Who Knew?

Perhaps some of you will recall the golden colored box cars that were always up at the top of Dad's closet or stored away in his box of special things. Sometimes he'd get them out and just look at them - sometimes he'd let us use them to decorate our house but mostly they were up in the closet.

Well times have changed at the Lee home. Thanks to a train shop in Tehachapi and good old ebay we now have the whole train.

All you young mom's that are experiencing motorcyles, bikes, boats, and all kinds of boy toys. Been there, done that. Now we are moving on to trains.
I know Dad's alltime biggest wish is to have a Sportsmobile or a camper on the back of his truck but that will just have to stay on the list. But trains, I think we can afford the trains.

Jodi, Kyle and family were here last Saturday when the package arrived. Grandpa invited the boys to help him unwrap all the train parts. So with Kade and Kyle laying track, Zach on the switch, Sam jumping all over and Grandpa supervising here is a movie of the fun times we had that afternoon.

Who knew a few trains could make everyone so happy?

We know the way!

Come to find out that Roland does "know the way to San Jose" although it took us two days to drive to San Jose. We made a stop half way and stayed at a Marriott hotel (thanks Kyle). The town happened to be having a Farmers Market that afternoon and we enjoyed shopping for apricots, plums and berries. Driving across the rest of the state we sampled from the fruit stands - strawberries and cherries. So, so far the trip has been very fruitful and we hope it continues to be so.

surprise outing

Wednesday turned out a lot differently than I had planned. First I was doing some laundry for a friend, waiting for Jodi and Kyle to come so I could watch the kids, and tried to finish up my visiting teaching and then I was going to work on some scrapbooks. But then Jodi called and said they wouldn't be coming and Dad said "how about taking our tent to Snow Canyon and camping out?"
So that is what we did. We set up our tent and then went on a fun hike on the Hidden Pinyon trail. We didn't come equipped for meals so we make a quick trip back to town for dinner and then back to our little camp spot. It was a glorious view we woke up to this morning.
Wish you had all been there.

top and bottom - oldest to youngest

We have had a fun filled few weeks. Jana, Phil and family came from Houston and natually so did everyone else. We followed whereever they went. As Jodi said, "its cheaper to drive all over Utah than to fly to Houston".

If the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is correct - and I have thousands of pictures from our adventures these past weeks - I would have a very wordy blog. There were so many darling pictures of all my darling grandchildren that I couldn't decide which ones to post - so I will leave you with this one photo of our oldest, Christian and our youngest, Sarah Joy and you will just have to believe that all of them are as cute as these two.

Max's broken leg

Well, we had quite an adventure today when Jon called to let us know Max had broken his leg in a 4-wheeler accident and they were headed to St. George to the emergency room. When they arrived we gave Max a blessing, and carried him into the ER. Jon had made a nice splint with magazines and gauze that held helped immobilize Max's leg, but he was still in lots of pain. He received wonderful care from lots of nurses, attendants, and doctors and Max was very brave through it all. Tonight they are on their way home and we offer praise to the Lord for his care.


Max is attended by the triage nurse.


Getting settled while we wait for the x-rays.


The tubes and wires make it a little difficult to get comfortable, but Max is a good sport.

Max's x-ray shows a pretty good break where the 4-wheeler ran over his leg. Luckily only one of the bones was broken and there was no other damage to his leg or foot.










Max aint feeling so good.


One of the best orthopedic specialists in the state happened to be on call today so Max got the very best care. His room was filled with helpers while his leg was set and cast.


All's well that ends well. Popsicles and a chocolate shake helped ease the pain, along with brand new Star Wars pajamas, and he was sent home with a neat set of crutches just his size. We're proud of Max for being such a good sport through it all. Here he's showing off the hospital bracelet and the big bruise from the IV.

Grandma's circus

In our travels the last few weeks we have been visited by some cute kids. Jana and family came to find us in our hotel in Dallas. We took a ride on the train at got off at just the right spot - the KrispyKreme donut store. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious and this cute face behind the donut belongs to Ally.

Trying to entertain guests in the hotel was tricky. I think their favorite was riding on the escalator. But we promised that we could go for a swim in the pool.
The kids jumped right in but Jana and I were very surprised by the cold water when we tried to join them. I think we were a little early for swimming this year.



