Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Mom


Stephanie Adele Howells Carlston

1946 – 2009

Stephanie Adele Howells Carlston passed away peacefully at home on October 29, 2009, after years of bearing serious illnesses with exquisite grace.

Born on September 16, 1946, to Ruth Felt Howells and Paul Steed Howells in Salt Lake City, Utah, she was affectionately known as “Taffy” to many. She happily spent her early summers tagging along with her father on his Thousand Peaks Ranch in Weber Canyon. After graduating from Highland High School, she attended the University of Hawaii and the University of Utah, where she affiliated with the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She met her husband, Wayne Alan Carlston, at the U and was married in the LDS Salt Lake Temple on November 17, 1972.

Theirs is a marriage for the ages—infused with friendship, romance, unwavering commitment and a fierce loyalty. “Taff” is Wayne’s best friend, his confidante, his shelter from the storm. They moved through life as one, providing a remarkable example of unselfish love to everyone around them.

Together they raised six headstrong children; each one has served an honorable LDS mission and by year’s end, each will be married in the temple. She loved them completely and unconditionally, selflessly giving them everything they needed in life. As matron of “Hotel Carlston”, she fostered an accepting and warm environment of creativity, appreciation for all things beautiful and fun, and an abiding faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really shined (and will certainly continue to do so) as “Grandma Taffy,” and she leaves a rich legacy for her family, most poignantly felt at the family cabin as it continues to be an anchor point of family togetherness.

Stephanie loved nothing more than to give. Impulsively generous, she often would give away flowers as soon as Wayne brought them home to her. Her approach to her essentially non-profit floral business – Weeds ‘N Things – wasn’t much different—providing beautiful and unique floral arrangements for countless funerals and weddings. She freely gave of her artistic, theatrical, and creative talents to her kids’ school programs, church activities and theatrical productions, and community events, adding color and life to everything she touched.

As prone as she was to give, her ability to receive gifts was equally delightful. Upon receiving a gift, she expressed so much sincere delight and gratitude that it made you feel like you were the recipient of a much greater gift. She was the best of friends to many. She had a knack for making friends for life in an instant because she only saw the best in everybody. She lived and loved deeply; we love her and will forever call her name blessed. Oh how we will miss her exuberant joie de vivre, vivacious intellect and magnanimous spirit. She was and is a beautiful and regal lady.

Stephanie is survived by her husband, Wayne; their six children and their spouses, Peter (Julie), David (Kara), Virginia (Josh) Whiting, Abigail (Jared) Stubbs, Christopher (Amber), Amy (Chris) to-be-Shane, and seven remarkable grandchildren: Katherine, Afton, Parker, Ben, John, Luke, and Piper. Her mother, Ruth Felt Howells, and her siblings, David (Carole) Howells, Spencer (Ann) Howells, and Amy (Karl) White also survive her, as well as too many close friends and relatives to mention. She was preceded in death by her parents-in-law and her father, who is undoubtedly glad to have his Taffy tagging along with him once more.

Funeral services will be held Monday, November 2 at noon in the Holladay 26th Ward, 4601 S. Chapel Street (2565 E). Friends may call Sunday 6-8 or Monday 10:30-11:30 at the Ward building. Interment at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. In lieu of donations, send flowers!

Thursday, October 08, 2009

St. George Marathon

As part of another great visit to Utah (loved being with such a fantasic fam, sweet and sad times as Dad was released as bishop) we tried something new - my (Pete's) first ever marathon, in the beautiful red rock mountains descending into St. George.


Julie and the boys were an awesome support crew. Julie brought the boys to the finish line wearing custom-made t-shirts - that really got to me. I think we were surprised at what a happy moment that was for us.


Likewise, I hadn't anticipated how cool and satisfying the race would be. It's much funner to race than train - with support stations, stunning scenery, thousands of fellow crazies, and of course that welcome crew at the end.


