Harvey Hand-Me-Downs

1st Ever Harvey 5K

2010-12-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

Our family participated in the first ever "Harvey 5K Run/Walk" on Thanksgiving morning this year. We woke up nice and early and headed out to Woodward park in Manteca for some fresh air, exercise, and a little competition. The kid's race was first, and consisted of running around the basketball court 3 whole times. All the kids did great! Here are some action shots:

Here are all of the kids together

(Lauren, Foster, Bennett, & Jane all participated in the 5K though)

All the 5K participants this year

After the race, we even held an awards ceremony during Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the awards that were given:

The "Speedy Gonzales" Man Award (for the fastest adult male): Jack Harvey (26:11)

Here's Jack's self portrait while graciously accepting his award:

The "Speedy Gonzales" Woman Award (for the fastest adult female): Jennifer Benson (34:27)
The "Speedy Gonzales" Boy Award: Foster Harvey (27:40)
The "Speedy Gonzales" Girl Award: Lauren Benson (46:00)

The "Old Geezer" Award (for the oldest finisher): Steve Benson (41 years old, 34:27)
The "Small Fry" Award (for the youngest finisher): Jane Harvey (9 years old, 52:16)
The "Craziest Outfit" Award: James Harvey (check out the pic below and you'll remember why)

Recognition also goes out to Kathy, Aunt Janet, and Adam Hutchings for watching the little kids while the rest of the adults participated--we couldn't have done it without you! We had a great time this year and can't wait to do it again (and beat our times) next year! For the record, below are everyone's finish times from this year's race:

1. Jack Harvey (28) 26:11
2. James Harvey (37) 27:35
3. Foster Harvey (13) 27:40
4. Jennifer Benson (38) 34:27
5. Steve Benson (41) 34:27
6. Bennett Harvey (11) 36:56
7. Lisa Hutchings (25) 43:54
8. Cammy Harvey (29) 44:00
9. Lauren Benson (14) 46:00
10. Rebecca Harvey (35) 46:00
11. Jane Harvey (9) 52:16
12. Johanna Ferriera (31) 52:37
13. Anupa Harvey (28) 52:37

Handed down by: Anupa Harvey

Newest Family Member

2010-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

So as you all know Eleanor is here. She was born at 5:35pm. She was 6lbs. 4oz. and 19.5 inches. We love her like crazy and can't wait for everyone to meet her.

Handed down by: Jill

Disneyland

2010-08-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's a little ridiculous how long it's been since anyone posted, so I'm doing it. Here are some pictures from our trip to Disneyland!

Handed down by: Anupa

Birthdays!

2010-02-28T22:39:00.000-08:00

Andersen and Afton turned four years old this year...four!!! Tonight we celebrated the the February birthdays...even for the ones who couldn't make it. :) The kids (and adults too) had a blast celebrating with dinner, presents, cake & ice cream, and a pinata!

I think James was more excited about Costco cake than the kids were. He started cutting the cake before we could even sing to Andersen! :)

We did end up singing though. And here's Andersen blowing out the candles.

Nana's birthday present for the kids this year is their very own blanket that can be tucked into a pocket to double as a pillow too! Above is Afton's Dora blanket, and below is the Curious George blanket for Andersen.

Rebecca could tell Andersen liked the blanket because he brought it to her so she could see it and then tried to stay close to it. Doesn't he look adorable here?

The highlight of the evening for the kids was the pinata. Each took a turn swinging at it, while the adults tried to keep the peace.

Jeff finally knocked the life out of the pinata, spraying candy all over the ground.

The kids, and Jay, quickly dove down trying to gather handfuls of candy. Jay said he was "trying to help Ally." Sure Jay, sure.

Tyson holding up his loot.

The evening ended with the kids rolling around on skateboards. Owen looks too cool in this shot, but Chetan was having the time of his life.

My boys

2010-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Anupa

I love the Digital SLR camera Jack gave me for Christmas last year. Best. Christmas. Ever.

However, I'm not sure whether or not Jack regrets that decision, since he & Chetan have become my main subjects. Here are a few that I really love and wanted to post so everyone can ogle at how cute these boys are.

Kitchen: Before & After

2010-02-15T15:46:00.001-08:00

Handed down by: Johanna

After about 6 months of no kitchen we are finally done (for the most part)!

Kitchen Remodel Update 2

2010-01-17T15:28:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Johanna

Cabinets are in!! Tile will go down this week & we have chosen granite - I think. I may have to go take a look at the granite again tomorrow to make sure I still love it. But here are the pictures of the kitchen today and the granite we have chosen. (Owen really wanted to be in all the pictures)

New Year's and more

2010-01-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

Vacation's over--it's 6 days into the New Year and our Christmas tree is still up. I'm a little bit in denial, but mostly being lazy...we'll see how long that lasts.

Anyway, I posted most of our holiday vacation pics on facebook & to conserve space, I think I'll just post my favorite ones here.

Ferriera Kitchen Remodel

2009-12-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Johanna

It does not look like much, but it is SO much better than the ceiling being open to the attic in order to get new beams in! We will have a kitchen one day - I am hoping for some time in 2010! Next steps (I think): texture the ceilings and new walls and then cabinets.

Family Home Evening

2009-12-29T09:24:00.001-08:00

Last night many of us came together to have dinner and a combined FHE with our extended family. The night began with a rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" at Andersen's request and a sweet prayer by Tyson who expressed thanks for being able to be together for a lesson from Papa. Papa prepared a lesson about eternal progression that kept even the littlest grandkids occupied. The night ended by singing the Primary song "Book of Mormon Stories" with hand gestures and a prayer by Owen.

Here are some of the pictures of our evening together.

Listening to Papa's Instructions:

Working on coloring the pages Papa gave them:

The presentation of the kids' drawings:

Singing with hand movements:

Handed down by: Anupa

Christmas 2009, Part II: The Pictures

2009-12-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Eve this year, we all met at Nana & Papa's house to sing Christmas carols, make the traditional cinnamon bun wreaths, open presents, and feast at a potluck soup bar. Nana & Papa's Christmas gifts for everyone this year included the traditional nativity for the grandkids, a book of Doug & Kathy's memoirs, and a flashlight for our emergency kits. Nana & Papa received tickets to see the Broadway Musical "Wicked" in San Francisco in January. Here are some of the pictures of our family get together that evening:

Singing Christmas Carols:

Making Cinnamon Bun Wreaths:

Handed down by: Anupa

A & J

2009-12-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Jeff Harvey

I guess you could say that Ashley and I never had that moment where we met and sparks flew, one might say we were almost robbed of the opportunity of actually "meeting." Whether you consider it a blessing or untimely, since as long as we can remember we always knew OF each other. We knew that there was an Ashley Hammarstrom or a Jeff Harvey somewhere in existence, but not a lick more. Granted, it's not exactly a fairy tale beginning to a long and happy life with the lavish and costly trimmings that we all read about, but it has turned out just as good.

We went all through high school attending the same seminary class, each only with one memory of each other; I remember her singing "God Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts at a Youth Conference thinking, "Wow, she can sing," and she remembers me walking into seminary one day with my basketball and thinking, "Hey, he plays basketball." As anyone could obviously see, these were huge building blocks for a life-long relationship. These were the only two memories that we would have of each other for about the next four years.

