Babysitting in Payson

We spend part of the first week in February at Travis's babysitting while Travis and Shannon went to New York. It was fun being with the boys. Since they had spent time with us at Christmas, we were all a little more at ease with each other. They didn't have quite as many activities to keep up this time compared to the last time we watched them.

The boys have had a Wii (if that is how it is spelled) for several months. Spencer is really good on the dance cube. His feet were just flying!

Then Grandma had to try it!!! Oh my gosh, I have never felt so uncoordinated! But it sure is good exercise.

Spencer, Josh, and Nicholas are trying to decide what to show us next.

Spencer thought Grampa would enjoy boxing. Here, Spencer is giving him some instructions, with Nate (gaming) on the chair in the and Nic standing in the background.

Just look at that form! He must have learned pretty good because he knocked his opponent out! Afterwards, we bowled with Nic and he beat both of us a couple of times. Do we see a Wii in our future? Probably not, but it was sure fun playing on it with the boys.

Las Vegas, January, 2008

Photobucket Album

Emerald Cove - Parker, CA

Emerald Cove RV Park is right on the Colorado River, on the California side. It is six miles out of Parker, AZ, which is 30 miles north of Quartzside, AZ. We went there because it was the closest park we could get into at that time, to go to the flea market in Quartzside.

It ended up being a really fun place to be. We went to the flea market several times. It is huge! I took my camera every day and didn't even take one picture! Terry's cousin, Bob Howard, and his wife Carol live in Quartzside during the winter. We got to see them. Dutch and Gail Odekirk ended up staying in Parker while they went to the flea market. We saw them there and had them over for breakfast the morning they left.

We also got to spend time with Ron and Sharon Vickery. Ron used to be married to Terry's sister years ago before she passed away. We had never met his current wife. We had lots of fun together sharing meals and playing Yahtzee, and visiting a lot. And I didn't get pictures of any of them!Terry washed his pick-up all shiny while we were at Emerald cove. We rode our bike around a lot. We were hoping for a little warmer weather, and it did get up in the high 60's the day before we left. Most of the time it was in the high 50's and low 60's. I am not complaining. Our daughter Jill said it was -25 in Rexburg and Idaho Falls while we were here.

There are a lot of palm trees at Emerald Cove. They shaved some of them while we were there. That is something they have to do manually. The palm leaves die and leave part of the leaf on the tree until it is cut off. They are pretty shaggy until they are shaved.

The park is said to have one of the longest stretches of sandy beach along the Colorado. It was really nice to walk on. We are not a member of the park--it is just an affiliate park to the plan that we have, so we didn't get one of the spots right on the river.

They say that the Colorado is the cleanest river in the United States. I know that you can see the bottom of the river for a long ways out, until it gets too deep. Across the park from the river were beautiful homes. Some of them looked like you could only get to them with a boat.

This is one of the fancier homes across from us.

It wasn't warm enough to walk along the beach bare-foot until the day before we left, so we took advantage of it.

I was so excited when I found this little turtle on the beach! Terry really laughed at me when we found it was made out of plastic. We just left it there for someone else to enjoy!

Well, it is time to change the scenery outside of our home on wheels again (this is not really us leaving, but I thought all the palm trees at the entrance to the park would make a good picture.) We are headed to Bullhead City for a few days before heading back to Wikieup.

Happy New Year-Las Vegas

After everyone left after Christmas, it got pretty quiet at Wikieup. It was nice for a couple of days, but we (mostly I) thought it would be more fun to be around people for New Year's Eve. So, we called and were able to get into one of our parks in Las Vegas a few days early. What could be more exciting that New Year's Eve in Las Vegas!

Well, we thought there would be something exciting going on at the park New Year's Eve, but I guess everyone was down on the strip--not where we wanted to be that night. So, we brought out our sparkling cider Travis & Shannon gave us for Christmas, and celebrated by ourselves after all. We even stayed up until midnight. But, because we only stayed up until Arizona time (which is an hour earlier than Nevada time), we missed all of the fireworks they set off in this town at midnight!
The park was actually pretty quiet, but we ran into Ken & Sandy Calhoun from Emmett! We had fun doing things with them for a week. We went to the Temple, to a movie, shared several meals, played games, and even spent one afternoon seeing the sites on the strip. They had us keep their little dog while they did their laundry. The week went by really fast.

The LDS Temple is beautiful. It is build on the side of the mountain and if you know where to look, you can see it from many places in Las Vegas. In fact, if you stand on one road in the RV park where we were, the Temple was in plain site.

