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!

A Busy Fun-filled Week

Upon returning from Lake Powell we had the usual catchup on yard work and unloading, cleaning, winterizing and storing the boat. Then on Thursday evening Damon and Donna Rosselot stopped over on their return from a seminar in Salt Lake City to their home in Shady Cove, Oregon. These are the same old friends that hosted us last summer at this same time as we visited Crater Lake, the Oregon coast, etc. We packed in a full day on Friday starting with a bumpy ride from Inman Canyon in Inkom to Pebble Creek above Lava Hot Springs on the other side of the mountains. We were out to see some early fall colors and the ride proved to be a bit of a challenge for the little blue Elantra but we made it. After the ride we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park and then a soak in Lava's famous hot springs pools. We then returned home and took a dune buggy ride up the the Pebble Ski Area for a view overlooking the valley and also to the Inkom water tower up Sorelle creek canyon north of Inkom overlooking the town site. We then returned home again for a campfire and bratwurst roast meal with all the trimmings. Early Saturday morning Damon and Donna headed for home and we headed for Logan, Utah to support Laurie who was running in the Top of Utah Marathon. She was very surprised to see us and it seemed to give her an extra boost of energy with three and one-half miles yet to run. We ran with her part way but almost couldn't keep up and then cut out to see her across the finish line along with Leslie and her boys, LaRinda and Trevor and family and Evan and the Ockey kids. She finished in 4 hours and 29 minutes in spite of hanging back to support a friend she ran with who was suffering cramps half way through the race. Laurie is amazing for what she has accomplished and we are so proud of her. After the race we had lunch at the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan and headed for home with the O'Donnal family on our tail. They were coming up to visit us for the remainder of the weekend. That afternoon we took all the kids for dune buggy rides and had another campfire dinner with roasted wieners and marshmallows. Lance and Aubri brought Taylor out to share the evening with us. On Sunday we went to early morning church and then Linda Burrup came up to saddle one of her horses in our pasture and let each of the O'Donnal family take horseback rides. LaRinda has always loved horses and this also fulfilled one of Alyssa's biggest dreams as she also loves horses so much. Alyssa said that the ride had her much higher up and was more bouncy than she had anticipated but she seemed to love it. We also got to meet and were quickly charmed by a very attractive and fun young lady from Denmark they are hosting as a foreign exchange student for this school year. Josephine, if that is spelled correctly, or Josey for short is sixteen years old and a Junior in high school. She seemed to have a good time but she wasn't too sure about the horseback ride although she did try it. All in all it was a week crammed with friends and family and we loved it!

Lake Powell

After the usual catch-up yard work and related chores back home after our Uintahs trip we set out on our pilgrimage to beautiful Lake Powell for a week of R & R with Dave and Laurene. We have made this trip with few exceptions once every summer going back to about 1987. As I recall when we bought our first boat in Salt Lake City we didn't even have a vehicle prepared to tow it home and Dave Gardner was called upon to provide this service. Our old Coachmen motor home first provided this service then it was our GMC custom van and for at least the last 12 years it has been our green GMC pickup. Our first boat was a 20 foot Starfire and we bought our current 22 foot Larson in 2001. Over the years we have been with many good friends. They included Darren, Dave's sister Denise and her husband Kenny Petersen and their family, Dave's brother Ron and his wife Megan and their family, Kenny's parents Earl and Avis Petersen and Laurene's sister, nephew and mother. We have also taken our children including Lance, Leslie and Lindsy and their close friends. We did not have the boat for Laurie, Leon and LaRinda before they left home but we did have one big family reunion at Lake Powell including a rented house boat in the summer of 1997 that was great fun. As for this year we went later than usual since we and the Gardners have now all retired. It was a bit cooler than usual but that was actually quite nice for a change. The water was still as warm as it was in the years that we vacationed in June. We also found that there were still more boats on the lake than we expected for this late in the season. The lake level was a little higher than it has been for quite a few years at about 3634 feet. We left on September 5th and returned on September 13th. We had a drizzling rain off and on the first day on the water but we were camped under a huge cave in Fiftymile canyon off the Escalante and had no problem. We also camped in Dungeon Canyon, Oak Bay and Hall's Creek Bay. In Oak Bay we got to watch a nice fireworks display as two house boats competed, one just a few yards from where we were camped across a small island. We did a lot of relaxing, reading, swimming, canyon surfing, played pinochle and watched movies at night. Over the years we have taken thousands of pictures and I keep saying what could be new but each year it seems more beautiful than ever and we take some more. This year was no exception and we'll share a few.

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.