Next level

Today I moved it to running for 15 minutes - walking for one - running for five. I think I ran for about two miles. I am all sweaty and breathing deep. Not totally out of breath.

I am so excited. I am doing it.

Take that Nike!

Craig went to see Ron

Ron had had two good days. Craig went to visit a few days ago. I asked him to send me a few pictures. Ron was tired after two good days.

He slept while Craig sat with him.

bed head

Taking this bed head to the pool. Sure love this boy.

round two

Josh's toe was getting sore again. He knew what it should feel like and wanted it taken care of. So, to the doctor we went today.

The huge injection that numbed the toe. The cutting down the nail. Pulling the nail out with the forceps. But this time he used the acid to damage the nail bed. It will just keep growing back ingrown.

Josh is on a Tylenol - Advil rotation. I can't imagine having my toe worked on like that.

This time he got red bandages. We are all set with the epson salts. Happy day when it feels better again.

Ron in a green shirt.

After the wedding, I headed over to see Ron. He had gotten a shower that day and was sitting in his chair. It was a big day and he was tired. I showed him the pictures from the wedding and he smiled. He fell asleep looking at the big smile of Josh when he got home from scout camp.

He had a better day, but couldn't keep his eyes open. I sat with him for about an hour.

He looks sharp in his green shirt.

Poor man was just so tired. When I left, they said they would get him in bed soon after I left. Rehab is hard on a person. :)

Some more wedding pictures

I now have two ways to take pictures. Sometimes I don't get them all in the same place when I am posting. So here are some other pictures from the luncheon.

The bouquet. Beautiful flowers.

A broach from Grandma Elsie makes a beautiful hair accessory.  Such a gorgeous girl.

The up-do. Cute hair.

The happy couple smiling one more time. All those people with cameras are exhausting. :)

Congratulations to Kim and Andrew

I was thinking during the wedding how in two minutes your life totally changes. For such a big moment, it really doesn't take very long.

They look so happy together.

A beautiful day at the Idaho Falls temple.

A quick picture with Thea before we got out of the heat.

Cute, but distracted girls.

Some very cool guys. Gotta love the ties.

Three more down.

I find I like the bright sunlight of summer for quilting. I think I am opposite of most quilters out there. Winter makes me want to read a book. :)

I've gotten behind, but have been working steadily on new baby quilts.

A quilt for Kohen. I am loving the rail fence pattern. He is now 9 months old. I am getting slow.

I used two different fabrics for the binding. You can really tell when you look at the back.

A quilt for Miri's baby. I actually got this one done before he is born. Amazing. Another rail fence.

I am loving the green and neutral color combination.

A quilt for Calvin. Also approaching a year.

I like the back. Blues and browns are delicious together.

I have three more baby quilts to go. I thought I only had one, but we are looking for two more bundles from heaven.

The Long Goodbye

Thea and Craig drove through the night and got here this morning. This evening, we went up to see Ron, Craig's dad, at the hospital.

He has declined markedly from two days ago when I saw him.

Dawn is having a hard time. She was there with him when we got there.

Dawn and I went down to the nurses station to ask some questions. She had not heard from the doctor that day. The doctor had been there earlier in the morning.

While we were there we mentioned some of our concerns. His speech was slurred. He had pain in his hip. He was not clear and sharp.

The nurses came down to check him out a bit.

One of the questions that she asked was "Do you know who this (Dawn) is?"

Ron, with no frustration at such an odd question, said,"Oh yes, she is my sweetheart of sweethearts."

Craig and I talked on the ride back. It is time to spend as much time with Ron as we can, because we don't think we will have him for much longer.

Here are a few pictures of one of the best men that I know.

His hand is in an elastic glove. It is still swollen from the blood clot. He can't hardly lift his head, but he tried for the camera.

Dawn is trying to be so brave. But she is bracing herself for what she knows is coming. They have been together for almost 60 years. That is a long time. And they have been wonderful years for them.

