Thursday, June 24 activities

While the boys were here we started a game of Monopoly. It has been ongoing for couple of days and is still going. Later, we picked vegetables from the garden. I love the little yellow pear tomatoes. Tyler was quite fascinated with them and even ate some straight out of the garden and liked them. I couldn't get Zachary to even try them.

Later in the day they went to Sandy and Steve's house to swim again with all the cousins. They love to swim. It was so nice of Sandy to invite them over. By the end of the afternoon, their eyes looked like they had enough chlorine for one day.

Meanwhile, the tile was finished and they grouted all of the floor.

Tomorrow comes the sealing of the grout and then moving everything back into place. We had waffles for dinner since we didn't have a stove to cook anything. We'll be glad to get our appliances back. I love the floor. It turned out great.

Day 2 of the tiling

Day 2 began the laying of the tile. These two men were brothers. They work for someone else. They were very good and very fast. They did a fantastic job.

They got most of the tile down except for the few pieces where they had to cut the tile.

We didn't take a single step on the kitchen, laundry room floor. That's very hard to do.

Zach and Tyler liked watching the man cut but they thought it was pretty noisy.

Fun Day With Zach and Ty

Wednesday, June 23rd was a fun day with the boys. We did the usual activities that we do quite often like play air hockey

and jump on the trampoline. Adding sprinklers to the mix was even more fun, especially on a hot day.

Not so common for activities was swimming in the reservoir. We had it all to ourselves which was really nice. The Reeses, Creagers, Ruckers and the Bartle grandkids all went to the reservoir and had a great time.

We ended the day going to Mesquite to have dinner at McDonalds and then seeing Toy Story 3 at the theatre. It was cute. Fun days like this, especially in the hot sun make boys pretty tired. We had only been in the car about 30 seconds and I never heard another word. They were both asleep for the rest of the trip home. It's great to have a fun day to build memories. What fun boys to have around to do things with. I love them both so much. Being a grandma is so fun:)

Interlaken - Part 1

Well it was time to leave for Interlaken. As you can see Duane and I enjoyed a moment of two on the train.

You can see the train station in Interlaken in the background. Interlaken means between two lakes. This beautiful little town was where we stayed. These rivers in the background are just beautiful. You can't see in the picture, but the water is a very unusual color. It's very aqua.

Here we are in our room. We stayed in a hotel called the Splendid Hotel. The views were Splendid indeed. Heidi is standing on our little balcony. You could step outside and look at the Alps. It was so amazing. Our room had windows all the way around the room. We had a panoramic view. It was great!

This store was across the street from our hotel. They sold chocolate on the ground floor. Lots of people including us had to stare in the windows at the delicious looking displays. One interesting thing we noticed is that a lot of homes and buildings had one or two dates at the top of the building. We should have asked what the significance of that was, but we didn't. We wondered if it had something to do with when it was built, but some would have more than one date so we weren't sure. If you double click on the picture and enlarge it you can read it better. All the buildings had shutters on the windows. Many of them also had window boxes with flowers. Everything is so neat and clean. It was gorgeous.

Spiez, Switzerland

Well, I'm severely behind, in blogging our trip but now that it's summer and I've got more time I'm going to try and finish our trip. I covered Italy but I still have Switzerland and France to go. This first picture is a very typical site of what you see traveling on the train.

We are on our way, but our first stop is in Spiez. This has to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my entire lifetime. It was very overcast and raining on our way but I had a little prayer that the clouds would part and it would be clear and the sun would shine. I wanted the rain to stop since I knew we only had a few days to be there and we wanted to hike up into the Alps. I said my little prayer and when I was through the rain stopped. The next few days while we were there the sun shone brightly. There is no way that pictures can do this place justice. It is absolutely breathtaking. I had this strange feeling while I was there that I was living in a fairy tale. Well, I guess I kind of was.

The mountain you can see in the background is part of the Alps. Without the clouds you could see more.

