September and October Updates

We got home from our vacation, exhausted from all the traveling. Saige and Garrett were there to greet us (as they had stayed with Jennifer's parents while Patrick and Jenn were on their cruise). It was good to see them.

We had our annual Temple Group Excursion on Sept. 21st at the Rockin' R Ranch in Antimony and had a wonderful time. Check out their web site for info.

September 29th, we had our 17th grandchild, 12th grandson, (Scott being the proud papa) - Nathan Joseph Thompson. He is a cutie. See pictures on Elizabeth's blog for pictures of him and Moma Thom and with cousin, Saige.

We went down the middle of October for Jackson's baptism on Saturday and the blessing of Nathan on Sunday. Scott did a great job on both special occassions.

Now we are going into November and getting ready for winter and snow to set in for Cedar City. Hope you have not been to "blog-logged" with all this update at one time.

Visit with Wanda and Joanne

Niece, Joanne and her new car, cute - both of them.

Me and my older sister, Wanda (she looks younger) at Elizabeth's. Wanda and Joanne drove down for a visit while I was there. I got to see Renee, my other niece, on my way to Elizabeth's. It was a great vacation, seeing everyone - but good to get home.

Visit with Elizabeth and Family

Emily and Lucas Boy - Sweet doggie

Mommy and daughter - chillin

Elijah practicing his horn. Emily plays a violin (sorry no pic)

Wes was there, but for some reason, missed him in a shot this time. He is doing great, as is the family. Elizabeth shared pictures of her and her dad with a craft project on her blog. Check it out.

Visit with Victor, Charlotte and Quinten

Me, Charlotte, Victor having a belated birthday cake for David Wayne's Vic's youngest. David is always good to remember all of our birthdays with e.mail, so we wanted to do something special for him. Handsome boy that he is - or rather young man.

Charlotte, Victor, Aunt Orbra, Aunt Eva Lou (in their 90's) and me at the Owen's Reunion. Great time for all in attendance.

I don't have a picture of me with my brother Quinten. But he and Marilyn came down for the Elvis show and we got to see them at that time. They are all doing great and it was good to see them all.

Pictures of Vacation - Sande's

Uncle Paul is sad to see us leave - Harley hug.

OK, now I get him to smile a little.

Sande made these pillow cases for the golfers and a pink one for the golf widows. She really loves to quilt, part of a quilting group, and has a quilt studio where she has an unlimited amount of materials to satisfy those creative juices of hers. We enjoyed our visit with them and they are doing pretty good. Always hard to say goodbye.

August 17 - Sept. 9 - Vacation Back East

We decided to fly into Orlando and see the EpCot Center, as I figure that will be as close as we get to seeing foreign countries. It was nice and we enjoyed it; but did not take pictures. We also went to The Holy Land, which was another unique experience there in Orlando. Again, no pictures. But you can see all that we saw, through checking on their site on the Internet. On our vacation, we traveled by air, bus, cab, limo. No ship or train. But at our age, this was enough traveling for us. We then went to visit Uncle Paul, Sande and Warren for a week, then off to visit with my family for a few days and then on to Elizabeth's. It was great to see them all and there are a few pictures which I will share. While visiting with Vic and Charlotte, we took in a Bluegrass concert and an Elvis impersonator show. We attended an Owens (on my Dad's side) family reunion where I saw 2 aunts and lots of cousins. The last one I attended was the first one they had back about 20+ years ago. We attended a scrimmage game, football, with Elijah and had a great visit with Elizabeth, Wes and family. Now I will follow this up with some pictures.

Aug. 8th - Scott's Graduation from PA School

SCOTT with Mom and Dad

The happy family with Lori's Dad

Scott with Lorenza and Dale Angle

We were excited to go down and be a part of this, another, great accomplishment in Scott's life. As Scott and Lori had her family with them, we spent Friday night with our dear friends, Dale and Lorenza. Scott stayed with them in their home for a good number of weeks, while he was doing his emergency room rotations on their side of town, an hour or more (depending upon the traffic on the freeway) from his home.

Harley and I stayed an extra 3 to 4 days with Scott and the boys while Lori took some time for herself, visiting family in Salt Lake, before the baby came. We had a great visit with the boys and I was even able to help Scott study for his PA Board test (repaying him for the time, he helped me study to learn the medical language, as a transcriptionist) He will be a great PA, as is his brother, Patrick.

