Snowflake Ganado Trip

In June we had the great pleasure of going back to Ganado and seeing several of our good friends there. We did a planting project for Serfina Hardy's family, and were so glad to see her, Brandon, Richard, Virgena, Amber and Jerrall again. (Oh, yes, can't forget about Josh, and Crystal.) We also stopped in a minute to see the McCabes, and Waunekas.


The Hardys and Clarkes helped us plant some perennial flowers, lilac bush, etc. to brighten up their home. Earlier they planted an apple tree for her, and since we came have put a fence up around it, to ward off those free-roaming cows.


Sat. we were able to attend the Snowflake Temple with Brother Joseph Yazzie and his daughter Daphne Etcitty.

Pres. Brown, Laura and Chris were also there. It was a happy day for all of us. We are so happy about Brother Yazzie's progress, and know his wife was full of joy that day on the other side.

24th of July in Blanding

Grandma Janet caught a ride back to Blanding with Autumn and Theron, the kids, and Leah (the dog) We left about 4 PM, and got home about 10:00. The kids traveled really well. Where were the DVD players when we were raising our kids and travelling with 8 children, no AC, and crowded conditions??




The next day Grandpa entertained the kids with water bottle rockets, fishing, and tricks. We had a cookout with Rob's family and Autumn's friend Amber and Steve Smith on Friday.





Sat. was the big Hillman Triathlon, which puts a new meaning to "enduring to the end."














Theron had the misfortune of getting a flat tire, so wasn't able to make up lost momentum from the reservoir swim, which he hadn't practiced for.








Autumn did well, but didn't expect so many hills in the run. They both did all 3 events.








Jeppsons cool down after hard competition. Final results not posted yet, but should be on this web site soon: http://hillman.weebly.com/index.html

Oquirrh Mountan Temple Open House

On July 21 I was able to attend the new temple open house with Autumn, Hunter and Peyton. The kids were really good, especially climbing all of the stairs. It is a beautiful building and will be well used. The dedication is next month.




This month's Visiting Teaching message reinforces the importance of temples in our life, and the strength and peace they can bring to us. Last conference there were five talks specifically about the temple and our need to live worthy lives, so we can bring blessings to our ancestors, as well as ourselves. I hope we all take the opportunity to go often.

Nathan and Tammy's new home

After many years of military moves, packing and repacking--Nathan and Tammy finally have their first home, and it is a really nice one in Tooele. Anthony, Theron, Chris, CJ and Michael were able to help them with the move from their rental home.

I stayed for a 3 days and helped pack and unpack the kitchen, other boxes, and clean the other home. Tammy is such a great house keeper, it wasn't bad at all. We are so happy for them.

It is a two story home with a full basement. Five bedrooms upstairs, Laundry room upstairs!, 2 1/2 baths and a garage. It will have plenty of room for family expansion, and storage. Laurie and Brendan are happy with the move and their new bedrooms.

The Gannon Bawl Express

Though he likes to express his displeasure, we still think Gannon is a wonderful new addition to the family. He was born June 29, weighing 7 lb. 13 oz.

 Mattea is being a great big sister to him, and a good helper for mom. Jaxon hasn't tuned in to his role yet, just rolling with the flow. I sure had fun with them. We all enjoyed picking the raspberries and eating them--even the dog did!

The rest of the Wasatch trip

In the process of posting what happened the last two weeks, came to realize that I hadn't even blogged in the Gilbert Trip. I'm having a harder time of tracking our travels, that I did keeping track of kids when I was raising them 30 years ago!

Anyway, here's some more fun and games with the Wilcoxes and Jeppsons.

Peyton's Birthday Party July 17

Blowing Bubbles with the cousins!

Using fabric crayons to make back pack



Mmmmm, isn't this corn good

 .



Peyton turns three



Dancing the night away!

Cuttie Patooties



Our wonderful 2005 four year olds:



Visit to Gilbert

Quent and Bev's family:

Here's Brig's new perky photo



Girls ready for Church in their cute dresses



Quincy and Sage attended music camp
 and performed for families





We got to see the stage performance of Wicked
from the "top" seats in the house -- though Grandma
about got kicked out for taking photos inside!



Wasatch Front Visit

Here are some of the things we saw and did with the families up North.




Grandpa Steve playing with Mattea and Jaxon



Mattea & Jaxon back from Church

Gannon's first excursion into Dinosaur land. Sorry you don't get to see him yet!

Cousins on the Turtle

The Ogden Dinosaur park was very impressive, and a definite must see for families with "dinohead" kids who love the big guys. Kind of scary for grandmas, however!




"Where's Peyton?  I can't find her," says Boney the Dino.

Brig says, Gilbert is the Place

The exciting news of the past week has been the birth of Brig Keeler Wilcox on June 18 to Quent and Bev down in Gilbert, Az. He was born right on his due date, weighing in at 8 lb. 1 oz. 22 inches long
The 18th was also his Paternal Great grandfather's birthday, as well as CJ's, so we think that's pretty neat. He looks to be a mighty handsome young man, and will have lots of attention from his big sisters.