So years went on, I went on my mission and came back and the whole time we had not even had a fleeting memory pass through our minds. Even during my homecoming talk I didn't notice that she was in the congregation that day. Basically, either one of us could have fallen off the face of the Earth (sad to say) and the other wouldn't have batted an eye.

For some reason I can't remember whether it was Mom or Aunt Janet who told me about Ashley, although now that I think about it it was mostly like the two of them in cahoots. Obviously somebody was trying to tell me something, because on the very mention of her name my interest was piqued. I guess the memory of her voice won me over without me knowing it. So I, being as smooth and suave as I am, hadn't the slightest idea of how to approach her; just the thought of going up to a girl who until that point pretty much had no idea that I existed and saying, "Wanna date me?" was a bit daunting. Instead of diving straight in, I decided to wait for the cliché "perfect moment" which all of us know who have actually gone that route does not exist.

It was at this point that I believe God decided to intervene and I will forever believe that he had been waiting too long for this to happen and he wasn't going to let my indecisiveness get in the way of a lifetime of happiness. It all happened when church ball season rolled around, and of course, I jumped at the opportunity. Brother Whitaker had originally thought of me as a coach, but he didn't like the idea of a player coach going all tyrant over the basketball team so he went to someone outside of the team who knew the game. As anyone could guess, that person just happened to be Ashley Hammarstrom. This thrilled me to no end but much to my chagrin, this did not suddenly take out the step of actually approaching her and talking to her. After the first practice, two things were definitely decided, our team was horrible, and I still had no idea how to approach her. The only exchange of words between us were "Good practice," and, "Thanks." So for the time being, I decided that instead of going for the whole conversation, I would be content with blurting out, "Hey, Coach!" every time we walked by each other. Just as things were beginning to look up, Brother Whitaker good word that we could not have a female as a coach. So much for my slow-and-steady-wins-the-race attitude.

All hope was lost for a while, we continued small talking (and I mean SMALL talking) for a bit, but any prospect of something long term seemed to be fading from site. It was during a game night that Christina Brooksby asked me a question about Ashley and I acquiesced and told her that all I really wanted was a date but I had no idea what to do. After a night of talking it over with her it seemed the way to go was to play tennis. She played in high school and I at least thought I had an idea about how to play. And thus it was decided.

This was shortly after Ashley had returned from her trip to Germany and while she had gotten wind about this boy she knew existed that was suddenly interested in her. To no surprise she was wondering how this had happened and, despite being around me since the world began, who exactly I was. She had even looked on Facebook to see if she get a glimpse of who I was and while doing so she saw my picture of me playing basketball. Luckily for me, basketball was also a sport she liked to play so it gave me at least some points in her mind.

When she returned she came to our basketball games as often as occasion would permit, yet I still had no idea what to say to her. I just tried to play well hoping that maybe she would take notice and have at least a bit of interest in me. It was after one of these games that I mustered up the chutzpah to just ask her to play tennis. I used the excuse of being tired from playing basketball for stalling my pathetic attempt of asking her out. It may have been the most woeful thing ever witnessed by the human eye, but it somehow worked. I was in.

We went on our date and her friend Patricia from Germany was visiting so she came along as well. I remember I wore my black headband in hopes she would think it was at least in the slightest bit funny. We played for a while and even though we weren't playing a real game, I had my behind thoroughly handed to me. I had caught wind of a game night that same night so instead of having the night end early, I was able to get Ashley and Patricia to come with me to Tracy to play a few games and buy a little more time to talk with Ashley, though I still wasn't sure how to carry on a full conversation without making it completely obvious I was nervous.

As time went on, we began hanging out every day and our conversations flowed like rivers. One night, after hanging out, I had decided to ask what was in my mind a huge question. I was mostly quiet on the ride home because I was too busy making myself nervous to no end. We got to her house, I got out of the car to walk her up to the door and she opened the door to go inside when I called her back. I began to spill my guts about how much I liked her and how much I wanted to be with her. Understandably, she said she just wanted to take it one step at a time and I agreed. What I didn't know is that when she told me that she agreed to be together with me. I had thought that she said she wanted to keep being friends for now and we would see where that leads. This only led to me be confused my arm and hand holding because I had no idea where we were in the relationship.

More important than what was visually going on between us were the thoughts in our head. Unknown to the other, after about three days in to the relationship we had been thinking, "How will we make it work?" and ,"What will we do once we're married?" instead of thinking "Could she/he be the one?" It was so weird to us to not even consider if we were going to get married but to wonder about finances and other things once we get married. Since neither of us were sure about what was going on, we didn't say anything about what we thought, we just kept with our normal routine. It all came out after our first date.

We went mini golfing and nothing was out of the ordinary but when we got back, her parents talked to us because they had noticed how close we were getting to each other. Having that talk made us talk to each other about where we were in our relationship and where we were going. It was then that all of our feelings surfaced and we realized that we were feeling the exact same way about each other. Because I am so kind, I was nervous to even mention the thought of marriage so I let Ashley do all the talking and I just agreed with everything.

Unorthodox as it is, that is how we "met" and how we have come to start our life of happiness.

Jax Thought

2009-12-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

What I remember. Well it all started out when I was going to institute to have a good time and meet people. I saw an Indian girl and thought that it was interesting that someone from that culture was a member of the church (as I had never seen an Indian in the church) and that was pretty much it.
But then weeks passed, and I started to grow fonder of her but I was too scared to talk to her or do anything. I remember trying to figure out where she was from for some reason--was she from Stockton? I was trying to figure out if there were Indian people who were members of the church; as if knowing this information would somehow guarantee that she would date me. I was worried about asking her on a date and being rejected. Now, I was stupid because I hadn’t even really struck up a conversation with her.
I remember once at Delta College we, as an institute, were passing out pass along cards and information about the church and she came. I was trying to stay close so she could see me, hoping desperately that she would strike up a conversion. She didn’t; at the end she went away. Actually, I think she said goodbye to my friend Jimmy Robison, but didn’t say anything to me. Wait--was I not there? I was standing right by him. I went away from that a little sad thinking she was not interested in me and I didn’t have any hope.
I continued on with my life, hanging with friends having a good time. Then the day of the baptism came. She sat by me. I was totally surprised and so excited--she really does realize I do exist. Then I worked my magic with my lovely voice, singing bass, then tenor, and switching between the two, I couldn’t miss a note, hitting this one and that one, B flat, F. Whatever it was, I tore it up. I believe I sounded like a musical virtuoso that day. I didn’t know then that Anupa was a choir nerd and she thought it was cool that I sang.
So about a week later at institute afterwards I was talking to friends and she came up and asked if I wanted to sing a duet in church one time. I said “sure,” while thinking in my head “Yes, this is so awesome.” The funny thing is that we never did sing that duet and still to this day have not sung. We “practiced” one day after church at the piano, I say practiced but we sat there and talked for over an hour about life and I talked mostly about family and how mine was so important to me. It was so cool just to sit there and talk. We set up a date for that Friday to eat Indian food, I never had. I get home and she calls me and invites me to hang out on Wednesday. I knew then that she really liked me.
First Date. I remember telling Anupa (because she isn’t tall) to wear high heels because my Mom doesn’t like us dating short girls. We went to Indian food; it was good. I had the Tandoori chicken. We walked around Berkeley for a while, and then stopped by her parents’ house so she could get something. The first thing I saw was a painting of a naked woman on the wall and just laughed. I think Anupa was a little embarrassed.
We continued to date and Anupa told me she was preparing her parents to accept me as a possible husband. The time came to ask Ashok for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I was so scared. I sat in the car by their house for about a half an hour before mustering the courage to go speak to him. I was going to be the first white person in their family; this was a huge deal. It was fine. We talked for a couple of minutes. He had an idea why I was there and then he said, “I guess you have something to ask me.” He said yes. Anupa and I were later married August 13, 2005 in the Oakland temple. I am so glad I married her; I feel that she is the only person who could put up with me. I feel that I can truly be myself and she would accept me no matter what. She is the only person I could be with all day and never tire. Except when she asks me thousands of questions, only kidding. And they lived happily ever after.

