Homecoming Tradition

Yes, it 's the annual Cardboard and Duct Tape boat race. Silly, isn't it? But we've been doing this as library people for quite a few years now. This is the second time that Julie and I have paddled together, and we actually BEAT our other Library faculty people, Randy and Ralph.


Julie and I waiting for the whistle (which was really an air horn). The crowds this year were bigger than ever! I saw FORTY entrants--they numbered them consecutively. There were four heats, and for the first time ever, they actually had a fac/staff heat! YAY! Usually, they just throw us in with whomever. Well, kids basically.


Raft in the water, climbing aboard. We lost some time here, being so careful. But it worked.

Paddle only with your hands. It is from one end of the pool, touch the side and paddle all the way back. Can you say tired arms?? Even after doing water aerobics! Ouchies. I could hardly use my computer mouse when I got back to work.





Desperately trying to beat those guys! Paddle harder!!



And, yes! We hit the wall before them, earning third place out of 4 or 5. I heard that there were 5 in our heat, but I only saw four finish. It was really close at the end. Really.

And a fun time was had by all. This was my first time on a raft-style craft. Next year? Possibly pontoon-style, sort of like a "ducky" in kayaking and river rafting terminology. Maybe. Depends on the time we have. I got absolutely NOTHING done at work today, between adapting the boat, adding more duct tape, racing, recovering, dressing and coming back. Yes, it was a very long day. And different.

Tuesday Project

I had Tuesday off because we had planned to drive home from Reno that day. But since we were home early, I had time to tackle this project. Simple, but pretty. The pink ribbon is optional, as I think I'll put buttons on the waist area in the front to add flowers. This is for Caroline for her birthday. She turned 8 last week while we were gone.

Reno, Oct 2009

Mike and his mother and I traveled to Reno to visit our kids for the long Harvest Holiday weekend. It's a long drive, so requires a LONG weekend, and we made ours EXTRA long. We drove over on Thursday the 15th and got there about 4 pm. We got to visit with Katie and Hayden. Casey came home from work and we enjoyed dinner at home together and Hayden warmed up to us fairly quickly. He's such a cute little kid.

Friday, we did a little shopping. If you call going to Costco a "little" shopping. Even the regular-looking shopping carts are huge! Yep, everything is big in Costco. We enjoyed all the samples. ;-) Katie did her shopping while me and her grandma hung around and watched. We're such good helpers. ha. We also had lunch with a friend of Berenice's from Hawaii who lives in Reno now. It was fun to visit with her at the nearby Hawaiian restaurant. Here's a picture of Berenice with her friend, Easter.


Saturday, Mike nursed a wounded knee all day and enjoyed watching college football games. Katie took me and her grandma and Hayden to run some errands and then we went visiting. We went clear out to Genoa and it was a beautiful drive. We didn't find the friend that Berenice was looking for, but since we were so close, we stopped in to see Casey's grandparents who live in the Carson Valley. They are nice folks and have a lovely home. Hayden enjoyed playing there . Turns out, the lady that Berenice couldn't find attends the same ward as Casey's grandparents! Small world. Of course, they knew who she was and gave Berenice the contact information that was more updated than what she had from before. They enjoyed a nice chat on the phone.

Hayden is very flexible. Here he is chewing on his toes, just to get a reaction (don't puke, Tandy!)


Sunday, Katie left around 10-ish for California. We knew she was going to be gone with some girlfriends before we came, so since it was their stake conference, Mike, his Mom and I headed out to Carson Valley again so Berenice could actually SEE her old fried from the mission field oh-so-many years ago. And we wanted to attend a regular meeting, not stake conference. I mean, they are nice and everything, but we tend to run into a lot of those when we vacation. Ask any of our kids. It's kind of frustrating and silly at the same time.

Katie and Casey's house has a circle in it like ours. Hayden and I were crawling around in circles. I finally caught up with him. It was a fun game (but hard on old knees!)



So, our Sunday was full of visiting. Casey was home with Hayden having quality "guy" time together, Kate was off with her girl friends on an over-nighter, and we had yet more visiting to do. This time it was a cousin of Mike's. I believe Berenice said this guys grandma and her mom were cousins. Or her dad, maybe. Yes, definitely. her dad and Ron's grandma were cousins. I don't know what that makes Mike and Ron. Ron and Helen live in Sparks. They are a delightful couple, a little older than Mike and I, four grown children. They had family history photos to share with Berenice and even had copies for her of things they had found when at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City! What was really interesting, though, was that Berenice was able to positively identify many of the subjects in the old photos they had and they were very pleased about that. We spent almost 3 hours visiting with Ron and Helen.

Just snuggling on a Sunday morning. Katie, Hayden and me.


Then we came home to a nice crock-pot dinner of roast and trimmings. Hayden is such fun to play with. He's so expressive. If I ever get any pictures to download to the Blog, they won't show any of the great ones, just casual snapshots. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Monday morning it was windy and clouding up, so we decided to head home that day. Katie was getting back way later than she'd originally intended, Casey has Mondays off to tend Hayden, so we said our goodbyes and tried to beat the storm home. Only, I had one stop to make before we could leave and it took much longer than I'd anticipated. I had Hayden's portrait taken at Kiddie Candids photo place in the mall. She's never had one done of him before, and I figured it was way overdue. And since I had him, I took care of it myself. Also, we got a mile down the freeway and I realized that I'd left my wallet in Katie's diaper bag when I'd gone with Hayden to the photographer. So, we turned around to get that. It's a good thing I discovered it that soon! I'd hate to have noticed when we were clear in Ely or someplace else! Yikes.

