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!

Reopening

It is June and we are in the process of reopening after months of quarantining. Our spot in Idaho is in the process of trying to get back to normal.  Seth and Angelica are here for the summer for the first time.  Sadly, many of the usual summer opportunities are shut down.  But there is still plenty to do. Angelica is taking several dancing classes and Seth is immersed in Basketball and online classes.  There is plenty of socializing too.  But these are strange times.  The killing of a young, troubled black man by a police officer has set off protests that have spread throughout the country and even to other countries as Black Lives Matter broadcasts their racial offenses and demands that something be done about their grievances.  Subversive, anti-American groups have fanned that flame into extremes as groups demand that statues, flags and monuments that offend them be removed.  As warmer temperatures arrive, wild fires do also.  And so we have a mix of protests, pandemic, fires and chaos that is unsettling and makes us wonder where we will end up when things settle down.  Which hopefully they will.

Our little Star world however is peaceful for the most part.  For the past several weeks we've had almost no end of family company.  We had another wonderful visit from Rayne and Dom, and this time they brought Allegra.  She is full of creative ideas and this time she showed me how to make a quilt out of "jelly rolls" of quilting fabric.  It was such fun!  I made one for Jacqueline, for her birthday and graduation.  I was so proud that I was able to, for the first time, make an actual pieced quilt.  Here it is.

Allegra also helped me pick our abundantly producing strawberry patch and make freezer jam.  I just can't hold that girl down.  

A few days after they left, Jessica, Miles and Peyton arrived, on their way to Tucon, AZ, to check out Miles university, the U of Arizona.  They spent several days with us and set up a badminton net, introducing late night badminton marathons that most of us participated in.  Such fun!  It doesn't get dark until 10 PM or so, so the games went on and on until no speck of the birdie could be distinguished.  That made for fun-filled, late nights.  Believe it or not it was after 9 PM when this picture was taken.

Jess and kids left on Saturday, picked up Chris at the airport, and headed for Tucon. But before they left, Audrey and Cliff came for another visit.  Working remotely opens up lots of possibilities for traveling and I'm so grateful to be the happy recipient of it.  Cliff refinished our dining room table and it looks so good!  He loves a project and accomplished it with relish.  Here he is with Seth, Miles and Vincent, our boys that love munching best, next to badminton.

After Audrey and Cliff left, a couple days later Jessica returned with Chris and the kids, on their way home from Tucon.  It was blazing hot there, as you may imagine, so it was no fun to also experience some raging wildfires nearby.  They cooled off with our 90 degree days.  Badminton returned, as Reed and Dorothy and boys joined us for lots of family bonding.  Here's Vincent, Peyton, Seth, Angelica and Miles.

Here are Reed and Jessica with me, in the gazebo.

The Gendreau family left on Saturday.  Wow, what an amazing, family-filled June we have had.  In between and during these fun times, Seth was invited to the Prom.  Thanks to the Corona Virus all such activities have been cancelled.  But the local shopping "village" offered to host a summer prom for the local kids.  So Seth was invited to go by a cute gal named Julia.

The whole affair was a rather last minute deal.  We hurried to get Seth some suitable clothes to wear (he is growing so fast!) and order a corsage for Julia.  We were ready when, on the day of the prom, it was suddenly cancelled.  Hum.  Due to an increase in virus cases locally, there would now be no dance.  Suits and dresses are bought, tickets paid for,..what to do?  The kids themselves arranged for some substitute activities and the whole affair was on, beginning with pictures.  Here is a sample of Seth and Julia, Vincent and his date.

So, in all those lovely clothes, they ate fast food, played sports and went swimming.  Hum.  Not exactly what they had in mind in the beginning but they had fun, fancy clothes and all.

Another wonderful event has taken place this month.  Grandson Isaiah is engaged!  He met his special girl, Avery, in California just a few months ago and they clicked right from the start.  They will be married the end of August.  

So amidst the chaos of this time, there is reason to celebrate and feel grateful.  And we do.

Corona Virus

I've not written in this post since January.  I know. Bad.  But since I got my new computer I haven't been able to access my post page.  Until now.  Rayne, Dom and Allegra are here right now and Dom, after months of frustration on my part, figured out the problem.  So now it works; I can post.  So I am.

The blog format is different now.  And more frustrating.  It just erased my total catch-up entry!  No amount of "undoing" helps.  Sigh.  So now I begin again.  

These are unusual times.  Never-before times.  In March we, and the rest of the world, received a gift from China; the Corona Virus.  It spread quickly, inciting panic all over the world.  The almost universal response was to quarantine EVERYONE!  This has never happened before so no one knew quite how to respond.  Our state governments responded in various forms of pressure for everyone to stay home.  Businesses and schools closed.  Nothing was happening for several months.  Those who ventured out to shop for food wore masks.  In some places they were mandatory.  Life changed as people locked themselves away.  For about a month it seemed to work.  But as time went by people began to risk venturing out.  Many continued to wear masks.  Some businesses failed with the shut-down; many workers lost needed income.  The Government sent most of us money to compensate.  It is a crazy, new world!  How dangerous is this virus?  We don't really know, except to say that it prefers the elderly and those with compromised immunity.  These are not normally in the work force.  So why lock up our workers, who have a high resistance to the virus or who tend to quickly recover when they get it?

It is June now and after going through various stages of reopening the economy, things are almost all opening up.  How will this all turn out?  We have yet to know.  And so I proceed with our lives here, beginning in February.

February offered Seth and Angelica a chance to go to the High School's Sweetheart Ball.  They each had dates and planned it for weeks.  Seth ordered a special jacket for the event.  What do you think?

