THANKSGIVING

I know I'm a little late, but here you are:
THINGS I AM GRATEFUL FOR:
My wonderful husband
My 9 wonderful kids, their spouses and their children
Having a warm, comfortable home
My faith in Chrsit
Medicine
Medicare
A reliable car
My dad's good health
and too many other things to mention individually.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Natalie's house with all five of the Utah children and all 10 of our Utah grandchildren (we have 11, but Trey is serving a mission in Japan, so we excuse him). Thanks to Eric for cooking fabulous prime rib and great turkey. Thanks to Natalie for brineing the turkey over night and for opening her home to the hoards of family that showed up. And thanks to Tyler for giving the little ones goat rides. Hungry got the hang of it after a while and followed Tyler around the yard so nice. Trent got bucked off and butted in the back, but he was a good trooper and climbed right back on.
Now to get ready for Christmas. I hardly know how that will happen!
Love to all my family!

REDECORATION

Wow, we had a busy weekend last week. Melanie came to visit and to work. It was such a great time. She arrived on Thursday morning and we went shopping for paint! Thursday night Melanie and Angie painted my bathroom for me and on Friday Scott joined the girls and painted my bedroom! You guys did a GREAT job. I just love the new look. On Saturday we went shopping for decorations, accessories and light fixtures. All I have left to do is paint the doors and some of the baseboards. Sunday we went to Usery Park for a spur of the moment picnic with Angie's family. I don't have any pictures of that, but it was fun and the kids got the traditional hike. On Monday Jeff was able to join us for the whole day. When he arrived we had puff oven pancakes for breakfast together and he suggested we go to Golf Land for a little miniature golf. That is just what we did. What a great suggestion! We had so much fun. Then we went shopping for more decorations, had lunch and came back to the house to play games. Thanks so much, Melanie, Angie, Scott and Jeff for all the help and all the fun! Sadly, Melanie had to go back home Monday night.

This is a corner of the bathroom. The blue color is 'blue smoke'.

Warren bought new light fixtures, a new medicine cabinet and framed out the old mirror.

The colors in the photo are really bad, but I finally got Warren to hang the TV on the wall and he bought this little cabinet for the satellite box and DVD player.


TA-DA! This is a better photo for the actual color of the bedroom. It is very pale blue. The big picture on the wall is actually the same picture we had on the red wall. It's amazing that it still works with the blue. Here we have new lights as well. All the new hardware is brushed nickel. And, at Melanie's suggestion, she painted our old knotty pine headboard white and I love it!


Some Golf Land pictures. Smile!



On Tuesday I had the third of my series of lower back epidural injections and injections in my right hip. Next, we are going to Utah for Thanksgiving next week. We look forward to seeing all our 'Utah' families! Love to all my family!

HAPPY AUTUMN

I have just spent nine days in Utah. The first day and night I spent with my girls on their sisters weekend. We had a wonderful dinner; my four girls along with Alisyn, Eric and Meagan. Ashley was to join us but got hung up with work. We went to the home show, courtusy of Ashley, after dinner. Then we went to Melanie's house for an evening of crafting and yummy pumpkin bars which Angie made. Then I went to my dad's in Logan on Saturday morning for a week of working in the garden, visiting and drives around Cache Valley. I finally got to see Martin Harris's grave in Clarkston. He was one of the three witnesses of the Golden Plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. On Sunday Melanie, Natalie, Angie, Meagan, Kevin and Ashley came to my dad's for dinner and a visit. This is part of the sister's weekend activity. We had lots of fun. The Fall leaves were beautiful everywhere we went! I love Fall and really miss it.

Hostas in my dad's yard. Just the day before they had been green.



My dad's Maple tree.

Martin Harris grave in Clarkston, Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad and Natalie!

My Speers

This week I had continuing adventures with the Speer grandchildren. On Wednesday, Kai showed up at my house, with mom and Kam, with this elephant head gear he made in pre-school. They had been studying the letter 'E' this week.

