Luncheon

 I got to have lunch with these two awesome gals at Applebees last week.  Yvonne from Canada is on the left.  She is in Utah for a 1/2 marathon and her son's surgery.  Connie lives in Utah.  These two lovely ladies are both runners. Yvonne successfully completed the 1/2 marathon and Connie is training for a race.  I am in a awe of these two ladies.  They are both so smart and spiritually inclined.  They are kind and nice and so much fun to be with.  Both have a great sense of humor and they both RUN.  Wow! We had a very fun time together.  

 And for you viewing pleasure a few photos of my darling little granddaughter Natalia enjoying her jeep on our back deck.

Helping Papa

 One of our trees in the backyard is dying so Papa went out to try to save it.  Tal saw him out there working and wanted to help.  She is so curious and always wants to be where the action is.  What a sweetie!

Chrissie's visit

 The other  day Chrissie and her children came for a visit and lunch.  Tal was waiting and waiting and I tried and tried to capture a photo of her, but she was just too active.  :)   She is a little doll and we love watching her, but she is sooooooo busy.  I forgot how much work it is to babysit little ones.

 Tal and M had a great time together.  They played with the tea set and with the dollies.

 Little J and Tal had a few problems sharing.  They often both wanted the same toy at the very same moment.  I guess it's hard to share when you're just 2 and 3 years old.  All in all they were pretty good though.

 Of course no visit is complete without a little dancing or rolling with the ball as the case may be. :)

I have known Chrissie since she was first born.  Her parents and we are really good friends.  They lived just a few houses away from us when we were in California and our children were really, really good friends too.  In fact, our kids grew up together.  2 of our daughters had their very first date with one of their sons.  We spent many, many fun hours together doing all sorts of things; walking to school together, going to the park, dinner at each other's house, vacations together, watching each other's children, fun times and sad times together.

I was Chrissie's very first babysitter the day she came home from the hospital.  As it turned out one of their older children was getting married that day and since Chris was just a newborn, I took care of her.  She was the cutest, tiniest little baby and what fun we had holding her and cuddling her.

Once when Chrissie was just little, about 4 or 5 years old, she picked a bunch of my beautiful flowers.  Then she had to come to me and tell me she was sorry for picking flowers that weren't hers.  Our Michael had to do the same thing with their flowers.  Those two little ones just loved flowers. Michael and Chrissie were really good buds growing up.

As it turned out, Chrissie graduated from BYUI with a degree in horticulture? Not sure what her degree was in, but she studied all about plants and flowers and became a florist.  She did the flowers for Anna's and Michael's weddings and did a beautiful job.

When Michael and Chrissie were about 2 years old I was at a Relief Society meeting.  Some of us were preparing for the luncheon. We were hard at work in the kitchen when we heard giggling.  Judy, Chrissie's Mom, and I turned around and saw our 2 little ones in a huge soup pot.  Only their little heads were sticking out and they were having a ball.

The year that Michael and Chrissie were born, there were about 17 babies other babies born in our ward.  5 of us all lived near each other and when the children went to kndg, we carpooled.  One time I was having a Stake Primary meeting at my house and totally forgot that it was my turn to pick up the kids.  I got a phone call from the school secretary asking me if I had forgotten anything?  I instantly remembered, told the people to carry on with the meeting and rushed over to the school.  When I got to the office, there they were, all of them, sitting like 5 little birds all huddled together.  I was so embarrassed and sorry.  Luckily all of the Mommy's were understanding.

We have many fun memories together and it was so great to have her come and visit.  I made a yummy lunch of croissant sandwiches, fresh fruit and several kinds of breads, lemon, banana, and cinnamon for dessert.  The children enjoyed mac n' cheese.  They especially liked the watermelon.

More of Idaho

 Katie has taught herself how to play the guitar.  She serenaded us and did quite well I must say.  We could recognize the tunes and so I thought that was really nice.  She's only been playing less than a month.

