For those of you that follow our activities, I thought I would take a few minutes and post some pictures and tell you about our first week in our “annual” motorhome Fall vacation.  We left on Thursday, October 18th.

This was the motorhome and tow-car parked in front of Leslie’s as we
picked up some thing to take with us.

We drove clear to Boise that first day.  Aaron had scoped out a RV park where we pulled in and set-up in the dark (I don’t like setting up in the dark).  But we wanted to spend Friday and Saturday with Aaron in Boise.  Leslie, Josh & Family were supposed to join us later for the night, but they got caught in Le Grande with a couple of bad accidents further down the road and the police would not not let them proceed.  They were communicating with Aaron, Judy and I and we tried to find a different route for them to come, but when they tried those alternate routes, they were closed too, so they ended up getting a motel room, staying for the night and then coming on it and meeting us in Boise on Friday.

Friday morning we met Aaron at the “Discovery Center of Idaho” and went in and went through the “Body” display.  It was fascinating. They had displays of the entire body and you could see where everything was with explanations of how things worked.  When I was younger I wanted to be a doctor… which probably explains my fascination.

Aaron and Judy Lynn out front of the Discovery Center – Some of the pretty trees there in Boise with their Fall Colors

Aaron’s Massage Therapy school is in a “Historical” home there in Boise where a “Territorial Governor” stayed.  In our previous trip down, Aaron took us all through the house. 

Here is is school and a picture of him and his Mom inside the school.

This trip we had made arrangements for Aaron to give some massages while we were there.  He needs so many hours of internship massages, so I purchased five 1-hour massages. Judy Lynn went first and I waited outside for Les and Josh to arrive.  They arrived just in time for Leslie to be second.  While Leslie was having her massage, the rest of us went to Cabela’s and just “roamed”.

Josh, Finn & Sawyer (with new hats). – Finn, Josh & Reese

Since the boys got hats, Grandpa had to buy one for Reese.
It says “I hunt for hugs”

Finn, Josh, Reese & Judy Lynn

Sawyer is behind the cart and all you can see is his hat.  Reese would NOT just sit there in her cart, so you could not put anything in the cart or “out” it would go. Little pill!

Reese & her hat

Leslie called while we were still “roaming” around Cabela’s, so we left and went and met her and they loaded up and headed for Jennifer’s leaving us behind there in Boise.

Judy Lynn and I driving behind Les & Josh

Aaron had some other massages he had scheduled, so my massage had to wait until later that evening.  Judy Lynn found a paper store, so while we we were waiting for Aaron to finish.  Then we decided to go get something to eat before giving me my massage.  We found a Golden Corral who were serving jumbo shrimp, which certainly made me happy.

Aaron & his Mom

After dinner Aaron took us back to his school and gave me a “Therapeutic” (vs a “feel good”) massage.  But I enjoyed the massage and hope I can get another one.  That one was my very first massage, so I did not have any idea what I was getting myself in to, but this was very pleasant.  Aaron and I had a good talk while he was doing the massage, mostly him telling me what he was doing and why.  THANKS Aaron.  After the massage, Aaron came back to the motorhome with us and we talked for quite a while.  It was good to spend some time with him.  We don’t really get to see him that often.

Saturday morning we got up and I started putting things away in the MH ready for travel.  We drove the MH over to a Fred Meyer fuel station (with Judy Lynn following in the car) where I filled it with fuel.  Judy Lynn wanted to go back to the paper store and we also wanted to go get some more hats like we got Reese for the rest of our young granddaughters, so we parked the MH, did the shopping, went back to the MH to get some materials that we had brought Aaron from the storage shed and took that to him.  He was in school, so we just dropped the stuff off, said some quick goodbyes and left.  We drove back to the MH, hooked up the car and headed for Richmond.  We did not get to Richmond until after dark, so one again I was parking and setting up the MH in the dark.  But we were glad to get there.  The house was full with Les and family already there, so we were glad we had our own “accommodations”.

We attended an earlier Sacrament meeting on Sunday so that we could accommodate some other things we had planned.  Les & family left mid-afternoon for Salt Lake.  Josh has to work in Los Angeles next week, and he has a cousin there in Salt Lake, so they were going there for the night so Leslie did not have to get up so early to take Josh to be at the airport at 8:00 AM.  Judy Lynn and I went up to Brent and Jan’s and spent the evening with them.  Their July, Dallas and their families were there so we had a good visit with them.  Jan enticed us there by telling us that she was going to be serving some of her deserts after their dinner and they were GREAT, but the company was all that was really necessary.

