Where Did the Year Go

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since my last post here. That can hardly be true. Since May things have been a little crazy, but a whole year? Well enough has happened that I could hardly catch up any way. Maybe the future will be more promising. I don't think I have even taken any pictures during that time either. The last picture I have seen of activities is Laryn's graduation picture on facebook. I haven't changed much though.

Halloween

We just got back from the family Halloween get together at Peterson's. Lot's of fun when the family is together. Hope to have some pics soon. October is over and the holidays are almost upon us. Laryn's volleyball team will be going to district tournament this week and hopefully on to state. I start basketball practice this week, so now my schedule becomes a little tighter. I just think back to when I was doing this stuff and taking my master's classes and serving as High Priest group leader, and .... I did get my Christmas list out to my family.

My hair color is still hanging in there, but it is a touchy subject around here as Tyra colored her hair last night and she was not a happy camper. I think that she has washed it 5 or 6 times since.

Is that "Just For Men"

I have gotten a lot of interesting reactions for just a few minutes of hair coloring. I decided that a "rapper" in a lipsync probably couldn't have gray hair and that black would be a better color. Now I know what the ladies mean when they get a bad hair job. It didn't come out black at all, and is almost they way it looked many years ago. Laryn said she had never seen me without gray hair. Most the kids at school wondered what happened to my "red spot". The comment that interested me the most is "Mr. Wells, did you die your hair?".

My Favorite Season

Fall is here and it is my favorite season. The days are warm and calm, the nights are cool, football starts, the harvest happens. The only down side is the bugs on the cars and school starting. However, with school comes volleyball (my favorite warm-up in all of sports), football (another trip to the "Dome"), and homecoming (lip sync time). Yup, that's right, all the dressing up, assemblies, powder puff, etc. This fall also included the purchase of a "new" vehicle which is a rare event here at Fairway road. Vard was particularly helpful providing "honest" input for Tyra instead of my biased opinions about vehicles. We did have to say goodbye to Genevive as we traded in the Odyssey in Portland. On the way home the Oregon state patrol wanted to get a closer look at the new 4-runner, so they pulled me over and allowed to spend a little more money in the great state of Oregon. Love that place. Two of the three or four moving violations I have had in my 43 years of driving have come from there.

Family Time

August brought all the Wells' to Fairway road at one time or another. We were never all together here, but we were all here at some time and it was wonderful. We had a total of 5 weeks with the Specht's and Hale's grandkids. Lots of fun. Makaley wroter me a letter recently and reminded me of all the fun things that we did. We played in the river, the tree house, on the trampoline, learning archery, weeding the corn (that one didn't go so swell), roasted hotdogs, watched the stars and ..., well you get the picture. The north lawn is ready for a real family reunion, so we should start planning for next summer as the Specht's will be out here again. Besides, I want to get my order in early for a port-o-potty.

"The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle"...

Sometime in the middle of July we made a trip to Seattle for one of Tyra's appointments. Brielle was here for cherry harvest and we got to have her company for a couple of fun-filled days. We had gorgeous weather and the skies were really blue. We rode on of the ferries across the bay and on the return trip Brielle showed her true colors as she left me standing as the bombing target on a seagull. She assured me she had warned me of my upcoming surprise attack. I guess I am getting a little slower. She was a good sport though, as she had to share a bed with Laryn at the motel. We had an unbelievble view from the motel window of the Space Needle, downtown, and Mt. Ranier. "Genivive" never let us down as we navigated through the big city. She never faltered, though sometimes it was hard to have confidence in her.

"I Love A Parade"

The parade circuit for the Connell/N. Franklin Jr. Miss kept us busy through the summer months and into the fall. We started in Spokane at the Lilac Festival on a beautiful Sat. in May. Our last parade was on a wonderful Sat. in Sept. in Leavenworth and there were 6 others in between. It was a taxing though worthwhile time. I really enjoyed getting to know the girls and their families better and will miss that. We are hoping to have a night at our house soon to enjoy everyone's pictures and do some reminiscing. I am going to write a short "Parents Manual" for future participants parents. One of the first entrys will be to encourage them to offer there daughter's a lot of money instead of participating. After that, I will try to inform them of what they have gotten themselves into.