We ended up going back to Wikieup for a day and a night (about 150 miles from Las Vegas) during the time we were here. Our good friends who own a piece of property next to ours came down from Ogden, Utah. We needed to check our mail and wanted to make sure we got to see Dutch and Gail Odekirk (and Huggers). We hope we meet up with them again later on. Dutch was a boyhood friend of my Dad's and our family has known them forever.

There were a few things we hadn't seen on the strip the afternoon we went there with the Calhouns, so we decided to go one evening so we could see the dancing waters, the Treasure Island ship fight, and the volcano errupt. There are so many lights! We took a bus from a place close to our park and then walked the strip. I don't know how many miles we walked, but it seemed like a lot!

One of the casinos had a rain forest restaurant and gift shop. We met some really scary creatures there!

This was a very friendly elephant!

One fun place we went was the M & M store. They had any color of M & M you could want. We went to the fourth floor and watched a 3-D movie about how one of the candies lost his "M" in Las Vegas and we all got to help him find it!

Well, here we are leaving the Las Vegas RV park. After two weeks, were were ready for different scenery outside our little Condo. We are on our way to Parker and hope to make it to the famous Quartzside flea market!

Christmas in the Desert

We had quite a group for Christmas in the desert this year. Shay and Travis had not been to the little house in Wikieup for at least ten years. They both brought their families. Travis and his family left Christmas Eve and Shay and his family stayed until the day after Christmas.

There is nothing like the holidays with grandkids around. We had half of our grandkids with us. These two families haven't spent much time together by themselves, so the cousins had a good time getting to know each other better.

Emily (Shay's third) just loved little Josh (Travis's youngest), along with everyone else. Who can resist a 2-year-old!

Sean got a B-B gun for his birthday in September. He was doing some target shooting with his dad and Grampa.

These pictures remind me so much of the first time we went to Wikieup with our six kids and my sister Lorrie and her two kids in 1988. They love to roam the desert.

There was not quite as much wildlife to see in December as there was in March when we used to always come. In fact, on our very first walk in the desert 20 years ago, Travis had Mom's shotgun and killed a snake the very first day on a walk like this one.

Shay and Heidi brought their early Christmas gift. Terry tried to keep up with him on "Little Red," but couldn't do it!

They were a big hit with the kids. Travis' boys Nathan and Josh are ready to go. I think the older kids made a permanent rut in the circle they road in front of the house.

The solar electricity held out even though the batteries are not carrying a full charge this year. There was enough for the kids to have some quiet time before bed to watch a movie. It's fun to see Nicholas and Josh with cousin Tyson,

and Marissa with cousins Spencer and Nathan.

The kids came running one day and told us they had found a big spider. It ended up being a 3-4 inch tarantula! He was trapped in a 5-gallon bucked buried in the ground to protect the opening to a septic tank down from the house. It reared up on it's hind legs when we put a stick in the bucket to help him escape.

When Mom and Dad first moved to Wikieup, they grew a "wine tree." Of course, that was one of the first rules with the B-B gun, second to not shooting any one's eye out, to not shoot the bottles on the wine tree. But, as you can see, rules must be made to be broken.

We figured that the bottles would be too much of a temptation for the "mighty hunters." At least no one got their eye shot out.

After Travis and his family left on Christmas Eve, we went to Burro Creek. The first time we went there, many years ago, we actually saw some wild burros. We looked really hard for them, but didn't see any. It was pretty muddy down by the river.

This is Terry and Shay's family sitting on the stone stairway on the way to the Creek. It seemed to be a natural "Kodak moment" spot.

After getting back from the creek, everyone spent time cleaning the mud off of their shoes.

Terry and Sean are in front of the Cactus Garden at the Burro Creek Campground. They have a little pamphlet that tells all of the names of the cacti. This is where our family learned the names (I know, 20 years ago!)

Well, after counting down the days, Christmas morning finally got here and it looked like Santa found us. We were a little worried, being out in the middle of the desert!

The kids were excited about checking out their stockings. And, the empty plate of cookies and carrots proved that Santa and his reindeer were really here!

Terry is relaxing in his new chair. He also got some float tube waders. I took pictures but he wouldn't let me post them on the BLOG. He said I could if I would also include a picture of me in my new nightie, then I could post his picture. That ain't gonna happen! So, kids, I will send you some private pictures. Thanks to all of you for the things you gave us. It was great!

Before Shay's family left, they had to have their picture taken in front of our "picture postcard" cactus.

We had a great Christmas. We want to thank the daughter-in-laws for putting up with a few inconveniences (namely the outhouse). They were good sports and we hope the grandkids made some wonderful Wikieup memories.