SORRY - There were pictures for the last post

Moma Thom enjoys putting them all to sleep, even inlcuding Daddy.

Cooper helps Daddy mow the yard. Thanks, Paul.

Abbie and Daisy needed encouragement to get in the pool, the first time.

Baby, wading pool for the little ones.

Abbie, Daisy and Moma Thom watching videos.

July-August Update

This part of our summer brought visits from Alie and the girls and Kramer. Kyle got to spend a few days in June after he got out of school. I love these one-on-one visits with the grandkids. They get to know us and we get to know them better. I usually am so busy playing with them and keeping them entertained, that I forget to take pictures - but did make some notations of some funny things they would say or do - Abbie bought some ballarina slippers that I had a hard time getting on her little feet - so one morning when she was watching Papa Thom put on his shoes with his shoe horn, she ran to get her slippers and sure enough we got them on. Soooo cute. Abbie had brought some lip gloss that her mom had put in time out before she left - so one morning Abbie asked if her "lipstick was still in time out". In putting Vaseline on Papa Thom's feet one morning, Abbie asked for some, and when I told her I didn't think she needed any - she said, "well, Mama Thom, I have feet too". The frozen chocolate chip cookies were a hit for all the grandchildren, and very easy for me. I really take the easy way out when the grandkids are here, don't want them to "get hurt on my watch"; so I do not do anything but play and watch them.

Paul, Laura and the kids came up the latter part of July for a few days. It sure was great to see them and do things with them. We took in the Pioneer Day Parade and they all enjoyed that. We had 2 pools in the backyard, one for the little ones and one for the bigger kids, which included me some times. They loved getting me wet. Seth enjoyed collecting bugs on the back patio. Isabelle and Cooper enjoyed running thru the sprinklers and playing ball. We sure did enjoy having them here.

June Update - Utah Summer Games

Dad has a new hobby - trap shooting. He has been into this for a couple of years. But this was his first year entering the Utah Summer Games. He did pretty good, for his first time - no medals this year. The shooting does not put a strain on his back, as the twisting in golf does - and he has been having some trouble with his back and legs, lately - going to the chiropractor 3 times a week (free treatments, as he gives golf lessons to the doctor's sons) - and using a golf club/cane quite a bit of the time. Other than that the grandma and grandpa in Cedar are doing fine. When we get warmer weather, the garden should start to grow that we have planted - onions are up, beets coming up, have not seen the carrots or cantalope. But have planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash - so we should do fine. Enjoy your updates.

Wonderful Mother's Day Weekend

On Mother's Day weekend, Paul and Laura got to come to Las Vegas for a visit, so we met them there and I got to spend the weekend with 2 of my sons - the other 2 called and of course my one and only daughter. Sunday morning, Paul and his dad, and Isabelle, Seth helped prepare breakfast - which was delicious, a great fruit salad, biscuts, sausage, eggs, and I contributed the homemade blackberry jam. (Pictures included - not of the jam) Then I got to bring Seth and Copper home with me to Cedar for a couple of days - while the girls hung out in Vegas. It was a great time being with family.

May Update

May brought SPRING TIME to Cedar with everything in bloom. I have never seen the two trees in our front yard, more beautiful. The one right in the front door brought out the color in the house and our home could have been a picture on the cover of a magazine. We also enjoyed a wonderful visit with Jennifer, Saige and Garrett (enjoyed it so much, forgot to take pictures - sorry). That visit was the end of the month. Stay tuned for pictures and update for Mother's Day.

April Update

I know, I know, it has been awhile and I have sent pictures of most of what has been happening - but just for blogging sake, will do an update with pictures. The first of April, we had the outside of the house painted. Everyone who has seen it, thinks it looks very nice. Then we had our first signs of spring to show with the flowers blooming. The picture of the new paint job, shows snow on the top of the mountain behind the house. Then with that fresh look outside, brought on window washing inside and out (a thorough spring cleaning, that was long overdue). I decided to spruce up our master bathroom with some trim work. So enjoy your pictures of the improvements at our house. Sorry, I have not gotten the hang of posting pictures, the last one chosen comes out first. Bear with me until I learn how to do this. But for right now - you are getting a post.

