Idaho Fun

Trying to get in another July post!

I like to post pictures.... truth be told Mom took all the good pictures with the camera Dad got her for Christmas but since she's not sharing... those parents! They are traveling up a storm this summer...  That's what you get for having 8 kids :)

Anyway, I had fun the rest of the weekend with the parents up in Rexburg after Angela's recital... even though my blowup mattress sprung a leak that first night :(. We spent the time together driving around the valley while Dad and mom reminisced.  I doubt there will be much reason for any of us to go up that way again... even though Mom and Dad grew up there.

First, we drove up the back way towards Island Park to see a big waterfall.

Dad said they used to walk right up to the edge and throw sticks in the water to watch them go over the edge.

Mom took lots of pictures,

Emily tried to fly away,

While Dad surveyed all the changes they had made.

We tried to feed the fish at Big Springs but the only wildlife there were a few ducks and many many seagulls.  So we fed them the leftover cream cheese chili tortilla rolls from Angela's recital.

Mom thought it was a better rounded meal with fats and vegetables than the bread most people fed them.  Some of those seagulls were very determined. Mom took lots of pictures.

That night my family was kind enough to let me meet up with an old college roommate Kristi Hirschi (talk about feeling old... that was so many years ago!).  It was way fun to catch up.

I'm not very good at the meet old friends thing. You should see the number of instant messages it took to even set it up... making decisions of where to eat is not one of my many strong suits.  But Kristi was nice enough to meet with me and my family and catch me up on her life and other of our mutual acquaintances. Isn't it nice to have friends who keep up with you and others?  I can imagine myself apart of their lives without actually having to do anything... or actually interacting.  Facebook and blogging is the best for this :)  Thanks again Kristi!

The next day Angela got to come with us and we headed over to "the basin"... or Driggs as it is sometimes called.  Its amazing what you can learn driving around with parents.

We had some good ice cream in Victor.

Emily saw a beautiful farm for sale so she looked up the price. 1.8 million.

Ya... won't be moving there anytime soon.

Apparently its getting a little too close to Jackson Hole.  Dad and Mom couldn't believe the changes that have happened up there.  Dad was amazed at the number of hangers and tie down places at the small airport.

That last evening we ended up at the sand dunes (cuz I wanted to go).

Mom took lots of pictures with her bird watching camera.

I asked Dad to take pictures with my phone.  Here Emily and I are getting ready to jump off the sand dunes... lots of stretching.

Ya for jumping!

My shoes are still sandy...

Dad's a great photographer!

And then we headed back.

I love spending time with family and I've always loved that area of Idaho.  It was really beautiful and nice and cool for this Las Vegasan. Hope I get a chance to go back up there again sometime!

OK.. I still have a few more posts which I plan on doing in August.  I've been ill so that's my current excuse.  Don't know why its so hard to get back into blogging... wish me luck :)

Angela's Recital

Angela invited me to her senior recital last week and since allegiant kindly flies from Vegas to Idaho, I was able to attend... I took a bunch of pictures but will spare you many of them.

Just want to mention that it is way fun to go to the airport and be in IF in just a couple hrs. Allegiant certainly nickle and dimes you, and its customer service leaves something to be desired, but I do appreciate the direct flight options from Vegas!

Anyway, back to the recital, here she is practicing before.

Emily noticed something hanging from the back of Angela's chair.

Angela is very special handling...

She decided it probably should be taken of for the recital so Emily complied.

As you can see many family members came as well...

Do you see Aunt Helen?  Emily took a picture of Father sitting at the back of the recital hall.  Perhaps she will post about it :)

As it is, Angela did a great job and looked great up on the big stage.

I took a few video's cuz I was trying to make one small enough to text to the bro's and sis's... never worked :(

I will not post all the videos, but I will do one allegro...

And one from her last memorized piece that is a little slower (shakey cuz I tried to zoom closer)...

