Thanks to all of you for your birthday wishes.  Grandpa made it a wonderful day.  Because I turned 77 on 7/27/2012, he woke me at 7 a.m., took me to play golf on the executive course at the local golf course, which consists of 7 holes, and took Doni, Caitlin, Jason and me to dinner at a chinese restaurant called "Shoots."  It was a wonderful day.  We continue celebrating my birthday and Sarah's which will be on Monday by having a family picnic in the canyon and then attending "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" tonight at Sundance ampitheater.  We wish you could all be here with us.

I just want to say how much I love all of you and how happy I am to hear of your achievements. Keep us posted of what you are doing via Grandpa Garold Herald. 

Grandma N.

More of My Art

I thought I would update with the finished contour line drawing of the big-horned sheep and decided to put another project here.

The idea behind this project was to replicate a photo we took with lines taken from a coloring book.  I took the picture last summer in San Francisco and did the collage last week.  It took thirty hours of X-Acto knifing lines out of a Lion King coloring book, and by the end I was very fed up, but I like the way it turned out.  

This is the finished sheep.  

Well, we've really done it this time!  Dad went out and bought a brand new jeep grand cherokee on Tuesday and today we bought a new trailer.  Here is a photo of the new car, with our old trailer hitched on just before we took it to trade for the new one.

Below is a photo of our new trailer, which we will pick up next week in time for our first camping trip of the season.  It is about the same length as the old one, but the floorplan is different.

We got a new trailer because it was getting hard for dad to sleep in that corner bed by the bathroom.  It was also hard to make that bed.  He had to crawl on the bed to get the sheets on.  Then he had to make out my bed on the couch because it was too crowded for us to sleep together in that corner.  Here is how the bed is in the new trailer:

This will be much easier for us.  We are getting old you know! However, the bed takes up a lot of space, so there is no sofa.  Also the table is smaller (you can see that on the lower right of the photo above as well in the photo below.).   As with the old table, this can altered to make a bed, but it is much smaller than in the old bed.  The counter space and storage spaces are also smaller. The fridge is the same size. 

 The bathroom is at the other end of the trailer and about the same size as in the old trailer.  It is behind the door on the right in the photo above.  You can also see the closet doors and on the far left is the entry.  Here is a photo showing the bathroom:

So, we have said goodbye to the old trailer and all its memories of fun times with all of you (especially in Colorado the first time we took it out and it poured down rain the entire time).  This trailer seems smaller, but will be a lot easier for Dad to handle.  The equalizers that level the trailer are operated from the side, so he does have to crawl underneath to put them down.  There is an automatic trailer hitch, so he doesn't have to turn the crank anymore to attach the trailer to the car (and to unhitch it as well, of course). 
The new car comes with lots of new bells and whistles that Dad is still reading about.  He LOVES to read instruction books.  I just wait until he learns it all and shows me what I want to know.

So that's our big news.  More later,
Love, Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad

HOW ABOUT AN ALASKAN FAMILY PARTY AT JEFF AND GAY'S NEXT SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!

Date:  July 1 to 8 and extending more before or after if you want to spend more time in AK.

Housing: 

1.       Cabin up the tracks.  Access, walking from town to our house (2.5 miles), bikes, 4-wheelers for some, motorcycles, and boats for others. 

We have a bedroom upstairs with a Queen Bed

My office with floor space for one

The rest of the upstairs which could sleep 2 to 3 people (futon, cots or floor mats)

Kitchen/outside grill

2.       Guest cabin up the tracks.

Loft space with sleeping  for 2 to 4 (depending on how cozy you are).

Stove

Tent spots up the tracks.

We have a couple of big tents that you can stand up in that would house 3 or 4 people in each (also 3 two person backpacking tents).  We could get more.

3.       Town apartment:

Bedroom upstairs with Queen bed, loft that would sleep 2, plus floor space.  Bathroom in the garage and even cots could be put down there and we could make it more homey.  Tent space in town.  Kitchen

Quonset:  May be used for a Salmon Education Center, but if not, three rooms. Bathroom. (Don’t count on this)

4.        Steve and Sarah’s house: Next door neighbors.  They have a house and cabin and we could ask them if we could use one or the other.

5.        Rentals:

Peg Vos near the trail has “A B&B on C Street” with two rooms.

Peggy Fosters, “Talkeetna Cabins”   also near the trail. 

We can check on costs and you could Google them and check them out.

So we count 15 sleeping spots inside without renting.

If camping, we have showers (3 full bathrooms in town) and laundry (three washing machines), and sauna out at our house.

