Shannon hosted a fun birthday party for me at her house. We had cake and ice cream and I received many nice gifts and BD wishes from everyone. Brad had a lovely fire going just for me so I'd be toasty warm. I love this picture with some of my grandkids.
Kelly, Shannon and I. I love these two women!

This year's Thanksgiving group included G/G Butler, Brad, Shannon and kids, Quinn and kids, Chad, Kelly, Nicole, Randy and I. We ate lots of yummy food that we all helped prepare, which made it easy for all. We missed those who weren't with us, but we should see most of them next year!

Gavin and his silly face, Avery and Nicole enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner!

This is the boy's table. Little Izzy was playing at this table when we set it up. As soon as we tried to move her to the bar for dinner she wouldn't have it, so she ate with the boys!

Randy's birthday was yesterday! We had a fun party with Grandma and Grandpa, Brad and Shannon and family and Kelly and Nicole--oh, yeah, I was there too! We had chocolate cake and ice cream and lots of laughs. Randy got jerky and Big Cherries (his favorite candy), Shannon made her dad chocolate chip cookies, I gave him warm jammies and chocolate from The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! Randy with Nicole and Avery

Shannon and her dad

Adam entered the MTC on Sept. 1st. We dropped him off at the curb where several missionaries were waiting to wisk him off. It used to be that I'd try not to cry (unsuccessfully) for the hour it took to go through orientation with our missionary. This time I burst into tears as we were pulling into the MTC, cried all the way to the drop-off point, unloaded his luggage and gave him a long hug amid tears and that was it. He walked off and we got back into the car-total time-15 min, maybe! It really is a better way to leave a missionary at the MTC.

It still hurts, just not as long!

Adam getting his missionary hair cut 2 hours before entering the MTC.

The dinner at Chilis was going great till "Napkin Man" showed up. Abby, Braken and Nicole took one look at him and burst into tears. The adults were laughing hysterically-I'm surpised managment didn't ask us to leave!
Dinner at Chilis with the "Up North Gang".

Papa gets sugar from Braken and Abby

Braken and Abby kept trying to go with Nana and Papa!

A few fun pics from Adam's farewell weekend. His nieces and nephews had fun playing "catch" at the BBQ.

Our soon-to-be-missionary was stung by a wasp on Monday. By Tuesday morning he was swollen up and by today both eyes were swelling. We took him to the doctor, got some meds and he's on the mend. Brad gave us a good cream to try and that should help too. The swelling was down a little tonight. The doctor told him he shouldn't sas his mom!

On July 14-19 we traveled to Durango Co. for our vacation. It's the first time we stayed away from home for this long-6 days and 5 nights to be exact. We camped at Junction Creek Campground-nice place just 3 miles west of Durango. We saw a movie and a melodrama. We enjoyed a cowboy supper and show. We brought our DVD player and watched an old western one night at camp. We played a couple of games of Five Crowns-I won't mention who won, but it wasn't Randy! Randy took a glider ride and we both had a thrilling jeep ride over Engineer, Yankee Boy, Imogene and Ophir Passes. We visited Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. Randy made his dutch oven chicken dinner one night and I made a raspberry/blueberry cobbler another night. We grilled Kielbasa and ate fresh fruit and veggies. We made a point of stopping at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some of the best chocolate this side of the Great Divide! (Maybe even the other side too) On Sunday we found a Ward in Durango and ran into a Monticello lady who now lives there-small world. It was fun to get away and we ejoyed ourselves immensley. We hope to get more family to join us next year.

I brought my hammock and enjoyed relaxing. This is a self-portrait.
This is the view from my hammock-see why we love this place.

Randy got his hand "caught" in the bear trap at the Bar D Ranch. Shannon and Brad and Adam joined us that night for dinner and a show. Shannon has those pics.

This picture was taken in Imogene Pass.

Randy decided to throw snowballs at me! Imagine that-snowballs in July. In the mountain passes there was always snow.

My first collage thanks to Kelly's help!

Randy and I took the opportunity to drive the Durango-Ouray trip on June 26th. We had a great day seeing the beautiful Colorado mountains. We stopped for lunch at the Durango Mountain Resort then drove on to Silverton from there. Next was Ouray-such a pretty place high in the mountains. We drove through Ridgeway and Telluride as well then back through Cortez and home. We ate dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant in Cortez. It was a fun, relaxing day.

A view of Ouray before driving into town.

Randy and I sitting above Ouray.

On Mother's Day we decided to take a three

generation picture. This is priceless.

