Here Come the Holidays!

Here it is! Year's end and facing the holidays! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas because to me it means family and togetherness . Of course, there is all of the food preparations, the shopping, the wrapping of gifts, the tree to put up, the outside decorating to do, the parties to plan and execute, and all the work that goes with all of it. But being with family is the best part of all!

The season makes me think of all the blessings that I have been given and I give thanks to a kind Heavenly Father for knowing me and recognizing my needs and the desires of my heart. This year has not been an easy one for me and I have had a lot of life-altering adjustments to make but I know that He knows that I CAN do it. He has blessed me with a wonderful husband, family and extended family that show me their love, understanding and support. I recognize their concern and am grateful for it and for them. I have come to appreciate each one of them even more this year than I did before. I am thankful for each of you. I am truly blessed!

I pray that as we approach this Thanksgiving week that we can express our love and thanksgiving to one another and especially to a wonderful Father in Heaven who has given so much to us all. We each have challenges to face but that is how we grow. May those difficult times draw us nearer to Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

West Caribbean Cruise

The Carnival Freedom

We left Salt Lake on the morning of Saturday, September 18th, for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I never quite get used to flying!! One of my greatest fears. How I hate that I hate it! But how else do you get to Florida? So off we went for a week of true relaxation. I love to cruise more than I hate to fly.

Our cruise ship was the Carnival Freedom and we left port on Sunday afternoon. We visited Key West, Grand Cayman (Georgetown), and Jamaica (Ocho Rios). We traveled with Brad, Tyler and Ben and since I don't swim and don't snorkel, Mike and Tyler snorkeled in Grand Cayman. Mike said that the coral wasn't as vibrant in color as what he has seen on other cruises but they had a good time. He sunburns so easily so he had taken precaution by wearing a shirt with his swim suit. However, he forgot his sunscreen and forgot that the backs of his legs were not protected. When he returned to the ship, his legs were "vibrant in color". He spent a lot more time on this cruise in shorts ... something we rarely see! (By the way, I like him in shorts! He needs to wear them more often!)

Our highlight of the trip was in Jamaica. At the suggestion of Marc and Gretchen, we decided to try the Zipline excursion. What a blast! We loved it and took several pictures (thank you, Ben!) That is definitely an excursion we would go on again! The workers/instructors were so professional and fun. We were told that we could yell, scream, cry and even use profanity .... that there were "no swear words that the trees of the forest had not heard before". The first line was a bit "breathtaking" but the following 8 were much easier. By the time we had "zipped" down nearly 3000 feet, we were beginning to feel like "seasoned" zipliners! Well, almost! I nearly crashed into a tree on the next to last landing! Once again, the instructor was the saving factor! I think I may have scared him a little, too, but he was willing to put himself between me and the tree!

Mike and I are all suited up!

"Tough" looking group, don't you think?

Getting instructions

Mike "flying" through the trees!

"Here I come! Catch me!"

A long walk up but a shorter walk down!

Taken on our way back to the shuttle. The flowers were beautiful!

Guess who got back first? Youth has it!

We loved the formal nights, the good food, the warmth and even the humidity ..... well, at least I loved the humidity! We did a little shopping at each port but came home with very little in the way of souvenirs. No souvenirs but some really good memories.

All dressed up for one of the two formal nights onboard.

They clean up right nice, don't they?

(Ben, Tyler, and Brad)

It was a great trip! We are ready to book another cruise for 2011. Anyone want to go with us??

September, Family and Good Times!

September has started out to be a busy month. Jake celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 8th. I stayed down at Chris and Niccole's until the 9th. I picked up Ivan on the way back to Logan on Thursday. It was our "time together". It was so much fun to have Ivan with us for a few days. He went to stay with Caitlin to celebrate Cait's birthday on Friday and on Saturday Ivan, Caitlin and I went out to lunch at McDonald's. We then spent the afternoon together before going to dinner at Texas Roadhouse to also celebrate Cait's birthday. Ivan went to play out at Phil and Kristen's because the Roadhouse has too many peanuts which he is very allergic to. We didn't go to church on Sunday but continued to spend time together on Monday. We went out to have lunch, feed the ducks and do all the things that Grandma's and grandsons find fun doing together. I loved the time with Ivan! He is so much fun!

Gretchen had given Ivan $5 to bring to Logan with him. She told him that if he didn't spend it all that he should bring back the rest to give it to her. He also had about a dollar and a little change that was his own. It was a hoot to see how hard he tried to spend the money that his mother gave him. On Tuesday morning he still had the full amount. He begged me to take him to "All a Dollar" to find something to take home. Ivan was to ride back as far as Ogden with Mike and then Gretchen would pick him up there. We went shopping! It was funny! He wanted to spend at least $5 . When we got home he had his treasures from the "dollar" store. Then he drew out a dollar bill. I said, "Oh good! You have a dollar to take back to your Mom." He replied, "Oh, no. I spent my mom's money. This is the dollar that I brought that was mine!" Grandad and I had a good laugh!!

