Bear Lake

Last week I went to Bear Lake with Shawn and Kris and Cade and Makae and Ethan and Jace and my dad. Ed was in Nebraska and Iowa so he couldn't come.

As we came down out of the hills West of Evanston and saw that gorgeous blue of the lake it was marvelous. I don't there is a lake anywhere that is prettier than Bear Lake. They should have called it Blue Lake!! We got there early afternoon and got the whole camp set up and then just relaxed. I fixed Taco Salad for dinner that night and Kris had brought enough nummies to last two weeks so we were well set. I think the hardest thing we did all that evening was try to decide which flavor of the crispy cremes we wanted to eat. My diet went out the window.

The boys slept out in the tent, and the rest of us were in the trailer. The first night was peaceful and other than a couple of Betty's kids up at the cabin we had the place to ourselves.

Kristanne made us a nummy breakfast the next morning. Lunch all the days were easy - sandwiches or hot dogs.

Thursday the day was warm and clear and just plain wonderful. It was a lazy day - except for the kids who had discovered some previous sand castles and built upon them. Ethan was the main architect although, as you see from the pictures all of the kids helped. I went down to the beach in the early afternoon with them and read and relaxed and simply enjoyed the beach.

Here we have Jace and Cade working - or at least Jace was working and Cade was supervising?

These pictures were actually taken friday morning before the winds started whipping up - so you can see that the sand castles kept them busy for two days!!


Makae is hard at work here while Ethan takes a breather!
As you can see (maybe) mighty ditches were dug to create a moat around the main 'building'...at least until they all realized that the water was dropping so fast that their ditches were being left high and dry!
Here again, is Jace and Cade, We had the beach pretty much to ourselves - Shawn, Kris and Dad didn't even come down to the beach. True it was a llllloooooonnnnngggggg walk out there but we had two four wheelers for heaven sakes. ;-)

I think if we had realized that Thursday was going to be our only good day we all would have spent more time at the beach that day. But actually we adults went up thinking we were going to relax and we did.

Makae and I had a particularly lovely time - since Ed was not around she gotto share my soft comfy bed. It is the most comfortable bed in the trailer - I guess I ought to buy an egg crate mattress for the other queen sized bed and it would be just as nice ...but I didn't hear Shawn or Kris complain about the hard mattress. Makae and I also enjoyed our time on the beach just visiting too. I was thankful for such a fun weekend with the whole family.

There were a couple of fun (!) memories at the beach that day. Cade and Ethan headed out into the water to play and all of a sudden they were way way out - I said to Makae - they are too far out there, they need to come back. I'm sure its getting deep. Makae said 'yeah, ethan keeps going under'. I jumped up and hollared for them to come back. Then reason returned and I hollared for them to stand up. They did - they water came up to their knees!!!!

The even funnier thing was when Makae and I were sitting on the beach and the four wheeler was between us and the boys. Makae went over to see what they were making and she screamed "I'm branded for life...a sight no sister wants to see - Ethan running buck naked down the beach after his brother yelling 'give me my swimming suit back!!!' Evidently Cade had dumped a handful of sand down Ethan's swim trunks and he couldn't get it out so he pulled them off under water and was rinsing the sand out when big brother grabbed the suit and took off.

Thursday night Kris made dinner again - actually Shawn and Kris - they dutch ovened a delicious meal. The winds and rain came up during the night and in the middle of the night we had three scared boys come into the trailer saying that the winds broke their tent. So we put Ethan and Jace in bags under Shawn and Kris's bed, and we folded out the table 'bed' and Cade slept there. (Grandpa Merritt was on the couch bed). That worked great for everyone except Kristanne who knew she could get down out of her bed, but wouldn't be able to get back up since there was no room to put the ladder!!

Friday dawned bright and beautiful. We looked at the boys' tent and teased them about telling tales so they could come in the trailer to sleep. The tents looked fine! Anna Lisa and Ed Smith arrived for the weekend, to police the grounds. She and her husband have been protecting Marjories property for a long long time.

She tried to give me a bad time about having my mat down on the grass in front of the trailer and I told her it would NOT damage the grass - it was open weaved and the grass could breathe through it. I think it kind of surprised her that I would stand my ground but she can be such a warden!!! She gave Kris a bad time for having fire wood on the grass!!

