Nikkail's Orchestra

700 Jr. High students auditioned for this symphony orchestra and Nikkail was chosen even though she's only in 7th grade and has only been taking violin lessons for a little more than a year. This is not a great picture, but the conductor is just left of the "B," there's a girl in green just left of the conductor, and Nikkail is just above the right ear of the girl in green.

Nikkail's Orchestra

Nikkail's Orchestra

Gutters and Window Wells

Picture 1: The gutters and facia used to be dark brown (like the windows). Picture 2: The gutters, facia, and windows are now white. The window wells (standing up by the bush) have replaced the two under the four adjoining windows. The old ones were narrow, galvanized, and rusty (like the one visible at the far right).

The Flood of 2011

On Monday, the temperature was in the 80s, but by Wednesday, it dropped to 40°. It rained continuously for about 2 days. On the lower edge of our property, the only part that wasn't under water was the part (to the right in the picture) where Michael put the 13 dump truck loads of fill. When we get some money, we want to put more fill in the low spots. Snow fell in the mountains (as you can see in the picture) and Emily's parents (who live close to the mountains) got 3 inches of snow.

Kitchen

Some things about our "new house" were so bad that I refused to take a "before" picture of them -- the kitchen was one of those. I did, however, take a picture after we "gutted" the kitchen (Picture #1). We just had the cabinets put in on Wednesday (Picture #2). Although we still have no counter top and we haven't finished painting or tiling, the kitchen is finally taking shape.

Windows, Doors, and Carpet

Putting in new windows and a new front door really brightened up the front of our house. (See the "before" and "after" pictures above.) It still needs new guttering and major landscaping in the front, but our "remodeling budget" is about gone. New carpet was installed Friday and Saturday, we're installing floor tile Monday and Tuesday, and our kitchen cabinets should be installed on Wednesday. We're almost ready to move in.

Michael's Family Arrived

Michael, Emily, Mary, Joseph, and Katie arrived from Georgia on September 4th. They will be living in our basement until they can find a house of their own. Michael is in the management level of a software company, but works from home by phone and computer, so he can live anywhere he wants. Since all of our family and all (I think) of Emily's family live in Utah and since Mary is getting to the age where she needs to have more church friends and opportunities, they moved here. They are living at Emily's parents' house until our house is ready to inhabit. The work has really sped up with their help. Michael and Emily have removed the old carpet and painted the whole downstairs this week. Alice and I have been painting the walls and ceilings and tiling the floors of the upstairs bathrooms. The picture, above, shows Michael (nearest the truck) and two of Emily's brothers who helped unload two 26-foot U-Hauls.

"New" House -- First Residents

The first residents at the new house are the horses, Legend and Misty. Alice sold Beauty back to her original owner because it was too hard to give personal attention to 3 horses. Picture #1: Alice with Misty and Maryn (in disguise) with Legend. Picture #2: Almost everyone who visits us (from family to subcontractors) says, "This doesn't look like Utah!" We're half a mile from the freeway and all the commotion of the city, but all you can see from our house is rural landscape -- horses, pastures, a creek, a pond, and geese.

"New House" Update

The house is improving little by little. Picture #1: Alice has removed a lot of the weeds from the front, but there's still a LOT of landscaping to be done. The house is all brick with a nice view of the mountains. It's 90 feet long with 2000 square feet up and 2000 square feet down (and a full walk-out basement in the back). Pictures #2 and #3: Looking toward the hallway from the master bathroom door, you see the old bathroom removed and the new bathroom framed with rough plumbing. (The electrical and vents are in now, too.) Pictures #4 and #5: Looking toward the master bathroom door from the hallway, you see the old bathroom removed and the new bathroom framed with rough plumbing.

"New" House

We purchased a "new" house in South Jordan at 11333 Brook-N-Lance Lane. Teri is 1.7 miles due east of it and Kristi is 1.3 miles due west. It's a full acre, so Alice will be able to keep her horses in the back yard. The house itself, however, is 30 years old and needs a LOT of work. Picture #1: Willow Creek is "supposed to" run through the southeast corner of the property, but it will take a bit of work to dig out the sandbars that are blocking it. If you look at the house and yard of our neighbor to the north (right), you will she a sharp contrast, but, as our real estate agent said, "We got a good deal on the property and the house for free." Picture #2: We brought in 16 dump truck loads of dirt and rocks to build up a low spot in the southeast corner. Michael spread it all while he was here. (Michael is in the orange and white "Bobcat" -- partially hidden by the tree.) The ugly bushes in the foreground that Alice is tugging at are now gone. We hope that our back yard will someday look as nice as the one across the creek. Picture #4: The kitchen was built in the 70s. It had dark wood, a bright yellow counter, and a drop-down ceiling. The bathrooms were at least as bad, but we've gutted them all. This is what we call "retirement."

Michael's Family

Michael, Emily, Mary, Joseph, and Katie came to visit in July.

Jackson's Baseball

On June 16th I was able to attend one of Jackson's baseball games. He played first base and is a very good hitter.

Trek

Alice and I were a "Ma" and "Pa" for Trek. We were old enough to be the Ma and Pa of the other Ma's and Pa's, but we had a great time with our "kids." Picture 1: Our "Family"; Picture 2: More than 300 youth participated; Picture 3: The uphill; Picture 4: A thousand feet or more above our camp; Picture 5: The downhill.

Alice's Horses

Chase (Picture 1) has been on Alice's horses before and enjoys riding. Justen (Picture 2) has never been on the horses before and remains as unenthusiastic as me. Nikkail (on the left in Video 1) has ridden a lot and has always enjoyed riding. Maryn, however (on the right in Video 1), has never had any desire to even get near the horses in the past, but now has decided that riding is pretty fun.

Nikkail's Concert

Nikkail had an orchestra and choir concert on May 23, 2011. She performed in both.

Kelsey's Dance Recital

Kelsey had her dance recital on May 20, 2011.

2011 Birthdays

For each grandchild's birthday in 2011, we decided to have a portrait taken with just that grandchild and us. We have some great portraits so far of Maryn, Nikkail, Kelsey, and Liam, but we can't post them because of copyright restrictions, so Kelsey will represent them in a picture with her birthday cake.

Maggie's Birthday and Baptism

Maggie turned eight on February 15th, and was baptized and confirmed by her father, Trent.