"Ivan's dollar" to take home!

Packed up and ready to go home.

Caitlin is in the saddle to have "Happy Birthday" sang to her while eating at Texas Roadhouse.

Birthdays and Holidays

Dad and Mike having a good camp trip! Rest and relaxation is what it is all about.

We spent the weekend of Mike's 63rd birthday in Salt Lake. We all met at Marc and Gretchen's before beginning the "Party".

When Mike was asked where he wanted to go to eat for his birthday, his reply was:

"In N Out Burger, of course!"

Everyone seemed to be ok with that since it was a "cheap" meal where we could take all of the kids. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal.

The kids in their "birthday hats"!

Carter (in front), Hiram (behind Cart), Brigham (front), Kaden and Noah

Before eating we had spent time at the park playing kickball, Kube, resting and visiting.

Some of the group played games, others napped (Mike S. and Matt), read or visited.

Playing Kube

Jenicca rests. She always smiles and is so fun to have around. She is my beautiful "Sweet Baby Girl". (Not so much a "baby" any more! But she will always be "Sweet Baby Girl" to me!)

Mike and Christina with family and Matt & Amanda stayed the weekend with Marc and Gretchen. Mike, Grandad and I went to stay at Nicci's, while Kristen & kids stayed at the Pugsley's. Phil flew back from Costa Rica late Saturday night and they had to be back in Logan for church on Sunday. Mike also went back to teach his Sunday School and came back afterwards to join in the Labor Day celebrating on Monday. This family knows how to keep a party going!!!

Monday we joined together to go to Hogle Zoo. The weather was great! It was fun to be there with the kids since we hadn't visited the zoo for quite a few years.

We spent quite a bit of time watching the elephants.

The baby was so cute!

Stopping for a short rest

Getting all of the kids in one place to take a group photo was somewhat of a challenge. What a great looking bunch of grandkids!! Poor Caitlin is just a bit out-numbered at our family outings.

Coop and Dad (Marc) stop long enough for Grandma to exercise her camera. Cooper didn't seem too thrilled about posing.

The little ones had to drag Grandma along.

(Jake, Cooper, & Kaden)

Faces like these make life worthwhile!!

(Jacob & Kaden)

Thanks everyone for the great weekend together, for making Grandpa's birthday a happy one (and for his stiffness from kickball ~~ that part helped him feel his age)!

We had a fun time! Family is great!

Summer Stays are Coming to a Close

I feel badly that summer is nearly over. It has been fun to have several of the grandkids come to stay or at least come to visit during their summer school break. We have had a chance to get many of the "southern" kids together with the "Logan" kids for a few fun hours and days. We have managed to do things that this Grandma doesn't often do ... like going to:

The Park

"Baby J" (Juliana) and "Baboo" (Jake) had fun on the slides.

Juliana

Josh and Jenicca were good to come along to help the little ones up and down the slides.

Jake takes a ride in the car in the mall! (Thanks to Aunt Starla!)

Jake and Brad fed the ducks at First Dam

At the County Fair

What a busy week! We tried to pack in all of the activities that we could. Jake had a lot of fun playing with his Logan cousins. We were glad that Chris and Niccole decided to go on an Oregon vacation and Jake decided he would rather stay with Grandma.

Wouldn't some of the rest of the group like to take a trip and leave one behind? A great time for Grandma and Grandpa to get some good one-on-one time!! There were still quite a few that we didn't get to get that time with this summer. There are some we are still looking forward to; however, before the year is through. Ivan .... we are looking forward to some time in September while you are out of school. Time for you and Cait!! And hopefully we will get some "day dates" with some of the younger ones!

Thanks to all for giving us fun times this summer!

Making Memories

I've had some fun times with grandsons the past few weeks. Kaden came to stay on July 13th while he was off track from school. It was so fun to have him here. He had never come to stay with us all by himself without parents or brothers. We had a lot of fun! We went to a movie, miniature golfing, to the park, out to lunch and over to Jarom's for his birthday. We had Jarom over to stay for 2 nights, as well. It was as much fun for me to listen to the two of them talk and giggle together. Girls have nothing over on those two!! They chattered non-stop for 3 days!! I loved it!!!

Kaden. We took some pictures while he and Jarom were here. I'm not sure what happened to all of them!

Jarom's birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It's hard to believe he is already 11 years old! (Jarom: "You are my Sunshine"! You make me smile!)

