WARM SUMMER DAYS



















A warm summer day brings all sorts of ideas about how best to enjoy the day and cool off. While visiting Troy and Leslie and their children in Ephrata, Washington, we took an afternoon trip to a nearby lake. We had all sorts of fun keeping cool and ended the activity playing minature golf and topped off with ice cream treat and snow cones.

















Erin with George, Anna and Christian hit the lake for a dip.
















Baby Emily likes to explore and almost got one of those "hot" nuts (Wasabi flavored Almonds).
















Christian, George, and the gang all enjoyed the treat at the end of the day.
















We also took a trip to the Farmers Market at Wenatchee and while waiting for the adult shoppers, the kids enjoyed the bubbles in the cool comfort of the shade.















Henry, Christian and George enjoy some of that delicious Rainier cherries. They wiped out the whole bag in a couple of minutes, but it was good. They didn't mind.
















Henry, George, and Christian are all ready to go to church here. Christian gave a talk in Primary and we all enjoyed our day at Church.

In a moment of quiet, Anna and Grandma pose for a picture. Anna had just finished off some cherries at a picnic dinner by the pool.

Our May 2006 Highlights


In the valley, if you live in PG, then the early morning whine of the firehouse siren can be heard. It sounds the start of the annual Firemens Breakfast. A community event of such magnitude that you won't forget it. Breakfast is served for a nominal amount, cheaper than "Mickey D's" and all you can eat. You meet friends and neighbors all having a grand social. Its a good way to start the morning especially the first Saturday in the month of May.






For the family, you get to climb up on the fire engine trucks and imagine you are a fireman. Best of all, sometimes the real firemen will be available to help you sound the horns and sirens or even give you a ride.

For a city that depends on a volunteer force, you can't beat the commitment and quality of their work.














Taking pictures on a Sunday is a task in itself. You have to keep the group in check by keeping them focused. That's after you've dressed them up appropriately. Here's Gabby, Pookie and Bun in their famous pose.















We all had a great visit, especially the Papa. This was taken on Sunday afternoon just before Nikki and the kids headed home to "Why not, Minot?" North Dakota.
















The fun part was packing in everything. Luckily, none of the children were left behind, but after loading up the car, they all made it. As you can see, both Gabby and Pookie have their sun glasses on, ready for the trip. Poor Bun had to face the rear looking at the sack of oatmeal that was being taken home.







I guess Elijah was happy to say goodbye so he could get seated for the long trip home. It was a sad departure but in the end, they made it home safely.

As for the folks in PG, the quiet of the neighborhood soon became deafening and Po doggie had no little children to feed her. The house is quiet, things put away, furniture moved back to their original place and readied for another family visitor making their way home to PG.




This is Jo "wired", litterally. You might think that the recent visit might have something to do with this picture but it doesn't.

As you can see, she had been wired up to monitors to measure her sleep, or lack there of. It is quite scientific here.













This picture shows the attachments of the wires to her body. Look at all the different color ones. The test last until the morning. I hope she passed.


Anyway, this has been a snippet of our month of May. We hope you all enjoy the pictures and will update your blogs.

We look forward to sharing our next month pictures and updates of the family in PG. Bye for now.

Granddaughters Gather Together, April 8, 2006
(left to right) Anna, Rykell, Klailea (standing), Emily, Gabrielle

They are all so special and we were excited to gather all the granddaughters together for a picture. We had a marvelous time with them all and their families early in April. With their brothers, it was a fun filled week visitng. (Since we couldn't get all the grandsons together, we'll just have to wait until Christmas when there is a good possibility that we'll get all the grandchildren together in one family picture. It was also Mom's birthday and we got to celebrate some other birthdays also.

Thanks to their parents for making this possible. Your pictures will be on their way. Just thought you'd like a preview.

Celebrating a Spring Day!







Sometimes it takes both sisters to travel to a halfway point to meet. In this case, they both travelled from opposite directions to meet at our home in Utah. Also with their older sister, Leslie, it was a great visit for all the families.

















Going back to old family albums, often you couldn't tell whose picture we were looking at, Rachel's or Nikki's. Since their five years apart, its good that they turned out the way they are now.




























Rachel (Above) Nicole (Above)


Actually happened today! Ipo stalked the easy prey for their ice cream. Look at the culprit in action.






Hmmm. Let's see who hasn't finished their ice cream cone yet? There must be someone still with some ice cream!

Ah Ha! I've found my easy target! Oh Gabby, you are so good to "Po Doggie."












Ethan in a moment of quiet contemplation. He just witnessed Ipo picking off the ice cream cone from his sister Gabby. (Wow! Ipo was sure fast.)












