Eighty

 Each decade of life seems old from a younger point of view.  I remember being 30 seemed so.  Then 40.  50 Seemed like the beginning of old.  But then came 60 and 70, making 50 look young.  Now it is 80.  That is undeniably old. Yet I still just don't feel it.  It is something of a milestone for sure though.  

Audrey and Cliff came last weekend and so did Rayne, Dominic and baby Rose.  I was expecting them and it was much fun to have them.  Then, Friday night a knock on the door brought Reed and Dorothy...and Ben!  I was shocked to see him and excited.  Saturday morning I was settling into breakfast when who should walk in but Chris and Jessica!  They spent the night upstairs and I hadn't a clue!  Later in the day who should wander in from upstairs but William (Ben's son)!  Then appeared Miles.  Wow!  It was amazing to have them just show up!

We girls went to an art museum Saturday afternoon.  After that, Audrey had an appointment with my friend Carol at Church to go over some organ techniques, she said.  So we headed over there.  We walked inside the Church and Audrey beckoned us into the gym.  As I walked in, the room exploded with people yelling, "surprise," and singing me Happy Birthday!  I was totally stunned!  The room was decorated with red and gold balloons.  Banquet tables held lots of food and there were tables set up throughout the gym.  It felt like there were so many friends there, all greeting and hugging me.  I was totally amazed.  It has never seemed to me that something like this would ever happen to me.  Chris showed a slideshow of my life; my favorite latin music was playing in the background.  For the next two hours there was such a sweet celebration.  I will never forget it.  We took a few pictures under the balloon arch.  Here is a sample of family photos (I have more with friends).

                                                                        Ben and William

Jessica, Miles and Chris

Rayne, Rosie and Dominic

Bruce, Dorothy, and Reed

Cliff and Audrey

Layne and me

It was a day to remember...forever!  Audrey took charge of the whole weekend, with Rayne doing the decorating.  Audrey doesn't like parties.  So it was especially sweet that she would do this for me.  In addition to the guests that were there, she had a pile of love notes from lots of other people.  How in the world did she do all of this?  I just don't know how she managed to contact so many people.  Especially without me knowing a thing about it.  

My wonderful family took care of me all weekend long.  Cliff cooked my favorite dinner on Sunday.  Dominic made my favorite desserts.  Rayne decorated the house with the balloons left from the party on Saturday.  It was a beautiful experience, all weekend long.  Sunday saw most of the family leave.  Audrey and Cliff left Monday.  Rayne and Dominic stayed until my actual birthday, Wednesday.  We got to spend some sweet time with just them, which was wonderful.  

                                    Happy Birthday balloony things from the party.  Rayne hung them 

                                    above the dining room entry.  I gonna leave them there all month!

We got to spend some bonding time with little Rosie.  She is just the right age (2 months) to let us hold her without complaint.  Here I am talking to her and enjoying her sweet little smiles in response.

We have quite a few January birthdays in the family.  We celebrated Bruce on Monday night at Reed and Dorothy's.  Miles' birthday was Monday, Abigail's on Thursday and Ben's Jessica on Saturday.  We acknowledged them all.  It has been a birthday week for sure.  Here's Bruce about the blow out his candles on the custom made cake he and Dorothy made.  Can you tell it is a telephone?

After Rayne and Dominic left Wednesday morning, Layne and I went out to dinner.  It was a sweet time with him.  Thursday morning it snowed.  My friend Laurie and I walked in the snow, enjoying the falling flakes thoroughly.  It was a winter wonderland!

                                                                Laurie and me

The local pond

It has been an unbelievable January for me.  I suppose I can confess that, so far, I don't mind being 80.  I feel embraced by the love of family and friends.  Who could ask for more than that?

The Rest of the Year

 Do you ever set up a nice productive routine for yourself and, one day, just rebel and decide to abandon it?  Even though there is no reasonable reason to do so?  That happens to me on a somewhat regular basis.  I have been off blogging as a result of such such a rebellion.  But, at least for now, I'm making myself return and will attempt to do a little catch up.  