In the early afternoon John Sabin and his wife showed up with their boat ready to take anyone that wanted to go out skiing. For John's whole life grandpa merritt took him skiing summer after summer after summer so it was it turn for pay back. Dad did come down to the beach but just then the wind started up and we sat out there trying to keep the sun off of him and keep from being blown away (it did ruin my old beach umbrella) and finally he gave up and says - this just isn't fun anymore. I talked to kecia that evening and we decided that it would probably be too cold for them to come up and camp...we didn't want their first camp out with Emma to be the one where they got snowed on!! Of course it didn't get that cold but it was not fun Bear Lake weather at all.

What was fun was that they had a pair of ski skimmers - for little kids - it was like one large U shaped ski with handles coming up from the skis! Jace got up skiing!!! the rope was attached to the post with the handle on it so Jace didn't have to worry about controlling the skiis or the pull of the rope - all he had to concentrate on was to stay standing up! He went down once and then got back up and stayed up. The other kids tried to ski but the lake was just getting too rough with white caps and all but they had fun anyway riding the tube or whatever you call it. All we know is that the boat took off with all on it, pulling Jace and they didn't come back for an hour and a half!! But they had fun!

The weather went from bad to worse that night - but the boys didn't have any trouble out in the tent Friday night. Jace got so excited when we told him that Skye was coming that night. Of course when she arrived with her dad, all he wanted to do was play his game boy. Kids!!! So she attached herself to Makae. We decided to let Jeff and Skye sleep in the big tent we had put up the first day for Kecia and Glenn. We had used it for a storage tent for all the nummies. I'm sure Jeff didn't have to go very far for a midnight snack!!

While we were eating some of Kristanne's fantastic spagetti dinner Kris got a call from Lillianne. It seems that they had packed up the truck and trailer and were going to camp on top of Monte Crisco. But there were no camp sites available. So by the time they got down the other side of the mountain to Randolf, she called Kris to see if they could come to Thatcher's property. So we said come. Courtney was not especially friendly to Makae when she got there - in fact not until the middle of the next day, but Makae handled it very gracefully. Like my dad said - whenever mickie got upset she would head down to the beach on the 4 wheeler and when she came back she was fine. The lake did settle down Friday evening but Sabins were no where to be found - it was really too cold for too much water sports.

Saturday was definitely cold. It was 42 outside when we got up about 8:30 am. I cooked a big breakfast for all of us (but not Lilliannes family) I turned into a bit of a grouch and Shawn said later that Kris almost called me Wanda!! I don't do mornings well when I have to get up and get moving fast. Sorry guys.

Anna lisa walked over to our trailer to tell us that Marjorie had passed away that morning at 4:30 am. It was totally expected. She has been going down hill for several months although the kids said that she recognized them up to the end. She was 94 years old. Her oldest daughter Valerie came up to stay at the cabin later on that afternoon and we had a couple of good chances to get together to visit. She is such a beautiful woman.

It had warmed clear up to 53 by noon!! So we decided it would be a good day to go to the caves. We all piled into three cars (all of us except dad and I think by then he was just craving peace and quiet - to go from living alone to sharing a 26 foot trailer with 4-7 other people!!).

We drove into St Charles and headed up the canyon and got halfway up there and there was this terrific traffic jam. EVERY one else at Bear Lake thought the same thing. The word came back that they were selling tickets for the 2:30 tour through the cave ...and it was only 11:30 in the morning.

We voted not to stay and we turned around and headed back down the mtn...and came face to face with another car that had decided to go up the mtn in the wrong lane!!! IDIOTS!! the black car backed back into place and we headed down. Darin and Lillieann were able to do the same. But poor Shawn and Kris were in our truck and the road was simply not wide enough to turn around. So HE had to go up the mtn to the parking lot and then come back down.

So we called each other and decided to go into Garden City for a Raspberry shake. We called dad at the camp and told him to meet us at the road and he could come with us. The shakes were nummy - Garden City was sooo packed it reminded me of West Yellowstone or Jackson Hole - way too many people for a small space. Lots and lots of shakes being sold. Raspberry shakes taste better when it is hot outside though!

That afternoon Carl and Pat Sabin came over and visited with dad for a good couple of hours. I think that was the highlight of his trip. I think he was missing having his own truck and tools, and isn't as steady on his feet as he should be to walk over much of that ground. I did see him scouting out the lay of the land on his four wheeler though. The weather stayed cold and windy that whole day. Skye thoroughly enjoyed playing in that cold bear lake water though. She doesn't feel the cold at all I guess. I am glad someone enjoyed it.

this picture was taken on Sunday - when we looked up there was Jace leaning back against the back packs half tipped over sound asleep. By the time I got my camera from the trailer he had woken up and shifted position but still wasn't really with it.

