Happy 22 Jennifer!

Today was Jennifer's 22nd birthday. Happy birthday Jenna Bear! Josh, Nicole, Mat, and Grandma came over for dinner to help us wish Jennifer a happy birthday.



After dinner Jennifer lit the candles on her traditional cake (chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting)...




...blew out the candles...




...and licked the frosting off the candles.

We hope it will be a wonderful year for her!

So Much to Catch Up On!

OK! Where was I? Oh, yes...the trip to the land.

We had a wonderful, relaxing time...especially me. Don did a lot of the cooking. Yes sir-ee, here's a picture of my personal chef fixing my breakfast on the front porch. I can almost smell the bacon.



This is a pile of T-posts near the cabin that we are going to use to put up some fencing. If you look to either side of the pile you will see fresh dirt scattered around. That's because Mia smelled a pack rat under the T-posts and began digging under them hoping to get to the pack rat. If you look carefully you can see her hind end poking out from the left.



I went back a little while later, and this is all I saw poking out.



Even Trooper seemed concerned at how far under she was.



So he assigned himself to guard duty. Good boy, Trooper!

The land had received a lot of water during the spring and summer, so there were many beautiful wild flowers growing.

The grasses were also beautiful. I love seeing them wave in the wind.

As we explored more parts of the ranch, we came across another large area of petrified wood. Here are some pictures:

This is the view looking south from near the area where the petrified wood was:

A soil feature in that same area:

On another note, Don's soccer team has lost only one game this season. I think the playoffs start next week. He loves playing keeper. That's him in the gray shirt jumping up to get the ball. Not bad for someone who is entering a new decade in a few months. Oops! I don't think I was supposed to let that little secret out of the bag!

I have worked hard all year long to condense my journals. I finally finished, and am now editing, with Don's help. I hope to leave something worthwhile for my posterity. Here are the journals I condensed (14 books, 1 ledger, and 1 three-ring binder):

WHEWWW!!! Big task. Now if I can just get it all edited.....

My brother has been working on scanning some newspaper clippings that he took possession of after my dad passed away in 2004. This is one that was written about my dad while he was serving in WWII (European theater).

And lastly, one of my favorite pictures taken by my daughter-in-law, Sarah, of Nathan and Carter grilling dinner a couple of months ago. I love it!

In spite of some of the difficult things life has sent our way, I have to say that I feel very blessed. I take strength from others of you as you face your trials with courage and faith. I appreciate having the friendship of such stalwart women. You are in my prayers.

No Pictures Again...But a New Reason

I actually have pictures to post. Problem is, the cable that lets the camera talk to the computer is not working anymore. I'll try to get a new one ordered soon.

Summary...We loved watching General Conference last weekend, and then we took the dogs and went up to the land for a week. We are home again and ready to jump back into rehearsals for The Messiah (our stake is sponsoring a community sing-along). It's been a while since I worked that hard at music. The soccer team is currently undefeated...way to go Don! He's the keeper for the team. Actually, he's a keeper in my book too. And Relief Society has also kept me running...there's always something that needs to be done.

I finally finished editing my journals. I got 15 volumes down to 103 pages. Not bad. I've also been working steadily on getting the family history information (that I have gathered over the years) put onto the newfamilysearch.org web site. Maybe one more year and I will be able to complete that goal. So far I have been able to add or confirm a few hundred names and dates. It does my heart good.

The family is well...we are well.

The A-7 Ranch

The A-7 Ranch is locate on the north side of the Catalina Mountains and consists of about 42,000 acres. Don has been working on a fire management plan for the area (what to do in case of a wildfire, where the structures and accelerants are located, where the wells are, which roads can be used by personnel, where the helicopters can scoop up water, etc.). We went hiking in the area so that I could see what he has been working on. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I even remembered to take the camera!

This is one of the old corral fences near one of the ranch houses.


There were some horses grazing in the area where they grow the hay.



I was amazed at how many of the cacti are still blooming. We've had a great monsoon season, and all of the plants seem happy.



The birds looked happy too. It was such a beautiful day.



There were several varieties of wildflowers blooming...

...and the cattle were shading themselves under the trees.

On top of a bluff there were the ruins of an ancient village. Some of the wall work is still intact.

There was a cable cart that went from bank to bank over the San Pedro River. I had a fun time pulling myself along, letting go, and zipping back to the other side.

It was a beautiful day on a beautiful ranch. Thanks for taking me, Don!

Family Dinner

Last week my father's youngest sister Carrie and her husband Bill came down from Oregon to visit. We enjoyed having them. We had a family dinner at my brother's house.

This is Bill and Carrie sitting with my mom.


Gary and Adam (Adam will be graduating this year from the University of Arizona. We are SOOO proud of him!


My sister Susan and my sister-in-law Carol.


My cousin Roger with Don.



My sister Joni (just moved back to Tucson from Denver) and Roger's wife Jean.

It was good to get everyone together.

And I Took...No Pictures

I can't seem to remember to get the camera out no matter what we're doing. We had a big barbecue at our house for some new members of our ward...no pictures. We went to the temple...no pictures. We had an apostle here in our stake and we sang in the stake choir...no pictures. We had friends over for Sunday dinner...no pictures. We had a night of guitars and harmonicas...no pictures. We had an HOA meeting in our old neighborhood and got to see some of our friends...no pictures. I went to seminary for the first time (I substituted for the regular teacher)...no pictures. We have had some great thunder storms and rain storms with beautiful clouds rolling over the mountain just east of us...no pictures. The new soccer season started and a friend of Don's came to take pictures (those are his pictures posted below) and, you guessed it...I took no pictures. Oh well. Enjoy the pictures that Dave took. That's Don in the gray and orange shirt with black shorts (blue stripe) playing keeper. His teammates are in orange shirts.

The Weeks Are Flying By

It's been a busy few weeks, and I haven't blogged at all. The time seems to be flying by.

Cristian and Jennifer moved to an area outside of Sierra Vista. Yesterday we made a trip down to see them and to take the last of Jennifer's things (including her German Shepherd) to her.

This is Cris and Jen in their kitchen.



This is the view from their back yard.


We are happy for them to be settled into their first home.

The week Jen and Cris were moving, I was home trying to hold down the fort and Don was in Idaho Falls spending time with his sister, Dallas, and some other family members in Utah. Below are a few of his pictures.

Don enjoyed the change of climate and scenery, and being with family that he hasn't seen in quite a while.

Today we made a rather long "to do" list (all the things around the house and yard that haven't gotten done in the last few weeks). I will try to be more consistent on the blogging, but with the list I'm looking at, don't hold your breath.