It's fun to set up the tent and have a spring campout in the front lawn. (Gabby, Ethan, and Bun Bun, aka Elijah)










We're enjoying our time with Nikki and the kids. Po doggie is making the most of it, as seen by the above pictures. Elijah is mastering his "army crawl" and is making his way through out the house pretty good.

Buy back started at the bookstore and Jo has been busy their. I've been overcoming my residual pnuemonia and almost licked it. It's been a miserable two weeks. The kids are resilient and bouncing back from bronchitis and soon, we will be free from the coughing, snot, and gala gala. There's a good chance we will all make it to church tomorrow. Since Easter is over and no more lilies and we are getting over our coughing, we'll be where we should be on Sundays.

We hope you all will enjoy this short blog message. Bye

Celebrating a Spring Day! Sometimes the only way to enjoy the season is to get the family together for a wagon ride to the park. The kids really enjoyed that ride.

Going back to March, that was a big month. We celebrated the birthdays of George, Henry, cousin Audrey, and Auntie Nikki. Jo went to Hawaii to help out with George and Henry, and yeah, their Mom, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins Klailea and Rykell.

While the intentions were good, the weather wasn't. It rained for most of the time, recording record downpour, flooding, mudslides, and frizzy hair. We all thought that it was paradise there. I guess we were not exactly right on that one.

Back on the Mainland, Po doggie and I suffered extended winter weather, and the blahs of being in the land of brown.


In paradise, when there were some sunshine, the kids and Jo made the best of it with sightseeing and shopping. This picture is a great example of sun shining here but on the other side of the island, it continued to rain.








A trip to the Honolulu Zoo.

















Just a short break to rest in the shade of the tree and look for wild animals.

















George and Henry in a moment of contemplation.

















It didn't quite rain for 40 days and nights but it got people thinking, "learn to thread water".
















This picture is not at all what you may be thinking about George and Henry. This was waiting in line at Matsumoto's Shaved Ice Store in Haleiwa. Policemen also brake for "shaved ice".

Jo had some fun times with the daughters Erin and Rachel and their families. Though we miss them all, glad she's back home quilting. Well, bye for now and there's more to catchup on the blog. Aloha to all the family and friends.

Grandchildren Gathering at our home.



Grandma Jo and 3 granddaughters and 3 grandsons (Anna, Klailea, Elijah, Christian, Ethan, Gabby). Just look at our Polynesian Princesses in their dresses.)

Here below, some of the grandchildren were lounging and playing.





Family, this is what it's all about!

Since the last week of March, its been "grandchildren time". We've been busy, even up to this very point in time with the visits of four of our children and their families. Even though the visits seem to be staggered, we managed to visit with most of the grandsons and granddaughters. Wow, what fun.

During the last week of March, Jesse and Amy brought their two boys for a short visit on their way back to the east coast. (See last blog entry) Then Nikki and Dan brought Ethan, Gabrielle, and Elijah to visit us. While Dan left this morning to return to work, Nikki and the children are visiting a while longer here. Last week, Rachel, Jason, and their two daughters, Klailea and Rykell came back to Utah for a visit. They left for home this morning. Also, Leslie and Troy brought their children, Christian, Anna, and Emily for a visit. With all the family visits, we were lucky to get three out of our five children in at one time.

Our hope is that at Christmas time, we can get all of them in for a visit. We certainly had a great time seeing the little cousins play together and everyone visiting. Sometimes I seriously wonder how we don't do this more often.

At least, Mom and her daughters got to do stuff they enjoyed most, shop for fabric and stuff. Dad and the sons went out for some outdoor recreation, golf. Even though the weather was a bit shakey (wind, hail, cold temperatures)it was the best golf ever, no one else on the course, just us. In the evening it was off to dinner at Papa's. Great smoked ribs, good sides, private dinner room, all of us at one long table, someone to serve, and someone to clean up. Wow, what a great evening.

We did hold our traditional Easter egg hunt early to accomodate the grandchildren. It was a blast, even though we missed having four grandsons and an awaiting granddaughter (?) there. Though we may have had our own agendas during the entire visit, some of the adults played a game "Killer Bunnies" and got hooked on it. I've yet to figure out the strategy for the game but it was just fine seeing them not arguing but having real fun.

Jesse's Family

It's been a busy weekend but all worthwhile with the visit of our son Jesse and his family. They are now on the road, going to the east coast, back to Maryland.

One of the best part of the visit was with our Grandsons, little Jesse and his brother Jackson, aka, "Jack Jack."

We are hoping that they will be successful as they resettle in Maryland. The visit was short but fun. We hope at Christmas time, we can get all our children and their families to visit us then.