On Friday I got an emergency phone call. Angie had to take Kamden to the ER again because Kai had accidentally slammed Kam's finger in the door and popped the whole root of his thumbnail out. I picked Kai up from Angie at the ER and we both went to Wal-Mart to do some of my planned shopping (and of course get snacks for the kids).

Saturday night Angie asked if I could watch Riley, Carson and Kam for a couple hours so she and Justin could get away for a while. Kai was spending time at his other grandma's house. I made Swiss apple cakes and the kids couldn't get enough. Riley wanted to know how I thought up this recipe and told her I had been eating them since I was a little girl. You just peel, slice and core apples, dip them in pancake batter and fry them, then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. Yum.

RELIEF !

Sadly I had to call my dad and tell him I wouldn't be up for his 89th birthday. I was to fly up Wednesday and when I called him he told me he was just in 'my' room getting it ready for me. Over a week ago my back went out. I was hopeing it would be enough better that I could go, but Tuesday morning it went out again and I knew it would be impossible to go until I had it treated.
Following 9 days of extreme back and leg pain, I am on the mend again. I had more epidurals in my lower back and an injection in my right hip today. I am already enjoying being pain free and think I'll sleep well tonight. I thank my family and friends who have been so helpful, especially Scott for driving me to the Scottsdale Pain Clinic today and for the chicken soup Linda brought me tonight.
Hopefully I'll be able to go see dad after my followup visit and MRI's next Thursday.

September

My sisters, my dad and I: Eva, Esther, Dad, Trix,
Monica and Briga

Party at Tiffany's Farm


Brad riding my quad in Natalie's back yard.

Tiffany's back yard and goats

The back of Natalie's house

Fire near Happy Jack, Arizona

Angie and I worked really hard to get these peaches done. We cooked them outside on her camp stove. I had to peel two boxes of peaches that weren't 'slipping' out of their skins after blanching. All this with a very bad back. Thanks for the help Angie!

Taylor's birthday and ordination day: Warren, Jeff, Brigham, Zoe, Taylor, Bryce, Emma, Anita and Trix

Here's a quick rundown of my past couple of weeks:
1. Friday, September 11th, picked up trailer at Happy Jack and drove to Jacob's Lake
2. Saturday, 12th- drove to St. George, Utah (actually Leeds, where we parked the trailer) and attended Tim Rice's interpretation of 'Aida' at the Tuacahn.
3. Sunday,13th- our 46th wedding anniversary. We visited Alisyn's parents and Warren's brother.
4. Monday, 14th- went shopping and attended 'Footloose' at the Tuacahn in St. George.
5. Tuesday, 15th- drove to Mapelton, Utah and parked our mobil apartment in Natalie's driveway.
6. Wednesday, 16th - shopped with Natalie and met Melanie and Theresa for lunch at a 'tree hugger' place
7. Thursday, 17th- started Natalie's computer room curtains and ironed about 10 yards of muslin for the lining. In the afternoon (Thursday) I went Theresa's and we made lots of cards, then she took me to dinner at Joe Banditoe's on the way back to Natalie's.
8. Friday, 18th we went to Logan where we had lunch with all my sisters and my dad. We had corned beef and cabbage then pie for dessert. After returning to Mapelton, I finished Natalie's comp. room curtains with her.
9. On Saturday, the 19th, we helped Natalie and Tyler with stuff around the yard and went to pick raspberries at the neighbor's. We then hurried to Provo to see Alisyn's booth at the Farmers Market and bought some of her wonderful purses and pillows and a check book cover. Then we rushed back to Mapelton to prepared for a family party that afternoon at the Tiffany's' house. We missed Theresa's family who weren't able to come due to football. Eric and Alisyn, Kevin, Melanie and her whole family came. Sadly, Ashley was ill and couldn't come. We had a great time eating pulled pork burritos with pie and ice cream for dessert. Then we played games. Brad and Hailie had lots of fun driving my quad around Natalie's yard.
10. Sunday, the 20th, we went to church with Tiffanys', after dinner Natalie and I made the curtains for her livingroom. It was a huge job and there were another 10 yards of muslin for me to iron.
11. Monday, the 21st we spent in South Jordan with Melanie. We did some of her errands with her and had lunch at 'Fazzoli', at my request. She made wonderful lemon pasta for dinner. I had a hard time getting Jeffy to warm up to me until I gave him gum. Then we were best buds.
12. Tuesday I started the day by throwing out my back bending over to put on my pants. I can't begin to tell you how horrible the pain is. We spent the day with Eric. We went to a movie because about all I was up for was sitting, then we had lunch. Then we went to the neighbor's Briar Patch and picked four one gallon buckets of raspberries. Eric helped us pick and Hadley and Cole came to help pick when they got off the school bus. Then we made EIGHT batches of raspberry freezer jam. YUMMY!
13. After taking care of the goats and doing things around the yard, (Warren found the water for Tyler and spent a few days checking for leaks, etc.), Warren, Natalie and I met Theresa and Eric for lunch. Then we went back to the trailer to do some packing and cleaning up in preparation to leaving.
14. Thursday we drove to Jacob's Lake with the trailer.
15. Friday morning when we woke up at Jacob's Lake it was 30 degrees outside. We drove to Happy Jack to park the trailer, had lunch in Payson and arrived home at 4:30 to 103 degrees! On the way home, just north of Happy Jack, we saw a big forest fire, but it turns out to have been a 'control' burn.
16. Saturday - I came home to two boxes of peaches and two boxes of apples Angie and I had ordered, so Angie and I spent about four hours making 35 pints of bottles peaches and about 25 pint jars of freezer jam. Then I got cleaned up and went to the general Relief Society broadcast at the stake center with my friend, Linda Berry.

