Dear Ashley,

This is all I told myself when Rodger was about to leave for his mission.

He'll only miss:

2 of my birthdays

2 Halloweens

2 Thanksgivings

2 Christmas'

2 New Years

2 Valentines Days

2 4th of July's

2 of his birthdays

2 seasons of Fall (the seasons go by fast)

2 seasons of Winter (except this one because it's my least favorite)

2 seasons of Spring

2 seasons of Summer

This is nothing....he'll be home in no time.

And I was right, Rodg Bear only missed 1 of my birthdays:)

Simply because he left the day before it.

Rodger and I are here for you Ashley....everyday.  Let's be The 3 Amigos for 2 years.

We love you!

Cole's Farewell Party

Cole leaves for the MTC on Wednesday June 3rd.  FYI-he did a fantastic job on Sunday at his Farewell.  He cried like a little baby, haha, but did so well.  Anyways we wanted to have a party for him before he left.  We started off boating.  We went yesterday late afternoon.  My dad just got a new boat and it's so much fun!

Pineview is beautiful

Lando and Linds

Rodg and I

Father

Cole & Ash

Rodger's butt as he is swinging from a rope swing

Ashley skiing

Cole skiing

Landon wakeboarding

My cute captain

Later that night we went to my moms house for dinner and games.

Guess who was in charge of the games?  Of course, ME!

This is memory.  It was Bangkok, Thailand Style.  I let him keep all the memory matches.  I told him he can play it with his missionary friends.  Ha, everyone made fun of me.  Cole said he'll play it with every companion he gets...uh huh.

Here are some examples of what I put on the cards:

ผู้สอนศาสนา

Missionary

ส้วม

bathroom

A picture of the city in Bangkok

The other game was my Mashmellow game.  I had a quiz made up for Cole about Bangkok, Thailand and let's just say he will be learning A LOT when he is there.  He didn't know much about the place.  But I should give him credit because he knew some answers.

My favorite question was who will miss you the most out of the Bennett/Jessop/Covington family?

A. Ashley

B. Annie

C. Joan

D. Isaac

Of course the answer was Ashley and that is what he answered.  Isaac yells out, "No, but I'm going to miss Cole the most.  I really am"  It was cute.

Cole gave Ashley this picture for her bedroom.  What a sweetheart.

We sure are going to miss you Cole.  Within the last few months Rodger, me, Ash, and Cole have been hanging out quite a bit.  Ashley and Cole have been together for I believe over 2 years.  It wasn't until recently that we have been hanging out and we've gotten to know Cole a little bit more and he's more open around us.  I wish we started that earlier because now look what's happening...he's leaving.  Anyways I'm glad we have gotten to know him because he really is a good guy.

You'll do great in Thailand.  Like I said in my card, take one day at a time.

He told Ashley last night after the party, "I really like your family."

Well DUH, who doesn't?

But we're so glad you do.

6th Softball Game

12-21

No Comment....other than we lost and we totally should have won.

SYTYCD

I love it!

What's even better news:

 It gets even better than this.

I loved Mr. Umbrella Guy.

What a sweetheart.

(Those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's the TV Show:

So You Think You Can Dance)

Button, Button, Who's Got A Buttons

I sure do! Oh today is Butts (aka Chels')Birthday! She is 24 and she's an old fart, but I'm right behind her. I just want to say a few things I love about Chelsea and some of the great things we've done in life as sisters and best friends:

I know your eyes are half closed, but you still look cute:)

• We always used to say the best time in our lives was when I was 2 and she was 4. Simply because it was just Chelsea and I. No Ash and Linds. (I think now we've changed our minds, we love our 2 little sisters)

• We would dress the same all the time. People thought we were twins.


• She would support me and wear a patch on her eye too.


• Our Clubs we came up with. We used to steal my moms Tampon box (and hide it in our club, which would be our closet) and read the instructions and look at the pictures and get so confused. Hilarious. Also the twisty ties you get from Zip Lock Bags, we would use those to rip off every time we went into our club. It was our tally of how much we went to our club. We would also get wrapping paper rolls and peak through the hole to see who was coming. Oh, the good old days where nothing mattered.

