Thanksgiving and Beyond

At last here I am.  I have had trouble accessing this blog and today, for some magical reason, here I am.  At this Holiday time my heart is full of gratitude, for family and for all the magic that the holidays bring.  Thanksgiving this year was especially sweet for us as most of our family chose to come to our home to celebrate.  We set up numerous beds and cooked tons of food and enjoyed the happiness that comes from being together.  Crazy, wild and wonderful.  Here's a sample.

Angelica, Gerald, Seth; Gerald was with us for Thanksgiving, a first!

Chase and his baby girl, Hazel.

Seth has his Dad's touch with children; Audrey's grandson Hunter loves him.  

Sisters, Tia and Olivia in their fancy dresses.  Daughters of Ben and Jessica (number 2).

Game time for Vincent (L), Jacqueline (center), Angelica, and Abigail (back view).

Daughter Jessica holding nieces, Tia and Olivia.

Olivia, rearranging the "what-not".

Two beautiful granddaughters, Angelica and Peyton.

Grandchildren born the same year, 2002; Miles, Jacqueline, Seth and Vincent, in poses to match a photo of them as babies.  Take a close look.

Another set of grandchildren born the same year, 2003; Angelica, Timothy, Peyton, and Alexis, posing to match their baby picture.

Jessica makes sure we always have a puzzle to work on.  Gemma, Alexis and Jessica are hard at it.

The whole gang gathered after dinner upstairs for a Thanksgiving discussion.

Some of us walked through the sights in Boise.  Here are Miles, Gemma and Vincent in a jump.

It was wonderful to have family here with us.  By the end of the week everyone left for home.  Christmas is soon to follow; perhaps too soon.  We began singing with our singing group the Monday after Thanksgiving.  We had performances most weekdays for two and a half weeks.  It was so fun but demanding.  Layne sang a solo with us, "Hallelujah".  He was fantastic.  

After our singing was finally finished this past week, Layne and I drove to Utah for a couple of days.  We spent the first day and night with Bob and Maryanne and the second with Lynn and Camille (Layne's twin brother).  It was lots of fun even with a quick trip.  We are home now with a couple of days to get ready for Christmas.  I think I can do it.

Granddaughter Angelica flew back to Taiwan to have oral surgery and will be there for the whole school vacation.  So it is Seth and us for Christmas.  I'm so glad that Reed and Dorothy now live here as we will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with them.  Otherwise it would be a quiet Christmas.  But quiet or busy, the holidays are sweet.

October"s Rush

I'm glad that our family October birthdays come early in the month.  Because the rest of the month was filled with trips and visits.  So much so that the month sped by with not a moment to write about it.

Our fruit trees have outdone themselves this summer.  We spent lots of time processing those treasures.  By October it was apples that were left to us.  Our tree was loaded.  So I've been fitting in processing apples in between travels.

Seth and Angelica were in a fall concert at school, along with grandson Vincent, who now lives here.  The concert was amazing, as they always are.  Don't these three look great together?

My two girls and I planned a weekend together on Oct 12th.  We decided to go to McCall so I made reservations for Saturday and Sunday nights.  Then we discovered that grandson Jonathan was going to be baptized the morning of the 12th, in Palo Alto.  Whoops.  The reservations were not refundable.  So we made a quick plan.  Layne and I would fly to San Francisco Friday morning, spend some time with the family, attend the baptism Saturday morning, then fly back to Boise as quickly as we could.  So that's what we did.  Except the family wasn't available for bonding on Friday.  So I called my cousin Judy.  No answer.  Then I called my friend Hedy. She was in Utah.  So I called our foster daughter Michelle.  She was working.  We then tried our buddy Beverly Trutner.  She was sick.  Hum.  It was turning out to be rather a lost day.  We decided to go to the Oakland Temple and hang out on the grounds, eat some lunch and take a nap.  So we did.  It was there that we ran into an old friend from our Fremont days. We had a great visit.  It turned the tide of almost feeling depressed.  It was at last time when we could get in a visit with Ben and Jessica.

Here is the baptism boy, Jonathan, with his younger sister, Tia. 

