Time flies and I'm not even haveing all that much fun. Wendy keeps after me that I still need to blog the rest of our trip so I'll post some more pictures of the last of the trip at Andrew and Jana's home, Some pictures of Soren and Sydney, Pictures at Wendy's and some pictures of our reunion at McCall. Since we have got home life has been pretty busy. We have went to Boise several times to see Alexis. I am working the late shift and Saturday for the 2nd time in three weeks to help cover for some other employee's time off. But when this week is done I won't work another Saturday for 6 weeks. Dawna and I did go to the fair last Wed. We didn't stay to long because we had taken some of the young women over. We did eat fair food and had a good time while we were there. Ross

Well this is not the second part of the trip or even the sibling reunion, For those of you that don't know Lesley had some complications with her pregnancy so they started Her 6 weeks early. Lesley and Cameron were blessed with a cute 4lb 12 ounce, 19 inches long baby girl. I got to hold Her for about 20 minutes tonight. I have never held a baby that small before. Lesley is doing fine, Alexis will be in the nicu for a few more days for observation. I have a few pictures, hopefully Cameron will post more.

This last week has been a lot of fun. We left July 3 to go to Jana and Andrews'. We drove to Cheyenne Wy. that day going about 780 miles. David said he had all the car time he needed, little did he know what was to come. The next day we traveled to Missouri, We stopped at the Liberty Jail visitors center, and then went to go to Independence to see the temple lot but when we got there they had the streets blocked off for the evening fireworks show. We then plugged in Jana's address into gps and headed for Columbia. We got to Jana's at about 9:45 there time. We had traveled another 760 miles that day.

We Stayed Sunday with Jana, Andrew, and Sydney went to Church with them and just enjoyed the day of not driving. Jana made Dawna and I a birthday cake since my birthday was the 3rd and Dawna's was on the 8th.

Monday Dawna, David and I left to go to Nauvoo. We cut across Missouri seeing a lot of country, We went through Mexico, Palmyra, and several other towns in Missouri. We got to Nauvoo and took both the carriage ride and wagon ride to see the historical parts of old Nauvoo. Then we ate lunch, walked around the Nauvoo temple. We went to see the cultural hall, John Brownings' gun shop, Scoville bakery, Stoddards tinsmith, and the Drugstore. We went to the Comunity of Christ tour of the mansion house and Joseph Smith home bought was to late for the last tour. We walked around them and just saw them from the outside. We them went to the records house and down loaded a cd of all the family names that Dawna and I could remember. Last of all we went the cemetery to see the grave of Edmund Durfee.

We stayed in Keokuk that night resting our tired feet. The next day we went down to the Mississippi river to see a old river boat museum. Then we watched a tug and its tow go through the lock. Keokuk has an observation deck built on top of a railroad bridge to overlook the river and locks.

We have done a lot more but I'll blog it later

Wow, more than a month has gone by since the last post. Time just goes by. I keep thinking I'll have some new pictures but I haven't taken many lately. Since the last post David and I have poured a new sidewalk, Mom has gone to girls camp and the weeds just keep growing in the garden. Memorial Day weekend had David and I setting up forms and mixing cement. We poured half of it on Saturday and the rest of it on Monday. We were both pretty tired when it was done. The next weekend I got some new outdoor lights to light the walk at night.

I went up a week ago last Monday to help set up the tents for girls camp, I drove up the motor home so Dawna would have a place to sleep and so they would have a refrigerator for some of the food. Just as we got ready to leave a bad thunderstorm hit around mitchell butte. The road by the siphon got one lane washed out and there were rocks all over but by the time we got to the bridge the storm had passed. It hadn't hit camp hycliffs at all. Stoney and Maria Schulthies, Weston and Lori Schulthies, Kevin and Maria Draper, Penny Elsworth and Jan Wilcox went to help set up. With that much help it went up really fast. Dawna went up the next day and helped take the girls up and I went up Tuesday evening to see if I could help out. Penny had taken Jan Wilcox home because of abdominal pain. Turn out later that it was appendicitis and she had surgery later that night. Girls camp went pretty good and Dawna and all the girls and leaders packed up and got home on Thursday. She went back to work on Friday. David and I packed the tents and put all the equipment up last Saturday.