 On Monday morning we drove over to Alec's Eagle office.  It is very nice.

 The Boise River runs right behind the office.  The water was soooooo swift and it looked cold too.  I would not want to swim in there at this time of year.

 Here are a few more diplomas.

 A photo of his desk looking out at the river.  He said that he sees lots of wildlife out that window.

 Often when we see him, he writes prescriptions or gives us samples or does little procedures.  We like to bug him with our problems.  Fortunately he's always so nice about it and says he doesn't mind at all. :)

 This is Taylor, their old dog.  When Taylor was a puppy we babysat her for a whole year while Alec and Kelly were stationed somewhere where they didn't allow animals.  I taught Taylor doggie manners.  I taught her how to walk on a leash without pulling the one walking her.  I taught her not to jump on people when they come to the door or ever.  I taught her not to sit on furniture and lots of other things.  She was a good dog.  Sadly she has to be put down because she is so sick.  She has some tumors, losing control, and she can't walk right anymore or even go up the stair.  She falls over all the time and she is totally deaf.  Poor Taylor.  We all feed sad.

 The two weiner dogs, Oscar and Rusty are as active as ever.  They are funny.  Rusty chases a laser light until he becomes exhausted.  They love Kelly and follow her around.  When she is relaxing on the couch or arm chair, they have to be right next to her under a blanket.

 When we got home that evening, we celebrated Jose's Birthday.  He got presents and a cake.  

Visit to Alec and Kelly

 We had a most wonderful visit to Idaho to see Alec, Kelly, and Katie.  Our trip up to Idaho was smooth, but we drove through lots of rain.  It was fun to see tons of cows and calves as we drove through Utah and then tons of Sheep and lambs while driving through Idaho.  The little ones were so cute running and frolicking through the field and pastures.

 Saturday morning we went to a Farmer's Market.  They had many, many fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, sweets, cheeses, soaps, pottery, jewelry, and you name it.  We had fun walking around and buying a few things.  I got some really nice smelling soaps and garlic infused evoo.  John got scones, cookies, and other sweets that he wanted to munch on.  That guy has got a big sweet tooth.  He does share though.

 I really liked this statue of 3 kids playing keepsies .

 It was cold and really, really windy as you can tell by my lovely hair. Ha!  After we were done, we stopped for some hot chocolate to warm up.  Then we went home and watched I Am Number Four.  It was pretty good.

 For dinner we went to McGrath's Fish House.  I had the yummiest salmon with veggies.

 Then we stopped by Alec's office to pick up some things.  John enjoyed looking at some of his diplomas and certificates.  Some of the other's are hanging in the Eagle office. Mom's have some bragging rights.  Right?

 Then Alec drove us to this tree that has a bunch of owls living in them.  He passes the tree very often when he is training for the Boise 70.3 Iron Man because it is right on the path.  The marathon is in a couple of weeks and he will swim 1.2 miles.  Then he will bike 56 miles and end up with a 70.3 mile run.    I am in awe of people running.  I have 2 friends, Connie and Yvonne who run and they just inspire me so much.   I loved seeing these owls.  There were about 6 of them and a couple of babies.  Look soooo carefully in the picture and you might be able to spot some of them.

Later that evening we watched Alice In Wonderland which I enjoyed quite a bit.  Sunday John and I spoke to the youth about our mission.  I was nervous at first, but it was really fun to talk to them.  We concentrated our talk on the young people and the young missionaries that we worked with.  I think they really enjoyed it a lot and it ended up being great.  

We will be traveling home today.  Our visit was tooooooo short.  I wish my kids lived near me.  I made a big mistake raising my kids.  We taught them to be independent and then they took us up on it.  Ha!  Now they live all over the U.S.  and I miss them so much.  I wish it was like in the olden days when everyone lived near each other.  I am so lucky and blessed that I have wonderful children.  I love them so much and fortunately for me, they love me too.