What I Did On My Summer Vacation - another part deaux

For Independence Day, we drove to Albuquerque for a visit with family there. Here is Karen with one of her quilts.
Here is a close up of the free form quilting with variegated thread, and detail of the large cat in the middle of the quilt. Double click the picture to zoom for additional details.

James found a great spot from which to watch the fireworks display. As soon as we got there, a rain squall came through and drenched everyone. We huddled in the cars for a few minutes, and then emerged for a beautiful sunset, great picnic supper, and the show. All the boy cousins - Joseph, Samuel, "Uncle Ben", Austin, and Andrew - had those little poppers that you throw on the ground and they POP like a miniature firecracker. after throwing them at anything and everything, anyone and everyone, they came up with a plan.

If one is good, let's open up a bunch of them, and make a big one. They started with 10. Bigger POP. Ok, that was good, now let's try 100. Holy smokes, Batman!

One afternoon, James got out the bicycles for a little ride. Andrew had just learned how to ride, but still needs help on the finer points of stopping - like put your feet down before you stop moving. The tandem was by far the most entertaining ride of the day. Joseph and I rode it. from my point of view (the front seat) it was what I imagine peddling around with an elephant would be like. Me: "Just sit still and pedal!" Him: (giggling) "I am." Me: "No you're not!" Him: (laughing maniacally) "Yes, I am."

This is Christine, my great aunt. She is truly amazing and has great stories to tell.

Secretly, Samuel envied his cousins balloon communicator with built-in microphone.

to be continued...

What I Did On My Summer Vacation - part deaux

El Paso is lovely in the summer. The weather was pretty good, temps right around 95. Not too hot. So, the whole family flys in on the same day, and we all agree to meet for dinner, but nothing too fancy. Where do you suppose we chose? Costco. That's right decent food for a great price. Pizza for the chamacos, salads for the fogies (as in old), and everything in between for the rest of the crowd.

Curley and Nettie looking at pics of the trip.

One for the family GQ edition.

A few of Grandfather's grandchildren - Joseph, Samuel, Angelina, and Carlos. (the second generation)

The first generation.

Amy, after having been lost in the store for what seemed like days, is happily reunited with the rest of the tribe.

Daddy's Nose. (remind anyone of Saturday's Warrior?)

With Grammy at her bed side

Another shot of a beautiful lady.

As much as it was good to see family, we all remarked about the food. Aside from Costco, we spent the rest of the week eating, or looking for another good place to eat. It is hard to decide which was the best place, the little family run store front in El Paso called Delicious, the historical outpost/cantina/restaurant in Las Cruces,NM called La Posta, the iconic spot in Mesilla, NM called Chopes, or the snacks from Stahmann's Pecan Farms.

Gorditas at Delicious.

The real reason for the trip to El Paso - to celebrate a birthday with Grandfather Abe.

Snacks from Stahmann's

Enchiladas at La Posta

or a burger and fries for the small frys at La Posta.

to be continued...

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

For my summer vacation this year, I ...

Do you remember those essays? We thought they were dreadful, and boring, and dull, etc. Not that the vacation time was, but I guess it was the fact that we had lived the experience, and that, in and of itself, was infinitely better than a writing assignment. I remember it being loads of fun to fish in a stock pond, or swim with all our buddies, or play in the baseball game that had no time limits or number of required innings. We figured that if they could play cricket for days in India, then we could play for days too!

But what I remember most about those bygone days are family and friends. So with this in mind we had planned a trip to visit family and friends in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. We had a great time, shared some great memories, and made some great new ones too.

We got to meet Ethan, Amy's friend. He is a great guy, a good story teller, and a pretty good urban farmer too. Some people in this family wonder if he will be a good son-in-law, but that is a question for another day, and another blog entry.

We saw Karen again, and she is still happy for all the work the Scouts of Troop 168 did to make the gardens at DVC handicapped accessible. The Adaptive Horticulture Program is still strong and it is gratifying to see the difference a few scouts made in the world for folks that need a little help.

We had dinner with Donny again too. It is always good to catch up on what is going on, and Donny is good at doing new things. He does not let his disabilities overwhelm his abilities.

The boys got to meet up with friends to ride bikes, rock climb, go to movies, picnic, swim, and hang out.

Kyle, Robert, Joseph and Samuel at mutual one night.

Landon, Joseph and Samuel being still long enough to snap a quick pic, then they were off again for a new adventure.

We went to the City for a tourist day, but missed lunch service at the finest restaurant in the city. We consoled ourselves with ice cream sundaes from Ghiradelli's.

We started at Union Square, and took a sight seeing tour of the City, including Chinatown, North Beach, the Wharf, Ghiradelli Square, the Presidio, City Hall, the concert halls, and a few other attractions. We bought jewelry, tee-shirts, post cards, and other memorabilia.

Part of the tour was from the top of a double decker bus.

"Here we are, walking down the street, blah blah blah, to everyone we meet. Hey Hey we're the Monkey's, ..." (I just wanted to call them monkeys)

to be continued...

Just for Fun

This will be a bit more entertaining after you read the post below it - School Days.

School Days

"Back to School" seems to be the theme every where one goes these days. So we will combine a little history, biology, and physics into today's lesson. We left California for a new opportunity in the Great White North, and the house we moved into looked a lot like this:

Then, as happens every year, the snows melted in the spring to reveal a typical tract home front yard, landscaped by the builder, which means you get grass and, still unknown to us at this point in time, a landscape feature, consisting of 2 large rocks near the tree and the tree:

We interrupt this little story to bring you a commercial endorsement for the Snow Boogie Blade Runner from Costco (the red sled), seen here in it's primary use, entertainment for youth. Keep an eye out for the real reason we like this sled so much. It is a very talented sled.

