CELEBRATING 69

Deer Creek Reservoir     Clark drives to work by this daily
(Jeff, notice the lack of trees)
We love Sunday's.  This was our stake conference and was very good; all about missionary work and members doing their part in getting people for the missionaries to teach.  It was wonderful.
After conference we hurried to PG to see the boys in their primary program.  They did a marvelous job and spoke so they could be heard.  We were proud.  Shanelle is the president and gave a beautiful opening  address.  Of course she got teary.

That evening we invited the Utah family to Granddad's birthday party.  They all came and it was so darn much fun.

waiting to open

opening

 Dad had a great evening.  I baked 3 pies and a cake so there was plenty to eat.  We gobbled up over 3 quarts of ice cream.  We loved it.  The kids love to be together which we are o grateful for.  Dad was showered with fun gifts and had fun.  After the treats the adults sat around the table and became the most informative wedding planners ever.

 Fun was had by all.

Di and Clark  

Erik and Shanelle

                       

Nixon, Scott and Beth

The best  thing about Granddad's birthday is that it is the same day as Uncle Eric's.  Uncle Eric was born one year later on the very same day.  They were reared as twins.  I feel so sorry for Granny.  Can you imagine the mischief they got into.  You know the pig story and many others.  Just stick around Uncle Eric and you will learn many more.  He was very verbal at the reunion.  Of course Granddad's story is very different.  We had Mark and Mikki to set things straight.

Monday morning, Dad's birthday, found him playing golf.  No better place for him to celebrate.  When he got home he spent the rest of the day fixing and painting our outside lights.

  They now look brand new.
We celebrated by going to Outback for dinner.  We love that place.  Of course we came home and watched football.
Today we went to the mountain to check to see if the electricity was actually on.

headed to ours

ours on the right

 IT WORKED!  We now have power.

 It will be so fun to go now.  All are invited any time.  We stayed and enjoyed some time and just sat on the tail gate and ate lunch.

 It was so quiet and peaceful.  We intend to go more often now.
Dad is now golfing and I am waiting to go to a RS meeting.  This retirement stuff is definitely for the men.

I did a very foolish thing 5 days ago.  I decided that because I was putting the weight I had lost back on I would go on our tread mill.  Well, before the mission I always went bare foot so I did it bare foot.  When my time was up I stepped off and about died.  My feet were so sore.  I thought it was my neuropathy getting worse.  I had dad check my feet and he said I had a quarter size puffy blister on the ball of each foot.  I worry about myself sometimes.  I am finally walking without pain.
A sad day was when I went to Ryan Runia's viewing. He was one of my favorite boys I taught in third grade.  His family is so strong and gospel centered.  He requested that in place of flowers we all give a larger fast offering.  How unselfish.  He was only 31 but had gained a large amount of weight and had an aneurysm on the aorta from his heart.  He had 4 little ones from 7-18 months which made it very difficult.  The family is amazing.
After the viewing we went to the ward talent show.  It was incredible.  I had no idea there was so much extremely gifted talent in our ward.  It was just good to be with the ward people because I'm in YW and never see the older ward people.
Riley turned 14 Friday.  I was sure he was only 13.  He is such a great young man.  I guess we lost a year while on our mission.  He is kind to others and loves to tease his siblings and usually gets away with it.  They love it/  We have loved watching him play football this fall.  He is so much like his dad in so many little things he does and makes us see his dad at that age.  We hope he will be like his dad in every way.  His dad is a great model to follow and Riley loves working beside his dad.  Riley is in 8th grade and loves sports and ballroom dance.  He is very talented.  He's a keeper.

Riley and his coach dad

happy to finally have a brother    still is

Saturday we actually went to the BYU ball game.  It was so cold.  It was just us, Erik and Shanelle and Scott and Beth.  We laughed our heads off.  Bethany decided if BYU scored 56 points we could go home and watch it on  TV.  Well, right after half time they did.  Dad said it had to be done before the half.  Bethany actually lasted 'till 4th quarter.

 They went home and started the fire and after the game we took Erik and Shanelle to our house to get their car so they could get the boys and we picked up pizza and all met at Scott's.

 We played "The Red Neck Game"  and laughed all night.  It is a really fun game.  We lost, of all things and Parker and Kolton won.  Go figure.

The kids loved sliding in pillowcases  down the stairs.
When we went downstairs we saw the entertainment center Scott had built.

This has been a very fun and full week.  We love our family so very much and are so looking forward for the holidays ahead to be together even more.  I love their patriarch.