A Visit with Annette

Annette is almost one year old. We met her, Paige and Peggy at the Riverfront park in Salem yesterday for a little picnic and to take some pictures of Annette with her birthday present. She has grown so much since we saw her in July--she even tried to take a few steps and was pretty proud of herself about it!!  Priceless!

Dolphins!!!

My granddaughter Kaci and her cousin Olivia (who also calls me Grandma LeAnn) are staying with us. They both love dolphins. I wanted to do a project with them, so we decided we would make some stuffed dolphins. First Warner found a pattern on line at http://nuno-runo.blogspot.com/2010/09/dolphin.html.
Then the girls and I went to Value Village and got two house robes in color that they liked. $.99 each. Then we got to work!
The pattern calls for felt and the seem on the outside, i knew the girls would not be patient enough to do all that hand work so I made the pattern a little larger to allow a seem and room to turn them.
They were nervous to use the sewing machine, but were happy to do the stuffing!
A very fun project and we were happy with the way they turned out. BTW if anyone wants the extra fabric and pattern--come and get it!

Here is a little video of Annette!

Beautiful Jackson Hole, Wy

Just got back from a quick trip to Jackson to check out our newest little granddaughter: Annette Barrus Jackson. As you can see, she is perfect in every way and sooooo tiny! Just 5 pounds! A living doll.
We got to see some bears--CLOSE UP! eating berries up in a bush--notice the red circle around the brown bear. And loved seeing all the beautiful colors of fall and the breathtaking mountains!
Aaron and Joe look like cowboy models! We also took some great family photos of Court, John and Everett.

Happy Fourth of July!

The real reason for this post is not about the fun time we just had visiting Ben and Kristen, & Dylan & Kaci, Jarom and Stephanie, John and Courtenay, going shooting with Ben, John and his brother, attending a practice concert of Ben's country/rock band Sunset Ride (They are great by the way) , going to LeAnn's family reunion at Ophir, Utah (by Tooele), or being blessed to see our newest grandson, (John and Courtenay's) Everett Michael Lance just a few hours after he was born. (he is sure a beautiful boy.) No, this post is about how I spent my fourth of July. I left LeAnn in Taylorsville to take care of Courtenay and Everett....and John for a few weeks. So, at five in the morning on the fourth, I turned on my GPS, put in my Louis L'Amore stories narrated by Willie Nelson CDs, and headed West. I stopped Willie long enough to listen to the special 4th of July presentation of Music and the Spoken Word featuring the MoTabs. It was great....many of my favorite patriotic hymns and of course, The Battle Hymn of The Republic. Awesome. Willie finished narrating just outside of Burns, so I finished up the day listing to General Conference talks from April Conference. So fifteen hours after leaving Taylorsville, I was home....in time to sit with the neighbors for a few minutes and enjoy the fireworks going on around us.

But...I forgot to wear my special patriotic T-shirt Sequoia sent me for Father's Day. Dang!

Anyway, I stopped along the way to photograph a few things..... a few extra patriotic retired farm implements somewhere between Vale and Burns, Oregon and took the scenic route through the Cascades and stopped on top at the Dee Wright Observatory (I love that drive) and took a few shots of Mt. Jefferson....unfortunately the 3 Sisters were covered with clouds so no photos.
Anyway, that was a lot of rambling for just a few measly photos.....

Bruce's Retirement Video

Our good friend and neighbor Bruce Jolley just retired after forty eight and one half years working for the railroad. With the help of Andrew and LeAnn, I made this video for him. Andrew was a big help...I had a sequence in mind for the first verse but he came up with a better idea and we used it....much better than what I had in mind.
The music at the beginning, Wonderland by Night, was a popular instrumental hit the year Bruce joined the railroad.
We played it at a party held in his honor Friday night at the Jolleys. It was fun to see some old friends we haven't seen for a long time.
Here's also a few photos LeAnn took of some of the shoot.

Fun In LasVegas!

Our favorite spot on the "Strip" was the fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel!!
Warner had a trade show in Vegas--so I went with him. We stayed an extra weekend and our Utah and Arizona Kids met us there. We fit a lot of activities into that one week--Take a look!
We got to see a fun Tribute to Elvis Show--Thanks Em and Steve for the the tickets! Another night we got to see the Donny and Marie Show at the Flamingo--they were great!
Emily, Easton and Carly at the Chocolate Factory/ Cactus Garden. We saw some cool lizards!
!Filming the Chris Angel show right outside out Hotel (Luxor)--When the body guard saw me take this pic, he came over and asked me not to take any more!

A view of the Strip from one of the pedestrian overpasses! We did a LOT of walking!!!


After the trade show we moved to the Silverton Lodge (not on the" strip" and our Kids and families joined us. We spent the whole day--and into the night in our cool,poolside cabana.
We had a Poolside Baby Shower for Courtenay!

We spent all day and into the night at the cabana near the pool!