Looking Ahead . . . .

Well, now that one visit is concluded, I've got to get the house in shape for the visit of Ethan, Gabby, and Eli, who are bringing their parents to "Papa's house in Utah" and visit "Po doggie." they'll be arriving Wednesday evening some time. We hope that the weather does'nt slow them done on their trip. By the way, today is Nikki's birthday. Happy Birthday! Nikki!

On Friday morning, Jo returns. Yeah! Po doggie says, "My Mama is comming home!" There will be great joy in PG town, and we can go back to eating real food. Yeah!

Next week, with joy and excitement, we get Leslie & Troy with their family. Wow, what a visit and to top that off, we get also our youngest daughter Rachel and her husband Jase and their family also for several days. A great way to top off this time of the year with General Conference weekend, April Birthday celebrations and a belated March birthday also, and a traditional Easter Egg Hunt with the grandchildren. Wow! Great joy and excitement.

Anyway, this is the updated blog of the day. Bye.

Catching up with the blog! Sorry for not updating regularly on the blog page. Sometimes you have alot to say and other times, not as much or anything. However, I am glad that those interested parties whom we are related to have kept up the sport and filled us in on their lives, family, and lots of nice pictures.

For all of the month of March here, its just been me and Ipo. Until two days ago, we had no visitors. Jesse, Amy, and their boys are visiting here on their way back to the east coast. I'm including pictures of their family in this blog plus Ipo and the winter weather that has been around for most of the month.

I hope you enjoy catching up with the rest of the family pictures here. To all of you, thanks for updating your blogs regularly. We will try to do that more often, as soon as the Mama gets back to PG.

Well, this is only the start to updating the blog.

Mele Kalikimaka
To all our family and friends, we say to you in the familiar Hawaiian greeting "Mele Kalikimaka" or Merry Christmas. Over the years, our Christmas traditions include celebrating Christmas Eve with a wonderful dinner in the company of our family and friends. This year has been no different. With one of our daughters and her husband and two sons, we were joined also with my nephew Aley and his wife Sarah and daughter Audrey and Sarah's Mom. In addition, our dear friends Boyd and Priscilla joined us in addition to two students from work, you know the type, RMs, single, and from Hawaii. The dinner was delicious, program was special with a live enactment of the Christmas Story, scripture reading and Christmas hymn singing. It was so nice to be with family and friends on this special evening.

Early this morning (4:30am) I drove Boyd and Priscilla to the airport so they could catch their flight to Atlanta and join up with some of their family to celebrate together. The highways were empty at that hour of the morning. At 7:00AM, Mom and I went to our home ward early morning Christmas service. It brought back memories of a tradition in our ward and was well attended. When we got home, we celebrated the morning opening Christmas gifts. We received visitors later in the day as well as telephone calls to most of our family, those that were home.

The picture is of a special gift from Mom, a memory quilt with pictures of our children and their families. She did a great job putting this special quilt together.

It was such a great day but especially knowing that this same activity was happening in the homes of each of our children. We hope you all had a great Christmas celebration and each of our grandchildren knew that he or she was loved. yes, we had cinamon rolls, hot cocoa breaks between opening presents.

I understand there is a movement in our family to join together and celebrate it together here in PG. I for one am not opposed to it at all. Infact I am encouraging it, and Mom too. I don't believe we have ever brought all our grandchildren together at one time. Wow, wouldn't that be exciting. I believe at the most, we've had three out of the five families here together. How about all five at once? Well, you all discuss it.

We will post more pictures soon. Mahalo, and Mele Kalikimaka and Hauole Makahiki Hou!

Pounders beach










Little people food surprise.

Henry, George, and Klai proves our family is multi tanned.

The island meets the sky is perfect. The colors of beach, ocean and sky make a great combination.

These are all some of the great highlights of out trip to the beach. We hope you enjoy them.

The month of October, halloween, and anything significant that happened, seems to be a blurr. Some of the only significant things to comment on was Mom's recovery from her operation. Even though she is much better, the after effects are still lingering. As part of her recovery therapy, she decided that upgrading her sewing machine was impractical and that total replacement was needed. After all, what better way to promote a return to good health than to buy a new Bernina sewing machine. Now that she's had it a couple of weeks, I believe that this medicinal treatment has made a positive impact on her health, mental or otherwise.