This was a happy day:)

Work and Play

Yesterday mom and I drove to Kingman, AZ to meet Heidi and pick up Zach and Ty. We got a chance to see Gavin and Lexi for a few minutes. Wow, how Lexi's has grown! She's such a little doll. The poor little kiddies have been many hours in the car the last couple of days traveling from Colorado Springs to Mesa on Saturday and then Monday driving to Kingman to meet us. They were tired but still we got some smiles. Sorry if the picture wasn't the best but it was the only one my camera got. After we ate we parted and Zach and Ty came with us while Lexi and Gavin went with Heidi and her mom, Claudia. I wish we could have lingered a little longer but the littles had just about had enough. It was nap time after all.

Today we started redoing our kitchen floor so later in the day Sandy, my niece, invited the boys to come over and swim at their house. There were lots of cousins there to play with, 15 to be exact, besides Zach and Ty. The boys had a great time playing various games, catching lizards, and swimming. Sorry I didn't get any swimming pictures today, but I will get more later. Later this evening we ate dinner there and visited some more. Tomorrow will bring more adventures with the cousins.

On the home front, today was tear out day and prep day. They got all the wood floor pulled up and hauled it off. Wherever there were cracks in the cement they put down this special material and plastered it down. This is for helping the tile not crack if the floor underneath cracks more.

In the meantime we are living with the frig in the family room, the washer and dryer, and the stove in the garage and everything is out of place. Oh well, when it's done and finally put back together and clean it will be great. Tomorrow since we won't be able to walk at all in the kitchen we'll be doing things away from home. The saga will continue.

Silver and Gold

Yesterday, June 19th, was a wonderful day. For those who remember about a year ago, I had a reunion with my friends I grew up with in the Las Vegas 2nd Ward. We had a group of girls that pretty much spent many years together as friends going to the same high school and church. We were the best of friends and have somehow maintained our friendship through nearly a half of a century. OK, I know that sounds like a long time but since we're all 58 and 59 years old, that's pretty much how long we've been friends. We had a marvelous Laurel advisor who cemented our testimonies. This teacher was Marva Davis. Since last year, our mom's have been envious that they didn't get to join us so this year we decided to meet again and bring our moms. It was so fun to meet again and see everyone. We had a long day of visiting and eating a delicious lunch together. We caught up on years of events from each person. We've all had our challenges and triumphs. What a wonderful day. It reminded me of a poem about old friends. Make new friends but keep the old, some are silver, some are gold. These wonderful people, from the moms to the girls are my dear, long time friends. These are some of the truest and dear friends of our lives. These friendships are gold for sure!

Our wonderful mom: back row from left to right are Jane Bybee Aiken, Jeri Thistle, Ella Mae Nelson,
Front row, Marva Davis (Our teacher), LaRue Worthen, Amber Terry, Connie Larson

Left to right: Terry Ann Andersen, Debbie Stubler Oldson, Coleen Thistle Page, Jennifer Nelson Barnhurst, Linda Worthen Jolley, Becky Terry Bartle, Gaynell Larson Lippman, and sitting is Marva Davis.

Sister Davis with her birthday cake, mom and myself. Thanks dear friends, we had two missing that were not able to attend, Claudia Winsor Walthers and Joan Woodbury Leavitt. Wish they could have been there. We'll be doing this again next year.

Beautiful Flowers

Last weekend I was able to spend 3 days with my mom. As soon as I got out of school on Thursday, I left and came home last Sunday. While I was in St. George, I went to the nursery to buy flowers to add to my planter.

I was so excited to see these beautiful lilies.

Last night after our bottling event at the ward garden, I came home and planted them. It was so hot yesterday, I couldn't bring myself to get out and plant so I waited until dark. It took me quite a while as I had about 56 plants to transplant, but the rewards are worth it.

I love it and can't wait until they mature and get bigger. It will be very colorful.