2022 has been a baby year for us.  We welcomed our first great-grandbaby of the year in February with the birth of Thomas Galbraith.  A month later Mercedes Adams-Hart arrived.  In August our grandson Chase and his Morgan welcomed their third baby, a cute little boy they named Quin.  There were some scary moments with this pregnancy; as it progressed there appeared to be some danger signs that the baby might have some issues.  But then Quincy arrived as healthy and bright as can be.  Such relief.  And such a blessing!  Shortly after Quin was born, I stopped by, on my way to visit my sister Maryanne.  Gotta see this sweet new baby as soon as possible you know.

Here's Quin at one month.

Older sibs Hunter and Hazel are pretty excited about their new baby brother, as you can see here.

Early September Angelica began her freshman year at BYUI.  Dorothy offered to drive her to school with me, so off we went, early in the morning.  We got her all settled in and began the drive back and made it all in one day!  That's about 10 hours of driving, but it seemed to go pretty smoothly.  So, we are once again empty nesters!  Here's Angelica and Dorothy, in the parking lot of Angelica's apartment complex.  I think she is excited for this new adventure.

Just a week later I flew to California, to spend a little time with the Adams-Harts and attend a shower for Rayne, who was expecting our last great-grandbaby for the year, a little girl.  It was so fun to spend time with them and catch their excitement.  Rayne's hubby, Dominic, is so excited for this baby!  From the looks of all those gifts, she will have plenty of supplies!

I often walk in the mornings with my neighbor, Laurie.  She is a perky, high energy little gal!  On one of our morning walks, we passed by our neighborhood pond/lake and, as we often do, took some pictures.  Mornings are especially lovely I think.  I took this picture of the pond and thought it turned out especially beautiful.  What do you think?

It is so great to have some family here in Idaho now.  Reed and Dorothy have been here for several years and we love it.  Their son Scott and his Jessica (#3) have also settled here, in their first home.  So it is fun to get together for family celebrations.  Reed's birthday came in early September.  What a gentle, fine son he is.  This year he turned 50!  It seems just a short time ago that I did the same.  Wow.  How could it be so?

Grandson Vincent returned from his mission in November, just after his brother Timothy left for his mission.  They missed each other by just one week.  Thank goodness for frequent facetimes.  They connected that way!  Timothy is so excited about his mission; he has been preparing for it for months.  Here he is, just before he left for Texas.

Speaking of missionaries, Seth has now been in New York for over a year!  He is a zone leader now and seems to have found his comfort zone in doing missionary work.  He's a hard worker and loving it.

The holidays came into view very quickly.  It feels like every year of my life passes quicker than the one before.  With no kids at home, Halloween celebrations took on a low profile.  I love the holidays, and decorate for them even if just Layne and I are home to enjoy them.  Soon after Halloween Timothy was gone and Vincent was home.  He seems to be the same easy-going guy he was before he left.  He had a wonderful experience on his mission and has jumped right back into life at home, with two jobs and plans to start school at BYU Provo, winter semester.  

This year we decided to spend each holiday with family.  So we flew to California for Thanksgiving.  It promised to be a special celebration, as Rayne delivered her little girl on November 11th.  She and Dom named her Rose.  So we had little Rosie for Thanksgiving.  The Adams-Hart family has started a new tradition for Thanksgiving; they dress up in formal attire and serve dinner gradually, with lots of different courses.  Each of us prepared one of them, and served them in proper order.  It was very fun to eat fancy food on fancy dishes in fancy clothes.  Even little Rosie was dressed up, as you can see.  Here she is with mama Rayne.

Here is Rosie with Dominic.  Do you think he might like her just a little bit?

The Ben and Jessica (#2) family were in Palo Alto for Thanksgiving, so we spent a couple of days with them and had such fun touring Chinatown in San Francisco and taking a train ride through the Redwoods.  Jessica is a energy bunny and a party girl, so she organized these activities and made them so enjoyable for all of us.  Here is Jacqueline, me, Layne and Alexis, in Chinatown.

It has been a cold, wet winter so far.  There has been an unusual amount of storms and snow.  I love it!  Our singing group started up again for a winter concert, after two years of none, thanks to Covid.  We performed at fewer places, and with fewer singers, but it was fun.  Layne sang a solo and was so good!  His bass voice is perfect with the right song.  Here we are at our friends and family performance.

