June Haircuts

We now have 13 grandsons (and four granddaughters), all unique and special. For some reason, Cher and Megan keep Noah and Elijah's hair longer than, say, Will and Oliver's, (their respective brothers). Personally, I like Noah and Elijah's longer hair and when they both got short, summer cuts, it was quite the change in their "look". We love you guys.

Seeing Red

For weeks, KR had been bothered by a small, red bump on her lower eyelid as the base of her lashes. When it became a little tender and swollen, she decided to seek treatment and stopped at the Cashmere Clinic on her way home from a run. The doctor diagnosed it as a  sty and prescribed antibiotic ointment and hot compresses. When she called me on her phone after the appointment and told me she had a sty in her eye, my first thought was how difficult it was going to be to keep her eye clean with all that pig manure. Two days later, the sty flamed red, had grown in size, and painful stings shot through the area under her eye at random intervals. She drove herself to the local walk-in clinic for another opinion. The doctor came in, took one look, and proceeded to prepare for an excision. Slicing a small opening into the sty relieved the pressure immediately. He sent her home with oral antibiotics and instructions to apply hot packs for 20 minutes four times a day. It took a VERY long time for the wound\bump to completely go away. As bad as it looked, it could have been worse.

Wow - New Street Signs!

We got a nice surprise in the area - the county installed new street signs that are much bigger and, therefore, easier to read. Now if they would just pave American Fruit Road.

June 21 Butterfly Expo

On a beautiful, sunny, Saturday morning, KR took Henry and Jones to the Butterfly Expo sponsored by Wenatchee’s Master Gardeners. The carefully-planned event featured many fun activities for the children. The boys each made a cement stepping-stone for their garden, which had been decorated with hand-selected buttons, plastic trinkets, shiny stones, marbles, old keys, etc. Other stations at the event included coloring butterflies pictures, doing butterfly puzzles, making cut-and-glue butterflies on a string, dressing up as butterflies and butterfly hunters, looking at real butterfly collections, etc. A wonderful snack and drink were also provided and the kids had a great time.

June 17-20 Girl's Camp

KR made her annual trek to Young Women's Camp, this year as the Camp Nurse. This will be one to remember. In her own words: "YW camp ended early this year and it wasn’t because of a bear like in a previous year. No, it’s wasn’t ended for something nearly as exciting. We ended early because a severe gastroenteritis struck the camp. One YW on Monday’s YCL overnight hike apparently brought it from a family reunion. It spread to a few YCL’s then thru the rest of camp at lightning speed. Campers dropped like flies with symptoms so severe they parked themselves in lawn chairs outside the "flushies" and remained for hours until they felt well enough to climb into a car heading for home. When the count increased to a dozen or more and the “hazardous waste” dripped thru the boards from the upper floors of one longhouse onto the backpacks stored beneath, we called it quits. What a year to be the camp nurse! During camp, Lisa Sauer and I had an exciting, midnight adventure with a garbage dumpster. A lovely, blue-ruffled gown, which has become a camp skit staple each year, inadvertently got tossed in the garbage holding area and from there, into the camp’s giant dumpster located in a field outside of camp. Since Lisa had “borrowed” the dress from the YCL’s for nefarious reasons, and I had accidently thrown it out, thinking it was trash, the two of us felt compelled to go dumpster diving. Discovering the error shortly before midnight, we threw coats over our PJ's, grabbed our flashlights, and drove to the dumpster in the dark and moonless night. The heavy lid had been cranked down to keep the bears away so cranking it up about 12” (it was hard to do!), Lisa directed her flashlight inside while I squeezed thru the opening grabbing at any bag that looked “puffy” and felt light. We feared the lid might come crashing down on our heads or that bears might smell the garbage and corner us up on the stairs, so after three or four strike-outs, we decided to wait until morning and hope the dumpster wouldn’t be emptied early. Happily, when morning came, we told the Priesthood brethren our plight. They took pity on us and rescued the dress from the stinking dumpster."

Prom Pictures

I came across my prom picture the other day and shuddered at the ruffled shirt (no, I am not going to post it). But there are worse prom pictures than mine - check out these beauties.

June 7 Rotary Park Pictures

Mark and Laurel's gang is growing up too fast. We spent some time with them at Wenatchee's Rotary Park on a beautiful June day. The colors of the clothes, the park, and the play toys were vibrant and just shouted - TAKE SOME PICTURES.

Retrieving the Pilot - Utah #1

When we flew to Bogota, we went via Las Vegas, leaving my Honda Pilot at the Gecko House in St. George. When we returned from Bogota, we flew straight to Wenatchee, leaving my car stranded in southern Utah. I was SO missing my car and made a quick trip via Las Vegas in early June to retrieve my Pilot and drive it back to Washington - the first of MANY 2014 jaunts to the Beehive State. I took advantage of the trip to check on my mother and see how she was doing. Pretty spry for her age.

May 29-31 Baseball and Baptisms

What a wonderful weekend. Amy flew up and Mark brought his crew over to Seattle (we missed you, Matt!) for a mixture of the temporal and the spiritual (although I am sure we will play baseball in the next life). Will was finishing his season on his father-coached Richmond team, so we were able to enjoy watching a couple of his final games of the season and attend the award ceremony after the final game. Will has the frame of a baseball player and is growing up too fast. He has skills.

Anytime we can get the gang together is a good time (did I say we missed you, Matt!). They have become such good citizens, parents, and people. We are so proud of them. 

On Saturday afternoon, after a nice lunch, we were thrilled to attend the baptisms of our grandsons, Noah and Jonathan (Jonny), as they became official members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so pleased they made the decision to take this important step.