Time Flies

I can't believe that it has been months since this has been updated. To all of you faithful readers, I apologize. "March Madness" was supposed to be a post a couple of months ago. An it was truly a mad month. Laryn's basketball team went to the state tournament and provided one of the more exciting tourny's in recent history. The Eagles defeated the No. 1 ranked defending state champions from Seattle Christian in one of the biggest upsets of recent years. In the second game the defeated the no. 5 ranked team in the state only to loose the next to games. They did finish 6th which was a great accomplishment.

A couple of weeks later, Laryn won the North Franklin Junior Miss Scholarship competition. Don't take this wrong, but that was a big surprise to me. Because of this "victory" we are now on the parade circuit for the next 3 months. Oh, "I love a parade" now hase more meaning. We have already attended parades at Spokane Lilac Festival and Moses Lake Torchlight parade. Next week we will be in Lind. That one will take about 10 times longer to set up and take down than the length of the parade.

This spring has been a most unpleasant one with regards to weather. Lots of wind and rain and little warmth since the end of March. Maybe all of Laryn's heroics have angered the gods. We did get the garden and pumpkins planted this past weekend and it has rained for the last 12 hours, so that actually worked out well.

We are looking forward to an eventful summer with more parades, family coming to visit and lots for good ole fun. I am also going to try and become a more diligent "blogger". I know I have dissappointed many of my readers! Enjoy a some pics of the past few weeks.

2010

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by and so many things have happened to our family here at Fairway road. Laryn's vball team made it to the State tourny, now she is in the middle of basketball and improving every game. Having her three older "borthers" home for the holidays helped a bunch. We had two wonderful weeks for the Holidays and everyone was here but the Spechts. Oh how we missed them. Our 3 day stay at camp Zarahemla near White Pass, Washington turned out to be lots of fun with sledding outside the lodge and warm food and fire inside. We made it home just in time for a New Year's eve snowstorm that canceled our church party. But like Kase said, "this is the best cancelled New Year's Eve party ever!" We stayed at home and basked in the love of family. The kids got energetic and built this 10' snowman that we thought would last for weeks. Two days later only the base was still in place as a south wind melted the snow quickly.

Blaire finally gets to go to college and left today with cousins Jace and Taylor. We will certainly miss her. Laryn will miss her most as they have spent lots of time together these past few months. Laryn may even miss Blaire's cell phone more, but I won't. The silence here is deafening after so much activity but the cell phones are gone. The new year has the possibility shaping up to be pretty eventful. Haley and Severin will have their first baby in April if all goes well. Laryn will be in the Junior Miss Pageant in March, a first for the Wells'. (What was I thinking!) And there is always the possiblity of a wedding (or two). We will have a lot more grass to mow if it grows in our "field of dreams".

Field of Dreams

After 4 hours in the ER, Laryn ended up with six stitches and Blaire ended up with a goose egg after fainting and landing on the ER floor. Her eyes were a little crazy the next day.

Thanks for the Father's Day gift. I enjoyed my guy day, the whole hour of massage, hot towels, and straight blade shave. The little TV in front of me was a nice touch too. When I am rich and famous, I may go more often. That really is me underneath the towels and it felt sooo good.

Finally, my field of dreams. After hours, and hours, and hours, and hours of leveling and lots of help from the Hales it is finally coming together. The grass is planted and the sprinklers work. Now we will hope for the best. If all goes well the the playing should be great with lots of room for family fun. If we get some snow, the terrace will create a great jump for a snowmobile. The trencher really worked me over and I am still not recovered.

Arizona- The trip to Flagstaff to see the Wells' proved to be everything that we hoped it would be. On the trip down we were able to spend some time on Temple square in Salt Lake and see the new Church Library. As always, the Church built a beautiful facility with state of the art media access. It was hot and the A/C was a treat! After staying with Haley and Sev we headed south. For Laryn the "highlight" of the trip was a stop in Panquitch, Utah. If you haven't been there, it is a little, rural farming community in the middle of know where. Of course this isn't unusual if you are from Basin City. But when Laryn spied a Mustang and Porshe passing through she thought something was up. Weird! I don't think that she will want to return for some reason which I haven't figured out yet. Maybe she will get a roommate or even a boyfriend from there.