Addendum to Yesterday's Post

I just wanted to finish reporting our vacation the last of February thru the first week in March. After visiting with Paul for 10 days (see previous post) we traveled another 12+ hours to Yuma, Arizona to visit with Patrick and Jenn - and celebrate his passing his PA test. It was so good to visit with them, and I just had so much fun, I neglected to take very many pictures - but Jenn had some on her blog of that visit. We enjoyed a picnic at the park, where the kids had a ball. Saige found her way to our bed every night and slept with us and said she was going to miss us when we left. Such love, we do miss. But looking forward to our next visit. On Saturday, Jenn and I went to a Stake Relief Society Celebration where they had a guest speaker from Salt Lake and the topic was something along the Joy of Womanhood - wonderful message and a great lunch. Sunday evening, we visited with some old friends from Yuma, Cheryl Fell and Angela Snyder - my sidekicks while living in Yuma. It was great. We ate Chili Pepper at least 3 times while there in 5 days. We left there on Monday, and drove to Mesa to spend the evening and night with Scott, Lori and boys. Before we all went out for Pizza, they told us of their new expectancy the last of September. That will make them 6 and us 17 (the same as my parents had). We are all excited, hoping for a girl - but another little boy would be just fine. Scott is very busy with his rotations, so we did not get to spend a long time with them, on this tripp. We left their home on Tuesday morning, after the boys left for school and went over to visit with Lorenza and Dale for a couple of days. They are sooo good at being there for our family all the time, and I just wanted to let them know how much we love them and appreciate their love for us. We had a great time with them. On Thursday, March 5th, we left early a.m. and drove another 12 hours home. It was a wonderful vacation, and we got home just in time for some snow - had not snowed while we were gone. Go figure. Here are a few pictures that I got at Patrick's. Little angels and a T-pee that Jennifer made for Garrett. Enjoy.

Sorry Golden Gate is laying on its side, maybe you can upright it. Don't want to try and edit and lose this post - as it is my bedtime,

We left St. George on Friday, Feb. 13th and spent Friday and Saturday nights with Tripp and Ali - see Ali's blog for our doings there. We loved being with them and little Abbie stood by the window waiting anxiously for us for an hour before we got there. It is so very neat to be loved so much. Did not get pictures on that stay.

Then we left Sunday morning, 5:30 a.m. for San Ramon, Calif. to visit with Paul and Laura - it was a 12+ hour trip - but we were not tired, just anxious to see their new home and of course - them. It rained about 2 hours out from their place and rained most of the 10 days that we were there. Because we do not get to visit with them as much as the others - we had to stay longer. It was fun. They have a beautiful home, and Isabelle gave up her room for us for those days, as she shared Seth's room. That was very sweet of her. We attended the Oakland Temple on Tuesday, after our arrival on Sunday. Then on Thursday night, the Elder's Quorum had a pine wood derby for the family and a chili cook-off. Paul is a counselor, and as this was his 12-hour work-day, asked his dad to make a pot of chili. He did a great job and to cut down his long version of the story - suffice it to say - he won first prize with loads of requests for the recipe - which he could not tell you - one of his favorite from his grandma - a pinch of this and a pinch of that. Paul took a couple days off work, Friday, Mon and Tues and we went to Muir Woods in the San Francisco area to see some redwoods, which I had never seen. Some pictures are shared below. Then one night, we did some Wii bowling and I did almost a perfect game - 10 strikes in a row - see picture. On Tuesday, a beautiful clear day - we went to Fisherman's Ward in San Fran and took a boat ride out under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatrass (sp?) - pictures included, even of the gulls following the boat. We left there on Wednesday morning for Yuma, to visit with Patrick and Jenn. Thanks Paul and Laura for making us feel like queen and king. Love you loads.

NO PICTURES

Because you can't take a picture of a "white out." At times, as of the last 10 to 15 minutes, we cannot even see the house across the stree, in front of us. This should leave us with a sizeable amount over the next day or so (prediction of snow thru tomorrow or the next day). We got rain on Friday and Saturday and it melted all that we had - now this - not new for snow country and the state with THE BEST SNOW ON EARTH. We are fine. Harley made a delicious chili on Saturday and we have left overs for a few days, plenty of food in the house. We have our High Priest Stake dinner on Thursday night and we leave on Friday for our "on the road again" trip to see the children/grandchildren, leaving the snow behind and will be enjoying the warmer weather - maybe even become a "snowbird" for a few weeks.

