October 2011 Visit With the Goodman Family and David

Our extended weekend visit with Michelle's family and David was fun and relaxing.  We played games, went on walks, ate Melodie's good cooking, and enjoyed interacting with the family.

We went to the cemetery on Saturday and cleaned up around Michelle's grave and planted tulips and daffodils.  Everyone helped-even the doggies.

Dave arrived in Denver on Sunday morning to attend a work conference.  We picked him up at the airport and made it back to Castle Rock for Sacrament Meeting.  We all visited as a family in the afternoon and then we took David to his hotel downtown and walked around the area with him for awhile in the evening. The picture shows him relaxing in his very nice hotel room. We enjoyed our short visit with him.

Fall 2011 Bryan and Faye Came to Visit

After Faye retired in September, they came to Utah and Idaho for a 3 week visit.  We loved having them stay with us when they were in town.  We all visited Kenneth's mother's grave on her birthday, October 12.

 We also had a family dinner at Snowbird and took some pictures with the beautiful fall colors.

September and October 2011 Fun Times

We love to visit the gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  Adam liked feeding the koi.

But his favorite thing was the spouting fountain in the secret garden.  He would have played there all day.  We enjoyed the waterfalls and oh yes, the flowers.

Addy, Easton, and Ellie came for a visit and we took them to the park.

We went to St. George for 3 days and enjoyed the shows at Tuachan, long walks, and shopping.

Happy Birthday Easton and Betsy!!

 Happy Birthday Addy and Landon!!

I got to stay with Addy, Easton, and Ellie for 4 days while their Mom and Dad enjoyed a fun get-away to Disneyland.  We enjoyed our time together.  Addy and Easton built some great castles and Ellie did her best to knock them down.

August 2011 Planting the Peach Tree

While Kenneth was recovering from his heart surgery, we found a sale on peach trees and bought a Lemon Alberta peach tree.  This variety had been recommended to us as a great tree to grow in this area.  With some help we got the 8 foot tree loaded into our little car and brought it home.  Now we needed to plant it.  Kenneth was not allowed to lift anything heavy or strain his chest muscles in any way so I needed to plant the tree.

  Kenneth sat in the chair and supervised and I managed to dig the hole and role the heavy tree into it.  I decided I can do hard things!!  The tree is planted in memory of our family peach, Michelle.  Love you always Michelle.   

August and September 2011 Special Times with Special People

This year we started a new tradition of trying to spend some special one on one time with our grandchildren around their birthdays.  This works well with the grandchildren who live close by but will take a little more planning for our Texas and Colorado kids.  We started early in the summer by having Addy come down for a sleepover and taking her and Chloe out to dinner and  to see a production of Annie at the Scera Theater in Orem.  We had a great time.

 In August Easton came down for a sleepover and then we went to the Dinosaur Museum and Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.

Adam and Becky joined us.

Feeding the goats at Farm Country.

Landon wanted to go bowling for his special date so we took Grandpa Great and went out to lunch and then went bowling at Fat Cats.

Landon showed us all how it is done!!  Thanks for a fun time!!

Chloe wanted me to help her learn how to use the sewing machine so we spent a day making some pillows and bags.

This is what happened to Adam when Mom forgot to bring his jacket and hat to our house and we wanted to go for a walk.  He had to wear Grandpa's hat and Grandma's sweater.  I think he looks pretty cute!!

I sure do love all my grandkids.

July 2011 Mending a Broken Heart

On July 28 Kenneth had open heart surgery-a triple bypass.  The surgery went well, he spent 5 days in the hospital, and then recovered at home with almost daily visits to the cardiac rehabilitation center for about a month. 

Summer Fun 2011

While I was at Disneyland, Becky and Adam planted some strawberries in a planter for me. I have enjoyed 3 yummy strawberries from it so far. We also helped Becky plant a garden and it is doing very well. If anyone needs a Halloween pumpkin, just ask Becky. Our garden has also done well this summer and we are enjoying fresh vegetables almost daily.
In June we enjoyed a wonderful two week visit with Ryan and Kyle. They came to visit us while the rest of their family went on a church history tour to the East and Midwest. We had so much fun with the boys. They were very helpful and well-behaved. We had several family activities and they also spent a day visiting their Shaw cousins.
While Ryan and Kyle were here we spent a day at Lagoon with Dan and Betsy and their family. It was so nice because they live so close and Betsy was able to take Ellie home for a nap and then she came back later and brought us a pizza. Umm!! The boys were dare devils on the rides. It was a nice day and the park wasn't crowded so the wait time for most of the rides was quite short.
The boys loved their day at Lagoon. We got there when the park opened and stayed until it closed. We finished the day by having funnel cakes because that was something Dan and Michelle always did together when they went to an amusement park.
One day while the boys were here Becky, Adam, and I took them down to BYU where we went to the dinosaur museum, the Bean museum, and to the bowling alley. We got to bowl 2 games and everyone enjoyed it. It was Adam's first time and he got very excited when he finally learned how to push the ball down the ramp.
Ryan in good bowling form.
Kyle taking his turn at bowling. Will it make it??
The boys got to visit with their Great Grandpa Nix who is now 91. They went over one day and helped him do some weeding in his yard. Then he took them out for ice cream.
We went swimming at Becky's condo pool and also at the Legacy Center here in Lehi.
While Ryan and Kyle were here we also had a fun family gathering at Matt and Jessica's house. We had a great game of kick ball to end the evening. Kids against the adults. I think the kids won!! We are so glad the boys got to come. We invite them back anytime and their 3 sisters too!!

Later in the month, we went to the Lehi City Roundup Day where Adam got his face painted by Becky's good friend Cindy.

In July we attended the Perrenoud family reunion in Rexburg. This is my dad's side of the family and I was asked to be in charge this year. I make the chart above which showed my grandparents and their 13 children. We had a good turnout at the reunion of about 45 people. That is a small representation of a huge family but we will try to involve more people next year.
Here is part of the family visiting at the reunion. Everyone brought good food and we had a short program after lunch.
I enjoyed visiting with my cousin Ione at the reunion.
At a family dinner at our house, Tanner and Adam played in the sandbox. Umm! Umm!
Easton, Ellie, Addy, and Landon playing at Grandma's house.