We were rained on all the way home, but made it back safe and sound before 10 p.m. Long drive, good company and we listened to a couple of good books on tape during the drive. That's the only time we ever listen to books on tape is when we drive to Reno.

The REST of the story

Here's what we picked. One Saturday, 14 boxes. Most have found homes already. I spent about 8 or 9 hours that day washing, sorting and boxing apples. That was October 10.

USF

So far, I think I've seen more of the Fall productions of the USF than I did of the Summer ones! Mike and I saw "Woman in Black," then I purchased tickets (Yes! I BOUGHT tickets! a rare thing for me, as I wait for the freebies--or work for them) for "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged." We went to see that on Wednesday night. Hilarious stuff. Laugh-until-you-cry kind of stuff. Silly, silly, silly and tremendous fun.

I HAD planned on going to "Hamlet" last night. I have tickets (free ones, sort of). It's an SUU production, not USF. I decided to stay home and dry pears instead. And Mike did dishes. AND made dinner! (BLT's) I'm tellin' ya, I'm not getting much done around the house these days! Long Week.

Tonight is the Inaugural Friends of the Library, "An Evening with Friends" Gala here at work. BIG party. from 7 to 9 pm. I don't seem to spend many evenings at home... So I'm looking forward to the weekend to stay home, do laundry and prepare a Sunday lesson. Maybe vacuum, maybe not.

Summer 2009

My talented children. Do you wonder that it is hard to get a good picture of these sillies?




Donna, Laura and Eric. September 2009
Mom and Robert
Katie, Hayden and Grandpa Mike
Hayden playing in the hose
Hayden playing peek-a-boo while we were trying to get a 4 generation picture.
But we DID get a 4 generation Picture!
Casey, Hayden, Katie

Random photos

Eric's Eagle

Photos in backwards order of Eric receiving his Eagle Scout Award

Fall, Apples, Birthdays and Such

It's fall again, and a good apple year. I realized the other evening while pedaling my bike home from work that I have been a blogger for two years now. I think. I think it was two falls ago that I began blogging. I remember Falls. Falls are my favorite season.

So here is what it looks like, start to finish. Drying Apples. Without the mess, of course. First, we have our apples. These are still just the windfalls I'm dealing with. I've only picked one box, and we took that one to Gail and Mike's sister in SLC.

Then we have one filled dehydrator.

And ALL those apples (save few here and there that we snitched while bagging them)
end up filling just a little quart or less sized baggie. ridiculous. But they are good and we'll eat them.


Yeah, well. I'd almost rather be painting them, rather than peeling them. <<>>>

Anyway, it's been an eventful several weeks. I've mostly done fruit and food preps, it seems. I've not vacuumed or done laundry for quite some time. And I hardly even care at this point. I have more fruit to do! ha. And some sewing, which is a rare treat. I'm pre-washing the fabric now so I can make a white dress for Caroline's baptism. She'll be EIGHT this month! That's hard to believe.

Mike had a birthday this month. We spent his happy birthday, on the Road, driving up to Salt Lake to pick up his mom and sister from the airport. They had taken a trip to Pennsylvania together and had been gone a week with family back there. Mike's Mom took the four of us out to lunch after we picked them up. After dropping off Gayela, the three of us headed to Richfield. Gail had a nice dinner AND cake and ice cream to celebrate. I did have a camera with me, but forgot to take pictures. It wasn't your typical birthday, that's for sure. And we're old, so we're not so stuck on "typical" any more. ha!

I should have taken a picture of Gail's beautiful German chocolate cake. It's Mike's favorite, and it was so pretty. It said on the top of it, "Happy Bi ____________" blob. She had that much of the letters all spelled out so prettily, and then the bag burst and blopped a big glop of frosting on the cake. She said it was very representative of how her week and day and gone, so she didn't even try to fix it. The yummy frosting blob stayed and we ate it! Tasted fine to us! We knew what it was SUPPOSED to say, and that's what counts, right?

We've received two delightful letters from Eric via e-mail, plus one snail mail because he ran out of computer time and still had lots of things to ask us/tell us. He is a funny fellow. I know I'm really going to enjoy his letters!

We got to talk to Damian on the phone when he called for his Dad's birthday (he called on our anniversary, too!). He's doing well, building furniture, of all things. I guess those carpentry skills from all those years of child labor with Mike have finally paid off. ;-) Yes....well, we love it that he is not inundated with casualites and count it an answer to prayer.

Mike and I happened upon some bonus tickets to a Shakespeare festival play last week, and that was a nice treat. We saw "The Woman in Black," a ghost story. It was plenty creepy, thank you very much, but not excessively so. We hope to see a couple more plays this week. I have tickets for one, "Macbeth" and it's in the OUTSIDE theater. Brrr. It's a school production. Then we hope to be able to get tickets for "Complete works of William Shakespear, Abridged." It's a really funny one put on by the USF. We also have football ticket for later this month, lest you think we are too artsy-fartsy. (US! HA!)

We've had cold HARD frosts, so next we be working on cleaning up our weed-patch and raking leaves. Unless all the leaves fall and blow away while we travel to see Katie and Casey and Hayden over the Harvest Holiday weekend. I would like that very much. We are stretching the weekend to include October 15 through the 20th or so. Long drive, but they're DEFINITELY worth it! That Hayden is such a cutie pie. Katie and Casey are cute, too. ;-)

I think I'll do a separate post, which will show up above this one, but, Oh Well! I cannot figure out how to change orders of things.