• She would play work with me.  I loved playing work, school, doctor, dentist, etc.  We had some great stores.  I think some of my favorite things we made up was a movie theatre and an airport.  Remember Butts, remember?  So great.

• The day we came up with the names Butts and Buttons. I couldn't tell you how we did, we just did, and it's stuck with us to this day.


• Our Troll collection. It was mostly Chelsea's but I loved playing with them too.


• Our Tree House. It was beautiful. We had an open field in our backyard and one day we found a Tree House. The boys who built it said we could have it. We fixed it up. We spent SO many Summer days at that place. It was awesome. One day we were walking to it and some mean boys had hammers and were tearing it down. We ran home to tell our dad and he came with us and tried to have the boys stop. We were bawling. They wouldn't stop and our dream was demolished. It kinda makes me cry just thinking about it now.


• We used to sleep together most every night. When we couldn't fall asleep we would play this game. It was called Moving Statues. One person would lay flat and be completely loose. The other would move our body and we would have to guess what they were trying to make us do. Another game would we do was tickle each others backs. Interesting.....I know.


• The time we were riding our bikes to my friend Abbie's house. Buttons fell and landed in tar. I felt bad but it was hilarious.

• When we cleaned out our playroom.  It was a great memory.  We made it so neat and clean.  One thing I remember is we found red lipstick and put it on while taking beautiful pictures of ourselves.  I wish I had a copy of one:)

• The movies we would make.  We would get laughing so hard at making commercials, re-acting TV shows, being News Casters, Weather Women, music videos, etc.  I remember one time in particular it was late at night and we were in the middle of filming a commercial about a toy for children where it makes you jump really high.  We were being too loud.  My dad called down on the intercom and was telling us to be quiet.  Chelsea was yelling back at him, "Dad we're in the middle of a commercial."  She was freaking out.  I need to go dig through our videos and watch that one again, it was hilarious.


• The many rides together in our Go-Cart. On one particular Sunday we really wanted to go riding in it. My mom finally gave in but said something like, "If you think Jesus would like you to ride it on Sunday, then you can." We were like, "He would, fine." So we went outside and rode it once around the block and pulled right back into our driveway. We were such good girls.

There are a ton of more stories to tell about Buttons, but those are a few of my favorites. We've had some good and bad times. We've been best friends & enemies. I wouldn't change our life together for anything. I love Chels so much and wish you a Happy 24th Birthday.  You deserve it.

CAL-I-FORN-IA

After the wedding we flew back to California with Cindy and her boyfriend Randy.  They were kind enough to want our company.  It was a lot of fun.  We were there Thursday through Monday.  Currently Randy and Cindy are living on his Yacht.  It's extremely nice.  I'm still kinda rocking today because of being on a boat.  They live in Discovery Bay.  We hung out there for a few days and then sailed on boat to San Francisco.

Can you tell my husband is so sick of pictures?  Memories babe, memories.

Our home for the next few days.

Our circle bed.  I've always wanted to sleep on one of these:)

This is what we woke up to every morning.  Tons of houses against the Delta.

Good morning

This was Rodger freaking out because there was a spider.

Getting ready to jump off the boat.

This is Randy bare footing.  It was really neat to see.

Taking off to San Francisco.

Oh how we love each other

My bestest friend.

The Golden Gate Bridge.

We went to a Giants game.  They won 2-0.  We didn't have great seats but the view was so worth it.

Imagine this:  Inside Mr. Coke Bottle is a slide.  I SOOOOO wanted to go.

The Bay Bridge

Walking around San Francisco.

Rodger, me, Justin, RJ, and Randy.

The 2 boys are Randy's sons.

Oh the lazy seals.  They crack me up.

Such a cute picture.

Us "children" went to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.  This is the largest man ever drafted.  It cracked me up.

This is myself trying to show that I CAN DO THIS.  Obviously the flash was in the way.

Can you?

Goodbye San Francisco.

We had such a good time.  Thanks for putting up with us.  Again soon, we promise.

***

5th Softball Game

We lost.

Shoot

10-11