My attempt at night pictures

 I tried to use my camera to take a night picture of Jupiter and Venus as the were aligning up in the night sky which does not happen very often. In this picture  Jupiter to the left and Venus to the right show the movement of my trembling hand and they become check marks on the picture. The red line is a plane crossing the sky at the same time. The bottom picture is a little more steady but still only an experiment.

March 4- The quilt

A few months ago Joni talked to me about the idea of making a quilt from Gaven's shirts that we had kept in a cedar chest. She said she had a friend who does this for families when a loved one passes away. I was hesitant about the idea because I really could not visualize what this would look like. After thinking about it for a few weeks I decided that this might be o.k. because we really do not see the shirts. I talked to Cindy then we called Joni and I arranged to drop the shirts off at her work.

A month past and Joni and Bob came to our house on the evening of the 4th and presented the finished quilt as we remembered the 10th anniversary of the accident and then his leaving us the next day. The quilt was rolled up with the back side of the quilt only visible. There was a saying attached on the back that read,"Because the one we love is in heaven there's a little bit of heaven stitched in this quilt." We unrolled the quilt and were overcome with emotion of how fantastic this quilt was. I could not imagine how it would turn out but it was great. Each shirt had a memory of an event when we looked at it. It is a priceless gift and I don't know how we could every repay Joni for her thoughts, time and talent. I've included in this entry pictures of some of those shirts that Gaven wore that made up the quilt.

March in like a lion

It seems like the first few days of March brought the best snow storms of the winter. It snowed off and on for a couple of days and on the morning of the 2nd the sky cleared and left this beautiful view of Ben Lomand  out our front door.It also made the front yard look like a little winter forest scene.

The snow allowed Shannon to build a snow man with Payton and she invited us down to recreate a picture taken 34 years ago with Cindy and myself. The funny thing is that Cindy still has the scarf and mittens worn in that first picture. So while Shannon  made a snow man instead of a snow elephant not much else had changed. I could still carry my bride on my back. Oh wait my hair is different, I have a few more pounds and I am in traction right now.

Today Maddie dropped by as we are going to Kelsey Feltner's wedding today. Kelsey has been with us on so many summer trips she is like a second daughter.




Maddie shared with us that she was the employee of the month at her work and I have included that write up. It makes us pretty proud of what she has accomplished.

After the wedding we went to Salt Lake to a dinner where Cindy's sister Jeanne was honored. It was a fancy dinner and a nice evening.

President's Day weekend

We are finally able to get things back to normal after the robbery. We got the new door put in and Shannon and Cindy convinced me to give a splash of color to the house so the door was painted blue. I finally got a new camera so I can take pictures again though I still need to learn the ropes of the new settings.
Over the weekend Shannon and Nic went snowboarding so we watched the their kids. It was fun though Payton just flies from one thing to another. One of the favorite toys is the Montgomeryville that Cindy made for our kids when they were little and now the grandkids like it. it is a flannel sheet we spread out and it is a little town that you can play cars on. This holiday weekend weather has been something as it is nice in the morning and then gets cold and snows in the evening.

This week Maddie had some demanding experiences. She was asked to stay over night each night at work and sleep in the room with a lady who was passing away named Afton. She stayed there from Sunday to Thursday and then Afton passed away on Friday during the day. Also during the week she had to respond to a car wreck she saw and had to help a guy who was thrown out of the car when it got hit. She was the first responder and had to stay there until other help arrived. That is a lot of responsibility for a 19 year old.

Our family get together for Gaven's birthday

We got together as a family in Salt Lake to have dinner together to celebrate Gaven's birthday. We met  at Maddie's apartment so that she and Cameron would not have to travel. Maddie had decorated her space over her table for Gaven's birthday. It was a nice touch. We then went to Applebees and had a good meal and reflected over good times.It was hard to believe that 10 years ago was when we celebrated Gaven's birthday with him. That night ten years ago was also the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. The next day was when we took the girls to see the ski jumping and the two days later we took Cameron and Gaven to the snowboarding half pipe. Where has the time gone. it sure was nice to be together this night as a family and to have others also remember Gaven. 

Dad's 80th and Mom's ?? birthdays

Since I do not have a camera yet I'll have to borrow pictures to go with this week. We went to the Timbermine to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday. It was a good evening. The next Saturday was Mom's birthday and most of the family got together at Fat Catz and we went bowling and then had pizza. While the bowling was not so good being together was as we celebrated these milestones.

January 17- Break in

It was a normal day until Cindy came home to find the front door had been kicked in. That meant that someone did not have a key and wanted to come in. She did not know if they were still in the house so she called for help.  There was no one in the house luckily but while they visited our house they helped themselves to a TV, money, my cameras (which is why there are no pictures), some shoes, a bag, jewelery and keys. There is nothing worse than being broken into for feeling insecure. It could have been worse, at least they left the house clean and there were other things they could of taken. Still it will set us back and we did not sleep well at all that night. I used a board to create a door stop so the damaged front door could not be used as an entrance until we can get a new front door.