Trick or Treat

Lincoln

Zoe

Jake

Aspen

Christy

Halloween week means lots of dress up opportunities.  Sadly, I don't have every grandchild photo - what's wrong with me?
so between pre-school, trunk or treat and Halloween - here's a few photos. 

Bree

Ellie

Oh yes, can I whine about how the post doesn't look a bit like what I do in the drafting stage? All of these photo's are laid out side by side.

McKayla*Jake* Christy* Ellie*Friend Dracula*Carter*Bree*Tyler*Emma*Aspen

two "my little kitties"

Art Project

Carlee is in charge of the Halloween (Harvest) party for Tyler's 1st grade class. She was looking for ideas for stations and in talking, she said the kids aren't allowed to bring and wear their costumes. We decided that a photo prop would be fun and fill some time. Gil had several large pieces of cardboard/boards and we picked this light weight one - that is not sheet rock, but similar stuff - and spent a full afternoon painting.

We did 5 characters - a werewolf, witch, princess, mummy and skeleton. Funny how my camera wont get the whole thing in at once. Oh well.

Now Kurt gets to figure out how to get it to stand up. And then we'll use it for pre-school and Carlee will take it to Tylers class.

Oops - I drew the skeleton first and then got it a little crowded on the left.

Davis Kids posing for their mom. Any suggestions before we actually use it? How do you like pink metallic hair on the witch?

Las Vegas Convention

The ADA convention this year was in Las Vegas. Since Arlie and Andy live there, we decided to go and to enjoy a few October days in Sunny Southern Nevada. Gil's meetings were at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
We flew in after dark. I was amazed that the Airport is practically on the strip. After we rented a car (long lines, very very very slow clerks ) we drove into the unfamiliar city looking for the hospital where Andy has been staying. Amazing lights. Naturally we left the map we had in our car in SLC so using the poor rental map we aimed north west. We wound up on the freeway parallel to the strip and got our initial looks at the lights. We made it to the hospital and then after a short hello visit, followed Arlie to their nice home in a good neighborhood. The hospital was on the west end of town, so it was amazing to be up on a little hill and see miles and miles of lights all over the valley. I am so sad I didn't get a photo of Inger or Eric. Inger had arranged for us to have breakfast at The Bouchon restaurant where Eric is a chef. It's in the Venetian Resort/Casino. So Monday morning we were back on the strip at 7:00 in the morning. Highly recommend cruising the strip in the morning when you don't know how to get where you are going. Traffic wasn't an issue. Getting to the restaurant via the correct elevator was. We kept coming back into the parking garage.

So this was a "bucket list" moment. When you have a nephew who is a chef - in an award winning restaurant - I wanted to eat there. "Bouchon is the vision of world-renowned chef Thomas Keller, who was named "America's Best Chef" by Time magazine. He is also the sole recipient of consecutive "Best Chef" awards from the prestigious James Beard Foundation. Located in the Venezia tower, Bouchon brings to Las Vegas top cuisine and service..."

The food was yummy, but it was so much fun to have Eric come out of the kitchen to visit and tease. Loved it! We had pastries, yoghurt-granola parfaits, specials of the day, and DESERT! We felt like we had eaten Thanksgiving dinner! The staff was so nice and best of all, we had great company. Thanks Eric!

True Story by Arlie

Oct 13, 2011
Kathy and I had a few hours before she and Gil would be leaving town,
so we decided to go for a drive to Red Rock Canyon, not far from the hospital. It was breathtaking,
The extremely rugged, multicolored mountains filled our views in front and on both sides of us. There was a valley filled with desert plants, the air was crisp and clean. The sky a vivid blue. The mountains were so close we could see slot canyon openings that were practically calling for us to come and explore.

We could imagine ourselves in a western, and behind those rocks were unknown treasures and hidden hide outs. Kathy even let out a whoopee. It was that kind of a day.

We decided to check out a road that was supposed to lead to a springs. As we were coming up out of a dry stream wash, we saw up ahead of a us a seemingly youthful donkey (burro) standing in the middle of the road.

I stopped the truck so we could take pictures. Kathy took the first picture and got a great view of it's back side. The donkey turned, and at this point, we two sisters who had previously been of one mind, had decidedly different reactions.

