Our "Baby" Journey Begins

We left at noon on the dot.....heading out to Utah to greet our newest grandaughter....

Makenna Jane...... as she comes into the world on Thursday.

Inevitably I take lots of scenery pictures along the way, usually of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge....but it was raining cats and dogs through there today, so no pictures.  I did shoot these pics in Idaho.  Not much to look at usually, but today I found myself grabbing my camera for a few shots.

                                These clouds are BEAUTIFUL!!  At least it wasn't raining.

These trees are growing on a tree farm in Oregon...they go for miles and miles.  They are fast growing trees that are harvested for wood. The colors are changing........I LOVE it!

We saw lots and lots of trains today. I was able to get this shot of the engines of a train that went on forever! I think Grandpa Drew was with me today, enjoying them too.

Before we left I busied myself making 9 halloween pillowcases for some of our grandkids. I had alot of fun picking out the fabric....I hope they like them!
All in all, we traveled 8.5 hours today.  We made good time.  We're spending the night in Burley Idaho and will travel on to Salt Lake to see friends and family tomorrow before we head down to Jenny and Logans.  Stay Tuned.......

Random

Okay...so I have been going crazy trying to post pictures because the pictures would not upload because it was not supported.  Make sense??  I think I have it figured out now....so hopefully you will get to see some random pictures of the past 6 months, then I may do more another day.

                        Mom's 80th Birthday....seems forever ago! So good to see my siblings:))

                                          Beach trip to Lincoln City Oregon in May......

Josh LOVES to dig at the beach..........

                        My FAVORITE part of surgery (February)...Getting to order whatever I wanted!!

                              Jon's graduation from BYU Idaho in April....in Political Science.

                                      Jenny and Logan and family came too....it was very fun!!

 We had fun walking the campus....Jenny and Logan reminisced about their years there.  It's where they met....they had a date in this very garden.  And below .....our Egan grandkids (Chris's kids) came to see us this summer with their mom and step dad.  Aren't they beautiful??

It's Been TOOOOO.....Long!!

Wow!!  It's been a REALLY long time since I posted.  Hopefully I will be able to get back into this.
Spring and Summer are gone and now fall is here once again. Life has been busy....I had surgery....went to Jon's graduation from BYUI.....had fun with my family.....attended to sick people.......and now I am back to work, loving on sweet little people....some with severe disabilities.  I will attempt to post a few pictures.

Hunkering Down.....

The country seems to be in a deep freeze....we are no different. We're on day 3 of the "Winter Blast" as the news channels have dubbed it. This is our house yesterday, when I was willing to go out in it.

We woke up today to huge snowflakes falling. That was over 6 hours ago and it has only let up a little. Now the wind has picked up and it looks like a mix of snow and freezing rain. Church is cancelled tomorrow. It's been many years since we've had snow in any measurable degree. That's why I don't mind.

As long as I can stay in and hunker down and forget about putting on my makeup, I'm good. Today we're watching the Olympics and feeling like we're there with all of the snow outside. I even made nacho's for lunch....hmmm...the down side is I eat ALOT when I'm stuck inside. Oh well.....

What I say to all the grumpy people who are complaining because of the snow.....GET OVER IT!! HAPPY WINTER.....FINALLY!!!

Christmas 2013

SO....I really want to do a post to wrap up things for 2013....like posting the finished shed Josh and Richard worked so hard on....and a few other things. BUT, before I do I want to share our fun family Christmas in Utah/Idaho. We flew into Salt Lake the Saturday before Christmas. I had everything planned down to the minute....and believe me we weren't sure things would go as planned, what with a snow storm that had closed the airport 2 days before we left and another storm expected the day of our flight. We were really blessed things went so WONDERFULLY!!!

It WAS snowing when we arrived....but we made it to Magna Utah to see Christophers kids. They live with their mom Katherine and stepdad. They were all so sweet. We had fun seeing their rooms...and visiting. I'm holding Helen (Katherines little girl...who we consider our grandaughter too) with MaraLee next to me, then Kadelyn, Richard, Terran and Serenity.

