welcome to the world as seen through our eyes
Ok I am going to try to update this web site. Since I put in a new browser it deleted everything and so it is do over time and hopefully it will work.
Sept 18, 2011
Another busy month as always. Micah and Cristi have both started into College and are working and holding busy church jobs so that is keeping them with not very much free time. Cristi has also been asked to be the swing dance manager of the Wed class and so now she will be in charge of finding dance instructors and making sure the class goes smoothly. Hopefully this will be a good experience for her and help her with her cluster. I know that she really enjoys swing dancing and has decided to do a cluster in dance. Micah has been in school almost a month or so it seems and with working part time on campus and also being an Elder’s Quorum Pres. it is keeping him running also but it is a good running. Hopefully he will also be able to manage his time and even find time to do some dating hahahah!
Shawn is still living in Provo and has just changed apartments again. He is very involved with Ultimate Frisbee and plays on several teams in the area. He just got back from San Francisco where his club team played in a tournament. They did very well. He is also coaching a team that all of his cousins play on which is really fun for them. There are about 10 of them. Shawn, Micah, Brad, Mitch, Mike, Matthew, Nick, and not sure if Michelle, Scot, Joy,or Jessica play but it sure is fun for all of them. Hopefully I didn’t leave out any names.
Over Labor day weekend we took a trip up to Jackson, Jenny’s Lake and thru Yellowstone park. It was great fun and we were excited when Jared decided to come along with us. We had to figure out how to pack 6 people into a 5 passenger vehicle expecially since we weren’t sure if I was even going to get my car back but we did just in the nick of time and then we towed the trailer and had room for everyone and all our stuf
Since Jared couldn’t fly in until Thursday afternoon, Cory picked him up at the airport and then drove him up and met us at Jackson Hole.
On Friday Shawn took Jared on a 12 mile hike up another area of the Tetons and they also had a fun day.Cristi and I and Jason and Megan hung around camp and then we went down to the lake and did some canoeing. We started out along the shoreline and then decided to pick a spot across the lake and go for it. It was fun and we did pretty good. It kind of reminded me of when Doug, Cristi Cory, Micah and I went canoeing up in Algonquin park and we canoed into our camp site and had to do some portaging. Though the only portaging we had to do was getting the canoe down to the lake. It was fun putting the canoe up over our heads and trying to figure just where we were going. Oh such good memories we had on this trip. Cirsit and I lucked out pretty good and we didn’t have any problem with the wind but when Jared and Shawn tried it the wind took over and they weren’t able to do too much. Megan and Jason also had a wind trouble so Cristi and I enjoyed it the most.
We had a good camping spot and even had a few deer in the camp that were people friendly. At least they wouldn’t run away. We often found them just wandering thru the camp sites and there was even a baby with them.
On Sat we packed up and did a drive thru the park. We went up the upper loop and saw the Grand canyon and the water falls. Jared had not seen any of this. We also went around to Mammoth Hot Springs and saw a good heard of Elk. Some of them were a bit testy, and the rangers were keeping people away from them.
We weren’t able to do any swimming at Firehole Canyon as it seems they have closed it to swimming. What a shame as that was always a fun thing to do. disappointing but we survived. We had supper in West Yellowstone and then drove on home. Jared was able to stay over until Monday evening when Shawn took him to Janet’s on his way back to Provo, and he flew out on Tuesday morning. It was so much fun to have Jared Shawn and Cristi there, though we missed Micah and Cory lots. Oh all the fun memories we have of those camping trips. Maybe we will be able to do one next year. We will see.
I know that I now need to start having family reunions for just my family. It is important that we do this and make it apart of our family adventures.
Since then I have just been keeping busy around the house. Still haven’t sold the house and do wonder just how much longer it will be. I know that it is hard but in all honesty didn’t think that it would take this long.
Cory and Brett will probably be moving out around the first of October and that will be sad as I will miss Lucian a ton. Cory and Brett too but we all know that grandkids have their “Grammies’ wrapp[ed around their fingers .
Well my next adventure will be going to Boston in a couple of weeks. We are finally going to make this trip that we started out on two years ago and now this time we will make it. Yeah I love it when there is always a trip around the corner....
Aug 17, 2011
Well I should say that it has been a while since I wrote and so much has happened in this past month and a half.