Passing through Page we stopped at Glen Canyon Dam and viewed Lake Powell. A double rainbow viewed at the gas station sent us on our way to Flagstaff. The next two hours proved somewhat depressing as we drove through the Navajo Indian Nation. We did scope out the roadside jewelry stands for Mom's return trip. When we arrived in Flagstaff we found Dax and Jen's place easily with the pre-trip visit to Google Earth.

We visited the Grand Canyon and hiked 1 1/2 miles down which ended up being not very far in that huge hole in the ground. It was hot and steep but well worth the effort. The views were amazing. At "Ooh-Ah" point Laryn was attacked by a one-eyed squirrel that was obviously comfortable around humans. We also visited Meteor Crater and Walnut Canyon where the cliff dwellings exhibited the inhabitants understanding of the use of solar energy.

Flagstaff's 4th of July celebration paled somewhat to the TRAC fireworks show, but considering they hadn't had one for a number of years due to fire danger it was respectable. Before we left, we visited the Lowell Observatory where, among other finds, C. Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto ( or dwarf planet if you subscribe to such cockamamy). A quick dash to Phoenix provided a feeling for the Valley of the Sun (100+) and some good deals at the factory outlet. Saguaro cactus dotted the landscape and denotes the arid climate.

As we journeyed north on the way home, Mom really "jewed" the local Navajo shop keeper for some nice earrings. He wanted $60 for them and she submarined him for $50. What a steal!

I hated to tell her that she probably could have got them for $30. She likes them.

Zion' Canyon definitely delivered! The massive stone formations and southwest red colors don't show well in the photos. Laryn's animal attraction worked again as we stopped to take a picture and she found herself within yards of a small herd of desert bighorn sheep. We finished our visit and headed north to the Bergeson's for the night. We stopped in Twin for a short visit and made it home by around 8 PM on Friday night. Another great road trip, and the Odyssey with 230,000 miles on it never wimpered.

Summer Time

School is out so I guess that it is officially summer. To add to that, Blaire has graduated from high school, the pumpkins are planted, the lawn mower blades are sharp, etc. We will be doing some early traveling this summer. Mom goes to girl's camp this week, and I am in Twin Falls helping at Grandpa and Grandma Webb's. From here we will travel to Utah and see the Bergeson's and Vard, and then down to Flagstaff, AZ. I am excited to see the Grand Canyon again and go to Meteor crater, something I have taught about in school for a few years.

I will finish my master's this Aug. after two years of challenges and successes. I have learned a lot and feel that it has been worth the effort but will be glad to be done and move on to some other things. This is just a start of some good stuff to come. We have found the camera and I am getting better at this computer stuff.

Groundbreaking

Recently we went to the groundbreaking of a new "stake center" in the Rd. 68 area of west Pasco. It is a really nice site in a newly developed area. One of our stake members had some influence on naming the streets, and the bordering street will be "Parley's street". The weather had been rainy and cold for the previous days, but it cleared and was a really pleasant evening. It will be completed in about a year and a half, and the stake will then be divided. The stake also created a Coyote Ridge branch in the prison in Connell. We now have about 18 units in the stake. One thing about the new branch is that Tyra and the other members of the young women's pres. will probably not have to visit there for ward conferences!

7 to 2

That's the score on the number of boys and girls of the Wells grandchildren with the arrival of Jhett Specht on May 2, 2009. Grandma Wells left us here to survive for two weeks. We did make it as you can tell. But there were some tough times. We really are glad that she can go and help with these little ones. I know the moms are happy to have her there.

Spring has finally arrived after faking us out a couple of times. I am not sure that our garden has figured it out yet. The fruit trees look good, but the ground crops are not getting much of a start. Blaire and Laryn participated in track and had a successful year in a new sport. They finished so close to going on to state. Blaire was one inch shore of qualifying in the javelin and Laryn finished 5th in the 800 meter run with the first 4 runners going on to state.

The hay is ready to cut for the first time this summer. Corn is popping up in the surrounding fields but will be absent in our garden as our neighbors are growing seed corn again. How I miss fresh corn on the cob. I am starting my last session and will finish my master's degree at the first of August if all goes well. Tyra is preparing for girl's camp in June and we are hopefully going to Utah and Arizona after that. However some unfortunate news may change those plans as Grandpa Webb has been diagnosed with cancer and will be needing some help. So our summer plans may be not so planned.

