Just scooting along…

Summer is one speedy guy.

I swear school just ended, and now I’m already getting things ready for a new year.

How can that be?

(Photo of Zachary courtesy of Liz)

I haven’t even written my Summer Bucket List and it’s almost time to wrap it up.

Does that mean I haven’t actually accomplished anything?

Maybe its time to cheat a bit and create the list after-the-fact.

(I have always had a problem of adding things that already got finished on to my to-do list for the satisfaction  of checking it off.)

Here goes:

Road trip to Portland with Heidi and kids  √

Hill Air Force Museum with the family   √

Dinner and Hale Theater with the ladies   √

Campout in the mountains with Katie and Linda  √

Play dates with grandkids (half way done)  √

Some cleaning and organizing  √

Dreaded mammogram  √

Shopping and lunch with Linda   √

Back yard cookout   √

Walking with Sheila (a little)   √

That makes me feel slightly  better.

Things I still want to do:

Country drive (Cache Valley, Heber Valley, or Morgan area)

Play at a lake

Parade of Homes

More shopping

Lunch outings

Enjoy some sunsets

Read a book

Picnic

More cleaning projects

Little over night outing with my husband

*  *  *  *  *

I guess I’d better go get busy if I want to cross off the rest of my list!

I hope you are having a great summer.

JoAnn

What things do you have on your Summer Bucket List?

 

It’s a swing!

Who says you can’t turn a bad situation around?

When several tree branches snapped during our last wind storm, my first thought was that the yard was going to suffer big time, and yes, the tree does look a little lopsided.  However, the new swing more than makes up for it.

It is perfect for our little ones.

 

Now we need a bonfire to burn up the new logs!

How about a party?

JoAnn

P.S.  Anybody out there like the television show “Treehouse  Masters”?

They create pretty incredible tree houses.

(Just thinkin….)

P.P.S.  I have wonderful memories of being pushed in a swing!

 

Grandma/grandpa dates

We accidently stumbled on to a new thing here-dates with grandparents.  They involve grandpa,too, but I like to call them

“Grandma dates”.

(I’m bossy that way.)

The origin of the new tradition:

A few weeks ago we had one extra ticket to see “The Little Mermaid” at Hale Center Theater (a live theater in our community).  Since I already had season tickets with my lady friends from the neighborhood, and I ended up winning an extra pair of season tickets, our children had taken turns attending each show.  This time it was my husband’s turn to use the extra tickets and he needed a companion.  We ended up asking our oldest granddaughter, Maddie to go.  She was excited to be his date.  We were lucky that the seats were together, so I got to sit by them, too.

He took her to dinner before the play.

It was just a fast food dinner, but hey, she got to be the guest of honor.

 

After the show she had fun posing with some of the cast.

The play was excellent!

Since it was late by the time we returned home, she got to stay over night at our house.  It was fun spending time with her without all the other little siblings or cousins competing for attention.

She loved it.  We loved it, too.

In order to keep peace with all the grandkids, we promised to let each of them have a turn to go on a date.

The birth of a new tradition!

Date number two:

Brooklyn and Joshua are pretty close in age (five years old) and they get along really well so they agreed to go together. 

 

Our plan was to go the the Leonardo Museum, which they both love.  Papa Ken stayed home to work on the new swing in the back yard.  We planned the date, but forgot to check the museum times.  Oops, it was closed. 

Plan B was to go to the Children’s Museum, but they were closing in half an hour.  (Who knew museums closed so early?)  Plan C involved going to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory and then to Liberty Park.

After the initial disappointment (and my lesson learned about checking times and dates) they had a great time.  We stayed until they were pretty tired.  They were so proud of how much “stronger” they became after all the exercise.

We ended the evening with a sleep over on the family room floor.

I think it was a success.

We are planning on spending time with the younger kids, too, but haven’t worked out the plans yet.  Since they are so young we will adapt things to fit their needs.

I think we will enjoy these new opportunities to spend quality time with our grand children.  When they are all together it is usually busy and noisy.  This gives us a chance to visit and learn more about each of them.

Do you have traditions with your grand children?

JoAnn

P.S.  The grands LOVES the new swing.  Especially Aubrey who didn’t want to get out.  Thanks, Ken!

P.P.S.  Brooklyn’s lovely hair-do above was when she stood on the air vent outside the closed museum.  She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

 

Summer Birthdays….