We can't wait to see and hold him. Hopefully, this weekend.

What do we do in the summertime!

I need to take pictures of all the yard work, and garden work we've done the past two weeks. You'd be impressed. Most of it looks pretty good, except one strangly pruned bush that someone attacked the weekend of our home coming. Definitely need a pix of that. But there is at least a better pathway. It kind of reminds me of some of the hair cuts I used to give the boys. Maybe revenge was the motivation.

We held our first Addiction Recovery class tonight and had 13 people come. We are way psyched up that so many in Blanding, will admit there is a problem and want to change. We have a great facilitator to help us. the new Ensign has an article abut the prgram we're using.

Anthony's knee is still hurting, but even up a Altamont he's been doing the physical therapy and is nearly to the 90 degree bend, so he's making progress.
Our home evening buddies came over last night and we played a really fun game, called Imaginiff. I'd definitly give it two thumbs up, even if we did buy ours at the Goodwill store in Gallup. Autumn had recommended it, and by some fluke we found it at our favorite shopping place!!

Had a wild crazy morning yesterday with Ethan and the four Winn children. Did a "fun" craft activity with glue that refused to stick. You can imagine how frustrating it was to the kids, but we finally resorted to glue guns, and got the dang treasure chests made. Boy, I'm glad I never tried those with the Ganado Sr. citizens.

Dad put up a new vinyl lattice for my climbing roses.

Quent was the one who helped me originally put up the wooden one I think. When was that? At least 12 years ago or more. The roses are especially beautiful this spring, we've had so much wonderful rain. The 4th ward sisters are coming here tomorrow for lunch--the menu is sandwiches...I'd of thought of something more exotic, but I was asked to be the host, not the idea person.

Well I'm headed to bed now, though may read a bit first. Dad's read about 3 books since we got home, and I haven't finished one. I've got to swear off Facebook for a week or so, and catch up.

Busy Blanding Weekend

It was another deja vu experience this weekend, as we were asked to speak at White Mesa, a little Ute branch 10 miles south of Blanding. Our family was called to serve out there about 20 years ago, and many of the families we knew then, were at church there today: Betty Lehi, Loretta Posey, Thelma, Sharon, and Yolanda Badback and grandchildren, Wanda Ketchum. It was good to see them again. President Bowring, Buddy Redd, and Clark Hawkins and wives are currently serving there.

Gene and Claudia Orr, and Jeannie and Sunny Kiro were also there today and have been serving also in the branch.

After Church, Brother Stubbs and Bro. Keylon and Steve fixed a yummy Mothers Day dinner for us.
This afternoon we visited with Robb, Kathryn, and Ethan, Larry Dennison, and then drove out to Mustang, and finally found where Eugene and Ingrid Meyer live. We had a great visit with them too.

It was wonderful to hear from all our kids this weekend. Autumn and Corey even left song messages on the phone! We're happy to announce that Theron and Autumn are expecting-----their downloads to come in much faster, as they now have DSL!! Autumn reports their young women raised $1300 at their girls camp yard sale Sat. Anthony reports that Sam and Logan have turned into streakers...as they somehow determined they needed to take their clothes off to slide out the cat door ..while mom and dad were painting the outside of their home Sat.

My friend Ingrid helping at Farm Days

We're planning a trip up north next weekend, to see the Wasatch front families. Tomorrow Dad's going to book club, but I'm helping at Farm Days at the quilting booth. Mon. night we're doing Home evening at our home.

New Callings in Church

We'd only been home a week and received two callings. The first came from President Redd, the night we reported our mission to the High Council. We've been called as Service Missionaries for the two stakes in Blanding, and asked to start the first church sponsored Addiction Recovery Program here in town. We'll start the 1st Tues. in June. In the meantime, I'll get the publicity started, and Dad will hopefully find a recovered addict to be a facilitator to help him.

Bishop Carroll came over later in the week and called us to be the Young Singles coordinators for our ward. We've done it before, and love working with that age group.
We had 3 of the 4 youth, we know about in 4th ward, come to the break-the-fast pot luck,and CES fireside tonight with Elder Bednar. He gave a very strong apostolic warning about the dangers of excessive video gaming, and cyber reality games. He said this is one of the ways that Satan takes control over our bodies, and takes us from important real life experiences. I've actually seen this happen to several youth and adults I've worked known. I'll hopefully, get some quotes tomorrow and e-mail out. Here's the link:http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=3543


Saturday morning we got to hear Shawn Bradley talk. Wow, he was great. Then that afternoon and evening we drove up to Moab to share some of our missionary experiences with Anna Pearson, a former missionary companion, from 1st mission. It's been a great week, and the Lord showered down a wonderful rain upon us Friday and Sat.