Sometime - Saturday afternoon probably, I invited Courtney and Makae and Darony to make ankle bracelets. It was a good chance to run through what it would take to teach a class like that. Their bracelets turned out really pretty. Each one was totally different. Such fun. they enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning after sharing some of Lillianne and Darin's pancakes and eggs (Jeff helped cook them!) it was decided to make another attempt at going up to the cave. This time Lillianne and Shawn went alone and bought tickets and then came back and gathered up everyone that wanted to go. I stayed back with grandpa this time because I knew Dirk and Da were on their way and didn't want to be gone when they got there.
Sunday about 2 or 3 oclock Dirk and Melinda and Ben and Simon showed up, It was so fun to see them. As you can see, none of us were in swim suits ...rather long jeans and sweatshirts although Sunday afternoon warmed up nicely.
Here we are sitting in the sun in front of the trailer - feeding our faces as we did the whole weekend. Ethan wasn't sure he wanted to try my zuchini bread...he thought it was like Jamaica food -- cooked bananas and such. Finally his mom told him it was like banana bread...and I added 'with lots more cinnemon'. So he got brave and tasted it and loved it!!! Yeah for trying new things!
Just a cute picture of a little family keeping busy.

Ben was not sure about this whole thing, but he was cute
That afternoon Melinda and I decided that if they were going to drive all the way to Bear Lake and the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing (too bad) we could take the boys and the big yellow blow up raft and pull them around the lake for 15-20 minutes just to say we did it. We headed down to the beach and Da and Ben headed out into the water with the big boat and Ben did NOT want to get in it. He liked the water, that is until the wind pushed him down twice into the water and he got scared. So we scooped him up and put him in the boat and he thought that was great fun.

Simon wanted to walk to hanging onto two of my fingers we walked and walked and walked through this three inch deep water and he was loving it when all of a sudden he just sat down. And he LOVED that - the waves lapping gently around him. Great fun!!

What was not fun was telling them mama and grandma were tired (Shawn and Dirk had stood and talked the whole time) ...they did NOT want to get out. But simon settled down once we had the towel around him and he was getting warm again. Ben we promised he could go up and play throwing rocks for the dog to fetch. Yep - a dog that only wanted to fetch rocks. It was so funny to watch him scoop up the rock with the side of his head against the ground - he would scoop up the rock with his teeth and then run back to you. He would then hold the rock in his mouth until you tossed another for him to go after. Hey, Dirk and Da, maybe this is where Simon learned the golf ball trick.

Dirk and Da left about 6pm and we all got on the road about 7 pm stopping in Evanston for a late dinner.

We all traveled to and from the lake safely and had a wonderful time. Hopefully Shawn and Jeff will share the GOOD pictures they took. I didn't take many - should have taken more - in fact I broke my camera somehow coming home...it still takes pictures, but the view screen is broken!!

Emma ...Walking

Emma stars in this blog. This is my living room on Saturday night with the whole famdamily here to cheer her on. She isn't walking on her own yet and so I thought this was the perfect birthday present for her. It is a walker for her now, and then when she gets beyond that it turns into a riding toy. It's bright and colorful and she loved it.
Of course, anytime she is the center of attention she loves it also. In the first picture you could see Adrie and Kecia and the edge of Glenn and Ira with Caleb sitting on Ira's lap. In the second picture you can see Adrie's long pretty legs...in her heels that she had on she was as tall as I was!! WOW!! But, like I told Ed I got my height between 9th and 10th grades and she is a 9th grader now so I should have expected it!!




There are two video clips and I will post both of them as there is fun interaction on both. Again, you can see Kecia and Adrie and this time we have some good shots of Jerod sitting over in the corner. The whole family is cheering Emma on as she is making her walker work for the first time. We thought it was so cute as she turned to look at everyone for more applause and then you see her tumble and dad comes to her rescue. That's Jamie telling me to get a better shot of Glenn's rear end...and then away Emma goes, but she has to stop for the adulation she deserves!!




