Newport Beach

I strongly believe that I am a Southern California girl at heart. I love the beach and no beach in Cali is better to me than Newport. We had a great trip with the family. We spent a lot of days digging in the sand, Skim boarding, and soaking up the rays. Beck loved the beach and was happy to drag his boogie board along, looking for shells with his GG, and playing in the sand. It was fun to be with my whole family. Especially for Jon and I because it turns into a nice kid break with all the great help that we receive. We all have a great time together. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great trip. I think Beck will remember this trip for a while because he has me keep playing the O.C theme song California. I tried to change it to Utah but he did not like that too much.

Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain is my Magic Kingdom. I love the thrill rides. Beck may be taking after me because he loves the rides and likes to go on roller coasters. Although one log ride was enough for him. We forced him to go twice and that pretty much did him in. They have the best rides.

Home At Last

Baby I recovering from his Vacationing.

Companies - Bad and Good

Here is my experience:

The Bad
Citi
I have held a lot of credit card throughout the years, but Citi has definitely been the worst. Their customer service is horrible. Last August, our family was on a cruise and we missed our scuba booking with Blue Island Divers in St. Thomas (another horrible company). Despite MasterCard regulations that say a merchant cannot charge a cardholder until a service has been provided, Blue Island Divers charged us full price for each one of our bookings. I disputed the charge through Citi, and learned just how terrible their customer service is in the process. I will never do business with Citi in any form again.

GE
We have a gas oven from GE installed in our home. It is one of their higher-end models and only a couple years old. A few months ago, Jess was playing with the kids in the other room while something was cooking in the oven and she heard a loud explosion. She ran into the kitchen to find that the oven glass had shattered into a thousand pieces. We called GE and they refused to do anything about it because the warranty was only for 1 year. I understand that it is out of warranty, but this type of failure seems like a manufacturers defect to me. Given the nature of the failure, I thought GE would respond...but they pretty much just washed their hands.

The Good
American Express
Let me be the first to say that I don't think any credit card company should necessarily be classified as "good;" however, if there is one, it would be American Express in my opinion. When Jess and I were first married, we splurged our savings on a red recliner that we found at Costco. We probably should not have bought it given our situation, but we did it anyway. The day we decided to buy it, Jess and I went to the Orem store and some lady had the last one on a cart and she was deciding whether to buy it. Jess and I literally followed her around the store for over an hour hoping that she would decide against buying it. The funny thing is that after about a half hour, we noticed there were 2 or 3 other people doing the same thing. Anyway, the lady ended up buying it and Jess called every Costco in Utah trying to find the recliner in stock. The only one we could find was in St. George. Jess had her Grandpa go pick it up and her cousin Travis brought it home the next weekend. The only problem was that Travis didn't tie the chair down. He didn't make it to Leeds before the chair flew out onto the highway. Jess was devastated. Here we had spent our life's savings on a chair and it was in pieces. I think she just cried on her bed for a day straight. Anyway, a day or two later, one of Jess's coworkers suggested that she call American Express to see if they would replace it. We figured we had nothing to lose, so she called. Sure enough, American Express gave us the money without any problem. They even let us keep the damaged chair (which we pieced together and still have sitting in our family room today...just don't look at the back of it). Awesome customer service.

Costco
Costco is awesome. Great customer service...great store.

Baby I

Our little angel boy who is always happy to go with the flow. We love his sweet personality and his darling smile. Baby I we love you!

The Big Apple and New England

All I can say is that I have a wonderful husband, sister-in-laws, brother, and
grandma who worked it all out with my boys so that I could go back east on a trip. My mom and Candice and I went to NY, Boston, and Salem for a few days. We took in all the sites and ate all the good food. We walked and walked and did not miss a thing or waste a minute of our time there.

A Birthday Bonus

Dad, Limited Too sent you this birthday card. It looks like you get 25% off during your birthday month!

Happy Birthday Dad

As family tradition would dictate, we will start with this...Dad was born at a very young age. For every one of our birthdays, without fail, that would be the first one liner that Dad would pull out at the family dinner. There are a few more one-liners, but I am drawing a blank right now...I'm sure my brothers and sisters can comment with the others.