That turned out to be fun.  Ben worked on my old computer and then talked me into getting a new one!  That was exciting.  He drove me to the Apple store in his Tesla.  It was an amazing ride; it almost drove itself.  In fact, for awhile that's what it did.  The technology in that car made our new little jeep seem outmoded.  But I still like the jeep!  We spent the night in a motel (no room at Ben and Jessica's), attended the baptism, where Jessica's dad spoke on baptism and I spoke on confirmation.  Fun times.  Then we headed for home, arriving about 5:30 PM.  Got Audrey and we drove to McCall and met Jessica at our motel there.  It was lovely.

Here is our motel, on the night we arrived.  Doesn't it look lovely?

We talked and walked on Sunday, then drove around the Payette Lake.  Lovely.  Altogether we walked about 6 miles.  It was a good day.  Audrey and I even managed to fit in a sacrament meeting at a local chapel that morning.  Monday we walked through the little town and found some bargains, then drove home after lunch.  Audrey flew home and Jessica spent that night with us.  My buddy Margie Thomas arrived just after we did and also spent the night.

Here are Audrey and Jessica just as we were beginning our Sunday walk.

Here's the three of us in Ponderosa Park.

Tuesday morning Jessica headed for home (I gave her some apples) and Margie and I drove up to Richland, Washington, to visit our good friends Gary and Nora Jacobson.  She is ailing a bit so we want to spend some regular time with them.  They are two of those special and rare people that are loving and pure of heart; eternal friends.  (I brought them some apples).  After a sweet visit, we drove back home the same day.  Margie spent Tuesday night with us, then drove back to Salt Lake (I gave her some apples too).

On Thursday I drove to Draper to visit my sister, Maryanne and her husband Bob.  I forgot to bring them apples.  But I did bring her a birthday gift and some pear jam (from our pear tree).  We did our usual visiting and started writing our grandmother Margaret's life story.  That was such fun.  We looked through all sorts of photos and records and it made her come alive again.  I'm anxious to write her story!  I drove back home on Monday. Here's a picture of the two of us, in Maryanne's study.

After a few days of recovery, granddaughter Allegra flew in for a a few days on Thursday.  It is always a treat to have this redhead with us. She stayed until the following Wednesday.  She is full of ideas and shares them readily.  I love it.

Halloween soon followed and the end of a very busy October.  The colorful leaves of fall have now faded into a dull brown.  It looks like winter now, only without the snow.  Fall is a wonderful time of year, full of cool temperatures, winds, showers and beautiful colors.  I'm sad to see it go.

Last Wednesday Seth got his driver's license!  He is a free man and celebrates it every day, so far, with various drives and errands.  Much of our travel time taking the kids to their various activities is now provided by Seth.  He's enthused about it so far.  I wonder how long that will last?  It is making for more open days for us.  Pretty fine!  Here he is, plenty happy with himself.

Now to finish up the apples.  Pie perhaps?

October Birthdays

The days are shorter and the temperature is down.  Hooray for Autumn.  This is the most beautiful time of year, with fall colors erupting all around and crisp air to fill the lungs with the pleasant scents of Fall.  This might be my favorite time of year.

Angelica was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago.  When she first came here she absolutely refused to speak in Church.  But this year she agreed easily.  What a change!  Her turn came up and, as she sat on the stand before the meeting began, I noticed that Seth sat nearby at the Sacrament table.  What a sweet feeling to see them both, ready to do their part in the meeting.  Angelica did a great job.  I think her fear is now under control.  Here is my happy view of them.

October brings early birthdays in abundance.  My sister, Maryanne, celebrated 74 years on the 2nd.  Seth turned 17 on the same day.  Birthdays in Taiwan come and go with little notice so it is fun to try and make a bigger deal of it here for him.  We got him a little cake. He doesn't like really sweet things so we kept it small.  We added candles and had him make a secret wish and blow them out.  He opened a few gifts.  We ordered him some new basketball shoes and they arrived on his birthday (kind of a miracle of timing).  He loves them!  "Grandma," he said, "I never want to take these shoes off."  That was a heart warmer for sure.  Here he is, with a cheesy smile.