This is another clip of Emma walking but then I go on to get some good pictures of the family. We have Kecia and Adrie - Jerod is there but you have to look closely. Mauri is looking beautiful but she was feeling crappy - she had just been diagnosed with a sinus infection that morning. Then we have a good view of Caleb, Edward, Kelly. Then of course, Emma is waiting for me to look at her and tell her good job! I then get Glenn and Ira and then my attention is pulled back to Caleb who is showing me that he has learned how to tie his own shoelaces. The video ends there without filming HIS big milestone - grandma can't think and do at the same time. Sorry Caleb.

We went camping!

I will post these pictures on the willden.org/gallery since my cute background shows up THROUGH the pictures!

This is a picture that I took on Saturday the 27th of September when we took our four wheelers and went up to Curtis Creek and spent the day enjoying the gorgeous scenery. I was disappointed because it was washed out but it still shows the beauty we enjoyed that day. The quakies were so fantastic. I had never seen them turn red before!!

When Ed found out that he was going to be in Kentucky for the whole month of October we decided we better camp while we could - it will be winter by the time he will be home for more than Friday night till Monday morning again. We headed back up to the Monte Cristo area with Grandpa Nielson on Wednesday the 1st of October. We camped at a new spot called Dry Bread Pond and it was a really nice campground. There are some really pretty camping spots in both Dry Bread Pond and Dry Bread Hollow. When we parked the trailer we didn't realize we were so close to the pond. Dad took this picture the next day of our camp site.We were disappointed that there were not more trails to four wheel on but we still managed several good rides. Ed took us up on Wednesday evening after work and got our camp all set up and then Thursday morning he headed back down to Clearfield to work. Dad and I slept in till about 9 am that morning and had a lazy breakfast when all of a sudden dad said "There's a moose!!". He was sitting so he had a good view of the hillside to the North. We both grabbed our camera's and headed outside to take some pictures. He hung around long enough for me to put my batteries back in my camera and let us snap pictures of him and then he headed back up into the trees just West of the pond.

Dad and I enjoyed Thursday - the sun was shining and it was a fantastic Fall day. We hopped on the ATV's and headed out to see where the trails led. We found a few other people camping but most of the area was empty. We followed the ATV trail to the North until it dead ended about two miles away. It was so funny - as we left the main dirt road and moved onto the ATV trail I noticed a 'jump' - very quickly I realized that they were speed bumps and they came every 1oo feet or so. Jamie thought the speed bumps were to see how fast you could go over them :-)

This is a view from the end of the trail on our first ride - we headed back down the trail, back past our campground and across the main highway to Dry Bread Hollow - we found a couple good prospective routes for later on and headed back to the trailer. We spent the afternoon eating, napping and reading in the sunshine. Very relaxing. We went on another nice long ATV ride down Dry Bread Hollow. I was following my dad at this point and stopped my bike to take a picture of this gorgeous alley of trees. Dad had just disappeared around the bend or else you would see him on the four wheeler on the road ahead of me. I think there are about 10 miles of trails on that side of the highway and it was a fun ride. Later on, we watched the moose as he showed up again that evening and dad and I both took more pictures. After dinner I was cleaning up the dishes and we were listening to the Palin-Biden debate when all of a sudden my trailer door opened...and there was Harley dog!!! And Kelly ...and Jamie. What a fun surprise. They decided at the last minute to come up and camp over night with us. We loved having them there. Jamie had gotten friday off so they were able to spend the night and all day the next day with us - camping and chasing mooses and riding ATV's. I think the only thing they didn't get to do was find some real good 4-wheel drive roads to try out his fancy new tires (for his truck) on.
This is friend moose that came to visit each day - actually, each morning and each evening. He had white legs!! We decided his mother was the abominable snowman.

The night Kelly and Jamie came they could hear noises like the moose was moving through the brush or trees and actually thought maybe it was fighting with a bear or something. About five minutes later Kelly and Jamie could hear water splashing. Once they realized that was what they were hearing Kelly jumped on Ed's ATV and headed over to see what was going on. I ran around to the back of our trailer and jumped on my ATV, slowing down as I went past the front door to see if Jamie wanted to ride with me. She said no, she would stay behind with Harley. When we got over near the pond Kelly and I both could see that there were FIVE moose - the bull was on the hillside watching out for the others, one cow was closer to the water and one cow and the two calves were IN the water splashing around!! It was totally dark outside but Kelly had Ed's MAG flashlight and the headlights on our ATV's also showed us what was going on. They all took off across the top of the pond and into the trees - we watched them all disappear. It was sooooo neat.