Tomorrow, I will take the boys up to say hi. That is if he makes it through the night. He was seeing things that we couldn't see when we were there. Craig was able to follow a lot more of what he said, my hearing is bad. Craig thought a few times that that was it.

We are grateful that he hung on long enough to see Thea.

He has lived a good life.

It is time for him to return with honor.

He has a lot of people waiting for him.

This is just hard.

This makes number six today

I shouldn't allow myself to get so far behind in the blog -- my journal.

These five posts are good memories that I needed to get down, because tomorrow Thea comes home. I will have a whole new set of pictures and stories for this week. Thea, Kim's wedding, the Oswald reunion, and Devon's welcome home.

This summer is racing by. Maybe I can catch my breath after this week.

I hope so.

It has been a good summer so far.

It has also been a bit scary.

Ron has had surgery on his foot and was in rehab. Friday Boaz and I went up to see him and got there as they were taking him to the hospital for an ultrasound on his arm.

It was very swollen.

They were worried in the rehab clinic. With good reason.

They didn't want to wait over the weekend. We are grateful.

He has a clot from the pic line in his arm (intravenous medications) to his neck.

After a wait at the imaging center, a trip back to the rehab clinic, and a stint in ER; he was admitted to the hospital.

I keep thinking of President Hinckley, when he said that his beloved Marjorie was winding down and they just couldn't get her wound up again. I'm afraid that is what we are going through with Ron.

I am grateful to live so close and that we can give the boys this time with their Grandfather. He is an amazing man, and I was honored to spend so much time with him on Friday.

We are a bit naughty

Karly is serving in the Salt Lake Mission.

That means that she is very close to us.

That means that we pass her every time we head to Salt Lake City.

We have been to Salt Lake City a few times this summer.

We hunted her down the day of Cooper's farewell. (It's all Craig's fault.) :)

A few pictures of our sister missionary. (the elders are serving too far away for this.)

A few minutes to say hi.

She is looking good.

At a lunch appointment while we were waiting for Devon to fly in from his mission in Nicaragua.

A better picture of Craig.

Karly and her companions.

Swimming lessons

I signed up Boaz for swimming lessons. It has been two years since he has gone. Part of our moving and getting settled. I was going to put him this spring, but cub scouts conflicted with the swimming schedule.

So the first session, Boaz found himself at the pool. He was worried that the other kids in his class would all be younger than him. He was in level three -- only because he didn't want to learn how to float on his back. With the idea of him being the oldest with a bunch of little kids, he was motivated to conquer this elusive skill.

He did great!

He passed into level four, and now is working on technique.

He enjoys swimming lessons better than Josh did. Maybe I'll sign him up for a third session. :)

Some pictures.

Outside the pool, allowing me to get a picture to send to Thea.

Waiting to go.

He asked me, "Mom, do I look weird?"

He let me take the picture so he could see for himself.

I love this boy.

Home from scout camp

Boaz and I are excited to have Josh back. He came home dirty, tired and happy. The best way to come home from camp.

I took pictures before I banished him to the bathroom for a shower and threw all his clothes in the washer -- praying I could get them clean again.

He had this mile-wide grin for the whole day and actually it bled over into today. He finished eight merit badges and had the time of his life. I do love the scouting program. It gives boys the opportunity to learn about so many different things, if they do the merit badges. I didn't have to fight him over these. They are completed! Happy day!

His hobbit feet. I was glad Boaz told me they were out of soap the day before, so I actually had soap for him to scrub the caked dirt away.

My tall boy. I missed him. The house was not the same without him. But seeing this picture, I am so glad that he went.

Trip to Lava Hot Springs -- last month

I am way behind. If I don't get this now, I think I will just give up.

Lava Hot Springs is South of us. We are kind of in the middle of Lava and Yellowstone.

Lava is a little resort area with hot springs to soak in and a big pool to swim in. It was still early enough in the season to make swimming a little too cold, but we enjoyed the mineral heated pools.

A few pictures.

A brilliant blue sky, green mountain and white clouds.