The End

Handed down by: Jack

Jill and Mauricio

2009-12-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Jill Berdugo

Mauricio and I had the weirdest meeting I am sure you all know. I had just moved in with Jill King and Jennifer Fletcher in Canyon Country. I was about 27 years old. My ward was filled with boys who were either waiting to go on their mission or just got home. So I decided to join LDSmingle.com. I met a few guys on there and went on a few dates. They were fun, but nothing more.

I started working as a nanny. When the baby went to sleep I would get online. I had met one guy in Canada-to this day I don't even remember his name. Mauricio tried to get a hold of me one day, but I had walked away from the computer and when I came back he was gone. I was a little sad, because his profile name was was "doc75b". So I thought to myself,"Dang, a doctor." So I chalked it up to a loss and went on. He had tried to get a hold of me on another day, but again I was away from the computer. They do percentage matches for how compatible you are. I was the second highest on his list. I guess that is why he kept trying, that and I am so good looking!!!!

We finally got talking. We talked for a while the first time, just getting to know each other. The second day he got on with his camera and microphone so I could hear him and see him. He told me that he grew up in Lancaster, CA, which was weird, because both of my roommates were from Lancaster. I asked him if he knew Jill King or Jennifer Fletcher. He said, "No." Then I thought to myself, "Maybe he knows Jill's sister." I asked him if he knew Jennifer King or Jamie King, and he did. It turned out he was friends with Jennifer and Jamie in Jr. High and he also went to church with the Kings. It was nice to have that connection and to know he wasn't crazy; especially because we both met our share of crazies.

The first time Mauricio called me I was driving from Northern California visiting the family back to Canyon Country. We talked for hours. We talked about him coming to visit me and when that would happen. So I honestly didn't think it would ever happen, but it was the first time we talked.

After a short time, we started talking on the phone everyday. I remember changing my minutes to have my unlimited minutes start at 7pm. Now, he could call me at 10 PM in NY and we could talk as long as we wanted. I would race home every day and be so excited to hear from Mauricio. We would talk every night for about 3 hours. During this time there was a guy who started to ask me out. We went on a date and I didn't want to tell Mauricio because he had already made plans to come out to see me. I felt that with how much we had been talking-it was like we were dating-so I felt like I was cheating on him. Then I thought, "I have never actually met him." I told him and he said, "Should I still come out there?" I said yes. I went on a second date with the guy and didn't tell Mauricio-haha.

Well he came out and it was crazy-it wasn't even weird at all. He met me at work and came to my classes at school with me. It was like we had known each other forever. Most who saw us thought we had been dating for a while, no one knew we had met online. We were holding hands and we even had a kiss that first night. The next day we left for Manteca. I was driving with a stranger for 5 hours, but he wasn't a stranger. We had a fun weekend.

I think we both knew right away that this was it. My mom bought us a book to make sure we knew each other and made us fill it out. She probably doesn't remember this, but she said to me, "He isn't the type of guy you normally would go for". I said, "Maybe that is why the internet was a good thing." If not I wouldn't have the wonderful husband and father I do now.

After some of Mauricio's flights out to California, now it was my turn to fly to New York to meet his family. I was so scared. I don't know why, because I have some of the most amazing in-laws ever. They loved me and I loved them. They took me in right away. I knew Mauricio was going to propose and I told him that he better not do it on Valentine's Day, because it would be cheesy. I don't know if I ever told him this, but I hoped all day that he would propose to me on Valentine's Day. He took me to New York City on Valentine's Day and we saw everything, he even took me out on a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, I was so excited for it to happen. So the next day was a Sunday we went to church and just hung out with the family. That may have been my first taste of pupusas-yummy!

On Monday he took me out to Palmyra, NY. I knew it-this was it. We went on a tour of Joseph Smith's first and second house. We took a walk out to the Sacred Grove, there was snow all over the ground. We got out pretty far into the Grove and then we decided to head back. As we started to walk back, Mauricio said, "Hey Jill". I turned around and he was kneeling and had the ring in a box in his hand and asked me if I would marry him and I smiled and said yes.

Thanks to this occasion I have a wonderful husband and amazing children. I am so grateful for the internet that brought us together and we will be together forever!!

Jay & Cammy's Story

2009-12-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Cammy Harvey
Jay and I both grew up in Manteca, CA. The Harvey family was never in my families ward but they have always been around. I spent 4 years in seminary with Jack, summers with Johanna & Jill as my boss, the Benson family living around the corner for a while, Kathy as my Church Choir Director and even when I went to Science Camp as a counselor, Jeff was there. So, it only made sense to me when I showed up that first day at BYU-Idaho and Jay was living across the street.
Jay and I never said a word to each other until one day my roommate and I went to invite our friend Dave for dinner and Jay was standing right next to him. We didn't want to be rude, so we told Jay he could come too. We had a great dinner but Jay had to leave for work in the middle of it. We all teased him about eating and running but what stuck out most in my mind was when 5 mins. later Jay showed back up to help clean up dinner.
After that day Jay never seemed to leave. All of our roommates and I got to know Jay really well and felt very comfortable teasing him about his horrible long shaggy hair and gross clothes. People kept telling us that we should date but we both said we were better off as friends. We spent many nights staying up late talking and really formed a great friendship. We never felt like we were trying to impress each other, so nothing was held back about what we each wanted in a spouse and life. We both wanted many of the same things.
Jay went home that Thanksgiving and came back with a whole new wardrobe and agreed to cut his hair (if we paid) to go with the new look. He looked amazing and for the first time I thought he is a good looking guy!
We decided to go as a group to watch the movie "John Q." I was standing behind Jay in line and the ticket taker asked if he was paying for two. Jay payed and turned around to hand me my ticket. He said "I got paid this week, so here you go." (very romantic) We entered the movie theater late and had to be split up. There were two empty seats next to each other so Jay and I stat next to each other. In the middle on the movie he started holding my hand. My roommate asked that night if anything was going on and I just said we are just friends.(Jay and I count this as our first date)
The next day he came over to watch a movie and in the middle of the movie I looked over at him and we kissed for the first time. I quietly told him this better be for real. He said this is the real deal and we decided that night that we were going to date!
I knew that Jay really wanted to get married and I was struggling with this. I had just started school and felt like I was so young to get married. As winter break was approaching I told my roommate if Jay was willing to make the effort to call or come see me while I was in Livermore with my family, I would be willing to keep an open mind about getting married right away and put all my trust in the Lord.
By the time winter break was over I knew that Jay and I were going to be married. We almost spent every day together and my family was in love with him.
Jay proposed the end of January. He had called my dad the week before to ask so I knew that it was going to happen. I had told him I wanted a new set of scriptures. One day he called me to come over because he need help in his religion class. I told him I had a test to study for but he insisted that it wouldn't be very long. I sat down on his couch and he handed me a set of scriptures and told me to turn to the page that had the bookmark in it. I opened it up to D & C 131 and the ring was inside that page. He got down on one knee & proposed. After I said yes he turned the scriptures over to the front where he had engraved "Cammy Lynn Harvey."
We were married on May 12, 2001 in the Oakland Temple. We spent our honeymoon in Disneyland, came home to open gifts and drove back to BYU-Idaho to start our life together that summer. It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made!