Dad was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. If I remember right, he was born in an old brick hospital on Main Street that is now a restaurant. I tried to find a picture of it, but unfortunately a general picture of Main Street was about the best I could do. Dad has done a lot of incredible things in his life...he was the Chief of Staff in the Department of Interior under Jim Watt. After his experience in D.C., he went to work for a consulting firm in California...I'm not sure of the details, but all I know is that he quit his job in California because of a difference in opinion about an ethical situation. I have never asked him much about this, but it has always served as an example to me (maybe I'll find out that I had this all wrong). After he quit his job in California (without another lined up), he started a shaved ice shack on Oceanside Pier and at the Carlsbad mall to bridge the gap between jobs. The family ran it for about a year before we moved to Utah where he started working at Shipley Associates. Years later, he accomplished one of my dreams...he, along with some partners, bought Shipley Associates back from Franklin Covey and ran it as their own. This is just the tip of the iceberg of his accomplished life, but it gives you a taste.

Now he is in Ghana as the Executive Secretary to the Area President of West Africa. He has done some tremendous things in his life, and this just adds to the list. He has been a great example to his six kids. We have all turned out well and he now has 17 grandchildren (if I am counting right). He has always put family first.

Wow...this is not supposed to sound like a eulogy, but Dad is an incredible person that I will always look up to. Happy birthday Dad! I hope the Ghanaians are throwing a huge celebration for you. We look forward to seeing you in a little over a year and we love you very much. Beck looked at this picture today and said, "that's Grandpa...he's in Africa."

Festival Days

We went to Strawberry Days in PG a few days ago with our pals. They fill a field with water and throw fish in and let the kids fish and catch them in nets. The boys had a blast running free through the water. Also Beck was brave and got his face painted. Unfortunately we got a beginning painter who started drawing a dragon then turned it to a bee and in the end it was a black blob also made his basketball look like a tic-tac-toe board. She tried hard and Beck was more than pleased. He spent several days in in face paint until I forced him to wash his face. I am having a hard time keeping up with Beck's demanding social life:)

Uncle Drew

We love our Uncle Drew. He came up to the cabin with us this weekend. Beckham thinks he is about the coolest thing around and followed Drew everywhere. Drew gave Beck lots of rides on the 4-wheelers sparing Jon and I. He is a great kid that we love very much!!

Carnival

We went with the Nielsen's to the Sprigville carnival last night. I thought Beck would not be into riding the rides but first of we hit up the roller coaster. He has spent a lot of time with his uncle Drew watching roller coaster rides on You Tube. He loved it and every other ride he went on.


Sweet little Ira is happy going along in his stroller.




We dropped Jon off at the office last night to get his car and I noticed they updated his parking spot. This spot alone was well worth the time and money spent on his MBA. Way to to go Jon after 2 years they added your name. I guess they plan to keep you for a while longer.

Edit - Picture Removed - That is embarrassing.

Good Old Days

Jon and I helped Alex and Kelsey find a place to live in Provo the other night. As we drove around we got a bit nostalgic remembering how much fun we had living there and how lucky we were to get to live in the Shipley duplex. Those years were really great and now we have a great appreciation for them as we are living in the real world. I am just grateful that we found them a place in a nice neighborhood where they have a good judicial system and people don't take advantage of each other physically. All this good insight we received from our pal William a drunk down the street. Thanks William! -Jess

Bud

By popular demand, I am posting again. This post is brought to you by people who call you bud and sales people that network through their friends and family. First, let's address people that call you bud. There are many other equivalent terms to bud (for example boss), but for some reason, bud is the worst to me. In my experience, "bud people" are most often found at the workplace. It is hard to talk to a person that calls you bud and not think he/she is the most condescending person in the world. The other problem with "bud" people is that even if you tell them not to call you bud, they usually slip back into the habit within 2 - 3 days. Bud is their cigarette.

