Thanksgiving on the Mesa

Logan the Explorer enjoyed being a mountain goat!

We had a great Thanksgiving with wonderful weather, great visitors, and fun activities.  Nathan & Tammy, Rob & Kathryn, and Anthony& Ashley and their families all arrived Wed. night, so we got to do things with them thru Sunday.  We had a delicious dinner Thursday, and also invited Brother Larry Dennison to come join us.  He was #14 for dinner.  He used to go hunting with Steve in the early days, and knows our family pretty well.  He's all alone now, and I think he enjoyed being with us. He even stayed and played the games.
  Everyone helped with the food prep: Ashley with her signature Corn bread dressing, Tammy with yummy Frog Eye Salad, and Kathryn with delicious white rolls.  We had two kinds of turkey which we munched on all weekend. Steve smoked a turkey earlier in the week and we cooked it on Wed. On the last day I made shredded Mexican taco filling with the last of the turkey.  I had never fixed left over turkey that way, but it was delicious with some black beans in it and seasoning.  It was good both as a burrito and as a taco.  It was great not having left-overs, and I appreciated everyone helping to eat up all the things in the fridge before they left.
    I hope you all have been writing in your Gratitude Journals, and keep encouraging each other to do so every day.  I'm a firm believer that grateful people are happy people.  While I was getting desserts ready, and loading the dishwasher, we had everyone, including Bro. Dennison start their gratitude journal.  I've written in ours several times since then.  I think pretty much everyone wrote that day, and hopefully, have continued.  I don't know if Steve has added any more, however.  I hope he sees this and remembers it's a daily habit! 

We also played a "hot potato" gratitude game with our stuffed fabric cornicopia veggies and fruits.  One of the kids started it by identifying the first letter of the fruit, and said something they were thankful for that started with that lettr, then he tossed it to another person, and it went round and round, until we had saturated the letter with all the blessings we could think of.  Once we got through playing, we went back to the table for dessert.
    Later we played several whole group games: The West Wind Blows, Name bopper, Categories, and Chinese writing.  Who knew that Anthony could speak Chinese!  We had a ton of fun, and laughed a lot.  It was good for all of us.  It was so fun playing games with the grandkids, and seeing their sense of humor coming through, and making jokes along with their parents.  We all need more humor in our lives and less harshness.
    Coyote calling, of course, was one of the activities of the weekend, as well as target practice with the kids (they weren't the targets -- they were shooting too!). 

We went on a hike at Bluff Bench and Recapture Pocket, made a few "Black Friday" trips to Alco! and visited and played table games.  We found the can Chris's family hid last Easter with the GPS co-ordinates.  It didn't look like anyone had found it yet.

Who are those crazy explorers?

Hiking on the slick rocks above Bluff

The only thing missing was a cook and a kitchen cleanup crew, so I could just goof off too.  But my energy has been better lately, so I survived it all. Dad was a huge help running errands, and cooking breakfast.

On Saturday we invited Sister Stubbs' Grandkids, and Charlotta Lacy's kids for the Pinata break.  We also played games with them. Some of the older kids didn't get a turn, as it broke before it got to them, but it was still fun.  Thanks, Ashley for providing that.

  

That evening a young man we've been helping with, was baptized, and we both participated in that.  He's been coming out to all the YSA activities, and really loves it.  We even got him to Institute on Thursday.  He came to the YSA branch for the first time today.  He has really needed friends his age, and seems really happy to have found a nitche in the gospel. 

   Anthony and Nathan's families went to church with us, then headed for home after Sac. meeting. Thanks everyone for changing the sheets, and cleaning up so well. We loved having everyone come and all the help you gave.  Sometimes I'm so worn out after a big visit, it takes me days to recover, but we did better this time.

 Monday we went to the Lowe Family concert in Monticello with Ethan and Kathryn. Rob was headed to Las Vegas for Swat team training. He got back on Friday. So he was gone quite awhile. Ethan was a little sick that night, but seems to have gotten better.  The concert was their Branson format, so some people felt it was too long, but I loved it and felt we really got our moneys worth!!

We got snow yesterday, so it really looks like Christmas in Blanding now!  We'll we've gotta run--it's break-the-fast at the YSA branch, and we're taking several things for those hungry appetites.  Love and kisses, Grandma! 

