Friday, December 25, 2009

More Photos



This is the other photo of the Grandchildren that I love.

Here we are with (from left to right) Elisabeth, Zina, Megan, Daniel, Evelyn, Micah, David, Jacob, Preston.
Our children with us, (left to right back row) Ammon, Seth, Rachel, Caleb, Evan, (front row left to right) Kadie, Zina, David Alisa.
Just the kids: Ammon, Kadie, Seth, Rachel Caleb, Alisa, Evan.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Christmas Time






Evan arrived home safely on November 25, 2009 and so we had new family photos taken. We just wanted to post a few of them here for you to see all of us together.

We just had to do the kissing one for the sake of our unmarried children!

I think I have the cutest grandchildren! Here are all seven. Can't show you number 8 until it is born next summer (Ammon and Tiffany will be doing us the honors)

Evan brought home a gaucho outfit from Argentina. He is only missing the hat!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Autumn Colors





David and I drove to the mountains on Tuesday with his parents to see the colors. It was beautiful and we thought we would share a few pictures of them with you. There was a lot of dust in the air from the storm that was coming, so the one picture didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but it does give you an idea of how it might have been without the dust.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Mineral Basin



David and I went with the Sons of the Utah Pioneers (SUP) group on August 22 to a place in the Wasatch Mountains called Mineral Basin. We had been there camping with our children years ago, but the last time we tried to go up there, the road was too rough for our van to go up all the way. We were very sad. When the SUP wanted to go, we were all for it. We started out riding about 9 a.m. and stopped at several places to hear a local historian tell us about the life of miners in American Fork Canyon and some of the interesting things that had gone on there. The first picture is a place called, "Split Rock". Kind of obvious how it got its name, right?

The second picture is a place called Graveyard Flat. The sign tells about the epidemic that took the life of 11 children and the next picture shows their graves. They just piled up rocks for their headstones. Kind of sad.

Then we traveled on to the top of the mountain. It was quite a climb and we were afraid that some members of our group wouldn't make it to the top, but we all did. Here we saw the grave of George Tyng who died the day after they excavated the largest rock of solid Galina (silver ore) that had ever been found, (something like 46 x 23 x 18 feet). In those days, it was worth about $850,000! Imagine what it would be worth today! He died in late January, they carried his body back to American Fork which took six days. Then they open his will and it says he wanted to be buried where they found the Galina. So they took another six days carrying him in a sled to get him back up there, blast a hole in the rock, and bury him there. David and I are standing by the sign that tells about him.

The other pictures are some of the scenery that we saw along the way. It was a fun, but exhausting day.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Parade Fun



I had Sassy and Tinkerbelle (my miniature horses) trained to pull a wagon as a team and got a new wagon. We participated in the Lehi Stock Parade (for horses, mules, riders and drivers) June 25. I was a little nervous about doing this because of their newness at working as a team and at my newness as a team driver! As it turned out, I had little to worry about. They were perfect ladies (except for a gust of wind that blew a plastic sack at us and they shied a little). I think they like the crowds and people watching them. I have been practicing by driving around the neighborhoods and as I do, I tend to pick up children that want a ride. Yesterday, I had a load of 10! They were packed everywhere on my wagon, two up front with me and the rest on the seats in the back. There was a lot of disappointment when I told them it was time for me to go home and they had to get off. (Did I say that I enjoy being the center of attention?) I had Daniel, Elisabeth and Caleb's boss's youngest daughter with us. One of the horses ahead of us was being a brat and wouldn't settle down, so the young rider had to get off. We picked him up to ride with us so he didn't have to walk all the way back to where they were parked.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Grass is So Nice!




May 8th and 9th were spent laying sod. Thanks to our children and all the other volunteers that came to help, it all went smoother and faster than we had expected! WE LOVE GRASS!


Monday, May 4, 2009

Prom and Birthday




Alisa had a fun Prom. She bought the dress herself. So many commented to me that it was just the type of dress for her! It is beautiful! So was she! Her date was a fun guy and he was so patient because it took her an hour longer to get ready than when what she had planned.


We also have a picture of Micah eating his cake to celebrate his first birthday! One already! It was a fun day. He seemed to like his presents and it was so funny to watch Preston because he wanted to open all the presents and was disappointed when they were all opened.

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Lake!











We had Spring Break last week and we intended to get the landscaping done. It started to rain on Tuesday and by the time it stopped Wednesday night, we had a lake in our back yard! This was taken on Friday, after it had gone down for one day. There was one thing that we learned from this storm. We were planning on putting a sump drain for the rain gutters to go into and the one that we had planned will not be enough. Look for the rainbow after the storm.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Hard to believe






These are pictures of the house up on wheels when they moved it and of what the State has done to our former property. They will use it for storage and parking while they build that section of the road.

What is the hardest is that what we had built up for 18 years is all gone. No traces of us having been there. Have to move on. David walked the property so many times and he did the other day when he took these pictures. It just was hard to believe that it is all gone.

David felt like justice had been done when in the process of knocking over the remaining trees on the property, their big bulldozer got stuck in the mud in the low place in the pasture. They even filled in the pond.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Sadness




I have been reluctant to do this, but as a favor to David, I am posting the pictures of where our old home was. They were able to get the house moved. David's sister, Kristi, was able to win the bid for it. These were taking the evening after they moved it. A few more tears were shed.