The Good Ol' Summertime!

BLT's for dinner, zucchini bread in the oven, watermelon, corn on the cob, picnics in the canyon - these are a few of my favorite things about summer.

The grand kids love to play in the water at Grandma's house. The other day we all looked out the window just in time to see one of them turn the hose fully on a sibling. The looks on the two faces were priceless. That's when we should have had a camera in hand. (Good thing Grandma keeps extra clothes on hand.)

I hope summer hasn't lost it's magic for you.

Mom feeds me well!

Can this possibly be the same little guy that weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. just one month ago? Hunter is a month old and seems to be wanting to catch up to big brother Grant. I don't know what he weighs today but by two weeks of age he had already jumped to 8 lbs. 4 oz. Way to grow Hunter!

Happy 18th Birthday , Jacob!

We are jumping the gun a little as Jacob's birthday is still 4 days away (July 30th) but as usual, Jacob won't be here on his birthday. He will be going on a 5-6 day backpacking trip with the scouts. I am sure that he has spent the majority of his birthdays somewhere other than home. Tomorrow will be the family Sunday dinner and Jacob's birthday celebration
Jenn has become our family cake maker. This is the cake she decorated for Jake. It is yellow and black - Cottonwood High School's colors with a Lacrosse theme and Jake's jersey number.

Eagle Project

We just returned from delivering Jacob's Eagle Scout Project. Now the hard part, filling out all of the paperwork.

For Jake's project, he chose to benefit the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. A call to Blanca, the volunteer coordinator, was made to see if there were any volunteer projects that they needed. She told Jake that there were certain items that they needed: books, movies, scarves, hats, puzzle books, coloring books, crayons, and blankets.

Jacob sent out flyers to each ward, concentrating on the Relief Society. He provided hat patterns for those who might like to sew. In addition, he enlisted the young women in our ward to make fleece blankets.
Some people dropped items off, others called to leave addresses. On Wednesday, the young men all went out to collect the items left.

We found the members of our stake to be very generous. The items literally filled Blanca's office.

Last night we sorted and boxed the items. We had 3 large boxes of blankets (probably 50-60). One box was stuffed full of colorbooks and crayons. Another box was filled with crossword puzzles, sudoku, word find, etc. as well as pencils.
There was one huge box of hats and scarves. There were tons of movies and books. Some smart person added decks of playing cards. There were also a fair number of puzzles. Lots of stuff.
We would have done a tour of the hospital this morning buy Jacob spent the night throwing up and wasn't feeling too well. He thought it might be embarrassing to vomit in the halls (like that hospital hasn't dealt with enough of that).

We can only thank all who made this a very successful drive. We hope that the items collected will make the stay nicer for a lot of people. Blanca said that she had just been told by the infusion room that they were in need of blankets.

For your reading pleasure!

Most summers I spend doing a lot of reading. This summer I have spent time with my nose in this book. I happen to own four scrabble boards and one computer game. I grew up with Sunday night scrabble games. Anytime anyone is willing to play, I pull out the boards and will even pop the popcorn (if you promise not to get my tiles greasy)! Rob was kind enough to invite me to play with his family on line. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I don't get other things done but what the heck - I'm on vacation.

Our Newest Citizen!

This is the day that we have all looked forward to - the day that Vero becomes a citizen of the United States. This afternoon in a ceremony at the Capital Theatre, Vero, with 182 other people, took the oath of citizenship. We are so proud of her!

Boys!

I have been so taken back in time as I watch Jenn with her two little boys just 18 months apart that I had to go back and find photos of my own first two boys at the same age. WOW - were they really that small?

Three Cheers for Aunt Emilie

Sometimes it takes a little wake-up call to remind us just how precious each member of the family is. Yesterday Emilie was involved in a car accident - T-boned on the driver's side. She came out of it quite sore and frazzled but in all other respects okay. When I saw the driver's side of her car caved in I realized just how close she came to serious injury. How grateful I am that she was protected!
(PS Thanks Em for being such a great Aunt!)

If that wasn't enough to jar me awake, Walter had a near miss today. Driving down the right had lane of the inter-state he was run off the road by the semi truck driving in the middle lane. The driver recognized that he was about to miss his exit and did not recognize that there was a car in the lane between him and his exit. Only quick reflexes saved Walter from going under the truck.

Let me just take a minute to express gratitude for all my wonderful family. Chris, Kara, Audrey, and Kate - I love you!!!
Walter, Vero, Belen, and Josh - I love you!!!
Emilie - I love you!!!
Tyler, Jenn, Grant, and Hunter - I love you!!!
Jacob - I love you!!!
XO XO XO XO XO Grandma H

Fourth of July!

We celebrated July 4th much as we do every year - a cookout and home-made ice cream in the back yard and City of South Salt Lake fireworks at Granite High School. This, of course, all takes place on the 3rd. All of the kidlets seemed to enjoy the night out, the music played by "Crash Pontiac", light necklaces, and even the fireworks. Hunter seemed to be a little unconcerned about the whole thing.
On the morning of the 4th Jacob went out to put up flags and I went to Bountiful to help Jenn - It was Tyler's first day back to work after Hunter's birth and the trek to see fireworks the night before had just about wore her out. After putting up flag in the neighborhood (a Boy Scout project) Jacob went with friends to hike up near Brighton. As you can see, they found the beauties of America and a lingering snow pack.

Ten things I miss:

10. Whiskers in the bathroom sink. I complained of whiskers, he wasn’t much happier with make-up stains. Now it is just the make-up.

9. The shower door closing in the morning. Lyle listened for the alarm clock. I never heard it but when the water shut off and the door closed as Lyle exited the shower, I knew that it was time to get up.

8. A clean patio. Every Saturday morning Lyle sprayed down the back patio. One could safely walk in the back yard with bare feet and seldom step on those nasty juniper needles.

7. Having an in-house mechanic/handy-man. Faucets never used to drip. Cars always had safe tires. The list goes on and on.

6. Flowers that appeared “Just because...”.

5. A warm place to put cold feet at night. I don’t get near the reaction when I put my feet on a heated rice bag.

4. Omelets, stroganoff, breakfast pizza, raspberry dessert, chocolate revel bars, thin pancakes, fried chicken strips, Spanish, rice, made to order muffins, ....

3. Saying, “Go ask your dad.”

2. Friday night dates. With few exceptions, every Friday night for almost 27 years.

1. A shoulder to sleep on, to lean on, or even to cry on.

Yes, summers give me far too much reflection time.

Citizenship!

After more than five years of jumping through INS hoops, Walter's wife, Veronica is looking forward to July 16 as the day that she will officially be a citizen of the United States. Veronica took her test a number of months ago (passing it with flying colors) and has anxiously awaited notification of her swearing in ceremony. That notification finally came only a couple of weeks ago. We are all very excited for and proud of our Veronica!

Brotherly love?