Home at last... for how long?

Glacier

yellowstone New look for front and backyard

coit tower, San Francisco

Bonnie and kids back home in Moscow one of our babybirds in the backyard

snow on top of Logan pass at Glacier

Stanford University Redwoods

Fishermen's wharf, San Francisco
Golden Gate bridge Trolley in SF

Looking at this year's photo album, it seems we had a major trip for every month. I feel a bit exhausted, and wouldn't mind staying home for a while. The yard looks fabulous, esp. since Sam and I put in some real muscle in the front and back, ripping out whole flowerbeds and doing them over.

Of course, we did our monthly trip.... right after I got back from visiting with Emily in Vegas, I had a short week to recover and it was time to help Bonnie get back home. She had spent almost a month with us, having fun and visiting, but it was so much more hectic than we had planned, that she needs to come back soon, so we can do all the stuff we had planned but never got around to. So we drove to Moscow, in 2 cars, and then took the short cut thru Glacier and Yellowstone and the Tetons home. Glacier is still as lovely as ever, they had just opened the week before and were busy with road construction, lots of snow still at the top. It was so nice to see all the lakes and reservoirs full. And the wild flowers were just beautiful and so abundant.

I guess I never posted any pictures from our San Francisco Trip. It was great fun and we had the time of our lives. Sam had grown up in Palo Alto; and had an Aunt in San Francisco, so those were all his old stomping grounds and I had a superb tour guide. I was so impressed by Stanford. What a beautiful University. What a lucky guy to have gone to school there. I loved the Redwoods too. (Emily said it would be easier to do my writing first and then do the pictures... we shall see... well, the pictures are a horrible jumble... maybe I can add some sense to them.

Sam's Father's Day Gift

Here is Sam's Father's Day gift from Marti and Bonnie. They took him to Bear World where he got to feed some baby bears. He wasn't so sure he wanted to but the video seems to show him having the time of his life. I've rarely seen him smile so much! Sam actually got to feed all 6 baby bears. the trainers put 3 blue pallets on the ground, turned off the electric wire and the 3 cubs hopped on and were ready. They each had 5-7 bottles of Lamb's milk (I didn't know lambs gave milk). And all the happy feeders got to rotate thru feeding one bottle at a time. Most of them were little kids, who were a bit reluctant to be so close to a bear. Not Sam. He was petting and rubbing them and really interacting. I almost wished we could have brought one home for him. The whole feeding took over an hour, so I think he definitely got his money's worth. It sure looks like this was the best Father's day gift ever. (I wonder how they'll top that one next year.) As you can see, Sam petted everything, even warthogs. I was a bit more selective.....the baby deer was my favorite.

After bear world Marti and Bonnie prepared a deluxe dinner.... Sam sure was happy (ham, twice baked potatoes and corn on the cob).

Mother's Day, Baby Blessing andSoggy Northwest trip

These two got cut out of the middle for some reason. You'll know where they fit when you get there.

This is just an after-thought, of course it pops up at the beginning... These lovely Rhododendron were in bloom everywhere in Oregon in a riot of different colors. Almost like dogwoods in the south everyone had several in their front yards. I love them, even in the rain.



Part of the group that participated in little Grace's blessing. We did it at Alysia and Topher's Poolhouse, which was thoroughly lysoled beforehand and everybody had to desinfect their hands first and was not allowed to breathe on her. Grace was such a darling little doll that evening. She was wide awake and looked around and never said a peep. We had a little birthday celebration for Jared afterwards with authentic mexican piniata and all. Here is little Aaron, longingly eyeing the birthday cake.

Alysia with adorable Grace, dressed in a dream of a blessing dress made by her grandma Andersen. Emily and her birthday boy Jared.