The Real Story

2009-12-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: James Harvey

Out of respect to my wonderful wife and mother I will take a few minutes to write the true tale of Rebecca and James and their meeting and courtship. I still have not read Rebecca's version so we shall see how closely they align.

I got home from my mission on January 3rd, 1995. Two days later I was on a plane to Salt Lake City and the next day was in a car on my way to Rexburg, ID to continue my education at Ricks College. I had no time to be the weird RM because I was surrounded by many good looking young ladies and I wanted to impress.

My second Sunday at Ricks we went over to meet our Family Home Evening sisters. Come to find out later, our roomate Jordan was in charge of selecting which apartments would be together in FHE groups and he conveniently made sure our guys apartment was in a "Family" with 2 girls apartments that were teeming with good looking young ladies. With that said, we went over after to church to meet our "sisters" and found one the apartments watching the AFC championship game. At the time being a brand new RM this was kind of shock to my system - watching sports, and on the sabath none the less! - but trying not to be the weird RM and being a huge sports fan, I went with the flow and thought that it was kind of cool that they would be watching football (I now get in trouble at times for watching football on Sundays). I found out at that time that the impetus behind watching the game was none other than the beautiful Rebecca Andersen. She was interested in the game because she was from the San Diego area and the San Diego Chargers were in the game (thank you Steve [my father in-law] for teaching your daughter to enjoy sports). There you have it - James and Rebecca meet.

Weeks went by and we continued to have FHE together and spend a lot of time over at our "sisters" apartments. I was, again trying not to be weird, going on numerous dates with numerous young ladies. Although I was having some fun, I realized after a while that I didn't totally enjoy spending money that I really did not have on a lot of different people and decided that it was time to only worry about my education. All the while I was still doing a lot of things with Rebecca and her roomates and found her to be quite attractive and very fun to be around - and learned later that she was thinking that I was totally HOT!

Spring Break was rapidly coming and some of our FHE group decided we needed to do something fun, so we hatched a plan to go to San Diego for the week. Somehow we managed to fit ten people and all of the stuff we needed for the week into a rented Suburban. Needless to say we were tight and I will be eternally greatful for this - explination to follow. We started out on our trek in the afternoon with the plan to take turns driving, which would allow us to drive through the night and make it to San Diego faster. I don't know if drove first or second, but I do know that I was driving between Cedar City and Saint George Utah when a huge snow storm hit in the dark and I had a fun time trying not to be mezmerized by the snow. I found out later that Rebecca was impressed with my driving and felt safe and pictured me as a dad driving my family at that time. After the snow storm was over, it was someone elses turn to drive. I was lucky enough to get a place (I would usually call it a seat, but as mentioned earlier we were smashed in and the only person to really have a seat was the driver) right next to Rebecca - this is where the fun starts. Our next stop was in Las Vegas, but before we arrived there Rebecca and I started snuggling and eventually had our first kiss. I still wonder if anyone else saw it happen, but no matter because it was awesome! When we got out in Las Vegas for breakfast I told Michael, my best friend, what had happened. He got a little upset with me and said, "No, she is a good one". I guess he thought that I was just, for lack of a better word, ncmoing with Rebecca - something I never did. I propmtly let him know that I would do no such thing and this put his mind somewhat at ease. By the way, he was exactly right, Rebecca is a good one and I am so thankful she is my wife.

The spring break trip progessed and the others in our group quickly found out that things had changed dramatically and quickly between Rebecca and me. We did many things on that trip: the beach, Disneyland, temple baptisms, Mexico; but the best part of the trip was at night when Rebecca and I would stay up late having some serious conversations about what we wanted out of life and what our goals were. I can truly say that I fell in love with Rebecca at that time. She was so impressive to me - her desires for a family, her testimony of the gospel, and many other things. I don't know if I fully comprehended it at the time, but I met my in-laws before we ever went on our first date.

We got back to Ricks and things continued to progress quite rapidly. Rebecca and I finally went on our first date. A few weeks after we got back to Ricks I told Rebecca that I loved her for the first time. When I got back to my apartment that night (our actually probably early morning) I told Michael about this and he freaked out and was trying to figure out how he was losing his friend so quickly. All the while, it just felt right. We were engaged some time in late April (Rebecca propbably knows the date) right before I left to go home for the summer. (That's a little less than 4 months after getting home from the mission.)

This is a brief expination of the proposal: I knew, and so did Rebecca, that I had to propose before I left Ricks. We both knew it was going to happen I just had to decide when. After calling my soon to be father in-law and getting permission (that was a very nerve racking experience and Steve was probably wondering if he should give permssion after hearing me, but thankfully he did) I set up a date to go to a movie. The movie we went to see was "Quiz Show", which turned out to be dud. Before the movie actually started I did my disappearing quarter trick that I had done for Rebecca more than once so I am sure she was just nicely playing along with the trick but probably thinking, "Really James, again". This time the trick was a little trickier because somehow the quarter disappeared and I pulled an engagment ring out of her ear. She said yes, thank goodness, and we left the movie early to just celebrate.

The engagement was tough because we were so far apart. Rebecca actually stayed at Ricks for the Spring Term. I drove up to Rexburg with a couple guys from our ward (Gary Sargeant and Steve Garletts) to help Rebecca pack up her stuff and drive down to San Diego. I went down to San Diego a couple of more times and Rebecca come up to Manteca once during our almost four month engagement. Needless to say I racked up a pretty good size phone bill for my parents at that time. I truly missed her when I was away from her and loved the times that we were together. Finally, August 19th, 1995 (less than eight months after getting home from my mission) Rebecca and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the San Diego Temple. We had a rocking reception in her parent's backyard and then headed off on our honeymonn.

We had a wonderful honeymoon. We spent a couple of nights in Coronado and then headed up the coast of California so we could get to Manteca by the next Saturday for another reception. We spent a day at Disneyland (a place we now have a ton of fun taking our kids to), a day in Monterey (we now take our kids to the aquarium there), and a day in Tiburon a little town north of San Francisco.

There you have it, the Real Story. How thankful I am that it worked out like it did and that Rebecca actually liked me enough to marry me.

Christmas 2009, Part I

2009-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

Kathy & Doug have invited all their children's families--who are able--to come to their home Sunday evenings during this Christmas season. We began last night with the intention of watching the First Presidency Christmas devotional. We made it through about 15 minutes before we had a reality check: having 20 people in one room (almost half of whom are children!) makes it almost impossible to seriously contemplate the wonders of Christmas for a whole hour. Instead, we opted for singing Christmas carols and enjoying dessert together. Sitting reverently through family prayer was about as much spirituality as we could hope for from the toddlers. We'll have to catch it later in our individual families I suppose. Maybe next year...