We are both in good health - I had some tests run this past month and everything has come back fine. Now have joined CURVES (compliments of my medicare coverage/Humana) with free pass here and anywhere I travel to. I hope it will make these ole bones stronger. Will see. Harley and I still try to go to the University Pool 4 times a week, weather permitting. If not, there is the treadmill that we can work out on. So life is good and we will enjoy it as long as we can.

Surprise in More Ways Than One

Well, that seems to be my topics as of the last few posts. So you are surprised to hear from me again, so soon. And we were surprised last night and today with another snow storm that came our way. Just this past Friday and Saturday, we got rain that finally melted most of the hard snow and ice left from the first part of December's snow fall and on Saturday afternoon thought I saw some little green sprigs of grass poking their heads up to the sun. Then yesterday it turned cold and we started getting some snow fall just before dark. Woke up to about 3 inches this morning - but it has snowed all day, and most of that time, very hard with almost white outs. Just before dark tonight (Monday) it was just a few flurries, so we decided to take a few pictures and post them. Hope you enjoy our more than a foot of snow. It is truly winter wonderland.

SURPRISE

SURPRISE - time for another 3-month update. We really have been busy these last few months. The rest of September found me giving my house a good early fall cleaning to get ready for my special company the first week-end in October. Lorenza came for a visit and she wanted to see some fall colors, as they don't get that much in Arizona. So she arrived on Thursday - Friday morning, we left for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping by Cedar Breaks and on to the canyon. Up the mountain, over Duck Creek, was just gorgeous, and all the drive to the canyon. We could not have asked for better. She takes lots of pictures and I just ooooh and ahhhh, since I left my camera at home. The next day, it is a little cooler, but we wanted to take in Bryce Canyon, so we went up thru Brian Head, and guess what, we went thru a snow storm and she got pictures of that. It was really cold, wet, rainy and wind blowing so much that we really did not enjoy Bryce that much. But she got her seasons all rolled into one week-end. As always, we loved having her here.

We took a week off for Thanksgiving and left for Arizona, by way of Henderson. Poor Tripp feels like he is a stop over, as we make our other trips, be it flight or on the road - but he is a good sport and provides for whatever need we have. We thoroughly enjoy visiting with all the kids and our theme song - On the Road Again, still applies. We drove down to Yuma, the weekend before Thanksgiving to visit with Pat and Jenn and kids. In going to church with them, Saige had to introduce me to all of her friends, as "my Mama Tom" - as if I was Queen Elizabeth, and I felt that important. We had a great visit and enjoyed "watching" them put up their Christmas tree. We left on Wednesday for Scott's in Phoenx, by way of Blythe, Calif. and had a 3 hour visit with Lorenza and her family, mom, dad and aunt, kids and other relatives. We arrived after dark at Scott's to a lot of hugs and kisses from the kids and their excitement of having us visit. Lori did a great Thanksgiving dinner, and I got to rock little Brigham and play with the kids - my type of assignment. We also got to watch them decorate for Christmas and be a part of that excitement. On Saturday, we took the 3 older boys shopping at Dollar Tree for Christmas gifts for their family - they had a ball with being secret and shopping, and wrapping gifts in the park later. With little kids, it is the gift that matters and not the price - so we have a good time with this activity. This is a special tradition that we have done with our other older grandchildren - and something I am looking forward doing with the others. We had a great opportunity to bond with Kyle (he beat me in bowling on the Wii) Abbie and Daisy, for a few days in early December. Daisy surprised everyone when she adjusted so well - for she is a darling little moma's girl - but she let me replace her momma for a few days. We enjoyed the beautiful Christmas decorations that they had - So with that, I decided not to put up a tree this year. That was fine with Harley - for he thinks it is too much work. We had Paul and Laura and kids come for 3 days right after Christmas, and the weather was just perfect for them to play in the snow in the back yard - even little Cooper enjoyed his first snow adventure at our house. They left on Monday, and Tripp and his family came in on Tuesday for a few days. Those little ones also enjoyed the snow, even though they had had some in Henderson a few weeks earlier.

As this is a long post, there will be no pictures - maybe next time - but I think the stories paint a good picture, themselves.

It is a New Year and we are excited over getting a lot of family history (one of our New Year's Resolutions) done. Have turned Nemo's/Trey's room into a family history room. Gathering all the material I have and putting them in books is exciting.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE.