Surgery, a New Arrival and Halloween

On October 21st we drove the motor home to Idaho Falls and parked it across the street from Leslie and Matt's apartment on a pad beside the driveway of their neighbor, Bruce Noller, who graciously offered it for the next few weeks through Dad's surgery and the new baby's arrival. Early the next morning, on Friday, Dad checked in at the Mountain View Hospital for outpatient laser prostate surgery. The surgery apparently went well but the first two days of recovery were a little difficult for him. He is now supposed to take it easy for at least two weeks for healing. On Monday morning we drove the Elantra back home to winterize the sprinkling system and got to tend Taylor for one day before we returned to Idaho Falls Tuesday evening to be there for the new baby's arrival the next morning. Jaxon Paul McKnight was born on Wednesday, October 27th as scheduled and Leslie and Jaxon came home on Friday. Jaxon was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long and is a very cute little addition to the family. His brothers have been excited about his arrival but Dillan seems to be the most. Travis came home sick early from school last Wednesday and was sick for the next day and a half. Since then our days have been busy mostly with school, preschool and Halloween-related activities. On Tuesday evening we watched and helped as the boys carved at least a half dozen jack-o-lanterns. There was a costume parade and party at Cloverdale Elementary School on Thursday and no school on Friday. Brandyn had a soccer game Saturday where his team won 5-3 and Brandyn scored one of the goals. Saturday there were Halloween parties at friend's homes for the boys and then a big Halloween party with a talent show, dinner and activities at their LDS ward in the afternoon followed by trick-or-treating that evening. Brandyn and Travis went with friends, Matt and Dad went with Dillan and his friends around the block and then I went for a second bag of loot with Travis later in the evening. Dad knocked out the few repairs on Leslie's list in the first couple of days and then volunteered to run electrical wire with Matt's help to provide a light and two electrical outlets for Bruce's workbench in his garage to help pay for the free space rent. In so doing Dad and Bruce have become friends and Bruce showed Dad the results of his gold prospecting and metal detecting for coins over the past 50 years. His coin collection was nothing short of incredible with literally hundreds of U.S. coins of every denomination dating back well over 100 years in age. Today, Sunday, we slowed down a bit. Dad, Matt and the boys went to church and I stayed with Leslie to help with the baby and fix dinner. We are looking forward to the next while to help until Leslie can manage on her own.

Life Back on the Homestead

For the past couple of weeks we have been home. The usual time has been devoted to upkeep and maintaining our home and yard and preparing for the cold winter months to come. High priorities have been finding health insurance for both me and Dad. My COBRA from ON Semiconductor ends December 31st and Dad's Medicare Advantage plan will be discontinued in Idaho also starting next year thanks the the government health care overhaul. This has required digging up lots of old medical records, hours of research on the internet, many phone calls and several visits by insurance agents. And we are still not there yet but hope to make our decisions by November. We have also spent much time researching an RV park in Arizona to spend the majority of our winter as well as related planning and travel routes. Since we will not be leaving until Leslie is back on her feet after the baby's arrival some time in November we have decided to travel directly to Arizona and then visit Carlsbad Caverns and possibly my brother Jimmy and one of Dad's former work friends, Mike Saville, near San Antonio, Texas next spring. We have learned that Carlsbad weather can be quite cold in December. One of Dad's most memorable mission companions from Las Vegas called out of the blue to wish him happy birthday along with calls from all of our children and his sister, Sharon, to make his day. Elder Bohne's call after over forty years will likely route us through Vegas on our way to Arizona. Last night (Saturday) we went to a prime rib dinner show at the Center Stage Playhouse in Chubbuck called "Lucky $tiff." This is the former Mystique Theatre. One of Dad's good friends from his group at work, Evan Harrison, was a cast member who did an awesome job as a half-dozen different characters in the play. Most memorable were as a French Emcee and a Catholic nun. Last Friday we picked Gene Liljenquist up and went to Jensen's Grove lake in Blackfoot to fish in the late afternoon. The fish were biting well and within less than two hours we had caught ten nice fish. We came home after dark and then met Leslie, Matt and boys Saturday morning for more fishing at the same location. Fishing was much slower than the previous evening but the boys still caught seven fish by afternoon. We hope they had a memorable time as each caught fish. And now, since we forgot the camera for the fishing excursions this post is short of photos except for some new "pets" that we found in our back yard upon returning from church Sunday. They seemed to like our apple trees and other vegetation and then made a bed on the lawn across the creek as they stuck around all day. It is amazing how different the reaction is between deer, which we have also had plenty of this fall, and moose to humans. The deer immediately take flight but the moose cow just stands up and dares you to come any closer. Dad and her had about a half-hour stare down from about twenty yards across the creek and the moose won.

Visit to the Hartsocks in Chicago

Sept 23rd - Oct 3rd, 2010
I can't believe ten days could pass so quickly. When Lindsy and Ben offered us plane tickets to visit them it was an easy decision. Besides we could spend Carter's third birthday with him and see how Emilia and Avery have grown. The weather in Chicago was a little cooler than back home for the first few days but it was a nice change from last January. On this trip we did far less exploring of the city and a lot more hanging out with the family. Our desire was to help out with the kids and Dad was given a small list of fixit jobs to keep him occupied. The first day there Carter had fun at the playground with a new friend, three-year-old Abby. He had a very nice birthday party with lots of friends, an amazing Thomas the Train cake and lots of presents including a super play kitchen. It felt like Christmas eve with Dad helping Ben assemble it the night before. We visited the Brookfield Zoo and took Avery and Amelia for shots. We baby sat for Lindsy to take Carter to the doctor, for a hair appointment and for Ben and Lindsy to have a date night. Carter is now potty trained and the doctor was talking him into no more thumb sucking which he was already doing well at. Avery and Emilia are so adorable. They smile and giggle and sit and play at stealing toys from each other. They seem to be getting even harder to tell apart and we could no longer rely on the color-coded binkys. Emilia would do the most adorable hand wave with her arm extended while twisting her tiny hand back and forth like a princess on a parade float waving at the crowd along with the cutest smile. Dad went with Ben Thursday evening to the Chicago temple to perform baptisms for the dead. Dad and I took a couple of rides around the neighborhood on some very nice 21-speed bicycles that a neighbor had given them. While there we booked a Southern Caribbean cruise for next February that we will take along with Ben and Lindsy, Laurie and Evan and Lance and Aubri. We are excited but sincerely regret that the other three families can't be there with us. Lindsy and Ben treated us to an amazing breakfast at the Bongo Room in downtown Chicago the Saturday morning before we left. That evening we had dinner alone at the Golden Steer Restaurant near where Ben and Lindsy live. They have the most delicious steaks and we enjoyed our meal every bit as much as when we ate there on our trip last winter. Finally, we did our best to watch all five general conference sessions with intermittent baby/Carter background noise. I think we have almost forgotten what it was like to watch conference on television when our children were small. As usual it was hard to leave but the traffic at the airport departures drop off forced our goodbyes to be very short. Thanks Lindsy and Ben for showing us a wonderful time!