By coincidence, the pump on the trusty Maytag washing machine gave up completely. Fact, replacing the pump on the old machine is only a tempory measure of comfort and peace of mind. Fact, new washing machines come with just about all the bells and whistles and even extended warranty. They look cool, especially with the numerous buttons, lights, and big, round picture tube window to the world of clothes washing. At first, we wondered if we had made a good decision with the machine sliding or jitter bugging across the laundry room floor when it cycled into the spin mode. The dealer even came and replaced the unit as a sign of good faith, not wanting to investigate the cause of the dancing washing machine. Afterall, when you read the installation manual, it calls for using a level to insure the machine was placed or adjusted to a side to side and front to back level on the floor. Secondly, the principle of centrifical motion of the washer drum, with a medium load of clothes slightly off even distribution can cause the washing machine to dance, especially when in the high speed spin cycle. They only tested the machine when water was being added to the drum (no clothes added), and watched it go through a spin cycle. Anyway, the whole approach to customer service here was not solving the problem but replacing the machine. RESULT: The machine danced when clothes were added. CURE: Take the machine off the pedestal, balance the unit on the floor, and now you can add clothes when running the washing machine. LESSON LEARNED: Demonstrate the problem in actual conditions to the service people, then recommend they balance the unit, etc., etc., etc.

Now that you've experienced life on your own for awhile, and have your own families, here is another true-ism. Things, can be but not always are bad, usually happen in 3's. Well, I told you about the first two, sewing machine and washing machine, now comes the third. At the beginning of the month, Aunt Dot's husband was watching TV to keep from boardem when they visited us at the beginning of the month and one day, he's using the remote control on the TV and the picture goes blank, "poof", the transformer gives up the ghost. Well, I reckon that it was more than "about time" that it happen. Afterall, we bought that Sony TV back in 1988 in Lompoc, CA after we moved there and it lasted all these years. I now can honestly say that the Sony TV was a good one and lasted all these years. Anyway, we've been looking to replace it but the technology has changed considerably since 1988. You can chuckle to yourselves, gee, what do they need another TV in the home for? There's only two of them and the dog and they have a couple of sets. Now, I need you to help rationalize the need to replace the burnt out TV and your recommendations of what type. After all, your recommendations will be taken seriously because it will benefit you all, if and when you come for a visit. So, what will it be?

On a more enlightening note, the rest of the month was not all a less than stellar month. Work has been busy for me. I went to a conference in Pocatello for a couple of days. On the second evening, the activity was to go to a play of "Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde" that was superb. This broadway play was really good. Besides the dialog, there was lots of music and singing. It's the first time I've seen a play with lots of singing. The actors used those small face microphones that were remote and even with the mouthpieces on, it didn't detract from their character, costumes, or the play.

Since the weather turned cooler, Mom and I have been dealing with raking the leaves and other chores. We sure get lots of leaves, even from our neighbor's tree (Matt's family). One day, I guess they felt bad that we had so much raking to do that Matt help clear our front sidewalk and road area of the leaves from the big trees there. With halloween, I decided to just not rake the leaves and give it an unkept look. Well, thats another way of putting it that I didn't do the front lawn. So on halloween, we had only two trick o treaters come here. Our neighborhood must be just old folks. How dull?

We've been reviewing some of the pictures of our trip to Hawaii and here are a few more for the Blog.

Summer is gone, fall is here and the mountain sky will never look like this picture. Being back in the real word, I often wonder why we ever left paradise. It really gets to us just about this time of the year, the leaves fall all over the place, the air is colder, snow on the mountains, and it gets dark earlier. Wow, where's the beach.

With our recent washing machine upgrade, we don't need a television to watch. We can just sit in front of the washer and watch it go through the cycle. I am amaized at the speed and efficiency that Mom's new washer can do the laundry. Now that we've solved the problem of the machine dancing all over the floor when in the high spin cycle, it's cool to watch. I can understand how addicting it can be just like Leslie's daughter Anna, watching the washing machine. I am even more amaized at how the machine will cycle in opposite directions to balance the load or unsmoosh the laundry after it's high spin cycle. Wow, who needs TV. (Frankly, I may be out of my mind on certain things, but with the prices of appliances and entertainment going up, we have to make wiser choices.)

We only had two trick o treaters come to our home this year. To purge our home from the treats, I took the candy to work and shared them with some of our student workers. After all, what harm is there with a little sugar high once in a while here in "Happy Valley"?

I think Rykell and Audrey are making a statement here. They were so cute together on the beach blanket.

I can see that Mom and I have a hard time dealing with missing all of our grandchildren. We haven't come up with a good solution to handle the withdrawls. Last evening, Mom needed to go fabric shopping to relieve some anxiety problem with missing the little ones. Even though we communicate freely via cell phones, we still are a little slow in getting our children to send photos of the grandchildren. Yeah, you know who you are. Maybe that lump of coal will come to fruition this Christmas season.