Taking a break from the water.

The boys in the hottest pool. I didn't get in this one. We are fans of swim shirts. :)

To me, this looked like the actual spring -- peeking out of the rocks.

It was gated off with this lovely little guard protecting it.

I kinda like frogs, and I decided this was the spirit of the spring.

Brenda, Tim and Yellowstone

I used to live a block and a half away from my sister. We used to do Sunday dinners together. We would see each other at Church. We would go to the store together. We would just hang out.

Then I moved away. I don't get to see her very often anymore.

This past weekend, she was going to be in Yellowstone. Yellowstone is about 2 hours away from where we live now. So we loaded up the boys, Brittney, and what ever else we thought we might need and headed to see Brenda and Tim.

We met up just after 8 and headed to Old Faithful. Brenda had never been to Yellowstone, and she wanted to see the most famous geyser ever.

I snapped a picture at the beginning, but then I switched to video mode. But still, you can see the beautiful day and Old Faithful is looking good.

We stopped at a little geyser basin and got out and walked a bit.

A few pictures, these include the people.

The morning was still cold, so the steam obscured the great colors. This geyser looked to have a beautiful blue color with a nice yellow frame. The yellow indicates sulfur, so imagine the smell of eggs.

I'm going to have to teach Josh about baseball caps, in that they protect the eyes. Less squinting that way. This is a good picture to see that he is clearly taller than me. He loves that. Boaz is still stretching, but he will get there soon.

Brenda and Tim. I love these two people.

She is smiling in this one.

I liked the name of this one. But we figured out that Spasm Geyser is the hole in the front. I didn't bother to even remember the name of the pretty one behind.

An advantage of me being the photog, I get to get what ever picture that I want of other people. :) Brenda and Tim are good together.

I am happy to have Boaz follow in the footsteps of his dad and Uncle Tim.

We went into the old lodge at Old Faithful. This clock was about three stories high. I loved it. Brittney took some pictures, but I haven't gotten them from her of the inside of the Lodge. It is an amazing building. We loved it.

In this picture, if you look hard enough, you can see a little black bear wandering through the brush. He is just below the beginning of the mountain in the back ground. I wish I could circle him for you. My tablet does not have a zoom - sorry.

The last bear we saw. A kind lady lent us her binoculars so we could get a up close and personal view. He just ambled away, up the draw.

We saw four bear this trip. All in about 30 minutes. We were very excited. Bear are shy and not always obliging for the tourists.

This little group of about five buffalo decided to take a walk on the road. Cars were piled up on both sides of the road to give them room. They had no worries in the world. In Yellowstone, wild life have the right of way, always.

Just peeking out behind the big one in front you can see the little legs of the calf they were protecting. The calf was herded to the outside always. Kind of like when I am walking with my boys on the road. They are on the outside, and I am on the inside - closest to traffic. Good parents, those buffalo.

Saying goodbye to our little buffalo family -- actually, they are huge animals.

This time we went through the north eastern corner of Yellowstone. Not as much hydrothermic action, but beautiful country.

I am fascinated by Mammoth Hot Springs. They are immense! And they are growing everyday. I like to see the yellow stain of the minerals in the white.

The bright white and rust show the active spring next to the grey of the older run. The stark skeleton trees add drama.

The plants grow verdant green right next to the poisonous flow. The plants thrive until they are engulfed by the encroaching spring.

A little island not ready to submit to the poison of the caustic waters.

The terraces, brilliant white while they live.

My boys named this feature the Fountain of Youth. It looks a bit like a baptismal font -- all white with clear, blue water in the middle.

Two views of the huge terraces, cascading down the mountain. The dark tree skeletons framing the springs.

The steam rising off the almost boiling waters trickling down the steps they have created for themselves.

We rushed through Mammoth Hot Springs just before a summer thunder shower dumped on us. The boys were happy to head back for home.

Craig and I were happy to have seen bear and spend time with the Bayers - Tim and Brenda.