Here you can see the moose as he heads down the hill to the pond for a drink of water. He really was not scared of people or of ATV's - he's put up with them all summer after all. Harley was such a good baby Thursday night. He slept up on the big queen sized bed in the back of the trailer with Jamie and Kelly and we didn't hear a sound out of him all night long. Friday morning Kelly took Harley for a ride on the ATV's...Harley was not impressed! Later on, Jamie and I headed out for a nice ride over on the Dry Bread Hollow roads - that main trail is straight South for about five miles. and then we continued down the main road. I could see a silver truck heading North on that road coming towards me and my first thought was - it's Kelly but then I thought - he couldn't have gotten ahead of us and the road doesn't connect in anywhere else. I started to pull over so it could get past me but then I realized he had already pulled way off the road and was waiting for me. I was trying to figure out how to flash at him that there was another four wheeler in my party behind me but she had disappeared (you hold two fingers up to show there are 'two' of you. All of a sudden I realized it WAS Kelly and Harley!! As we had ridden down the main trail I had led Jamie up and back down a couple of side trails - so Kelly had driven all the way down and was on his way back up to find us when we showed up. Jamie came a couple minutes later - she had stopped to see the baby lamb that was staying close to his mama who was dead...I think she wanted to put him on the 4 wheeler with her but he wouldn't get too close to her.


We chatted for a second and then I headed down the trail - I went about 500 yards and realized that Jamie wasn't coming so I stopped and waited and sure enough she shows up with a Harley on her lap. He had thrown a fit when 'mama' had shown up and he wanted to ride with her. He was literally on her lap and made the driving difficult. We slowly went on down the rest of the road and when I got there here comes Harley and Jamie just a truckin! She had finally forced him to sit behind her and he realized that he could stick his head out to the side and get the wind in his face. He loved it!! Four wheelin Harley dog!!We headed back to the camp area, and Harley got back in the truck with Kelly - they headed off somewhere else and we four wheeled back to the trailer. Grandpa told us all about how the moose had shown up again for about 20 minutes - the moose had wandered in and out of the pond area and then walked clear across the hill to the trees just west of our trailer. He said he could hear the moose huffing - or making a huffing noise as he walked.

About noon that same day, the moose came back. Kelly and Harley were still off trucking some where and Jamie grabbed her camera and took of running across the field to get some good pictures of the moose. I panicked just knowing the moose was gonna attack her and I hopped on the ATV to save her, hoping that the moose couldn't outrun a four wheeler! Of course she was fine and although she got within 150 feet of the moose he didn't attack. Later on dad built a fire and we enjoyed sitting around a campfire before they headed back home.

So I think the three of them had a great time and they headed back home about 2:30 that afternoon. Dad and I lay down for a nap at that time and my dad really slept good for a solid two hours. I worked on my indexing offline after about a twenty minute nap and got several hundred names indexed.

We sat and read for another hour - the clouds were building and it was looking like it was going to rain and finally started clearing up. We knew Ed was coming and we knew that Kecia and Glenn and Emma would be there soon too, but about 5:25 we decided to bundle up and go for another ATV ride. We got hats and gloves and coats on and I ran back into the trailer to grab my camera and I heard dad say, no hurry, they are here... and sure enough, the Gilliams had arrived. They unloaded the whole car full of Emma stuff !! It was amazing how much easier it was on Kelly and Jamie to pack and come up compared to Emma - But Emma was a darling and well worth all the work her mama and daddy had to do to come camping. Ed arrived just in time for dinner and the clouds kept moving in.


Glenn and Kec took Emma on a ATV ride and she loved it. Laughing and hollering all the way. We thoroughly enjoyed Emma and her parents Friday night. We had drug in some wood and built a fire that night and roasted marshmellows after dinner. We listened to the radio as BYU beat Utah State and fed marshmellows to Emma. That night she really didn't want to lay down and go to sleep but she finally made it...until about midnight. I heard her crying a couple of times and I heard her giggling a couple of times. Kecia said she was awake until about 4 am... she ended up in the bed with mom and dad the rest of the night !! That was a first for them too!