Dad was a quick follow-up with his birthday on Saturday.  He wanted Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner, one of his favorite things.  So I bought all the ingredients, except the cabbage (I forgot it).  He wanted canned corned beef so I bought two tins.  I asked Layne to get the cabbage since he was right by the store, on his birthday.  He huffed and puffed about having to buy his own birthday dinner. Kinda funny I thought.  He settled down though.  I fixed dinner at just the right time and looked for the two tins of corned beef and they were nowhere to be found.  I searched all over the house in desperation, then asked Layne and the kids to look.  No good.  Those tins had disappeared.  Finally I decided to go to the store and buy two more.  Dinner was late, but Layne loved it.  So I guess all that trouble was worth it.  He's 79!  How in the world did that happen so quickly?  Angelica got him a knit hat, which she enthusiastically placed on his head.  Here he is sporting his new hat and eating one of his favorite desserts, a milk shake from the local ice cream shop, Reed's.

Daughter-in-law Dorothy's birthday is tomorrow.  So today, Sunday, we decided to get together and celebrate all three birthdays.  It was a fun time, with a combination of favorite foods of the birthday people.  Here's Dorothy about to open her birthday gifts.

It feels to me like there is plenty going on in our life these days.  It is a race to keep up.  Tomorrow I'll process the many apples on our tree and maybe help Seth get ready for the upcoming Homecoming Dance.  His buddies are pressuring him to ask a girl and go with them.  But will he?  Tomorrow we will have the final decision.

Busy Normal

It was so nice to have Frances and Gerald around.  They stayed for a month!  As of Friday they are back in Taiwan.  So our delicious Chinese dinners are at an end...unless Angelica takes over.  Our two grandkids are growing up fast.  Seth will soon be driving.  That should make quite a difference in our routine.

I am feeling overwhelmed lately.  English classes for our refugees is taking lots of time.  The fruit trees are bearing their hearts out.  Family events keep coming (love those) and our singing group has started preparing for our Christmas concert series.

Our microwave quit.  I'm glad because it was mounted above the stove and I found that annoying.  It gave very little light and compromised access to pots.  So I talked Layne into getting a counter top model and putting it into the pantry.  We put a hood above the stove and voila!  Light and room.  I love it.  Grandson Isaiah and his friend Ben stopped for the night as we were about to install the hood.  Ben took over and almost single-handedly installed it.  We were so impressed.  Isaiah helped too and was his usual pleasant, loving self.  Here he and Ben are, just before departing for school in Rexburg.

Reed turned 47 this month.  We celebrated it for several days, ending with a birthday dinner at their house.  Dorothy baked his favorite pie, peach.  She has gotten very good at making pie crust and it is clear that crust is the secret to good pie!

Their boys seem to be settling in to Idaho life just fine.  Angelica is greeting Vincent and his tuba in the school parking lot.  He is in the marching band, runs track and sings in the choir.  Seems like he is enjoying his busy life.

Life is undeniably busy these days.  But they are sweet days, filled with blessings.  Speaking of that, here is a recent picture of our great granddaughter, Hazel.  After a rough beginning, she is flourishing.  

As the leaves turn their beautiful fall colors, life seems rich and good.  How I hope the days ahead will also bless us.

Summer's End

Flying stand-by can be a blessing and a curse.  We've given Gerald and Frances standby passes, to be used for the rest of the year.  They spent several weeks trying to fly from Taipei to the US but there were no open seats.  Finally, in desperation, we bought them tickets.  So, I'm happy to say, they are here!

It is always good to have them here with the kids.  There is less for us to do, but the real blessing is that they are all together.  Frances, as usual, has shopped for almost endless amounts of food so she can cook for us.  She is a fabulous cook so it is a joy.  I worry about the delicate balance between encouraging her with our thanks and making her feel obligated to cook.  Hum.  I'm working on that.  In the meantime we are eating like kings and I've gained a couple of pounds as a result.

Audrey joined our enlarged household last weekend.  That is always a joy to me.  She is easy to be around as she does not want to do anything special; just be here with us and visit.  I so like that.  We get along very well and I've come to look forward to her regular visits.  Here she is, busy at work on a Zentangle.  She has a passion for it and has designed some beautiful drawings.