For now, here are the pictures:

Handed down by: Anupa Harvey

James and Rebecca Harvey Courtship

2009-12-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:Rebecca Harvey

It is a classic LDS story in many ways, returned missionay and young college girl meet at church school, fall in love, and get married. However there is so much more to know to truly understand how James and I came to be. Like many other married couples we have a "song". The opening line of our song is, "It was no accident, me finding you, someone had a hand in it, long before we ever knew...."I have always felt this way about James, as I look back on our courtship I see how we were swept along by a current as progressed toward marriage, as if we were just willing participants in something that was already happening. This is our story...
When I first met James I was immediately impressed. I thought he was charasmatic, confident and fun. I was in a serious relationship with someone else and I believed that he was "the one" but there were doubts on my part and I ended up breaking things off. I wasn't sure that he had the strength of testimony that I hoped for in my husband. At first James and I were just friends and I admired him. I realized quite unexpectedly that my feelings were stronger when I was in need of a priesthood blessing for an illness. My roommates called the apartment that James and his friends lived in and asked if someone could come to give me a blessing. As I lay in bed feeling awful, I realized that I was secretly hoping that James would be one of the two to come. When he walked in the room I felt total relief. I just knew that I was in capable hands. I also felt butterflies??
The next day a group of us crammed into a rented suburban and drove the long drive to my parents house in San Diego. It was our Spring Break and we planned a fun trip including Disneyland, the beach and Mexico. We decided that we would drive through the night and take turns driving so we could get there quickly and maximize our fun. At one point it was dark and we hit a snow storm. James was at the wheel and I was sitting in the back, right behind him. Once again I felt safe knowing he was in control. The strangest thing happened, as I was looking at him from behind, I saw him as a father driving his family along. It wasn't just that I tried to imagine him in that role, I could just "see" it. Sounds strange I know, but it was a powerful feeling.
Our relationship changed on that trip. We ended up sitting beside each other on the drive and suddenly began holding hands without any prior disscussion about our feelings for each other. It just felt so natural! While on the trip we grew closer and closer and had long talks about what we wanted out of life. I was starting to become very attatched to James and when we went back to college life things progressed quickly. We spent as much time together as possible. I fell in love with his intelligence, strength of character, rock solid testimony, sense of fun and work ethic. His good looks, height and musical talents were just icing on the cake! I knew he was the one for me. I have clear memories of finding him in the library, bent over a book, looking very studious and handsome.
He didn't ask me to marry him during a romantic walk on the beach, or some other such place. It was in the darkness of a movie theater, before the movie began. I knew it was coming we had already talked about it, I just didn't know when. As we waited for the movie to begin James began to perform the classic magic trick of pulling a coin from my ear. He had done it many times before and I think he thought he was good at it. He showed me the quarter, then made it disappear, as he pulled it from my ear I saw that it was a ring. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes.
As I write this story our rambunctious boys are playing tackle football in the hallway, it's only a matter of time before one of them gets hurt. Our daughter is collecting pretty leaves and arranging them in vases to set around the house. Our darling three year old is torturing our kitten and I am happy. On our one year anniversary I had the inside of James's wedding band engraved with another line from "our song" it reads, "Heaven smiling down on us" I believe that is true. We have had our share of life's trials and I am sure there are more to come. The security that James brought me in the beginning continues to be there, he is always there to tell me things will turn out alright. It has been 14 years now and as I think of all we have been through together my heart is full of love.

Jack & Anupa's Story

2009-12-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Handed down by: Jack & Anupa Harvey

This is our story:

We Met. Jack remembers when he first saw me, and can even recall that I was wearing a white Pacific Tigers sweatshirt and black “swishy” pants. I only remember that I was in the middle of a class at the Institute, and Jack walked in. He was newly returned from his mission and wanted to check out the schedule for institute classes and meet the director. I vaguely remember him sitting at the round table at the back of the class. Not much happened.

We got to know each other. I remember our first real conversation took place at a baptism. I strategically sat down next to Jack so I could flirt with him. The new convert was afraid of the water, and it took several tries behind the closed curtains before the ordinance could be completed. During that time, the congregation was asked to sing hymns. That’s when I first discovered Jack could sing. We struck up a conversation about music.

Not long after that we attended a fireside in the Brookside building in Stockton. It was a fast Sunday. I remember because I had been fasting that if I wasn’t focused on the right things, that I would have a desire for someone or something else. Jack sat down at the piano after the fireside was over, and I decided to follow him to the piano bench. We sat there talking for a long time…maybe more than an hour.

I couldn’t wait to see him until our date that Friday, so I called him Tuesday evening to come over and help me babysit a neighbor’s baby. Jack told me that he knew then that I liked him. He was right. On March 9, 2004 I wrote in my journal, “I feel like I want to write this down so I remember this. I really like Jack Harvey.”

We went out. Our first official date was on Friday, March 12 at an Indian restaurant in Berkeley, called Pasand. I met his parents (on the first date!) at his place and we drove in his little green Ford Aspire out to the bay area. It was his first time eating Indian food, and he seemed to like it. After dinner we held hands and walked around the little shops on Shattuck Avenue for awhile before driving back to Manteca.

(While we were dating)

We broke up. Wait, what? Yes, anticlimactic as it seems, we broke up after a few weeks. I was graduating and moving away in a few months and consequently didn't know how our relationship could progress. (Don't worry too much: we did get back together.) But these are Kathy's words about the time we were apart:

"I remember how hard that was on Jack - he went to the temple, he sat at Nana's grave and then turned it over to the Lord's will. Then, he had the shoulder surgery and you dropped off the package on the door step - just missing our return by minutes. Jack had loads of people calling him to come by, but my directions were - no visitors, he just wanted to rest -too much pain. You called Friday and wanted to drop by on your way to a young adult activity in Turlock (I think). He heard me say your name and called from the couch -'Anupa can stop by.' You came to visit and never made it to the activity. I think that was the turning point for both of you."

That pretty much sums it up.

He proposed. On Saturday, March 12, 2005 we went back to Pasand 1 year after our first date. Jack took me to pier 39 in San Francisco afterward, and we ducked out behind the buildings for a view of the boats at the dock. He had asked my father’s permission first, and now asked if I would marry him. I said yes. You know the rest.

(This is Jack the night he proposed...half an hour later he was down on one knee. Is that not classically Jack?!)

One of our engagement photos

2009-12-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:Kathy F. Harvey

Family

parents and their children,
considered as a group,
whether dwelling together
or not.

Ancestors
Clan
Kith & Kin
Lineage
Tribe

like a happy household with common goals, diverse interests, and strong character
who share happiness, concern, and devotion

not like a gang of people
who breed
hate, discontent, and irreverence

2009-12-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:Kathy F. Harvey

The Move

Short. Short on time. Short notice.
In the last two weeks, Doug and I have been in a whirlwind of activity. We started our writing class on September 2. We helped our daughter Jill’s family move to Utah the very next weekend.

On Monday, August 24, 2009, our son-in-law, Mauricio, was flown to Utah for a second interview for a job - the first was by phone - at the University of Utah and was offered the job. Yippee. It means more money and a chance to do research on cardiac ablation. One of his "ins" for the job was being able to converse about ablation because I had two of the procedures in 2008, and he had been highly helpful and interested.