Hyrum is Here

When we left the Hales' house after the Saturday night session of our stake conference, we wondered if Tyra should stay there as Makala was looking ready to have a baby. We weren't home very long when the phone rang and James warned us that they may call again soon. Tyra decided to go without the call. Just a few minutes later Makala called and sounded a little distressed asking if mom could come. A couple hours later Hyrum was born in Richland, Wa.

We visited them today and all is well. He has lots of dark hair and looks pretty much like he belongs in the family. If he grows into his feet, he could be taller than his two older brothers. Vard knows how that works. Looks like it's macaroni and cheese, cold cereal, and no lights on when we come home for a few days. Hope to have a picture or two soon.

BYU Blue

We have always teased Kase about "livin' the dream". Well he is again as he continues to condition with the BYU football team. He was excited when the conditioning coach call him by name. That was the first coach to do that and it took about a month. Hopefully they will be calling his name a lot in the future. It's lots of fun to read "Wells" on his locker. Looks like he is no. 9 for now. I think the "3" is a locker number.

Lost the Camera

Well, it has been a long, cold winter here on Fairway Rd., but the Christmas holiday season was great. All the family was here from Nebraska to Washington to California. 23 of us cuddled up nice and cozy. We added one to our number as Haley was married to Severin Bergeson. So we had a wedding thrown in to keep us busy. The night of the reception in Moses Lake the temperature was 0 and the father of the bride was late with the wedding dress. Haley took it all in stride as she began the reception in sweats.

The worst part of the season was the loss of our digital camera. I am sure with the wedding, two receptions, and Christmas, it just got left somewhere. If anybody packed an extra one and took it home let us know. Of course, as a result there won't be any good pics on the blog for awhile. Good news came with the gender announcement of the Specht's new arrival in April. Makaley wasn't too happy to learn that she was going to have another brother. Can't imagine why. Vard had his share of bad luck playing football in the fall and had his knee injured. He underwent surgery and has been rehabbing every since. He used it to good use though as he was able to avoid most chores, etc. around the house while he was here.

More good news since the new year, Kase walked on and made the football team at BYU. The kid is still "livin' the dream". The downside is that he had to quit his job teaching language at the Mission Training Center which he loved. Dax and Jen will be graduating in April and Dax will be one of those engineers that I often refer to when I am working on something. Hopefully he has heard me enough that he will keep us do-it-yourselfers in mind when he is trying to "save space" on one of his designs.

Another Connell Eagle will be flying high in June with Blaire's graduation. She will continue the BYU-I tradition if Obama's stimulus package comes through or some other funding miracle happens. She has been doing a great job applying for scholarships and did more than Kase in her first week ( I think that would be 2).

Spring is just around the corner and it will be time to plant pumpkins again!

Homecoming '08

I don't know if I will recover for awhile from my first full week of Homecoming at Connell High School. 5 full days of chaos and they call this "high" school. You can see from the picture though that the "Lyle Taylor Cut Contest" at Christmas is going to be a pretty exciting event as the rest of you try to compete with "Captain America". The Ninja Turtles were just stand in though and not the real ones. I did win best dressed among the staff with this stylish costume. The one thing that I did like about it was that I didn't have to worry about looking good.

All the pumpkins are gone out of the garden and the water is on it's last move. Another summer has come and gone. What a summer it has been, too. We are on our way to a wonderful season ahead as we look forward to the Holidays with everybody home and Haley getting married. It doesn't get any better than this. Happy Halloween!

New Voter

This is Blaire on her 18th birthday.

Pumpkin Time

Fall has finally come to the Basin and the days are definitely getting shorter and cooler. We have 4th cutting hay laying in the field after it got rained on. The Hales have been out harvesting pumpkins and this picture says it all. Did you ever imagine so many different varieties? The big one that Blaire is on weighs about 120 pounds. Zeus doesn't weigh that much but he is bulking up for the Lyle Taylor "Cut" contest at Christmas. Blaire turned 18 today, wow! She's already registered to vote. What a poor election to have to begin your voting career in. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the little Wells boy in Rexburg. The two big Wells boys will need to take care of him, as well as his mama.