This past week I've been especially obliged to work on the English curriculum for our Refugee students.  Classes begin September 3rd and I'm the only one working on curriculum.  It does weigh on me even though I enjoy working it out.  I suppose you could call it a mixed blessing.  As I read and think about it, I can feel my mind sparking.  It likes this kind of thing.  But the "natural woman" would so like to just veg for awhile.  The battle wages daily it seems--major effort vs. relaxing.  It isn't hard to know which is best.

I spent last Thursday being especially productive.  It was mostly about the English program but I filled in with some other productive stuff too.  I felt pretty happy about the day as I measure my pleasure by how productive I've managed to be.  I suppose that isn't an especially good trait, but it seems to persist anyhow.  Thursday night we had dinner with friends and stayed pretty late visiting.  So by the time we got home we were pretty tired.  I'm telling you this because granddaughter Rayne and her husband, Dominic, were due to arrive at our house sometime in the middle of the night.  I fixed up their room and gave them the code to the garage so they could come in that way.  But we both forgot to leave the door from the garage to the house unlocked!

I heard nothing in the night to indicate their arrival.  But I awoke like a shot about 4 AM with the sudden thought that the door was locked.  So I walked outside to find them.  There was Dom's truck in the driveway.  I approached and opened the front door.  There they were, sleeping on the truck seats.  Ohh, did I feel badly.  I awoke them and lead them inside to the room I organized for them, filled with memory remorse.  Not a good way to welcome them.

But things picked up after that.  We had a fun catching up visit with them on Friday and planned to go to a special showing of hot air balloons complete with a light show that night.  Balloons were said to be on display at one of the Boise parks, with plans to put on a sky show with them all lit up once it was dark.  So we all drove into Boise to see.  What we found were masses of people and cars, with no place to park and no balloons in sight.  It was a disappointment.  The only good thing about the evening was ice cream at our favorite shop, Reed's.

I took Rayne, Frances and Angelica farmer's market shopping on Saturday morning.  We went to two local ones and found a plethora of craft displays and a decided lack of farmer's products.  Hum.  Not what we were hoping for.  So we contented ourselves with smoothie bowls at a local place.  Another disappointment.  But Dominic's enthusiasm for fun was not to be doused.  He went online to look for a fun river to go tubing.  We filled our tubes with air, packed his truck and all headed out for the location he found on the Payette River.  We followed the truck in the jeep as Dom drove on and on, past where we thought a good spot along the river would be.  An hour and a half later we found the drop off spot and everyone except Layne, Frances and me took off on tubes down the river, with instructions as to where we were to meet them 2 and a half hours later.

Rayne had the pick up spot located on her phone, which she left with me.  The problem was, her phone turned itself off and I didn't have her password.  So now we are in the dark as to the pick up spot.  Since we had 2 1/2 hours to figure it out we were pretty confident that we could.  So off we went looking for a good spot.  We finally found a pullout that was next to the river and parked.  Layne was sure we could hail them from the cliff above.  Hum.  I was sure it would not work.  What if the pick up was before our location?  I could picture them waiting in vain there while we were waiting in vain where we were.  So Frances and I decided to drive back and find someone to ask.  Layne waited by his cliff.  We found a very nice young man who knew just where we needed to go.  He gave us clear instructions and, sure enough, it came earlier than Layne's chosen waiting spot.  Ha.  Vindicated!

We drove back to Layne's spot and led him to the right pickup place which happened to be directly across from a rodeo show.  Frances loved snapping pictures of their various events and we enjoyed the general activity.  It made the waiting much more pleasant.  Just about the time we thought maybe they had some trouble and were delayed in arriving, we spotted them.  Happy to meet up at last, we loaded their wet selves and tubes up and headed for home at last.  Stopping for huckleberry ice cream on the way, of course.

Frances cooked up a tasty Chinese meal and we ate dinner at last.  It was about 9:30 by the time the first bite was taken.  So, after some misfires, our day ended on a contented note, with full bellies.

Sunday we took lots of pictures.  Here's one of them:  Frances, Angelica, Rayne and Dominic in the front row; Gerald, Layne and Seth behind them.

Rayne and Dominic left for home on Monday afternoon.  Having them with us is always a pleasure.  I'm grateful that they are willing to come to us on occasion.  We love it.