We were lucky to stay with generous friends who let the little men do some off-roading, too.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Chillin' on the Salt Flats


Dad drove fast but I wanted him to go even faster. He says I can do this drive in oh, maybe 34 years.

-Luke

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Hullo!



Long time since we've posted! We're so busy growing. Lots to do.

And for the record, as I do not dress myself yet, let it be known that I claim no political party affiliation. I likely will start my own revolution.

-John

Monday, July 13, 2009

First 4th in Utah

Here's a video of several firsts for the boys.
~

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Reunion in the Rockies



This past weekend we traveled to beautiful Keystone, Co to reune with all of Julie's sibs and her mom. What a great place and a fun weekend together. Highlights were just talking with really erudite and clever people, trying to keep up with roving bands of crazy little kids, a seriously fast and long alpine slide at Breckenridge, and time on the lake.









Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!


Julie Mama rocks!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Friday, May 01, 2009

To Jolly John


Now you are one, a whole year today!
So loving and lovable, what can we say?
Swaying to music, talking---what cute sounds!
Clutching your favorite books while crawling around.
Your great belly laugh, your wide toothy grin,
A very big spirit, in small body is packed within.
Happy First Birthday, grandson!

Love, Grammy Miriam



To Mighty Luke



Today's your first birthday, you're growing up fast!
So speedy, so eager, to catch all that goes past.
Your first steps now take you, all over the house,
Soon you'll be running and jumping, having a blast!
With determination and strength, nothing will stop you.
Your body of pure muscle, your cuddles, your smile.
Happy Birthday, small charmer, so glad you're ours for a while.

Love, Grammy Miriam



The Two Turn One

Happy Birthday John and Luke! What a joyful, fascinating, exhausting and exhilarating year it has been. Today their dad also celebrates their amazing mom. Love you Julie!

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Chaps

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Hawaii '09

We were lucky enough to make Pete's company-sponsored trip to Oahu this year. The boys came along and we had a great time. Sadly, most of our vacation documentation was lost from our little Flip camera - more details below. Click below for some photos:

Hawaii '09

First night: Waikiki, right on the beach. Crowded but fun. Boys promptly ate a pound of sand each. For them it was like being plopped in the middle of one of those old Dairy Queen landscape commercials. Sand castles = sundaes. Which led to howls and heavy, gritty diapers during the night and next morning. Per Dave and Kara's instructions, we went to Leonard's Bakery for some delicious malasadas and got way too many :)

Next few nights: Ihilani resort on southwest corner of island - nice hotel with mellow lagoon. Freezing swimming pool (?!). But the ocean was warmer than in NorCal! Julie and I stole an hour to snorkel and kayak. Fun to see work colleagues. The boys were a hit.

Next few nights: nice little cottage just off Sunset Beach on the North Shore. Talk about a different Hawaii vibe - much more like Hana except for the tatooed career surfer dudes aged 13-63 hanging around everywhere. Excellent shave ice at Matsumoto's. Enormous waves (not really surfable, unfortunately - choppy) but still cool to see the legendary spots and chat with surfers as they sat longingly waiting for good weather. Enjoyed a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center - a decades-long wish fulfilled for Pete. We all liked the haka-style war dances. And flames. Lots of flames.

Highlights were walks on Kailua Bay and up Waimea Valley with giggling boys; watching the boys climb to back of seats to watch big show at PCC; acai bowls from Kava Roots; bathtime with boys in big tub; and BBQs at the cottage. Fun to see where Julie's bro Marc went to school (BYU-Hawaii) and the Laie Temple.

Toward the end of our trip we went to a safe little harbor at Turtle Bay. It started to rain and Julie and John took refuge under a hut near a wedding party being soaked up above the beach. Luke and I stayed under one of those permanent parasols on the beach. I was filming the funny scene when Julie shouted my name with emergency-urgency - then CRASH - a 2 foot wave hit me in the back (I was on my knees with back to the water) - in that split second the water swept up Luke who was playing in the sand a yard away. Instinctively I caught the sputtering kid by the shirt. All of our beach/kid stuff was swept 25+ feet past the sidewalk and onto the resort lawn.