So with very short notice, Jill, Mauricio, and daughters - Afton - 3 and Isabel - 20 months - were moving to Utah. It's a good move for the family, but they are taking our granddaughters far away. In the two week period Jill found a nice townhouse, and they arranged for a large moving van.

Now, this move is good career-wise - it will give Mauricio an in for a residency when he passes the rest of his tests, he gets to travel - Germany the beginning of October, Jill will be able to take classes there with tuition help from the U of U, and they get out of the tiny three bedroom, one bath house in San Leandro that they shared with his grandmother.

Most of their things were stored in the garage, so they purged – “If we haven't used it in 14 months do we really need it?” - and started packing for the move.
How do Doug and I come into the story? Besides being heart broken at not seeing our granddaughters all of the time, we were the help to drive to Utah. On Thursday, September 3, I drove to San Leandro with my sister, Janet, so she could say goodbye to them and brought the girls back to spend the last two days with us and give their parents free time to pack and organize. I

It was fun and exhausting - that’s why we have children when we are young. The girls were wonderful, we spent time with other cousins, Owen, Alyson, and Tyson, who live nearby, and played in parks, read stories, and laughed.
Doug drove over to San Leandro Friday afternoon to help pack the moving van. Jack, another son, came over from Oakland after he got out of school to help. After the van was packed, a couple of guys from their ward showed up and helped with a little last minute cleaning.

Friday night - LATE - Jill and Mauricio arrived at our home with the moving truck packed, trailer on the back with the pickup, and their car full. Everyone bedded down to rest with dreams of miles of sagebrush and road dancing in their heads.
Saturday morning at 7:00 AM we loaded up and took off - Doug and I driving the moving van; Jill, Mauricio, and girls in the car. We stopped to stretch legs whenever the girls got squirrelly. At Winnemucca - the halfway point, we had lunch, and I got in the car with Jill and girls. Mauricio drove the truck to give Doug a break.

Jill and I didn't stay with the slow pace of the truck; we drove ahead to meet the manager for the keys and to pay the first month’s rent and fees. We drove in at 9:15PM, and the girls ran around the new house while we waited for the truck to arrive. Our niece, Amy, came and arranged a motel for us to stay in, and we slept for the night.

The next day was unloading the truck Amy and friends of Jill and Maurcio’s– Mark and Heather Fellows, with children Drew and Hannah, - who had recently moved for a job at the U of U, too, and Christina Zarghese and her son, Corbin, came to help move all of the stuff in - piano, furniture, treadmill, and boxes and boxes. They brought a wonderful home cooked meal that we ate at a picnic table by the children's play area at the complex.

Monday, we were up early working. First order of business was the downstairs area. Everything, but the cupboards had been redone in their place, so it was nice and clean. The cupboards needed to have contact paper down - a hated, but necessary job because of the stickiness from old paper that had been ripped up.

A quick trip to IKEA for a TV stand, a small desk for their extra room, and an IKEA lunch, then, it was back to work. Doug and I took a little side trip to find a quick place to meet the friends we were riding back to California with. Mauricio dropped Jill and the girls off and went to find his way to work because he started the next day.

When Doug and I got back, Jill and I started organizing the kitchen.
Boredom on Afton's part - she started tormenting Izzy - meant a trip to the playground with Papa. Jill and Mauricio wanted to make sure the girls were alright after a little while, but I assured them that Doug hadn't lost or let any harm come to any of our seven children, so they were fine.

The time without little ones allowed for a finished downstairs - it looked like a home now. Mauricio went to get pizza, and Doug and I walked to the store for snacks for the trip back.

That night was peaceful and wonderful. Doug and I lounged by their pool while the little family walked around the complex. After they went in, I went in to kiss the girls goodnight. I rejoined Doug just in time to watch the moon rise over the Wasatch Mountains - I had forgotten how beautiful it is there.
The next morning, Mauricio went off to his new job, we gassed and returned the moving van, and then drove to meet Jerry and Marie Plum who were returning to Manteca after dropping off their oldest child at his college in Idaho.

The mothers – Marie and I - had withdrawal on the way home missing those we left to their new, exciting lives to return to our homes. We arrived a little before nine that night, exhausted, but thankful for our own beds.
In a very short time, our lives have changed again. A good move for the Berdugo family, but another set of grandchildren that we don't get to see as often as we would like.

This adventure gives us time to pause and think that we need to take advantage of time with our children and their children, so that they know of the love and gratitude we have that they are in our lives.

2009-11-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:Kathy F. Harvey

Courtship Memories of Morton Andrew Foster
Interview by Kathy Foster Harvey
November 30, 2009

Where love blooms and blossoms isn’t always something that is predictable, but geography seems to play an important part in placing two people in an orbit that lets paths cross and fates change from separate orbits that become a paired orbit. Such is the case of Morton Andrew Foster and Afton Bennett.

Afton moved to Oakland, California leaving her hometown of Ogden, Utah to join her brothers, Albert Osborne Bennett and his wife Dorothy and Earl Edward Bennett and his wife Faye. Al owned the business, a Greyhound Bus Depot in downtown Oakland: Earl managed it. Afton came to search out new horizons and help out at the bus depot. She lived with Earl and Faye in their upstairs apartment in Oakland.

Morton born and raised in Spreckles, California, was finishing out his Navy obligations in the Bay Area. Discharged in December of 1945, Mort met his buddies, Frank Cambra, Joe Laherran, and Jack Cronin for breakfast. The four friends decided to go over to the Naval Supply Depot in Oakland – Building 310 - and apply for jobs. Since they were all veterans, they qualified with a 10 point preference and were hired immediately. They found an apartment with kitchen privileges in Mrs. Agers’s house at $7.00 per month each and moved in.

Each weekend on leave he would travel south to visit his sisters in Salinas and Spreckles. His mode of transportation was the bus.

There in the Oakland Greyhound Bus Depot is where separate orbits converge. There was no great crash – no love at first sight, but gentle encounters at the ticket desk as he and his buddies purchased tickets home for the weekend.

Morton, Frank, Joe, and Jack gabbed, laughed, and teased Afton at the ticket desk. Frank often talking in double-talk to get her goat and make the others laugh. Fun times for all, then the four friends got on their buses headed to home, family, and friends. Morton would ride the Peerless Stage from Oakland to San Jose, and then board a Greyhound to Salinas.

Morton and Afton’s friendship grew as he would accompany her home on the streetcar. Earl and Faye lived over an old theater in Oakland. The jaunts to get Afton home safely soon turned into dinners with Earl and Faye.

Dates were mainly sitting and talking at Earl and Faye’s home, but one memorable date was to a hotel in Oakland. There they talked, danced, and drank, but Afton didn’t drink, so Morton got her drinks, too.

No one knows how long these arrangements would have gone on, if it hadn’t been for an obscure conversation Morton had with a waitress one evening. After she listened to him go on about Afton, the waitress said, “Well, if you love her, why don’t you marry her?”

So, one night as he left Earl’s, he turned at the bottoms of the stairs and Afton who stood at the top of the stairs. “Afton, will you marry me?” She looked down and said, “Yes, I will.”

Shortly after, Morton went to a jewelry store to buy a ring. While talking with the jewelry Mort said, “What’s the ring really worth?”

“If you are asking that, you don’t really want to get married,” answered the jewelry.

Mort left the store and went to Kay’s Jewelers and purchased a ring.