Our Spring Camp to The Falls was iffy at first. The winds were howling

and the sand stung when it hit your face. We set up camp and rode a little

then the wind died down about the time we were ready to cook and stayed

nice the rest of the evening. We had steak and chicken and dutch taters and

jello jigglers and pickles and beans and razzleberry cobbler for dessert. The next

day we all jumped on machines and rode to the missle. We had a super camp, but missed

a lot of family. Maybe next year!

The Youngs are loaded and ready for a fun adventure

on the trail to the missle. This was Bronson's first motorcycle ride

by himself and he did a great job! We crossed the wash about 14 times

and he dug in and made it each time.

Surprise! Kelly and Nicole stopped by for a visit.
We missed having Chad around.

Papa, Nana and Gavin sit around the campfire.

It was a lovely evening-once the wind died down.

Quinn, Ashton and Jack enjoy the evening.

Ashton cooks his own dinner!

Bronson and Gavin are looking for goodies!

Shannon, Brad and Avery relax by the camp fire.

Adam went through the Monticello Temple for the first time on May 11th. It was a sweet experience for him, as well as all of us who attended. It just happened that he and Rhett Adair went through together and that was fun. The next day Adam and Rhett went through the temple again! He's one step closer to being ready for his mission.

Another missionary! Adam has been called to serve in the Australia Adelaide mission. He will enter the Provo MTC on September 1st. He is one excited young man!

Adam's mission call came Friday morning and by 2pm Dad and I were headed to Provo. We all met at Nate and Brooke's and we got Shannon and Shane on speaker phone. We all tried to guess where Adam would go and Andy and Tori got it right! We had a fun weekend.

Nate Bracken and Brooke

Abby, Laura, Randy, Ashton

Nicole

Abby

Quinn, Ashton, Jack and Izzy. Joan had to work-we missed her.
Chad and Kelly
Andy and Tori

Aaron sent pictures! He wrote on the backs so I just copied what he wrote. Start clockwise at top L corner. 1) MTC Temple trip to Accra. The temple grounds are probably the most well kept and beautiful grounds in all of Ghana. 2)Recent convert, Abina, and I. 3)Pres. and Sister Sabey and I receiving my gift at the Christmas Zone Conf. 4)Ghana MTC 5)Kumasi Zoo. Haha, I didn't notice the two "zoo animals" at the bottom until afterwards 'cause there's so many bums in that area it is normal. That's Africa for you. 6)Bro. Odame.This guy makes soap for a living and he is one hard workin' dude.

Top L-1) Dontown Kumasi (Kajetta). Just imagine horns honking, people shouting and some Bob Marley music playing over the speakers. Welcome to Ghana. 2)I went to jump in bed one night, pulled the topsheet off my bed and out jumped this guy. He wanted to sleep with me!! No Joke. That is a regular writing pen next to him-he's big huh? 3)My main man, Mark, on his baptism day. This is by far my best friend in Ghana. 5)This cat came into the wrong backyard. We skinned him, gutted him, cooked him and ate him. Cat tastes good. 6)Elder Neupalau, a true Tongan, and I on the mountain. 7)Shanty town market. A crowded, fight, confusing maze of market places. Once you go in there, you might not come out-haha. You can buy everything from freshly slaughtered goat, to clothes, to car parts in there.

Top L(cloclwise)-1)Elder Blazzard, my Trainer, and I. Bunnies taste good. 2)My first time pounding FuFu. It's harder than it looks. (Notice the African Elder is already done).
3)This is the family that provided the FuFu for us. 4)A recent convert named cheif and his sister. 5)The great big feast. We cut their throats, gutted them, screwered them, and ate 'em.Around here we eat the head, eyes, tongue, ears, everything.
6) Lush plants and some flood water after the rain.

Most of you know we got some water in our basement at the old house last week. So we had Ronnie come put in a sump pump in the storage room. It was a mess to get it in, but we won't have to worry about water in the basement any more!

Thought Chad, Aaron and Adam would like to know that their work of art is still on the wall in the old basement. Since I was there for a couple of days messing with the water situation, I decided to paint the basement. I painted all the white space around the flag, but left the flag in tact! For those of you who don't know, years ago when those 3 were at home they painted this flag without my knowing what they were up to. (I must admit to painting that wall fushia pink-it's the only paint I had at the time and the wall needed a paint job badly-guess the boys never really liked the pink wall). Imagine my surprise when I happened down there one day and saw their masterpiece-it was so good I had to let it stay. When people look at the house that is one thing they all really like!