Memorial Day: Daniels

John Edwin Maycock & Alice Mercy Marshall

As Randy mentioned in the previous post, we wanted to start a new tradition for Memorial Day. He came up with the plan, I just copied for my family. My family memorial day was scheduled for Saturday, and Randy was glad that I was going to have to go first--I was the guinea pig. I chose my great grandparents (my mom's dad's parents) John Edwin Maycock and Alice Mercy Marshall. I knew that they had both died young because my grandpa was raised by someone else, but other than that I had little information on them.

One of the neat things about my great-grandpa was that he served a mission to the Eastern States, and we have his two missionary journals. My mom has one, but the other one was with a cousin. I borrowed it from him and was able to share some of John's experiences from his mission. He was called on a mission two months after he was married which I think is very unfair. Alice Mercy Marshall died when she was 36. She left her husband and two young sons. John Edwin Maycock never really got over her death. He was depressed and sick for the next 4 years until he passed away at the age of 45. My grandpa and his older brother were raised by his cousin, Lizzie Maycock Jones,  who John Edwin Maycock had taken in after her dad (his brother) had died. Quite the craziness!

My sister and mom are connected to people via Facebook (which I am not), so they were able to invite the more extended family. My mom's two living sisters came and some of my cousins. My sister had a baby the day before so she couldn't make it even though she is the family history buff in the family. But one of my other sisters made the trip down from Idaho. I made little bio cards with a picture on the front for everyone to keep, and lots of cookies. We spent a big part of the time walking down the row and looking at all the Maycocks...there are a lot of them buried by each other.

It was really like a mini family reunion. And I learned more about my ancestors that I didn't know. John Edwin was 6'4." I knew he was tall, but not that tall. My cousin has pictures of him that I didn't. It was a great way to connect and be together. This is what family history is all about.

I was so pleased with how well it turned out and I am so excited for next year. I can't decide who to do, but at least I have a year to decide.

Here we are by John Edwin Maycock & Alice Mercy Marshall's grave

We had an awesome turnout!

My mom, her sister Linda, her other sister Bev.
Her brother was going to come, but he had to follow my mom's Uncle Clint home to Idaho (he's 98).
He had randomly showed up that morning to visit the graves.

Memorial Day: Ockey

David and Cappie Ockey at their 50th wedding anniversary.
Floyd Spencer Ockey (my grandpa) is third from the left in the back.

In the last year, we have become interested in family history. Rather than worrying about dates and death certificates, though, Nat and I have been collecting family histories. We enjoy reading these stories that put a name and face to those who came before us. Last year, I even gave a copy of all the histories (nearly 200 pages worth) I'd collected to my family members.  So this year we wanted to start a new tradition for Memorial Day.

Our plan was to choose 1 couple from each of our families, do some research and read some histories, and do a mini-memorial at their gravesite. We would invite anyone who might be interested, make it fun or meaningful in some way, and provide a treat. Honestly, we had no idea how it would turn out.

I was proud of how well our boys did in the cemetery.
They were respectful and had a great time.

I chose David Ockey and Mary Esther Goldsbrough, my dad's grandma and grandpa. I'd never met them (in fact, my Dad's dad died 6 years before I was born), and sadly, I couldn't have named them a year ago. I read through a lot of histories and really got to know them. I made a brief outline of their lives, contacted all my siblings, and copied a few black and white pictures. Along the way my dad and sister helped me obtain a beautiful picture of their family that we'd never seen before. Two new histories even popped up.

I wanted to do something fun for kids because I knew that there would be a bunch there (My sister with 12 kids was the most unwavering in her support of this project). I made a simple crossword puzzle with questions from my outline and got some pink mints, which were David Ockey's favorite, for a prize. Then we started baking cookies.

On Saturday, Natalie celebrated her relative, and people came out of the woodwork! Someone in her family posted it on Facebook and she had cousins show up that she hadn't seen since she was 7! After she had such a smashing success, I cranked my expectations down a notch and just hoped somebody would show up.

Even the adults worked on the crossword puzzles.

When Memorial Day arrived, we drove to the cemetery in Nephi where Dave and Cappie are buried. We got there almost exactly at 10am, later than I wanted, but not quite late. We had a great turnout-- over 25 people! I talked about Dave and Cappie, and even the super-historian in our family confessed to learning a thing or two and shared a few tidbits that she remembered as she is the oldest. Then my Dad spoke and told stories about his grandparents, who died when he was just a boy. Foolishly, I didn't think of recording him until it was too late. We ate cookies, talked for a few minutes, and headed off in our different directions (we hit 5 more cemeteries in Nephi, Moroni, Ephraim, Centerfield and Axtell). It was a great way to celebrate Memorial Day.

Seth considers headstones to be benches.

It was a pretty good turn out.

Many amazing things came out of this experience. First, I was glad for the family support. All of my siblings that live here in Utah had someone from their family attend our little memorial. It was fun to get together and listen to Dad talk about his grandparents. Second, it made Memorial Day meaningful in a way that it never has been (As a child, I drove to a bunch of graves of people I didn't know. As an adult, I got the yard in shape and didn't think about dead people.) I think the best thing to come out of the day, though, was the preparation I put into the day. It was fun and exciting to read and learn about these people. I know them in a way that didn't seem possible. And I think a little part of them is alive in me now. And best of all, our family is super-excited for next Memorial Day!

For my family: here are the memorial notes that I shared with you.

The boys took flowers to Grandma Ockey in Ephraim Cemetery.

Here they are with her memorial.

Seth is quite the cheeser with his frow-frows

This is in Centerfield with Grandma Benson.
We make it a point to clean each grave (mostly of bird poop) while we are there.
Baby wipes do the job.

