Staying Warm?, A Block Party, Uncle Lloyd's Funeral, and More Firsts with My Hair

Wow! Its so nice not to have to talk about Montana. We have been busy anyway, so here we go.

Jimmy was cold after swimming in Mom's Pool so he is "Trying to Stay Warm" in the sun. Cindy has a friend at work who makes these hula-hoops. We were calling it the circle of safety from the water gun Mom's neighbor Liberty was shooting.
These next pictures are from a block party that my Mom's neighborhood had on June 27th and somehow Eric and I were invited to join them. It was lots of fun. My Mom has some really good neighbors. We just barbecued our own meat and had potluck bring whatever you want salad or dessert or whatever. Eric and I were in charge of the water. Thanks to Kristin for her big orange water coolers. We also roasted marshmallows over charcoal. Then we played toss the water balloon over the net with towels and croquet. Mom's next door neighbors had their speakers outside with music playing and somehow everyone started doing the Macarena. Eric even joined in at the end. We ended the night telling jokes. It was great fun and it just goes to show you can be silly and goofy and have lots of fun without alcohol. Most of Mom's apartment complex is LDS and they have lots of fun together.

This is Mom and Laura.

This is Jimmy with wet pants after he sat in the cooler with water from the water balloons.
Playing Croquet
This is a cool picture. Jimmy's sandals light up and we caught the lighting just right and it looks like his feet are on fire!!!!

Now, Uncle Lloyd's funeral. It was on June 28th. Kristin, Kurt, Kaitlyn, Grandma and Grandpa Clark and I rode down to Sandy in the van. The funeral was very nice. Uncle Lloyd was a great man, but he suffered so much the past couple of years. His daughter Karen talked about memories the children and grandchildren had about him. It seemed like he was always looking for ways to make life fun. He used to have his kids jump off of the top of the fridge into his arms. He was always happy to come home and work with the Dairy Cows and he would whistle all of the time. The Grandchildren did all of the musical numbers, including one granddaughter in law who played to flute. Bishop Steve Satchwell was the speaker and he likened our journey through life to a swimming experience he had where he was swimming across a reservoir and how hard it was to orient himself by landmarks instead of having nice straight lines to follow in a swimming pool. He said you that you just get so tired at some points that that you just have to hold on and float as best you can until you have the energy to make it. Uncle Lloyd was buried up at Linquidst's in Layton, so we had to troop all of the way back up to Layton for the burial and then over to Steve Satchwell's ward building in Kaysville. So we did lots of driving. Grandma and Grandpa did really well. Grandpa didn't get sick, but Grandma fell as she was getting into the van to go to the funeral and she had a bloody leg and stocking through the whole day.

The Pallbearers were mostly grandsons.

This is the flower bouquet Grandma Clark sent.

Standing around in the heat. Aunt Betty is in the black dress with her back to us and Tom is the white haired man in the green shirt.
I think these are mostly Satchwells
My Mom talking to Uncle Vaughn, I think. She is wearing pants, because she didn't go to the funeral, because she had to work, but she was able to run over to the cemetery for the graveside service in the middle of her work day.
More standing in the heat.
Uncle Lloyd's casket.

This is Dan and Curtis.
Grandma and Ora and Vaughn. Out of all the brothers and sisters Vaughn seemed the most spry.
The Luncheon.

Okay, the last thing. I have been going grey a little bit and I told Cindy to tell me when it was time to start coloring my hair. At the Block Party she was standing over me examining my hair and she said it was time, so here are my highlights. I have never colored my Hair before. I guess I like it, everybody else does.

Montana The End Finally

We are finally nearing the end of the endless saga. We left off with Mom and Jessica and I arriving at Michael's. Jessica wanted to roast hot dogs, so Michael decided to dig a fire pit in his yard. So he did with Eric's assistance. Then we had to find some rocks to line it with and some wood to burn, so we all piled into Michael's big Red Truck except for Mom. She had a horrible headache, so she crawled into the bed in the bedroom that Eric and I were staying
in and slathered herself with Vicks and took some Tylenol. So back to the excursion in the truck. Michael drove us up a up and down a couple of hills until he found a pile of likely looking rocks amidst some very tall grass. Needless to say I did not get out of the truck because of my great fear of snakes and I wouldn't let the boys out either. Cindy and Eric did contribute to the effort and tossed rocks into the back of the truck. Then we drove back down a hill a little bit and gathered some dead wood lying on the side of the road. Sorry did I say road, I meant a track through the grass. Jessica saw a huge log that she wanted to put by the fire pit to sit on, so after some trying to lift it with brute strength, my husband, the engineer's son told Michael to back the truck up to the log while he and Jessica and Cindy held it upright and they just lowered it into the truck. Then we had to cut some willow sticks, so we drove down another hill where there was a creek/irrigation ditch and Michael and Eric cut willow sticks with Eric's pocket knife.

