Birthdays and Grandkids

Happy Birthday to Craig! Craig celebrated his 60th, yes 60th, birthday on January 6th. Since it was on Tuesday, he was in Rexburg doing the bishop meeting thing. So I decided to surprise him with his favorite--German chocolate cake and ice cream. I was going to take it to Rexburg, but yet again, the roads were very bad, so I sent it up with his counselor. He took it to one of the apartments that they were visiting that night. When they went into that apartment, everyone started singing Happy Birthday...including Craig. He said he was a little embarrassed when they sang, 'Happy birthday, dear bishop,' and he realized it was for him. He was pretty surprised and very happy to have something to eat besides a Big Mac on his birthday.

Saturday, we had another surprise!! We came home from seeing a real movie in a real movie theater to many messages on the answering machine from Rob and Emily's kids. They were in Ririe! Their grandma Carolyn went to Colorado on Dec 30th and brought the kids to Logan so they could start school the first of the year. (Rob and Emily are moving all their stuff to Logan this coming weekend) So Carolyn brought the kids up to a birthday party for a cousin and to see us! We were very happy to hug and kiss the little dears (:D) I am so excited to have them close enough to drive to see rather than having to take a plane. Rob says we'd better go see them a lot while they are there as who knows where in the world they will be after he graduates in June.

It's about Time!!

Having Christmas early

Mckenna and Addie

I know, I know...write a new post for heaven's sake! Christmas has come and gone and January is half over so maybe I'd better write about our Christmas.....not much to write about....really....but it was nice. We had a great Christmas surprise when Jill let us know that we are going to be adding to the grandchildren count in April. Yea, at trip to Hawaii!!! Megan and Clint spent time with us before Christmas which was great. We got to love the little girls and enjoyed opening Christmas gifts with them a day early. It was the Olsen's turn to have them for Christmas so they went to Pokey on Christmas eve. We hosted the annual Summers' soup supper on Christmas eve and had everyone in the Summers extended family in over except our children. It was maybe a good thing that our kids weren't around as there would not have been enough room. But we really did miss them. Someday..... We spent Christmas day home alone as most everyone was snowed in. No Christmas morning family breakfast. We were able to get out that evening and do a little visiting but the road were trecherous. We have had wild and crazy weather here. So what so different about that?!?

Craig spent Christmas vacation worrying about having any girls in his BYU-I ward. The girls' apartment complex raised the rent by quite a bit so many girls found cheaper places to live. When the apartments weren't filling up, the manager moved all the girls to one end of the complex leaving the apartments in Craig's ward empty. After many phone calls the stake redivided the complex between the 3 wards that share them and put about 50-60 girls in each ward. Craig has 50 girls which is quite a change from the 100 girls he had in the fall semester. The typical ratio of guys to girls in a BYU-I ward is 60:100. Craig has 63:50. The girls like it!

Thanksgiving

I keep checking this blog and nothing new is added...dang..I guess I have to do it myself!

We returned last night from our Thanksgiving trip to Las Vegas. We had a great visit with Clint, Megan and the girls. We took Grandma and Grandpa Davis down, too. They may think twice about another road trip to Vegas after 4 days of riding in the car. We split the trip up by stopping in Lehi and spending the night both ways. I'm not sure our hinnies could have stood the 10 hour trip in one day.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with plenty of pie. Isn't that what the dinner is all about...the Pie? We had 2 pumpkin pies, an apple, a pecan, a lemon meringue, and a French silk (Chocolate) pie and there were just 6 adults and one little girl, who didn't eat pie. So I guess we each ate a pie because they were pretty much gone when we left. Hmmmmm.

While we were there we played with McKenna, held the baby, played with McKenna and held the baby. Clint took his dad and grandpa out skeet shooting on Saturday and ended up going to Hoover Dam (without me. :( ) Megan and I went to see Twilight on Friday afternoon. Luckily, all the teenage girls were out shopping so we could enjoy the movie. It was pretty good. We also took McKenna to the park one afternoon. So we had a good visit except the fact that I came down with a horrendous cold by Friday so I spent the time with a kleenex on my nose and mouth so I didn't spread too many germs, and didn't hold the baby much.
Addie is such a sweet little baby who loves being held with her tummy in contact with something, such as your arm, you lap, your tummy...or best of all for her--her mommy. She certainly hasn't missed many meals as you can tell when you see her chubby little legs , tummy and bum. She's generous with her smiles too. We love her!
McKenna is alot of fun and is on the go continually. She gives her parents a run for their money especially at nap time. Her most unfavorite place is sitting on the stairs in time-out. She seemed to be there quite a bit. We love her, too!