Dax really pushed us to go down to Sanpete and see Grandma Ockey and Grandma Benson.
It wasn't part of the plan, but how can you say no when he asks?

Mark's End of the Year Activities

Mark had a spring recital last week. He had been working on this song, Toccatina, for a long time. It has a lot of eighth notes so it was a good challenge for him. Here is the video of his performance. I was proud of him for keeping a pretty steady tempo through the song and I love his bow.

This year Mark's Dance Festival was based on the theme "Back to the Future" which was so much fun because they all did old songs like Kung Fu Fighting, Hammer Time, Ice Ice Baby, and Twist and Shout. Mark's first grade classes did the Space Jam Theme (Y'all ready for this!). Mark was super excited and practiced at home lots of times. He really knows the dance. Watch at the end when he finally sees us...so funny!

BYU Adventures

We went to BYU to visit the Botany Pond and the Astrofest for our other blog, but there were a lot of fun pictures of our family that I didn't want to post on the more public site. We had such a fun time visiting some new places on campus. Here are the memories.

The Botany Pond was not around when Randy and I attended,
but we thought it was an amazing addition.

Seth LOVED feeding the ducks.

Mark and Dax had so much fun!

Seth is staring down this duck because she just bit him.
He tried to hand it to her instead of throw it.

Seth and I wore our BYU apparel.

Cute boys!

We are a lot older now, but just as good looking.

This mama duck had a ton of ducklings.

We saw lots of butterflies by these great smelling lilacs.

These three had so much fun launching rockets at the BYU astrofest.

They are all ready to catch their rockets.

Here is a slo-mo movie of us launching rockets at BYU. I had to try it out on my Mother's Day present. But I love that you can see the rockets falling down, and watch Mark in the background trying to catch his--he has a green shirt on. Sorry it's all stretched out--it was filmed on a phone!

Dax's Preschool Graduation

Technically, Dax isn't graduating into Kindergarten. He is graduating into another preschool because we have decided to wait a year before sending our boys to school, but his graduation was still awesome. I will miss his teacher, Miss Tina, next year because she really puts her heart and soul into her preschool.

Dax's graduation was a lot of fun. First, they sang some of their favorite songs. Then they performed a nursery rhyme with a partner, and finally they graduated in cap and gown. Dax said his part without resistance this time and he had so much fun performing. I am proud of how Dax has grown in his confidence this year.

Here are a few favorite pictures from the program and two short videos with highlights from the night.

Dax's Preschool Class

Dxc is all ready to go...I'm not sure that Foster is.

Tooty Ta is a silly song.

I loved their ABC rock song.

Dax and Esther really got into their rockstar roles.

Dax and Kamryn performed Little Miss Muffet together.
This was fun because she is our friend and old neighbor.

Dax graduated!

Thanks Miss Tina!

Another New Photographer

One of the first posts that I ever put on this blog was about Dax taking photos on my camera. Seth has become the next photographer. He loves to take pictures on my cell phone because it is the one feature I can't lock. I am getting a new phone so today I was downloading all the photos off the old one. There were probably about 100 photos and a few videos. I deleted most of them, but here are my top 10 favorite Seth photos!

One of his earliest pictures...sitting on my bed.

I love that you can just barely see his little toes.

Dax loves this picture. He says it's a picture of the backpack.

Seth in the Costco Cart

The carpet between his legs

That's our friend and some yummy mint brownies.

A random cap on the counter.

The computer--Seth's other favorite toy. It's very frustrating.

Helping at Mark's school.

Our friend's little boy.
I didn't even know he found the camera this day.

Just Like Daddy

Mother's Day

I have had a great Mother's Day weekend this year. It all began on Thursday when I went to Dax's preschool for a special mother's day surprise. The kids dressed up and served us a treat. They also performed some songs and told why they loved their mothers. The extra special surprise was that they painted our fingernails. Due to the lack of girls in our house, my boys have never had their fingernails painted and have definitely never painted someone else's. So it was quite an adventure as Dax painted my fingers...no, he really painted my fingers. His teacher just stood by and laughed as it was running down the sides of my fingers. It was a lot of fun! Because Dax used so much nail polish, my nails are actually covered very well, and most of the extra has washed off my skin now. I had a lot of fun spending time just with Dax. He is a real sweetheart.

Dax and mom

Dax singing some Mother's Day songs.

Dax took this picture of me after he painted my nails.

He made me this awesome mug.

He also gave me a back rub at preschool, so Randy had him reenact it.

Mark brought home a sweet note that he wrote for me. He wrote an acrostic poem as part of his letter. I loved it! It said:
Mom is a good cook.
Oh, so beautiful.
Most nice

Mark's letter is on the back of the butterfly!

I had to include a picture of Seth with mom.
Don't you love his cheese face?

On Friday night, my sister and I went to get pedicures. We have been trying to go for a long time, but it was a nice outing and I love my toes!

On Mother's Day, Randy made me french toast (my favorite) and a fancy apple syrup that was very delicious. They bought me 4 dozen beautiful roses. And everyone treated me very kindly. I had to play the organ and speak at church today so not the most relaxing Mother's Day as far as church goes, but it was all worthwhile when Dax ran up while I was playing the postlude and he told me that I did a great job and that I was beautiful before he hurried off to Primary. Seth also came and gave me lots of hugs. I think he missed me sitting with the family today.

My beautiful flowers

I love being a mom. It's hard work, but my boys are such great boys. Mark is so smart and such a great helper. I feel guilty sometimes that I make him run all over the house to get things for me, but he always does it with a smile. Dax is a real sweetheart. He gave me lots of hugs and told me how much he loved me lots of times today. Seth is so much fun. He is at a fun age where he is learning so many new things and he tries so hard to be a big boy. They bring so much joy to my life!

I'm so lucky to have these three!