I have gone to California to pic up the girls and bring them back for “Grammie Camp” It was so much fun being there with them in Los Angeles and then jumping on a plane to fly home. Kaibre and Kenslie were so cute with their suitcase and back pac all ready to go. I couldn’t decided who was more excited them or me!!
When we got to Salt Lake, Micah met us at the airport, we stopped at Janet’s to pick up her and Kimberly and then headed up to Idaho. We got in pretty late and I had to work the Temple the next day so that was a bit tough for me. When I got home later that day we headed over to Gma Birds and Robert’s family with Steve & Kadee and Andrea and the kids were there. Mikes family came up and we had a mini reunion over the weekend. It was of fun.
Kaibre and Kenslie got to know lots of their cousins and seemed to be having a good time. They loved playing on the trampoline and in the little swimming pools. Also swinging on the big swing. I think that they really enjoyed being around their cousins. Of course my Grammie Camp activities had to be on hold for the few days that the reunion was going on but that was OK.
Sunday we went to Pocatello to the blessing of Piper Ann, Heather’s new little girl. So it was another pretty big family gathering.
Monday the highlight was the little kids doing a picture treasure hunt. They were given pictures and had to find the object in the picture to get their next clue. The prize was a treasure box filled with candy!!
Tuesday thru Friday we spent the time doing some of my Grammie Camp activities, like going to the zoo, playing in the water at the water park in Rexburg, making cookies, planting jelly beans and also sleeping out a couple of times, one in the tent and the other on the patio.
I was just plain fun having the girlies here and being able to do things with them. I hope that I will be able to keep doing this to some extent with all my future grandkids. I know that it will have to vary according to where they live and such but I know that it is important to build these bonds with the grandkids.
We drove down to Provo on Sat and then on Sunday, Janet came with me to drive the girls to Los Vegas where we would do a trade off. I am so glad that Janet came. I really love her, and her willingness to always be there for me when ever she can.
We had a good ride down and the girls did pretty good, of course I had a couple of movies for them to watch and Janet also brought some play dolls. We left early enough in the morning that they slept for several hours which was nice. We got into Las Vegas wound 11:30, and then about 5 minutes from the house Kaibre got car sick and threw up all over herself and the car. It was quite the site to behold!!
They were really excited to see Jared and Angie.
We turned around and left a couple of hours later and headed back home getting into Janet’s place around 8 or 9.
I spent the next day just hanging out and then headed home that evening. It was nice to be back but I would be making another couple of trips back to Salt Lake for the upcoming weddings of Matt and Michelle.
I cam home to Lucian being sick and also Brett, so of course on Wednesday Cory and I were both sick and boy were we sick. I had the runs from both ends and that was not very much fun. I just laid in bed all day not being able to do anything, finally in the afternoon I decided to at least watch something on You Tube. It helped somewhat but I still felt weak. In the after noon I had Bro Roach and Archibald come and give me a blessing. With another trip to Salt Lake I had to get better. Luckily I did but on Sat both Angie and Cristi ended up being sick and then Gma on Sunday. It was a touch weekend and by the time the two weeks were over pretty much everyone ended up having some form of the sickness. That is everyone except Cyndi and Natalie (who only sported a cold) We keep wondering if Cyndi will every be sick or if she is just waiting out til the open house is over. She hung in there pretty good and pulled off two major wedding without a hitch or at least we didn’t see them as she covered them all up pretty good.
Michelle and Scot got married on Friday Aug 5 in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and Megan and Jason got married in the same temple of Sat.
Matt and Joy were married in the Mount Timpanogas Temple on the following Sat Aug 13, That evening Megan and Jason had their reception and Shawn was in charge of making the cake. Which meant of course that he needed someone to help with all the work. It eventually became a three people job as Janet came to help. We got out of Matt and Joy’s wedding around noon and so had the afternoon between the wedding and the next reception that making the cake was the job of the day.
We did succeed and I thought the cake looked really good. Shawn wasn’t too please with the taste but oh well, as long as it looked good that is what is major important. Shawn will have to work on the taste part.
So to sum it all up it was a very eventful couple of three weeks.
