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.

More From Nauvoo

I just wanted to post another picture of our vacation this summer. This is all of us at Carthage Ill. in front of the Carthage jail. The window above us is the one the Prophet fell from after he was shot. The well by us is where he laid at his death. Being there was a great experience and worth the effort.

Nauvoo - The City Beautiful

We just spent two weeks on the mother of all road trips and it was great. Over 4000 miles and 11 states in those 14 days. Kase and Vard kept it more than interesting and I know Kase loved the trip because every time he climbed back in the car he would say " that was my favorite". We got to stay with the Specht's in Lincoln for a couple of days and thanks to Makaley's prayers, the weather was great. We saw our first fireflies and found out that Iowa is one big corn field with some soy beans for spacing every so often. We saw beautiful country in almost every state. We had an unplanned event in going through Sturgis S.D. during the biggest motorcycle gathering of the year. You can't imagine the number of motorcycles (and other things) we saw for two days. No wonder we had to go to Chadron, Ne. just to find a vacant motel. Nauvoo was more than beautiful and 2 and 1/2 days was not enough. When you go, plan on at least 3 days there. We went to Independence Mo., and Adam-ondi-Ahman and finished at Liberty Jail. Oops, I missed Carthage Jail in there.

Following the Mormon Trail back to Salt Lake was amazing as we saw Chimney Rock, Independence Rock, Register Rock, (lots of rocks on the trail) Martin's Cove, Rocky Ridge, and Rock Creek. Dave and Kay Freeman were our guides at the last sites as they are serving there mission there. So much to say that it will have to come at later times and places. Hope the pictures make this copy.

Cherries Are Done

Well it has been almost a month since I have updated and cherry harvest is over. As usual, it was a marathon event for all. Blaire and Laryn worked for Uncle Ivan at Radar hill and I was at Northwest Tart. The weather was actually one of the best harvests that I remember. We had a number of days in the 90's but not a single day over 100. The only serious injury that I know of was one girl on clean up caught her hand in a conveyor belt and had some stitches. Tough for her, but otherwise a safe harvest.

We are leaving for our Nauvoo vacation tomorrow morning at 5. Vard and Kase will be with us and we are excited about that. Live entertainment is hard to beat on a long trip. I will try to update sometime on the trip. We are excited.

Before leaving we got in a little fishing with Wayne Riner on the Columbia River about 5 miles from our house. Kase was the lucky one and got to reel in a 4 footer. Vard had one on the line, but he got away. Typical fish story. Probably would have been a big one! This picture tells the tale and it was a beautiful day.