We returned home part way on Sunday with the rest of the northern population while the southern population were driving the other way. I swear there was a double line of traffic on the freeway going both ways from St.George to Provo(and the majority stopped at the Flying J is St.George to get gas). But the weather was great and we got home to the frozen north. That's one problem with having kids that live in warm places, beside having to leave the sweet babies, you have to leave warm weather.

Potato or Turtle????

Craig went out Friday evening, gleaning potatoes and came back with a bunch of knobby ones! I especially liked this one...it kind of reminded me of a sea turtle sans shell. (the eyes are pins I stuck in for the effect) It was pretty big too. We had it for dinner and I only cooked this one. You know it was big if you have seen how many potatoes Craig eats...and there were leftovers!

The Challenge of a Family picture

Let's take a family picture! Clint: "Look at the camera! McKenna: "NO!"
McKenna: "Oooo, there's that baby!
McKenna: "Let's see what happens when I pinch her cheeks!"
Megan and Clint: "Aren't they sweet girls!" McKenna: " I can't believe they put her on my lap!"
McKenna: "I'm done whether you are or not...enough baby!"

Hooray for Grandbabies!

Addie is telling Gpa Craig what being a baby is all about.

Adalyn Ann in her blessing dress that was made by Great-grandma Summers-Davis

Gpa and Gma with the cutie-pies, Addie and MeKenna

I just spent a week in Las Vegas with Clint and Megan and their two girls! The new baby is a doll, of course, and McKenna and I had a great time together, reading books and coloring. Those are her two favorite things to do. Baby Addie is a very mellow baby--hardly ever cries....of course there were two grandmas there, Megan's mom, Ann and me. One day we never laid the baby down. If Megan wasn't nursing her, one of us grandmas had her. Ann went down the Monday after Addie was born and had been there for two weeks when I came. On the 19th, Craig and Megan's dad, brother and sister drove down to visit. Then Clint blessed Addie on Sunday, the 21st. Craig and I left after lunch and drove to Mom and Dad's in Lehi, then finished our trip home on Monday. It was great to spend time with some of our family for a bit.

Huckleberries!

Last week I went huckleberrying for the first time ever. My friend Jenny called and invited me to go with her and three other friends up Kelly Canyon to pick the berries. Two of us had never been before, Sandy H. and I. We drove way up Kelly Canyon..way beyond where I remember getting wood years ago. When we get to a place where it looks like there's lot of berry bushes, we get out and three of us go on the northside of the road and two go on the southside. Sandy and I find some berries right off. But they are kind of big and have a funny blossom end. They don't really look like what I thought huckleberries were suppose to look like. So I ate one, and it tasted familiar. Then Gloria came over and showed us what a huckleberry looked like and said what we were picking weren't huckleberries. Then I realized what we were picking were service berries or what my Grandma Stubbs called sarviceberries (the oldtimer Utah accent, I think) and what my Canadian roommate called Saskatoon berries. Huckleberries are much smaller and lower to the ground. Gloria went off one way and Sandy and I stayed closer together. We'd find a berry here and a berry there and started thinking we would be lucky to pick a cup of berries by noon. We finally couldn't find any more berries where we were, so we crossed the road to join Jenny and Marcene. There they were, sitting down in the middle of a huge patch of berries, picking away! So we called to Gloria and she came over to join us and we got quite a few berries. I actually got 6 cups. I know this doesn't sound like very many but they are only about 1/4" in diameter....very small. It was fun to be up in the canyon and pick berries with friends and talk away.
When I got home, I washed the berries and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. I kept about a cup out to make some huckleberry dessert. When Craig came home, he commented on how strong the huckleberries smelled and they weren't even out. Anyway, the next morning I made a lemon-huckleberry loaf. It was a beautiful yellow color, dotted with dark purple berries and tasted great...at least I thought it did. When I served it to Craig, I asked what he thought of it. (Shamefully, I have to beg for complements from him unless it is white bread or mashed potatoes). He said it was okay, but the huckleberries sure tasted strong by themselves. I told him that the berries were not by themselves....there were less than a cup of berries in a large lemon loaf. He said that they are just a strong flavor by themselves. I determined that Craig does not really like huckleberries so I will save the others to make something when I have company here to appreciate the work I did to get those very tiny berries. Let me know when you are coming and if you like huckleberries!