Grandchild #5

I am pleased to announce that two days ago (September 24, 2014) our newest little granddaughter was born in Memphis, Tennessee.  She is the daughter of our son Kyle & his wife Emily.  Little Clara Paige was born at 12:20 Central Time, weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz., and was 20" long.

Not so pleased with this earthly experience yet.

Snuggle time

Hi Mom!

Where am I?

Milo meets Clara for the first time.   Emily took a video of Kyle holding Clara and Milo took Clara's hand and repeatedly said "hi" to her.  It is the cutest thing I have seen in a long time. I wish I could post it here, but I don't have it. Milo will be a great big brother.

Father/daughter bonding time in the hospital. (I believe this was about midnight that first night. Evidently she was up most of the night.)

Obviously, I wasn't there for Clara's birth, but I got to "Face Time" with Kyle, Emily, and Clara the next day.  Emily was telling me a little bit about her surgery and stated that the Dr. started the c-section before she was completely numb so, unfortunately, she could feel the Dr. cutting her.  She told the anesthesiologist that she could feel it, but the anesthesiologist didn't tell the Dr. to stop cutting.  Fortunately, after a little while, Emily was completely numb and didn't feel the pain any longer.  That is kind of a nightmare situation.

Emily is a quick healer.  She was walking around 1 day after the surgery and was released from the hospital today, just two days after surgery.  Pretty amazing, in my estimation.

Getting ready to leave the hospital.

Going home from the hospital. Cutest little outfit!

To celebrate Clara's birth, I made hot pink heart sugar cookies to share with our Pathway students last night. They were a hit.

  Thanks for sharing these photos with all of us, Kyle & Emily. You and your children are a blessing in our lives.  I am grateful that I will get to hold my granddaughter in my arms upon my visit in about 3 weeks.  

Biking at Hermosa Beach

One of our favorite summertime activities is to take our beach bikes to one of the many fun Southern California beaches and go for a ride.  In spite of my back and hip problems, for some reason riding bikes is not detrimental to my health.  On September 13th, we finally had a free Saturday and decided to spend it at Hermosa Beach.  We invited Cheryl to join us and she accepted the invitation.  I wish I would have taken pictures of us on our bikes, but my mental lapse took over.  I did, however, get a shot of the beach.  It was a beautiful, sunny, summer day. The weather was pretty perfect. We sometimes freeze at the beach, but that was not the case on that day. It was about 80 degrees and we enjoyed basking in the sun.  The sun screen didn't work well for Alan so his arms got pretty burned, but other than that, the trip was perfect. (I can't believe I didn't take any photos with Cheryl either!)

Hermosa Beach

I know, not a pretty site with me in my swim suit, but I liked this view of the beach and the pier. I got wet up to my knees and the water felt pretty warm.  

The urge for a treat led us to the Paciugo Gelato Caffe where we could get some delicious gelato to round out our day.  

All in all, it was a terrific day where we could relax, spend time together with family, and enjoy the world that God created for us.

Busy August, Part III

After finishing all of our fun Utah activities, and after saying goodbye to Alan, who had to go back to California, I was able to take a little side-trip to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Cheryl and Jared were also able to make a flight up there too. The reason for this trip was to see Kyle, Emily, and Milo who were there for Emily's best friend's wedding.  The Crandall's were gracious enough to allow Cheryl and I to stay in their home and Jared stayed with Mark & Xan Pulsipher.  It had been almost a year since Cheryl had seen Milo, so she had a great time getting reacquainted with him.

I hadn't seen him for three months, so I got to get reacquainted also.

We were able to do several fun things while there - most of which had to do with water.  We got up pretty early on a Monday morning to go out on the Crandall's boat for some water skiing on Lake Hayden.  Of course Emily (almost 8 months along) and I didn't water ski, but Kyle and Cheryl did.  They both did very well. Emily's brother, Ryan, showed us his skills and it was quite a show. He is amazing. He looked like a professional water skier with all the tricks he can do.

Later that morning, we took Milo to a new splash pad area in downtown Coeur d'Alene. He had a great time playing with the water. He didn't want to get too wet, however, because the water was quite cold.

After having lunch at the historic "Hudson's Burgers", we went out to the Pulsipher's who live on Lake Coeur d'Alene and they took us out on their pontoon boat.  That boat is perfect for transporting a large number of people. I figure we had about 16 people on board, half of which were children that Xan brought with her (her four kids plus 3 neighbor kids).

Doug & Sally have only been back from their mission for a few months. It was fun to see them again. 