Man, that was scary. The hotel staff and wedding party were stunned - one freak swell, one big wave that heaved way over its normal bounds. We were soaked, sand-filled, and shaken as we recovered our stuff strewn all about. The Flip video camera that had nearly an hour of vacation footage and had been rolling when the wave hit was kaput (couldn't recover the data later, either). So we were disappointed but certainly grateful that that was the extent of our loss.

We came home exhausted and sick - caught a nasty cold bug (John has bronchialitis right now - scary and miserable) but we'll get through it. The boys were incredibly game throughout. We felt very fortunate to go and partake of some Aloha.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Stop Changing

Ok, a brief word about Julie. She is a rockin' mom. Seriously, the boys have a blast every day. Word.

It's a trip how quickly these guys are changing. Almost too quickly. Luke now pulls himself to standing at the piano and stretches one hand up to pound the keys. He's a skinny, maniacal climber. The grim reality that the most dangerous stuff is the most interesting to Luke is something we're confronting right now - gotta improve the kid-proofing around here, quick.

We're hearing more of Luke's laugh these days - he doesn't really giggle as much as get rocked with hiccup-inducing spasms. Playing up-down (ducking above and below a table, for example) completely cracks him up.

If Luke is our Explorer, John is our Examiner. His hand-over-hand study of books, toys, cell phones, etc. is absorbing and actually beautiful to watch. He's more content to sit still than Luke is, but not that much - John's lost some chub now that he's motoring around on the carpet as fast as his bro.

And John continues to stun us with his vocal experimentations. He's not imitating anything or anyone, I'm sure of that. All kinds of bellows, screeches, doodles and pops. We wonder how he comes up with this stuff.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

JJ&L Road Trip


Julie took the boys to visit rockin' cousin Currys in San Diego the past weekend. They had a great time!


The boys were very happy to get out of their car seats on a lunch break during the long drive.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Yeah we know snow.


Ain't so bad - not even as cold as San Francisco.

Jump Little Santa Man

Hangin at Park's

Cousin Parker, Luke, John at Park's cool new house

These boys are so lucky - with cousins Parker, Ben, George, Aaron, now Andrew, and maybe another couple of guys on the way, John and Luke will always have a posse of guys to hang out with whenever they're with extended family.

Holidays 2008

For our boys' first Christmas, we first celebrated a brunch with Gr. Alan, then a Christmas eve with Gr. Miriam, then flew to Utah. The little guys were as cool as ever on the plane and Grandpa/Dad picked us up, welcoming us to a perfectly snow-covered holiday. We loved hanging out with Gr. Wayne and Gr. Taffy and our sibs and appreciated their hospitality. We wish we'd been able to visit with more extended family and friends, but John and Luke seemed to keep us busy at all hours - and I mean all hours. Looking back, it's kind of a haze. Great to have aunts and uncles around to help.

The boys made a quantum leap in the past few weeks - first Luke pulled himself to his knees and his feet in the crib, then he and John both fell out of crib/off bed for the first time, in separate rooms, within 2 minutes of each other. WHUMPwanh..WHUMPwanh. They didn't hide their shock and pain but were tough about it.

John's turning into a Robin Williams sound machine, and Luke's going to be climbing sheer rock faces soon.

And now they're both crawling - getting speedier every day. Lateral and vertical mobility is a huge change for them and for us. We're learning firsthand why new parents are so paranoid. It's unbelievable how quickly these little squirts can get into not-good situations.

I don't know how Julie does it but she makes caring for them look graceful and easy all the while. Seriously, with Mom always singing and reading to them (and feeding, etc.), these guys are living a gooood life.

2008 was a radical year for us. We're so blessed. We look forward to the multiplying misadventures that 2009 will bring.