I said; "it has been hurt" and my focus zoomed in to it's hooves. The donkey's right hoof was moving in an awkward angle. I watched it come forward and I tried to figure out how the donkey could walk, or run or...

meanwhile, Kathy couldn't help but notice that the donkey was favoring her side of the truck, and before she could get the words lets move out of her mouth, it was by her side, and (before I could roll up the window) it even stuck it's big head all the way into the window, forcing her to flatten herself against the seat! (flatten -smash- try to push the seat from the front seat into the back seat)

I looked at the donkey head and in a fraction of a second saw amazing detail. There were some kinds of scars perhaps from whatever accident it was in, complete with small circular spots with no hair
Kathy saw an animal with mange. (what ever mange is - it also had a sore or callus on its lower lip - do you think it has ticks?)
and then the donkey smiled, with those great big donkey teeth, it's head still two inches away from Kathy's belly. (boobs) It rolled his eyes in a calculated pleading way- there was no doubt that it was hoping against hope that we would offer it food.
Think of the donkey from Shrek smiling combined with the cat from Shrek's expressive eyes. And he didn't move his head away. (If he had been any taller, or had hands, it would have climbed into the car with us.)

Kathy is still trying to stay away from his ever looming head. kîeeping fear out of her voice, she tried to get me to feel her urgency and said Go (more like "ewwweeewww" I couldn't roll up the window)
I didn't respond to her plea. I had come under the spell of the animal, and reached for our food bag
.In this moment in which time slowed down to eternity, Kathy watched my slow motion movements searching through the whole bag and finally finding an apple at the bottom of it.
I handed it to Kathy who said "what do you want me to do with that? (Arlee said "feed it". I said "no, YOU do it" Arlee said: "ME???? No way! YOU do it")
She fumbled the apple in her hands, trying to find a safe way to get the apple into the wild animals mouth. She tried to hold the stem of the apple-(perhaps that way she could save her fingers)
The donkey saw her dilemma, and tried to help her out by manipulating it's teeth in assorted ways.
In this "catch the apple "sequence, the apple flips out of the window and rolls under the truck. Kathy said' GO FAST. (really "Oh Rats" the critter turned it's head but didn't take it out of the window- it's still looking at us with those huge big eyes "feed me" "feed me" "please")
But I can't.
I can't bear the the thought of disappointing the animal, and if I move the truck I might run over the apple. (and I am thinking why doesn't the dumb animal move it's head and get the apple. Can't it smell it? Can't it see it? Is it blind too?") So, I searched through the bag for another apple. Not finding that, I looked for a sandwich- not just any sandwich, it had to be the one with the thickest crust. I found it, broke it in half, ( the sandwich was for us too)

And we tossed it out the window. The beast turned his head, and we made our get away.

Was Kathy traumatized? Maybe, but by this time she had already given her "pet" a name,
Clem (Clementine -if a girl).

So, if you are Traveling on a Gravel road that you have not been on before, and get stopped by a donkey, please call Kathy so she will know where her darling Clementine has gone. Do you know they actually have road signs with burro's on them- like "watch out for loose roaming burros" and we truly did experience one.

Viking Warrior Hero

This is a story of a hero. In June Andy was diagnosed with Lukemia. It has not been fun. Andy has endured much - pain and chemo and long hospital stays. He has an incredible attitude and a fantastic sense of humor.

He earned his Viking Horns a long time ago, but this set he can wear in the house. We love you Andy. We pray for you and you are a hero.

Plus look at this fashion statement. Thank you Arlie and Andy for letting us come to the party. We had a sweet visit and hope we wern't a burden for you.

Lincoln's Special Day

On October 9th - Lincoln was blessed. How fun, it was also his 4 week or one month birthday too. Afterwards we went to the park by Jessi and James' home for a picnic and visiting.

Both sets of Grandparents. This won't happen often in Lincoln's life since one set lives in Alaska and the other in Idaho.

We are so blessed. Lincoln has a cousin Rachel (3 mo.) They slept through their first oppertunity to make mischief together.

And cousin Grace came- look out these three are going to be good friends.

And Opa gets first chance to get acquainted. He brought Lincoln some hiking boots so that Linc will be prepared to play.

3 months

We love to get Rachel to smile. Her dimples enchant us. Here she is at 3 months. Adorable.