Angelica's semester at BYUI ended in mid December, just before her birthday.  Layne and I picked her up and celebrated her 19th birthday the next day.  The local family joined us in celebrating her.

Angelica is planning on a mission, and as the time has passed, she has become more and more excited about it.  "I've got to shop for the mission," she often told me.  So dresses, shoes and other such things prompted several shopping trips.  I must mention that Angelica loves to shop!  So this was an especially fun part of her preparations.  She soon got her mission call to Arcadia, California, speaking Chinese.  She is so excited!  She leaves in March.

Christmas came so quickly.  We decided to do something special for Christmas Eve.  We invited the family, and some of our neighbors to our house for a Bethlehem dinner.  It was so much fun!  We filled the tables with all sorts of finger food, lowered the lights, dressed everyone in some biblical clothes and ate with our fingers.  Afterward we went upstairs and read the Christmas story, watched the Church movie on the nativity and did a candle ceremony where we all shared our feelings of gratitude for the Savior and the blessings in our lives.  We shared some Christmas Eve gifts and dessert afterwards.  I think everyone really enjoyed it.  It was my favorite part of Christmas this year.  It seems to me that the activities that lead up to Christmas are the best part of Christmas!  

One of our other activities involved seeing the Christmas lights in Caldwell.  They put on a light show that is amazing.  Christmas lights of all sorts fill the streets, especially around the local river.  It is magnificent!  This year it was really cold as well.  Here is, left to right:  Bruce, Reed, Dorothy holding Thomas, Scott, Jessica (#3), Angelica and Layne.  

It wasn't long before Christmas was over and New Years was upcoming.  We wanted to spend it with Chris and Jessica (#1), in Seattle but the weather was stormy.  But after praying about it, we decided that we should go, so Layne got us last minute tickets to fly instead of drive and we were off.  We had a lovely time with Chris, Jessica and the kids.  Here's Vincent, Chris, Jessica and Miles, during a walk along one of the many lakes nearby Normandy Park, Seattle.

Ben and his Jessica (#2) rented a home on Mercer Island, Seattle area, for this school year to see if the schools would be better than Palo Alto for their kids.  We got together with them the day after New Year's and had another happy, crazy celebration.  We ate pizza, produced massive amounts of confetti, (here you see part of our gang:  Vincent, Jacqueline, Jessica (#2), and Olivia) watched some kid performances and witnessed Jessica (#1) getting a makeover by granddaughter Olivia.

And so, before we know it, we are in another year.  I have great hopes that I'll be more organized, fit, and productive this year.  Hopes run high.  We will see how it all turns out.  I bet it will pass quicker than 2022 even.  Happy 2023!

 

Our Family Reunion

 Every year we have a family reunion, shifting responsibility for it among our kids.  This year Reed and Dorothy were in charge. Dorothy found a lovely place in Bear Lake.  It was our most expensive place yet, but promised to be very nice.  As it turned out, it was just being built when we reserved it.  It was barely finished when we arrived, so we were just about their first visitors.  The place was pretty luxurious.  But, like any new place, there were things that could be improved upon.  The owners asked for our feedback, so we began listing things as we went through the week.  They were little things really, and didn't put much of a dent on our enjoyment.

One of the things I love about our family is that there is little if any contention between families.  It makes our gatherings safe and enjoyable.  Everyone works to accommodate everyone else.  Bear Lake offers a variety of activities; there is shopping, boating, beaching, various places touring and, of course, raspberry milkshakes.  Bear Lake is known for them.  We made sure to get our fill of them.

Some of the family rented fun stuff to do at the Lake.  Some of us toured a nearby cave, which was really interesting.  There were lots of formations inside, which were accessed by lots of stairs going up and down throughout.  A college student was our tour guide and she knew her stuff.  She made it all fun.  I must say that we got enough exercise climbing up and down to last us for a week!  Here is a shot of the longest set of stairs, which our tour guide ran up; it instilled admiration in us all.

Here we are, just after emerging from the cave.  L to R:  Timothy, Bruce, Reed, Dorothy, Layne, Jessica (#1), Chris.

