also were able to visit graves of John Sr, and his wife as well as Gail, John III’s mother.

After dinner and devotional, John, Emma and I snuck down to the beach to watch the waves at night and walk on the sand together.

Monday

Monday we started out at the beach. Because of hurricanes, the waves were some of the wildest and most chaotic I’ve seen. It was beautiful. Emma hated the beach so I headed back to the condo with her. Last minute I decided to hit the lazy River and she was so so so happy. She loved the calm of it, and it was a total highlight for me. John took William, Matthew and Johnny out to crab hunt at night and they were actually able to catch a couple!

Tuesday

We went to Goofy Golf and Whattaburger, which was John IIII’s favorite spot as a boy. John beat everyone at golf and won a shirt from his siblings.

Wednesday

We took two boats to crab island. Island is a little misleading. This piece of land used to be above water and was shaped like a crab, it currently rests about 3 feet under the water surface making it a delightful place to park boats and play in the ocean. Hundreds of boast gather, there are restaurants and gift shops and everything it is a really fun and happening scene! The water is perfect temperature and we had so much fun swimming together. One of the boats had three water pump slides that were a huge hit. We also had a wrestling mat that was so much fun. We drove the boats around the pier and it was beautiful. Destin is so lovely and peaceful. Twice Matthew’s bucket hat flew off and he was so sad, John would turn around and grab the hat for him! He was so sunburned this trip (despite using sunscreen), when given the choice to buy anything for his birthday from his grandparents, that was his choice! He loves that hat! That night at the resort, we found an empty side pool and our whole family went out and swam together. It was soooo much fun. I believe there were 25 of us. Emma jumping in the pool with Daphne was my favorite. The kids had a diving competition as well. John and I made dinner this night, and we grilled chicken with rice. It was a lot of fun cooking with John.

Thursday

We visited Fuddpuckers to look at the alligators. Johnny was selected to be the volunteer that got to hold an alligator during the presentation! Emma was running around pointing to things going “woah!” We also took family pictures this day!

Friday

Matthew’s Birthday. We spent most of the day at the beach. It was so fun to ride the waves into the shore. We made sand castles and body surfed, it was a lot of fun. At one point John left with some of the kids and it was just Matthew and Me, enjoying the beach the two of us (and cousins) on his special day. We got back to the resort and William, Matthew and I hit the lazy River together. It was a lot of fun spending time with my two younger boys, the teens command a lot of attention and I don’t get as much play time as I would like with the younger kids.

I think my favorite parts were staying out swimming every night until 10:30pm when the pools closed. It was just so much fun to be actively having fun nonstop. At the night, the three boys would watch a move as they fell asleep. The adults would all gather over to the other condo and Jordan and Kristen would run out and get us Whataburger at 11, when they start serving breakfast. We’d play banana grams and talk late into the night. One night Brittany and I talked until five in the morning!! Brit and Cate shared a room and watched Reba season 1 throughout the week, and Cate said this was her highlight of the trip. At first I was bummed Cate wasn’t in our condo, but ultimately I think it was all around the best case scenario for her. I am so grateful for the bond she feels with John’s sister, Brittany.