Wed-Fri Utah Trip

I made a whirlwind trip to take Whitney back to BYU. I got her unpacked and in her apartment Wednesday and got to see my sister, Rhonda, for about 20minutes and then raced to SLC to be with Jamie's family.

Thursday, Jamie and I worked out at her gym with a power boxing class. I was sore right after and am a little sore the next day. I got to see our good friends from Penang, Laura and her children . It was great to visit with them and catch up on the people we miss in Malaysia.Jamie baked the salmon I brought from Portland that night and we all feasted. It was really good!

The children and I got to play and tickle before they went off to bed.

Emma is talking to grandpa and we all wished he could be there too and share in the fun.

I left Friday morning and got into Portland 12 hours later. There was a fire in the mountains near Hood River and helicopters were dumping on it. I was a little afriad they would close the road, but I got through.

Salmon Fishing

Our friend invited people to go fishing with him and Alan and I signed up to go this Saturday. We got up at 4 AM and got to Warrenton, on the Columbia river to start fishing by 7AM.

It was pretty cool and windy and the spray kept us wet and chilled most of the day.

Alan got the biggest fish, the boat owner snagged the next, and another friend got the third. I got a small trout that we threw back in.

Alan caught this one soon after we got into the water and made us all excited that our catch was just a hook away. We took them over to be filleted and then took them home. It was quite an experience.

Visiting Mom and Dad in TN

We had to wait for Debi's flight to come in almost 7 hours after ours so they took us to Opreyland and this is at the hotel. We walked around the mall and ate at Cracker Barrel and rocked in rockers and talked until time to go back to the airport.

We got in some good foot rubbin'.

We picked tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, and beans from the garden. We "busted a bunch" of beans as Alicia would say, it was great and they tasted like heaven.

We taught everyone how to play 13 or 5 Crowns and Annie won, I won't say who lost, cause he already knows.

Sometimes there was nothing to do but rest! Here's a couple of tired ol' boys.

Dave and Annie's family came Friday night before we left on Saturday so we got a picture of everyone together. We missed Dale, Brian and Katie's family by a day I think.

Good-bye picture with mom and dad.

This is a lego construction in Las Vegas airport. They had the statue of liberty out of legos in the Portland airport. They were pretty neat!

County Fair

We saw all the farm animals first and the kids liked the goats a lot.

Ben loved pumping the water and the other two loved playing in the water.

All three got a turn at milking a pretend cow and did a good job at it.

We had to try the ol' head thru the hole picture!)

They had fun digging, burying, throwing, and walking in all the corn. It was a fun evening for all and even better when Jake showed up.

Blackberries and Body stacking

Whitney and I went out Tuesday afternoon in 102* weather and picked blackberries. Her friend Ethan came over today and helped her can jam and make a pie. MMM !

Recreating a memory with Jamie's kids.

They will do better in a few years.

Visiting Leila

Last Tuesday Jamie set-up a time for us to go see Leila at a park in Vancouver. It was 9:30 in the morning and already about 90*. Everyone was sweaty and red in the face pretty quickly.

Leila loves to play; she is a tomboy and very active.

We all gave hugs at the end of the hour and said good-bye. It was a very nice visit and everyone was happy with the time we spent together.

Mom's Funeral and 4th of July Picnic

Mom looked very nice and she still had the finger nail polish we put on her two weeks before.

The family before we had a prayer and said good-bye to mom. The service went well and I'm glad we had an open mic time for people to say things; I loved the comments and they brought back memories!

Pallbearers taking her to the gravesite. Jared, David, Brian, Loren, Richard, Ryan, and James.

We went to a park up in Provo Canyon on the fourth and had a picnic together. All the siblings and their spouses were there. I think that is the first time that has ever happened.