 

We’ve been busy celebrating our summer birthdays.

(That’s a lot of candles!)

Happy Birthday to:

Ovidiu

Zachary

Heidi

Aubrey

Ken

Joshua

Robbie

Olivia

Paul

 

It isn’t their birthday, but I couldn’t resist posting this picture.

Sweet Naomi and Evan

JoAnn

P.S.  Summer is sure flying by quickly!

Border credit click here.

What a difference a day (or a few days) can make…

Have you noticed how some things can go from really bad to quite lovely in a relatively short time span (with a LOT of hard work and effort, of course)?  Unfortunately, things can return to that totally dreadful state again just as quickly. 

Before:  March/Easter

I’m quite picky about the yard photos I blog, making sure to only post what I want to show, but at Easter the grandkids had a mini egg hunt in the back yard (we already had a real one with extended cousins).  You guessed it, these pictures of the kids having fun were shared on Liz’s blog.  I hadn’t even spent one day cleaning things up and the yard looked pretty sad.  It’s a good thing I think my grands are cute!

The three dead bushes were my failed attempt from last summer to add some winter interest to this corner of the yard.

(In my defense-We live in a four season climate and the yard is mostly ignored during the winter.)

After: May/June

Here’s the same space a month or so later, with a little help from Mother Nature and some faithful perennials.

Before:

The kids were busy opening up their eggs (eating treats) and are totally unaware of the WEEDS behind them.

Again, I was mortified!

After:

 

If there is one lesson life (or motherhood) has taught me, it is to never let myself relax and think things are finished.

A few days ago we had a micro storm and the yard suffered a massive set back.

After/after:

While we were in the deep cleaning business, my husband decided to prune the rest of the trees, so the whole yard was buried under branches and leaves.

Kind of a pity-party day for me!

But…

Thanks to Katie and my husband, it is now tidied up again.

The light at the end of the tunnel: the lopsided side of the tree is going to be home to a new swing.

We had wondered where to put one.

 

Have a wonderful week.

JoAnn

Happy 4th of July!

   source

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!

JoAnn

Two funerals and a road trip….

I should probably apologize for my heading-it sounds depressing and somewhat disrespectful, but I’m not going to because both funerals were wonderful celebrations of long lives lived fully and honorably.

My father-in-law, Reed Luke Clegg passed away on June 2, 2015.  He was a month and a half shy of his 97th birthday.

He outlived his sweetheart by three years and had maintained his independence until just the last few days of his life. 

He was still driving his car at age 95.

He was a veteran of World War Two, serving in the Navy in the Pacific.

He loved this country!

If I could sum up his life in a few words, I would have to say he tried to live perfectly.  He did his best with everything he attempted.  Oh, how we will miss him!

You can read his obituary by clicking here.

♥

I’ve often blogged about “Aunt Mardene”.

Mardene Hall was the perfect aunt, living next door to us as we were growing up.  She was selfless and kind.

Everyone loved her!

She passed away on June 13, 2015 (early on the morning of dad’s funeral).

She never married, so we invaded her life and claimed her as our own (sorry cousins).

When our parents got sick and passed away, Mardene held our family together and became grandparent for our children and  their children. 

She loved the outdoors:  gardening, riding her bike, watching sports, enjoying the sunset.

She loved children!

(My grand-niece Karli made this beautiful flower arrangement for Mardene’s bike.  It was perfect!)

Mardene was also independent until the last few days of her life.  We moved her to an assisted living center, but she was only there a few days.  She quietly passed away at age 91.

You can read Mardene’s obituary here.

While we will miss them both, how comforting it is that they are both free from the ailments of aging bodies.  We know we will be reunited with them again some day.

Can you imagine the happy reunions they are experiencing right now?

♥

 

(The family-minus Ovidiu and some of the young grands.)

Since the funerals were back to back our daughter Heidi and family were able to be here for both.  (That is quite a blessing, don’t you agree?)

Her husband had to fly home to work after the first funeral, so I drove Heidi and the kids home to Oregon and then spent a few days with them.

We took two days to drive and had a nice long little road trip.

I didn’t take one single picture.

It has been a busy and draining start to my summer, but I feel very blessed that things worked out the way they did.

Now, if I could just do something about the HEAT!

(104 degrees today.)

JoAnn