Michael saw a skunk meandering through a cow pen and he has a vendetta against skunks, so he decided to chase the skunk with a big rock to kill it. The gate to the cow pen was closed though and the skunk must have sensed Michael's evil intent, because it started meandering a little bit faster. Then Michael tried to quickly open the gate which didn't work to well, because he was still holding the big rock. The gate eventually opened and Michael went running after the skunk. It got away by sliding into a hole in the side of the hill. So much for skunk hunting. By now it was almost dark and we were about a 1/2 mile from home when one of the tires blew on the truck. Michael was worried it was one of the front ones, but Jessica said to get us home so we wouldn't have to walk home in the dark. So Michael went flying down the track to get us home. It turned out it was one of the rear inside dual tires on the back. A cow bone had punctured it. So the fire got started with the help of every man's friend lighter fluid. Mom dragged herself down wrapped in a sleeping bag, because she was freezing. It was pretty cold out anyway. We all had our coats on. Jessica didn't have any hot dogs, so she called Michael's friend Ryan and he and his wife brought the hot dogs. We also had smores. We finally went to bed after much fit throwing because all three boys were very tired. The next morning we met Duncan the calf that Michael's boss gave to him. The Sitz ranch only breeds Black Angus and apparently Duncan's mother had been visiting the neighbor ranch and Duncan was the result. Then we got on the road. We stopped at the rest stop in Twin Bridges where we took more pictures. We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Dillon for lunch and then we stopped in Idaho Falls. The Museum there had an Egyptian exhibit on loan from Boston. Cindy and I love Egyptian stuff so of course we had to stop. It was pretty fascinating, but we couldn't take any pictures. Then we headed home and that is the end of the Monana Saga
















Duncan the Calf

Jimmy with his treasure. Dandelion seeds.

He wanted to bring them with us, but not in Grandma's car, so she put it in the Picnic table and told Jimmy that it would be safe there and the next time we stopped in Twin Bridges to look for it.

Cindy contemplating life.














Jimmy joins her.










Aren't they cute.

Jimmy with his treasure again.

Mom took this somewhere between Pocatello and Treemonton.

Montana Part 4 Endless Day Part 2

Here is some video of the carousal.
Okay, here we go again. Outside of the Carousal they had an amphitheatre and a neat recreation of the mountains around Helena. We spent at least an hour out there snapping pictures to take advantage of Jessica's shutterbug ways. She has an awesome camera!!! She also takes really good pictures. These are just some of the random shots we got off of my camera and I think I did a pretty good job. After we finished the pictures it was way past lunchtime and we decided to go to IHOP. What a nightmare. First we couldn't find it and we were following Michael who was taking directions from Cindy who was using her Cellphone to google where the IHOP was. After many direction changes and one u-turn and Eric getting the maddest I have seen him in a while we got to IHOP. Eating was a nightmare to. They didn't have any food. Everything we kept ordering they were out of. This ranged in variety from Chicken Nuggets, to bananas to put on pancakes, to chocolate milk. After that we finally got on the road back to Michael's. Jessica must have been feeling like causing Cindy great stress, because she sent all three boys and Michael and Cindy in their van. We all know what a children lover Cindy is. So Mom, and Jessica and Eric and I were in Mom's car. We were barely on the road when Eric had a major Bathroom attack and we had to stop at a gas station. Of course someone was in the bathroom and then someone snuck in before Eric could get in after the first person was done. Poor Eric. Poor Michael and Cindy. I was just wondering what the kids were putting them through. So we drove for another hour and a half and made it back to Michael's. As we pulled up Cindy was jumping on the trampoline with the boys while Michael was sitting in a lawn chair watching. We found out that the boys fell asleep ten minutes into the drive from Helena and mine was the first one to fall asleep. I asked Michael how he got Jimmy to fall asleep, because I can't get him to fall asleep anywhere, but his one bed without a great battle. He said he just ignored him. I've tried that, it doesn't work. Our day is not over yet..............

I hope the bear doesn't bite.
Shane looks just like my dad.
Just hanging.
Shane had just biffed it really bad.

If that other bear didn't bite, this one better.

Cute.
Cindy standing in the Gates of the Mountains.
Thrilled.
AWWWWW.
Yes Michael can tie shoes.

I love this picture of Mom.

Proof that Cindy played with the Boys.