17. Sunday, September 27th, Taylor's 12th birthday. We went to San Tan Valley (formerly Queen Creek), where we went to church with Jeff's family to be there for Taylor's ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood as a Deacon. Then Jeff and Anita made us a wonderful dinner of grilled fish and vegetables with rice. After 'kicking back' for a while we had cake and ice cream. We had a wonderful day with the family.

NOW I'M GOING TO REST prior to going back to Logan, Utah on Wednesday for my dad's 89th birthday on Sunday, Oct. 4th. I hope my back can hold up for another 10 days or so.

GREETINGS FROM LAKE POWELL

Padre Bay - where we anchored

Someones disaster after the sandstorm! See the ski boat plowed into the side?

Jumping off the top of the houseboat.

Melanie and John had their 17th anniversary on the houseboat.

I wish I had picutres of everyone, but here's a cute one of Charlotte and Kam

We are just back from Lake Powell, where we were on a houseboat with five of our kids and their children plus Eric's friend, Scott, his wife Stephanie and their baby Zuri. There were 27 of us in all. It was great fun to be with our grandchildren and children. On the way to the lake my car broke down when we were just an hour into our five hour trip. We poured all our bottled water into it and were able to limp it into Payson, AZ. We had to leave it at the dealership in Star Valley, near Payson to get fixed. Angie and her family hadn't left to come up, so we had her pick up Warren's truck on the way and bring it to us. Kai, 4, was riding with us and we had to sit at McDonald's in Payson for 4 1/2 hours while Warren sat at the dealership that long waiting for Angie's kids to get home from school, her husband to finish work before they could leave to rescue us. We didn't get to Page until 11:45 that night. I don't do late nights, so I was really exhausted. The next morning when we checked out the houseboat Warren leaned over and dropped his cell phone to the bottom of the lake. On Saturday night we had a terrible sand storm. We had some warning and were able to get everything off the beach, the top of the house boat and the front and back to the inside and tie down everything we couldn't move. Melanie and John were out on the lake with their kids water skiing and had a hard time getting back, but did make it. However, on their way back they saw a house boat that had tipped over and sunk two ski boats, which were tied to the house boat. We kept hearing distress calls and calls about sunken boats and people out in the channel without life jackets on. The waves were 3 or 4 feet high. Warren kept the engines powered and running full speed into the beach, which is the right thing to do to keep the boat from drifting or tipping. I'm sure it's what saved us from some real problems. Also, the men had to keep the anchor ropes tight to keep us from drifting sideways to the beach, which could have tipped us as well. When the wind died down, Melanie, John and Eric went back to help the people whose houseboat had tipped. They drove all over salvaging their stuff and getting it back on shore and making sure all the people were OK. As it turned out, there were 30 people on that houseboat. The rescue patrol came by just to make sure everyone survived and was safe and said they couldn't come back until they had checked out all the disaster calls. When we drove by on Sunday, people were still there waiting. Some of them had been able to spend the night on nearby houseboats. Up the lake were some campers who lost their tents and everything but their cooler. The only thing they were worried about was dog food for their dogs, but we didn't have any of that. It drizzled all night. Sunday morning it was nice and clear and we had a good ride back down to the marina.