We had a girls (and 2 boys) lunch special , Topher was kind enough to babysit his daughter and Buggy and I went and met Emily and Dacia in Am. Fork. Caden was a doll and Gavin was his usual self (very cute and silly). Somehow the stupid thing cut out a whole bunch of pictures, so now, of course they will end up at the beginning, oh well, you should be used to my very unprofessional blogging by now.

I Iwas invited to a Mother's day dinner at Jen's... by Emily. They all collaborated and fixed a super fantastic dinner with virgin Margaritas and the whole works. The kids misunderstood and ran thru the house proudly announcing: we're drinking alcohol !!!

Here is a majority of my cute kids and great cooks

Grandpa Sam is always very popular for reading books.

Here are the cute producers of this marvellous fruit torte. It didn't just look good, it also tasted amazing.

Aren't they all just adorable! Eat your hear out, they are all mine, and I even have several more, just as amazing and cute!










Now you know where they got it from......Baby Grace, of course!

Last week we visited Sheila for a big birthday bash . First we saw them all in Portland, then we played in the rain on the coast for a while, and finally we met up by Bend for more partying. Lots of fun, not very warm and rather wet. We actually didn't have to go that far, we could have had cold and wet right here in IF.
Here Sheila is unwrapping her birthday gift from Sam... some books, what did you expect.














This is a little Volcano in the Sunriver/Bend area. The day we got there, the weather was pretty good, so we got to go to the top of it, enjoy the super view and wander thru the lava fields.

Christi said this stuff is called Scottish Broom. I know it from Europe as Ginster. It was in bloom all along the Oregon coast and rather pretty.

We admired some rather noisy sealions in Newport by the harbour.

A spectacular view of the Oregon coast. Sam and I never get tired of it.

This one is for Emily, and she knows why.

Happy first of May in Idaho Falls

May 1st in Idaho Falls, they had 6" in Pocatello this morning. I think Spring got cancelled.

Grace's room is almost ready for her, we spent last weekend painting polka dots and sewing curtains and crib stuff. Here are a few cute people holding darling Grace. I got to feed her, then Sam rocked her to sleep. We are quite the team

Marti's Andrew graduated in Mechanical Engeneering from Byu. We came to celebrate with them.

On the way back from Atlanta, we decided on a shortcut.... I-70 all the way to I-15, without the cutoff thru Price... Wow what scenery! I hadn's seen the San Raphael Swell in years. It was like being back in BYU Geology class on a field trip. Amazingly beautiful, even if it took us a whole hour and a half longer, it was well worth the extra time.





Spring in Atlanta, that was in early April, Sam took me to the local Botanical Garden, and we almost melted, that day, it decided to be 90 degrees, and 90% humidity. But the flowers were lovely.

On the way home from Dollywood (in the Great Smokey Mountains) we stopped at the Forbidden Caves and admired the upside down bats. They really looked stuffed to me, but the guide insisted that they were real ones, just sleeping now.







And here is Dollywood. Kim and kids just finished the 2nd or 3rd time on the "Raging- Rapids -get- totally- soaked" ride. Must be fun to go "squoosh, squish", with every step for the rest of the day, they couldn't get enough of it. Sam and I really enjoyed the international Dance Festival. We got to see the Mexicans, the Russians and the Irish.

Here is Baby Grace, fairly new, when I got to hold her for the first time.

So, it looks like I did it again, must be a slow learner. I got all the pictures in the wrong order, newest at the top, oldest at the bottom.
And I thought I was a total genious, after just having slaved over the quarterly Family News Letter, I thought, now wouldn't it be slick, if I just pasted that whole thing into my blog.... it all seemed to work, and then it told me to forget it, it was a bad file or something. So since I didn't feel to write this all again, you just get the abbreviated version, if you want to know more, read the family news letter.

Writing this and looking at all the pictures, I realized that Sam and I really have been on quite a few trips this year already. Blame it on the weather. Blowing snow and temps in the "- "range are just not our favorites. If they don't cancel spring and summer up here, we should stay put for a bit.... little Grace permitting.