Montana Part 3

We will just dub this the never get out of Helena Day. We started out our morning at the Motel. When we were eating our free breakfast who should appear, but Cody's new wife Amy. Apparently they spent their wedding night in the same Motel as us. I asked Amy where Cody was and she said he was sleeping. They had partied at their reception until 1:30 in the morning. We then went out to Grandma Donnelly's house in Vaughn. I'm sorry I have no pictures of it. It is perfect for her. We did troop out to her garage to look at the casket that she has already bought that she stores sugar in. It is a Pine box just like Dad's and Grandpa Donnelly's. She is just thinking ahead. We then piled into our vehicles to leave. Eric and I had Jimmy and Rhett in Mom's car and Mom and Cindy went with Jessica and Michael and Shane. Rhett and Jimmy entertained each other pretty well. The counted the Mountains we were driving through. I think they made it to 77. They also told each other strange little stories to see if the other would believe them. Things like if a Bear could fly to a Gas Station would it blow up. They also used their water bottles as telescopes and saw lots of wildlife. We made it to the first rest stop outside of Great Falls before Rhett said he had to go to the bathroom. So we stopped. Then we were almost to Helena when Eric started getting tired. I called Cindy on her cell phone and told her we would have to stop somewhere in Helena so we could switch drivers. She didn't listen and Michael pulled off in a Truck Stop almost immediately. I drove to Helena and Cindy called and said to follow Michael no matter what. We wound around Helena for a bit and ended up at an inside Carousal. The boys loved it. Mom bought 12 tokens and if you had a child with you you could ride for free. We all got three rides except for Mom. She choose not to ride. This was only the beginning of our adventure in Helena..........to be continued.........

Mom's video of Jimmy feeding the ducks is better, so a little repeat from Day 2.

Montana Part 2

So this is day 2 of the Montana trip, Saturday June 7th. We were all very tired. Shane woke up crying at 5 in the morning and woke everybody up. That made for a very long day. Michael had to work for half of the day. Cindy decided she wanted to go work with him and she got very muddy helping him change a Pivot tire (A Pivot is a big sprinkler). Sorry no picture of that, because Eric, Mom and Jimmy and I had already left for Great Falls. We went out to the Ranch for therapy for Mom. Everything is overgrown with weeds and our tree that had the treehouse by the pond is dead. We saw Janet's boyfriend Rich out there. He had rented a big dumpster and was cleaning up the junk. He is a very nice guy. We had met him a week earlier when they came back from a training in Texas. He showed Jimmy a dead snake ( a bull snake). Then we went back to town and checked into our Motel and got ready for the wedding. Sorry I have no pictures of the wedding. It went by so fast I never had a chance to get my camera out. Jessica took pictures and she is going to send me a disk and hopefully I can put those pictures on the blog. Cody was wearing a brown suit with sandals and socks. His groomsmen were to, so at least he was consistent. Amy was wearing a cream colored dress with turquoise band across the top and bottom. Don, Cody's brother performed the cermony. I guess in Montana just about anyone can perform a wedding. It was very fast. Then they went and stood in the back in their line. By this time the alcohol was flowing freely. We stayed for a banquet dinner. There was lots of hugging with Dad's family, but we left early and went to visit Janet at her work. Rich pulled up just as we did with his motorcycle and he let Jimmy sit on it. Jimmy loved that. Then Michael and Jessica and Cindy and Rhett and Shane went out to the ranch at Mom and Jimmy and Eric and I went to Gibson Park and fed the ducks. It was freezing cold. Jimmy by this point was beyond tired and cranky, so we drove around Great Falls a little and then went back to the Motel and went to Bed. To be continued.........

Another view of Michael's Trampoline jumping
This is a beautiful lake you can see from Michael's
Walking back from looking at the original Sitz Ranch House.

Rich and the Motorcycle.

Standing around eating push-pops on Janet's break.

Feeding the ducks.

Eric forgot his jacket and I had my coat, so his wearing my Jacket. He looks better in it than I do.
Video of Jimmy and the ducks.

Montana Trip Part 1

So this is the Montana Saga. This will probably take a few posts, so bear with me. We left on Friday June 6th and drove to Michael and Jessica's house in Harrison, MT. Our ultimate goal was Great Falls and my cousin Cody's wedding.

Jimmy's new attaire while we drive. His Barf Bowl. Yes the kid gets car sick.
Here we are at the Museum of Natural History of Idaho in Pocatello.
Cindy in her mask.
Jimmy being a Monkey.


Jimmy with a T-Rex head.

Michael works for the Sitz Ranch. This is the sign as you turn off the paved road onto a dirt road.

You go for about 6 miles before you reach Michael's.

Mom jumping on a Trampoline?

This is Michael's house. It is very old. It was converted from a school house. It has 5 bedrooms and 1 bath. Jessica got some steak from Michael's boss, because you will never taste a better steak then theirs.

We are putting the boys to bed at 11:30 at night. Poor kids. Jimmy will be a beast the next day.

Michael's house is in a beautiful area and he is happy working there. To be continued........