Needless to say, I am completely exhausted. Warren and Scott went back up to Payson yesterday to pick up my car, $400 later. I'm staying home doing laundry and resting. I spent lots of time swimming with my grandchildren, riding wave runners and even going down the slide on the boat into the water. I had lots of FUN. I have always LOVED the water and swimming!

KETSUP

HELLO! I just love this photo Trey took at the Fukuoka, Japan zoo, on his mission. It just seems to say 'hello'.

Two weeks ago we went camping with Angie, Justin and the kids. Riley and her friend Rylie O'Connell, whose family joined us, made a twig fort with a lake in the front. Our Riley drew pictures of her family fishing. Someone is sad because he didn't catch a fish. Oh I love her drawings. Sadly Jessica O'Connell picked up the pictures and burned them just as I was going to collect them and save them. The O'Connell's had two small dirt bikes and a little quad. The Speer kids had so much fun riding them, but I'm sure Angie will post picutres of that.

This past week Theresa and Charlie joined us from Tuesday until Thursday afternoon up at Happy Jack. Charlie had lots of fun learning to drive the quad and the RZR. It was OK at first, but very dusty and dirty. However, Wednesday night it finally rained and riding on Thursday was clean and marvelous. We had such a good time and it was so great to have them join us.

Charlie riding in the bowl near our camp.

The 'clean' ride after the rain. It was such a good time!

This was after the long ride with dad the first day. Can I just say the dust was AWFUL! But, I'm sure Theresa and Charlie had a good time riding with dad. Charlie drove the quad and Theresa drove the RZR.

I am rumbling through the woods behind Theresa and Charlie on the last day of our camp together. We drove 13 miles on backwoods roads and Theresa and Charlie were wondering how I knew where I was going. Dad had his bike loaded up and chose not to go with us this time.

Next week it's off to Lake Powell and five days of house boating with five of our kids and their families. More of that later.

OH HOW WE LOVE THE MOUNTAINS!

We spent 10 days on the rim (the Mogollon Rim of Arizona, southeast of Flagstaff), with our friends, Jim and June Taylor, joining us the last four of those days. They are new to 'dry' camping, which means no hook-ups. It is pretty tricky to get the hang of taking showers and not running out of water doing it. They bought a 2 person quad and we had so much fun riding around and showing them the beautiful forest and mountains around here. They have live in Arizona about 20 years, but have never seen the rim before. We hope they will be able to join us again soon.
Today we had lunch with Jeff, Anita and Emma, then went out to their house to see their remodeling job. We waited for the kids to come home from school so we could visit with them for a few minutes, so it was 3:30 before we got out of the valley, but we're all set up now and enjoying the much cooler weather. Angie's family will be up for the weekend and we are looking forward to that!
It is sooooo HOT at home that it's good to have a way to get away! We have been experiencing temps of 114 to 117 degrees. At 10 p.m. it is usually still over 100 degrees, so there isn't much sense going out even at night. I'm sorry for all of you who have to endure staying in the valley of the sun in the summer.
We will stay here a week then go home again for a day or two to catch up on mail and check on the yard, etc. However, if Warren decides to go to Utah and ride with the boys, I will have to stay home for a week!
I'm on dial up interent here, so I'll include pictures on my next post from home. It's way too slow here.
Hope all of you have a great week. I love my family so much and pray you are all safe and well!

