A California Wedding

 Grandson Isaiah planned to spend this past summer on own in Rexburg, working remotely.  But Audrey talked him into coming home to Mountain House instead.  He was a little reluctant but he did it.  While at home he experimented with a dating site and found a cute blond named Avery Banks that lived nearby.  They began corresponding, then talking, then dating.  It was a major "click" and as the summer progressed they moved into a serious relationship and then an engagement!

Very soon after that a wedding date of August 29th was chosen and a scheduled at the Sacramento Temple.  But soon after that the California governor closed Churches and Temples back down.  So the wedding and reception was moved to Audrey and Cliff's house.  The family kicked into high gear to get ready.  Avery's mom ordered the flowers.  Isaiah's family took over all the rest.  Rayne planned the house arrangement and decorations.  

She also made the cake!

Isaiah and Avery gently shared it.

Cliff, being a bishop, has the authority to marry, so he married his son in a sweet and sometimes emotional ceremony. 

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Adams-Hart.

 

The audience was small; only 40 of us were allowed to meet together for the ceremony thanks to the virus.  We transformed the living space into beautifully decorated tables for the meal that followed the ceremony.  Cliff made all the food and it was delicious!  Cliff's deacons served us.

Not all of our family was able to be at the wedding, but, happily, Reed and Dorothy and our Jessica were all there.  Here's Jessica and me.

Layne was happy to connect with Avery's grandfather, who worked in the Oakland Temple with us.

The wedding party made up just about half of the attendees.  Avery's bridesmaids L:  Amelia (cousin), Allegra, Rayne, Emily (cousin), R:  Eden (sister), Alli (soon to marry Avery's brother), Morgan and Makayla (stepsister).

Isaiah's groomsmen L:  Avery's older brother and younger brother (Ben), Dominic, R:  Chase and Avery's brother-in-law.

Here are the bride and groom with both sets of parents.

Audrey with her girls, Rayne, Morgan and Allegra.  Below she kisses her granddaughter, Hazel.

It was a lovely wedding.  We arrived a week ahead to help but also found time to connect with some precious people.  We visited our Sunol neighbor, Beverly Trutner, and one of the ladies we home taught, Anne Kelly.  It was good to see them.  Here we are with Anne.

We checked in with our foster daughter, Michelle and her daughter Kelsey too.  Michelle has been losing tons of weight.  She looks so lovely.  Take a look; here she is with Kelsey.

We dropped in on Ben and Jessica and kids too.  We shared dinner with them in their back yard.  They are very careful because of the virus.  We only stayed an hour and a half but it was so good to see them.  Here's Jessica with Abigail, and Ben.

Dorothy rented a house in Tracy for us to share the weekend of the wedding.  Our Jessica was there and Scott and his Jessica also.  Being with them was such fun.  We enjoyed a home Church meeting on Sunday, with everyone sharing insights on the scriptures.  We flew home on Monday with Reed and Dorothy.  So fun to be with so much family!

This weekend the newlyweds spent a couple of nights with us on the way back to school in Rexburg.  We celebrated Reed's birthday on Sunday.  He is such a fine man!  Dorothy, Angelica and I took Avery shopping today and it was such fun.  We gave them a goodbye dinner and sent them on their way. 

School starts tomorrow!  Online only for now.  The kids are primed with laptops from the school and priesthood blessings from Layne.  And so the school routine returns, after what seems like an eternal summer.  Bring it on!

 

Home with a Pandemic

 We are recovered from our reunion trip and enjoying continued time at home with no obligations.  I like this time, even though I basically feel it is unnecessary.  This feeling grows with each day our society continues to be somewhat shut down, masked and afraid.  Fear is the big issue with me.  If we are fearful enough we become willing to let go of freedoms in return for safety.  It seems a foolish exchange.  Especially if the fear is unfounded. 

Son-in-law Chris sent pictures of our reunion group that I didn't have for the previous post.  So here is one that he sent.  Back row L to R:  Dominic, Rayne, Vincent, Peyton, Jessica, Miles.  Front row L to R:  Bruce, Seth, James with son Alex (missing is his wife Alejandra, who was there but not present for the photo), Timothy, Layne, me, Audrey, Angelica, Reed, Chris, Isaiah and his love, Avery.

I am bunches of grateful for these wonderful people who make up part of our family.  I'm also terribly fond of the rest of them who didn't make it this year.

August 10 is our granddaughter Carmen's birthday.  This year she would have been 20 if we hadn't lost her to cancer 11 years ago.  Each year Reed and Dorothy and family celebrate her on her birthday by remembering her and releasing balloons in her memory.  This year we joined with them in our yard.