We took Kaden home on Sunday and picked up Noah and Brigham. They came to stay while their mom was at Girls' Camp. We went to McDonald's for lunch, "First Dam" to feed the ducks, shopping, breakfast with Grandpa, Noah learned to ride Grandpa's scooter alone and we did some crafting. All good times!

Noah and Brig play at McDonalds' playground.


We have had so much fun the past few weeks! Wish they could have all stayed a bit longer! I'm looking forward to September's "stay-over" with Ivan and Caitlin!

Summer Fun

Summer weather finally came and we were able to get a golf trip in. We had planned to go to Twin Falls where we love to spend time at the golf courses along the Snake River. We were going to take the fifth wheel but when the time came to get it ready, we found that we didn't have the electricity that we needed to utilize the hook-up features. Being the hard-core campers that we are, we couldn't face a weekend of no television, air conditioning, etc. So we towed the trailer down to the repair shop and took off south instead of west. We (Mike, me, Dad Hale, Brad and Tyler) went as far as Niccole and Chris's, stayed with them (thanks for the lodging, Dunfords!) and traveled from there. We went to Hobble Creek Golf Course, one of our favorite places to golf. It was a fun weekend. What a beautiful canyon and golf course!

A fun course to test your skills!

Mike shows us his swing! We all played pretty well for amateurs. Grandad had to sit out most of the day watching the rest of us. His tendonitis in his ankle was still giving him a lot of trouble.

The weekend of the 4th of July was spent with family. Chris and Niccole with their boys came up on Friday evening. We all went over to Matt & Amanda's where Mike and Christina & kids joined us for a great cookout and after dinner we watched the city fireworks. Spencer also came up from BYU to join in with the holiday celebration. On Saturday we were going to go to the Cruise-In at the fairgrounds. When we got there, we found that they were charging an entrance fee of $8 per adult and $7 per child. They had not charged other years so we chose to go to a movie with the kids instead. All of us wanted to see different movies and so we split up and saw the movies of our choice. Chris, Spencer and I took the kids to see "Toy Story 3", Mike and Matt went to "Airbender", and Nicci and Amanda watched "Eclipse".

After the movie, Chris and Nicci left for home and the rest of us went to the Cruise-In parade. We hadn't been to the parade for several years so it was a fun activity.

Lines of people waiting to see the "vintage" and "not-so-vintage" cars as they paraded the main street of Logan.

It was a fun weekend!

Then it was back to the real world on Monday. Back to the gardening and yard work and for Mike back to pharmacy life. As always, there is always lots to keep us busy. The garden is our focal point, as usual, for the summer months.

The 2010 produce garden is lookin' good!

I have already bottled and canned beet pickles, frozen peas and dried sage. It is only the beginning of the harvest. We can already see cucumbers, peppers and squash in the vines! It looks like it will be a successful produce year again this year! Hopefully, it will make it worth all of the hard work it takes to keep a garden growing!

A Great ML Hale Reunion This Year!! Fun, FUn, FUN!!

We had such a fun time at our reunion this year. We rented a large cabin on none other than "I.P. Bills Island". What memories are found there!! The cabin was great! (Thanks, Mike and Christina for finding it and making arrangements!) It had room for all and even a hot tub!!! The beds were the only thing that could have had some improvement in the comfort area, but even that was tolerable. Next time we would just take an air mattress to put on top. Everything else was "perfect"!

We spent the time playing games, taking walks,

bike riding (for the men),

jogging (for the women), television and movies (for the kids), lots of visiting and relaxation, and side trips.

Hiram
(Now that is relaxation!!)

We went to Big Springs on Friday ...

The grandkids at Big Springs
(l-r) Carter, Brigham, Hiram, Ivan, Cooper, Jake, Caitlin, Kaden, Noah, and William (Tucker not shown)

Matt shows his "moves" off the end of the fence at Big Springs. What form!!

We then checked out Coffee Pot's campgrounds and river. Everything brought back so many memories. But isn't that what reunions are for ... re-living memories and making new ones ????

We spent Saturday in Yellowstone Park. The only wildlife we saw there was buffalo and one elk.

Close enough to touch!

We visited Old Faithful .......

Waiting for Old Faithful

Jarom, Brigham and Noah

Amanda smiles through the cold and wind.

So cold and the middle of June!
Gretchen and Tucker

Phil & Juliana

Resting the feet and keeping the hands warm.
Niccole and Hiram

We only had to wait about half an hour before the geyser erupted.


Eating our sack lunches in the Old Faithful Lodge (since it was cold and rainy outside). We didn't know how "legal" that was but we did it anyway ... and it was fun!!

Thanks to all for making our ML Hale Family Reunion an event to remember!! Let's do it again next year!