Not all of the family attended the reunion this year.  Our grandchildren are starting to have families of their own, with increased obligations to inlaws and such.  We have decided that we will continue to have our yearly reunions and not worry about who can come and who cannot.  We plan to just leave it open for whoever is available to come.  This year we were missing some of the older grandkids.  But we had fun with the ones who came.  Isaiah and Avery brought their sweet little Mercedes, which everyone made a fuss over.  They are soon to be moving to New York, to go to school at Cornell.  So this will be the last time we see them for awhile.  Avery brought her tree yoga equipment.  (I don't think it is called tree yoga, but it is done from a tree or pole).  She put up the equipment and taught some of the kids some moves.  It is pretty fascinating to watch.  Here you can see Peyton, inside the fabric that is used for the yoga moves.  It might not show, but she is actually in some sort of stretch in this photo.  

Pretty interesting, yes?  Here are a couple of snapshots of Mercedes; in one of them she is with her grandfather Cliff.  Wow, our son-in-law is a grandfather.   Our Jessica is holding her in the second picture. 

It is wonderful to have babies in the family again.  Grandson Scott and his Jessica also came, with their little son, Thomas.  What a cutie he is.  See what you think.  Here he is with his Mom, Jessica (#3).

We had lots of great time to play games and visit.  Our balcony gave us a lovely view of Bear Lake, and also a great view of a robin's nest.  We watched as mama Robin hunted for food for her three big babies and fed them.  It was a treat.  By week's end the babies had all wandered out of the nest and flew away.  

Perhaps our favorite activity was attending a performance of Beauty and the Beast at the local Pickle Theater.  It was amazingly professional.  We all loved it.  It was fun to learn that the girl who played Belle was engaged to the boy who played the Beast, in real life.  Here they are after the performance, with Olivia and Victoria.

Timothy put in his mission papers shortly after his High School graduation this past May.  While at the reunion, the call came.  We all cheered as he read his call to TEXAS DALLAS!  I think he was excited and felt our love and support.  Here he is, reading the mission news to us.

We ate, played, talked, gamed, and just generally had fun together.  Family.  One of the greatest blessings in life.

Late Spring; I found my blog

 For awhile I could not get into this blog.  Don't know why. But I got in today, so I will attempt to catch up a bit.  We have two more great-grandchildren, which are such a sweet blessing.  They are babies, so each time we see them, they are much changed.  Here is a snapshot of me holding Thomas.  He is full of good spirits and cute dimples when he smiles.

Of course it is several months later now, so he is even cuter.  

Angelica's last school dance was in April.  The boy she quite likes asked her in such a cute way.  He lined our sidewalk with chocolate kisses and put a sign on the porch for her which read, "I kiss the ground you walk on...Prom?"  How could you resist that.  Of course she was so excited.  It was a group date, as usual, and which is such a great thing.  They had a glorious time.  Their friendship has grown a great deal these last few months.  After school was out, he asked her to be his girl.  She was excited to say yes.  Of course that arrangement is only good for a few months, as he will soon leave on his mission.  Here is a picture of Angelica and her Clayton, all set for the Senior Prom.

Our Jessica is now working for Alaska Airlines and she is beginning to really enjoy it.  She is working with the recruitment department, trying to get potential pilots onboard with Alaska.  There is quite a shortage of pilots right now, so there is lots of competition between airlines for recruits.  Her working group had a meeting here in Boise in late April.  We got her for a few days visit and loved it.  She drove my little sports car to her meetings and then we played when she wasn't busy.  Here we are, just before she left for home.

Angelica was involved with a dance team that has traveled to various places throughout the school year for competitions.  Some of the competitions were local.  Here she is with her dance group after one of her performances.  Can you spot her on the right?

