Thanks for Thanksgiving

 I don't think Robert had any idea when he said, "Okay, Thanksgiving is at our house this year" that we might take him up on it!  Roy and I, Val and Meg's family, and Faren and Ave's family all converged on Bozeman for the holiday.  We hadn't been up there for quite some time, and I was ready for some time with them.  Not to mention, Robert can cook a great meal!

 The kids loved having a big slumber party!  They ranged in age from 2 years to 9 years.  They all played so nice and got along well. 

Roy smoked a turkey, and Robert tried the turkey fryer in the garage.  Both were scrumptious!  Thursday morning, while Robert and I were cooking.....

 ....the rest of the adults took the kids to the local Ramada Inn for swimming.  They loved it, and all came back with big appetites.  After dinner, we took a walk and let the kids play at the neighborhood park.  It was a decent warm-ish day.  That night I went with Jane and Robert to Walmart for the Black Friday preview.  It was my first time doing anything like that, and I was amazed at the crowds.  Jane found some good deals, though.  So it was worth it. 

The NEXT day going home...not so warm-ish!  Kinda scary in places, with a pretty serious ground blizzard going on for about 90 miles.  We stopped in St A to see Seth and his family for awhile, then did a little shopping.

  Saturday, Roy and I took a carload of our ward youth to SLC.  We had lunch at the Lion House, then had some time to stroll around temple square before going to the production of "Savior of the World" at the conference center theater.  It was a fun, spiritual day!

Good weekend, all the way around! 

Robert turns 40

Forty years ago today, I became a mommy. Even though I was only 19 years old and Robert arrived 10 days late, I was as happy as I could be. Someone once asked me why we chose to have kids so early in our marriage. I replied, “What else was there to do?” That’s just what you did.

There was never any question what the name of our first son was to be. Roy’s brother, who was lost 3 years before was Robert, but was called Bobby. Even though Roy and all his family called our son Robert, I called him Bobby Dee. He was known by pretty much everyone we associated with as Bobby. When he was in Junior High, he decided he was going to be Robert. It was a hard change for me. And sometimes his aunts on my side still call him Bobby Dee.

We have always had a pretty close bond. Robert and I can talk about just about anything. We don’t always agree, but I admire his passion. He has a good gift of gab, and has a way of making lasting, loyal friends wherever he has lived. He loves to cook and is darn good at it. We share a love for good books and good music. There was a time when he was just as knowledgeable about the “oldies” as me….and I lived them! I’ve never questioned his love for me and I know he would go to the ends of the earth to help me if I needed it.

He has a darling little family now. (He chose not to start as young as me.)

Sending all my love to you, Robert, as you go “over the hill!”

Killing Time in Kilgore

We had our annual Eddins/Smuin campout in August just before school started. This year Seth and Anne Marie were in charge. They chose a pretty spot in Kilgore.

Karen and John showed us a fun trail up to a place called Monument Ridge. There was a whole mountain top full of shale rock of all sizes. Over the years, people have stacked up piles. Some are just that....random piles. But some are very creative and impressive.

There was fishing, bike riding, four-wheeling, motorcycling,

zip-lining,

playing in the creek,

cooking, (Roy and his "garbage can turkey")

and just hanging out. It was a great time!

Catching Up - July

July 4th is always a fun time with the family. The past two years we have gone to Driggs. It has become quite the destination spot for this holiday, and we're not sure we ever want to miss it now.

To add to the already fun and festive hot air balloon launches, the Huntsman Foundation puts on a wonderful and patriotic few days, all for free.

Complete with an air show, BMX racing, bouncy houses, food concessions, concerts,

and Glenn Beck. Loved the symphony music and his speech....very touching and patriotic.

Add some swimming and barbecuing, and you have a perfect holiday celebration!

This year's swimming lessons week was held the 3rd week in July. All the girls and kids came again for lessons at Lava.

There was floating the river, fishing, boating, fluming, and

a day playing at Bear Lake.

