Thanksgiving Blessings

Mel and I would like to thank all of you for a wonderful 2009
Some of the things we are especially thankful for:

1. That we found each other

2. 21 wonderful Children

3. 22 beautiful Grandchildren

4. Healthy bodies (note that we didn't say anything about aches and pains!)

5. Our fun home

6. Employment (we keep our fingers crossed!)

7. Good memories

8. Lots of great friends

9. Plans for the future

10. Our testimonies of the Gospel

To All Of You......Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a happy harvest season,
and oh, so that I don't forget....Happy Halloween y'all.

Welcome Autumn

Welcome to autumn;

my favorite time of year...
crisp clean air, football, halloween and the kick off

of the holiday season.

Our Front Door

Brock and Parker,

mighty Silverwolves!

Cory's a great coach and Jeri's the team mom...

these are two lucky players!

A Few Fun Times

I just thought a post a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. On Friday morning, September 11, I got a pleasant surprise phone call from Randy. He was in Alabama and asked me if I would like to pick him up at the airport that night. He spent the night at our house, and the kids all came over for icecream sundaes. Brock, Parker and Ike love their "Uncle Jimmy!" I took Randy back to the airport Saturday morning for his flight back to Alaska and to his loving wife's waiting arms.

On Saturday the 19th we took the boat up to Sulpher Creek Reservoir. Mel and I played around on the water for a couple of hours, and then some of the kids and grand kids came up for a ride.


Just at the same time that we took the boat off of the water, the heavens started pouring down. It rained hard for the rest of the evening. That night we enjoyed Diana's 5th birthday party, and heard bits and pieces of a heart breaking football game.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated my "big brudders" birthday. I won't tell you which birthday. Let's just say that he is six years older than me.

Fishing Hole

Mel and I just got back from a 3 day camping trip up in the Uintas. It was just the two of us, and we had a really great time. We found a really great fishing hole, and the only way we will divulge our secret place, is if you come up with us next year.

We did quite a bit of fishing. I am now a real fan of fly fishing. It is truly a beautiful sport and art form. Mel caught a few fly fishing and I loved watching him, as well as learning the sport for myself.

I caught my two, Prince Charles and Prince William, the boring way with a bobber and cheese. I named my second fish, a beautiful rainbow, Prince William because he is much better looking than Prince Charles.

We fished on Trial Lake and also on Pass Lake, in addition to our "hole". We also spent some time at Mirror Lake, just enjoying the view. Great times!

Girl's Night

Friday night I got to hang out with four of thirteen of our beautiful grand daughters. That would be Sydnee, Hannah, Ariel and Molly. Our swimming plans were cancelled when the rain started on Friday night; but we had fun anyway. We cooked hotdogs and marshmellos over the backyard campfire and watched a couple of movies in the tent. After breakfast the next morning. We had arts and crafts, and then headed back up to Evanston by Saturday afternoon for Mel's world famous dutch oven stew.

Starvation Weekend

We spent four fun-filled days at Starvation Reservoir last week. Starvation is a fun place to camp and play. We've always called it our mini Lake Powell because the scenery is more rugged than most of our local lakes.

We suffered through the first temperature drop of the summer. Temperatures in the 60's and 70's told us that autumn is rapidly approching. On Friday morning I braved the cold and got in to the water to ski. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the water was warmer than the air. The deep water was much warmer than the shallow water at the beach when we wanted to swim and play.

We all got in some quality skiing betweem the horrendous wind storms that hit every day, about mid-day. The kids were out skiing by 6:30 a.m on Saturday morning. Brock, Parker and I were wrapped up in blankets while the kids skiied on the glassey water. Mel was excited to clear the water behind Cory and Jeri's boat, since he wasn't able to get up when he tried a few weeks earlier with our boat.

Every one went crawdading one night. Little Ike enjoyed playing with his crawdad the next morning, at least until the crawdad turned on him and pinched his finger. It was pretty funny to see. (Click on the picture below to enlarge it, and you can see the crawdad). We seemed to always have a standing horse shoe tournament going on and games and stories around the campfire.

Mel and I would like to thank Cory, Jeri, Brock, Parker, Alayna, Jason, Ike, C.J., Jennilyn, Jeremiah, Jenni and Brodie, for the fun times and great memories that we made last weekend.