Some of her competitions were out of state.  The travel and accommodations were up to us to arrange and pay for.  That bothered me quite a bit.  Her lessons were not cheap yet there were no arrangements for group travel or accommodations.  It seems to me that there should have been.  We made trips to Provo, Utah and to Phoenix, Arizona for competitions.  Groups came from all over the west for these.  I watched tons and tons of dance performances.  I thought I'd be in dance heaven, but dancing has changed a good deal from what I remember.  There were lots of hip hop numbers, which I think are basically guy dances.  The girls dress like guys and move like guys in those routines.  It's fun, but call me old fashioned; I don't like to see lovely girls moving like rough guys.  The girl groups were skilled as a rule, but I didn't always like the routines, even those that weren't hip hop.  But it was a fun experience to travel with Angelica and experience all the dance excitement that goes with big groups of girls competing for awards.  Fun times.  And over for Angelica.  She is a lovely dancer, so hopefully she will find an outlet for it during her college years.  Dancing can be, after all, a euphoric experience!

While we were in Phoenix, our Mongolian daughter, Brynn, and her family drove over from Tucson to meet up with us for dinner.  It was so fun to see them.  Here they are, in our motel room, and on their way back home:  Brynn and Roy Long and their boys.

Angelica and three of her cousins, Alexis, Timothy and Peyton, were all high school graduates this year.  Well, Alexis graduated early, but she is the same age as the grads, so we included her in our group of four.  My Jessica and I thought it would be so fun to plan something special for the four so we picked Memorial Day weekend and invited all four and families to come to our place for a weekend celebration.  My mind filled with ideas for making it special.  As it turned out, all of my children came, with many of the grandchildren.  Even Gerald made it, on the wings of our prayers.  

Angelica and Timothy graduated on that Friday night.  The ceremony was held in a large auditorium at the Ford Center, here in the Valley.  It was held in the evening so by the time it was over, it was dark outside, even in the late light of late spring.  Here is a snapshot of Timothy and Angelica after the ceremony.

One of Angelica's graduation pictures.

By Saturday, everyone arrived.  We spent the day visiting and playing games of all sorts.  There was an especially sweet spirit with us.  I spent lots of time planning for the special tribute for the four, to be presented on Sunday, after Church.  I drew portraits of all of them, plus one of Miles, who came and graduated several years earlier.  I felt badly that I didn't do it for him sooner.  I made a slide show of all four through their years and we talked about each one; their personalities and talents and our love for them.  I gave them the portraits and presented a special message about overcoming obstacles.  The Galbraith motto is "strength through opposition" so I used that as my theme, telling them that obstacles are built into our life on this planet and that is a good thing.  Overcoming them is what provides growth and strength.  Nothing to overcome leaves us unchanged.  I gave each of them a picture of the Galbraith crest, the motto and a medallion with the motto on it.  In my mind it was going to be special for them.  Usually things like this don't come off as I imagined, but this time I felt like it mostly did.  The sweet family spirit continued and enlarged upon us throughout the day.  Dinner and dessert was each grad's favorite.  So we had a good selection!  I felt so happy with this weekend; it was a sweet, bonding time, for all I think.  Here is a selection of pictures of the weekend.

TIMOTHY

                                                                            PEYTON

ALEXIS

ANGELICA

MILES

Our four graduates:  Angelica, peyton, Timothy and Alexis

For the first time in a long time, all of our children were together.  My heart melted to see them all gathered in one place.  Here they are:  Gerald, Jessica, Reed, Audrey and Benjamin.

Here are all our girls:  top-me and my Jessica; bottom-Ben's Jessica, Audrey and Dorothy

Here are all the boys:  top-Layne, Benjamin, Gerald, Reed; bottom-Cliff and Chris

Everyone left Monday morning.  All the bedrooms had to be cleaned, and all the bathrooms.  We did it all that day.  Being busy is my antidote for sadness in seeing them leave.  It was a wonderful time!

Peyton's graduation ceremony was in June.  We drove to Seattle for it.  Peyton got tons of awards!  It was a bit of a surprise as she said nothing much about it.  What a lovely girl she is, as you can see from this picture of her.  She plans to attend the University of Arizona, in Tucson; the same university that her brother Miles attends.  It should be a fun experience for her.  I so hope so!

Peyton with the quilt I made for her graduation.

Me and Gemma, who was visiting for the weekend.

It has been a spring full of family and good times with them.  I'm so grateful to have them in my life.  I can't think of anything that could bring more joy.