Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We stayed at home this year. Sally and her family came to join us. Holly and her family stopped by on their way back to Reno. I managed to get a few good shots of everyone.

Home Improvements

One of the major events at our home this summer was all the improvements that were done outside. The EPA, as part of the superfund project, removed about 18 inches of soil that they felt was contaminated. Having seen some of their work the past few years there were some things I definitely didn't want and some that I did. They were very good at working with us. I hired a friend, who is a landscaper, to come in and do most of the finishing work in the yard. As you can see in the accompanying photos things turned out really well.

We also had a shed built to put more of our "stuff" in. They have just finished bricking the exterior to match our home. Yes, all those pallets of brick that were placed around the house are no longer there. We are very pleased with all the work that was done. Our only regret is that it took until mid November to complete it all. Now we have to wait for Spring to see what all the plants will look like in bloom.

Evinn's Hat

This has become one of my favorite pictures. A few weeks ago I was working at my computer in the basement. Evinn crawled in to see me. She then explored the room and found a plastic mirrored half sphere that her dad had been using in an experiment. When I looked over at her she had placed it on her head like a hat. Now she does it all the time. What a blessing it has been for Sarah and I to have one of our grand children so close.

Sarah and I had a great trip to Alan's for our Fall Break. It was good to see them all. Alan is doing great with his job. Emily is a stay at home mom who puts in a full time job raising three beautiful kids. While we were there we went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch. The kids had a lot of fun. You've heard of a sand box? Well Ben found a "corn box" and spent a lot of time there.

Catching Up

We've had a great summer visiting and being visited by our loved ones. I tried to remember to take pictures but only ended up with a few. This posting includes a picture of Ethan and myself on our 4 wheeler. It was the hit of the summer. Everyone got the bug and was out riding around. A week ago we went to Sally's home in Logan for a few days. Sarah can't resist a trip to DI whenever there's one nearby and this trip was no exception. She and our little Claire found a wooden rocking horse and Sarah rushed to it and got there just before another shopper. I managed to snap a photo of Claire enjoying it at home. Finally, I noticed that with all the postings I made I've failed to show a photo of our little Evinn. We see her on a regular basis as her family lives in our basement. She will be one this month.

Meeting #20

Over the July 4th holiday Sarah and I traveled to Monticello and spent some time with our 20th grandchild, Aaron Taylor Nielson. What a good looking kid! And all that hair too! One of the pics shows Logan (#12) wearing my hat. He sure liked it for some reason. Sarah and I went to dinner one night and Logan was worried about where we were. Then he looked in the room and saw my hat. He told his mom everything was okay because we would come back to get the hat. We also took some time and went to the local pool to cool off. That picture includes Parker (#8) and Ryan (#15) along with Logan, John David, and a very pale grandpa.

Vacation Photos--Part 2

The Blog site wouldn't let me upload more than five photos at a time. So these are the next four. Read the previous post for the story on them.

Warning--Vacation Photos Ahead!!

Don't say you weren't warned. Sarah and I took a three day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico last weekend. We had a wonderful time together. We've posted several picture here. The only picture we really got of us together was during the lifeboat drill. Our hands are covering the reflective tape so you can see us.

One thing we learned about cruises is don't sign up for tours and pay for them while on board. We weren't going to doing much but walk around because of the prices quoted on board. Then when we got into town we found the exact same tours for half price. We opted for the tour that also took us horseback riding on the beach. It was lots of fun although Sarah couldn't get along with her horse. Or maybe it's better said her horse couldn't get along with her, or my horse, or anyone else's horse. We had a fun ride by the beach and saw some beautiful homes there. You can buy a home on the beach for $89,000. We might have to change our retirement plans.

At La Bufadora we saw a blow hole. There was an Aztec dancer there entertaining the crowd. We then spent the rest of the day in Sarah's favorite sport- - -shopping. I even got into the action which is unusual for me.

When we returned to the ship the porter had decorated our room with a towel he folded to look like a monkey. On another day we got a pelican. He was sure talented.

We didn't go in for much of the activity on Board (drinking, gambling, pool parties, etc.). We mostly kept to ourselves. We did manage to get on a shuffleboard court the last day of the cruise. The food was great and we met a couple of nice people.

So there you have it. We plan on doing this again sometime.

Visits from Our Grandchildren

We had a visit this past weekend from several of our grandchildren. Both Dianna and Sally came for a couple of days. As you can see in the photos Ron got a moment with Claire and Ryan while Sarah took a cookie break with Parker, Logan and Kevin. Ron also took the boys for a 4 wheeler ride.

Fun In Sparks, NV

Sarah and I went to Sparks, Nevada over the weekend to welcome home our grandson, Johnny, from his mission in Guatemala. While we were there they decided to celebrate Jordan's birthday a couple of days early. We had a great time but we are worn out. We don't plan on much travel for the next few months after all we've done lately.

Elder Billie's Return

Our oldest grandson, Johnny, got home from his mission yesterday. Holly emailed me this picture. We're headed out to Reno this weekend to see him.

Parker and Ryan

Sarah took a neat photo of Parker and Ryan playing a video game while she was down there a while back. It's so cute it needed posting.

Ruth's Kids

I've been after Ruth for several months to update some of her pics of her kids. Those included here show Joseph as Harry Potter, James as Spiderman, Ethan as Obi Wan Kenobi, and Maddison as Minnie Mouse for Halloween. I took while we were out there in late October.

Grandkids

The joy of our life is our grandchildren. Number 20 is expected in June. This post shows pictures of a recent trip to Oregon. We visited the kids school and got pics of Raven singing in her choir and Wyatt in a class play as Daniel Boone. The kids have two birds at home that they enjoy. The pic of Levi show him holding one. I can't remember if it's Bert or Ernie.

Next Post

We also recently took a second trip to Florida for the National School Boards Convention. While there we went back to Siesta Key Beach which we discovered on a earlier trip with our friends Gary and Cathy Kennedy. We had to go back.