Aug. 11-21, 2010

This has been a fun and varied ten days. We left with Gene and Lynn on Wednesday and met Dave and Laurene and Craig and Maggie and kids at the summit on highway 36 about 12 miles southwest of Ovid, Idaho. We camped adjacent to a large parking area and drove a short distance up a dirt road to pick huckleberries for several hours on Thursday. On Friday we left for Utah and set up camp along the curb at LaRinda and Trevor's home in Provo. That evening we attended a dinner at Magleby's Restaurant in the Marriott Hotel in Provo sponsored by the parents of Jared James, Kristina Ockey's fiance. Saturday morning we got an early start and went with LaRinda and Trevor to Salt Lake City to attend the wedding ceremony for Kristina and Jared at 8:40 AM in the Salt Lake Temple. After pictures on the temple grounds the afternoon was spent at the Ockey's helping with last minute preparations for the reception held from 7:00 to 9:30 PM that evening. Then there was cleanup to make a very long day. On Sunday morning we headed out to link up with Gene and Lynn and Jacob and Heather and kids at the Sulphur Campground along highway 150 that runs north and south through the west end of the Uinta Mountains in Utah between Heber City and Evanston, Wyoming. Later that day Dave and Laurene also arrived. Monday was my birthday. Everyone wished me, "Happy Birthday." Laurene gave me a little knitted dishcloth she made and one of her cute original poems. She also did desert that evening after dinner. It seems like we're always camping or on Lake Powell for my birthday and we don't do much celebrating. For the day we took a long trip on a very rocky and rough forest road hoping to see some beautiful lakes and mountains. We finally stopped at a lake near a campground for lunch then started the long, slow, bumpy ride back to the highway a little disappointed with what we found. Gene and Lynn went with Heather and Jacob back to camp as they had to return home to Lehi for Jacob to go to work on Tuesday. We and the Gardner's took another rough but much shorter road into a very pretty Lily Lake before returning to camp. On Tuesday we went south on the highway to briefly visit Mirror Lake then over the 10,700 foot elevation Bald Mountain Pass to Butterfly Lake, the series of beautiful falls on the Provo River, Crystal and Washington Lakes and the overlook on Slate Gorge. We also took another very rocky rough road about 5 miles in trying to drive to Alexander Lake after lunch but we gave up and returned after not finding it. Wednesday morning the Gardner's returned home for medical appointments and we and the Liljenquist's took a hike on a very rocky trail about 3 miles round trip to Fehr, Shepard and Hoover Lakes. All were quite picturesque and it was good exercise. Upon return to camp we visited Moosehorn Lake from the Moosehorn Campground and found it to be one of the more scenic lakes we had seen on the trip. On Thursday we headed for home and stopped at the same campsite where we had stopped on the way down to pick more huckleberries. We picked for a couple of hours before dark and then picked for another 8 hours Friday. Picking is very slow going but the reward is very delicious in shakes, on cheesecake, in cereal, in jams and jellies etc. It's easy to see why they are so expensive to buy. Friday evening we headed again for home only to stop overnight at Lava Hot Springs for a relaxing soak in the hot pools. We had breakfast at the Chuck Wagon Restaurant Saturday morning and finally arrived home late that afternoon after quite a trip!

A Salute to Dave's Retirement

Aug 5-7, 2010.

We have been very busy for several days with invitations, plans and preparations to hold a social at our home on Saturday. The idea was to reunite as many former team members from the group in which Dad and Dave Gardner worked as well as other friends and family of Dave and Laurene's. Dave officially retired from ON Semiconductor, formerly AMI, on Monday, August 2nd. Dave and Laurene have been great friends going back to our days at ISU when we were married. Dave and Dad went through ISU together and have worked together at three different employers for the past 42 years. Our social was attended by 30 people including ourselves. A wind storm just a couple of hours before we began threatened to cause problems but when the time came to begin the weather was nice and we all had a great time. We had grilled sirloin burgers, hot dogs, home made root beer and all the wonderful pot luck salads, chips, veggies and appetizers we could hold. A nice cake scribed with "Happy Retirement" and ice cream topped of the meal. Evan and Cathy Harrison and Craig and Maggie Gardner brought their kids and Lance and Aubri brought Taylor. The kids all had a good time playing ladder golf, doodling on the walls inside the tree house, swinging and playing around the creek. After conversation and dinner, those who could stay were treated by Paul Petersen, Dad and Dave's former boss, to a couple of hours of viewing various stars and star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and planets in a beautiful clear moonless sky with his huge auto-tracking 14" telescope. By the time we concluded and returned Paul's telescope (over 160 pounds of equipment) to his home on Mink Creek and retired for the night it was a little past 2:00 AM. CONGRATULATIONS DAVE!

