HAPPY 2011!

If you aren't living in Arizona, you are freezing anyway, but we are not used to these cold temperatures here.  Last night we had a low of 29 degrees, which effectively froze my tomato plants, even though we 'heated' them with Christmas lights and had them covered.  The basil is also frozen.  We aren't sure about the lemons yet.  We covered the parts of the tree where most of the lemons are and Warren put a propane heater under the tree.  Unfortunately the propane ran out some time during the night. The flowers survived though.  Almost all our sheets and many yards of frost cloth are all over our back yard.  We hope everything left survives the next two nights of expected freezing temps.

Sadly Kevin and Hailie were not able to come down for the weekend because of treacherous roads from Salt Lake all the way to just north of Phoenix.  We are glad they chose the safe thing to do.  Warren and I are planning to go to Utah sometime near the end of February, but that will depend on the weather.

Be careful celebrating tonight and we wish you much joy, good jobs, and many blessings in the new year.

Our night blooming Cyrus.  The bats come during the night and eat the pollen.  See the bee?  That will indicate the enormous size of these blossoms.

        HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MANY BLESSINGS

Alisyn and Eric sent this photo they took of the four of us on Sunday.  Thanks!  We are looking forward to having Kevin and our granddaughter Hailie join us for a few days.  They plan to drive down Thursday. BLIZZARD!  We pray they will be able to make it here safely.

CHRISTMAS 2010

We were blessed to have Eric and Alisyn (carrying our 24th grandchild) here for five days during Christmas.

We were joined Christmas Eve by Ron's family, Jeff's family and Scott's family.  We had a traditional dinner of ham, sauerkraut, sausages, baked potatoes and green beans with Cran-Raspberry and Sprite mixed together, followed by hazelnut cake with raspberries and whipped cream.

Scott and Kari's three foster babies were with us.  I have some real darling pictures, but I'm not allowed to post them.  We hope they will become part of the family this spring, then there will be lots of photos to share.

 This is Alisyn with the baby expected in April.                

                                                     Trix and Jeff's Emma.          

                         Kari, baby and Scott with Charlotte looking on.

                                                                       Eric

                                         Warren, Kari, Scott, Charlotte, Anita and Zoe.

                                                             Ron's Klara

                                                                   Jeff's Zoe
           

 

                                                                    Jeff

                                                          Jeff's Brigham

                                                            Jeff's Bryce

          

                             Ron is excited about a Home Depot gift card.

                                       Warren gets a Kindle e-reader.

               Anita and Taylor love Christmas as much as anyone else.

We had a great Christmas and lots more visiting and game playing on Sunday evening.  On Christmas day Eric, Alisyn, Warren and I spent the day home alone.  We made an awesome prime rib, had naps and played some games.
I wish all of you family members and friends the very best health and many blessings and happy times in the year 2011!

Charlotte and Klara SCORE

This morning we left the house at 6:10 a.m. for Peoria to watch Charlotte race. She was to begin at 7:15, but it was a little later. Ron had told us she was fast, but my gosh, she is FAST! She was one of the smallest runners. There were about 50 kids in her race and she lead the whole way. At one point she was right at the bumper of the 'follow me' golf cart. He was actually holding her back. But, she was so far ahead that she won the race by about 50 feet ahead of anyone else. Here she is with her first place medal and her dad, Ron.

We were finished in time to go to Klara's Volley ball game. YEAH, her team won! It was so great to see the girls participate in their sports and totally worth getting up that early to get there. We love you girls!

October Adventures

This is my dad with his birthday cake. We had a great time.

On October 2nd my sisters and I threw a birthday party for our dad's 90th birthday. His birthday is actually on October 4th, but it was better to have the party on Saturday. We had a great turn out; there were 74 of us, mostly family, present. Dad's Swiss friend, Ernst was there with his daughters. It was actually Ernst 92nd birthday that day, so he got special recognition and his own birthday cake.

Above are Monica, Briga, Eva, Esther and me, Trix

The party was in the Hyrum City Park Lodge up Black Smith Fork Canyon. Here's a quick view of the crowd.

Hadley, Kelsie and Charlotte enjoying the water, as did most of the other kids here. Ron, Peggy and the girls traveled all the way to the party and back home in just 3 days. Thanks so much for you support and show of love.

Hailie and Brad Conover. So beautiful/handsome!

Bradley found this tiny mouse nestled in the fork of a tree. So cute!

This is my dad Bruno Ingold with my aunt Elizabeth. Her husband just died in July. They have been dad's neighbors for the last 58 years. Theo Erni was my mother's foster brother.

Dad's birthday cake. Vati means dad in Swiss. It's what we always call him.

I made my dad a huge scrapbook with all of the sisters and all their families and dad's grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This was the final page with a family tree of dad's posterity.