Saturday morning was a bust weather wise. It was rainy and wet and cold.... grandma and mama took Emma for a nother ride and I got to see how much she loved the ride. Kec was driving and I was holding her and she would stand on my leg and literally bounce as she oohed and laughed and giggled - it was soooo cute.
Poor Glenn was coming down with a head cold when they got there on Friday afternoon and it went from bad to worse. He actually sounded better Saturday morning after a night's sleep but pretty soon he was sounding hoarse and not good. Ed fed him a couple of Alka Seltzer's and they helped. We finally gave up on the weather and had lunch about 2 pm and then they packed up and headed home. We got packed up and were gone within an hour of them so we probably all got home about the same time. It was wet and rainy - 41 degrees on top of the mtn and warming up to 50 when we got to Layton. I am glad that it didn't snow on us.

Here is a short video taken Friday morning as Glenn slept and Emma looked cute in Grandpa Ed's hat.

The trip was so fun...My dad loved the camping and so did I. It wasn't too much fun for Ed but I am so glad he did this for me before he heads to Kentucky on Tuesday. It was great having my kids there and Ed and I decided we have been too selfish with our camping this summer and need to make sure we have camping time with all of our kids and grandkids next summer when it warms up again. Plan on it!

I've been tagged

Thanks alot Jamie!!

Rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current goals, 3 current obsessions, 3 random facts about yourself. Then tag at least 5 people at the end!

*3 Joys*
Family
Gospel
Laughter

*3 Fears*
Falling
Driving on the freeway with everyone doing 80
Alzheimers

*3 Current Goals*
Reach out and help at least one person each day
Be a better grandma
Keep my sugar levels optimal

*3 Current Obsessions*
Reading
Spending money!
Traveling!

*3 Random Facts About Myself*
I am very unsure about myself!
I feel like I need to spend money to be loved and (my budget gets tighter and tighter)
My most joyous moments are spent with my family

A wonderful trip North!

Last week on Tuesday morning my dad picked me up and we headed North to Conrad Montana where my dear Aunt Betty Jean lives. Actually, Conrad is only about 70 miles from Canada so it was a really really long drive. Once we got past Brigham City the traffic cleared out and we had fantastic sailing all the way. I remember when Utah roads used to be that empty!

The weather was perfect for driving and drive it I did. Dad sat back and navigated - a real difficult job since we followed I-15 all the way north! The trip was 640 miles long from my house to Betty's house- with lunch and potty breaks we made it in a little over 9 hours.

Utah and Idaho are miles and miles of cactus and dessert but then as you go over the Montana border you run into lots of canyons and mountains and then you get to the green fields full of newly baled hay and yellow fields full of wheat that was ready for harvest. It is a huge and beautiful state. Even when we got into the flatter areas of the state towards the end of our trip is was still soooo beautiful. I can see how everyone dreams of buying a ranch in Montana!! At least in the summer. I would imagine the winter drives the softies back out really fast.

When we got to my Aunt Betty's she was dying of the heat...it had gotten all the way up to 90 degrees and she had fans out all over the house. The rest of our visit the temps hovered right at 80 degrees and was soooo comfortable. Blue skies, light light breeze and 80 degrees. Perfect.

While we were there we got to visit with Betty (who is grandma Wanda's only sister) and my aunt Shirley (who married moms brother Jim) and cousins Mark and Carrie and Brad and Angela at various times. What neat people.

Betty is my mom's only sister. Mama was 11 years older than her. Mom had two brothers, John who was five years older than mom and Jimmy who was five years younger than mom. It had to have been an interesting home growing up with the personalities of these siblings. Uncle John and Aunt Betty, though stubborn, were mild mannered, quiet and graceful. Mom and Uncle Jim both were characters who never thought before opening their mouths. I think that Mama and Jimmy took after the personality of their mother, Grandma Kate and John and Betty got their dad's soft mannerisms.

Due to the difference in the girls' ages they were not close as children...Betty was eight when mom got married but they became very close as adults even though Betty was way up North in Montana. Mom loved Betty so very much.

Betty kept us pretty busy while we were in Conrad - we drove out to Cutbank to see the huge windfarm going up - they are in the process of building 50 huge windmills out there now with more to come. They were in all stages of development. We got to within about a mile of these and they look like a bunch of sticks in the ground.

But in actuality they were over 240 feet tall - with the propellers about 121 feet in length!! They have placed them on the Montana prairie where the winds are blowing almost constantly - down across Canada and then through this area of Montana. Betty says the wind does blow alot in Conrad but it seems to be alot more protected than Cutbank or Choteau where Shirley lives. They are beautiful to watch - so magnificant and stately. And they are a renewable energy source - the wind can be used over and over again!!This is a picture of the blades laying on the ground before they are raised up into place.

Dad and I had a wonderful time visiting with family and are so thankful to know and love these precious people. I didn't have to drive all the way back - dad took the wheel for a couple of hours!! We got home Friday night so tired but so glad we went. My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures!! DUH!! I need pictures of PEOPLE!! But I always forget to take them!

Updates

I talked to Dirk tonight and he said that Benji was so excited to see his daddy. That is so fun to think about. He has really started talking lately since Dirk has been gone (he has discovered he can make NOISE!!) and I guess he just kept jabbering 'daddy, daddy, daddy". I think that is so cute.

Dirk sounded really good and I am excited to see him. I am going to Lehi tomorrow to stay with Benji until Saturday afternoon. I will see Dirk whenever it works out best. I would imagine that after Simon is here and Da has a chance to rest they will call me and I will take Benji up to the hospital to meet his new brother.

Dirk said that they have an appointment at 7 am to start things rolling tomorrow. And I am sure that as soon as Dirk can, he will download pictures to the blog or wherever.

Heads up on Kris - keep her in your prayers. Her doctor is really concerned about her kidney functions ... she will have an ultrasound on Monday so they can 'look' at it. Plus other tests.

Kecia still has Glenn's family visiting. I haven't heard yet what Debbie thinks about Emma and/or Eden. I am sure she has given them both a thumbs up.

I haven't talked to Mauri for some time now and I miss her... especially your blogs...are you blogging on facebook? How would I read them? Like I said I know nothing about that program and get frustrated trying to find my way around.

I haven't talked to Kelly lately either. Not since he called me all excited about the Neti Pot. But it sounds like Jamie is taking good care of him.

Krista's Shower

Kristanne and I headed South yesterday about 11 am to go to Krista's wedding shower. Since neither of our families could make it to the wedding on April 18th we decided we needed to go to her wedding shower. The sun was shining the sky was blue and the roads were clear. We got down to Grandma Bea's house with a couple of hours to spare so we visited with her and helped her find her glasses - thanks to Kristanne. We all hunted and hunted and finally Kris got the idea to go and look under her pillow - that's where they were hiding. Grandma was soooo glad to be able to see again!

About five pm we headed up to the shower and got to visit with lots of special people. Krista is a cute quiet red head with lots of freckles and a big smile. I don't know how anyone with Willden blood in them can be so quiet!! She had lots and lots of people show up during the two hours of the shower and got lots and lots of presents.

She will graduate from Beaver High in May but has been attending school in Cedar City all year . She is taking CNA classes right now and is aiming for an EMT license.

Paula, Malena, Sharla and Kristy were all there. As was Shirlene, Jodi, and Sheina. Just before we left at 7 pm Bonnie and Natalie and Macey all showed up. She had lots and lots of friends from school and church plus lots of family from the Fails and Bradshaw sides too.

I wished I had brought my camera as she opened one present which was a bra made out of candy necklaces. I need to talk to Shirlene as it sounds like this is one of her talents too. She was comparing notes with the gal who made it - sounded like Shirlene said that she had made a nightie out of them!! Jamie and Kecia and Da aren't you glad Aunt Shirlene didn't make it to YOUR showers? Poor Krista turned as red as her hair!! But she was a good sport about it and even put it on over her clothes.

About 7 pm we headed back home - again - dry roads and not too much traffic. We got home by 10:15 and that was with a ten minute delay as they closed down the freeway by Lagoon and shunted everyone off onto Hwy 89.

Kris and I had a great visit all the way down and back. I drove to Nephi and then needed to lean back more so she drove the rest of the way. After sitting up right at the party for two hours I let her drive from Beaver to Nephi again and then we switched places and I drove the rest of the way home.

If you are planning on going to the reception itself on Friday the 18th you need to RSVP so they will know how many people to plan for the dinner. I have email addresses for Malena and/or Paula.

Easter Holiday

By the way Kecia - you look fantastic with your new haircut!!