Dorothy handed out the balloons.

Timothy releases his purple one, Carmen's favorite color.

Vincent watches as Layne releases his.

Reed, offered sweet thoughts of his only daughter Carmen, before releasing his balloon.

It is a lovely moment to watch together as our balloons lift to the skies, disappearing before our eyes, as we imagine Carmen receiving them and knowing that we are sending her our love.

Angelica fills her days with carefully planned goals and activities.  Seth has been working all summer on his 4 online classes.  Between that and basketball he keeps busy.  I too, try and organize my days for accomplishment.  Sometimes I'm successful.  

Our next big event is Isaiah's wedding to his lovely fiance, Avery.  California temples are closed, so they will marry in Audrey and Cliff's home.  After they return to Idaho for school, they will be married for Eternity.  That will be 5 grandchildren married!  

 

Reunion

 

Things are always changing with a big family.  Isaiah and his love Avery will soon be married.  It will be a small ceremony outside the temple, thanks to CoVid.  Last week we gathered at Reed and Dorothy's to witness their son Vincent be ordained an elder, in preparation for his mission call.  Here he is with his parents, Reed and Dorothy.

Here he is again with Dominic, Layne and Reed.

CoVid has changed our lives.  Part of that involved deciding whether or not to have our yearly family reunion this year.  We took a family poll and found that most of the family were in favor.  So Layne rented the Southwest Lodge in Island Park again this year.  The Virus and other things kept some of us from attending.  We missed Ben, Jessica and their family, Scott and his Jessica, Chase, Morgan and their family.  We were down in numbers but the lodge was as lovely as ever and we had fun together, as we always do.  Rayne and Dominic came to our house a week before the reunion, which is always fun.  

 

Here are some reunion highlights.

After driving 5 1/2 hours through the high desert and farm lands of Idaho, we entered Island Park and a beautiful forest.  The lodge is nestled here.

Audrey and Cliff organized the reunion this year. But Cliff wasn't able to come because of CoVid; he has to be quarantined for two weeks before school starts.  So.  Audrey stepped up and organized evening activities and grandson in law Dominic organized daytime activities.  

We went to Yellowstone Park and hiked a trail Dominic found.  Pretty fun.  Long for some of us but we all hung in and took in the beautiful country, ending in a cooling waterfall.  Here are Jessica and Chris, master hikers.

Here's some of our hikers, with Vincent in the rear.  You can tell it is Vincent because of the water bottle he is carrying.  Vincent always has a gallon water bottle with him.  That boy is hydrated!

Miles and Vincent, our recent high school grads, bonding in the wild.

OK, I can't get the underline to delete so here is an undesireable underline to show you the family gang resting during the hike.  Peyton is on the right, Layne stands with Angelica and Seth, sitting.  Note the water jug in the background, indicating its owner, Vincent.  

Miles Vincent and Angelica are happy to be there.

While we were there, Vincent got his mission call.  There was no internet reception at the lodge so we had to drive down the road to a turn-out to get it.  Here is Vincent, reading his letter from the First Presidency on his phone.  Where is he going?  Melbourne, Australia!  When is he going?  November!  Excitement filled the air as we all surrounded him as he read the news.  His brother Timothy is beside him.

Great grandson Alex (son of James and Alejandra) fell asleep each afternoon in the midst of our activities.  One of our games was putting the name of each of us on someone else's back.  We had to guess the name we had.  Fun.  Once guessed, some of us we put our stickers on Alex.  He didn't move!

One morning Audrey organized the teens into two teams in an "Iron Chef" sort of activity.  Each team was given ingredients that they had to use to fix breakfast.  Grandpa was supposed to choose the best.  He wimped out on that.  They did an amazing job so I don't blame him for not choosing a favorite.  Here they are, hard at work.

Some of us floated down the Snake River.  Here are some of the floaters:  Timothy, Miles, Vincent, Angelica, Peyton, Seth and Reed.  

Here's Miles and Seth, easing down the river.  It took us close to 4 hours to reach the end our the ride.  It was slow but so beautiful.  

Rayne and I had the only raft.  She did all the rowing.  So I just floated along, enjoying the view.  

The problem was, our raft developed a slow leak.  So Dominic floated along side us and occasionally blew air into our raft as we floated along.  He kept us afloat.  Such a guy!