From AZ to Utah

This is a quick overview of my past three weeks. I am horribly tired and we are leaving for the rim again tomorrow morning, so I just won't take the time to put them all in order. I did have a wonderful time and it was great to see all the family. Warren came up to Utah the last few days and we were able to attend Trenton's baptism. Thanks to all of you who put me up and drove me around. It was a great time!

Any of you living near the Utah/Idaho boarder should take a day trip to the old pioneer town of Chesterfield in Idaho. Here are some daisies from Chesterfiled.

My dad and I ARE pioneers, but from Switzerland and not by hand cart, but by ship and train. Here we are in Chesterfield, Idaho.

Cole found a 'pet' snail on our walk along Utah Lake

Kai and Kamden at Blue Ridge

Ashley, Theresa, Warren, Melanie and Angie on the Mogollon Rim, AZ.

The crew ready to ride; Angie, Warren, Ashley, Kevin, Ron, Scott with Melanie and Theresa in the RZR at Happy Jack, AZ.

Kevin and Ashley had a dirty ride! We loved having Kev, Ash, Theresa and Melanie down for a few days for Riley's baptism and to camp and ride with us.

An evening walk at Utah Lake with Natalie's family

Natalie drove me to Logan and we had Pizza with my dad

Bridal Viel Falls, Utah - our honeymoon trip revisited nearly 46 years later

and a ski lift ride at Sundance. It looks like Switzerland!

Beautiful Bear Lake - Utah/Idaho

Friday lunch at my dad's with my sisters; Esther, me, Briga, Eva, Monica and dad

Trenton's baptism - July 11th

EMMA COMES

Today we had the priveledge of watching Jeff's Emma for a few hours. She is an angel and was such a lot of fun to have here. She calls Warren grandMOP or grandPOP, but grandma she has down real good. Hope she can come again soon!

Little 'boogie' Emma What a DOLL!

Little Update

I'm not writing much today. Just a quick update. Warren and I have been camping lots this summer. On Thursday, June 18th, we met Peggy, Charlotte and Klara in Payson for lunch. Peggy was working up there at a clinic for a few days. We took Klara home with us and prepared for Riley's baptism and big company to come Friday night. On June 19th we had the pleasure of having Kevin, Ashley, Theresa and Melanie down from Utah for Riley's baptism. After the baptism and brunch most of us loaded up our cars/trucks and headed to Happy Jack where we had three mostly blissful days of camping and riding. Ron and his family and Scott and Kari, and Angie's family came Saturday with Jeff and family joining us Sunday afternoon. Not only was it Father's Day, but that Tuesday Kevin had a birthday, (26, don't tell) and Carson had his 7th birthday on Wednesday. Sadly everyone packed up Tuesday and headed home, but it was a good thing as I went to the Circus with Angie's family Wednesday night for Carson's birthday.
Since then I've been to the dentist, had a pedicure and a manicure and have one more dentist appointment before I leave for two weeks in Utah. WHEW!!
I love laying in the hammock and watching the huge pine trees sway and the clouds drift by. I will be looking forward to that when I get back.

Riley's baptism - June 20, 2009




Camp Happy Jack




At Happy Jack. This is the world's largest Ponderosa forest.



Taylor teaches Emma to 'drive' our RZR



My new toy- the 'Cadillac' of Polaris quads. Although this picture is in Kevin's garage, I did ride it at Happy Jack. It's just that no one takes pictures of me since I do all the photography in my household.



Camp wildlife. Do you see the lizard? It's in the center. The elk move too fast to get a decent picture.




Our Night Blooming Cyrus