Doug drove the boat to this popular spot so anyone who wanted to could do some cliff jumping.

Milo found Doug's Crocs and hat and had a great time trying to walk around wearing them. He was a crack-up, especially with his life preserver on too!

I had to fly back to California the next day. It was sure fun to spend some time with Kyle, Emily, Milo, Jared, and Cheryl. We need more time with family like this.

Busy August, Part II

For the past several years, I have been able to attend Education Week on the BYU campus.  This year was no exception.  Our attendance at Education Week was sandwiched between the Burton Reunion and the Stott Reunion, so the timing couldn't have been better. Normally, I attend with my sisters or with my friend Vicki, but this year they were unable to attend.  Not to worry because Alan was available to attend with me.  He had attended once before. It didn't seem like he was overly excited about it back then, but things were different this year. Alan actually really enjoyed the classes.  Instead of just following me around to the classes that I wanted to attend, he branched off and attended the classes that interested him.  We did attend some classes together, but not that many.

One fun thing for me was that I was able to meet up with my best friend from High School, Larraine Rosenbaum.  She still lives in Spanish Fork so it is easy for her to attend Ed Week.  We were able to attend a couple of classes together, which was a lot of fun.  Larraiane is one of those kind of friends who even though we seldom see each other it is easy to pick up where we left off.  She is still fun to be around and we still have a lot in common.  It was fun catching up on everything that is going on in our lives.

Education Week is always a very uplifting and faith promoting experience.  I guess that is why I keep going back.

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The Stott reunion this year took place at the Heber Valley Girl's Camp.  Kevin was in charge this year and he and Barbara put together a great reunion.  This took place from Thursday afternoon, August 21st through Saturday 23rd.  We were assigned to the Marjorie Pay Hinckley campground, which turned out to be an honor because this was a historic campground.   It is historic because Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley stayed in this cabin. Not only did he stay in this cabin, but he also dedicated that particular campground.  What an honor to know that a prophet had walked and even slept where the Stott's walked and slept.

Barbara put together a fun treasure hunt for the little kids. They really enjoyed the hunt as well as the goods they were able to plunder.

Here is a great photo of most of those who were able to attend the reunion.  We only had Alan, Ryan, Cheryl, and I from our family...but we sure wish everyone else could have been there. They would have enjoyed it.

Busy August, Part I

August turned out to be a pretty amazing and busy month this year. On August 14th, my nephew Ben Aird married Eboni McPherron in Bountiful, Utah. Because of a prior sealing, Ben & Eboni were married civilly, but they plan to be sealed together on their first anniversary next year.  Although the ceremony could not take place within the temple, being at the temple that morning was important to Jane & Ken so an early session in the Jordan River Temple was attended by all of Jane & Ken's children, some of Eboni's family, plus Gayle and I. 

Later that day...

 The ceremony

A Groom cake made by my niece Heather Bremner for her brother. It turned out fantastic!

The formal wedding cake!

Church Celebrity spotted at the reception: Pres. Henry B. Eyring!

The next day started out fun, turned into a minor disaster, and then ended up fun again. Early that morning, Alan, Cheryl, and I were able to attend the Ogden Temple Open House.  I have expressed before how much I love temples so I considered this an amazing blessing to be in Utah during the Open House. Even though we didn't have tickets, we showed up anyway and were never asked to produce tickets.  This temple is beautiful inside and out. I loved it! I hope I can do a session inside some day.

After we left the Open House, we went back to Gayle's where we were staying and there was a rush of excitement outside.  Jane informed us that a sprinkler line had broken in Gayle's yard and water was rushing into the basement through the window wells.  Scott and Ken were busy trying to get the water turned off, but were unsuccessful because of a tree root growing over the valve. It took about 45 min. to cut through the root and turn off the water... while water continued pouring into the basement.  After changing out of our church clothes, we all pitched in to help. Alan & Cheryl started using buckets to empty the water from the window wells and they also dug trenches to try to divert the water away from the house.  I went into the basement to try to sop up the water with towels and wet vacs. This unfortunate event came at a bad time - the day of our Burton Reunion in which Gayle was in charge. Also, it didn't help that Scott was not feeling well.

In spite of the flood, the reunion went on as planned and turned out to be a big success.  It was held in Bountiful at the Rec. Center.  It is always fun to be able to gather together as an extended family and get reacquainted with one another.

Ryan and Cheryl were our only children who could attend.

Gayle (music teacher for elementary students) had a fun song for everyone to sing along with special musical instruments that kids love to play.  She asked me to play the song on the guitar.

Then everyone played a couple of games on the lawn.