Wednesday night we had a special celebration for Layne, who will be 80 his next birthday.  We all gathered around to watch a video on his life, then enjoyed some of his favorite treats.  Audrey gave him a book with everyone's love messages inside.  He loved it.We had a wonderful time together and the time passed quickly, as it always does.  Friday morning found us all packing up for the trip back home.  All except Chris and Jessica, who stayed one more day with Miles, Peyton and Vincent.  Everyone stopped by our house or Reed and Dorothy's for a Friday overnight.  We all stayed up late visiting, with the kids staying up even later watching movies.  Or something like that.  Everyone left Saturday morning.  Just as I got everything cleaned up, one of our first foster daughters, Laura White, stopped by with two of her children, Carrie and Tim.  We had a lovely visit with them.  Here we are:  me, Carrie, Laura, Tim and Layne.  

I just got cleaned up from that when Chris, Jessica and kids arrived.  We had dinner, played badminton until dark and visited until late.  They left early this morning.  So we are back to just 4.  It is quiet.  Sometimes that's nice.  But I love the busyness of family too.  I'd rather be tired with them than rested without them.So with underlined expressions I am grateful that the Virus didn't prevent these wonderful memories in this unparalelled year of 2020.

Layne

The CoVid world continues.  We stay home mostly.  I don't mind it, in fact, I enjoy it.  There is much to do here.  Mostly I've been working on Layne's life story.  We are going to celebrate him at our next family reunion so I've been searching out pictures and stories about him to share.  Here's a sample.  In this picture Layne and his twin brother, Lynn, are decked out in hats in their yard.  Think they are having fun?  Can you tell which one is Layne?

Most of the pictures of him are taken after our marriage.  There are some cute ones.  Here's a youngish portrait of him.

Looking through old pictures reminds me of many happy memories. Sometimes I feel like time passes so quickly and not that much has happened.  But these pictures tell a different story.  All too soon our 5 children grew up.  Here's one of my favorite pictures of Layne and our Jessica, on her wedding day.

Being a grandfather was fairly new to us in the following picture.  Layne got into it pretty easily.  Here he is with Scott and Allegra, when we lived in Fremont, CA.

Those little ones are all grown up now.  Time has made us great-grandparents.  Here's Layne in more recent times, first with his twin, Lynn, and then just...him.

Remembering is a good thing, most of the time.  I'm remembering these days with Layne, with fondness and gratitude.  

And so the days pass, one after another just about the same.  There are no obligations, and no Church meetings.  I like having these wide open days.  I suppose they will come to a close soon enough.  While it is peaceful here, there is much strife in our country right now.  It feels like we are in a sort of cultural war.  I haven't experienced this before and I'm not sure what to think of it.  Except to worry.  Just for the record, I believe this country to be the best and most prosperous in the world.  I believe that our Constitution was inspired of God.  I believe that we should do all we can to keep it, and the freedom and prosperity it has rewarded us with.  Hooray for America! 

Celebrating America

There is a lot of unrest in the US right now.  Is it an extension of the Corona mania?  It is hard to say but it seems to be that the lock down has offered ripe territory for extremists who would like to make their mark.  The death of a young black thug by a policeman has opened the floodgates of protests regarding race.  I believe that we can do better is just about every category, but destructive opposition is sure to bring destructive resistance, if we are not very careful.  Many say that this is a pivotal time for our country.  Perhaps it is.  It is definitely a time when it seems important to speak up for what is wonderful about our way of life and government, and to support the Founders vision of freedom for all, and opportunity for happiness.  Indeed, it offers the only successful system for offering us a chance to thrive.

And so we celebrate Independence Day.  Idaho is great at that.  Even with the lockdown, there were fireworks all over Treasure Valley last night.  We gathered at Reed and Dorothy's for traditional hamburgers and hot dogs, with fireworks in their backyard, surrounded by fireworks all around us.  A full moon offered its own celebratory light, adding a bit of nature's magic. 

Here is some of our family gathering, in Reed and Dorothy's living room, getting ready for Reed's inspirational message. L to R:  Bruce, Angelica, Seth and Tim.

Then the fireworks began.  It looks pretty light but it is about 9:30.  In Idaho you have to stay up late to catch the dark.  Here's Vincent, just after his turn at lighting.

Timothy's turn.

Star's big fireworks show began at 10:15.  At 10:30 I loaded the older kids up and we headed to Star to catch what was left of the show.  We parked quite close by and got settled sitting on the jeep's hood just in time to see the spectacular ending to the show!  It was disappointing to miss just about all of it, but we DID see the best part, short though it was.  We drove back home, under the light of the full moon, with fireworks sparkling along our way.  

Happy Independence!