This has been a nice weekend - Saturday we got together with my brother Kelly and his sweet Terrie and four of their five kids plus all of my kids except for Dirk and all of the grandkids and Grandpa Merritt and Jill and Ed and I. We had the party at Shawn and Kris's house because I didn't think there would be room at dads house for everyone we invited. It turned out to be a nicer day though still cool. Amee came too - with a cute boy in tow. Chase of course wasn't there as he is now in the mission field as Elder Nielson. Dirk of course is at Ft Lewis Washington.


We let the whole family search for presents and candy all over Kristanne's back yard. Then we ate and visited and visited and ate ...lots and lots of good food!

Da and Benji came as Dad and Jill were leaving and Jamie and Kelly came as Da and Benji were leaving!!

I simply enjoyed the whole day with my family. I love them all so very much.

Sunday morning Kecia and Glenn and Emma Lynn came to Layton to go to church with Grandpa Ed and I. She was still dressed in her cute bunny jamma's but it didn't take long for momma Kecia to get her all gussied up in her adorable pink fluffy dress














Of course, Emma wow'd everyone at church - she is such a happy baby. It was so fun to have Glenn and Kecia there and fantastic to enjoy Emma for those three hours!! After church we headed back to our house -I invited grandpa Merritt to come have dinner with Ed and I and Kecia and Glenn. I fixed a nummy Easter dinner and even got to use my china!! WOW!! Glenn and Kecia headed back home during the afternoon since they had another party to go to. Ed and I went home teaching at 5 pm and Shawn and Kris showed up shortly after we got back home - they were bringing back Ed's truck home after borrowing it the day before to get a mattress.

All in all, it was a nice weekend. I love you all

Christmas is such a Wonderful Time

Adrie the Angel

So many people complain about the Christmas Season and how commercial it has become - and maybe it has but that doesn't need to stop any of us from appreciating it for what it is. It is what is in our hearts that make or break the season.

From putting up the Christmas tree to listening to the Christmas Carols (during all of November and December!!) to buying just the right gift for our loved ones to open and get excited about.

We had a marvelous Christmas eve program with the grandkids doing the Nativity -they acted it out and we all took turns reading it. (Emma made a darling baby Jesus and our one and only wise man bowed at Jesus for five full minutes - hilarious!) We all sang the Christmas Carols and Kris and Jamie sang Breath of Heaven and Glenn sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful and then we ended the program by singing Silent Night in three different languages!!! It was such a special night. We Willdens have just so -so voices (actually a couple of my kids have nice voices - their mother isn't so lucky!) but they have married singers and it adds so much to our special programs.

I seemed to find gifts that everyone wanted in my budget (which I cut this year) and they all seemed pleased - Benji played with his stuffed bear and hugged it and grinned at it - he has the cutest personality - he is so inquisitive and yet such a happy boy - you can tell that he is loved and that his parents are so happy to have him.
This year I got to watch the excitement and thrill on the faces of nine of my ten grandchildren as they opened their gifts. (Emma just wasn't gonna get excited about her new dress or mobile!! Food mom food!!)

The excitement of opening presents started on Christmas Eve - About half of the gifts I gave this year were opened on Christmas eve because of the weather. I didn't think I would get to see the kids and grandkids again on Christmas day so we broke with tradition and exchanged alot of our gifts that night. I had purchased gift cards to Aeropostle for my 12 year old and 13 year old granddaughters (who are both turning 18 this year!!) The squeals of delight from both of them were fantastic. Then I gathered all three of Mauri's boys and handed them each a laminated card with their very own name on each of the cards and explained that it was a one year membership to the Children's Treehouse Museum in Ogden - they were so excited!! They love that place and are always asking Mauri to take them. I will be able to take them too! They each had a small gift to open besides that but they were thrilled and it sent happy chills all through me.

On Christmas Day I watched my other three grandsons open their gifts and each one of them were so spontaneously happy and excited over what I got them. Cade got a Mario game for his WII and Ethan got a fish book plus a shirt, and Jace got a Ben 10 game - thank heavens for moms and their suggestions to grandma - it really helps and it gave me such pleasure to buy and wrap and finally give them their gifts.

When we all get together at grandma's house it is planned pandemonium and Christmas eve was that and more - but the love we share and the joy we have being together makes it wonderful.

I am so thankful for the Christmas Season - for the joy it gives us, the love we feel with friends and family - and for our Savior's birth and the gift he gave to all of us - the atonement - we get awfully busy but there were moments in our Christmas eve program where I felt the love of my Savior and tears came to my eyes. I am so blessed...