Christmas Helper

This year when we put up our Christmas decorations we had a little help. Alyssa had to be part of everything from putting up the lights and decorations outside to helping decorate the tree inside. She is not camera shy either!!! Had to have her picture taken with every thing.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was to be a relaxing, stress free one and it was!! Everyone helped so very much, they all just pitched in and helped. We had 35 of us together for this wonderful day.

California Trip

Our trip to California
John and I went to California on Wednesday evening to

attend the memorial service for John's cousin, Bernadine. We met Mike and Art in California and we all attended together.

John and I decided to spend a couple of days extra in California so on Friday we went to the BEACH. We went to three different beaches and had fun just walking the beach and getting our feet wet. It was so relaxing.

I had great fun taking lots of pictures.

We also visited the Mission San Juan Capistrano. We spent a pleasant couple of hours just walking around in this old mission. We really enjoyed learning (or at least I learned--John learned about it in school) about this historic place.

We own Land!!!

Well, it's not much to look at yet--just some praire land. But it's two acres of prairie land surrounded 360 degrees by magnificient views. And there are mountains in the distance every direction you look. We are excited! It's located North of the fairgrounds in Prescott Valley Arizona.

Our vacation--part two

Friday morning we were off to Boise. We were traveling along pretty good when we blew a tire on the trailer. We lost all the tire except the sides. Then the jack that we had didn't work with the trailer so needless to say we spent the next couple of hours waiting for roadside assistance to get there and change the tire. We bought a jack and new tire first thing the next morning!! We were late getting to Camille's so we didn't get to see Shane but for a minute before he had to leave for work.

We spent the evening with Camille and the boys. We had lots of
fun watching them with their bikes. Jo-Jo goes just a fast and furious and the other two. His age doesn't slow him down abit.

In fact, Camille even got in on the rides--she likes the skooter.

On Saturday it rained so we spent the day at Camille's and took her and the boys to the movie in the afternoon. We watched Wall-E. Very cute show and the boys all enjoyed it. On Sunday we spent the whole day enjoying conference with Camille and Shane and the boys. Camille made Hawaiian Haystacks and Navajo Tacos for us to enjoy. We haven't had either one for a long time and they were excellent.

Monday we left Boise and headed to Salt Lake. It seemed to take us all day. We arrived in Salt Lake at about 4:30 in the afternoon. We hurried and unhooked from the trailer and sped over to the distribution center before it closed.

Then we went to the Conference Center and beings as we have never seen the conference center we went on a tour. What a beautiful building. We were so impressed with everything. We really enjoyed ourselves. After the tour we walked over to temple square and went in the tabernacle. We were trying to see what they had done on the renovation. but it has been so long since we have been there we just weren't sure.

The next day we were off again and took the whole day to drive to

Mt. Carmel where we stayed that night in a little RV park right on the river. Next morning we got up and went to Zion National Park. We had been there once when the kids were young but hadn't spent any time. We caught the shuttle and went to the end of the road and then walked another mile or so to where the trail ran out and if you went any farther it had to be up

the river because thats all that there is in the bottom. We didn't do that!!! We walked back the mile and caught the shuttle back, stopping at a few places on the way, like Zion Lodge and one stop where there were a few mountain climbers. You really had to search to see them. One group had spent the night on the mountain and were climbing for their second day. We went back to the visitor Center and the museum and we took alot of picture. We were exhausted when we got back to the camper that night.

We did however have a good game of Yahtzee before we went to be. Next morning we were suppose to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but I had fallen ill so we decided to cut our trip short and we headed home. We left our trailer in Chino Valley at Mike's and got home at about seven thursday evening. Glad to be home, but glad we had gone and we had a wonderful time.

Our Vacation--part one

Our trip to Idaho this time was much more relaxing than the last two trips we've had up there. We got to visit with all the family.
We went to Idaho Falls to the museum--The Pharoah exibit--with Jason, Annie, Kyle and Ryan. Grandma Helen went with us too. We had a nice time wandering through the exhibi
Sunday afternoon we spent with Beth, Gary, Cayman, Travis, Mallory and Hanna. When we left them we went and saw Shane and Shannon and then to see Corey, Suzann and their girls.


On Monday we had the pleasure of helping Kyle celebrate his bithday. It's the first one we have been able to be a part of. We went out to eat at Wendy's then spent the night at the bowling alley and the archade. We all bowled--it's been over twenty five years since Dad and I have bowled. Dad didn't do two bad considering. I had a bruise to prove that I tried. Kyle had a ball and so did Ryan. After bowling the boys played archade games.
We Spent Tuesday in Yellowstone Park with Jason and his family. We weren't able to see any bears this year but we did get to see mountain goats--which we had never seen in the park before. We also saw a lot of elk at Mammoth, one big bull elk was having a hard time keeping his herd together. Jason also took us up to Cooke City and on the Beartooth Highway. At the summit which is the highest point in Montana (up above the tree line). We were able to see hundreds of lakes all around (they were all formed from the snow melt). We saw a lot of buffalo and even saw two moose as we came through Island Park.
Wednesday and Thusday we spent with Grandma Helen. It was so neat to just visit with her. We talked alot about geneology and she gave me my Dad's school letter and some certificates of his and some of hers to put in our geneoloy. Wednesday evening we went to the Rexburg temple with grandma, Aunt Margaret and Uncle Paul.
On Thursday we took grandma and we went over to Jackson Hole just for the ride. There isn't really much to do anymore over there so we just walked around the square and then had lunch at Bubba's. We drove home through Driggs, and boy has it changed--homes everywhere.

Headboard

Well Grandpa has been busy again in the garage. He has finally finished our bed. He made the headboard over the last couple of weeks. It really looks nice. Our bed is finished!!! It looks

really bright red in the pictures but it is kind of a deep red.

Trimming the TREE

Bright and Early Saturday morning Grandpa and I went over to help Summer and Felipe trim their tree that their homeowners Association has been hounding them about.
First thing the saw got caught on a bind in a
limb, so Grandpa and Felipe had to climb the ladder andcut of some of the limbs that were causing all the weight to be on the one limb.
We worked for probably an hour and a half and then Grandma went in the house with Alyssa. Grandpa helped them get their sprinklers working and then he came in the house and we left Summer and Felipe to clean up the mess.

Camping with our new camper

We just returned from our first campout with our new camper. We went with Mike and Joyce up to Williams. We were sure glad to have Mike there to show us all the ins and outs of our new camper, we are such novices. We had a very relaxing, enjoyable time and only got rained on a couple of times (once being during the night).