Serenity got all bundled up to play with a neighbor friend as we left......heading to Rexburg Idaho to see Jon and Brittany.

The roads were pretty clear...Thank Goodness!! We were so worried we would have to cancel going to see them because of the weather. We had fun playing games after going out to eat our "Christmas" dinner with them at Applebees. Jon and Brit are such fun game players. They had to bring their dining room table out of storage in their bedroom so we could play. Their apartment is small and they put it away so they could put up a tree.

We had such a nice visit. Richard hadn't seen their apartment yet, so he enjoyed seeing it. We went to church with them the next day and then headed back to Salt Lake.

The weather was a bit rough driving back, but we made it to LaDena and Rob's house mid afternoon. They moved over the summer so it was fun to see where they were living and get a tour of their new house.

Here we are with the kids....Nate, Tanner and Natalie. We missed seeing the oldest MaKinzie. She's living on her own now.

Can I say we trudged through the snow (which we actually did)....to go see Chris and Mary. We just missed Chris...he had to pick someone up from the airport (Army business)....but we did see our daughter in law Mary and 2 of her kids, Whitney and Chandler.... and her new grandbaby Noah. We catch up with Chris later in the trip.

The ONE part of this trip I really really wanted to do was to go see the lights on Temple Square. By now it was nearly 8pm and we had had a very long day....and we still had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Jennys....but I was DETERMINED!! You can see why! There are hundreds of thousands of lights...and lots and lots of nativities displayed. The snow was turning to a light drizzle but we didn't care. I posted lots of pics on facebook already, but I will post a few here. This is one of my favorites...love the colors in this one.

There is a huge reflecting pool between the Temple and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. In the center was displayed this beautiful nativity. Interestingly enough, when we were at the Portland Temple last week they had one very similar displayed in the reflecting pool where we took pics of Jon and Brittanys wedding. Something I didn't know until then.

Here is an overall view of the reflecting pool. You can see the outline of the nativity in the center. On the other side you can see the lights...and specifically the big lighted tree with the star. Our son in law Rob put's that up each year, along with another one on the other end of the square. It was a beautiful evening, and though we were pretty much exhausted, we LOVED every minute of it. In fact....we were LOVING every minute of our entire trip thus far.

We made it to Gunnison, obviously....and I had fun doing crafts with Sadie the next day. The best part of my job is that we do lots of crafts. Here Sadie is beading a pipe cleaner to make a candy cane. She made one for Isaac too:)

It blends in well with her shirt....but if you look hard you can make it out. She was having fun...I think Jenny said we did like 7 crafts. I've saved copies of everything because I'm hoping we will have other little kiddos to do crafts with in the future:)

Here they are in some little penguin outfits I got them when Jenny and I did our marathon shopping on Black Friday.

Had to get this in...Richard and Logan pounding their fists on the table chanting....FOOD FOOD!!! I think they came out of the same mold...no joke!

Jenny's friend Melanie hired Santa to come visit the kids at her house. Isaac did much better with Santa in a private setting. Thanks for letting me share.....except for not having Josh with us, it was a wonderful Christmas. More to follow........

The Slow Poke Returns

Yes...I'm talking about myself. It's not quite as fun posting nearly a MONTH after the fact, but here I am. Although....I AM having fun remembering the wonderful time we had on our little trip. For some reason life just keeps getting in the way of my being able to post.

We took all the newlyweds to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings...aren't they all so cute? Well, all except Jacob...the young man in the blue striped shirt closest to my camera. We came upon Jacob walking down the street as we drove into Rexburg...he's in our ward and just returned from his mission in Brazil. I drove by him AGAIN the next day as he was walking back to his dorm from the temple. We took pity on him...he is all alone...so we called and invited him to come with us.

One of the things some of us girls did was we went shopping at a store I had heard about...Real Deals. It turns out it was practically next door to Jon and Brit's apartment. We walked there...it was a beautiful day. Brittany liked this fun wreath so we bought it...it's just plain white, so we found some fall leaves and also christmas berries so she can change it for each holiday.