So, in the summer, the landscape feature turned out to be a bit underwhelming. We were able to rescue the grass, but the curb appeal simply was not there. What we needed was a dose of medicine that Michelle has been able to share with so many people over the years. We started with the area around the tree.

All it needed was a border, and a loosening of the belt, an expansion and some relief (small mounds in which to plant flowers and other flora. The real plans involved a new planter at the front of the house, another "landscape feature," but not in the tract home sense.

While at the store one night, we saw and purchased a sod knife, known to the rest of the world as a linoleum knife. Left to my own devices, I let the knife get away from me, and before I knew what was going on, we had removed about 200 square feet of sod for the low low price of $6.95 and 47 mosquito bites.

Last summer we had discovered a rock in the back yard when we were installing the raised bed planters for the garden. We never did get it out of the hole, but we did get to buy 2 new shovels and a pry bar. This summer we found out how large the rock really was - about 350 lbs! After a brief introduction to the science and physics of a lever, a fulcrum, and a sling, we had extracted the rock for transportation to the new planter area.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to eliminate or significantly reduce either gravity or friction, which is really a pretty good thing in the big scheme of things. The blanket dragging method worked for approximately 2.5 feet.

"Boys, we need to modify our approach to this problem. We need to reduce friction more, or hire a bunch of slaves to move this rock." A quick inventory of the garage revealed another dual purpose device - the motorcycle loading ramp/litter.

This method was significantly improving our efforts by a factor of 2. Now we were 9 feet from the hole in the back yard and only needed another 70 to 80 feet to call our efforts successful, installing the rock in its new home in the new planter bed. Back to the garage, I mean drawing board.

Here is where we nearly laughed our selves silly - the red sled. You see, the top is a medium density polyethylene mould, but the bottom is a high density poly ethylene sheet. They make sewage pipe out of this stuff because nothing sticks to it, therefore, it has a very low coefficient of friction. Both boys thought the old man had finally lost the few remaining marbles rolling around loose in his greying noggin. In fact, it worked so well, we made the next 60 feet in about 8 seconds. Not quite as fast as Hussein Bolt, but fast enough for us.

Crossing the concrete driveway was the next little challenge, back to the moving blanket - better, but still too hard. What we needed were wheels. What we had were a few steel stakes for concrete forms left over from the garden box construction project from last year.

The task went from hard to "zing" in 2 seconds flat. Samuel placed the stakes under the red sled and Joseph pulled it across the driveway as easy as the ancient Egyptians.

Then, all that was left was to turn loose a little testosterone to roll the stone into place and then use the lever and fulcrum again to install small wedges under it so it would not roll away from where we wanted it.

After a quick wash job to remove the mud, and an afternoon planting, we now have this at our front door:

You may recognize the wagon from Concord. The wheel set was a gift from our loving neighbors, Larry and Helen Crump. The wheels are from an old cart used by the original landowners where our house was. The area used to be a walnut orchard, and the wheels were from a cart they used to collect walnuts at harvest time from the orchard. The rest is a planter box made from scraps of lumber.


Class dismissed. See ya'll later.

Asombro me Da (I Stand all Amazed)

Exactly 20 years ago, at this very moment, I was gazing into the heavens at a truly wonderful sight, a total lunar eclipse, while holding the hand of my beautiful wife. The sight of the shadow of the Earth covering the full moon that night was magnificent, even if it was a little bit eerie. We were at a wedding reception in Los Angeles, California, with 3 of our 5 children (see below), Amy, Ashley, and Jacob. The reception was held at the home of some very close wonderful friends, the Michels family, and it was held in our honor. Just a few hours had past since we were married in the Los Angeles Temple in the presence of family and friends.

We are now physically far away from family, and most of those friends, but the memories remain as bright as our old age allows. We have made new friends along a journey that has taken us to places we never dreamed of in those days.



The family has changed too, with the additions of Joseph and Samuel. They have brought, and continue to bring laughter and love to our home. Amy, Ashley, and Jacob have all grown and moved on to new adventures in their lives, and while we miss them, we really are more excited for them to continue to grow and live the lives they now have. We taught them correct principles so they could govern themselves. Hopefully, they will choose the right along the way and rely on the teachings of the gospel, as we have.

So, what does the future bring for us? We don't really know. There are too many things to worry about, and too few moments to share, so we cherish the latter and know that there is a resolution and solution for all the worries. One of these days we hope to find out all the answers, but by then, the test will be over, and grades will be posted, so to speak.

In the mean time, we will continue to enjoy the blessings of family and friends, and the blending of the two, growing over the years to love each other and serve each other more and more.

Darlin', I love you. I always have, and I always will.

Hugs and Kisses...

Los Handsome Boys

A friend of ours is a professional photographer, and she took a series of photos of our sons this past week in her studio and around town at a couple of locations. The results are fabulous. The subjects are pretty good too.

In down town Fort Mac.

At the movie theater

Got a little Captain in you?

Handsome Jose.

Sensational Sam.

Here are a couple of others from the same set. The effects are great and we wish we knew how to do some of these things.

Last week we were recovering from our holiday in the US, and this coming week we are off to camp, Michelle with the Girl's Camp, and the boys of the YM Super Activity. Girl's Camp will be in the same area where to boys went camping last year, Kootenay Plains, nestled in the Canadian Rockies between Jasper and Banff National Parks. The YM will start in Fort Mac, and travel through Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, Koho, Canmore, and Calgary before returning home. Activities will include shooting, road biking, hiking, fishing, white water rafting, mountain biking, rock climbing, and a couple of surprises too.

We only took 842 pictures of our holiday, so we are trying to organize a few of them before posting on the adventure.

More to come...