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.