One more thought about the last post.....

I

We just put our pictures on the computer, so I wanted to add more to the last post.  

Above is my husband's family.

Below are the "love birds"!

Ken's sisters put this wonderful quilt together.

All the pictures are connected to some experience or memory over the last 70 years.

On the back is a family tree with the name of every single offspring and some time lines for the family.

The map on the bottom shows a star at all the different locations where they have lived.

(You can't really tell from the picture, but some of the places included Arlington, Virginia;  Englewood, Colorado; Spokane, Washington;  Vancouver, Washington; Iron Mountain, Michigan;  Newington, Connecticut; Seattle, Washington; and Salt Lake City, Utah.)

Marcia did the sewing and Connie embroidered this temple.  Carolyn helped with the hemming.

NICE JOB!!!

 Here's one more view of the quilt.

How nice to snuggle up with your most pleasant remembrances!

♥

JoAnn

70 years and still going strong....

Last night we got to honor my husband's parents.

They have been married for SEVENTY years!

We had a wonderful evening at The Roof restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City, along with his parents, siblings, and their spouses.  (Click on their site and take a virtual tour.)  The restaurant is located on the tenth  floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and has a bird's eye view of the temple, Capitol Building, and the gardens below. 

The view is incredible.

(The food is amazing, too!)

 (Photo from the link above)
Afterwards, the grandchildren met up with us at their home for cake and ice cream.

There aren't too many people who get to spend that many years together, 

and we are so proud to call them our parents!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

♥

JoAnn

The "After" without the "Before"...for a great lady

Our family has a great (meaning wonderful) aunt who has blessed our lives for many years.

She rocked us as babies.
She turned the jump rope for hours as we practiced our steps.
She played "Annie-I-Over" with us around the old "shanty".
She ran up and down the road holding our bicycles steady until we learned to balance.
She drove us to Logan to roller skate almost every Friday night.
We had sleepovers at her house (which was conveniently right next door).
She rocked our babies.

She baby sat our babies.
She shared her wonderful vegetables from her garden with us.
She went along on our girls'-trips. 
She rocked our babies' babies.
She baby sat our babies' babies.
She kept us together and grounded when our parents died.

Aunt Mardene is a young 86 years old now.
Her kitchen needed some updating.
It had old kitchen carpet which she HATED.

Katie, our daughter, had a great idea that we should get all of the family to help redo her floors.
Andrew found a good deal on the flooring and
 the whole extended family pitched in to help buy it.  (Thanks, everyone!)
Liz used her paint store experience to help choose a paint color (Coronado Cream by Benjamin Moore).
Ken shared his carpentry skills.
Katie and Michelle painted.
Everyone cheered.

Especially Mardene!

Don't you think it looks great?
(The curtains, rug, and accessories came from Walmart.)

I know, there isn't a before picture.  I guess we were too eager to get started.
(Does anyone out there have an old picture?)

♥
JoAnn

Now that's a river......

In my last blog I talked about the river that ran through our campground.

Very pretty, don't you think?

It cooled off our hot feet, chilled the watermelon, and soothed us to sleep with its rhythmic noise.

Here is a picture of the mighty Mississippi River.  (Google.com)

Do you think I used the term river too loosely in my last post?

♥

JoAnn

Camping....the rest of the story.....

Camping Part 2:  After the last few bumpy (what a washboard!) and dusty miles of driving, we arrived at Willow Flat, our campground.  Willow Flat is like a little bowl, completely surrounded by mountains.  It has a river (in the desert we can call it that, but to people elsewhere it would be a little stream), great hiking trails, and semi-decent outhouses.  

My family has been coming here for years. 

A lot of wonderful memories surrounded me as I thought back on great times with my family and our friends; cooking breakfasts of bacon, Dutch oven potatoes, and pancakes; having water fights; hiking to the Spring; and standing under a sky full of brilliant stars.

Our parents always made things fun!

The river used to cross the road and I always worried that we would be washed away,

but we always made it safely.  Now the road has been moved and bridges have been built.

 It is always fun having our extended family get together.  Some stayed the whole time, while others came only for short periods.  We enjoyed being with each other and missed those who couldn't make their schedules match.

 

I hope this tradition will continue on for many years!

♥

JoAnn

Camping trip part 1 (getting there)...

We just returned from a few days of camping in the mountains of Southern Idaho.

(Hence the dirt, smells, tons of equipment, etc.)

Since I took about five million pictures to document the event, I thought I'd post it in stages.

Part One:

On the drive there it was such a beautiful day, with the most interesting storm clouds hanging so low and a very bright sun light backing behind them making them seem to pop right out of the sky.   As we headed up Sardine Canyon we were suddenly overcome by the beauty of nature (and the indecisiveness of the weather pattern).  Unfortunately, I missed the very best cloud pictures.  By the time I climbed over the seat of the car to hunt for my camera we were limited by the mountains and the lighting wasn't quite as bright.  

(Why don't I remember to have my camera handy!!!)

I always love driving through this beautiful canyon.

We passed some newly cut fields of grain.

 A new red barn (Cache Valley is famous for its OLD barns),

 and a really old truck. 

Finally, we entered the National forest.

We're almost there.......

♥

JoAnn

We're back.....!

We are back home!  

It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun.

I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, so I think I'll just wait and talk about it later.

O.K.

Just a little teaser...

(I have visions of wildly-excited, curious fans wondering just what we did, but in reality I know most of you probably don't even remember that we went away.  Please just humor me and play along!)

Here goes:

We are all very dirty....

We practically took our whole house with us.....

(and like Holly said, we DO wish we had taken the kitchen sink....)

We have a TON of work ahead of us just putting everything away.....

Our vehicles are all a new color- DUSTY BROWN....

My feet are in desperate need of a long hot soak and a pedicure.....

We don't smell very nice.....

We are all very dirty....

**********

I am, however, going to post some pictures of our big day doing the connect pass.  I took them from Liz's blog and some of you already saw them, but I wanted them on my blog for my own record keeping.
THANKS, LIZ!

It was a nice day and proof that you don't always have to go far away and spend a lot of money to have a little vacation!

******
Here is one more picture of cute Joshua!

♥

JoAnn

P.S.  Guess what we got in our Bountiful Baskets this week?

Fresh raspberries, grapes, strawberries, pears, cantaloupes, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, broccoli, bananas, and more!

Yum!