Jan, Brent & Dallas
(Didn’t take enough pictures)

I won’t bore you with the details of what we did last week, only post some pictures with a little narrative.  (This posting is too long already!)

This is what I woke up to on Tuesday Morning.
Certainly NOT a welcome site

One day I was left to tend kids.  I found a secret.
Put on “Transformers Prime” and they sat just like that for the entire show.

I took Bentley to School almost every day
He was excited to have Grandpa do that!

Les had to take Sawyer out of school, so one of the tasks was to get both Sawyer and Bentley to stop playing and do their lessons.
You can just see the wheels turning here!

Bentley & Sawyer
Two little “buddies”

Reese settled down for the night (after some doin!).

Reese with her Mom – Reese and Jaidyn

One way to keep Reese out of trouble.
In her High Chair with FOOD!

Jaidyn and her hat from Grandpa – Sawyer and Reese

Reese “Tending” little Madi
Not so “gently” at this point.

On Thursday I went over and got my my Mom to bring her to see Les’s kids since the weather was such that I did not want to drive the MH over there.  As I left Logan, this is the progression of the roads.

Leaving Logan

Entering Logan Canyon
  

On top of Logan Canyon

Bear Lake – You could hardly see it

You could see Bear Lake a little better as I came down out of the canyon.

Bear Lake between Garden City and Fish Haven
 

Mom’s Home and looking at the hills west of Mom’s home.

I had a good visit with Mom back through the canyon and she said she trusted my driving in the snow and says she was not worried at all.  When we got to Logan I took her to her hearing-aid doctor and had them clean her hearing aid.  It had stopped working earlier in the week and she is lost without it.  When I got to St. Charles I took a look at it and could tell that the little opening was full of ear-wax, so I got a toothpick, cleaned it out and it started working.  But the wax fell inside the hearing aid and I did not know if that would hurt anything, so I took it in to have it cleaned out.  When I gave it to the receptionist and told her what I had done, she misunderstood me.  When I went back to pick it up, the doctor met me and told me that he could not find a “toothpick” inside the hearing aid.  When I said “it” fell inside, I meant the ear-wax, not the toothpick.  Funny!  (At least I thought so!)

Mom Arnell and six of her MANY Great-Grandchildren
Reese, Bentley, Madi, Sawyer, Reese & Jaidyn

On Sunday, Judy Lynn and I “motored” to Provo to be with Maxine and her family as Melissa’s Austin reported his mission in Mexico City and his brother Matthew talked as he was leaving for the Philippines this Wednesday.  Troy (Melissa’s husband and the boy’s father is Bishop of their ward, so it was really a “family” thing.  Both boys sounded like “returned” missionaries.  Matthew will be a good missionary.  After Sacrament meeting we went over to Troy and Melissa’s new (to them) home where they had some food and lots of good company.  I did not take enough pictures to get everyone, but here are some I did take.

 
Maxine & Melissa

Matthew, Melissa & Austin
 

That pretty well catches you up.  Today is Tuesday and I am tending Jaidyn here in the MH.  She is watching a movie while I am doing this.  Jenn took Madi with her, and she and Judy Lynn “have errands” (sounds a lot like shopping to me!).

This morning when I took Bentley to school, I took my ballots up to the post office and put them in the mail.  So I have done my “civic duty” and “made my voice heard”.  I hope that ALL OF YOU who read this do the same.

October, 2012

Dear Family,

Tick… tick… tick… is right. When I got on the computer this evening after a VERY LONG day, thinking I had one more day to get this letter to Brent, I took a second look at the calendar only to find out that Brent is right. So I lost a day… not a surprise. Sometimes I think that I am losing a lot more than that!

Summer is almost over for us up here.  We have had a fantastic fall with no rain as of yet to ruin our garden.  I went out today and finished getting the onions. Tomorrow I will go out and pick all of the tomatoes as the weather-guessers say that we will be getting our first rain for a long time on Friday.  I have my garden mostly prepared for the winter “growing season… which consists mostly of obnoxious weeds and other unwanted growing things.  Last year it was volunteer rye that took over because I had planted rye the year before trying to keep down the weeks.  That worked, by the way, but then getting rid of the rye plants in my garden this summer has been a challenge.  I still have three types of lettuce (5^th planting) and the carrots still growing.  I leave the carrots in the ground and cover them with grass and leave clippings and they pretty well last all winter.  So we are still eating delicious home-grown tomatoes.  After my store runs out, I go for a long time without eating any tomatoes because I have such a time transitioning to the store-bought things that look a lot like tomatoes, but don’t taste like them. Well, so much for the garden update.