Angelica also looked lovely but I didn't get to take her picture.  Gerald and Frances were here for awhile.  We so enjoy them and it is good for the kids to have their folks nearby, parenting them in the flesh.  Frances is a wonderful cook and made meals for us most nights they were here.  She's also an enthusiastic photographer.  Here's a sample of one of her shots.

Gerald always get involved with all the kids' activities.  He is a gifted Dad and a blessing to have with us.  

Here's Gerald and Frances, in Taiwan.

We had other family visitors too.  Rayne and Dominic have visited several times.  Dominic loves Idaho so they come to take in the world of Idaho quite often.  In fact, they came just this past week, with Allegra.  Dom loves to bake so he made bread several times.  He also loves to set a fire in our fire pit. We enjoyed a marshmallow roast one night as we took in a beautiful sunset.

Before the lockdown my girls and Rayne came for a girls' weekend.  One of the things we did was paint to a youtube video, using acrylics.  So fun.  Here is the result, showing me, Jessica, Rayne and Audrey.

When the lockdown began, school was cancelled and the kids were home all of the time.  So I began home schooling.  After awhile the high school figured out how to offer classes online so the kids continued their studies that way, ending my homeschooling efforts.  In spite of no outside school, they keep busy.  They are keen on exercise and cooking as well as online school.  Here is Seth working one of his culinary creations.  He shares!

 

Seth is moving in on 6'5" tall now!  Angelica is way into dancing.  She's been working hard on doing the splits.  With lots of stretching, she has accomplished it.  Here she is working on it but not quite there yet.

The glam flavor was accomplished by one of her friends, eager to try her hand at creative photography.

Spring came under quarantine.  Blossoms sprouted all over the neighborhood.  It is hard to imagine a lovelier sight.

We are blessed by regular visits from family, even with the ever-present virus threat.  Thankfully, no one we know has been victimized by it.  Here is a taste of our family visits.

Audrey and Cliff came one weekend.

They were joined by son Chase, his wife Morgan and kids Hunter and, here, Hazel.  Chase just earned his Master's degree and is so excited to be done with school and on the brink of a new job in Utah.

Here is a close-up of Hazel, who we all agree, at one year old, is a feminine version of her Dad.

We had some fun adventures with family but mostly we just hang out together.  Here you can see some genuine bonding between Layne, Angelica, Rayne and Dom....or can we?

Reed and Dorothy live near us now. What a blessing that is.  Here we are immersed in a card game...that I lost soundly with every round.  You can see observer Reed, master players Dorothy and Morgan, winning hands of Audrey, sitting by the hands of Angelica.  I stopped losing long enough to take this shot.

This past week we have enjoyed a visit from Dominic, Rayne and Allegra.  Allegra's birthday is this month so I took her shopping one day and we planned a special dinner for her on Saturday.  She wanted homemade potstickers, and made them herself with the help of Angelica and Rayne.  

As of today, things here are opening up. We can go shopping now and do just about everything almost normally.  It is a new normal.  The death of a black man at the hands of a policeman has set off protest demonstrations all over the country as protestors cry foul, enraged by extremists who love to create chaos and destruction.  What will come of it?  I can't imagine any good thing.  But our life right here in this spot is peaceful and lovely.  I'm grateful for that and pray that peace, intelligence and goodness will be the forces to spread, and that we will be better for the struggles of the past few months.  Here's hoping.

Homeschooling

The Corona Virus still rules.  Shut-downs continue to increase.  We are counseled to stay home and away from other people.  It is a different world!  We are staying home for the most part, but still venture out for the necessities.  Today, Sunday, was a Church-wide fast for the Virus scare to end.  In the meantime, I've started a homeschooling program for the kids.  I've decided that the most important subjects to teach are American History and Economics.  American History because school curriculums these days are quite anti-American.  I can't understand why we would teach our children to have contempt for their own country.  Especially since this country is the best the world has ever seen.  Far from perfect and not without many faults, but I challenge anyone to find a better system or more benevolent country than this one generally is.  So I've started the kids on Hillsdale College's course on American History.  I'm taking it too.

The other subject, Economics, I feel is also important since our children are also being conditioned to think that socialism is a superior system.  Which it most certainly is not.  So we are also beginning a study of Economics and Capitalism.  I'm also having them write and do keyboarding and a little bit on Ethics.  There are many offers of curriculum online that appear in my e-mail since just about all American students are now home.  So there is plenty to do and plenty of choices to help us do them.

Granddaughter Rayne and her husband, Dominic, have been here all of this past week.  They are now working from home, like so many people who are still able to work through this quarantine.  So they made their home with us for awhile and we loved it.  Dominic is full of fun; he cooked for us and so did Rayne.  We broke Dominic into Pride and Prejudice while they were here.  We watched an episode every night.  I think we hooked him on it though he would never admit it.

Here's Dominic at work in the kitchen.  I think I've gained a bit of weight from all the cooking that went on this week.  So yummy!

Grandson Isaiah arrived on Friday night and spent the night with us on his way home to California.  All three of them left on Saturday.  It seems a little empty around here now. 

Here's Rayne and Dom, with Isaiah below, saying goodbye on Saturday.

We had Church at home today.  I really enjoy that.  Layne and Seth blessed the Sacrament and each of us gave a presentation on the Come Follow Me curriculum. 

There is a lot to be said for being home without obligations.  Except for homeschooling, our time is open to our own desires.  I have a lot of personal "to do's" so there are no boring moments.  Perhaps this new experience with wide-spread quarantine will teach us all some lessons in self-reliance and caring for others.  Surely some good will come of it.