Of course it all sounded very nice.

But here is my favorite video...

Emily and I very much enjoyed it... so much so that Angela couldn't look at us when she bowed after her pieces.

Afterwards, there was a small reception.  Apparently feeding people is not just a mormon thing (i looked it up... its a senior recital thing. And yes, I believe everything I read on the internet)...

Did u notice Jesus blessing out food? Don't know why they put the handicapped girl upstairs and the other recital an hr later downstairs... first come first served I say.

Still, alot of people came... so most of the mounds of food Mother had bought/made (and I did not stop her) was actually eaten.  Those college kids, always up for free food.

Although we did eat leftovers the rest of the weekend...

Which will be another post.

Fun In New Mexico

July is really getting away from me in the blogsphere so I'm gonna post about the 4th, and then about going up to ID for Angela's recital... mostly because I just want to share the pictures :).

I didn't get to take a whole week off of work to spend with the family but I was able to crowd lots of fun into the short amount of time there. The fourth is my favorite holiday of all time... so much goes on.

This was mom's 4th of July breakfast.  She was the only one who took the effort.

Funny story, I forgot to beat the eggs before I put them in so the pancakes were a little flat.  I didn't say anything and nobody else mentioned the skinnyness so I think it was OK.

Then it was off to the community parade and fair the church does on the back lawn.

I asked Jenny to take a few pictures with my camera... see Aaron there in the back?

He was the one who was supposed to be painting faces.  I had not planned on it.  But Aaron got his two nieces and I to paint so that he didn't have to.

I thought it was actually fairly brilliant but was wished for a little warning and I would have brought my own brush... This year the only strange request I got was for some animated character I didn't recognize.  The rest was all fireworks with a few flags thrown in there.

That afternoon we made enough food to feed Johnson's army but we didn't have very many show up...

Aunt Lynn had graciously let us use her backyard even though she was in Utah for Clark's new baby to be blessed.

Do you like the red white and blue?  Mom shore went all out.

Aaron and his shadow... Jacob actually was very talkative so I don't know if shadow is the right word..

At the end we did have a much bigger crowd cuz 2nd cousin Lincoln and his family came down from Los Alamos and then the (Grandpa) Scott and Julie Parkinson family came over for ice cream.

I of course only got bad pictures of the fireworks.

I had mentioned to Dad one of the reasons I was sad I had to fly instead of driving was that I couldn't bring my bike and do the LA loop.  I have wanted to for a while but last time I tried the lab road had been closed because of the fire.  Dumb fire.

So of course Dad went to Santa Fe and rented a bike for me.  Be careful what you ask Dad for.  Remember 3 yrs ago when all I asked for was a small sword made out of  a 1X2 for a Halloween costume?  I shoulda known.

So I rode it as much as I could.  On the second day, I did the loop... and got a flat tire...

But I made it all the way around !  About did me in.  I looked up the mileage but now I can't remember.  About 30 miles?  The elevation gain was quite a bit because you go up and down canyons.  Apparently I'm not in a good shape as I have been in the past.  I'm determined next time to be more ready and hopefully feel much better after doing it.

On Sat we helped Dad with his building.  Tom didn't want me up on the scaffolding after Dad almost pulled me off while he was trying to position the purlin I was holding.

So I handed him bolts (picture courtesy of Jenny)

I like this sequence of pictures.

You ready?  I"m going to take the drill/wrench thingy up to dad.

Here I go.

(Notice Mom not watching)

And there it is.

I just liked walking on the concrete pad I designed.  Not very often I get to do that :)

I had tons of fun in NM (as usual) but it shore felt like a whirlwind trip.  Its never long enough. Next post, Idaho!

Stay away from the Quilts

This is a little random, but I didn't feel like writing up the other posts I have ready and I wanted another June post.
Been listening to some books about quilting people (Elms Creek Quilters... very easy listening... fluffy).

