Near the end of July we traveled home to Utah so Bruce could attend his 50th High School Reunion, and to celebrate the 24th with family members. Shellie's family, Melinda's family and Rachel traveled from far-away places to join in the fun. Jill was preparing to leave for another year in Jerusalem, so this was a perfect opportunity for us to bid her farewell at the same time.
While in Utah we watched the 24th of July parade in Spanish Fork with Bruce and his classmates riding the hay wagon, waving, while half of his posterity screamed hysterically from the side of the road.
Katie also hosted a baby shower for Rachel, which was well attended. This picture shows my five daughters that were on hand at the time; Shellie, Katie, Rachel, Melinda and Jill. Rachel is due on Halloween, so I will attend one more baby event before our mission is over in March.
The week passed way-too-quickly, then Bruce headed back to Florida while I drove up to Twin Falls, Idaho, to spend a week with Jan and her new baby boy, Quincy. I only saw her oldest son Edward for a day, as he was heading out on a week-long fishing trip with his Grandpa Allan (without his dad), and other family members. But I got a lot of good "Grandma time" with the baby and the other two boys.
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| Frederick Superhero |
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| Roger Superhero |
From Idaho I drove back to Utah, said a quick farewell to the Craigs, Browns, and Judds, then caught a plane to Kentucky to spend a week with Stephanie in anticipation of their new arrival. Even though little Justice didn't arrive until four days after I left, I still got a lot of good "Grandma time" with the other kids and cooked up a storm. I took the older kids on our annual "Adventure" down to a remote creek with great rocks for climbing on and smooth rocks for skipping.
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| Getting to the creek is half the adventure |
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| Some parts were pretty steep |
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| Zeal on large rock |
I arrived back in Florida a day before Bruce went in to have knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He was up and around the next day, and back to work six days later. He was even up in a man-lift tearing siding off a house that week. The day after surgery we went to visit a non-member acquaintance in a neighboring town that we have been fellowshipping. Our neighbors in Utah planted a good seed while vacationing in Florida, and we have been trying to nourish the seed while we are here. We have had two visits with this lady, and another one is planned.
Because our ranch is the flag-ship ranch of the church, they train good men then send them to management positions on other ranches. As a result two families moved recently and we lost our Bishop, one of our Cub Scouts and one of our Sunbeams. We have become pretty attached to "our kids" here, and it is sad when their families leave the ranch. One week, due to football practice, only one of our cubs was able to attend our meeting, so we armed ourselves with rakes and hoes and set out to clear a trail leading to Eagles Lookout Trail, which leads to a remote waterway near the Ranch Visitors Center.
One fun adventure was trying to clean out the noxious water hyacinth from a drain canal where we usually see an alligator on our tour route. Not wanting to get too close to the canals edge, we commandeered a man-lift after hours and lowered ourselves out over the water to snag the plants with long poles with hooks on them. Sad-to-report, two weeks later the hyacinths were again clogging our view of the gators...just not as bad...yet.
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| Bruce weed-wacking on bank while we work over water |
We also enjoyed having Bruce's niece Rebby and husband John visit for a couple of days. The men fished, the women worked on humanitarian projects, and we were daring enough to go out for alligator tail (main meal was hamburgers). The alligator meat is tough, but not as bad as chewing on a garden hose.
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| Rebby and unripe grapefruit |