This past week has been busy but nice.  Our English classes have gone well so far. Our microwave, on the other hand, hasn't.  It quit.  Why do these things happen when we have company?  We are working on a different configuration for a new microwave.  In the meantime, the kitchen is stacked up with stuff from our pantry, as that is where we want to put a new one.  Will it work?  I guess we will soon find out.

We celebrated Reed's birthday; he turned 47 on Friday.  Gerald, Frances and the kids are gone this weekend so we are back to two.  It is relaxing.  But, you know, I miss them.

Bear Lake

Our friends, Carol and Larry Wintersteen, invited us to go with them to Bear Lake again this year.  That makes our third trip there, to stay with Carol's brother, Roger, in his cabin.  Friends, Stan and Nancy Beck, also went with us.  We all rode together for the 5 hour drive there.  We spent 2 1/2 days there, relaxing, bonding and tasting the famous raspberry milkshakes Bear Lake is known for.  We really didn't do much.  Roger has a huge raspberry patch in his backyard which was full of ripe berries.  We had lots of fun picking them and especially eating them.  Although we ate them at just about every meal, there was no chance of tiring of them!

Here we all are:  Carol, me, Stan, Nancy, Layne and Larry.

Here's our host, Roger Armstrong.

Here's Layne, helping pick Roger's raspberries.  Nancy is in the background.  Can you imagine having more raspberries than you can pick?  We can only wish.

We didn't sit around ALL the time.  This year we drove to a place called Bloomington Lake.  It wasn't far away, but took awhile to maneuver the winding dirt road that took us there.  We hiked up to a series of lakes which ended with Bloomington Lake.  It was lots of fun to walk the winding trail and take in the beauty of the lakes.  It pretty much took the day by the time we returned, with a stop-off to get raspberry milkshakes.  Here's Bloomington Lake.

Here is the trail around the lakes, with me, then Nancy and Stan below.

We went for local walks also.  There is a golf course near the cabin, which we walked around...and sat awhile.  Here's the walk around part, followed by the sitting part.  We older guys need that, you know.

The resters are Carol, Layne, Roger and Stan.

After lots of bonding, lots of food and fun activities, we drove back home Saturday morning.  Layne was the driver both ways since we had the biggest car, thanks to Gerald and Frances, owners of said big car.  It was all over after just a few days, but it was lots of fun.

Soon after our return home, friends Brad and Beth Hutchings arrived, on their way home from a vacation.  We haven't seen them for a long time so it was a treat to spend a little time with them.  We talked about all sorts of things; they love to discuss a variety of things and so do I so we talked a lot.  Layne listened in; he isn't much for all of that chatter.  They are techies too so they helped me with some of my never-ending questions about some of my devices.  It was so fun!  They spent the night and left Sunday morning for home.  

So ends another week.  The kids go back to school a week from tomorrow.  Gerald and Frances should arrive sometime this coming week.  I hope.  Audrey is coming next weekend too.  It looks like a busy week ahead.  

The Kids are Back

It has been a busy week.  Seth and Angelica flew in last Wednesday and, after a couple of days of jet lag, they are busily engaged in reactivating their social connections.  It is fun to have them back even as our activity level increases.  Here they are with their Dad in Taiwan, just before returning to us.

All of this means that the summer is just about over.  Do you ever feel like the time is passing at an uncontrollable pace?  Things move along and change, all without my permission.  

Speaking of changes, our grandson, James (son of Reed and Dorothy), has graduated and just started his new job as an Actuary.  He is settling in Seattle, with his wife Alejandra and their son, Alex.  I mention this because James is only 21 years old and has already earned a degree, married, fathered a son and is beginning a very promising career.  He has an amazing ability to concentrate all his efforts in a chosen direction and achieve amazing things in a short period of time.  Wow.  What a guy.  Here he is!

Yesterday was our granddaughter Carmen's birthday.  If she were still with us, she would be 19.  We celebrated her life with Reed and Dorothy yesterday, in addition to processing almost endless numbers of plums from our tree.  It is wonderful to have a productive yard, but it does have its demands.