This spring I happened to find a weekend quilt show going on in Henderson... so I went.

I saw lots of quilts...

BTW, do you what a "Bed Turing Presentation" is?  I thought it sounded very interesting and had a couple ideas... none of which were right.  In truth, it was a bed with some old (some might say antique) quilts laid out. Two gloved ladies standing on each side reverently picked up each one and displayed it as another lady with a microphone read through an explanation.  Interesting... but not at all what I imagined.

Now you know too.

But here was my favorite part...

I liked these two the best.

They had other warning signs relating to quilting but I didn't understand those so they weren't funny :)

Don't worry, I can admire quilts and all the work that goes in them without making one myself.

(My prayers and thoughts continue to be with Melissa, Dan, Mitchell, and new baby Bunn)

Memorial Weekend

I wanted to put Mums on graves this last memorial weekend so I went back up to Utah even though I had just been there the weekend before.

Kinda crazy I know.  I really need to look into flying.
And then Emily got sick... but at least we had watched Star Trek the night BEFORE she got sick (it was great!).

So I dug in the garden, ran some errands and darned socks while Emily laid down.  Sunday we sat out under the tree in Emilys back yard.

I then made Emily take me to see the Provo Tabernacle on stilts.  I of course had forgotten my phone so no pictures :( but it was awesome. I love me some concrete and rebar! We also found the graves in the Provo Cemetery we had put Mums on a couple of years ago.

Then Monday morning I was sick... but determined to go to the Salt Lake cemetery and see the graves there.  Its why I'd come up for goodness sakes! So Emily drove us there.

I mostly laid out on the grass in the shade or sun, depending on how I felt, while Emily grave hunted. These were Dad's people.  Previously we had found the relatives of some of these people up in Eagles Landing (?).

 Go Emily!  She's a good Mum carrier.

We have Clark's on both sides... its a common name.  We are related to the man buried here though the daughter of the first wife who died in England.  Benjamin brought his daughter with him over to the US where we assume she stayed in Illinois (?) because she is buried there.  He took his granddaughter of this daughter with him to SLC.

 This is a sad story.. we spent alot of time at these Moss's headstones because though we were looking for Moss's, these head stones were not the people we were looking for.  We finally figured out they were buried there (Jackson Moss and his wife? Ask Emily) but no gravestones. :(

 We found these Moss's! I love that picture of Emily.

 And some Busbys. The infamous Lydia who has so many different versions of her name. Guess who picked out the yellow Mums...

The SLC cemetery is one big puppy so we didn't actually see many of the famous peoples graves.  They were over on the other side... but in a Romney plot along the way, I found this lady.

I had to take a picture.  Emily thought I may have been a little irreverent but I've been called Melly Smelly in my life so really I'm just connecting with the dead.  I'm sure she understands :)

I think the most fun part of the day was knowing that the parents, Bethanie and family, and Jared and family were all doing the same thing up in Idaho.  It was a good day of remembrance.

Utah fun 2 - HANG TIME!

I've had this ready but just didn't post...

Hang Time is an indoor trampoline park.  There is more than one in the area by Emily but this one was the closest.  It was acutally pretty fun.

I got some fun pictures...

 but the real fun was the videos...

Andrew could do flips.

Natalie started out just jumping.

Emily spent some time teaching Hannah how to flip.

I tried a bunch more videos but they didn't work out as well as I had hoped... here's a few to free to skip.

Emily teaching Natalie to flip..

The tail end of Natalie's flip and Hannah jumping...

And Natalie practicing what Emily taught.

They played quite a bit in the squash pit.

Hannah obligued by taking acouple of pictures of me too!

Well.. and Emily.

I always think its fun to take pictures of the picture taker..

The full scene..

I think the kids really enjoyed it and were all tired out by the end.  The hour was plenty long and in fact the girls were done at the end of the hr, asking to go home before time was called.

We of course made them get their full hour worth of jumping time... poor kids.