Helping (and Being Helped by) the McKnights

Aug. 2-4, 2010.
I forgot to mention how much help Travis and Dillan were during their stay with us last week. Travis and Dillan picked up many tree branches blown down by the wind. Then Travis mowed the entire lawn with just a little help from Leslie for the first time mowing a lawn in his life and he did a very good job. Thanks guys. Now, along with the usual yard and vehicle maintenance and house work we hosted Leslie, Matt and, this time Brandyn and Dillan, to assist them with relocation back to Idaho Falls. They were frantically trying to find an affordable home to buy in or near Idaho Falls. After Matt spent a day online and with a realtor to find a list of potential homes we went with them and spent the entire day Tuesday looking at a number of homes, some of which were bank owned. One or two seemed likely prospects but there was always at least one significant problem with each home, whether it was with the house itself or the location. In the end all were eliminated and they have since found that the other side of the duplex where they formerly lived will be vacated mid September so that is where they have decided to settle and rent again for a while. In view of what might happen to the real estate market and with their employment over the next little while this may be a true answer to their prayers although it may not seem so right now. There will just be the challenge of finding a way to make it through the first two or three weeks of school before they can move in. In the mean time Matt is interviewing for a part-time job to supplement his teaching job with the school district. We continue to pray that everything will work out for them in this critical time in their lives.

The Passing of a Good Friend

July 29, 2010.
As was mentioned earlier this month on our trip to visit the Wanners in Jackson, Wyoming we stopped going and coming to visit Dorothy and Keith Bowcut near Alpine, Wyoming along the shore of the Palisades Reservoir. Keith was seriously ill at the time with kidney failure and on July 22nd he passed away. We attended his funeral today. It was interesting because our former bishop from the 23rd ward in Pocatello, Carl Hogg, came over to greet us. It turns out that he was a classmate of Keith's in school when they were growing up in Burley, Idaho. We wish Dorothy well and will keep in touch.

A Special Christmas in July

July 26, 2010.

Upon our return from Stanley we found in our mail a life history of Dad's brother, Bill Lewis, who lives in Kennewick, Washington. Bill is 15 years older than Dad. They have the same father but different moms and Bill has always been a special brother to Dad. Anyway he included history not only about himself but about their father that was especially touching since their father passed away at age 44 when Dad was only 7 years old and he left no written history at all. We love Bill and his lovely wife, Luana, and their family (Lisa, Scott, Rick and Chris). We have visited them several times, most recently last fall to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Thanks, Bill for the many insights into your life experiences in an entertaining and well-written biography. We admire you for what you have accomplished in life with so many challenges, especially through your youth.

Finished the Tree House

July 26-28, 2010.

As we returned from Stanley Leslie, Matt and kids came to spend time with us. Leslie and the boys painted the tree house to finish that project that had been strung along between family activities and vacation trips for two months. We can only hope the grand kids and others who visit enjoy it enough to justify the huge effort it was to build. Oh well, it was a life long dream of Dads since the last one he built in one of the trees on the upper part of the property as a young kid. A remnant of that tree house still exists in that tree. As a special footnote Matt has found that the job promised him in Dayton is not turning out as promised and he has determined to move back to Idaho Falls to go back to his former job with the school there. This has become a time of uncertainty and turmoil for their family with Leslie expecting and all. They will now have to find affordable housing once again. We wish them the best and pray for them constantly.

Camping With the Wanners

July 18-25, 2010.
We had only a day or so to return from Yuba with Leon and prepare to vacation with Dave and Nancy in the Stanley area. The fender and exhaust that were damaged on the way to Yuba were repaired only to find water dripping from the water tank compartment on the motor home. We had also experienced dripping from the water tank drain valve earlier. A tear down found that screws had been used that were long enough to eventually wear holes in the plastic water tank. The holes in the tank were patched, the drain plumbing was replaced and the compartment door was re-installed way after dark on Saturday night with Lance's help. Dave and Nancy showed up also with minor problems with their pickup that were quickly fixed the next morning before we headed for Stanley. We found that our special campsite on Beaver Creek was occupied so we took a nearby site for the night. However the other campers packed up and left the next morning so we moved over. It was great to be back after several years but the only disappointment was the number of dead trees from the beetle kill that had not reached this area on our last trip. The devastation of that whole area is deplorable from the beauty it once had. We did not let this affect our enjoyment and the weather was warm days and cool nights the whole week with no rain. We spent the first day fishing at Josephus Lake and came back to camp for a fish fry dinner. Dave and Nancy don't have a dune buggy so we all rode in ours wherever we went. They brought mountain bikes and took a ride while Dad and I took walks. On Tuesday we took a ride to Stanley Lake, Stanley, the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge where Dave and Nancy took a tour, Custer and the Bonanza cemetery. On Wednesday we hung around camp and cooked dutch oven dinner and desert. On Thursday we target practiced with two of Dave's pistols, a .22 caliber competition pistol and I believe an Ruger .45 caliber using bullets Dave had loaded. He is highly knowledgeable about virtually any type of firearm and ammunition and can quote histories and ballistics like you would not believe. I got a knot on the forehead from the hammer of the Ruger pistol from recoil as it was very powerful and I did not have a firm enough grip. Later that day we packed up camp and headed back toward home. We parked the camp vehicles near Stanley and took a dune buggy ride to the fish hatchery and then to the Redfish Lake resort area for a look-see and a delicious ice cream cone. We then headed back down the river to the Bayhorse campground on the Salmon River for the night. It is so much improved from prior years that one would hardly recognize it even to include a host now. On Friday morning we dune buggied up to Big Bayhorse Lake for some fishing and returned with a nice mess of fish. Dave and Nancy took Dave's limit (Nancy did not fish) and they headed for home. They had been having refrigerator problems in the camper and needed to get a part, do some yard work in Preston and get Dave back to Jackson by Sunday night for work on Monday. The time with them seemed to go all to quickly without doing much of what we had planned but we still had a great time and hope they did also. Dad and I stayed in the campground Friday night and drove down river for a visit to the Buffalo Jump and the Visitor Center and Museum near the fork with the highway going to Challis. The Museum was very interesting with lots of history of the various towns in the area. Saturday morning we drove up and fished Little Bayhorse Lake. We had limits within two hours and I caught the biggest fish by far. All others were about the same size and very nice with nearly all being larger than any of the fish from Big Bayhorse Lake. On the way back to camp we stopped at the new state park in the old Bayhorse town site for a visit. That was also very interesting since for so may years we had had to bypass it on the opposite side of the creek and only get peeks at the buildings through the trees because the town site was privately owned. That evening we drove a few miles over to the Challis Hot Springs private facility where we camped once again near the bank of the Salmon River. The campground was very nice and we enjoyed three different swims in the pool, before dinner, after dinner and early Sunday morning before heading for home. The water was crystal clear and a wonderful temperature to both soak and do a little swimming. All in all it was a great vacation.