He gave her the ring in February of 1947. Afton returned to Ogden to get things ready for a March wedding. Mort followed on March 1 to meet her parents Nephi and Matilda Bennett and get ready for the wedding.

On March 8, 1947 in the Bennett living room, they were married. Attending the wedding were: Afton’s parents; her good friend and maid of honor Beth Albert and her husband, Ray; Morton’s best man, a friend from his job at the sugar factory in Spreckles who just happened to live in Ogden, Darrel Hunter; and Emmy and Lloyd, friends of Afton from Roy, Utah.

Driven to Salt Lake by a friend, they had a one night honeymoon at the Newhouse Hotel in Salt Lake. The friend returned the next day and brought them back to Ogden.

The next morning, they took the bus back to Oakland, California to a two room apartment at 38th and Leise, returned to work, and started their new life together.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-11-29T14:40:00.001-08:00

We started the holiday this year at Woodward park in Manteca where the kids has a blast playing together. Later that afternoon we gathered at Jay & Cammy's house for our holiday meal. It was nice & cozy with 26 people in their house, but tons of fun. Notable events from Thanksgiving at Jay & Cammy's:

The turkey did eventually finish cooking, although we learned that foil + roasting oven = late dinner...
Jack tried to teach Lauren how to moon walk & Doug even gave it a try!
Jenny's new sweet potato recipe was a hit! I want that every Thanksgiving!
Sam learned he's from the projects in Oakland
We found that 26 people really CAN fit inside Jay & Cammy's house. :)

Here are some of the pictures:

Jen & Steve posing as they prepare our holiday meal

Lauren & Cammy posing as a team while playing Scattergories

According to Mort, this is his "good side"

I'm not exactly sure what Luke's doing, but it looks hilarious to me!

Ally sweetly posing for a portrait

Lauren & Ally

We all gathered together again on Saturday afternoon for Owen's 4th birthday party at the bowling alley and then at Doug & Kathy's for dinner. Notable events, besides Owen turning 4, of course:

These kids can really bowl! Several bowled spares and even strikes!
Tyson excitedly ran into Nana & Papa's house announcing the contents of his present.
BYU won in overtime against Utah while UCLA lost to USC.

Here are the pictures from Owen's party:

Chetan doesn't look too happy, but I love Owen's smile!

Family Picture (can't you just hear Owen saying "cheese?")

Cousin picture

I love this picture! It's a classic shot of the family together at Nana & Papa's house.

Handed down by: Anupa

Bowling & New Moon

2009-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

Friday morning at 12:25am found Rebecca, Cammy, Johanna, Ashley, & me awake (!) at the Kerasotes theater in Manteca, patiently waiting for the midnight showing of New Moon to begin. We had arrived more than 2 hours early prepared to freeze in line outside, but only had to brave the cold for 15 minutes! Cammy & I spent the rest of the time inside our theater holding the best seats in the house while Rebecca & Johanna raided the candy and soda sections at Walmart. Here's Cammy holding our seats with a smile:

Rebecca & Johanna returned with a ridiculous amount of goodies and we snacked & hung out together until the show started.

Although our opinions on the movie differ slightly, we definitely had a great time and can't wait to do it again for the next Twilight movie (Eclipse opens 6/30/10--girls save the date)!

We can't forget: a girls' night must be followed by a boys' night, which took place the next night at In-n-out and the bowling alley, and of course continued with a game of Settlers at Doug & Kathy's.

Handed down by: Anupa

First Snow and Halloween

2009-11-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:

The Leaves that Whistle

2009-11-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Handed down by:James Harvey

The other night while Rebecca was reading to Andersen, Jane was patiently waiting to be read to (I was away at a church meeting, not just being a bad dad) and while she was waiting she composed this beautiful poem.

The leaves in fall whistle
glide and fly when the wind calls.
Then they get in their coats of red and brown
and land upon a branch.
They fall because they need to rest.
They get scooped up and put into a lovely pile of leaves.
They settle down to take a rest
but then kersplat they get smashed from littel children.

Apple Hill 2009

2009-10-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa

This past weekend we made our annual trip to Apple Hill, but we felt the absence of some very important family members--Jill & Mauricio, we wish you could have been there! Despite our loss, there were still plenty of doughnuts, corn dogs, fudge, cider and other goodies to be had.

Chetan was still so excited from our trip that in the car today, he pretended to be on the phone with Jane talking about "App-uh Hill" and the "Punky patch." Here are some of the pictures we captured with our camera:

The big kids hanging out on the fence at Abel's Acres

Cousin picture!

Bennett showing off his captured lizard

Jay canning Chetan

Hanging out at Rainbow orchards

Kids Dancing

2009-10-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa

Okay, sorry...one last blog about the camping trip! This is a video of the kids dancing. It's a little lengthy, but the laughs are worth it.

PS: Andersen may not always be a man of many words, but he sure does have some pretty cool moves!

Camping Highlights

2009-10-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa

Bennett's feat swimming to the island & back was definitely one of the highlights of our family camping trip. A few others that deserve mention too are:

Getting to camp at our favorite camping spot at Spicer Reservoir
Tony's dutch oven beef stew
Playing games and eating s'mores around the campfire (in particular, remembering Doug shout out "hoof-Juan" while playing the Mexican horse race game STILL makes me giggle!)
Tony's pancake breakfast
Rafting, kayaking, & swimming in the lake
Playing games
Tony's dutch oven peach cobbler

Also, a notable but sad event was that Nana injured her back. We hope she gets better soon! Hopefully these pictures will help:

Tyson dancing on a rock :)

Andersen's cute smile

Tyson, Cammy, Andersen, Rebecca, Foster, Jane, & Bennett at the swimming hole

Anupa, Chetan, Andersen, Rebecca, Foster, Jane, & Bennett posing

Rebecca and her kiddos in an awesome self portrait snapped by Foster

Owen asleep on Tony's back!

Jack & Chetan on the raft

Tyson, Cammy, Aly, Foster, Nana, and Johanna hanging out lakeside

swimming to the island

2009-09-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Bennett
I swam to the island when we went camping.

Love You in the Mailbox

2009-09-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

Handed down by:Kathy F. Harvey - Mom, Nana

I Love You in the Mailbox

Night time chores and the agony and ecstasy of bedtime rituals often made the evenings at the Harvey Home – noisy, chaotic – many times unmanageable.

What with checking on homework – “Did you do your science homework?” – checking on deadlines – “When is the history report due? Have you started it yet?” checking on clothes for the next day – “Has anyone seen Jack’s other tennis shoe?” It seemed as the end of the day was always the greatest challenge.

The desire was for everyone to be in bed, homework done, prep for the next day finished, baths completed with just enough time for family prayer, a bedtime story or two, and then that last minute of tucking everyone in with a good-night kiss and a call from the hall and bedrooms of “I love you.”

The warm feeling of hearing the calls of “I love you” would lead to echoes of the “I love you” refrain ringing from room to room with “I love you, too.” Which then would lead to “I love you, three,” “I love you, four,” and “I love you, a million.” One child always trying to one up the others until everyone was told, ”Alright, enough is enough – time to go to sleep!”

One night, either to end the proceedings quickly or to be incredibly clever, Jay’s voice rang out from his room with, “I love you, infinity.”

Now, who was going to be able to top that?

And then from the bottom bunk the sweet voice of the youngest, Jeffrey three years old, called out, “I love you in the mailbox!”

