Happy 9th Anniversary to My Taylor Tales! I began writing July 2007, so this past week I’ve been looking back at the years and was honestly surprised it had been that long.  The twins were starting kindergarten, Lelu was almost ten, Master D was 14 and Aub was 19.  Usually the case is that there is a lot more photos and attention to the first kid and less for the each kid added to the mix, but because Aub was already moved out, there is a massive shortfall of details about her adventures written here.  I have those 19 years of photos in a large rubbermaid container in the basement and the memories sparking in my brain as I go through them.  I thought it appropriate that In honor of MTT 9th anniversary I should search for and scan a few photos to take a stroll down Aub Avenue. Starting with a cute bath baby mohawk photo:

This is the weekend that we met B and Aub let me know he was the one she chose for a daddy guy. Also her first Disneyland trip. Thanksgiving 1988. She thought the whole party was for her.  It kind of was.

Melinda made this darling eyelet dress for her.  I wish you could see it closer up.  What is it about ruffle butts that are so darn cute?This was her second trip to Disneyland.  She wasn’t even two when she saw a commercial on TV for Disneyland and she said she wanted to go there.  I told her if she went potty in her potty chair and not in her diaper we’d go.  So she walked in to the bathroom and went potty.  Since I could not really explain to her satisfaction why we couldn’t go that very day, I distracted her and took her to the store and bought disney princess panties and we counted the “sleeps” until she could go.

This was mother’s day.  Matching was so 80’s

And then she got a brother.  She really wanted a sister but she figured out how to like him a lot.  I remember this day perfectly. It was in San Diego at the new temple open house in 1993.

This was her first day of kindergarten leaving from our house on Silvercreek. 1993

This was our first camping trip in the Uintas after moving to Utah.  Aub wanted to carry her own bag out to the car but instead left it sitting on the stairs in our apartment. She got her clothes wet and dirty and had nothing else to wear, so she was stuck in my sweatshirts the whole weekend.  1994Yay! we bought a new house on Pond Ridge that had no landscaping but she had her own room again.  1995This was her eighth birthday.  We had a big party and apparently I thought she may need help blowing out her candles and Master D wanted to get in on some of that cake action and I think that’s Paige on her first birthday?

In November 1996, we took our first real vacation/work trip to the Bahamas with the kids for a convention.  Aub learned how to do the macarena and Master D got his first buzz from a strawberry daiquiri at age 3.  Let me explain – We went on this day cruise over to another island and they gave us dinner and drink tickets.  2 ADULT tickets and 2 KIDS tickets (clearly marked) that I took over to the bar and told them I wanted virgin drinks for the adult tickets.  So I bring all four drinks back to the table and mine is fine, B’s is fine and then Aub says “mom my drink is rotten” so I take a sip of her daiquiri (out of a kids plastic sippy cup) and it’s loaded with alcohol.  So I say to Master D (who is 3 at the time and quite the crazy energizer bunny boy) “is your drink yucky?” and he says “no, it’s good” as he sucks it down.  So I take Aub’s back to the bar and tell them they gave me one kid’s drink loaded with alcohol and the guy tells me he’s so sorry but he gave me both of them loaded.  So I run back to the table and Master D has pretty much finished off the cup. We sat and watched him scared to death that he was poisoned and we are on this weird island and what are we going to do?? And this is not advocating any sort of partaking of alcohol or feeding it to three year olds but….. He just mellowed out and was calm for the rest of the day. Phew!  He’s bugged now that he can’t say he’s never had any alcohol in his life. And we got to hang out with the dolphins and pet them. 

Summer 1997 – while pregnant with Lelu, we took a trip to Jackson Hole.  We went with Jeff and Christina and Roma and her boyfriend John.  We were supposed to camp. Being seven months pregnant I was not excited about sleeping on the ground.  When we went to check in at the KOA campground – I’m not sure exactly what was said by B to the very grumpy lady and I think we may have had one too many cars – but we got kicked out of the campground.  Yep kicked out by that very grumpy lady – quite meanly I might add.  Anyhow, we were able to find a very nice condo that had enough beds for all of us and once I got over the humiliation, I forgave B.  This photo was waiting in line for the Alpine slide. And then there was three. Finally at age nine, Aub got a sister We blessed little Lelu on Thanksgiving Day 1997 at Great Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson’s house in Salem – that was sold very recently.

We got some landscaping done.  

We took another vacation/work trip in 1998 to DisneyWorld Aub really dug those sunglasses. We went with some friends that B met the dad at one of the conventions as they were the only non-drinkers and figured out they were also the only Lds.  Funny trivia that Jared (to the left of Aub) shared her birthday and was only 30 minutes younger. 

Jumping to 2003. Somehow Aub became a teenager and we added two more kids to the mix and attempted Jackson Hole again with all five of them.  We didn’t get kicked out of any campgrounds but with all the crying from the twins going on in our little cabin – we should have.

2005 And then she learned to speak some German, applied for a scholarship to study abroad and little miss independent left us for her junior year of high school. 

Well that’s all I have for you in my Aub compilation episode.  It’s a work in progress to scan all these photos and pick and choose.  Until next time…