This week we have been slowly getting ready to go to Missouri. Today I changed oil in the car then found oil in the engine coolant. Found out the intake gasket is blown and will need replaced before the trip. Luckily I found it before we left. K and K and troops came over tonight for some homemade Ice Cream. We had a good time out on the front lawn enjoying the evening with there family and Grandpa and Grandma.

It has been a long week that went by very fast. Last Monday and Tuesday I rode down to Utah to attend Aunt Louisa's funeral with Doug, Margie and Vernina. We really enjoyed the trip down and back for the time we had to visit. Even though we live fairly close we don't get together as often as we should. We stayed with Dan and Connie Porter. They are as wonderful as ever and we enjoyed the time spent with them. The viewing and funeral was really special with the opportunity to see so many of the Porter family and to celebrate Aunt Louisa's life. The Porters are always great to visit with and always make you feel at home. I miss the reunions we used to have every couple of years we used to have with them. Hopefully it won't take another funeral to get together again.

This last weekend was David's graduation from High School. Grandpa and Grandpa Evans came up from Utah and Laura and Bobby came home from college. Saturday Carla and Merle and their children that are home came over along with the other quests and we grilled up some burgers and visited. Saturday evening Laura and Dawna worked on the salads and cookies for the after graduation party. I had smoked about 25lbs of pork butt earlier in the week. Sunday we went to church and then went ran down to the school for graduation. I didn't think that a graduation could be any shorter than Laura's but David's was shorter by 5 minutes only lasting for 35 minutes. After graduation David and I went to Iversons and then out to Morinaka's before going out to Mitchells and helping to set up for the party for Kevin Beck, Dillion Mitchell, and David. We started a 4 and didn't get done till about 7:30. We had a lot of fun and would like to thank all for coming. The only regret we have is that we couldn't go to all the parties. This group of boys I had when they were 12 and 13 year old scouts and I've always considered them my boys. I've found out that just about everyone that teaches or works with them feels the same way. David will work at M&W till late fall and then hopes to serve a church mission. We are glad he will be here for a few more months.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all Mothers both present and future. It seems like most blogs are about our children or grandchildren but, it wouldn't happen if not for their Mothers. I just like to thank my mother for all she has done for me throughout the years, Also thank my wife for the great mother she is to our children. Our kids are who they are because of the time and teachings that Dawna spent with them. I love our grandchildren and am thankful for my daughters and daughter in law who are so great in doing what they do.

Week in review, this has been a busy week, it seems as if May just got started and if is almost half over. The first of the week it still was very wet from all the rain we got last weekend. I did a little work in the garden and cleaned up the motorcycle. Thursday morning Dawna and I left at 7:30 am to drive to Newburg Or. to attend Nyssa's High School Choir performance at the state competition. It is just over a 6 hour drive to get there. We got there in time to see several choirs perform along with Nyssa. Nyssa had a great performance. They placed 5th. David said in the sight reading that they messed up. Nyssa was the Highest placed public school. All the rest of the schools that placed were private schools. On the way home we missed one of the interchanges in Portland and ended up circling on the the interstate in rush hour (?) traffic for about and hour and half. We were sure glad to get past Troutdale and out of the heavy traffic. We made it home about midnight. Was it worth 13 hours of driving for a 15 min performance? We thought it was. I would have some pictures but I forgot my camera.

Aunt Louisa, who was Dad's older Sister passed away on Friday. She was a really great person. I always thought it was a special treat when I got to visit Her and Uncle Ray. She had a great sense of humor and I will always remember Her laughter. I will ride down to Utah with Margie and Doug to go to the funeral this coming week. This next week will be busy with the trip and trying to get everything done for David's graduation. Our front sidewalk is no longer the moat but I don't think that I will get it poured by next weekend before we have company. It may be a temporary boardwalk for the next week or two. Such is life.

I decided to take some picture around the house to show some of the projects we are doing. David chipped out all the old sidewalk that had come apart. We got all the old concrete out and then it rained so now we have a moat. Hopefully it will dry out soon so we can form it. Next to the suburban is what little garden we have planted. Hot caps were a little expensive so I only bought 6. I have tomatoes under 4 of them and peppers under the other 2. The radishes and the peas are up and I have some cucumbers planted and some transplanted. The is a row of wave petunias by the lawn. In the one picture you can see the place out just due west of the house. hopefully we will have fence up here in a few months. We are enjoying the spring and seeing the flowers coming out and all the grass greening up. David has mowed the lawn twice and as soon as it dries out enough it needs mowed again.