Between trips we had a fun overnight visit from Max and Brianna and Jon. The weather was lovely - we had a fun time at the Town Square playing in the water. It was really warm enough in St. George even though they left lots of snow at home.

We had an assignment to find new pajamas for Bri and Max. They didn't want to wait for night time to try them on.



We made a quick unexpected bus trip to California with the Art guys. We saw every picture in every art museum. But we did stop for a short visit at the beach. That was the most heavenly part of the whole trip for me.

birthday

This weekend we were in Highland celebrating the birthday of our oldest grandson.
One of his special requests was that we bring his cousin to celebrate with him. That took some doing - but we managed and had a fun time co-ordinating pick up and drop off points. You can see that these fellas enjoy each others company and they can also east a lot of food.

On Sunday we were present to see Christian in action as he went about his Sunday duties one of which was playing the piano for priesthood meeting.

Jim has spent the last two years finishing their basement. Its really nice and almost finished. He has become quite the electrician and even knows what to do with all these wires.

If the sun shines they will come

The past week was lively and full of fun visits from our grandchildren. I believe everyone was happy to see the sun shine and anxious to get out and enjoy. We started off with a visit from the Maestri family. We headed first to Paula's for lunch and then to the Red Hill to hike around.


Since last Monday was also Emma's birthday, we had to stop at 25 North Main to celebrate with a cupcake. YUM!



Wednesday brought the Jon Lee Family and we did all kinds of crazy things. Dressing up in the Dutch clothes made the girls happy.
There isn't a photo but there should have been one of Grandpa and all the Lee kids cuddled up on our bed watching Snow White and 7 Dwarfs. They watched it to the very end - some seeing it for the first time.



Then on Saturday the Simmons clan came to visit. The boys were determined to climb the Red Hill again and find the "Crack" and hike on through.
Jodi and Sarah came to help Grandma set up a bridal shower for cousin Amber.
Every week should be as full of fun as this one was.

Nutcracker

This weekend I was invited to attend a performance of the Nutcracker Ballet with my
granddaughters Emma, Ellie and Kelsey and their moms. We had a fun time and really enjoyed the ballet. Afterwards we had super deluxe cupcakes at the Sweet Tooth Fairy Shop.

While we were enjoying our ballet the guys all went to the Conleys to watch the BYU Football Bowl game. Then for dinner we gave up waiting in line at the Texas Roadhouse and tried a fun new place in Highland where the Lee's recommended the Macaroni and Cheese.
Our weekend was full. We attended the Maestri's Ward Christmas Party, Jennie's performance Sunday in the Ward Choir, A lunch that included Jason's freshly smoked bacon,
We watched Barb make yummy neighbor treats, wrapped Christmas gifts until after midnight, had a fun FHE concert with piano performances by Kayson, Keanon and Christian. A recorder performance by Barb and a guitar duet by Kayson and Grandpa performing an original song written by Kayson. We woke Tuesday to a world covered in snow - but we needed to go home so we inched our way slowly southward - stopping for a short visit and gift delivery at the Simmons home.

A Busy Week

This has been a busy week for us. First we started off by celebrating Dutch Christmas - our only guest was Paul Yssel - but we celebrated in traditional style with the opening of gifts - SURPRISE! It was a pair of socks. But Paul "whooop, whopped" it up in great style.
Tuesday we were honored by a visit from the Simmons fam. I had a fun time cuddling with Miss Sarah and chasing Sam and filling Zach with candy.
Next was the boys big trip to the NFR rodeo finals - you might not recognize the young man on the right - but believe it or not that is our Travis sans BYU bonnet.
He's sporting his new look. Doesn't he look handsome. So does Max and Jon.

While the boys were at the rodeo we girls (plus Dallin) had a party of our own.
Jolynn got in some shopping time and the girls and I went swimming at the Washington City Pool. We spent time dressing up in the nativity clothes and Miss Becca makes an especially beautiful angel.

To round off our busy week we made a quick dash to California and back. The highlight of our weekend was the visit to the new Yssel Estate. Wow! Beautiful and peaceful! I think the Yssels have found just the right spot.
Although we were a little late and the chocolate letters were limited to N's and P's and G's, - we had to make a stop at the Holland America store in Artesia. We did find some of our traditional favorites and loaded up on Speculaas cookies and mousies.
We made it home Saturday night in time to party with the Hafens and watch the final round of the NFR. Yeah Cody!