We have a lot to be thankful for as a family.  Most recently for the "clean bill of health" Lori's doctors have given her after months of worrying that cancer might be showing up on her scans in a new place.  I am thankful for all five of our children and our wonderful 14 grandchildren--plus three new great additions through marriage, Jason, Kia and Stephanie.  We are also blessed that Chase has returned home safe and sound from two hard working years of service in Taiwan.

Our atrium in bloom

Just to let all of you know that next week we are going on a an extended trip.  We'll start first of all on Sunday to be with Betty's grandson Freddy Bunce and his family.  We'll go to church with them in Shelley, Idaho and have dinner at their house.  Then we'll go to see Betty and Art in Challis for a couple of days.  After that, we will drive to Bend, Oregon and stay at the Sun River Resort with a group of high school friends for the rest of the week.  Early every morning the men play a round of golf.  Then we get together for lunch and dinner with the whole group.  In the meantime, those who don't play golf can go swimming, take walks along the beautiful paths through the woods in the resort, or anything else we think of to do.  Mostly, it is a chance to get together and renew good friendships.

Today is Caitlin's birthday. Happy Birthday Caitlin. I was still unpacking from our from our week of camping and didn't think to recognize on the Grandpa Garold Herald that Lori's was on the 19th. We love you all and are grateful for your good lives. 

Live is good.  We love you all,
Grandma

Second-Hand News: Chase returns!

For those who don't wake up every morning to check Chelsea and Chantry's facebook pages like I do, I am passing along the good news:  Elder Davis has returned.  I have photographic proof, up-loaded without permission of the photographers.  This is recognizably the same man who captivated us all at The Wedding of the Year in Las Vegas with his scripture-based sermon on marriage. Hopefully, we will get a chance to see him in person soon.  Ni hau and welcome home to Chase!

News from the Midwest

Out here on the other side of the Mississippi, we missed the big family camping trip, but we take consolation in the knowledge that no one had any fun without us.

Fiona has registered at Lakeland Community College and will start taking a class next week.  She is nervous and excited.  She is also working at a doggie daycare two days a week (http://www.hattielarlham.org/v/cleveland-dog-kennel.asp) and volunteering every other Friday at the Democratic headquarters in Geauga County.  These are all big changes for the better -- she has been so inspired that she is has started walking half an hour each day, as well.  There is a beautiful path behind her home that goes through the woods and circles the community she lives in.  

Nora finished her summer on a high by attending the LeaderShape Institute, where she spent a week with other OSU students learning how to build communities to create positive change (http://leadershape.osu.edu/).  It was a big honor to be selected for LeaderShape.  Immediately upon her return, she started her internship with Senator Sherrod Brown -- again, there's a lot of competition for Senator Brown's internship spots, so she was excited to be selected.  She quickly made an impression on the other staff -- the first day of her training, as she was leaving the building, she heard one trainer say to another, "Nora is awesome!"  This fall, she will also be in the executive leadership for a group she worked with all last year, Girls' Circle (http://www.girlscircle.com/), which uses pairs of college women to work with groups of middle school girls in the community to give girls the confidence to express themselves, think critically, and make healthy decisions.  We spent the weekend moving her into her new house with ten (10!) other women from her sorority (ten!).  They have rented a beautiful, big, old house just off campus in a neighborhood that, it appears, never sleeps.

Last night I made a dish for dinner that was sooo delicious that I have to share it with you.  I heard this described on NPR's Weekend Edition in a story about summer foods (http://www.npr.org/2012/08/19/159194178/seasonal-recipes-the-tastes-of-summer).  I am a member of MSU's Student Organic Farms CSA, so every week I get a fresh pile of organic vegetables, which means I have really good tomatoes and peppers on hand.  If you are lucky enough to have some yourself, you really should try this -- pepper, tomato, anchovies, olive oil, garlic, YUM!

Hello everyone:
We had a great time at Christmas Meadows last week.  Grandpa, Henry, Emma and I went up on Monday and spent two great days together--mostly setting up the camp and lazing around. We had campsites 8 and 9 that look out over the meadow.   Henry and Grandpa went fishing.  Henry caught one, Grandpa four.  So we had fish for breakfast.

Bill, Annika, Doni, Caitlin, Jason, Erik, Sarah, Gwen, Meri, Will and Henry's girlfriend Mimi Hamblin came on Wednesday.  George, Karen and Andrew Tate arrived on Thursday.  We had a great campfire with guitar, banjo and harmonica accompanying a singing session.  Gwen's violin solo garnered applause from the other campsites.  Nate and Kia came Friday afternoon and brought Kia's dog Lacey.  It's been a long time since we had a dog in camp.  Dickens always loved to come up there and chase squirrels. 

We had a real tent village with 20 people.  It was so dry this year that the marshy area down below the campground was a dry meadow.  It was a great place for games and tomahawk competitions.  Will brought his bow and arrows and set up a target.  The river was low, but still a fun place to go to wade and throw rocks in the water.  I understand there was even a little bit of skinny dipping one day. Of course there was the traditional morning walk to the bridge and huge breakfasts of bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit, etc. etc. etc.  Sarah, Doni and I took turns providing the evening meal, but it took group effort to get it cooked and served. 

Bill and Andrew hiked up to Amethyst Lake one day. 
 

We missed having the rest of you with us. There are a lot of sweet memories floating of past family camping trips.    

We hear Chase is home. Chelsea, can you send us some photos? Or forward your blog. We are so glad he got home safely.

We miss hearing from more of the family on the Grandpa Garold Herald.  We were hoping this would be a way to learn the news about one another.  We know most of you communicate on Facebook, but some of us are not in that loop.  It would be nice if each of you checked in at least once a month.

We love you all.  Grandma and Grandpa

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