And so our summer is quickly moving into the demands of a new school year and the fun of Fall.  Gerald and Frances are due to arrive later this week.  I'm so looking forward to that!

Summer Mix-ups and Adventures

Life sometimes gets a little crazy.  Getting older and more forgetful adds to it.  After our family reunion and spill-over family company, I drove the new Jeep to Utah, to visit Bob and Maryanne.  It is always nice to be there.  We had a lovely weekend visit.  While there I contacted my friend, Trudy Ostler, to confirm our plans to visit them a week later.  After talking to her I got the impression that they were expecting us that very week.  "We have tickets to a couple of plays," she said.  I decided that I'd better rush home on that Monday so as to get to their home in St. George by Tuesday.  I called Layne and he quickly got us tickets to fly into Las Vegas that very week.  I told Trudy that we'd be there Tuesday.  They planned to pick us up at the airport and make an extended two hour drive back to their place via Cathedral Gorge State Park, and other interesting spots.  It sounded like a grand adventure.

So I hurried home on Monday, washed and packed clothes, and we left on Tuesday, arriving in Las Vegas, as planned, at 12:30 that afternoon.  I sent a quick text to Trudy to let her know we had arrived and to confirm a meeting place.  "You are here now?" she exclaimed.  "I thought you were coming next week!"  How in the world did this happen?  We originally planned on that next week but I THOUGHT she corrected it to this week.  How did we ever mis-communicate so badly???  Trudy talked to Bill and they decided that they'd hurry to get us anyhow and we would follow our plan a week early.  We waited two hours for their arrival, visiting with a nice couple from China.  While they traveled they changed the dates for the plays we were to see and we finally connected. Wow, that has never happened before.  Thank heavens they had no concrete plans for the earlier week. 

We visited Cathedral Gorge and wound our way to St. George, arriving just about in time to go to bed.   Here is Bill, and Layne below, at the Park.  It was muddy, slippery and impressive.  We wandered through the formations, in spite of the light rain.

Wednesday was our only full day with Bill and Trudy.  We spent it attending two plays; Joseph and His Technicolor Coat was playing at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  It was the best we have seen; full of enthusiastic and magical performances.  That evening we went to the indoor theater at St.George's Tuacahn and saw an interesting musical called A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.  The story involved a likable character who murdered 7 people for power and love.  AND he got away with it!  I can't remember ever seeing a story where the bad guy wins.  But it was all tongue-in-cheek and even a bit of fun.  Here's Trudy and me captured in a selfie as we waited outside the theater.  She is such a good friend even if we don't talk much in between visits.

By Thursday we were on our way back home, as Audrey and Isaiah would arrive on Friday for a weekend visit.  Grandson Chase and Morgan and their babes also came.  We spent the weekend together and enjoyed it so much.  Chase brought his latest toy, a 3-D printer.  He made stuff with it all weekend as we watched the magical process progress ever so slowly.  Here is one of the things he made for us, a red (of course) vase, made of very fine plastic filament.  Lovely.

I've only seen a 3-D printer once before, at Peyton's school.  Perhaps you've not seen one either.  Just in case you find it interesting, here is a picture of Chase's printer.  He says it is a budget version and he'd love to have a more sophisticated one.  "Buy me one Grandma, and I'll make you whatever you want," he promises.  Hum.  Maybe.

Our little great-granddaughter, Hazel, is now prospering.  She is responsive and pleasant.  She especially loves her older brother, Hunter, who loves to make her laugh.

Here is a shot that captures some of our weekend visitors.  Reed and Dorothy and kids came on Sunday too.  Left to right:  Dorothy's mom, Linda, Dorothy, Reed, Vincent, Morgan, Isaiah, Audrey with Hazel (hands only), Chase's legs.  Note the floor, filled with toys.  Hunter makes the usual messes, BUT, he picks them up!

Everyone left early Monday morning.  We have had the week to ourselves.  Mostly I've been sleeping as I'm feeling unusually tired.  But we did have a meeting with our Refugee Teachers, to prepare and plan for our upcoming year of teaching, which begins in September.

On Tuesday Seth and Angelica return.  Their folks will follow a couple of weeks later.  That signals the ending of summer and beginning of a new school year.  Wow, the last two months have flown by!