August was a busy month, too. Our world was turned upside down when I was made Relief Society president. Then a few weeks later, Roy was put in our ward bishopric as the second counselor. (I think our bishop hates us!) Life has taken on a whole new focus, as we both go to a lot more meetings now, and have challenging things going on all the time. Heck...we don't even know half the members in the ward! So we have our work cut out for us. Roy looks good in his new suit! I told him he was the best looking guy on the stand.
More catching up to come!

Best Friends Forever

I spent three fun-filled days with my BFF's last month in Utah. We decided that on the off years of the family reunion, we would try to get together and spend some quality time.

Day one included picking Brenda up at the SLC airport, having pedicures in Provo, and ending up in Manti for the pageant. All three of them had seen it before when they were in YW, but I had never seen it and it was on my bucket list. The temple was breathtakingly beautiful and the pageant was awesome and well worth the trip. We stayed in Provo that night. I was pretty proud of myself for getting such a great deal on our rooms on Priceline, but I didn't know that it was meant for 2 people only. So when I called to make sure we had 2 queen beds, I was told, "Sorry, but we only have a room with one king bed available, but we can bring in a roll-away." And there's no backing out once you hit the button. So we jokingly talked about who was going to sleep in the middle. (Hope I didn't snore too loud...)

Day two: Shopping at the Provo Town Center all morning, traveling to Park City and making fun necklaces (courtesy of Brendi-Lou) in our motel room. (This time we did have two queens....whew!)

This picture was taken in the mirror without a flash to show the necklaces we made...very pretty!

Day three we pretty much shopped till we dropped....literally! The outlet stores there are pretty amazing. (Glad I had been saving up for awhile.) We saw a movie in the late afternoon, then explored around the town for awhile. I wanted to go down the Alpine Slide, but no one else did. I told them it could be a fun memory. But quite possibly the only memory may have been someone's broken hip!

Said goodbye to Brenda at the airport the next morning, refreshed and satisfied that we had talked about every subject, and been successful at solving all of each others problems!! (Sigh..)

This and That

So glad we finally have summer. It's been a cold and rainy spring and we're so ready for sun! School is out and that means the grandkids can come for visits and stay with grandma and grandpa for a few days at a time. Haddi and Mia came and we did some fun things.

There's a strange little geyser-like spring in Alexander reservoir that we visited one day with Val and Megan's family.


Then there was our 2nd annual trek to CJ Strike Reservoir for three days for crappie fishing. The fish didn't cooperate quite as well as the guys had hoped, but a total of about 140 fish were brought home and put in the freezer. (Great for fish tacos!) I took a book to finish ("Alecia," so good) and quilt squares to cut out. The women had fun exploring and visiting as well.

On my birthday, we met the kids at Heise for a picnic.

The South Fork was running very fast and high...as you can see we were holding tight to the little ones! We also went to see the parking lot at Kelly Canyon where the spring runoff carved a huge crater. Very awesome to see the powers of nature.

And just a little footnote to our kids and friends that are interested....this is the progress on the house finishing project.

A Good Start

"How do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time."
We have a huge "elephant" here. We've lived in our house now for 4 years, and the outside has not been finished. It seemed to be such a huge undertaking that Roy wasn't sure he was up to it anymore. This Spring brought new resolve to get the job done.... and, lo and behold, he even asked for help. (A huge feat, if you know Roy.)

Last weekend four of the kids and their families came to the rescue. Val, Faren, Seth, and Chad worked part of Friday and all day Saturday on roofs, ladders, and planks. Ron and Conner came over to lend a hand, the girls made food, and the kids were good runners. Mother Nature even cooperated and a lot was accomplished.

They got all of the fascia and soffit done on the new part of the house.


They tore all the Tyveck off and removed old siding and black celotex from the old part. Even the sun setting didn't slow them down.
The "elephant" doesn't seem quite so big now. Thanks guys!