A couple of days after the birthday party, Warren and I went on a wonderful quad ride with our high school friend Diane and her husband Berry Nielson. This is the head stone marking the grave of 'Old Ephriam', a huge bear that was shot by cattlemen on the 1920's. The bear was eating their cattle and sheep. The skull of the bear is in the Smithsonian because it was such a monster bear. This monument in located up Temple Fork in Logan Canyon.

On the way to Ephriam's grave.


Warren, Barry and Diane in front of the bears monument. The stone represents the actual height of the bear!


I have lived in Arizona so long that we forget how wonderful the Fall colors are in the canyons of northern Utah.


After we left Logan I was able to attend one day of my girls' sisters' weekend. Here we are riding the ski lift at Sun Dance. It was really cold! We also went shopping in Park City. It was such fun. Unfortunately Natalie had to work Friday and couldn't go with us, but she did join the girls for their sleepover and activities on Saturday.

Trix, Theresa, Angie and Melanie.

When I got home I was invited to a witches party with my friend Linda Berry. This is what I threw together. Thanks Alisyn for your help and thanks to Ross for a really great deal on a little black dress.

Lake Powell September 2010

We had a great time on our time share house boat for 10 days in September! If you haven't been, you really should go. It is an unforgettable experience and there is always new 'stuff' to do.


The 'Red Rock Oasis'. It is luxury on the lake. John Conover brings his ski boat, Warren and I bring our wave runners, and there are two kayaks on the boat. I had a great time on all of them.

Gorse Arch

Melanie's kids inside Gorse Arch. It was a hard climb and best made by agile kids.


This is an example of one of the tough hikes. Eric is boosting the kids, Jason and Trent, up to the next level.


Oh, I'm so glad I didn't go on this hike. Ashley is barely tall enough to span the two sides. I'm glad I didn't have to watch that one personally! I admire Ashley for trying it. She made it, too. Eric is hoping to catch her if she falls =0)

John got his boat into a tight squeeze going on that hike! Everyone is helping 'rock' it loose.

Melanie's kids found their own Hole-in-the-Rock. Kelsie, Hailie, Jeffy, Jason and Trent.

We had a great day trip to 'Hole in the Rock' where the pioneers lowered 80 wagons, many families and all their horses and cattle down a very steep slot canyon. If you don't know about it look it up on the web and read the story, or buy the book by G. Lund - Undaunted. Excellent reading and a great way to know how the pioneers sacrificed to help develop the west.


The Hole-In-The-Rock. Through this steep slit in the canyon the pioneers came down, but remember, there was no lake here at the time. The pioneers had to go down another 450 to 500 feet to reach the San Juan river at the bottom.


Jeffy swam at Cathedral Rock, where we had our picnic lunch. Now he is tired and chilly. Grandma's tired too.

John is towing Jeffy in his little boat. I did the same thing later. First I let him drive my waver runner while everyone else was on a hike. He said, "Grandma, you ROCK!" Then he said that was enough driving and he wanted me to tow him with the kayak. He fell asleep on the way. When I got him back to the boat I couldn't lift him out so I tied his little boat to the shady side of the houseboat and waited for his dad to come back and pick him up. Of course I watched him the whole time and he had his life jacket on.

He had a great nap!

Hailie, Kelsie, Ashley and Jason doing some fabulous sand sculpting.

Ashley and I are in the back of the boat on a chilly ride to Hole-In-The-Rock.

Warren and I took a late afternoon drive up a slot in Labyrinth Canyon. It was a great ride.

We saw some awesome animal tracks right near the house boat. I think this is a coatimundi track.

This is a cougar track. The clearer track didn't photograph well. The tracks were only about 20 feet from the houseboat. It was bigger than Warren's fist.

I enjoyed swimming with the kids.

Melanie and I on a little island where we made cliff drawings when we were there in June. It's in Padre Bay.

Hailie is quite the artist. She scraped these great cliff drawings into the sandstone cliff with a little sea shell.

A view from the top deck of the boat. It's a long way down. Melanie's kids jump from here into the water, when they aren't on the slide that drops from the third story, ending at the second story and then free falling off the second deck level.


Sisters Kelsie and Hailie


I hiked a little, too.

Enjoying my new 'wheels'


Warren is still a great water skier at almost 67 years old.

On the last night on the boat we have a tradition of having a dance party. I bring glow-in-the-dark braclets and everyone lets loose in the dark. It's really fun. Even I can dance for a while.

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On the way back to Wahweap Marina after a great 9 day stay on the Lake. Of course the Conover kids had to bring school work and spend some time everyday having on board classes, otherwise know as homework.

This is sunset in Face Canyon. We had the great pleasure of seeing it every night.