We are still trying to “get out of Dodge”.  I have one more tail-gate for a Seattle Seahawks game up in Seattle this weekend, and then the summer rental season will be pretty much finished.  I have one rental out right now that also comes back this weekend.  I have to take the Phaeton in to the fix-it shop to have a couple of things fixed that I cannot do myself.  I hope to have that done on Monday and Tuesday.  Then we will start packing and will  leave later in the week.  This trip down, since Aaron is in Boise until November sometime finishing his massage therapy schooling, so we plan to stop there for at least one day so Aaron can give his Mom a massage, and I just might get one also.  I have never had a massage, so that would be a new experience for me.  Then we will head for Jenn’s place in Richmond and spend a couple of weeks split between there and Bear Lake.  After visiting there for however long we decide to stay, we will work our way down to Arizona to visit with Jeff and Becky.  We are thinking that since it is so late, that we just might spend Thanksgiving with them down there and then work our way back home.  If the weather in Utah and Idaho is good, we will come back that way, if not we will come back through California.

Thanks to all of you who remembered our Jay in your prayers this past month.  Jay is doing better, is back to work doing “desk duty”.  The flair-up of his Crohn’s problem was a surprise and a concern.  We hope that this time it will stay under control for a lot longer.  Thanks again for your thoughts and concern. Thankfully there is lots of family living here close so helping Heather with Gwen and Oscar.

We had a relaxing weekend up here and were able to listen to all the sessions of General Conference.  Of special note to me was Elder Holland’s talk Sunday Morning and Elder Bednar’s talk Sunday afternoon.  I usually don’t pick out particular talks of conference, but these two made an impression,especially Elder Holland.  Of course, in every conference it seems that there is at least one message that was given just for me, and having two this conference was a bonus.

We are doing well up here and looking forward to visiting with many of you this coming few weeks.  Until then, we send you our love.

Judy Lynn & Roger

Now for some pictures:

For many years I have been renting a storage shed at a apartment complex that is managed by a family in our ward.  I finally got tired of the expense and decided to build a storage shed in my back yard,  I purchased the shed in kit form and took some pictures as we put it together.

Sod removed from around old shed pad.  Starting to move in the gravel for the base of the pad.

Using Todd’s JD tractor and cart to move in the gravel.  Chad helping as well as Finn wanting to be in the middle of things.

Getting close to having the gravel moved.  Finn taking advantage of the empty cart on the way out to get more gravel.

Pad pretty well finished

Laying out the foundation

   
Floor and two sides in place

Three sides in place and one of the roof ends ready to be raised

 Working on roof

 
Roof paneled and then shingled – Door hung

Finished in one day

After our first trip Idaho/Utah, the weather was good so I was able to paint the shed.  The color is the same as we painted the house last time and is not much different from the primer that was on the shed as it was built.  While I had the paint sprayer, I used it to paint the addition to the awning that we completed last Fall and never got painted.  The picture on the right was showing the difference the paint makes.

I had a tailgate up in Seattle for the Seahawks/Green Bay football game.  These folks sure do live different lives than I do.

The people come for a couple of hours and eat DRINK and visit/socialize.  I guess the company that pays for this
gets there moneys worth for the good-will because they keep doing it.

They use the Phaeton MH for the dispensing of the drinks (booze)

One of the other Fall projects was painting/staining the railing I installed on my flatbed trailer.

Garden almost ready for winter – Onions pulled and laying on the ground to dry.

 This is a new toy that my Homeowner’s Association purchased for me to use.  It picks up the grass clippings and leaves.
It works great.  I used it for the first time this past week and the park looks really nice.  We have received lots of compliments.

This is the Magnivox Stereo that was the first purchase that Judy Lynn and I made after we were married.  We waited for two years for it to go on sale.  I have just kept it stored, hating to get rid of it for sentimental reasons.  I have finally got to the point that I am ready to let it go.  The radio still works and the sound is great, but the real-to-real tape player and the turntable does not work any longer.  Anyone want a ice looking cabinet?

One last picture of Gwen with some strange eyes.