To Do:

1.        Our Cabin.  We have the slough with boats and swimming if warm enough.  Fire pit for camp fires. Dog mushing if cool enough and we still have dogs.  Probably can put up a zip line, horse shoes or other games.  Also wood cutting and splitting.  Motor boating and camping on islands, 4-wheelers, paintball target practice, fishing,

2.       Talkeetna:  Fourth of July parade. Town stuff, shopping, plays, museum, music in the park, beach, dining. Hiking on local trails, canoe and kayak, swim at local lakes. Some local fishing for trout and Dolly Varden. Train up the river to Hurricane and back (day trip). Train up Susitna and float down by raft (overnight trip) Day float down the Chulitna by raft (4 to 5 hours or overnight). Group family mural on the Quonset Hut. Biking on paved trails. Flight seeing  over Denali.Out of town:

3.       Denali National Park:  Long day trip or overnight or more (train access); Seward or Whittier for glacier cruises and ocean stuff. Anchorage to Girdwood: Museums, trails hiking, biking, and shopping. Portage Lake. Matanuska Glacier (Drive); Hatcher Pass Hiking/Drive/Biking; Denali State Park Hiking/Camping. Denali Highway, drive.

There is also the Ferry up from Bellingham to Haines if you have the time.  That is about it, let us know if you have any questions.

Update by Gwen

Hey everyone!  I have loved reading the other updates and figured that now was my turn.  I will just talk about my summer so far and some of my plans for the rest of it.  Hopefully all of you will be a part of that at Christmas Meadows this August!

On May 17 I turned sixteen, which was fun.  My mom threw a surprise party for me, which was funny because she asked me in advance if I wanted one, even thought that kind of ruins the point.  She was still able to surprise me, though, which just goes to show what a great planner she is!  That was really fun, and a great way to start of this next year of my life.

Probably the most fruitful and rewarding thing that I have been involved in this recently has been my new fascination with ice cream making.  We have a small ice cream maker, and I have busied myself with trying new flavors of ice cream from this great book I have.  It's called The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, and I highly recommend it.  I will even link to it here.  Of course, nothing beats strawberry ice cream made by Grandpa on the Fourth of July.  The most interesting flavors I have made so far have been lavender-honey and olive oil, which were delicious.  I am excited to make other unusual flavors like basil, parsley, goat cheese, roquefort-honey, and sweet potato with maple-glazed pecans.  I am especially excited about the basil one, and I just need our plants to grow a bit more before I will be able to harvest enough for the ice cream.  I figure that if I keep making ice cream, I will never be really lonely or want for friends, haha.  

 Some other things that I have done recently were getting my drivers license, which is nice and convenient, and starting a class at BYU for summer term, which started last Monday.  The class is called 2D Visual Design, and I like it a lot.  So far I have done two pieces, which are the following: 

This started as two negative space drawings that I did at the Monte L. Bean Life Science museum (or the "Dead Zoo;" I have heard it referred to both ways).  One was of some big-horned sheep, and the other was antlers.  I juxtaposed them on top of each other and did a contour line exercise in some of the shapes.  In this picture it isn't quite finished, but I have almost completed it now.  







This one is another negative space drawing of some chairs I stacked and put houseplants in.  I did values of india ink in the background.

Sorry for the horrible picture quality.

I am really excited to start working with color in this class, because as fun as india ink and micron pen are, color makes things so much more interesting.  I have also been doing a little bit of watercolor.







This most of my friends are far away for most of the summer (one in Japan, visiting her grandparents, and the other at Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan) or they have jobs, so it is really good that I have this class to keep me busy and out of trouble.  It's fun that I can drive to class now, too, even though parking by the HFAC can be a nightmare.  

Meri and I have also started sailing on Utah Lake with the Sea Scouts every Tuesday at six.  Last week my dad came too, but it was really boring because we were just putting patches on our shirts.  I never really would have envisioned myself joining Boy Scouts of America, but here I am.  Sailing is really fun, and I am excited to learn how to really do it myself.  In this picture, my friend (the other ponytail kid in the back), her older sister (the short one in yellow), and I are on the boat we sail on.  It is called the Carpe Diem, and as far as cheesy sailboat names go, it is way behind the rest that dock on Utah Lake (my personal favorite is "Unsinkable 2," which leaves one to wonder what happened to "Unsinkable 1"). Some of my friends have planned to charter a sailboat when we graduate from High School and sail around the San Juan Islands, where Orcas Island is.  Apparently the sailing there is exceptional.

Speaking of Orcas Island, our family is planning to go at the beginning of September.  I love the great memories I have of the trip we all went on there.  That was great, and I can't wait to go back.  


Well, Meri wants to play a computer game now and I have to go to the bank so I have to sign off, but I hope to hear about everyone else's summer plans!

Happy Father's Day, Dad/Grandpa!  We love you.

Thanks for being such a great father all these years--combining strength, reliability, sensitivity, caring, and humor.

A model for what men and father's can be.

Caitlin's Update

 

This doesn't have anything to do with anything, but at the moment Mom and I have tears streaming down our faces and our cheeks hurt. We've been laughing for minutes straight now, and it's starting to give Mom and asthma attack. Literally laughing so hard she could not breathe. So I just thought I'd share it and try to spread the laughter.

PS. I know this does not really count as my update.