Now to add to the challenging part, I had the sewer go out at my rental SDIRA house and so therefor it had to be changed out, which meant digging up part of the back yard and putting in a new system. Now the yard looks a mess and it will have to be re-leveled and seeded again.
Then last Friday I woke up early for the Temple only to find that my water was gone. Yup no water, which meant no shower or anything. Well that can really pull a person down especially at that time of the morning and not really having anyone to call.
I eventually ended up staying home from the Temple so that I could get the problem solved and sure I did at about $1,200 dollars later. Wow that was a blow.
Then on to the next event. Tuesday evening, Mom and decided to go to Rexburg to the movies to see “17 Miracles” it was a great LDS movie about the Willie handcart company. To see all of the miracles that took place for them was very touching. So I was humbled a bit when on the way home a deer jumped out in front of me and hit the car. I still don’t know if I killed the deer or not but he sure caused a lot of damage to my car. I hit him on the front drivers side of the car and he totally demolished the light and bumper and a bit of the hood. Oh how scary it was and I felt like how could I deal with another challenge in life. I kept thinking of another $1,000 dollars that it was going to cost and how would I ever pay for it.
Wednesday while waiting for the insurance adjuster to come by I decided to start trimming the hedge and to my dismay or I guess I should say my dumb luck I disturbed a wasp nest and got stung on the eye lid several time. Well that seemed to be the straw that broke the monkey’s back cause I could not take it any longer. With an ice cube on my eye lid I just sat down and cried. I really didn’t know how I was going to take anymore challenges.
Well while sitting there I decided to call up and see why the insurance adjuster hadn’t come by yet. So when I got someone on the phone they decided to do the paper work. In the process I found out that I would not have to pay a $1,000 deducible but that it would only be $100. I had to have the guy repeat what he said as it totally shocked me. That was a difference of $900. WOW and WOW again that was a tender mercy that I really needed at that time.
Well needless to say I am not wiped out and as I sit here in bed I wonder how I have ever made it thru these past few weeks. There has been so much that has happened and I feel emotionally and physically drained. I know that I haven’t been very good at reading my scriptures and saying my prayers but I have always had a prayer in my heart and in my thoughts. I know that with all the many places I have been praying has been a big challenge, and that is why I seem to be always with a prayer in my thought. Oh the thanks that seem to slip when there doesn’t seem to be a time and a place to accomplish them. But I need to do a better job. Have much work to do.
Well don’t know if I got everything covered for this past month or so but hopefuly covered the major parts and events. Now I need a rest!!!!
Nov 6 2011,
Well it seems that every time I try to update this I have to totally redo it and eventually I am going to have to move over to a blog spot so we will see what happens with the family web site.
As for now here are just a few of the happenings for the past month. NOt that much has hjappened but I have been on a wonderful trip along with Mom, Janet & Bob, Uncle Bart and Dani. We all went back east to New England and had a wonderful time. The weather was great and it only rained on the day we left and the day we came back. while there we had absolutly great weather.
We visited all the New England states, 6 of them. from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermonth, New Hampshire, & Maine. We saw so much that it would be hard to put it all down here but I will try to include some fo the pictures that we took and even that will be hard to not put them all.
We flew into Boston and spent several days there from Salem to Plymouth to Cape Cod with Boston inbetween it all. We then went to Rhode Island and saw some of the beautiful mansions in New Port. The best part of the trip was driving up through Vermont on the off roads and seeing all the beautiful colors. We were there at a really nice time and the colors were in a prime time. From deep greens to deep reds, we saw it all.
In Burlington Vermont we visited a chocolate factory which delighted mom, and then tried out Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream. We also had a chance to see where Joseph Smith and Brigham Young lived. beautiful country.
After driving across New Hampshire we stayed a couple days in Maine and drove over to Bar Harbour. Just a fun fun trip and the company was great.
since then I have been home and still hoping that my house will sell. I have a bit more activity with people looking at it and am keeping my fingers crossed that the last one who seemed really interestred will decide that it is what they want. I am definitely ready to move and dont want to be doing it during the winter months.
The boys drove and surprised me for my birthday and it was great. I loved it but their journey home was not quite as fun for them as they hit a deer. We seem to be having trouble with deers this year and hopfully there will be no more encounters with them and cars. My encounter was more intense but I atleast had insurance to cover it.