Trip to Idaho May 2010

   The last two weeks have been a whirlwind...ending with that crazy UK espisode yesterday...I feel I've been in a race, only to fall off a cliff at the end  ...and now am trying to get enough energy to crawl back out and get organized again.  I'm hoping I can just change my gmail account, but can't seem to find a phone # for tech help on Google.  Do any of you have a suggestion on a # with a real person? (My e-mail address was hacked into and I'm having to recreate over 500 addresses in a new account.)

We had a wonderful trip to Idaho, starting up on May 19.  We stopped long enough in Provo to visit and set up a little treasure hunt for Danny's birthday.  We made it to Doug's place about 6:30 that night, and had a good visit with them.  Doug has really made progress, and is so much better than last summer.  I'm so thankful for that.

The next morning we went to see Jessica and new baby Audrey, and Matthew.  They have really been busy fixing up their home.  Jessica has turned into quite a gardner  We also checked out Dixie's Diner where the class reunion would be held, and found where JR Hayes lived, as we would be staying with him Sat.

Nancy, Bruce and Steve by Rexburg temple

  That afternoon we drove up to Teton Valley, and stayed with Nancy and Bruce 2 nights.  Friday morning all four of us went did a temple session in the Rexburg temple, which was wonderful.  Lots of wheat motifs in the decorations and a wonderful spirit there.  Grandma and Grandpa Keeler would have loved that.

 Nancy even found one of my lost classmates. Farrell Bush was a veil worker there...what a surprise.  Friday was Lexie's birthday, and Ryan coming home was the birthday surprise, as she didn't know he was in Idaho.  It was  lot of fun.  Had pizza and enjoyed their new home.  It was rainy and overcast most of the two days, so we didn't get any walking in.

   Sat. morning we kidnapped David Keeler in Rexburg, for lunch prior to his track meet.  He looked good and seemed to be doing well at school.  We then stopped by the Annis graveyard to put flowers on the Keeler graves, then swung by Barbara's for a quick visit, as I knew I wouldn't have time to visit with everyone at the reunion.

 We had about 40 people come to our 50th reunion, and we all had a great time I think.  We sat by Jim Ritter, so got to visit with him quite a bit.  He and Brian Kremer asked about Doug and other siblings.  Linda Summer's husband died in 08, which I hadn't know. Everyone seemed to appreciate and enjoy the Jeopardy game I put together, and also the DVD of the class.  Some were even a little bit teary eyed...remembering the "good old days.  I had made a copy for everyone, so we sent them home happy.

We stayed at JR's that night, and stayed up even longer talking about how they run their addiction recovery classes in IF.  They have a beautiful home and stay very busy, as they teach 3-4 groups each week!

   We went to Sac. meeting with them Sun. morning and then headed down the road.  We stopped for about an hour to visit Sharon and Daryl in Pocatello.  Their place is really close to the freeway and easy to find.  I hope they'll let their siblings know about the Welsh festival in Malad.  Marilyn has gone to quite a bit of work to get it organized.  I told her our family would bring cookies, so if any of you come, that's your assignment to help with that.

We stopped for a few hours to visit with Andrew and Amy, then stayed at Autumn's overnight, and then headed home in a blizzard between SLC and Provo Mon. morning.  Fortunately, it ended quickly, and the rest of the trip was nice. 

We had expected that Anthony and Ash would be there that afternoon, but they got bogged down in packing and cleaning, and didn't leave until 3:30 AM from Mesa.  They arrived about 10:30 Tues. and we kept pretty busy all week with the kids.  We went to the dinosaur museum, to Shrek 3, Sand Island, Bluff Fort, cookouted with Rob's family, visited with Shumways, planted garden, and moved rocks.

   Then of course the antithesis of two great weeks, happened with the hacking into my e-mail account, and all the drama associated with that.  Good thing Anthony interjected his humor, or I'd still be depressed.  I still haven't recreated my addresses...it's too overwhelming.  We must have had 20-30 phone calls, plus several who came to the house to make sure I wasn't in the UK.

      This week we go on trek to hole in the Rock, and I have quite a bit of prep to still get organized for that.  Hopefully, I can get my mind back on that and off the address mess