Special day !

A special day for this beautiful girl  -   who we love so much

Surprise !

Our new year started with a surprise !    A new grand daughter !  Emilia Elisabeth
Here's grandpa holding his new granddaughter.

Its been a long time since Grandpa was available when a new grandchild was born.  He was super helpful with Jack and he had suggestions for naming the new little one.  His idea was to name her Rolandra.   ROLANDRA !  What kind of name is that for a sweet little girl?  I said if she has one grandpa's name she needs to have the others grandpa's too.  That would make her Rolandra Phillipa.
But lets not forget her grandmas  - how about NormaNell?
It's a good thing Jennie and Jason were in charge - Emilia Elisabeth is a beautiful name and I love that it has connections to her ancestry.

Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra ! Happy New Year

Dad and I had lunch at Panda Garden to celebrate the new year !

Fa ra ra ra ra  to all.   Happy New Year.

Christmas 2014

For Christmas this year I found my blog.   I really missed it and hope to do better this coming year with posting and recording family events.
We spent Christmas this year in the home of the Jon Lee Family.  Jon, Jolynn and family were absent and we were here to tend to the ranch and the animals while the family had a much deserved vacation.  We enjoyed a quiet white Christmas in their home and even enjoyed a visit to the cabin on Christmas Eve.

Roland at Cabin on Christmas Eve 2014

Joy to the World

 

 We had a fun family home evening activity this week as our ward members became the cast for Tuacahn's nativity presentation.  It was a special start to the Christmas season for us all.  Roland and I were townspeople and the Aikens family came to see us in our acting debut and finale.  Merry Christmas to all !

Capitol Reef 2013

 First things first.  Aunt Trisha gest going on dinner.  We had quesadillas and dutch oven enchiladas. Yum!
               (they were so good that several in the know asked for the leftovers for breakfast)

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                                   Cousin-Cousins   Brooke and Kelsey and Emma having fun

 The popular hike - all the kids wanted to do it.  This is the youngest group coming in the back way.
                                           Jennie with Sam and Josh -  Its like herding cats.

           Kelsey and Emma stuck in the mud -  kind of fun at first but you could loose your shoes.

                            Julie, Ammon, Barbie, Cassie and Cody.  Lots of catching up to do.

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 Watching the Maestri (maestros) cook our dinner.  Uncle Rob on the dutch oven cobbler and Jennie and                       Jason grilling the teriyaki chicken.  Uncle Bill, Aaron, Sarah and Dan observing.

                    The "littles" at the craft table. Maggie, Lydia, Evelyn, Katie, Sarah, Zach, Sam

   

                       Our Sunday morning primary program with cute kids on  picnic table risers.

            Thanks all who came, cooked, hiked, visited, played, sang, danced, shared and smiled.
                               PS:  The rain was awesome.  Nothing more wonderful on a campout
                    than to wake up to a downpour of rain and be all snuggly and warm in your tent.

Birthdays in the Rain

This month Hannah turned 11 and Alyssa turned 13 - yikes! 

Where has the time gone?

Thinking that dolls and legos weren't the "thing" for their birthday gifts this year we decided to invite them to join us for an evening at Tuacahn.  Our first choice was Mary Poppins and we were there ready and excited to see the show.  But the rain came down and the show closed up and we went home so sad.

While we were waiting we did take advantage of this photo opp place.

Aren't we cute?

Not to be beaten by a little rain, we tried again the next night and had wonderful seats to see

 Thoroughly Modern Millie.

We had to return the girls to their parents Wednesday morning and our timing must have been just perfect because they closed the Park road behind us because of rain damage.   AND we got them home in time to help with the chores on the ranch.

Luckily we had planned to stay at the cabin and the road thought the Park was reopened by the time we were ready to go back home on Thursday.

Grandpa got to enjoy a little fishing with Jon and the kids on this beautiful pond.  I think Dallin was the champion fisherman that day.  He caught two big fish.

Celebrating 42 Years - The FamiLee

As we returned from our trip to Europe we were delighted to learn that our children had planned a family reunion.

The Aunts had planned all kinds of activities but the kids spent hours happily in this sand pile

Grandpa, always promoting art, had a display of the grandkids' art in years past.

Ally and Sam were ready and willing to create new artwork .

Uncle Jason introduced the men folk to a game called Bocce.

Keanon, ever charming, has Eliza and Becca giggling at his silliness.

The Original Five

The Aunts made these darling shirts numbered 1-27 and the

plan was to line them up 1-27 for a photo but  . . . 

. . .these two little ones objected.  Jack and Cassie are trying to figure out why Sammie and Clara are upset.

So Plan B was to give the babies to the older kids

and double up the line.

Result:   OUR GRANDCHIDREN !

Named, Color coded and numbered.

An added blessing:   With Christian's ever increasing mechanical skills Grandpa got new brakes on his truck.We love our FamiLee

Trip to Europe

My goal was to send a postcard to each of our grandchildren. Finding post cards was easy but finding stamps and a place to mail the cards was a real challenge. Here's our first success - a mailbox in Rothenburg, Germany. Next photo is in London by the Tower Bridge. We've seen more castles on this trip that we knew existed. We've tried almost every form of transportation - buses, trains, planes, horse and cart, ferry boat, taxi, subway and etc. We stayed in some of the most elegant and charming hotels ever. This is our favorite room - fourth floor - no elevator. The Adare Manor in Ireland - We found a photo spot in the garden. We had a wonderful time - kept abomidable hours - and are now home recovering from our vacation.

Loosing it.

Today Grandpa and Grandma were very efficiently getting things done in preparation for our trip next week. We got up early, made a list and headed to Wal-Mart - all before 7 am. It only took us 30 or so minutes to fill a basket and get the things on the list but when we got to the check-out - who had a wallet? Neither one of us brought any money, cards, or checks. We were both traveling without purse or script. The check-out lady kindly held our groceries while we went back home for our wallets. You'd think we'd learned our lesson but two hours later Grandma headed off to Dammeron Valley for her haircut and stopped along the way to do a few more errands only to realize that once again she was without her wallet. Soooo back home she went to get the proper form of payment. Her only excuse is that she packed for the trip and put her wallet in her carry-on bag. So now we sit trying to remember which of our grandchildren we were going to send a congratulatory card to. We discussed the amazing accomplishments and talents and activities they had all been involved in lately and couldn't remember just who we had been thinking of when we said "we should send him/her a card". Must be time for a long and relaxing vacation so we can recharge our brains - but for sure this week we are loosing it!