Ericka and I stayed up late each nite so we could visit after my day with the newlyweds. I did have a few minutes to stop by the house on Sunday so I could see Brooke and her family who live nearby.

Brooke has four kids. They are the ages my kids were when she babysat for us! Where has the time gone?

I got to go to church with the kids since we ended up staying an extra day in Rexburg. It was so fun! Brittany had put in a pork roast the night before and the rest of the newlyweds and moms all came over after church for a yummy potluck dinner. We visited and played games and had delicious apple pie and ice cream for dessert. I must say that the new wives are pretty impressive cooks!

Jon and Brit's little apartment was PACKED...and I mean...wall to wall...at one point. Jared Crain stopped by......he spent years over at our house playing with Jon (and Josh) when the boys were little. I mentioned him before. His family is in New Hampshire (I just blogged about his mom a while ago) and he's going to BYU Idaho too. So fun to spend time with him too:)

Everyone had gone on Sunday night and I had missed out on getting a picture with the kids....AGAIN! Then, we realized one of the moms had left her cell phone at the apartment...so when she came back I was FINALLY able to get a picture. I was so happy!! Brittany was as cool as a cucumber in this pic, but the very next morning she had to get up and drive with Jon to Pocatello so she could take her national certification exam for Recreational Therapy Management. She passed with flying colors! Congratulations!!

Brittany fixed up their table with the scarecrow and pumpkins (I gave those to her in September when they were here) and the sunflowers from the wedding. It looked so cute!

Ericka took some time off Monday so we could spend some more time together....she took me here to the Rexburg Tabernacle and Teton Flood Museum. Richard told me these tabernacles are quite common. They were built to bring communities together so the saints would have a place to socialize. We even got a private showing of the inside since Ericka knows the woman in the museum.

Sadly, our time came to a close and we had to go home. It turned out to be a blessing that my car had problems. Melanies Rachel ended up having a scare with her new pregnancy so she ended up staying in Rexburg for the rest of the week. June, Yvette and I headed home after I picked up my car in Idaho Falls. We got a very late start home...but the 12 hour drive went by quickly and all was safe and sound as we arrived home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. I just have to think of this beautiful House of the Lord and am so grateful to Him for blessing my life so richly with the love of family and friends.

PIZZA with the Newlyweds......

We wouldn't let a small thing like a broken car stop us from having fun...would we?? We arrived in Rexburg just in time to meet all the newlyweds coming home from work/school. We toured most of their apartments, starting with Tyson and Rachels (June's son/Melanies daughter)...then we moved on to Jeff and Rachel's apartment (June's OTHER son and different Rachel...yes...her son's BOTH married Rachel's this summer. Jon and Brit weren't home yet so we went to visit Andrew and Chelsey...Jon's missionary companion and college roomate for 2 years who ALSO got married this summer.

We decided to get pizza so we could all eat together...we ended up at Jeff and Rachels apartment. Jon, Jeff, and Andrew all live in the same complex, but their apartments are in different buildings...Jon and Brit's apartment is on a different street and they are in different wards.

Andrew and Chelsey...they couldn't eat with us because Andrew was performing in a choir concert that night....wish I could have gone, but we were too busy eating pizza:)

I mainly took this to show the pizza boxes....but also to get a pic of Jeff and Rachel (sitting on floor) Jon and Jeff have been the best of friends since middle school.

The other Rachel (Tysons wife....are you confused yet??) sitting on the floor, Megghan...Rachel and Brits old college roommate who had just driven into town (so we insisted she join us)....AND June.

Melanie made me give my camera up so we could get a picture together....I'm sure glad she did. Poor Melanie ended up being very sick most of the entire trip with a bad sinus cold.

See what a beautiful sight I passed each day as I travelled to my friend Ericka's house to stay?? What a special spirit Rexburg has with this majestic building overlooking the entire town.

More to come....stay tuned:)