He didn’t know where “in finity” was, but he knew that he loved his family loads, so the mailbox must be a great place to love someone.

The house filled with the laughter of love as Jeffrey’s call warmed our whole family. And now, whenever I write a letter to one of my children, “I love you in the mailbox,” is my ending postscript.

What's Important

2009-09-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Kathy F. Harvey aka Mom, Nana

Here's a memory of Jenn, early school, and grades:

Straight “A’s”

When our oldest daughter, Jennifer, was in first grade, she overheard a conversation about grades as she rode home on the school bus. That night at dinner she asked how you got grades.

We explained that the grades she would received would be “E” for excellent, “S” for unsatisfactory, or “U” for unsatisfactory. Since she was a pretty conscientious little student, I told her that she would have nothing to worry about - “Just keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’ll be fine.”

“Well then, what’s the big deal about straight “A’s”?” she asked.

I started to explain how the grading system works trying to answer her question, when she interrupted and said, “But I don’t get it – what’s so bad about a crooked A?”

Ah, through the eyes and heart of a child. This little incident showed us a window into our inquisitive, lovely daughter who always knew and still knows what is important in life.

Beautiful Utah

2009-09-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

This picture is on our blog, but just in case you didn't see it I am putting it here. Just to let you all know that Utah is a beautiful place. This last weekend we were just sitting around and here the weather is crazy-totally sunny and warm one second, then rainy and thunderstorms the next. So I got so excited when I saw the beautiful rainbow right out side our house. I love this picture because of all the haze and you can just barely see the mountains in the back ground. So Jeff make fun of Utah all you want. It is an amazingly beautiful state and we are loving it so far.

Handed down by: Berdugo's

Uncle Tony is the Best!

2009-09-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Jack, Anupa, & Chetan

This weekend's family camping trip was awesome! No, wait...it was beyond awesome...it was BE-AWESOME! Now that we feel clean and all rested up, and (most) of the laundry and unpacking is done, we thought we'd leave a little message for Uncle Tony. We know that without his organization and mad camping skillz, we couldn't have had so much fun! Thanks Tony! Here's a little family video of our thanks:

Our new place

2009-09-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of our townhouse. So far we all love it. The girls favorite part is having a park right where they live!

We took the girls to the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday. They loved it, but they loved all the fountains and the water the most.

Afton always loved to go see Jesus in the visitors center in Oakland so she was very excited to see this. She wanted to "hear Jesus talk," but that wasn't happening why we were sitting in there. She also got confused when we were walking out and said-I want to go back to Utah. I guess since seeing Jesus at the temple she assumed you can only do that in California-haha.

Handed down by: Berdugo Family

GOODBYE AFTON & IZZY! WE'LL MISS YOU!

2009-09-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

COUSINS ARE THE BEST!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL & FIRST DANCE CLASS

2009-09-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tyson started Kindergarten this year and is having so much fun. He loves school and is making lots of new friends. His new teachers name is Mr. Brown. Alyson has been told for over a year that when Tyson started school she would be old enough to start Ballet class. Turlock Park & Rec. offered a class during the afternoon and was planning on enrolling her when Tyson was in school. However we moved to Manteca and you have to be 4 to be in dance by yourself. Tyson's first day started Alyson kept asking when will she start Ballet. Lucky, the church offers a FREE Ballet, Jazz & Tap class on Fridays. Yesterday was her first day. She had so much fun and what made it even better was Afton got to join her. THEY HAD A BLAST! (Even Tyson joined in for Ballet)

Handed down by: Cammy Harvey

Sierra Middle School is awesome

2009-09-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Foster Harvey

Sierra is awesome, it's the new middle school that I now go to. It's fun to have a bunch of different teachers and I like my P.E teacher, Mrs. Lewis, the most!

I finally got a haircut!!!

2009-08-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Bennett Harvey

My hair is shorter than Foster's now!I like it better because it's not as hot.Everyone asked me what I did to my hair at school today.Today we started music but our teacher is really strict;weird; and mean.

4 YEARS!!!

2009-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa Harvey

After four years together, we thought we'd challenge ourselves by blogging one word about each other. It's actually harder than you might think.

One word that describes Anupa (says Jack): meticulous

One word that describes Jack (says Anupa): exuberant

With those things in mind, one thing is for sure...there's never a boring day in our house. :)

Lauren's Surgery

2009-08-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Jennifer Benson

I woke up today at 5:45 AM to help Lauren and Steve get ready to go to the surgery center. Lauren got up and got dressed, brushed her teeth, and washed her face. Then, they were off, as I stood at the door and watched them go. We figured it was best if I stayed home with Luke and Addie as Steve knows most of the nurses etc. that work at the surgery center.

So I went back to bed, and a couple hours later was woken by a text from Steve. The text said only "Lauren". So of course I panicked a bit, and texted back what?. Turns out he was trying to sent this picture of her, but the picture did not come through. So after my heart rate went back down, I was actually able to go back to sleep.

It is 10:15, and she is still in there. I can't wait until she is done and home!

Tri-for-Fun

2009-08-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa Harvey

A few months ago, Johanna was tinkering around on the internet, and found out about a Triathalon going on the day after Jeff's wedding in Ione, a little community just south of Sacramento. It consisted of a half mile lake swim, 16 mile bike, and 5k run. She was able to convince Jenny, Jill, James, and Jack to participate with her. (Unfortunately, the week before the Triathalon, James hurt his collar bone in a mountain-biking incident while on vacation with Rebecca's family in Utah, and was unable to compete.)

The day of the race, everyone woke up early (which is saying something, considering the wedding reception was the night before!) and drove to Ione to check in before 7:45am. Jenny competed in the Women's Athena division, Jill and Johanna competed in the Women's 30-34 age group, and Jack competed in the Men's 25-29 age group.

Jenny barely missed 5th place in her division, when she finished in 2:11:21. Jill placed 23rd in her division, completing in 2:10:44. Johanna placed 15th and came in under 2 hours, finishing in 1:54:42, and Jack beat his goal of 1 hour and 45 minutes, coming in at 1:40:54.

All in all, everyone had a good time, were glad they were able to complete the triathalon, and can't wait for next year to try again.

Above: Jack & Jill getting their numbers

Below: Jill & Jenny getting ready for the race

Above: Jill's post-victory smile!

Below: Jenny, Johanna, Jill, & Jack after the race

Tying the knot

2009-08-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

Handed down by: Anupa Harvey

On August 7, 2009, Jeff & Ashley were married in the Oakland Temple. The weather was beautiful for their 10:30am sealing and the pictures and luncheon on Temple grounds. Friends & family came from all over the country to attend their sealing and the wedding reception that night in Manteca. Here are some pictures of the family at the Temple:

What's This All About?

2009-08-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds of pictures of our family floating around out there, worth a thousand words each. Let's pull some of them together using "Harvey Hand-Me-Downs," so that some day we can make our blog into a book that we really CAN hand down.

The rules: It's a blog about our family. Any family member can contribute any time about (almost) anything. We can share everything from pictures & videos, to hilarious memories, things we've written, our testimonies, and anything else you can think of. Just remember: whatever you post gets handed down, so make it good!

Hopefully we can keep this up, and have this really cool family journal that we can look back on some day twenty, or fifty, or a hundred years from now that we can laugh about and love.