Preparedness, Preparedness!

Yesterday our ward got together again to learn how to pickle beets and bottle them. We met at 5:00 P.M. at the garden and picked some beets out of our garden and then found some shade and bottled them. Our bishop wanted us to learn how we could do this using only alternative cooking methods. They had several propane camping stoves set up and we did everything outside. We basically had an assembly line going. It was so fun and fast and efficient. From picking the beets to having them ready to eat all finished, was about 2 1/2 hours. We bottled somewhere between 42 and 63 pints. I lost track of the number, but we did quite a bit. That would have taken someone all day long to do it alone but with an assembly line going we did it so fast.


One group washed the beets and clipped off most of the top with scissors, and then we put them into a pot of boiling water. After a while the boiled beets were dropped into another container of cold water. Several men took off the skins with dish towels and put them in a large pan. Next someone else would slice them with a handy, dandy slicer that Sister Jana Leavitt had. I would give a hot jar to someone to fill and then another person would pour the pickled juice solution over the top and I would then put on a hot lid. Once the jars were ready, the bishop would put the bottles into one of the 3 canners we had going. We cooked the beets for 30 minutes.













Here is the result of our efforts. After we finished bottling, we had hot dogs and ate together. What a great family home evening activity. Our bishop doesn't just want us to have a garden, he wants us to have the knowledge of what to do with it all. He wants us to be educated in every area. Lots of people learned a lot last night.

Our next event was tonight. Since we learned how to cold pack last night, tonight we learned more of how to pressure cook meat and vegetables. We met at Sister Leavitt's house and she showed us how to pressure cook hamburger. She gave us lots of tips and information so we can do it at home on our own and be safe. Thanks to everyone who helps with the garden and all the other activities having to do with the garden. It's been a wonderful experience and has brought our ward family so much closer together.

My Long Lost Friend

This is my dear friend, Terry Ann Andersen. We were best of friends growing up. Terry even went on a trip with our family when we were 16 years old. When my parents wanted a new car, we would fly back to Detroit and pick up our new car and then drive our new car home making a fun trip out of it. We invited Terry to go with us one time. After picking up our car we drove clear across the United States and saw lots of fun places. Terry and I had so much fun together.

Her parents owned a cabin on Cedar Mountain and Terry, her brother Jim, and I had quite an adventure at their cabin while we stayed there alone for a week. That is another very long story which I won't get into now, but it was quite an experience to remember.

About 4 months ago, I found Terry on Facebook after losing track of her for years. It was so fun to finally find her again. We've talked on the phone some since then but last Friday, she was coming to St. George where I was staying with my mom for a few days. We decided to meet at the Olive Garden and have lunch together. When mom and I walked in and Terry and I saw each other we threw our arms around each other and hugged and hugged. All of the employees watched and smiled. We figured out that it's been 41 years since we've seen each other. So much has happened to both of us since high school. It was so much fun visiting and catching up on 41 years! Wow, where did that time go?


We've already made plans to meet up again on June 19th, when we are meeting with a bunch of us that grew up together in Las Vegas. I can't wait for that day. Those of us who still have our moms are bringing them and we'll really get to have a fun reunion.

It's so great to finally get to meet you again Terry. I love you and have such wonderful memories of fun times together. Old friends are the best.

Water Day

The second to the last day of school is always water day. Most of the kids love this day. The younger grades go in the morning while the older ones watch a movie or do something inside. Then in the afternoon it is reversed.








Our great PE teacher plans all of the different activities, most of which involve water. The children love getting soaked by the fire hose. This year they played Fox Across the River and at another station they had a tug of war while the hose sprayed them.











Limbo anyone? Some of them were pretty flexible but some were not. At least they liked getting wet. It was hot that day.












When the children go to all the stations they end it with popsicles that they eat on the playground. At the end Mrs. Jessen, our principal, put on music and a lot of them rocked out while they ate. It was a fun day.