December in Wikieup

We finally are on our way South. We stayed at my uncle's home (Terry & Nancy Imlay) for a night in Plain City, Ut. We were going to stay a couple of days, but a big storm was coming in, so we only spent the night and then headed for St. George.

We stayed three nights in St. George. We went to Beaver Dam and saw my Dad's brother, Dan and Joyce Fisher. They used to spend part of the winter in Wikieup, but now have a winter home in Beaver Dam. They took us to lunch and then to his grandson, Jared's home. It was really nice. The next day we went and ate dinner at my High School friend's (Ruth and John Lunt) home and they took us to a Christmas nativity scene show where there were over 300 nativity scenes set up in an LDS Church building. It was really something to see.

We decided to go play card bingo at the clubhouse at the campground one night. We met two couples from Horsehoe Bend who were on their way south! Then when we went to church the next day, Terry met a brother-in-law of Don Fluckiger. His wife was Don's sister. I met a "Howard" whose husband was from the Rexburg area where Terry's dad was raised. We decided that we were probably related and she told me that most of the Howards were buried in Woodruff cemetery and not the Chester Cemetery, where we had looked earlier. It sure is a small world!

We were a little worried about the little house on the desert in Wikieup because in September someone broke into it. We knew that they had stollen a couple of air conditions and had left the door open for a couple of weeks before some friends went in and closed them for us and patched the holes where the air conditioners were. We were afraid about varmints getting into the house.

When we got there, we found that they had also taken our little microwave and a big aluminum ladder. The worse thing was, they had stripped all of the wiring for the solar panels. I guess they wanted the copper wire. We ended up having to go into Kingman and buy all new wiring, and then with a few calls to my brother, Dave, we got it all wired back.

Terry sent me up on the roof of the porch to wire the solar panels because the sun had baked the old wires (for the past 14 years). It was a little scary, but Terry guided me through it.

We were really glad to find no varmints in the house--not even very much sign of any ever being there. We had left a lot of poison around before we left last year. But, as Terry was wiriing in the solar battery box, we heard some crunching going on under a little wooden step on the porch. Sure enough, when we raised the step, there was a pack rat. Terry grabbed a piece of lath and stabbed him! He is a great hunter! Other than that, we haven't seen anything else but a friendly lizzard and a hummingbird around the house.

We have been having mostly nice weather. It gets pretty cold if the wind blows. But, it has been nice enough to have a few meals out on the picnic table.

We are now busy getting things ready for Christmas. Shay and Travis and their families will be here with us during the holidays. I am scubbing, mopping, washing bedding, and sanitizing everything, especially the outhouse. Some of them are not too used to anything but modern conveniences. We are hoping they all have a good time, anyway.

The Month of November

We spent most of the month of November still in Jill and Dan's driveway. We had a chance to go to Chester Idaho where Terry's dad was born. There is no town, just a little community. We found the cemetery, but only one "Howard" grave. We didn't recognize the name, but he could be related. It was fun just driving around that community and imagining Terry's dad growing up there.

We got to watch Sean (Shay's son) play some football. We went to his last game and the boys all got a trophy. I think his team got second place. His coach called him "Lightning Sean" because he is so fast.

All of the family came out to support him, except Marissa. She has a hard time getting up early on Saturday mornings!

Both Sarah's and Ryan's families came to Jill's for Thanksgiving. She had a housefull. Terry thought it was pretty nice that we could just run away out to our own little "house" in the driveway to have a little quiet time!

Jill had lots of help in the kitchen making pies with Kamber and Jenna. Jenna and Kamber are good helpers!

Here is the "adults" table.

And here is the "kids" table. Good food, good company, good time!

The kids had fun playing together. This is Chaz, Jenna, and Ryley. Chaz and Ryley are Ryan' s and Jenna is Sarah's.

Sarah brought along some projects. She is giving Jill a Levi quilt for Christmas, so she brought all of the blocks cut out and Jill and I helped put it together!

That's a good way to get Jill's gift done, just have her help!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to the school where Dan teached in Rexburg and played in the gym. The adults played PIG.

It looks like Terry and Dan tied!

And then everyone joined in on Freeze! We were really trying to get some of the energy used up from the kids!

Terry had a little project that he needed help with. We told the boys that if emptying our sewer was the worst thing they every have to do for us, they can consider themselves lucky!

We ended up going back to Emmett the Monday after Thanksgiving. I had a leg/back problem the whole time we were in Rexburg. So we went back to Emmett to make sure I wasn't going to have to have surgery or anything.

It was good to be back in Emmett. It was nice seeing everyone again and we got to watch Wesley Ryan's son) play a basketball game. I am sure he is going to be a star some day!

He had a great cheering section!