Forgotten Events

May 20, 2010.

We need to keep the blog up more often as some important events get missed when they are just a day a few months ago. What we forgot were a play at Brendon's school near Santaquin, Utah and Corinne's high school graduation. Brendon was a prince as I recall and was called upon to revive a princess from a spell of sorts among other things. He was more than a little surprised when we showed up but he did well and we all had fun watching him. As for Corinne, we are proud of her accomplishment and wish her the best as she continues on to higher education and whatever else life brings as she crosses that threshold into the responsibilities of adulthood. After graduation we had a picnic dinner in a Provo city park. The graduation ceremony was interesting because her class in the charter school she attends was so small compared to high school graduations of our own children..

Special Time with Leon, Chrissy and Kids

July 11-15, 2010.

This week we hooked up with Leon and his family at Yuba Lake about 50 miles south of Payson, Utah for their vacation. We were invited earlier this year and had made reservations in the Utah State Park Oasis campground while Leon set up camp on the North Beach area which is undeveloped camping. After church on Sunday on the way down we suffered a mishap with minor damage to the motor home when it was not possible to avoid running over a truck tire casing stretched across our lane of the freeway just south of the Idaho border. The right rear fender was ripped partially off and the exhaust was slightly damaged. Repairs were made after we returned home. We stayed overnight parked at LaRinda and Trevor's home in Provo and drove on to Yuba Lake Monday morning. To begin the week we had a day of cooler weather with lots of wind but the weather got better each day as the week went on and we had a great time. We towed the dune buggy for transportation. It was about three miles between our camps and we would spend the day on the beach with the family and then they would all come to our camp in the evening for showers, dinner and a movie or conversation. The campground was very well kept and had very nice restrooms and showers. Leon had his SeaRayder jet boat from our family Lake Powell days and they had a couple of nice play islands that made for a lot of fun in and on the water. The lake level was very low but the water was not too cool and with the warmer weather we spent a lot of time in the water. Dad, Leon and Kendra took a boat tour around the lake and Kendra did an awesome job of knee boarding on the return trip. Leon took Brendon fishing down near the dam one morning but apparently didn't have much luck. Some of the memories were a sleep over by each of the kids at our motor home in turns. The next morning that Kendra stayed with us Dad took her out to the large, unused parking area across from the campground to learn the basics of driving a stick shift in the dune buggy. She seemed to have a great time. We also had an evening to watch a movie of Brendon's choice on his night with us. We hope he enjoyed the stay also. We love each of our children and their spouses and families and we were grateful for the invitation to spend this time with Leon's crew.

Building the Tree House

July 6-10, 2010.
This week was spent almost entirely trying to finish a project that became much more time consuming and costly than had ever been envisioned. Dad said he doesn't know how this ever got on his bucket list but it is now completed down to waiting for a paint job complete with a shingled gable-ended roof, a 4 1/2 foot ceiling, approximately 24 square feet of floor space, white-board walls that are good for drawing and painting on with dry-erase markers, a 9 foot "high speed" slippery slide, a ladder to climb in, four "picture" windows, half a tree trunk across the floor and a cute bench to sit on and relax in the cool shade. Thanks again to the Ockeys for their donation of slide, ladder and support pillars. As a foot note Matt and Leslie and boys have been somewhat "homeless" this summer as they moved out of their apartment in Idaho Falls early this summer, put all belongings in storage and are looking for a place to live in or near Dayton, Idaho where Matt will be working in the school this fall. They have spent much time at our place when we were home. They have also been living part time with Matt's Grandma McKnight in Cornish, Utah. They were here this week and have been a big help with a number of projects. Leslie was a great help with installing the interior walls in the tree house and we have enjoyed their company and been happy to help them as they try to get settled.