Home from vacation

Well summer is almost over. We had a small garden and harvested some tomatoes, zucchini and a few radishes. We made jam several times-peach, strawberry and apple.

We had a great time in Utah seeing our kids, celebrating Matthew and Sarah's graduation from BYU and subsequently moving to CA and living with us. We love having them here! We drove home slowly through eastern, central and southern Utah, areas we had never seen before. We stopped in Arches National Park, Natural Bridges Monument and Capital Reef National Park. We also saw the Escalante Staircase Monument. This was all in between visiting cemeteries to get pictures of grave markers for Carl's family. Lindy even found a few for her family too. Carl did a lot of documenting of his family history in the Family History Library and walked away with over 150 documents!

We got to see Kate's sonogram and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby Jacquier in late Nov. or early Dec. Lindy has her "Nana's Kitchen" sign ready to hang the minute this little bundle of joy is born!

Wonderful things happening in our lives!

Well 2010 is looking to be a great year! Chronologically here it goes:

James is going to Boston for several days in June for training with the Army. He is still in the Guard and is loving his condo in Orem. He is looking to graduate from BYU in either Dec. 2010 or April 2011.

Matthew and Sarah graduate from BYU Aug. 12, 2010, then Matthew and Sarah move in with Carl and Lindy Aug. 14, 2010 for about a "yearish" while Matthew determines which, if any, grad school he wants to attend. We are very proud of their accomplishments in school and are really looking forward to having them with us. I miss my boys and will love getting to know Sarah better and getting to know the "adult" Matthew.

Andrew and Kate are expecting their 1st child (our 1st grandchild!) about Nov. 30th!!!!!!!!!! "Nana and Papa" can't wait for little baby Jacquier to make his or her appearance. Just wish they lived closer than 750 miles away! (By the way Nana thinks it's a boy.) Andrew is scheduled to graduate from BYU in April 2011.

Becky is at home with us trying hard to make her business "American Bargain Basement" work; online on eBay, our own website and at the swapmeet. She is working the business with Carl's help and is hoping the economic situation in the country will change for the better soon!

Carl and I are doing a lot of family history work and planting vegetables again this year. Just harvested our first crop-radishes! We have radishes, zucchini, carrots, beans, corn, cucumbers and tomatoes planted at this point.

Stuff

I loved semi-surprising Carl with his 50th party (one can never really completely surprise Carl) but one every year?? Not sure about that......

Turning 50

Yep, Early January we were visiting family in Provo, and Lindy threw me a 50th birthday surprise party. Well, the only real surprise was when it was, as I could tell something was up. All of this started when 20 years ago when Lindy and another friend promised me a 30th surprise birthday party. It never came and it never came. Well every couple of years I remind Lindy that I never had this party, and so she had family and dear friends in the Utah area come to my party. We had a lot of fun. Played games, ate good food, and visited. The best part was to just look around and enjoy being with family and friends.

If you missed it, I intend to have a 50th surprise birthday party every year, and your invited. Just contact Lindy.

My thanks to all that were there, and especially to Lindy.

Let's try it 1 more time.

It's been 4 months since I last blogged. I do get myself busy, for an old man of 50. I just got home from the local hospital. This time it was the same proceedure that they did 4 months ago. This time I decided not to stay, I didn't go in for an emergency, and everything turned out OK. The doctors just wanted to check me out again, just to be sure.

Thanks all for your concern. Looks like I'll be around for another 50.