The second most awesome person in the world is sales person who networks through his/her friends and family. Okay...I know that some of you may fit into this category, so don't get offended...just learn that nobody wants to hear about your awesome insurance rates, your financial plan, or you jedi real-estate skills. People that are close enough for you to approach know what you are doing and will approach you if they want your service. We all know how it goes...you get a call from somebody you knew in high school and at first you think it is cool...after five minutes of meaningful conversation, everything sours when he/she drops, "I've been selling insurance for the past few months." If you currently sell me insurance, don't worry...I'm not talking about you...just the other kooks that want to ruin relationships in the name of a commission. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but you get the point. I know what you are peddling and if I ever want an insurance quote from you, I'll come knocking. -Jon

Family Fun

I love going to St. George. I don't think Jon shares the same enthusiasm as I do. I love escaping for the weekend and just relaxing and having fun with our family. Our friends Cassie and Dave and their little girl Eisley came with us so it made our trip a lot of fun. Cassie and I went on a killer tandom bike ride that did us in. I am sure I was doing all the work. We also got to see the Carr's who were in town from Arizona. Jessica my good friend gave Jon some golf swing lessons that he desperately needed!!! haha Jon. She is a awesome golfer and golfed for BYU in college. So we need to take advantage of her help any chance we can get. Thank heavens for good food, fun and friends.

Death Cab

We went and saw Death Cab on Memorial Day at Thanksgiving Point. We drove over at 7:00 thinking that we might be able to buy some tickets from people desperate to offload them (since doors were supposed to open at 5:00). When we got there, they still had not opened the doors and there was an incredible line weaving around the parking lots. It didn't look like we were going to have luck buying tickets, so we decided to just come back and park outside the fence and listen to the concert.

Our plan worked out better than we had thought it would; we spent some of the concert about 50 yards behind the stage...where the sound was great, however you couldn't see the band (they played Why You'd Want To Live Here while we were in that spot...it was really good). Soon after that song, security asked us to move to the front-side of the facility, so we moved to a place where you could see the stage, but the sound wasn't perfect (but still pretty good). I took this picture from the second spot; my eyes are bad, so this was about all I could see. Jess says she could see everyone on stage pretty well. I decided my favorite Death Cab song is Marching Bands Of Manhattan...it was awesome. Jess really liked their new song, I Will Possess Your Heart. Their last song of the encore, Transatlanticism was also really strong.

Anyway, we are hoping they continue to book good bands at Thanksgiving Point so that we can take the kids and listen to some good music in the summer air.

Can you see the rainbow landing right on the temple?


Gotta love Baby Einstein or should I say Baby EinEinstein for Beck.

The Haircut

Well the first time we took Beck to get his haircut it was quite the event. My Mom and Grandma were with me and we thought he would be happy to play in the airplane while they cut his hair. This was not the case and he screamed all the way through it. So I geared him up with a lot of bribing and he did great. The only bad part was that they cut all his hair off. Helm family remember it will grow back quick. It is quite a goofy cut and it makes him look so old. Little I was just happy to drive his car but lacks the hair to be cut.


I have to add one more funny thing. Beck loves Nursery and so after church we were riding home and since our church is a block away Beck gets to sit by us in the car. I asked him if he loved church? he replied "I love church, Dad do you love church?" Dad replied yes and Beck said "It's awesome huh"

Rub A Dub Dub

I found this to be a great way to clean my kitchen and make dinner. I remember my brothers having a picture like this in the sink so I thought I needed one as well.




We found the perfect car seat for Ira, well for Jon and Ira.

Fun with Friends

We are so lucky to have so many fun friends to do things with. Finally I have met some fun girls in my neighborhood and am so so grateful for their friendship. I also have good oldie friends that are all great. We get to go and do lots of fun things and here our some pics of our recent outings. Poor Ira always stuck in the stroller out of the pics.

Fun with the Boys

Life with my boys is great. Beckham talks non stop. He amazes me on how much he knows and the little things he remebers. Today he said he wanted to go to the beach and I told him we would in the summer and he says " when it gets hot" I also said the beach is in California and he tells me " where Ben lives " since his cousin Ben lives in Cali. I love all his words. He is such a fun boy. He loves Nursery and tells me he has lessons when I ask what he did. He also was jumping on the tramp with me the other day and he said " look mom there is Jesus" Of course I looked and quickly saw my shadow on the tramp with a slight resemblance to Jesus. So no my son is not having visions he is just a little confused with his mom's bobbed hair on the tramp. Anyhow Ira is a little doll and is always happpy. He only cries when he is hungry and just has the sweetest glow about him. Life at the Shipley home is still going along. We have been working hard at getting our backyard in. Can't wait to have grass.

Alex and Kelsey's Wedding